Good evening. First Saltwater tank and first post. Sorry in advance for length of it. Below you will find current tank setup. It is a 220 gallon tank with quite a bit of live rock and a sump (not sure on the gallon size). I bought most of this as an already established tank from the LFS but added more fish to it (yes probably to quickly to it but was told to get the fish in there somewhat quickly to prevent aggression). I added the Apex automation with the probes, replaced smaller pump with a pump measuring 800 gph through flow meter up from probably 300gph). I added a refrugium and put neptune light on it. They only had one Wavemaker (nero5) so i added 2x of the Neptune Wavemakers. I have one on each side close to back wall and blowing towards front glass and the nero on one side blowing along front glass. It has the redsea 600 skimmer. As you will see in photos, they had two blue light strips and 1 white light strip which i am replacing with the photon 48 v2 pro This week. I also added an ATO. I have the Apex dosage thing and auto feeder but not setup. I also setup the trident doing reading 4 times a day (lowest i could).
I had a very high nitrate (over 150ppm) reading even before adding the new fish (within the first week of them setting up tank. I have had them out twice to clean and do water change (probably 20-25 gallons) since setup on August 31st. I have also started doing my own water changes (2x 30 gallon changes) now that I figured out how and got the RODI and big enough container to mix the water and salt (Redsea coral plus). I also started NoPox at 30ml a day. Nitrates this afternoon are down to 40 ppm and phosphates are between .25 and .40. I am leaving the fuge light on 23 hours a day. I bought 100 micron socks and am rotating the secondary to primary and clean one to secondary about every 3 days. I am feeding two pinches of flakes, maybe a pinch of pellets, and roughly 3 frozen cubes once a day.
The LFS told me to be doing the bi-ionic 2 part additive like 2x a week but once i got the trident setup i noticed my ALK was over 12 and Calcium was over 500. So I stopped adding it until i could get the numbers down. But since I stopped adding it my PH has been slowing dropping (7.9-8.1). I just added a CO2 scrubber that is feeding into the skimmer. It is now giving me a PH of 8.1-8.26. I just turned the return pipes angled more towards top of water to try to cause little bit of aeration to increase the PH a little more since read that 8.3 is best for coral. Current reading as of this post is 12.7 ALK, 487 CA, 1279 MG, 8.19 PH, ORP 283, TMP 78.9, salt 33.3 with a flow of return pump at 811. If i have the FLO configured correctly, i am getting about 2.6 turnover on the two Neptune wavemakers but it shows it as a combined of only 3.7. The Nero is at 90% power.
I have put multiple bottles of copepods in the tank and fuge. I have fuge set with chaeto macroalgea. I am noticing some what i guess is microalgea forming on the glass sides of the fuge so i put 2 or 3 of the snails in there to see if they will help remove it. Was also debating on adding a snail or two to each compartment of the sump to clean up any build up of detrum or whatever else debris is starting to buildup.
I wanted to give as much of a complete story as i could before asking my questions. With the above said, I have been finding out more and more, researching myself to craziness (thanks OCD). It seems like I have overstocked my tank no matter which stocking guide I find which. Which makes me mad at the LFS for not really being honest with me, with the amount of fish, amount of clowns, that my water samples were good/ok, etc..
1. If I had to guess it would be best to remove some of the clowns with the more aggressive ones being the first to go. That is first question.
2. Is there anything else I should do to help my setup? I am trying to get to point of the idea of little to no Water changes like natural method. Since i have the trident system i should be able to make sure the ALK, CA, and MG are all within ranges for coral, and with the fuge, and CUC, I think it is not a to crazy of an idea.
3. Was debating an auto filter roller but having trouble figuring out how to get it to fit since sump is setup for socks and only way i can see is removing the sock holders from that section. Also do not know if worth getting another reactor for say charcoal and or GFO, and maybe an ozone thing.
