Captain Squid reporting in lol

Captain Squid

Reefing newb
Well Ive been bitten by the bug, coral fish, I cant stop! Someone help me! :mrgreen:

Learning a LOT as I go along, biggest lesson is, THIS DOESNT NEED TO BE EXPENSIVE!

75 gal tank, trumpets, candy canes, frog spaws and zoos, other stuff I cant recall right now.....

What I found after buying a wet dry sump on the advice of my LFS ( PetZone in Pittston ) is that wet dry sumps with bio balls really stink. 600.00 later, the nitrates were climbing and I dont over feed! Water changes15% every 3 - 4 weeks. Water is crystal clear yet the nitrates wouldnt go down. he tells me dont worry, nitrates no big issue. ???? HUH ????

Well for fish not so much but Im trying to get my coral to grow like mad so I can roll this into a side business to fund my future expansion! ( dont tell my wife lol )

The LFS says add this add that, it will help. Yeah it helped, HIS bank account!

So finally I took the balls out. Put them in a bucket of clean fresh RO/Saltwater. Did a nitrate test. 60... an hour later it was 80!!

Called him the next day, told him I was disappointed in his advice and wanted to return this for a wet sump, like I originally wanted. Now he only wanted to give me 50% credit. Ive had it 6 weeks and spoke to him constantly about the nitrates climbing. Another 50.00 spent in additives......Oy ve... and at the end he wouldnt make good. Sad to say but the little guy with customer service like this MAKES people go to places like Drs Foster and Smith! At least you know you can return it!

So to top it off, I bought some coral from a guy with a 210. I asked to see his fitlration setup. A Rubbermade storage bin with live rock and a drop in filter sock that he spent 15 bucks on plus return pump , a homemade protein skimmer that he spent 8 bucks on and a calcium reactor. This guys tank was the Cats Meow! Loaded with fast coral so big I couldnt believe my eyes. had a head of trumpets the size of a basketball, a leather coral that reached from the bottom to the top ! Amazing. No additives, nothing. The calcium reacotr, the sump and skimmer and monthly water change and thats it. He doesnt even do water test but twice a year!

Live and learn. Dont get sucked into the additives and pricey equipment!
 
Welcome and sounds like you've figured a few basics. Forget the expensive crap. Learn how to maintain your chemistry without the expensive add ons or chemicals. A basic sump with protien skimmer is all you really need. Good lights are however the one place your LFS will sell you what you need.
 
Yep, bioballs suck and additives cannot take the place of good water quality. Nitrates are a BIG issue if you plan to keep corals and inverts. And fish stores are a business first and foremost, and their job is to sell you stuff, not give you advice that will make you spend less. ;)

Welcome to the site!

What's your current set up? If I were you, I'd ditch the bioballs altogether and convert your wet/dry into a sump. Aim for 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon. And get a good protein skimmer (if you don't have one already). That is the most effective and cheapest setup. Keep it simple! Most of the time, you don't need a calcium reactor. 99% of us don't use one.
 
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Welcome and sounds like you've figured a few basics. Forget the expensive crap. Learn how to maintain your chemistry without the expensive add ons or chemicals. A basic sump with protien skimmer is all you really need. Good lights are however the one place your LFS will sell you what you need.

Hey thanks for the reply. Even the lighting Ive done better on Ebay. Bought a 48" T5 2 whites 2 actiinics and blue leds for night.. $100 new. Works like a charm. LFS wanted ??? 400??

I know people got to make a living, but I need to preserve mine. As I sated in the prior post, the bad service makes me want to buy the bigger stuff from the bigger boys, at least I know I have recourse.

Any experience with the wet dry and bioballs?

Trying to decide if I want to yank it out, make my own and sell it to someone for fresh water....of course at a loss but live and learn.

Another thing I learned yesterday and this one I am sure will have plenty of disputes... the more flow the better? no. I had two 750 Koralia power head plus my return pump at 1300 GPH.

Most of my soft corals wouldnt open well and grow, I tried moving the flow, this way that way and finally shut the powerheads off overnight using only my return line for current. Next day was like magic, everything was opened bigger than ive ever seen! The frogspawns were HUGE and billowing and the zoos were all fully opened. Everything looked MUCH happier and the messmy dragon Gobie was creating by sifting sand that was being blow around has stopped.

