tibbsy07 5.5 pico reef

[jedimasterben]

I use only ROX carbon in my systems, but I haven't been running any at all since I set my main system back up, and haven't noticed a difference - although, the tank is not yet fully lit, so I have no clue if the water is tinted or not since 5000K CFLs are the main source of light

[tibbsy07]

I've just been wondering whether or not heavy chemical media (100ml purigen or even the 6oz CPE bag) is just too much for such small tanks like mine. I have a whole thing of activated carbon that came with the AC70 that I haven't used. I could always just try it at my next water change.

[tibbsy07]

Going out of town today for work. It's the first time I have been out of town with the tank up and running. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong. My wife is going to take care of topping off the tank. I was going to do a water change last night, however, I am out of salt it seems. I only had enough to make a 1.018 SG batch, and I had already added it to the water when I realized. The closest pet store was closed, so no water change. I'm going to have my wife add 5ml of the marine stabilizer, though. That shoudl keep things going ok until i get back and can do a bigger (like 2.5g) water change.

[Reefkid88]

What's going on tibbs,I just read thru the last couple of pages of your thread to start,sorry about the YCB loss. And second,are you thinking maybe the heavy amount of filtration is making the water to clean for the softies ? From my experience I know softies like Zoa's loveeeee dirtier water.

 

I'm at a crossroad myself on what to run as filtration in my girlfriends 1 gallon and my 7 gallon. I have so many choices though lol. I have CPE,BWA Pelletized carbon,4 things of SeaChem carbon,2 things of SeaChem Phosgaurd and their 2 jars of their zeolite ammonia media.. What would you recommend ?

[Kijho]

Man that hammer is looking great! Seems similar to mine!

[metrokat]

NanoSapiens used no chemical filtration on his tank BTW. Have a safe trip.

[tibbsy07]

What's going on tibbs,I just read thru the last couple of pages of your thread to start,sorry about the YCB loss. And second,are you thinking maybe the heavy amount of filtration is making the water to clean for the softies ? From my experience I know softies like Zoa's loveeeee dirtier water.

 

I'm at a crossroad myself on what to run as filtration in my girlfriends 1 gallon and my 7 gallon. I have so many choices though lol. I have CPE,BWA Pelletized carbon,4 things of SeaChem carbon,2 things of SeaChem Phosgaurd and their 2 jars of their zeolite ammonia media.. What would you recommend ?

Welcome! As far as heavy filtering, I thought I was, so I scaled back and only ran CPE. That started to leak, though, so I tossed it and went with purigen. Things seem to have stabilized, but I'm going to reevaluate when I return from this business trip. For the 1g and 7 gallon, as of right now I would lean to CPE for the 7 gallon and small amount of activated carbon for the 1g.

 

Man that hammer is looking great! Seems similar to mine!

Thanks! I love the hammer

 

NanoSapiens used no chemical filtration on his tank BTW. Have a safe trip.

I thought this was the case. So many folks with really nice small tanks are just running sponges/FF and carbon or nothing. It feels kind of scary to do that, though. I suppose just trying the carbon I already have can't hurt.

[Reefkid88]

Welcome! As far as heavy filtering, I thought I was, so I scaled back and only ran CPE. That started to leak, though, so I tossed it and went with purigen. Things seem to have stabilized, but I'm going to reevaluate when I return from this business trip. For the 1g and 7 gallon, as of right now I would lean to CPE for the 7 gallon and small amount of activated carbon for the 1g..

Sweet,thanks for the help. I'll probably use the CPE until it's exhausted then make up my own mixture of carbon and phosphate media for the 7 and like you said just carbon for the 1g in either my AC20 or a DIY reactor I made.

[tibbsy07]

Sweet,thanks for the help. I'll probably use the CPE until it's exhausted then make up my own mixture of carbon and phosphate media for the 7 and like you said just carbon for the 1g in either my AC20 or a DIY reactor I made.

To be honest, only use the phosphate media if you need it - especially phosguard. Use the CPE and see how it goes. If it works great, keep using it. Other than that, I'd recommend activated carbon alone with filter floss. If you need to pull out some phosphate, then use it, but you can easily overdo it, so only use the phosphate sponges if you need to.

 

I'm seeing a lot more picos and small tanks now rocking activated carbon as their only chemical medium.

[ninjamyst]

isn't CPE just activated carbon with some GFO????

[tibbsy07]

isn't CPE just activated carbon with some GFO????

