What do you recommend for my pseudoreef?

[Gaffes]

So, I started my tank off as a fish only system, but now I am getting more and more into live rock and corals. So, my tank is in a state of flux. I have about $300 budgeted to make improvements, and I am looking for suggestions.

Here is my current setup:

2" Picasso Tigger
2" Purple tang
1" Domino damsel
2" pencil urchin (Picasso does not bother)
2" pincushion urchin (Picasso does not bother)
about 20 assorted snails (turbo and nassarius)
2 small queen conch
about 10 blue leg hermits
60 pounds of live rock
a few small mushrooms and star ployps

80 gallon tank (non-drilled)
fluval 404 cannister filter with a sponge inside
CPR skimmer
4 fluorescent lamps (2 triton, one full spectrum, one actinic)
3 aquaclear 404 power heads
very little crushed coral substrate (does not even cover the bottom)

The system seem pretty balance overall. The fish are all about 4 years old, and I have had the mushrooms and star polyps for about 3 years. The live rock is covered in coralline, and I do not have any problems with undesirable algae. I prepare my water well in advance in a 55gallon rubbermaid container). I change about 10% a week, and feed the fist only every other day or so. I have apastia anemones, but I actually kind of like them, and I am not planning on getting too many fancy corals, so I think they will be OK.

Everything seems healthy, but I would like to promote the spreading of the mushrooms, star polyps, and coralline. The odd thing to me is that all three seem to be very healthy. The coralline is bright pink and purple and not dying off or receding, the star polyps and mushrooms are wide open and rarely close. But neither the star polyps nor the mushrooms are spreading. And the coralline is staying put.

What is the best use of my $300 to have the desired effects of promoting growth of the polyps, mushrooms, and coralline? Is there something wrong with my setup or practices? Since I do not use an overflow, there is usually a slight film on the part of the water surface that is not being agitated by the powerheads. Is this a big issue? Are the three fish producing too much of a bio-load? The skimmer seems to be working well, and I clean it often.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gaffes]

I am also considering additives. Right now, I do not add anything to my tank. I am researching kalkwasser and some other additives, but am a little cautious about adding things to my tank, and also do not want to add too much to my maintenance schedule.

Do you recommend using any additives?

 

[Entacmaea]

Well, sounds like you have had pretty good success with your system if it is 3-4 years old! The first thing I would probably do is increase circulation- at the least add another powerhead. The film on the surface of the water means there is not enough surface agitation.

If you would like to increase the bioload on your tank by adding more corals, I would also consider getting a larger skimmer- I am assuming your "CPR" is a HOB Backpak type? There are two options- adding another CPR, or replacing it with a larger HOB skimmer. You could also add a sump, return pump, and in-sump skimmer but I think this route is beyond your $300 budget.

Do you have any test kits? A basic kit for Nitrate, nitrite, pH plus a good kit for Calcium should be purchased before you start putting additives in. In fact some test results would be a good baseline to have as you decide what to buy next- they will show sort of a diagnosis of your tank and show you if your filter system is up to the task. I woul also consider removing your fluval and sponge filter and see if you have any ill effects. Depending on how often you clean it, it might do more harm than good...

What are you doing for top-off? Using kalkwasser for top-off is a good idea, and the extra calcium could really help your coralline take off (if you urchins are not eating it!).

More light would be a good thing in general, so if you want to add some punch pretty cheaply, I would check out www.ahsupply.com and perhaps get one 96 watt pc kit and bulb (~$90), I'd advise a 10K bulb) if you have the room in your hood. I'm not really sure why your shrooms and polyps aren't growing, it could be a bunch of things, but more light could certainly help! There are of course many more lighting options for you to take, ranging from $50 to $1500! but if you still want some money left over for other things, check out ahsupply.

So I guess I would try in this order:

Test kits (seeing where you are)
kalkwasser for top-off
more circulation, powerhead(s)
new skimmer
Lighting

Sorry for the bit of a ramble, hope this helps!

 

[Gaffes]

hmmm... I already have a few more powerheads I can add, so I will do that today.

I have test kits for PH, dKH, and calcium, but I only test once a month since my readings are pretty constant. Here is what my water paramaters are:

Temp 84F
Ca 435ppm
SG 1.021
PH 8.0
dKH 9.2 dKH, 3.30 meq/L

I haven't been doing any topoff, because I do weekly water changes, and do not lose much to evaporation between water changes. I make minor adjustments to the salinity of my pre-mixed saltwater reserve to compensate and have been able to maintain a pretty constant specific gravity of 1.021 in my display tank.

I keep hearing about Kalkwasser, but I alway hear about the dripping method and the slurry method and they sound too complicated and like too much work. Can I just mix some kalkwasser into the replacement water when doing a water change?

