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Banshee's 14G BioCube


banshee

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How'd the calcium reading turn out? You definitely want to keep the Ca/Alk/Mg in line. I've found open brain corals to be pretty sensitive to those big 3.

 

Live Aquaria is awesome. They'll definitely make it right for you!!!!!

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How'd the calcium reading turn out? You definitely want to keep the Ca/Alk/Mg in line. I've found open brain corals to be pretty sensitive to those big 3.

 

Live Aquaria is awesome. They'll definitely make it right for you!!!!!

I didn't end up testing last night. I'm out of town this weekend so I was busy packing and planning and next thing I knew it was past my bed time! I need to buy a Mg kit for sure! My Ca has been around 360 no matter what I do. DKH is always 11. Just need to check Mg to figure out what to do about it all I guess. My brain looks pretty happy though. It only puffs up on one half but I see little fingers come out a couple times a day searching for food. The candy cane is the only coral that's looking ticked off and I have no idea why. -_-

 

 

Looks good. Your rock is turning purple fast!

 

I bought it purple! I just had to wait for the dead spots to fill back in! :D

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I'm one of the last people to give advice on chemistry numbers :lol: Just going by what I've read, I THINK the Ca should be around 460 and natural seawater alkalinity is between 7-8 but I know people run it around where yours is at. Sounds like the coral was just unhealthy to begin with!

 

I'm the same way. My plan is always to test, but something always comes up to make you forget or not get around to it :)

 

Have a great weekend. Hopefully it's a pleasure trip :happy:

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I'm one of the last people to give advice on chemistry numbers :lol: Just going by what I've read, I THINK the Ca should be around 460 and natural seawater alkalinity is between 7-8 but I know people run it around where yours is at. Sounds like the coral was just unhealthy to begin with!

 

I'm the same way. My plan is always to test, but something always comes up to make you forget or not get around to it :)

 

Have a great weekend. Hopefully it's a pleasure trip :happy:

 

 

My Calcium stays constant at 450, KH is 8.3 ALK is 2.96, Mag is 1380. If the brain is only half inflating you have something going on with your water. I would test them ASAP and dose just to make sure I didn't lose anything. I bet it's low Mag, LPS need the mag a bit more then the SPS but everyone love their trace!

 

When I dose my corals all go super fluffy! I love it they look like their trying to suck it all in before it gets dispersed into the water! So cool.

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Thanks. I stopped at 2 stores during lunch and neither had Mg test kits. I will just have to order online I guess. Maybe I can check another store on the way home because I'd rather not come back to completely dead corals Sunday night. Live Aquaria extended my warranty a week to see what happens so at least I have some time to figure it out.

 

I'm one of the last people to give advice on chemistry numbers :lol: Just going by what I've read, I THINK the Ca should be around 460 and natural seawater alkalinity is between 7-8 but I know people run it around where yours is at. Sounds like the coral was just unhealthy to begin with!

 

I'm the same way. My plan is always to test, but something always comes up to make you forget or not get around to it :)

 

Have a great weekend. Hopefully it's a pleasure trip :happy:

 

I don't want to get into a crazy dosing schedule so if I can't get things where they need to be then I'll just stay away from the LPS from now on.

 

I'm running a marathon in DC on Saturday and meeting up with friends afterwards. Should be a blast! :D

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I have a Red Sea Mg test kit and it was insanely expensive. $40 at my LFS

Beside that, only Salifert seems to be making Mg test kits and they are aslo around the same price.

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I have a Red Sea Mg test kit and it was insanely expensive. $40 at my LFS

Beside that, only Salifert seems to be making Mg test kits and they are aslo around the same price.

 

I'm okay with paying outrageous prices if I can save the corals that cost even more! Unfortunately, Petco and PetSmart don't carry them. The other pet stores by my work didn't carry them either. The LFS is 20 minutes from here and opposite the way I go home but I'm going to have to suck it up and try because if I wait for shipping my corals might be dead already. :angry:

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Found the Red Sea Mg test kit at another LFS! Mg is right on at 1400. Calcium is 380. Dosed a little more Ca. Then fed some mysis to the tank. My shrimp, pom pom crab, and CUC went nuts! The brain puffed up a lot and had little fingers all around. Then it spewed a cloud of brown goo (xoos?) and deflated. :( the candy canes seemed to puff up a tiny bit but no feeder sweepers and no major change. Le sigh....

