The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

Originally Posted by fissure

IMO, yes. Let it fully cycle and you'll have less issues in the long run. Ammonia and nitrites should be 0. Also, if you are going to be keeping corals move the salinity to 1.025 I tried corals with the salinity in the low 20's and in the mid 20's. They seem much happier (growth and color) with the higher salinity. Also use a refractometer, or if you are using a swing arm or floating hydrometer get it calibrated from someone that has a refractometer.

Got it. Just ordered a refractometer today along with a bunch o other stuff from Dr. Foster smith today. The Guy at the LFS calibrated my swing arm hydrometer with his refractometer.

Its hard to look at this empty tank and not want to fill it up. but I figure the more patient I am and take the time to do it right, the better results ill end up with but man its hard...

Thanks for being patient with me and all my questions. Im pretty sure im buggin everybody, but hey more knowledge is a good thing!

michigan Reefers has been a treasure trove of info too.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by fissure

IMO, yes. Let it fully cycle and you'll have less issues in the long run. Ammonia and nitrites should be 0. Also, if you are going to be keeping corals move the salinity to 1.025 I tried corals with the salinity in the low 20's and in the mid 20's. They seem much happier (growth and color) with the higher salinity. Also use a refractometer, or if you are using a swing arm or floating hydrometer get it calibrated from someone that has a refractometer.

Hey Steve, when do we get some pics?
I should say thanks for costing me money. Now I have to get a refractometer and I don't even know what one is.
On my way to ebay right now...

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by fissure

IMO, yes. Let it fully cycle and you'll have less issues in the long run. Ammonia and nitrites should be 0. Also, if you are going to be keeping corals move the salinity to 1.025 I tried corals with the salinity in the low 20's and in the mid 20's. They seem much happier (growth and color) with the higher salinity. Also use a refractometer, or if you are using a swing arm or floating hydrometer get it calibrated from someone that has a refractometer.

I agree the corals will do much better with the higher salinity.

Flipside on high salinity is the impact to the fish.
Not many know that fish, although they live in salt water, have their system designed to filter out the salt water via their organs and their slime coat, in essence processing final water as non salt water or very limited salt water.
The higher the salinity, the tougher it is for them to combat parasites and diseases.
Also, parasites thrive on higher salinity so pests lik ick, flukes and other nasty ones will be tough to combat (folks - always use a hospital tank and quarantine and you minimize concerns).

I actually experimented on low salinity and while the corals didn't do well, the fish only system that was maintained at 1.12 for 12 months did quite well. In fact, they lived quite care free as they seemed less "stressed" for a better word. I now keep my fish only system pictured in this thread at 1.016-1.019 on average (when I remember to take a reading). Wouldn't do that for a reef system though.

[shilala]

I've been running my diatom filter in my tank for the last couple days. The water is crystal. Some day I'll spend the 1000 bucks to keep it that way all the time.

[Wolfgang]

The black clowns are very cool. I will be adding a pair to my 90 after I get that Maroon out. Hes one mean MFER! Other than that If they are in fact breading you would have to ahve a major breeding rig to successfully raise them.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

The black clowns are very cool. I will be adding a pair to my 90 after I get that Maroon out. Hes one mean MFER! Other than that If they are in fact breading you would have to ahve a major breeding rig to successfully raise them.

I think they are cool also but he is the terrorist in my tank whenever I put my hands in there.


[/quote]

[Wolfgang]

Here is a growth shot of my maroon clown over 5 months.

5 months ago



NOW

A few months ago I had a power failure which caused a crash due to high nitrates. I lost my shrimp and two fish. I did an emergency water change but the salinity ended up much lower because the indicator in my floating hygrometer had slipped, causing bad readings. The remaining fish recovered quickly. The coral got stressed but are doing all right now. I keep the tank at 1.023. You can check your hygrometer quickly using pure water = 1.000.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

A few months ago I had a power failure which caused a crash due to high nitrates. I lost my shrimp and two fish. I did an emergency water change but the salinity ended up much lower because the indicator in my floating hygrometer had slipped, causing bad readings. The remaining fish recovered quickly. The coral got stressed but are doing all right now. I keep the tank at 1.023. You can check your hygrometer quickly using pure water = 1.000.

