Help my nano

BigRedReefer MT

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If you have a small lfs like mine that doesn't sell water then you can get to water from grocery stores. The local Albertsons in my area sells it for 44 cents per gallon if you bring your own containers. It's not deionized, but it's better than tap till you get enough saved up for a ro/di unit
 

Hemmdog

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One of my lps sells a gal for 25 cents but im not sure if its rodi water. Thanks for the info i had no idea.
Wow that’s a good deal! I pay $0.65 a gallon here! Yea you want to always use RODI. No impurities. It’s not just the chlorine your worried about in tap water, there is other minerals in there that do not need to be added to our tanks and will cause long term issues. Your on a good site, you will pick stuff up quickly :)
 
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kyrialis

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If you have a small lfs like mine that doesn't sell water then you can get to water from grocery stores. The local Albertsons in my area sells it for 44 cents per gallon if you bring your own containers. It's not deionized, but it's better than tap till you get enough saved up for a ro/di unit

Thanks for the tip. Should i add that water slowly into my tank. So when im doing water changed ill add that water instead. I usually do about 1-2 gals of water since its only a 10 gal. So in about 5 water changes, would it be good enough to change my water.
 

scubasteve020

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I would love to have the hanna checkers but they are not in my budget. Ive been really wanting some type of coral like torch coral , hammer coral, or a frogspawn my family loves the idea of having anemones with clowns but im not ready for that so i think those look the most like them. Funny how you said that i got 2 neon hermits today. The only reason i was thinking about getting a star fish was to eat all my red algae and return it to my fish store. Ive been wanting xenia since i first saw them. I think they are beautiful and the pulsing is amazing i plan to keep it in its own ‘island’ so i wouldnt grow over my other corals.
Haha good thing you did your research on Xenia yes deff give it it’s only little island. If you want something cool that’s fun to watch and even feed is a blood fire shrimp. You can one for $30 they are worth it. Once everything is stable you can look into an anemone. My first mistake with an anemone was that it got sucked into my powerhead and got chopped lol nightmare to come home to after work had to do a huge water change and etc so that everything wouldn’t die. I have a Vortech powerhead from echotech and a company called nemprotect makes a special guard for certain powerheads that I had to buy before getting another anemone. they love water flow and that’s why it’s important to make sure everything that could be a potential hazard can be made safe for it.


As for a torch you can go with any type just also make sure that you have good light and good water flow and make sure it is away from all other corals because it’s sweeper tentacles will sting other corals.

I have a torch hybrid it’s a mixture of a regular torch with frogspwan and a hammer
 

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Thanks for the tip. Should i add that water slowly into my tank. So when im doing water changed ill add that water instead. I usually do about 1-2 gals of water since its only a 10 gal. So in about 5 water changes, would it be good enough to change my water.
I would do a full reset with only RODI and only using RODI to make your saltwater. The bacteria on your rocks will be fine. Other wise your just diluting harmful metals and minerals that you definitely want out.
 
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kyrialis

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Wow that’s a good deal! I pay $0.65 a gallon here! Yea you want to always use RODI. No impurities. It’s not just the chlorine your worried about in tap water, there is other minerals in there that do not need to be added to our tanks and will cause long term issues. Your on a good site, you will pick stuff up quickly :)

When i do water changes i usually put salt of course, ph buffer, calcium, strontium, molybdenum, iodine, stress zyme, stress coat, and tap water conditioner. Thanks its nice to have experienced people to help me out. Ive learned a lot from just this post! Ill continue to do research on corals.
 
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kyrialis

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I would do a full reset with only RODI and only using RODI to make your saltwater. The bacteria on your rocks will be fine. Other wise your just diluting harmful metals and minerals that you definitely want out.

I dont think ill be able to do that as i already have fish in my tank. I wouldn’t it stress my fish out if i did something like a 90% water change. Would i be able to keep them in a bucket while im change it to rodi water and then drip acclimate them to the new water.
 
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kyrialis

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Haha good thing you did your research on Xenia yes deff give it it’s only little island. If you want something cool that’s fun to watch and even feed is a blood fire shrimp. You can one for $30 they are worth it. Once everything is stable you can look into an anemone. My first mistake with an anemone was that it got sucked into my powerhead and got chopped lol nightmare to come home to after work had to do a huge water change and etc so that everything wouldn’t die. I have a Vortech powerhead from echotech and a company called nemprotect makes a special guard for certain powerheads that I had to buy before getting another anemone. they love water flow and that’s why it’s important to make sure everything that could be a potential hazard can be made safe for it.


As for a torch you can go with any type just also make sure that you have good light and good water flow and make sure it is away from all other corals because it’s sweeper tentacles will sting other corals.

I have a torch hybrid it’s a mixture of a regular torch with frogspwan and a hammer

Never heard of coral hybrids. Must be a good looking coral. Ive heard so much bad rep about how hard it is to keep anemones. Dont think ill be ready for that. Thanks for all the help btw. Im definitely going to look into the clown goby and some shrimp see what is right for me.
 

