100%. If you can get it to eat that's half the battle already. Beautiful fish to have.

Thank you guys for all the info! I am thinking as much as a Achilles is one of the most colourful Tangs it may not be best suited for my tank :(
What do you guys suggest for another Tang? Jewel? (If I win the loto maybe)
How about a Kole?

A kole or any others of the Ctenochaetus tangs would probably do well. A Chevron tang (Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis) is a nice choice too (maybe a bit pricey, but the juvenile colour patterns of this fish is why - very spectacular! The adult colours are not as spectacular but they are still very nice as adults IMHO!) Otherwise in that group there are kole tangs, yellow eye kole tangs, orange stripe tang, and tomini tangs. All very nice! :)

Since I distracted myself and started reading more about these tangs, I might as well link you to this article ... why not ruin 5 minutes of work productivity for someone else as well as myself: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/hcs3/

So added a Kole (yellow eye) Tang over the weekend.
So like you said Kien the Purple Tang went immediately after him and took a few junks out of him! I am sure he would have at least stressed him to death. So I grabbed the wife's makeup mirror and fastened it to the side of the tank, and it worked like a charm, the PT was there for the next two days, completely leaving the Kole tang alone.

So removed it this morning and so far (past couple hours) they are swimming around minding each others business.

Need some help on my Low Ph 7.9-8.1
First off I am dosing with a Profilux DkH and Ca using Randy's Recipe 1.
Now my alkalinity has been between 8-9 that is with dosing around 218 ml of DkH a day (9 ml - 24 times a day) First question is that a lot?
All my other parameters are ok, other than I think I stripped the P04 a little to quick, it's 0

Salinity 1.025
Temp 78-79
Ca 420 - 450
Mag 1400
Nitrates 0

I did try dosing more but ended up calcifying my pumps.
With the higher dose I was getting a ph up around 8.2.
So what am I missing?
Salt is Reef Crystals

Personally I don't really see a problem with your pH. My pH swings anywhere from 7.8 to 8.3 throughout the day depending on the day of the week and time of the year. it's been doing this for the entire life of the tank and I have never once done a single thing to directly affect the pH. I would not worry about your pH, especially if everything in your tank is looking good. Let your pH do what it's going to do and focus on all the other parameters. A lot of people don't even bother to test pH and if I didn't have a pH probe on my profilux I wouldn't bother to test my pH either.

All your other parameters look spot on. If your tank is looking good don't fix anything because nothing is broken! :-)

Thanks Kien, I guess it's my Apex displaying my PH that brings it to my attention. I just don't get why it appears low? When others say there's is 8.2 or higher? Does the salt blend have something to do with it? I used to use Reefers Best and I am planning on going back to that once I finish up the RC
What should I be aiming for Alkalinity ?
Is 8 ok or should it be closer to 9? Remember for me to get it there I was dosing more DkH and that caused my pump problems
My tank is mainly SPS

I totally agree with Kien, PH isn't a big factor as long as it's stable and within 7.8 to 8.3 range. My PH is always around 8.10-8.15 during the day and 7.9-8.0 at night. I know some of us even go to the extend of dosing soda ash only at night to balance out the night time PH swing but I have never gone that extreme.
Salt blend will play a roll in your tank PH but I don't think its a major roll, you can always test the ph in your premixed resevoir before your water change and see where it's at, that wll give you a good idea on whether its gonna make a huge difference in your tank ph.
As far as alk, it depends on if you are running a probiotic system or not. Most probiotic system ie zeovit or pellets would probably prefer parameters closer to NSW which is 7 since higher alk will tend burn the tips of some sps. If you are not runing a probiotic system, you can probably run it at 8 or higher but the key here is STABILITY!

what he said :-)
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v

If you poll enough people you'll find that pH really is all over the place if you ask me right now what my pH is I'll tell you that it's 8.1. If you ask me later this evening I'll probably tell you that it is 8.3. If you ask me what my pH is tomorrow morning I'll tell you that it's 7.9.

Also keep in mind that CO2 also affects your pH. The amount of CO2 in your water at any given time varies and you can't not affect this easily. It also varies greatly from tank to tank.

Bottom line, DON'T PANIC! There is nothing wrong with your pH. It is fine. Keep on reefin' on :-)

if you need a second opinion joel i believe i threw my ph test kit out last spring should still be in or around the back yard:P:P:P

What you should be aiming for Alkalinity is partly a personal choice. Many people like to run high alk levels like 9-11. So long as you know what you're donig and your levels are in balance (with Calcium) then that's fine.

If you want to play it safe, generally speaking most people target 8 as a comfortably manageable level. I keep mine at 8 because if it slacks and slips to 7 it's not the end of the world. If it slips up to 9, still not the end of the world. The danger of keeping alk lower or higher is that your margin for error decreases at either end.

Thanks again guys for the advise.

I adjusted the Doser before I left home this weekend and swapped out the Calcium as it looked like it was settling in the bottom of the doser container. I have been checking my Apex and surprise the PH is up to 8.17 !

I guess I'll just try to maintain stability and see how it settles out.

I increased my feeding schedule to get my P04 up slightly from 0 and see if the corals colour up some more.

Question about Zoas ?
I have about 6 colonies of Zoas in my mixed reef. Last we one of the colonies that I have had for at least three years of 50 plus heads just closed up pretty well over night and died! There is another smaller colony (doing very well) right next to them and the only other thing next is a Monti Cap that has been there for over a year or two as well. Any ideas what happened?

I have heard that some zoa can just melt over night for no good reason. I know levi was talking about some sea stars can chump at them and those little zoa eating nudis are a pain too. I would inspect the colony and the surrounding and see if its caused by pest and maybe contact zaoelite and see if he has any thoughts on this.

Bblinks
Thank you for the help, I am thinking after talking to Deny at concept, he thought it might be my flame angel

That doesn't really make sense to me. They will consume the zoas regardless of the time of day and most likely it will be during daytime rather then at night. just a thought.

My other thoughts were to keep a eye on the flame and for other pests around the Zoas. See what happens I guess

Hanna P04 Ultra low question.
Just ran my Hanna P04 tester and got a reading of "0.00" that's ok as last was .04
Now just tried my Hanna Ultra Low P04 test for the first time and the reading was simply "5" in the far right side of the window. So what does that mean .005? I would have thought I should have seen a decimal place in there?
Only ran the test once as I only have the 6 reagents.

Doesn't that meter read in parts per billion? So wouldn't that be 5 ppb ? The regular phosphate reads parts per million (ppm) and I've seen that give me non decimal values.

The ULR actually reads phosphorous (P), not phosphate (PO4) - to convert to a ppm PO4 reading, you multiply the reading by 3.066 then divide by 1000. So a reading of 5 should be something like 0.01533 PO4.

Lol I guess I should have read the instructions.
Thanks a million or should I say billion guys.

Wow those RSM tanks are to die for... VERY nice hardware there.

I'm curious though, your early shots show some tonga branched live rock but you filled it in with what looks more similar to some fiji live rock. Why the change? Personally I think a reef of the tonga style rock would look incredible.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/11/6ejatu9y.jpg

Hey guys any idea what the little growths are on the rocks? I know the picture is far from good but if you look close or zoom in you can see worm like growths about 1/4-1/2 inch long, they have a white end. They are all over the rocks and seem to be growing in the lower part of the tank



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OMG! Me too!