Carrie's 150 Tall

[rainmaker]

Sounds good photon looks close to the reef radiance 165's I have full spectrum should work well

 

[rainmaker]

Let me know how it's going good to hear from someone with same tank

 

[CarrieB]

Do you have a build thread somewhere? I'd love to see what you've done with yours. I picked up two eensy-weensy Ocellaris clowns today. They'd better grow fast or they are going to look lost in that big tank.

The clowns were obligatory. Starting to think about what else I want to stock. Looking for bullet-proof, yet interesting. Haha.

Briefly fell in love with a blue carpet anemone in a display tank. Really gorgeous. Then I looked them up. Yikes!

 

[Khh27]

How's the new skimmer doing?

 

[CarrieB]

I think it's going to be fine. So far, I've only gotten really good production after I clean the tank, and it took me a couple of days to get it set at what I think is a good spot. However, I've left it alone for a couple of days and it seems to be doing it's stuff.

Since I only have the crab and the cuke in the tank, I wonder if there just isn't enough in the water to pull out until I throw some algae into the water column. I put in 5 ml of vinegar tonight - going to see if I can get the nitrates down. Kind of interested to see what happens and this seems the time to do it.

How's the little tang?

 

[Khh27]

Doing well. I probably got the most bio load of anyone on a 40. Lol skimmer goes crazy nasty!! Trying to get my biopellets working.. kinda a learning curve

 

[rainmaker]

I don't have a build thread I upgraded from a 90g to the 150 a little over a year ago . I have a, pair of black and white clowns that have spawned several times a couple of tangs a hippo and sailfin and a foxface a pigmy angel and a strawberry bassett

 

[CarrieB]

So I found some (very) small Ocellaris Clowns at Blue Ribbon Koi in Northern Va, and bought two on the way back from Baltimore last Saturday. I'm doing to Tank Transfer Method and they seem to be doing okay so far. Also dosed them with Praxipro yesterday as that seems to be recommended. They are so small I had trouble getting a decent picture and I'm thinking they might be a little lost in the big tank.

I'm debating getting a couple of Peppermint Shrimp from the same place. He's having a sale. I really think shrimp are cool.

 

[rainmaker]

My pair of clowns they host the candycane coral you might like a cleaner shrimp

 

[CarrieB]

Beautiful clowns!

Yes, I keep going back and forth between the skunk cleaners and the peppermint. Now I can't remember why I ended on the peppermints. Haha.

I finally did a big water change on Saturday. I think about 25%. Turns out, that's a lot of water for a 150g tank. Brought the nitrates down to about 30ppm by my best guess (you get what, five colors to choose from?). Tonight I tested again and I think it might be moving upward again already. However, the skimmer seems to like the vinegar dosing and is definitely making some yucky looking foam now. I think I'll give it another week and if there isn't any improvement, I'm going to try NoPox.

So payday today, and I ordered two Jebao PP-8s for the tank. Yay!! So looking forward to getting some decent flow in the tank and getting the old junkie powerheads out. I did debate (mostly with Khh27) about getting one PP-15 and one PP-8. But the tank is a tall, so 4' x 2', and everything I read said that no one puts these things at full speed, they always end up turning them down. The PP-15 was a bit more than the PP-8, and also a bit larger. I decided I'd probably rather have three PP-8s if I need more flow, because of the versatility at getting at all the spots in the tank. So I'll start with two and see how it goes. I suppose I probably ought to decide what kind of coral I want first.

So I have this little 20g extra tall tank that I've got set up to be a QT. It occurred to me tonight that I could get a little LED light over it and use it for coral QT, too. Or just to play with. I wonder if my DH would notice. Any suggestions?

 

[rainmaker]

How long have you had you tank running it might still be going through cycle. If be going through some nitrate problems my self started using no pox a couple months ago and have come down to 25 but can't get them down any more I do 15 gallon water changes once a week

 

[rainmaker]

I have a 28 nano that I use t 5s over that works well. I like the skunk shrimp because if you get the right one there very friendly will clean your hand as you clean the glass lol

 

[rainmaker]

Let me know how the pp 8's work in your tank. I might have to get me a couple and replace my old pumps. I also use a gyre 130 with them

 

[Khh27]

@CarrieB or @rainmaker do you know what the difference is in thee rw and pp

 

[rainmaker]

From what I have read the pp8 is just a newer version of the rw with a improved mounting base

 

[CarrieB]

The improved magnet seems to be the big thing. I guess the old ones didn't work well with thicket glass. I'll post some pix when they come in.

 

[rainmaker]

There are some good utube vids on the pp and rw

 

[CarrieB]

Pix of one of the new pumps. I put them in the tank and they blew a bunch of stuff off the rocks, so I'm happy so far. I realized that I don't have anything in the tank that can tell me whether the flow is too much, so I just put them on full in alternate mode (one goes one for a bit, then the other one goes on). The hair algae is blowing around like crazy. It's a button push to get them to work together and I can't hear them from the front of the tank. I don't know what the old magnets were like, but these are very strong. It took me a bit to get them apart.

Rainmaker, I realize I never answered your question. The tank has been set up a month, so it's definitely new. The rock was from an established tank, so the ammonia/nitrite cycle was quick, but I'm definitely hoping the nitrate thing is temporary. I think the LR came went through some die-off during the tank move. The PO moved all the rocks to get the fish out and then the tank sat for most of a week until I picked it up. There were two urchins that were already dropping spines on the way home and died soon afterwards, so I think the tank went through an ammonia cycle from being disturbed.

So I started NoPox last night to see if I could help it along. this morning the water was cloudy in the tank. I'm assuming bacterial bloom of some sort. Did you get that?

 

[Khh27]

Pix of one of the new pumps. I put them in the tank and they blew a bunch of stuff off the rocks, so I'm happy so far. I realized that I don't have anything in the tank that can tell me whether the flow is too much, so I just put them on full in alternate mode (one goes one for a bit, then the other one goes on). The hair algae is blowing around like crazy. It's a button push to get them to work together and I can't hear them from the front of the tank. I don't know what the old magnets were like, but these are very strong. It took me a bit to get them apart.

Rainmaker, I realize I never answered your question. The tank has been set up a month, so it's definitely new. The rock was from an established tank, so the ammonia/nitrite cycle was quick, but I'm definitely hoping the nitrate thing is temporary. I think the LR came went through some die-off during the tank move. The PO moved all the rocks to get the fish out and then the tank sat for most of a week until I picked it up. There were two urchins that were already dropping spines on the way home and died soon afterwards, so I think the tank went through an ammonia cycle from being disturbed.

So I started NoPox last night to see if I could help it along. this morning the water was cloudy in the tank. I'm assuming bacterial bloom of some sort. Did you get that?

How much nopox you use could be from introducing too much before the bacteria population could handle it.

 

[rainmaker]

No I didn't have that I would think your nitrates should of come down buy its self sense you have such a low bio load but the nopox could speed it up, as long as your skimmer is working good it should help clear it up.are you running carbon in your sump.