snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
Megan - It's ok, you don't have to PM me the coral laws in your local area. They don't apply to me in Louisiana. But thank you though! And no, you are not hijacking my thread at all. I enjoy good conversations. Ask away. lol I use API brand test kits and they are liquid, but definitely not the best. I use them primarily because they are easy to use, have clear instructions and are relatively cheap (under $30 for a set) If I were to pick a brand name test kit, I would prefer to use Salifert - but at a little less than $20 for each individual parameter test, I'll pass for the time being. I may pick up three of their test kits though in the future - calcium, alkalinity and magnesium to get better accuracy then what I have now. I also like Seachem brand test kits and they work pretty well. Once my aquarium is cycled, I never worry about ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or phosphate. I know with my algae scrubber going full force and a very good oversized protein skimmer with the occasional water change that I don't really need to test it. I usually look for algae growth over everything to determine my water quality. Since algae sucks nitrate and phosphate out of the water - you will almost always get an inaccurate nitrate and phosphate reading, but if you pay attention to how much algae is growing in the tank then you can get a more accurate determination of your water quality.
Coralline algae is not bad at all. It's an algae, so it stabilizes your water parameters, uses some nitrate and phosphate from the water column, prevents undesirable algae from growing, and makes the tank look pretty, imho. Some people don't like coralline algae for some reason - and I can respect that - it grows everywhere. lol. But I like it.
So, I tested my water again last night and dKh came up from 7 to 10. I'm happy now. I'm going to re-test both ca and alk in a few days. My bulbs are coming in next week probably, and will be just in time for the new frags that I bought.
Frags arrive in the mail tomorrow morning! I'm really excited. I'm going to take off part of the morning tomorrow to take care of my new pets.
Since I just quit one of my maintenance accounts, I am stuck with an extra 30g of 1.026 saltwater that I was going to do a water change on a maintenance account - but I guess I'm going to use it for my tank now. So.... I think something like 5g a week or something like that will be plenty until I run out of new salt water. I'm also going to aerate the water a day or so before I do a water change with it, since it will be bottled for a month or so before use.
Coralline algae is not bad at all. It's an algae, so it stabilizes your water parameters, uses some nitrate and phosphate from the water column, prevents undesirable algae from growing, and makes the tank look pretty, imho. Some people don't like coralline algae for some reason - and I can respect that - it grows everywhere. lol. But I like it.
So, I tested my water again last night and dKh came up from 7 to 10. I'm happy now. I'm going to re-test both ca and alk in a few days. My bulbs are coming in next week probably, and will be just in time for the new frags that I bought.
Frags arrive in the mail tomorrow morning! I'm really excited. I'm going to take off part of the morning tomorrow to take care of my new pets.
Since I just quit one of my maintenance accounts, I am stuck with an extra 30g of 1.026 saltwater that I was going to do a water change on a maintenance account - but I guess I'm going to use it for my tank now. So.... I think something like 5g a week or something like that will be plenty until I run out of new salt water. I'm also going to aerate the water a day or so before I do a water change with it, since it will be bottled for a month or so before use.
