SuthernReefer
Active Member
Hey y'all, great site here. Seems the majority of my Google searches would lead me to this forum, so I figured I'd just go ahead and join lol.
Ran freshwater for years, but it's been almost 10 years since I've had a tank and Ive never attempted saltwater. Finally decided to jump in last week.
Got a 75 gallon that I plan to keep coral and fish. LPS and soft/later want to attempt sps for mixed coral. Currently, I'm sitting at about 7 days into my cycle. I have about 80 lbs of caribsea's fiji pink "Arag-alive" and 12 lbs of LIFE rock. I have 60 lbs of the Marco ReefSaver rock on the way that I'll be doing NSA aquascape with. Fluval Aquaclear 110 power filter and 2 Aqueon 950 powerheads.
Yesterday, I decided to get some clowns and bio-spira (small bottle for 50 gallons, was only thing in stock) to try and speed up the cycling process. Well, stupid me let the wife pick the fish. 2 Ocellaris and I never even paid attention to the health of the fish. Not typical of me, but for whatever reason, I was too stuck on looking at other products and had no interest in the fish other than for cycling. Big mistake. I get home and acclimate them to the tank water and soon as I put them in the aquarium, I notice the dreaded ich on the sides of the little clowns. I complain to the wife, but tell her it's not her fault, I should have been paying attention. I tell myself, no big deal, I've treated ich before. Then I decide to do some research and find out that marine ich is a different animal than freshwater ich. I thought I could kill it off by raising the temp and salt. Nope.
I've got some cupramine on the way, will check lfs tomorrow to see if they have it to start sooner and begin my 4-6 week journey of treating my fish and tank (no QT right now).
All of that to basically ask: Is 2 950's enough water flow for lps? Right now it seems like my clowns are trying to stay out of the flow and more would be even harder for fish to swim. Though I'm sure the current will change with aquascaping.
They have been in the bottom right corner of my tank for over 24 hours. Only move to get food. I'm curious if the water flow is too much or if it's the ich that has them staying there. There is a cave made from the life rock that they could use to get out of the flow, but they won't explore. I know it's probably the ich, but I ask because they seem to struggle to stay out of the current once they get in, but again they are very young. I have the jets pointing up and even turned 1 off. Tried both off and the filter off just to see if they would move but they stay in that corner. Powerheads are on opposite sides about 7 inches down from top and 4 inches off back wall.
Actually as I'm typing, one just went to the cave finally.
Temp is at 77°
Last checked water parameters day before adding fish and the bacteria. All was still zero across the board- Ammonia, Nitrite, and nitrate. Will check again tomorrow.
PH is 8.2
Salinity is 1.026
Questions:
How much more gph should I add? I get so many different answers when googling. With the openness of NSA, I worry the fish will struggle in so much current if I added more? Or is 2 950s enough for lps?
How do you determine between moderate flow and high flow for a given tank?
Do you want powerheads always pointing up or do you want it hitting everywhere water is calm?
Should I add my NSA aquascape before my 4-6 week Cupramine or wait? Guess I'm worried it'll absorb copper or ich parasites lol.
After those 6 weeks do you just do a water change and add carbon back to filter to neutralize copper? I will ofcourse keep check o copper levels.
Once ich and copper is taken care of, I can then add more fish and coral, correct?
Over the next few weeks I will upgrade lighting, get 4 stage RODI system, probably from BRS unless yall have other recommendations. And add an ATO.
Thanks in advance and I apologize for the long post.
Ran freshwater for years, but it's been almost 10 years since I've had a tank and Ive never attempted saltwater. Finally decided to jump in last week.
Got a 75 gallon that I plan to keep coral and fish. LPS and soft/later want to attempt sps for mixed coral. Currently, I'm sitting at about 7 days into my cycle. I have about 80 lbs of caribsea's fiji pink "Arag-alive" and 12 lbs of LIFE rock. I have 60 lbs of the Marco ReefSaver rock on the way that I'll be doing NSA aquascape with. Fluval Aquaclear 110 power filter and 2 Aqueon 950 powerheads.
Yesterday, I decided to get some clowns and bio-spira (small bottle for 50 gallons, was only thing in stock) to try and speed up the cycling process. Well, stupid me let the wife pick the fish. 2 Ocellaris and I never even paid attention to the health of the fish. Not typical of me, but for whatever reason, I was too stuck on looking at other products and had no interest in the fish other than for cycling. Big mistake. I get home and acclimate them to the tank water and soon as I put them in the aquarium, I notice the dreaded ich on the sides of the little clowns. I complain to the wife, but tell her it's not her fault, I should have been paying attention. I tell myself, no big deal, I've treated ich before. Then I decide to do some research and find out that marine ich is a different animal than freshwater ich. I thought I could kill it off by raising the temp and salt. Nope.
I've got some cupramine on the way, will check lfs tomorrow to see if they have it to start sooner and begin my 4-6 week journey of treating my fish and tank (no QT right now).
All of that to basically ask: Is 2 950's enough water flow for lps? Right now it seems like my clowns are trying to stay out of the flow and more would be even harder for fish to swim. Though I'm sure the current will change with aquascaping.
They have been in the bottom right corner of my tank for over 24 hours. Only move to get food. I'm curious if the water flow is too much or if it's the ich that has them staying there. There is a cave made from the life rock that they could use to get out of the flow, but they won't explore. I know it's probably the ich, but I ask because they seem to struggle to stay out of the current once they get in, but again they are very young. I have the jets pointing up and even turned 1 off. Tried both off and the filter off just to see if they would move but they stay in that corner. Powerheads are on opposite sides about 7 inches down from top and 4 inches off back wall.
Actually as I'm typing, one just went to the cave finally.
Temp is at 77°
Last checked water parameters day before adding fish and the bacteria. All was still zero across the board- Ammonia, Nitrite, and nitrate. Will check again tomorrow.
PH is 8.2
Salinity is 1.026
Questions:
How much more gph should I add? I get so many different answers when googling. With the openness of NSA, I worry the fish will struggle in so much current if I added more? Or is 2 950s enough for lps?
How do you determine between moderate flow and high flow for a given tank?
Do you want powerheads always pointing up or do you want it hitting everywhere water is calm?
Should I add my NSA aquascape before my 4-6 week Cupramine or wait? Guess I'm worried it'll absorb copper or ich parasites lol.
After those 6 weeks do you just do a water change and add carbon back to filter to neutralize copper? I will ofcourse keep check o copper levels.
Once ich and copper is taken care of, I can then add more fish and coral, correct?
Over the next few weeks I will upgrade lighting, get 4 stage RODI system, probably from BRS unless yall have other recommendations. And add an ATO.
Thanks in advance and I apologize for the long post.
