updates, questions and frustrations

[Caige]

Hello.. i'm hitting the 6month mark of my Salt water career LOL I have a 34 gallon solana aquarium. With Corals, inverts and fish. I'm still loving it but it's definitely a challenge.

Here is what I have to say / ask,

• the small sponge that is holding my trickle filters balls down - should I be pulling that out and cleaning it with my old SW during PWC? It's getting kinda ugly and it's about the only thing I don't clean / rinse.
• My emerald crab has just striked again... first it killed my feather duster... and I saw it do it - def wasn't just coming in after the fact.... so now it killed my saddle back clown fish - I know it's hard to believe but I saw this one too... The saddle back was in the very back of the tank and the emerald was up on the rock and snipped at the fish! The fish stumbled around and then the emerald came in for the kill... picking at it alive! I have 2 emeralds and I do like them but they do seem to be trouble makers! Anyone ever see this before with emeralds?
• I have pretty much 95% kicked my Cyano outbreak WITHOUT ANY treatment other than PWC's and water flow. This actually took a month.. I still have a little here and there but nothing to complain about.
• I have been using Intant ocean already mixed from my LFS but today I just ordered some Red Sea from Foster and Smith... so will start making my own salt. I really think the IO has brought on Algea problems.. I know most say it isn't so - but this is my opinion. I was thinking about going with red sea coral - but just decided on red sea ... anyone have any comments on red sea vs red sea coral?
• I will be ordering a 7stage RO/DI from ebay from the guy ROKA suggested. With shipping was about $140 and came with tank and bunch of extras.
• I want to take a 5lb piece of LR out of my tank.... Should I expect any problems from this?
• I did replace my BIO balls with LR rubble and everything seems good with it. It's been about a month
• I am doing without the Carbon packages.. haven't seen a difference. It's been about a month.
• I am performing PWC's at least once a week (20%)... although during the Cyano outbreak I was doing twice a week @ 15-20%

Thats about it.... I'm thinking to upgrade to a 125g in Dec / Jan.

Aquarium Advice is an awesome site... the moderators / mentors are all awesome. Thanks a million for your help!

[roka64]

1. Yes, you should rinse out the sponge with each PWC.
2. Most crabs are opportunistic feeders. (what are your water parameters) but I doubt an emerald would take out a healthy fish.
3. Congrats on knocking out the cyano with no chemicals.
4. I had issues with algae and cyano (by the way cyano is a bacteria) when I used IO (but I am on well water...not all water is the same). I don't use red sea, but it would be my guess, that the red sea corals is designed for ading more trace elements, specifically for a reef tank (wiat till you get a reefer's experiences).
5. Hey, that's me! go for the 75 GPD (they say these have a better rejection rate..good thing). Also, find one with see through containers.
6. Why do you want to take out the rock? You shouldn't have any issues. We like to shoot for 1.5-2LBs per gallon of rock.
7. Sweet! This should also be rinsed out in your old SW, when you do a PWC.
8. I run purigen. It is rechargable and some great stuff.
9. Good job, looks like you are on the right track.
5.

[ccCapt]

Scott pretty much got ya covered.
I used Red Sea salt for many years. I liked it and never had any problems. I switched to Red Sea Coral Pro when that came out because of the higher calcium levels out of the bucket. IMO, both are very good salts.

[Caige]

Thanks all.. my water parameters have been top notch for months. I check ever 3rd day and here is where it is consistantly

• PH 8.4
• Ammonia 0
• Nitrite 0
• Nitrate 10
• KH 161.1
• SG 1.024
• Phosphate 0
• Calucium 360 (did drop to 320 for a month)

I have about 50lb's of LR in the tank now. I just want to remove that 5lb piece cause it's in the way and taking up space

[melosu58]

Originally Posted by Caige

Thats about it.... I'm thinking to upgrade to a 125g in Dec / Jan.

Sounds like great news. Cant wait. As far as the algea and salt mix it`s just hard to believe that IO is the cause or more suseptible to algea. Algea is caused by excessive nutrients. I use oceanic salt so I really dont have any experience with it. JMO