Go Vols!!!! Unless they play Blue....Welcome to RF, where you'll find the some of the most knowledgable people in the hobby, myself excluded. Some of our biggest mistakes are getting advice from a retailer. They need to push product. Any questions, feel free to ask, as was once said, there is no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid people. Someone on this site will give you the answer you are looking for. As was said before, more frequent WC's until the skimmer is skimming , eight geese a laying... What kind of mobile inverts do you currently have, they can be a great help in getting rid of detritus before it completely breaks down into the nitrogen cycle. Mike.
Water parameters correction chart Pleeeeeaaase!
- Thread starter tcruns
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Well, there's another thing.....
The majority of opinion seems to be toward a large cleanup crew. But I had a lot, i mean a lot, of snails go missing and was advised it was crabs. I didn't have any red legs, but I would lose crabs as well. Can't imagine why now.....can you.......they probably suffocated!!
I'm going to get more. I probably have 20 or more snails, several nice turbos in the lot and probably 15-25 "small" blue legs...
What say you???
The majority of opinion seems to be toward a large cleanup crew. But I had a lot, i mean a lot, of snails go missing and was advised it was crabs. I didn't have any red legs, but I would lose crabs as well. Can't imagine why now.....can you.......they probably suffocated!!
I'm going to get more. I probably have 20 or more snails, several nice turbos in the lot and probably 15-25 "small" blue legs...
What say you???
I'll reprint my opinion of hermits in general and blue legs in particular:
Not for the faint of heart....
Hermit Crabs, smite them down with thee righteous fury of Bartleby hisself. Thoughst seenth with thine own eyes the devil's own agent taketh the soul of an unopened polyp of the zoanthus, (probably was dead though already) with it's claws dripping of hellfire and bulbed eyes lit in brimstone. Ye hath witnessed this and thee hath taken god's mighty strength, protected by his holy might and bravely reached in the briney waters of salvation and fought with all thine heart and vanquished Satan's little minion and sent him back to the 2nd ring of dantes inferno where the bugger thust belonged. Thenst I doused myself with the golden exilir in the silver 22 oz chalice to wash away my sins. I beggeth thee noble borns, please donth thinkith of doust polluting thoust pure briney tubs with these foul imps of evil. Ye feelth much better.
Thoust Humble servant, Michael.
From my thread:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14008
Not for the faint of heart....
Hermit Crabs, smite them down with thee righteous fury of Bartleby hisself. Thoughst seenth with thine own eyes the devil's own agent taketh the soul of an unopened polyp of the zoanthus, (probably was dead though already) with it's claws dripping of hellfire and bulbed eyes lit in brimstone. Ye hath witnessed this and thee hath taken god's mighty strength, protected by his holy might and bravely reached in the briney waters of salvation and fought with all thine heart and vanquished Satan's little minion and sent him back to the 2nd ring of dantes inferno where the bugger thust belonged. Thenst I doused myself with the golden exilir in the silver 22 oz chalice to wash away my sins. I beggeth thee noble borns, please donth thinkith of doust polluting thoust pure briney tubs with these foul imps of evil. Ye feelth much better.
Thoust Humble servant, Michael.
From my thread:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14008
Mostly snails, most people neglect adding nass's and bumblebees but they eat what your fish miss. Brittle stars are great for this too, plus they multiply like rabbits. Your algae grazers are on the money, you just have to have the omnivores as well.BJTenn said:
Jumpincactus
Well-known member
I have a 120 and for the film and slight algaeal growth on the glass I have 6 Turbos and 6 Astrea's and they do an excellent job keeping up with the algae situation. ( Turbos have a rep for bulldozing tho so be careful your corals and such are planted or epoxied well as they can bowl over stuff)
Tho my situation may be better than yours as I am skimming hard and have excellent water parameters. So this amount of crew might not get you done. The rule of thumb is never written in stone, find what works in your system and stick with that.
Keep in mind that even tho the critters we call a cleaner crews are necassary and helpful they also produce waste also, which as you know = nutrients. What I am suggesting is only add what will get the job done and dont over do it.
But this should not be a problem once you get a skimmer up and running you will be ok.
My feelings on crabs is they are what are called oppurtunistic feeders. Ya one type may eat only XYZ for its main diet, but it is a fact that if you dont have enough XYZ for whatever is its primary diet is, it will feed on anything it can. Corals snails etc.
