[BTL]

it is Fiji Islands. The people at the LFS sold it to me as Cured but i guess they were wrong. Oh well. This is my first experience with Reef tanks so i am doing my best as i go, on the bright side i guess this experience with Uncured rock will help me with my future reef projects.

Andy

[pillions]

"Cured LR" means different things to different people. When you buy LR, I recommend asking how long it's been at the LFS. You'll experience less die off the longer the LFS holds it (general rule of thumb).

The second factor is the tranportation between LFS and tank. If it gets too dry you will experience more die off in the aquarium - regardless of how long the LFS kept the rock.

Regarding your Nitrate and Nitrite, do you have a deep sand bed (4-6" of fine particle sand)? Within four to five months the DSB will be able to process the NO2 and NO3.

-CP

[BTL]

ni, my sand bed is at most an inch, my tank is a 3 gallon, a 4 inch sand bed would take up half of the water space. I was told by the LFS that i shouldent have more sand than what i have.

*tank desc: 3 gallon ecplise, 1 8" daylight bulb, 35 GPH filter w/ filterfloss, carbon and "Bio wheel". 1.5 pounds LR, 3 lbs live sand. Current water quality: PH: 7.8, Ammonia .3, Nitrate 80, Nitrite 5.0, salinity 1.0235, temp 76.*

Also, what do i have to do to bring the PH back up?

Andy

[pillions]

If it were me, I would...
1) first tackle the NO2/NO3 by changing a portion of the water. This could very well help your PH.
2) Once the NO2/NO3 situation is resolved, look at the PH. You can buffer it up with a chemical additive.

I have no experience with Nano-reefs so I can't recommend more details for step #2. I tend to buffer my ALK first and then drip a little Kalkwasser in my 80g - never had a PH problem since.

-CP

[BTL]

I just did a 30% change this morning. How often can i do water changes? should i wait a day or do another tommorow. Oh and the tank is still in the process of cycling.


Thanks

Andy

[This message has been edited by BTL (edited 05-20-2001).]

[BTL]

I did a water change and then it took the LR out and washed it the best i could and got rid of most of the fungus crap. It was weird, when i lifted up the LR the whole bottom of it was black and the sand under it was black too. Bad sign? good sign?

From my water tests it seems my tank is cycling fine. The ammonia has dropped drastically (From 4.0 to .3) but the nitrate and nitrite are still sky high (now comes the algal bloom [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]). I just have a few minor questions also: How often should i do water changes? Today was the first one i have done since i set the tank up (on tuesday). A guy at the LFS told me that i should avoid buying LR with lots of crap growing on it because it will all die. Unfortuanlty this is what the other LFS sold me (LR with lots of crap on it) and is this is what is causing my problem with fungus? And, once the LR becomes established i wont have to worry about the Fungus coming back? And my PH is dropping, it is at 7.8 right now. What procedure/products do you guys reccomend to correct this and bring it up to 8.2?

Thanks for the help,

Andy

[This message has been edited by BTL (edited 05-20-2001).]

[Elmo18]

BTL,

This is normal, usually occurring with uncured live rock. I just got 45lbs of uncured Vanisi from Jeff's and is still curing in my 25 gallon tank from last week Thursday (not this past). I did water change once on Thursday(a week after) and I witnessed the same thing.

The black fungus/white film is the die off that occurred during shipping. Make sure you have good water circulation in there, and don't have lights on all day. I have mine like 7 hours (only actinic) to prevent large algae blooms. I can't wait to put this rock to my new 80 gallon.

What type of rock did you get?

Regards,
Ilham [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]