oh dear what have i done????

Pmsl here, your a gas man, love it

hi ya lads

well the diatoms seem to receding,I've rowaphos and carbon in the reactor at the mo,i know im wasting loads of rowaphos as it wont be exhausted by the time I change the carbon but just looking at getting those phosphates down,,,,i was using nopox in the old tank but can I use it as well as the rowaphos as well??????

I only feed frozen food 2 or 3 times a week and ive been cleaning that a lot more with ro water before feeding

still haven't moved around any rock, trying to resist the urge till phosphates come down, in case I disturb something, I really believe the phosphates are coming out of the last of the live sand a moved over, that sand had loads of little fan worms in it and I hoped they would transfer but they pretty much all died

on a plus side though the blue cromis that I was very sure was going to die has shrunk to half the size of his tank mates and pretty much lost all his colour has now decided come out and is swimming away with everyone else and feeding at every feed.

howye chris

new tank and food is going to increase phosphates
frozen food 2-3 times a week is a bit to much imop especially if it were not rinsed from the start, but ok your doing it now this will help
how many days a week do you feed in general ?? cause all food is phosphate high,
i would feed only every second day and frozen once a week until it stabilizes, yo dont even need to feed frozen food its more of a treat theirs feckall in it in fairness
blow the rock with a turkey baster every wk. to keep it clean its amazing how much crap builds up on them and this can be a factor

hope my thoughts help

hi ya ...well i'm kind of feeding everyday,two little feeds......

mostly flakes new era marine and agies
marine pellets
and marine grazer

usually it goes something like this

Mon flakes no particular type just random feed
Tues pellets and frozen
Wednesday marine grazer
Thursday flakes again
Friday pellets
Saturday flakes
Sunday marine grazer and frozen

it does get mixed up a bit but that's something like my feeding,i never have to fish out any uneaten food all the fish eat well,the biggest eater though is dory,,he's one hungry fecker and even if i drop food into two different locations in the tank some of the fish still don't get some.the marine grazer is probably one of my favourite feeds for this reason

sounds like i need to reduce this though


phosphates are starting to come down though whether its rowaphos or not still not sure may try po4x4 when the rowapos is gone but currently reading somewhere in between 0.36 and 0.5

I've also try d to set the skimmer to a really wet skim...theory being the more i can skim off the better but so far a couple of times i have ended up with a cup of nothing but water....but all trial and error

i see bohrio has been using rowaphos,po4x4 and nopox and looking at his results kind of temped to do the same but worried id over complicate things for myself..

so I'll reduce feeding this week and maybe next week try po4x4 and hopefully we'll get to start a point where i can start adding some corals soon

also about two weeks ago i found some black substance on one of my live rocks,try'd googleing it and got result back with many people experiencing the same and lots of people thought it was a type of black cyano bacteria,,so i went in with a hose a syphioned it out,it was almost like sponge it seemed to have three layers , a black top layer,yellow in the middle and a white bottom.....ater seeing bohrio's black sponge now im wondering if this actually a good thing to have in the tank?? but mine doesnt look like his sponge and mine has grown back in less than 2 weeks...
does anyone know what this is?????

I would not use the grazers until everything is spot on and even then I'd only use it every 2-3 wks it's way to messy and even if you don't see it their is a lot of waste I actually don't use it at all anymore for this reason
So if this is eliminated and you rinse the frozen in ro after it defrosts you should see a difference
Let us know how yeh get on
You should have got a pic of the black stuff
But it does sound like cyno did it have air bubbles in it? When you'd touch it would it release tiny air bubbles

I've try d to get better pics of the black stuff.it has air bubbles on the surface of it which then float off every now and again



spent a bit of time the other night researching black sponges and got loads of different results back,some people saying that its fine and others saying its totally indestructible,people have try d drying out and bleaching rocks only for the stuff to grow back again,,,,,,,

general thinking on my part is..if it is a sponge its feeding on what ever nutriance is in the tank making the phosphates high,if that is reduced then the sponge should reduce too..am i right with that thinking????

my skimmer is at the mo is skimming an awful lot considering feeding's been reduced,picked up a uv sterilizer last week and haven't plumbed it in yet,its a bit bigger than i thought it would be,its going to take a bit of engineering to get it into the cabinet.

