kingfish8302
Member
ok so maybe a Koralia 3 lol.....
sps advice.....................
- Thread starter kingfish8302
- Start date
wattsupdoc
Active Member
IMO......Theres no reason to ditch the canister filter. You wont need to clean it every 2 or 3 days. Weekly should be more than ample. I personally am one that believes you cant have to much filtration. You could get some LR rubble and fill it up with that. You'll grow some nice sponges etc. down there that with the rock will help reduce nitrates. Plus it helps add to the flow. You could add the powerhead, or a closed loop for a cleaner look. You could drip kalk with just a gallon water jug and some poly tubing if you want.
kingfish8302
Member
how do i know how much to add to my tank for kalk? Really i clean the fluval once a month. I have never seen my nitrates go up yet. Its been a very very long time they have.
murph145
Active Member
sounds like a decent basic setup....
things i know sps need and thrive in is:
1.)strong lighting.... which your ok
2.) clean water... via mechanical and biological filtration
3.) they are very sensative to alk staying in range. 8-12dkh with no major swings
I have about 35x's turnover u wanna shoot for around 30 if not more. make sure your water is in the ranges below
am,nitrates,nitrites,phosphates all as close to zero if not zero, any measurements on these means problems.
Ph 8.0-8.3
temp77-82 but stable
calcium 390-460
alk 8-12dkh
mg 1300-1450
salinity 1.025-1.026 or 35ppt
my point is keep it clean but not too clean u want the balance of what goes in comes out too sterile can be negative on sps as well. you want bright, you want flow, and you want stability
things i know sps need and thrive in is:
1.)strong lighting.... which your ok
2.) clean water... via mechanical and biological filtration
3.) they are very sensative to alk staying in range. 8-12dkh with no major swings
I have about 35x's turnover u wanna shoot for around 30 if not more. make sure your water is in the ranges below
am,nitrates,nitrites,phosphates all as close to zero if not zero, any measurements on these means problems.
Ph 8.0-8.3
temp77-82 but stable
calcium 390-460
alk 8-12dkh
mg 1300-1450
salinity 1.025-1.026 or 35ppt
my point is keep it clean but not too clean u want the balance of what goes in comes out too sterile can be negative on sps as well. you want bright, you want flow, and you want stability
kingfish8302
Member
my nitrates spiked to 20 since moved some stuff in the tank for the last time. water change tomorrow.
Ok the guy at the lfs got me to buy a seachem test for ph and alk. He told me to stay in between 2.8-4 meq/L for that alk test. Then i got KH buffer with magnesium. I need to buy a mag test and buffer. Can i test for dkh? do i need dkh buffer?
Ok the guy at the lfs got me to buy a seachem test for ph and alk. He told me to stay in between 2.8-4 meq/L for that alk test. Then i got KH buffer with magnesium. I need to buy a mag test and buffer. Can i test for dkh? do i need dkh buffer?
kingfish8302
Member
thats why i'm 10 gallon change on my 36 g. its a 21% change out. should i take the fluval offline?
kingfish8302
Member
my alk is 11.2 I'm going to test everything in the morning becuase i been taking tests back to back the past 2 weeks and writting papers. I grad this dec and i been making sure to pass since i have a job lined up after grad. in two weeks. i kinda put my tank to the side. Shame on me
candycane
Active Member
Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium is my choice for buffering calcium. I stopped that all together though when I started doing 10-12 day 50% water changes. I mainly don't recommend that due to the cost though. I keep going back to Reef Crystals because it is very stable.
I don't mess with Kalk myself. I just do the water changes and then do a HUGE one once every 3 months. Like maybe 80%. Just remember to feed your corals at least 3 times a week. I only test for alk and calc because those two will usually tell you if something else is out of wack.
I don't mess with Kalk myself. I just do the water changes and then do a HUGE one once every 3 months. Like maybe 80%. Just remember to feed your corals at least 3 times a week. I only test for alk and calc because those two will usually tell you if something else is out of wack.
murph145
Active Member
fluvals are fine just make sure u clean them once a month so nitrates build up...
alk is a hard thing to master at times ... my tank uses so much im dosing with my calcium reactor thats full speed i add Kalk powder to my top off water and i dose reef builder once a week to keep my alk where i need it lots of work on the alk side but everything else is easy
alk is a hard thing to master at times ... my tank uses so much im dosing with my calcium reactor thats full speed i add Kalk powder to my top off water and i dose reef builder once a week to keep my alk where i need it lots of work on the alk side but everything else is easy
kingfish8302
Member
wow your tank is hungry.... Is it ok to take the fluval off line and only use it when I need to run carbon? I just got Koralia 2 and Koralia nano today to replace the fluval water flow.
kingfish8302
Member
well then i'll take it out when i get back on monday and put the Koralia 2 in its place.
kingfish8302
Member
murph do you ever sell your frags off?
wattsupdoc
Active Member
If you dont have any other mechanical filtration, I would leave the fluval on line. I think I saw this was your only mech. filtration. IMO, you do NEED the mechanical filtration. You'r LR and LS will take care of alot of it, but the fluval will remove things from the water column that much quicker.
kingfish8302
Member
i have a skimmer too
kingfish8302
Member
does a skimmer count as part of mech. filtration?
teen
Active Member
skimmer wouyld count as mechanical filtration.
imo, the fluval should be ran like once a month for say 24 hrs w/ some carbon or some other media to just polish up your water. no reason to run it 24/7. it'll most likely just get full of junk and lead to nitrate problems.
im running 96x flow in my 30 gallon right now. its a good amount of flow, but if i had the room, id like to add another powerhead or two to bring me around 150x flow.
imo, the fluval should be ran like once a month for say 24 hrs w/ some carbon or some other media to just polish up your water. no reason to run it 24/7. it'll most likely just get full of junk and lead to nitrate problems.
im running 96x flow in my 30 gallon right now. its a good amount of flow, but if i had the room, id like to add another powerhead or two to bring me around 150x flow.
kingfish8302
Member
i just bumped up from 15-17x to 25-27x today.