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150 canister filter chiller clownfish color corals dead filter fish goby gph hydor nano phosban points powerhead questions reactor refugium setup skimmer system tank upgrading water
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#21 ·
rmalone said:
HMM, I dont know about that, pistols will absolutely undermine rockwork, base rocks simply must be set on the glass. If your rock has been set on top of substrate, pistols will pull that sand from under the rock and the rock will move. I have watched this happen a couple of times, thankfully both times the rock was stable enough that the entire pile of rock just lowered 2", and there was no rock slide. Be careful, if your rock is resting on sand you may very well have an issue. Pistol shrimp have never seen a grain of sand that shouldn't be moved. I suppose if you use crushed coral they might be able to make tunnels that get "finished" so to speak, but with substrate with grains smaller than CC, water movement constantly fills in their tunnels and they are very diligent about aggregate movement. Not to mention pistols constantly close off tunnels and open new ones. Constantly.
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I have a pistol and shrimp combo that moved from my nano to my 90 gallon. They have the same tunnel with the same two openings for over a year in the 90. I did put the base rocks on the glass in the nano - but not on the 90. They are large rocks though. Never had a problem in my nano either...once they build a tunnel it stays put and I have special grade reef sand - I strongly discourage crushed coral as its a detritus trap. The shrimp will pull pebbles and shells to support the sides of the tunnel. You could used put a handful of crushed coral nearby for it to use. My shrimp is maybe 1 1/2", its a candy pistol shrimp so perhaps it stays smaller than the other pistols?

Yes, researcg shrimp/goby pairs. Not all will pair up with one another. As I mentioned, I have a candy pistol (really nice red and white stripes) and a red stripe goby.
 
#23 ·
weimers75 said:
I have a pistol and shrimp combo that moved from my nano to my 90 gallon. They have the same tunnel with the same two openings for over a year in the 90. I did put the base rocks on the glass in the nano - but not on the 90. They are large rocks though. Never had a problem in my nano either...once they build a tunnel it stays put and I have special grade reef sand - I strongly discourage crushed coral as its a detritus trap. The shrimp will pull pebbles and shells to support the sides of the tunnel. You could used put a handful of crushed coral nearby for it to use. My shrimp is maybe 1 1/2", its a candy pistol shrimp so perhaps it stays smaller than the other pistols?

Yes, researcg shrimp/goby pairs. Not all will pair up with one another. As I mentioned, I have a candy pistol (really nice red and white stripes) and a red stripe goby.
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Perhaps the two different shrimp account for the different behavior. I have a tiger pistol, and he has grown to about 2.5-3", I know the candies stay much smaller (and they are way prettier). My tiger pistol moves sand constantly and routinely opens or closes holes, there are about 5 holes I know of and at least 3 in an open cave I have under a large flat rock, I would say there are always 3-5 holes open and the rest are closed off.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
mf2055 said:
bicolor dottybacks are evil, and so are bioballs... just my $.02
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Ya I didn't really know about the bio balls at first. I have never kept a SW tank before. In FW you want as much bio media and you can cram in the filter. I'm just now learning that SW is a whole different animal. Is some biomedia ok? Just wondering b/c after Weimers said that it was a nitrate factory I looked and the tank comes with a bag of those white biomedia blocks that is placed in the back filtration unit. I was thinking that if it's not needed I could rip open the bag and put mor eLR in there too. If there such thing as too much LR?

mf2055 said:
There are certain "shrimp" gobies that pair up with pistal shrimp... (that is a mandarin dragonette in the picture, not a goby) :3195:
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Ya I know it's not a goby but it's a really cool looking fish non the less.
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
So I'm a little confused on which sand is right for this type of tank. I have been reading the "sand sand sand" thread and now I'm trying to figure this out. I would like to do a larger sized grain as weimers suggested in case I give SPS a try. However, I'm unsure of what sized grain is good. I've seen 1.5mm-2.0mm, 0.5-1.5... I want a small grain but not to small as I don't need to blowing and creating hills and valleys everywhere. Do pistols need larger substrate to anchor the walls of their tunnels? I was looking at this: CaribSea Dry Aragonite Special Grade Reef Sand

Just from looking at the pictures gives you the impression that it has a large grain. But I guess it's not plus I've heard people say that it's white not brown like the picture.

weimers75 said:
I would hold off on that as sps are much more demanding than lps or softies...and require adding additives.
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Weimers, don't you still have to add additives even to a tank that doesn't contain SPS? I guess I was under the impression that you still have to add Ca, Mg, …. plus I, Sr, etc. to all SW tanks in order for them to achieve optimum growth.
 
#28 ·
The sand you're looking at is what I use. I think the pic makes it look larger than it is, its a really nice sand.

Softies are more forgiving than other corals. When I first started, I added nothing and kept up elements through weekly water changes until I added LPS. LPS does require calcium, but depending on the salt you use it may have enough. Magnesium isn't a required additive even for sps, but it helps.
 
#30 ·
anything that traps big chunks of "mulm" or "detritus" or whatever creative names people come up with for sludgy piles of biological sluff that look like dookie can cause issues with nitrates unless you REGULARLY clean them out. Filter socks seem to be the easiest way to remove large chunks from the water stream, but they can become an issue if not maintained.
 
Discussion starter · #32 ·
Recharging DI Resin

Ok so here's the next installment of questions:

Though I don't have my tank YET I know how important the water quality is to the entire system. I have a 100GPD 6 stage RO/DI Unit that I use to make WC water for my 8 and 72 gallon FW tanks. Just this week I had to replace my filters and resin for the first time. Living in the country and having VERY hard water has taken it's tole on them.

