Sctn4Elk Posted April 25, 2008 Author Share Posted April 25, 2008 Oh my! *Gasp* Bio-balls! Yea well....as long as the Nitrates remain low to non existent they can stay. I have always used them without issue on my three previous tanks (55, 50 35). Back in the late 80's through the 90's these were a must have and every SW tank had them...not sure why the philosophy has changed over time...but I have been out of the hobby for a few years... Link to comment
Todesengel Posted April 26, 2008 Share Posted April 26, 2008 Well as long as you know what your doing, which is what it sounds and looks like. The tank looks great btw. I think I may be doing a similar setup on my new tank, which I borrowed your picture. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=155145 Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted April 26, 2008 Author Share Posted April 26, 2008 Well as long as you know what your doing, which is what it sounds and looks like. The tank looks great btw. I think I may be doing a similar setup on my new tank, which I borrowed your picture. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=155145 Thats cool. Not sure I would say I KNOW what I am doing but I do try to ACT like I do. I have heard varying opinions on the bio balls, but the one I have always fallen back on is this. Bio balls do a great job of converting Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate and a poor job of converting Nitrate to Nitrogen (mostly due to their location in the system which usually has high O2). However, you can remove Nitrate by doing a water change, Ammonia is a different story. Given the two choices, I would rather deal with a Nitrate spike and not an Ammonia spike. Time will tell and I am not opposed to removing them if they do not perform like I expect them to. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 Hooorrraaayyyy!!!! My tank has cycled....now the real wait begins and the agonizing anticipation before the first real inhabitant gets added....arrrggghhh. Here's the story and how it cycled. Not much happened between Apr 11th and the 22nd, all params were non existent, but then seemingly overnight...pow...algae bloom and params began registering. Apr 23 Ammonia 3 ppm NO2 3 ppm NO3 <20 ppm Apr 26 Ammonia 1 ppm NO2 .5 ppm NO3 20 ppm Apr 27 All parameters are at 0 ppm I must have missed the large Nitrite spike which must have occurred on the 24th or 25th which I was not able to measure. Now I can add a few more cleaners as the current numbers are not handling the bloom well. I have 3 reef hermits, 3 cerith snails and 1 unidentified snail. I plan on adding 3 red leg hermits and an emerald crab to the main tank next weekend and then maybe the next weekend I'll add a single fire shrimp. Future tank mates will probably be a dwarf yellow goby and a dwarf neon goby. For corals, I would like to start out with a small colony of orange zoos then slowly add green zoos, red candy montipora capricornis, blue montipora digitata, evergreen acropora and finally a green starburst polyp. All of these will start out very small, so I can grow them out for my 55 gallon reef. OK, latest pics: Should I do a water change now or wait a week? Link to comment
fiction101 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Wait for the diatoms to pass first. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 Wait for the diatoms to pass first. Oh...thanks, good advice....I wasn't thinking about that...getting a little anxious...have to remember rules (go slowly). Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Last night, right after the lights went out on the main tank and came on in the sump, I had an explosive hatch of some kind. I was watching the sump right after the lights switched, staring into nothing which I am apt to do around that time of night, when all of a sudden the tank was filled with 100's of tiny reddish brown comma shaped critters. I assume they are some type of tiny shrimp but not sure of the exact name. The sump literately became cloudy with all of the hatchlings and then the pump started sucking them up and sending them to the main tank. Today, there are not near as many, but I can see that some of them survived the trip and are kicking around in the water. They are still free floaters, unable to fight the current, but I can see some of them moving in the water column. Any idea what they are? I wish I had a digital camera that I could attach my Tokina Macro lens on, but alas I do not have a digital SLR yet. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 1, 2008 Author Share Posted May 1, 2008 internet research revealed they were copepods.....not amphipods... Link to comment
