ReeFit

i've always had a sandsifting starfish in my tanks with clams. have one about 4" across with my 8" maxima right now.

nice skimmers

whats the alkanity supposed to be at? I've never tested for that before.

those stars will eat just about anything meaty

I move my rocks around usually once every 6 months because i get bored with the layout and look. I switch rocks in and out of the tanks from my other tanks or add a new piece in if i find a cool looking rock i like. I also keep several lbs of rock in the sumps as well. I try to balance the rock i take out with rock i put in within about 10lbs of variance but i usually don't put to much effort into it. If i feel there might be a slight biological loss, i will dose a little microbactor or stability to balance out the system. i have never lost any corals from doing this. I think people tend to freak out a bit much when it comes to small changes in a tank. but it also depends on your tank sizes. i run 55-240g tanks so the volumes can handle a bit of change without effecting the inhabitants much.

your headed in the right direction. there is no perfect solution but what ultimately works in the end for you. some people say run carbon, some say no. i'm in the thinking that you don't run or do anything that isn't necessary or doesn't have a purpose. if you plan on having a mixed reef with lots of varied species, carbon can prove useful to help polish the water of chemical warfare but its a waste if you are not using it for a purpose, the same with phosban. the trick with most of this stuff is to achieve as much stability as you can obtain. ato is a must have and i also have a reefkeeper and love it. your light cycle might be a little long which may cause you excess algae buildup on the glass later down the road.

I gota ask ware you see 480 cal being a tad low? natural seawater has a level of 425-450. I agree on the mag being tested and 11 is a tad high on the alk but if he is maintaing a 480 cal level his test may be testing high as if it was to high it wouldnt allow for much of a cal level to be held due to precipitation. And ph is great to0' date=' do you get much of a swing from lights on to lights off? that can be the biggest thing with ph I have tanks that do great at a lower ph (7.9-8.0) they just dont swing during the diffrent photo periods.[/quote']

 

my response was not the long drawn out documentary version that can be found on google in about 3 seconds. most salt mixes tend to mix a bit higher than those numbers if your salinity is in the 1.025-26 range plus he is running a reactor. my concern would be that if his alk is high he may be suppressing his calcium. he may see a calcium spike a bit if he lowers his alk but not knowing where his mag is kind of defeats the purpose of this conversation. i just spoke out of general ranges to be brief and to let him know that his parameters don't appear to be in ionic balance from the information we have. just speculation.

typically most mushrooms will overpower zoas. paly's can take out some of the weaker mushroom species. it depends on the species. there are lots of zoas we struggle with just to keep from melting, let alone getting touched by anything else in the tank.

your alk is a tad high, your calcium is a bit low and you should be testing for mag. everything else looks good, and there is no reason to remove phos unless it gets high. a little phos is actually needed for the health of the tank.

fyi that coral you were wondering about, i believe its a leptastrea.

Thanks for the corals and rockin prices. kinda funny how the duncan colony grew about 15 more heads overnight!!!!

i would recommend scraping the hang on back and swap it out for a canister filter or do a sump setup with filter sock. pics look good like the rockscape.

calcium reactor. set it up, maintenance once a month to make sure its all good. don't have to dose anything. rinse media once every 6-8 months, media and co2 once a year. drip it into a high flow area or off gas area, no controller needed.

I agree, more than likely your fish had a disease if they perished that quickly. maybe velvet. i would let the tank run fishless for a month and try again with a pair that eat in the LFS and have been in for a 4-5+ days. probably won't be the last fish that dies. good luck

i'll take the rest of your orange pavona and the duncans.

i didn't see a test for phosphates, a spike can cause rtn pretty quickly.

I'm running 2 black sol's on my 48x24x24 and 4 on my 96x24x24 and get nearly 1000 par with fixtures 12" above water. i've had to dial them down about 25% because they are too bright and burn coral. I mount mine lengthwise and get easily 24-36" coverage. a deeper tank front to back would definitely need more than a single unit per 24" square coverage.

Looks like there is still room for a desktop nano

welcome to vantucky

let me know how much you want for it too.

looks good. its possible they are only driving the LED's at 2 watts. that would be 110 plus 8 watts for the fans would put it closer to 120.

Sweet news coverage, sweet meeting! if you didn't make this one, you missed out big time. Very impressive setup and a great time! Thank you douglas.

I have a sneaky suspicion you will be back before to long. you know us contractors are good at puting in ventilation and dehumidifiers.

my guess is pocillopora. FYI acro's plate their base before they start growing up.

What are the name of these zoas?

watermelon