TYVM. That's high praise considering your tank and experience.

The film algae in my tank is starting to collect a bit, which his odd because my test kits are still showing nitrates well under the recommended maximum and phosphates are undetectable. My photo period was pretty long so I've taken a couple hours off to see if that slows down the film algae, although I'm concerned it will also slow down the coraline.

All other tank parameters are right where they should be. pH, temp, salinity, calcium, alk, etc. are right in the green. I'm running cuprisorb as well to take care of any trace copper that may be leeching from the rock/substrate or from the copper pipes in my house.

Film algae on the glass or on your rocks? Glass film algae is normal. Just be thankful your tank isn't on the main floor with sunlight hitting it! With my tank in the living room I get crazy film algae growth thanks to the sun :twised:

Same here with limited space half my 95 gallon gets sun and scraping the glass daily film algae on glass is one of those lil evils we get to live with however if it is on your rock/sand that is a different whole story

Well I added two cleaner shrimp because they are beautiful and because my daughter loves them :) also added two nudibranchs to help out with the algae. Next additions will be corals and a few astrae snails if I can find any. Golds didn't have a lot in today. Big Al's was very well stocked but those prices...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Just picked up my brand new Tunze 9016 at the post office. Ordered from J&L as a 9015, looks like they decided to upgrade me to the 9016.

First impressions:
- wow this thing is a lot bigger than I expected
- The water doesn't go very far into the throat of the collection cup which is surprising
- wow this thing is a lot bigger than I expected
- motor is a little bit louder than the eshopps but seems to blend into the sound from the pumps so it's not too bad and I expect it will quiet down a little once it's broken in
- lots of microbubbles at first but within an hour there are almost none

Hopefully this will fix my obsession with microbubbles in my tank.

Added an ozone generator to my Tunze 9016 this weekend. It is a real balancing act getting enough ozone in to affect my ORP reading but not adding so much that it escapes the skimmer/tank. I've read many warnings about ozone in the home and I'm aware that if it's detectable by your sniffer then it's bad.

The effect was amazing though. I would say that overnight my tank started showing signs of improved health. There was an obvious reduction in film algae on my glass and rocks. After my daylight period on Sunday (8 hours) I didn't even have to scrub the glass. My corals are brighter and my anemones are looking much more "perky". The fish seem to be better off too, although I have never had problems with the fish. (aside from a missing Chromis that I later discovered had tried to go for a walk).

My starting ORP was sub-one hundred and I was able to get it up to 192 within two days. Don't know if I'll be able to get it any higher without increasing the amount of ozone I'm generating. Which in turn presents a problem with it leaking from the skimmer/tank. Anyone have experience with a Tunze 9016 and ozone?

Hey why'd you decide to run ozone? I dont know of anybody that runs it. Always wondered how and what it does for skimmers to make them work so much better.

I'd be interested in this as well. Can't say that I've heard of any reefer running ozone on their tanks.

Overnight I had about a 100% increase on what was already collected in my skim cup during the previous week. According to Tunze the ozone helps break down the long protein molecules into ones small enough to be skimmed. Skimmers basically use O2 as an oxidizer in the reaction chamber; with an ozone generator it uses 02 and the MUCH more oxidizing O3.

I decided to run ozone because I added a couple pieces of SPS coral and with my tank being relatively young I want to maximize my chances of the coral surviving. I ran a Coralife Turbo Twist but wasn't getting enough dwell time on the lamp to make any difference because it is inline with my main return pump.

I was dubious about adding it because so many people said you don’t need it if you've got a UV sterilizer or your tank is mature or whatever. It is more complicated to use and there are safety concerns but seeing what an impact it has made in such a short time has convinced me it’s something I want to use. The generator has a built in ORP controller and even with the probe being an extra cost it is still cheaper than many UV sterilizers and uses less electricity.

A good example is that last night before dosing my tank with phytoplankton my ORP value was 192. Immediately after adding the phyto my ORP value decreased to 148. This morning it was 178 and climbing again.

My concerns are mostly around increasing the ORP value of my tank water to a safe and effective level without A) exposing my family or livestock to dangerous levels of ozone and B) slowing down the growth of my coral or coralline.

