EZs Aquapod 24 with 150 MH

[ezcompany]

gonna tear up my tank today to get rid of my last clarkii and find my poor helfrichi. pray that i don't find a dead body

[Asin]

Praying...

[ezcompany]

she's alive. gonna scoop put her in QT this weekend for treatment.

QT doesn't have a hood though...

[iluvfishies01]

any type of amino acid supplement works wonders from my experience. I've had a naso and a purple tang and the ich was just terrible. I supplemented w/ the sea chem amino acid stuff that someone gave me and w/n a few days the ich was gone.

[PotysGSXR]

wow! a helfrichi!!! that's awesome! where did you get him and how much???

[andre]

Very nice aquascape ezcompany. Where do you get most of your livestock at? And where did you get the Vanuatu LR? Can you give names of the LFS please? The Vanuatu LR is amazing and your corals look very healthy. That helfrichi is cool looking too, hope it recovers.

[ezcompany]

Thanks W, i'll definitely try the amino acids if i manage to find the fish and put him in my new 5.5 gallon hospital tank i JUST set up. he'll be going through some hyposalinity and a minor ich treatment.

 

P! you're back! I got the helfrichi from someone on RC~ the price was less than a 100, he gave me a good deal as I got some other corals too

 

Andre, thanks for the compliments. The Vanuatu is from Jeff's exotics @ Gardena. Yes, its a one of a kind LR and no other LR looks like it IME. I hope i'll be able to find the helfrichi tomorrow as i take the tank down!

[DAMSEL]

[bubblethumper]

I have Vanuatu as well. It's worth every penny and I don't understand why it isn't more popular! Great shapes, great colors

[ezcompany]

Very Sad Update:

 

So i took out all my LR to do some cleaning, and to locate my helfrichi to hospitalize him. Could not find any trace of him anywhere.

Man I am bummed...

[proraptor2]

sounds like he jumped that sux

[ezcompany]

i don't think he jumped, my lid was flawless, unless he can jumped 2 inches in the air, then moved sidewards 90 degrees.

anyways, i'm starting to hate my cleanup crew. they don't do crap for cleaning anything and only come out when i'm feeding my corals. maybe its just sheer frustration of tearing down the tank and not able to find the helfrichi.

i'm removing all my big hermit crabs for now, i hate them poking my blastos.

 

tank is a mess right now, micro bubbles everywhere, water is cloudy, skimmer is overflowing constantly...big clarkii is in hospital tank right now having spamsms....Crocea B detached and now i have to find space for him to attach...added heavy mechanical filtration and chemi-pure for now...

 

SO FRUSTRATED... and the WORK seems never ending!!!!!

[bubblethumper]

How did that Anthias turn out for ya? I haven't heard you mention him/her in a while.

 

I swear to god that I've been way too luck so far and am just WAITING for something bad to happen in my tank.

 

In about 2 months, I've had <knocks on wood> no algae outbreaks, no cyano, no unwanted hitchikers.

[ezcompany]

Anthia is fine and dandy.

I've had 1 bad hitch hiker, a little cyano, and a missing helfrichi...

What do you keep in your tank?

 

update:

i have way too much microbubbles, whats the trick to get rid of them?

KH - 7 is this okay?

PH - 8 too low

NH3 - 0

NO2 - 0

CA - 360 too low

NO3 - 5.0 ppm

SG - 1.024

Temp - 83F

[bubblethumper]

Glad to hear the Anthia is working out for you! I was too scared of the frequent feeding needed. Now that I have an auto-feeder, I could consider getting one....

 

What do you keep in your tank?

2 Blue-Green Chromis

1 Fridmani Pseudochromis

1 Blood Shrimp

1 Cleaner Shrimp

A dozen or so hermits (mostly blue leg)

 

I'm right about maxed out with fish in my opinion. As is, I have to be very careful about how much I feed. When I feed so much that my chromis are not "playfully" agressive towards each other, I notice a rapid increase in algae growth. So I generally feed the bare minimum to keep my nutrient levels down. I also run a skimmer, rowaphos carbon, but no longer run my UV light (burnt out the pump when I was not paying attention). I also have about a 9 hour photoperiod and change the water weekly.

 

i have way too much microbubbles, whats the trick to get rid of them?

