I'll be looking for frags once I know everything is growing again. Also I want to wait till I'm done in Portland so I can spend more time on the tank. I'm hopeing to be done by the end of the month.

The blue hippo is doing good now. It was a bit schetchy for a bit but yesterday he was eating and out swimming finally.

I lost my Majestic as I found him last night deep under the rocks. I've got to try and get him out today when I get home.

My red stripped wrasse was spotted yesterday and is doing fine. The rest of the fish that I've seen are all doing fine.

I'm running the skimmer a bit wet right niw. It was foaming pretty good for a while but by the afternoon, it seems to have returned back to normal. I've runn skimmerless tanks before so that's basically what I had for a few days there. So no big deal. Other than the stress on the fish for a bit.

I'll post more after looking at the tank when I get home. But for now, my green wrasse and diamond goby are still MIA and my Majestic is DOA.

That sucks, atleast there are survivors!

It sucks big time. The Majestic was about 6", looked great and was adapting to his new home just fine.

Everything is doing Ok now. I still haven't seen my green wrasse that we waited two months for Tat's to get us one. Nor have I seen the diamond goby. But everyone else is accounted for. Now I also have two new occupants. I got a small, about 3" Majestic and a 3" Chevron tang. Both are doing great.

My corals are hanging in there. I've got 200G of water made up and will be doing a waterchange tomorrow. Just need to warm up the water and aireaite it some more today.

I've got 2 more weeks to go in Portland next trip and then should be done up there. I've also got to send in my other two PAR 38 LED's for rplacement. They are not a sbright as my last one they replaced and they said no problem replacing them. Going to contact them today and try and get them shipped out today. Then it's sit and wait for a bit before I continue restocking the tank.

As far as the grow out contest goes, it looks like I'm going to have to bow out. I lost one of the monti's and the Zoa's are not looking to good either. So here's your chance Jimmy.

That diamondback likes to hide, so hopefully he is just in the back of your tank waiting for the tank to be quiet again.

Yea, he took off to deep under the rocks when i put him in. But I haven't seen him since. But I've had fish disappear before and show up weeks later.

I also just found my purple with green center tube aneoneme last night. he had been missing for about a month. But I also found a fat Apstia in the tank as well. . Haven't seen those in a long time.

dang aptaisa sucks! time for a copper band and some peppermint shrimp!

A CBB is always on my list. Just got to find a good one.

Yea they are hard to find. Just try to nap Jimmys when he isn't looking

That and his red tang...

dwolson2 wrote:That and his red tang...

+1

HMMM. Sounds like it's time for a little visit.

here is a link to a tank. I know you were looking at glass but this may be a nice tank
http://centralcoastreefkeepers.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=4696

OK now that I'm done with my long term traveling, it's time to get back to the tank.

I actually want to thank everyone in the club for giving me some motavation to get this thing going again. Even though you might not know it, it's been the club that has gotten me to get my tank back up. So here goes.

I'm going back to my old tried and true methond, so I ordered up some seachem reef builder and reef advantage calicum. It's always worked great for me in the past. I started back on my dosing regime on Saturday. I'll do 2 Tbls of Calicum 3 days a week and 1 tbls of Alk 3 days a week. That will get me going again. I'll actually start measuring them this time and keep a record so that I can keep them stable.

I also ordered up some of Dr Tims sludge remover, brightwell aquatics micrbacter7 and reef biofuel. I'm going to give these a shot and see if it helps with removing the excess nutrients in the tank.

One other thing I've done which is diferent than normal for me, is I've installed a 5 micron filter that circulates water in the sump. Input is from the section that has the overflow from the skimmer section. Output is near the return pump. I used a whole house water filter that you get at Lowes for 30 bucks and a Mag 9.5 that I had laying around. The also make 2 micron filters that also have carbon in them. So far, after just a few days of running it, it's fairly brown from taking stuff out of the water. we'll see how things go. Also I can rinse the filter out so that I don't have to change it as often. The water seems to look clearer than before.

One downfall I'm having though I'm blameing on Nike civic since he told me about rainbow pets. I was there again yesterday and walked out with a beautiful Sohoal tang and 3 korilai (sp) butterflies. The butterflies are to take care of my Apstia problem that someone gave me.

My next trip there will be to get more corals, not fish. Unless they have a CBB or a Majestic Angel. Sorry no pic's of the new fish yet, but you can see them at the meeting.

I'm thinking at this time to make the tank LPS, no SPS. We'll see how that goes.

Is there a calcium reactor in the near future?

Sounds good! I also think I will be going LPS on my next tank. Make sure to dip your stuff before you put it in next time

Take some pics!

Unlike you, some of us have to work for a living. Pic's will have to wait.

I ran a calicum reactor in the past with mixed results. Daily dosing seems a lot easier right now and has worked great in the past. But who knows.

OK, I ran some test last night.

Amoinia, nitrite and nitrate were undetectable.
PH 8.2
Calc 460 ppm
Alk 12.5 Dkh

I don't have a phosphate test kit but will probally pick up one to check. For now, I'm going to keep an eye on things and wait till my Alk drops some before I start dosing again. So far, I've only done 2 doses of calc and one of alk.

As for pictures, here's some cheap phone pics to tease you with. You'll have to wait till the meeting to see how beautiful the colors really are. They just move too fast to get a good picture.

Butterflies. I got three of them but I've only seen two of them being active. The third one hides a lot. They are about an inch long and actively feeding on the pellet food I feed.



A couple of bad shots of the Sohoal. He's about 3" and hasn't bothered anyone in the tank. Of course my Blonde Naso is almost 3 times his size. And the pacific blue is just shy, but a little bigger.

Looks sweet!

