The Upgrade Begins.....

[Miss Wiggle]

changed the rockwork around last night, tank now looks like this....

levels all test out good this morning, no sign of ammonia or nitrite yet so touch wood we may avoid a mini cycle, could still happen in the next few days though so I'll keep monitoring it.

next purchase for the tank is a big skimmer, turbofloater 3000 or something like that. waiting for a cheque to clear then Ian's ordering it.

not worked out the exact quantities or LR that we have but I don't actually think we're gonna need much more, maybe 4/5 more medium sized bits to build up a little bit in the middle at the back and we need 1 more bit on the right hand side and then we're done.

got to get a new actinic tube and starter unit but that's not a big expense, then it's just upgrading all our powerheads so we just have 3 hydor koralia 4's in there and we're pretty much done......... until we start buying livestock

went to the lfs yesterday and our mate Duncan who works there's brother works for TMC, apparently there's a 7" wanatabei angel with our name on, at our special duncan discount won't be getting him for a little while though, gotta make sure the tank's running ok first

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks great guys, well done I particularly enjoy the skimmer secured with tape

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Looks great guys, well done I particularly enjoy the skimmer secured with tape

ha ha yeah the clippy bit doesn't fit over the edge of the tank properly so we've had to bodge it temporarily

good news is ammonia and nitrite still 0 so i think we have avoided a mini cycle

 

[BigIan]

And Believe it or not that was the Mrs who bodged that. I`m so Proud...

well the old credit card is getting a bit warm now, Just orderd another 2 hydor koralias. a contacter for the light. a twin t8 starter unit for some actinics, and 2 new pct5 bulbs.

Can anyone recomend a good online place to get frags from in the uk?

 

[BigIan]

Well we piced up 6 brand new frags at the weekend and the DAMN ebli decided he liked them so one of them is now bald and the others have nips from them....

I`m hoping this is just because there isn`t much in the way of algae in the tank

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well it's been bloody ages since we've been able to come on-line and update this. forums changed a bit i see!!!

had no internet access for about a month cos of bloody virgin media being absolutely useless. anyway.

The tanks starting to settle down and look good now. we've been having problems with our Calcium/magnesium and alkalinity but we think we've got it sussed now. The magnesium had dropped and i think that was the main problem. we bought a magnesium supplement and we're gradually raising that up, it's nearly where it wants to be now, it's something like 1400 and it wants to be 1500 (if the top of my head, i may be wrong). The calcium has steadily risen with the magnesium, i still want it higher but we'll wait until the magnesium is stable at 1500 before we fret too much over the calcium. The alkalinity was spot on but appears to have dropped a bit, is this normal when the magnesium is raised


we sadly lost our lovely big acropora to that rapid tissue degeneration thing. One day it was looking better than it had in weeks, next day it's completely bleached and dead. we were absolutely gutted. However our finger leather is slowly recovering from a rock slide in the old tank. It got really mangled and it's taking it's time recovering, but it's definately on the mend now so that's something. Our new little frags.... well they haven't died which is always good! Have to give them some time I think.

We got ourselves a nice group of blue chromis the other week, made a massive difference to the tank having some dithers in there. the other fish were lost in the big tank and we rarely saw them, spent most of the time hiding in the rockwork. Now they're out and about loads and everyone seems happy so we're chuffed.

We very nearly bought a lovely Chevron Tang but just didn't dare, it was teeny tiny and we'd have probably killed it.

aside from the fishy stuff the wiggle household is OK. I'm job hunting again though! Don't like my new job, well I love the work, but hate the way the company is run and I refuse to stay in a job that's making me miserable! We've just started work on our attic conversion, well the architect is engaged and starting our drawings not really got much physical work to do until it's all gone through planning.

Ian's good too, working hard as ever, we had a really lovely holiday to Rhodes a couple of weeks ago that was absolutely awesome. I could have stayed for months.

 

[SkiFletch]

w/b . Make sure you have your numbers/units right on the magnesium . Most reef aquarists try and keep 1250-1350ppm (1280ppm being NSW). Usually the only time I see levels as high as 1500ppm used is for trying to kill green hair algae. 1500ppm is not detrimental to most fish/corals/inverts though, so if you are that high, just stop dosing and allow it to fall on its own through calcification and organic processes.

 

[Underwurlde]

Nice set up! Good to see that hard work & learning = good results!

Andy

 

[Miss Wiggle]

w/b . Make sure you have your numbers/units right on the magnesium . Most reef aquarists try and keep 1250-1350ppm (1280ppm being NSW). Usually the only time I see levels as high as 1500ppm used is for trying to kill green hair algae. 1500ppm is not detrimental to most fish/corals/inverts though, so if you are that high, just stop dosing and allow it to fall on its own through calcification and organic processes.

oh, i'll check the numbers, when we had no t'interweb we couldn't check about the CA, MG etc. had to rely on the lfs for advice. it's a good lfs as they go but you never know what you're getting told!!! lol

what should we be aiming for with CA and alkalinity then?

 

[SkiFletch]

IMO, you should be aiming for:

Cal 400-450ppm
Alk 9-11dKH
Mg 1300-1350

Those are all slightly elevated with respect to natural seawater but it gives you some headroom in case you miss a couple days dosing or let phosphates creep up on you.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

IMO, you should be aiming for:

Cal 400-450ppm
Alk 9-11dKH
Mg 1300-1350

Those are all slightly elevated with respect to natural seawater but it gives you some headroom in case you miss a couple days dosing or let phosphates creep up on you.

OK, well at the last test (which was a couple of days ago) we were at

Cal 360ppm
Alk 7dKH
Mg 1410

Before we started adding the magnesium they were

Cal 300ppm
Alk 9dKH
Mg 1200


What would you recommend we do? I say we monitor the magnesium over the next week or so, don't add anymore unless it drops below 1350ish. Give it a week or so for the levels to stabilise and monitor what the Alk and Cal do. Cos we've been tinkering with the magnesium I think it's worth giving the tank a little while to stabilise and see what the levels do of their own accord. I don't like changing too much too soon! Then if in a few weeks the Calcium and Alkalinity are both too low do I need to add a supplement for both of them? again is it best to try and bring one up then leave it a bit and start work on the other?

 

[SkiFletch]

Were it my tank, I'd leave mg alone for the time being and start dosing calc/alk to try and bring it back up. I wouldn't wait for it to stabilize in this instance cause remember, organisms in your tank are going to use calc/alk, so it's only going to go lower.

 

[chrissaysyes]

update?

 

[sparklefuzz]

Oh miss wiggle! Your tank is gorgeous! I am so glad I haven't got hooked on corals because it is sooo much easier with FOWLR!! Just reading all your posts about the water chemistry makes my brain hurt. I can't beleive I missed this whole thing progressing, I was trying to find an update on your 48g!

It looks fab Well done!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

update is we're gonna sell it.... very very sad but it has to be done.

we will have another marine tank one day but we need to give it a rest for the next year or so cos of our personal circumstances.