psychofireman

I have read many things in this section but am still confused. currently my alk is 10, Cal 314, mag 1478, ph 7.97-8.25I am trying to get my alk down and Cal up. To my understanding if I dos Cal my alk will decrease and. if true, what is the best Cal liquid to use to dose? Reef Chemistry Calculator (diesyst.com) says I need to dose alk as well... as the relationship between the 3 basically Alk decreases= Cal increase and mag increases and if Cal increases= alk decreases and mag increases? I'm sure it isnt that cut and dry, but as a basic thats what Ive been noticing in my tank. Therefore, I'm assuming I need to mainly dose cal right now what cal products alk products should i look into gettig? that would give me a better idea how to fill in the chart in the link above

Yes, I have done that many times but they keep coming off. Was thinking of supergluing them once they were in place 

I’m sure people have had this issue. Since this is my 2nd trident and they both have had same issue. Has anyone else had the input and output water lines leak where the hook up to the disk thingy? If so how did you fix it? 

Thank you all for your responses. I have enough cheato now.

13 minutes ago, CuttleFishandCoral said:

We give it away for free. 

That’s great to know, most of my corals came from y’all 

Just now, shaywood said:

Always have some for pickup in Tualatin

Cool, I should have put in around Vancouver area. But if I can’t find anyone more local I will definitely let you know

I am needing probably a small bundle( about 2” I’m guessing)

My tank is 55 gal, 38.5”x13”x19” at water lvl. Currently I have 4 kessil 360w’s @ 7” above water. My par meter is on right side of middle under 3rd light right about 6” below waterline. I am looking for a program or setup for my kessil controller and if I should serially connects my signal cable or do middles on ch 1 and outters on ch2. Currently meter is reading 165 at full blue an max intensity( not running they controller) any suggestion on a light schedule setup?

I haven’t figured out what to do with my ca lvls. I don’t have really any idea how to go about dosing it. I do have a DOS but aren’t currently using it. I was hoping I could control my ca lvls by water changes. Not sure how much I should do now or wait for things to settle from this last weekend changes 

10 minutes ago, Blue Z Reef said:

Quick observation here...why do you have so many lights?!? A 55gal tank can easily be lit with 2-3 kessil. 4 would give great coverage (but remember, a single light is meant to cover a 24” square). But adding a whole extra black box led and having them butted up next to each other is kind of crazy and overkill! If I were you I would lose the black box and mount your kessil lights evenly spread apart and much higher off the water. Frogspawn/torches don’t have high light demand and with the current setup I could see them being over lit and not opening up as much and losing the deep colors. I’m not an expert, but I do have like 100 frogspawn heads in my tank...🤣

Probably cause I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m running them at half intensity and 1/4 turn off blue. My thought is using the outside ones on at 09-18:00 inner 2 same setup, to come on 12-16. The middle one is set to ch1 1 ch 2 0 from 08- 20:00. In my mind that would simulate the sun around here. Only thing is I’m not sure what par to shoot for and how long at different pars. I could hook my kessil up different and use controller. But since I had the lights I thought to just use them all at half intensity 

8 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

I have no humu experience, so can't help there.

It looks like you've just done a ton of work cleaning the sand, and scrubbing the rocks.  Great Job!     I encourage you to stay on it.   Take something out and scrub it again in a week.   Keep the weekly water changes going.   How often can you change your mechanical filtration?  (twice a week?).   Make sure your cleaning your skimmer, at least weekly.     Stay on top of things for a month or two, solid.     

 

I changed out my filtration yesterday( like it was recommended to me after sand and tank work sat). But I planned only do it every other week on a rotating basis( I am using 2 canister filters). Is there any other option than taking rock out and scrub? I don’t like having to restack the rock. Later today I’m going to suck out more sand

I agree I can get rid of more sand. Currently there is no sand behind the rocks as about 2” in front of the rocks. It keeps moving to in front of the rocks. I’m just worried about my rocks falling if there isn’t t sand to oppose the movement. I seriously am considering trading or getting rid of humu so I can get some gobies and different cleanup crews besides just snails. Apparently it’s kinda difficult to have both a cleanup crew and humu.

what clean up crew can I use with a humu? I know he eats snails and crabs. Gobies aren’t safe. I know tangs would do ok. Not sure what happened to the beanie I had in the tank but he wasn’t there when I cleaned it out today. And other fish or creatures to maintain cleanup?

most of the sand moved from behind the rock to infro of the rocks when I filled my tank. once things settle ill smooth it out

I took all my sand out and saved a half bucket of it, rinsed rinsed rinsed and rinsed again. Didn't realize I had was white sand. scrubbed all my walls and removed most of the scratches. and cleaned the rocks that didn't have shrooms attached to them. my cleanup crew just arrived and will be putting them in shortly. only lost my non spicy noodle goby in the process cause he was looking for a home and I guess tried to take a nap in an anemone. Everything else seems to be adjusting so far. Also got my UV sterilizer today and have it up and running.

