Martin's RSM C-130

[Joeys Tank]

Interesting water parameters. Not sure why Alk and Mag are very low and Ca is low. You don't have livestock pulling these elements out of the water. When was the last water change? Anything significant happening in the tank? Perhaps your Alkalinity is 4 meg/L instead of 4 dKh? A very small amount of CUC shouldn't be pulling elements out of your water to the levels to require dosing when water changes should be enough.

 

[brwoody]

Martin,
Sorry if I have missed it in your thread but how much sand did you put in your tank?

Thanks!

 

[melvis]

I thought something wasn't right Joey, but had hoped my Alk and Ca readings were due to me being ill when I did the readings and not paying 100% attention lol. I did a water change yesterday so will see what comes back from the readings I'll be taking later today. Can't see anything major happening in the tank tbh, all seems to be ok and looking good. CUC are all healthy.

On a previous point re the hair like bits I keep seeing in water, it appears I might have Vermetid snails - according to my research anyway. I'm pondering on whether to remove the three I can see.

brwoody - I decided against a deep sand bed and only used 40lbs of Carib-Sea Arag Alive Fiji Pink. It gives a nice covering and I'm not planning on any fish etc that will bury themselves, hence the decision. I guess it's individual taste, but only advice I'd give is make sure the grain isn't too fine or it'll suspend and float around the place.

Cheers
M

 

[melvis]

Water change done on Wednesday and all is looking a lot better. Definitely need to use some Reef Builder as still got low Alk levels. Mag is back up and Cal is on rise too.

When doing the water change, I've stupidly added a bit too much water and I'm now at maximum level and have switched ATO off as alarm kept going off. What's the best way to reduce the water level without affecting salinity levels?

I was hoping to collect my Occellaris clowns today, but thinking i should hang on due to water levels and fact I still can't get poxy skimmer to function right and guessing I need this running before adding livestock?

Cheers
M

 

[Joeys Tank]

Simplest way to reduce water level without affecting salinity is to take water out of your tank (to lower salinity, take salt out).

Taking water out and replacing with unsalted water will lower salinity. Letting water evaporate and filling your ATO with saltwater will increase salinity.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Just take water out, the salinity would stay the same.

 

[melvis]

Cheers guys for the advice, just wanted to be sure.

So I finally have two beautiful little tank bred Ocellaris Clownfish swimming around my C-130 and I must say I'm well chuffed!

They seem to have acclimated well and the moonlights and AquaRay LEDs came on about an hour ago and I'm hoping the main lights coming on tomorrow morning won't freak them out too much. I'll try and get a decent pic too.

I'm still struggling with the clarity of the water and the filter floss doesn't seem to be catching much and despite it looking good at night (and from a distance lol), during the day it looks a right mess - especially with what I think is Vermetid snails spraying their mucus streams everywhere too. Definitely think I'm gonna whip them out over the weekend.

Cheers
M

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Pics - love Ocellaris Clownfish !

 

[melvis]

Managed to get a couple of quick snaps Glenn.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Lovely clowns !!!

 

[melvis]

Thanks mate, I'm well chuffed with them tbh. They're certainly a lot more active than I thought they'd be, lol.

 

[melvis]

Gutted! Woke this morning to find one of the Bumblebee snails having breakfast on my gorgeous Blood Red Fire Shrimp. I had hoped it was just another molting but unfortunately not. No idea as to what went wrong.

Quickly checked some parameters and all appeared ok, must just be one of those things. Both the Sexy Shrimp and the new Clowns are doing ok though. Will keep a check on things over next couple of days. Don't think I'll replace with another one though. As much as I loved it, it was more of a recluse than Howard Hughes. My LFS had a Goby and Shrimp pair and watching them together was interesting as hell - might have to rethink stocking plans.

RIP little Shrimpy.

 

[Rooprect]

That's very sad Melvis. On the bright side your snails had a very fresh snack. The circle of life.

 

[melvis]

Thanks Roo, and yeah, I guess that's true. Pretty expensive breakfast though lol.

Been struggling with couple of parameters lately but have managed to get Mag up (by luck and no major involvement) and concentrating now on KH and Calcium. Need to up my game on dosing for KH and sorting Calcium before I add any more fish.

 

[Oxylebius]

I don't understand why you are dosing Ca and Alk. Weekly water changes should take care of it for you. Can you enlighten me?

 

[melvis]

Hi Oxy, I'm not dosing for calcium just Alk as that's what's really low (4dkh).

I'm doing water changes but calcium still showing low, unless I'm doing the readings wrong - but I've double checked last two/three. I may take a sample to LFS and get them to test for me.

 

[melvis]

Been a while since I've been here, what with trying to stabilise dkh and other things getting in the way. Happy to say there's been an improvement on the dkh front, but mag is still a bit low. Working on that now.

Added a Royal Gramma last week and he and the clowns seem to be doing great. Feeding well and swimming about together, although it did have a go at a Bumblebee Snail's shell once or twice after first going in lol.

I can't wait for some corals to add a bit more life, but once my mag is sorted and stable...

 

[Joeys Tank]

Coming along

 

[melvis]

Belated happy new year to you all.

Happy to report that things appear to be ok, despite struggling with a cyano outbreak that was unpleasant. Regular water changes and a blackout seem to be doing the trick.

Fish are doing really well and I added a cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp after a moment of impulse spending at the LFS. Not the best move so research has told me, but both seem to be fine and the wrasse is feeding well.

Issues with mag are bugging me, the levels seem to be wildy off at some points and then not far at others. Been getting the LFS to test this for me and it's coming in about 1250, but when I do it, it's as low as 960!!! Getting the missus to try later and see if I'm doing something basic wrong lol.

Other levels are all around where they should be, although nitrate was up to about 10 at its highest.

Missus got me a Vortech MP10 for my birthday and I'm looking forward to that arriving tomorrow so that I can create a bit more flow and hopefully keep the cyano at bay.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some corals soon.....or I'll :cry1:

 

[Oxylebius]

Hi melvis, sounds like user error or old test kit. If you are doing weekly water changes, you should have the Ca, Alk, Mg within normal levels. You don't have anything in the tank that should be sucking any out of the tank fast enough that you need to dose any of those. BTW, Ca and Alk are linked, if you are only dosing one then you are driving the other down.

I'd focus only on doing weekly water changes, maybe bumping the amount you are changing. Do this for a couple of weeks, and then test again. By doing this you will bring these levels back to normal ratios.