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My brain coral does the same thing. That's just poop...nothing to worry about :)

 

I'm running a marathon in DC on Saturday and meeting up with friends afterwards. Should be a blast! :D

Oh, that's right. So it will be a fun weekend...yay :happydance:

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My brain coral does the same thing. That's just poop...nothing to worry about :)

 

Thats right everything poops!

 

Try dusting them with food when the pumps are all off see if they respond. ;)

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My brain coral does the same thing. That's just poop...nothing to worry about :)

 

 

Oh, that's right. So it will be a fun weekend...yay :happydance:

 

Oh good! Never seen that before! It should be an awesome weekend! :D

 

Thats right everything poops!

 

Try dusting them with food when the pumps are all off see if they respond. ;)

 

I will Sunday night! Thanks!

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Back from DC. No PR for me but I did raise $1,415 for the International Association of Fire Fighters' Burn Fund in memory of my father. The only bad part is that I didn't think it would be 70+ degrees in March so I didn't wear sunscreen. I'm as red as my mushroom! :o The good news is everything in my tank appears to have survived my absence. Getting a 2 gallon WC ready for tomorrow and then I'll check all the params again. Hopefully I'll be moving a little better tomorrow so I can lift the bucket! :lol:

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Did my 25% WC and waited an hour then tested.

 

3-19-12

Temp: 81 ( think I'll need a chiller!)

S.G.: 1.025

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

calcium: 440

 

I'm guessing mag and phosphate haven't changed in the last 3-4 days so I didn't test them. Right now my tank looks like a pod tank! They're everywhere in the water column and on the glass! I think my candy canes are toast though. They still look awful. I give up because everything else looks great! So am I ready for my first fish?! I also have a cool surprise on it's way tomorrow! ;)

 

Candy, I know but I thought it would be overcast and cool! It was raining the night before!

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Guess what came today!

 

nem.jpg

 

A mini mini! I'm so excited! Any tips for keeping this little guy happy?! I'm already in love! :wub:

 

On that note, I'm getting really upset with Live Aquaria. I told them a week ago my candy canes were not improving and they suggested raising the calcium and moving them up in the tank. I did both and have kept up with 25% water changes 2-3 times per week and testing every other day or so. I even tried feeding them some mysis shrimp and nothing happened except more heads died and skeletonized. I emailed again and they told me to wait another week and see if they improve. Excuse me but I'm pretty sure once there's no flesh left they will not magically 'improve'. I get the feeling they just want me to give up or have the warranty expire before I can get them to do anything. I was planning a huge order from them later in the spring but now they can kiss my butt if they don't make this right! :angry:

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Sorry to hear about you bad luck, I have heard similar problems about them as well though. Hope everything gets resolved soon :-)

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Thanks Jai!

 

So I think I made a mistake....

 

I went to another LFS store than usual tonight to see what they had and compare prices. I saw some really tiny baby percs and fell in love. I knew I wanted a B/W & O/W pair so I looked a couple tanks down and found a slightly bigger B/W clown. I asked the woman working the SW area if the B/W was a perc or an occ and she said perc. I went ahead and bought them both. Once I got home I noticed the B/W had some odd bands and swam funny. I started researching and realized she's a Saddleback. I read up and it said minimum 30 gallons. :o I Am I a horrible person if I don't take her back? Will she be miserable in my tank? They are both happily depleting my pod population at the moment. Help please!

 

clowns.jpg

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Hey Banshee!! your tank is looking fantastic BTW, I love all the coraline you've got going on. I saw you are thinking of getting a chiller...... I would point you in the direction of this article http://www.ronshimek.com/salinity_temperature.html after reading that it really alleviated any issues for me about my tank temps. I have been allowing my tank to run around 80-81degrees for weeks now, I'm not saying this is 100% right or wrong, but it does make alot of sense to me. All my Coral appear very happy with this.

Also if you look at my thread on page one I added a third fan that blows down over chamber 1 and 2. I purchased the fan 70mm from a computer shop for $5 and I bought the plug that I wired it to from Radio shack for $20. the plug allows you to choose what Volt you want to run the fan at ( from 1.5 to 12 volts ) which will run the fan slow for minimal cooling at 1.5volt or full speed at 12volt. It took me about 1/2 an hour to wire and install the fan, it's really a piece of cake. If I run the fan on 12volts it will dip my temps down to 72 degrees, but I run it on 3 volts which keeps the temp at 80-81 degrees at all times even when my fuge lights are running.

Just my thoughts.

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I personally would try to take the saddleback back to the store. They won't ever pair up and I think you'd regret it down the road. It would probably get really aggressive in your tank too as it matures. Especially since they are rated for a larger size aquarium.

 

That's what I would do :happy:

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