Urgh seriously.

Sarah24! · Jul 9, 2018

Hello

I’m lol pretty sure @Fin they will become caviar before little clowns. Sadly, but I knew it would happen. Maybe if I could move the rock they are on and the clowns possibly. Yet they decided to lol use a main base rock instead, but they have almost a full 180 protection from the frogspawn they host. Now I’m not sure if that will sting other fish, but I’m sure if a hermit crab makes his way up there for dinner, I don’t think stinging the shell will matter much. I’m not certain the clowns would knock him off anyway. M

Even if they do make it to little Nemo’s, I’m sure they will become food for everything else. I will have to do some research and see what I find out. Hopefully someone lovely member will see how she has babies coming lol let’s chime in. But, it is exciting and maybe explains why she was such a jerk to all the other fish recently.

Oh and yes lol I have started using my iPhone now, the whole thing with my laptop kinda did it for me. My phone is easier to lock since it does it in 15 seconds if I don’t touch it. However, I have forgotten my password a few times and accidentally locked my phone. It was a good thing I remebered where I wrote it down. Of course lol this is after my phone was disabled (little did I know) so Apple had to clear it, and it’s working today

. It’s how I took that snazzy jazzy video of my clowns kissing their children goodnight and making sure the bed bugs don’t bite. I just can’t upload it

, well it uploads but errors after it does.

jsker · Jul 9, 2018

Just catching up

Sarah24! · Jul 9, 2018

lol @jsker you know I have missed you, how are things going for you? Did you see my clowns are gonna be parents yay

.

Fin · Jul 9, 2018

Sarah24! said:
Oh and yes lol I have started using my iPhone now, the whole thing with my laptop kinda did it for me.

Good!

jsker · Jul 9, 2018

Sarah24! said:
lol @jsker you know I have missed you, how are things going for you? Did you see my clowns are gonna be parents yay.

Busy like yourself with work

Yes I did, that is pretty cool event.

Sarah24! · Jul 10, 2018

Good morning friends,

So as I lol struggle to stay awake as I wrote this, (if it’s written poorly, I blame lack of sleep) I have seem to find even more eggs than in the tiny little section that I took pics of. When I’m able to move the frogspwan (I am seriously if he or she bites me again, they are gonna be served on toast.
But, (lol jk with the toast and it’s kinda ewww), the whole back rock is covered with eggs that sits directly behind the frogspawn.

I have also noticed that since I have reduced my light my acro such as pc rainbow has colored up again nicely. I took pics of when I first received it from @addictreef on May 11, and took a current picture of it, which was yesterday while I was sadly home sick. But in two months I think it has done very well, along with my table acro. Most of my acros have taking two months to color up.

So could it really be true that you do not need more than 200 par to grow acros and get nice colors. The little Yes meter is leaning that direction.

oh and FYI the iPhone camera really well are not very good. They really hate blue lights and water movement. Gosh please say it ain’t so ( Yes I know you can’t say ain’t because ain’t isn’t a word), that the old 90s flip phone camera is better than a 800 (dollar free iPhone)? It just may be so.

Not to mention since sadly I am sick still, I will do a good water change again. I have noticed that in a weeks period if I leave them off, my nitrates are higher but water lols clearer. If i remove them my nitrates are lower, but always have something floating around.

And with this lol poorly written sentence and post lol I’m off to my fuzzy blanket (funny how it’s almost 90 outside already and I’m in a blanket freezing, and not to mention the floor next to the toilet seems to be pretty comfty darn stomach flu). The last thing I want in my super comfty bed is my regeritated water and crackers. So gross. But I could always lay next to the sump, and have a funnel going into it with the top right next to me. I would not have to feed the fish for awhile, but hey it may raise my nitrates, Urgh .

The first pic is of my pc rainbow from @addictreef and was received on May 11. The second picture is of the same pc rainbow as of yesterday.

Fin · Jul 10, 2018

Man, the glamorous lives of doctors. Sleeping by the toilet on a fuzzy blanket. Not saying it never happened to me in my younger days, when I was occasionally overserved adult beverages.

