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...

The green algae just means something is out of whack with your water, could be phosphates leaching out of your rock. Hard to test for very small amounts of phos, but it will still be enough for GHA to thrive. Green hair algae is the scourge of the reef tank, a real pain in the butt. My first tank was solid green for it's first six months, as the tank has matured and I've become smarter the GHA is almost totally gone, took almost a year. Start by picking off the algae, not a fun task but worthwhile. Get some macro algae like chaeto it will out compete the GHA for nutrients. Some critters will eat it, I've got turbo snails, and an emerald crab at the moment.

I'm not sure if you used the word detritus properly. Detritus is usually crap on your rocks and tank bottom. I think you may have meant diatoms. They show up during the cycle, as a reddish slime all over the tank. They are normal and will go away as your water cleans up over time. If a snail or something dies in the future you may get another outbreak of them.

As for pH buffers I have no idea about them. My pH is pretty much stuck on 8.2 in all 4 tanks and doesn't change unless I dose a bit too much alkalinity, which is to be expected.

HTH

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?

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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.

Your cycle shouldn't take too long if it was set up before. I've bought complete systems and not had problems with cycling at all - the LR is key.

I would do about a 25% WC every month, and use tap water to top up. I did battle algae, and was recommended that I switch to RO for top up. Might be a better way to go.

Yeah i am going to try and use RO water from now on. I used all tap water to fill it. I am still in the process of setting something up to age my water. I heard just sticking a powerhead and heater in a separate tank or container will be sufficient.

:welcome: to AA!

:welcome: to AA!

I have a 70 gallon with a 20 gallon sump saltwater setup. I am relatively new to saltwater and i was wondering how often should i perform a water change? It has about 70 lbs of live rock. It was originally setup before i bought it for 5 years. I wasn't able to keep all the water so i had to add all new water when i got home and it is currently cycling.

Definitely a female. Lower gill plate has ALOT of blue speckling going on, males tend to have no blue on the lower part of the gill plate. Males also have alot of blue throughout their bodies, females I have found tend to have alot of brown. The dorsal fin isn't very long and it is more rounded am I right? Males dorsal and anal fins tend to be more pointed and elongated. Here is a face shot of my male.

Good to know. And yeah your right, the dorsal fin isn't very long and is more rounded. Thanks for the info. I found a male for my female JD but he is quite a bit smaller than my female. I bought the male off someone that was selling a few of his tanks to my girl friend and it had some JD's in it so i grabbed the biggest one in hopes they "might" pair off. But its not going so well. I think my female is full grown or close too it. Shes about 8 inches. Female still won't let the male in her territory after about 2 weeks of putting the male in. So i think my best bet would be to find a few large males and see if any of them pair up.

If anyone has a large full grown male Jack Dempsey that they want to sell, PM me!

Nice looking fish Lana! :thumbs:

I need help sexing my JD. I always thought he was a male up until today when i did more research and theres a good chance hes female. What do you think?

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Congrats on the new fry! :thumbs:

Went to all south side Homer Depots, non have playsand in color, only normal, canadian tire and totem have no playsand either...Not even Toys'R Us.....whaaa I was set on blue.Thinking of poping by Sil.

If your still looking for colorful sand. Go to the Home Depot in Sherwood Park. I was just there a few days ago and they still had the red and blue sand.