Glindorf Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 I know my tank isn't quite a nano-reef tank (30 gallons), but I've heard really nice things about how people are treated here, and I need a little bit of help... with additives. I was suckered into buying the solid additives, but I don't have anywhere to put it, other than behind my rock. I'm afraid that my snails (all that I have right now. Just finished {more or less} cycling! ) may touch it and die, or when I get corals and fish, if they touch it. So, I've started looking into liquid additives, and I'm unsure about what's the best. Reef Solution looks really good, but expensive. I've heard good things about BI-Onic (I don't think that's how it's spelled). But I really don't know. Any advice? Link to comment
cmoreash Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 hello welcome aboard I prefer using B-Ionic and SeaChem Iodide for my tank. I'm planning on using kalkwasser too though, once i get some SPS in my tank..if you didnt know, kalkwasser is limepowder, which is like pure calcium stuff, yea lol. I've never used blocks before, i'd be suspect because it might hurt something that comes into contact with it, and i dunno if they would spread throughout the tank fast enough. Just dont know if they are as accurate as liquid supplements either. I think Glazer here uses em though, so i dunno, more people will help ya out Link to comment
Glindorf Posted January 30, 2003 Author Share Posted January 30, 2003 anybody else use different additives (that are liquid)? I just want to hear different opinions before I buy it. ^_^ Thanks! Link to comment
Satchmo Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 Originally posted by Glindorf I've heard really nice things about how people are treated here That's a good one I'm a big fan of B-Ionic too. Link to comment
Glindorf Posted January 30, 2003 Author Share Posted January 30, 2003 We'll, I guess that's a good thing to know... oh well. Your tanks have all turned out great, I guess I should just do B-Ionic and SeaChem Iodine. Also, about how many snails is good for a 29 gallon tank? Link to comment
Glindorf Posted January 31, 2003 Author Share Posted January 31, 2003 Okay, the snails went great! ^_^ I ordered 17 snails to join the three in there, but my trochus haven't moved.... hmm.... My 6 crabs are eating all the algae, more or less mowing my lawn for me^_^ So, I take it nobody else uses anything but B-Ionic and SeaChem Iodine? Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 31, 2003 Share Posted January 31, 2003 most of the additives seem to be quality products imo. you'll definitely get differing opinions. i also like b-ionic. i tried c-balance and kent's and noticed a big improvement when i switched to esv's. i use kent's products for trace elements, i use a herbal online store's lugol's iodine. others will swear by seachem, esv, 2fish, etc. really up to you imo. Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted January 31, 2003 Share Posted January 31, 2003 Originally posted by Glindorf I know my tank isn't quite a nano-reef tank (30 gallons), but I've heard really nice things about how people are treated here, and I need a little bit of help... heheh.... We are a zany Odd-Lot indeed. Two simple rules: Search/ research before posting, and reply with intelegence/ humor. Welcome to the board. there is a good deal of threads on additives and is "oldhat" topic. I think ya know what to do from here http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/search.php...rder=descending PS: I'm the meanie Link to comment
Glindorf Posted January 31, 2003 Author Share Posted January 31, 2003 Thank you very much^_^ I will get B-Ionic. One last question though^_^ As long as this thread is still here, Does B-Ionic lack anything? Should I use anything with it? Link to comment
Satchmo Posted February 1, 2003 Share Posted February 1, 2003 Originally posted by Glindorf Should I use anything with it? yep, water changes. Link to comment
technoshaman Posted February 1, 2003 Share Posted February 1, 2003 Aragamilk which is supposed to be an all in one ca + alk buffer. So far so good, only been using a week. Other than making the water a little cloudy it's more convenient than dosing 2 parts or mixing kalk. I'll have to give it another week to see if it brings my ca levels up to where I want em. Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 1, 2003 Author Share Posted February 1, 2003 Thanks for the help again^_^ One more question, can snails fight? Because I think I saw a couple fight tonight. They werre both as tall as they could stretch, with their antennas hitting each other. It was amusing^_^ Link to comment
