Low PH issues latley

I have been having an issue with very low PH lately and I cant seem to get it in line despite trying everything I can. My PH has always been on the low side in my tank due to high Co2 from myself, my wife, 5 year old son and 9 month old son all living in a small 2 bedroom townhouse. However lately its seems to be getting worse 7.8ish during the day and when I woke up this morning my PH was at 7.35..
Lately I have been using a lot of B-ionic to raise my alk to try and compensate for the low PH (currently alk is at 10Dkh) but the alk seems to drop very fast, it will stay up for a couple days then I check again and it will be much lower (6 to 7 range). I have tested Mg which is between 1250 and 1300 with a salifert Mg test kit so I don't think the Mg is the problem.
This morning I immediately opened the sliding door and front door on the lower level to get fresh air in the house and the PH raised to about 7.45 over the course of 45 minutes but I had to go to work so I dosed a little B-ionic which raised it to 7.6 where its at now.
I live in northern VA and its been excessively hot lately so I have been running the A/C a lot. It is a large A/C unit for my townhouse and brand new. I have heard the A/C drives down PH but I have no idea how it would do that. Its not releasing Co2 into the house or anything. I feel like we keep the house shut up way more in the winter when its freezing outside than in the summer but it never seems to be such a big issue in the winter as it is in the summer.
If anyone has any tips to help I would appreciate it.

Start up, lighting questions

Hi :)

Newbie here. Just started up our aquarium today. It's a 20 gallon Aqua Medic Blenny.
We purchesed our salt water and live stones and set up the aquarium.
Now the guy at the store told us to build up the hours of light, starting from.3 hours 15 minutes and adding 15 minutes every week u til we are at 10/12 hours. This should prevent huge amount of algae??
Now I thought algae was part of the process... And don't the stones need more light than just 3 hours?

Help! Confused! :confused:

Sunny SUNDAY!

Good Morning, Everyone! :)

Rewind and repeat the weather forecast today and this week with 90's and scattered showers and t-storms.

'Healthy' apple fritters to go with your favorite coffee this morning.

"Bodacious Bear". Walking in the woods and encountering a 500 lb. He-Bear is always good for the old adrenalin.



Have a Sublime Sunday!

Dick:)

Thank acrylic or extra clear glass

Hello
I'd replaced my current tank of 210 gallons with a new larger. I hesitate between a tank acrylic or extra clear glass. For acrylic it would seem that this material is very compelling to clean? I would reccueillir your opinion on the subject, thank you.

Free fish

Humu humu trigger, blue head wrasse, blue damsel and a sargent major

Mouth open?

Is this guys mouth open?

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Happy birthday to TrickyTangTrainer on 7/30!

And here's the Official TRT Chorus® to sing......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO YOUUUUU!!!!

A sea shore Saturday

Good morning TRt friends, and.....HAPPY SATURDAY! Same forecast as http://yesterday....sun/rain? Ain't sure, but growing up we'd call that a 'cop out'! :rolleyes: Any way.....buttermilk waffle to go with our coffee and pink milk to get us moving today. Hey Dave, do Y'All have fresh maple syrup year round, or is it seasonal? Was surprised earlier in my life to find out that in Florida, oranges were seasonal, and in the 'off season' restaurants served Minute-Maid orange juice. Looking at hopefully 1/2 day at, then again home for the real work. Hope all are well,
Hack

Blue Tang Blues

I just got a blue tang on Sunday for my 75 gallon tank, just a wee little thing, barely an inch long. He was doing so well up until tonight, and just recently too. I happened to walk by the tank and saw him swimming upside down in rapid circles. His gills look fine, not red or anything, but he's breathing very fast and he's pale. My LFS warned me that these fish can and will act batty, but I think 'belly up' is a sign I'm going to lose him. What could have caused this? All my parameters are perfect. My water is as clean as it's ever going to be right now. I am treating my tank with Ich attack because the clown tang I purchased with the blue surely has it. I would have QT them in the 35 gallon I still had set up, which I moved all my other fish from, but I accidentally dropped it and broke it the same night I got the fish. Everyone else in my tank is happy as a clam, even my Sailfin tang that I swear is a hypochondriac. I can't see anything visibly wrong with this blue tang save the very recent paleness and he's showed no signs of stress at all up until tonight.

What mounting kit do I need for an AI Hydra 52?

I'm a little confused on how these kits work. I'd like to use one of the rail systems that use the feet to sit on the edge of the tank, but I can't figure out which one fits my tank!

I won a hydra 52 HD LED, and I have a 29 gallon tank which is 30.25 inches long. They don't make a 30 inch rail, do you use a smaller one or bigger one? Which rail kit comes with the feet?

Sorry for all the noob questions, this is my first advanced light!

Skimmer overflowing

So I check my skimmer daily as I feed and monitor my water levels. Yet twice in the last few weeks I have come home from work to find my skimmer overflowing in my sump!?

Does anyone have any idea what causes this?

The only change I have made was yesterday I turned off my carbon/GFO reactor in anticipation of performing maintenance on it today.

New marine keeper

Hi there!

I am new to the board and somewhat new to marine tanks, though I have been keeping freshwater tanks for 25 years now. I've dabbled with marine in the past and failed pretty spectacularly. About a year ago, I decided to try again and set up a 20 gallon tank in my classroom. I've managed to keep a peppermint shrimp alive in it for a whole year and I very much enjoy him. Hoping to add some fish, other inverts and coral this year and looking for ideas and info on lighting upgrades.

Sudden nitrate spike and mucousy slime?

Need advice please! Went on vacation last week, and when I returned, I had a mucousy white stringy slime going on in my tank. I suspected the tank was overfed by housesitter while I was gone, then also noticed my starry blenny was MIA? I immediately did a 30% water change, and used a turkey baster to suck out the stringy stuff. I noticed that the coralline algae on one of the rocks had now been replaced with more of a white powdery looking coating. Inhabitants all seemed okay except for BTA. However after water change etc. he snapped back just fine. Now, 36 hours later, and slime is back.
Worried that a crab may have killed the blenny, but don't see any remains. Have read that dead or decaying livestock, can cause slime? Any advice would be appreciated. Will do another water change, and running skimmer 24/7. Also fresh carbon added, and will change it out again.
Testing shows ammonia and NO2 at 0, Ph 8.1, but NO3 spiked to about 30ppm and is usually 0. Also Ca2 460, Mg 1800 (normal for my tank) and Alk 6.85 (a little low)
THANK YOU!!

Choose Any Item: 15% OFF

Choose Any Item: 15% OFF

3 DAYS ONLY: 15% off the most expensive item in your order!

best calcium reactor ????

hey every body as some of you may know i am breaking my tank down to restart it due to real reef rock leeching phosphates and killing thousands upon thousands of dollars in live stock and i kinda want to try a calcium reactor because b ionic is just getting much to expensive i was looking at the geo line of reactors maybe the cr624 and i was just wondering if this is the best reactor and also my tank is 200 gal and will be mostly sps dominated


and also what other things would i need to buy to get this reactor running?
please list products
thanks !!!

WHY ME?! Morning Horrors. Help.