Well it’s been nearly seven days since the Ozone generator got installed and it has made a huge difference in the health of my tank. My ORP reading went <100 to 250 and holding over the course of the week. I have been slowly increasing the ORP value and so far all my livestock seem to be thriving under the new conditions.

The appearance of my display tank is noticeably improved with far less film algae after my light cycle and my sand bed, which I was having problems with, is MUCH cleaner. I have used my magnetic scrubber twice since installing the Ozone; once the same day and then last night to clean up sporadic algae blooms. My rock is much cleaner as well, which I attributed to my urchin’s appetite and the ozone preventing more algae build up. The tank is much livelier as well which is probably from the decreasing amount of algae and detritus forcing the crabs, snails and other cleaners to venture out for food. I was going to get a tiger cowrie but I don’t think I have enough left on my sand to feed him and the crabs, snails, shrimp, cucumber, conch, sand sifting star, etc.

I honestly didn’t think it would make this much of a difference in my tank since it was in decent shape to begin with and I was using good carbon and Rowaphos in a reactor. I did intend to document some of the changes but decided it would be too embarrassing to highlight the low points of my aquarium to show the progress it has made.

Parameter check shows all the values I’m watching are right in the green.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~0 (It showed color but still didn’t match the low range of the test)
Phosphate: 0 (Colorimeter on the way for a more accurate picture than the Seachem test I’m using)
Copper: 0
pH: 8.18
ORP: 250
Alk: 208
Ca: 421
K: 1300
Mg: ~400 (Red Sea test kit, pretty complicated so I’m not 100% accurate with it yet)

Getting a bit more livestock tonight for the Nano and my main tank: RBTA, Plate Coral, and a bit of cleaning crew refresh.

Thanks for a detail progression write up! Definitely worth following this thread, thanks Shawn!

~Tony

Good to hear that everything is trucking along! Where is that FTS at??

Thanks for the encouragement! I wish I had followed a more scientific method in evaluating the ozone but it's hard to find the time and energy after a long day to do a proper write-up etc. I try not to be a fan-boy for any particular product but I've been amazed so far.

I dunno, where's your's? lol

OH SNAP! touche. haha.

It was a big night for livestock for my tank last night. Did a refresh on some of my cleaning crew; 20 nassarius snails, 5 turbos, and 3 emerald crabs (one male and two females). In addition I added a RBTA to my daughter's tank and a plate coral to mine.

Also I'd like to talk about my ambitions as a reef keeper. When I was six years old my parents gave me my own fish tank, since I am allergic to cats and dogs (I love my two dogs now though) and my mother is terrified of snakes. The first fish I asked to put in it was a yellow tang... Of course being six I didn't know that there were essentially two environments that fish are found in: freshwater and saltwater. Naturally my heart was broken because I only had a freshwater tank so I left with a few guppies and the good old flying fox algae cleaner. As the years went on I wanted to make the jump to saltwater but didn't have anywhere near enough money to do it on my own. So I planned to set up my first marine tank the "right" way. Meaning I would have to wait until my finances were such that I wouldn't have to buy low quality gear and that I could keep whatever I want (within reason).

Last night I finally got my yellow tang... I fell asleep in my chair watching him swim so gracefully and slowly. I really got an excellent specimen too, his yellow color is deep and rich and there are no flecks of other colors. His fins are all intact with no nips or tears. He ate twice for me last night and once at the LFS before I left with him. There were no problems at all acclimating him, I did the drip method just to ensure success, and as soon as he was released into my tank he started doing slow laps around the rock work. Within an hour he wasn't shy at all and wouldn't hide if I came to have a look. It's interesting that even though he is just about flourescent yellow his skin does not react to the purple night lights; he's black as coal under them.

For me this was an event that closes the loop on a lot of my ambitions in aquaria. I have a thriving reef tank done my way and my yellow tang "Maui" to enjoy it.

