If I recall they were around $100. Tunze is reliable as well. I have mp40’s In my current tank but your paying for the name and exterior motor.

The mp40's are nice. I would like one or two of those, but the price is a little more than I want to spend on powerheads at the moment.


I have been looking into the tunze powerheads as well. Also looking into innovative marine wavelink powerheads. They seem to have decent reviews and at $140 not a bad price either.

Give it a whirl! All you need to do is move water :smile:

So picked up a innovative Marine waveli k powerhead. Seems to work pretty well. The wave setting moves quite a bit of water.

I finally got my electronics cabinet finished. Started moving everything out from underneath the tank.

Unfortunately my return pump stopped working. Unplugged it moved all the wires and controller to the cabinet, plugged it in and nothing. Took it out to clean it and still nothing. The propeller turns freely so nothing is blocked, but I can't hear the pump making any noise.

I'm having some trouble with my hammer coral. It doesn't seem to be opening up. Any ideas on what would cause that? My orange eye chalice also isn't looking too good. Any ideas on how to get them back on track?

The pocillapora has stopped bleaching. The bleaching hasn't gone away, but it's not getting any worse. So at least something is looking up!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...45392e37dd.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e3cf27190a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f3ef5b0499.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...01da3c693a.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Concerning your hammer; it's still looking OK even if it's not very big right now.
After that powerhead failure, I'd be inclined to run more carbon and change it every few days for 2 or 3 more batches. Make sure you rinse it very well before adding it to your tank.
About your pump, do you have anyone close to you with a multimeter?
I'd suggest you test the power supply for proper output.

Good luck

I would suggest WC’s to get everything settled back to your ideal parameters.

I have been doing weekly water changes. So everything should be good parameter wise... I think



Good to know about the hammer. I moved it to a place with less flow and it seems to be opening up a bit more now.
I do run carbon and have been switching it out every week.
Unfortunately I don't know anyone near me with a multimeter. I can borrow one from my dad this weekend though. I might do that and see what is going on with it. I did order a new one. I figure even if I get this one working again it's good to have a backup.

Been awhile, have been on vacation the last few days. I did get my new return pump before going away though. Turns out it was the controller that had gone. Plugged new controller into the old pump and everything is working fine.

Good news 2 of the smallest acro frags are getting some colour back!

Unfortunately my acan isn't looking very good and same with my hammer coral.

The frogspawn is doing well though.

Any idea what I should do about the hammer coral and acan?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b8334ac3c9.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...ac47ed7143.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Back from vacation! Tank has done well. Got a few new corals before I left from Dash. They are all doing well so far.

My hammer coral looks to have died though.

Some updated pics.

Looking into getting a wavemaker. Anyone have any good recommendations for one?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4262a851c7.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...16856ecd4f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6f25f8bd4c.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Glad the frags are doing well. No fishie friends?

No Fish yet. Going to be gone for a week and a half at the beginning of aug so figured I would wait until after then for fish.

I swear this hobby hates me. The other hydor koralia power head has stopped working.... Didn't kill everything so that's good.

I took it out and put it in some vinegar. Hopefully a good cleaning will get it back working again.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

The hydor koralia is dead. Cleaned it out, put it back together... And nothing. Silence. Did give me a bit of a shock when I went to move it..

I have lined up a couple of jaebo wavemakers from a fellow members so that should replace the missing powerhead.

All the corals still seem to be doing ok with the single powerhead. The innovative Marine powerhead is pretty good so far especially for the price.

I did get around to setting up my skimmer, never had a skimmer before so excited to see what the difference it will make in the tank. How long should I run it fully open for? Some things I read say days others say weeks to a month.

Plan is to add fish after my last long vacation in August. For the time being I will look to add some pods and stuff like that to up the biodiversity of the tank.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4a35aaaea2.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Are you using a GFCI? And if you are, are you using a ground probe? I gather you are not using either. You would not get a shock if you were.
If you use both, next time a powerhead fails it will shut off. Do not use a ground probe without a GFCI. Doing so will send stray current through you!!
I wonder if stray electrical current in your water has been an issue.
Hopefully things get better for you now that you have removed the second bad powerhead.
Run the skimmer wide open for a few days, after you first clean it with vinegar, then slowly try to tune it. It will probably not do very much right now as you do not have fish poop.
Unless you are going to source some mysids or copepods, do not waste your money on pods.
Tigger pods are only a quick snack in our tanks.