I don't know what happened, but I wish I did. Something is disagreeing with shrimp in my tank. I just spent the last hour cleaning up my second dead shrimp. I am never buying them again.

My first shrimp was a peppermint shrimp. He was my favorite critter in the tank. I named him Mario, because he was red and bounced around. I woke up one day to find my Serpent Star with a HUGE body, and no Mario to be found. The Serpent Star ate him. I took the serpent star back to the fish store and started over. I got a new shrimp. A coral banded shrimp.

I woke up this morning to find the remains of THAT shrimp with the snails already munching away, and my porcelain crab acting SUPER aggressively. My porcelain crab had a bit of the shrimps innards in its claws and was waving it around.

I thought my shrimp was molting, but no. It's super dead and I am super depressed. I am never buying shrimp again. I'm tired of my favorite little guys dying on me :mad:

Is it something in the water that I can't test for? Do shrimp die easily? Am I mixing the wrong critters together?

Here is a video of the crab being ultra aggressive. He was following me around snapping hic claws at me while I took pictures and filmed him.https://youtu.be/mIsrAAZOkkE

Here's crime scene photos.

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Flying Sea Anemone

Ok, so I didn't know they could do this, but I totally caught my anemone flying around the tank... Ive seen them let go and float a little but usually see them stay along the surface of the rocks... Anyway, it was pretty wild to watch so I thought I'd share!

Flight of a Sea Anemone

Hello from Dampmart

Hello
My name is Jacky, I am 52 years old and I live in France 20 kilometers from Paris. I make the aquarium for 30 years in fresh water and I started seawater ago 4 years. I registered on this forum because I want to know the type of maintenance and equipment used in the US for saltwater aquariums.
My tank is 800 liters and is dedicated to the maintenance of SPS corals

Let's hear it for FRIDAY!

Good morning TRT friends, and...HAPPY FRIDAY! Running a little early today, so there seems to be time to schlep some scramble egg bowls with bacon on the table this morning to go with our pink milk and coffee. High WARM, but not hot HOT for a bit here with sun/p. rain......how's that chamber of commerce? A little tank maintenance last night and how I regret those times I feel a bit lazy and put off scrapping those 'few spots' of Coralline algae' off, and instead having to deal with ALL that Coralline algae as a result. :rolleyes: Hope all are doing good, and have a day they're smiling about ahead of themselves. All the best,
Hack

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Aquarium Kits: Large to small, we have it all!

Aquarium Kits: Large to small, we have it all!

All-in-one tanks take away a lot of the guesswork of choosing equipment

New Video Series: What YOU Need to Know - VOL 1

New Video Series: What YOU Need to Know

Fast facts about our customer’s favorite products!

HELP! :bawling:

Hi everyone! I am new to this hobby...and am in dying need of as much help I can get!!!
Two months ago I was given a 75 SW tank with 50+ lbs of live rock, crushed coral for the bed (~3in deep in the tank), a clownfish and brown polyps. The tank came complete with a sump, bioballs, carbon bag (that needs to be changed probably), 3 Hydor powerheads, a skimmer, sponge filter, and water pump. I have set up the tank and have been running the tank for four days with the skimmer, I'm using ro/di water, the tank is at ~78F temperature. No fish or live animals are in the tank. I actually have the polyps and fish in a BioCube 14, I've had them there for two months and are doing well. I am in need of any useful info that I may need in order to acclimate the fish and polyps to put them in the 75G tank. When I went to purchase ro/di water the store owner told me to buy the Instant Ocean Bio Spira so I can put my fish and polyps in the tank asap. Is there anything I need to do to the tank before I add the Bio Spira? I also have the API Saltwater Master Test Kit. THANKYOU FOR READING!

Separate Lunar light w/ timer?

I have my lights connected to a light timer which is on a 12 hour rotation, and I want to add lunar lights to the tank. I was wondering if there's one that has a built in timer? If I have to, I'll buy another box timer, but they take up loads of space, and I'll have to calibrate both so that one cuts off and the other cuts on (hopefully) seamlessly.

I've googled the crap out of these, and not having much luck. It's a 20 gallon nano-reef setup.

White Things Between Zoanthids?

Just picked this coral up earlier today and got it in my QT.

I noticed maybe 2 or 3 of these white things in between them. It seems like it's on the base of the coral itself but i could be wrong..

I've done a bit of research and I have many ideas of what it COULD be but I'm not sure. Maybe a sponge but i had pineapple sponges in my old tank and this doesn't look like that to me..maybe a different kind of sponge? I heard that if it has the consistency of toothpaste its probably a bad bacteria, so I tried pulling on it a bit with a tweezers. I gave it a decent pinch and pull but it didn't come off or break open or anything like that at all. Then i was worried thinking maybe it got damaged on the ride home or something and its just a wound that I was pinching and making even worse.. as you can see I'm lost so any help would be greatly appreciated. My main concern is that it could be some sort of pest.

It's under full actinic light right now, and this phone cam is terrible. If you need a better pic I'll try to get one soon. Also they were all opened up until i took the pic, i rubbed near them to get them to close up so you guys could see the white thing better.

Thanks for any help or advice you can give me.

Need Advice on LEDs for 7g Nano

Hi, I have a 7 gallon (30l) nano reef which currently has the stock 'Dennerle Nano Marinus Reeflight 2:2 24 W'. Im hoping to house some really nice LPS as well as a selection of Ricordea mushrooms. However when I see the corals under LED lighting they look a lot better! My question Is which LED light would you suggest for this tank? The tank is 14" deep and 12" wide/ long.

I have found a UK site which seems to be selling good quality PAR bulbs, however I am unsure how powerful these would need to be? they have two available:

A 'PAR20 Quadspec bulb' which is 15w (http://ift.tt/2ae3HBd)

A 'PAR38 Quadspec bulb' which is 36w (http://ift.tt/2asKZmj)

I would like to spend less on the 15w bulb if it is adequate enough and could even buy another one of the Blue/Purple bulbs to supplement the 15w bulb. Another question is; would the PAR38 bulb fry the ricordea mushrooms I currently have under the 24w t5 compact unit?

Any advice is welcome! Thanks in advance :)

It's Thursday!

Good morning TRT friends, and.....HAPPY THURSDAY! Almost the weekend, well, for most, so hang in there. Still gonna be hot for a while longer, just not HOT! Passing thunderstorms possible each day on the 10 forecast, but that's normal in this heat. A box of Dunkin Donuts showed up on our table this morning, so help yourselves as there's plenty of coffee and pink milk to go with it. Hope all are safe, and well, and all the best to all,
Hack

Refurbishing an antique 185 tank-ADVISE NEEDED

I was given a beautiful 185 gallon double waterfall tank, that's seen much better days.
It needs to be resealed, and i'm going to have to remove the silicone between the panels. The top brace is good and stable except 1 corner.
I have Pond Armor for the bottom, Dap aquarium safe sealant, and GE silicone for the panels.
I need some more opinions and advise on how to proceed.
I really dont want to take this thing apart, but its mine now, and its got to hold water.
What do ya think?
Can I get by with just removing the silicone?

