superman
Fish Addict
WOW, you must feel pretty frustrated about all the dfferent types of opinons you're getting about taking caer of your tank eh? I feel for you man, if you lived near me I would be more than willing to help you out, but the forum will have to suffice. Through all of this frustration have you been testing your ammonia and nitrite levels? I would do this and see if those are at zero. IF so I would slowly remove your sponge filters one by one over the course of a couple of weeks, sponge filters are simply not needed in my opinon. Only if your tank water looks cloudy with organics or fine sand particles would I recommend putting a sponge filter in, and then when it clears up take the sponge filter back out. Sponge filters just can't be trusted in a tank long term in my experience. I would also recommend the refugium, someone previously stated that you need a "special substrate" in order to get growth of the macro algae in a refugium, this is not true. You can go with some aragonite sand at the bottom, some Chaeto, moderate flow , and lighitng that is on an opposite schedule from your tank. I would also agree with the previous posts about changing your substrate to aragonite, definitely a good move, this will help buffer your ph. I personally do 90% water changes on my 37 gallon reef tank. The only reason that I am able to do this is by having the new saltwater have the same temp, ph, salinity and oxygen levels (which are stabilized by letting newly mixed saltwater sit and circulate/aerate for 24 hours) as the water already in the tank. If all of these things are the same in your new make up water, then you can do whatever size water changes you would like (as long as your fish are still in water) If there is a major problem after a large water change, then either the salinity, temp, ph, or oxygen levels were way off in your new make up water. Let us know how things go.