muddybluewater Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 The sump type skimmers are going to perform better. You can easily build a good sump for around $40 with buying a tank at petsmart or where ever. If you allready have a 29g tank all you need is some glass or plexiglass from home depot and a tube of aquarium grade silicone. If your tank is not drilled you will need an overflow box that would probably run you about $80-$100. Here is an easy sump design that works very well. Skimmer on the left, refugium in the middle and return pump on the right. This is a 20g tank but could be modified for a 29g. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 Thanks! I'm going to talk to a buddy and see if I can track down a 20gal, that way it will fit in my current enclosure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddybluewater Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 I think petsmart sells them for about $25-$30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quirkyGramma Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 I believe that red lava rock is bad for marine aquariums. When I began in 2004 I used that limestone that is full of holes, although it is denser that dry rock it wont affect your ph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 I believe that red lava rock is bad for marine aquariums. Its already been used for 5 years in a freshwater tank, then sterilized before its addition to the tank. That should have been enough time for the contamenents to leach out right? And I'm not going to use the limestone, I went ahead and purchases pukani ecorox instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Red lava will always be bad in a Marine aquarium. The iron/copper problem is not an issue in freshwater and is actually beneficial to planted FW aquariums. In a reef aquarium it can be a pretty serious issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill B Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 I believe that red lava rock is bad for marine aquariums. When I began in 2004 I used that limestone that is full of holes, although it is denser that dry rock it wont affect your ph. Actually Holey Rock being a calcium product, will help to keep the pH higher, which is why it is used so commonly in tanks needing higher pH. However, I have heard some say it can contribute to hair algae in SW tanks for some reason? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 The lava rock has been present in this tank for about 2 months now. (And in freshwater for the 5 years, as previously mentioned) I'm going to perform a water test and see what comes up as far as heavy metals and copper, though I haven't seen any contamination so far. If I don't see anything, is it safe to leave it in? cause the fish seem to love it, its one of their favorite pieces and where they congregate for a good portion of the day. Also, assuming the water tests come back clear for Ammonia/nitrates/nitrites I'm making the next step this weekend. Because the tank is already cycled and fish all ready added, I'm not going to dump a whole lot of live rock at once. I'm looking at the addition of between 5-10 lbs of cycled Bali, a hand full of cleaner shrimp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 OK. Thats awesome if it works. The only downside i would see is that it isn't calcium based so would not give you the nifty benefits you get from arragonite rock. That being said it might not be harmful so that would be awesome. If you have life already in the tank I would cycle all of your live rock in a seperate tub with a small powerhead and a skimmer, maybe a clip on light. Get it fully cycled and then put it all into your tank at once. You also want to use this time to quarentine that live rock to make sure you didn't get any nasty hitchhickers such as my personal favorite, the mantis shrimp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 The only downside i would see is that it isn't calcium based so would not give you the nifty benefits you get from arragonite rock. Not having the calcium benefit is a bummer, but I have 80lbs of Aragonite substrate, so i think that should cover the difference lol. quarantine that live rock to make sure you didn't get any nasty hitchhickers such as my personal favorite, the mantis shrimp. I'm guessing that you had a bad experience with Mantis shrimp Zarathustra? If its cured for a month, should I still be scanning and probing deeper holes in the LR for Mantis Shrimp, or will they most likely be present already? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 No, actually i never got a mantis shrimp. I just think they are evil little freaky crustaceans. You'll generally find out if you have them by the clicking noise they make when using thier evil little mandibles to eat your tasty, yet expensive livestock. It was just an example. I have learned from fairly hard personal experience to always quarantine live rock or you risk adding something undesireable into your tank. Heck, you should quarentine anything wet that is going into your tank. Yes, I know its a pathological aversion to what should be a facinating creature but I really hate the little guys. They just give me the willies. On the brighter side, some people hate snakes or dogs or some other terrestrial critter. I think my phychosis are very well managed from that perspective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truckin Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 I don't know if you still have the "red" rock in your tank, but if you do, the red is probably due to iron content. And since minerals are rarely pure, it may have other metals. All of the metals in significant quantities are bad for your livestock, and they will probably leach forever, especially since it has color on the surface. The leaching may not have an immediate effect, and the ability of various species to withstand metals in the water may vary. But if something magically dies - easier to avoid this by keeping obvious problems out of your tank. