Unsuccessful with SPS corals. :(

[DeepThought]

Also, is 1.026 salinity at 79*F a good spot to keep it at for sps corals?

I guess im going to paythe lfs to hold my fish for me while i reaquascape the tank. My favorite fish decided to go carpet surfing last night and im not super attached to my other fish.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Hmm - whether something is "expensive" or not tends to depend on one's individual perspective, but I consider the phytoplankton I feed to my tank on a daily basis to be very inexpensive. A small 6 ounce bottle of PhytoFeast Live is about $15 and lasts at least 6 weeks, at least.

I've never calculated it, but I probably spend more on saltwater changes, fish food and RODI filter changes than I do on coral food by a long shot.

By the way - there's no need to lose fish to jumping, you can easily add a fish-proof barrier that doesn't accumulate salt and trap heat in a tank with a netting kit from Bulk Reef Supply. If you've a friend with a woodshop that can cut it to fit on your tank, another very inexpensive option is plastic fluorescent light egg-crate.

 

[Sweatervest13]

Also, is 1.026 salinity at 79*F a good spot to keep it at for sps corals?

I guess im going to paythe lfs to hold my fish for me while i reaquascape the tank. My favorite fish decided to go carpet surfing last night and im not super attached to my other fish.

Deep... I am following along.

Sorry to hear about your fav fish. But that could give you a little extra time for the re-aquascape. I like the idea of laying it out on your kitchen table. That should give you a great idea of how it should work in the tank.

This has been a great guide for anyone who has not had great success in keeping SPS.

My key takeaway's are:

Stability; with SG, Temp, calc, Alk, Magn, phos.
Good mechanical filtration; catch as much detritus as possible
Good husbandry routines; Test often, weekly (or bi-weekly) WC's (10%), dose often to keep the key parameters stable (see Stability).
Good Lighting; You must have decent lighting (A 3 watt LED fixture, 4 or more bulb T5's with good bulbs and ind reflectors, 250w MH's).

I hope this thread keeps going, as I have learned a lot.

 

[DeepThought]

Hmm - whether something is "expensive" or not tends to depend on one's individual perspective, but I consider the phytoplankton I feed to my tank on a daily basis to be very inexpensive. A small 6 ounce bottle of PhytoFeast Live is about $15 and lasts at least 6 weeks, at least.

I've never calculated it, but I probably spend more on saltwater changes, fish food and RODI filter changes than I do on coral food by a long shot.

By the way - there's no need to lose fish to jumping, you can easily add a fish-proof barrier that doesn't accumulate salt and trap heat in a tank with a netting kit from Bulk Reef Supply. If you've a friend with a woodshop that can cut it to fit on your tank, another very inexpensive option is plastic fluorescent light egg-crate.

I'll have to look at some phytofeast at the lfs when I go this saturday. I can understand spending more on water changes and fish food... My RO/DI filters last about six months at 0 tds before they need replacing, which only costs like $40.

I'm actually pretty good at woodworking myself. I am going to look at the BRS netting, but I don't think I want any kind of top on the tank. I'll just have to buy non-jumper fish.

I have had egg crate in the past and I just don't think I want it again on this tank. I've usually had canopies - and this is the first truly open top that I have ever had. It's unfortunate that I lost one of my most favorite fish, but I will try my best to only buy fish that I know won't end up as french fries.

Deep... I am following along.

Sorry to hear about your fav fish. But that could give you a little extra time for the re-aquascape. I like the idea of laying it out on your kitchen table. That should give you a great idea of how it should work in the tank.

This has been a great guide for anyone who has not had great success in keeping SPS.

My key takeaway's are:

Stability; with SG, Temp, calc, Alk, Magn, phos.
Good mechanical filtration; catch as much detritus as possible
Good husbandry routines; Test often, weekly (or bi-weekly) WC's (10%), dose often to keep the key parameters stable (see Stability).
Good Lighting; You must have decent lighting (A 3 watt LED fixture, 4 or more bulb T5's with good bulbs and ind reflectors, 250w MH's).

I hope this thread keeps going, as I have learned a lot.

I hope it keeps going as well, and I hope that I see some improvement in my corals. I really do hope that I can make this tank as great as what I had originally had in mind.

By the way, my LFS said that I can store my fish and corals in a tank at his place for $1/day while I get my aquascape done.

 

[dkeller_nc]

A couple of comments on the non-jumper fish. My new tank is a 50 gal rimless cube. It's the first rimless I've had, and like you, I really didn't want anything on the top of the tank whatsoever. So I stocked it with fish that are not known to be jumpers.

In my case, that was coral gobies (pair of yellow ones), a pair of dragon-faced pipefish, 6 threadfin cardinals, and a few barnacle blennies. I've had a few fish deaths, but none from carpet surfing. The ones that I've specifically stayed away from have been firefish of any type and wrasses of any type. I've been told that possum wrasses aren't jumpers, but I haven't tried one of those yet.

I also suspect that specifically avoiding fish that have a reputation for being aggressive or semi-aggressive in a tank environment like tangs, dwarf angels, damsels & clownfish, etc... also help with not having fish jump out of the tank.

One very large caution about housing fish/coral at your local LFS. Every fish shop, no matter how conscientious, has a high probability of having parasitic diseases present, particularly ich. That's simply because they cycle through hundreds of fish a week, and all it takes is one to have the parasite present in their tanks. Most LFS run huge UV sterilizers and low salinities in their fish systems for that very reason.

Were I in your position, I'd buy a couple of inexpensive air pumps at the local Petco, Pet Smart or Pet Warehouse, and a few of the food-safe 5 gallon buckets at the local Lowes. Simply pick a Saturday when you can be uninterrupted, put you fish & corals in the buckets with airstones, and re-do your aquascape to your liking (and be sure that you can complete it!). Once you have everything back together, you can wait an hour or so to let the water clear, and put your corals and fish back in.