Sarah24! · Jul 10, 2018

Lol @Fin gosh if being served alcoholic beverages makes you feel like you have stomach flu, geez I’m glad I’m allergic and can’t drink. I have since moved to said comfty bed, I just either have to move quick or make sure I’m over my huge beach towel and bucket. It’s a good thing I have lots and lots of those car fresheners. Maybe I can tape them to the wall like 500 of them. (It’s the only smell that literally make me want to throw up, is the smell from that very action). Lol yes I’m a wimp I use scented ointment under my nose when I’m at work. It blocks all even nasty odors, it’s great except unless you shower and make sure to scrub it off, you miss the good smells such as good food.

Fin · Jul 10, 2018

Hope you get to feeling better. I imagine it is hard to avoid getting ill being around sick people all the time. I hope you have a good immune system.

Sarah24! · Jul 11, 2018

Hello dear friends,

I’m sorry I haven’t written on my thread I have tried but just have been sooo exhausted. I have been home sick and was gonna go back to work tomorrow yay. Well until I decided to take my niece and nephews for pizza at papa murphies. It turned out to be ummm a well bad idea. Not only did my niece throw up all over me, which panicked papa murphies, but sadly she made me throw up because I can’t tolerate the odor. Which I accidentally hit their serving table and glass before I could find a trash can.

Needless to say they closed early bevose of me

(sorry papa murphies) and I was feeling better. It appears I still have the stomach flu bug. But was so proud I had finally gained five pounds and no half to 79 Urgh I hate being sick.

Yet my tank has been super relaxing and has helped me fall asleep. Yes my clowns still have tons of little babe Nemo’s but curious if other fish will eat the eggs. Any one has this experience?

I’m so hitting the ice cream shop once I’m better three times a day lol.

Fin · Jul 12, 2018

Boy, never a dull moment with you.

That must have been quite a scene at the pizza place. Yikes! Sorry that happened to you. Hoping today is a better day.

Sarah24! · Jul 13, 2018

Hello friends

So sorry I have been sick and just had other issues going on so been kinda quiet. But with my bowl of fruity pebbles and cold glass of milk in hand, here we go (it’s short however) oh and for the love of ice cream @cracker do t make me snort some Dino pebbles out my nose) sorry miss all my friends.

Anyway been seeing a lot of posts about return pump flow.
So I have a 240 gallon tank, with a 40 breeder and I run twin current usa 3100 gph return pumps. Now if I turn them up full power, it blows everything around and makes a mess.
So I run them about 30%, which means I’m probably certain with them running lower I don’t have 20 times the return flow. I usually have all four return lines pointing towards my sps coral.

With this said should I turn them up more and just point the Return ends up or any suggestions. I had to do water change I went from like 20 ppm to 60 in a day. No dead fishies or corals. I removed the filter socks seem to have better luck with out them. Did a 20 gallon change and it’s back down to 20 (wondering if I messed my test up) and will do another 30 or 40 today. (If I’m able to, long story). Any suggestions to drop nitrates fairly fast other than water changes?

cracker · Jul 13, 2018

Hi Miss Sarah, Sorry You haven't felt well. I promise not to mess with You while eating fruity pebbles . Also" for the love of ice cream?" How did You know this pushin 60, redneck has a huge soft spot for ice cream ?
As for the sky high nitrates? I would think water changes would be best but that's a" lot "of water to make for a Monster tank. Surely there is a pad of some type that will absorb No3. I'll take a look.
As for the return pumps? I for one like all the turnover as possible ! You will have to experiment with pointing nozzles in differing directions to differentiate which is best for all the flow Ya can !
Is it possible to just remove them ? This way there be less pointed flow.

OK there are a bunch of No3 reducing pads. Amazon, petco etc They weren't pricey. I don't know how efficient these product are or if any bad side effects. There was pellet media stuff also. I'm curious Do You have an LFS that' s actually local ?
Good Luck to You Kind Lady & hope You feel better soon !

Sarah24! · Jul 15, 2018

Hello friends,

Well I haven’t posted for a while, sorry guys

(all is forgiven if ice cream is on me

. So my 240 is I guess going against normal reefing as one could say. It seems that all of my sps are doing the same if not better, as well as all my fish are doing really good. Now even more odd all my lps and softies are doing good also, but my nitrates suck.