I run a little bit of that filter pad material you can get at your LFS and place it right where my skimmed water comes out of my skimmer. This reduces the amount of bubbles A TON. I change it out about every 5 days (or when it starts to get nasty looking).

 

KH - 7 is this okay?

PH - 8 too low

NH3 - 0

NO2 - 0

CA - 360 too low

NO3 - 5.0 ppm

SG - 1.024

Temp - 83F

 

As always with tank parameters, go first by how healthy your organisms are, then consult the parameters when you suspect they could be doing better. In my humble opinion, I think a KH of 7 is a bit too low. I have been told and my corals seem to do best at about 8.4-11.2 (between 3 and 4 meq/L). Some of the guys on "the other forum" believe that too high an alkalinity (e.g. KH>12) can actually hurt the coral (which is in line with my previous experience). A bit of topic, but perhaps worth mentioning.

 

All your other stats seem ok to me. Even the calcium is ok as long as your corals like it. While it's common knowledge that KH and CA are related in terms of concentration, the ideal levels (and levels that your tank likes to stabilize to) will be partially dictated by your salinity.

 

I dose ESV B-Ionic to maintain my alkalinity level which also helps keep the calcium in a good range. Before I switched to Seachem Reef Salt (was using Kent), I had to dose daily. Now I only have to dose every 3-4 days. I've also had good luck with Seachem Reef Builder (to maintain alkalinity). I stopped using it simply because it is in powder form.

 

My nitrates are exactly the same as yours and I don't seem to have any problems. I do keep my temp at 79-80 degrees (with an iceprobe on top of the right compartment) as I always got nervous when my temps started spiking above 82. I'm sounding like a broken record, but if your organisms don't mind 83 degrees, don't sweat it. A lot of people run that temp during the summer.

 

I'm no expert, but I've done a heck of a lot of reading and thought I'd at least share my thoughts and experiences. That's the beauty of the internet!

[Cam barr]

Sweet Pod

[ezcompany]

I also place a filter pad and keep it where the water exits in the skimmer. 100 micron.

All my organisms LOOK okay, though I can't really tell cuz of all the microbubbles. I'm suspecting it was the chemipure I added that's causing it. We'll see tonight.

Carbonate Hardness - What is it? Isn't alkalinity the PH? I'm so confused now, the advance aquarist articles are way too complicated to read during work! I recently switched to Tropic Marin, and am dosing Kent's Nano Reef part A and B in 8 ml. every other day. I also just added 5 ml of Kent's liquid biological CA. hopefully this will balance some of that.

 

As of temperature, i don't worry it at 83 degrees at all. Those are the tropical temperatures anyways. My tank has hit 87 before and did fine. We're hitting cooler weather now so it should be fine. My water however was reading 77 this morning, is there ANYWAY of telling if your heater is working or not? It's set at 79 and its a visitherm stealth 100 watt. I seem to have bad luck with heaters all the time.

 

I hope when i get home most of my bubbles will be gone. I still miss my helfrichi. I need to stop spending money and let things stabilize and grow out a bit.

 

and thanks for the compliment Cam barr

[bubblethumper]

I also place a filter pad and keep it where the water exits in the skimmer. 100 micron.

All my organisms LOOK okay, though I can't really tell cuz of all the microbubbles. I'm suspecting it was the chemipure I added that's causing it.

Wow, that is suprising. Next on the list of suspects would have to be the chemipure

 

Carbonate Hardness - What is it? Isn't alkalinity the PH? I'm so confused now, the advance aquarist articles are way too complicated to read during work!

Actually, the pH is a different measure than the Alkalinity. If you don't have an Alkalinity test kit, you should get one since you ARE dosing with a 2-part additive (one part of which is an alkalinity booster). You don't want to use pH as a measure of how much Alkalinity booster is needed. They are however related.

 

Without getting too technical, pH is a measure of the acidity. In water (H2O), you have H+ ions and OH- ions. If you have 50% H+ and 50% OH- then you have a neutral pH of 7. If you put something in the water to change the concentration of either H+ or OH- ions, then your pH will change. H+ removal (or OH- addition) will make the water become more basic (i.e. pH UP). The converse is also true. pH is just a measure of the ratio of H+ ion to OH- ion.

 

Your alkalinity is a measure of how readily a solution will neutralize acid (i.e. it's buffering capacity). In more simple terms, it's a measure of how easily your pH will change. So it's not a measure of the H+ ions, but of how readily your pH will be changed.

