GoFishJoel
Active member
RTing? or something else
Hey folks, Thank you for looking at my thread.
I am new to reef keeping and I am trying some SPS and others. I have a 120 gallon tank with a Little Giant 5 for water circulation. I do not yet have a skimmer.
For lights I have a 10,000K 400watt and a 20,000K 400watt lights next two each. This lights 2/3 of the tank. I have two 6 foot daylight high out put fluorescents.
The tank was purchased from an ad on this site in October. I threw out most of the crushed coral and replaced it with 3-4 inches of sand (I am now hearing other things about sand!). The tank included 120 pounds of live rock. It included two soft corals and I threw one out after I thought it died.
My water parameters are:
Nitrates 0
Alk 2.90 (I am having trouble keeping it up. I just need to dose more often. I think I will raise this level up like Eric Borneman suggests in his article this month on Reefkeeping.com)
Ca 390-420 (again I need to dose more often)
Phosphate I have not tested this. I suspect it may be on the high side since the tank was nutrient loaded when I got it. I have had a lot of hair algae. I have used one can of PhosBan by Two Little Fishes. This was developed by Julian Sprung. It appears to have helped. I have a second can but was advised to wait and see how the tank did with the new clam that I purchased. I plan to purchase a test kit the next trip to town too.
I have dosed yesterday with two capfuls of Mg (Kent marine).
I have dosed a month or so ago with iodine (after one of the cleaner shrimps died after molting and then dosed yesterday.)
Bioload:
I have no fish in this tank at this time.
I have two turbo snails.
A conch.
A nudbranch (green algae eating kind I was told. Not in Anthony's book either.)
A cleaner shrimp.
And finally a T. Crocea clam (4 or so inches)
I have tried three frags from Kevinpo in town. The first two were under 175 watt lights. (not sure of color spectrum). They both died. Then two weeks ago I added another frag from Kevin, a Montipora I believe (sp?). It was under the new 175 watt 10,000K bulb for about a week and then I upgraded to the 400watts. Kevin said to leave it in the same spot (8 inches under the water directly under the 10,000K). It did not last long before it turned white and the tissue peeled off.
I thought that I was burning the corals. So this week when I brought frags home from the Seattle meeting I placed them on the right side of the tank where they would receive light form the vhos and the 20,000K but not directly under it. Everything looks ok to me except the purple tip that came from the big black contain at the meeting. It looked good for a day and now you can see what it looks like.
I am not sure where to go from here. I plan to install a 1600 gal/hr pump today. I then plan to build a skimmer. The plate corals and Zoanthids seem to be doing fine. One has opened and the other has not. The candy cane (I think that is what it is called) has not opened that I have seen. I will try to post more pictures of all of these.
Here are the pictures. Please correct any identification problems.
Thank you so much.
Joel
Hey folks, Thank you for looking at my thread.
I am new to reef keeping and I am trying some SPS and others. I have a 120 gallon tank with a Little Giant 5 for water circulation. I do not yet have a skimmer.
For lights I have a 10,000K 400watt and a 20,000K 400watt lights next two each. This lights 2/3 of the tank. I have two 6 foot daylight high out put fluorescents.
The tank was purchased from an ad on this site in October. I threw out most of the crushed coral and replaced it with 3-4 inches of sand (I am now hearing other things about sand!). The tank included 120 pounds of live rock. It included two soft corals and I threw one out after I thought it died.
My water parameters are:
Nitrates 0
Alk 2.90 (I am having trouble keeping it up. I just need to dose more often. I think I will raise this level up like Eric Borneman suggests in his article this month on Reefkeeping.com)
Ca 390-420 (again I need to dose more often)
Phosphate I have not tested this. I suspect it may be on the high side since the tank was nutrient loaded when I got it. I have had a lot of hair algae. I have used one can of PhosBan by Two Little Fishes. This was developed by Julian Sprung. It appears to have helped. I have a second can but was advised to wait and see how the tank did with the new clam that I purchased. I plan to purchase a test kit the next trip to town too.
I have dosed yesterday with two capfuls of Mg (Kent marine).
I have dosed a month or so ago with iodine (after one of the cleaner shrimps died after molting and then dosed yesterday.)
Bioload:
I have no fish in this tank at this time.
I have two turbo snails.
A conch.
A nudbranch (green algae eating kind I was told. Not in Anthony's book either.)
A cleaner shrimp.
And finally a T. Crocea clam (4 or so inches)
I have tried three frags from Kevinpo in town. The first two were under 175 watt lights. (not sure of color spectrum). They both died. Then two weeks ago I added another frag from Kevin, a Montipora I believe (sp?). It was under the new 175 watt 10,000K bulb for about a week and then I upgraded to the 400watts. Kevin said to leave it in the same spot (8 inches under the water directly under the 10,000K). It did not last long before it turned white and the tissue peeled off.
I thought that I was burning the corals. So this week when I brought frags home from the Seattle meeting I placed them on the right side of the tank where they would receive light form the vhos and the 20,000K but not directly under it. Everything looks ok to me except the purple tip that came from the big black contain at the meeting. It looked good for a day and now you can see what it looks like.
I am not sure where to go from here. I plan to install a 1600 gal/hr pump today. I then plan to build a skimmer. The plate corals and Zoanthids seem to be doing fine. One has opened and the other has not. The candy cane (I think that is what it is called) has not opened that I have seen. I will try to post more pictures of all of these.
Here are the pictures. Please correct any identification problems.
Thank you so much.
Joel
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