New member intro

i want to start by saying thanks for putting in the time to give me lengthy detailed responses, i appreciate the great info. my levels are:
temp 77 - 80 . but mostly 78
salinity 1.025 use refracto
ph 8.3
nitrates 15… they were 40, 50, 60,?? hard to tell shades of red ughhh. but have been dropping steady every week… about 5 a week give or take, but never up
daily water top of… bout 1/2 gal… rodi
28 gal water change every other week w/ instant ocean reef crystals
asm g2 skimmer… still trying to figure out the ideal skim… if there is such a thing… i rinse it out 2x week… usually has 1/2 to inch of browinsh green… smells like arse!
clean out sock weekly

again, if anyone has the time for input, it greatly apprecited
john

No problem at all.

I will have to change what I said about the Monti caps. I would wait at least another couple of weeks for the Nitrates to lower even more. I also would wait another couple of weeks for LPS. Most leathers, Zoanthids, and Protopalythoa should still be ok at this point. If this was a more mature system I would say to increase the frequency of water changes to bring down the Nitrates, but at this point I would stay stick to your current schedule and allow them to come down on their own.

May be a good idea to go sockless on the system as they can build Nitrates. Depends on how much you personally think it is helping and if it makes a dramatic difference in microbubbles/salt creep.

Reef crystals is ok for time being, but you may look into a better salt down the line.

Alright, the sock is out, and i added that 3rd powerhead back in. come to find out they’re k3’s, so am i more like it with the flow now? And i forgot, i already have an lps, impulse buy last weekend, green trumpet frag. whatta i know, but it seems to be doing good, opens up at night, and a couple times during the day, especially at fish feeding time… i’ll keep updates on the nitrates… and i was told just to worry about nitrates and ph at this point, and wait til i get more corals before worrying about any other testing, but looking for an excuse to get more test kits…thoughts???

How often do u feed. Over feeding is a commen error.

Do u have a phoshate reactor.

:BEER

Rich

No reactor, nitrates are steady dropping, i’m hoping to keep the setup as natural and simple as poss, but will def. add whatever necessary when its a MUST for the corals. we feed a cube of mysis every other day, pellet food the others…couple pinches, what they can eat in bout 3 mins give or take. broccoli and dried macro in the clip 3x week.
thoughts?

I have a RDSB and a very large DIY carbon reactor and phosphates are almost not traceable and nitrates are 0. Don’t use any thing else and it works for me.

[quote=“saltcreep, post:23, topic:2865”]
i was told just to worry about nitrates and ph at this point, and wait til i get more corals before worrying about any other testing[/quote]

LOTs to be said about that. First off if you cannot get Nitrates under control in the next couple of months with that many fish in that large of a tank something is significantly wrong. You will have some Nitrates when the system is young and should let it balance itself out with out assisting it majorly, but you should be able to reach 0 detectable Nitrates. If you have high nitrates and buy a coral from anyone that takes decent care of their tanks, including LFS, or online and have low nitrates it could very well shock the coral. It would be like putting a coral used to 75F water in 83F water, but acclimation wouldn’t be as easy.

I would not recommend using any chemical test kit of any brand to check pH, the proper way for hobbyist to monitor pH in my opinion is with a probe like those made by pin point, milwaukee, and others.

I personally would recommend looking into getting your levels right before adding corals that require them to be higher. First off regardless of what anyone else says all of your corals, your LR, and your fish would all benefit from near natural sea water conditions. Secondly getting them there and understanding how and why to get them there can be one of the most challenging things in this hobby. While your being patient and waiting for your tank to mature and not running into the LFS and impulse buying :wink: you can be learning how to test and adjust your tank to conditions that will be ideal. Many of the most ugly and problematic algaes, bacteria, and so on can be kept in check by maintaining certain levels of Ca, Alk, and Mg in your aquarium.

I have to agree with Rich, running a phosban reactor can be a HUGE help. Regardless of whatever else you do for your aquarium you are likely going to have elevated levels of Phosphates which is one of the key ingredients in growing most unsightly aglae and cyano bacteria. Once you have a noticeable problem it has leached into your works and sand and will take months to get rid of. It’s best to run some sort of media to remove phosphates continuously. You can save $5-$10 building a DIYS model if you spend a couple hours and do your research on how to make one right and then spend a couple hours gathering the materials and then spend another couple hours constructing one or just pick one up at your LFS. I personally recommend using TLF Phosban reactors and don’t really like the kent ones.

It sounds like a lot of food for those fish, but is hard to tell their size from the images. I would say try to feed the pellets a bit lighter of a little bit. Just keep an eye out for shrinking stomachs, aggression, and other signs they are not getting enough. As Rich stated it is easy to, and most people do, overfeed.

Wow that was long.

That was like getting a novel for free… thanks… love DIY …thanks for the excuse to play in the shop… who’s got some good plans for something my size…and when should i start it. and jon, those levels you mentioned, should those be the next test kits to add to my arsenal?

I would suggest keeping the Sock… They help a lot, maybe just clean twice a week instead of once… they will trap all that extra food so that you don’t have it sitting around in your tank :slight_smile: Just my :TWOCENTS

If you forget to take out the sock or leave it in too long, boom nitrate factories. Then you will have high nitrates and will have to combat it. Are u running a refugium? I would kick the filter sock, and if really want large particle filtration, a little Hob filter for sump would work. Low profile, does the job, and adds a source of carbon for the tank.

+1 on reactors best thing i ever did for my tank. Def just buy a TLF reactor. Its like 29 bucks… cheap. The expensive thing is the media. Phosban, run a hundred bucks per bucket. I know jon is using something, i forget what, that is little balls that is supposidly better. Maybe he can chime in…

something better than GFO? news to me!

