reef

By doing a 90% water change you will remove lots of bacteria. Water does contain a lot of bacteria. I would go with maybe 30% and then do another 1 week on. Also doing a 90% water change means you could kill some of the bacteria in the filters as the water conditions will change drastically like ph and temp which effects bacteria levels.

So what do you do if one day the chlorine levels are high and you wipe out your fish. It Would be safer to use a chlorinator all the time. better to be safe than sorry.

ph will always drop at night and increase during the day. that is why it is not a good idea to run co2 at night as ph will drop to low. get a solonoid valve so you can turn co2 off when the lights go out

why not just buy a airstone skimmer, they cost all of about $20 if you can find a 2nd hand one.

I don’t think the lighting ill be enough. Might be ok to keep the plants alive, but not flourish and reach their potential. If you go with the 1200 size tank why cant you add 4 x 54w t5s?

very nice tank, have you got some more photos

t5 is a thin bulb vs t8 which are bigger and t12 which are bigger yet. The best is the t5s as they produce far more light, for example a 4ft t5 is 54w and a t8 is 36w i think. the high watt t5s are HO for high output as you also get normal t5s which are not as good as HO.

i doubt because you got high calcium they will thrive. calcium that high is no good for many corals especially xenia

Your anwer is as above. you put to much in. with the low load on your tank it will take some time to drop as your coral cant use it all unless you have a tank loaded with acropora/sps I would do a 20% water change to help reduce it.

so its like saying a 18w UV will kill 1/2 a parasite. so it is better than nothing. All information states that you need the killing power at a certain level to kill parasties. so any UV wont work. Another sales pitch to me.

Uv won’t remove white spot on a fish ,it kills the free floating white spot, eggs. Whitespot does not kill fish it is the bacteria that generally kills fish once the white spot leaves small holes in the fish. An 18w Uv will be ok for killing algae however unlikely to kill parasites and bacteria as it is too small. Even a 54w uv can only handle 2000L of water thru put, anymore and then you won’t get the killing power required. Also quartz uvs are the best. on the "kill power" needed for the corresponding Micro-Organisms. Waterborne Algae 15,000 to 30,000 æW sec/cm2 Common Bacteria 15,000 to 30,000 æW sec/cm2 Protozoa (Ich) 45,000 æW sec/cm2 Fungi 45,000 æW sec/cm2 what fish did you add?

depends on the size of the trigger. 4ft might be fine if it is say 50-60mm. They do grow large over time. a good skimmer would help as they like food. Tank mates could be same size fish

there are many goods substrates these days. seachem jbl aquabases red sea the seachem stuff is quite good. not cheap but lots of good reviews. not seen any white sand, however i dont think it matters as once the plants grow you wont see the sand. white sand is also hard to keep clean

every one wants one, why are they so hard to get and so expensive

You don’t need substrate heating; however I want to give the plants the best they can get. Substrate soil makes a big difference, something I would not skimp on. Like any plant. Give it bad soil and it won’t do well.

you dont need co2 but you will have average plants. look at all the great tanks , most have CO2. It also depends what plants yiou have. http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2006.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=2&id=82

Any good quality t5s will be just as good. t5s give a better spread of light vs metal halides which has light mainly in the middle of the bulb and really drops off on the sides of the bulbs. I run 2 x 54w and 2 x 39w t5s and the plants are doing great, still looking to go to metal halides in a few weeks as it does look more natural on a tank.

you might have diatoms from your tap water. you should have a ro/di unit. silicate in your tap water will turn to silicate acid which you cant get out of saltwater. this causes the brown algae. test kits you need nitrate po4 calcium kh magnesium , but no that important if you have soft coral. canister filters is not a good idea with saltwater as the dirt build up and will breakdown in the canister and become a fertiliser for algae. remove canister and get a good skimmer.

Thanks. I will wait for discus just want to the water quality spot on and get the plants establised.

After having a reef tank setting up a freshwater tank is peanuts. it is so cheap. My protein skimmer on my reef tank still cost more then the whole freshwater setup.

Yes plants use it to a point as there is a balance. i think i will have more than enough po4 in the tank for feeding as many foods contain po4. I only have a few rowaphos sponges so i am not removing it so quickly. do plants take organic po4 or inorganic po4? good questions for the experts? Just tested my po4 and it is over 3ppm so more than enough po4. here is a good link on po4 levels. http://www.aquariumpros.com/forums/showpost.php?p=39747&postcount=5

i am going to try a higher kelvin bulb as it might stop the algae for growing, so far i have not even cleaned the glass after 2 months. The plants are growing very well. i hate the yellow look for 6500k. I noticed more blue makes the plants flower. Will see how it goes over the next month when the halides are on to see if the plants react to the higher kelvin. I do use some rowaphos to reduce po4 so this might be stopping the algae from growing.

how big is your tank? you nee dto test the gh and kh. if too low kh then you ph will swing to much.

yes it will drop over a few days so no big deal.

why change the bubble rate, just fill bottle and keep the same rate.