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questions about corals and other stuff ??????

B

btbeam

I have some zoos and one mushroom that I got at the last meeting in the raffle. I am new to the hobby. I have a BC 14 and I will give some parameters, Sal 1.024 all other numbers at 0 and the nitrates are about 5. The only other thing that I test for is calcium which is about 480. I run my lights 10 hours per day 10 for the actinics and 8 on the "white" lights. When the lights first come on the zoos are wide open and seem to look good and then as the day goes on they seem to close some and not look as healthy. I had them initially up on the top of the rock which would only be about 5 inches from the lights and when I moved them down they started doing better.

Alot of rambling so the question is is there something that I should be testing for that I am not or should i use carbon or what is recommended?

I do 20% water change weekly and I dose with Bionic 2 part daily? Please keep in mind that i am very much a noob.
 
mynd

mynd

Welcome to NJRC!

Let me start by saying that if you could provide more information on your tank that would be great. We know you have a BC14, but are the lights stock? if so what wattage? Do you have PC or MH? What is the flow like in the tank? What type of pumps are you using? What is the model number of the pumps so we can check out the Gal Per Hour? Do you have live rock? Did you cycle the tank long enough? What is the temperature of the tank? How do you test your salinity? Refractometer? Are you using RO/DI and since you are doing 20% water changes is there any reason you are dosing? The salt should take care of that on this sized tank?

Answer those things and then we will get to what might be occurring.. :)

Again welcome to the site!!!
 
S

Sorcha

Hey there, we met at the meeting. You live in High Bridge, right? We're only about 10 min. down Rt. 31 from you in Hampton. If you ever need anything, send me a PM.

The shrooms and zoos are a good start because they're pretty easy. But both of them prefer lower light, lower current, so you were right to move them. FYI, seems some of our zoos get a little funky looking and close up for a while before they spawn some babies around the base. With your tank so new, I don't think they'd be doing that yet...but you never know!

I know you said that your testing Reefing out with the Nano first. We've never kept a Nano, looking to get one soon actually, but from what I understand they are a little more difficult because there is less room for error. Just saying, if you are enjoying this...a bigger tank won't be more work in the long run.

I've got a small Kenya Tree frag you can have if you're interested in it. It's a softie, in the leather family also very easy. But I'll warn you that they reproduce rapidly, so you'll want to scoop out any branches that fall from it. LMK if you're interested.

Good luck! :D
 
B

btbeam

mynd,
mj 900 for the pump
Stock lighting 24 watt I believe that is pc
I have the outlet angled up in the tank
Temps stay between 79 and 80.5
About 15 lbs of LR
I use a hydrometer to check Sal
i am dosing because someone at a lfs reccomended it I know I know
I am currently using distilled water.
thanks for your help we met at the meeting
btbeam
 
mynd

mynd

Kool.. might you be the butcher?

What are you using for filtration in your tank? Filter Floss? Purigen? Bio Balls? Sponge? If you are using the sponge and bio balls remove them. Getting your nitrates down is something you need to really work on. Would like them to be 0. Not that there should be anything in there, but check your distilled water for phosphates and nitrates. Just curious to see what you get.

If you are using the stock lighting I think it is something like 48 total watts that is about what 4 to 5 watts per gallon, so you might want to move down the zoos to the lower tank ( which you did ) and if you want them higher try moving them up a little at a time, or just find their happy place.

Stop Dosing for the time being.. Do your 20% water changes each week and check your readings each week. However, this is up to you. If it is working for ya then do what you want here. I myself don't think it is necessary at this point since there is nothing really in the tank. I am into a calcium reading of between 380 and 400, 480 to me is a bit high for a 15 gallon tank. I am sure others will disagree, but oh well.. ;)

The flow seems fine. I would close up the bottom vents and make sure the water is going over the surface skimmer. Usually people do this before filling the tank, so it might not be an option for you at this time.

So again, right now I want to know what you have in your back chambers... Thanks!
 
B

btbeam

yes thats me
Chamber 1 Heater
Chamber 2 Some LR and a filter pad on top
Chamber 3 Pump

I am just not happy with the water quality it always seems to have stuff floating in it
thanks
btbeam
 
mynd

mynd

I would assume that is because the vent at the bottom on the right hand side might be bypassing your filter material? Is it possible?

Can you take some pictures at all of the tank? Lights on? Actincs? Get close want to see the water.

When you talk about nitrates are we talking .5 or 5. The acceptable range of nitrate for reef tanks is 0.25 ppm, but not more than 5 ppm.

Get some filter floss and put it into chamber 1 and make sure all the water passes over it to get to chamber 2. Clean it weekly or as you see fit but replace it each week.
 
B

btbeam

I don't think that the water is bypassing the pad because to get to chamber 2 it can only go up and over the top to get to 2 and to get to 3 the water can only go from the bottom of 2. if that makes sense. Chamber 2 on the top has a drip tray which is where I was putting the floss then I put a mat there. The mat looked sort of like fabric put it is meant for this application. But I noticed that it cut down on the flow some so I found something a little more porous and i put it under the drip tray and on top if the rock. I stopped using the floss on top of the drip tray because it seemed to float in the water a lot. Also how often to you recommend feeding and is there a coral that would do well on the top of the rocks?
i will try to get some pics
 
B

btbeam

another question is do you feel that there is any value to having lr in chamber 2 because i have a lot in the tank. If I didn't have the rock i could put some type of sponge or filter media in the bottom of 2. because i am noticing that since i put it under that drip tray it really has cleaned up the water and i know that there is water getting by the sponge.and i took out the bottom tray in 2 and i could put it back with a pad on it? Does that make sense?
 
C

Carlo

Nope move the LR out of the chamber and put it back in the tank. You really don't want the LR in fast moving water (if it's oxygenated) since you loose out on some important bacteria doing that.

Use that chamber for something that will help the tank like carbon or better yet Chemi-Pure Elite or Purigen. (I've been running both CPE and Purigen side by side with the same flow rates and I think the Purigen is lasting longer and more economical overall).

I'll go against the "flow" and advice of others and say to put a sponge in there (IF you maintain it). A sponge is one of the easiest/cheapest pieces of equipment you can use in a marine tank! The key is to have a couple of them and change them out every couple of days and clean them! Since you have LR in the tank you don't have to worry about destroying bacteria. If you religiously clean them every couple of days there really won't be any bacteria there worth mentioning anyway. All the crap you see coming out of the sponge when you clean it would have otherwise had to be removed by some other method (ie foam fractioning/protein skimmer) or broken down by the bacteria in the tank.

Now with the above said I will go with the "flow" and say to stay as far away from sponges as possible if you don't religiously clean them every couple days (or sooner). If you don't clean the sponges then all that stuff sits in the sponge and breaks down into ammonia then nitrites and eventually into nitrates. No system usually has enough of the right kind of bacteria to keep up with this and you typically see the nitrates climbing higher and higher.

So the use of sponges can either be one of the BEST or WORSE things you do depending on your husbandry practices.

Carlo
 
B

btbeam

i am not sure what purigen or chemi-pure is or how I would put that into practice
Thanks for all of the help
btbeam
 
C

Carlo

Chemi-pure http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4177&Ntt=elite&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1]Elite http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4177&Ntt=elite&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1[/url]

Purigen http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4190&Ntt=purigen&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

Both products cost about the same amount of money and basically do the same thing. You can almost think of these products as "carbon on steroids". Also worth noting both products can be regenerated to use over an over again.

Carlo
 
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