sen5241b
Reef enthusiast
I have a 29 and a 20G. Neither have skimmers and both have nitrates and phosphates consistently at zero. I fish died in the 20 not too long ago and nitrates did rise to 10ppm. 'trates in the 29 have been at zero for about a year and I've had fish rot and die in there under the rock and 'trates stayed at zero. I'm a little lazy with water changes --I do a 25 to 50% change once a month. I have a Purple Firefish, Blue-green reef Chromis, Mandarin Dragonette, Pajama Cardinal (he's grown), and a Skunk-cleaner shrimp. Probably about 5 to 6 inches of fish total. What did I do?
1) Over 30lbs of LR --much of it collected and cured by myself.
2) Excellent flow, I propped up much of the LR off the sand on short pieces of hidden PVC pipe and have a Koralia blasting water under the rock.
3) All water goes thru floss and sponge. I change the floss twice a week and clean the sponge once or twice a month.
4) Carbon
5) Good CUC --too many hermits.
6) In both tanks I have a fuge that is 10 to 20% the size of the main display --and both are filled with chaetomorphia and two strong lights on each fuge. When I Iook at pics of most fuges I see a rather small softball size clump of chaeto. I have big basketball sized clumps in both my fuges.
7) Good surface agitation
Once the fuge light broke and sure enough in 24-48 hours my LPS corals began to bleach. I'm thinking the chaeto is the primary reason for my low 'trates. Comments?
1) Over 30lbs of LR --much of it collected and cured by myself.
2) Excellent flow, I propped up much of the LR off the sand on short pieces of hidden PVC pipe and have a Koralia blasting water under the rock.
3) All water goes thru floss and sponge. I change the floss twice a week and clean the sponge once or twice a month.
4) Carbon
5) Good CUC --too many hermits.
6) In both tanks I have a fuge that is 10 to 20% the size of the main display --and both are filled with chaetomorphia and two strong lights on each fuge. When I Iook at pics of most fuges I see a rather small softball size clump of chaeto. I have big basketball sized clumps in both my fuges.
7) Good surface agitation
Once the fuge light broke and sure enough in 24-48 hours my LPS corals began to bleach. I'm thinking the chaeto is the primary reason for my low 'trates. Comments?