 

[Entacmaea]

Sounds like your calcium levels are good, but adding kalkwasser will still be advantageous. Adding it is one more thing to do, i won't lie to you, but it is worth it. You can't add it in with top-off water, it will wreak havoc. I would try to monitor exactly how much water evaporates between your water changes. I would guess more than you think. Adding fresh water everyday is really the only way to go, even small salinity changes over the course of the week can be stressful to critters. there are ways to make daily top-off automatic, very cheaply. Do a search for top-off and you'll get a million ideas.

I would definitely get a nitrate/nitrite test kit and see what those levels are. Your nitrate concentration will determine if your filter system is working well enough.

About your perameters, I would raise your pH just a tad, to 8.2, make the tank a little cooler, to like 82 degrees, and over the next month or so, slowly raise your SG to 1.024 or 1.025 (these are closer to natural reef levels) Fish-only tanks or often maintained with a lower SG, but if you want to give your corals the best shot, better to go with natural reef levels.

Good luck!

 

[Gaffes]

hmmm...now you've got me thinking, and in danger of going over my $300 budget!

Maybe I should get a LiterMeter III and start dosing kalk.

 

[wombat1]

A Litermeter is probably the most expensive way of going about it. There are many gravity fed devices that are super cheap and easy to build. Try search terms like "water cooler auto topoff" or "gravity topoff" on a search engine and you'll find lots of stuff.

Ditto on the water movement, salinity, and temp. Also, a good thing to buy might be a overflow box for your BakPak. CPR sells them for around $20 I think. This would get rid of that surface film, which does all sorts of good things like increase oxygenation of water at the surface and increase the intensity of light getting through. As for lighting, many people will probably tell you you need more wattage. I partially agree, but I think you can get by with what you have for polyps, mushrooms, etc. I've had star polyps grow great with similar tank size/lighting parameters. New lights get real expensive real fast, and since you're on a budget you may want to just stick with what you have.

You can always sell off your Fluval and Trigger (Does it not kill the snails?) and make some extra $ that way too.
HTH, Matt

 

[Anonymous]

If you can find one used the Aquamedic Nurce is a nice topoff unit - I think they stopped selling them due to patent issues but they can be had second hand and would be fairly easy to diy. I have one to topoff kalk and it's pretty darn easy.

You could also get an inexpensive Nilsen reactor/kalk stirrer and a resevoir and a couple of float switches that would solve kalk dosing and topoff needs in one series.

 

[Anonymous]

I would add a deep sand bed sump....or increase lighting.....and perhaps get a Seaclone 150 skimmer. I am setting up a 50 gallon DSB refuguim for my 100 gallon now.

 

[Gaffes]

Also, a good thing to buy might be a overflow box for your BakPak. CPR sells them for around $20 I think. This would get rid of that surface film, which does all sorts of good things like increase oxygenation of water at the surface and increase the intensity of light getting through.

I guess I am a little confused about how I can add a sump, overflow, etc. without having a drilled tank. I checked CPR's website http://www.cpraquatic.com/index2.html and didn't really see anything. I would really like to add a sump and/or refugium, but guess I do not really understand the plumbing.

 

[Gaffes]

OK, I think I found them here:

http://www.marinedepot.com/a_of.asp?CartId=

So, if I am understanding this correctly, this box hangs in the main display tank and I start a siphon. It draws water off the top of the tank into a sump below, and then I use a pump to pump the water back up to the display tank. Is this correct?

Is there much danger of flooding? It seems to me that if I just make sure that my sump is big enough to hold all of the water that will drain before the siphon is lost I will be OK.

 

[Entacmaea]

You won't need to add a sump- the overflow box on the CPR just adds the benefit of "surface skimming" which skims the most dissolved organics-laden water, at the air-water interface( due to the properties of the molecules). So you would just add the surface box to the CPR, and have to make no other changes. Unless the return pump on the CPR fails, only a limited amount of water would be lost, you are right, until the siphon breaks. A quick search and read on overflows will get you versed on their basic principle- that they determine the water level in the tank, etc.

 

[Entacmaea]

PS, I just checked the above link you posted, it is not what you are looking for:

This is what you are looking for, the "pre-skimmer":

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/thestore ... ESKIM.html

And now that I read about it, the powerhead goes in the pre-skimmer, so even if the pump fails, there is no chance of flooding...

 

[Gaffes]

PS, I just checked the above link you posted, it is not what you are looking for:

This is what you are looking for, the "pre-skimmer":

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/thestore ... ESKIM.html

And now that I read about it, the powerhead goes in the pre-skimmer, so even if the pump fails, there is no chance of flooding...

AH, I see. That is much simpler. Thanks for the info, I will try and find one at my LFS.

 

[wombat1]

Sorry if I confused ya there, the preskimmer is what I meant. We have some pics of homemade ones in the nano forum.