i don't think the stress would cause this many fish to die. Must be something wrong with the water. But you test seems to be okay. :question:

Have you tested nitrite at all? If there was ever a reading other than "0" it would have pointed to an ammonia spike that you maybe missed.

You should have asked on here for pointers before you transferred. At the very least, you should have left the new sand out until everything was moved over and settled in for a couple weeks. I wouldn't have setup the new tank with all new water (sound like that's what you did). I think you made a few small "mistakes" that added up and are causing some sort of water quality issue - I suspect some kind of bacteria problem. Add to that the stress of the move, and then being in the cloudy water in an unfamiliar setting and I think it was too much. When a tank transfer is done well you will not see an ammonia blip at all.

I did test Nitrite and it was "0" but that was after I got home and woke up after work. I may have missed a potential "spike". Tested last night, Nitrate read 20ppm and 0 ammonia. I definitely think the fish got stressed from the move and the water quality. I definitely made the mistake of putting the sand in early, LR and clouding up the water.

As far as water goes, I was able to put 75g+ of the water from the original tank in to the new setup. That being said there would be 50% new water and this may have contributed to an imbalance in the bacteria. I definitely saw detectable ammonia (short period) but that definitely reflects on the recent losses.

I will just stay positive and expect to see further losses unfortunately... thanks Myka for the information. Anything helps to try and put my finger on the root cause.

Lost my black clown fish today :cry: I feel bad as my orange clown is all alone now. I'm just dreading the days moving forward if I continue to lose fish.

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your troubles. I hope you get it figured out! Chin up it will get better, positive vibes sent your way:biggrin:

Thank you for the good "ju ju". Once the carpet installers are finished on the basement stairs I will venture down to the tank.

Well it's been a couple days and everything appears to be mellowed out now (no more fish losses *knock on wood*). I have been testing everything regularly and I'm not seeing any spikes. I plan on doing 20% WC bi-weekly and I will be setting up my doser soon! For now I have been manually bumping my Alk & Cal with 2-part.

Got this bad boy delivered yesterday :biggrin:

Glamorca Gyre-Flow Pump


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So far I have just switched it on constant mode at 10% until I can find time to tweak it and run through the different settings. I briefly had it on the pulse setting. And it was making a large wave across the tank toward the overflow. Once I get the gyre dialed in I may need to get some frags!

April Update.
 

Well I finally picked up some local chaeto and placed it in the fuge. I took the time to "seed" the fuge with a bottle of Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods. Hopefully this gives it a bit of a jump start. I am waiting until the LFS has a shipment of DrEco - Eco Matter to add some diversity to my Refugium. I am hoping to see the chaeto ball get some growth, the light is currently on a timer for 8 hrs reverse light cycle (12am-8am). Here is a quick photo of the fuge.


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I also took the time to finally mount the pump controllers on to the back wall. I was able to mo My one of the two power bars and clean up the wiring as well. I picked up some "L" brackets from Home Depot for my dosing pump to sit on. Unfortunately I haven't had time to calibrate and get the dosing pump online (soon I hope).


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I am still looking for commercial or "strong" magnets locally for the wood skirt I will be placing around. I haven't been able to find any (HD had some weak ones). If anyone has suggestions please let me know :biggrin:

Last but not least, finally got a hold of a decent sized Powder Blue (I have saw these guys in other tanks and fell in love). So welcome "Blueberry" as my wife has already named him. Sorry about the lame iPhone photo, I have yet to learn how to track and take a better photo of the fish :wink:


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Nice, I got the same ones :) How do you find the noise level?? Mine seem pretty loud especially compared to my old one, hoping it might just need a break in period...but maybe I just happened to get lucky on the quiet one....
Set-up is looking good!!

Thanks Amber! The gyre makes a hum as it pushes the water (only running on 10% continuous). I to am hoping that once it breaks in it becomes a little quieter or at least from the build up lol.

Doser Online
 

Dosing Pump Running

I finally took the time to mix up the alkalinity and calcium supplements in 1 gallon containers. I primed the dosing pump heads, calibrated pump #1 (ALK) and pump #2 (CAL). I'm not entirely sure what my tank demand for all and calcium is at this time. I have started the doser divided in to two, dosing 15ml per dose (total 30ml).

