Pearls Of The Antilles... Llj's Planted Marine

[bae1994]

I use a api master test kit (same as yours but in a box lol)

And good choice on the refractometer they're much more accurate and stand the test of time were hydrometers don't

When I first started marine I used one of these and they suck unless you switch every thing off in the tank they just fly around and bob about lol

http/www.boskbeer.com/USERIMAGES/hydrometer.jpg

In hinesite I guess your meant to put the water in a vase or jar but that never occured to me either way they suck

 

[lljdma06]

@Sorgan... Well, I read about a dozen specs & reviews on various skimmers and while the Hydor is relatively new, all the reviews have been favorable. Specs wise, on paper I should get the standard, but in Planted Marines, the waterchanges tend to be larger. Much larger. Have been dwelling in the Barr Report and my thread is there too. He recommends 50% in the beginning, especially if I have the saltmix and the RO. This is very much good standard practice for many planted tanks in the beginning and the SW forums suggest larger waterchanges to replace missing elements. So, after this long tangent, I opted for the nano skimmer. I'll have to remove the skimmer for main photoshoots, though as it's the wrong color.

@Bae1994... I saw the hydrometers and said, go for the refractometer. They just looked so flimsy and while I'm not keeping the rarest things, I'd like to start out with the right equipment and that one's one of the most important pieces of equipment.

As for the api, glad I'm not alone. I looked at the Salifert. Each test is like $30, so do the math. I have 8 tests, so $240. That's like my LR practically. Can't spend so much on this that I can't buy my LR! LOLOL

I'll post a list tomorrow of the stuff I still need to get.

Keeep the comments coming, I like it. I'm getting excited.

 

[weezawoo]

Wow thats expensive kits! Here the most expensive salifert I have seen are up to £10 each some £5.

The digital thermometers I am now steering clear of, I had 2 and they both read different temperatures in the same place! Hope yours work better than mine!

Very excited to see this tank now, building up too much suspense!

 

[lljdma06]

Wow thats expensive kits! Here the most expensive salifert I have seen are up to £10 each some £5.

That is cheaper! Haha! I'd order from a UK source, but then there's shipping. It'll never be free from the UK. So no point. Otherwise, I'd cheat and order from a UK site. Is Salifert a UK product?

The digital thermometers I am now steering clear of, I had 2 and they both read different temperatures in the same place! Hope yours work better than mine!

Have been working with Coralife for about 5 years now. Very good experiences with them. Will be on the look out though. May buy two cheapies, just in case.

Very excited to see this tank now, building up too much suspense!

This tank's been generating some nice buzz in the various places where the journal is posted. I hope I can live up to people's expectations. I'm a little scared as it's my first Marine, but I just gotta trust the reading I've done and the thought I've put into this.

Liz

 

[lljdma06]

Hi Everybody! I got another present today.

Courtesy of Monocrhome5, a new member who has great SW systems.

On the left are two blue LED strips that have an optional connection for a bubble want. Submersible. Could be use for surface agitation too. On the right, the little square, is a fixture with two red LEDs for nightime critter viewing.

Hehehe, my cat can't stay away...

Thanks, Kyle!

Liz

 

[bae1994]

Looks good the red is crazy how much it brings things out

 

[Donya]

I opted not to get a hydrometer, instead going for a refractometer. This seemed like a reasonably priced one and it got pretty good reviews. Several people have it.

Hey that refractometer looks familiar! Mine has served me well - great little device. I see you also have the API kits, which is what I use. I know a lot of people moan about the NH4/NO2/NO3 API kits, but TBH you can just compare to fresh-mixed salt to avoid color scale issues with the first two and the third is largely a matter of technique. I've never found the color scale to matter much on NO3 since when it's hard to read, it's usually too high for a sw tank anyway.

