[WhatReef]

is that all fresh sand in your tank?
also how deep is the sand bed in your sump?
how long has your new tank ran empty for?
and did you add Live Sand because atleast 20% of the sand bed should be Live to really seed it, thats very important as you will be having issues for a few months you will find anyways let me know, sounds good so far.

[Daddyoh1]

All sand is from caribsea, Oolite, Seaflor Super Reef, all was Agra-live and we have 100/120 lbs plus 40lbs except in the middle which wasn't and for our pearlys. We have about 4/5 inches in fuge with extra rock. Tanks been running for a month empty, added cleanup crew a liittle to late have some algae issues but that should be fixed soon.

[WhatReef]

sounds good, there's always some algae on a new start so i wouldnt worry about it unless is cayno (red algae) in that case buy some red slime remover ever fish store carrys it and it works awesome and doesnt harm any invert or corals or fish.

[Magaman]

Pictures finally, just took these during feeding time, everyone was out and about.







Our Flasher Wrasse and mushrooms




New candy cane and finger leather






Right side of the tank


Middle of the tank


Left of the tank


Torch

[WhatReef]

Tanks looking good guys, keep up the good work. I like that finger leather, it reminds me of gumby the cartoon guy lol. I also like the chromis you have in there i plan on adding some of those to my tank as well once i get rid of some of my tangs as i wanna low bioload.

[redsea]

Originally Posted by Magaman

Pictures finally, just took these during feeding time, everyone was out and about.







Our Flasher Wrasse and mushrooms




New candy cane and finger leather






Right side of the tank


Middle of the tank


Left of the tank


Torch

the tang is awesome!

[Magaman]

Well we lost the Cardinal, Started with 3 now have 0, I had them in my BC29 as well at one point and they didn't last long either. I got no clue what it is with them, the only thing I'm thinking is they weren't tank raised and I have read that wild cardinals are hard. EIther way water parameters couldn't be better.
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
ph 8.3
CA 380
DKH 9
Temp 76.6
Sal 1.025

Ordered a JBJ ATO and Tom's Auqalifter, and Kalk mix, hopefully will get those by the weekend so we can install the ATO, picked up a 6 gallon water container the other day.
Been doing some research on Kalk for ATO's. Since our levels are good, I just want to really maintain the ph which was at 7.8 for the longest and has finally got up to 8.3, and the CA which was 400 and has dropped a tad. It seems most people use about 3 teaspoons of mix for 5 gallons of water. I figure I'll start there and adjust as needed. Any recommendations?

And now that my old BC29 has finally been sold, we plan on running to petco and pick-up a small 10g set-up to use as a QT tank, since its almost time to get the Angel and Tangs.

[WhatReef]

Originally Posted by Magaman

Well we lost the Cardinal, Started with 3 now have 0, I had them in my BC29 as well at one point and they didn't last long either. I got no clue what it is with them, the only thing I'm thinking is they weren't tank raised and I have read that wild cardinals are hard. EIther way water parameters couldn't be better.
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
ph 8.3
CA 380
DKH 9
Temp 76.6
Sal 1.025

Ordered a JBJ ATO and Tom's Auqalifter, and Kalk mix, hopefully will get those by the weekend so we can install the ATO, picked up a 6 gallon water container the other day.
Been doing some research on Kalk for ATO's. Since our levels are good, I just want to really maintain the ph which was at 7.8 for the longest and has finally got up to 8.3, and the CA which was 400 and has dropped a tad. It seems most people use about 3 teaspoons of mix for 5 gallons of water. I figure I'll start there and adjust as needed. Any recommendations?

And now that my old BC29 has finally been sold, we plan on running to petco and pick-up a small 10g set-up to use as a QT tank, since its almost time to get the Angel and Tangs.

Your calcium is to low my friend 400 is minimum you should try and keep it up near 450 that way when it does drop your still most likely above 400 at all times. never go below 400, i keep my tank at 440ppm

Careful with angels as they will pick at your corals, if you are planning on building up a reef i would stay away from angels all together. Tangs are fine just only add one at a time and let your tank adjust to the bioload.

As for Kalk im not sure as i have never used it before i have always just dosed calcium as needed through testing once a week. But i have heard of people using a drip method but its important to get a feel for what your tank is doing on a weekly basis so you can figure out how much calicum you are loosing and than you can set up your dosing system to balance your calcium for you but you should always test weekly anyways to make sure.

Thats strange that your bangaiis died perhaps your low PH killed them, I cant say as i have no experience with them but thats most likely what happened if all your other fish aren't dead and that the only thing i can think of.

Also you may want to make sure your test kits aren't to old and given you the wrong readings cause usually in a new tank you should have some nitrates i would think.

