Somebody click on this and give me your best advice

[Anonymous]

I'm running a "Berlin Method" 50 gal. reef tank. Started tank end of November with 60 lbs. Nature's Ocean LS. 1st week of Dec. added 70 lbs. of LR. 4 powerheads on a wavemaker for movement and a Berlin HOB. Started fish around new years. Now have 7 small fish, 3 cleaner shrimp and a couple of pieces of soft corals. All are doing fine NH3/NH4+ @ 0, but can never get NO2 lower than .15ppm after 20-25% h2o change. Do I need to invest in canister filter. If so, which is best/quietest? Or am I totally missing something? Do "Berlin Method" tanks ever get down to 0 nutrients?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

are you using r.o. water?

 

[Anonymous]

Dave,
Hmmmmm, you don't metion what kinda fish you have but 7 fish in a 50 sounds like alot to me..

IMO you don't need a canister filter.


I think your going a little too fast..you have all these critters in a tank thats 2 months old.thas not good IMO.

slow down,let us know what fish you have and don't buy anymore critters..PLEASE

Mark

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see my tank at
members.xoom.com/golfish1/reef.htm

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I use ro/di h2o. Here's the whole bio-load:
3 yellow-tail damsels, 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 mandarin, 1 pacific cleaner wrasse, 1 sm./med. yellow tang(d-oh! that's

. Plus, 2 small skunk cleaner shrimp, 1 small fire shrimp, 1 med. size bubble tip anenome, 1 med. size xenia, 2 pieces of green star polyps, garf clean-up crew, 1 blue linckia star, 1 white burrowing star, 2 very small yellow cukes.

 

[Anonymous]

Unless you religiously clean the canister filter, you will only increase your NO2 levels. So I would say skip the filter.

Have you tested your makeup water for NO2?

Also, I would check the levels with another test kit. I chased a Ammonia problem forever and it ended up being the test kit. Check the expiration date on the test kit to.

Wayne...

Wayne...

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you kindly in advance!

 

[Anonymous]

what about the mandarin? will this setup support/feed this?

 

[Anonymous]

arnjer, I had a Mandarin in a 50 gallon with 50 lbs of LR and no LS that did fine for two years......until my 4 year old son decided to climb over to my tank and rearrange my rock, crushed the poor mandarin

It was the first time he had ever messed with my tank but he learned his lesson. He loved the Mandarin more than any of the fish and cried for two days.

Anyway, my experience is that the mandarin should be ok.

 

[Anonymous]

Dave:

Are you sure the kit is accurate? In other words, does it read zero nitrites on fresh salt water? On the Ro/DI water?

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Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Anonymous]

Thats a lot of fish for a new tank. Probably a little much for even a well established tank. I know how easy it is to hurry into a tank but the slower you go the better it will be (I mean within reason).

In time your levels should drop(maybe). This tank is new and it has a pretty heavy bio-load. My buddy has a new 55 tank (roughly 4 months old)1 maroon clown, 1 yellow tang, and a half black angel and hasnt dropped below 20 ppm.

 

[Anonymous]

I also have a 55
bio laod as follows: yellow finger leather (soft coral), large colony grn star polyps, mettalic grn shrooms, red shrooms, meat coral, red chili coral, grn hammer coral, grn open brain, grn brain, red sponge, blue sponge, 2 clams, 4 peppermint shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 coral banded shrimp, 2 yellow tail dams, 2 grn chrois, 2 perc clowns, 1 coral beauty angle, 1 powder brn tang, 1 lg red/white/blue/purple cucmber, 1 yellow cucmber, 12 turbo snails, 6 blue legs, 2 red legs, brn button polyps, yellow polyps, other button polyps just started showing up on LR clear outer edges w/ orange centers, approx 100 lbs LR, approx 65-70 lbs crushed coral w/LS added.... ammonia...0, nitrite...0, nitrate....05, using 3 powerheads for circ, 2 mag 350 cans... one as a fluidized bed filter , one as activated carbon (chemi-pure) both cans are changed(floss) every week , carbon 6-8 months, never on the bio media in other can.... my point.. youcan load a 55 or smaller tank HOWEVER!!!!!..... this is alot of upkeep and work but it is possible... sorry for being so long also I'm sure I will get a flame or two for revealing how much livestock I have accumulated in this tank but it is working so I wont fix what isnt broke...hth good luck to all

 

[Anonymous]

Just a question...isn't a white burrowing starfish not a great idea for a tank relying on live sand for at least part of its filtration?

Let me know if I am off on this one...

SeaMac

 

[Anonymous]

Do you use any type of mechanical filtration such as floss or sponge (Is your tank sponge-worthy?)? If you don't clean or replace that stuff at least weekly then you will have high nitrates. I chased high nitrates for a year before I realized that I had forgottoen about a small piece of sponge in my overflow box. If this isn't the problem then it is probably just a case of too much too soon in which case it will rectify itself eventually.