The expensive thing is the media.
check out TBAquatics.com. much more affordable!
If you forget to take out the sock or leave it in too long, boom nitrate factories. I would kick the filter sock,

agreed. however, if you consistently maintain them they are very effective. one thing that you could consider is placing the sock so that it is not submerged. the water will still run through the trapped organics but i would imagine it would at least lessen the impact. at least i had always that that was the idea with wet/dry filter trays.

I have ran a sock for over a year in our 37g now and our nitrates are fine… It is really easy to take it out and throw it into a washer even for a college kid… Forgetting about stuff in general is going to create issues in your tanks, but as long as you keep up on them there is no big deal.

I will say that in my experience, it is nice to stay as natural as possible when it comes to my tanks. I don’t use phosban, activated carbon, or anything else. Just a protein skimmer, some macro algae, a filter sock, and a bunch of live rock. Those 4 things are enough for our oceans, so I figure it should probably be good enough for us if properly cared for :slight_smile:

And adding HOB filters and such is less efficient, uses more electricity, and when we are looking at ways to reduce our footprints, stuff like a simple 200 micron bag that collects all our crap sounds much better than a HOB filter on 24/7, just my opinion.

Just to add, if you dont keep your HOB filter clean, it will leach crap back in just as bad as a filter sock, just takes a few more weeks thats all.

Thats exactly where i stand, i just hope that i’ll be able to keep good parameters. we’ll have to see. stay tuned

Forgetting about stuff in general is going to create issues in your tanks
could not be more true!!

socks, no socks. carbon, no carbon. gfo, no gfo. many different paths to success and the options, along with their usefullness, is usually determined by factors unique to the system(SPS? Softie? 1 fish? 10 fish? WC frequency?) in the end you need to do what works for you. personally i dont want to have to clean filter socks. i dont even like doing regular laundry ;D

YEAH, who wants to do laundry, when you can just zone ou,t staring at the tank instead!

HJack

Back to my original state- feeding… I think u are feeding to much. I would start feeding every other day. That is about as cheap an experiment that i can think

:TWOCENTS

Rich

That advise about feeding fish is coming from a guy that has a 120g and a 65G tank setup and only 3 fish total.

:-)lol

R

I’m cutting back on feeding, but like some of you said, i like to feed my fish, keep them healthy, happy and watch them grow… honestly, just thrilled to have stuff stay alive and thrive this time around. The tangs go nutz over broccoli that i soak in saltwater w/ fresh garlic, in particular the naso… very cool fish… but then he drops serious broccoli confetti bombs, look likes green snow in the tank… and the snails and shrimp love it… one mans trash, anothers treasure scenario.
And thanks to DRC a couple of cool members of yours, new friends of mine, came over and hooked a brothers tank up! and had a good time bullshizing about anything reef. Glad i joined, and looking forward to learning from everyone.
Officially Addicted,
John

[quote=“Jcling, post:33, topic:2865”]
Forgetting about stuff in general is going to create issues in your tanks, but as long as you keep up on them there is no big deal.[/quote]

Very much agree with this. Those that keep up with stuff on a regular basis are usually the most successful. That being said MOST people at some point get sick or go on vacation, or have drama going on in their life that interferes at some point or another. Life finds a way. If the system is set up to require regular maintenance it is usually just a matter of time.

[quote=“Jcling, post:33, topic:2865”]
stuff like a simple 200 micron bag that collects all our crap sounds much better than a HOB filter on 24/7, just my opinion.[/quote]

The wattage of a little tiny pump located inside of an HOB filter cannot compare to what a clothes washer or drier will use in water and electricity. Maybe someone can crunch the numbers and convince me otherwise, but I would say this is debatable.

[quote=“Jcling, post:33, topic:2865”]
Those 4 things are enough for our oceans, so I figure it should probably be good enough for us if properly cared for :)[/quote]
I am all for going as natural as possible with keeping our tanks in balance however it is usually not practical, and sometimes not even possible, to use all natural methods to obtain natural chemical conditions that these corals have evolved in for thousands of years.
Fact is our tanks usually have grossly elevated nutrient levels in compared to coral reefs which can be compared to terrestrial deserts as far as nutrients go. Our tanks also typically contain a massively large variety of coral species in a tight area which you would not see 99-100% of the time in the wild. We throw animals together that would never encounter each other in the wild ever and they do battle with each other whether we can see it directly, like with “sweeper tentacles”, or not. Chemical warfare is not something you can usually test for, but I can guarantee it is harming your inhabitants to some degree, especially if you are running a smaller mixed reef tank without running activated carbon.
Elevated nutrient levels slow the growth of animals, can lead to long term deformities, grow bacteria and algae the corals are forced to compete with, and leave the animals more open for disease and infection. They can also significantly decrease the clarity of the water which will decrees the amount of PAR, photosynthetic active radiation, reaching your corals.(we spend how much on prefect reflectors, prefect color spectrum bulbs, and high end ballasts and if a $3 bag of carbon can get 10% more of that light to the corals….)
If your methods maintain both 0 detectable Nitrates and Phosphates on your system and keep your animals happy that is great, but keep in mind every tank and every hobbyist is unique.(I would also ask what instruments you are using and say you like do not have 0 phosphates) Some people are happy if their corals are growing even it if it is at a greatly reduced rate to what is found in the wild. Heck I have met some people in the last year that were even satisfied if only half their corals are “ticked off”, sick, not growing, or on their way out. In the past people were psyched when corals lasted 6 months in captivity before they need to be replaced with new live stock. I hope that the overall attitude of the industry and hobbyist is far behind this.
This is not directed towards anyone in particular, just venting in a way and sharing my opinions. Not saying anyone is wrong either.

BTW, typed this when I didn’t have internent. I agree with Shawn each person has to find their own way.