White trash?

If this has been mentioned I missed it, but you MUST not dose these two chemicals together, or precipitation is certain. You have to dose one, wait for awhile (the label should tell you how long, but hours sound right--then dose the other.

Hopefully you're doing this.

 

Hi Magnus, I wouldn't take out the under gravel filter, as long as you have good circulation through it, a plenum is a benefit. Over time (couple of years) it may get too gunked (for lack of a better word) up and then you would have to do something. Using Marine-Clean monthly should keep the tank clean especially the plenum. Your tank is beautiful. The Cal and Mag should be raised. Using liquid Mag is fine many of us have used it for years, I don't know where the angst is coming from, from some who have posted. Epsom Salt used over time can lead to problems, google it and read up. You do not have Cal precipitation, your cal is too low for that. I believe that is detritus or sand particles on the plants. Try to achieve 420-450 ppm cal and 1280-1350 ppm mag. Just add double the mag when doing the 2 part, wait a day and test and get an idea of how much that raises the mag.

 

Sparky is right,the two additives mixed in concentration will precip,without a boubt.The waiting time to prevent this when added to a tank would vary,depending on water flow.The instructions for Brightwell A+B for calcium and alkilinity that I use say to wait 60 seconds which is what I do and have had no problem with it precipitating.I am careful to add them slowly,a little at a time,added near a powerhead so they're dilluted quickly.I did forget to wait once and noticed a little precip in the water column.

 

I disagree with some of this. I think it is Ca precipitation. Your Ca is not too low for this given the amount of Mg you have. As was explained earlier it is a matter of ions.

Like jed says, you will need your Mg up before your water can absorb the recommended Ca levels... until your Mg is up, the Ca will precipitate out any over ~300.

SG = Specific Gravity. In other words, your salt concentrations. We want to know if you are running at 1.021 or what... should be stable and somewhere in the 1.021-1.025 range generally.

If this is low you will be able to support less dissolved salts (that is, you will have more precipitation compared to a higher SG).

The under gravel filter, as jed says will eventually gunk up and need to be rectified. It is a serious issue in waiting... Does not make sense to me why you would want to wait until your tank is more established before fixing this... any problems removing it now may cause are dwarfed by the issues with removing it in a year or two.

Like I said before, you do not need to replace it right now with something else. Just remove it.

Marine-Clean monthly... I do not recommend chemicals as the answer. I have never used anything like this... I would rather a scenario where this is not necessary.


I do not agree that Epsom salts will eventually cause problems. Do read up on it as suggested, but it is Mg. Elements are elements. There is some contention that in several years it may build up but that is something you really do not need to worry about right now. Using Epsom salt is a very effective stop gap until you can afford a 2 part Mg supplement. Epsom salt is fine.

Dry dead base rock is bleach white, correct. It will immediately start collecting bacteria... I dont know how "fast" it will become live, but that is not the issue. It will become live faster than it appears. I recently added about 20lbs of base rock to my tank (maybe 2 weeks ago) and it is still white... but I am sure it has a lot more bacteria in it today than it did when I put it in

That light situation of yours... weird. You want the blue and white lights to come on and turn off staggered (blue on, white on, white off, blue off)... not sure what to tell you on this. I hope someone can help you mod it.

Have you looked into a skimmer? They make these HOB (hang on back) and a sump is not necessary. I have never used a sump. I use only a skimmer and live rock as my filtration. Nothing else. Do not get me wrong, a sump is ideal, but it is far from a necessity.

Ill read through your post again and see if I missed anything.

 

I lied slightly. I have something else I use for filtration (sorta).

I have around 200 snails of 6 different species in my 55 gallon. You need a good clean up crew to help break down the poop and all that. I do not have a speck of algae or any snail die-off. They are in balance.

Best prices and best advise on what exactly to get will come from here ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Home Fill out their form and wait for Johns response.

