Quick question...

[ntswift]

what is the difference/ benefit from having a fuge? Wouldnt having calurpa and live rock in your main tank just do the same thing? i know its not the same thing but i just want to know why. i'm just setting up my fuge now and just wondered what the difference was aside from if you want to have pods. Also i just bought some calurpa and there were these little flea (if you magnified it) looking things. anyone know what they are?? sorry i dont have a camera right now to take a pic. I heard bristle worms are bad, but why exactly are they bad and do i have to worry about them if i have a 6 line wrasse and a scooter blenny?TIA (sorry its so long!)

 

[TCTFish]

The minerals in the mud make the difference. You use mud...or should use mud in the fuge whereas it's not used in the tank. So it's not so much the macro algae, but the combo of macro algae with the reef mud. These things create a chemistry that allow for the natural break down of proteins.

Those flea looking things are copepods.

Bristleworms are not bad. Fireworms are bad which look like fancy bristleworms. Bristleworms feed on ditrius in the sandbed, keeping it churned and healthy. The only time when soft coral may be targeted as food is if there isn't enough ditrius in the sandbed, so you don't want to have too many.

BTW...scooter blennies and six line wrasses do not eat bristleworms. Six line wrasses eat flatworms and scooters eat copepods and what ever else they can suck up in their little mouths. Arrowcrabs eat bristleworms.

 

[ntswift]

i was just reading on the getting started part of the forum about the mud. i will have to get some! when i put my macro algea in there were these worms all over in it and i assumed they were bristle worms. they were half black and half red with little spikes up and down the sides. I'm not 100% because i've never seen one to confirm that it was one though. just assuming! ( i know its stupid to assume but i'm still a little new to this!) The flea looking things were freakin huge. i know i have copepods because i saw them for the first time two days ago when i woke up and turned on the lights. this did not look like that at all. they were about the size of white rice maybe a tiny bit bigger. if they are copepods, then cool! My mistake about the six line and the scooter blenny. i thought they did eat bristle worms. Thanks for the correction!

 

[TCTFish]

I was told those white flea looking things are copepods. They're just like them but bigger. I've no clue how big they can get. If anything, it's food LOL.

Those worms sounds like bristleworms. They would be really good for the refuge so, just keep the population manageable. They can get big and are very ugly things when they're big. Fireworms are pretty. Their spikes are like thick tufts of hair and some can be quite colorful. The bristleworms are simply a peachy pink, flesh red to dark brown and their spikes are just spikes. Very irritating too so use something like a double pair of surgeon gloves (the spikes can penetrate through one). When I get stung and usually on my fingers, the sting areas would itch like mad for hours. I'd be chewing on my fingers all day long...LOL. It's more annoying than painful unless you are allergic. Then I'm sure it could be painful. Fireworms are painful..so I'm told.

 

[ntswift]

LOL...well thanks for the info. i went back to the LFS where i got the macro from and asked him what they were and he said they were amphipods??? i dont know if i spelled that right but anyway he said there was nothing in his tanks that weren't reef safe. i take that with a grain of salt though... one good thing is that i've wanted to get a star fish for a while now and the macro came with like a dozen little baby brittle stars! Nice bonus! (if they are reef safe)

 

[MT79]

he said they were amphipods???

Amphipods, specifically Gammarus Amphipods, look similar to small ants. They can reach lengths upto 1/4". Copepods, at least the ones commonly found in reef tanks, are generally the size of this dot(.) and white in appearence. The stars are most likely "mini-stars". They are beneficial scavengers, and a good addition to every reef.


Here is a good article on bristle/fireworms. They are not so bad after all...
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium...e_worms_2.asp?adsite=NL030906A04&fromsource=4
good luck!

 

[ntswift]

Yeah, I think they are amphipods then. They were pretty small but i know they weren't the copepods be cause I see those all the time in my tank now. My clowns took a bite at one of the amphipods but just spit it back out. Maybe it was too big for it. I just wanted to make sure that they weren't mantis shrimp. Thanks for the article on the bristle worms and fireworms! I guess they aren't so bad either!