Short term power failures generally can be survived well via air stones.
Use many of them, not just one.
Oxygen, or better yet the lack thereof, is the biggest killer, not the chemistry.
In Florida, that is a regular occurrence for us.
I now have a generator that is dedicated to my tank and my tank only.

Something I learned that worked well prior to having the generator is the "manual" filtration method. You basically manually circulate water from the tank, via the filtration system. I would pull water from the wet dry sump and dump back it in the tank, causing water from the tank to flow back down to the wet dry, where the bacteria was, mainly to keep that bacteria from crashing. When power was restored, the tank would clear up within hours.

The power went out in the middle of the night. It could have been the O2 levels but only the shrimp and two small fish died and the big tang was stunned but recovered quickly. The clowns and damsels were unaffected. I have a whole house generator but it needs to be manually switched over and started. Our power can be out for days here, too. I have bought an automatic backup generator but a major rewiring has to be done to hook it up. $$$

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

The power went out in the middle of the night. It could have been the O2 levels but only the shrimp and two small fish died and the big tang was stunned but recovered quickly. The clowns and damsels were unaffected. I have a whole house generator but it needs to be manually switched over and started. Our power can be out for days here, too. I have bought an automatic backup generator but a major rewiring has to be done to hook it up. $$$

You can do it all for $10 each.
Buy yourself the battery operated air pumps that have a plug into the AC. You turn them on and as long as they sense power, they don't work. The second the power goes out, they turn on.
I keep them in my tank at all times.

Here is the info:
Penn-Plax
Silent-Air
B11

Originally Posted by Blueface

You can do it all for $10 each.
Buy yourself the battery operated air pumps that have a plug into the AC. You turn them on and as long as they sense power, they don't work. The second the power goes out, they turn on.
I keep them in my tank at all times.

Here is the info:
Penn-Plax
Silent-Air
B11

Good info, thanks. I've never heard of these. Either way, O2 or nitrates, these will help.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

Good info, thanks. I've never heard of these. Either way, O2 or nitrates, these will help.

The nitrates will go up as waste produces and no method to eliminate it (no power to run filtration) but in a reef, with live sand and rock, that should really help dramatically in buying you time as it is a self sustained system for the most part. Oxygen would be the biggest concern and something rapidly depleted, which causes death, which in turn then raises your amonia, then nitrites and nitrates. I have experimented and found that high nitrates won't affect your fish. They can tolerate that. However, will impact the corals. Amonia and Nitrites? Different all together and definitely will impact everything in the system, including the fish.

In the future, I genuinely would recommend you do constant water changes in between it that persists as a problem to reduce build up until the power returns.

In addition to the B-11 pumps, you can also put a siren/alarm that chimes when power goes out to wake you up.

[Wolfgang]

I used to have one too. Unfortunately When my small tank crashed I lost my mated pair. It was a black occy and a normal occy. RIP little guys.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

I used to have one too. Unfortunately When my small tank crashed I lost my mated pair. It was a black occy and a normal occy. RIP little guys.

Wow!
Your pair looks just like mine.
My other one is a standard clown.

Here she is.

[Wolfgang]

Just returned from Tampa with a new critter.

First person to guess it gets a 5er.

[MedicCook]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

Just returned from Tampa with a new critter.

First person to guess it gets a 5er.

Shark.

[MTB996]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

Just returned from Tampa with a new critter.

First person to guess it gets a 5er.

lobster?

Cleaner shrimp?

[MedicCook]

I did a little browsing in this thread you you guys have some amazing tanks and fish. One of my dreams was to have a salt-water wall tank seperating two rooms.