Help Me Complete My Tank

6mmmedic

Member
May I suggest painting the back of your tank?? It will make everything else stand out better......and might even make the hardware in your tank kind of blend in and not be quite so noticeable....
 

oceansidefish

Active Member
One: Your welcome. There is alot of info out there and just because you learn it in college does not make it correct (being in the "real world" now I have discovered alot of what i learned in college was correct and some was just crap) There are alot of people who might say college teachers are the ones who could not find jobs with those fancy PHD's.
Two: As far as raising your salinity....Do it VERY slowly though water changes. Dumping salt in the tank is not a good plan. You can also mix up some saltwater and add it as top off to your tank. I would keep very close track and record your levels. I would expect it to take more than a week or so to get it up to where you want it. I would say that around .001 every two days would be an acceptable increase.
Three: You can leave everything in the tank and still plumb it one of two ways. Use a HOB overflow and return lines, 2 buy a new tank
. It will give you an excuse.
 

renogaw

Active Member
my daughter's been sick, so i havent been able to come to the boards.
looks though that other people have been able to help. I'd still though be worried about your pH rock... looks like a detritus trap which is probably contributing to your nitrates. I dunno.. tried and true live sand with a DSB in the sump takes care of my nitrates...
you didn't answer my qestion about what you feed. this may be your source of phosphates.
 

soulsigma

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2981943
my daughter's been sick, so i havent been able to come to the boards.
looks though that other people have been able to help. I'd still though be worried about your pH rock... looks like a detritus trap which is probably contributing to your nitrates. I dunno.. tried and true live sand with a DSB in the sump takes care of my nitrates...
you didn't answer my qestion about what you feed. this may be your source of phosphates.
I AM GOING TO AX THE PH ROCK BUT FIRST I HAVE TO DO A INVESTIGATION TO BEGIN THE PROCESS OF ELIMINATION TO GET TO THE SOURCE OF NITRATE PROB, AND I FEED 1 A DAY ,FROZEN ( VARIETY PACK), CYCLOP-EEZE WAFER, OCEAN NUTRITION FORMULA TWO MARINE PELLET AND OMEGA ONE FREEZE DRIED TUBIFEX WORMS.
I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT THE SUMP. FOR MY TANK FOR THE OVERFLOW TANK HOW MANY GPH SHOULD THAT BE AND FOR THE RETURN PUMP HOW MANY GPH SHOULD THAT BE? I AM THINK IT SHOULD MATCH THE OVERFLOW I THINK
 

soulsigma

Member
Originally Posted by Oceansidefish
http:///forum/post/2981808
One: Your welcome. There is alot of info out there and just because you learn it in college does not make it correct (being in the "real world" now I have discovered alot of what i learned in college was correct and some was just crap) There are alot of people who might say college teachers are the ones who could not find jobs with those fancy PHD's.
Two: As far as raising your salinity....Do it VERY slowly though water changes. Dumping salt in the tank is not a good plan. You can also mix up some saltwater and add it as top off to your tank. I would keep very close track and record your levels. I would expect it to take more than a week or so to get it up to where you want it. I would say that around .001 every two days would be an acceptable increase.
Three: You can leave everything in the tank and still plumb it one of two ways. Use a HOB overflow and return lines, 2 buy a new tank
. It will give you an excuse.
I just place a bid on 200g at school so maybe I will get lucky, but in the mean time I researched the HOB overflow and became very confused
about the gph for the return pump, how does it work ? I have to do a wc this tomorrow so I was thinking that would be a good starting point to begin raising the salinity and build from there. Thanks for the tip.
 

soulsigma

Member
Originally Posted by 6mmmedic
http:///forum/post/2981636
May I suggest painting the back of your tank?? It will make everything else stand out better......and might even make the hardware in your tank kind of blend in and not be quite so noticeable....

