Noober
Thu, 12th Feb 2009, 11:06 PM
Hello, Please bare with me as I have a lot on my mind to get this tank where I want it to be. Please lend me some thoughts on at least some of what I'm about to discuss if you don't have time to read all of it. Everything I state here is just a product of me thinking things over and not much off me actually seeing it done, so more or less its a question everytime, I dont know much of what I'm talking about, I've just tried to take as much as i can in from reading books and posts and making observations from other peoples tanks and from these online communities. So please tell me how you guys think I should do things the right way with what i've got, if it has worked for you in the past and presant.
I'm about to move all my coral out of my tank into quarintine so that I can totally redo my tank, plumbing and all. I've learned a lot since I originally set it up and I want to do it right. I need to make a quarintine that will house sps coral. I've got a nano tank for my softies. I have an hydroponic EBB and flow tray with plenty of MH lighting to go over the top of it that I can use for the SPS. If I just put a return pump in the resevor and let it constantly overflow at a high rate with a lot of light on the coral, will my SPS and LPS corals perk up and survive well in these conditions. I can put some live rock and sand in the tray with them to help them survive and keep up their overall health. How often should I do a water change in these sps quarentine trays, I could possibly do a 80-90 percent water change every week in this unit if it would be best to make them thrive without having to dose, or should I just do 50 percent or so a week?
I've got 3 SPS corals that I'm worried about. They are all pretty small. I have 1 orange montipora digitada, 1 blue unknown acropora that looks like it is an encrusting type, and I have 1 red birdsnest coral. I've had the acro the longest and it popped up off an old dead coral skeleton and has been definatly growing but the bright blue skin is turning tanish, looking bleached a bit. I don't know what is doing it because I am very new to reefkeeping in general. I try to keep the water clean with plenty of live rock and sand and I run my skimmer full time and do my water changes with RO water from my RO unit here at the house. The PH was around 7 when I tested the fresh RO water. I think it might be my water chemistry that is effecting the SPS corals. I believe I have plenty of flow and light. The orange montipora is growing pretty rapidly but recently the polyps do not extend out like they used to and the growth appears to be stunted. I recently got the birdsnest because the monti was looking good, but after I got it the monti started looking sketchy so now even though the birds nest still looks fine with plenty of white growth tips emerging on it I am paranoid that something is going to happen to it. So basically I want to save these corals and bring them to a good par of life for them, so when I put them in my completed tank they will be ready to take off and start a good basis of sps corals for me to build off of. Can I mantain their health by using reef crystals salt and making frequent water changes?
I am going to get some more equipment in attempt to make my tank more stable. I am going to get a diatom filter because my fish often get ich and the water will not get very clear and stay that way, I am planning on only using it once a week or every two weeks to a month depending on how much my tank needs it. I've herd these filters can strip the water of things the corals need so I might only do it right before a water change. I'll research it more and if you guys have any advice on using diatom filters in a reef please feel free to inform me :). I am also getting a canister filter with a uv steralizer to help keep the algae off my glass and keep the particles of debris in the water to a minimum. I have to clean my glass once a day with my magnet even though my cleanup crew hits it pretty hard I can still see a green film on the glass and I'd rather not have to worry about it as much, plus I dont want to have buildup in hard to clean places get that green algae that is hell to scrape off and takes breaking down the entire tank to reach, which I never want to do again unless I move to another house hehe. Anyway with thoes two items along with my sump, which I am going to install a sock filter on it, my skimmer, and I am going to clean out my current refungium and install a dedicated one with much slower flow and miracle mud in it, I should be able to achieve crystal clear and quality water I hope. I am going to go with the salifert test kits until I can afford all digital testers. I'm going to get all the macro and micro element tests that they have available and develop a good schedule to follow so that I can secure a set procedure when topping off water and changing water so that my tank stay's as stable as possible and hopefully keeping all my elements at their reccommended levels.
I currently have adequate amounts of live sand and rock in my tank according to all the rules of thumb I've read on the net. I just want to repostition the rocks in my tank along with all the corals for one last time so that I can make sure everything will be stablized and will not suffer from rockslides, everything I've got at the moment has been sorta makeshift on the spot. I also have to buy quality water testing supplies because the LFS here has no quality testing equipment. My rock and sand both has a bunch of webworms, collinista snails, miniture brittle stars, feather dusters, copods, pink and yellow sponges, and other good stuff in them that I like. But there is also a cake of dark green algae that is impossible to scrape off these rocks and it isnt very pretty along with a minor population of aptasia and some other clearish anenome related minature stinging nusicance that spreads pretty quickly. I am shooting for all pink, purple, and/or maroon coraline. I have a bunch of all three colors, but I really want to start over to achieve rocks that are solid coraline without this green slimy/filmy algae on them. I have used a very coarse toothbrush and the green stuff still won't come off. Heck even the most coarse scotts brite pad didnt take it off without mass amounts of scrubbing. Do you guys suggest me selling all my rock and ordering some new rock, which I don't want to do because I do enjoy the shapes of rocks I have. Or can I just really scrub the heck out of the rocks, and reuse it. Hopefully in time the coraline will coat all the rocks? Or should I just go all out and bleach all my rock, recure it and start from total scratch. I can get a small batch of rock from the net to seed the rocks with the ditrus eaters and coraline spores that I choose. I was also wondering, if I did that, would I need to steralize by boiling or drying my sand and cure it as well, and could I just add another couple new bags of sand to it with some kind of biological kickstart product to get it to get back into the nitrogen cycle again? Whatever happens I dont want to see this dark green algae again on my rocks, It grew right along with the coraline, has the same growth pattern and started at about the same time but it grew about 75 percent faster than my pink and maroon and purple coraline algae. I also dont want to see the aptasia or stray mushrooms and zooanthids on some of my rocks that are out of place. I was thinking if i just kept all my other corals quarintined until my tank gets stable, and I farm all the coraline on the rocks that I want in the main tank, (garf method) then I can add my old corals back into the tank via fresh cut frags (garf method again) without much fear of the nusiance algae taking back over. Then I'll just donate and/or sell all my old main colonies so that I can have a totally fresh start with everything exactly how and where I want it.
