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Old 02-20-2005, 12:39 AM
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Joslyn Joslyn is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Brandon
Posts: 5
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Default New guy in Brandon

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Joslyn.
I started up a tank about 4-5 months ago but just haven't gotten around to registering on this site.

I picked up a 150 gallon wood tank about 5 months ago.
I have a 25 gallon laundry basket type sump.
In a couple batches I put in about 95 pounds of live rock.
I picked up a used Becket Skimmer which has been working great.
T5 lights - Four 4 foot bulbs.
100GPD 3 stage RO/DI filter
pinpoint pH meter

With the help of Mike here in Brandon, and Jason at SWC, I haven't had any serious or expensive problems so far.

Here's what I have in the tank.
1 Yellow Tang
1 Regal Tang
2 Maroon Clowns
1 Blenny
2 Columbian Sharks - I was able to get these locally in Brandon to help start cycling the tank and I just left them there.
1 Benghai Cardinal
50 Turbo snails
30 blue hermits
3 scarlet hermits
1 emerald crab
2 candy shrimp
2 queen conchs

As I'm getting into this I realized the corals are much more interesting than the fish to me anyway.
I've probably got too much in the tank too fast, but I'll quit now for a while.
I've got a few feather duster worms,
green button polyps
green star polyps
purple/orange mushrooms
small pulsing xenia
a couple toadstools
anemone
small brain coral

Everything seems to be growing and happy.

Ammonia and nitrite tests show nothing. Nitrate very low - about 0.2ppm.
I'm doing about 10 gallons of water change per week.
Any problems with doing this weekly? Most things I have read say do more water every two weeks or every month. I just find it easier to keep a routine if it's weekly.

A couple things I need to take care of.
- A bit of hair algae growth. This is under control, and probably just needs a bit more water flow and attention to blowing off the rocks more
often.
- calcium and alkalinity levels low. Calcium around 320-350 for the past couple weeks. Alk around 8. I'm dripping about 3 gallons of kalk per day (more than evaporation), but I may need to look at a calcium reactor.
- level of sump. I would like to get an auto top off pump to put in the kalk so the salinity levels are not up and down with the sump level.
- Need more aragonite base. I have probably 2.5-3 inches now and should have around 4.
- Overflows not ideal. I might consider building little boxes inside to get more surface water pulled off.

I'll make another post with some pictures.

Any suggestions for me?
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