Salt Newbie w/Questions

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Yeah, I own two Mag 350s. One of them I pulled the impeller on and use in my FW sump for polishing. The other one I move from tank to tank when I stir up the gravel to polish the water. The only thing I don't like about them is the noise it makes if a little sand gets into them. Like a squeaky hamster wheel.

After delving a little deeper into my SW research I saw a thread about changing the salinity and the effect on beneficial bacteria. It said if you changed it more than .002 a day it could kill off your colony of bacteria.

I changed the salinity from his 1.019 to mine at 1.023, will this kill off my live rock?

The fish are fine. I fed them this morning and they are happy campers. So, the change in salinity after drip acclimation didn't seem to faze them. Hope the LR is OK since I didn't drip acclimate it. Any thoughts?
 
Willz said:
Good idea. The skimmer sticks out of the top on the inflow side, but I can cover the center and return sides. He sent some tempered glass that he was using for a lid, so I can just put them on the top. Is this to reduce evaporation, and salt crust from the bubbles?
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That's part of it but protection from particals in the atmoshere and noise are the main 2 reasons. You might be shocked how much crap is kicked up into the air via heaters, A/C's , fans, pets, kids, and vacuums.The closer an object is to the floor the more it will gather (gravity). The other part is humidity from the sump getting onto the walls, ceiling and floor combine with Sodium, Cal, and Mag - can be quite corrosive.

As for SG (specific gravity) with salinity on LR and it's relation to BB - thats an excellent question I don't know the answer too. If it were me, I'd probably not concern myself with it too much, esp. since the damage is done if that's the case, but also because if the LR has been cycling thru for months or years it has absorbed enuff Sodium, Cal, Mag and other Alk stuff to make it's own SG of 33-35 ppt or around 1.025 Salinity (natural tropical seawater) - this doesn't go away overnite - Hopefully someone has the correct answer.
 
Thanks Otherone :) I went out of town for the weekend and had set the lights on timer for 12 hour days and had massive brown algae growth on the the glass. I will probably turn that down to 8 hours/day.

I need to get a good light for my refugium and some macro algae and pods to throw in there. The SW store in town is closed on Monday and Tuesday, so that will have to wait for this Wednesday.

I bought a SW test kit that does phosphate this weekend so I plan on testing that this evening. The nitrates aren't bad at all though. The skimmer seems to be doing it's job, it pulled a massive amount of sludge while I was away for three days.

Fish are still fine and have healthy appetites. I saw a shell moving around and I guess a hermit crab was holding onto the LR during the move and made it in alive.

I understand I need to take things really slow since it's a newer set up, but I'm wondering if there are any snails, crabs, or shrimp I need to put in there as a clean up crew? I'm not trying to tax the bio load yet, but also I don't want to not have them in there if they would be beneficial. Again, the tank currently has a tomato clown (2.5"), black/white damsel (2.5"), and a blue and yellow tailed damsel (1.5"), and the one hermit crab that I saw the other day (that I know of). Anyone have ideas on a clean up crew for a 75G tank with the above livestock?

Thanks!
 
So far the only cleaning crew I have had any luck with are the hermit crabs. I can't keep snails alive - of course the last 3 I tried, I did not acclimate them - so that was totally my fault :(

The crabs seem to be doing good though.
 
BigCountry said:
So far the only cleaning crew I have had any luck with are the hermit crabs. I can't keep snails alive - of course the last 3 I tried, I did not acclimate them - so that was totally my fault :(

The crabs seem to be doing good though.
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I bought 1 peppermint shrimp, 12 crabs, and 12 snails at my LFS yesterday evening. And taking your advice I made sure to drip acclimate them to the tank's temp and water conditions. Hopefully they will make it. They also gave me some chaeto for my refugium. I put a clip on light over it that I have been running more hours than the tank's light. I cut back the main display so it comes on at 3pm and runs until 10pm. The refugium light is on from 7am - 10pm.

I took the light from another FW tank that I had been using for an algae scrubber. It's a basic screw in lightbulb type light fixture. I need to buy another one to replace the one I moved to the refugium. The question I have is about the light bulb itself. The LFS was out of the 50/50 bulbs that they recommended for the refugium, but said another petstore might stock them.

Does anyone have any idea what these bulbs are called exactly?

The only other petstores in town are Petco (boo) and Petsmart, and I have never had any luck finding anyone that knows what they are talking about at either store. So, I want to know if anyone knows if they even carry the bulb I need or if maybe Lowe's/Home Depot might have a plant bulb that would work?

Thanks!
 
Keep me posted on the chaeto.

Now that I have enough live rock I will be replacing the bioballs in the sump for that and some mangrove.

I will need some advice growing it.
:D
 
BigCountry said:
Keep me posted on the chaeto.

Now that I have enough live rock I will be replacing the bioballs in the sump for that and some mangrove.

I will need some advice growing it.
:D
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I'll keep posting here as things progress :) Going to test tonight for phosphates and nitrates, and will test daily and post up results (as long as I remember to anyway).
 
Otherone said:
50/50 Bulb - half White/half Actinic (Blue) called exactly 50/50 Bulbs.
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Thanks! I'll look for one tonight. I have to go to Lowe's to get another clip on light, so I'll see if they have one, if not Petsmart should (but probably won't).
 
Got the refugium light and bought a 65W plant grow light both from Lowes. They didn't have a 50/50 light, so hopefully what I have works.

I also tested my water this evening, fully expecting the worst, and was pleasantly surprised: 1.023 salinity (which was my target, the fish were used to 1.019 and I've been moving it up gradually), 0.25ppm phosphate (I thought with all my brown algae that this was higher), and my nitrates were undetectable (bright yellow on the API reef test). I'm not worried about calcium and hardness now since I don't have corals, but I have tests for both of those too (someone let me know if I need to be concerned about those numbers with FOWLR).
 
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