Your current Fish tank Setups!

G-MAN2004 said:
Anyone know how to decrease nitrates? On the test I have it is either 40 or 80 ppm - there doesn't appear to be any difference in the shade of red so I can't really tell. Does it really matter? Ammonia and nitrites are always at zero so no issues there.

They seem happy though as far as I can tell. :p

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Have you tested your tap water levels yet? My tap water is 40ppm, and apart from using RO water there isn't really a solution for dealing with it. 40ppm is "ok" anyway for fresh water / tropical.

You can use a water conditioner like Seachem Prime to neutralise the nitrates in your tap water, but they will still appear on the testers.
 
Live plants will help keep your nitrates down, otherwise water changes but, as others have posted, if your tap water is high then you aren't to get it lower than that unless you start using RO
 
LizardKing said:
have you tested your tap water? if its anything like mine the best you could hope for is 20-30! Nothing really brings it down from higher levels other than water changes and cleaning the crud from the bottom of my filter and sponge filters.
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ci_newman said:
Have you tested your tap water levels yet? My tap water is 40ppm, and apart from using RO water there isn't really a solution for dealing with it. 40ppm is "ok" anyway for fresh water / tropical.

You can use a water conditioner like Seachem Prime to neutralise the nitrates in your tap water, but they will still appear on the testers.
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Haggisman said:
Live plants will help keep your nitrates down, otherwise water changes but, as others have posted, if your tap water is high then you aren't to get it lower than that unless you start using RO
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Just tested and yeah, it seems to be about the same. :( It does say it's fine in the testing booklet at 40, but I just can't tell the difference between that and 80 lol.

Will have a look into Prime.

Thanks all.
 
Got 3 new discus coming today, excited isnt the word
Already have 5, gonna sell 2 to my LFS as they are good stock just too small for the new ones coming.
I see the majority on here are marine... Any discus keepers?
 
rebel rebel said:
Leave it where it is and point the powerhead towards it, from the picture it looks like the powerhead is facing up too much and missing it. If this works you should see a difference within a few days.
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This doesn't seem to have helped :(

It's lying down even more - practically horizontal against the rock, and I haven't seen it extend its polyps since moving the powerhead :(

Think I must be doing something wrong as the xenia doesn't seem very happy either, it's shrunk and isn't opening up - thought it might need more light as it was shaded a bit by some rock, so moved it higher up but that doesn't seem to have made a difference.

The zoa appears to be ok though, and in fact looks like it's growing another head.

Edit: I haven't been testing for alkalinity/hardness/calcium, could one of these being out of whack be causing it?
 
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Sorry to hear of your troubles mate. You could try testing for everything you can, see if anything is really out. Any big swings would have a negative impact. Try putting the toadstool' back in its original position, that might help. Sadly it may have been too early in the setup for corals.
 
Thanks, had a read through that article, don't think it's the lighting - the shop had decent lights (R420Rs) and I used the acclimation mode on my lights, starting on 1% and ramping up to the current 45% over 3 days.

Starting to think it may be low PH that's the issue (at least partially), I'm getting 8.2 in the evening and 7.8 in the morning, which I believe is a little on the low side?

Just ordered the Salifert KH and Alk test as well, so can get that checked tomorrow.

It's looking even worse now - it's not shrunk at all, and the polyps were out for a while yesterday evening, but it's lying down so much it looks like it's going to fall off the rock!

Considering moving it back to where it was before, but don't want to prod and poke at it too much and end up stressing it out even more :(
 
Lighting is what I would be looking at, because imo it's laying down as much as it can to get away from the light. And acclimation over 3 days isn't much, most would do it over the course of a few weeks. And wasn't the coral ok for a few days and then started sulking? I don't know how powerful the kessils are but when I had a Radion on a smaller tank I ran it at about 25%.
 
The kessil are 40w each, so about the same as a single xr15w in total?

Can't hurt to try though, I've set the lights back into acclimation mode, for 14 days this time, so polyps crossed there's some improvement :)
 
I had a G1 XR30 which was 120 watts. Originally it was for a 30" x 30" x 18" cube, and then I had it on a 100l tank, and it was total overkill, which was why I ran it on just 25%. And even then I had to acclimatise corals.

Hopefully you will see some more polyps come out over the next few days! I think the fact it hasn't shrunk/shrivelled and is just laying down means it's still repairable.
 
So looks like I have very low hardness/alk. Tested with the salifert kit, 5.7dkh/2.0 meq/l which is way too low if I'm reading it right?

Especially with my lowish PH as well :/
 
Still waiting on marinlab with my icp test, 4 weeks and nothing, kinda defeats the purpose of an in depth test since i have done a few water changes since, shoddy service, i shall just go to triton if they don't up their game.
 
theaterix said:
Got 3 new discus coming today, excited isnt the word
Already have 5, gonna sell 2 to my LFS as they are good stock just too small for the new ones coming.
I see the majority on here are marine... Any discus keepers?
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Please post pictures, I love Discus, though have never kept them.
 
Haggisman said:
So looks like I have very low hardness/alk. Tested with the salifert kit, 5.7dkh/2.0 meq/l which is way too low if I'm reading it right?

Especially with my lowish PH as well :/
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Yeah 5.7dkh is low, should really be around 9. But you don't have much in the tank that would using up alkalinity so double check the water. What salt do you use?
 
rebel rebel said:
Yeah 5.7dkh is low, should really be around 9. But you don't have much in the tank that would using up alkalinity so double check the water. What salt do you use?
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It's DD H2Ocean, i get it premixed from the LFS at 1.025sg. I checked some clean water I had left from my last water change as well, and it's 7Dkh, so right at the bottom of the desired range
 
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Good news! I've been gradually dosing with a mix of baking soda/baked baking soda, over the last week, up to 8.2dkh now, and the toadstool is looking much happier, its shed, and the polyps have been out all day today, its not quite standing up straight yet, but better than it was, unfortunately I think the xenia has had it, been shrinking right down, and looks like it's melting now :(

Got calcium and magnesium tests as well, both are slightly on the low side, but not too bad, calcium at 325ppm and magnesium at 1170.

Got some Salifert all in one to maintain the dkh/calc, it seems to get good reviews, and based on the advised dosage of 5ml/100l/week, a 500ml bottle should last me almost 2 years! Was considering the red sea foundation ABC liquids, but the all in one is probably "safer" for me to at least get started with to keep things in alignment :p I know the Salifert doesn't have Mg in, so I'll keep an eye on that for now and see if it needs dosing too
 
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