hello everyone

ricky35957

ricky35957

Member
just wanted to ask a few questions.. ive asked befor about the ls most people told me about 1" so thats what im gonna go with but atm ive been using tap water dad says that when he did his <10 years ago he did fine with no fish loses> ..i got this cheap wet/dry and not so cheap skimmer euro reef ill be posting some pictures of it in a few...question one is ro/di i can get one of them from that site that everyone knows about for 100$ worth it right? question two and yes ive been reading these two books i got but i kinda like to hear from both book and this site lol live rock i have about 40pounds and a 55gal tank i should get about 15 more pounds ?.. i have problems with this red alge guy at lfs told me what it could be told me might be the tap water and my CC well its more of a purple then a red.. if I get live sand and buy the invert kit from this site that be enough inverts ?
my reading most always is ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5-10 calcium is 380 sometimes ammonia is the first color on the chart not always though
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
sounds like you have cyano problems, and yes, that's mostly caused by using tap water. Tap water doesn't kill fish, it just causes algae problems out the ying-yang!
as for the ro/di unit, it depends on how many gpd it can filter. Sounds like a good deal to me, but without more info i can't tell you for sure.
how much LR you have is all about your preference. I have a 55 gallon tank, and i have 90 lbs of LR... some people only have 30lbs of LR in a 55. With your filters, i'd say you're ok where you're at, but if you want more, i always say the more the merrier!
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 20
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 20
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 25
Peppermint Shrimp: 5
Emerald Crab: 5
Coral Banded Shrimp: 1
is this the invert pack you were talking about? If so, i'd say there's too many. And i wouldn't add emerald crabs or a coral banded shrimp to the tank. Emerald crabs can be aggressive, and could take a good sized chunk out of your fish, and if you have a CBS, you can't have any other shrimp in the tank...
 
ricky35957

ricky35957

Member
im fine with the rock the CC is whats really annoying me gets all ugly brown and black etc just looks like crap... do not like the way it looks right now im doing a filter my self making it 24x14x14 been trying to read about a refuge dunno how it works though so trying to learn more about them...
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
a wet/dry is a wet/dry is a wet/dry. That one looks good to me!
You may want to look into changing your CC to sand. The reason your CC gets so dirty is because of it's texture. The jagged edges catch any leftover food and waste, trapping them in the CC, and causing high nitrates and dirty substrate. With sand, everything stays in the water, and it eventually gets filtered out with the skimmer.
a fuge is similar to a wet/dry filter, except instead of bio-balls you have a DSB and macroalgae. The point of the DSB is that in the deepest part of it, the water is oxygen deprived. This is where an anaerobic bacteria grows that changes your nitrates into nitrogen gas. The macroalgae lives off of nitrates and phosphates, so when the water passes through them, it basically "eats" those impurities from the water. This is a great thing to have for any tank, but especially for reefs or seahorse tanks, as they have to have really stable water parameters. Any other questions about fuges?
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
that would work, but take a look at this diagram... The baffles are just pieces of plexi-glass. The point is to allow more surface area for bacteria to grow, as well as to keep the sand and macroalgae from going into the return chaimber. In the return or intake area you can have your skimmer. You can also have other unsightly things you don't want in your main tank, such as your heater. you also need a light for the macroalgae to thrive. people recommend having the timing on the lights in the fuge opposite of the timing of the lights on your display tank, to decrease fluctuations in PH. Or you can have them on 24 hours.
 
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