The Inspiration (now VEGA powered)

[kevlow]

I have kind of a noob question for anyone. With the addition of the skimmer I have 0 nitrates. Seemingly indefinite 0 nitrates. Which leads me to the question: how often should I change the water? Upon testing my levels today, harmful elements were nonexistent, but positive elements were down (calc 350). Anyway...should I still do weekly 20%, or dose, or what??

 

 

This is one of the reasons I like doing the regular WCs. Less dosing.

 

Also reglar WCs allow me to feed a bit heavier.

 

I had noted that my tank looked better with 5-10 nitrates then with 0. I believe that it's the presence of food in the water column that is benificial, and not having 5-10 'trates. With 0 nitrates my tank was probably stripped of nutrients. I have responded by feeding heavier, not exporting less ( via WCs and or skimming)

 

Maybe someone can comment or document, but I am not sure if anything likes, uses, or consumes nitrates.

[spanko]

A certain amount of nutrient in the system is certainly used by the coral. One of the reasons people dose vodka of sugar or vinegar of all of them is to keep nutrient to an almost undetectable level so that they can feed heavier for the sake of the coral.

[pschom]

So based on what you both said i have decided to:

 

Continue with 10 gallon wc's every ten days. If I do the math, 14 days is too much of a drop in calcium and 7 days is excessive and a waste. This is based on current consumption of elements. Of course when I add more corals (going with more sps on top half) it could change.

 

That and dose as needed. Again, with the addition of that skimmer the ph is static at 8.0!! Incredible as I have always had an issue with low ph. Alk however has shown to drop with calcium in the absence of the weekly water change.

 

Sonill test this for a month or two and see what happens. That's with using Reef Crystals. If the elements are still off, I might try the same schedule with a different salt.

 

A certain amount of nutrient in the system is certainly used by the coral. One of the reasons people dose vodka of sugar or vinegar of all of them is to keep nutrient to an almost undetectable level so that they can feed heavier for the sake of the coral.

Im still trying to understand this. Are you saying that people are dosing vodka to keep nutrients down so they can feed their corals the food directly? Or are they feeding regularly (fish and stuff) just more?

[Chris George]

How's everything going? I see you were able to retain some of the red/orange monti.

 

Yeah, the tissue recession has stopped completely and I've seen quite a bit of new growth. I've broken it into 3 pieces throughout the tank. I'll eventually give away or trade 2 of them.

[pschom]

Just trying out the new iMac. Man these photos look amazing on this screen! Ive been missing out.

 

I did about a 10 gallon water change tonight, and I'm blacking out the tank for a couple days in an attempt to get rid of this cyano. The brown algae turned into this purple slime/skum that was forming a layer over the sand. I siphoned it all out. I'm also getting a ton of snails to clean the sand bed. Its funny, I had a 29 biocube and now a 30 shallow cube and the most snails Ive ever had is like 10 Astria and a couple Margaritas.

 

More pics to come...

[mpsti05]

Yours and Tron's advice has seemed to work in my tank, feeding's now every other day a little flake then drain the mysis and then put it in, I spot feed the gbta and Duncan's and frogspawn every other feeding. But I do want to go grab some Cyclops too.. Just did a 6 gal water change and every thing has been groovey! The brownish algae bubbles and crap on the sand bet are just about gone. And the nem looks huge!

[pschom]

Yours and Tron's advice has seemed to work in my tank, feeding's now every other day a little flake then drain the mysis and then put it in, I spot feed the gbta and Duncan's and frogspawn every other feeding. But I do want to go grab some Cyclops too.. Just did a 6 gal water change and every thing has been groovey! The brownish algae bubbles and crap on the sand bet are just about gone. And the nem looks huge!

Glad its working out for you. Wish I could say the same for my algae. It started creeping up on the rocks! I need to find out what eats this stuff and get a couple. Tank is at 0W 5B for two days. Large Mexican turbos worked well or me a while back. ??

[Chris George]

Sorry to hear the cyano is taking over a little. Since our tanks are fairly similar, maybe it will help to know what I did to eradicate mine. This process took about 3 weeks, but it slowly and surely got rid of every little bit of cyano.

 

- I started running my RODI for 10 minutes straight into the sink drain before making any batch of top-off or water change water. I noticed my DI resin was changing color very quickly. I think having it constantly on with a float valve was putting nutrients into the system.

- I kept siphoning that cyano off the sand every day or two until my sand was so thin in some places it was exposing the glass underneath. I believe my shallow sand bed had started leaching nutrients. The fact that the cyano starts on the sand bed is usually a dead giveaway that the sand bed is leaching.