I dont remember seeing how you are addressing control of your phosphate levels but sooner than later this will become something you want to address. There are two fairly well known brands of phophate exporters for chemical means, RowAphos and Phosgard and a bevvy of others, After lots of reading and looking at reseach done on the two major brands noted I use only Rowa the other brand has been tested by some well known names in the hobby and the Phos has been shown to have aluminum in its make up that binds the PO4 the testing showed that corals, both SPS and LPS & inverts get very stressed with high levels of aluminum. Another way to control PO4 is using a fuge with Cheato or some other type of macroalgae. Then harvest on a regular basis to export the nutrients. My buddy uses Red Mangroves which kick butt but they need a lot of vertical space to grow. My partner has a 50 gall fuge in a fish room so no problem there.
What also helps is keep your feeding to a minimum, when you feed silvers, shrimp etc rinse them in distilled water first, this helps to wash away the PO4 found in these foods. Even the LFS brands of foods are known to add PO4 to your system. If you use mechanical filtration with activated carbon make sure it is a reputable brand. Some AC is known to leach PO4 back into your water. It is the way it is processed that causes this condition. What you can do is find a brand that is supposed to be PO4 free and then add some to a cup and add RO water to it and lets it sit a day. Then test for PO4. This will let you know if it is safe for your tank.
You know after all this typing I just thought that I dont even know what type of tank you are keeping
most of what I have shared is mainly reef tank husbandry but can be applied to FOWLR setups as well. Sorry for the long post. I just like to give back what was so freely given to me(knowledge) as it has made my journey in reefkeeping much more enjoyable knowing what works and what doesnt.
Tho my situation may be better than yours as I am skimming hard and have excellent water parameters. So this amount of crew might not get you done. The rule of thumb is never written in stone, find what works in your system and stick with that.
Keep in mind that even tho the critters we call a cleaner crews are necassary and helpful they also produce waste also, which as you know = nutrients. What I am suggesting is only add what will get the job done and dont over do it.
But this should not be a problem once you get a skimmer up and running you will be ok.
My feelings on crabs is they are what are called oppurtunistic feeders. Ya one type may eat only XYZ for its main diet, but it is a fact that if you dont have enough XYZ for whatever is its primary diet is, it will feed on anything it can. Corals snails etc.
I dont remember seeing how you are addressing control of your phosphate levels but sooner than later this will become something you want to address. There are two fairly well known brands of phophate exporters for chemical means, RowAphos and Phosgard and a bevvy of others, After lots of reading and looking at reseach done on the two major brands noted I use only Rowa the other brand has been tested by some well known names in the hobby and the Phos has been shown to have aluminum in its make up that binds the PO4 the testing showed that corals, both SPS and LPS & inverts get very stressed with high levels of aluminum. Another way to control PO4 is using a fuge with Cheato or some other type of macroalgae. Then harvest on a regular basis to export the nutrients. My buddy uses Red Mangroves which kick butt but they need a lot of vertical space to grow. My partner has a 50 gall fuge in a fish room so no problem there.
What also helps is keep your feeding to a minimum, when you feed silvers, shrimp etc rinse them in distilled water first, this helps to wash away the PO4 found in these foods. Even the LFS brands of foods are known to add PO4 to your system. If you use mechanical filtration with activated carbon make sure it is a reputable brand. Some AC is known to leach PO4 back into your water. It is the way it is processed that causes this condition. What you can do is find a brand that is supposed to be PO4 free and then add some to a cup and add RO water to it and lets it sit a day. Then test for PO4. This will let you know if it is safe for your tank.
You know after all this typing I just thought that I dont even know what type of tank you are keeping
most of what I have shared is mainly reef tank husbandry but can be applied to FOWLR setups as well. Sorry for the long post. I just like to give back what was so freely given to me(knowledge) as it has made my journey in reefkeeping much more enjoyable knowing what works and what doesnt.
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In regards to phosphate J i C brings up many great points, though I think there are a few points that could be debated: I agree with your assessment that most carbon contains PO4, it will leach into the system and you have to find a brand that is PO4 free. I started with Kent's reef carbon, and was given advice to switch to the cheaper Black Diamond. Guess what no PO4 issues. As to food, yes, I submit that PO4 can be introduced in minute amounts, but I feed twice a day, in a skimmerless system/fuge and still no traceable PO4. My own thoughts on PO4 sources that will cause you the most grief is your source water. I still get mine from a lfs that I test when I bring it home. Never had a problem. Lower end RO/DI units may not make the water as pure as you want and the salt mix may be heavier in the elements that could cause outbreaks of algae and the likes. Just my own observations that are far from any degree of scientific fact.
