reefman

Well, I got everything set up tonight, hang on overflow, to temp sum with the new Euro-Reef skimmer, Mag pump pushing out of the sump to the chiller (also new as part of this new set-up), back to the tank. The E-R skimmer is running and making a lot of bubbles, but no foam crawling up the collector cup yet. It's been running (apart from turning things off to test sump levels and things like that) for a least a couple of hours. Does it take a while to start making effluent? I'm also getting a lot of micro bubbles back into the tank. Will that settle out? What level should the foam ring (water level) be in the skimmer body? To just below where the rubber ring is where the collector cup connects? As always, any help would be appreciated. Stephen

Mike, What was the silver cylinder looking thing you were holding? Not sure how much y'all were joking about the glasses, but Mike correct me if I'm wrong, the ones you had are pretty expensive? As an alternative, if anyone is really interested, you can get a Mag-Visor that will give you the magnification for around $30 - $40 at most better hobby stores (I would recommend King's Hobby on Lamar). You can beat that price on the Internet by $10 - $20 as well. Finally, Fishypets mentioned a good dip and quarantine procedure for new corals. Could someone outline a good step-bystep process for that for us newbie's, including any recommended brands (know of Lugol's and saw Tropic Marin mentioned)? Stephen

Just curious as to what y'all would think would be a fair price for allof the below as a package deal: (1) Oceanic 90 gallon Bow-front glass aquarium w/overflow in back left corner o (1) Custom Made Cabinet/Stand w/Canopy. Ash hardwood and veneers (furniture grade), natural finish. o (2) Integrated temperature controlled cooling fans * Lighting o (2) 250 watt Metal Halide Mogul Base Lamps + (2) 250 watt IceCap electronic balasts + (2) 10,000k AB bulbs (New in February, plus spares) + (3) Spider Reflectors o (2) 48? VHO Actinic + (1) VHO IceCap Balast + (2) VHO Actinic Bulbs + (4) Water tight end caps o (2) Blueline white LED moonlights * Controler o (1) AquaController Pro One of the newest and most advanced monitoring and control systems available. This unit monitors and controls the entire reef including, timing of lighting, pumps, PH, ORP, temperature, etc. This setup includes: + Lab grade PH probe + Lab grade ORP probe + Lab grade Temperature probe + Serial interface cable to PC + X10 control modules for: # (2) metal halide lamps # (1) VHO Actinics # (1) Moonlights # (2) Powerheads for simulation of tidal movement # (1) Kalkwasser Reactor # (1) Chiller # (1) Alarm + AquaNotes software + Battery Backup (UPS) o (1) Teclima CA240 Chiller/Heater + In-line heater/chiller unit + Digital thermostat and digital controls + Energy Efficient (draws only 3.5 amps) * Filtration o (1) Premium Aquatics Sump w/2 Canister Filters o (1) Little Giant 4-MDQ external inline pump o (1) Euro Reef Protein Skimmer w/Pump o (1) Oceanus 4 Stage, 100gpd RO/DI Filter with; + Freshwater storage tank + Electronic tank level controller o (1) Kalkwasser Reactor w/Eheim pump + Setup inline with freshwater automatic top-off o (1) 30watt Aquanetics UV Sterilizer + (1) New UV Bulb + (1) Spare UV Bulb o (2) Powerheads * Livestock o 1 Maroon Clownfish o 2 Bubbletip Rose Anemones o 1 Large Birds Nest Coral o 1 Small Birds Nest Coral o 2 Large Frogspawn Corals o 1 Large Open Brain Coral o 1 Large Spaghetti Leather Coral o 1 Toadstool Leather Coral o 1 Yellow Tonga Leather Coral o 1 Yellow Acropora Coral o Many Pulsing Xenia Corals o Several Green Hairy Mushrooms o Many Various other Mushrooms o Plenty of Green Star Polyps o 1 Six Line Wrasse o 1 Foxface o 1 Cleaner Shrimp o Tank Cleaners, including + Many Snails + Countless Hermit Crabs Miscellaneous o (2) PowerSurge Strips o (1) Ground o Chemicals and Various tank and fish supplies o Salt water testing kits (Master Kit, Phosphate, Kh and Salinity) o Live Sand o Live Rock (plus or minus 100 pounds) Stephen

Believe it or not, Nora and I are thinking about another tank to replace the Wave tank with next year. We would of course probably be going bigger (if I can continue to afford the water and electricity bills), somewhere in the 150 - 200 range in gallons. I would be interested in hearing your opinions on glass versus acrylic. Also, is there a difference in acrylics (i.e. are there types that are more clear than others, more scratch resistant, anything else I'm not thinking of? Stephen

John, If I've eliminated everything else (and I did find some stuff in the sump last night that was suspect, due to my own ignorance), and the WC's don't work, LR doesn't work, etc., etc....how would I go about changing the sand bed without causing spikes and killing everything off? Stephen

Interesting John. Hadn't thought about it in those terms. Stephen

I'm assuming that by replacing the bio balls with LR, I will be trading one substrate that only breaks down ammonia and Nitrites for one that will break down those two plus Nitrates? Stephen

Nope, did that tonight. RO/DI TDS meter reads 6 ppm (which is 2 points lower than when I started using it), and Nitrates on the RO/DI is Zero. I'm thinking more and more its something in the sump. Either the bio balls, filtering material, or something. With a 92G tank and 200 lbs of LR, it ought to be filtering this stuff out. Especially since the other tank is 90G and I feed them exactly the same. Stephen