Thanks in advance!

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How much carbon and how long?

Just curious how much carbon people use and how long they leave it in for? I have never used it and my tank is thriving but the water has a tinge to it so I figured id give it a try. I filled up a phosban 150 all the way up with cheaper Petco brand activated carbon. My tank is a 120g sps tank with aa 30g sump, with rock and all id say roughly 120g total water volume. I have a fairly large bio load and my nitrates have gotten a little high as of late (40ish). Corals are growing like crazy though so no impact there.
Is a whole phosban reactor too much for my tank? Also how often should I change it out? Obviously I don't want it to add to the nitrates.

Calcium reactor: Looking for experience/recommendations

Title says it all: Looking for experience with an Aqua Excel Calcium Reactor CR50 w/ Sicce Syncra 2.0

Or to see if any have other recommendations. I'm looking for new, not used. Going for 250g+

Was considering a Reef Octpopus 8" Single Chamber as well, but I just feel they are a little over-priced.

Or if someone has other recommendations as well. I'm open minded.

when to add more fish

I added my first two fish 6 days ago feeding them twice a day and testing my water regularly. So far, all of my levels are still fine with nothing changing. When can I add more fish? some things I read said 1-3 weeks and others said at least 1 month. BTW I have a 60 gallon tank with a lyretail anthia and a coris wrasse and a clown which I used to cycle (poor decision I know the person I talked to about setting up told me to do that, what did I know!)

Aiptasia in Cycling Tank

So basically I think some aiptasia came with the LR I bought and if so I want to kill them before I introduce corals and fishes, and was thinking about the peppermint shrimp because I won't put any type of food in an tank without fishes and they would have to eat the aiptasias. On the other hand I heard shrimps should only be added at the end of the cycling process so I'm not sure what to do. The tank was built about a week ago with mature rock and it's a 50l ~ 13 gallon one.

PS. Sorry if I made any mistakes but english isn't my first language.

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Help with sump design and skimmer choice

Hi, I'm new here. I currently have a 40 breeder about 5 years old with no sump. I'm upgrading to a sump but have some questions I'm struggling with. I'm building a bigger stand so I can use my spare 40 breeder as a sump. I'm looking at the reef octopus classic INT skimmer. I can't post a link, because I don't have enough posts.
It says it's pump draws 90 gph. I thought you wanted flow through the sump to be 3-5 x system volume, so that would be 180 gph minimum if I have about 60 gallons total. My skimmer wouldn't be able to process that, but if I get bigger skimmers they're way too big for my system. I'm already concerned this skimmer is too big. It's rated for 60-130 gallons. Am I missing something?
The overflow I was looking at was a 700 gph max 1 1/2 " overflow from glass holes.com. They recommend it for my size tank.

My other question is how do I build my sump. I want it as simple as possible. Can I just use acrylic sheets for baffles and silicone them into my glass sump? I can't find specifics about how I should arrange my baffles. If the skimmer needs 7"" of water, I'm assuming I need the first baffle at 7""? How do I set up the other baffles an how many do I need?
Thanks

New here, kind of

It's been a while since I've posted here, but I lurk on and off. I'm wondering if one of the moderators can help me. I'm formerly photovet ( been here for several years ). I've had a terrible time with the security problem. I never got an e-mail to reset my account in my inbox or junk, so I created a new account which worked for a day and then got blocked by the security thing and won't let me re-set my password. Again, I don't get e-mails. So, I've created a third account. I'm running out of e-mails, so this may be my last chance. :mad:
When I register a new account, I get the e-mails fine.
Anyway, I hope everyone is well. I'll post this same thing in the new member welcome area also, but I did that with my second account last week and a moderator asked me to private message them, which I did, but then I was blocked within a couple days.
Photovet / gbpkrz

Is it time to cook

I have two tanks up and running my first tank 72 Gal bow I have had for over 5 years now and my 220Gal that has been up for a year. the 220 I started from scratch But my first tank was an existing set up that I bought and I have no idea how many years it was up and running before I had it. The past few months I have had to travel a lot for work and my tank cleaning has suffered. My one year old tank looks fine. The older tank is full of green allege on all the rocks. I keep trying to scape as much as I can off and do water changes but it does not seem to help much.

My thought is to put some fresh dry rock in give it some time to populate then start to cycle out my old rock and cook it then put it back. Over the past year I have pulled almost all the coral out of the smaller tank as I was converting it into a small predator tank. right now the only live stock is a porcupine puffer and snow flake ell

HouYi LED lights

Does anybody have any experience with this company? We have somebody selling a LED light on craigslist and was wondering where this company falls and the price for a new unit? The light is 48 inch, 88 LEDS 3w per LED. Says they are CREE leds.

As with all Chinese company you have to treed very carefully.

Hello Wednesday!

Good morning TRT friends, and.....HAPPY WEDNESDAY! A smidge cooler today, with temps in the low 90's and sunshine. Still going with the Pop-Tarts though for a quick and easy start to go with our coffee and pink milk.....even added the 'brown sugar-cinnamon' ones to our assortment last night. George, quick question since you're a fellow knuckle buster.......We just replaced our aged, Korean war era, crane with a 'newer one', probably from the 70's. I haven't had time to look it over yet in detail, but it's a Case 3330B 'deck crane'. Just curious if you had any experience around them? Got to go to the Golden Corral last night for dinner, then a cool dip in the pool, and then feet up to watch Percy Jackson and the Sea Monsters'. Got a Doc's appt. early this morning, so will be leaving a tad latter than usual for there then work. Hope all are safe and well, and have good things in their sights today...all the best,
Hack

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Hammer coral not opening

Hey there folks....okay I got a hammer coral about 3-4 weeks ago and its just not coming out all the way. My water parameters are as follows. Salienty .26, phosphates 0, nitrate 0, alk 9, calcium 420, mag 1350, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, PH 8.3. I have a 90 gallon tank with 2 1200GPH sicee voyagers. Plenty of LR. I have him on the bottom. Its colors are GREAT!...but its just not fully extending at all...can it some how be the water flow. Its situated on the side of my tank almost in an overhang but just outside of it. I cant figure it out. Its driving me crazy. When I first got it this was a coral only tank so far with no fish...so I was not feeding the tank. I since noticed the sexy shrimp I have were spending quite a bit of time on it so I started feeding them pellets and introduced two scissor tail dartfish...since them the sexy shrimp do not seem to be bothering it. The coral looks like its tentacles minus the purple tips come out about 1/4 extended and the purple tips are closed pretty tightly within...sometimes though at random times the coral is completley closed up and then comes out again to the point mentioned above...I dont get it. Also it is a small frag. Also the skeleton structure looks great and it actually seems to be growing. Something wants to lead me to the fact that possibly the sexy shrimp being hungry has pissed it off and maybe its taking a while to recover...dont know. Please no questions about water parameters...there fine...lets focus on the more important things. thanks.

New Blackwater Setup

Well, I finally made the plunge into freshwater. It is the first freshwater tank I've had in probably twenty years. I decided to keep it interesting and go with a blackwater tank.