Alkalinity

• 9am
• 7pm

Calcium

• 11am
• 9pm

I will continue to test both to keep my parameters, ALK around 8.5 dKH and CAL at around 420 ppm. Does anyone have any recommendations on ones to doser and if I should continue to split each dose up. Please let me know what is working for you guys. I have attached a photo of the doser in place.


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Back in my 2-parts dosing days, I splited up my dosage into smaller amounts like 5 or something. Calcium during the day time, and Alk during the night time.

I figured out my tank consumption first, then use the BRS calculator, and split the doses accordingly. Then test every 24 hours for next few days.

Thanks for your information iamfrontosa. I will make a habit of checking the parameters every 24hra to adjust as necessary. I can't wait to find that sweet spot, well until I had some more frags and get some growth.

I wouldn't split that dose any smaller. 15 mL into a 150-gallon tank is peanuts. :)

LOL! When I was looking at it I thought the same. I just didn't want to go full speed and power and start dosing too much. :lol:

Added Some Frags
 

A Couple Frags Added to Fill the Bare Spots :smile:


Picked up a few frags to add to the tank and hopefully they won't melt away!


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Bicolour Angel is curious about the new additions.

Tank Skirt
 

Tank Skirt

I finally got around to getting the panels cut and fitted for the tank. I shopped around and located the cheapest cabinet panels I could find. I was able to locate some "rare earth magnets" in Edmonton which saved me having to order them online. I used a counter sinking bit on the panels to allow the magnets to be flush inside the cabinet panel. From there I glued the magnets on to the panels using some gorilla glue. I have attached some photographs of the panels and the Skirt in place. Overall I'm happy with the overall look. I am considering trying to find some material to use as sound proofing. Does anyone have any suggestions? Anyone using something that will dampen the sound more then just the cabinet alone? I don't find the equipment too loud, however it would be nice for it to be as near to silent as I can get it.


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Skirt in place on the tank

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The Angelfish is like, "Dad bought us some fresh food!" :lol:

Haha jeez, your probably right! I haven't caught him nipping anything yet!

Some Pics
 

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Tanks looking great frags look happy love your fish.

Coming along nicely.

Thanks guys! Trying to get things moving forward and growing :smile:

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New Onyx Clownfish (replaced my mated male I lost). So far so good as she has fully accepted him and both are hosting the anemone.

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Lyretail Anthias. Great addition to the tank!

I hav been looking at various different CUC to replenish some that have been lost. I had added 5 electric blue crabs (all died). Not sure if they were eaten? I have a handful of red tip hermits, snails, bristle star, fighting conch's, 2 Halloween hermits and various sand snails. I have been looking at the tuxedo urchins and would like to pick one up. Does anyone have one in their reef tank?

I was also wondering what people are using for the best CUC options in a reef tank. Looking forward to suggestions!

I like Tuxedo urchins, but if you don't glue down frags they will carry them around and usually drop them behind rocks (of course).

My fav CUC are:

Tiger Cukes
Black brittle seastars (other types may catch sm fish)
Scarlet Hermits
Ring cowries
Trochus snails
Tuxedo urchin
Cerith snails
Strawberry/fighting/orange lip conchs

I have all of these in my tank.

I like the new Anthias! Looks healthy. How many did you buy?

Btw, the anemone hosts the Clownfish, not the other way around. :)

Looks good man, this set up came together quickly!

Thanks for sharing Myka. I love the look of the tuxedo urchin but it is definitely a concern to me to have frags knocked over. Unfortunately I only have small frags at the moment and I finally have them secured with epoxy. I still find the odd one knocked off (large fish) or maybe my powder blue does it to annoy me :wink:.

I have the rear glass filmed black (my previous 75g was transparent) so it makes it much harder to find the frags lol. If I start with a smaller truce do do you think it will be a wrecking ball? Or am I just going to run the risk of corals here and there being knocked over. As for the rest of your list o am using much the same minus the tigers.

I ended up just getting a single Anthias as I wasn't sure how it would fair in my system. So far so good with her, she seems happy and eating like crazy. Not too sure about my leopard wrasse as she has been AWOL for 3 days now... your right! My anemone is hosting my clowns :razz: however I am just happy that my big female accepted the tiny onyx. :biggrin:

Thanks! No where near your tank lol. But I look at some of the mature systems and hope mine gets there at some point.

Lookin awesome! I love lyretails!! Hooray your clown has a buddy! I think I am going to have to get rid of my clarki in the other tank, she is evil!!! Yes Mindy I'm talking about Debbie (tho I call her satan) Can't wait to see more pics!!

