SNG's 40b...new pics 2-6-18

[slowngreen]

Some pics from my Canon A4000.

 

[slowngreen]

Purchased a 40b yesterday. Won't set it up for a few weeks most likely but will gather parts in the mean time. 

[slowngreen]

Bought a real cheap frag of Birds Nest but the bottom is mostly die off. Should I just frag all the good pieces or leave it in one piece and see if it comes back?

@markalot

[markalot]

2 hours ago, slowngreen said:

Bought a real cheap frag of Birds Nest but the bottom is mostly die off. Should I just frag all the good pieces or leave it in one piece and see if it comes back?

@markalot

 

Glue the dead bottom to the rocks, birds rarely encrust anyway.   If it's too ugly then break it off, birds are pretty forgiving.

[slowngreen]

Thanks Mark.

Done it before but I'll ask opinions again. If I move all my 20l stuff straight over to my 40, which will have new dry sand, will I likely not have a cycle since everything is already established? Not going to have any dry rock. Will have all my current water to transfer too but also be using Seachem instead of Reef Crystals for the rest. @seabass

[seabass]

On 11/11/2017 at 11:39 AM, slowngreen said:

If I move all my 20l stuff straight over to my 40, which will have new dry sand, will I likely not have a cycle since everything is already established?

I just did this same thing this week, but I used a good bit of my old sand to help seed it (I had lots of fauna in it).

 

The biggest reasons that people see ammonia spikes when doing a transfer is that they either add new rock or disturb a mature sand bed.  If you just transfer everything into the new tank (with new dry sand), your tank won't have an ammonia spike.  Try not to disturb the sand bed until everything else has been removed (water, coral, rock, and inverts).  Once you disturb the old sand, discard any remaining water.

 

Care must be used if transferring the old sand bed.  But in your case (with new sand), it should be a slam dunk.  Just match the salinity and temperature of the new water.  Good luck.

 

 

[slowngreen]

Today is the transfer day. 

 

Went to Home Depot last night to buy some window screen to put on top of my canopy since I hope to have a wrasse or two. Kinda lucked out and found this premade screen, its 18" by 37, perfect size for the 40b. Sprayed all the metal with some black paint to help against rust.

 

 

[benstatic]

Love the corals in your tank - following along..  I am in the process of setting up a 20L - it didn't take long before you broke down and purchased the 40 .  A little worried about this myself... You got this to spectacular within 7 months - amazing.  I dont' expect the same level of success....

 

[slowngreen]

Thanks. 40b's are just the perfect size, had one a few years back. 

[samnaz]

how did the transfer go?

[slowngreen]

I think it all went well. I ended up sticking with Reef Crystals instead of switching to Seachem. The lights havent came on yet, but in a couple hours they will and hopefully everyone is doing good. 

[slowngreen]

Things weren't looking real good today so I did some tests, nitrates and trites were at 0 but Ammonia is at 1.0! No idea why. I've got 10 gallons ready to go for a water change. Maybe stuff got churned up enough in my sump when I moved it to cause the problem?

[seabass]

Start dosing Prime if you have any.

[slowngreen]

I dont but I will get some asap. 

[slowngreen]

Been dosing Prime as well as a 15g water change. Nitrites are at 0 but ammonia today is showing .50! I have no idea whats going on. All fish seem fine, half my corals seem fine the other half (zoa) arent opening but they don't seem to be melting either. 

[seabass]

What Prime does is temporarily convert free ammonia into ammonium (which is a lot less toxic).  Eventually, it converts back into free ammonia (which is why you have to dose everyday).  The nice thing is that the bacteria can utilize the ammonium just like they utilize free ammonia.

 

At a point, dosing Prime will cause most kits to read positive for ammonia.  Although I'm not sure that's what's happening here.  I would keep dosing Prime everyday for another week and see what things look like.  Then I'd do a massive water change (which will help remove the ammonia, ammonium, and Prime) and add fresh activated carbon.

[slowngreen]

Should I just be doing the one cap full a day?

 

Also @seabass do you have an opinion on Seachem Salt? I have a new box and planned to use it but read it has really high potassium over 500 when mixed at 1.026. The posts I read sounded like this was bad although I've rarely read anything else on potassium levels in the reef tank.

[seabass]

I'd probably use a half a capful for a 20 gallon tank.

 

I've used to use Seachem Reef Salt when I could still get it from Amazon Prime.  But it isn't available now on Prime, so I switched.  Yeah, I know, I think people have a problem with the amount of boron too.  BTW, I liked it just fine.

[slowngreen]

This is all in my 40b now.

[seabass]

Oh yeah, that's right.  Then a capful sounds right.

[slowngreen]

@seabass I started to wonder something and I think I may be correct. You probably don't remember but several years ago I added a sump to my 40b, used GE silicone which I had always used but didn't find out till after the fact that they had added a mold agent to it. Lost most of my coral. 

I used DAP "aquarium safe" silicone for my overflow on this 40b but the symptoms of the coral is just like it was back then. I looked the DAP I used up and it now says that is is mold resistant! If I recall, it never said that before, thats why it was safe. I may be wrong but I'm really thinking that is the problem right now.

 

Thinking I might try to transfer everything back to my 20 long as soon as I can and see if that does the trick. If this is the cause, I should use all new water/salt for the transfer shouldnt I?

[seabass]

If they added a mold inhibitor, then that would be a problem.  However, I can't imagine that something intended for aquarium use would contain a mold inhibitor.  Maybe they mean that 100% silicone naturally resists mold?

 

But I believe that even 100% silicone does release ammonia until it fully cures.  Do you think that this might explain the ammonia?

 

However, if you suspect a problem with the silicone, then maybe you should error on the side of caution.  And yes, that would mean all new water.

[slowngreen]

The ammonia is down now but the few that were opening aren't now and I've lost all my sps the last two days.

[seabass]

I'm at a loss.  I'm sorry that this is happening to your reef. SPS can sometimes be very unforgiving.  With the move and ammonia (and inevitable change in parameters) maybe they just succumbed to the stress.  But you might be onto something; it could be the silicone.  It is weird that they mentioned it was mold resistant.  I've never seen that unless they've added an inhibitor.

[slowngreen]

Since my sand isn't more than 2 weeks old, I should be able to just wash it out and reuse it shouldn't I?