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 I don't know if you still have the "red" rock in your tank, but if you do, the red is probably due to iron content. And since minerals are rarely pure, it may have other metals. All of the metals in significant quantities are bad for your livestock, and they will probably leach forever, especially since it has color on the surface. The leaching may not have an immediate effect, and the ability of various species to withstand metals in the water may vary. But if something magically dies - easier to avoid this by keeping obvious problems out of your tank. Cheers. This is what I was getting to above but better stated and I didn't want to fight it. :/ According to the WWM boys (Fenner and James in this one) ... Finally, if I am on the right path, is it wise/safe/otherwise to add a batch of very porous, red lava rock that I got from a friend who recently broke down a freshwater set-up and was using it as decoration? Or is this freshwater rock a completely different animal? <For some reason the lava rock doesn't seem to work very well, probably too porous.><<Too smooth, chemically inert... almost entirely made of silicate... RMF>> Just the silicate would be a problem. Calfo in his propogation book also directly says that lava rock is unsuitable for marine aquariums due to large amounts of minerals, especially metals. Again, would urge you to move to a calcium based substrate. Dry rock is easily available from prof or from very many other dealers in the area and online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted November 3, 2009 Author Share Posted November 3, 2009 Just to start this off, Zarathustra, Your response a few days ago about the mantis shrimp and your pathological aversion; It made my morning commute. I laughed out loud on the train, and the lady next to me gave me a really dirty look, so I tried to explain the situation. But it was definitely a waste of breath. Down to Business The substrate already is Calcium based. Its Carib Sea Seaflor special grade reef sand (araganite) The only lava rock that is present is a small structure (in the picture on the right hand side next to the Tiger paw.) less than 2 lbs in weight. I did 3 water tests, 2 in home, and one at the lfs, all of which came back negative for heavy metals. But if you say it is a problem, I will pull it out today. The main reason I keep it is for some reason, whenever any of the fish are acclimating, or scared, they go there first and stay there for the first day or so and then spread out into the tank; so I figured it was the structure itself. (and the cave structure in it) I pulled out most of the damsels and replaced them (1 for 1) with B/G Chromis and then added 3 lbs of live rock and 2 Juvenile Banggai Cardnalfish (Im pretty sure we grabbed a mate pair, we scoped out a pair at the store and they have been inseparable since they went into the tank 24hrs+ ago.) They're on a diet of mysis shrimp and flakes, and seem to be adapting well. We have one damsel in qt, he was nipping a bit. We changed the environment and we figured we'd wait about 2 days to allow the fish to establish themselves, to see if they will get along, and if not, they'll be going somewhere else. There's another damsel in there. Shes a little territorial of her rock, but she doesn't nip and everybody leaves everybody alone. Water levels seem positive so far. I'm going to try to test the levels every other day to watch progress. I'm going to try and add another 5lbs of live rock when the tank stabilizes. (Tank Currently) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted November 3, 2009 Author Share Posted November 3, 2009 Also, I'm adding a Hydor Korella 4 1200 GPH Powerhead tomorrow and maybe a HK3 later this week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 All cool man. Love the rockwork. And honestly, i like how the lava rock looks there. On my 90 I have 2 K4s and plan on adding another to help create a more random current. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 Thanks!!! And with the K4s, the only thing that I'm worried about is that its going to be too much power and it will damage the live stock. right now I have it set up so it blows across the dead spot in the front of my tank. But where should I set it up, and how can I tell if it is damaging/stressing out the fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 General rule for flow is 10-30X tank volume per hour. SPS tanks can go up to 100x without a problem but 30-40x is fine. So, for a 75 Gallon you want a minumum of 750GPH total flow and 2000 or so would not be a bad idea. For a pure SPS tank you could go up to 7500 without a problem. It is very unlikely to stress the fish. However, higher flow areas can damage corals, especially LPS, which should be kept in a current that lightly sways thier polyps. Multiple powerheads are very adviseable to help create a more random flow and give you some redundancy in case of failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.