I used a 20 high and put an Aquaclear 30 on it. I have a large piece of driftwood to build around. I added Indian almond leaves and made my own background. I made the background out of the expanding foam that is used for fish ponds and pressed peat into it. It will definitely be acidic. I used blasting media for the substrate and added a few pieces of granite and rhyolite that I found.

The one concern I have is the pH. I use RO/DI water and added baking soda to buffer it. It was 5.8 until I added 1/2 tsp of baking soda and it brought it up to 7.0. I'll have to get that under control before I can even think about fish. I'll probably have to run zeolite because the biological filtration doesn't really work below about 6.5 pH. I will probably use a 7.0 buffer that is commonly sold instead of baking soda. It will be easier to keep consistent results.

As you can see, the light is just an extremely cheap clip on light with a 100 watt 6500k compact fluorescent.

As far as fish, I'm thinking about a pair of rams with maybe some tetras and some cory cats. I'd like discus but the 20 gallon isn't nearly big enough.

I set it up about an hour ago and turned on the filter and heater. It turned out awesome, I think. Let me know what you think and let me know if you have any advice or comments. Like I said, this is my first freshwater in a long time so advice is welcome.

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VIDEO: How to Build a FOWLR Tank

How to Build a FOWLR Tank

Fish-only with live rock aquariums are great for newcomers to the saltwater hobby!




http://ift.tt/2ajGBaM]

Hello from the UK

Hi

Stumbled across this site while looking for some info and thought id register as I have found the forums I am already a member of invaluable for information. After keeping tropical freshwater fish off and on over the years September 2015 I decided I wanted to embark on a salty adventure and so October 2015 I set up my first reef tank. Initially I started with a couple of soft corals and then added some LPS most of the softies have now gone and I have embarked on keeping SPS along with my LPS.

on the Whole I have been happy with how things have gone and feel that I have had more success than failure and I am hoping to be able to use the forum in learning more and swapping ideas. Whilst I have seen many tanks that are more coral heavy and a lot more colourful like I said I'm pretty happy with how things have gone and look forward to using the site to progress further in this fascinating hobby

Colin

Hello

I have a 6 gallon stock nanocube in box, I am new to saltwater but I have done freshwater for years. I am hoping to gain knowledge from this site and eventually be able to share knowledge.

How much can I put in a 6 Gal. Nanocube

I have a nanocube 6 gallon, I am going to put 10lbs of live rock in it, and I am going to put a 2 inch bed of live rock in the bottom. I want to build a tank with corals, inverts, and either a pair or single clownfish. What do you think I should put into it, I am going to run premade saltwater and the stock lighting and filtration system unless there is a low cost alternative. I can't afford the bigger tank or space so this is what I have got.

Thanks in advance.

Reef Newb, just saying hi

Hi everyone, my name is Jessica. I am starting to really get into saltwater reef aquariums as a serious hobby about 4 months ago, and felt that getting invested in the community of reefers was beneficial. So, here I am.

I (like many who came before me) am new to Reef Aquariums. I had freshwater tanks for over a decade, and always wanted a saltwater reef tank. I didn't get saltwater out of intimidation of maintenance. I finally took the plunge *cough*badpun*cough* about 4 months ago. Now I am hooked. (Ok I'll stop with jokes)

I followed online suggestions and started with live sand, and rock. Then CUC, and then fish and shrimp. Now I am 4 months in, and introduced coral on Saturday. My Salinity/pH is good, nitrates are low, and everything seems super healthy. I have 2 clownfish, a porcelain crab, banded shrimp, and a Sixliner to eat the flatworms that were freakin' everywhere. It's a 20 gallon tank, and everything seems fine.

Thats why I am worried. It can't be fine, right? I have to be missing something. Lighting is halogen, so I have concerns there. Filter is low powered, but circulation seems ok. Algae is virtually nonexistent. What am I missing? My sixliner ate all the worms. Will it be ok without them?

Once I move to the new house, Im getting a BIG tank, so this 20gal is my experiment before I sink bigtime money into my reef. I want an RO filtration system, maybe cycle water through a smaller saltwater tank filled with just plants and CUCs? Day/Moon lighting maybe? There's a lot I want to do, but I'm not sure what's best. Whatever I go with, I want to start right. Its going to cost me thousands, so there's no way I can afford screwups.

So here I am. My trust is in your expert opinions. I look forward to knowing y'all.

-Jess

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Greetings fellow Earthlings

Hello, I'm Jerry, and I am a fishoholic.
So, back in the day I have had both saltwater and freshwater aquariums. But life, children, and work have a way of taking priorities, and so they should. But now, I'm picking up the hobby again. Much has changed in the equipment and knowledge and I'm excited to Get my 36 gallon system up and running. Not sure I bring much to the table but I look forward to some good discussions of our hobby.

Still hot Tuesday

Good morning TRT friends, and.....HAPPY TUESDAY! Another HOT one, but hasn't been unbearable as we've kept the on-shore breeze at the shore. Inland where I live....yeah, it' gotten down right hot. Reloaded on some of our favorite Pop-Tarts last night, so don't be shy, and lots of coffee and pink milk as well. 'East Jabip' is still safe from the onslaught of invading houseboats! NOPE, didn't git! '45 FOOT!Was too big for the truck.' Hey folks....how big is 45'? You tell a trucking company something is 45'.....IT'S FORTY FIVE FEET! This is now the 4th trucker that has shown up and couldn't get this boat to work on their truck. :confused: We have 2 reputable truckers we use, and highly recommend, yet not once has the owner called either of them.....real curious as to WHY? Found our son is addicted to Taco Bell......Gave him a choice where he wanted to dine last night when I got home.....and I had some of our all time fav's at the top of the list, notably Golden Corral as my fingers crossed choice.....but nope....Taco Bell with the happy dance to drive his enthusiasm home. Well, I guess there's worst places...Mc Donalds comes to mind. I have to dine there 2-3 times a week while at work. :rolleyes: I hope all are well, and can find COOL THINGS to do today in this heat, all the best,
Hack

Is this an aiptasia on my snail? Please help!

I just got this snail and I saw this thing on it, I'm afraid it might be an aiptasia but I've had many people tell me it's a brown feather duster. Is that what it is? A feather duster?

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I have a 200l fish only marine aquarium. What is the correct turnover rate? Right now

I have a 200l fish only marine aquarium. What is the correct turnover rate? Right now I have an internal filter rated at 1290 l/h and wave maker at 1000 l/h. That's about 11 and a half times turnover. Is that enough?

MarsAqua 165w settings...help!

Hey ya'll...need some advice for the lighting settings in my 10 gallon nano tank. I know that MarsAqua is not the best quality light, but for such a small tank I didn't want to spend a ton of money and I've used these lights fairly successfully in the past. I'm just struggling to figure out why my tank is currently not thriving. It seems as though my monti looks pretty good, my galaxea colony looks ok, but my frogspawn and kenya tree aren't fully opening. My Sunny-D polyps are shrinking. My green mushrooms look just fine. Currently I have the full spectrum set at the lowest possible level, and blues set halfway between off and when the fans kick in. I have it located 12 inches above a standard 10 gallon tank. Any tips or advice? I'm new to the world of LEDs so I really have no idea what kind of light levels I should be running.