Livestock list as of now:
- 2 green (blue) chromis
- 2 pink skunk clownfish
- 1 hippo tang (Dori; my daughter picked the name)
- 1 yellow tang (Maui)
- 1 green brittle star
- 4 emerald crabs (three females and a male)
- 40+/- blue and red legged hermit crabs
- 3 peppermint shrimp
- 2 skunk shrimp
- 1 sand sifting star
- 1 black knobbly sea cucumber
- 1 spider conch
- 2 lettuce nudibranchs
- 1 green carpet anemone (Sarlacc The Magnificient)
- 1 RBTA
- 1 metallic yellow rock flower anemone
- 30 nassarius snails (give or take)
- 15 turbo snails
- 10 astrea snails
- 10 margarita snails
- 1 rock crab living in my sump

Coral list:
- 1 six headed torch coral colony (green)
- 1 metallic orange ricordia colony
- 1 daisy polyp coral colony
- 1 green star polyp colony
- six colonies of assorted zoas and palys (some are brand name some are beautiful no-name)
- 1 metallic green plate coral (started extending its feeding polyps within five minutes of being in my tank)
- 1 blue staghorn frag
- 1 ponape birdsnet frag
- 1 frogspawn frag (which seems to be growing like I'm giving it steriods...)
- 1 red, white and blue acan frag that is doing well but isn't thriving where it currently resides
- 1 blue mystery coral that hitchhiked in on my live rock

On a side note my ORP reading was 258 after my daylight cycle. The setpoint for my ORP controller is 250 so my ozone generator hasn't produced ozone in a couple days now. It's almost like my ORP hit a tipping point and is increasing on its own now.

Cool story bro.

It's amazing how many people never end up with the fish that got them motivated in the hobby to begin with. Congrats on getting your tang and your in before the export ban :)

Indeed, a great story. My son who is 6 has had a fresh water tank in his bedroom for a year now and he has started to ask me when he can convert it to salt :lol:

It is always good to follow your childhood dream and you finally got to make it happen....



On a side note

FTS PLEASE!!!!!!!!

I get the feeling that a lot of our hobby may be "in before the ban". I try to buy ORA fish where I can because I have a strong belief in what they are doing and I recognize the possibility that fish farms may in the future be the only way for us to get exotic fish. And rightly so, if the technology and husbandry techniques support it.

Thanks for hearing my story guys :) It's the small things in life that make a difference to a person's well being.

It has been a hard week at work. More than a week, a couple weeks now... I get home after work and someone knocked over a bunch of my coral. My frogspawn was resting on its side, my acans were almost upside down, etc. I grab my CA glue and get more miserable by the minute as I'm gluing the errant coral back in place. Stupid rock won't stupid stick to the stupid glue BAH!!

Finally all coral is moved into place and I stand back to look at it when down to my left I see my RBTA has climbed up a bunch of my rock work and my GSP frag is in danger of nem warfare. Oh look it's also stinging my favourite zoas. They are just brown and orange swampy tidal pool zoas but I call them Cleveland Browns, after my favourite NFL team.

As I'm glaring at my RBTA there's a flick of movement in the edge. As I clue in to what I've been staring at it dawns on me. My pink skunks are playing in the RBTA! Hot damn!!! I've been hoping for this as they don't show any interest in my Haddon's and there they are playing and bobbing along. That's great! I look around at the rest of my tank and wow my torch coral polyps are getting long. That rock anemone is the most gorgeous banana yellow I've ever seen! Hey look my yellow tang Maui is actually eating nori for the first time! A colony of the prettiest pink and purple zoas that I think look like Utter Chaos even though they most likely aren't.

So cheers to my pink skunk clowns and even my RBTA for making me smile and brightening my outlook after a rough couple of weeks.


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...3-IMG_1078.png

P.S. You can see my Cleveland Browns just to the left of my RBTA and pricing starts at $500/polyp.

hahaha, this made me laugh! :lol:

A bargain at twice the price! :)

So I’m still doing battle with my Hanna Colorimeter Phosphate LR checker. The first one I got from Eseasonsgear.com (don’t shop there; they are TERRIBLE) was broken out of the box but I managed to get a reading of .18ppm of phosphate. All my chemical tests say almost zero for phosphates as does the growth of my SPS and LPS coral. My Ponape birds nest is branching and growing despite my green brittle star crawling on it at night. The polyps I have are growing pretty slowly (zoas, daisy polyps, GSP, palys, etc.) but they are growing and splitting etc.

