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Luk3s 12g AP *new stuff w/pics*


Luk3

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I know about not naming them and such (i mentioned that in an earlier post i think) but its just kind of interesting to know what they are called by the public, if any.

Well i did a 2g waterchange and everything is stable my nitrates are at 15 but slowly declining. I picked up another turbo snail on Sunday, and yesterday a picked up a frag of GSP and a frag of some watermelon zoas. (both 5 dollars each)

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For my GSP frag i heard that their sea mat can take over quickly and they like a fairly decent flow so i tied to to a separate rock in hopes they wont cover my substrate and smother my zoa frag.

WHat do you guys think?

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FTS

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(everything is closed up because i just flipped the lights on for the picture

So the list so far is:

2 turbo snails: one small to medium and one is medium to large

1 nassarius snail small to medium

3 zoa frags

1 GSP frag

3 micro brittle stars

a ton of copepods

 

Im still a little reluctant about my CUC i now i need more but everyone has so many different opinons i dont know which to go with. I have alot of algae (which is a given) and alot of snail feces. Which snail/hermit will take care of that for me the most efficiently? My turbos are awsome algae cleaners but they eat so much that they defecate alot and its just sitting in the sand. I try my best to suck it up during a waterchange but its tough because it does not float.

its all over my tank

Im thinking about getting a cleaner shrimp this weekend anyone have an thoughts or comments?

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that's a pretty wild looking frag plug. kinda makes me want to... throw up a little. lol can you trim it so it's more flat and less ugly? i mean, you have a pretty nice looking tank. it's a shame to see a little thing like that ruin it all.

 

point one of your returns at your rocks, or get a powerhead and point that at the rocks and you won't have a detritus problem anymore.

 

as for the cleaner shrimp, what have your water parameters been at for the past week?

 

Tim

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Well i figured the frag will be covered in a little while and ive never done any cutting so id rather it be ugly for sometime then die on me :/

And parameters are all stable and have been for the past week except nitrates raise to about 20 by the end of the week then lower to about 15.

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i have green algae all over the place and now very small amounts of brown stuff is on my sand. I dont kno if its diatoms. So i was wondering what would clean this up. As of right now i have 2 turbo snails and a nassarius snail, i know i need more but cant decide. I have a 12g AP so any CUC suggestions would be appreciated.

Also my tank has been stable for a couple weeks except nitrates which are around 20. Can i get a cleaner shirmp now? If so since he is the only thing in the tank that i need to feed can anyone suggest some food for him?

Another thing is one of my zoa polyps wont open. Ive had the frag for a couple weeks and it used to open but now it doesnt. I has a little bit of algae on it, will this make it not open? All the other ones are opening fine and new ones are starting to form.

Pic of non opened polyp

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One last thing

Can some ID these little white things? They are kinda on a white stalk with little fuzzie tips.

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Well its been one month and a week since i set up my 12g AP, and i still cant get my nitrates to go down and its starting to aggravate me.

 

I know patience is the key and all that but as i search around more and more i see people having the reef system up and ready and adding fish within a month. I just cant seem to get my nitrates to lower!!!!!! They have always been around twenty (higher when i first set up my tank) I wouldnt mind so much if my lovely little zoa frags would open up and be happy again. When i first added them they all opened every day for my entire light cycle. Now they just wont open at all. They just seem stressed. Im not sure if its my nitrates but i cant see anything else wrong. Last night i checked my params and ammonia was 0 nitrites was 0 SG was 1.024 temp 80.2 PH 8.1 and of course nitrates around 20-25. Its not my test kit because when i do water changes and top offs i test the water before adding it and it is nitrates free. SO im pretty sure its not the water or my test kit. The only thing i added directly prior to my zoas not opening and getting diatoms on my sand and cyano and crazy little bugs ( i think they are harmless) was a watermelon zoa frag (5 polyps) and a GSP frag (about 5 or 6 stalks)

 

Can anyone please give me some insight. My zoas look like they have stopped growing and they wont open up but my GSP opens up but doesnt seem to be growing. One of my zoa colonies release long brown strings from their center could this be the nitrates?

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yeah i heard about that i put it on a seperate rock. but im concerned about why my nitrates are so friggin high all the time and why my zoas are unhappy

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are you still running bio balls in the back? i have same tank i have never had a problem. just curious on why u want a cleaner shrimp so bad. you need a better cuc imo. what are you running in the back?i just started reading this post kinda skimmed through it but i would like to help you since we have the same setup

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I didn't read hardly any of this thread, but I'll give me $.02 on the matter anyway. If you are having a problem with high nitrates it won't be solved over night. I saw that your system is pretty new, if you have any fish feed them very very little. If you think you are feeding them enough you are probably feeding to much. If you think you aren't feeding enough then you probably have it just right. Be diligent with the water changes (if your tank is done cycling), and if you have the means add a fuge with some macro algea. If you do these things after a while your nitrate problem will be gone.

 

Oh yeah, try to eliminate any dead spots where fish poop could possibley accumulate.

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Thanks everyone for the help.

Jacks22 i am using the bioballs and ceramic rings.

I do weekly 2g waterchanges every sunday and i clean out the ceramic rings and sponge every monday RELIGIOUSLY.