I am also going to get a custom acrylic top off tank built for my auto top off unit. After that I plan on getting a calcium reactor or a kalkwasser reactor to help dose the tank and keep it stable, along with a phosban reactor that I can put phosphate sponge and ammonia and nitrate removers in to keep the water quality pristine and oder free. Do you guys suggest a combination of calcium reactor and kalk doser or just one or the other. I've already got a co2 tank and regulator, all I need is a ph moniter and the calc reactor so I guess I'm already ready for the calcium reactor if it's better. I am going to invest in better powerheads, get more macroalgae for my sump and some mangrove trees (what macro algaes do you guys suggest and what kinda mangroves are best), and a higher quality light to keep it all alive down there. I was thinking a good compact flouro or a small 50-100 watt MH daylight bulb. The only two things that I cant afford right now that I will get in the future is a nice MH HQI/T5 fixture to replace my 8 - 48" T5 HO's, and a chiller to keep the water cool instead of the fan I have on the sump. I have a wavemaker that I can get the right flow that i will need with my new powerheads and I'm not sure If I will need anymore suppliments once I get my tank going. I have all RO water and I dont know if i need to adjust ph before or after adding the salt. After all this is running for several months, how often should I change my water, Still 1/3 once a week or should I just do it once a month or every two weeks? I am also going to get one 55 gallon drum to make my water mass even greater, and so that I can easily change 1/4 of my water without exposing any of the coraline or rocks or corals to air when I need to do a basic mantinence water change.
Does it sound like through this path, that I will be on my way to success? I really hope to establish and keep a successful reef. Thank you for listening to me today and any information you can give me is so very much appricated! Happy Valentines day!
I'm about to move all my coral out of my tank into quarintine so that I can totally redo my tank, plumbing and all. I've learned a lot since I originally set it up and I want to do it right. I need to make a quarintine that will house sps coral. I've got a nano tank for my softies. I have an hydroponic EBB and flow tray with plenty of MH lighting to go over the top of it that I can use for the SPS. If I just put a return pump in the resevor and let it constantly overflow at a high rate with a lot of light on the coral, will my SPS and LPS corals perk up and survive well in these conditions. I can put some live rock and sand in the tray with them to help them survive and keep up their overall health. How often should I do a water change in these sps quarentine trays, I could possibly do a 80-90 percent water change every week in this unit if it would be best to make them thrive without having to dose, or should I just do 50 percent or so a week?
I've got 3 SPS corals that I'm worried about. They are all pretty small. I have 1 orange montipora digitada, 1 blue unknown acropora that looks like it is an encrusting type, and I have 1 red birdsnest coral. I've had the acro the longest and it popped up off an old dead coral skeleton and has been definatly growing but the bright blue skin is turning tanish, looking bleached a bit. I don't know what is doing it because I am very new to reefkeeping in general. I try to keep the water clean with plenty of live rock and sand and I run my skimmer full time and do my water changes with RO water from my RO unit here at the house. The PH was around 7 when I tested the fresh RO water. I think it might be my water chemistry that is effecting the SPS corals. I believe I have plenty of flow and light. The orange montipora is growing pretty rapidly but recently the polyps do not extend out like they used to and the growth appears to be stunted. I recently got the birdsnest because the monti was looking good, but after I got it the monti started looking sketchy so now even though the birds nest still looks fine with plenty of white growth tips emerging on it I am paranoid that something is going to happen to it. So basically I want to save these corals and bring them to a good par of life for them, so when I put them in my completed tank they will be ready to take off and start a good basis of sps corals for me to build off of. Can I mantain their health by using reef crystals salt and making frequent water changes?