Normally sps wants super clean water, which I usually always have. Since I don’t make my own water (yet) I still buy my salt water at lfs. So anyway I tested my water oh jimmney cricket I think Tuesday (yup) and the first test was like 20 ppm but I re tested because I wasn’t actually sure I had all my drops in. So hehe retested and well it tetsted at 160 ppm went from light orange to red. This kinda scared me (well actually it made me say oh crap how did that happen) so I did a 20 gallon water change. It’s all I had at the moment.

I completed the water change, and ran the tank for about an hour and then retested. In addition I rinsed the test tubes twice with r/o water. This test it went from 160 back down to about 15-20 ppm. Normally if it’s 160 ppm a 20 gallon water change on a 240 isn’t going to make a huge dent. So the next day (wedsenday) I did another 20 gallon water change. I tested first and I was between 20-25 ppm definitely in the 20s but nothing Close to 40 ppm. After the water change and an hour run time retested and I was over 40 ppm. Lol this is why I have the lfs gets my water Urgh.
Yet everything in the tank is doing great now how does this make any sense because I for one am totally lost.

All other parameters are spot on, I have like .25 to zero phosphates ph 8.4 salt is 1.025 alk is 8 cal is 440 ammonia 0 or super low, same with nitrites. I did try some of the alpha stuff. It’s suppose to reduce ammonia, nitrates and nitrates. I did only about 50 gallon (mixture worth). I didn’t want to lower parameters too much would rather start small. But I will have lfs test my water today and possible do another water change.

Honestly after some time I am starting to really question filter socks. They seem great for maybe two or three days if that. But they seem like nitrate magnets, even after I wash them in sanitize was in my front loading washer. Maybe those just don’t clean them because they use so little water like my older one did. It seems the less I use them, the more stable nitrates stay. Maybe I have to buy new ones all the time or start using bleach along with the prime afterwards.

Yet, why do this if it won’t keep something down and why run a protein skimmer then? Speaking of, lol I can’t Imagine my bipolar load is too high for my skimmer. I have an s300 on a 240 and I am running my returns slower just so it has more time to filter. I do have a lot of corals but only 14 fish and the biggest is my Naso tang where she is maybe 5-6 inches followed by my Lt tang who is maybe four inches. Everything else is below three inches. For the first time I know understand the song titled things that make you go hmmmm. Yes lol I wasn’t even born yet, but my parents at the time where probably listening to this song, and where hmmmm what happens if we have another child and it’s a girl instead of a boy. (I’m the only girl in the family). These are the things that make you go hmmmmm. Me personally I am more a Natalie Merchant and 10,000 maniacs (before Natalie left) person. Specially love their song Like the weather”.

Fin · Jul 15, 2018

Sounding like you got a bad test result with the 160 on nitrates. You know your corals and they will show you if they are happy or not. Sounds like everything is happy and healthy. Don't get caught up in chasing numbers if all looks well.

Did you say the ice cream was on you?

Brew12 · Jul 15, 2018

Sarah24! said:
Hello friends,

Well I haven’t posted for a while, sorry guys (all is forgiven if ice cream is on me . So my 240 is I guess going against normal reefing as one could say. It seems that all of my sps are doing the same if not better, as well as all my fish are doing really good. Now even more odd all my lps and softies are doing good also, but my nitrates suck.

Normally sps wants super clean water, which I usually always have. Since I don’t make my own water (yet) I still buy my salt water at lfs. So anyway I tested my water oh jimmney cricket I think Tuesday (yup) and the first test was like 20 ppm but I re tested because I wasn’t actually sure I had all my drops in. So hehe retested and well it tetsted at 160 ppm went from light orange to red. This kinda scared me (well actually it made me say oh crap how did that happen) so I did a 20 gallon water change. It’s all I had at the moment.

I completed the water change, and ran the tank for about an hour and then retested. In addition I rinsed the test tubes twice with r/o water. This test it went from 160 back down to about 15-20 ppm. Normally if it’s 160 ppm a 20 gallon water change on a 240 isn’t going to make a huge dent. So the next day (wedsenday) I did another 20 gallon water change. I tested first and I was between 20-25 ppm definitely in the 20s but nothing Close to 40 ppm. After the water change and an hour run time retested and I was over 40 ppm. Lol this is why I have the lfs gets my water Urgh.
Yet everything in the tank is doing great now how does this make any sense because I for one am totally lost.

