SaltineSage Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Be careful with your supplements. If your MAG is too high it will kill. If you are doing water changes your MAG will probably be fine. If your pH swings are too great it will kill. If your calcium is a little low that's ok. Just be sure to get it up slowly when you get ready to add corals. Find a good A/B supplement and dose as needed not as directed. Do not dose more than directed. Always test for what you are dosing. Emeralds like Chaeto so keep it out of reach. I wanted to ask about the magnesium - I've just had a byropsis outbreak, and did a lot of research on magnesium supplementing with the Kent M brand. Folks dosed their tanks up to 1600 and held it there for weeks without negative impact, some went as high as 1800+ without any negative side affects... actually, the corals loved it from what I read? And +1 to Emeralds liking macro... they've devoured all my macro in my display. Been throwing Nori at them to try to get them to eat that instead. Link to comment
10001110101 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 i hate this forum Link to comment
blister Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 nano reef is awesome, shut your mouth. ;] Link to comment
Dooderino Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 I wanted to ask about the magnesium - I've just had a byropsis outbreak, and did a lot of research on magnesium supplementing with the Kent M brand. Folks dosed their tanks up to 1600 and held it there for weeks without negative impact, some went as high as 1800+ without any negative side affects... actually, the corals loved it from what I read? And +1 to Emeralds liking macro... they've devoured all my macro in my display. Been throwing Nori at them to try to get them to eat that instead. I speak from experience. I was dosing MAG and it went to 1800 and #### started dying. I now keep it at about 1300. Natural Seawater is about 1250-1300 I think. I can't quite remember. Link to comment
Degener8 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 i hate this forum Dont let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. BB Link to comment
nick1912 Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 When I was dosing kent m my gsp stayed closed for a week. After 2 wc the mag is back to normal and the gsp have opened back up. Link to comment
violinist Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Why are you ordering ammo-lok? Do you have ammonia > 0? If so that's why your livestock is croaking (assuming they are and not just molting). If not, then why are you ordering ammo-lok... How are you acclimating the critters before adding them? Link to comment
blister Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 violinist - got ammo-lock for QT. I was having ammonia problems with it, I have that figured out I think... Haven't used ammo-lock though... yet.. I acclimated by temp first then i added water to buckets while they were in there... multiple times... any new suggestions? Link to comment
violinist Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Don't know, you aren't big on providing specifics heheh. What are your tank params amm = nitrite = nitrate = sg = temp at night = temp under lights = Right now that is all you need to be worrying about to be honest as far as params go. When you acclimate the livestock, particularly the shrimp, what's the starting sg? How long did it take to get it to the tank sg? Did you pull water out as you went or just keep pouring water in? The devil's in the details with this stuff. I scanned through the back pages so apologies if I've missed it, but seems like just bits and pieces of information scattered about. Link to comment
blister Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 My latest params: Ammonia - 0 Nitrates - 20 Nitrite - 0 Salinity - 1.025 Temp - 79.6 pH - 8.4 Calcium - 380ppm Carbonate Hardness (KH) - 250.6ppm Phosphate - 0ppm The temp doesn't change that much +-2 degrees.. the heater I got seems pretty consistent. starting LFS salinity... no clue, didn't check it.. From now on when I acclimate I will make sure to match the salinity.. I was unaware that could be an issue... hmmm.. that would cause the shrimp/crab to die days-weeks later? Link to comment
violinist Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Osmotic shock, the difference between the bag water and the tank water sg might have been too great for them to handle. Or being exposed to a rapid shift in salinity during acclimation. Honestly crabs I just pitch in after floating for temp (the little blue legs I mean, not some sexy crab that cost more than a piece of gum heheh). Shrimp are delicate though. Also scanned back, looks like your salinity is (or was) all over the place. It doesn't go down between water changes. It shouldn't be going down at all unless you are adding a bunch of ro/di thorughout the week at a rate greater than the rate of evaporation. It will increase as water evaps out of the tank, so you add a little ro/di to top off the tank and this brings the level back down. If you rig up an auto-topoff then this happens often enough where the level is pretty stable and you don't have to worry about it. If not, set a mark on your tank so you can tell where the water level is at and add water accordingly. Better to add a little here and there then a bunch all at once if possible. But be careful if you find yourself in the situation again of real low sg (which you shouldn't). Dont' mix up a real hot batch (super high salinity) of water and jack the tank right back up to 1.024/5. Again, it will shock the inhabitants. The last fish I added came in bag water that was at 1.015. It took me 3 hours to get it up to the tank's 1.025... Link to comment
