Mom2many Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 You got this!!! You are multi-talented. Thank you for the vote of confidence! Wish I felt the same! Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Today was tank maintainance day. I cleaned the whole tank and did the surgery on my Red Planet that had been recieding quickly over the last five days. The last few times I cleaned the tank, I noticed that the little rock the Red Planet was on, was loose. So it was easy to take out of the tank to work on. When I took it out, under the little rock was several little white starfish and this. I guess it was a fire worm or bristle worm hitch hiker. Could it have been eating on the Red Planet? After looking the Red Planet over very well, there was only two half inch long branches good enough to frag off that were healthy and robust still. I glued them both to a very small rock and put them back in my tank. I hope they make it. Here are a few pictures of how my tank looks currently. 4 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Gorgeous . That's my word for this tank...always . Bristleworms don't eat coral so he's fine. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Gorgeous . That's my word for this tank...always . Bristleworms don't eat coral so he's fine. Thank you...your very kind... I tested calcium last night as I wanted to know what it was before my water change and it was 343. So it is low. I am going to pick up a mag and alk test as soon as I can. I guess it is time to start dosing. I am hoping I can still keep things pretty simple with this tank. 2 Quote Link to comment
VW_TDI_02 Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Thank you...your very kind... I tested calcium last night as I wanted to know what it was before my water change and it was 343. So it is low. I am going to pick up a mag and alk test as soon as I can. I guess it is time to start dosing. I am hoping I can still keep things pretty simple with this tank. I would look at just buying the Red Sea Foundations kit. It comes with all three and it's cheaper than buying three individual salifert test kits. They're also much more reliable than the API test kits. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 I would look at just buying the Red Sea Foundations kit. It comes with all three and it's cheaper than buying three individual salifert test kits. They're also much more reliable than the API test kits. How do they compare to the salifert test? Have you ever tried them? I need simple. Are the Red Sea ones pretty simple to do and read? Quote Link to comment
VW_TDI_02 Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 How do they compare to the salifert test? Have you ever tried them? I need simple. Are the Red Sea ones pretty simple to do and read? The Red Sea Test kits are very simple. It comes with a nice holder that you attach the glass container to and the plunger fits right inside of it so you can easily add drop by drop while swirling the solution. Once the tritration is complete, all you do is read off the plunger how much you've used and you're done. There are probably videos online that can explain it better. I usually can do an Alk and Ca test within 5-10 minutes or so but that's just at a regular pace without rushing or anything. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Have you thought about trying Kalk with topoff? Just a little mixed in might be enough to hold Alk and Calcium and water changes should take care of the rest. I like Salifert tests using the Red Sea bottles and holders. 2 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Have you thought about trying Kalk with topoff? Just a little mixed in might be enough to hold Alk and Calcium and water changes should take care of the rest. I like Salifert tests using the Red Sea bottles and holders. I have not messed with dosing in about 8 years or so! Everything has changed really in the last 10 years to make small reef keeping so much easier. Doing research right now to figure out the easiest way to keep things balanced. Quote Link to comment
VW_TDI_02 Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Depending on how much your tank is consuming, kalk could be the way to go. I mix 4 tsps of BRS kalk powder into my 5 gallon ATO reservoir and it works just fine for now. Eventually you'll get to the point where that won't even be enough so you have to go to 2 part but it really depends on the tank. Going straight to 2 part is probably easier but tends to be much more expensive since you typically have to get a doser as well. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Depending on how much your tank is consuming, kalk could be the way to go. I mix 4 tsps of BRS kalk powder into my 5 gallon ATO reservoir and it works just fine for now. Eventually you'll get to the point where that won't even be enough so you have to go to 2 part but it really depends on the tank. Going straight to 2 part is probably easier but tends to be much more expensive since you typically have to get a doser as well. Thank you for your suggestion! I am looking into it and it does look like what I need to do for now. I do not have an ATO and will have to look up which one is most reliable and best for the money. I watched a video by Mr. Salty and it was very helpful. What ATO do you have? Have you thought about trying Kalk with topoff? Just a little mixed in might be enough to hold Alk and Calcium and water changes should take care of the rest. I like Salifert tests using the Red Sea bottles and holders. Is that what you do too? Use Kalk with your ATO? 1 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Thank you...your very kind... I tested calcium last night as I wanted to know what it was before my water change and it was 343. So it is low. I am going to pick up a mag and alk test as soon as I can. I guess it is time to start dosing. I am hoping I can still keep things pretty simple with this tank. Yeah, you have a lot of SPS so it's not surprising to hear it's low. B-ionic is a great choice for a 2-part unless you go automated dosing which there are cheaper options (mixing your own). I did kalk for a while, but that ended up not being enough and it was a pain to mix it up, keep the drip from caking up, etc. You spend a lot of time with your tank anyways, I highly suggest just hand dosing the 2-part and forgetting about doing kalk in a top-off. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 24, 2015 Author Share Posted August 24, 2015 Yeah, you have a lot of SPS so it's not surprising to hear it's low. B-ionic is a great choice for a 2-part unless you go automated dosing which there are cheaper options (mixing your own). I did kalk for a while, but that ended up not being enough and it was a pain to mix it up, keep the drip from caking up, etc. You spend a lot of time with your tank anyways, I highly suggest just hand dosing the 2-part and forgetting about doing kalk in a top-off. Thanks Gena. I do need to keep things as simple as possible because my life is extremly busy. I already add Red Sea Reef Energy A and B every day already in the mornings. So hand dosing is not a problem really. I do my water top off at the same time while my littles eat their breakfast. 1 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Thanks Gena. I do need to keep things as simple as possible because my life is extremly busy. I already add Red Sea Reef Energy A and B every day already in the mornings. So hand dosing is not a problem really. I do my water top off at the same time while my littles eat their breakfast. See, I think dosing the 2-part would so much easier. Kalk is a PITA. In my experience anyways . 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Thank you for your suggestion! I am looking into it and it does look like what I need to do for now. I do not have an ATO and will have to look up which one is most reliable and best for the money. I watched a video by Mr. Salty and it was very helpful. What ATO do you have? Is that what you do too? Use Kalk with your ATO? Yep, I use Kalk in both tank now. Start out slow ...I only need 1.7 tsp per gallon of rodi in my 150 with all my sps. 1 Quote Link to comment