- I started dosing carbon (Brightwell Reef BioFuel) and Microbacter7 again. Although my nitrates and phosphates were reading zero, I consider it a false reading when you actually have a bunch of undesirable algae in the tank. The algae consumes the nitrates/phosphates/etc as they are introduced into the system, giving your test kits a low reading. The fact is these nutrients MUST be in the water somehow to be feeding this algae. The algae is just very efficient at consuming it.

- I kept my lighting and feeding cycle the same. Granted my feeding is pretty minor anyway since I only have 1 clown and 1 cleaner shrimp. My lighting cycle is about 9 hours a day.

 

I really don't think you're going to get anywhere with the blackout, and leaving your corals without proper light for a few days is certainly not going to help their health. After the blackout you'll probably see the cyan return unless you discover the source of the nutrients the cyano is consuming. A few weeks from now you'll probably have this beat and your tank will be back to normal. Good luck.

[pschom]

Finally got a chance to read this. Thanks for the input. I believe your right, but I don't know what a 'leaching nutrient sandbed' is. Could you explain?

 

I turned the lights back on. Also, I actually forgot that I have one, or two metal hose clamps submerged in the sump. I'm sure they are showing signs of a little rust. Could that affect the water enough to start spreading algae? I will change them out this week.

[Lawnman]

Lol yeah so I did try the shallow thread. Wasn't specific to a Deep Blue. I got a little flack cause there was already an 'Official Shallow Thread'.

 

As far as the overflow. I'm definitely doing the Y split within weeks. I'll check out the website for a top off. The reason I haven't raised the pipe is cause it would just look weird. It would be sticking up an additional 2 inches. It's in a pretty open area and needs to look good. That being said, can u post a pic of urs? If its not bad I'll do it! I just envision this big old pipe taking away from the display.

It is kinda hidden on my 75 by the sunpod. But on this tank the light will be alot higher so I am thinking about just doing a open standpipe level with the intake grate. Or might do one of those noise gugglers or whatever they call them. I want to get a overflow cover made because I can already see a turbo snail going over the overflow.

[Chris George]

Finally got a chance to read this. Thanks for the input. I believe your right, but I don't know what a 'leaching nutrient sandbed' is. Could you explain?

Sure thing. I discussed it in another thread extensively, but I'll re-post here and make a few corrections to my original post. I forgot to add that one of the steps I took was buying a strong skimmer. You already have that covered so it's pretty irrelevant to your case. Just make sure it's working well.

 

This is something I have a lot of experience with. I've read some real science on the matter and I combine that with some of my personal anecdotal evidence to come to the conclusions I'll write about here.

 

All sand beds trap nitrates, phosphates, and other nutrients. In a shallow sand bed (~1.5" or less), these trapped nutrients remain in the sand bed indefinitely, until the sand bed is full and doesn't have the ability to trap anymore. Once the sand bed is full of nutrients, this results in a slow leach of those nutrients back into the tank. Since the leaching originates at the sand, this is where you'll see algae first. The time it takes for the sand bed to reach its capacity depends on how deep the bed is and how many nutrients are being introduced into the tank through top-off water, feedings, etc. In my experience, this process is usually 6-12 months from when the tank was established. It can certainly occur faster or slower, once again depending on how efficient the sand bed is at trapping, how deep it is, how many nutrients you're introducing, etc.

 

Deep sand beds have low oxygen zones on the bottom where denitrifying and other bacteria thrive, thus a DSB system usually doesn't have this issue.

 

The reason your test kit comes up with a reading of zero nitrates/phosphates is that the algae is consuming them before they reach the water column and show up as a result on your test kit.

 

I now keep a VERY shallow sand bed (just enough to cover the visible glass) and I plan to siphon the sand out every 3-4 months and replace with fresh sand. I prefer the look of a tank with sand, or else I'd actually be going bare bottom at this point.

 

Keeping nutrients out of the system is the best solution. Make sure your top-off and water change water is totally nitrate free. A strong skimmer is a good way to reduce nitrates, since the organic matter gets removed before it can be converted to nitrate. Food for corals and fish that contain phosphates can be removed by the skimmer before broken down for the phosphates to be consumed by algae.

[pschom]

It is kinda hidden on my 75 by the sunpod. But on this tank the light will be alot higher so I am thinking about just doing a open standpipe level with the intake grate. Or might do one of those noise gugglers or whatever they call them. I want to get a overflow cover made because I can already see a turbo snail going over the overflow.

Lol a Gurgle Buster, but it looks like it's even larger than the existing plumbing. And yes...stuff gets in there. I've had a peppermint shrimp get into the overflow and end up in the sump (he made it), and my favorite snail climbed out of the tank on the glass and was scooting around the outside of the cabinet.

