SFish
New member
It's fine
Watch the video below it. They show the differences between the test kits.
Critique me!
- Thread starter Blazingreef123
- Start date
It's fine
Watch the video below it. They show the differences between the test kits.
Blazingreef123
New member
Ahh gotcha. Only reason I was wondering about this one was because they are all titration tests, which is a lot of the testing methods we used in organic and gen chem classes and were very accurate.
mcgyvr
New member
Great test kit..very easy to use..
mcgyvr
New member
Good general numbers there..
SFish
New member
Thank you
Crawdads57
In Memoriam
Hey! I will give you some insight on test kits - hope you haven't already bought some. These two are being less than helpful for whatever reason. Maybe they don't know any better.
I got the red sea Alk / Ca / Mg package. Not bad. The Ca is totally fine and I still use it - I have bought a couple refill kits for it. Red Sea Mg test sucks hard. First it is a pain in the ***. Second (and really more importantly) it is a slow color change - its a guessing game. Is it 1290? Is it 1350?
For Mag I definitively recommend the Salifert kit. Easy mix and crisp color change.
I liked the Salifert Mg test, so I decided to get the Salifet Alk test. Its just as good as Red Sea. Maybe Red Sea is a little better. Yeah, don't buy the Salifert Alk test.
Then I got the Salifert Ca test. Sucks hard - way off. Like the results were unbelievable so I took a weak salt mix and dosed brightwell reef code A to see if I could figure this test out and it told me some unbelievable ****. So I shelved it.
So, long story short. If you buy that 3 test Red Sea kit you can use the shaker and the bottles for all 3 tests. Use the Red Sea for Ca for sure. Use either Red Sea or Salifet for Alk (use Red Sea). Definitely get the Salifert Mg test. Definitely!!!
Lastly, tell them eat your ***. All you need is better all around water movement. Whatever way you get that real gph in and out of the display is fine, but just look at your tank. Then take 5 steps backwards. Look at your plumbing. You want large areas of movement. You need 10X minimum displacement on a tank that size - total. Minimum! Then you need powerheads inside the display - I would recommend 3 points at least. GPH for each is another topic, but you know what you can afford. Wavemakers are rad - truly.
Take another hour or two and look both here and at nano-reef dot com - look at build threads. CLOSELY. You can fix it!!!
I got the red sea Alk / Ca / Mg package. Not bad. The Ca is totally fine and I still use it - I have bought a couple refill kits for it. Red Sea Mg test sucks hard. First it is a pain in the ***. Second (and really more importantly) it is a slow color change - its a guessing game. Is it 1290? Is it 1350?
For Mag I definitively recommend the Salifert kit. Easy mix and crisp color change.
I liked the Salifert Mg test, so I decided to get the Salifet Alk test. Its just as good as Red Sea. Maybe Red Sea is a little better. Yeah, don't buy the Salifert Alk test.
Then I got the Salifert Ca test. Sucks hard - way off. Like the results were unbelievable so I took a weak salt mix and dosed brightwell reef code A to see if I could figure this test out and it told me some unbelievable ****. So I shelved it.
So, long story short. If you buy that 3 test Red Sea kit you can use the shaker and the bottles for all 3 tests. Use the Red Sea for Ca for sure. Use either Red Sea or Salifet for Alk (use Red Sea). Definitely get the Salifert Mg test. Definitely!!!
Lastly, tell them eat your ***. All you need is better all around water movement. Whatever way you get that real gph in and out of the display is fine, but just look at your tank. Then take 5 steps backwards. Look at your plumbing. You want large areas of movement. You need 10X minimum displacement on a tank that size - total. Minimum! Then you need powerheads inside the display - I would recommend 3 points at least. GPH for each is another topic, but you know what you can afford. Wavemakers are rad - truly.
Take another hour or two and look both here and at nano-reef dot com - look at build threads. CLOSELY. You can fix it!!!
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SFish
New member
What are you talking about? What D bag. I The sump should have 5x to 10x going through it and the DT depends on what you want to keep. Op should probably go for the medium range. I listed where to find test kits that are good. Opinions very on them. I use instruments my self but that is a personal choice just like what test kit to use is.
Some examples for DT flow are:
Low flow
zoanthids, palythoas, some leathers, LPS
Medium flow
xenia and more species of leather coral
High flow
SPS
Some examples for DT flow are:
Low flow
zoanthids, palythoas, some leathers, LPS
Medium flow
xenia and more species of leather coral
High flow
SPS
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Blazingreef123
New member
I really appreciate the post crawdad!
I have not ordered any test kits yet but after reading this I may order them individually like you recommend! I appreciate the info!
For the past few days I have been looking into flow a lot more. However there are still a few things I'm confused about.
