bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Is the stock lighting on an Eclipse 12 enough to get started with some shrooms? My tank has been running for almost 3 months now, and I soon plan to upgrade lighting to either 2x32W or 96W powerquad. I just want to start with something to see how they will make out before I really start adding stuff. I will be upgrading the lighting as soon as finances alow it. If I so get shrooms, will I need to dose with anything? Eclipse 12 - no biowheel CC Substrate 13 lbs LR 1 aquaglobe 200 PH 1 skunk cleaner shrimp 1 hawk 1 tomato clown 1 lettuch nudi ~5 hermits :x Still at war with the cyno :*( Link to comment
EdgeKrusher Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 I have stock lighting on mine. No corals yet. I'm waiting to get my new light before I add anything. But if they are low light corals they may do ok. Just remember it's a 13w light, so not much is going to grow under that. Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Shrooms will do fine under the eclipse stock lighting. They don't need much light. You can also get other corals that do not rely on light like Sun Corals (tubestra) but you will have to feed them by hand almost daily. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 What do you feed them and how do you do it? Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=17257 Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 Should I be adding any additives like essential elements or calcium? Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 I don't know if shrooms or sun coral are really calcium dependant, but I try to keep my calcium around 400-450 or so. Get a test kit and see what you are at. Also, when you dose calcium, you generally should be dosing a buffering agent as well to keep your dKH up and in turn your pH stable. I use Kent's Kalkwasser to dose my calcium and buffer together. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 Thanks for the info, my tanks been running for almost 3 months now, and think it's time to start getting some shrooms or something to see how they'll do. Right now I'm still battling the red slime, but with the recent addition of a powerhead hopefully that'll help. I was also using tap water for water changes, but am looking in to where I can get RO/DI water to start using. Also trying to get my trates down a little lower (they stay steady around 20 or so) And would like to swap my CC for LS. I also want to get around 5lbs more LR. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 When I start dosing calcium, I do want to use the Kalk, I just need to read up more about using it. Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Yes make sure you read the boards on the kalk. Lots of people have different opinions on how much to mix and how much to dose. I just keep a gallon jug of ro/di mixed with about 1/4 teaspoon or so of Kalk and add it in once every two days or so. Usually a couple tablespoons. Again, since the amount I add of kalk to a gallon is pretty low I haven't seen any problems when dosing. As far as water goes. Don't ever use your tap water. Everyone I know that has done this has had lots of problems with algae, slime, cyano, etc. I don't know if this is attributable directly to the tap water, but I just play it safe and only use DI/RO water. I buy mine from my local grocery store. Usually costs me about 70 cents a gallon but well worth it in my opinion. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 Yea, I just called my LFS and asked about the RO/DI water and it's $1 a gallon, I'm gonna start using that. Thats exactly the problem I'm having right now with the red slime right now, its covering everything, but I've cleaned it off by blowing it with a PH, and cut my lighting cycle, I'm also going to start using something like Seagel or something like it. Hopefully it'll clear up after using the RO/DI, seagel, and new PH. Do you think I should use something one time to kill the slime or not? I'm kinda hesitant about using chemicals to kill algae. Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Is it slime algae or is it cyano bacteria? I am not a big fan of adding chemicals, but I had a small outbreak of Cyano slime and I used a product called Chemi-Clean. One dose and the cyano was gone within a few days. I also had all my corals and livestock in there at the time and it didn't seem to hurt anything. You may want to add some diversity to your cleanup crew as well so that they can start munching on some of the stuff. If you do some searches on this board about various snails, conchs, etc, you will probably find a lot of things you could add to eat your particular types of algae. Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Also, check your phosphate levels. High phosphates lead to a lot of the problems you are having too. If your levels are high, I would get a phosphate pad and run it in your HOB. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 Well, from what I've been told, its cyno. Its a dark reddish color, and it's was covering all my LR, as well as some on my CC. I also have a grayish colored coating on parts of my CC. It was really bad before the addition of the PH, but since I've blown it off and ran the PH wide open, it doesn't seem to be growing as fast, or at least it seems, its only been a few days since the addition of the PH:*( Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 I'm not using a HOB, just the Eclipse stock filter w/no biowheel. In another post, someone told me about adding a bag of Seagel to the filter. Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Yes I am running an eclipse 12 with just the standard filter as well. My opinion is to add a dose of Chemi-Clean (you can get it at your LFS). You may need to dose it twice if your cyano is really out of control. It works like magic. Then, make sure to start using only ro/di water and run a phosphate pad on top of the stock blue filter pad in the eclipse. I run a phosphate pad at all times in fact. Hope that helps. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 Thanks so much for your advice, I'll go get the chemi-clean as well as a phosphate pad on top of my stock filter. I'll also start using the RO/DI water, just checked my LFS and they sell it for $1 a gallon. I'll also get some additions to my cleanup crew, I know I need a few snails. Which are the best, most efficient ones? Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 I have a bunch of Astrae snails and they seem to keep everything under control. The only algae I ever see nowadays in on my glass but the buildup is slow enough where I can just clean it with a magnetic cleaner once every two weeks or so. I think I have about 6 astrae snails, and 3 blue leg hermits, and a peppermint shrimp. Not sure if my red sea star helps in keeping stuff clean but I imagine he must. You can also check your local grocery store for RO/DI water. I get mine for 70 cents a gallon at Safeway. Not sure if they have those where you are. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 No Safeways here, the grocery stores her do have the water dispensers, though, but someone else on the board told me to be wary of them, just thought I'd play it safe by getting the water from my LFS, even though it might be a little more expensive Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 I never use the water dispensers. Try going to the water section inside the store and see if they have any RO/DI water. You should find it near all the other bottled or jug water. Make sure it says that it is prepared by RO or DI and make sure its not mineral water because you don't want all those minerals in your tank. Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 by the way, they come in 1 gallon "milk jugs" so I just pick up 10-15 at a time so I don't have to keep running back to the store. It also makes it much easier to prepare your salt water since its already in 1 gallon increments. Link to comment
bneyman Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 Yea, I had a turbo snail until recently, (he died for some reason), but in my opinion was lazy anyways, he always stayed stuck on the aquarium wall, rarely moving. I have a lettuce nudi, and some hermits (never can tell how many exactly, but probably ~5-6 now), and a peppermint shrimp, but my hawk had him for a snack didn't even last 5 mins in my tank I need toget rid of him and my tomato clown for some smaller fish. Link to comment
KamDesai Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 I have some problems with my snails. They seem to like to climb up into the filter through the outtake lip. So I usually check every few days to see if they are in there where the bio-wheel used to go. And sometimes they will actually get all the way under the filter pad and end up near the uptake. Either way, I don't want them being lazy up there so I just bring them back down. My Astrae's are rarely lazy though. Especially at night, they seem to go to town on the glass. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.