Yeah, but it's more expensive than activated carbon alone

[Reefkid88]

To be honest, only use the phosphate media if you need it - especially phosguard. Use the CPE and see how it goes. If it works great, keep using it. Other than that, I'd recommend activated carbon alone with filter floss. If you need to pull out some phosphate, then use it, but you can easily overdo it, so only use the phosphate sponges if you need to.

 

I'm seeing a lot more picos and small tanks now rocking activated carbon as their only chemical medium.

Sweet,thanks for that. Honestly,the only reason I even thought about throwing phosphate media into the equation because a few months after the tank is set up,I want to add some sps and so to speak if I was to slack on a water change or two,water quality won't fall on it's face to quickly giving me a little slack. Other than that,media will primarily only consist of carbon and sponges.

[tibbsy07]

Still in ATL. I'm here until Monday or Tuesday - depending on how the experiments pan out. Hopefully I can go home sooner. I've been sleeping on a floor since Monday night and I have to pull a 24 hour shift on Saturday. Oh, science. We've been crazy busy - 11-12 hours days in lab, little food, little sleep. Hopefully it'll be worth it.

 

Anyways, my wife hasn't reported any issues with the tank - but to be honest, I don't know how much she's checking... The tank is upstairs in the office/guest room and she rarely goes up there. She's pretty good about taking care of business though, so I trust that she's checking at least once a day.

[gena]

I hope the xenia pulls through for you. I was at my LFS last week and he had pulsing xenia. If it was cheap, I would have bought it for my rock anemone tank, but he wanted $30 for a small frag OMG. That was enough of a deterrent .

 

Sleeping on the floor does not sound like fun .

[tibbsy07]

I hope the xenia pulls through for you. I was at my LFS last week and he had pulsing xenia. If it was cheap, I would have bought it for my rock anemone tank, but he wanted $30 for a small frag OMG. That was enough of a deterrent .

 

Sleeping on the floor does not sound like fun .

Xenia seemed to be doing ok when i left. It was coming back to it's full potential. We'll see when I return.

 

$30 is a LOT for xenia! I thought most people couldn't wait to get rid of the stuff...

[gena]

Xenia seemed to be doing ok when i left. It was coming back to it's full potential. We'll see when I return.

 

$30 is a LOT for xenia! I thought most people couldn't wait to get rid of the stuff...

Yeah, it is. I don't know why he was charging so much. I would have paid $10 max for it .

[tibbsy07]

Found out I got my T32 training grant today. Feeling really good about it! Back from Atlanta and getting back in to the swing of things. I need to do a water/media change out, but I need to get salt first.

[markalot]

Xenia take over yet?

[tibbsy07]

 

Xenia take over yet?

Hahaha, nope. Still just hanging out. They are doing better now but no major growth

[tibbsy07]

2.5 g water change tonight. Bought IO salt again. Put purigen in hydrogen peroxide to reset. Activated carbon that came with the AC70 was what I put in the filter this time. We will see how this works.

[tibbsy07]

So I hadn't seen Barry in a while and Merle is barely moving. Merle is all pulled into his shell. The other snails seem ok. Barry is under his rock not moving. I poked at him with a glass rod and he moves a bit but I think he is either molting or, more than likely, dying. I think merle might be, too.

[markalot]

I've never been able to keep emeralds alive for long. 40, 46, 20, all died within a month or so of putting them int he tank. I think one crab in my 46 lasted the longest at 2 months. No idea why.

 

if snails are dying it might be lack of food or pyramidal snails. Check the shell around the opening, look for tiny little pyramidal shells. If Merle is a snail ... hard to remember.

[tibbsy07]

yeah, Merle is a snail. Margarita. He's been all closed up. Bunch of pods running around his shell, too. I'm wondering if Barry was starving? There hasn't been much algae... Maybe some diatoms and some algae/fuzz on the glass, but I think that the snails have that taken care of. I'm going to do some tests tonight to see what my parameters are. If Barry and Merle are going, I need to get them out of the tank and to figure out whether it was a water problem that killed them or not.

[markalot]

Magarita's will die quickly, they prefer colder water. I disagree with the Live Aquaria description that they can tolerate water up to 78, but most of my tanks run 78-80 so too hot for even that description.

[tibbsy07]

Interesting, I didn't know that it was up to 78. the LFS has their tanks at 80, and that's where I bought mine. I've had the tank at 78 since I put Merle and the other one in there. I'll have to keep an eye on the other one.