Unable to groom the tank after 4 years

Originally Posted by bobiegoh

bro Sunburst, I have one 4 layer's canister with multi-filters + ceramic rings + coral pcs + carbon. What is coraline algae? Is that bad or good?
I do add alkaline carbon + ca + mg regularly.

Check this out: http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/abo.../coralline.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coralline_algae

Btw, if you can add another cannister would be great as you can do a maintenace on them alternatively without upsetting the water parameters drastically.

Dont forget to replace your carbon on a monthly bassis.

Originally Posted by bobiegoh

For the skimmer, what is the recommondation? Can I install those hangon one?

Happy New Year to my bros.
BG.

Any skimmer is better than a tank with no skimmer at all and those "hangon" type are ok and dont forget to get one which is overrated for your tank.

For example, if your tank is 500 litres then get a skimmer which can supports up to at least 1000l of skimming capacity and even better if it is 2 times.

[KaLiB]

You can change the rockscape but avoid stirring up too much detritous as it could cause a release of nutrients into the water. I would suggest minimizing any re-scaping work as each time you re-scape you stress the livestock in the tank.

If you want to see a drastic change in No3, you will need a 40%-50% water change. It won't really solve the problem long term as water changes must be done consistently to keep No3 low.

It'll be better to attack the No3 problem by introducing means of dentrification rather than just purely water change. You can look into these methods:
- Use of a deep sand bed/Plenum(but will be troublesome for a tank already set up)
- Install a denitrator
- Use biohome filter media
- Using a protein skimmer
- Control feeding(feed what your fish need, don't feed excessively) and stocking levels(avoid overstocking)
- Get more LR

hi guys, the test result does not seems to be impress after my second day 20% WC. it still at red level > 50%. What should be my next cost of actions to reduce the NO3 (Feeding and stocking is under control now)? Please advise me the skimmer model and brand as I might want to reduce this fellow when I move to sump tank. thanks.

Can I replace carbon with another other media in my canister?

Originally Posted by Sunburst

Check this out: http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/abo.../coralline.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coralline_algae

Btw, if you can add another cannister would be great as you can do a maintenace on them alternatively without upsetting the water parameters drastically.

Dont forget to replace your carbon on a monthly bassis.

yo bro, my tank does has lot of algae from hairy, blue-green, red, brown, pink .... I believe all these are harmful algae, right? As you can read that my NO3 is superb high and I am fighting with it now.

Originally Posted by bobiegoh

hi guys, the test result does not seems to be impress after my second day 20% WC. it still at red level > 50%. What should be my next cost of actions to reduce the NO3 (Feeding and stocking is under control now)?

Many people try to reduce their nitrate levels by performing a series of partial (20%) water changes. This will reduce your nitrate (or any other chemical substance) levels, but it is rather inefficient if the objectuve is to reduce the levels to near zero in the shortest period of time as possible, with the least amount of water.

On the other hand, if you reduce the level of water in the tank to 20% of normal and then refill the tank to a 40% level, you have already reduced your nitrate levels by half.

If you then refill the tank to the 100% level, your nitrate levels will be 20% of the original level that you started out at. Right?

If, on the other hand, you reduce the 40% water level once more to 20% and then refill the tank, you will end up with a nitrate level of 10% of what you started with.

Perform the 40% to 20% reduction once more, and you will end up with a nitrate level of 5% of what you started with.

Just think about it for a minute. If you started out with a nitrate level of 100 ppm and used this method, your 100 ppm nitrates would be reduced, in a short period of time, to 5 ppm, which is considered, by most, to be an acceptable level even for corals.

Well ... some people have expressed concern that the rapid reduction of nitrates would "shock" the tank inhabitants. This is an understandable concern, but under the circumstances wouldn't you think that the rapid reduction of potentially harmful toxins in a tank to be of the utmost importance, and a lot less harmless?

It would be like standing in a closed garage with a car engine running, filling the garage with carbon monoxide, and someone telling you not to open the garage door; that the rapid reduction in carbon monoxide levels would in some way be more harmful to you than only reducing their levels by 20%.

If it was me in that situation, I would kick the door open as far as it would go. Dont you agree?

So in short .. do at least a 80% water change at one go and use NSW instead as it would save you a lot of time.

Just my opinion and others may differ.

Originally Posted by bobiegoh

Please advise me the skimmer model and brand as I might want to reduce this fellow when I move to sump tank. thanks.

Can I replace carbon with another other media in my canister?

When you move to a sump tank, are you going to use the same hang-on skimmer again or getting another in-sump or external skimmer?

Yes .. you can replace the carbon with any other media in your cannister.

Btw, is that a reason why you're not having 2 cannisters for your setup?

Originally Posted by bobiegoh

yo bro, my tank does has lot of algae from hairy, blue-green, red, brown, pink .... I believe all these are harmful algae, right? As you can read that my NO3 is superb high and I am fighting with it now.

your tank is indeed in a very unhealthy stage ....

ya bro, I knew that my tank is at severe condition. That why i decided to add a skimmer rather than keep changing water which is not cost and result effective in long run. The cabinet config which does not permit me to add more equipment. Therefore, I intend to add a hang-on skimmer. If I managed to turn the condition down side up, I properly will do a new tank for that. Does anyone have or lobang for 2nd hand skimmer?

Yo guy, I have just cleaned the canister and tank. I also added a skimmer, bioball and removed carbon. Hopefully the condition will be better. Will do NO3 + PH + KH test in 2 days time. Will update you.

Now my tank look suck.
Will post the after installed pic

I decided to go for sump but I need your expertise to show me the configuration of sump and overflow box. Thanks.