Re: Tunze reef excel salt mix  10/6/08
Mr. Fenner,
<Matt>
Thanks for your expert advice, I love your site and read it everyday. The reason I was asking about reef excel is that I am getting a little older
<Heeee! I'm getting a lot older!>
and do not like the ideal of having to clean the glass on a daily base due to the green film algae that I seem to always have with the Tropic Marin salt. I just want to set back and enjoy all my hard work that has gone into my reef set-ups. So if you or know of a good salt mix that compares to Tropic Marin but does not have the film algae issues please let me know.
<Don't think it/this is the salt here... likely "just" "recycled" nutrients from foods. I'd take other avenues... bioaccumulation, transport... maybe assiduous use of chemical filtrant/s>
I have used IO and s few other salt mixes but seem to always go back to Tropic Marin.
<Is a mighty fine, consistent product>
I currently have a 90 gallon soft and mushroom coral set up. My other set-up is a 125 gallon LPS/SPS with two Tridacna clams. The 90 gallon unit has two Sunlight Tek T5 (HO) light fixtures each with 4 x 54 watt Giesemann T5 (HO) lamps. The 125 gallon has two Giesemann Reflexx light fixtures, each with 4 x 54 watt lamps. I use Giesemann Powerchrome "Aquablue, midday and one pure actinic lamp in each set-up.
<Good fixtures>
With this set up I have had orange tube coral (Tubastrea aurea) reproduce into separate colonies in my LPS/SPS set up. I do a 25% water change every Sunday in both set-ups and do not add any additives to the tanks.
<Good for you>
In fact my corals grow so fast in both set-ups that I have to sell frags back to my LFS. There is so much stuff on the internet these days, some of it true and some of it so very untrue, that one really should seek the advice of a true expert like yourself or the WWM crew before they just decide one day that they want to have a marine set-up and go out and jump into the hobby. By the way in my 125 gallon set up which I have had up and running for five years now, I Have the following list of fish:
One (1) Copperband butterfly (I have had it for 3 years)
One (1) Blue and Yellow Hippo Tang (I have had it for 2 years)
One (1) Sailfin Tang Desjardini (I have had it for 3 years)
One (1) Yellowstripe Maroon Clownfish (I have had it for 4-1/2 years)
One (1) Court Jester Goby (I have had it for 2 years)
One (1) Green Mandarin (I have had it for 4 years)
One (1) Flameback (African) Angelfish (I have had it for 3-1/2 years)
One (1) Ruby Head Fairy Wrasse (I have had it for 4-1/2 years)
One (1) Scott's Fairy Wrasse (I have had for 1 year)
In the 90 gallon set-up I have the following fish:
One (1) Purple tank (I have it for 1 year)
One (1) Spotted Mandarin (I have had it for 1-1/2 years)
One (1) Clarkii Clownfish (I have had it for 1 year)
One (1) McCosker's Flasher Wrasse (I have had it for 2 years)
My feed all my fish the following:
H20 life frozen fish food, H20 life Aquarium Seaweed, New life Spectrum pellet fish food, Ocean Nutrition pellet fish food and Nutramar or reef nutrition live Copepods.
Thanks For all your hard work.
Matt
<Ahh, thank you for sharing input re your success. Bob Fenner>

Re: No Idea What Else To Try...Please Help! (Just how much rock can you stack in a 180g tank!?) – 10/06/08
Thanks, Eric.
<<Quite welcome>>
I inherited this tank 4 years ago, and was told by the former owner that the total amount of rock was 400#-500#.
<<Oh...okay>>
I have not purchased any rock since taking over the tank, and have never really weighed stuff out. I just assumed that the number he gave me was accurate, but it is not unlikely that the previous owner might have embellished (a very good possibility with his personality) or overestimated the amount of rock, as it is not overwhelming for the size of the tank.
<<Ah, I see…then maybe this issue is a bit simpler to resolve than originally thought>>
There is a substantial amount of swimming room for everyone, so I am guessing that it is an inaccurate number.
<<Very good… How about water movement…strong vigorous flow?>>
I will switch back to the previous skimmer configuration for now, and see what happens. I will back water changes off a bit and go after the detritus a bit more aggressively and see what happens.
<<Sounds good…you should also consider some means of chemical filtration if not using such already (carbon and/or Poly-Filter)>>
Thanks for your input!
Susan
<<Happy to assist…if things don’t begin to improve with these simple changes, feel free to come back and we can examine this further. EricR>>

R1: No Idea What Else To Try...Please Help! (Just how much rock can you stack in a 180g tank!?) – 10/07/08
Hello again, Eric.