This does assume that you're not adding more live rock to complete your aquascape. If you are, be very, very careful that the LR is fully cycled (your nose is a good guide - if it smells putrid, it is).

 

[DeepThought]

Eh, I like the bigger fish too much to just give up on em'

I wish I could have a bunch of wrasses, honestly. I love fairy wrasses - but I know they are all jumpers, and I know wrasses need a sandbed. I'm considering pulling out the sandbed right now and couldn't have wrasses...


I have to put off the re-aquascape for a week. My salt didn't mix properly and as it turns out I don't have enough time today to do it properly. I'd rather put it off till next weekend, when I know I have the time and resources.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Eh, I like the bigger fish too much to just give up on em'

I wish I could have a bunch of wrasses, honestly. I love fairy wrasses - but I know they are all jumpers, and I know wrasses need a sandbed. I'm considering pulling out the sandbed right now and couldn't have wrasses...


I have to put off the re-aquascape for a week. My salt didn't mix properly and as it turns out I don't have enough time today to do it properly. I'd rather put it off till next weekend, when I know I have the time and resources.

Well, it isn't the size of the fish so much as their habits that dictate whether you can keep them in a tank without a cover. There are lots of fish species that are fairly large that aren't known to be jumpers. Most of the centropyge angels are good examples.

I've not personally heard that wrasses require a sandbed. Certain blennies and gobies require it, but that's because they sift through the sandbed looking for food.

And - I wouldn't siphon out your sandbed if you like it, it's certainly possible to keep SPS and still have a sandbed. In fact, I'd say that the vast majority of TOTM's that are SPS-dominated have sandbeds rather than bare bottoms.

 

[DeepThought]

Well, it isn't the size of the fish so much as their habits that dictate whether you can keep them in a tank without a cover. There are lots of fish species that are fairly large that aren't known to be jumpers. Most of the centropyge angels are good examples.

I've not personally heard that wrasses require a sandbed. Certain blennies and gobies require it, but that's because they sift through the sandbed looking for food.

And - I wouldn't siphon out your sandbed if you like it, it's certainly possible to keep SPS and still have a sandbed. In fact, I'd say that the vast majority of TOTM's that are SPS-dominated have sandbeds rather than bare bottoms.

Thanks for the clarification. Most wrasses actually hide in the sand and bury themselves to sleep...

A friend of mine gave me two montipora digitata frags today for free. One of them is purple, the other one is green. I put them both in the tank and within an hour the polyps were out and about.

The two brown frags that I had are starting to color up more every single day. I'm about to the point where it might be safe to say that I can start adding some easy to keep SPS frags. We will see how these two little ones do.

Topping the tank off with a kalkwasser drip seems to be doing nothing but keeping my calcium and alkalinity levels stable - but not bringing it up at all. I think I'm going to have to mix up a couple more gallons of calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate and bring up my levels to where they need to be and then keep dripping in kalkwasser. I really wish I had a kalkwasser stirrer..

Oh, the PM1 module for the Apex is not really that much money. I think I'm going to save some money over the next couple of paychecks and go ahead and buy it. I might go ahead and hook up my calcium reactor and get it tuned in this Summer.

I'm looking forward to re-aquascaping the tank. Any suggestions on structure or style? OR height of the rock work in a 75g?

I'm thinking of purchasing a couple of WP25's as well to test out. I know there are some locals that want to test it out but are unwilling to put some money into it.

I think I'm going to hold off on the side stand for the time being. I need to get some other ducks in a row before commiting to that build project.

Plus, I have to build two ukulele's this coming week... so I'm going to be pretty dang busy on top of everything else.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Thanks for the clarification. Most wrasses actually hide in the sand and bury themselves to sleep...

Actually, there's quite a lot of them that don't do this (and therefore don't need a sandbed). But regardless, I wouldn't be too concerned if you want wrasses and a bare bottomed tank. Fish are pretty adaptable.

Topping the tank off with a kalkwasser drip seems to be doing nothing but keeping my calcium and alkalinity levels stable - but not bringing it up at all.

That's actually pretty normal for Kalkwasser. If you do the calculations for calcium concentration, it's pretty low for saturated lime water. IMO, the reason to use it is to promote the abiotic precipitation of phosphate, increase the pH at night, and because the pH of kalkwasser is very, very high, it has a self-purifying effect of precipitating contaminating heavy metals like lead (unlike Calcium Chloride, solutions of which will also dissolve any contaminating lead).

 

[DeepThought]

Wow. Cool. Thanks.

So you use kalk to stabilize chemical balances and increase pH and precipitate phosphates and heavy metals....

But, if you want to raise ca or alk, a two part mix is better to use - and then stabilize it with a kalk drip. Right?

I have a calcium reactor. Im fixing to buy a pm1 module for my apex so that i can control the solenoid. Is a ca rx like kalkwasser in that you should raise ca and alk to thr point you want and then stabilize it with the calcium reactor?

Just curious how it all works.

My temp and salinity are now stable. Now im working on chemical balancing.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Well, the ideal situation is a kalk reactor on the auto top-off system and a calc reactor to make up for excess Ca and Alk demand. The difficulty with the 2-part system is that eventually you'll have quite a difference between the chloride and sodium levels in the tank vs. natural seawater. A calcium reactor doesn't have this issue.

But, 2-part is a good interim solution that's dirt cheap and simple to do, so until I get a calcium reactor on my new 50gal, it's what I use to supplement the calcium and alkalinity supplied by the kalkwasser.