I'll start from the beginning (pics)

[Nanz]

Thanks.. I will just continue learning, hehe. Hopefully it will recover.

 

[Mappelbaum37]

surprisingly enough, my corals are doing fine including the yellow leather. I cant say I'm not happy about that.

I just spoke to tech support at www.drsfostersmith.com

I explained my situation to them and what they suggested as far as skimmers go,

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4412&prodid=8227&catid=3

they said the one below is highly reccomended
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=13924&prodid=27193&catid=3

A guy that works at my LFS and Mrspiffy suggested an aqua C remora pro. I can honestly say that I have no idea which one to buy. Any help/past experience/ knowledge on which skimmer to buy would be great. As far as my fluval, I was told by drsfostersmith that these two materials work great in a fluval to remove phosphates.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4213&prodid=7877&catid=3

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4343

If i get the products for the fluval that would help reduce phosphates and algae, the new skimmer would help remove more waste from the tank, and my ro water changes oppose to tap and spring water are hopefully helping the nitrates as well. I also have the H.O.T magnum system collecting excess dirt out of the tank


any other suggestions and/or help choosing a skimmer would be awesome... thanks

 

[Mappelbaum37]

I was just looking at this guy carrera's thread from a while back about his 50 gal. skimmerless tank and he uses an AqauClear 110 as a refugium and holds chaeto in it.

Do you think I would be able to do that?

 

[airinhere]

I would still really encourage you to continue using a skimmer. You have to get the nutrients out of your tank before you even think about trying a skimmerless system. All of my systems are skimmerless, but I planned carefully to be able to do this and I did use a skimmer for the first six months.

The coralife is a POS (thats basically what I was using) You will get tons of microbubbles in your display tank with one of those. Stick with the Bac-Pac if you are going to order from DFS.

I have no experience using the two phos media you posted. Try this instead. http://pet-supplies.drsfostersmith....om&lbc=drsfostersmith&uid=538298339&w=phosban
Phosban reactor and phosban media (GFO)
This stuff works!

 

[Mappelbaum37]

airinhere: I have no future plans on turning my tank into a skimmerless tank! Right now I have the prism protein skimmer and I want to upgrade it because I do have a lot of fish in my tank (7) fish.. I wanna upgrade because my skimmer is crappy and I want something bigger that can remove more waste. I would get the phosban reactor but I have ZERO room. unless its hob then I cant get it. My tank is sitting on a very sturdy wood dresser with drawers under it. No sump, no fuge nothing for extra room. Thats why my setup is horrible and I need hob materials. Jmikitz might be able to sell me his protein skimmer.. If not I will just look further into more skimmers.

 

[Jmikitz]

2littlefishies phosban reactor is a hob.. they usually run about 60 with pump and then you got to buy the media.. worth the money . take up very little space.. ill let you know about the skimmer..if i can find an in sump model that will fit under my stand ill sell it. ill let yea know

 

[Mappelbaum37]

thanks jmikitz... I just looked at the bak pak 2r reef ready skimmer and it fits sizes only up to 60 gallons. Still too small for my tank. Airinhere told me that the coralife super skimmer is a POS and spits out micro bubbles. I read some reviews and they were alright but there we some bad ones including micro bubbles and little waste. I guess the only contestant left is Jmikitz' skimmer and the aqua C remora pro. We'll see how things go. I will do a water change tomorrow, RO water approximately 10 gallons, I'm going to buy the phosphate sponges for my fluval
( http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4343 )

I will buy the genereal maintenence phosphate sponge because the other algae sponge supposedly contains erithromycin and I dont want that stuff in my tank again!

I'll look up the 2 little fishies hob phosban reactor

thanks...

 

[Mappelbaum37]

Hey gang. Its friday and the tank is lookin goood. Still some algae on the sand but I didnt expect my tank to be algae free. I just got finished doing a 10 gallon RO water change, and cleaning the quick filter on the maxi jet. On the dot, 10 gallons. Got some pics for you. This is all after the water change.

I was looking around and found this phosphate remover.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewI...ives_Specialty_Phosphate_Remover~vendor~.html

*If the link doesn't come up, its a liquid 1 oz. bottle of blue life phosphate control*

Do you think this will work better then the sponges? The reviews on this product are great.

thanks...

More pics on next post --->

 

[Mappelbaum37]

Lookin for some feedback... thanks!!

 

[Jmikitz]

looks good.. only time will tell now.. as for the liquid phos remover..never used it..i never used any liquid form remover of any kind. like i said before.. i dont put anything in my tank i cant test for..this is just me though and others will have different veiws. i personally like the phosban reactor because its universal. i can put carbon in it, nitrate loc, phos loc, ect.. everything but purigen .. but i will devise a way to use it in there soon.. my next challenge.

 

[Jmikitz]

ohh and on the skimmers.ive been doing some serious searching on hob skimmers. fact of the matter is your gonna spend at least 275-300 new.. i dont know of anyone who has an aqua c so i cant comment on them. id say start saving your money.. i aint givin my bermuda up anytime soon..i cant find anything shallow enuff at the right price and right quality. keep checking ebay and local reef forums. if anything pops up in our clubs forum ill let yea know. good luck and get that other k4 in there.

 

[Mappelbaum37]

Thanks anyway though Jmikitz for the skimmer. I'm installing the k4 in the tank tomorrow. Just have one more question though. I was just thinking about it and before I did this whole tank change 2 months ago I used to use Kent marine superbuffer-dKH in order to maintain my pH of usually 8.2. Well I switched after the tank change to Reef builder and it says it raises carbonate Alkalinity. (made by seachem) Will this also help maintain my pH also? I've been using the reef builder for a while and I never really thought about it. I assume if Alkalinity is balanced then the pH has to be balanced as well.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[airinhere]

Your tank looks nice. I wish my first tank looked that good.

Carbonate buffers? adjusting the pH? I thought you were still worrying about algae and initial equipment?

Right into the deep end of the pool eh?

Superbuffer DKH is just soda ash. (Is just carbonate alkalinity buffer). Personally, I go the local Leslies Pool Supply and buy a gallon bucket of Soda Ash (Superbuffer dKH) and Hardness Up (Turbo Calcium). Ten bucks a pop and its identical to the stuff you get at the LFS. Been using it since before I set up any of my existing tanks.

The use of carbonate buffer to raise the pH value of your tank is the wrong way to approach this issue. Instead, start looking to get your calcium and dKH values where you want them by testing for their concentrations and slowly adding a little of each on alternate days.

First get your levels where you want them (420ppm calcium and @10dKH). Then worry about your pH.

The correct levels of calcium and alkaline buffer (dKH) should keep your pH at tolerable levels.

Here is a link to all the chemistry articles from RK magazine. Its a ton of very useful information. And the articles are broken down by subject. About the third time you read each one, it really sinks in and starts tying into the other articles.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/subject/chemistry.php

Warning! The deep end is really deep! I recommend SCUBA gear!