So I split my return line to two lines in the tank using PVC and elbows and caps on the ends dripped to 3/8 to increase the pressure. I can now twist and turn wherever I want, seems the flow is plenty and the corals are all still opened nicely. Yanked out the Koralias, tank even looks better without them in.

Thoughts?
 
nitrates increases normaly as your cycle goes on the only way to get rid of them is by using a live beneficial bacteria (stress zime) that will brake down nitrates and ammonia down leading to nitrite which is used by a number of plants to grow including saltwater grass
 
Like I said in my post above, ditch the bioballs completely. They just are not good for saltwater setups.

More flow is better, but too much flow can hurt certain corals. Softies and LPS (like you have) generally can't take a lot of flow. Too strong, and it will rip the flesh right off the skeleton. If you keep SPS corals, you will need a lot of flow. Different corals have different needs.

In a 75 gallon tank, even with softies and LPS, I'd still have 2 or 3 powerheads in addition to your return. You may run into oxygenation problems without any powerheads in there. Also, flow carries food to the corals.
 
taking out the bio balls might help but if you ad something to them to brake down ham full nitrates then they work 100% better trust me ive had years of experience/frustration with those damn things
 
I disagree with saltwater king. I prefer to not rely on additives/chemicals to keep things going in my tank. Remove the bioballs and take care of the nitrates by using a protein skimmer and doing water changes. Why spend money on additives for the rest of the life of your tank? Live rock accomplishes the same thing that bioballs do, but without causing high nitrates. All it is is surface area for bacteria to colonize.

You may also want to consider adding a refugium to your setup. You can keep macroalgae which will naturally get rid of nitrates. And it creates a place for pods to reproduce, which is live food for your tank.
 
I'm with Biff Ditch the bio balls. go with a sump setup. Very natural and it works great. Low maintenance as well. Grow some cheato to get rid of your trates and your entire tank is good to go.
 
I disagree with saltwater king as well. The bacteria will only help break down the nitrite and ammonia, not the nitrate. No need to add any "NATURAL ADDITIVE". The natural "additive" is already in your live rocks.
 
Hi! Welcome to the site! I have no experience with bio balls but I have used HOB filters on my tanks and they are nitrate traps!!! ditch them! Live rock and a protein skimmer alone is wonderful for my tank! My nitrates are at 0! Before they were very high!
 
I disagree with saltwater king. I prefer to not rely on additives/chemicals to keep things going in my tank. Remove the bioballs and take care of the nitrates by using a protein skimmer and doing water changes. Why spend money on additives for the rest of the life of your tank? Live rock accomplishes the same thing that bioballs do, but without causing high nitrates. All it is is surface area for bacteria to colonize.

You may also want to consider adding a refugium to your setup. You can keep macroalgae which will naturally get rid of nitrates. And it creates a place for pods to reproduce, which is live food for your tank.

First of all, thanks to everyone for the warm salty welcome! Hmmm maybe that didnt sound right but Ill leave it anyway for a laugh :)

So yes, I can see that the soft corals are just not designed for that flow. The way Ive T'ed my retrun line inside the tank I have one retrun running uits current directly across the trumpets etc that are mounted to my stryofoam backing. I was hesitant to use this backing, basically its eggcrate with styrofoam sprayed on in clogs and then sand and shells stuck to it while its wet and allowed to dry, but its really turned into a neat place to pop a hole in the styro and stick a stalk of trumpet or other hard coral right into, so they are all mounted on the back wall which makes it easy to direct the one flow right across them. The other return off the T is pointed straight at the front wall. My cloves and stars and frogs are not getting blown all over the damn place and enjoying their life now ( along with the new sailfin tang I bought today :bounce: ) As for the concern of oxygen, currently the bio balls are out in a bucket for good, the sump Im considering whether to keep or not, or build my own and sell this one for new fish money.....it has a skimmer that came with it -its a ProClear 200 Prod wt/dry.... the skimmer works OK now after some midfications to spin the water in the tube instead of straight up bubbling action - an 89 cent pvc elbow from Home Depot did wonders ;) . I alos have an eco-aqulaizer on which is supposed to separate the toxins from the oxygen molecules making it more soluble for the fish etc while allowing toxins to evaporate. Anyone had any experience with this? It san Ionizer. ive read good reports on it before buying and it was a 180 day money back. What can I tell? Cant really but what I can say is Ive got VERY healthy and active fish, surely a good sign. I also have a 9W sterlizer in line just before the aqualizer and then its dumped back in. Besides the aqualizer, right now the water is falling into the sump, over the adjustable window and falling about 10 inches making lots of bubbles in the water. This has to help the oxygen level too? Eco Aqualizer