fiction101 Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 Oh...thanks, good advice....I wasn't thinking about that...getting a little anxious...have to remember rules (go slowly). I was told to do the first water change once your nitrates start climbing between 10-20. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 6, 2008 Author Share Posted May 6, 2008 I was told to do the first water change once your nitrates start climbing between 10-20. Well, I have not done a water change yet...plan on doing it this weekend...it's only going to be about 1 or 2 gallons. So far my Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are at 0 and holding so I am not worried. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 6, 2008 Author Share Posted May 6, 2008 Well, things are just status quo...not much new. I did get a single emerald crab to get rid of the hair algae that started to grow. So far it is not taking over and he seems to be keeping it down. The CUC, along with the better water conditions, have reduced the brown algae to almost nothing. I plan on adding a couple of gobies (two spot and hi fin banded) before adding any coral. Can't wait, getting close to coral time! Goodbye Brown Algae.... Crappy photo, but the emerald crab is dead center...he doesn't come out of the rocks much. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 8, 2008 Author Share Posted May 8, 2008 Well, today was my b-day, so I just had to buy myself something...ha ha..lame. Anyway, I found a Fridmani Pseudochromis only about an inch long...soooooo.... Crappy photos because he would not come out of the corner. I also picked up a rock of Zoa's...they are really po'd right now. Tank Pick I will post more when they open up and when I can get a better pic of the fridmani. Link to comment
CarterNichols Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 I love this tank! your rock work looks like it is just growing out of the sand, soooo cool Link to comment
BKtomodachi Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 GARF doesn't let people inside anymore. They haven't for years. Its sad. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 GARF doesn't let people inside anymore. They haven't for years. Its sad. No, but I hear they are still doing internships...plus the purple glow in the evenings looks cool... Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 The coral I recently put in the tank still won't open and the fridmani looks to have ich. All params look good: Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 0 Temp - 79 Calcium - 400 ph - 8.3 Not sure what is wrong or what I should do. I replaced 2 gallons of water on Thursday and 2 more gallons tonight, I use RO/DI water and the TDS reading was 0. Any help would be appreciated. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 Any Help?? I guess I'll just monitor the tank and maybe change out another 2 gallons tomorrow. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 Any Help?? I guess I'll just monitor the tank and maybe change out another 2 gallons tomorrow. Maybe found part of the problem.....Sundial Snail Link to comment
fiction101 Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 Were those palythoa's opened up when you bought them? Also what kind of lighting were they under originally? Oh I didn't even notice the zoa's on that rock, they do look pissed off! I would do some kind of dip, looks like something is bothering them pretty bad. Link to comment
Tbone675 Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 you can see the sundial sail in the pics of the zoa rock you posted. lol Link to comment
constantocean Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 I wish sundial snails would just die off the planet, one killed nearly $300 worth of my zoos before being found and removed. After that the remaining ones were still in such bad shape only few made a recovery. Evil evil creatures. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 you can see the sundial sail in the pics of the zoa rock you posted. lol Yea, I did not know they were bad....just assumed it was another snail....until I stumbled onto melevreef and found a pic.....then I yanked him out as quick as can be. Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 Were those palythoa's opened up when you bought them? Also what kind of lighting were they under originally? Oh I didn't even notice the zoa's on that rock, they do look pissed off! I would do some kind of dip, looks like something is bothering them pretty bad. Yes, everything was open...they were under MH's but it was 2 feet above the tank...I thought everything on that rock was zoanthid? Which ones are Zoa and which ones are Paly? As for the dip, do I just do plain freshwater from my RO/DI supply? Link to comment
Sctn4Elk Posted May 10, 2008 Author Share Posted May 10, 2008 OK, after a big scare with the fridmani, he is doing much better. The ich seems to be gone (no more white dots) and he is eating well. Also, the Zoa's are starting to open up, but they still look frazzled...I'll give it a couple of more days before I decide to do anything drastic. Some pics with my POS camera. Frid's home: Frid looks good, no more ich....and a new addition to the tank. Looking better...starting to open Blurry, top down shot Link to comment
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