Thanks in advance!

powerhead to strong for tank?

I have a 60 gallon tank with a fluval sea CP4 powerhead that is rated for 90 gallons at 1375 gph. is this too strong for my tank because my clown, coris wrasse and a lyretail anthias so far and the clown and anthia sometimes seem to struggle to swim the clown stays in the corner where the least current is but does come out occasionally. should I get rid of this and get two smaller ones? Thanks:)

State of the Hobby

I was curious as to what people on this forum feel about the state of the hobby right now. Do you feel the hobby is in a good place? I am curious as to what everyone thinks and I believe it could be an interesting discussion.

A quick look at a couple aquarium phrases through google trends (which creates graphs based upon search data through its engine) indicates that the hobby has been slowly losing popularity over the last 8 to 10 years or so.

For example:






I find this a bit disconcerting but I do want to know what others think about where we are at as a hobby right now.

ID these tenticles

was just a few, now a few short weeks later they are taking over the tank and getting really long

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Online store

Can anyone provide recommendations for online stores for coral and fish? Unfortunately the only store that's local is way over priced. Thank you!

Lathanum chloride dosing tips for nano?

So this will be my last ditch effort to cure my tank of the bryopsis algae problems its been facing for quite some months now.

Already tried the following:
-peroxide dosing (zoas hate it, my mandarin got skinny after dosing it which probably means it killed off alot of my pods. Acans went polyp bailout.)
-tech M took my levels to 1700 for 2 weeks and nothing, used a whole big bottle on my 37g lost some snails.
- Manual removal (just grows back)
- Turning off the red/green leds on my photon v2
- Daily or every other day been doing 15-30% waterchanges (30% when its every other day)
- Ran biopellets for a month or two but it caused a cyano outburst and quickly fried the stylo frags. Been running gfo in a phosban 150 since, changed about 2 times already. (50 grams)
- Always blow rocks off with baster, the increasing bryopsis is trapping more and more detritus
- Daily skimmer cleaning on a reef octo 152(rated like 4x over my volume)(dry skim)
- Been sucking out more and more of my sandbed every week(doing this slowly even though its only a 2" bed)

I drain my frozen food before feeding, turn off punps to feed, and run filter sock while feeding or cleaning. Im at my wits end and the lathanum chloride, although not very safe imo, will be the best effort i have left to decrease the phosphates that are fueling this crazy growth. The bryopsis has even outgrown my chaeto and its not growing any bigger in sump now

Does anyone have success or atleast experience in handling this chemical in nanos? How do you go about dosing, and what micron filter sock should i implement to avoid any sediment making it back through the loop?

Thanks for reading, and any additional help you can deliver, hoping i can get tank stable before i start PA school otherwise i dont see myself having the time to start all over again.

-Scott

Air bubbles on rocks?

So I have noticed as of late that I have tiny air bubbles on my rocks. Nothing slimy holding them down, just air bubbles. I will blow them off with a turkey baster, then the next day they are back. You can also see them at night.

Any ideas?

My only guess is after I blow the rocks off, air gets trapped and slowly makes it way back out?

180 gal break down need fish and coral gone asap

ok every body I'm breaking down my 180 gal reef tank and completely restarting it and i need my fish and coral gone asap and just a side note
not all corals look to good because the real reef rock released a lot of phosphates into my tank causing a lot of things to brown out bleach or die but hopefully whoever buys them will be able to turn that around ad that doesn't apply to all corals
for sale
14 inch blonde naso tang male with streamers $330
12 inch male desjardini sail fin tang $375
2 yellow tangs 3-4 inches $40 each
2.5 inch baby aussie tusk $200
4 inch chevron tang $200
8 inch orange shoulder tang $150
6 inch male checker board wrasse $100
4 inch terminal phase australian male melanarus wrasse $100
3.5 inch coral beauty angel fish $40

i also have a lot of coral so just tell me what your looking for and i will probably have some of it


please email me a little bit in advanced so i can trap your fish and have it ready for you to pick up ;)

email me at jared agray@ iCloud.com - (no space just all one word) for pics
i am located in carlsbad san diego

Yellow Goby MIA

So I purchase a very small, about 1/2 yellow goby from the fish store. I have a 75 gallon tank with the rocks set up in the middle. Put him in the tank and haven't seen him since. I have about 80 pounds of live rock that have several places for him to hide.

I have look everywhere I can but see nothing. Try to feed everywhere to see if I could see him dart out, nothing. He is not in the overflow and hasn't went carpet surfing.

Any ideas? I spot feed most of the fish so I hoping he gets some food.

Thank has
2 clowns (small)
1 Kole Tang
2 Chromes
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Emeral crab
15 Snails
10 Hermits

Yup, It's Monday

Good morning TRT Faithful

Coffee is on....English muffs with assorted jams to start...it's rather early.

So we got soaked doing a wedding on Saturday. Carriage carpet is still wet and will stay in the sun another day.

Da prep, Da Bride-to be, Da wet.

Now Da wet is Nancy driving caraie while I turned our large rig around to park. She does not like to drive horses, but she will not turn trailer around in tight places.

Enjoy everyday

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ID of this zoa?

I have this zoa colony but I forgot what they were called. The outer ring is orange and the "eye" is purple. Sorry if the picture is bad, i took it with my cellphone

