Jump to content

Newbie possible going to the salty side :)


jolliolli

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 50
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

What's all this sorbitol stuff? Something I missed somewhere?

BTW I've met David, he's one of the most straight up guys i've ever met, he wouldn't be giving someone a "low blow', or whatever it is, actually i don't even know what you guys are talking about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:D i didnt take that as a low blow - informative indeed and a very valid point! ensure you FULLY clean out all residue in any container you purchase. dont make the mistake i did and cause casualties in 2 tanks because i didnt spend 10 minutes rinsing it out :-? costly mistake.

that sux :(, I was just going to use water and a pressure hose that should be ok?

I see in the other thread you got a pm from Layton, does that mean he is helping you?

Yes Layton's very kindly offered to house my livestock for me AND offered to help with the move :hail:. This week i'm going to write up a plan for the move and post it up here, if i've missed anything or if anyone has a better/different way of doing things then please post away! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's all this sorbitol stuff? Something I missed somewhere?

BTW I've met David, he's one of the most straight up guys i've ever met, he wouldn't be giving someone a "low blow', or whatever it is, actually i don't even know what you guys are talking about.

Thanks Wasp :D

Sorbitol is the Sugar alcohol residue in the barrels which caused the problems in Chim's and Shaneo's tanks last week

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right got my interim tank setup for when my rock and corals arrive on saturday. The tank is a 180L with a HOB skimmer, and small powerhead attached for circulation. I'm heating the water up to 25degrees tonight and will add the red sea salt tomorrow, i had a look at www.redseafish.com and it gives the caluculatios for mixing the salt up to a salinity of 1.021, however everyone seems to recommend 1.025 so i'm wondering if anyone knows how much salt it would take to add to a 180L tank to get this salinity?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Calculate whatever amount of salt it is to make the water to 1.021, then add an extra 20% of salt. That will make the mix to around 1.025.

If you get it wrong, no worries, just chuck in a bit more salt, or a bit more water, till it's right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just thought i'd put a pic up of the corals that came with the setup. Currently there in the holding tank until i get the tank cleaned so its not aquascaped at all

The setup i bought was

5ft Juwel Aquarium with the marine lighting upgrade and spare arcadia T5 lights, Octopus Reef NW-150 Skimmer, Red sea prism hob skimmer, approx 50kg live rock, 30kg coral sand, test kits, various coral and fish food, 2 heaters, circulation pumps,

green elegance coral, green brain coral, leather finger?, mushroom corals, feather duster, frogspawn coral, blue clam, yellow tang, 2 cleaner shrimps, 2 percula clowns, mandarin fish, lawnmower blenny

IMG_2404.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah looking forward to setting it up, spent tonight doing some cleaning, the previous owneres had painted the back of the glass in blue paint which had also dripped on to the cabinet... (not sure why they just didn't stick a background on) so my partner was scraping the paint and algae off the glass

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pretty much finished cleaning the tank tonight, but still a little work to do before getting it all up and running. Tonight i noticed the occurrence of red/brown algae, i know its fairly common in new setups but i just have a ocuple of questions regarding it. Ran a phosphate test it was around 0 - 5ppm

1. Is there anything i can do to remove it, would phosphate absorber help or do i just have to wait it out? can i physically remove the algae from the liverock when i transfer the rock and livestock to the new tank?

2. The hob skimmer i'm currently using has a media bag as an optional add-on would using phosphate remover in this bag help? At the moment i'm not sure what the media bag holds and i'm only assuming it might be phosphate absorber... I received a jar of this stuff and this is also in the media bag:

IMG_24201.jpg

Can anyone identify what this is if it isn't phosphate remover what might it be?

3. Will the red/brown algae cause any harm to the existing corals?

4. i have a mandarin fish that will be coming home at some point and i know they can be tricky to feed, does anywhere sell live food suitable for marine fish and if so what would be the best?

5. My kH is a bit high around the 13degree mark and my calcium quite low around the 320 mark, i have some kalkwasser here, should i add some to increase the calcium?

6. How many ppl use ro/di water, at the moment i'm only using chch tap water?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can anyone identify what this is if it isn't phosphate remover what might it be?

Looks like carbon not po4 remover

1. Is there anything i can do to remove it, would phosphate absorber help

get some rowaphos

Ran a phosphate test it was around 0 - 5ppm

What test kits are you using? that is too big a range.

4. i have a mandarin fish that will be coming home at some point and i know they can be tricky to feed, does anywhere sell live food suitable for marine fish and if so what would be the best?

Dont worry just put him in the tank as you cant feed them.

moment i'm only using chch tap water?

You need a ro unit, i tested the chch water and it tested very high. The readings was higher than my rain water.

5. My kH is a bit high around the 13degree mark and my calcium quite low around the 320 mark, i have some kalkwasser here, should i add some to increase the calcium?

Kaltwasser will not do much for calcium. get some calcium from you LFS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5. My kH is a bit high around the 13degree mark and my calcium quite low around the 320 mark, i have some kalkwasser here, should i add some to increase the calcium?

You mean 13 dkh? If so that is quite high. Kalkawasser adds both dkh plus calcium, in balanced proportions, so adding kalkawasser will take dkh even higher. So best plan would be to add some calcium in the form of calcium chloride. Where to get calcium chloride? I know Layton has it so he could advise.

Just to explain a bit more about the relationship between calcium, and carbonate alkalinity, the two react with each other to form calcium carbonate, which is what coral skeletons are made of. In seawater carbonate alkalinity is around 7.0 dkh. If it is a lot higher than that, and 13 dkh is a LOT higher, it will be constantly trying to precipitate out the calcium, making it very hard to raise the calcium. Best plan will be to gently raise calcium, while allowing the alkalinity to fall, which it will do naturally over a few weeks, a good level for your tank would be around 8-10 dkh, and raise calcium to around 400.

As to the algae type growth, it won't harm the corals at this stage. Probably just forget about it until you move into the new tank. During the transfer scrub each rock clean with a scrubbing brush as you move them to the new tank. It will probably re grow, if so, you could look at a phosphate removing resin or some other means to clean it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well update today:

Thursday night finished cleaning the tank and doing some small changes with the plumbing, moved it in ready to fill. We then noticed that the bulkhead had become unsiliconed from the glass :o . Resliconed it and left it to dry until Saturday. Water tested it yesterday and its all good :). Half filled the tank yesterday and added the live rock, sand and corals and added the heater and circ pumps. Today we're aiming to finish aquascaping the rock, adding the additional seawater, adding the skimmer and get the sump running.

Couple of questions i have, are there any good sites on aquascaping i'm struggling to get it looking good.

Secondly once its all set up and running i'll be adding in the livestock that layton's looking after on tuesday night. There's a lawnmower blenny and i'm a little worried about him having enough to eat. Seeing as the tank is newly setup there isn't any algae on the glass, only algae i have is whatever was on the LR, should i try and supplement his diet with something and if so what do you suggest? nori? In the holding tank i had a brown algae outbreak, i was hoping to avoid this in this tank by adding phosguard in to the sump, would this be detrimental to the blenny in terms of having a supply of food?

Will post pictures very soon!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...