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![]() 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? |