np73

Actually having gone through the Algae Scrubber thread, Im leaning towards incorporating the setup in my sump Just need to finalise some plans before I get the setup done this weekend. Yes I will also take the opportunity to remove all the coral chips in the sump too. As for the rings, its really such a waste to throw them away now since i just bought them fro less than a week I already have tons and tons of LR in the display tank so not sure if I even need some more in my sump

My sandbed is rather thin, maybe 2 inches at most. The tank is already inhabited. If I want to increase the depth, can I just top up live sand (either the packaged ones or from someone's tank) direct into the tank with all the inhabitants still in it? Or is there some procedure to do so?

Peter.Tee: Water Change was done at 1 shot, ie 60% at one go. that was last week. There was another WC of 10% just performed. Now that you mentioned it, its possible that some nitrate was re-introduced into the tank during the large WC. Need to monitor. Maybe I will try Irwana this time round for large WC. BabaReef: Seems like coral chips could be the problem, but then again I dont have much in there. maybe only around 5kg? It was not left over by owner, but was recommended to me by a LFS who happened to sell me the skimmer. This was around 2 months back. What I have done thus far is I bought 5kg of MrAqua ceramic rings into the sump, dosed BB, and intend to take out the coral chips in a weeks time or so. Perhaps I will get some more ceramic/sintered glass bio media to increase the total surface area. So bottom line is you still retained the coral chips? Any reason why you are still doing so? Do the coral chips really serve to buffer the pH in your case?

An update on the tank. Salinity: 1.023 pH: 8.0 * Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 80 * PO4: 0.4 * Water Temp: 29-30c * A few points to note: - I have coral chips in my sump tank. maybe around 5kg? Are these nitrate magnets? They are also supposed to be raising the pH but doesnt seem to work? - I also added 5kg worth of Mr Aqua into the sump with the intention of culturing more bb. Some conflicting views here but i read this actually decreases the pH? Not sure what's causing what to occur, but my nitrate despite large WC (around 60% of the 422), nitrate level came down, but did not get lower than 80ppm- which is still alot. Looks like another large WC over the weekend. My pH reading seems a little low too for seawater. My PO4 also seems a little high, but then I have only just added the Sorb4 2 days ago so figures may come down afterwards. For the water temp, I am getting a pre-owned chiller so that should solve the temp problem.

Yes please reserve for me. Collection over weekend?

Is he pair of boxer shrimps still available? If so, I would like to have them,

I would like the eheim 1262 if its still available? my contact 97999131

Im interested in the daeil. how old is this unit?

i bid $22.

Due to budget constraints, I am looking for a second hand chiller for my 4ft tank. I am eying TECO or JBJ, but will also consider any other which is not too power hungry. Please PM me if you have one to let go.

The filter should be matured enough by now. Tank is inherited from previous owner, and has been running for some time now. - Maybe there is insufficient media for the bacteria to inhabitate? Not enough media = not enough bacteria = not enough to break down ammonia? Is biohome a good idea? Not sure if this can be used in saltwater tanks. - Maybe the ammonia could have been caused by recent die-offs in the tank? I had a singapore angel, damsel disappear, but no carcass, so I assume they could have gone hiding in some crevice to die off? I have quite a fair amount of live rock and they make it virtually impossible to locate the fish at times. - Tank crashed before I took over?

Just took another measurement last night, and things seem much better. On top of the 60% water change on Saturday, I did another 10% water change yesterday. End result is like this: Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrate: 80 ppm Nitrate still seems to be on the high side. Guess there is really nothing much else I can do except do 10-20% WC conscientiously every few days till the nitrates get lower. All the inhabitants seem fine from the large WC, and seem to me like they are livelier now. It could be my eyes, but I swear the dorsal fines on the yellows are already showing signs of getting better. As for the salinity of the water, I dont have any proper equipment to test it yeah i know its the single most impt thing to check but I havent yet got the hydrometer. Any good brands to recommend? Est price?

thanks all who have replied in this thread. Im awaiting Stevens arrival this morning for the WC. As for the ammonia poisoning/ shock etc. Im really hoping the yellows can recover in time. I also noticed last night when i did another water test the following params. very glaring, thats why i need a largeWC ammonia 0.5 ppm !!!!!! nitrite 0 ppm nitrate 200 ppm !!!!!!! Im using the API test strips by the way. Getting the selifert soon ,but the APIs are all i got for now. My god. No wonder the tangs looks the way they look now. Its a wonder they are still alive.

