FarmerTy

I have a really short video of my tank, where should I send?

+1 I had a nano tank (12 gallon) and the heater didn't turn on until October but ran off and on until February. This was in a house away from windows, however, I don't run my heat very often in the house. The small body of water changes temp really fast so the heater is def good insurance. Give it a 6-8 degree sudden drop in a couple of hours and consider your corals nuked. Also, have you read up at all about cycling your tank? Did you buy live rock? Add any bacteria starter doses? I think the main difference from starting a predator tank versus a coral tank is the cycling of the system. With the predator tank, its just fish. So, as long as your salinity and temperature are correct, you're solid. Then all you have to do is have the appropriate filtering devices in place to remove the biological load and add some water changes, and you're good to go. With a coral system (particularly a nano) you have live rock and water changes as your main combatants against your biological load. Even if the live rock has already been cured and good to go, either way you would have to wait to finish your cycle before adding corals and fish, unless you dose some kind of bacteria head-start stuff (e.g. Dr. Tim's). I may have missed that you've already cycled your tank (typically 1-3 months) but if you haven't yet, expect a cycle to be hitting you soon if you just set up your tank. You'll probably get a ammonia spike and higher levels of nitrites/nitrates and phosphates while your system is balancing out, which usually results in some type of algae growth or cyano. The conditions in your tank may be detrimental to the inhabitants of your tank which is why you usually leave the tank empty with just the liverock and sand until the cycle is complete. The main reason I mention any of this is to prepare you in case you start noticing algal growth and your corals looking really ticked off.. then you may have an answer as to why. Also, seems like you're still shopping around for that perfect piece of liverock to be the centerpiece of your tank. When you add the new large piece of liverock to your system, it will cause another cycle in your tank. To avoid that, most people aim to have all their liverock in their system at the start and allow it all to cycle first, before putting anything in the tank. These were the same stepping stones that I tripped on when I first started and wanted to share in case it helps. This hobby is such a rewarding one that I don't want anybody new starting out with a frustrating experience and be turned off by the whole thing. If you have any questions, ask away as you'll get some pretty good responses from the club. If you already know everything I said above, then ignore and maybe it'll help someone else who is reading your post. Good luck! -Ty

Sorry to see you go man. You were a wealth of good information on the board. Hopefully you'll be back one day. -Ty

Supposedly it is as easy as donning some polarized sunglasses and looking for the honeycombed effect on the glass. If it is honeycombed, then it is tempered. As I have read, not experienced myself so don't quote me. Nice grab btw, I was asking the owner of that exact tank if they would sell without the stand, but they wouldn't so I passed. Definitely liked the dimensions on that one! -Ty

Actually, that might be smaller than what I am looking for. I will take the ballast though. Can you PM me a paypal address and I can pay you and we can figure out pickup later? Thanks! -Ty

I'll take the sump as long as it's less than 12" wide. I didn't see dimensions. Also, the ballasts, how many of them are they and are you selling them $45/piece or $45 for all. Thanks! -Ty

Thanks for Sharing Brett. I'm sure you saved a bunch of money for a lot of people with your trial and error documentation. This is a good reminder for me to swap out my GFO, it's been awhile! Great example of the combination of technology (GFO) and biology (crabs and seahare) to aid in getting rid of nuisance algae. I would be be hesitant myself to take the GFO offline. The biopellets in my experience really focus on removing the nitrates more than the phosphates, with nitrates being the limiting factor for bacteria growth. The GFO will remove the remainder of the phosphate once that nitrate limiting factor has been reached. So, in my experience, it's best to use them in tandem. Everytime I try to remove the GFO, bad things happen and the biopellets can't keep up with the phosphate production in my tank. But, each tank is different so you may not have that problem. Oh, forgot to mention, the tank looks fantastic! -Ty

I have had it where peristaltic pump tubing needed to be replaced it developed a small crack over time and lost suction I did not notice till week later when corals were not looking good and my alk dropped to 5dkh. I have now switched to ca reactor I love it. In theory if you don't have nitrates or phosphate issue you should never need to do water change as all the trace minerals are being replenished from the ca reactor media while two part you still will need to do a water change to replenish what trace minerals are absorbed by the corals. If you switched to full balling method then you are truly replacing all what the corals need Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Besides sucking out detritus in my sump once and one time I treated for cyano, I have not done a water change in the past 1.5 yrs. That's 50 gallons in the last 1.5 years on a system with 150 gallons total volume. If I had the same regiment as I did with my nano (20% every 2 weeks), I would have used roughly 1200 gallons and eight 5-gallon buckets of salt up to this point!!! My back is already hurting just at the thought. On the flip side, I still have 2/3rds a bucket of salt sitting in my garage I bought 1.5 years ago. Of course I pay on the other end (calcium reactor, dosing) but pulling out a pipette and a bottle of trace elements or replacing my reactor media sounds better than lifting those buckets anyday! -Ty

I see your argument for less risky with the dosing pumps, especially if you keep a low reserve volume in the bottles that it is pumping from. At the worst, the dosing pumps will empty out the bottles and increase your calcium and alk levels to a certain degree, but maybe not catastrophic. Basically, if all the things go wrong with the dosing pumps, only the bottle of 2-part will be dumped in the tank. This may or may not lead to a tank crash. Worst case scenario, if everything goes wrong with the calcium reactor, the increase in CO2 will kill everything. This will have a higher chance of a tank crash than dosing pumps.