 

[Davek410]

Does anyone know what to do about low PH 7.8 and HIGH Nitrate levels (20)?

 

[TCTFish]

Dave...here are some basic questions we ask so we can help you better...

How many gallons is the tank?
Type of filtration (including protein skimmers and refugiums)?
How long has the tank been up and running with fish in it?
What do you feed? How often? How much?
How much and how often are the water changes?
What kind of substrate?
What fish and other livestock are in the tank?
What are the current water parameters..other than what you've already stated (ammonia, nitrite, and SG)?

When ever pH is low, test ammonia. If there are levels of ammonia, you need to lower the ammonia prior to buffering up pH. The lower pH keeps the ammonia at a non toxic form called ammonium. If pH levels are buffered before ammonia levels are zero, you can poison the fish.

 

[Davek410]

I'm new to this so bare with me, I'm constantly learning:

Light: marine-glo (40W) and power-glo (40W) both 48" (light is on 11-12 hours a day)
How many gallons is the tank? 75gallons (1 year)
Type of filtration (including protein skimmers and refugiums)? fluval 404 filter and berlin turbo protien skimmer
How long has the tank been up and running with fish in it? year
What do you feed? How often? How much? frozen brine shrimp, or cyclop-eeze (1 daily)
How much and how often are the water changes? weekly 5 gallons
What kind of substrate? elaborate
What fish and other livestock are in the tank? 2 damsels, tang, hermit crabs, snails
What are the current water parameters..other than what you've already stated (ammonia, nitrite, and SG)? am .25, nitrite 0, sg? salinity 1.023

 

[TCTFish]

Dave...leave the pH alone until ammonia is zero. IF you buffer it up now, you can poison the fish. The lower pH value is an automatic response to the ammonia. It will keep the ammonia in the non toxic form of ammonium. A higher pH value will turn it back to ammonia. Once ammonia is zero, buffer the pH to 8.3 with a pH buffer...

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/MarineBuffer.html

Perhaps you should do a 10 gallon water change weekly instead of 5 gallons. Service the Fluval...rinse bio media in used tank water. Clean hoses, tubes, and mechanics of the filter on a regular basis (once a month). The nitrate isn't all that bad if you're not dealing with coral. When coral are involved, you want nitrates at about 05 ppm. In a tank without coral 20 is typically acceptable so long as you QT any new fish. You can do frequent, but small partial water changes if you want to lower nitrates. 10% twice a week until nitrates are at desired level. Feeds should be no more what the fish can eat in a five minute period throughout the day. If you have live rock, then skip a couple days out of the week. When you do feed...that five minutes worth of food should be divided into two or more feeds. More food is absorbed by the fish's body, so there is less poop. These fish naturally in the wild pick at food all day long instead of a large feed at once. Their digestive systems are adapted to their natural ways of feeding and not to the typical schedules we make for them and that adds to the waste load, which in turn adds to nitrate levels.

You can also put a de nitrate media in the Fluval to help absorb excess nitrates.

Food should be a little more varied than what you have on the menu. The tang HAS to have plenty of veggies, both green and purple. What I would suggest is to mix a good marine flake food like Omega One and mix it with a veggie flake and use this mix as the staple diet. Offer purple seaweed for the tang once in a while as well as seaweed strips you can put on a veggie clip. Cyclopeeze and brine can be included in the mix. The veggies are too important and the tang especially needs it on a daily basis. If there's natural algae growth, you still should suppliment with other algae foods. This way you know for a fact the tang is getting the proper nutrition.

 

[Davek410]

Thanks alot for your advice, you have helped so much. You seem to know what your talking about! Do you know how to get the colorful algea growth on my live rock, when I bought my first quanity of live rock I seemed to have purple and pink algea everywhere and it looked very nice, but that just stopped all of a sudden and have never returned? Do you have to purchase your live rock with all of this present or can it be controled?