VW_TDI_02 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I don't really think kalk is very difficult. I have one of those 5 gallon jugs that I use for an ATO reservoir and I just toss the kalk powder in after I refill it and then shake it all up. I have a small pump that came with a very fine filter bag that I have around it so nothing gets clogged. I'm currently running my ATO through my Reef Keeper Lite. I have the SL1 module with one float switch. I also have a back up in case something goes wrong with the float switch. I have a pH probe in the same section of the sump where my ATO dumps into so if for whatever reason the float switch messes up and gets stuck open and dumping water from my ATO, my pH will climb pretty quickly. I set an alarm with my ReefKeeper so that whenever the pH rises above 8.4 the socket that my ATO pump is plugged into will shut off. If you're already dosing into the tank then I would just skip straight to two part since it's the same as what you're doing now. Just stop dosing for a few days and figure out how much your tank is consuming daily on average. There are reef calculators online that will tell you how much of whatever product you're using to dose in order to raise your water volume X ppm. For products, I would just go with calcium chloride from BRS. You can get a 1 gallon jug of the powder for $20 which is a far better deal than what you'll get from B-Ionic. I originally bought B-Ionic and quickly ran through their product. It worked well but the BRS stuff was just way cheaper. I did keep the B-Ionic bottles since they are very nice but simply refilled them with the BRS Recipe 1 Solution (2.5 cups of their calcium chloride per 1 gallon of RODI). Just a warning, it's an exothermic reaction so don't be surprised when you pick up the jug after mixing it and the jug is warm. It's not going to burn you or anything like that but it is definitely noticeable. I also bought some soda ash from BRS but I haven't used it yet. Between the kalk and my salt mix, my alk stays at a good spot. While the Alk for my salt mix is great, the Ca levels are about 100 PPM below where it should be so I end up only dosing the Ca. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 I placed an order with KP Aquatics again. Love those people. They do a great job. I ordered three odd ball ricordia, a red tree sponge, a yellow frilly sponge, and some blue zoas. They gave me more blue zoas than what I ordered and threw in a red ball sponge. The red tree sponge was beautiful but to big for my scape. it overpowered the look of the whole tank so I rehomed it to a friend. Do these placements look good for the yellow frilly and red ball that I kept? 5 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Placement looks perfect to me . What is that above the crab in the last photo? Looks like a cluster of feather dusters????? 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 Placement looks perfect to me . What is that above the crab in the last photo? Looks like a cluster of feather dusters????? Thanks Gena! I hope they do well there. If they do, I will order a few more. A yellow ball and more yellow frilly. I want a few pederson shrimp next time but did not want to pay for the over night shipping. I felt badly about the red tree sponge but that thing was at least seven inches! Anywhere I put it, threw my whole rock scape out of balance. Those are cluster feather dusters! I actually got them from KP several months ago. It is what they call Red Worm Cluster. I got the small. I started out with dry rock when starting my tank up this time and missed the little feather duster hitch hickers so just bought some. So far they have done very well. I hope they spread. 2 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Thanks Gena! I hope they do well there. If they do, I will order a few more. A yellow ball and more yellow frilly. I want a few pederson shrimp next time but did not want to pay for the over night shipping. I felt badly about the red tree sponge but that thing was at least seven inches! Anywhere I put it, threw my whole rock scape out of balance. Those are cluster feather dusters! I actually got them from KP several months ago. It is what they call Red Worm Cluster. I got the small. I started out with dry rock when starting my tank up this time and missed the little feather duster hitch hickers so just bought some. So far they have done very well. I hope they spread. Did you order the nano red tree sponge or the normal size? If it's the nano...thank goodness I decided against it! I ordered one before and I remember it being way too big so that's what stopped me this time. Reading about your experience reminded me . I thought they looked like little feather dusters. I hope they start spreading for you . 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 Yes, the small red tree sponge. Everywhere I tried it in the tank it just over powered the tank. It was not the color but the size of it. A beautiful and healthy piece though. Gave it to a friend that has a 40 breeder. I will probebly reorder in a few months and get more yellow frilly and another ball sponge if these I have gotten now do well. 1 Quote Link to comment
moklevat Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I love your tank! I am just setting up a 20L and have found yours inspiring. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Your tank looks great! Following along 1 Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 I love your tank! I am just setting up a 20L and have found yours inspiring. Thank you so very much! Can't wait to see what you do with yours! I have had several sized tanks over the years and so far this one is my favorite. Tank maintainance is easy and it has been a lot of fun so far. Good luck with yours! Quote Link to comment
Mom2many Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 Your tank looks great! Following along Thank you! I appreciate that so much! I took a peek at your tanks. Stunningly beautiful! You have a great eye for color and placement. 1 Quote Link to comment
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