Tom's 55G Saltwater

[TommyP]

No I don't see any way to check the levels without it going through the di part? The final water is at 11 after the 3 canisters And to membrane.

[Keithhjs]

I would lean toward an incorrectly calibrated gauge. As mentioned before you may want to invest into a dual inline gauge that will read your TDS before & after the DI. Considering how much we invest in our tanks an extra $30 for a little piece of mind might be worth it.

[TommyP]

True. True. True. I will look into that. My unit can't get much better than this and 11 is better than 100+ Water change tomorrow. Ill by sea water from petco until I figure this out.

[Keithhjs]

Originally Posted by TommyP

True. True. True. I will look into that. My unit can't get much better than this and 11 is better than 100+ Water change tomorrow. Ill by sea water from petco until I figure this out.

I never bought water from Petco but I would pause to consider 11 TDS water mixed with a good salt would possibly be better than packaged seawater. I'm a plumber not a chemist but I would venture to say a good salt mix offers more in the way of better calcium, alk, mag, trace elements,etc. And have you ever checked the TDS of the boxed water?

[TommyP]

No I haven't. I haven't purchased box water since i had this rodi machine.

[LaWoWee]

I would just go ahead and use your RO water. 11ppm isnt too bad and petco charges around $2/gal for their NSW. Im lazy for RO so i just go to the glacier water dispenser. My TDS tests it at about 13ppm. Ive had no problems.

[TommyP]

Thanks! im going to do a water change tomorrow. would it be best to do a larger water change then about 10% since ive been using my "rodi" water with 100+ tds readings for a couple months? Ill go as far down to make sure no corals get air/ it should be about 30-40% i'm also going this weekend to buy another fish! i only have 1 clown in there. I'm going to buy another cleaner shrimp and a clownfish? how does that sound? after I have two clowns in there... what else should I get !!! excited! need more movement in my tank now that my water is going to be fine...

[LaWoWee]

30% should be good enough. Buying another clownfish could be hit or miss. Try to get the smallest one so it will be way smaller than your current one. I waited 9 months to add a smaller one with my existing one and it got either chased or ignored for months. Now they host nems together. If you get one similar in size they both might try to exert dominance on eachother instead of one submitting and it can result in death. Good luck!

[TommyP]

Thanks. This clown was homed in my 55 with another clown bigger than him and he would get picked on but that clown died with my other fish and this is the only survivor. This was beginning-mid December. Since this clown that I currently have was the smallest of the two should i still get one smaller since he's been alone for a month and a half - which isn't really that long.

[TommyP]

So i went into petco today they always get new shipments on thursdays but I spent all day yesterday doing a water change and making ro water for top offs until the week after next. My rodi water is now down to 001 on the TDS meter so I think the unit just needed a little more time to break in.

When I went to petco I was looking at the 6 line wrasse, which can be found anywhere and the two that I had previously (at seperate times) didn't make it (probably because of the 100+ tds I was using (didn't know at that time)). but I love the fish so much but then I saw a mated pair of snowflake clowns. Larger in size probably about 3 to 3 1/2'' fat nice looking so I ended up buying that pair. They are drip acclimating now. Going to let them acclimate for about 1 hour or so. In the mean time I texted my friend to see if he wants my OC clown because I know 3 clowns are no good in a tank. Can I keep the 3 over the weekend if worst comes to worst?

Pics coming!

[TommyP]

Here are some !

[jjamontan]

nice find

[TommyP]

Thank you. Just introduced them to the tank and on the way to petco now as we speak to give back the oc clown. I wanted to see how they'd do over the weekend but 30 mins together already fighting.

[Jbaygurl78745]

Those are really nice clowns

[TommyP]

Thank you. They were kind of pricey. $50 each. But they are twice the size of my original oc clown. It's hard to measure and I don't have a good eye but I wanna say 3-4 inches. 1 is slightly smaller than the other. I was told they're mated.

[TommyP]

Reefs2go has them for same price and 3/4-1" so thought I did okay with pricing.

[TommyP]

Some night shots. They're staying to the right side As of now. I can't wait until they move about the tAnk. In 2 weeks I'm going to get a 6 line.

[Beengirl]

The clowns are very nice!!! And I think that's a great price for that size!! Great find!

[TommyP]

Thank you. Here's some better pics, but not the best.

[Daniel Fishy]

Very nice fish!