Missed one of the questions. I'm using AquariumPharmacuticals for the test. I haven't taken it to an LFS, simply because the I was getting 0 readings for Nitrates on the wave tank using the same test kit. I just got through doing another test on it, after about a 40 - 50% water change last night. Nitrates 40 - 80 ppm. Since I couldn't tell night before last whether they were reading 80, or 100, or beyond, I guess I should feel better, but I don't. I'll do another WC tomorrow night. Could someone give me an idea of how I should go about changing the bio balls with LR. Like how much would be safe to remove at one time. I also remember that bacteria doubles its volume every 36 hours, so I assume I should wait at least 36 hours between cycles of removing the bio balls and replacing with LR? Stephen

hmmm...Is this different bacteria that's in the tank and the sand bed? What would be considered gradual? ...and can I pull them all out, say put in a bag, put what LR and going to do, and then put the bio balls back; or will a few minutes exposure to the air kill them? Stephen

Thanks for the input Enigma13, ejaustin, and Austinvines. To answer some of the questions, in the tank I'm having the problem with, I have two dwarf angels, a sailfin tang, a small neon goby, a watchman Goby, cleaner wassre, exquiste wrasse, pink wrasse and a Starry night Blenny. The corner tank has about 200 lbs of live rock, the wave tank has about 110 - 120 pounds. Both tanks have a 2 inch live sand bed. I talked to Carlos today, and his suggestion was water changes as well. He also suggested, and one of you posted, that some people are trading out the bio balls in their sumps for live rock. I went by his place tonight and picked up about 15 lbs to do that with, however the water change took me so long the live rock will have to wait until tomorrow. Although I changed out about a third of the "space" of water tonight, I think it was probably closer to about 50% RO/DI water with Tropic Marin salt mix) of volume due to the displacement of the rock and coral. I'll check the Nitrates again tomorrow, and plan on another WC Friday. Again on Sunday if I need to. Again, thanks for the ideas and help. Its always good when what you are doing has consensus instead of working it in a void. Stephen

Somebody has to have some ideas on this. I saw 11 people have viewed it. I would really appreciate comments and ideas. If nothing else, what my danger level on the Nitrate ppm is. Stephen

I plan to be there. Stephen

I'm continuing to have Nitrate problems with my corner tank. I did WQ test tonight, and Nitrates were either 80 or 100ppm. Here are the other tests: Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Kh 12 Ph (after I put buffer in) 8.24 Weird things: I'm never seeing any spike in Nitrites, and not in Ammonia since I had something die in the tank a while back (a month or two ago). Other weird things: My wave tank (the other tank) is: Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 0 Kh 15 Ph 8.24 Both tanks are 90/92 gals. Both have a relatively equal # of fish. I feed both tanks exactly the same amounts of food. The corner tank (w/ the high Nitrates) has about 35 - 40 pieces of coral. The wave tank has around 20 - 25 pieces. The corner tank has a sump and Tunze skimmer. The wave tank does not (no sump, Prizm skimmer). The only other major differences I can think of is I have clams, Zoo's, and Xenia in the wave tank (0 Nitrate), whereas I have mainly more "higher end" corals in the corner tank (80 - 100 ppm Nitrate). I did about 20 - 30% water change on the corner tank about a week and a half ago. Any ideas to 1) what is causing the high Nitrates? 2) when I should really really start worrying (like maybe now?) about the Nitrate level, and 3) ideas to reduce the Nitrates would be greatly appreciated. Stephen

If I don't keep a constant watch and add buffer once or more a week, my Ph seems to always drop in both tanks. Will adding a Calcium Reactor solve this problem? Stephen

I hadn't thought about that! Stephen

No, I don't, and I couldn't find anything Googling it. Thanks for the link, JimD. Stephen

We had gotten a bubble tip for our Clown fish in our wave tank. he had been getting bigger and bigger, and seemed fat and happy. Over the past couple of weeks, he had started to move a little bit back into the rocks. He moved back out toward the front yesterday. We just discovered that there are now two Anemone's, the one that came back out, and one further back up in the rocks. blob7.gif Stephen

Anyone heard of these or have any experience with them? They were supposedly showing a color test at MACNA where they just had water and sand, and were running a color card from one end to the other of the tank. The tank had several type of bulbs on it, so you could see what the card looked like under the different lighting. Was told the Acadia bulbs knocked the socks off everything else. Since they run about $100 for 250W and $80 for 150W retail, was wondering if anyone else had seen them. Stephen

Keep seeing these mentioned about feeding corals. Is this a brand name of a food, or a type? Can I get it locally? Same question about getting Marine Snow? Has anyone tried it? Stephen

I PM'd you. Stephen

What size tank did you have it on? Stephen

As far as the live rock, you will pay more for it, but I would recommend picking pieces that already have a lot of coraline. When I started my first tank 8 months ago, I bought uncured live rock and allowed it to cycle. I have over the past several months been supplementing like crazy to get coraline to grow (once it starts growing well it will help keep the bad algae from growing). I'm just now starting to get some decent coraline growth in it, and if I had it to do over I would definitely pay the extra to have started it off with it. I'm still have issues with the green algae in that tank. Stephen

OK, thanks. Stephen

Is this sponge? The white fibrous stuff around the Blastomussa (its got fibers sticking straight out to the side). Will it hurt the Blasto? It seems like its choking it. Soory for the poor quality of the photo, I took it with the camera in my cell. There are also very white pearl looking growths coming up between the Blasto polyps. Stephen