My 25 gal. tank

[mobilebyrd]

I have a glass 25 gallon tank with a marineland penguin 200, an aqua clear 50 powerhead (270 gph), around 35lb of liverock (dead coral and texas holy rock), a 2 inch sand bed (sugar sized aragonite) and an antennata lionfish all being lit by 2-45 watt PC's.

So far, all amonia, nitrate, nitrite are remaining at 0 while following a 20% per week water changing regimen.

I would like to introduce some corals (whatever works with my lighting) and was thinking of some pulsing Xenia.

My ph was remaining low (7.8) so I added extra aragonite to help buffer some more (sandbed was 1" now it's 2"). I will wait another week and see if it made a difference.

I used around 6 pounds of hot rock when I started the tank about a week ago in addition to a ~30 texas holey rock from a cichlid tank I have.

Looking forward to any helpful input. My plan is to raise the lionfish in this for about 6-months and then move him into my 110 tank after I get a chance to cook the rocks (~175 lb's lace and texas holey rock).

Once the larger tank is setup, I will likely add a metal halide lamp and use this tank as a growhouse for frags.

[jenglish]

before you get into your tank upgrade, look into filtration methods. THere are definate drawbacks to mechanical filters like the HOB you use. THey have their uses. Most folks jsut run a skimmer and live rock on tanks for SPS or perhaps a fuge as well. WHile you have the PCs you will have better luck with softies but some LPS will still grow. Are you sure they are 45 watt bulbs? Was the texas holey rock in a cichlid tank my concern would be it may be loaded with phosphates as cichlids are very messy eaters and generally eat and poo quite a bit. HTH

[mitchmac]

Originally Posted by mobilebyrd

I have a glass 25 gallon tank with a marineland penguin 200, an aqua clear 50 powerhead (270 gph), around 35lb of liverock (dead coral and texas holy rock), a 2 inch sand bed (sugar sized aragonite) and an antennata lionfish all being lit by 2-45 watt PC's.

So far, all amonia, nitrate, nitrite are remaining at 0 while following a 20% per week water changing regimen.

I would like to introduce some corals (whatever works with my lighting) and was thinking of some pulsing Xenia.

My ph was remaining low (7.8) so I added extra aragonite to help buffer some more (sandbed was 1" now it's 2"). I will wait another week and see if it made a difference.

I used around 6 pounds of hot rock when I started the tank about a week ago in addition to a ~30 texas holey rock from a cichlid tank I have.

Looking forward to any helpful input. My plan is to raise the lionfish in this for about 6-months and then move him into my 110 tank after I get a chance to cook the rocks (~175 lb's lace and texas holey rock).

Once the larger tank is setup, I will likely add a metal halide lamp and use this tank as a growhouse for frags.

my concern is u stated u started this tank a week ago??? and i dont know how lionfish do with corals but what was ur initial cycle on the tank did u really just throw everything together and run the system and yes if u didnt blast the rock b4 putting it into ur tank you could have easily just thrown a bunch of phos into ur tank not good please clarify and elaborate more on ur set up and time period on starting this system please

[mobilebyrd]

Jenglish...would you please provide clarification about the issues associated with HOB filters??? I had read about Carbon being a bad item for marine tanks and was using older filters without active carbon simply for mechanical filtration.

I did have a little bit of a cyano problem shortly after setup but found out the lights were on WAY TOO LONG (had to replace my timer). I bumped up the water changes, bought a new timer and the algae/cyano went bye bye in about 2-3 days. I checked the water for amonia, nitrate/trite and PH daily up until a few days ago. I always had readings so low they did not register on my kit. Concerned, I bought another kit and the readings were the same.

The Texas holey rock may have had phosphates as I have never checked my cichlid tank for phosphate levels. I regularly check KH, GH, PH, amonia, nitrate and nitrite. The tank gets 33% water change every couple of weeks. I have only had 1 issue with my cichlids in 3+ years. Their tank is incredibly clean (for cichlids) with 1100gph of churn and filtration from easily exportable sponges/polyfill traps and two Eheim canisters full of polyfill and carbon. Nearly every species is twice the size they are supposed to be (11" Haplochromis borleyi, 6"+ Labidochromis caeruleus, etc.) and the tank is not overfed or overstocked. Not saying the rock did not have phosphates. Just wanted to give you the info on that tank in case I overlooked something. I knew nothing about phosphates until I started this marine tank.

[mobilebyrd]

mitchmac:

Yup... a week ago.
Yup...just threw the juvenile lionfish into the tank. Daily ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and ph tests were performed (twice daily for first few days) in addition to weekly water changes (increased to daily during cyano outbreak) and my little lionfish (Old Gregg) is more colorful than ever, properly respirating and has a little bit of a guppy-belly. He is fed a guppy in the morning and another in the evening. If he does not eat the guppy within 5 minutes it is removed.

The frags had been cooking for around 4 months at a respected LFS specializing in reef systems and Cichlids. I chatted with the store about how much liverock a 3.5" juvenile lionfish would need and they said 6# to be on the safe side. I added the holey rock to help buffer the KH and boost available bacteria as Old Gregg grows.

[mobilebyrd]

I upgraded my lights from 2x40watt PC to 2x27 watt T5 HO. What a difference! The light output is considerably better and my pulsing Xenia frag has taken off.

Literally, I had written the frag off and in less than a week it has just exploded with growth. I can't wait to put the other two bulbs in and make it a 4x27 watt T5 HO setup!

[mobilebyrd]

In the duration of waiting for new bulbs I have purchased a retrofit ballast by Hagen which is now overdriving the 24" T5HO Power-Glo bulbs to 54watts each. I plan on adding another set of bulbs to increase longevity and return the bulbs back to NO.

In addition I have added some green and purple Zoa frags from a fellow PMAC Member (tlgreve)...THANX The Zoas are doing fantastic and opened up after about 30 minutes in the tank.

Also I picked up another star polyp frag from AO and a single stalk of Blue Xenia (it was on a snail's shell) from OF.

[mobilebyrd]

I have created some single bulb reflectors and further incereased light output. I also picked up a Kenya Tree. It has been in the tank since yesterday afternoon and has not opened up yet. I spoke with the previous owner and he said it took a week for it to open when he got it. Nice guy.

[mobilebyrd]

The Kenya Tree has opened up and is about 6 inches wide and 4 inches tall.

The 4-bulb T5HO is a little overkill even with two Super Actinic bulbs and two mid-day bulbs (all geissman).

The single stalk of blue Xenia is now about 15 stalks of blue xenia...told you it was growing fast.

The amount of zoas has not increased but the size has increased.

[Fat Tony]

Sounds good Lee, how bout a couple pics? Don't make me get the squirrel out

[Loverotties]

You mean this squirrel Tony?lol!

[Fat Tony]

OH SNAP... Now you did it...!