Thanks Amber! Ya I am so happy I was able to replace the mate and that my female accepted the onyx. I was worried because she is so big and has had her previous mate for 3 years. All seems to be well. I will definitely take more photographs as things progress.

Added a Blue Maxima Clam
 

I finally got a hold of a blue Maxima Clam and took the plunge buying it. It has only been in the tank for less then a week. This is the best photo I could take of it at the moment.


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Ok so yesterday I did water tests for Alk / Cal / Mag / PO4. I had received my new Hanna Alk and PO4 checkers. I also received a Salifert Calcium test kit. The following results came back:

ALK: 12dKH (Hanna)
CAL: 500ppm (Salifert)
MAG: 1350ppm (Red Sea)
PO4: 0.16ppm (Hanna)

I had been previously using the Red Sea Reef Test kits which indicated the following:

ALK: 11.5dKH
CAL: 460ppm
MAG: 1380ppm

PO4: 0.25ppm (API)

My doser is set to deliver 15ml - ALK (twice a day), 15ml - CAL (twice a day) a total of 30ml each. I have a bunch of frags, LPS, clam etc. So I didn't think I was dosing too much. I have since reduced my dosing to a total of 10ml of both ALK and CAL delivered twice. Hopefully the levels drop a bit as this is way higher the. I expected.

My ideal parameters are:

ALK: 8.5-9dKH
CAL: 420-450ppm
MAG: 1350ppm

PO4: 0.03ppm or slightly higher.

I am currently using IO - Reef Crystals and have been at the beginning of my 75g. Is it unrealistic to get the ALK / CAL levels down with this salt? Any recommendations on moving forward. I feel like these new parameters are pushing the high end of the limits, although my sps haven't had any STN or RTN. I don't want to have large fluctuations in water parameters.

I currently do biweekly water changes (30g which is about 25%). Even without dosing anything I think the RC will push me outside my desired parameters. Looking forward to some responses from the seasoned reefers here on Canreef.

Thanks!

Also I am running a mixed Reef, primarily SPS frags with some LPS and Zoas. :smile:

What's the po4 and no3 reading.

Typically if those above are higher more alk and ca won't hurt the tank.

If your alk is that high your sps is probably not consuming enough alk, this could be due to a couple reasons... when po4 is high sps has a harder time soaking up bicarb but if the alk and nutrients are high then they are able to use it up.

I usually run alk at 8.5-9.5 and po4 is higher like .17 to .25 I notice alk is depleted slower so I dose about 80ml per day but when po4 is dropped below 10 then alk is 95ml per day....

Mind you ca is over 500 and mg over 1600.

I recently tested PO4 at 0.16ppm but will have to get a new test kit for nitrate. I definitely agree that with the higher levels I'm not seeing my corals bothered by the higher values. I do want to get them more in the mid range levels. Do you think this can be achieved with biweekly water changes using RC? I am down to my lay pails (one opened and one full) so I can definitely transition to a different salt.

The draw for Alk/Cal on your tank makes sense to me from looking at your photos. I definitely don't have any ALK or CAL precipitating out. I will test the nitrate hopefully tomorrow. I'm due for my WC tomorrow as well so I can test the values later on. Thanks for the information tang daddy, hopefully I can get a handle on this.

An option for you would be to switch to regular IO and add some muriatic acid to it to bring down the KH (best to let it mix overnight after to let the pH come back up). IO has low Ca and Mg, so those numbers would slowly fall, then once they do you can add Ca and Mg to the freshly mixed IO to target specific numbers.

OR...switch to a salt that matches your desired parameters right out of the bucket. H2Ocean is very close to your ideal parameters you listed.

Thanks for the options Myka. I was considering switching to AF salt but I am definitely leaning toward getting a salt with the lower parameters. I will have to see if any of the LFS sell H2Ocean salt.

I ended up making an egg crate stand for my skimmer (2 inches) in height. My baffle in the skimmer compartment is set at 10" which is the max for my IceCap skimmer. I decided that I would have more wiggle room for adjusting the skimmate. I added a picture, nothing fancy but it will do the trick.


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I tested af reefsalt kh of newly made water and it was at 9.6,I thought it would be lower so I've been buffering it up with 1 tbsp of sodium carbonate.... guess that was a mistake.... always test your newly made salt to make sure kh is what you think it is!