gordo

Any advice on keeping Tropheus? Looking to setup a Tropheus tank in the future.

We are currently breeding: Electric Yellows Acei Red Empress Melanochromis Johanni Lwanda Peacock Spilonotus Tanzania Cobalt Blue Zebra Red Zebra Albino Peacock Polit Red Shoulder Peacock Lemon Jake Peacock Sunshine Peacock Blue Dolphin Ruby Red Sunburst Peacock Firefin Peacock Bi-Color 500 Peacock Demasoni Auratus Venustus Cobue Peacock

:welcome: to AA!

Looks great Jason! :thumbs: Is that the rock that i sold you?

Well it will most likely be a 15 gallon. So 75-100 Gph? Where is the best place to get a small pump? I want to spend as little money on this as possible. If i were to sit the fuge over top the sump, i would probably need a container in which i could drill through. What do you think?

What would you recommend for GPH through a refugium?

I am unsure on what my Nitrate and Phosphate readings are as i do not have a test kit for that. I setup one of my sump chambers as a refugium. It has a light on it with a few pieces of live rock. Im thinking about adding some more live rock so that more Macro algae can grow. But the sumps walls are covered in algae. Also, is sand necessary in a refugium? What size of refugium would you recommend for a 70 gallon?

I am thinking about buying a UV Sterilizer for my reef tank to combat algae. Has anyone used one before on their salt tank? Is it a good idea?

Looks good Dustin :thumbs:

Nice pics! :thumbs:

First off, soliver and i went to our LFS together to get the live rock. This may be a possibility why you are having so many problems...Remember how they packed your live rock? They used newspaper and then splashed some water on it after it was wrapped to keep the LR moist... Now would it be possible for some of the newsprint chemicals to leach out onto your live rock during transport? To me it makes sense because every time you wet a newspaper you can see the ink run all over. Has anyone else had experience with this? It sort of just popped into my head after reading the posts about transporting the live rock from the LFS. Our LFS in Sherwood park is relatively new to saltwater. Before they had all freshwater tanks. So maybe they didn't know...

I had some GHA for a few days but now it seems to be dieing off. I was lucky and some of the live rock that came with the tank had some nice macro algae growing on it. I managed to get my PH down to 8.2. It took a few water changes but it seemed to have stabilized now. I think my thought of having Detritus was incorrect and that i did in fact have a diatoms outbreak. (Still new to SW). Lots has grown since my PH has stabilized it seems. The 5 year old live rock is finally paying off. I didn't loose as much life as i thought i would. I do although have a rock anemone outbreak. I read up on it and peppermint shrimp eat this stuff like candy. Only the smaller anemones though. So i purchased 2 and they seem to be doing great. Scurrying all around the tank inspecting every piece of live rock. I heard that iodine supplement is necessary for shrimp to aid in the molting process. I am using all tap water at the moment with plans on using half and half with RO water in the future. Is there enough iodide in tap water to suffice? Or is there even any? Should i be adding iodine?

.

Thanks for the info. I went to my LFS and purchased a API saltwater test kit. I brought a sample of my water in to get tested and they tested it with a digital tester. It turned out to be 8.6. So it wasn't as bad as i thought. I'm going to toss the Hagen test kit. It just doesn't seem accurate. I did a water change 2 days ago and then added my buffer to get the PH down. I am going to test it today and see if the PH has settled down. I figure my tank is fully cycled. There are no traces of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. I had a Detritus outbreak not to long ago but it seems to have converted into green algae now. There is quite a bit on the glass on the back of the tank, does green algae indicate that my tank is fully cycled? And is there a preferred PH buffer out there? Or do all of them pretty much do the same thing?

I got my first Salt Water Aquarium setup 2 weeks ago. And ever since then i've been testing my levels. Trying to see where i am in the cycle. I test my PH periodically as well and the readings have all been 8.8-9.0 and i don't understand why it is so high all the time. Originally i thought it was because of the ammonia as it was recycling. (The tank was setup for 5 years before i bought it.) And i kept all the liverock under water during transport. So a few things died hence why some levels spiked. But the cycle shouldn't take that long. I have been getting the same ammonia reading of 0.25 for about a week and a half now. With no signs of Nitrite or Nitrate. I have noticed that the protein skimmer is producing protein in the upper chamber. It is brown in color so i assume thats the right stuff. But doesn't a protein skimmer remove Nitrate? This doesn't make sense. Unless my tank is fully cycled already. Which is could very well be but thats beside the point. Can anybody tell me why my PH is so high all the time? I am using a Hagen Saltwater test kit. It tests both freshwater and saltwater. I even tested my tank where i age my saltwater and it was giving me the same readings of 8.8-9.0 before it has even entered the saltwater tank. I tested one of my freshwater aquariums and i get normal readings. So maybe its the salt? I have no clue. I am still new to saltwater. Any information would be great.