Recent content by Animal-Chin

I have a 6 foot 125 gallon and I got it on Craigslist for $500 with sump, pumps, heaters, sand and liverock. New it would probably have been $4000 all in but as a package on craigslist it was really affordable. I then got a really good used skimmer for $100 and bought 3 ebay LED units for $100...

ya of course, my first SW tank was 14 gallons. Great way to start.

That being said........Purple,Naso, Blue, Powder Brown & Powder Blue seem to stress the easiest while it appears Yellow and Sailfin seem to be easier to acclimate to a tank to avoid ich. If I had to pick a Tang to try first I'd go Yellow or Sailfin. Just my opinion. Also ask at the...

Ya I'd cut back a bit on the KH if you went from 7.8 to 10.5. A lot of coral will react poorly to big swings like that over short periods of time. Dosing is an art for sure, when you add KH you'll see your calcium drop, when you add calcium you can see your KH drop, the trick is to figure out...

They are jumpers! Check your overflows, filter sock, sump or floor behind the tank. I lost a little wrasse for over a month and he was hiding in my overflow box. If you don't have a mesh lid, it's probably jumped somewhere. That or its in the sand.

ya for 34 gallons I'd probably just buy some of the pre mixed cacium by red sea or some other company and add some here and there. You don't have the volume for a reactor.

Id add calcium and see how it depleats in your tank. If you raise back up to 400, how long does it take to go down to 350? If its a few days your calcium is probably being used up some other way. A Duncan and a birds next should be stripping your tank quickly although it should be using...

Drip 100%! Many stores keep their salinity really low and if you have a reef chances are your alk/ph is way higher. If you don't slowly raise the ph the fish can go into shock. I drip every fish and invert just to ease them in. Since dripping I've never had a new fish go into hiding, when I...

Yes all alk additives turn white, that's normal for sure. I didn't like aquavitro 8.4 when I used it. Took way to much to make a change. Can you get some bulk sodium carbonate at the LFS? Its a white powder you just mix with RO water, works way better IMO and way cheaper. 7 is fine...

In the wild, Angel's graze for food, this is why they can be not reef safe. Some, like a flame angel may just be happy with the food you feed them but if their grazing instinct kicks in they are going to eat your polyps real quick. Sometimes they just change on you too, they don't touch them...

I just found your last post, I notice you never indicated what your parameters were at. We always think water changing is a good thing but if your alk is at 5 and you do a change and it swings up to 11 then you could be shocking the coral. Its really important to know what your water is at...

Gotta ask for info first, what are your parameters at? Nitrate and phos? Alk and cal? Your Duncans are closing cause they are not happy, do you have a lot of soft coral that could be sending out toxins? How old is the tank? If it's in the same spot for 5 years I'd assume its been...

I had some red planet acro bleach right out. I was sure it was dead so I took the frag and put it in my coral graveyard which was a spot in the back of the tank behind the rockwork. I used to put frags that didn't make it there, just a little pile of skeletons. Well this acro LOVED that area...

I'd also test the new water before you put it in. Whats the alk reading at? Are you mixing new water at 10 but your tank is 5 or something like that? Alk swings can really effect your coral.

Coral grow better though when attached to something, acans are no exception. I have acans on the sand and glued to rock. The ones glued to rock grow much faster than my sandbed ones.