Newbie Stocking / aquascaping questions

Frop · Dec 11, 2016

ahiggins said:
I used to use chemipure as well but my corals started to look affected. I took it out and they improved.

Interesting. I heard you still need a tiny amount of nitrates for the corals. Maybe it was really too low?

ahiggins · Dec 12, 2016

at that time I was running about 20 nitrates-it was before I got my reactor. (I like stocking fish too lol)

rvamarcel · Dec 12, 2016

I'm waiting to see if the my algae problem is just part of the regular life of a new tank. I did drop a bag of purigen in chamber 2 (where I have the reticular foam for mechanical filtration and a bag of matrixcarbon). I've thought about getting a media basket from intank, but I don't know if it is necessary. Also, I'm reading about chemipure, but it may be redundant for what I already have. My algae seems to recede a bit overnight when the lights are off and come back progressively during the day as they are exposed my my lights.

At this point, I'm just going to do a 20% water change and see how it goes.

Now, in other news... lol

Yesterday a really nice guy from the Richmond forum wanted to prune and free up some space in his million gallon tank, so he gave me a few corals for free! A few of them require really good lights, so I will keep them close to the top until I upgrade my lights. The budget isn't there yet, so I may just replace the bulbs with new bulbs for the time being and maybe in a couple of weeks do the jump to a Prime HD+

The new corals are not in their final spot yet, but they are looking good. As soon as I move them I'll share some pictures.

rvamarcel · Dec 12, 2016

ahiggins said:
And then...and then...lol it's ok :) they will usually tell you if they're not happy. Staying closed, doing an umbrella move-they invert so they look like an umbrella.
I usually go through Richmond on the way to the outer banks every year.

Well, you should definitely let me now next time you come through Richmond!

ahiggins · Dec 12, 2016

yay pictures!!
Congrats on the score :)
There will be a live sale from @CherryCorals at the end of this month I believe...you have GOT to check it out. They have some amazing corals and theyre super nice guys. You can get some nice pieces for a great price

ahiggins · Dec 12, 2016

rvamarcel said:
Well, you should definitely let me now next time you come through Richmond!

I will :)

rvamarcel · Dec 12, 2016

ahiggins said:
yay pictures!!
Congrats on the score :)
There will be a live sale from @CherryCorals at the end of this month I believe...you have GOT to check it out. They have some amazing corals and theyre super nice guys. You can get some nice pieces for a great price

I need to get new lights before then. Yesterday I got a frag of montipora (undata, I believe) and I have the stock lights of a biocube 14. Some say it is sufficient, some others say no way that can be enough. All in all, I better hurry up to come up with the funds to get better lights soon.

DanielCervantes · Dec 12, 2016

ahiggins said:
Oh and why is there not pics of your new corals!? I need pics! Lol
I bought some playboy bunnies today (silly name I know)

Will you be fragging this anytime soon?

ReeferMadness80G · Dec 12, 2016

My rimless 14g Biocube reef recovery
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/My-rimless-14g-Biocube-reef-recovery.264110/

ReeferMadness80G · Dec 12, 2016

I have some pretty good info on here on my 14 gal. Ask any questions you want. PM me!

ahiggins · Dec 12, 2016

rvamarcel said:
I need to get new lights before then. Yesterday I got a frag of montipora (undata, I believe) and I have the stock lights of a biocube 14. Some say it is sufficient, some others say no way that can be enough. All in all, I better hurry up to come up with the funds to get better lights soon.

The ai prime will be good for that, youll have to run it at a higher intensity though, like maybe 50-60% just do it gradually so you dont fry anything.

ahiggins · Dec 12, 2016

DanielCervantes said:
Will you be fragging this anytime soon?

not anytime soon :( I just bought it last week and its got a single head with 2 babies. its gorgeous though :D

Frop · Dec 12, 2016

rvamarcel said:
I'm waiting to see if the my algae problem is just part of the regular life of a new tank. I did drop a bag of purigen in chamber 2 (where I have the reticular foam for mechanical filtration and a bag of matrixcarbon). I've thought about getting a media basket from intank, but I don't know if it is necessary. Also, I'm reading about chemipure, but it may be redundant for what I already have. My algae seems to recede a bit overnight when the lights are off and come back progressively during the day as they are exposed my my lights.

At this point, I'm just going to do a 20% water change and see how it goes.

Now, in other news... lol

Yesterday a really nice guy from the Richmond forum wanted to prune and free up some space in his million gallon tank, so he gave me a few corals for free! A few of them require really good lights, so I will keep them close to the top until I upgrade my lights. The budget isn't there yet, so I may just replace the bulbs with new bulbs for the time being and maybe in a couple of weeks do the jump to a Prime HD+

The new corals are not in their final spot yet, but they are looking good. As soon as I move them I'll share some pictures.

Grats on the coral! Wtg dood with the million gallon :)

Frop · Dec 15, 2016

Let's see how good this is..

ahiggins · Dec 16, 2016

good luck :)
I had chemipure elite for a few months but I saw my corals decline.
I cant 100% attribute it to that but when I took it out, I saw them improve

rvamarcel · Dec 16, 2016

Frop said:
Let's see how good this is..

I have purigen and matrix carbon and nothing has died yet (well... no CORALS have died yet). Let me rephrase, no deaths that could be linked to the use of those two products.

Frop · Dec 16, 2016

Ya idk. I just saw on another thread that low neutrients and high alk is bad. So I guess I'll have to pay attention to that. But my guess is if the neutrients are lower I can turn my lights up more and have less algae than I previously would've had. Hopefully feeding the corals better I guess.

rvamarcel · Dec 16, 2016

Frop said:
Ya idk. I just saw on another thread that low neutrients and high alk is bad. So I guess I'll have to pay attention to that. But my guess is if the neutrients are lower I can turn my lights up more and have less algae than I previously would've had. Hopefully feeding the corals better I guess.

I have read that high alk can actually be good for corals

http://www.redseafish.com/blog/enhanced-coloration-or-accelerated-growth/

ahiggins · Dec 16, 2016

Frop said:
Ya idk. I just saw on another thread that low neutrients and high alk is bad. So I guess I'll have to pay attention to that. But my guess is if the neutrients are lower I can turn my lights up more and have less algae than I previously would've had. Hopefully feeding the corals better I guess.

Thats why I cant 100% say it was chemipure...I was running low nutrients while at 11alk and while the corals that had been in there a while were great, all the "new" corals bleached out really bad. I removed the elite and switched salt and they have all came back :)

I dont really believe that anything over 10 is "good" for corals. maybe a case by case basis but in my experience, Ill never run over 10 again.