(i moved this topic to this forum to see if more ppl would respond)
hey all .. first off hello i finaly decided to register as i have found your site very helpfull in getting a real reef set up going.
I have had tanks for over 8 years now started off with brackish and quickly moved to salt. Tanks have grown and acumulated over time as expected in this hoby. But recently i decided to ditch most my tanks and focus on 1 main tank... it's a reef tank.. now i have been in the hoby for a while so not total noob. but i had some quick questions and wanted to get your thoughts on some of this stuff.
My first question has to do with Phytoplankton and zoo plankton.
from what i understand phyto is nothing more than baby algae and at this point in my reef experence i am producing a healthy amount of some form in my tank on it's own. I fed my rock live dt's for over 4 years now and every day i get a nice thin film i have to scrape off with my magnet and i was wondering if this is enough to suport my corals alone with out having to use dt's or other phytoplankton products?.. some of the film may be hair algae phyto but mostly what ever was in "live DT's phytoplankton" but for food would it mater? on the same note i am growing live brine shrip and wouldn't that replace my zoo's? I have found most frozen foods to be too large of portions for my tank and i got tired of having 2 chop frozen cubes so i went to live brine for the most part and actualy my fish go nuts over the live brine but would it work as a zoo's for the day 2 for the clams and other corals?? ( aprox baby shimp content per day over 200) after doing it for awhile i noticed a suprising similarity to baby brine shrimp and kents liquid zooplankton .
I would truly like to cut out any unnessasary food/ additives. at the moment i am randomly feeding oyster eggs, black powder, powder form phyo or zoo planton / liquid zoo or phyto (kent) and live dt's and the live brine. what i put in is random but i normaly do a zoo and a phyto a day. also i feed the fish krill or saltwater pack or fish food randomly. so you can see where i'm wanting to cut some of them out.
2nd. heaters... ok this is going to seem silly but here is the jist i have had horible luck with heaters... i have tried almost all brands and whats nots and my problems seems to be either voltege leaks or them turning on over temp.. aka my tanks 77 and heaters set at 69 and the dam things running... now i do run a halide and power compact set up (see specs below) so heat is a issue but not that bad but from the casing alone i think it's causing a false reading and kicking on early ... i have had rena / marinland / top fin and others and all of them have seem to have there own problems ... does anyone have a solid sugestion for a heater that wont kick on unless it is truly below 72 as every one i have tried my digital thermo says i'm mid 70's and the dam heaters on or they leak some voltage back in the aquarium.
don't know if any of you have had same experence but i don't have a extreamly large tank and don't want to buy a chiller atm as my tank temp curve is normaly 74- 78 with my light cycle but at night when lights are off is when i need the heater. So i am looking for a solid heater that only turns on/off when it is +/- 2 of target temp or right on
if you guys can give me your input on these things it would be such a help as atm there my bigest questions that i can't seem to answer.
tank setup.
now some of yall have amazing set ups and while this one is not very large and am very pleased with it.
49 bowfront reef
72-78°F; sg 1.023-1.025; pH 8.1-8.2; dKH 8-12 cal 370-400 amm0
nit/nit-0
xp4 canister on random timer about 15 hours of on time has 9w turbo twist inline but i only run that when i feel like it.
remora pro- 16 hour random timer
biowheel 250 constant flow
multi powerheads on random timers for wave efects
200+ lbs of live rock. (fiji/ tonga / lalo / texas)
4" substrate fine
36" odyssea hqi / pc / moon lighting (ebay) .. i changed bulbs when i got it, i am running 1 420 / at 03 65w, 1 50/50 10k / 03 65w, 1 250 xm 20k hqi all on timers.
fixture has 2 hqi bulbs but i only run the right side as it's more than enough par / wpg for a 49g and before you ask i tweeked the ballasts changed out few caps and put a fan on them and for that light and they run just fine
Tank crew
corals
random mushroms .. aprox 50+ from rodact / watermellon / hairy bla bla bla..
acro's - 1 cobalt bottle brush and 1 purple
monts 1 branching green mont and some other skin mont thats growing over rock was hitcher grew 4" in all dir last year
colt- aprox size 8" from base 2 tip
fiji leather
finger leather
2 toadstools
random star polyps 3 dif colors/ colonys that i have growing in tank
random other polyps
maze brain coral
long tent anemone
thorny oyster that hitchhiked 4"+
sml blue max clam 3" bought at 1"
2 hawian fether dusters and prob 100's of small random ones
fish
spotted fairy wrasse
2 six line wrasse mated
green manderain
5 green chromis
lawnmower blenny
glass jaw fish
common cleaner wrasse
fire fin fish
3 pepermint shrimp
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
2 sand sifting star fish
1 tiger britt star
saly light foot crab
20+ snales random
20+ hermits random but no red
and some unidinified things (besides bristle worms / copods)
I run 2 other tanks (pred and iso/ref) but not going to get into that..
so if you could plz let me know about your comments on these topics if you can. this is obviously a established tank and for the most part am just trying to figure out these last little things in my swa experence
Thank you all so much in advance and i look forward to using this forum.
sincerly
Craig
aka
slayertx
hey all .. first off hello i finaly decided to register as i have found your site very helpfull in getting a real reef set up going.