1. best placement of powerheads. The reason I am confused on this is it seems as if, if you place them pointed at each other it creates random movement, but does this not also reduce your total flow drastically? vs. two powerheads pointed different directions? I realize this would create a giant vortex in the tank but is there a way to stop that?
2. I just completely rearranged my rocks to where the only "dead spots" in the tank would be inside the rock piles. I can now reach all of the glass cleaning wise and basically all the rocks are a line in the center of the tank. So would it be best if I had a total of 4 power heads and pointed them at each other on each side of the rock pile?
Blazingreef123
New member
I was actually just looking into this as well, I think this is the route I will go since I am renting and don't want to do ANY modifications to the house. I already broke that rule installing my RO system under the kitchen sink, hopefully the landlord doesn't notice the sharkbite connector putting the hose back together when I leave :lmao:
Blazingreef123
New member
So I think I just ran into a major problem as far as getting a protein skimmer goes. I sure hope not, but it may be fixable with little effort. I am looking into getting the reef octopus 150 INT or the reef octopus 150 SSS. However I noticed the dimensions for the 150 INT are 12" x 8.5" x 22.13". The area I left in my DIY sump for a skimmer (which I thought would have been plenty) is only 9.5" x 12". So would that be cutting it way too close? If so I could either look at a smaller profile skimmer (which I really don't want to do because I would prefer a skimmer that's rated for more than my 75g tank or 104g system), or I can tear out the glass baffles I siliconed in and move it over giving me a 12" x whatever I want space. This would reduce the size of the refugium portion though. Any suggestions?
Blazingreef123
New member
Actually I just realized that instead of tearing out the baffles, the refugium portion is 12" x 12.5" so if I had to I could just switch them out. Or there is another 13" of unoccupied space under my tank stand which measures out 12.5" x 13" and I could put a Rubbermaid container in there and the return pump. I honestly don't know... :headwally:
Blazingreef123
New member
Crappy day today. Woke up to not finding my dragonet in the tank, but instead on the floor. She jumped... Out of the 3 dragonets I have owned she showed the most progress by far in training. I even made a little 3x7" feeding box in the tank for her similar to the box called the dragonets den, and she was just getting used to it eating live BBS in it and picking at pellets and mysis. This friken' sucks.
JMorris271
New member
Sorry about your Drags. A real bummer to loose your fish.
My sand looks exactly like yours on the left side. I am reading that this is partially caused by a lack of flow in that corner so I'm adding a 3rd power head to get better circulation in those spots. Also pointing the other 2 in the tank now so they will bounce off the back wall to help create more turbulance and not competing with each other. That seems easy enough to do . It may work for you too.
My sand looks exactly like yours on the left side. I am reading that this is partially caused by a lack of flow in that corner so I'm adding a 3rd power head to get better circulation in those spots. Also pointing the other 2 in the tank now so they will bounce off the back wall to help create more turbulance and not competing with each other. That seems easy enough to do . It may work for you too.
Blazingreef123
New member
So a guy here locally is getting out of the hobby completely and he is selling his entire setup. Tank, sump, stand, fish, LR, lights, corals EVERYTHING. I have been talking to him for a while and we came to a good price for all of it. The tank is currently setup with fish in it and looks very healthy, good coralline growth, theres a couple corals in there and they look happy, and its been established longer than mine has. So here's my question, after I purchase the setup should I literally just migrate my fish over to the tank I'm purchasing and consider that my new reef tank? or should I incorporate all of the equipment (such as the lights, skimmer, powerheads), fish, coral, and LR into my setup? What would be the pro's and cons? Like I said its a pretty good looking tank. Both my tank, and the tank ill be buying are the exact same size but the main difference is the one I'm buying is acrylic and as you all know mine is glass. Which honestly I prefer glass just because of easy scratching. So part of me is tempted to use the acrylic tank as a sump in another room and change my plumbing. Let me know what you guys think!
JZinCO
New member
Have you done this yet? If not, do it now.
Two general contractor friends have told me that there's nothing functionally different than having a GFCI outlet.
Look for ones made by Tower Manufacturing. Home depot and Amazon sell them. Mine even spits into 5 grounded outlets. Not sure why I'd need so many but figured why not.
Blazingreef123
New member
I actually just picked one up a couple days ago due to a little scare I had. believe it or not, I reached into the tank and I felt a shock in my finger. I was thinking to myself what the hell was that? It wasn't a really painful shock more like a shock you would get from an electric prank pen. I unhooked all of my stuff one by one testing the water with a multimeter and as it turns out my extension cord had gotten chewed on by my pup and salt creep had managed to find the chew marks. So I bought the GFCI outlet and now everything that runs to the inside of the tank or around sump area is plugged into it!