SnowReefer Posted February 1, 2003 Share Posted February 1, 2003 /yes they will fight sometimes they outgrow there shells and you will see empty shells as well. Maybe even a snail without a shell looking for one. Its good to have extras on hand as they grow. Back to the first question I go with all ESV additives, B-Ionic, as well as iodide, magnesium(important), strontium. I have had a 65g reef and I'm now on a 20g high reef that is very successful. ESV has a great product and I also dose DT's Phyto to keep the coral happy. Go to marine depot for the best prices if your on the west coast> Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 2, 2003 Author Share Posted February 2, 2003 Isn't the Iodine, magnesium, and strontium included in the B-Ionic? Link to comment
cmoreash Posted February 2, 2003 Share Posted February 2, 2003 uhhh snails keep their shells, they use calcium to grow their shell bigger for them...did you mean when CRABS have shells? because crabs WILL outgrow shells. Link to comment
jc51373 Posted February 2, 2003 Share Posted February 2, 2003 B Ionic is the place to start if your new..It is the easiest and best way to get your calcium and Alk in line with each other. I would be very careful with Kalwasser in a tank that small since it will spike your PH and with only 30 gallons you have very little margin for error in that department. The b-ionic should be all you'll need, most other elements I would tell you not to bother with (except maybe iodide once in a while for shell inverts) but the rest of the elements (strontium, magnesium etc) you get if your using a good salt in your water changes (Tropic Marin). My advice is go with the B-Ionic and water change method as a beginner this is the best route to success. This way you don't confuse yourself with the complexity of many additives. Remember "Cause & Effect" everything you add creates a cause and effect. Less Technology and more science is my recomendation. Best of luck! Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 2, 2003 Author Share Posted February 2, 2003 Okay, so snails grow with their shells, not crabs. So snails would need Iodine, right? and all I reallly have in my tank is a bunch of snails and crabs. All but one of the trochus died. And one of the Astraea coneheads did as well. So I should just do water changes with tropic marin (which I'm using) and use B-Ionic along with some Iodine. Now, should I use B-Ionic every day, every other day, I'm a little unsure of how to begin dosing it. I have 15 living snails and 6 crabs in my tank, 50 pounds of live rock and 40 pounds of live sand in a 29 gallon tank (that I have been calling a thirty. I was wrong. Sorry about that.) I have a Bak-Pak 2R skimmer along with 2 Rio 600's in my tank. I have a Ebo-______ heater (can't remember the second part of the name) set to 80 degrees F. Ammonia and Nitrites are barely above zero ppm. Nitrates are about 2.5 ppm. That's the information on my tank as of today. One more question ^_^: Since the trochus snails didn't work out to well, I'm thinking of getting a different group. I'm wondering if bumblebee will affect my tank that bad. In it are 4 astraea conehead snails, 1 trochus snail, 5 margarita snails, 5 nassarius snails, 2 dwarf blue leg hermit crabs, 2 dwarf zebra hermit crabs, and 2 dwarf red tip hermit crabs. So, would you think that Bumblebees might be bad for my tank? ^_^ Thanks for all of the help! I really appreciate it! Link to comment
reefan Posted February 3, 2003 Share Posted February 3, 2003 Untill you have some corals in that tank dosing half this stuff is a waist of money. The only thing you may have to dose at this point is calcium for your snails but I highly doubt that this would even be needed. Thats about all the more snails I would put in the tank personally. I think youll find much more would be a real pain once corals start getting in place. You may find hermits killing your snails when they outgrow their shells so make some larger empty shells avalable to deter this. How much live rock is in your tank currently? JJ Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 3, 2003 Author Share Posted February 3, 2003 I have 50 pounds of live rock. Premium Fiji ^_^ Yeah, I'm afraid of the hermits doing that, but my parents won't let me get some shells right now. Plus I'm really busy, but I've been nagging them every day. I'm going to try to get some as soon as possible. Are trochus snails that active? My one left barely moves... Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 3, 2003 Author Share Posted February 3, 2003 Another question: Would getting a second skimmer be worth it? and a previous question: What should be the dosage of B-Ionic? Does it just depend on what's living in your tank? Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted February 3, 2003 Share Posted February 3, 2003 I have heard good things about the B-ionic but have never actually tried it myself (my friends go through it like water and complain about the price and amounts they use to maintain the levels they want). This may not be the case for others and again, I have no personal experience with it. I have maintained a constant over 400 Ca reading from a combonation of Red Sea's Reef Success Calcium in my make up water and Seachem's Reef Complete as an additive. I add 3 drops of the Reef success to each gallon of make up and dose every other day with the Reef Complete. The Reef Complete contains Magnesium & Strontium so you would not have to use an additional additive for them. There are better iodine's like Lugol's but I use your plain old watered down Kent Iodine once a week. My xenia love it and my shrimp molt in a proper timely manner. These are just what I use and have had success with. There are tons of others on the market and as stated everyone has their own combination of using them. As for the blocks, if you have them, just put them in your filter box (if you have one) if you are worried about the occupants touching it. It may disolve a little faster but you will not have your fears. Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 3, 2003 Author Share Posted February 3, 2003 Oh, the person at the store said that I should definately not put it in my filter... Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted February 3, 2003 Share Posted February 3, 2003 Ask the person why. I would like to hear this one. Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 3, 2003 Author Share Posted February 3, 2003 He said it takes dissolves too fast and that it would be a waste of money. He said the current in the filter would make it dissolve really fast. While in the back of my tank it takes a few days. If there was some place I could put it that it wouldn't dissolve too fast, and I wouldn't have to worry about it harming anything, that would be awesome! But I don't think there is... Okay, here's an update on something I've been watching. I had this red squishie spongie thingie (it was hard on the top, but you could push it down a little. This came with my life rock. I had no idea what it was, so I watched it. Over time it got this cobwebby lace stuff covering it. The stuff would flow with the current. Over more time, it hardened up, and wouldn't flow anymore. Soon, you couldn't see through it. As I looked through my tnak, I noticed I had more. Three of them were prominent, and hanging. One of them split in half one day, and just a little while ago, the half eventually split off. After the first split, it started growing backwards, away from the split, and the white stuff came and hardened up around the spot that was exposed to water from the split. One of the others was hanging from a rock, which I could barely see it. So I moved it to get a better view. In less than 2 days, it fell off of the rock and just sat there. 2 tubes came out of it, and then it looked like it died. It got covered in algae and the tubes went away. So I pulled it out and tossed it. The final prominent one (the original red thingie) is still there, hanging on the back of rock and turning to this crispy brown color, like it's frying under the light or something. It gets bigger all of the time. It's growing down now, away from the light. Now that is what happened as of three days ago. This morning I checked it, and the one that started growing backward... well... half of it exploded all over the tank. And when I got home, the rest of it had fallen off. It might just be some type of algae or fungus, but it's wierd. Also, where the one that just became deceased today was, there are more than 8 different colors of algae. And some of the algae closer to the sediment has dug into it and has gone deeper. My creatures don't go near the thing. It's really wierd. Another thing. There's some things in my tank that look like dead worms. Yet, when I wake up in the morning, they are in different places. They almost look like sticks during the day. These are also really wierd. And I saved the best for last. There is a transparent/lucent (mostly transparent) worm thing that can stretch out far, and was originally light sensitive. It wouldn't come out during the day. But now it does... kind of. It seems to be making itself some kind of home by one of my rocks. It digs around and moves stuff around, collecting the bigger pieces closer to the rock and above it, like a little home. It also eats these round cilyndrical (is that how you spell that? ^_^) things that I think may be snail feces. So that's the update on my tank. Wait! More! Every coral that came on the rock (including the mushroom), as far as I know... are dead.... I was hoping maybe one would survive.... Oh well... I guess there isn't much I can do now.) And the nassarius snails have nearly doubled in size and it hasn't even been a week since they entered my tank. Only 1 trochus snail remains out of the five I ordered. And one of my astraea's died as well. Okay! That's my update for today ^_^. P.S. alot happened today! Link to comment
Glindorf Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 Okay, something else happened. All of the white things have done their stuff and have been tossed. I was afraid of one of my crabs getting ahold of it. Also, I found one of my crabs crawling up my skimmer (Bak-Pak 2R), through the way the water was leaving. Is that normal? Is that okay? Should I let them do it? Or just remove them from there to the tank? Thanks again! ^_^ Link to comment
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