Moved Tank.

[Tasii]

I recently acquired a tank that had been established and healthy for 5 years. The tank is 3'w x 2.25'h x 2'd, that's about 100 gallons. There is 3-5 inches of LS and about 150 lbs. of live rock. I moved it buy taking out all the rock and water down to 1/2 above sand level and then carried it out and put it back together very gently. The only thing I changed was the placement of the rock, had to do some aquascaping to make it look nice. There is lots of coralline algae and the other inhabs include 50-75 snails the size of BB's, 2 Nass snails and one mexican turbo. There is an assortment of Hermit crabs, 1 scarlet and 2 blue legs and 5 others I can't identify. One False Perc Clown, only about 1.5 inches long. One Blue Tang that is barely bigger than the clown. One little Hammer coral colony, 3 heads that are barely an inch across when closed. And one BTA that is 3" across, light colored with pink tips. (worried about this one, some people seem to think that the coloring means it's on it's way to davey jones locker.) Really hope it survives.
Have a great sump system, a berlin red sea x2 protein skimmer, an arctic chiller keeping the tank at 79 degrees. Lighting is compact florescent, 2 50/50 55 watts and 2 96 watts that I am replacing today. I have had it set up and running for 5 days, water is clear and bright. Tests show nitrate is high and salinity is low, Nitrite is 0-0.5, Alk is about 210 ppm, and pH is 8.2. I know water changes (which I have done 2 20 gallon changes so far, 2 days apart) will fix nitrate. but the salinity worries me. Think I'm going to take a water sample to 2 different LFS's and have them test. Some Pics Below.

 

[roka64]

Where is your salinity? I read your post a few times and don't think I saw the actual number, unless I missed it.

 

[HN1]

One of the best investments for a reef tank IMO is the purchase of a refractometer. Then you can measure salinity accurately yourself. Great job on the scaping!

 

[Tasii]

salinity

Salinity was reading 1.019 on my deep six coralife refractometer. The LFS measured it at 1.018. So I am using Red Sea salt to mix 1/2 gallon of my water with 1/2 cup of salt and adding it to the tank very slowly right next to the overflow so that the new stuff goes thru the filter and sump and protein skimmer before returning to tank. Doing that process once every 2 hours and checking salinity before doing it again. My nitrate testing skills apparently suck though. I was reading that it was way high, like 80-100. The LFS read it at 30-40. LFS is not really the right term, I drive past 3-4 other LFS's to go to this lady cause she it trustworthy and everything in her store is alive lol. The place closest to me is terrible, the guy is a blubbering know it all and on my second visit there I discovered three dead creatures ( 2 of them had been dead a while it appeared) and pointed them out. The guys response was, "oh hadn't even checked on them yet today" and he promptly removed them while I quietly left.

 

[Tasii]

One of the best investments for a reef tank IMO is the purchase of a refractometer. Then you can measure salinity accurately yourself. Great job on the scaping!

I just wasn't trusting the refrac, that's why I went to get it tested and it turns out it was close. Thanks for the compliment on scaping. The lady I got it from had all those rocks piled in the back center. When I did my scaping most of them got turned over for aesthetic reasons so although it doesn't look like it there is a ton of coralline algae on the bottoms or backs of rocks. Also it's hard to tell but in the back left bottom there is a cove with two large caves and 1 small cave part way up the rock then I made a "C" shape to close it in with 2 little arches for access. More pics soon.....

 

[HN1]

It sounds like a good approach to getting your SG up.