My Live rock is all inside the tank right now until I decide what I want to do, probably about 35 lbs now. About 3 inches of fine sand with a crushed coral substrate on top layer...

About a dozen fish now. Lawnmower blenny ( Benny the Blenny ) one funny dude for sure, eats algae disks out of my hand. A sailfin tang, a hippo tang, one small tomatoe and his BTA, Dragon gobi, leapord wrasse, six line wrasse, yellow coris wrase, two firefish gobies, a watchman gobi, a royal gamma and in my 36 I have an overly aggresive Clarki and his carpet anemone and some stars.

Just put in a RO/DI filter, got tired of buying water from LFS....already pays for itself. Got a good deal on Ebay for a 6 stage for 160 inlc shipping.

Fraggin my corals as I can.

Im with you, no more additives...au de naturale! Like the cigar Im smoking ;)

Nice to find a friendly place. But seriously if anyone is interested in these koralis 750s, let me know. Im going to put them on Ebay. Got an extra set of magnetos for each one too. About 2 months old. Got the receipt somewhere!
 
The Eco Aqualizer is snake oil. Seriously a waste of money. Take it apart and guess what you'll find -- a couple of magnets in a chamber! Seriously! There's no physical way it can possibly do what it says it does -- and if you read the claims on their website, what they say it does just doesn't make sense. Sorry you bought it :( Trust me, your fish's happiness has nothing to do with that contraption.

Next, your tank is wayyyyyy overstocked. This is also contributing to your nitrate problem. Stop adding fish! ;) The general rule of thumb for saltwater is 1 fish per 10 gallons -- so in your tank, 7 or 8 fish. Most of your fish are small, so you can obviously have more fish if a lot of them are small. But still, you are pretty maxed out with the two tangs.
 
The Eco Aqualizer is snake oil. Seriously a waste of money. Take it apart and guess what you'll find -- a couple of magnets in a chamber! Seriously! There's no physical way it can possibly do what it says it does -- and if you read the claims on their website, what they say it does just doesn't make sense. Sorry you bought it :( Trust me, your fish's happiness has nothing to do with that contraption.

Next, your tank is wayyyyyy overstocked. This is also contributing to your nitrate problem. Stop adding fish! ;) The general rule of thumb for saltwater is 1 fish per 10 gallons -- so in your tank, 7 or 8 fish. Most of your fish are small, so you can obviously have more fish if a lot of them are small. But still, you are pretty maxed out with the two tangs.

Interesting about the eco....two magnets huh? yeesh!

As for the fish, yeah they are all small right now, most are less than 3 inches, the sailfin being the largest at 4. I know I will need a bigger tank as they grow but thats my excuse !

Not sure if the stock right now is the nitrate issue, it did drop after removing the bio crap balls. Still around 20 but better than it was. I think once I decide on the homemade sump vs the modified sump and thow some more live rock and my refugium in there I will be OK. For the flow, I may add in another head, but lower power than what I had to blow across the SPS along with my returns. For the exo, u think I ought to take it off? What about that write up from the Phd running the texas aquarium? Paid endoresment>? yeesh.So many gags, so little time ;) Thanks for the Chaeto!
 
Hi! Welcome to the site! I have no experience with bio balls but I have used HOB filters on my tanks and they are nitrate traps!!! ditch them! Live rock and a protein skimmer alone is wonderful for my tank! My nitrates are at 0! Before they were very high!

Thanks for the advice and the warm welcome! I look forward to chatting with you!
 
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