I messed up and did not realize it until I had the tank up and cycling, so now I have to figure out a way to do it because my tank only has a 4" clearance from the wall
 

soulsigma

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2980852
you're doing well. just make sure your water surface is agitated enough, and i'd be interested to know two things:
1) what TYPE of rocks are the one in the center and the one on the right end... they don't look like normal reef rock.
2) you look like you have gravel and not sand on the right side. that's going to be tough to keep clean.
you have a ton of hair algae, which is common side effect of a new tank. BUT your readings for phosphates and nitrates are off because that algae is using it up before you can test it properly.
you need to get some way of exporting your nitrates and phosphates and stop feeding your fish so much. you have nitrates due to your canister filter and possibly your gravel substrate. you should seriously consider getting rid of the canister (yes... brand new equipment bought for no reason) and put a sump with some sort of macro algae, like chaeto, to get rid of your nitrates and phosphates.
what are you feeding btw?
i'd also suggest getting your salt level up to 35 ppm, everythig in there will be more comfey. how are you measuring it, hydrometer or refractometer?
I found a DIY plan for a sump but I am stumped on the flow rate situation do explain.
 

renogaw

Active Member
you want about 300-500 gph through your sump, but on the lower side if your sump is going to have an intake chamber, go through the chaeto, then to the return chamber. you want water to hang around the chaeto a little longer.
i have a mag 5 on my 90, and am going up to a mag 7. my mag 5 worked fine for my old 75.
let me look up my sump build thread..https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/264780/sump-fuge-size
 

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by soulsigma
http:///forum/post/2982490
I messed up and did not realize it until I had the tank up and cycling, so now I have to figure out a way to do it because my tank only has a 4" clearance from the wall

just get some car window tint material.
 

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by soulsigma
http:///forum/post/2982484
AND I FEED 1 A DAY ,FROZEN ( VARIETY PACK), CYCLOP-EEZE WAFER, OCEAN NUTRITION FORMULA TWO MARINE PELLET AND OMEGA ONE FREEZE DRIED TUBIFEX WORMS.
tubifex worms are a fresh water fish food, no good for salt.
ocean nutrition formula two marine pellets, decent food
cyclopeeze wafers, decent but ehh
frozen variety = BIG NO NO. 1) they are mostly brine IIRC 2) they are LADEN (and i mean LADEEENNNN) with phosphates. look at the ingredients... all those phosphate chemical compounds go right to your algae.
IMO, you're better off getting rid of EVERYTHING you feed.
I personally feed Ssera flakes (GVG-mix Marin Food with Tidbits once or twice a day, and on days that i feed my frozen mush i don't feed the flakes at all. there's almost no phosphates whatsoever in the ingredients (only to help stabilize the vit. C).
i also feed mysid shrimp, BUT i rince it off and do not put the liquid in.
i also feed reef chili zoo plankton instead of doing cyclopeeze
ive got *some* phosphates, but not so much to cause issues. phosphates supposedly help the denitratifiying bacteria work.
 

soulsigma

Member

Originally Posted by renogaw http:///forum/post/2982965
you want about 300-500 gph through your sump, but on the lower side if your sump is going to have an intake chamber, go through the chaeto, then to the return chamber. you want water to hang around the chaeto a little longer.
i have a mag 5 on my 90, and am going up to a mag 7. my mag 5 worked fine for my old 75.
let me look up my sump build thread..https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/264780/sump-fuge-size
OK lets make sure I comprehend you,If the flow rate for my overflow is 300gph going into my sump, then my return pump back to the tank needs to rated at 300 gph correct?

Now with my tank being 75g and the flow rate should be 10xs = 750 gph which and means that I should be turning over my water 750gph in a hour. Which means if my over flow and return is 300gph I am falling short 450gph. Which in my mind can be made up with the two hydor koralia 1200gph power heads I have correct?
[/COLOR]
COLOR="Blue"]Right now I am working on my trate situation and the goal is to hit 0ppm and to achieve this I am going to get rid of the ph rock or gravel as you refer to it as lol
and replace that side of the tank with a coral substrate, and of course taking both canister filters out of production and replacing them with a refugium/sump combo. I checked out yours on the link you sent me and if you don't mind I am want to use your plans and push them to another level with some ideals that are making my head hurt
[/COLOR]
Now as far as the cheato goes, I was thinking about placing 3/4lbs of it, along with 1/2lbs of of cultured red gracillaria, some lr ruble, a couple of Mex-turbos & hermits in the refugium, which will have a 4" mud bed. I am thin kg this too will help me with my nutrient problem, as well as help hit 0ppm nitrates
Whats your input on this?
 

