I guess I’ll start with my hobby time. I been in the hobby about 4 years, the first year of course had new tank syndrome and went awall with anything that looked nice. A spike and some empty pockets later i have calmed down and was running some nice tanks. Went on Vacation for the holidays and the heater broke ( a glass one exploded) and came back everything was gone. That was a discouraging blow, gave up on it for a little bit, but low and behold about 6months ago a plan came together. And this is part of the plan
EQUIPMENT
6 Gallon Eclipse tank with built in filtration
2x18w Coralife 50/50 PC fixture (modded)
A nano hydro powerhead.
INVERTS
Feather Duster
4 Margarits Snails
Sally litefoot crab ( soon to be in the AQ24)
FISH
Green Clown Goby
CORALS
Pulsing Xenia
Cespitularia
Blue Xenia/Anthelia
Random Zoa’s
Toadstool frag
Green Star Polyps
Clove Polyps
Red Shroom
HITCHIKERS
Orange tiny feather dusters
Asterina Snail
Brittle Stars
5lbs Live Rock
MAINTENANCE
50% Water Change every friday
Feed a couple flakes everyother day
Invertfood once every week in a half
Dose…Depends on test performed once a week
I use premixed ocean water from Petco
FUTURE
I know it needs a lot more color, definitly want to get more red shrooms, frogspawn, and trumpet coral. and of course any zoo’s that look nice smile.gif
Also to add, my 24aq has 150w HQI MH lighting, so and frags that get to much, and just doesnt go will go in there for now.
that is all my 6 gallon. PBJ!( i love these icons lol ) The 24 is still cycling LR and has been for a while. This tank has been up about 5 1/2 6 months. Still not done, going to put more LR in from my 24 once its fully cured to my satisfction, and removing the clown and putting him in the 24.
looks good dude! do you have any issues with your chemistry at all? i know ive heard that those smaller tanks are harder to keep up with. then again, with a 50% change every week, i guess your pretty golden huh?
if i can suggest something… do less water changes, its thought the smaller tank the more you can change but dumping half the tanks volume in at once could cause you mini cycles, maybe not at first.
well i say 50%, i usually do 1 bucket i have which is about 2 1/2 gallons per week. %0% is just easier. The chemistry is great for what i keep anyway. I limit my fish to usually just my clown goby, but there was a clown that needed my help and i got the runt lol. He will go in my 24 , its ready for fish now but im going to follow borneman list if it kills me lol. Ive always had small tanks 24g being the biggest, and running carbon everyday and a good amount of flow, i have live sand i bought live rock natural sea water, every param is good and constant thatnks to that. I dont have to measure calc or anything like that, i only keep softies and zoa’s, and the xenia’s love it. I guess they love the nitrates the tank builds up during the week but they are like another natural filter. and thats the way i like it, my 24 on the other hand will have all the fancy stuff. but this 6 is like a little garden i keep
[quote=“matchu627, post:6, topic:1691”]
well, hes usin that NSW from petco. that should reduce the cycle, right?[/quote]
not at all, in fact home made sea water is MUCH cleaner than true NSW… and the term NSW in this hobby relates to the chemistry, for example most LFS tell you you need your SP at 1.023 which is much too low, it should be set at 1.026 or 35 ppt which is NSW levels…
its not even recommended that you collect your own water in the florida keys unless you are collecting the corals from that location.
Wait wait wait, so your supposed to change the water on these things??? I gave up changing the water on the 3 gal for the past few months and it seems much happier
[quote=“matchu627, post:6, topic:1691”]
well, hes usin that NSW from petco. that should reduce the cycle, right?[/quote]
not at all, in fact home made sea water is MUCH cleaner than true NSW… and the term NSW in this hobby relates to the chemistry, for example most LFS tell you you need your SP at 1.023 which is much too low, it should be set at 1.026 or 35 ppt which is NSW levels…
its not even recommended that you collect your own water in the florida keys unless you are collecting the corals from that location.[/quote]
hmmmm…i stand corrected
[quote=“IanH, post:9, topic:1691”]
Wait wait wait, so your supposed to change the water on these things??? I gave up changing the water on the 3 gal for the past few months and it seems much happier :)[/quote]
lOl
using the premade is much easier for me, and cheaper as the gallons i have are nothing. I test everytime before i pour just to make sure i dont get a bad batch,(nitrate,nitrite,ammonia,ph,alk) its always ph constant , nitrate free phoshate free, i mean its filtered before they bag it up, the salinity is usually 1.25. Have used it for a couple years, had an sps, lps tank with no problems. I do eventually wanna mix my own but until my tanks get bigger i have no need.
and really thank you all for the compliments, its really a good motivator. Its really appreciated PoM
if it works for you, stick with it. i certainly understand the convience aspect and im sure its not to bad financially on such a small tank.
