MasonHoff

you can run you calcium up to 2000 if you want! it wont be used! but it wont hurt anything!

plus 20 bucks for more than a months worth of calcium and alk! now thats for someone like me with alot of corals like me! but i think it is worth the money FOR SURE!

by causeing your self more work than its worth (i.e.whack) plus a bunch of trace stuff and you KNOW if you add 1ml per gallon you alk will increase 2.07 kh instantly! you just need to track how quickly you tank is using it along with the calcium.

for right now i would get your alk around 11 . and calcium over 520

if you get a good balance! and are doseing alk and calcium every day! you will be doing your self and you tank a favor by being reduced to water changed once a month! i promise! if you take this advice, you will have a pleasnt reefing exsperince! or you can keep searching those forums for wacky ways to do things. and have a headache like you do now!

no. NO. and No! just got save your self today! and while your at it stop by aqua tek and start doseing TLC every week for a month! i heard of a lady using 600 hundred dollars worth of sea horse's battleing a GHA problem and TLC over three day made it look like it had been eradicated! it works miracles! or u can get it from fishy buisness. tlc is just nitrifying bacteria. keeping your alk above 8 is the key to keeping your reef healthy! i was suprized how quickly the alk droped in my tank every day! you will be too! just dose every day! with the 2 part and soes TLC to get you tank back on track!

yes sir it is! sound like you bought your self some trouble rock! go buy a 2 part dosing system like b-ionic by esv or kent two part buffer! for your 40 start by adding 20ml a day of each! alk first then cal! and test you alk! at this point keeping your alk up is gonna be your best friend! dont worry about testing calcium now! it will stay around where we need it with the two part system! and slowly take you dosage to where you keeping your reef in between 9 and 11 kh! PLEASE listen to me and go buy esv b-ionic! it will turn your water chemistry around in your reef! keeping your cal and alk in check and very accuratley and cheap might a add for smaller tanks! and to get some good coraline algae! this is a must!

torched it too long! like two seconds enough to sear the tips. it will slowly turn brown aftera day or two and then you ussual clean up crew will do the rest! but it sounds to me like you haveing water quality issues! i would get my water where i want it before worrying about small issues! (not smal to some of us! ) where did you get your live rock? and how are you dosing cal and alk! cause it you keep you cal and alk up real high the algae will all but melt away!

my past exsperince with torching! just sear the tips of it and it will all but dissapear!

http://www.austinree...__1#entry122890

after several days off research last month! i heard geliduim is almost unstoppable! and got hooked on a thread from last year on a different forum about fire blasting the gelidium. i thought no way ill do that! after no other good ways of eradication and a ton of research and my nerves settled i put a bic wind resistant lighter to the gelidium to barley singe it for a sec or two! and after a month of my hermits and emerald crab eating the dead twigs! i have 0 signs on gelidium and had no parameter swings in water AT ALL! this guy has been doing this for years on diffrent live rocks for years for all types of things (valonia, gelidium, aptisia) during research and SWEARS BY IT! so i tried it, cause i sure as heck wasn't letting it over run my tank! my rock is 100% purple and have had no areas of my rock that has even changed color! IM SOLD! I have pics to prove it if you guys wanna see

just use a bic wind resistant lighter for BBQ pits from H.E.B.

your right i just asked! They did come from doni's reef though! both parents, but i see "BTW, Snowcasso is a registered trademark of Doni's. So, my fishies can't be Snowcassos. This little one is what I call a Premium Grade A. He may develop into a Platinum (an ORA term) where all stripes connect, but not sure. "

Weird fact I found out the other day, they're only "Snowcassos" if they are from Doni's Reef: http://www.reefsanct...-trademark.html. Not meaning to rain on your parade, "a rose by any other name" and all that... I just thought it was interesting that a fish could be trademarked!

It's a beautiful fish at any rate! Gratz!

what up brosef

which is before someone goes and gets worked up, that was just my opinion.

I would love to see any evidence you have seen that a sand bed causes cyano or nitrates. I would argue that since most people use sand, you are going to have a greater number of sandbed tanks with these problems, even though the percentage of people using sand who have these problems is probably the same as the percentage of people using CC who have these problems. Overfeeding, lack of flow, and general poor husbandry are much more likely culprits than the type of substrate one chooses. But that's just my opinion.