soulsigma

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2982966
just get some car window tint material.
I have some kool blue sticky aquarium back ground, which would look sharp now that all the equipment from the canister filters will be gone, but I just don't know how to do it being that it just like the car window tint material would require me to get behind the tank to smooth them out
 

soulsigma

Member

Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2983208
tubifex worms are a fresh water fish food, no good for salt.
ocean nutrition formula two marine pellets, decent food
cyclopeeze wafers, decent but ehh
frozen variety = BIG NO NO. 1) they are mostly brine IIRC 2) they are LADEN (and i mean LADEEENNNN) with phosphates. look at the ingredients... all those phosphate chemical compounds go right to your algae.
IMO, you're better off getting rid of EVERYTHING you feed.
I personally feed Ssera flakes (GVG-mix Marin Food with Tidbits once or twice a day, and on days that i feed my frozen mush i don't feed the flakes at all. there's almost no phosphates whatsoever in the ingredients (only to help stabilize the vit. C).
i also feed mysid shrimp, BUT i rince it off and do not put the liquid in.
i also feed reef chili zoo plankton instead of doing cyclopeeze
ive got *some* phosphates, but not so much to cause issues. phosphates supposedly help the denitratifiying bacteria work.
I'll keep the ocean nutation pellets, infarct after doing some research i will stick with this brand in all categories because after careful research I discovered that they do not process any of tear foods with l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate. For the time being I have to stick with the Cyclopeeze because its the only thing that I can feed to by infant blue chromis, I only have a couple more days worth of frozen variety left so I try to use that up before my up coming wc this weekend.
I read somewhere that by letting frozen food thaw at room temp and then rinsing it will get rid of a lot of contamination and l-ascorbyl-2-
polyphosphate
, but I have yet to try this process. So it all comes down to reading the labels and knowing what to avoid Just like we are supposed to do with our foods right

So to make suer I am on the right page let me recap this all. read all labels and avoid foods fresh or frozen that contains l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate , use frozen foods only after unthawing and rinsing off and use sparingly, no other foods for the day when I have used frozen food, feed no more to fish and corals than they Can consume in 1-2 minutes after that time remove any leftover from the tank (sound like a job for a surface skimmer) lol
by doing so these procedures will help avoid having to tangle with wq issues which can and will have a domino effect on my eco-system

Humm I converting from canister filtration to sump/refug filtration, elimanating the possible detritus trap (ph rock/gravel lol
) and adding live coral sand as a replacement and making wiser choice on food selection sounds good to me.
 

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by soulsigma
http:///forum/post/2983605
I have some kool blue sticky aquarium back ground, which would look sharp now that all the equipment from the canister filters will be gone, but I just don't know how to do it being that it just like the car window tint material would require me to get behind the tank to smooth them out

75 gallon tank should only be 48". your arm plus a roller to smooth out the material should be fine if you tackle from both sides no?
how close to the wall are you?
you could always just drain down your tank and move it out some. (saving as much of the water as possible of course).
 

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by soulsigma
http:///forum/post/2983612
, use frozen foods only after unthawing and rinsing off and use sparingly,
nope, you don't want to unthaw it (since that's freezing it again :p) but yes, rince it off once it's thawed out. but... brine has next to no nutritional value, so rinsing off the only nutritional stuff to feed just the brine is pretty counterproductive.
and thank you for editing out those colors...
 

soulsigma

Member

Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2983694
75 gallon tank should only be 48". your arm plus a roller to smooth out the material should be fine if you tackle from both sides no?
how close to the wall are you?
you could always just drain down your tank and move it out some. (saving as much of the water as possible of course).
I have approximately 3 to 4 inches between the wall and the aquarium, I like the draining it down aspect which is something I need to do any ways to clean out the gravel oops
I mean PH rock, time to multi-task eh

Thanks for the heads-up
If I successful with this project I will post pictures
 

soulsigma

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2983697
nope, you don't want to unthaw it (since that's freezing it again :p) but yes, rince it off once it's thawed out. but... brine has next to no nutritional value, so rinsing off the only nutritional stuff to feed just the brine is pretty counterproductive.
and thank you for editing out those colors...

Hummm this feeding situation is going to be quite a challenge or more like tight rope walking lol
I am searching the INTERNET now to see if I can locate some quality marine food which won't cause water quality issues. I haven't come across any of the brands you use, but I did find an interesting product at SWF made by ORA, check it out and give me you feed back on it.
I am get ready to place my order for some plexi glass to build my sump and while looking at my options I see that I can get tinted plexi and I thought that would be kool because it would help cut down on alga in my sump
 

renogaw

Active Member
well... you technically WANT algae in your sump.
i've got chaeto, hair, some floating crud, and anything else that wants to live down there. it ALL removes nitrates/phosphates...
you could put tinted plexiglas on the back of your tank
 
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