AquaJohn

Im toying with the Idea of getting a calcium reactor for my tank about 140 gals water volume. Iam not looking to buy new dont care if its butt ugly just needs to function. if it needs parts to make it work I dont mind a bit of DIY.

if its been setting for over a year definatly check for leaks and also toss all the chemicals in the trash and get new stuff just do it .

I was suprised to get it too most cool stuff is gone way before the 2 hour mark on items being posted everyone must have been out Christmas shopping.

lol If so they are 2 years older the posts are from 2009

Thanks for the corals nice to meet ya

One day I hope my tank grows up to look like yours lol.

I dont think your cal is that bad and if your test kits are bad then there is no telling what the alk really is. I have seen people post good results with alk of 6.5-12 lol so I duno what to tell you there.

I don't think essential elements has calcium in it but I could be wrong I think its for boosting the more exotic mineral types

did you add the tank water from the 14 bagged corals ? if so it could have an effect on your tank if its only 20 gal. A water change is a good idea you want to get rid of the ammonia its a killer i would do 10% and recheck in the morning and posibly do another if it still has ammonia. Why and how much of Kents essential elements are you useing ? If nothing was in the tank and you have been dosing the kents with nothing to use it it may have built up ? not sure on that just an idea.

and ya for your alk to change that much I would say you did the test bad or the kit is old.

PM sent on

Meridiana: 40$

Rainbow Stylophora $25

ORA Pearlberry $40

I would set it all up at one time and get it over with . As far as the deep sand bed for it to really work like its suposed to you need several layers of different types of "sand" you can find detailed instructions on how to do the DSB with google.as for flow I would go with make the cheto move a bit but not enough to mess with the sand bed. If you order live rock by the time it gets to you most critters are going to be dead anyways its shipped dry or at most a splash of water or wet paper.

I need my Mummy cant wait to get it and the tubbs

thanks

I purchased one of the large yellow head sleeper gobies Friday after noon and he is doing his job well

Might want to call them they dont frequent the forums all that much

there are guides on youtube and several other places

thanks for the offer but the cost to drive to Austin to get it would be more than the shipping costs I replaced it when I order my big set for my 110

ya I killed one white one

If the coral was added recently and they were under MH or LED's and changed to your lights it can definatly effect color too. And if the lights were replaced in Sept it might be that the coral was used to the weak bulb and are reacting to the new bulbs but I would think it would have happened sooner.

meh also 100-200 blue leg hermits 5ish turbo snails and a bunch of other snails. Im not sure how many emerald crabs I keep adding them when I cant ever find any but then a big one will pop up out of no where .

The tank has been up and running non stop for over 2 years and when I started it I purchased most 80ish lbs of real tonga branch + a 50lbs tonga bolder the tank it came from was 6+ years old <or so he said> and he got the rock from someone that had it in a tank for over 10 years if its true I duno but it had tons of live critters in it and in the 1-2 lbs of sand I got from his tank. I purchased the rock and transported it aprox an hour in styrafom boxes from his house to mine and it was paced in my tank cycled new water for about 2 months with the current sand bed I added his rock his water and the small amout of sand 1/2 to the tank 1/2 to the sump.

But you are right the sandbed is probly saturated with crap due to my negelct. I have had a diamond gobie and the sand sifter snails < I cant spell there name> the gobie died and was recently replaced with another. I also just purchased a 4-5" monster yellow head sleeper gobie on Friday and you can see stuff that is more fine than the sand being dropped by the gobies.

the Mag 18 is WAY bigger than the pump on the skimmer it basicly is split into 2 returns 1 has 2 90's and is about 36" above the return pump the other 1/2 goes though my chiller and to the return so has 3 or 4 90's .

The more I read the more I think its just build up in the rock and its gona take time for it all to leach out. ill have to pull the skimmer next time I clean it and see what size the pump is and decide what to do about the return.I know with 2 mp40's I can do way more than needed flow in the tank.

I do not have that much in the way of coral in there a few challace,frog spawn,hammers, a few blasto's. a couple hundred ugly greenish brown palys, lots of pink, white, dark purple sponge all over the dark parts of the rock.

