Well, it's a start... (long post ahead!)

[philagothos]

I've been lurking and trying to get started for almost 2 years and now that I'm getting ready to move I finally set up a tank. I got some rock from Cagdas on Saturday and planned to just set up a 10 to keep the rock alive until I move. Then he decided to give me a rock with ~30 zoas on it!

I spent all day Saturday getting my 29 going. I had to make water, wire the lighting, modify the hood, etc., etc. I put all of the rock in the 10 until I had the 29 ready. I had 2 15W NO bulbs over the 10 with a MJ900 handling circulation. The zoas opened up but looked less than great under the NO bulbs.

Once I had the 29 ready to go, I moved everything over in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, my RODI sprung a leak and had to be shut down, so the tank is just over half full. I have 1 MJ900 & 2 MJ1200 on a RedSea Wavemaster Pro. Lighting is 96W of T5 (48W Actinic Plus & 48W Actinic).

Unfortunately, I am having some problems with the zoas. They are only opening about halfway. They were almost fully open in the 10 gallon with 30W NO. Is my lighting too strong? I wouldn't think so, but they had been at the bottom of a 75 under PCs and my T5s are seriously bright for only 96W. I used the same water for setting up both tanks, so I'm not sure what else is could be.

I tried testing my water parameters, but I'm not terribly skilled with these things yet. Ammonia was 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5. PH was the one that gave me trouble. It seems to be off the chart high. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Runner]

If it is the same zoanthids I got from Cagdas (the ones with green tentacles and yellowish mouth), they take some time to open. My tank is established and has good water conditions and they took all night to open and another entire day before I saw a few tentacles. It is a few days later and not all polyps are totally open (but they seem to be getting there).

High pH would be a concern, though. Are you adding anything to your water to boost alkalinity or calcium?

I would also verify salinity and, if you are using a swing-arm, have it checked against a measurement from a higher-quality specific gravity meter. As I've told everybody (I am sure you guys tire of hearing this), I caused some zoathids to close up for about 5 months because of a bad swing-arm that had me putting setting my salinity at 1.018~10.20.

 

[philagothos]

Thanks Runner. I'm not adding anything besides salt & water. I am using a swing arm and it's been a while since it was calibrated, so I'll try getting that done. I'm not sure what to do about the possibly high pH. I can't really get a good reading and don't want to make any adjustments that I can't be certain about. I guess this is why people get the Pinpoint monitors. I'll have to add that to my list of things to get. In the meantime, I'm not really sure what to do. Would any of the LFSs test my water for a small fee? I'm working insane hours right now, but I could try to make a trip to one of them sometime soon.

I know it's a long shot, but anyone have a pH monitor they want to sell (or just loan me for a day or two)?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Runner]

The Coral Reef has checked my salinity for free. And when I was having troubles they checked my pH, too. Any of the fancier stuff like calcium or alkalinity or phosphates usually costs $3. I think for a small fee, Aquarium will check all the basic stuff (pH, salinity, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates).

I've never used a pH monitor personally. It is good for seeing the day-to-day operations of your tank, but a test kit should be somewhat accurate if it is good.

 

[ReefRacer]

If you want to bring some water to the meeting I will test the salinity with my refractometer, the PH with a pinpoint and if you bring RO water I will test for dissolved solids. Let me know. I could also bring you some xenia frags if you feel like your tank is ready.
Mike

 

[AndynSarah]

This is a highjack for the highjack on my other thread Kevin.

Wishing I had a bigger tank than 2.5 for salt water now, well I do it is just getting the filters, salt, sand, live rock. Any tips on setting up a 20 gallon reef tank? I got the reef fever after I set up my 2.5 tank. LOL. Hoping to someday have a big boy tank,
Andy

 

[philagothos]

Hijack overruled, back to the topic.

Got an update for anyone following this thread. I want to Coral Reef tonight. All water parameters came back not only normal, but almost perfect. All we could come up with was lighting being more than they are accustomed to having. I'm going to shorten the photo period, go down to only 2 24W T5s and see how that goes for a couple days.

Runner, I think mine might be a little different than the ones you got. Mine have orange mouths, green bodies, and yellow skirts (at least that's how they look under my lights). My bulbs are Actinic Plus & Actinic, so it's a very purple look. I'll update again when I can tell any difference.

-Kevin

PS: Andy, my tips are to take everything slowly. Learn from experienced people (especially, the many members of this club who are great people and eager to help). Don't buy anything you haven't fully researched and plan a realistic tank budget before buying that big tank (my 90, which I bought more than a year and a half ago, is still in storage and likely will be for a couple more years because I didn't plan the budget before buying the tank). Ok, that's all of the hijacking for this thread, start your own thread if you want more advice.