Hey Chris

Sorry it took so long to reply I was away

I am using rowaphos and po4x4 together (just replaced it for the first time after 1 month when I saw my phosphates had started to increase again to 0.004-8. I was in a better position than you when I started using it as I didnt have anything in the tank but live sand so I wasnt too worried about sudden phosphates changes. I started using NOPOX before I added the base rock to make sure the PO levels wouldnt get out of control. But it was all in before I added any fish or coral, you will have to do this more carefully as you want to decrease the PO levels slowly.

I am also using NOPOX but only in very small concentrations as I am not 100% sure I want to use the total recommended dose, I think I am only adding 1-1.5 ml every other day where I should be adding 5-6 ml per day.

The main reason why I use NOPOX is to control my nitrates (not too worried about my phosphates as po4x4 and rowaphos seem to be doing the trick). I want to keep my nitrates between 3 and 6 ppm, tbh I can probably get away without using NOPOX, so I might one day stop using it and see what happens, however, in the same way you introduce NOPOX very slowly in your tank you can't just stop using it all of the sudden, so I will need to do this gradually!

In regards that sponge, well, it looks completely different to mine, my sponge hasn't grow in the last few months and it is thicker as well. I have read about that type of sponge that you have and you are right, some people say they are good, others say that they can't get rid of it no matter what they do, and that it wont stop growing.

When I moved tanks I thought carefully about what I would do with the sponge, the only reason why I kept it was because it didnt seem to be growing at all.

tank is looking a lot better these days diatoms are completely gone but just tested the water

phosphates still around 0.5
and
nitrates have dropped to 2

going to be changing the rowaphos later on so hopefully I may see a reduction in phosphates within the next week or two.

called into seahorse the other night and was advised that the really wet skim was probly a bad idea as I may end up skimming out trace elements that I actually want in the tank,(good theory.....but bad idea) so I've reset the skimmer to a normal skim ,I was also advised to carrying on using the rowaphos and not use the po4x4,to avoid shocking the system,its amazing that the product that will take out the most phosphate should only be used when ya have low phosphate levels.

and that sponge is still getting bigger but general theory from seahorse is that it only grew as a result from the amount of food I've been putting into tank ultimately feeding it,,,,,,I'm keeping an eye on it cause I really don't want a tank full of black stuff ,,,,,, but at the mo. its probly doing a good job

hey chris

Good to hear that. As you know phosphates were one of my main concerns when I built the new tank, I wanted to keep the levels under control so I added rowaphos and po4x4 from the beginning to precisely avoid shocking the system. Like the guys in Seahorse have said, PO4X4 is very very powerfull, much more powerful or effective than GFO. Ideally you should use it in some sort of fluidise reactor but it can also be used as you would use rowaphos. So because I used it from the beginning before I had any livestock in it I wasnt afraid of shocking the system.

One thing that is advisable, regardless you use PO4x4 or not is to place the filter bag containing the phosphate reducer media between two pieces of floss.

The main fear seahorse has is that if you overdose PO4x4 (which is very easy to do) your phosphates levels could quickly drop and this could kill your livestock, (for example, going from 0.5 ppm to 0 in less than an hour). Whether if your phosphates were already low going from 0.004 to 0 in 1 hour would really affect your tank....

You are doing a good job, I suppose the best thing is to be patient until your levels are as close to 0.004 as possible and then you can try using PO4x4 without worrying about overdosing!

Also, your nitrates are very low so I am wondering, what are you using to test for phosphates???? I find it a bit odd that your phosphates are 0.5 but your nitrates are only 2.