All other parameters are spot on, I have like .25 to zero phosphates ph 8.4 salt is 1.025 alk is 8 cal is 440 ammonia 0 or super low, same with nitrites. I did try some of the alpha stuff. It’s suppose to reduce ammonia, nitrates and nitrates. I did only about 50 gallon (mixture worth). I didn’t want to lower parameters too much would rather start small. But I will have lfs test my water today and possible do another water change.

Honestly after some time I am starting to really question filter socks. They seem great for maybe two or three days if that. But they seem like nitrate magnets, even after I wash them in sanitize was in my front loading washer. Maybe those just don’t clean them because they use so little water like my older one did. It seems the less I use them, the more stable nitrates stay. Maybe I have to buy new ones all the time or start using bleach along with the prime afterwards.

Yet, why do this if it won’t keep something down and why run a protein skimmer then? Speaking of, lol I can’t Imagine my bipolar load is too high for my skimmer. I have an s300 on a 240 and I am running my returns slower just so it has more time to filter. I do have a lot of corals but only 14 fish and the biggest is my Naso tang where she is maybe 5-6 inches followed by my Lt tang who is maybe four inches. Everything else is below three inches. For the first time I know understand the song titled things that make you go hmmmm. Yes lol I wasn’t even born yet, but my parents at the time where probably listening to this song, and where hmmmm what happens if we have another child and it’s a girl instead of a boy. (I’m the only girl in the family). These are the things that make you go hmmmmm. Me personally I am more a Natalie Merchant and 10,000 maniacs (before Natalie left) person. Specially love their song Like the weather”.

Hey Sarah, hope you are feeling better!

I think the nitrates might be testing issues. Are you shaking the second part for the full 30 seconds before using it each time? That is very important.

As for filter socks, they will come plenty clean in HE washer. That is how I take care of mine. I don't remember, do you run a fuge in your sump?

Sarah24! · Jul 15, 2018

Hello

By the way I added a new pic but keeps cutting my head in two lol. I tried to crop it but it doesn’t let me. Any suggestions on this lol. It shows up fine when I do profile page.

@Fin lol yes ice cream is always on me specially if it’s sub zero and or cold stone yummy. It’s not that I chase numbers it’s more of me just making sure I have the same amount of calcium and alk etc.

@Brew12 omg hey welcome back and how was the trip? I hope you had a blast and glad your safe. As far as testing goes I use the five ml test tubes and ten drops of bottle one after I shake it for ten seconds. After bottle one is in, I flip it back and forth to mix the solution. Then I have a stop watch that I use for bottle two. I shake it for 30 seconds then add the ten drops. Once this has been completed I shake it for one minute and then allow it to sit for five minutes. All
The times are done by a stop watch for accuracy, the only thing is should the bottles make their own drops or do I normally have to squeeze them?

The alpha chemical seems to work pretty good as a point of fact. I had between 25-30 ppm. After adding this and testing this morning it was down to 5-10 ppm. Now granted I will always do water changes every week or two weeks but generally water changes is what drops nitrates. I have heard mixed reviews on how fast water changes will drop nitrates and that most water sources and salt contain contain nitrates in them. I have read the same about phosphates
as well. Isn’t funny that we can read that we should
Have no phosphates and no nitrates etc but if we do it crashes our tanks. You would think one would change that lol.

Also any one know how to crop a picture on here. It doesn’t allow you to drag it etc, and the pic cuts my head off lol. May just have to change it.

Brew12 · Jul 15, 2018

Sarah24! said:
@Brew12 omg hey welcome back and how was the trip? I hope you had a blast and glad your safe. As far as testing goes I use the five ml test tubes and ten drops of bottle one after I shake it for ten seconds. After bottle one is in, I flip it back and forth to mix the solution. Then I have a stop watch that I use for bottle two. I shake it for 30 seconds then add the ten drops. Once this has been completed I shake it for one minute and then allow it to sit for five minutes. All
The times are done by a stop watch for accuracy, the only thing is should the bottles make their own drops or do I normally have to squeeze them?

Thanks, it is good to be back. The trip was wonderful. It's the one week a year I get to spend with all 9 of the nieces and nephews on my side of the family. They grow up so fast!!!

Sounds like you are doing the test perfectly. Not sure why your results aren't more consistent. You should have to squeeze the bottle to form the drops.