24G AquaPod w/ 150w MH no mayo

[Lotus]

A weekly water change is a good thing You especially need to make sure the nitrates are as low as possible.

[shift_9k]

Ok I dont know if you guys are ready for such a noob question, so brace yourselves here it comes!


When Im doing a water change, I will take out what 10% of the current SW right? So the tank SG should stay the same, now when I add back new SW what should the SG of the new SW be?

[Lotus]

The new water should be at the same SG as the tankwater.

Make sure you mix the water up 24 hours before you do a water change, and keep it mixing with a powerhead to make sure it's thoroughly mixed and aerated.

[shift_9k]

Your so money baby, you dont even know it.

[shift_9k]

Ok so my rock is changing color....well at least the top ones are....


????

[shift_9k]

Oh and some updated pics of the corals. They seem to be doing fine!


This one is starting to expand more and more under the MH, it wasnt so great at the start.



And these guys are opening up more and more too!








Had the water mixing since 6am this morning, gonna do a water change when I get home.

[Helena21]

I think the color on the rock is just brown algae, i have tons of it!

good looking corals

[shift_9k]

What kind of snails should I include in my CUC for that? I have nassarius that i transferred over from my other tank, but he doesnt seem interested.

[Lotus]

A couple of astrea snails will help with the diatoms, but it's basically a matter of time with that stuff... it will go away when it's ready.

[shift_9k]

Ok... holy ****...I'm the prime minister of noobs. Its been documented and proven tonight.

There has to be a better way of doing water changes then what I did tonight. I'm really freakin embarassed to even say it. Why do I make things hard for myself? I dont know... but here it goes.

I'm on the phone while using the turkey baster to take out water into an empty 5g bucket. After about a half gallon later that got really annoying, thankfully my phone died (my reasoning behind using the turkey baster was that it wouldnt cause too much of a ruckus in the tank).. So I had a 5 gallon bucket of saltwater mixing for a day, brought that over. Started using this pint mug I have to take water out. So great the water is coming out ok the corals seem to be ok, havent retracted yet.

And then my water level in the back chambers starts dropping slowly but surely, since I didnt unplug anything, then I remember what a dumbass I am, and how I had forgotten to take out these big blue sponges that came with the tank, that I had been using while the sand cleared up. So I go to take them out which was a pain since they're big as ****, and I dump all the goopy sand crap into the tank while I'm struggling with these devil sponges. Now my tank is really freakin cloudy again.

So I take em out finally, wash both of em put one of em back to help clear the tank out again. Kept one out and clean to replace this one on my next water change. After that I started adding my saltwater which was the same SG as the water in the tank. As I'm adding, I look at my coral and they have pretty much shrunk to the smallest I've ever seen them.....excellent. I had found a great nook for the ricordea, so I top off the water and move the bugger into his final permanent location (not too far from where he was being acclimated).

I accidentally touched the polyps, and now my fingers are stinging a little, I dont know if it was the ric or something else. Regardless the water is now in the tank, the params are fine, cept for the SG which was a little high.

In conclusion, I made a mess, my fingers hurt, my phone is dead, my corals have shrivled up, the tank is cloudy, and its almost 2am in the morn, and I have to be up at 7am. The only good thing that I can even think of right now is... that at least the temp stayed constant.


**** ME!


Someone, anyone, please streamline this process for me. I dont wanna go through it again.