Yes i know its different, i am Slightly experienced to the hobby from freshwater. Prime is very temporary. I bought the following which i think is the best option in the uk. Do you think its a good replacement to Fritz’s? Also do you think i should buy live sand instead??
I am planning on building a mini sump just for skimming ( and some rock/coral rubble) where i will buy another small skimmer like the one i have and hence have two of them working. I get your point, il take the HOB which rn i think its doing more bad than good.Ideally you want most if not all of the biological filtration occurring in the tank itself on the surface area of the sand and rock. You want to be able to clean out the media in any filter very regularly to keep the detritus and **** that builds up from breaking down into ammonia (and thus Nitrate). I only have an AquaClear hang on back filter on my cube (and an internal Tunze skimmer), and I try to rinse the sponge daily to keep the **** out of the tank. While the skimmer separates most of the skimmate from the water column, once yours is calibrated and broken in you will see a thick film form on the inside of the cylinder that is in contact with the water column, hence why daily fast wiping of that.
When my 6 foot, 125 USG tank developed a slow leak, I took its livestock (mainly large fish) out and put them into large plastic bins having only live rock, heaters, and a single powerhead. They lived successfully like that for more than half a year while I rebuilt the tank. As one visitor pointed out to me, I was successfully raising a mid sized queen Angel in a garbage (rubbish) bin!. (That is the proof that while mechanical filtration is good at maintaining low NO3, it is not necessary to keep fish). You could completely take your canister and HOB filter off, put in a couple powerheads and you would be OK. (I'm NOT saying to do that, but you get the point).
. If you clean the media regularly it is good to get the detritus out of the water column into to a place where you can remove it instead of letting it break down in the tank.Mechanical filters only contribute to nitrate production if they aren't managed.
Okay, the best option for me rn tbh is to wait for my new rock and bottled bacteria to arrive.
Clean up crew (snails).
What is the canister/ circular looking thing coming out of the water on the right side of the aquarium?My reef is 2 months old now, i let it cycle for 1.5 months prior to adding two clowns and one zoanthid. After adding them, my parameters did not change alot. However after 1 week i added a mushroom, a kenya which has never opened, and 2 more zoanthids. Days later my tank has bloomed with these diatoms. I have been battleinf them for about 2 weeks now. My nitrite and nitrate has also gone up and i regularly notice that my ammonia goes up aswell. I keep changing water and adding anything i can to stop my nitrites from going up but they just keep shooting up. I even started feeding my fish only once a day. Please help, see my tank for yourself,
Water tank : 60L with 2.5L
powerhead : 900L/H ( 15 times Turnover)
canister(400L/H), HOB from allpondsolutions(400L/H), cheap protein skimmer from amazon( works).
lighting : Lominie Pixie 30 (30W)
sand: sand& gravel by Amtra
rock: Caribsea 5 pounds.
filter media: lots of seachem.
Water parameter:
Salt: 1.022-23
ph = 8.3
Nitrite = 1 ppm( goes up to 2 regularly)
Nitrate = 20pp
Ammonia = 0-0.25( i keep pushing it to 0 with additives).
I ordered a phospate and calcium test kit from api which will unfortunately wont come until the beggining of Feb. I also include a picture of the chemicals i use or can use in your recomendation. Please help, i am very scared for my fish.
In addition my RODI and new salt should arrive by the 13nth hopefully the fish and corals will be ok by then. I am also considering buying new live sand but idk if its a good idea.Update: my nitrates are still up, i checked the HOB filter contents like you recommend and indeed, i found alot of **** inside. I decided to remove
it and depend solely on my canster for the mechanical ftration. I set the light on blue only and increased the heigh of the skimmer. I did not take out the sand where the diatoms formed but i burried them inside my sand to prevent them from photosynthesis.
Good green hair algae is beggining to form on the glass of the tank, idk if this is a good sign?
Algae on the glass is normal Just want to get it to where it’s not excessive.Update: my nitrates are still up, i checked the HOB filter contents like you recommend and indeed, i found alot of **** inside. I decided to removeit and depend solely on my canster for the mechanical ftration. I set the light on blue only and increased the heigh of the skimmer. I did not take out the sand where the diatoms formed but i burried them inside my sand to prevent them from photosynthesis.
Good green hair algae is beggining to form on the glass of the tank, idk if this is a good sign?