BTW, I don't know whether you're a long-term API fan or not; if you are, then you may already know this (although I didn't until this week LOL): bang the @#$% out of reagent bottle #2 upsidedown on a sturdy countertop quite a few times and then shake it for a good 5min before you use it the first time. For some reason I never had an issue with that reagent before in the 10 or so years I've been using that brand and just had to shake the bottles for a minute or so, but the last bottle I got I basically wrecked because it had been sitting too long before I got it and I didn't beat it up enough. It wouldn't read above 0, so I kept testing and testing to try to figure out what was going wrong. Apparently the important part of the reagent had settled to the bottom in a big solid lump...so when I finally broke it up by pounding it to death to get it to dissolve, the concentrations were all out of whack and now I have to get a new one.

 

[lljdma06]

Long-term api fan, never really had to test Nitrates before. We planted people love us some Nitrates. So if my mom sees me chucking the *@&& out of Nitrate Reagent #2 around my house, I should tell her it's part of the testing technique?

I think everybody that has that refractometer opted for the "I can afford this" option.

@bae1994... It looks cool. I like it. Can't wait to play.

 

[Tolak]

After reading all 7 pages I've come to the conclusion that this is an awesome reference topic! Lots of detail, I like that, I also like how you have reappropriated some equipment from other setups, makes me think of the spare gear & aquatic tools I could use in the same manner.

I looked into some of the marine clubs down your way, being in Florida as you are there are plenty! Always being the one looking for a deal, this may be a resource for some of the items you are looking to get.

 

[lljdma06]

After reading all 7 pages I've come to the conclusion that this is an awesome reference topic! Lots of detail, I like that, I also like how you have reappropriated some equipment from other setups, makes me think of the spare gear & aquatic tools I could use in the same manner.

I looked into some of the marine clubs down your way, being in Florida as you are there are plenty! Always being the one looking for a deal, this may be a resource for some of the items you are looking to get.

Thanks for your kind words, Mr. T!

I'm actually considering joing the following group as their meetings are not far away. Actually, thanks for reminding me because with work, I completely forgot to join the group.

http/www.fmas1955.org/wordpress/

Some questions for my salty peeps...

Question, what salt mix do all of you use? Was leaning towards Red Sea Pro Coral salt as somebody mentioned that the Mag and Calcium levels are good. Would get the big tub.

Was also going to go with Seachem for dosing the chemicals, as its available everywhere in Miami. Just want to confirm that it's Ca++ and Carbonate that I need to dose. No Magnesium, or should I do that too? I figured with the waterchanges, trace is not needed. Nitrates down the road?

One more question, was curious. If I build up a LR scape so that it has some height, tank is 21" deep, doing a 50% waterchange will lower the water level significantly. I know when I do waterchanges that big in Planted tanks, that they plants are fine for a spell while I drain the water. But what about corals and macro-algae? I imagine the Macros may be ok, but the corals might not be. Will ricordea and shrooms be ok, or should I put them below the 50% mark? Or divide the waterchanges into two 25%?

I know weird questions. Thanks.

 

[demasonisrule]

After reading all 7 pages I've come to the conclusion that this is an awesome reference topic! Lots of detail, I like that, I also like how you have reappropriated some equipment from other setups, makes me think of the spare gear & aquatic tools I could use in the same manner.

I looked into some of the marine clubs down your way, being in Florida as you are there are plenty! Always being the one looking for a deal, this may be a resource for some of the items you are looking to get.

Thanks for your kind words, Mr. T!

I'm actually considering joing the following group as their meetings are not far away. Actually, thanks for reminding me because with work, I completely forgot to join the group.

http/www.fmas1955.org/wordpress/

Some questions for my salty peeps...

Question, what salt mix do all of you use? Was leaning towards Red Sea Pro Coral salt as somebody mentioned that the Mag and Calcium levels are good. Would get the big tub.

Was also going to go with Seachem for dosing the chemicals, as its available everywhere in Miami. Just want to confirm that it's Ca++ and Carbonate that I need to dose. No Magnesium, or should I do that too? I figured with the waterchanges, trace is not needed. Nitrates down the road?