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New Banngai Cardinal Fry

I didn't start out trying to breed Banngai Cardinals but as luck would have it, the pair I bought a year ago are a match. After the first time I saw the textbook bulldog look of the male with eggs in his mouth, I started reading all I could about these marvellous fish. So I have just had my first somewhat successful birth and wanted to briefly share my experience and hopefully help others. Briefly, my set up is a 90g reef about 5 years old. Along with a mix of corals I have a couple of percula hosting in a large BTA, six line wrasse, yellow tail damsel, Mandarinfish, fox face and of course the 2 Banngai. I don't have a sump (I know, I know) so use an Octopus BH-1000, Fluval FX5 and have 2 48" Marineland Reef LED's. Biweekly water changes of 10g keep my parameters in check.
Now for the fry. I had 2 occasions where the male had eggs but only carried them to about day 15 and either swallowed them or spit them. During this time it gave me an opportunity to consider my options should he carry to term. I knew if he spit them out in the tank they would not survive so I knew I would have to somehow collect the fry or catch the male in advance. I don't have an urchin as is recommended as a natural haven for the fry to go to when born for protection so I made a fake one out of a long narrow spiral shell apx 3" and attached about 20 small nylon zip ties. I was thinking of placing the fake urchin in a plastic breeding container and placing it in the bottom of my tank. The thinking was that if the fry made it to the fake urchin I could lift the whole container out of the tank with the fry inside. My other option was to try to catch the male and keep him in a breeding net until he spit out the fry.
Well on June 18 the male stopped eating again and this time he carried past the 15 day mark. While I was excited the timing couldn't have been worse as we were heading out on a family vacation in the coming week and had a friend house sitting and therefore watching the fish.
As it got closer to both the birth (I figured around Day 23 and our leaving for vacation on what would be Day 25) I decided I would try to catch the male. On Day 20 I successfully caught him and he didn't spit the eggs/fry, whew.
So the other complication I had been thinking about was how to feed the fry the artemia. Obviously with the fish sitter I had to think of something easy. So here's what I did. I found this great contraption which I'm sure most of you have heard of; Tom's Hatch n Feed. I bought one of these and I cut a small hole in the breeding net just big enough to slip the end of the Htach n Feed where the brine shrimp swim out into the area where the fry would be once released. I started making artemia on Day 20 after I had caught the male to make sure everything was working as planned.
With this figured out, on Day 23 the male still had not spit the fry and on the morning of Day 24 still no babies. Stressing about leaving on vacation for 9 days and maybe stressing the male out too much I decide to "induce" labor. I had seen this done in an online post; basically I just lifted the breeding net out of the water very briefly ie less than 1 sec and then as I put the net back the water out came 8 fry!
To make a long story short (I'm trying), I think the male still had more in his mouth but for fear of stressing him out I let him go back into the main tank. The 8 fry were very young looking and within an hour 2 had died. Six survived a few hours but by night we could only find 5 alive. I had put my fake urchin in the breeding net and they all took to it immediately and schooled together but perhaps one or two went into the shell and died in there. Five survived the first night and with instructions given to our fish sitter on how to add eggs to the a Hatch n Feed every 12 hours, off we went on vacation. On Day 2 of the fry being released our fish sitter reported only being able to see 3 of them. I assured her not to stress and that likely they would all die through no fault of hers, just bad timing.
Well, here we are home from 9 days away and on Day 11 of their life the 3 remaining look healthy and strong. Obviously the Hatch n Feed idea is working well. The net needed to be cleaned so I was able to catch the 3 fry and move them to another breeding container while I cleaned the net. So, fingers crossed they live on and guess I will have to prepare for another clutch soon as the pair seem to be very active breeders. I will raise them as best I can and hope to get them to my LFS or any local peeps who might want some tank raised Banggai's.
Hopefully this post will help someone else. I'm quite proud of the Hatch n Feed setup as this eliminates the need for all the pop bottles etc. I'll see if I can post some pics to this thread to show you the setup.
Happy reefing!

Anemone pooping? Or dying.

Just got BTA recently and he seems to have this stringy white stuff near his mouth. Is he just pooping or is something worse happening, like him spitting his guts out or something. Also the stringy white stuff has been there for a few hours now...

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Sunday

Morning all saw a couple people on so I waited,but no one started so here you go coffee with make your own kind of omlets.Happy Birthday Cath! Enjoy it. Going to be hot one today and at least till the middle of the week here! Stay cool all!

Happy Happy Birthday Cath!!!!!

Happy Birthday Cath!!!!

break down :(

I'm breaking down my 180 gal reef for now but I'm gunna set it back up in a few weeks I'm just having to many issues and i want to start fresh I'm going to do a bb tank and have all 4 mp40s on max power for sps coral and I'm also going to get new rock does anyone have any recommendations for rock i was thinking about doing 150 pounds of brs pukani and 20 pounds of mrs tonga branch and i was also wondering how should i cure the rock so it doesn't leech phosphates and last but not least how should i get rid of my current fish and coral

Remove and replace refugium algae??

Hello all,
(Taken today)
Ph:8.1
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40
Phos: 0
Calc 420
Temp 79
Lots of what appears to be hair algae

I have noticed a signuficant drop off in copepods in my refugium and tank. My tank is 2 + months old.

Setup:
Corallife BioCube 29 (heavy mod)
Chamber #1 corallife skimmer, heater
Chamber #2 InTank media rack (floss, purigen, chemipure blue. Along side a InTank fuge basket with corallife fuge light and chaeto and someother red algae (refugium stRter kit from liveaquaria) with some peices of live rock /coral rubble.
Chamber #3 stock return pump, sponge and IM reactor running GFO.
Lighting Orbit usa pro 18" led.
Mp10 quiet drive power head
Apex controller

When i first added the complete starter refugium kit about a month and a half ago, i noticed copi's and amp's EVERYWHERE in refugium and tank. EVERYWHERE!

About 1.5-2 weeks after install of fuge, i had a tank crash (due to the fact im a newbie and removed ALL the bioballs that were housing my beneficial bacteria at the same time so i could install refugium) my levels went through the roof on every parameter... But i lost no fish or coral thankfully due to a week off of work and 10% water changes daily. However the copi amp population virtually disappeared. I just checked the contents of the fuge today, no bugs and the algae smelled and broke apart completely. The fuge is supplying food to my two ruby dragonettes and 6 line wrass... Now im worried about dragonettes starving. The wrass eats anything including all my shrimp and 2 snails.( PS added a full bottle of trigger pods to fuge about 3 days ago... All are gone)

So now FINALLY to my question... Should i remove the entire contents of the fuge and replace with a brand new starter kit and rubble? Or would this lead to another tank crash? My tank has approx 25 lbs of live rock in the display... PLEASE HELP! Thanks for listening to me ramble!

when can i add corals

so I just finished my cycle my tank has been running for just about 5 weeks I was wondering when I can start adding corals and which ones are the hardiest and easiest to keep for beginners. I know I cant add them yet I'm just trying to plan ahead for the future

Just starting

Hello everyone.
Im just starting a salt water tank for the 1st time. I dont know anything about salt water. Long time cichlid lover (20+ years).... central american and African. Im starting a 55 long tank. Ppl have told me its not the best tank to do salt, but its the only spare tank i have hanging around. Started the tank yesterday. Added water, salt, live sand (used from a friend) and a piece of live rock from lfs. What's next?

BTA floating round top of tank

So I just got a shipment of fish from saltwaterfish.com, and with the fish I got a BTA and a condy. When I took him out of the bag he had an air bubble inside of him. I'm kind of new to anemones so I don't know if that's a bad thing. He will only stay in an area for about 20 minutes before floating up again. I can't really get a good angle on his mouth but it might be open. I'll post a pic as soon as I can see it. Right now he's barely hanging on to a rock.

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New here

I have a 55 gallon tank. I have had fish for a year and now I'm just starting to get corals. I'm addicted! I'm also on a very tight budget. . Bad combination with this hobby lol.

Happy Birthday Koga1985 & marinefish4life !!! 7/23

Happy Birthday
Koga1985 & marinefish4life!!!

A sweltering seashore Saturday

Good morning TRT friends, and.....HAPPY, HOT SATURDAY! If the breeze continues 'on shore' will be a great day to lay on the beach and work on your roasting, oooops, I mean tan. Fingers crossed for a 1/2 day so I can get home and do some real work around the yard......grass cutting, pool step repair, ect. Hopefully Y'All have found your favorite flavor Pop-Tarts in our cupboard since that's what's going back on our table this morning with the coffee and pink milk. Jen's been up all night with her cakes, 'Lil' Hack just went to lay down.....times we don't know if we're coming or going, day or night around here. Hope all are well, and can find COOL things to do today.:cool:...all the best,
Hack

The coral of my tank (Video)

Here is a quick video I made of the coral in my tank! Hope you all enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU9JS7xrHis

New Wrasse just laying on sand

So I just bought a Coris Wrasse today (July 22) and he is just laying on his side on the bottom of the tank. I bought it from my lfs who just had it shipped in today. Could it just be still sedated from the shipping or is something wrong with him. I don't notice him breathing rapidly or heavily and none of the other fish or inverts are doing this.