On a side note, anyone used the AquaPharm Pur-II to successfully contain the ammonia and nitrite levels? Coz i have 3 bags worth in my sump, and Im expecting to see my ammonia drop to 0 any day now... Of course I am going to get bottled bacter too for dosing. And WC too. And as for the yellow tang fin corrosion, it really is looking horrendous. I have seen pics after pics of yellow tangs and each of them shows a nice rounded dorsal fin shape. Mine is very ragged and looks in very bad shape. The tail fins look like someother fish has taken chunks out of them. They look pale on some days, almost whitish. On one of the 2 yellows, I can almost make out the red veins (or capilaries (spelling?)) underneath the skin. They look so miserable. Can they even be nursed back to full health??

thanks arcanehacker and LemonLemon for the advise. Think I will go down to Irwana again. Problem is - just how big is a jerry can? I have 2 currently, but am not sure just how much water volume each holds, so I cant really gauge how many cans worth of NSW to get. I am assuming each is 30l?? All I know is they are damn heavy when full. Always run the risk of spraining my back when fetching the 2x cans back home. Assuming each holds 30l, then all I can do per WC is only 10% of tank capacity, which also means I will need to do this WC routine many times over to get to the desired water params. This is the exact reason why I was (actually still am) contemplating getting someone to supply 50% NSW (ard 250l) and change for me. Surely someone who has access to this huge amount of water should also have the appropriate equipment to perform such large WC quickly and efficiently? Assuming getting the NSW suppliers to do WC is not possible, can I on successive days do 10% WC, ie do 10% WC over an entire period of 5-6 consecutive days??

How large a water change can I perform? 2 months back, I took over a 4x2x2.5 tank from previous home owner, so inherited everything in there lock stock and barrel. Livestock include: - 2x yellwo tang (1x juvie) - 1x palette tang - 2x firefish - 1x false perc (juvie) - 3x wrasses (red corris, green, some other) - 1x spore angel - 2x damsels - 1x flame angel - assorted mushrooms - 1x sand sifting sea star - 2x turbo snail As I have been rather busy with renovation works on the house, all I have been doing up till now is top up with distilled/NSW via the sump tank, and once-a-month WC of around 5% only. In between I have been feeding the livestock with Form1, Form2, mysis, spirulina and such. Noticed the 2x yellow tangs and the 1x regal tang showing signs of ich. They could have had it for a while now. The 2 tangs showed have very bad fin corrosion and looked very pale. So I did a test on the water params. I have also had 1x spore angel and 1x damsel disappear in the tank (prob died somewhere in the tank). I found that: - Ammonia close to 0ppm (not zero thats for sure) - Nitrite 0ppm - Nitrate - ard 40ppm - Phosphate - cant remember, but its in mid range in the colour chart Having gone through some of the resources on the itnernet, its recommended to do water change to reduce the nitrate and phosphate levels. Problem is this is my first attempt at such a tank size, and first shot at marine tank too. I have never in my life had to handle such a large body of water..........so.............. 1) How large a water cahnge can I perform? 50% at one go? 2) As for the water, i suppose then it must be treated NSW (ie from Irwana etc)? 3) How do I perform such a large change? What equipment must i use to do this? I only have this teeny weeny cheapo siphon at my disposal, and up till now I have been siphoning only from the sump tank below. 4) Can I get professsionals to do this large water change? In the meantime, I have dumped in 3 bags worth of AquaPharm Pur-II into the sump tank to temp stop the ammonia-nitrite buildup. 5) Should I also get the phosphate removers? 6) Should I invest in a nitrate filter thingy? Im really hopelessly lost in this whole thing, and I just dont want the tank inhabitants to live a hard sad existence anymore. Advise?!! Pleaseeeeee!