Mopar32985

I just made a trip out to Daves house today to get some frags. Very nice guy also tank is beautiful. Even the room behind the tank is done very nicely. By the way thanks again Dave for the great deals. -Chance-

To start off with I'm not here to start a flame war just want to let ppl know my experience with Mr. Coral. Well for my birthday my wife drove me down to Mr. Coral to get a few new frags for my tank. Before we went down to his store I went on the website to look at the $10 section. Looked to be alot of really nice frags for the price with great color. Once we got inside and I started to look for the same ones I saw on the site. They didn't look like the same coral at all colors didn't look great. To get to the point out of the 7 I got I only have 2 sps that made it. After the first night I had 2 start to RTN. The thing that really bothers me about this is it's a chop shop for corals. They get wild colonies chop them up and sell right away just setting ppl up for a disaster. This is very bad for our hobby this is not just turning away new ppl from killing corals it's making our hobby look very irresponsible. I feel anytime a coral is fragged first it must be a decent size to give it a fighting chance to bounce back. But also they should hold on to them for a while a monitor them to make sure they are healthy. For instance my LFS makes sure there corals are in good shape before thy sell them. To bring it to a close I posted this because I wish I had the info I do now before I made my purchase. - Chance-

Tested it about 9 hours after adding the ph+. Thanks for that info I was a little shocked with the drop myself. I must had dome the test wrong the 2 days before the last. I think this because I tested the alk twice to make sure. -Chance-

Thanks man yea I tested as soon as I pulled it out of the tank but thanks for the tip

To start off welcome to the site alot of great ppl hear to help. Also congrats on the new tank saltwater reef tanks are alot of fun and can be very rewarding. Main suggestions I can give is be very patient with everything. Don't add to many fish or inverts at one time, and try to research corals and fish before buying them. Make sure you have sufficient flow in your tank, and make sure your bulbs are not old. Haha the list goes on and on but these are a few thing that are important. O two more try to keep up on water changes and check your parameters to keep nitrates down and calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity at the proper levels. Any other questions feel free to ask. -Chance-

I'm running salifert test kit for alk and API for ph. During my lunch break I added the ph+ to my tank and got some good results my ph jumped up to 8.0 and alk dropped to 9.0 Wich makes me happy want to keep it the 8 range. Also my co worker is bringing in his salifert test kit for ph so I can try his. -Chance-

Thanks you very much for your explanation. Makes more sense to me now.

Thank you guys for your response I appreciate it. I just now picked up ph+ from brigtwell it says it will raise ph without effecting alk. If this doesn't work I will try to run air line outside to lead into skimmer thanks again. -Chance-

Here is my question for you guys. In my system right now my ph is stable a 7.9 and my alk is at 10.2. I would like to raise my ph up but not my alk. I'm running bio pellets and I hers its best to keep alk around 8 so would by want to raise it any higher. Any suggestions would be a great help. -Chance-

My very favorite by far is local to me and that is Aquarium One. The guys are very knowledgeable and honest. They have gotten rid of alot of there tanks and set up a huge section of tubs for the corals. They are also adding a few more tubs in the back. They have never steered me wrong and are always willing to help. I just really cant say enough about them great group of guys. If you have never been there i highly recommended going. Its a smaller store but they layout is very nice and have alot to chose from. -Chance-

How far are you from Gaithersburg md

I have the same skimmer what I do is keep it in 6 to 8 inches of water. Then I cut a strip of filter floss and inserted it into the air intake. It slowed down the bubbles and made much smaller bubbles. Now I get excellent dry skimmate I really hopes this helps.

I wanted to also thank you for taking the time to come out and speak to us. Your talk really opened my eyes to the breeding or marine fish. I used to do alot of freshwater breeding. I might have to take you up on your offer soon. Thanks again for making my first WAMAS meet great.

Here is another video with some new frags i picked up at the WAMAS Winter meet. This was my first time at a meet and i really enjoyed myself. Next time i will know to bring more money haha. It was very nice to meet some of you there today.

Got some new videos posted up on you tube hope you like them. Update 2 Update 3

Thanks man I really appreciate it.

Hey sry guys i havent posted in a while been a little crazy with work. I am now ready for fish going to put one or two in tomorrow. I did take some of your guys suggestions a ran with them. The only thing i havent done yet is to skin my stand. Wich i dont think i will do this is in my rc hobby room so its more for me and not others. Well here is a short video i made, and i would love to hear what you guys think. Thanks

I'm not a pro but from what I understand is that the low flow will keep your pods in the refug. Which will help them produce, and help your macro alge to absorb nutrients out of your tank. If I'm wrong hopefully someone else will jump in. Thanks for the comment. -Chance-

Hey thanks man I'm really pumped about it.

Thank you very much for your input and suggestions. I def want to do a refug but I'm thinking of setting up a totally separate tank and tying it into this system so I can keep a very low flow through the refug. Also I do like your idea about the magnets I will have to look into that. -Chance-

Well i got a little further tonight finally got water sand and rock in the tank. I wanted to wait till it cleared up to post pics but i promised tonight. Let me know what you think about the aquascape and if you have any suggestions. One thing i was thinking is to remove the one rock to the far right. I dunno I know the stand isnt nice yet not done with it im thinking about making like a sleeve that will cover the three sides and i can just slide it off and on so there will be no doors. Let me know what you all think. -Chance-

Haha that's the truth. On live stock not really sure yet. I know I def want to keep mostly LPS, but as livestock go I'm not 100% sure yet would love to hear some ideas though.

Thanks guys for the responses haha yea luckily we have this old tub in the basement and we dont use it at all so the wife was ok with it. As for flow right now im just going to use the return pump and adventually will get a koralli. Well today i got alot dont i got the stand built enough to get the tank up on it and start getting it ready. Also i was very worried about drilling the tank but it was alot easier than i thought and it turned out great. I will get some pics of what i got done soon, hopefully tonight. -Chane-

Well to start off with i hope everyone here has had a nice holiday. I know i did. I figured it was time to post up my tank build. I made out good for the holidays i got just about everything i need to start my build. If any of you guys have any comments or suggestions along the way i would love to hear them.. I guess to start off with i will post up the pics of my equipment i have so far. 38 gallon tank 20 long sump Current extreme pro t5 6x39 watt Glass Holes 700gph overflow kit Glass Holes 3/4 return kit Eheim 1260 for return pump Super Reef Octopus RO-PS-1000Int Finnex ***-200 titanium Digital Control Heater Bulk Reef Supply 150gpd RO/DI 5 stage unit Bulk Reef Supply Dual Reactor with carbon and GFO Refractometer The Piranha Float by algae free Last about 100 lbs of dead rock i got for $100 not going to use it all but was such a good price i had to buy it Going out to marrow to buy some wood to build my stand and to get some sand for the tank. Will post updates when i get some stuff done. Thanks -Chance-

Well today I got a great deal on some rock I got 100 lbs of dry rock for $100 and a half bucket of salt. Mow I just half to wait for Xmas to get the rest so I can start the build. Also o need to get or build a stand for my tank. If any of you could build me one for some cash or keep an eye out for me on a used stand that would be great.