Will

Thanks Dave... I REALLY wish I could have gone today but I'm at work until 11pm tonight. I wish it would have been next weekend. Hopefully next time. I will do another 50% water change this wednesday or Thursday and see what happens. I'm really confused about the snails though. Everything but the Nitrate levels are in order. I'm not really sure why they are doing so bad. The Hermit Crab is doing great. As far as the tests, I am using Red Sea Pro and API. I thought my Red Sea only went to 4 BUT I am going to have to see if there are colors on the bottom side of the disc that go higher. I'm at work right now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a 125gal tank and a 45 gal Sump. With rock, it holds about 100gallons of H2O. I can't seem to get my NitrAtes down from 40-80. I know they would and should rise, BUT to this level?? Ammonia and NitrItes are 0. Phosphates 0.04. The tank cycled by Aug. 12th. I used soap-free Ammonia and bottled bacteria to do this. I have been doing my own water tests. My Nitrate test only went to 4 so I thought this as high as test go. I did a 50% water change on the 14th without any noticeable change. On the 16th I took a sample to the LFS for them to test and get some fish. I plan on waiting a month before adding Corals. They told me the water was fine. I told him about my readings and he basically said don't worry about it. I asked about AND bought an Alkalinity test kit that goes up to 80. When I got home (with my 4 clowns, Macro Algae, and snails) I tested again and my Nitrates were >80! I got the 10 snails since he said that was fine to do. So far I don't "Think" I have any algae. I have a small film on the back wall and wave makers but feel it is more CaCO3. I was also told that there was no food to buy to feed the snails and they would find plenty in the tank. I went ahead and acclimated the fish and put them in. They seem to be doing fine.. eating and swimming all around. Yesterday I got my water delivery and did an 85% water change on the 24th. My Nitrates are still 40 plus. Next week I will do another 50% change. I read that bottled water can have nitrates so I tested mine it was between 0 and 5 on the two test kits. I am going to check this again for my own piece-of-mind. I also tried adding a solution that was supposed to decrease the nitrates but it did nothing. Why are my nitrates so high and how can I get them down?? Also the snails are acting weird. A few of them climbed the walls but most just stayed on the rock or sand where the landed when I put them in. They have their bodies out and some picked up some pieces of sand. I checked most of them that have their bodies out and they are alive. They retract when I come close or touch them. One did die, maybe two. I am waiting to see if it pokes it head out while I am watching. The one that died developed this big white coating bubble that covered the opening. What is that?? The last 2 things that happened were... My Alkalinity was 11 after the water change but the pH was only 7.6. I want to get it to 8.2 in preparation for corals. First I tried to add some baking soda to see if that would increase the pH but seemed to have the opposite affect and would also increase the Alkalinity. Then I added soda ash to increase the pH but I know the Alk will go even higher. How do I increase the pH without increasing the Alkalinity? Along with that, about 20-30 min after adding the soda ash my tank got cloudy. (ok, thats fine.. I read that would happen) BUT this time in about an hour, it caused this white film on the inside of my glass. I thought it "etched" my glass. That is what it looked and felt like. But it didn't. It is hard to get off but it is coming off slowly. What was that about??? Too much added at one time? Too high Alkalinity which will decrease Calcium's solubility? Not enough magnesium to stop Calcium Carbonate from precipitating??? and after all was said and down my pH DROPPED! Ugh! The alk and pH were fine using 2-part prior to the water change. Any ideas to make cleaning the inside of the glass easier? Can I use Vinegar on a rag without harming the water (besides possibly dropping the pH) or the fish? Thanks Will

Welcome! I'm new too and these guys have been a great help!

Yep

I was thinking about new fish/ corals/ anemones when I get them before adding them to the main display tank. I would gather from what you said about 2 weeks.

Anyone in the Silver Spring area... If you are looking for pure Ammonia to cycle a tank I just got 32oz at Strosniders hardware store. They are located in Bethesda, Potomic, and Silver Spring.

Thanks... I will look at them.

Well.. basically everything is up and running (about a week) now. I can't wait to figure out how to post photos! It's been a very arduous process having to redo just about everything along the way. UGH! I also picked up a 40g Cube that I will keep pretty bare and use mainly as a QT tank. However..... it had a hang on Overflow and I DRILLED and successfully installed a bulkhead for the drain. The return is still external and hangs on the back. I didn't have a kit for that. Anyway, can't wait to show picks! I also have an Excel sheet with my parameters to post to see if I am on tract.

I am trying to post pictures but can't seem to add photos to an album. I am trying to figure out how people pull my questions out of my posts and post them in their responses. This is really nice because I tend to ask multiple questions at one time and get a response to each listed question. ... among other things I'd like to understand... so many buttons...

Im sorry.. .but I am not getting it. I (somehow) created two albums but I can't seem to add pictures to either of them. I've tried clicking "new image" and "bulk upload". The bulk upload seemed to let me pick the pictures on my computer but the album still says no images.

