jph's downsize, new tank plans

[aquawolf]

So, your calc and alk are raising as you want them to, but for now your mag is flat.

Are you going to ride that out a little longer, or try to raise it with a supplement?

Obviously it doesn't appear like anything in your tank is suffering whatsoever.

[jph]

well, i dosed the whole 300g can of seachem advantage magnesium you need a ton of that stuff to raise it apparently.

an unfortunate side effect of dosing so much is that it raises your salinity also. so i needed to dilute the tank water again, affectively lowering my levels again.

i need to order more magnesium supplement, as i'm all out now. and i need to figure out a better way to dose it.



J.

[jph]

first minor setback of this tank and build


the 5L water storage container i put in the stand yesterday evening, filed with kalkwasser cracked along the bottom during the day. spilling 5 liters of kalkwasser into the bottom of the stand, and onto the carpet.

the litermeter YY got soaked too, but it's pretty much sealed watertight, so mo worries there. unfortunately, i also had my three spare MH bulbs (along with the new expensive aqualine that i have not tried yet) they all got soaked. i hope that i can clean them off and that they are not ruined

i tried to mop up the carpet around the stand, and i feel like i'm missing half of my fingerprints now


water level in the return pump section was getting pretty low because there was nothing to top the tank off with during the day. an occasianl burst of bullbes makes it to the tank.

went to the store and got two new 3L containers that i'll use for now. hope they won't crack on me.



J.

[aquawolf]

That sucks. Do you have any idea what may have caused the other container to crack? Are your fingers feeling better today?

[jph]

Originally Posted by aquawolf

That sucks. Do you have any idea what may have caused the other container to crack? Are your fingers feeling better today?

cheap crap build quality most likely.
i picked up what felt like nice strong ones now.

fingers are feeling better, yeah

i did some "aquamending" yestaerday, as i still have quite a few colonial hydroids on some of my rocks. you can't trust your eyes that you'll see them all when the rock is out of the water, and you're tryingto pick them off.

i sarted covering the ones i noticed with aquamend epoxy. i'll keep that in place for at least a month. how long does it take these things to die? they seem very hardy today i noticed a few more that i still need to kill.

i also put an extra koralia 1 in the tank. some more flow, but not too much.
it is quite a bit bigger than the koralia nano though.


J.

[jph]

only one of the three branches on the turaki frag made it.
one of them has some mild algae growth on it now. and the other branch is looking pretty bad, but i could still see polyps on it yesterday. i fragged that one and glued it to a new plug last night. hope it will pull through, but i'm not holding my breath.


J.

[jph]

so i ordered a bucket of tropic marin pro reef salt mix a few days ago. but due to the slow shipping i won't receive it until some time next week.

since i'm sick and tires of trying to adjust the levels of this bucket of bad RC, i'm going to toss it.

but i want to do a waterchange this weekend, so i picked up a small box of RC at the local pet club... hoping that i may get one that's good. this one definately smells different. the bucket of RC had a very strong chemical smell. this small bag smells like.. well... salt it mixes nice clean, clear and dissolves fast. i think that i may have a good one now. but i'll still be switching to TMPR next week.

i'll test this bucket of new RC tomorrow to see waht the ca/alk/mg levels are in a good one.


J.

[jph]

oh, i also noticed that the frogspawn seems to be loving the new tank. all 5 heads look like they are splitting!


J.

[aquawolf]

It would be interesting to have you post your test results for the new bag of RC and then for the new bucket of TMPR, just to see how different (or alike) they actually are.

I know one of the new members from Germany has a thread on here HMA's 115 I think, and he actually switches salts each month or so because of what you are talking about.

[jph]

Originally Posted by aquawolf

It would be interesting to have you post your test results for the new bag of RC and then for the new bucket of TMPR, just to see how different (or alike) they actually are.

i will certainly do that


J.

[jph]

still not happy with the fresh batch of reef crystals;

temp: 79F
SG : 1.026
Alk : 10-11 dKh
Ca : 375-400 ppm
Mg : 1100 ppm

i'm happy with the alk. Ca could be better. but Mg is still very low.


i'm going to test the tank water tonight, as it will have been one week without a water change, only topping off with kalkwasser.



J.

[fish.freak]

lots of problems w/ rc. is io still consistent now or has the whole company been having problems?

[jph]

well, my second peppermint shrimp somehow made it into the back filter compartment. i don't know how or why they do it. but both of them managed to jump out of the display into the filter.

it it pretty much impossible to get them out of there, as i can not reach my hand in it, too little room. and they just scoot to the bottom if they know you're trying to grab them.


i liked the little shrimp inthere, now i need something to replace them with.

a scarlet gets rather big though. not sure if i want one of them.
one thing is for sure though... the shrimp will not steal the corals food anymore when i decide to target feed


J.

[sly fox]

Originally Posted by jph

one thing is for sure though... the shrimp will not steal the corals food anymore when i decide to target feed

i hate it when they do that, and once they learn it, thats it...my cleaner relocated to live next to my acans especially for the target feeds

[jph]

been out of town for 5 days. and it looks like everything survived

fish were hungry as hell

everything is still alive
skimmer did not overflow
tank did not run dry
5 gallon bucket of kalkwasser only half empty

my red acropora millepora that turned brown on me is getting some red shades on some of the tips and branches. but the top side facing the MH is turning very light almost white. not sure if that's just part of the process where it ditches the brown before it colors up red again. or if those parts are bleaching. i'm going to give it a few more days. as it still looks very happy (polyps are out all the time).

the MH comes on at 2pm and turns off at 9pm during the week.
in the weekend it comes on at 12pm, so i can look at the tank longer

bucket of TMPR arrived while i was away. the RO/DI is making water, and i'll do a water change tomorrow evening.


J.