[mygolfisslow]

posted a response to your questions on my thread.

lookin good

[pschom]

So I went to PETCO today...I was appaled. They must have lost an employee because usually their tanks are not covered in algae and all the fish are dying and freaking out form ich. It was really sad. BUT then I spotted something: A Pair of Green Banded Gobies. They were awesome and perfect for the last addition to my shallow. So I bought them. Took the staff about 30 minutes to locate a price, and they couldn't, so they ended up charging me for Neon Gobies which was like $10 less. So got the pair for $20. Can't beat that. Easily my favorite recent addition. I hope they make it. They're already sifting the sand. They are TINY!

 

[pschom]

this process is usually 6-12 months from when the tank was established. It can certainly occur faster or slower,

 

I prefer the look of a tank with sand, or else I'd actually be going bare bottom at this point.

I have only had this tank running for 3 months. Do you think that would be an issue in that short time frame? Also, I usually clean the sand bed with that gravel thing on the end of a hose (sorry forgot what its called). I always get a ton of crap, so I'm only assuming that i'm removing waste from the SB??

 

I like the BB look, but I feel like i couldn't keep it clean enough to make it worth while. I like sand better, but not when its covered in algae... The cyano on my SB is actually more in higher flow areas. This is contrary to what others usually post here. IDK, I'm going to try running the RODI for ten minutes prior to filling up a bucket; and get rid of those metal hose clamps...see what happens.

 

Thanks for the info!

[pschom]

This morning I fed the tank. Been 2 days since the last feeding. I was happy to see that the Firetail goby and the new greenbandeds ate appropriately. The goby pair loved the cyclopeeze. I hope there's no issue with the two species of goby in there! It looks like they've taken up residence on opposite corners so we will see. I can't find much info about the combo.

 

On another note, my skimmer is acting up. Maybe just breaking in since ice only had it for 2 weeks. I can't get dry skimmate and I'd I turn it up the cup gets full in a day. All the crap is collecting in the neck prior to the cup. At least it's taking something out. We'll see in another 2 weeks when I get an ATO.

[Paleoreef103]

This morning I fed the tank. Been 2 days since the last feeding. I was happy to see that the Firetail goby and the new greenbandeds ate appropriately. The goby pair loved the cyclopeeze. I hope there's no issue with the two species of goby in there! It looks like they've taken up residence on opposite corners so we will see. I can't find much info about the combo.

 

On another note, my skimmer is acting up. Maybe just breaking in since ice only had it for 2 weeks. I can't get dry skimmate and I'd I turn it up the cup gets full in a day. All the crap is collecting in the neck prior to the cup. At least it's taking something out. We'll see in another 2 weeks when I get an ATO.

Love the greenbanded gobies.

 

It could be still breaking it, it could be the water level (is the water level always steady?). How adjustable is the air intake on that skimmer?

[Pili]

I have a pair of Greenbanded Gobies in my tank at work. They are great, eat like pigs and have a ton of personality.

 

Cool tank btw!

[pschom]

Love the greenbanded gobies.

 

It could be still breaking it, it could be the water level (is the water level always steady?). How adjustable is the air intake on that skimmer?

Thanks. Yeah they are really cool. I never see them in stores so I hadn't seen them ever before. As far as the skimmer: no adjustable air intake and with the daily evaporation the water level changes. It's annoying. ATO coming soon. I did remove the silencer cap to see if more are would do the trick but it didnt change much. Might think of another way to get more air in there.

 

I have a pair of Greenbanded Gobies in my tank at work. They are great, eat like pigs and have a ton of personality.

 

Cool tank btw!

Thanks! I hope they make it. The conditions at petco were really bad. There wa a dead one in the same tank. I thoroughly inspected both of them before adding to the tank. I don't have a qt...

[brad908]

Can't remember if I've asked you this, do you know if any places sell black ice or snowflakes around here?

[pschom]

Can't remember if I've asked you this, do you know if any places sell black ice or snowflakes around here?

Most of the time I see nice clowns at Aquarium One (Rockville) and House of Tropicals (Glen Bernie). Both places can order whatever you want. I had a good experience with LiveAquaria.com. Free shipping.

[brad908]

Trying to avoid shipping. I'll take a trip out to Rockville tm.

[aquakevem]

Can't remember if I've asked you this, do you know if any places sell black ice or snowflakes around here?

 

Dr. Mac(Pacific East Aquaculture) is a little over two hours away and he offers 'Proaquatix' Black Ice Ocellaris for $179.99, pair)

[pschom]

Dr. Mac(Pacific East Aquaculture) is a little over two hours away and he offers 'Proaquatix' Black Ice Ocellaris for $179.99, pair)

That's pretty good. Considering they don't come with any kind of certificate. Not even from ORA. Clowns are clowns. Buy em.

[Sashimi]

pschom

 

Are you getting your corals at Congressional too? I used to live by them and I wasn't very impressed with the store but it looks like they stepped up there game. And if your thinking of going to Mr coral if you haven't already don't waste your time. There quality of corals suck.