LAK's 15g Cube
- Thread starter Tswifty
- Start date
imcosmokramer
New member
L - I have that ER on my 55 and it does a great job. You PA people must get something in the water, bc you "purple up" those rocks quickly!!
. For sure, I'll take some when I get home from work.
Tswifty
New member
Tank was too cloudy after performing some maintenance on the tank yesterday... so this was the only shot that looked decent.
As far as the tank "check up" went... Nitrates are too high right now, and I think that's why some of the colors in her corals are suffering. So either today or tomorrow I'm going to perform the back to back to back to back... etc. water change method (http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html) to drop them back down into an acceptable range. I would also like to PAR test the light again, as the bulb may need to be replaced as well... and her pH is pretty darn low throughout the day, so I may switch her to kalkwasser for top offs... but I am still undecided about that one for the obvious reasons.
As far as the sump project goes... I talked to Keith yesterday, and he's pretty much finished with it. Now I just need to call him with the dimensions for the miniature overflow box that will sit in the tank. Also, all Laura's plumbing supplies arrived from www.savko.com and her Mag 3 return pump should be arriving soon as well.
I also got the EuroReef RS-80 put together. It's in very good condition, but the only thing I didn't like was that the pump was mesh modded, and it looks like the original owner destroyed the pin wheel in order to make it. So we'll need to order a new impeller or pin wheel before hooking it up. I think a mesh mod would be too much maintenance for her, and also unnecessary on such a small system.
Water Params as of yesterday were:
SG: 1.024
Ca: 460 ppm
Alk: 9 dKH
NO3: 10 ppm
As far as the tank "check up" went... Nitrates are too high right now, and I think that's why some of the colors in her corals are suffering. So either today or tomorrow I'm going to perform the back to back to back to back... etc. water change method (http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html) to drop them back down into an acceptable range. I would also like to PAR test the light again, as the bulb may need to be replaced as well... and her pH is pretty darn low throughout the day, so I may switch her to kalkwasser for top offs... but I am still undecided about that one for the obvious reasons.
As far as the sump project goes... I talked to Keith yesterday, and he's pretty much finished with it. Now I just need to call him with the dimensions for the miniature overflow box that will sit in the tank. Also, all Laura's plumbing supplies arrived from www.savko.com and her Mag 3 return pump should be arriving soon as well.
I also got the EuroReef RS-80 put together. It's in very good condition, but the only thing I didn't like was that the pump was mesh modded, and it looks like the original owner destroyed the pin wheel in order to make it. So we'll need to order a new impeller or pin wheel before hooking it up. I think a mesh mod would be too much maintenance for her, and also unnecessary on such a small system.
Water Params as of yesterday were:
SG: 1.024
Ca: 460 ppm
Alk: 9 dKH
NO3: 10 ppm
Tswifty
New member
Changed approx 10g of water on the system today. I think I used the wrong card last time I checked the Nitrate levels, and didn't realize API has 2 different cards (1 fresh, 1 salt) in the box. Anyway, after the change, Nitrates were showing 20 ppm. Main cause is more than likely a combination of extremely overfeeding the tank, and too high of a bio-load for the filtration (or lack there of) on the tank.
I advised Laura (once again) to cut back on feedings to one offering every other day, as well as to stop adding livestock until the system has a chance to stabilize and the sump/skimmer is added.
Also, from the look of the livestock, and how the Palythoas were stretching... I think it's safe to assume the tank needs more light (new bulb) as well, and I recommended the 250w DE Pheonix 14k bulb that I am currently using on my setup.
On the positive side, the Palythoas seem to be thriving in the "nutrient rich" environment... and the Daytripper Palythoas... which I only have 1 adult and 2 baby polyps of in my tank... are posting 5 adult polyps and 2 baby polyps in her system.
The parameters of the freshly mixed salt water I used were as follows (I ran out of Coralife Salt Mix... so just Instant Ocean was used, and I buffered the Magnesium and Calcium levels a little).
SG: 1.027
Alkalinity: 11.2 dKH
Calcium: 430 ppm
Magnesium: 1320 ppm
I advised Laura (once again) to cut back on feedings to one offering every other day, as well as to stop adding livestock until the system has a chance to stabilize and the sump/skimmer is added.
Also, from the look of the livestock, and how the Palythoas were stretching... I think it's safe to assume the tank needs more light (new bulb) as well, and I recommended the 250w DE Pheonix 14k bulb that I am currently using on my setup.
On the positive side, the Palythoas seem to be thriving in the "nutrient rich" environment... and the Daytripper Palythoas... which I only have 1 adult and 2 baby polyps of in my tank... are posting 5 adult polyps and 2 baby polyps in her system.
The parameters of the freshly mixed salt water I used were as follows (I ran out of Coralife Salt Mix... so just Instant Ocean was used, and I buffered the Magnesium and Calcium levels a little).
SG: 1.027
Alkalinity: 11.2 dKH
Calcium: 430 ppm
Magnesium: 1320 ppm
LAK
New member
Yeah, I guess I'm going to have to try and kick my habit lol I told TJ that they are always so hungry though hahaha He didn't want to hear it.
Oh and on a positive note...my pump came in yesterday...so as soon as we can make a trip to Ohio to pick up the sump from Keith, TJ can drill the tank and we can get this thing up and running.
Oh and on a positive note...my pump came in yesterday...so as soon as we can make a trip to Ohio to pick up the sump from Keith, TJ can drill the tank and we can get this thing up and running.