I just setup my 55g tank fish only. I have a wave maker and an internal filter. I am

I just setup my 55g tank fish only. I have a wave maker and an internal filter. I am considering buying a canister filter. Which is best, the aquanova 1200 or the jebo 828?

New Guy Al

Howdy. I'm Al, 25 years old from a town you've never heard of in Wisconsin.

This is a hobby which I'm relatively new to. I figured I would just do what I usually do and dive in and learn from my mistakes as I go. However, I'm starting to realize in the reefing world learning from your own mistakes isn't the most economical way to go. Especially when many of you have probably already learned the hard way for me :P... I just upgraded my tank from a free 29g to a 55g (55$ at petco with their $/g sale) so I feel like this is a fresh start for me to do it right in the first place.

I've always enjoyed forums. Hopefully I can learn enough here to be able to contribute that knowledge back to future new members and let the wheel of knowledge keep on rolling.

Hitchhiker id

Anyone have any idea what this would be? It has appeared in my tank,first time ive seen it in the 8 months my tank has been up.must have been on the live rock i originally put in.for what it matters,the rock came from florida gulf.on the photo it is on the front glass of my tank and actually shows both sides,looks like a snail

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Never Ending battle with Diatoms

All,

Can anyone give me any more advice on getting rid of these diatoms. I am not sure how they started (i have an idea).

I went on vacation for a few days and my wife fed the fish. When i got home the tank was still fine then i went on another trip a few days later ( i did water change prior to the second trip).

That trip i had friend stop and feed the fish. He only had to stop one day and do it.

Since around that time i have had diatoms. I cant imagine the tank was over fed by that much to cause this battle. It has been 3 months i have had diatoms on the sand bed. I do weekly 10-15 gallon water changes. (120 gallon tank)

Even after cleaning the sand bed (i do it every week) The bed looks clean for about 6 hours then they start appearing again. I run GFO. I have a skimmer. Recently set up a UV Sterilizer. Use red sea coral pro salt. RODI water. I dose a small (5 ml ) of calcium and alk.

I have reduced my lighting (led maxspect razor) in both intensity and time length (11 am to 9 pm ramp up and down time included) I have done a few larger water changes (about 20 gallons)

I am thinking of buying the Bulk Reef Supply high capacity GFO . Will that help?

My water tests look good. I am just getting frustrated with this and cant figure out what i can do. If i turn off my lights for a few days everything clears up but then within a few days it is back.

Any suggestions?! i really appreciate any input I do have an extra BRS reactor that i can run something else in. Any suggestions are really appreciated. If i didn't have so much money tied up in the tank i would just tear down and take a break but i dont want to give up.

Aptasia?

Can any one confirm for me that this is a glass Attachment 131073 it has blossomed quick but most of what I've seen online is with longer tentacles

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Happy, HOT Friday

Good morning TRT friends, and.....HAPPY FRIDAY! Gonna start getting HOT'ish around here for a bit now....hopefully you had enough 'fun' yesterday George that you can take a few days off during the worst part of this heat wave. More Pop-Tarts to go with our coffee and pink milk.....the variety grows with each trip to the store. Lots of Gator Ade to take for the road as well. Hope all are well, and can stay cool....all the best,
Hack

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Finally Upgrading to 75g, but how?

Hey guys , so I'm finally planning on upgrading my 55g reef to a 75g, the hard part is that the new tank is going in the same spot as the old one so it would have be " quick " switch. Now I heard that I have to get all new sand, can I kill some of the sand that's in my tank now and use the dead sand with the orginal live sand together ? Also will this new tank cycle? It's concerning , so I'm going to try to save all 55g of my water but I would have to make 25g of pre mix to make up. Any tips on storing fish and corals during this? Do I have to acclimate all the fish again? Also I don't have a skimmer , but I was going to buy the reef octopus classic 100 hob skimmer, for $150, but since its a 75g would the classic 1000 for $190? And would I need a bigger heater, It was given me so I'm thinking its standard for 55g so. A major reason for me upgrading is that I just bought a small hippo tang and I know that the fish will grow out of the tank so why not upgrade now. Thank you:confused:

Help picking a pump

Hi Everyone,

I am currently setting up a 110 gallon sps tank, I can't quite figure out what pumps would be good for a tank of this size. The tank is at about 4 feet above the sump. Anyone have any good recommendations?

Filefish just swam into carpet anemone but I pulled it out

My filefish just got such a fright while I was feeding my anemone. It darted straight into my carpet anemone and I immediately got him out. What am I to expect. Did I save him as he is swimming around like normal or is he slowly dying. It's the matted filefish.

What salt mix do you use ?

I've looked around and havent found a recent thread on salt mix. I also have seen in the past company's change there level in there mix or just not be consistent. I'm curios what salt mix you use, why and what the levels are when mixed? Maybe you use NSW like some on here I'd like to know from where , levels and how long you've been using NSW?
NSW is an option for me I've just been sceptical because of bacteria and pollution but I read a thread that paulb uses water from Manhattan? Curios how that's working out?

Bowser or candy apple red paly?

I recently purchased what I thought to be a bowser paly, just need to confirm if I was actually sold a bowser paly

Skimmer issues?

I've got the bubble magnus curve 7 and I'm not able to get a wet skim. Skimmer is in 11.5 " of water. I built the the sump to the deep side of the recommended depth
( easier to raise then lower). At max recommend depth I can't get a wet skim I've got some pictures I'll post below of the maximum skimate received.
I have a ASM mini g skimmer that I was replacing as an upgrade that I'm probably going to put back in service. I can set the asm to skim wet or dry In 9" of water.
All the searches I've done have only produced issues with overflowing I wish that was my problem.
Photo below shows the amount of skimate received in 7 hours. Not much in my opinion

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Heating up Thursday

Good morning TRT friends, and.....HAPPY THURSDAY! As the title says, HEAT IS COMING! Hopefully not as bad as you have it Jeff, but looks like we have a week or so starting around these parts in the mid, to upper 90's. And it's that 'wet heat' that comes from living along the coast.:rolleyes: Boy, glad I don't work in a boatyard, or near a furnace. Got some fresh Thomas's English Muffins and assorted jellies to go with our coffee and pink milk to get us going today. And Cooper is looking super Dave! Hope all are well, and can find fun stuff in their day today,
Hack

New here, kind of...

