45 Gallon Reef Diary From Setup To...?

[Redstratplayer1]

Ski when you started your tank what ratio of Live rock to dead rock did you use?
Who long did it take for your base to become live and look live ( there is a diference)?
What kind of dead rock did you use?

And what do you think would happen to rose Quartz in a salt water tank? My lfs sells it for terariums and said it cant go in salt water.(my mom wants it ,i said no but now i feel bad because she has bin realy nice about my tank)

 

[SkiFletch]

Well you can feel good in telling your mother that the structure of Quartz is broken down in a saltwater environment. If you put it in your tank it would fizz until it was no more.

I used about 15lbs of LR and about 60lbs of BR when I first started my tank. It was pretty clear that as one would expect, the bacteria and many algaes seeded the BR after a month. After the first month, my chemistry really came under control and my nitrates plummeted to 0. The rock I used was actual LR that had been sitting in someone's basement for about 3 years, so once upon a time it was the real thing . I'd say after about 6 months I started to get some decent noticeable tunicate, sponge, macro algae, and the beginnings of calcerous algaes. Now going on 10 months, calcerous algae is still growing. I'd estimate that at my current rate of things it will take probably 2-5 years for the rock to be visibly indistinguishable from real LR. The problem is the calcerous algaes take so dang long to re-seed. Most other things are there, just not the rock-forming algaes.

 

[Redstratplayer1]

Thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

Thanks

Anytime, just a word of advice to you or anyone that reads this thread in the future... If you do decide to go with a similar LR/BR ratio, I believe its IMPERATIVE that you run a phosphate binder. As the algal wars proved, base rock grows hair algae when phosphates are high with exceptional ease. Learn from my mistakes and prevent this outbreak yourself.

 

[Redstratplayer1]

Thanks

Anytime, just a word of advice to you or anyone that reads this thread in the future... If you do decide to go with a similar LR/BR ratio, I believe its IMPERATIVE that you run a phosphate binder. As the algal wars proved, base rock grows hair algae when phosphates are high with exceptional ease. Learn from my mistakes and prevent this outbreak yourself.

Well thats just great i am going with 50/50 lr/deadrock

Time to get started on diying a phos reactor...................... sound like fun

 

[SkiFletch]

pfft, who needs a reactor, I just stuffed mine in an HOB compartment

 

[Redstratplayer1]

Awwwwwww but i want to..................................More plumbing

 

[tmreynolds]

I think its a good idea to run something like rowaphos from day one the water goes in. Doesn't give algae the chance to get a foothold. Great stuff rowaphos, if you're looking for something to zero the phosphates, you could do alot worse.

 

[Redstratplayer1]

I was thinking a large in tank refrigeum behind my rock work to control phos.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, the new friendly made it through the acclimation process well and has some pretty good PE

 

[Lynden]

Nice

Let's hope it stays that good!

 

[SkiFletch]

Thanks, that thing's got me gushing with joy

Btw, tommorrow... mantis nano construction and LR

 

[Mr Miagi]

And to think that elagance corals were once considerd hardier then gsp and zoos.
I wonder what happend to them?

Its talked about that collection methods and specific collection areas are to blame for the poor stock found in the UK and US. Here in Australia, where they are collected, and the methods used vary, so our specimens are still bullet proof.

Nice polyp extension though Ski! Looks like a nice specimen.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

booooo, all i can see of that pic is a little red cross in a box

 

[SkiFletch]

booooo, all i can see of that pic is a little red cross in a box

Try it again silly, photobucket must not have liked you