4. Will have to see if the stuff did past few days will help but trying to see how to lower the ALK but increase the PH?
5. Should I keep heater set to 80 or drop to lower like say 78?
6.anything I may Not of thought of? Like the old phrase, I don’t know what I don’t know to ask.
I had a very high nitrate (over 150ppm) reading even before adding the new fish (within the first week of them setting up tank. I have had them out twice to clean and do water change (probably 20-25 gallons) since setup on August 31st. I have also started doing my own water changes (2x 30 gallon changes) now that I figured out how and got the RODI and big enough container to mix the water and salt (Redsea coral plus). I also started NoPox at 30ml a day. Nitrates this afternoon are down to 40 ppm and phosphates are between .25 and .40. I am leaving the fuge light on 23 hours a day. I bought 100 micron socks and am rotating the secondary to primary and clean one to secondary about every 3 days. I am feeding two pinches of flakes, maybe a pinch of pellets, and roughly 3 frozen cubes once a day.
The LFS told me to be doing the bi-ionic 2 part additive like 2x a week but once i got the trident setup i noticed my ALK was over 12 and Calcium was over 500. So I stopped adding it until i could get the numbers down. But since I stopped adding it my PH has been slowing dropping (7.9-8.1). I just added a CO2 scrubber that is feeding into the skimmer. It is now giving me a PH of 8.1-8.26. I just turned the return pipes angled more towards top of water to try to cause little bit of aeration to increase the PH a little more since read that 8.3 is best for coral. Current reading as of this post is 12.7 ALK, 487 CA, 1279 MG, 8.19 PH, ORP 283, TMP 78.9, salt 33.3 with a flow of return pump at 811. If i have the FLO configured correctly, i am getting about 2.6 turnover on the two Neptune wavemakers but it shows it as a combined of only 3.7. The Nero is at 90% power.
I have put multiple bottles of copepods in the tank and fuge. I have fuge set with chaeto macroalgea. I am noticing some what i guess is microalgea forming on the glass sides of the fuge so i put 2 or 3 of the snails in there to see if they will help remove it. Was also debating on adding a snail or two to each compartment of the sump to clean up any build up of detrum or whatever else debris is starting to buildup.
I wanted to give as much of a complete story as i could before asking my questions. With the above said, I have been finding out more and more, researching myself to craziness (thanks OCD). It seems like I have overstocked my tank no matter which stocking guide I find which. Which makes me mad at the LFS for not really being honest with me, with the amount of fish, amount of clowns, that my water samples were good/ok, etc..
1. If I had to guess it would be best to remove some of the clowns with the more aggressive ones being the first to go. That is first question.
2. Is there anything else I should do to help my setup? I am trying to get to point of the idea of little to no Water changes like natural method. Since i have the trident system i should be able to make sure the ALK, CA, and MG are all within ranges for coral, and with the fuge, and CUC, I think it is not a to crazy of an idea.
3. Was debating an auto filter roller but having trouble figuring out how to get it to fit since sump is setup for socks and only way i can see is removing the sock holders from that section. Also do not know if worth getting another reactor for say charcoal and or GFO, and maybe an ozone thing.
4. Will have to see if the stuff did past few days will help but trying to see how to lower the ALK but increase the PH?
5. Should I keep heater set to 80 or drop to lower like say 78?
6.anything I may Not of thought of? Like the old phrase, I don’t know what I don’t know to ask.
15 | Clown Fish (2x black/white, 1x storm, 1x chocolate, 2x Picasso, 2x platinum, 7x false) |
1 | Blue Regal Tang |
1 | Flame Angel |
1 | Sailfish Tang |
1 | Tomini Tang |
1 | Pajama Cardinal |
1 | Mandarin Goby |
1 | Canary Wrasse |
2 | Serpentine Starfish |
1 | Sand Shifting Starfish |
1 | Urchin |
2 | Cleaner Shrimp |
9 | Peppermint Shrimp |
25 | Nassau RSUs Snail |
10 | Nerite Snails |
10 | Cerith Snails |
15 | Blue hermit Crabs |