not at all, in fact home made sea water is MUCH cleaner than true NSW... and the term NSW in this hobby relates to the chemistry
almost all commerical NSW is filtered and is probably better than any synthetic salt you could buy. its just not cost effective to use. its not a coincident that a lot of state aquariums are on the waterfront. also, NSW means just that, Natural Salt/Sea Water. it doesnt pertain specifically or exclusively to water chemistry. NSW chemical parameters are simply used as a benchmark for home aquaria. i would even guess that you probably have a higher chance of getting a “bad” batch of synthetic salt than you would getting a contaminated batch of NSW. there are quite a few hobbyists(especially in Asia) that rely exclusively on NSW for their systems.
i remember a build thread on RC by a guy in Mexico. very impressive system. no filtration or water movement at all. he simply pumped water in from the sea and drained water out. one of the most beautiful systems ive seen. im sure the water was run through sediment filters and maybe UV, but it was far from being treated or processed.
dont get me wrong. i would never recommend anyone to use NSW over a good synthetic for a LOT of reasons…i just wouldnt go so far as to say synthetic is better. if the only tank i had was around 6g and i lived in an apartment i would probably use NSW as well. no rodi, no buckets, no salt, no mixing…it might be worth the extra costs.
In all of this I find it extremely hard to believe petco has natural sea water, and would find it more likely they just call it that.
If your on a water front (aquarium) the great thing about using NSW is you pump it in, filter it and pump it out. That has got to be 1000 times cheaper than buying salt mix and dialing in the chemistry on it. The only reason I see it as being “better” is there is tons of it, if can do it its like putting a 100 trillion gallon sump on your system…pretty nice.
Using NSW (from the ocean) I would be deathly afraid of god knows what pathogens/ect. I’d be putting in the tank. You could always UV the crap out of it thought, but who knows.
AFA the SG of 1.023 or 1.026, either or anywhere in between will work fine, keeping it consistent is more important that the raw number.
Here is the inital pictures of my 24 Gallon Aquapod. It’s been pretty expensive for me to keep buying LR all at once, so little ive stocked it, just added the last 15lbs last night. Im gonna let it cycle at least 6 months, 3 without CUC and 3 with.
[quote=“IanH, post:13, topic:1691”]
In all of this I find it extremely hard to believe petco has natural sea water, and would find it more likely they just call it that.
AFA the SG of 1.023 or 1.026, either or anywhere in between will work fine, keeping it consistent is more important that the raw number.[/quote]
well you just cannot remove heavy metals from NSW without RO/DI, and obviously if you do that you dont have NSW afterwards.
and in the 60s-90s (and even some today) the standard boat bottom paint was copper that was designed to slowly leach off over time, they used it to kill inverts that attached themselves to the hulls (go figure!)
unless the NSW is directly from a reef, its not touching my tank, and chances are petco doesnt want to pay shipping on 8 lbs per gallon for truely purified water… i’d bet they mix it themselves out of the IO bucket
[quote=“michaelangelo, post:17, topic:1691”]
either way hey it works for me right?[/quote]
Def!
No not trying to start a flame war lol, I was referring to NSW straight from the ocean, looks like that stuff is legit, does come from the ocean and is filtered. Sounds great! Except the $$$!
yea dishing out 12$ every water change sucks!!! thats why for the 24 when i officially get it running i want to mix myself. Still saving for a ro/di unit. I love being hands on with this stuff.( also sorry if i seemed rude, i just been apart of many forums, and ppl can get mean and carried away. all you guys on here seem very nice, and i really wanna keep it that way. after all were all after the same goal!! a successfull reef!!!)
Hey does anybody know a good preferablly cheap wavemaker i coulduse for two koralia 2’s?
also in my 24pod im going to run a HOB filer, and have a fuge set up in chamber 2 , so two questions id like opinions…
[quote=“IanH, post:13, topic:1691”]
In all of this I find it extremely hard to believe petco has natural sea water, and would find it more likely they just call it that.
If your on a water front (aquarium) the great thing about using NSW is you pump it in, filter it and pump it out. That has got to be 1000 times cheaper than buying salt mix and dialing in the chemistry on it. The only reason I see it as being “better” is there is tons of it, if can do it its like putting a 100 trillion gallon sump on your system…pretty nice.
Using NSW (from the ocean) I would be deathly afraid of god knows what pathogens/ect. I’d be putting in the tank. You could always UV the crap out of it thought, but who knows.
AFA the SG of 1.023 or 1.026, either or anywhere in between will work fine, keeping it consistent is more important that the raw number.[/quote]
HJack
Not all those aquariums located on the ocean use the local sea water. Baltimore is the most polluted bay around their is no way they would use the natural saltwater. (I doubt they filter and use the local water anymore) I remember reading a ways back that they used IO. The only semi-local aquarium that I know uses natural sea water unfiltered from the ocean is http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/ for their kelp forest.
For a small 6 gallon it makes since to buy it for convenience. Although it will take longer you will eventually come ahead cost wise with an ro unit. I would probably just buy water for that size also.