Thanks for all the help guys keep it comin

ok I guess I should have made that more clear

its a 110 main with a 60ish gal 3 chamber sump one side is a refugium with a big chunk of cheto < a bit smaller than a soccer ball> shallow sand low flow also have a bunch of peperment shrimp in there my wrass seems to have a taste for them so they went in there . The main has a 1 1/2 - 2 sandbed. As far as pinning a tang to the side wall if I ran the vortecs at 100% im sure it would shove them around fairly well I was being sarcastic with the pin to the wall thing. I currently run the mp40s at about 40-50% power on the nutrient removal program. They do ruffle the surface a ton when they hit the big pull.

The returns I have one side pointed down ish and back at the center of the back wall of the tank to help with keeping the rocks clear. The other side is pointed fairly straight so it is always rippling the serface of the tank and kind of pointed at the center of the tank to get some cross flow. I do not have a speck of algae or cyno anywhere in the display there is some green algae and some red algae < I dont think its cyno its not slime> in the refuge side of the sump.

the other side of the sump is the skimmer a PM175 or 225 I forget what one I actualy got lol I was going for a 150 and they sold me on a bigger one because more is better lol. the center is the return pump. There is a bubble trap from the skimmer to the return and in that I put some of the black filter sponge so no crap from the drains get to the return from the skimmer side

There is a drain on each end of the tank they drain to a pvc bar that goes across the sump and one down spout to the skimmer and one to the refuge side. Each down spout has a ball valve and I have the skimmer wide open and the refuge has decent flow enough to move the cheto a bit but not sturr the sand.

As to why there is no alge I have no clue seeing as how high my phospates a full 2 were and nitrite .8.I do have to say that alot of my caroline algae did trun a dark red/marron and also a sickly green But now that the nasties are dropping I am seeing more bright pink again.

I also do nori and just read that that sould be soaked before put in the tank too it holds a bunch too.

I feed daily still mostly diffent frozen stuff and flake but I have cut it down WAY less than I used to do I do not rinse the frozen. So when you say rinse it do you just get a cup of tank or rodi water and swoosh it around then use like a net and strain out the water ?

Im not sure about the return it kind of makes sence to let the water go thugh the skimmer more before its pumped back to the tank but ya my first thought was kind of no way more flow is better .

Well after more reading im thinking its leaching out of the rocks still. Ill see what happens over the next few weeks.

they are on door buster specail at RCA today.

How do you know how much flow you need I have read stuff that says anywhere from 5-12X water volume in an hour.

I have been fighting to get my phosphates down. My tank was not in a happy place and a 4 months ago I kind of was discuraged and deciding if I wanted to get out of the hobby so was lax in mant on the tank.

Anyways I decided to keep going and checked to find my phospates at 2 ya 2 ouch. So started with weekly 20% water changes blowing the rocks off with a baster I also added some dead rock to my sump < on hind sight probly a bad idea but was only 10-15 lbs > I have about 150-200 lbs of rock in my tank. My phosphates did not move from 2 after 3 weeks. I cut down feeding my fish 6 fish in about 150 gal of water none over 4"long. and 2 dwarf morey eels.I added rowphas <sp> the high power phosphate remover. After a week of that the phospates droped to .6 not sure if it was that or just a combination of everything. So I switched over to BRS GFO and carbon in one of there dual reactors and 2 weeks latter my phosphates are still at .5

Last week I added a second mp40 to the opposite side of the tank from my first mp40 and have been running them on the nutrient export mode I have them set at around 40-50% so I have tons of flow in the tank, I also have a Mag 18 return pump with a return on each end of the tank one of them goes though a chiller.Well my phospates are still at .5

I have considered vodka,vinager, or bio-pellets but seems kind of complex and would make it more complex to take a weekend off to go do stuff.

I had a talk with somone at a LFS and they said it might be a good idea to get a smaller return pump so the water stays in the sump longer and can go though the skimmer more before it gets sent back to the display. I had always thought more flow was better but it kind of makes sence. And with the 2 mp40s I can move enough water to pin my tangs to the side walls lol. So I don't think it would hurt to change to a smaller return pump than the mag 18 < before my mp40s it was my only flow>.

so what do you think

1 go with bio-pellets

2 dose a carbon sorce <vodka/vin>

3 get a smaller return

4 dont worry about .5 phosphates its not going to hurt anything you fool!!

5 use the tank for ar-15 practace

btw I use a red sea test kit so it is fairly ez to see what your low phosphates # are its an awsome kit and well worth the cost.

So what would you do ?