 

[TCTFish]

Perhaps the most evident reason for all that growth to disappear is the lighting. You only have 80 watts of lighting which is far lower than what a 'reef' system requires. Plus, you need to feed the rock too. Never thought you'd be feeding rocks, huh??? LOL. Though it's actually what the rock supports that is being fed.

To have optimum lighting you would need nothing less than 3 watts per gallon and this will support low light and non photosynthetic corals. 4 to 5 watts per gallon is more preferred and allows for more variety of coral...the medium light dependent coral as well as anemones. 7 to 9 watts per gallon supports the SPS corals. You'd need a PC unit instead of regular flourescent fixtures.

What is the length of the tank? 36" or 48"? I'll send you a link to some good lighting systems that are affordable.

The extra lighting will allow for things on the live rock to grow. It only takes a remnant of something left on the rock and it can blossom over time. You'll want to get a few extra pieces of LR after changing the lighting so the natural growth can spread over the other rocks.

BTW...that purple and pink algae is coraline algae. This needs to be fed calcium and alkalinity. This is what I meant by feeding the rock. There are calcium and alkalinity additives and test kits you would need. B-Ionic is one of the more popular calcium/alkalinity suppliments. Corallife also has and a bit cheaper, though less concentrated. Probably easier as a starter pack than the B-Ionic. It's a two bottle system. You would test the elements and add one or the other or both separately (never mix them together) accordingly. Read up on this part of reef keeping to become a bit more knowledgeable.

 

[Davek410]

I figured the lights I have now just werent powerful enough, because it was sold as a tank hood/combo. I believe my tank is 48", thats the length of my lights now. How long does it take for the coralline algea to start reproducing? And a couple of questions about the live sand. What is beneficial from having it? Is it bad to add sand to my tank? Should I be syphoning the waste from my sand, during water changes? I took a look at your pictures, you have a great tank and wonderful pictures!

 

[TCTFish]

I figured the lights I have now just werent powerful enough, because it was sold as a tank hood/combo.

The lights that come in tank/hood combo sets are typical lighting for most aquairum set ups. Reef lighting isn't typically sold with a set up. It's nearly almost always separate because of the extensive customizing a reef system requires.

How long does it take for the coralline algea to start reproducing?

This is variable. It depends on the individual system. All that nice coralline algae in my 18 gallon tank took about a year to fill in from little bits and pieces. It does take time.

And a couple of questions about the live sand. What is beneficial from having it?

Live sand is just aragonite that's impregnated with bio bacteria. It's generally used with the live rock to 'seed' the system with bio bacteria.

Is it bad to add sand to my tank?

No.

Should I be syphoning the waste from my sand, during water changes?

This is quite difficult to achieve without losing the sand to the siphon. I opt to have animals to do the job of sifting and moving the surface of the sandbed to lift the dirt so the filters can handle it. I also opt for a DSB (deep sandbed). This naturally allows denitrafying bacteria to cultivate in the bottom layers of sand that are heavily weighed down by a deep sand bed. Denitrafying bacteria are anaerobic whereas the nitrafying bacteria that eat ammonia and nitrite are aerobic. Denitrafying bacteria thrive in non oxygenated areas of an environment and eat nitrate. This can only really be done with at least 3" to 4" of sand. I know people with large reef tanks that may have 6" of sand. It works great and eliminates the need to siphon poo from the substrate. Still need to do water changes, but draggin out the hose and diving into the tank to clean it is eliminated!!

There is one requirement for DSB. You must have animals that crawl through the sand to release hydrogen gases that build up in the DSB. This is a by product of the denitrafying process. Once released from the sandbed, the gases then disapate into the atmosphere completing a full nitrogen cycle.

BTW...coral and many fish eat poo. So they act as nitrate controllers too.

 

[TCTFish]

http://tricitytropicals.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=500

This will give a 75 gallon a little more than 5 watts per gallon.

http://tricitytropicals.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=667

This will give a 75 gallon 3 watts per gallon.