It didn't shock me in the tank. I had cleaned it and put it back together and just plugged it into a kitchen socket as it was sitting in the sink full of water to see if it would start up again. I don't think it was doing that in the tank. If it was I think my 2 remaining snails would have been dead?


Good to know about the pods. I will just slowly add some more corals and cuc until I get some fish.


Ok. I wasn't sure if it was a few days or a few weeks. I could probably go a few weeks until I have some fish..

If you don't have a GFCI, it won't trip if something leaks current into the tank.
If you don't have a ground probe, it won't affect the inhabitants as the current has nowhere to go, unless you ground it with your body.

In either case, look into protecting yourself with at the minimum of a GFCI for the whole tank.
I run 13 of them because I want each piece of hardware covered individually without tripping the whole tank.
And I have a ground probe in both my skimmer and return chambers.

Later. BBQ and Beers

I should definitely grab a grounding probe at least. Installing the GFCI might be more difficult since I would have to move the tank in order to get to the outlet.


It does look like they have GFCI power bars. Probably easier for me to get one of those. At least that way I have some protection.

Nu uh. I wrote 'not' to use a grounding probe without a GFCI!!!
Breakers are only meant to trip when they get hot.
A GFCI senses an imbalance between line and neutral and only then does it trip. This will protect you if you stick your hand in the water.
Only having a ground probe will cause any stray/induced current to flow because you're giving it a path. Now when you stick your hand in the water you'll get zapped.

Either use just a GFCI, a GFCI and a ground probe, or forget I said anything and use neither.

I picked up a GFCI powerbar and got that setup. That should give me some protection at least for now.

OK
Now your dilemma is this;
Everything that's plugged into it is protected, or rather you are protected from them.
But now, if 1 of those items decides to poop the bed, all of them will shut off when that power bar trips.
So be aware of this.

It's good you have protected yourself though. A powerhead may not hurt you, but a heater would do serious damage or even stop your heart.

Actually I was thinking about this while plugging stuff in. I didn't plug the return pump or powerhead into the GFCI just in case. But I should figure out a way to have everything protected separately.

Ok much needed update. Tank has been going well lately. No issues during my vacation all corals are surviving, but I don't think they are growing.

My orange eye mummy chalice coral has lost it's orange eyes. Not sure what to do with it. It's still green, but the orange eyes have lost their colour.

My pink birdsnest seems to be fading in colour. Any ideas on how to get the colours to brighten up?

I picked up some corals from Marshalls crazy corals on the weekend. Good experience, James was nice and they had way more stuff than what you see on the website. I picked up a fuzzy mushroom, hammer coral, candy cane, brain coral and a big green sps frag I can't remember the name of.

On the weekend I also picked up a couple of clown fish. So yay tank has fish now!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d99c1bcad1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9b2662be71.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d5547e2476.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...095a745261.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2566cbf38c.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

So the one new space coral I got, the big green one is getting white tips.

I bought a alkalinity test kit today and my alkalinity is at 6.4. I think it needs to be at 7-8?

What is the best way to raise the alkalinity?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Ok long needed update on the tank.


My water params had been way off and I was starting to see a negative effect on the corals. I think alk was down to 6 and calcium in the mid 300's and magnesium around 1100. With the help of Gregzz4, I have got my water params mostly under control. Still trying to nail down the dosing. My mag is stable and calcium is mostly stable I have been keeping it above 400, but alk is still a little tricky to find the perfect dosing. Seems like about 2 caps of brightwell is pretty good at keeping alk at 8.3.



I had another powerhead die on me. Not as catastrophic as the first one, but still annoying. It just stopped running. Taking apart and cleaning it solved nothing so I picked up a pair of jebao wave makers from another reefer. They work well, but are quite powerful. I now have 2 wavemakers and a powerhead. Anyone have suggestions on the best placement of these? I feel I still have lots of dead spots...


Also had my neptune ATK auto top off unit die. Did all of neptunes diagnostics, got sent replacement parts and nothing was fixed. Ended up sending them my entire unit and just got it back today. In total I have been out of a ATO for a little over a month. Turns out the issue was the high and low water sensors were labeled incorrectly and the sensors weren't pushed in far enough. This sounded a bit weird to me since it had been working fine for 6 months then stopped, but I have been told it works fine now. Overall neptunes support was very good. Most of the issues I had were with FedEx.