Hi, I've actually been on here for a few years, but I couldn't get the password reset to work for me, so I had to start a new account. Wondering if I should just keep the new account or if one of the admins can reset my old account. I was formerly photovet
Thanks
GoBucky, er Photovet

New To The Site

Hello,
My name is George, and I'm new to this site. I currently have 2 freshwater aquariums, a 60 gallon community tank, and a 29 gallon African cichlid tank. I've recently purchased a 75 gallon aquarium that will become a saltwater/reef tank. In the past, I've kept a small saltwater tank (along with numerous freshwater ones), of 10 gallons, that was fine, but I definitely didn't do everything the "right" way with it! With the 75, I plan to follow the book (or books, since there are so many out there right now!) and do things "right" from the beginning. I've already run across one mystery, which I guess I'll post in the appropriate forum rather than this one. :)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to being a part of the community!
George:fish:

Hello to all

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum, I finally gave in, and decided to join after all of these years.

Few things about myself,

I am from Los Angeles, CA

I have been in the hobby for about 7 years now

My current setup is a 90 gallon mixed reef, I will be upgrading to a 110 Sps dominant in the following weeks, currently waiting for most of my equipment to come in the mail :drool:

Love this site, and I feel that I am now finally able to provide useful information to others in need. I will be putting up some photos once i get my new build started.

911!

Oh boy, so I posted a few days ago that my brain worm had 2 holes but than went away. Now I see three (the two original and one new) but it looks like the rest of the coral is pulling away!

Its been in the tank about 40 days with no issue. It sends up tons of feeders every night and twice a week I do give a capfull of two little fishies marine snow. Is this from too much or too little light? Its about low/mid placement in tank.

Tank is a 40 gallon with 40 pounds live rock. Nitrate 5ppm, nitrite ammonia zero. pH 8.0 and alkalinity at 8. salinity 1.024. I do a 20% water change every saturday with water pre-made on friday. I only use Ro/DI and TDS always zero.

I have a 90w zetlight LED with 80% blue/violet now and 50% 12k led

fish in tank are false clown, six line, a dart

Man, I hope I don't lose this thing

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Stock up and save on flakes, pellets, and seaweed!

Stock up and save on flakes, pellets, and seaweed!

Dry food and RO/DI specials + new gear from top brands!

Maxspect gyre xf150

Hey guys/gals. Just wanted some feedback on,the gyre. Was looking to invest in one. I currently have a 125gal 6' long . currently using,a 1500gph koralia and a 1200gph koralia on each side controlled by the hydor wave maker. Any ideas if this would be an upgrade or not?

Taking any feedback. Def dont have the money to,spend on,2 mp40s ,which was my,oroginal plan

Shrimp Molting and goby behavior

I've got a pretty new tank sitting on my desk at work, with a cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp and a yasha goby. Also 2 small clowns and cuc. I left them in great shape on Friday, and came back to work Tuesday. Everything looked good, except my pistol shrimp and yasha goby seemed to be missing.

I figured they were in a burrow under one of my rocks and didn't worry too much. In fact today I saw them both and they are healthy.

I also noticed that my cleaner shrimp molted, and it appears that the pistol shrimp also molted over the weekend. I think that's why he was hiding for a couple days. Is it normal for shrimp to molt so soon after being placed in a new tank? Since they both molted the same weekend, it's almost as if the new tank environment triggered them to molt.

Chiller needed

I am looking for a chiller for my 55 gallon tank. It has to be able to maintain 50 degree temp. This is actually for a classroom project hatching trout for release into a local waterway.

Yep, it's Wednesday!

Good morning TRt friends, and....HAPPY WEDNESDAY! Have fun Cath, and be safe. Cupboard full of assorted Pop-Tarts to go with our coffee and pink milk to get this hot day going.....no cooking for me in this heat. Lounged in the pool after last night's BBQ, and the evening air turned surprisingly almost chilly. But 1/2 way through the night I did have to wake up and turn the a.c.back on.....was just a 'hiccup' in the heat wave. Y'All remember that youngster I was asked to take under my wing at work and show him a trade? The one that tried to paint anything that is in reach when he paints? Well I always say, and still do, 'I'll take a man who makes mistakes any day over the guy who is always right because he makes no decisions'. Well I was asked to show him how to replace a bad gas tank on a boat.....simple center console, wide open....Well first thing I see when I told him to carry our stuff over to the boat, ("Which is on a trailer next to our shop."), is him sitting there in the boat with a cigarette in his mouth! I still don't cuss, but what I said could not have been construed as 'nice'.:mad: I like this kid, well, probably late 20's, maybe even 30, but if I could only get him now to quit trying to kill me I could do something with him....he's very eager to learn, and WILL MAKE DECISIONS. :cool:I'm going to die some day, so what the hey. Well I hope all are well, and can enjoy today, and all the best,
Hack

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Dual inline tds meter help

So I've had a ro/di unit from brs for about a year now, maybe a little less. I got the one with the dual inline tds meter. About two months ago as far as I can tell the battery died. (Half the screen wouldn't display/ flickered some) I didn't mind because I knew I would have 0 tds on the output side for awhile cause the resin is still fine.
Anyways, I added a smart buddie booster pump today and changed the batteries out to make sure everything was working. Now the meter only shows 777 on the output side. On the input side after the two prefilters it shows around 773, and if I pull the probe out and place it in untreated tap water it shows around 143.
Any help or idea on what's going on with me great, thanks.
Dylan

hammer coral not opening

Hey there. Okay I have a hammer coral that seems to be partially or not opening up all the way. Here is the deal. My water parameters are great. I use RO/DI water, the canisters are all good. Phosphates are zero, nitrates 0-5, alk is around 8.5, calcium is at like 420, and yeah you get the deal...good water parameters okay. Anyways. I bought the coral and I have a 90 gallon tank that is 36*24*24. I have 2 power heads that are the Sicee voyagers 1200, plenty of LR though. I put the coral in the wrong places to begin with about 2 and a half weeks ago and moved it because it was getting way too much water flow. So I moved it to the bottom in a place that I think is lower flow. The coral has great color and seems to be "still alive" its just not opening up. Sometimes a sexy shrimp is on it I'm assuming eating dead parts. The coral looked great in the shop...I will say that I run my lights a different times than most. 3pm to 1 am because of my work schedule. I use Kessil 360 Tuna blues and put it on the acclimation period the controller offers. Just not sure what the deal is...what I think happened is the coral got hurt with the high flow it was being subjected too in the beginning and is repairing itself and the sexy shrimp are eating the dead parts every now and again. I also have a mushroom that seems to be doing well and a feather duster bought around the same time that is also doing great...my tank is about 3 months old.

Algae Help...Bryopsis?

I've been battling this stuff for a few months now...about ready to give up. I've tried heavy mag dosing (Kent marine), adding a carbon/GFO reactor, and doing heavy water changes. It's EVERYWHERE, and I can't contain it anymore. I remove massive chunks every day.

Any ideas?

Fry day...

Was just doing some quick maintenance and found about 20 fry (**** mollies) in my sump. My son is completely ecstatic and now does not want to leave the garage. My guess is they are about a week or two old as they are all about a cm long.

Was able to snap a few shots recently

I was able to get a few shots of the tank. One of my elusive emerald crabs showed his face. One of the red hermits found a fry. Blood shrimp servicing the Racoon while the cleaner wrasse helps out the Powder Brown.

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