 

glennr1978

I do not have any fish to feed

As of right now my tank stock is

2 small frag of zoos and one large frag of zoos

1 frag of GSP

Some hitchhiker feather dusters

3 mini brittle stars also hitchhikers

2 turbo snails

1 nassarius snail

2 blue leg hermit crabs

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Thanks everyone for the help.

Jacks22 i am using the bioballs and ceramic rings.

I do weekly 2g waterchanges every sunday and i clean out the ceramic rings and sponge every monday RELIGIOUSLY.

 

glennr1978

I do not have any fish to feed

As of right now my tank stock is

2 small frag of zoos and one large frag of zoos

1 frag of GSP

Some hitchhiker feather dusters

3 mini brittle stars also hitchhikers

2 turbo snails

1 nassarius snail

2 blue leg hermit crabs

 

I would get those bioballs and ceramic rings out of there. They're only going to cause problems, and not really going to help too much. They're really just meant for FO set-ups, and you seem to have enough live rock. All of the previous posters' suggestions sound great.

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Luk3, how much live rock do you have total? Seeing that you have a 12g system, you should be looking at at least 12lbs. in the display as well as some in a fuge (if you have one set up). If not, I'd suggest putting the couple extra pounds in the display to get you around 14 or so pounds total, if not more.

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ok this is what i did TAKE OUT THE CERAMIC RINGS THE BIOBALLS THE HUGE BLUE SPONGE.those are all nitrate factorys i run chamber 1 small bonded filter pad just below skimmer under that i run a half bag of matrix carbon chamber 2some lr rubble probably dont need 2 do that but i do 3 chamber i run 1 50 w heater at 77 degrees 4th chamber maxi jet 900 thats it keep it simple you need at least 12-14 snails 4 asteras 4 nas i have 1 big conch he gobbles detrtius keep water level a bit lower than the max my tank is 3 months old and i have 1 purp pseudochromis 1 bicolor blenny 1 pom pom crab 1 emerad crab 10 corals that are beautiful 12lbs live rock 10 pink fiji sand forgive the spelling but i hope this will help you if you need to talk feel free to pm me i was there 2 months ago

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ok this is what i did TAKE OUT THE CERAMIC RINGS THE BIOBALLS THE HUGE BLUE SPONGE.those are all nitrate factorys i run chamber 1 small bonded filter pad just below skimmer under that i run a half bag of matrix carbon chamber 2some lr rubble probably dont need 2 do that but i do 3 chamber i run 1 50 w heater at 77 degrees 4th chamber maxi jet 900 thats it keep it simple you need at least 12-14 snails 4 asteras 4 nas i have 1 big conch he gobbles detrtius keep water level a bit lower than the max my tank is 3 months old and i have 1 purp pseudochromis 1 bicolor blenny 1 pom pom crab 1 emerad crab 10 corals that are beautiful 12lbs live rock 10 pink fiji sand forgive the spelling but i hope this will help you if you need to talk feel free to pm me i was there 2 months ago

Most people say to take out the ceramic rings and bioballs but some say dont. i guess im just skeptical to take them out because every time i clean them they are full of black stuff (detritus algae and othe things) so they seem like they are doing the job. And if i take them out where will al that crap go?

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alright well say i add a couple more pounds wont that start another cycle in my tank?

 

Well you have a couple options here. If you're only adding a pound or two at a time, you shouldn't have to be too worried about a second cycle.

 

But if you want to be on the safe side, you can always put the live rock in a second container (whether it be a plastic tub, trash can, or another aquarium) and run it with salt water, a heater, and a pump. Keep checking the params on this extra container until you're back down to zero ammonia and nitrites, then it will be safe to add to your display.

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Well you have a couple options here. If you're only adding a pound or two at a time, you shouldn't have to be too worried about a second cycle.

 

But if you want to be on the safe side, you can always put the live rock in a second container (whether it be a plastic tub, trash can, or another aquarium) and run it with salt water, a heater, and a pump. Keep checking the params on this extra container until you're back down to zero ammonia and nitrites, then it will be safe to add to your display.

yeah if i did add some i dont think i could double it it just doesnt look like i have room for another 12 pounds it just seems like it would be way to cluttered

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Most people say to take out the ceramic rings and bioballs but some say dont. i guess im just skeptical to take them out because every time i clean them they are full of black stuff (detritus algae and othe things) so they seem like they are doing the job. And if i take them out where will al that crap go?

 

You can read around in some other topics of people using filter floss. It's very easy to use, and extremely cheap. You can just throw it away either every waterchange, or earlier if it starts getting dirty fast. Try doing a search of filter floss and you should find some options to use instead of trying to use the ceramics and bioballs to catch all the detritus.

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You can read around in some other topics of people using filter floss. It's very easy to use, and extremely cheap. You can just throw it away either every waterchange, or earlier if it starts getting dirty fast. Try doing a search of filter floss and you should find some options to use instead of trying to use the ceramics and bioballs to catch all the detritus.

SO just take out bioballs and ceramic rings and put in filter floss in one of the chambers? Will that truly substitute the ceramic rings and bioballs? and why is filter floss so much better?

 

double what you have. jmo. you'll love doing that nitrate test and always, ALWAYS having no color.

So if i add LR do i still need to throw out my bioballs and sponge and ceramic rings?

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let the tank work for itself all that crap is gathering in and on the balls rings and huge ######catching sponge 1 small piece of bonded filter pad mabye some filter floss thats it

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