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GFO and Algae

Posted 10/04/2014 at 12:04 PM by Sk8r

Do you need GFO: how to use it...RE PHOSPHATE AND ALGAE PLAGUE
Granulated Ferrous Oxide is, in effect, rusty iron pellets made porous, specifically to sop up and hold phosphate out of your water.

Rock, sand, and tapwater all contribute phosphate to your tank, and algae loves it...especially hair and film algae. Some rock is worse than others in this regard---but it can be some of the prettier rock. And 'new' rock goes through a period when it starts slowly 'leaking' phospate...
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Buying a tank

Posted 09/15/2014 at 08:44 AM by Sk8r

Buying a marine aquarium
...most fish stores cannot stock the size of tank appropriate for most of the fish they sell. Tanks of 30 gallons or under are appropriate for a clown pair, a few gobies or blennies, a royal gramma or dartfish, and some inverts. And with good lighting---corals.

If you want larger fish, you have several size jumps. A 50 will let you have a dwarf angel or similar, anything a 30 can handle, maybe a single chromis (a damsel, like a clown, mildmannered,...
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DO I need a...[skimmer, filter, ro/di, reactor, ATO, etc.]

Posted 09/12/2014 at 12:05 PM by Sk8r

Understand, you can run a very simple kind of 30 gal tank with nothing but a pump, a heater, live rock, regular tank light, and a Penguin filter, with a 'fill line' drawn on the glass to help you top off accurately with ro water from the supermarket. This is the ancient method. It will support a few crustaceans and snails and a couple of very small gobies or blennies or dartfish.

If you want more than that, your problem becomes too much nutrient in the system, not enough waste removal,...
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Cycling does not mean turning your tank into a toxic zone...

Posted 09/12/2014 at 11:22 AM by Sk8r

I've read an increasing fervor for dumping various things into a new tank to cycle it, many with the implication it does it faster---and some involving a lot of extra expense.

Cycling is a simple natural process of letting bacteria multiply and penetrate more than just the outer skin of your rock and sand. And bacteria multiply quite nicely without your doing more than setting up with one live rock amid conditioned (saltwater soaked) plain rock. I've even done it with no more than...
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Choosing and maintaining sand

Posted 05/20/2014 at 09:50 PM by Sk8r

Sand: buying it, keeping it.
Avoid silicate sand. Go for aragonite, which is basically calcium carbonate and safe.
Fine or medium? I can only tell you personally, with an sps reef, in a re-set-up, I tried fine, and spent the next 2 years removing it, after it killed corals. I'm definitely on the medium side. The fine sand, though amply bacteria'ed, would not settle, blew like mad, irritated corals, and was a mess. The medium sand has enough 'shape' to it to enable jawfish to build...
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