I'll have to look into the NEO MAG offroaddodge. I may not need it currently but may need it in the future. Not to hijack, but a weird thing about my tank, I bought the 2-part plus magnesium from BRS 1.5 years ago and have never had to dose magnesium. It's always stayed at 1375-1400 with no water changes. Odd. For awhile, it actually was increasing very slowly. Perhaps my substrate??? With the calcium reactor, same thing, never had to dose magnesium. Odd, always been the same at 1375-1400. Maybe I should get my water tested in case my test kit is off. -Ty

Is this a discussion for your own purposes Victoly or is this more discussion inducing? I ask because with your Apex controller and pH probe, you can counteract the catastrophic dumping of CO2 in your system. Or are you leaving that out of the discussion for now and just focusing on the dosing pumps vs calc reactors as a separate topic in itself before identifying and discussing possible outside remedies? I fear the dumping of CO2 in my system too but my Apex helps me sleep at night knowing that solenoid will shut off my CO2 if my pH goes below my safeguard setpoint. That's why I went the route of the calcium reactor vs the dosing pumps, because I have a safeguard with the controller. Then again, my Apex could always fail or my pH probe can malfunction!

Ahhh, gotcha.

You could use your Apex controller you have to set it up. One day maybe I'll get a 2nd pH probe and modify the cap of the reactor to hold the probe, but for now one pH probe works for me. I just program my Apex to shut off the CO2 solenoid if my pH gets below a certain number.

I feel that calcium reactors have the advantage of dosing other trace elements that are not found within a pure mix such as a 2-part mixture. However, I have no data to back it up and in our industry Victoly, theory without supporting data isn't even worth the paper it is written on. I will say that whatever materials were used in the creation of the coral skeleton and deposited within its matrix are the same materials that are being broken down in a calcium reactor. Maybe not all of it will be dissolved in a usable form for the corals to use but I'd imagine there is some added benefit somewhere in there. Even the Caribsea Arm media states, "A high magnesium reactor media. ARM™ Extra Coarse is still a complete reactor media containing not only calcium and carbonate, but essential trace elements as well. ARM™ Extra Coarse contains: 275200 ppm Calcium, 590000 ppm Carbonate, 2200 ppm Strontium, and 2000 ppm Magnesium." It is a manufacturer claim so take it for what its worth but there's got to be some type of additional benefit in there somewhere that we are not measuring. The added risk with a calcium reactor is albeit a little higher than with a dosing pump but I think the added benefits outweigh it in my opinion. Pluses that include low maintenance, potential trace element dosing, and Victoly's "cool factor" of having a calcium reactor. Once dialed in, maintenance is about 2x a year (fill CO2 bottle, fill media, warm water through lines to clear out buildups), versus the mixing of 2-part solution for calcium/magnesium/alkalinity every 2 months and setting them up in a bottle and monitoring them to see when it is time to fill them back up again. I set the calcium reactor, took me about 1-2 weeks the first time, then 1-2 days from that point on now that I know my bubbling rate and drip rate, and leave it alone for 6 months. Replace media, clean it out, dial it in again for about 1-2 days, then walk away again. Just my 2 cents as I have had experience with both types of systems. -Ty

Gibs, What size is your tank? Are you setting up a new one or running the 16g you have listed on your profile? If 16g, personally I wouldn't do a DSB because at least for me, I would hate how much real estate it takes in such a small tank. 5" of sand in a 16g, you'd end up with like 1/3rd of your viewable tank as just sand. Probably not that bad in your case but the nanocube I'm picturing looks like that in my head. Again, just IMO, but I hate hermit crabs and feel no need to keep a single one in my 125-gallon tank. I think it's just an industry standard to throw them in there and it's been the status quo for so long that nobody looks back and says... why are these in my tank again? If I had kids that loved looking at the little guys run around, then I would get some just for display purposes. Not a big fan of urchins either. They knock things over, eat your nice purple coralline algae, and are voracious eaters. I have fears of them clearing out all edible algae in your tank in 1-2months time and would either starve to death or you would have to supplement their feeding. If you don't mind that and you enjoy watching them, much like the hermit crab scenario above, then pick one up for display purposes but be prepared to reglue frags that it knocked over, lose most of your coraline, and possibly have to supplement its food when all the algae is gone. If you are setting up a larger tank than the 16g, you probably would not have to supplement the feeding at least. I enjoy my nassarius and despite what anybody says, I think they are beneficial and not as much of a pain in the rear as I think hermit crabs are. Both will eat the extra food that doesn't get eaten or anything rotting/dying. Don't believe most of the hype about hermit crabs or nassarius snails eating anything else than that. Cyano? Diatoms? GHA? I'll believe it when I see it. I'm sure there are exceptions but in my experience, they are rare. Hope some of the info helps. Just my 2 cents... I am by no means the final word on anything. -Ty

I'd think I'd get a little distracted with a mag float moving back and forth on my back glass wall... lol!

I'll take them, what's your paypal so that I can reserve? I can possibly pickup on my way back in town Sunday. Let me know when's a good time. I'll be out of town until then but will be around the week if there is a better day. Thanks. -Ty

Oops, just saw the no PM message. Had a quick question. The two dosing pumps look like they can run on independent speeds but just wanted to confirm. Also, how old are these?

PM'ed!

Easy, hire someone else to do it!

That's where the feedback is important on this club. If someone has a habit of doing this, their feedback will reflect it. All you have to do is click on their profile and give them a low rating with the star system. I'm sure none of us are fans of no-shows and flakey people.