On the tank stocking side of things I have 2 clown fish, 1 royal gramma and 1 purple firefish. All the fish have been doing well. I did buy a flame angel, but I was never able to get it to eat and it eventually disappeared.



Corals, corals have been doing ok. Some have grown a bit, but most seem to just stay the same. Frogspawn, candy cane and hammer coral haven't grown at all. What can I do to encourage more growth?

Lately I have been struggling with algae in the tank. Taking over the sand, rocks even some on my SPS coral. I added some chaeto and a light to my fuge and lowered the amount and frequency that I feed the tank in hopes that will help. Also did a water change since I hadn't done one for awhile while sorting out my water params.



Anyone have good tips on keeping algae at bay? This seems to be something I really struggle with.


Overall the tank feels... well, not stable. Some days corals will look good other days for a few days at a time the candy cane, frogspawn and hammer coral will be closed up looking unhappy. Not sure what to do about that.

Give up on the liquid Alk additive.
If you follow the info I gave you and bake some baking soda, thus creating sodium carbonate/soda ash, you'll find it very easy to dose daily and maintain your desired alk level.
Use the spreadsheet I gave you on that usb. The chemicals page tells you how to weigh and bake the baking soda, and the chemistry page you'll use to calculate how much to dose.

Buy a couple kilos of arm and hammer man.
Just do it ! :biggrin:

I am going to buy some this weekend. I just wanted to finish the bottle.

What do people use for containers for additives? My wife is getting annoyed with me using old salt buckets.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

I’m glad I went with the BRS starter package. Easy to mix and the gallon jugs for storing the additives are very handy. Hassle free, so it made it easy to get into the routine of dosing. I wonder if JL sell similar jugs & dispensers?

You can usually find 1 gallon jugs at Walmart etc. You can usually find different shapes that may work better with for your specific needs. I currently use the Rubbermaid 1 gallon clear containers.

I ended up getting some cereal containers at Walmart. Works great so far!

As for the tank, it's doing ok. I am battling some algae. Hoping someone here can help me figure out what's causing it. Below is a picture of what I am dealing with.

My params are
Temp: 80
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphates: 0
Alkalinity: 8.2
Calcium: 440
Magnesium: 1410

I have a protein skimmer running, chaeto in the sump with a light that comes on opposite to the display tank lights, feed once a day 1/4 cube of mysis or some pellets.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0f5cc93aa8.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Been battling dinos recently. Just finished a 3 day blackout, but a bit of a dent in the dinos, but not much.


Corals are pretty unhappy. My big sps has gone from green to white, plating montipora is losing tissue, tyree toadstoll and forest fire digi have zero polyp extension...


Checked my parameters nothing seems out of the ordinary.


Frustration and discouragement is currently high...

That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.

This is one of the things that makes keeping reef tanks aka sps tanks to be considered very difficult. Stick with it, it takes time, patience and proper tank maintenance to beat this one.

I know you are right, but right now it's very frustrating.


It kind of looks like the tank may be crashing. None of the corals are looking good, some are bleached and have lost tissue. All are closed up, no polyp extension. Fish still look ok.


Where am I going wrong on my maintenance?


My parameters as of last night seem to all be in the normal range. I know my nitrate and phosphate should be a bit higher. Extra feeding hasn't helped yet. As of last night my params were:

Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Alkalinity: 8.4
Calcium: 430
Magnesium: 1410


Right now my maintenance is: Dosing alk everyday, dosing cal every other day, testing alk and cal every other day, feeding twice a day(morning, night), blowing off rocks with turkey baster each night, weekly 10 gal water change.

Where am I going wrong?

Unfortunately it is not working. From what I have read water changes and trying to attain a clean tank doesn't work for dinos.

Water changes and blowing off the rocks having low phosphates and low nitrates appears to be not working for you.

Adding more fish, as you have seen is a problem in itself. You need to quarantine for at least a month assuming everything goes well. I have been trying to add more fish for over 6 months to my tank unsuccessfully can't get them past the quarantine stage/ type of fish I want not available when I want it.

Over feeding can help dirty up your water, stop blowing off the rocks if you are not exporting the dinos as you are just moving them around and spreading them.