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When i do water changes i usually put salt of course, ph buffer, calcium, strontium, molybdenum, iodine, stress zyme, stress coat, and tap water conditioner. Thanks its nice to have experienced people to help me out. Ive learned a lot from just this post! Ill continue to do research on corals.
What salt are you using ? You shouldn’t need to add any of that stuff.
 
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kyrialis

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What salt are you using ? You shouldn’t need to add any of that stuff.

Im using instant ocean. My ph was very low with that salt but its the only salt in can find in local stores. The ph buffer helped a lot with my ph. I think before the buffer it was 7.4 or something like that. I haven’t gotten reef salt yet because its more expensive and i dont have any corals yet.
 

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Where do you live ? Most LFS’s sell RODI water. I fill up jugs still, I run over 200 gallons all together at my place. Your going to have a terrible time with coral if your using or have used tap.


Lol you say never ever use tap water. By the way instead of running around with jugs get this
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life...ocphy=9005495&hvtargid=pla-316086433617&psc=1

It’s called the r/o buddy just hook it up to a faucet. I have a bunch of 5gallon buckets takes like an hour to make 50gallons. I do it right in my bath tub just take off the shower head and attach it. Only thing I had to do was by like a 2 dollar fitting from homedepot. Trust me it’s worth the 60 dollars and they last a long time.
 

scubasteve020

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Lol you say never ever use tap water. By the way instead of running around with jugs get this
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life...ocphy=9005495&hvtargid=pla-316086433617&psc=1

It’s called the r/o buddy just hook it up to a faucet. I have a bunch of 5gallon buckets takes like an hour to make 50gallons. I do it right in my bath tub just take off the shower head and attach it. Only thing I had to do was by like a 2 dollar fitting from homedepot. Trust me it’s worth the 60 dollars and they last a long time.


I meant I agree 100 % never use tap water hah
 

Hemmdog

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Lol you say never ever use tap water. By the way instead of running around with jugs get this
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life...ocphy=9005495&hvtargid=pla-316086433617&psc=1

It’s called the r/o buddy just hook it up to a faucet. I have a bunch of 5gallon buckets takes like an hour to make 50gallons. I do it right in my bath tub just take off the shower head and attach it. Only thing I had to do was by like a 2 dollar fitting from homedepot. Trust me it’s worth the 60 dollars and they last a long time.
I would love to, but the water pressure in my condo is only 30psi, it’s horrible, I may look into a booster pump, a real plumber to set it up and hide it (for the wife) and a whole RODI system one of these days.
 

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Im using instant ocean. My ph was very low with that salt but its the only salt in can find in local stores. The ph buffer helped a lot with my ph. I think before the buffer it was 7.4 or something like that. I haven’t gotten reef salt yet because its more expensive and i dont have any corals yet.
Yea those buffers do a lot more harm than good. They mainly skyrocket your alkalinity which in turn raises your pH. When you do your 90% reset or 100% preferably, don’t add any additives. Just make sure it is mixed out to 1.025, don’t just trust the salt will mix out to how many gallons it’s rated for, always check it with your refractometer. You can buy reef crystals if that’s really all that’s available, do 50/50 instant ocean and reef crystals. That will give you decent numbers for coral.
 

scubasteve020

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I would love to, but the water pressure in my condo is only 30psi, it’s horrible, I may look into a booster pump, a real plumber to set it up and hide it (for the wife) and a whole RODI system one of these days.

Yea that sucks man hopefully you can get the fixed. You will need at least 50 psi, and a booster pump should work but if you can I’m sure you would rather have better water pressure throughout your whole condo. Lol time to bring out the home repair books.
 

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Yea that sucks man hopefully you can get the fixed. You will need at least 50 psi, and a booster pump should work but if you can I’m sure you would rather have better water pressure throughout your whole condo. Lol time to bring out the home repair books.
Lol true that. My whole complex is limited pressure, it’s horrible, no one can even wash their cars, nothing comes off! It’s a nightmare! Haha. I’m not sure what I can do about it, hopefully something.
 

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You could try upping your flow to help combat your cyano outbreak. As mentioned above before you add corals I would suggest higher resolution test kits. Salifert brand is reliable and the price tags are a bit less than red Sea or nyos, though I find nyos to be easier to read than others for nitrate and phosphate. Your tank looks pretty good beside your cyano. I'm gathering gear for my first nano tank myself.:)

If you are looking into a good nano tank look at the Nuvo series from innovative marine ! Keep in mind they can get pricey after some of the equipment upgrades. But they are great quality and look amazing. Lol I bought a Nuvo 30gallon long shallow reef tank and after all the bells and whistles the equipment alone cost me 3500 but you don’t need to buy all high end equipment haha could still easily do a great nano tank for a lot less
 

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