coachwah
Member
Hello everybody. I have been eavesdropping the message boards for about a month now and am totally impressed with the amount of knowledge out there. I have solidified more ideas in the past month than I have in 5 years. Thank you.
I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct forum, as I have been keeping sw for 10+ years, with mixed success however.
I am finally at the point where I can afford to spend a little $ (yeah right) and not nickle and dime my systems together.
I currently have a great 135 acrylic that has an acrylic sump for it's base. It has 2 6' VHO's (1 URI superactinic, 1 URI actinic white) and 4 4' fluorescents (2 blue, 2 50/50). I have a quiet one return pump attached to a 3' Lifeguard UV and mechanical fliter (empty). There are four chambers in the sump in which I keep ~50 gallons of water, rough calculation. The first chamber has bio-balls, the second some base rock from my previous aquarium with a powerhead, the third a berlin skimmer with a rio 2100, and the fourth some base rock, caulerpa, a small flourescent, and a power head (this is also the chamber where the return bulkhead is located).
In the tank I have a porcupine puffer, a yellow tang, blue damsel, maroon clown, banded shrimp, numerous hermits, a dozen or so mushrooms that are spreading, green hairy mushroom, and an unidentified coral (hard coral, shaped like a plate 6" in diameter green with pink anemone looking polyps. ~100 lbs of what was live rock (tonga branch and fiji) and base rock, and ~1-1.5 inch layer of carrib sea fine aragonite. 5 powerheads for circulation and a spray bar return
Most everything in the tank is doing great, even the corals, however the tang has fin erosion (HTLE I think). I feed at least every other day a mixture of shrimp, brine, formula 2 (dry and frozen), krill, roamaine, and nori.
Water parameters are as follows: 75 degrees, Salinty 1.024, Ammonia 0, pH 8.6, alkalinity off the chart (red sea), calcium over 400, and nitrate is always 20 mg/l ppm (Aquarium systems). My alkalinity and calcium rarely ever drop. I have an algae problem (weekly cleaning of glass and vac. substrate). And absolutely no coralline algae.
I have not been able to keep snails alive or live rock the way it should be.
Here is what I am planning to do:
1. Change out the aragonite for a 4" DSB made primarily of play sand topped off with live sand. How would I do that without killing everything off?
2. Change out flourescents and add either 2 96 watt or four 55 watt compacts keeping one flour. for a moon light.
3. Add mud to the first compartment for the caulerpa.
4. Get rid off the bio balls
5. Change out the left side of the rock and add more live rock.
I have been holding off (as hard as it has been) on buying any livestock until I figure this out. I would like to add an Achilles tang, flame angel, and more corals.
I have a 100 gallon on stand-by that is going to be a FOWLR when I get a RO/DI. It has a wet/dry and plenum.
Can I accomplish this without tearing everything down? Am I off base or missing anything?
I know that this is really lengthy, however, I would appreciate any help anyone has to offer.
THANK YOU!!!
I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct forum, as I have been keeping sw for 10+ years, with mixed success however.
I am finally at the point where I can afford to spend a little $ (yeah right) and not nickle and dime my systems together.
I currently have a great 135 acrylic that has an acrylic sump for it's base. It has 2 6' VHO's (1 URI superactinic, 1 URI actinic white) and 4 4' fluorescents (2 blue, 2 50/50). I have a quiet one return pump attached to a 3' Lifeguard UV and mechanical fliter (empty). There are four chambers in the sump in which I keep ~50 gallons of water, rough calculation. The first chamber has bio-balls, the second some base rock from my previous aquarium with a powerhead, the third a berlin skimmer with a rio 2100, and the fourth some base rock, caulerpa, a small flourescent, and a power head (this is also the chamber where the return bulkhead is located).
In the tank I have a porcupine puffer, a yellow tang, blue damsel, maroon clown, banded shrimp, numerous hermits, a dozen or so mushrooms that are spreading, green hairy mushroom, and an unidentified coral (hard coral, shaped like a plate 6" in diameter green with pink anemone looking polyps. ~100 lbs of what was live rock (tonga branch and fiji) and base rock, and ~1-1.5 inch layer of carrib sea fine aragonite. 5 powerheads for circulation and a spray bar return
Most everything in the tank is doing great, even the corals, however the tang has fin erosion (HTLE I think). I feed at least every other day a mixture of shrimp, brine, formula 2 (dry and frozen), krill, roamaine, and nori.
Water parameters are as follows: 75 degrees, Salinty 1.024, Ammonia 0, pH 8.6, alkalinity off the chart (red sea), calcium over 400, and nitrate is always 20 mg/l ppm (Aquarium systems). My alkalinity and calcium rarely ever drop. I have an algae problem (weekly cleaning of glass and vac. substrate). And absolutely no coralline algae.
I have not been able to keep snails alive or live rock the way it should be.
Here is what I am planning to do:
1. Change out the aragonite for a 4" DSB made primarily of play sand topped off with live sand. How would I do that without killing everything off?
2. Change out flourescents and add either 2 96 watt or four 55 watt compacts keeping one flour. for a moon light.
3. Add mud to the first compartment for the caulerpa.
4. Get rid off the bio balls
5. Change out the left side of the rock and add more live rock.
I have been holding off (as hard as it has been) on buying any livestock until I figure this out. I would like to add an Achilles tang, flame angel, and more corals.
I have a 100 gallon on stand-by that is going to be a FOWLR when I get a RO/DI. It has a wet/dry and plenum.
Can I accomplish this without tearing everything down? Am I off base or missing anything?
I know that this is really lengthy, however, I would appreciate any help anyone has to offer.
THANK YOU!!!
