poksal
Well? .. I AM trying
I'm new to the reef tank (1 month old) but am an old hand with fresh water, with a few years gap behind me. I always wanted to do the reef thing but we weren't so enlightened about reefs, ecology, and technologies to do it reasonabe enough until recently.
I have a 95 gal with the standard 100 pounds or so of live rock. My fish count is not high and I do not expect it to get high. I'm running a sump and so far haven't gained enough phophates to even keep chaeto growing and barely alive in the sump. My tests are all solid but my hardness runs around 220 ppm. This could be due to my having to add a pH buffer because my pH was being sucked down some by some of the rocks I had added. The pH has settled at about 8.3.
I cycled my system with bacteria from a bottle, live rock, maricle mud, and one fish. I never saw a single, even tiny, spike of ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites in any of the tests. My fish are all bright eyed and spunky, ... but being I'm a coral new-bee I have concerns about my corals and what is happening on my live rock surfaces.
I have a leather coral about 2" in dia that was in the sluf-off mode when I purchased it and I can't figure out a happy place for it and it has never once projected any tinacles.
Ideas and education please.
I have a rock with a coral that looks like little brown eyes on stalks that hasn't done much either.
In the last few days I've witnessed a spread of redish brown splotches on the tops of many of my live rocks that looks like someone splattered paint. Some of these appear to be casting off silky threads with bubbles on them. My lavender tang enjoys them for constant snacks. What is this stuff? I did move a small coral that is the same color (like little red brown flowers on the rock) and it then sent out long silk threads several inches long that I finally removed... the redbrown splotches "seem" to of appeared about that time. Was that a spawn??? The little red flower corals appear happy.
I have a few other small corals that look like small green flowers with small dots in the middle and they seem quite happy.
I'm running a skimmer, RODI ATO, a Vortech MP 10 set to EcoSmart programming.
What else... humm.. I can't keep shrimp or snales because my six line and crabs won't let them live here. Oh, I have two little industrious emerald crabs about 1" in diameter. My large ping-pong ball sized zebra hermit carb is a busy beaver, as are the four little ones that are dime sized when out of the shell. (there are plenty of extra shells for them to "play" into and out of).. that is a hoot to watch.
So, glad to be here.. help me learn.. please.
OK, pour it on me.. I can take it.
I have a 95 gal with the standard 100 pounds or so of live rock. My fish count is not high and I do not expect it to get high. I'm running a sump and so far haven't gained enough phophates to even keep chaeto growing and barely alive in the sump. My tests are all solid but my hardness runs around 220 ppm. This could be due to my having to add a pH buffer because my pH was being sucked down some by some of the rocks I had added. The pH has settled at about 8.3.
I cycled my system with bacteria from a bottle, live rock, maricle mud, and one fish. I never saw a single, even tiny, spike of ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites in any of the tests. My fish are all bright eyed and spunky, ... but being I'm a coral new-bee I have concerns about my corals and what is happening on my live rock surfaces.
I have a leather coral about 2" in dia that was in the sluf-off mode when I purchased it and I can't figure out a happy place for it and it has never once projected any tinacles.
Ideas and education please.
I have a rock with a coral that looks like little brown eyes on stalks that hasn't done much either.
In the last few days I've witnessed a spread of redish brown splotches on the tops of many of my live rocks that looks like someone splattered paint. Some of these appear to be casting off silky threads with bubbles on them. My lavender tang enjoys them for constant snacks. What is this stuff? I did move a small coral that is the same color (like little red brown flowers on the rock) and it then sent out long silk threads several inches long that I finally removed... the redbrown splotches "seem" to of appeared about that time. Was that a spawn??? The little red flower corals appear happy.
I have a few other small corals that look like small green flowers with small dots in the middle and they seem quite happy.
I'm running a skimmer, RODI ATO, a Vortech MP 10 set to EcoSmart programming.
What else... humm.. I can't keep shrimp or snales because my six line and crabs won't let them live here. Oh, I have two little industrious emerald crabs about 1" in diameter. My large ping-pong ball sized zebra hermit carb is a busy beaver, as are the four little ones that are dime sized when out of the shell. (there are plenty of extra shells for them to "play" into and out of).. that is a hoot to watch.
So, glad to be here.. help me learn.. please.
OK, pour it on me.. I can take it.
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