For those considering using a sand bed instead of CC: I've never had problems with sand clumping in my tank and the only thing stirring it up is my CUC. And I don't get a dust storm if I stir it up a little (for instance, to move a frag).

their will never be hard evidence. like a said it is opinion. but id trust someone that has been reefing for 20 plus years. plus every LFS store that has tanks without any persistant problems (i.e. bubble algae, cyano, and others) that i have visited, use crushed coral. just look around. and if sand was so good why dont you see it in their tanks. just ponder on quote below! and yes some animals need sandbeds! but if i was asked to weighing the good and bad of the two. i think cc would work best! and like i agreed to this is one of many ways to do things.

but if you want it for the nitrifying bacteria why wouldnt you just add somthing like TLC or stability.

and again

If you are using it for biological filtration, you would have to flow water through it. Weather you use it in the bottom of your aquariumor in a refugium, you cannot flow water through it. As the sand sits, undisturbed, it becomes hard and begins to form and trap nitrates and phosphates. If you try to stir it, you will release pockets of these toxic gases which could easily damage your livestock or system If left undisturbed, the nitrates and phosphates accumulate and surface in your aquarium as red slime or cyanobacteria

I would love to see any evidence you have seen that a sand bed causes cyano or nitrates. I would argue that since most people use sand, you are going to have a greater number of sandbed tanks with these problems, even though the percentage of people using sand who have these problems is probably the same as the percentage of people using CC who have these problems. Overfeeding, lack of flow, and general poor husbandry are much more likely culprits than the type of substrate one chooses. But that's just my opinion.

For those considering using a sand bed instead of CC: I've never had problems with sand clumping in my tank and the only thing stirring it up is my CUC. And I don't get a dust storm if I stir it up a little (for instance, to move a frag).

their will never be hard evidence. like a said it is opinion. but id trust someone that has been reefing for 20 plus years. plus every LFS store that has tanks without any persistant problems (i.e. bubble algae, cyano, and others) that i have visited, use crushed coral. just look around. and if sand was so good why dont you see it in their tanks. just ponder on quote below! and yes some animals need sandbeds! but if i was asked to weighing the good and bad of the two. i think cc would work best! and like i agreed to this is one of many ways to do things.

but if you want it for the nitrifying bacteria why wouldnt you just add somthing like TLC or stability.

and again

If you are using it for biological filtration, you would have to flow water through it. Weather you use it in the bottom of your aquariumor in a refugium, you cannot flow water through it. As the sand sits, undisturbed, it becomes hard and begins to form and trap nitrates and phosphates. If you try to stir it, you will release pockets of these toxic gases which could easily damage your livestock or system If left undisturbed, the nitrates and phosphates accumulate and surface in your aquarium as red slime or cyanobacteria

yeah and it gives me a reason to go back to sea world

no decided to wait 4 weeks. to allow him som time to grow

So did you bring him home with you????

and great info gary. thank you for the lesson! i enjoy learning the things i dont

I'm sorry that some people try to translate things that may seem logical to them into fact, without doing any research. There are two basic types of "LIVE" bacteria products on the market for establishing beneficial bacteria in aquaria. They are both called live because they are NOT DEAD. But they are quite different in production, storage, shelf life, transportation requirements, etc. One form, which for the sake of explanation I will call LIVE live, is found in products like Fritzyme 360/460, Dr. Tims, formerly Biospira (I say formerly because after Marineland was sold I can not speak with certainty of BioSpira at this time). LIVE live cultures of nitrifying bacteria are active cultures in liquid form, they have a much shorter shelf life measured in months, keeping them refrigerated maximizes their shelf life. These products are sensitive to temperature extremes, and must be kept cool and shipped cool. The other form I will call DORMANT live. This is the form found in all non-refrigerated products that claim to cotain beneficial nitrifying bacteria, such as Stabilty, Cycle, Fritzyme 7/9, and I believe TLC, and Live sand/substrate products. They are products in which the live bacteria are kept in a dormant stage for the very purpose of maintaining efficacy over longer periods of time, over wider temperature ranges, by companies well versed in the transportation issues of distance, climates, truck temperatures, and such. Live sand is viable in the bag for at least 2 years, and temperatures into the 130's. Although it is true that prolonged exposure to temperatures above 130 will in effect pasteurize the product, these extreme conditions are not reached in the normal course of a wholesaler's deliveries to a retailer. I have no reservations about selling DORMANT live products, I trust most of the companies that produce nitrifying bacterial products, and I trust all the ones we carry, including live substrates.