I would list the test kit with your results. Maybe we can compare your results with other kits. The ALK results seem too high. I can bring my Hanna Alk Checker at the meeting.

you should pick up a hanna checker. I have the alk and its pretty nice!

I have phosphate, calcium, and alk!

I used two different kits to test my PH, Calc and Alk and they came up the same. API is one of the ones I use and have used for some time, the other I'm not sure of but it was in a master test kit I got from one of the meetings. When I finally started testing for Alk a few years ago, I noticed mine ran high and I'd have to dose less alk that calk to get my numbers right.

This was my initial readings. I'll get them adjusted where I want them and then figure out how much to dose to keep them there. I'll have to check the IO I'm using next time I mix a batch and see where it is at. I may not need to add as much calc/alk has I had in the past when using NSW.

If you want to bring the tester/test kits to the meeting, we can measure and compare them.

API is notorious for having off values.

The UCSB NSW has low ALK from the reefers who have tested it.

I never tested when I was using NSW but just added a regeime of 2 calc to 1 alk twice a week and everything worked fine. I knew that it ran low.

Now that I'm using IO, I know that the alk and calc are higher and will have to adjust accordingly. Not sure how far off the API is. Maybe you can bring some test kits and we can compare.

I can bring my Salifert calcium test kit.

do you still have chaeto?

About a golf ball size peiece is all that's left. It kind of broke apart and went throughout the tank, never to be seen again.

lol, is it growing or dieing?

Dieing I think. It's definatly not growing.

OK, I took some more measurments last night.

PH 8.2
Calc 460
ALk 10 Dkh

So in 3 days, my calc dropped 10 ppm and my Alk droped 2 Dkh. Does that sound about right for a low load?

SO I'm going to start adding some calc and alk today, take some more measurments and then measure again in a few days to see how my dosage is doing.

Since I don't have a lot of corals right now, I'm thing just a small dose one a week will be fine. We'll see how things work out.

I didn't think alk could drop that quickly with a low load.

I did a water change this weekend, 50 G of IO, and took measurments later that night. I haven't added anything to the tank except some of the reef food stuff I got from Brightwell that is supposed to be a replacement for the Vodka dosing. I also made a little Alk paste to put on my monster apstia but that didn't work.

Last night when I took measurments again, the only thing that had dropped was my Alk. Calc was still the same. Does this sound unusual? What would make the alk drop but not the calk? Caclk is at 460. Alk dropped from 13 DKH to 11.5. I don't want to add anything as I'm waiting for my Alk to get down to 10 Dkh before I start dosing.

On the flip side, my corals are looking good. Full poylop extension on my LPS.

What tests are you using for each parameter

API.

I know you say teh are off, but since I am using the same test kit each time, it at least shows a change.

Mabey but that is not alwayse true. I would say before you add abything or change anything to get a better test kit so you can know for sure where your levels are at

OK, who's got a PH, Calc, Alk test kit I can borrow to compare to?

i have alk, i can try to bring it with tomorrow. Send me a text tonight and I will put it in my tank bag

it would helpful, if you list the manufacturer for each test ie...

Alk (salifert)
Ca (Hannna)
Phosphate (API)
NItrate (Red Sea) etc....

I don't know if API is consistently inconsistent meaning that if you get Ca at 480ppm and then next time its 460ppm. Is each tes consistently off equally +- 20% etc

I can bring cal alk and mag to the meeting (salifert)

All three test are API. I measured again last night with no changes.

crusty, brought my alk into work, swing by...

Love the avatar. I am in Oxnard and have a Hannah alk and ca tester.

Let me know - besides I would love to see the two live.

OK, Derrick let me borrow his Hanna ALk tester Friday. I ran the test at about the same time I always do.

Hanna meter showd 10.976 Dkh
API started changing color at 11 drops which is 11 Dkh. The next drop, 12, was a complete color change or 12 Dkh. So it was in the ballpark.

No for some interesting observations.

I did a 50 G water change about 2 weeks ago. I haven't added any Alk opr Calc since then. I use RO for my top off. BUT I bypass the RO and just use a 5 micron filter and 3 carbon filters when need water for mixing salt. I run a 2 micron carbon filter in my sump for water polishing and my water seems clerer since I started doing this, about 3 weeks now. I did 2 doses for Dr. Tims sludge remover. I started adding Bright Well Aquatics reef bio fuel, about ever day, and their Micro Bacter 7 once a week. My skimmer is pulling the usual stuff, just seems a little thincker now.

Here's the weird part, my Alk has slowely dropped, but not down to where I want it at 10 Dkh. I'm at about 10.5 right now. However, my Calicum seems to be going up every time I measure it. It was at 450 and when I measured it yesterday it was at 480.

My corals are doing fine though.

So how is my Calicum rising when I'm not adding any to the tank? Is my sand slowely breaking down and replinishing my calicum?

For some strange reason, I pulled out my refractometer last night and measured my salinity. It measured a little low at 32 ppm rather than the normal 35 where I keep it at. So I'm adding some salt to raise it back up. bad part is, I'm afraid it will also raise up my calc and alk. And I'm trying to get them to go down some. I want to run them at 440 calc and 10 alk.

What salt are you going to put in? Maybe use instant ocean, that should have a lower ALK/CAL then reef crystals.

Truthfully i wouldent be to worried about getting your cal and all at the right level. They will drip down eventually to the correct levels.

IO is all I've been using for about a year now. And that's my other problem, I can't get my calc and alk to go down where I want them. Seems like every time I do a water change, they go back up. I haven't added anything in over a week and my Alk barley dropped to 10.5 after a weel. My calc seems to be going up, again with no addations.

Add more coral! That will use up some alk and cal

I got a red and a grenn monti cap from FISH KILLER Mike yesterday.