Very Discouraged

I wouldn't leave salt water because I never wanted it anyway. I am diabetic & had to give up sweets, but that doesn't mean I still don't like them.

I got a lot out of my thread "What's Happening" but I want to move on. I don't wish to rehash that thread.

 

If it was me I said, the only people who can give up and not come back, never really liked it.

Exempting someone with extenuating conditions or with loved ones with them.

Also lets be honest you don't have tank diabetes.

People get in your spot temporarily and quit, then they come back. It is common. Then they kick themselves for selling there stuff. Live stock prices only increase too.

also your alot older then I thought. I assumed you were a teenager maybe 13. I'm bad at guessing ages, its probably because you don't have a profile pic.

Anyway I don't want you to feel like I'm telling you to say or insulting you in anyway, I'm simply telling you my experience with people who stop the hobby(I was one).

 

hahaha i have seen no one under the age of 14 on this site( and that was me) but to relly give out good help can you mtry to get ur prems tested. i no you probaly dont want to bring up old stuff be we need them

 

I just read quite a lengthy piece on nano ( 8 - 10 gallon tanks ) I found it very informative, particularly in regards to water changes. It said, as we all know, that there is a delicate balance in a system this small. For that very reason, it said it was very important to disturb it as little as possible.

It said to do a water change only if the water was getting dirty or if the parameters needed adjusting. The water in my tank is now crystal clear. You'd never know there was water in it. This article defined dirty as cloudy. So, according to this article I do no water changes except for those 2 reasons. Then I would not be disturbing my biosystem as much.

I feel it has provided me with a challenge & new hope. What are your feelings ?

 

Is there a link you can provide, regarding the 8-10 gal nanos ?

What type of carbon are you running ? Any purigen or GFO ?

 

Maintainance of the Nano System

I just read quite a lengthy article on the maintainance of the nano ( 8 - 10 gallon ) aquarium.
I was particularly interested in the article regarding water changes. As we all know there is a very delicate balance in these small tanks.
This article suggested doing a water change only when the water was dirty or the parameters were off.
Right now, the water in my aquarium is crystal clear. You'd never know water was in it. According to this article I do no more changes until the water gets cloudy or the parameters are off. That way I am not continually upsetting the echo system.
This kind of gives me a new challenge & new hope. Let's face it, I've tried everything else.
Just a comment to the member who said, if I give up salt, I never liked it anyway. I am diabetic & had to give up sweets. I still like them.

 

I Apologize

I apologize for repeating myself. I got a bit mixed up about how the system works. See, with age, comes senility. ( LOL )

@ least now, I'll know how to access your responses/opinions.

Have a good one !

 

I'm very sorry to hear your a diabetic, I'm a dialysis patent so I know a little about giving up food you love . I think your getting on the right track, there are no straight answers in this hobby because there are always other factors involved in the one part your thinking about. I think your spot on about disturbing your tank less, but the dirty water thing is BS in my opinion. You have to test to know if you have dirty water, you will not see it in your water and there are plenty of us (myself included) that want some particulate floating around for our corals. Do you have room to add a fuge or just some way to get a little more water volume with your current set up? Maybe a hob fuge or a hob over flow with a fuge under it? I think we are all still wondering (just for curiosity's sake if anything else) what you are running for equipment. Just to brake the ice I toss out the "wrong" set up I'm using (did not know better at the time). I have 2 canister filters I thought I could use for bio filtration, but now that I learned a little more I realize that they are just nitrate traps because there is not enough air for the bio filtration I want (could be wrong on why they don't work, but they don't) , pulse I wanted crushed coral in one of my tanks in the set up, so I have another nitrate trap in there. I also moved my tank in my room so now I don't want to run my skimmers because their too loud, so now I have no mechanical and bad bio filtration. I did not test on my old tank because after testing for some time I found I did not do anything different even when I tested. I need to go back and change quite a bit about how I do things to fix my new set up.

 

You're skipping over this part. The last poster had it right, clear water is not necessarily an indication of good water. Unless you start to follow peoples suggestions here, this will start to turn into a hearing what you want to here thread. You seem to be stuck on water changes for some reason.

 

If I may, Corailline is great source of advice (she- I think?) know's her stuff. She speaks, you might want to listen to what is said.

That said, you already know that a marine tank that is small is tougher then one that is large. That siad- this doesn't mean that one 25 times it's size is easier- it is not- it's all about time constraint- so to speak.

I too used to keep discus- they became boring, Afric. chiclids while entertaing are ruthless critters- still have a 110 gallon mixed tank which I will never give up- that said, fw isn't all that much different then a sw tank with two exceptions:

first and formost- lighting- this is very important- do your homework, corals require very specfic lighting- fish- not so much, but the wattage or PAR of the lighting is the key you need to consider when keeping corals. (usually a more bluish tint is better for corals and hi wattage- sometimes well over 500 watts for many types)

second- water changes and chemical properties of said water. never - and I mean never use tap water for a marine tank. sure you can use it- treat it, and sometimes have sucess- great for you- but is it good for your critters- tap water is usually full of copper- this kills most corals- over time, usually not a problem with a fw set up. Either way, why risk it? UIse ro/di water from the start- the key here is to avoid any possible problems- just like a fw. discuss tank (tougher then sw IMHO). IMHO, fw/sw same thing when it comes to up keep when done right- different requirements- but you will succed, if you really want to, but you really need correct lighting and water quality- this is a must - there is no way arround this if you want to keep inverts or corals.