 

Peredhil, you said; "Marine-Clean monthly... I do not recommend chemicals as the answer. I have never used anything like this... I would rather a scenario where this is not necessary."

Read up on Marine-Clean, it is not a chemical. It is "5 different strains live bacteria", along with "Oxy-Boost to increase oxygen availability."

 

I suppose it was misleading for me to say it that way. Nevertheless, there should be no need to ever use this; let alone monthly. A tank that requires monthly dosing of bacteria has some issues that need resolved.

 

GREAT!! I do have a refractometer! I thought the 1.025 my refractometer is reading (after calibrating it as instructed in the manual) was my salt level, not solids all together.

I've seen the hang on skimmers, but I thought of it as a pointless investment right now since I do want to have a sump with a fuge for optimal filtration with as little maintenance as possible. I wouldn't mind getting one today if I can modify it in the future to be an in-sump skimmer. Eshop or something like that was the brand I was looking into. Seems to have a good rep and the price is still not so high.

As far as the 2 part reef code a and b, I have been waiting one or 2 minutes after applying the A formula to add the B formula.

I bought today the Epsom Salt at walgreens. The bag says it is 9.87% water soluble Mg and 12.98 Sulfur. Will that sulfur help or is it something to watch out for? I'm not sure how much of this I need to dose. What should I start with? I do have the commercial liquid Mg, but I figured the salts would be a more natural option? I would appreciate some advice on the dosing.

I had almost forgotten Monday is a holiday, so my LFS may be closed.

Also, I measure my basic numbers again and they tested as follows:

SG = 1.025
pH = 7.5 (went down quite a bit)
Amonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5.0
Mg = 870

I can get cured LR from my LFS at $2.5 a pound. This is what I started my tank with 5 weeks ago. I'll try to buy as much as I can and as soon as possible. I'll check the store tomorrow.

Regarding the UG filter, gravel, crushed shell, etc... could I just completely remove the gravel and crushed shell and leave just the tank with bare bottom and the power heads moving the water? I'll add sand or Live sand in the future after my sump is set up. But this may take a couple of weeks to happen.

I've been supposedly using a very good salt mix called Crystal Sea Marinemix that I was told was one of the best ones out there. Should I change to a differnet one?

- Magnus.

 

When you buy Magnesium for saltwater tanks what you are buying is

• Magnesium Chloride
• Magnesium Sulfate

in a 3:4 ratio. So it's mostly Mg Sulfate. Which is what you just described. Which is what Epsom salts is.

What you are missing is the Mg Chloride and this is the inbalance that Jed was referring to about it potentially causing an inbalance years down the line. For the short to mid term, it's OK. You can come back to this without hassle in several months from now.

Look in the right hand column: Action Panel. Look for "Use Calculators"

http://www.3reef.com/aquarium_calculators/

From there click additives. Use that Mg calculator and pick Epsom Salts as your material.

Adding live rock post cycle may cause a mini cycle. Be aware of that. It's just another benefit of using base rock instead.

I would recommend removing the substrate one section/area every couple weeks until it's all gone and then remove the under gravel filter.

Your substrate, the way it is now, the bigger pieces will eventually end up on top and bury the small pieces. FYI. Leaving it bare bottom is probably fine, but wouldn't hurt to add the clean dead sand once all the chunky substrate is gone... I would not use "live" sand, particularly in an established tank.

 

Ok, that's what I will do then. I really want to get the gravel out of there. But I'll be more patient this time and do things right. So, removing the gravel in a period of 3 months (a little bit per week) sounds good, and hopefully the change won't be so harsh on the good bacteria.

Today I returned a wallet I found at walmart's parking lot with more than $800 in it, and the guy gave me $100 reward. Believe it or not, it's the 2nd wallet I return, just this year. I'm accumulating good karma and those 100 bucks will definitely benefit my fish tank as soon as I get to the LFS

Again, I appreciate all the help. You have no Idea how much light all of you have shed in my dark SW fish tank journey! Thank you.

- Magnus.