LIFE ON THE ROCK.

animalman

animalman

Love My Clowns
Oct 15, 2007
361
0
0
Massapequa, New York
SO I HAVE LITTLE FEATHER DUSTERS ON MY LR. ALL DIFF COLORS. WHITE, BLUE, RED, AND BROWN. THEY ARE SMALL. SMALLER THAN A DIME. ARE THEY GOOD. WILL THEY BECOME BIGGER. SHOULD THE BE ALL THESE COLORS. ALSO NOTICED LOTS OF CRITTERS THAT I THINK ARE PODS. LOOK LIKE LITTLE SHRIMPS. MY CALCIUM LEVEL IS 400PPM. IS THAT GOOD? ALSO NOTICED SOME RED ALGE ON THE SAND. DO I NEED SOME SAND SIFTERS? IF SO WOULD A BLUE HERMIT HELP? :feedback:
 
The small feather dusters will come and go depending on the nutrient levels available in the tank and they dont get very big at all. They come lots of different colours as you have already mentioned including combinations of them too..

The little shrimp things you see do sound like pods to me too..

Your calcium level is not that bad, most people aim around the 420 mark as an average content in the water.

The red on the sand could be a sign of cyano starting to form. What lighting do you have? when were the bulbs last changed? What is your feeding schedule? and lastly, what flow do you have in the tank? Changing the flow around could help, aswell as increasing the ammount of flow you have in the tank. Do you test for phosphates?

The above questions are asked as its these factors which contribute to cyano issues.

Niko
 
MY LIGHT IS ONLY A SMALL MARINE-GLO 18000K 15WATT. I JUST PUT THE BULB IN BOUT A MONTH AGO. I KEEP THE LIGHT ON FOR 8 HOURS A DAY. ITS ON A TIMER. I DO NOT TEST FOR PHOSPHATE. SHOULD I? MY POWER HEAD IS A 270 GPH AQUA CLEAR. GRINS DID SAY THAT I MIGHT BE A LIL BELOW FLOW. I HAVE A 30 GALLON CUBE OCEANIC. MY AVATAR IS MY SETUP. I WILL ADD SOME CALCIUM TONIGHT TO BRING IT UP. THE TEST KIT SAID KEEP BETWEEN 400-450PPM. I AM USING B-IONIC EVS, PART 1 IS ALK AND PART 2 IS CALC. SHOULD I ADD BOTH OR JUST THE CALC. MY LFS SAID IF MY CALC IS LOW THEN THE ALK COULD BE LOW ALSO. THAT THEY GO HAND AND HAND. BUT I DON'T LIKE TO TAKE THEIR WORD FOR IT AS I FEEL SOMETIMES THEY ONLY WANT TO SELL YOU SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED. COULD THERE BE A BETTER BRAND THAN THE EVS B-IONIC? SHOULD I BE ADDING ANYTHING ELSE BESIDES CALCIUM? I HAVE A FOWLR TANK.

I HAVE 1 PERC CLOWN AND 1 PEPPERMINT SHRIMP.
 
I never check my Calcium.
Feather dusters are Good!
 
I would buy a phosphate kit and test for that if it was me. Just to be sure your water/tank is phosphate free as photphates are a good feeding mechanism for plague algae..

Yes, your flow is a little low...you want to be in the area of 600gph for a FOWLR tank.

For the time being, i would not add any calcium buffers, its not at a level that it needs it as you dont have corals extracting it from the water.

You lfs is right, calcium and alk are linked and 2 part buffers are commonly used to bring it up to levels..Never come across the buffer you mentioned though, so cant comment on that..

Your stocking sounds just fine to me..

Niko
 
Niko thats what I was going to say.. I've read about people have calcium precipitate storms in their tanks.. Guess that might be fun if you live in a hot zone around Christmas :) (tongue is firmly planted in cheek)..
 
OK THANX. I HAVE TO GET A PHOS TEST KIT TODAY. SO I SHOULD HAVE 0PPM PHOS? IF I DO HAVE PHOS IN MY TANK, HOW DO I GET IT OUT OF MY TANK? WATER CHANGE?
 
If you do have phosphates, ideally you want it to read zero...If you do show phosphates, you could start to use a phosphate removal media to eradicate them..Or if you have a sump, a ball of chaeto in the the refigium is a good bonus in helping the situation...

Niko
 
I agree with what Niko has already said. Also, it is advisable to avoid dosing anything you don't test for. It is too easy to overdose or get your parameters out of balance (especially when dosing just 1/2 of a 2 part system).

and psst, anyway you could drop the all caps? It is easier to read when the type is in both lower and upper case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom