Newbie 75 gallon

[gregzz4]

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.

[Llorgon]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

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..

[gregzz4]

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

[Llorgon]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

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.

[Llorgon]

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

[Llorgon]

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!

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[Llorgon]

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?

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[Llorgon]

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.

[gregzz4]

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 !

[Llorgon]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

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 !

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.

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