Eric's 30 Gal mixed reef

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:30 pm

I have recently started a 30 gal mixed reef tank. I think Im already beginning to become a reef junkie. I figured I might as well start keeping a log of my tank online.

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:04 pm

A pic of the tank would be a good start

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:58 pm

Okay here are a couple pics I took today. They arent the best pics. I took them with my ipod.

http://s1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag38/eric_the_red3/

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:15 pm

Overall today was a good day for my tank. My anemone did not get sucked into the powerhead. Which is always a plus. I think changing the angle of the powerhead really helped. I dosed fuel today. I have been dosing fuel on Saturday after my water change. Also I am dosing B Ionic two part buffer system everyday only 7.5 mil of each. I still need to get a reef test kit that tests for calcium and alkilinity. I know I know I shouldnt dose without testing.

I want to get red sea reef foundation kit eventually. But, I think I will start with something easier on my pocket for now.

Shadow1 · Post by **Shadow1** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:49 am

eric the red wrote:Overall today was a good day for my tank. My anemone did not get sucked into the powerhead. Which is always a plus. I think changing the angle of the powerhead really helped. I dosed fuel today. I have been dosing fuel on Saturday after my water change. Also I am dosing B Ionic two part buffer system everyday only 7.5 mil of each. I still need to get a reef test kit that tests for calcium and alkilinity. I know I know I shouldnt dose without testing. I want to get red sea reef foundation kit eventually. But, I think I will start with something easier on my pocket for now.

If you know then why do it? Cardinal rule why add something you do not know if you need or not?
Most who dose their tanks have a reason, I track my levels weekly and daily if I make any changes. I test for , Magnesium, Calcium, Alkalinity, Phosphates, Nitrates, Salinity, and PH. I can tell you the levels for the last 6 or 8 months this way if something starts to change I have an idea of what is going on. If you are dosing fuel, why and what are you using to reduce the associated spike in PO4 that will come with its use?
My reason for dosing? I have a ton of livestock that uses the Ca, Kh and Mg and fuel along with 42 fish, I feed heavily and skim accordingly, do a 10% water change every 3 weeks and am looking at going biweekly, Stability is the name of the game with Reefs and if you are not testing you have no idea if you are stable or not.
Not trying to slam you but understand those dumb animals in the tank cannot leave, you are all they have to stay healthy and alive.

MPowell · Post by **MPowell** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:27 am

Yeah no point in dosing until you know how much your tank uses up and every tank is different. Get a kit and test multiple days in a row until you know what you need to add to keep it stable, and figure a daily basis not how much do I need to dose once a week or every few days.

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 2:54 pm

I have been using a poly filter pad in the media basket in my protein skimmer to combat phosphates. I have noticed an increase in algae after I began using the fuel. As far as a reef test kit Im definitely getting one tomorrow. I have been using a multi tester since I finished my cycle. That only tests nitrates nitrite ph and total alkalinity. I do a 10 percent water change every saturday. Is that too much?

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:03 pm

I got a couple frags from a friend and noticed some green bubbles on the frag plug. I think they might be valonia. What is the best way to get rid of these?

Shadow1 · Post by **Shadow1** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:17 pm

eric the red wrote:I have been using a poly filter pad in the media basket in my protein skimmer to combat phosphates. I have noticed an increase in algae after I began using the fuel. As far as a reef test kit Im definitely getting one tomorrow. I have been using a multi tester since I finished my cycle. That only tests nitrates nitrite ph and total alkalinity. I do a 10 percent water change every saturday. Is that too much?

Not sure what Protien skimmer uses a basket so my advice would be lame at best, no 10% is not too much, but for me 10% is clsoe to 40 gallons lots of $ for once a week with what we have invested I probably should go to weekly changes. How much is your skimmer pulling out? real dark and stinky or light colored? What total livestock do you have fish etc. I do not feed anything to my frag system 30 gal with about 40 - 50 sps and lps in it and no dosing or testing just change water from display to it and fill for evap. Pick your LFS you feel you can trust or one hobbiest follow their lead, I have followed GMan and Roger and have been very succesful .....knock on wood. Listen to others as you learn and slowly develope what works for you, I cant grow Zoa's so I dont try anymore....

bluwtr · Post by **bluwtr** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:03 pm

I had the same problem with using Fuel as well. Everytime I use it I notice the little bit of algae in my tank gets a fresh start. Gerwin brought up a good point--Fuel has iron in it and algaes love iron, so I stopped using it. Seemed to make a difference for me.

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:33 pm

I have a red sea prizm deluxe hob skimmer. I wouldnt say the waste is super dark but its not transparent. It is stinky. For fishes I have two clownfish that are about 1.5-2 in each. I also have a blue tang that is almost 3 in. Dont forget the infamous suicidal green bubble tip that is starting to value life.

I have about 25-30lb of live rock. As far as coral i have a ton of frags and a couple colonies. 5 different color frags of zoas some have 5 polyps some have 20, 5 different color mushrooms. Red digi about 4 in, green digi 6in, brown with purple polyp monti cap, green with blue polyp monti cap, and a bright red monti cap, Pipe organ the size of a raquet ball, a frogspawn w/ 7 heads, candy cane with 6 heads, ORA ponape birdsnest 3 in. A colony of neon green button polyps, 10 invader pallys, 1 in frag of hollywood stunner chalice, 1 in frag ORA chips acro, a 3.5 in multi colored lobophylia brain, a 2 in frag red and green brain maze, 1 in frag of raspberry stylophora, 1 in frag purple and yellow scroll coral. I also have some purple sympodium and some green star polyps.

Shadow1 · Post by **Shadow1** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:00 am

At this point you have enough $ in the tank to warrent being able to test. My suggestion would be to stop with the fuel go to min feedings of your fish get a test kit so you have a base line, test every 2 or 3 days to see what is really happening in your system keep up the water changes and let it grow. The water changes should keep your levels pretty good for now I had to go back to your pics to see how big everything was. Of course everyones system is different and you cannot decide anything without a base line to compare. I was dosng 2 part when I first started and had no idea what levels were at took a sample to Just fish CA was close to 600 alk was real low, like 7.2 or something. Broke down and bought the test kit took weeks to get the tank where it needed to be and then after testing I stopped dosing completly did not need to. So depending you may save enough to pay for the test kit by not having to dose or dosing smaller quantities.

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:34 pm

t That sounds similar to my experience. When I first started collecting coral. My friend told me to get the 2 part B-Ionic buffer. So I started dosing my tank. A couple weeks later I took a sample to Just Fish. They told me my calcium was high and my alkalinity was low. Then I stopped dosing calcium and started dosing alkalinity alone. That was about a month ago. Since then I quit dosing. Im still waiting to get my test kit. I should have one by next week.

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:35 pm

Since i have started dosing fuel in my tank the algae has began to get out of control . So today I bought some reinforcements for my clean up crew. 10 hermit crabs and 6 margarita snails. Also I had a couple frags that I got from a friend that has some green hair algae. I removed the frags that were troubling me. Dipped a Q tip in peroxide and spread it on the algae but not the coral. We will see in a couple days how well it worked.

eric the red · Post by **eric the red** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 4:53 pm

So far the red hair algae seems too be a little more resilient than the green hair. All the spots with green hair that I put peroxide on is gone. The red is still there. Im going to give it a couple more days to see what happens. My clean up crew seems to be doing a great job after only one day. Money well spent.

Today I did a top off. Im going to start doing top offs on tues and thurs instead of just on wed.

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Eric's 30 Gal mixed reef

Eric's 30 Gal mixed reef

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