Suggestions/help for 10g nano?

[Ron99]

Hi Snaz,

Where in Surrey do you get your water? Sorry to hijack the thread a bit...

Thanks,

Ron

[Snaz]

http://www.aquaibiza.com/
Cloverdale, so it might be a bit far for you.

If you prepay for 10 bottles it cost $2.00/bottle picked up.

[Ron99]

That's not to bad. Maybe a 15 or 20 minute drive and a big bottle should last me 2 weeks. Is it RO/DI water or just the standard Culligan RO with carbon filter? This could be a good option for those of us with nano tanks who don't really see the need to invest in our own RO/DI unit.

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by Ron99

That's not to bad. Maybe a 15 or 20 minute drive and a big bottle should last me 2 weeks. Is it RO/DI water or just the standard Culligan RO with carbon filter? This could be a good option for those of us with nano tanks who don't really see the need to invest in our own RO/DI unit.

Its a huge honking RO/DI setup. I go through 2 bottles in four weeks doing 12% water change weekly plus various rinsing and top ups.

[ElGuappo]

i would not recomend a rio nano skimmer. i hate mine. would just take half my water ,from the changes, from the top inch of the water thus removing the dirty water that can settle on top.

[matthewpunger]

Thanks for all the responses so far. So the Rio's no good eh? I was curious. Also, in response to blueabyss, I think you're right, it seemed to be the continuous cycle of die off, ammonia, die off. I've now actually decided against the protein skimmer. I've been changing the water a little bit almost everyday for a little while, I've taken my filter completely apart and scrubbed it. I think this was a large part of the problem. An enormous amount of junk came out of it (disgusting!), my flow more than doubled afterwards. I've also taken anything out my tank that might have been a problem - some further die off that I was hoping was still alive

I am hopeful now though - things are definitely clearing up and looking much better. Today my purple palys opened up for the first time in a couple of months, my brown palys are looking better, and my mushrooms are now getting fuller again.

For the time being, I think I will make this just a softie tank, no SPS for now; I've had terrible luck with it so far. I've been trying to keep my set-up really simple, I've done tons of reading, but lately the more I read the more I'm realizing that I'm not doing some things terribly optimally for this kind of tank. Before I relied on the LFS for my testing and relied almost completely on water changes to take care of everything else. I finally broke down and got some testing supplies, and stuff that will stabilize my PH and trace elements, and Chemi-pure filter media. I discovered that my PH was quite low - around 6, I think. I got it up to about 8 now.

Hopefully this will all help!

how does this sound to people? Am I on the right track?

[BlueAbyss]

Sounds like you are on the right track... that's some low pH! No wonder you had die-off!

Going skimmerless is fine, just make sure you don't skip those water changes. I can almost guarantee that your filter was the main problem here, as it sounds like it was pumping all kinds of bad DOCs into your tank. If you are using ANY sort of filter media, make sure you replace it weekly and keep the canister spotless.

As far as trace elements go, I wouldn't bother. What sort of trace elements did you buy? 'Cause anything that would be depleted that can actually be considered a trace element (ie: NOT calcium, magnesium, or alkalinity) will be replaced with your water changes, and you could easily run into problems dosing 'trace' elements in a small tank, depending on what your salt contains for these. Elements such as strontium, molybdenum, and the like are strongly debated... a few years ago these were considered a 'must', now with better research it is known that the most important are calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity (and a lack of DOCs or generally 'pure' saltwater without a lot of 'junk' in it). I personally would put the bottle of trace elements away and forget I bought it... or give it away.

Sounds like things are looking up! How about starting a build thread or tank journal?

[matthewpunger]

Hey Blueabyss,
Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I had my terminology not entirely correct. The supplement I got was Kent's nano-reef 2 part ion buffer system - for mostly calcium, magnesium and alkilinity. It seemed to be what some nano-reefers without skimmers use.

One night last week, after the filter media addition and cleaning, almost all my cyanobacteria completely disappeared. I'm still changing the water now once every couple of days, trying to blow off the rocks since the snails are devouring the hair algae like candy and leaving their mess all abouts. A lot of my zoos and mushrooms are opening up and filling out again very nicely.

I recieved the new light, but am not too happy about the colour. I think its bright enough and the corals are liking it, but its pretty yellow compared to my old one and they are both supposed to be 14K. Any suggestions as to what brand and where I can get a good 70W MH?

I may start a tank journal, thought I'd have to borrow a decent digital camera since mine is pretty terrible for such pictures.

Best,
Matt

[Snaz]

I concur with above. Don't add mineral supplements like cal, mag etc. Because you are skimmerless you will be doing weekly 10% water changes and the fresh salt will give your tank everything it needs.