Chemical tests I have used:
API – Would not indicate any phosphates
Salifert – Would not indicate any phosphates
ELOS – Would not indicate any phosphates
Seachem – Gave a color that is just starting to show on their scale (<.01ppm)

As I am fairly confident that the checker I was sent had already been returned to this company for being broken, I went to a LFS and bought another. The readings the first checker had given me (all ranging between .09-.28ppm for my tank) don’t agree with the new checker, which also reads high (.08-.24ppm).

Since using the first colorimeter I replaced about 250ml of Rowaphos that was just a few days old with 250ml of PO4x4 and then again with 500ml. And yet my phosphate levels are either staying high or increasing, all according to the checkers. My carbon/GFO reactor is taking water from my sump and returning it to the sump. The carbon is full blast (Rox.8) and the GFO chamber is just fast enough to make the surface boil.

I did a 20%ish water change yesterday with freshly mixed RO/DI water which caused something in my tank to release a huge amount of offspring. Which in turn were promptly consumed by anything that could move. I stirred my sand last night which no doubt released a bunch of phosphates into the water column. The water is very bright and sparkles like diamonds under my metal halides. I haven’t tested today but I’m suspecting that the colorimeters will show very high levels again. My ozone generator is plugging away and only produces ozone when my tank's ORP reading is under the set point (currently 350).

Yesterday I ordered a Hanna ULR Phosphorus colorimeter and will do the conversions to PO4 based on those values. From what I’ve heard the phosphorus checker provides much more reliable readings than do the phosphate checkers. Also I ordered 1L of Rowaphos since it looks like I’ll be using that stuff up like it’s free… I also ordered 5 new 10” inserts in case my GFO cartridge isn’t letting the water flow properly (it’s a long shot).

Does anyone out there have any insight in to why/how my phosphates can read so high for a colorimeter but not for good quality chemical tests? And if they are so high then why are my corals and livestock not pushing up daisies?

Can't comment too much on your readings but I will say that I previously always got zero readings in my reef using the phosphate checker. i'm happy getting actual values to work with with my ULR although the darn reagents are much less common.

If it works more reliably then I'm happy. Readings with the phosphate checkers don't seem very accurate/consistent.

I use the Hanna phosphate checker and found it to be very accurate and consistent. The trick is to be sure your vial is clean (no fingerprints or smudges) and mix the colour solution for close to the max time (3 mins). Also be sure to press and hold the Add C2 or you won't get the full 3 min countdown. If you just press and release, you will get a reading but it may not be accurate.

Like you, I found the other chemical tests reading zero while the Hanna read higher. But as my phosphates dropped further, the Hanna also consistently read zero. So I believe the Hanna.

That's fair enough and if it works for you then awesome. I am dubious about how well it is working for me though.

I always use the same vial. When I clean it I soak it in vinegar to remove any mineral deposits and the soak and rinse in RO/DI water. I do use the timer on the checker. I don't normally mix for three minutes, just two or so.

Well I guess I will just swap out the POx4 frequently, although I might just switch back to the Rowaphos. Just don't see how the tests are always higher then lower then higher still etc.

I always mix close to the 3 min max. I find 2 min is not enough to dissolve all the colour mix.

What do you mean when you say you "use" the timer? Do you add the vial the 2nd time after mixing, and before pressing and holding the C2?

Yep, exactly as the instructions indicated. The kit came with two vials and one gives me lower readings such as in the .15ppm range for my tank and 0.00ppm on my RO/DI water and the other vial gives me values in the .25ppm range and .04ppm in my RO/DI water. So I started using the one that gave me the lower values but even then the results have been wildly different. I haven't actually ran two tests back to back on my tank water yet but I am willing to bet that I'd get different numbers that exceed the +-4ppm accuracy.

Yes, I always use the same vial for the complete test. Don't know what else to suggest.... Hopefully your reagent powder is OK. Good luck.

Believe it or not I've eliminated the reagent as the potential failing point. I bought refills from two locations so I now have three different expiration dates for my reagents.

Getting a couple kinds of coralline algae growing in my tank now. One is a deep red, pretty much a burgandy color. The other is the lighter purple that covers most of the live rock I purchased. Funny how it is adhering to the plastic items in my tank first though. My protein skimmer, a power head, probes, temperature sensor etc. All are turning purple but the dry rock has only recently started to get purple.