Like I said before what worked for me is a micron filter helps remove smaller suspended particles and a UV sterilizer on a low flow rate to kill any dinos after I have blown off the rocks.

INNOVATIVE MARINE AUQASHIELD UV STERILIZER (9 WATT) is around 60 bucks.

I have some KNO3 and Potassium Phosphate you can have for free if you wants some. You know where I live.

You need to have measurable amounts of phosphate and nitrate.

I've only just come into this at the tail end but it seems to me like your tank is still fairly new. You need a small amount of nitrates (~5ppm) and phosphates (~0.5ppm) as you and Frogger mentioned. Does the tank get any natural sunlight throughout the day? Is the water you're using for water changes RO/DI? Have you tested TDS on the water you're using for SW changes?

It's difficult because depending on what you read some say yes do lots of water changes other say stop. For right now I have stopped the water changes in an attempt to raise my nitrate and phosphates.


I have a filter sock that I change everyday an hour or so after blowing off the rocks and stirring the top layer of sand.


I might take you up on the free KNO3 and Potassium Phosphate. Do you use the seachem stuff for planted tanks?



Tank doesn't get any sunlight or if it does very little and not direct. Water I am using is RO/DI, filter are about 6 months old. I have not tested TDS. I guess I should pick up a TDS meter and see what it says.

No the stuff i have is from a online fresh water fish guy in Richmond. I had to sign my life away to get it.

Filter socks don't filter down to a fine enough particle size to effectively capture all the microscopic dinoflagellates and their spores. Most filter socks are either 100 or 200 micron in size and are designed to remove larger particles.

The Magnum micron cartridge is 8 microns and dinoflagelletes are between 25 and 50 microns in size. It uses pump pressure to force the water through it, versus gravity.

Sounds like some serious stuff. Don't have the name of the guy or anything?


So are you saying get a magnum canister filter and use that to help remove the dinos?

There is no right answer, it what ever works for you. I used the magnum micron filter combined with the uv sterilizer and that did the trick for me. Our tanks are different, mine was set up for 15 years before I had the dino bloom. About 3 years ago first I had Bryopsis (for years), treated that, then immediately followed by Cyano followed immediately by dinos. Dinos was the worst by far. So I had a ton of things happening in my tank. I don't want you to go out and spend a ton of money and then not have it work for you.

I had to change the micron filter daily when I first started, now I change it once a week. Rinse it off, dump it in bleach (for a day), rinse well and use again. I have several spare filters. I still use it. Now this is on a tank that I did not have a filter sock. This is why I still use it.

Canadian Aquatics. I think his name is Patrick. He carries potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate. He'll need a photocopy of your driver's license and you have to declare what you are using the potassium nitrate for. Required by law because it's a controlled substance.

My tanks is just over a year old so I'm pretty new at this. I was out of town for a week this summer and came back to a small dino outbreak. I think it was triggerred by the warm weather as I had the ac turned up while we were away. I dimmed down the white leds and got the temperature lower/stable as we had the ac set back to normal. It actually just went away on it's own in about 3 weeks. This just happenned by chance cause I didn't have time to deal with it actively. BUT cyano came in shortly after the dino was gone. I syphoned it out once and it came right back. I've always had high nitrates and phosphates in the past but I hadn't tested for it for a while. I never made much effort to reduce nitrates and phosphates as I never had any issues with the tank.
Decided to test, 0 nitrate and .5 phosphate on api testers. After some reading, I started dosing nitrates to maintain 10ppm. Syphoned the cyano again and only about 10% came back this time. Syphoned the remaining patches and what ever I missed just went away on it's own. There's still a little on my chaeto in my refugium but none in the display.

Sorry, got a little off topic with the cyano. I've noticed nuisance algae really likes white light so maybe it was a combination of cutting the white light and the lower stable temperature that took care of the dino. I don't know for certain. Maybe the chaeto is out competing everything now that there's plenty of nitrates.

Fyi, I don't run a skimmer, don't do scheduled/routine water changes, never clean my refugium and don't run any mechanical filtration.... because I am lazy and stubborn. All I have is chaeto, a little bit of rubble and half a large marine pure block in the refugium.

Patrick that's the guys name. I have more of this stuff then I need come on by and I measure you up enough for a couple litres of each mixture.