PS let see some pictures of the sump if you have any

Hope I helped

[dfurbee]

Nice tank, love the aquascape. I agree with Garrett, you need to raise the calcium. Good work!

[Magaman]

Ok the sump/fuge



The fuge area, this is fed by water that has gone through the filter socks and skimmer.


And the mechanical area, water comes from the tank into 2 filter socks one for each tank drain. Then is skimmed, the skimmer drain also has a filter sock to cut down on some of its air bubbles. Finally the water goes over, under over a set a baffles. Even with the filter socks we were still having a bit of micro bubbles, so to fix that we use some left over pond filter pad cut to fit and then placed against the baffle. Basically the water after going through the baffles falls through the filter pad and this has caught the remainder of the bubbles and also gets rid of the water fall over the baffle into the pump area.


In other news everything for our ATO came in, except stupid me didn't notice the JBJ ato wasn't in the cart when I place the order, so now we are just waiting. ph has dropped slightly a bit after getting to 8.3, hopefully once the ato gets hooked up and kalkwasser used we should see the ph drops.

[WhatReef]

if your not, you should run your sump light only at night when your display tank lights are off this will help keep your PH in balance, you my be doing this now but i thought i would just mention it.

[Magaman]

Yeah I have the sump and tank on a reverse cycle. The JBJ ATO unit should be in tomorrow, I'm confident the ato with kalk will help ph and keep the CA in line with out any other CA additives.

[WhatReef]

yeah just be careful not to over dose with your ATO, my tank looses about 5 gallon a day from evap so you should figure out how much top off your system will be doing a day and than you can better deside how much kalk to add to your ATO or you can use the drip method that many use.

Good Luck

Also i was looking at your sump and noticed you keep the water level pretty high, if the power goes out and your tank back fills does your sump over flow? you should check this out before you wake up one day to a soaked floor and electrical thing let me know. you may have already check this but never hurts to check. : )

[Daddyoh1]

Have experienced our first power outage today started to panic, went out to buy a generator after borrowing one that wouldn't start my pumps but would run a heater and it's been real cold ( just had 15" of snow ) thought that heat was most important. By the time we returned home elec. was back on, out for 4hrs. All is well, So to answer your ? the sump was no problem as for holding all the water so it works PS. returned generator until I find one less expensive but definately getting one to much time and $$$$$$$$ invested.

[Magaman]

New photos!

First our new additions:
Salfin Tang

Really nice fish and fun to watch.

Coral Beauty Angel


Still really new has been hanging out under the rocks and caves, but has done a number on any hair algae we have growing on the overflows, also has been cruising and picking at the rocks.

Birdsnest
Got a amazing deal at a new LFS on this piece, was going to wait a bit longer for it but couldn't pass it up.


Pulsating Xenia
This has been in the tank about a week and we already see it spreading off its frag piece and onto the rock


And lastly for new stuff, the ATO is in place. It holds 6 gallons of water, I mix 1 gallon with kalkwasser, so far its been running with the kalk for 2 days and our ph seems stable at 8.2 and dkh at 10 and calk at 400.


And now just some more updated pics
Our ric has finally fully split into 2, its got another 3rd mouth on the otherside that is also splitting off.

[WhatReef]

looking Good John you guys have really come along with the tank, where's your dad these days i havn't seen him on here is a while or on my thread.

[Magaman]

Updates,

A few weeks back I attempted to give the Kalk in the ATO a try, we have the Tom's aqualifter so not much water is topped of all at once. The biggest issue we had was a decent amount of precipitation in the tank, I gave it 3 days as some have said it happens at first, well it didn't clear up so I ditched that water and wen back to just filtered water, pretty much cleared up over night. PH, DKH and CA were all at good real good levels, so the only possible issue could be Mag. and I've read that could be low causing the calcium to precipitate out. Mg was awfully low, did some additives and now everything across the board is good. Now just waiting on an IV set-up from friend and going to try just a slow drip of Kalk.

Corals are growing great, we fragged a part of the pulsating off so it can fill in another spot. The birdsnest is doing great as well as its showing a good mount of growth. The torch a few more of the original head disappeared but the 3 big ones that are left 2 seem to be splitting.

Fish are all good, we ended up seeing 3 small Pajama Cardnials and picked them up a couple weeks back, unlike the Banggi's they eat and are doing good.

[WhatReef]

yeah i would have to agree with the Kalk drip method as the ATO can be more difficult and its easyier just to drip in the kalk water. I'm in the middle of setting up a kalk drip system right now and i will most likely post something about it soon on my thread.

Glad to see everything is doing well for you though : )

Cant wait to see some pics

cheers!

[Magaman]

Hey everyone, I just bought one of those new pocket videocameras and tried it out on the tank. Nothing special just something a bit quick YouTube - Our fish tank I still gotta play with the camera and the compression to make it look better.