<<Hiya Susan!>>
Water movement in the tank is good....
<<Ah good>>
I have two power heads in the tank, each turns over 740-750 GPH. Turnover from the tank through the sump/fuge is 900-960 GPH. I have polyester filters over the sponges in the overflow boxes (changed every morning) and an 8"x4" poly filter in the sump that I change every 3-4 weeks.
<<Okay>>
No carbon at this point; took it out 2 years ago when I got rid of the wet/dry set up. Do you think I should throw a sack of carbon into the fuge?
<<Wouldn’t hurt in my opinion, I always like to keep a bit of Poly-Filter and carbon going in my own system>>
Also, do you have any suggestions on a different brand of skimmer?
<<I do!>>
There are many out there, and it always helps to have recommendations when shopping.
<<Indeed… My current fave is the offerings from Euro-Reef but AquaC also produces a very good product. Other choices would include H&S, Tunze, and Deltec skimmers. I would prefer to see you save up for one of these top-of-the-line skimmers, but if money is truly an issue, then perhaps a skimmer from ASM or Octopus will be a good choice. As for sizing the skimmer, you can go with manufacturer recommendations (especially with the Euro-Reef or AquaC lines), but I like to suggest getting “the next larger size” when budget and space allows as I believe many of the manufacturers tend to overate their product (as is the case with your current skimmer)>>
Thanks again for the input!!
Susan
<<My pleasure to assist. Eric Russell>>
P.S. Going back to your reply to my first email....you mentioned the uncommon nature and typically high price of the Bariene Tang.....he happens to be the best bargain in my tank!
<<Oh?>>
Occasionally I stop into the local Mom & Pop fish store here in Podunk (just to see what they have), but rarely buy anything, as I try to buy livestock from the same source.
<<A good practice, as this gives you opportunity to develop a relationship and get to know your provider and their supplier>>
I stopped about 3 years ago and found this fish, then about 4" long, priced at $27.
<<Wow! A $150.00 fish for $27.00…not bad…and perhaps some insight to the markup on this “very common” uncommon find>>
It took only seconds to make the decision on that one!
<<Indeed>>
Thanks again for your help and input!!!
<<You know where to find me. EricR>>

Microbubbles and no skimmate... Mmm, skimmer op. f'  10/1/08
Good Afternoon,
<Hi there>
First and foremost, I would like to thank you, Mr. Fenner, and the WWM Crew for taking the time to answer all of the questions and for building such an informative site. I will apologize for the length of this letter beforehand. I have a couple problems. First, my skimmer is producing nothing other than a green tea colored liquid;
<Mmm... either needs adjustment or is "just" not a very efficient make/model>
secondly, I have a large amount of microbubbles or microparticles that are making the tank cloudy.
<No fun>
I have a 125-gallon tank that I started in January of this year. I added 175 pounds of live rock and a ½-inch of fine aragonite sand. This is where I made the first of several mistakes. I knew the rock needed to cure and had planned to do so in the tank. I placed the rock in the tank with a CPR Bak-Pak 2 Skimmer, three powerheads and an Emperor 400 BIO-Wheel. I obviously did not understand the difference between curing and cycling.
<Yikes! What a mess>
I failed to do water changes and the ammonia level climbed off the charts. At the highest possible placement of the collection cup, the skimmer failed to produce anything other than the tea colored liquid. I am sure you can imagine what happened, no living creatures on the live rock from the ammonia. The live rock had a lot of coralline (which bleached), but I never experienced the foul odor during curing that I have read about here.
<You're fortunate t/here>
The tank completed its cycle in about three weeks. I had all the undesirable effects, such as the diatom bloom. I had initially used tap water to fill the tank, which I now realize was another mistake. I eventually developed the dreaded Cyanobacteria. I added an RO system, and it had little effect on the Cyanobacteria. I had my water tested by a water quality firm and found that the tap water contained 600 ppm of total dissolve solids.
<We actually have more here in most of San Diego... and call our source water "liquid rock">
The RO water contained 30 ppm
<Mmmm>
so I added a DI filter to the system and lowered the TDS to 0. The CPR skimmer has never made much skimmate and as earlier mentioned, it was nothing other than a tea color. I finally defeated the Cyanobacteria problem with a great deal of water changes.
