new to salt,sand,rocks,water

[MikeS]

i was just going by simple logic. hot water holds more suspended salt because of absorption. like gargling with salt water. best to do it with warm water because you can get more salt that way. we did a science experiment about it in highschool. i figured it was the same thing. you would get a higher reading when the water cooled after putting X amount of salt in while it was hot. i dunno, i might be remembering wrong, it has been a couple years and I've done some not to smart things to my memory since then.(finally getting it back lol)

Temperature will affect the observed specific gravity of your water, but not the actual salinity itself. They are two seperate measurements. Salinity can be inferred by specific gravity measurements corrected for temperature, but temperature will not change the salinity of the water.

Didn't see it mentioned in the above threads...what kind of sand are you using in that tank? Perhaps it's just the lighting, but it looks like silica sand to me...

MikeS

 

[varpanus]

it's sand from FL

 

[varpanus]

painted the back today. don't worry about the water, I covered it up. I was a painter for over 2 years, so I do know what I was doin. except for I took the tank back inside right after I did, so I kinda smeared it a little, but you can't really tell. 100% better, it hides more of the cords.


now all I really want to do is get most of the rest of the junk out of the tank. is there any way to use the bulkhead design thing, without having a sump? like using a small hob overflow kinda thing? if anybody's got any ideas let me know.

 

[varpanus]

another small update. tanks doing well. water's testing good.most of the color,everything that came on the lr made it through the cycle.hats off to premium aquatics for that.i've gotten the lighting on a cycle,9hours for now soon to be 10. still can't get the other pump to stick to the tank.i got a couple inverts a couple days ago. they seem to be doing fine. no deaths yet.(yeah!)right now i got 8lbs lr,1 blue leg hermit,2 nassarius snails,1 astrea?snail. and some sand.

stupid window on the other side of the room!
got a small fan on the top to make sure the lights don't run hot.

 

[steven11]

I just wanted to add that you can do MH lighting on a 10gal. I have a 250w HQI on mine. You just have to be really careful. I have the light about 20" off the top of the water and a piece of acrylic over the top of the tank while the corals get used to the light. I will post some pictures when i get a chance.

Steven

 

[Krish]

Looks great Tony! One of these days I'll be cool like you

 

[varpanus]

been a while...

been a while since I've been around,so i figured i give an update.
everything lives despite my laziness. the goby is doing well. waiting for me to feed him in the mornings now. I was kindly given two rocks at the october?Indmas meeting with some zoos and they are doing quite well. spreading to rocks on the other side of the tank. for some reason i'm not getting alot of coralline buildup,but I am starting to get some red stuff growing on the sand. the bluelegged hermit just upsized to another shell, and the weirdest thing happened. I was cleaning the glass, and I saw what looked to be the crab dead, floating around in the tank. so I took it out and then an hour later I saw him cruisin around the tank. very strange. One of the rocks is getting these small "puffs" that kinda look like tiny cotton balls, maybe somebody knows what that is. the tank seems to be doing better without me micromanaging daily. i top off every 2 days and change the water maybe, twice a month? I do have one question, do the snails always spawn often? because I bought one, and now I have four. i think that's about it, I'll get some pictures soon as I can find the stupid camera.

TOny
:}

 

[Krish]

Hey Tony! The red stuff on your sand sounds like the beginning of cyno (a type of nuicance algae) and the white puffs sound like tunicate sponges which are really good as they filter the water

 

[NaH2O]

the bluelegged hermit just upsized to another shell, and the weirdest thing happened. I was cleaning the glass, and I saw what looked to be the crab dead, floating around in the tank. so I took it out and then an hour later I saw him cruisin around the tank. very strange.

Crabs molt, so what you found was the exoskeleton after a molt. They have to do this as they grow.

One of the rocks is getting these small "puffs" that kinda look like tiny cotton balls, maybe somebody knows what that is.

Does your "tiny cotton ball" look like this? Scypha ciliata. If not it could be another type of Ball Sponge

for some reason i'm not getting alot of coralline buildup

How old is your set-up now? Sometimes you don't see coralline start appearing until the tank is 8 months to a year old. If you have any shells with coralline on them, then you can scratch the coralline with your fingernail to spore it out. Sometimes that helps. You can also check your water chemistry to see if everything is in check.