New 72 gallon Bow Front

[cooltop]

I am thinking about putting Chaetomorpha Algae inside the refugium part of my sump is this a good ideal ??

 

[neilanh]

I ia

I sense an edit coming....

 

[neilanh]

Yes, it's a great idea. Chaeto is good, lots like to use calurpa too, but there's other cautions you need to watch for with that. Some like to dip mangroves in their fuge's too.

 

[Innovator]

Chaetomorpha and Caulerpa racemosa will reproduce faster than others. The only problem with mangroves is that they are slow growing and do not process nutrients at a reasonable rate, enough to warrant them inefficient compared to other options.

 

[cooltop]

Looks Like Diatoms are showing up now. And also the red light at night really works to see whats living inside the LR I was like wow. Also the guy that came over and looked at my tank here are a few things he did.
1st thing he did was completely take off the glass covers.
2nd said my sump was little on the fast side and I will need to get a valve on the return pump.
3rd said my lights will need to be changed ever 6 months.
4th re-pointed my power heads.
5th told me to make my middle a refugium.
6th Told me I should change from Instant Ocean Salt Mix

Does anyone agree or disagree with this ?

 

[neilanh]

1) I agree
2) Can't say without seeing it
3) Depends on the bulbs
4) Ok
5) I prefer the middle to be the return, but it all has to do with how your plumbing is
6) Highly opinionated as to which salt is best.

 

[cooltop]

Thanks for the Reply NEILANH. Also does anyone on here sell the Chaeto Algea or have any they might want to get rid of? Will be happy to pay shipping of course. On the salt I was going to change to the Reef Crystals

 

[neilanh]

Post in the classifieds that you WTB Chaeto - someone will hook you up. I only got a small clump, so I'm not in a place to help you out yet. maybe in a month, but you prob don't want to wait that long.

I use reef crystals - based on my research that's what I chose.

 

[cooltop]

I was thinking about starting out with

2 clownfish

2 snails

2 crabs

and 1 shrimp

 

[neilanh]

I'd get more snails to start out with, or at least that's my plan. I'm also going to start with 2 peppermints is what I was thinking.

 

[cooltop]

My LFS told me I should get

15 crabs
10 snails
and wait awhile on the shrimp.

I think I will start getting my stuff by Wed I hope

 

[bawel]

My LFS told me I should get

15 crabs
10 snails
and wait awhile on the shrimp.

I think I will start getting my stuff by Wed I hope

Yeah, I would get definitely around 6 Nassarius Snails and then 6 Astrea Snails. I don't think you would need 15 Hermit Crabs, but then again it depends on the size , you can find a CleanUp Crew packages. I think you can see how much you need if you go to cleanercrews.com, it shows by tank size

 

[neilanh]

Think about those hermits. I hear as many bad things as I do good things about them. I intend to have a few, but not many - even in the long run. As cool as I think they are, I'm only going to have a few. I'm also going to steer myself towards the scarlets instead of the blues, as I've heard less issues about those - even though i like the blue's better and they're cheaper.

 

[bawel]

Hehehhe... yeah the Scarlet is good cause it hardly moves around and disturb whatever you have in the tank, the blues are cheaper but they mess with the other inhabitants . Agree with neilanh, only have few hermits, snails are much better, they clean your algae and they don't disturb the others, especially the Nassarius, cause you could barely see them, always buried themselves in the sand

 

[cooltop]

Well just waiting on the nitrites to fall down now which are way high. Nitrates are out the roof. Did a 20 gallon water change yesterday to get them down to 20 and now today back way high 100 guess another water change tommorro. Brown algea has really took off. hoping those nitrites come down quick amonia is showing .25 or less.

 

[neilanh]

Leave them be. Like I said, the high nitrItes are messing up your nitrAte reading I believe. Since you have no inhabitants, just let them be until your cycle is done and then do water changes to get them down into range.

 

[buddha_red]

I had the exact same problem with my tests. i was getting a reading of 160 ppm and it confused me too. what test kit are you using?

 

[cooltop]

i had the exact same problem with my tests. I was getting a reading of 160 ppm and it confused me too. What test kit are you using?

api test kits

 

[buddha_red]

yep, thats exactly what was happening to me with my api test kit. as your cycle moves on you will see it drop.

 

[cooltop]

Okay ammonia has made it to 0 finally and now the nitrites have made it down to 1