<You must be getting the ahms of AhnoldS!>
I had also read that dripping Kalkwasser with an IV would precipitate the phosphates, which I believe that I have, but have always tested zero. I believed the skimmer was producing the microbubbles, so I upgraded to an AquaC Remora Pro with a bubble trap,
<Ah! Very good>
but I continue to have little skimmate production. I have even talked with Steve at AquaC; he suggested that maybe the bioload was too light.
<A possibility>
I have now had another outbreak with Cyanobacteria. I know there is a lot of organic matter in the water,
<But... "something" missing>
since the Emperor filter cartridges become extremely dirty in a short amount of time. I have also dripped Kalkwasser over several days to raise the pH to 8.6 to precipitate the phosphates. I have now added a poly filter along with Chemi-Pure.
<Worth trying>
The Cyanobacteria is still present and I siphon it out every few days. I will disappear within an hour of "lights-out" and come back vigorously within an hour of "lights on." I know this is not light dependant and is a result of high organics in the water. I also have a green algae that grows on the back glass (not sure if it is also related to the Cyanobacteria or not) but its texture appears to be more slime-like. The coralline grows well on the rocks but when it forms on the glass, it grows to the size of a dime, then develops a small hole in the middle, and completely disappears within a few days.
The microbubbles are not only very aesthetically displeasing but as you are quite aware can be dangerous to the livestock. I have tested the equipment that I have by have shutting everything off for 12 hours, but there continues to be microbubbles or microparticles in the water column, they never settle out or rise to the top. Sometimes it almost appears that they are coming from the substrate and appear to get worse the longer the lights are on.
<Yes... I know of the sort of thing you are experiencing... and a safe, easy "cure">
Again, I apologize for the length but I am out of things to try. I also placed a HOB magnum with a micro cartridge and ran this for a month to make sure it was not just particulate matter and it appeared that this made no difference either. Not sure if this matters or not but in the beginning I had to add massive amounts of calcium because it kept dropping into the 250 range, I was also adding Purple up.
<Mmmm>
After reading on your site, I stopped all the supplements other than Kent Super Buffer for my water. The calcium has remained steady in the 400 range with no additives for several months now. I am just wondering are these microbubbles the bi-product of the Cyanobacteria or some other type of bacterial infection. Up until about two weeks ago, my pH fluctuated to the extremes 8.1 to 8.6 it was as if the BGA was controlling this to its own satisfaction.
<Good guess>
Calcium and DKH remained at acceptable levels and pH would be 8.1 one day and 8.6 the next with no additives. I first thought it was the pH meter, which is a pinpoint, but after having it checked and calibrated there was no problem with the equipment.
125-gallon aquarium (not drilled)
pH 8.1 to 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
DKH 11
Calcium 400
Temperature 79 (very stable)
Phosphates 0 (tank and RO water)
Lights PC (4) 96 watt (on for 12 hrs)
(3) Powerheads
AquaC Skimmer (Rio 1400)
UV (used for 1 month with no results so I removed)
Emperor BIO-Wheel (change filters weekly)
I have added phosphate remover and ChemiPure in the last month
I use no additives other than Kent Superbuffer for make-up water
I have done 10-gallon water changes weekly. I also only feed Ocean Nutrition flakes and seaweed for the Tangs. I am positive I am not overfeeding.
Livestock
(1) Yellow Hawaiian Tang
(1) Flame Hawkfish
(2) True Percula Clowns
(3) Green Chromis
(1) Watchman Goby
(1) Sailfin Blenny
(1) Foxface
(1) Kole Tang
(2) Brittle Stars
(3) Firefish Gobies
(2) Cleaner Shrimp
(1) Flame Scallop (came with cleaner crew)
Pulsating Xenia (grown to three separate large colonies)
(1) Frogspawn (3 heads)
Several mushrooms
Several button polyps
(1) White Pom Pom Xenia
Cleaner crew mixed snails and hermits
Thanks for all your assistance,
Roger
<Now... I am going to try my best at an effort of sleight of hand here... suggesting actions w/o much (or any really) explanation of causative mechanisms. IF you will try adding a bit (abundance of a lacking essential nutrient) of carbon here... in the form of ethanol (Vodka will do) or "simple" sugar (pentoses, hexoses), you will very likely find a "miraculous" turning about of your system... Either a half ounce of the C2H5OH... OR a couple grams of the sugar (dissolved in some water), every other day for three, four treatments... And please do write me back in a week or so and we'll chat re... Not to be or appear disingenuous, I don't want/intend to encourage others carte blanche to try this. Your situation however... is apropos. Bob Fenner>