I have had tanks for over 8 years now started off with brackish and quickly moved to salt. Tanks have grown and acumulated over time as expected in this hoby. But recently i decided to ditch most my tanks and focus on 1 main tank... it's a reef tank.. now i have been in the hoby for a while so not total noob. but i had some quick questions and wanted to get your thoughts on some of this stuff.
My first question has to do with Phytoplankton and zoo plankton.
from what i understand phyto is nothing more than baby algae and at this point in my reef experence i am producing a healthy amount of some form in my tank on it's own. I fed my rock live dt's for over 4 years now and every day i get a nice thin film i have to scrape off with my magnet and i was wondering if this is enough to suport my corals alone with out having to use dt's or other phytoplankton products?.. some of the film may be hair algae phyto but mostly what ever was in "live DT's phytoplankton" but for food would it mater? on the same note i am growing live brine shrip and wouldn't that replace my zoo's? I have found most frozen foods to be too large of portions for my tank and i got tired of having 2 chop frozen cubes so i went to live brine for the most part and actualy my fish go nuts over the live brine but would it work as a zoo's for the day 2 for the clams and other corals?? ( aprox baby shimp content per day over 200) after doing it for awhile i noticed a suprising similarity to baby brine shrimp and kents liquid zooplankton .
I would truly like to cut out any unnessasary food/ additives. at the moment i am randomly feeding oyster eggs, black powder, powder form phyo or zoo planton / liquid zoo or phyto (kent) and live dt's and the live brine. what i put in is random but i normaly do a zoo and a phyto a day. also i feed the fish krill or saltwater pack or fish food randomly. so you can see where i'm wanting to cut some of them out.
2nd. heaters... ok this is going to seem silly but here is the jist i have had horible luck with heaters... i have tried almost all brands and whats nots and my problems seems to be either voltege leaks or them turning on over temp.. aka my tanks 77 and heaters set at 69 and the dam things running... now i do run a halide and power compact set up (see specs below) so heat is a issue but not that bad but from the casing alone i think it's causing a false reading and kicking on early ... i have had rena / marinland / top fin and others and all of them have seem to have there own problems ... does anyone have a solid sugestion for a heater that wont kick on unless it is truly below 72 as every one i have tried my digital thermo says i'm mid 70's and the dam heaters on or they leak some voltage back in the aquarium.
don't know if any of you have had same experence but i don't have a extreamly large tank and don't want to buy a chiller atm as my tank temp curve is normaly 74- 78 with my light cycle but at night when lights are off is when i need the heater. So i am looking for a solid heater that only turns on/off when it is +/- 2 of target temp or right on
if you guys can give me your input on these things it would be such a help as atm there my bigest questions that i can't seem to answer.
tank setup.
now some of yall have amazing set ups and while this one is not very large and am very pleased with it.
49 bowfront reef
72-78°F; sg 1.023-1.025; pH 8.1-8.2; dKH 8-12 cal 370-400 amm0
nit/nit-0
xp4 canister on random timer about 15 hours of on time has 9w turbo twist inline but i only run that when i feel like it.
remora pro- 16 hour random timer
biowheel 250 constant flow
multi powerheads on random timers for wave efects
200+ lbs of live rock. (fiji/ tonga / lalo / texas)
4" substrate fine
36" odyssea hqi / pc / moon lighting (ebay) .. i changed bulbs when i got it, i am running 1 420 / at 03 65w, 1 50/50 10k / 03 65w, 1 250 xm 20k hqi all on timers.
fixture has 2 hqi bulbs but i only run the right side as it's more than enough par / wpg for a 49g and before you ask i tweeked the ballasts changed out few caps and put a fan on them and for that light and they run just fine
Tank crew
corals
random mushroms .. aprox 50+ from rodact / watermellon / hairy bla bla bla..
acro's - 1 cobalt bottle brush and 1 purple
monts 1 branching green mont and some other skin mont thats growing over rock was hitcher grew 4" in all dir last year
colt- aprox size 8" from base 2 tip
fiji leather
finger leather
2 toadstools
random star polyps 3 dif colors/ colonys that i have growing in tank
random other polyps
maze brain coral
long tent anemone
thorny oyster that hitchhiked 4"+
sml blue max clam 3" bought at 1"
2 hawian fether dusters and prob 100's of small random ones
fish
spotted fairy wrasse
2 six line wrasse mated
green manderain
5 green chromis
lawnmower blenny
glass jaw fish
common cleaner wrasse
fire fin fish
3 pepermint shrimp
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
2 sand sifting star fish
1 tiger britt star
saly light foot crab
20+ snales random
20+ hermits random but no red
and some unidinified things (besides bristle worms / copods)
I run 2 other tanks (pred and iso/ref) but not going to get into that..
so if you could plz let me know about your comments on these topics if you can. this is obviously a established tank and for the most part am just trying to figure out these last little things in my swa experence
Thank you all so much in advance and i look forward to using this forum.
sincerly
Craig
aka
slayertx
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