GraffitiSpotCorals

Also that stinks the light isn’t getting correct spread. Hopefully everything does well with it turned up. The nicest led tanks I have seen using fixtures like that have always been at 100% and hung high to get good spread. How high is the fixture hung now?

I like it with more acros for sure!

And I remember telling you not to go with those darn pumps when I dropped the tank off , did you replace them with mp10 or mp40? Let me know if you want any acros.

I Always add in odd numbers although I did have two pairs in the same tank with luck. Two males and two females and got lucky they didn’t fight. I always like to add 5 if possible.

Sorry no one has responded yet. If it’s just a few sticking at the top your ok but you don’t want the pump to always be pulling in bubbles from the rocks, that’s a sign there is too much co2 going in. I used to just shake the reactor or tilt it to remove the bubbles from the top sometimes but it isn’t necessary really. Are the bubbles getting worse?

Exactly. Can’t trust just one device. I use a refractometer as a backup but calibrate it every use. Can’t use the cheap ones and gotta use 35 ppt. Now I use a Hanna digital which is good with ro water to calibrate. It’s the best thing I have bought and haven’t had to second guess it for a while. I even have a glass float as a third device to check with. All of the crashes I have seen where long time hobbiests have been stumped were from salanity issues from cheap, wrongly calibrated or broken refractometers. It’s sad but it happens to the best of us.

Has anyone used this who has very low nitrates? Does it read consistent at low levels like .1 or .2?

I have two 400w halides in my townhouse first floor with just one fan blowing across the water. The room doesn’t heat up much at all. Sounds like you need to get an ati fixture

I have had issues with every led I have tried. I am done too. I have one over our nano that I just unplug and plug back in everyday and when it’s stops working I dunno what I will do.

Yea I am colorblind with certain close colors so I have trouble with some tests too. Salifert updated the colors on them last year or so and it’s easier for me to read now.

salifert reads down to .2 nitrate levels if you look at it from the side

I have always wanted to try the zeo method but seems expensive and unnecessary unless you want that pastel look. Which I do love but I can achieve that using vodka and vinegar and some additives. Also I never found a need to add extra bacteria, I don’t really believe there is a need to introduce bacteria besides maybe some new live rock every few years which itself isn’t necessary in itself just something I have found helps. I do like their sponge power and have been waiting to get nutrients low to try to use pohls extra on a daily basis and see how things react. I have found the best way to get nice colors on acros is to use zinc and manganese, past that I haven’t found anything that really changes corals color much besides copper sulphate which I hear is the only way to get the true pastel look with zeo.

Is anyone else in the area using a carbon source to keep nutrients in check? If so I would love to hear what your using.

Love the tank and all the big colonies! I hope those acros do well for you, it would surely make the tank look great to have some branching acros in there!

This chart is good to follow for people with newer tanks or lower nutrients or that haven’t carbon dosed before. If you have an older tank and lots of nutrients then you can probably start quicker than the chart says since it takes a long time to get to a dose that works well with lots of fish. As long as your watching your corals and testing going a little faster shouldn’t hurt with the above in mind. I started going faster once the tank adjusted to the carbon. Which you will notice when the skim stinks and becomes foamy. If you have lots of fish I would suggest doing a half vodka half vinegar solution. Vinegar is 8 times weaker than vodka.