 

There are a variety of things (natural and artificial) that will push your pH down (i.e. more acidic). The buffering capacity or "alkalinity" helps counteract that change.

 

After writing all that, in day-to-day reefing terms:

 

pH should be monitored just in case your Calcium or Kalk reactor goes crazy. Also as a general measure of water quality. It's not something you really actively change unless you're using reactors.

 

Alkalinity should be monitored and regularly changed (usually increased). Keep in mind that calcium typically drops fairly equally with alkalinity, hence the use of a 2-part additive like B-Ionic (one part Alk, one part Calcium).

 

Good luck! This hobby just takes some patience sometimes

[ezcompany]

actually i understood it quite well, i totally learned that stuff in high school chemistry, then forgot it, then again in chem 101 in college, then forgot it again, then 201, then yeah, forgot it again lol

 

so i need an alk test kit and a bigger dosing kit.

what is the ideal level for PH then? how often should you dose the 2 parts in a 24 gallon system?

[BrassMonkey030]

sorry to hear about the fish.

 

i have micro bubbles all over my tank 2 and dont even run a skimmer right now. every time i look at my tank i get mad cause it looks like a damn snow globe. it may even be killing some of my coral-line. so i just gave up and let it do its thing. i have 2 many other things to worry about then some bubbles.

[bubblethumper]

so i need an alk test kit and a bigger dosing kit.

Yes to the testing kit, maybe to the bigger dosing kit. You only need to supplement enough to keep your alk at the desired level

 

what is the ideal level for PH then?

Ideal pH is highly debated, but I will say that systems that use 2-part additives tend to run a higher pH (ESV states that b-ionic will generally cause pH to stabilize around 8.4). There are some newer 2-part additives that supposedly don't alter pH, so I can't comment on the Kent stuff. Don't think that 8.4 is the ideal to shoot for. People with calcium reactors successfully run lower pHs like 8.0-8.2 because the C02 used in the CA reactor will depress your pH. pH fluctuates between night and day (photosynthesis removes C02, raising your pH). pH will be lowest at the end of the night and highest right when the lights go out. Make sure you measure at roughly the same time (if you are comparing data over a long period).

 

how often should you dose the 2 parts in a 24 gallon system?

Each system will be different (depending on how fast your coral crow). The ESV that I use has "simple" instructions and "advanced" instructions. The simple just says "dump 'x' amount into your tank every day. The advanced actually say how much to add, based on your current Alk level and the volume of the tank.

 

Here is a tool that can help you figure out how much to add. I would just use a regular calculator and the instructions on the bottle though.

[ezcompany]

but if i have a KH testing kit, i don't need a seperate alkalinity testing kit because KH measures alkalinity no?

 

Yes to the testing kit, maybe to the bigger dosing kit. You only need to supplement enough to keep your alk at the desired level

 

Ideal pH is highly debated, but I will say that systems that use 2-part additives tend to run a higher pH (ESV states that b-ionic will generally cause pH to stabilize around 8.4). There are some newer 2-part additives that supposedly don't alter pH, so I can't comment on the Kent stuff. Don't think that 8.4 is the ideal to shoot for. People with calcium reactors successfully run lower pHs like 8.0-8.2 because the C02 used in the CA reactor will depress your pH. pH fluctuates between night and day (photosynthesis removes C02, raising your pH). pH will be lowest at the end of the night and highest right when the lights go out. Make sure you measure at roughly the same time (if you are comparing data over a long period).

 

Each system will be different (depending on how fast your coral crow). The ESV that I use has "simple" instructions and "advanced" instructions. The simple just says "dump 'x' amount into your tank every day. The advanced actually say how much to add, based on your current Alk level and the volume of the tank.

 

Here is a tool that can help you figure out how much to add. I would just use a regular calculator and the instructions on the bottle though.

[bubblethumper]

Yes! KH tests for Alkalinity

 

So don't buy another kit. Just use your KH test as a basis for any alk boosters you put into the tank

[Tangman1218]

Tank looks great Ez. The look of the vanuatu is fantastic! I didnt get a chance to read every post, but just in case, your Ora Blue Tip Staghorn ID was right on

When you get the opportunity, snap some current photos when everything gets back to norm. Nice job

[ezcompany]

thanks Tangman!

tank is looking much better now. I'll get an FTS as soon as i sell some candy canes!