I actually just now read your thread from beginning to end. Looks like you have made some great progress. I am certainly no expert, but here are a few things that I have found to be successful:
1. Rather than just topping off each day, get an ATO. I use a Tunze Osmolator and a 5 gallon bucket (that’s 19 liters for you folks on the other side of the big pond).
2. When setting up the ATO, first get your protein skimmer dialed in just right. Then install the float switch from the ATO at just the point that it starts pumping water. Then lower it just a “frogs hair’ down so it cuts off. Now, your tank will have a consistent water level and your skimmer will always be optimized. My skimmer is very finicky to water level. I actually installed the float switch right next to the skimmer.
3. Let me be the poster boy for ‘don’t let this happen to you’. Right before you do a water change - UNPLUG your ATO!!!! Or you are going to start pumping salt free RO onto your tank. This caused me to learn a new art to profanity.
4. I have a sand bottom. I used to vacuum the salt bed. All this did was silt it up and make a mess (and screw with my good bacteria). So now I have a good sized clean up crew with snails that live in the sand bed and keep things nice. Now, when I do a water change, I just hold my siphon hose a few mm above the sand to get any crap. If you start sucking up sand, you are too close…
5. I do a 20% water change every week. That may be overkill, but my tank crashed a few months ago so now I try to keep the water pristine.
6. I used to get premix salt water from my LFS. Now I mix my own. That way I have total control of what goes in the tank.
7. When feeding, go easy. Ever hear the phrase “leave the table a little hungry?” The fish will act like they are starving after you have fed them (at least mine does). Here is my recipe:
in a small plastic cup I add:
1 cube of frozen Marine Cuisine
1 small amount of vegetable flake food
5ml of liquid garlic
Top off with about 20ml of aquarium water
For my tank, this gives me about 3 days of meals. I store the excess in the fridge (not the freezer). The next time I have to make up food, I follow the same recipe but trade out the Marine Cuisine for frozen Mysis shrimp. Gives them a little variety.
8. LFS’ have their place but keep in mind that the person waiting on you could be a 20 year veteran of the hobby and the next time you go there, you are being helped by someone that just started working there that day and has little clue about the hobby.
I have to say that I was shocked to read that the guy that tested your water on the refractometer added the sample with his finger???? That is a lot like trying to determine if a bullet is a dud by using a hammer!
Anyway, like I said, I’m certainly no expert. But I have been doing this a couple of years and learned from mistakes as well as all the great advice you find on forums like this.
Good luck!
Morgan
Thanks for the advice!
Unfortunately, we had already ordered the RO unit before this post was made! However, I think it will be better for us to get a grip with basics so that we can learn more about how to control salinity and other tank parameters in general.
The RO system (to be more specific, it's a 4 stage RO/DI system- 90gpd) was delivered today and we installed it. I used my TDS meter on the water it produced an hour after letting it purge and got a 000ppm reading. I was worried that the meter wasn't working so I tested our regular tap water and got a 337ppm reading so it's fair to say that our RO system is working well. I also tested our 'homemade' RO water for nitrates (just for fun) and got a 0ppm reading.
After talking to the guy who gave us the anemone (who regularly mixes water for his 180L tank), we are now looking into buying the right equipment to mix our saltwater. Our friend recommended that we buy some sort of mixer and a heater as well as salt (he uses the brand Red Sea). My dad and I are planning to order these things this week so, hopefully, by next week, we'll be able to do some much needed water changes.
An update on the tank in general:
We are currently being plagued by cyanobacteria and I've been trying to stop it from killing our zoa by gently siphoning (so that the red sheets fly off of the coral). Hopefully once we get our nitrates down this will clear up, although I'm not sure if it's works like that..
We are down to 7 hermits- I'm not entirely sure how two of them died but it was sad to see bits of dead hermit crab buried underneath the gravel (and I haven't been able to find their empty shells!)
I'm currently feeding our chromis every other day and I think I might try preparing food in advance (as recommended by Morgan)- it's been pretty time consuming waiting for tiny bits of mysis shrimp to thaw and separating it from the 'juice'.
We feed the anemone every Monday and it's seems to be doing very well- it's bioluminescence seems to be more vivid now that we've been giving it some proper food.
Again, thanks for all the support and advice! Hopefully things will only get better from now on.
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