I am trying to figure out how you separated out and responded to my questions like you did?? I am also trying to figure out how to go back and find my post and those that I am following to refer back to for references without having to scroll through all of the forum post?? But my question to your response as too... if the nitrates aren't too high (<20ppm), add your clean up crew.... My Red Sea Pro kit only goes up to 4ppm Nitrates. Did you mean 2ppm or am I confused? Thanks

Sorry.. I would but I'll be in San Fran and had to find someone to house sit myself. Hope you find someone.

(sorry not sure if this double posted). I get the Vokda joke but Pickles?? What does that do? I haven't come across that in my readings.

Very exciting! Best of luck!

Ok.. Aquascape is done... Water is in the tank and everything is running fine for the past 12 hours. Still really cloudy so I'll take pictures when it clears up. The only issue is one of my MP 40 wave makers is not staying aligned to the magnet head inside the tank eventhough it is set for the correct glass thickness. I even tried setting it for the next highest thickness. I will play with it when I get home tonight and call BRS on Monday if the problem continues. That is way too expensive not to work perfectly! I decided to add bacteria and go to Giant and get some dead shrimp to add to the tank on Saturday. This should give the sand time to settle and the salt time to mix. Then I can start doing water measurements. I figure the sand will falsely increase the salinity.

I have FINALLY begun to fill my tank... How do you properly fill it without over filling it? When I filled the tank for the test and then stopped the return pump to empty the tank it seemed liked the refugium was going to overflow. I am not 100% sure it would have because I didn't give it a chance. I restarted the pump and then started to drain the water and there was still plenty of water for the tank to run fine. I am not sure how to not over fill the tank. Suggestions?? Also, I have to go out of town for a meeting Aug 2-12. Should I wait to add Bacteria from the bottle until I return or will it be ok to leave cycling unattended for that time? and No, I don't have anyone around that can watch the tank, incase you were going to ask. Thanks .. Will

Great tank! Best of luck with it! Will

You have to be careful because all of the PVC gets soft. So I just heated it up enough to get a screwdriver easily down the side. I went on a plumbers forum and everyone said to heat it with a long lighter. I tried that but I didnt like that it was turned the plastic black and mine kept going out. So I figured heat is heat and it doesn't take much heat.

Thats what I chose to do... after some playing with the glued tubes(boiling them) I was able to get them apart. Thanks

No, I don't have a picture. I'm at work and not sure I would be able to capture the "leak" since it is coming from one of two slip connections. At least I THINK the leak is coming from there. Kind of hard to tell exactly. Its a small drip but nonetheless a drip that needs to stop before I continue. I glued all slip connections (obviously not very well!) LOL.. and put tape on the bulkhead threads, but I may undo that if I can and put the sealing compound like you said... i am not trying to reinvent the wheel... ***Is it safe to coat all the connections in silicone clear caulk and it will be ok. or should I look at replacing everything??*** Water on the second floor makes me very nervous. I dont want any problems once this is filled. Yes, This is the DragonFlow System that I have. I still don't know what stops the entire (well most of) the tank from draining into my sump should the return pump fail (ie power failure). I installed two emergency shut off valves but chances are I will not be around when a problem arises. I think I should seal this up. What do you think? I think it may be a bad design flaw and I just didnt know what I was looking at at the time of purchase. This is the DragonFlow that I have... Picture is from their website 4fishtanks.com

Jaddc sooo true... pretty amazing. MBV... lol... good luck... right now I cant get past the "Tank leak test".. UGH!

Thanks because your information was truly helpful! and I really do appreciate it.

Origami- I am sure these questions have been asked before but after hours and hours of reading on here, reefcentral, the web and books I figured it would help alleviate some stress to ask questions here. (ok, maybe I was wrong.. it evidently just adds stress). It is not always easy to sort through thousands of topics to find an old one that MIGHT answer your question. And like I posted... People will often tell you that something is good (say adding cocktail shrimp to start the cycle) BUT they OFTEN forget the details like... HOW MUCH?? HOW OFTEN?? Certain things may seem common sense to the seasoned hobbiest but it may not be to someone overwhelmed with the ton of new information. I also wanted to make sure I was understanding what I read. There are many 180 degree conflicting opinions out there. As soon as I feel I understand, another article/person would say something contrary to what I thought. I really wanted the response to come from here. I know there are many very knowledgable persons on this forum that would contest if someone tried to post something that was incorrect. Not that I feel a true need to explain why I asked a specific question, responding to them IS optional but GREATLY appreciated. Your response was PERFECT! (outside of the comment about redundancy). I am not sure what good was accomplished with your intro statement. I can't tell you how much I appreciate yours and everyones help. Please keep in mind I posted under the Newby section... Just remember all you had to read to get to where you are. Sometimes you don't get everything the first time around and finding it again may seem impossible. Jaddc- Thanks alot! One of my concerns with the fish food was the mess that it would make in my sand and stuff. One of the articles warned about this but didn't offer any solution to the problem. This is a great idea!

How long should you quarentine new fish and corals for? Do you have to QT things like snails and shrimp?