Story Chris how's things bud how's the tank doing now are yeh still resisting the urge to fatten up the fish (hope so) sorry about late reply the site is wrecking me head being so slow I know a few members who just don't bother anymore but I'm holding in their :-?

its hard to resist the urge.........i do worry the fish aren't getting enough food but my biggest worry was dory,being the biggest fish in the tank,i suppose he'd need the most food but he happily picks away at algae on live rock,snails and just about anywhere he can find it,so he's probly doing me a huge favour

only feed frozen once in the last 2 weeks and feed seaweed on a clip instead of the marine grazer

just tested my water and phosphates are down to 0.16 and nitrates still around 2

using d and d tests kits to test for phosphates and nitrates,using red sea to test for ammonia and salifert to test for nitrite,after a quick talk to keelan I'll be getting rid of carbon out of the reactor and putting a bag back in the sump and using just rowaphos in the reactor

I'm glad with a few simple steps i can actually see phosphates coming down now but a few have not liked my efforts,all the cromis have gone into hiding now and from what i can see I've lost one and surprisingly its not the smallest one which had the most trouble transferring to the new tank,its actually one of the bigger ones,,wherever he's gone the crabs must of gobbled him up quick,,went in with a torch and he's nowhere to be found,,

but whilst looking bigger problems..that black sponge is on three different rocks from three different sources,,the biggest piece is on a rock from seahorse,but a smaller piece is on a rock from petmania and a tiny piece is on another rock from maidenhead.and those rocks aren't next to each other so it is spreading

hopefully with the decline of phosphates now,we'll see a decline in black sponge but time will tell,

Its been a hetic week the dog went missing last thursday and after a few days searching a put up a few posts on facebook and few hunderd people sharing posts.anyway pippin is safely home now a bit stinky but home......but back to the tank,not much has happened really tonight was water change everything as usal but 2 hours later the poor little green cromis has finally met his end as i watched my 2 boxer shrimps basicly go in for the kill.....the poor little fella never really transfered well and i was hoping he'd live to a ripe old age and not meet such a sutten death....phosphates at 0.008 but i did make the mistake of testing after id done the water change..

Sorry to hear about your chromi.. sometimes there is nothing you can do, some fish are just to delicate and no matter what you do they just wont make it.

Phosphates are looking good. I wouldnt worry about taking the sample after you did the water change (unless it was like 2 seconds after). 0.008 is almost perfect!

How is the tank looking, I haven't seen a picture in a while

I will get some pics up soon ,,really need to get moving on moving the rock around, not really anything changed really, the black sponge is dying though or at least shrinking,

ok came home today to find dory has white spot,,,,he runs and hides as soon as get the camera out,but hes in bad shape,,but everyone lse looks fine....cant really do much tonight but suppose its off to seahorse tomorrow,,,,,,going to plumb in that uv.should of done it ages ago

......off on holiday on Wednesday so this is the last thing I needed

Oh man, sorry to hear that. I keep looking at mine and keep asking to myself, is that a white spot? ah no.. ufff, and the next day the same thing...

who is minding your tank?

You are gonna need to put Dori in a quarantine tank and treat it for ich, I wonder if Seahorse look after sick fish

not sure now if it is white spot,,little git though has made himself sick,,,,

im planning on setting up the refugium so I thought whist I was away I could put some calupia in the tank.it would help keep phosphates down and alo give dory and the clowns something to nibble on,,i was talked out of this by seahorse saying it would go sexual and destroy the tank so I got some cheato instead........I can actually see dory is passing this but he cant digest it....with reduced feeding to get phosphates down he must be hungry and decided to eat this but is unable to digest it and its made him sick

hes rubbing himself off evey rock in the tank but constanly going into the cave with the fire shrimp,whos hopefully cleaning him a bit

the uv s now on the tank,dont expect it to do too much but it should of been plumbed in before now anyway

going to pull the cheato out and hope for the best,,,,i couls set up a quarantine tank but I think this may add to stress and the friend who'll be feeding doesn't keep any fish so they'll just be feeding every second day,,too many instructions and I think i'll just be asking for trouble.....

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0.75
phosphate 0.008

going to stick up some pics but not sure how clearly you'll see the mark on her,,,

Dont know if you can see dory in the cave but the fire shrimp is really going to town on her

Heya

Yeah I can see something, but I think that the most evident sings of ich/white spots are normally the fish rubbing against rocks.

