Miss Wiggle And Big Ian's First Marine Tank!

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah I've never liked powder/tablet test kits for FW either, we have liquid one's for that. I'll go to the lfs tomorrow with a sample and see what kits they have available. Will look for Sailfert ones if they stock them over here.

just had a good look att the skimemr and a chat with Ian and we've agreed we have no idea how the bloody thing is meant to work. There's no model name/number or anything on it. Basically it sits in the first compartment of the HOB Filter, the output from the power head goes into the compartment it's in, and it's basically a tube with an airstone in, then a top bit above the water level with the tube going up into the cup. So I know all the mank is meant to collect on the surface of the water, go up the tube and into the cup. But how does an airstone in a tube manage to collect the mank ??? Is it just not collecting anything cos of the very small bio load... i.e. there's nothing there for it to collect. We've adjusted the speed of the airstone and that makes no difference, that's our only option for adjusting.

 

[SeahorseWhisperer]

NO3 70ppm? PO4 2? pH7.8?

Elevated NO3 levels can cause permanent, irreversible damage to a fishes respiratory system.

I would do a huge water change with RODI water before I ran emergently to get new test kits. And, I might consider keeping the tang for the massive outbreak of hair algae I would expect to happen!

RedSeas makes good test kit, al;so. I have used the one you ar eusing and it might be a bit off but....


70 ppm? Lets say its 50% off= 35 ppm? Still toxic to gill tissue...

You know, reading my reponse I am not sure I made it clear that I would emergently do a water change. Even if I used tap water...

 

[SkiFletch]

And what if the NO3 is 5ppm and the kit is way off? Not woth a tapwater change if that truly is the case... At 70ppm (if it were truly the case, you'd see erratic behavior out of all livestock, fish, and corals included. Since they dont see any of this, I wouldnt risk a tapwater change... Just my oppinion though

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well everything looked fine this morning, the coral's all opened up when the light came on, fish seem fine, no loss of colour or strange behaviour. Too late for an emergency massive water change now anyway as I'm at work. Will be off at 4, straight home to get a water sample then to the lfs for a proper test and some RO. Will keep you posted.

Thanks for both of your opinions and help.

 

[SeahorseWhisperer]

Before Salifert, we all used those test kits with the little packets of dry stuff...Could they all be that far off?

Well, good luck!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Before Salifert, we all used those test kits with the little packets of dry stuff...Could they all be that far off?

Well, good luck!

Lord only knows, ah well, in about 3.5hrs time I should have a proper reading and Ian's gonna get the plumbing stuff tonight to hook up our RO unit.

does anyoen know roughly how much RO water is per gallon from lfs's....... just trying to sort out money to get some.

 

[SkiFletch]

Just wanted to offer something about the skimmer. Sounds like you've got an old-school airstone style skimmer there. Are there any control valves on it anywhere? And when you get home, could you take a pic?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Just wanted to offer something about the skimmer. Sounds like you've got an old-school airstone style skimmer there. Are there any control valves on it anywhere? And when you get home, could you take a pic?

just the valve from the airstone to turn it up or down. I'll attempt a pic of it tonight, it's covered in muck though so dunno how clear it'll be!!

 

[BigIan]

i`ve just bout all the fixings for the RO unit, (buying second hand goods is not fun they never come with everything they did originally..

and will be having fun getting wet and banging my head this evening as i attempt to solder a new load of pipework in....

as for the water change, that will be happening tomorrow, as by the time Miss wiggle gets home with the RO and its heated up and had the salt mixed in with it ect, i`ll be able to pump out my own RO,


as for the skimmer, i may well have a tinker with it later the only way i can see to make the water level rise in the main chamber is to raise the gates on the HOB...

how exactly does a skimmer work, and what exactly does it do?

 

[SkiFletch]

Randy Holmes-Farley is way better at explaining it than I am

 

[nukeonekitty]

Gotta love marine tanks, the fish are so vivid!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well we went the lfs with a water sample and the readings, although still not perfect they weren't anywhere near as bad as ours had come out at.

Ph a little low at 7.7 - We've added some crushed oyster shells to buffer it, only a little as I didn't want to just hike it straight up, we'll keep testing and increasing it gradually oer the next week or so until it's where it should be.
Amonia - 0.0
Nitrite - 0.1 - So there shouldn't be any reading but at least it's not sky high!! We think it's just started a mini cycle cos it got moved and a water change should sort it.
Nitrate - 12.5 - phew, just a little better than 70 then!!!! Still could do with coming down but none the less it's not the massive worry that it was.

So we thought rather than spend all our money on ready made RO to do a change straight away we'd spend it on a new nitrate test kit and the stuff to plumb in the RO unit at home and do a water change today. So that all got sorted last night, it's been trickling out RO all evening and this morning. Ian's off work today so he's gonna crack on and change some of the water. So fingers crossed we should have the levels a bit closer to where they should be by tonight.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

right next question..... clean up crew, I read 1 per gallon of water, surley that's too much??? and are the larger things like cleaner shrimps or bigger crabs gonna count for maybe (e.g.) 2/3g whereas little snails might just be 1 ??

 

[SeahorseWhisperer]

What is your alkalinity? Did the LFS test all the parameters?

Low pH could also be a sign of low O2/high CO2. You can test gas exchange by taking a sample and aerating it strongly for a few minutes, then testing. If the pH goes up, you need more more water motion at the surface of the water.

Do you have nuisance algae yet? I would only add a few cleaners until you do, then increased the numbers as needed. You really don't want to add to your bioload until the biological filter catches up.

Did your LFS tell you that crushed oyster shell will raise your pH?

 

[andywg]

right next question..... clean up crew, I read 1 per gallon of water, surley that's too much??? and are the larger things like cleaner shrimps or bigger crabs gonna count for maybe (e.g.) 2/3g whereas little snails might just be 1 ??

1 per gallon is the standard rate, but more can be put in. You will normally have the bulk (around half to 2/3) made up of snails.