I am going to get some more equipment in attempt to make my tank more stable. I am going to get a diatom filter because my fish often get ich and the water will not get very clear and stay that way, I am planning on only using it once a week or every two weeks to a month depending on how much my tank needs it. I've herd these filters can strip the water of things the corals need so I might only do it right before a water change. I'll research it more and if you guys have any advice on using diatom filters in a reef please feel free to inform me :). I am also getting a canister filter with a uv steralizer to help keep the algae off my glass and keep the particles of debris in the water to a minimum. I have to clean my glass once a day with my magnet even though my cleanup crew hits it pretty hard I can still see a green film on the glass and I'd rather not have to worry about it as much, plus I dont want to have buildup in hard to clean places get that green algae that is hell to scrape off and takes breaking down the entire tank to reach, which I never want to do again unless I move to another house hehe. Anyway with thoes two items along with my sump, which I am going to install a sock filter on it, my skimmer, and I am going to clean out my current refungium and install a dedicated one with much slower flow and miracle mud in it, I should be able to achieve crystal clear and quality water I hope. I am going to go with the salifert test kits until I can afford all digital testers. I'm going to get all the macro and micro element tests that they have available and develop a good schedule to follow so that I can secure a set procedure when topping off water and changing water so that my tank stay's as stable as possible and hopefully keeping all my elements at their reccommended levels.
I currently have adequate amounts of live sand and rock in my tank according to all the rules of thumb I've read on the net. I just want to repostition the rocks in my tank along with all the corals for one last time so that I can make sure everything will be stablized and will not suffer from rockslides, everything I've got at the moment has been sorta makeshift on the spot. I also have to buy quality water testing supplies because the LFS here has no quality testing equipment. My rock and sand both has a bunch of webworms, collinista snails, miniture brittle stars, feather dusters, copods, pink and yellow sponges, and other good stuff in them that I like. But there is also a cake of dark green algae that is impossible to scrape off these rocks and it isnt very pretty along with a minor population of aptasia and some other clearish anenome related minature stinging nusicance that spreads pretty quickly. I am shooting for all pink, purple, and/or maroon coraline. I have a bunch of all three colors, but I really want to start over to achieve rocks that are solid coraline without this green slimy/filmy algae on them. I have used a very coarse toothbrush and the green stuff still won't come off. Heck even the most coarse scotts brite pad didnt take it off without mass amounts of scrubbing. Do you guys suggest me selling all my rock and ordering some new rock, which I don't want to do because I do enjoy the shapes of rocks I have. Or can I just really scrub the heck out of the rocks, and reuse it. Hopefully in time the coraline will coat all the rocks? Or should I just go all out and bleach all my rock, recure it and start from total scratch. I can get a small batch of rock from the net to seed the rocks with the ditrus eaters and coraline spores that I choose. I was also wondering, if I did that, would I need to steralize by boiling or drying my sand and cure it as well, and could I just add another couple new bags of sand to it with some kind of biological kickstart product to get it to get back into the nitrogen cycle again? Whatever happens I dont want to see this dark green algae again on my rocks, It grew right along with the coraline, has the same growth pattern and started at about the same time but it grew about 75 percent faster than my pink and maroon and purple coraline algae. I also dont want to see the aptasia or stray mushrooms and zooanthids on some of my rocks that are out of place. I was thinking if i just kept all my other corals quarintined until my tank gets stable, and I farm all the coraline on the rocks that I want in the main tank, (garf method) then I can add my old corals back into the tank via fresh cut frags (garf method again) without much fear of the nusiance algae taking back over. Then I'll just donate and/or sell all my old main colonies so that I can have a totally fresh start with everything exactly how and where I want it.
I am also going to get a custom acrylic top off tank built for my auto top off unit. After that I plan on getting a calcium reactor or a kalkwasser reactor to help dose the tank and keep it stable, along with a phosban reactor that I can put phosphate sponge and ammonia and nitrate removers in to keep the water quality pristine and oder free. Do you guys suggest a combination of calcium reactor and kalk doser or just one or the other. I've already got a co2 tank and regulator, all I need is a ph moniter and the calc reactor so I guess I'm already ready for the calcium reactor if it's better. I am going to invest in better powerheads, get more macroalgae for my sump and some mangrove trees (what macro algaes do you guys suggest and what kinda mangroves are best), and a higher quality light to keep it all alive down there. I was thinking a good compact flouro or a small 50-100 watt MH daylight bulb. The only two things that I cant afford right now that I will get in the future is a nice MH HQI/T5 fixture to replace my 8 - 48" T5 HO's, and a chiller to keep the water cool instead of the fan I have on the sump. I have a wavemaker that I can get the right flow that i will need with my new powerheads and I'm not sure If I will need anymore suppliments once I get my tank going. I have all RO water and I dont know if i need to adjust ph before or after adding the salt. After all this is running for several months, how often should I change my water, Still 1/3 once a week or should I just do it once a month or every two weeks? I am also going to get one 55 gallon drum to make my water mass even greater, and so that I can easily change 1/4 of my water without exposing any of the coraline or rocks or corals to air when I need to do a basic mantinence water change.
Does it sound like through this path, that I will be on my way to success? I really hope to establish and keep a successful reef. Thank you for listening to me today and any information you can give me is so very much appricated! Happy Valentines day!