Just this week I had to make ~45 and already about an 1/2 inch of my new color changing DI resin has turned to brown. In total the length of the bed is about 12inchs and there are two but I'm going to be going through alot of resin. I was told it was cheap but I hate to throw things out if I can reuse them.

If I keep my current tanks and get the 34 RSM I'll have to make a little over 50 gallons a week and will be going through resin left an right.

I was wondering what you guys thought about doing this: How to Recharge DI Resin by David Sanders - Reefkeeping.com

It's a reefing site and I'm sure there is more than one person out there that's does this.

Any thoughts?
 
Discussion starter · #36 ·
Ok so it's been a while since I posted my thoughts on my dream tank. Since my last post I have did A LOT of reading and looking online. I have realized that finding a SW tank on CL is SO much cheaper and easier. When it gets closer to getting a tank I may need one of you local guys help me (maybe stop by the house and check things out and see if it's worth what they are asking).

This is the tank I was looking at and feel in love with.

Right now the RSM idea is out. I have my heart set on a 90 on CL that I recently started a topic on. It contains everything that I'm aware of. I'm not sure about the lighting on the tank. I believe all 90G are 90 tall so I'm going to need some power to get the par up way down by the substrate. If the lights are no good on the tank I have been looking at getting these lights:

(I'm sorry if Ebay links are not allowed)

This one contains just one MH and 4x39W actinic. I will likely replace two of the actinic with some other spectrum of T5HOs.

This one has two MH but everything else is the same.

What do you all think about which one would be better? I feel like the one MH is good but I don't know is the light dispersion is going to look natural directly in the center and only in the center. The one with two MH to me gives a good spread across the entire length of the tank. Also what is your thought on the actinic? Is 4 alright, to blue, I'm I ok switching two out?

Next thing is heater:
I would like to run one heater but the 500W heaters I feel are just SO big they won't fit in the sump. Therefore, I was looking at getting 2 300W heaters. Thoughts???

I think I'm going to possibly put a light on the sump and get some cheto. Right now I'm looking getting a small clip on desk lap with a CFL bulb or maybe a small LED fixture. Thoughts???

That's what I got so far. Feel free to share what you think.
 
#37 ·
jmowbray said:
Next thing is heater:
I would like to run one heater but the 500W heaters I feel are just SO big they won't fit in the sump. Therefore, I was looking at getting 2 300W heaters. Thoughts???
Click to expand...
pros and cons. biggest Con - more equipment biggest pro - one fails second heater can save you from disaster.
jmowbray said:
I think I'm going to possibly put a light on the sump and get some cheto. Right now I'm looking getting a small clip on desk lap with a CFL bulb or maybe a small LED fixture. Thoughts???

That's what I got so far. Feel free to share what you think.
Click to expand...
Good idea and can be done cheap and effective.
soverjas's Channel - YouTube
 
Discussion starter · #38 ·
Your video is actually what got me thinking. ;)

Any ideas on pros and cons between the two light systems besides more $$$ to run? I was thinking of only running the MH while I was there during the day for maybe 2-3 hours. Would the corals benefit from that amount of time?

I was also wondering about sump size for a 90G is a 20G enough? I'm still not sure about the heaters. I have feel in love with the inline Hydor heaters I used on all my FW tanks but they aren't going to work here.

In the end I would like to pick up a controller unit on the selling forum for a good deal. The issue is that I don't want to use two of the valuable plugs to control two heaters. I just don't know how I would work an 18" heater into a 20G sump. It would be almost as long as the tank and therefore I wouldn't be able to have baffles. I guess I just answered my own question. I guess its two heaters or any other ideas?
 
#40 ·
jmowbray said:
Your video is actually what got me thinking. ;)

Any ideas on pros and cons between the two light systems besides more $$$ to run? I was thinking of only running the MH while I was there during the day for maybe 2-3 hours. Would the corals benefit from that amount of time?

I was also wondering about sump size for a 90G is a 20G enough? I'm still not sure about the heaters. I have feel in love with the inline Hydor heaters I used on all my FW tanks but they aren't going to work here.

In the end I would like to pick up a controller unit on the selling forum for a good deal. The issue is that I don't want to use two of the valuable plugs to control two heaters. I just don't know how I would work an 18" heater into a 20G sump. It would be almost as long as the tank and therefore I wouldn't be able to have baffles. I guess I just answered my own question. I guess its two heaters or any other ideas?
Click to expand...
You can run two heaters off of one outlet if you intend to use the controllers probe to turn the heaters on and off. In the event one fails the other would still work. One outlet will easily handle 2 heaters. A PC4 has two 8 amp outlets and on average a 200W heater only uses about 1.5 amps. Just remember you are limited to 15 amps per strip which honestly is a ton of equipment to get to that many amps.

I use to run MH 6 hours a day and supplement with actinics 2 hours before a 1 hour after. Not sure if that was the best way to do it but originally set it up that way and never played around with it. you could easily set the controller for what ever light cycle you want and I would suggest doing it off the controller.

Sump size should be at least large enough that in case of a power outage it will handle the water volume to your break point in the aquarium drilled or the siphon break in a overflow box. For a 90 gallon DT a 20 gallon is probably going to cut it close. I would recommend a bigger sump for the simple fact there isn't much room in a 20 gallon sump in the way of adding equipment to help with filtration. That's my own opinion. I run a 30gallon sump for a 50gallon tank and I wish I had more sump.
 
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