Chitown1

You can test from either, I personally test from the tank. Once you have those results post them up so we can help. Do you know how long the lights are on each day? Can you describe the lighting, is it a couple intense smaller bulbs, thin flourescents or double flourescents or a combination?

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6months

I'll check the lighting.they are on timers..I'll see if I can figure out what the time frame is..They seem to be on every time I look, no matter the part of the day..
And the lights are exactly the same, top and bottom. I'll take more pictures too..of the lights and the tank itself...and come back with results for salinity.

okay I added more pictures to the album...
I did the tester thingy and the white arm didn't move. It stayed at the bottom.
The upper light was off, but the bottom one was on. (I guess it's on all the time?)
I got a picture of the little shrimp..seems "he" likes it dark, because he was right out front of the tank this morning. The peppermint was hiding. I was told though, that he will come feed of your hand...That'll be fun!

I have two concerns right now..The water in the trashcan is low, to the point where in a couple of days, the float won't be touching anything! And the temp on the lower tank (only temp gauge I see) is slowly dropping..when I first investigated it was 84something F, now it was 79.9F.
I turned on the faucet to see what that did...water started coming out of the osmosis drain hose back into the sink. I don't know if I'm supposed to leave that water on for a bit to refill the trashcan. I'm still lost as to what I do with the bucket with the heater in it. Where does that water come from? Do I mix the salt in that bucket with water from somewhere??? And then let it get to temp of the tank???Then where does that water go?? It also seemed that there was excessive bubbles in the lower tank near where the water filters from the upper tank??? Or maybe I'm just not remembering what it looked like before..???

gm333

Ok, th lights are definitly Power compacts. From the new pics and older one he doesnt have a need for the coral food, I think I saw some green star polyps in one of the pics, but that will not require phytoplankton or any other coral food. I am not familiar with dosing the tech cb, but Chitown might be. If not we can figure it out.
Ok, does it move at all without any water in it. You may need to clean the saltcreep out of it. If it was not registering the shrimp would definitly be dead because the salinity would be too low. Also after testing with the hydrometer make sure you rinse it out well with tap water to get the salt out of it.

You will need to have it filled because you will use this water to mix saltwater for a waterchange. This is what the bucket with the heater and powerhead are for.
To do a waterchange you will need to fill the bucket up with the r/o water from the trashcan. Plug in the heater and powerhead. leave enough room to add salt. After the water is in the bucket you will need to add two cups of salt to the bucket. After the salt has dissolved(can take up to 15-30 min) use the hydrometer and test the water. It should be around 1.021-1.022 if it is, you will need to add 1/4 of a cup of salt to get the salinity up to 1.025. Retest after adding the aditional salt to make sure it is right.
You will need to let the salt sit 24hrs before doing a water change.
Check the next day to make sure the water in the bucket is close to the same temp as the aquarium. It can be within a couple of degrees and still be ok. Although you would rather have it a couple of degrees cooler than warmer. The heater should be already set close to the same temp as the tank.

To change the water, turn off the cannister filter(its the gray cannister underneath the aquarium in the stand), and turn off the pump that makes the water go from the under tank(refugium) into the aquarium. Once the pump is off, syphon out 5 gallons of water from the tank. Dont take more than 5 gallons because that is all you have made up of new saltwater.
After taking out the Aquarium water, unplug the heater and powerhead and add the water to the tank. Be careful not to spill any of the water. The bucke t will be quite heavy.
After adding the water to the tank plug the pump and cannister filter back in.

That is pretty much it for the waterchange. Once you get comfortable and get a good schedule going this can be done in less than 15 min.

Chi, if I have overlooked something feel free to jump in.

6months

Gotcha..no the meter arm didn't move at all..
I'll flush it well with fresh water...I'll get that arm moving, get you the numbers and make some water. I guess I'll have to make another day the cleaning day.

So I do turn the faucet on, and let it fill the trash can, and get water out of the trash can to make the salt water? and then refill the trash can by letting the water run???...
right?? So the top off is fresh water???(the hose the dribbles out of hte trash can directly into the refugium?) Right???

Is it possible that the corals are just hidden under all that hairy algae? There is something in there that has little "white" anenome type things coming off it.

gm333

Yes, the process is called Reverse Osmosis. It takes all of the nasty stuff out of the water. When you have a little time read up on it here. http://www.fishtankforums.com/fishtank/RO/DI_water there are also tons of good articles you can read up on and get more familiar with saltwater.

I am pretty sure it does dribble into the refugium, look at the end of the hose going into the refugium if water is coming out then thats what it is. Its not a very smart way to do auto-topoff but it will have to do for now.


Could be, look here to see if you cant ID the white anemone things. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/s...cfm?pCatId=504
also look around at the soft coral area as well.

6months

Going over right now..to figure some of this out..

The water does dribble into the refugium from the trash can. I've seen it happen...

okay I'm filling the trash can from the sink.
When I get to a point I can get some out, I need to put it in the bucket with the heater, and turn said heater on??? And add the desired amount of salt..correct?
Then let that sit until tommorrow or Thursday, so that I can do a water change and add the "premixed" water into the tank. The top tank right?

Water change is syphoned off of top tank as well?

I just did the tests, so I'd have a baseline.

Salinity: 1.023
Calcium: .04
Nitrate: 0 (I think, there was no color change.)
KH/Alkalinity: .55
Ammonia: .25, again not much color change, definately not a yellow or golden color to the batch..stayed milky...

There are some tube type things in there. I saw a few today that were tubes with "fans" on them..Without the light on though, it's hard to tell the color.
So the purple "sponge" looking rocks aren't corals?

I'll try and get better pictures when the top light set is on.

oh and about the auto top off...It's apparently not giving the tank enough water anyway, because the evaporation rate seems higher than the top off. Or maybe I'm just used to filling my tank to the top...This one is just under a 1/2" from the "top" and appears to be receeding. ;>)

gm333

Yes the top tank. The heater should come on when plugged in and should be set to the right temp, but I would check tomorrow before putting the water in the tank.
Yes.

Ok, the salinity needs to come up a bit to 1.025. For now just mix the waterchange water to 1.025. It will eventually bring up the salinity after a 3-4 waterchanges.
Im not familiar with that calcium or alkalinity reading, what brand are the test kits?
the nitrate and ammonia look good, the ammonia is probably zero as well.

these are just fan worms and dont really need to be fed. The purple stuff is actually an algae its called coralline algae. It is considered a good algae.

It shouldnt change water levels much in the main tank, the water level in the refugium should be the one to go down more than the Aquarium. If you are sucking bubbles into the tank from the pump in the refugium you need to add some r/o water to the refugium. The evaporation rate is going to fluctuaute differently each day depending on humidity and how hot the apartment is.

6months

Gotcha on all fronts. Water change will be tomorrow.
I tested the bucket of water I mixed yesterday and I had the salinity on the money then..After being heated and such since about 1pm yesterday until tomorrow, I'll recheck before using it.
The tests appear to be all the same brand..I'll get that info for you later.

So after I get all this down, can you help me rid the aquarium of the hairy algae?

gm333

Yes, but it may require a little work on your part, and you may need to purchase some phosphate reducer media and some other things.

6months

Okay..we'll see how it goes. I can always give him receipts when he returns stateside. LOL