Gary - Austin Aqua-Dome

i agree with everything you said! and i completely understand how substrate works and the biological function it serves! but sand is harder to work with. you cant stir it up if you need to with out a "dust storm" in your tank, it clumps up. and ive seen so many people with sand bed that have cynao. or a nitrate problem. plus why would you buy 'live sand' as it says. if it is not live at all (cause you pay extra) when you could by regular sand (if thats your preferred choice). and you are right there a ton of methods of reef keeping. and its depends what you are planning to do with your tank or reef, and which methos that would work best for you. in which i was only giving my opinion on buying sand over cc. I agree i cannot tell shane some of the things i do in my tank cause he would not agree. and he would stop giving me information cause im not doing things "his way" (if its not his idea, its a bad idea) but i have seen time after time, of people that are miss informed about things. And I am giving my opinion. there is a reason people have problems keeping their reef healthy. its because they dont learn of all the multiple methods of action. and weigh and balance what is best for their reef. and what they want in the future out of their reef.

Mason, sand BECOMES live in your aquarium. Just like live rock - can start out dry or dead and becomes live over time. Just because the sand might start out dry, dead, killed off in a bag, etc., doesn't mean it doesn't become live. Your crushed coral does the same thing. Shane has plenty of good advice but my number one complaint with him is that he's not open-minded about the fact that there are lots of different ways to do things, as evidenced by the thousands if not millions successful tanks in the world using all sorts of combinations of substrate, rock, corals, dosing, water sources, livestock, etc. His way is not the only way.

hydro innovations has some nice ones

i saw a clown goby in the sps tank at sea world

(used crushed coral next time, there is nothing live about live sand)

What do you mean there is nothing live about live sand? Depending on the grade, all "live sands" contain AT LEAST live nitrifying bacteria. More natural sands like CaribSea Ocean Direct have many natural microorganisms. Furthermore, there is nothing live about any crushed coral, so why are you comparing the two? A finer medium than crushed coral allows for a wider range of marine life, from tiny sifting organisms that aerate the substrate to more apparent tank inhabitants like sifting gobies and wrasses that sleep under the sand at night.

From a friend shane from fishy business

I don't think there is anything "live" about live sand. Mid Summer of 2009, I went outside to help my delivery truck driver unload my supplies. As I jumped up into the back of his 18 wheeler, I thought I was going to pass out from the extreme heat. When I said something to the driver, he pointed out a thermometer stuck to the wall on the inside of his truck. The temperature was 132 degrees! Among the supplies he was carrying, I noticed a pallet full of live sand. Is it possible that this sand could still be alive in 132 degree heat? NO WAY! Unlike live rock, which is shipped and treated like livestock with heat or cool packs, live sand is shipped as though it were a dry good. Now, when you pour this sand in your aquarium, you are dumping a bunch dead waste into it. This is no way to start a new aquarium. But let's say you were to get your hands on some real live sand. I have to ask, why are you using it anyway? If you are using it for biological filtration, you would have to flow water through it. Weather you use it in the bottom of your aquariumor in a refugium, you cannot flow water through it. As the sand sits, undisturbed, it becomes hard and begins to form and trap nitrates and phosphates. If you try to stir it, you will release pockets of these toxic gases which could easily damage your livestock or system If left undisturbed, the nitrates and phosphates accumulate and surface in your aquarium as red slime or cyanobacteria. A very toxic algae which robs oxygen from the water column which slowly suffocates your fish and coral and most importantly, damages your live rock. As your live rock becomes saturated with these gases, it looses it's ability to keep up biologically. Your oxygen level drops, the toxic levels go up and your aquarium crashes. The moral of this story is....DON'T USE LIVE SAND! And remember, even if you use dry sand or crushed coral, keep no more than 1" in small tanks and no more than 2" in large tanks.

Go get your self some TLC its actually called TLC for saltwater! add 1ml per gallon of water to tank with water changes, when you add fish! I swear youll hug me is you start using this additve! its live bacteria that eats aways at ammonia, nitrates. is god's gift to reefers! plus where did you get you LR from! i heard some people live rock (wont say who) has rumored to be phosphate factorys. are you skimming? and are you using carbon?

nice bike

Great looking fish, have fun at Sea World!

your iive rock maybe have been thru bad water conditions that have cause it to be leaching uhealty phosphates! where did you get it?

Thanks SO much for all of your help. I believe the red gunk was there when I purchased the live rock. We simply got a pair of tweezers and really gently pulled it off. Everything looks good now. We will keep checking all levels, but for now everything is hunky-dory.

Thanks again for all of your advice!