Search results

I have upgraded/upsized systems many times over the past 40+ years, and have never had a cycling problem. If you had sufficient bacteria to process waste in the smaller tank, then you have sufficient to do the same in the new system. As you add stock to the larger tank the bacterial population...

"Nitrification" is a 3 step process in which toxic ammonia is converted into non-toxic nitrogen gas. The fist two steps, ammonia to nitrite and nitrite into nitrate require oxygen, but the final step, conversion of nitrate into nitrogen gas, must occur in the absence of oxygen.

I don't think you should be leaving the sump lights on 24 hr/day. Photosynthesis has 2 phases, a light phase during which light energy is captured into high energy compounds, and a dark phase during which the captured energy is utilized to synthesize organic molecules. You need both to produce...

I put a 220 gallon tank in the living room, over the basement. The tank is parallel to the joists, so I put angle irons at the ends of the stand to span two joists. In the basement I put 4 vertical steel posts, one at each corner. Just worried about the tank suddenly being in the basement. I...

The first two steps in denitrification are highly aerobic, which is exactly the condition on the surface of a W/D filter, and the output of these steps is nitrate. The final step, conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas, is anaerobic, and occurs in the deeper parts of the sand bed, or using...

I would run the sump as a straight sump without any W/D filter media. Such media are designed to be highly aerobic, which is great for eliminating ammonia and nitrite, but it produces lots of nitrate. For fish-only systems this is fine, but many reef organisms won't tolerate nitrates. Instead...

Yeah, the 12 adoptees were all peacefully adapted to their 300 gallon system before being moved to my tank. There was still aggression between a small adopted ocellaris clownfish and my very large ocellaris - the small one eventually disappeared. My main point was that the tank could accommodate...

With a 180 gallon system i would worry more about the sequence of adding fish more than the number. I recently was forced to add 12 fish to my 220 gallon tank (adopted them from a friend who was moving out of state), and I was panicked about the possibility of rising ammonia levels. Long story...

If your ammonia and nitrate levels are zero, but you are measuring positive nitrite values I would suspect the test itself. Take the kit to your LFS and test their water to validate your kit.

Pufferfish produce a potent toxin, tetradotoxin. The concentration in a single adult fish is sufficient to kill 30 human beings. I suspect that something was stressing your puffer (hence the blackening skin) and it responded by releasing tetrodotoxin into the water.

I have you beat - I have tried chromis for over 40 years, and they remain one of the only fish that I have not been successful with. That said, I adopted 5 lemon chromis two months ago into my 220 gallon system, and they seem to be doing fine. I don't know if it is because there is so much space...

You are talking about a 130 gallon tank, which is not large (not small either, actually a good starter tank). You could spend $10,000 on it, but it might require a gem tang, scribbled angelfish and solid gold rock. Your biggest startup cost might be live rock, but you can economize by getting...

You might want to look at Reef Radiance - their lights are pretty good, and "reasonably" priced. I'm using 4 of them on my 220, and it is beautiful.

You have to get the ammonia down! The only survivable level for ammonia is 0. Some people use Prime, I use Amquel+, but they are pretty much the same thing. If you are dosing correctly, then you will still detect ammonia, but it will be in an inactivated state. Sorry to hear about your crash...

Weekly top-off should be fine, but be sure to keep checking since the rate of evaporation varies with seasons. As far as the temperature, the haters are not rocket science-level equipment. So long as the temperature stays constant your fish should be fine.

If you paid less than $500 for the Neptune unit then I doubt that it is actually "lab" quality. Take a look at laboratory grade pH meters at Fisher Scientific. that said, the Neptune unit may be perfectly adequate for determining whether your pH is stable, but not reliable for determining the...

I,m in the midst of turning a 110 gallon tank into a sump for my 220 gallon display. I chose to use an inline (rather than a submerged) return pump to minimize heating. So, I drilled a hole in the side of the 110 sump for a bulkhead fitting that would feed the external pump. I have just bought...

Careful, there! Clowns and many chromis become very territorial, and should be added later rather than earlier.

No, get a scrubber sized appropriately to the final anticipated load. A scrubber that is too large for your load is no problem now, and will save you $$$ or work (if diy) later.

santamonica has been an advocate and producer of ATS systems for many years, and is well known. His preference seems to be for upflow systems. OTOH, www.algaescrubbing.com produces downflow units utilizing LED lighting and come in a variety of sizes. I use his L1 on my 40 gallon reef, and the L4...