When you install the UV make sure you dont have too much flow through it, are you going to connect it to the return section? if that's the case you might need to slow down the flow. I would buy a small pump (something like a variable flow pump such an eheim 1000 or 600) and put it in the same section as the skimmer, and send the filtered water to the return pump section (return to the DP) but that's just my opinion.

Hi ya...just tapped off the return pump for now using a valve to lessen the flow but a bit concerned that ive now the reactor and uv so i must be loising a great deal of flow back to the tank and after all that got some oodinex from seahorse and i've had to turn off the uv and remove the carbon..its a 3 day treatment so should be finished dosing before i go away..

this stuff really does cloud the water so i've only added a half dose and will dose again later on..but im just wondering will the skimmer not skim out the medication??should i not turn off the skimmer aswell ???? Or is it best to leave tje skimmer on???

hey there

I have never medicated my DP, but from reading on their website it does recommend switching off UV, skimmers, and to remove carbon

file:///C:/Users/Root/Downloads/extended-product-information-esha-oodinex.pdf

How much are you dosing?

You can use their dosage calculator to get an idea of the amount needed

www.eshalabs.eu/europe/products/esha-oodinex/calculator.html

just dosed another 50 drops not really sure if I should take the sump into consideration. But tank did clear up after a few hours and back to a kind of cloudy Halloween effect as this stuff is green in colour,,

everyone seems to be taking the medication well and have unplugged the skimmer, wondering if to leave if unplugged till I come back or to leave it in a position to be plugged back in a few days???tank currently has a v2 1000 skimmer on it and this skimmer does pull out its fair share of stuff but I'll be picking up the new skimmer tomorrow and always planned on connecting it after I returned ,,,, there are some people who don't have skimmers on there there systems at all so im thinking to leave it off?????

Back from holiday and i had all sorts of visions to what id be comming home to....well everythings good and dorys on the mend but someone didnt put the skimmer cup back on and the tank does wiff a bit but goong to change the socks.put some carbon back in and a small water change ......but all looking good

Great to hear man. Glad she is doing better!

ok story of my life the rock needs to be moved around but thanks to jenny I now have probably another 15 kgs in the tank,it had a few small spots of green hair algae on it so wanted to get the rock in the tank and get water flowing through it,and after only a few days dorys and snails picking at it the algae is almost gone,,i could of cured the rock but I also got a toadstool which was looking like he wasn't going to make it but has opened up really well and a Duncan but also found a surprise few frags in the rock,there tiny and I know most people look for big open corals but seeing as I didn't pay these I find them fascinating.

I also picked the new skimmer,,well new to me,thanks to tim got to give a good clean though and its currently in the bath tub with some vinager but ned to check out bohrios method of how he cleaned out the overflow,and hopefully in the next few hours it will be sparkly clean.the new skimmer is a deltec tc2060 so its a bit of an upgrade from the v2 1000..

and the esb were suppost to be turning off the power for 4 hours this morning but was only off for an hour in the end,,so have some water ready and will be doing awater change later on...some moths ago I bought a d and d algea magnet cleaner thingy and the blade has warped some how so need to check seahorse to see if the blades can be bought on there own but until then its back to having my whole arm back in the tank.

i'll put some pics in a min but im in for a busy day,,,,,so much for a day off

Heres a few pics

Oh and the toadstool orginally was put on a rock but kept falling off and one morning as i was just heading out to work i found him lyingface down in the corner of the tank.....i came to the conclusion id have to glue him down but didnt have time..so i dug him in to sand planning to deal him later on that day..


But i came home to find him fully opened and looking quite happy....he must be happy where he is but just wondering if this is a good place to leave him???

Missed one pic

Oh and the 2 starfish i got off jeff are doing a great job of keeping the sand spotless

and

that black sponge is almost completly gone

Well have a few more addisions.popped into seahorse last night.only went in for some water and walked out with half the shop as usual...and boy did those ram raiders do a number on the doors......only one coment on that .FUCKING SCUMBAGS

Any way got two feather dusters.and a load ofsnails


The rest of the rest of the newbies all came from jenny














Jeffs sand sifter must be happy cause he's hanging around on the glass alot more lately

and i was a bit worried abiut the duncan but after talking to darren seems he might actually be ok