No sign of my black knobbly cucumber for a couple weeks now. He's either buried in the deep sand and loving life or has completely been consumed/decayed. I haven't lost any fish or anything so it seems unlikely that he has died...

Going to refresh my blue legged hermit crab population this weekend if I get the chance. They've been dying as they fight over shells but I'm pretty certain I have a predator eating them. Bits of broken shells etc. and an obvious decline in their numbers. I'm about 75% sure that it is my green brittle star that's doing it but I do hear the occasional snapping sound from the aquarium. I always thought it was my skunk shrimp but I'm beginning to suspect a mantis shrimp of some sort...

All corals are alive and doing very well as are all my anemones, fish, inverts. Baby snails on the rock last night, not sure what species yet though they are all too small to make out yet.

Phosphates are still through the roof according to my colorimeter but still not showing any signs that I can see of high phosphates. Ordered the phosphorus colorimeter from reefsupplies.ca so I'll see if I can get that to agree with the phosphate test. From what I've read it's more reliable than their phosphate model.

Full Tank Shot
 

OK, try not to be too brutal. It's my first marine tank...

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-D...o/untitled.jpg

Not pictured is a small hippo tang, and you have to try to find my pink skunk clowns playing silly in the RBTA.

What is there to be brutal about?... that looks AMAZING!!

Thanks, I guess I see more flaws than other people do. The diatoms in my sand bed are a bit of a problem and my marco dry rock isn't getting purple as quickly as I'd like.

Tank looks good! All it needs now is time :-)

Your tank looks great!!
Check your mg if your worried bout coraline algae.

I monitor my Mg every week or two. According to the RSM kits it is usually in the ideal range. Possibly a phosphate issue according to my Hanna checker but no other test kits lol.

I had bought the cuke to sift the sand bed as my star doesn't seem to get deep enough and my green brittle never leaves the rock. But the cuke is MIA.

Added an Apex JR controller last night in order to use it as a light controller since Coralife can't put out a product that actually functions.

So far so good, it set up pretty easily and it's publishing graphs etc. I haven't opened the internet to it yet because I want to ensure I'm not exposing my entire network.

The temperature probe agrees with the JBJ controller I've been using for my heater. That's the only probe that comes with it. Also I'm only able to run my lights on the power bar since I have four plugs for my lights and the power bar that came with it only has four outlets. Maybe I'll upgrade to the eight outlet bar if things continue to go well.

My expectations for this unit are relatively low and as long as it controls my lights as expected I won't mind investing in additional probes etc. I wanted to get the oxygen saturation probe for it but it's $600 just for the probe! You would still need to spend $125ish on the controller!! I'll settle for pH, temperature, ORP, Salinity etc.

One thing that's kind of goofy is that every module you add on comes with a temperature probe. How exactly is that useful? With the JR you can add up to four modules so what exactly would I do with five temperature probes?

Anyway the JR is less than 1/2 the price of the full blown Apex controller so I'm happy with the limitations on it and what it comes with etc. The only thing is that damned power bar lol... Would be nice to control my pumps, UV, ozone, skimmer, etc.

Last night I added a couple banded coral shrimp to my main tank and one to my daughter's tank. They are all a little nervous but within a couple hours the two in my tank got pretty comfortable and were doing what appeared to be shrimp sex. I thought geeze that was quick, I was worried they'd tear each other up.

Managed to find a first grade maxima for my daughter's tank. It's a tiny little sucker, only about 1" or so but already you can see it's going to be a special one... The shell is so white and clean, it's too bad they don't stay that way because the gorgeous blue flesh would rock the milky white shell.

The testing of the Apex Jr went well so I have connected it to my main lighting. Would have been nice to have more than four outlets but I'm OK getting another power bar if things continue to go well. Also it's good to note that the Jr doesn't support power consumption monitoring, unless you get another power bar... I am a little disappointed at the included software. There doesn't seem to be near as much flexibility in the graphing features as I want. I'd also like to change some graphics on the dashboard but there doesn't appear to be a way to do it.