One more question, was curious. If I build up a LR scape so that it has some height, tank is 21" deep, doing a 50% waterchange will lower the water level significantly. I know when I do waterchanges that big in Planted tanks, that they plants are fine for a spell while I drain the water. But what about corals and macro-algae? I imagine the Macros may be ok, but the corals might not be. Will ricordea and shrooms be ok, or should I put them below the 50% mark? Or divide the waterchanges into two 25%?

I know weird questions. Thanks.

Clubs are fantastic, you get to talk to other reefers, and learn their tricks, and you get great deals on both corals and equipment, great thing to do.

As for salt, I use tropic marin, it is very good, has good levels of alk, Ca, and Mag, which makes it very good in my book. As for dosing though, if you're doing weekly 50% water changes, then unless you were going to go with a full SPS tank (which I know you're not), then you really shouldn't have to dose anything. And a good golden rule is to never dose anything you don't test for, you shouldn't need it with weekly waterchanges. And also, I don't know if you're doing much with calcifying algae or anything, but with just non calcifying algae and soft corals, calcium doesn't matter at all.

As far as the rics and shrooms go for being out of water, I really don't know. I know SPS and zoos and some LPS are fine for a while, but TBH I'm not sure about shrooms. For the most part anything is OK out of water for a little while so long as it's wet, so if they're only exposed for a minute or two they should be fine.

 

[fishy55599]

i also use tropic marin
they should be fine, as they will still be wet. they will sulk for a few hours after filling back up tho.

 

[bae1994]

With the filling and draining they should be fine all you have to watch for is sponges and urchins and brittle starfish as they suffer if pulled out of water

 

[weezawoo]

I use coral pro and had no issues so far!

It would depend how long they were out I would think, I know I was told when acclimatising them to actually hold them out of the water for 30 secs as this creates a slime coat to help them adjust. Maybe this would cause the same thing.

 

[lljdma06]

Thanks everyone for your responses. It's good to know that the water level risk can be minimized.

Clubs are fantastic, you get to talk to other reefers, and learn their tricks, and you get great deals on both corals and equipment, great thing to do.

As for salt, I use tropic marin, it is very good, has good levels of alk, Ca, and Mag, which makes it very good in my book. As for dosing though, if you're doing weekly 50% water changes, then unless you were going to go with a full SPS tank (which I know you're not), then you really shouldn't have to dose anything. And a good golden rule is to never dose anything you don't test for, you shouldn't need it with weekly waterchanges. And also, I don't know if you're doing much with calcifying algae or anything, but with just non calcifying algae and soft corals, calcium doesn't matter at all.

As far as the rics and shrooms go for being out of water, I really don't know. I know SPS and zoos and some LPS are fine for a while, but TBH I'm not sure about shrooms. For the most part anything is OK out of water for a little while so long as it's wet, so if they're only exposed for a minute or two they should be fine.

I'm defintely going to join a club.

I have to decide whether or not I choose to do 50% waterchanges every week, or 50% every two weeks. If I do 50% every two weeks I have to dose. Yeah, I'll have to dose. Macro algae consume Ca++, Mg, and Carbonate, as if I was keeping SPS. Depending on how densly planted the tank is, I may have dose regardless and even dose Nitrates and Phosphorus!

I went shopping today and got some equipment.

A Net... so glamorous.

Gravel vacumn thingy, I use more for waterchanges more than anything.

Long-stemmed algae scraper with a blade.

In this picture... Two thermometers, measuring cups, and a great find at Kmart, vinyl gloves. See, I'm allergic to Latex, get a bad rash, but you need gloves in this hobby.

In this photo... The Mg test (last test I needed), A two fishes nano magnet (for algae), and a smaller heater to heat the waterchange water.

Finally, an important piece of equipment. An instrument to measure TDS.

I'll be posting a thread in chitchat with some questions on waterchange and RO storage containers.

Thanks for looking.

Liz