Mikenroe
06/28/2015, 03:48 PM
Hi there, i am new to RC and here is my question. I was just looking at some of the photos of the current tank of the month, as well as with viewing some of pictures of the past tanks of the month. I see these reefs people have created where almost every space is occupied by coral, of all types, spa,lps,ups, and sps. How do you create such environments that all these spaces like this. Is it that all the spa are at the top, lps in the middle, and softies at the bottom, with ups being in dark spaces and other things like brains and clams being on the bottom? I want to be able to do this.
Here re some other questions?
I would like to tale out all my live rock and re-aqua scape my aquarium, however will this stir up to much of the sand bed, and produce high nitrates?
What things should I do if I do re-aquascape?
Any other things I need to add to my husbandry to make a these type of environments possible and healthy. Here is list of what i have and do;
Tank:
160 gal with 180lbs live sand and 150lbs live rock
Sump:
eshopps rs300 with refugium with deep sand bed with mud and chaeto
led refugium light on 24 hrs
Protein skimmer
Bubble Magus NAC9
UV Steralizer
Lighting
3 AquaIllumination Hydra
2 MP 40's Vortech wireless powerheads
What I do:
Tank is about 7 months old. I was doing weekly water changes of 35 gals/week. I fed once a day with Larry's Reef Frenzy LRS food, about an inch square cube that I would thaw and then pour into aquarium. I was also using reefroids along with other filter feeding foods. However, my aquarium started to take a turn for the worst and my corals were turning brown and loosing color. My thought was that my testing was off or that I was not reading my testing correctly. So i had someone come out and test and they found that my NO3 were 180 using the api test kit. He did not do the red sea testing as he said with those type of numbers, no matter what test he used, bottom line is that my NO3 were way to high. My Phosphates were also high. So after that, I replaced a return hose that had a lot of algae growth in it. I bought a turkey baster and blew off all my rock and coral along with turning my mp 40s up to 9 on the reef crest mode, then i put a aqua sock on to catch all the detritus after the blowing off. I cleaned my protein skimmer and got rid of any coral that was not savable. Then I began doing large water changes of 70 gal every 3-4 days and after the water change would add microbacter7. My NO3 are now down between 5 and 10ppm. I want to get them down below 5ppm. However, once i do get them down below 5ppm, what do I do then. Do i continue to do weekly water changes? or is that two much? Is my equipment okay? I do not dose anything other than microbacter 7, but should I be to be able to keep sps, lps, nps, and all other things that make up a mixed colorful reef. My goal is to create some of these beautiful aquascapes like i see others have created. I hear of people using algae scrubbers and dosing kalk. Also, in a lot of these tanks, other reefers are keeping fish that are generally considered not reef safe, like leopard wrasses, is the key to feed more often to be able to do so. Would love your advice, and specifically would love to here from any of you that have had tanks of the months. Sorry for being so long winded.
Here re some other questions?
I would like to tale out all my live rock and re-aqua scape my aquarium, however will this stir up to much of the sand bed, and produce high nitrates?
What things should I do if I do re-aquascape?
Any other things I need to add to my husbandry to make a these type of environments possible and healthy. Here is list of what i have and do;
Tank:
160 gal with 180lbs live sand and 150lbs live rock
Sump:
eshopps rs300 with refugium with deep sand bed with mud and chaeto
led refugium light on 24 hrs
Protein skimmer
Bubble Magus NAC9
UV Steralizer
Lighting
3 AquaIllumination Hydra
2 MP 40's Vortech wireless powerheads
What I do:
Tank is about 7 months old. I was doing weekly water changes of 35 gals/week. I fed once a day with Larry's Reef Frenzy LRS food, about an inch square cube that I would thaw and then pour into aquarium. I was also using reefroids along with other filter feeding foods. However, my aquarium started to take a turn for the worst and my corals were turning brown and loosing color. My thought was that my testing was off or that I was not reading my testing correctly. So i had someone come out and test and they found that my NO3 were 180 using the api test kit. He did not do the red sea testing as he said with those type of numbers, no matter what test he used, bottom line is that my NO3 were way to high. My Phosphates were also high. So after that, I replaced a return hose that had a lot of algae growth in it. I bought a turkey baster and blew off all my rock and coral along with turning my mp 40s up to 9 on the reef crest mode, then i put a aqua sock on to catch all the detritus after the blowing off. I cleaned my protein skimmer and got rid of any coral that was not savable. Then I began doing large water changes of 70 gal every 3-4 days and after the water change would add microbacter7. My NO3 are now down between 5 and 10ppm. I want to get them down below 5ppm. However, once i do get them down below 5ppm, what do I do then. Do i continue to do weekly water changes? or is that two much? Is my equipment okay? I do not dose anything other than microbacter 7, but should I be to be able to keep sps, lps, nps, and all other things that make up a mixed colorful reef. My goal is to create some of these beautiful aquascapes like i see others have created. I hear of people using algae scrubbers and dosing kalk. Also, in a lot of these tanks, other reefers are keeping fish that are generally considered not reef safe, like leopard wrasses, is the key to feed more often to be able to do so. Would love your advice, and specifically would love to here from any of you that have had tanks of the months. Sorry for being so long winded.