Brand new to the forum and the marine hobby

[yote]

That does look like crushed coral.But the tanks looking good and coming right along.

 

[Bifferwine]

If you want to use sand, you should just remove the crushed coral now. If you try to layer them, the sand will just fall through to the bottom and you will be in the same situation you are in now.

 

[EliWhitney314]

what if I just mix it up?

 

[dcantucson]

The sand will still settle down to the bottom. It just happens with the water movement.

 

[Bifferwine]

what if I just mix it up?

You can't beat gravity. The sand particles are much smaller than the crushed coral particles. So the sand is going to fall through the large cracks that the crushed coral creates, and wind up on the bottom.

 

[Ted]

the only other option is to put down a fine mat to separate the two types of substrate. Personally I dont think it would be worth it though.

 

[EliWhitney314]

Well I guess I need to get rid of the crushed coral. I was reading crushed coral causes problems anyway,

 

[EliWhitney314]

I have a couple questions after reading marine aquarium book.

Does anyone add baking soda to your tank? It said a teaspoon for every 20 gallons?

The book was saying that you add freshwater to the tank when dealing with evaporation?

 

[wontonflip]

I don't use baking soda. I might have heard someone a while back talking about it, but I never did it.

As for topping off w/ ro/di water, that is correct. Salt doesn't evaporate. If you add more saltwater, you will end up raising your salt levels too high. By adding ro/di to top off, you maintain the salinity.

 

[EliWhitney314]

well that's good to know. I use distilled water though.

 

[yote]

I use baking soda to bring my alkalinity up.But I bake it at 450* for an hour and store in a closed container.I also use this Reef Chemistry Calculator to get my dosage.

 

[EliWhitney314]

Do I have copepods? I have these little brown bug looking things on my glass, they kind of look like flees. I also think I have baby snails.

 

[Ted]

sounds like pods. Baby snails come and go. Most fish will eat them.

 

[daugherty]

if they look lik fleas than they are pod indeed

 

[EliWhitney314]

what are pods?

 

[bjohanson1234]

they are little bug like things that eat :pooh: and also are free food for the fish. SO congrats:Cheers:

 

[EliWhitney314]

they are walking pretty fast on the glass.

 

[AdeptMrSniffles]

Sounds like Amphipods. They're creepy but like has been stated, they're free food.

 

[EliWhitney314]

they are really really small.

 

[Ted]

well amphipods are anywhere from 1mm to 4mm copepods are like dust speck size to 1 mm. Both are good and both are natural fish food.