blister Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 most likely the reasonings for my salinity all over the place is that it was just until recently i calibrated my refractometer with that solution. Was using distilled/rodi water to calibrate it, now it shouldn't be all over the place ;] Link to comment
violinist Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Well anyway, good luck! One last thing I'd suggest is switch away from whatever salt you are using. With nothing in the tank putting any sort of significant hit on calcium, there's no reason other than lousy salt mix for it to be reading that low. Link to comment
blister Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 the salt i use is oceanic sea salt mix, i hope not, i have a huge bucket of it... Will check the parameters of freshly mixed water and after i put it into tank. Maybe I will learn something ;] Link to comment
blister Posted February 18, 2010 Author Share Posted February 18, 2010 Well... today i tried the skimmer in chamber 1, did not have much success. What I did was move chaeto from fuge basket and put it where chemi-pure elite was. I moved the chemi-pure elite in chamber 1, not sure if this is a bad thing or not. Not sure how hot the heater gets underwater, hopefully not too hot, might burn a hole in chemi-pure elite, dunno... heh. So skimmer is in chamber 2 along with the media basket. Hopefully it's in there right. I have no experience with protein skimmers. The water just so happens to come up to the perfect spot (I think). I did a water change today as well as stuck another emerald crab and 2 blue-legged hermits. Link to comment
violinist Posted February 18, 2010 Share Posted February 18, 2010 So what did calc test in the fresh mixed water, if you tested it. Link to comment
nick1912 Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Have you noticed more growth with the Chaeto in the display? Link to comment
blister Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 nick1912 - I haven't noticed a great deal of growth. But may have grown a little bit. Couple of updates... **repositioned skimmer in chamber 2, I am real close to perfect height. Not sure if water level needs up or down but I am very close. **made a nanotuners order, my order consists of: --BC29 Canopy (so I can have it installed for me) --Nanocustoms 5.6 LED Retro Kit ----LED Driver: Meanwell ELN-60-48D ----AC Adapter Variable 3-12v/ 1200mA AC Adapter ----Cooling Fans SilenX - 16 db Pair ----Emitter Type CREE XRE - Q5 ----LED STRIP 1 6 x Edison Royal Blue LEDs ----LED STRIP 2 6 x Edison Cool White LEDs ----LED STRIP 3 6 x Edison Royal Blue LEDs ----LED STRIP 4 6 x Edison Cool White LEDs ----LED STRIP 5 6 x Edison Royal Blue LEDs --R2 Moonlight - 5 LED --JBJ - Instant Siphon Gravel Cleaner (looks much better than the one I currently have. The color combination of led strips should be equal to 20K, which I think is a good choice. May take 2-3 weeks before it ships due to backordered components, which gives me time to get my tank straightened out before I go crazy with corals. ;] Link to comment
bluefunelement Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Wow - a friend of mine also is getting the 5.6 LED kit - making me jealous. Link to comment
blister Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 yea, i am rather excited... now i gotta start saving up for mr. coral packs heh. Link to comment
blister Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 webcam now functioning again, who knew water + usb extension cable don't get along that well? ;] Link to comment
blister Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 OK, so I took pictures and video of my skimmer to get some opinions. I think the height is almost perfect but I am unsure. Here is pics of skimmer in chamber 2 This is what I got when I had it hooked up to low in the water... And if you are bored you can view the video Link to comment
blister Posted February 23, 2010 Author Share Posted February 23, 2010 Objective: Try to get nastiness off of sandbed withought doing a water change So somehow I wanted to filter out particles of the sand/water and then return the same water back into the tank. First thought was 5 gallon bucket + cheesecloth with rubberband around the top of bucket to hold cloth in place: I would then use my siphon on my sand trying to get rid of nastiness. I would show a pic of the cheesecloth but it actually wasn't that impressive. As I was pouring out the water I noticed what was at the bottom of the bucket, so I poured back in all the water... all but the very last of nastiness... blech... Does this have any benefit? I haven't got a clue... Does this make me think I have benefitted? Yes, indeed. Thoughts? Link to comment
Travler83 Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 Objective: Try to get nastiness off of sandbed withought doing a water change So somehow I wanted to filter out particles of the sand/water and then return the same water back into the tank. First thought was 5 gallon bucket + cheesecloth with rubberband around the top of bucket to hold cloth in place: I would then use my siphon on my sand trying to get rid of nastiness. I would show a pic of the cheesecloth but it actually wasn't that impressive. As I was pouring out the water I noticed what was at the bottom of the bucket, so I poured back in all the water... all but the very last of nastiness... blech... Does this have any benefit? I haven't got a clue... Does this make me think I have benefitted? Yes, indeed. Thoughts? Try to pass you your water through a chinos. A fine mesh kitchen strainer. Thats what I'm going to do. Love the idea of passing and reintroducing. Link to comment
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