12 hours ago, Parzifal said:

Hey now!  Buyer beware. I just asked for a picture and this is what i saw.   I don’t know about the rest of you but for 2k I expect more of a bright yellow color.  

7 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

Roger that.  Send me your venmo.

 

The check is in the mail for mine

2 minutes ago, psychofireman said:

And I’m worried about all the crap that might be in there

And I’m worried about all the crap that might be in there

7 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

Fair enough.   Don't touch sand, work on nutrient export/organics control.   

What I can't tell is how dirty/old/Reasonably clean the sane bed is.   

Sand bed is like 4” of fine sand and have had it since the beginning like 5+ yrs

I really would like to get rid of almost all my sand  and clean enough of it for 1 inch base and while everything is out I was going to diamondpad the scratches out of the walls and scrub the rocks of the algae. Since my water is now almost the same as what my salt water is for alk calc and mag I was going to replace with all new water and then put the rest of the corals and fish back in

10 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

Just looking at your photos i would say that the main issue is nutrient export.  While a fuge can be a great nutrient export mechanism on a tank that size, regular 10 gallon water changes and a robust cleaning crew would solve all your issues. 

I would NOT advise removing the sand bed.  There is a tremendous amount of bacteria down there.  I would bet good money that if you removed it you are going to have cyano and dino problems.

I thought dinos were extinct 

11 hours ago, Higher Thinking said:

Unfortunately with that humuhumu fish you won't be able to get any hermit crabs and small snails. You may get by with some turbo snails, but it'll still try and flip them over and eat them.

 

 

I get bulk small cith snails for cleanup and food for him and when they run low I get more. 

I plan on rearranging my rocks soon once I figure out what to do instead of sand. And will scrub the rocks the mall my shrooms and other coral stuff are not attached to my bigger live rock they are still on smaller rocks. And was thinking of a hang on inside of tank refuge for my monthly copiapod shipment where the would be safe till they get bigger and spread out into the rock

46 minutes ago, reefrun said:

I totally agree about adding some mechanical bio export. Without a sump I’d recommend more live rock, or a bio block or something. A lawnmower blenny is a good help, and agree with others about adding a tang. 
 

A good skimmer is a must. Read up on the options, HOB are riskier than in sump bc if the overflow they’re dumping water out of your tank which gets the floor wet but also causes your ATO to keep pumping and then you have a salinity drop. For me, these are the type of things that happen when I’m on vacation lol

 

Also- what food do you feed? Sometimes that can make a huge difference in algae growth

 

if argue almost every reefer has to battle algae at some point, so we feel your pain!

I don’t use an ato and is the octo 90 hob skimmer and have a drain line now hooked up to the cup( have had overflows in the past) and the has remedied that). I had to tangs, but they died due to lack of o2 during last issue when skimmer over filled and shorted out outlet on wall below it. For food I am going to be making my own following directions for fish food from brs Sunday. Until them I’m using a few different frozen cubes.

would bio plates be a good base instead of sand?

I have looked thru alot of different threads which just makes me question things more... anyways. This is my goal, To have torches/hammers/frog spawn that will thrive (so my wife can also enjoy my tank) This is what I'm running 55gal w/ no sump, octo90 hob skimmer, 2 titanium 300w heaters, 2 canister filters 1 mainly for mechanical filtration . apex, tridet, DOS, not dosig currently. 4 kessil can lights and a retagle led light 18"x6"ish. my nitrites and amonia =0, nitrates around 20ppm . alk 9.4ish, cal 320,  mag 1480.

1) would you recommend me adding a internal hang on refuge like the large cpr refuge?

2) If I got rid of my sand bed cest pool, what should I replace it with to keep the live rock from moving/sliding?

3) should I get a UV sterilizer for the tank?

Not sure of long range plans for this tank as far as sps or other corals.