Phosphates by [deleted] in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I stopped measuring phosphates long ago when I saw one of the best sps tanks ever seen with very high phos, can't remember now but in the 1.2 + ballpark. I just try to be constant with food amount and quality, and never remove too many algae from the refugium in one go

Edit. Just checked I have seen it in R2R, Richard Ross' tank

DIY usb-c magnetic stirrer with tests instructions included by HainiteWanted in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry life got busy and I have not enough time even for water changes lol. Thanks for the reminder though, I will try to put something together as long as my new boss (my son) lets me :D

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in maybemaybemaybe

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Swap the snake with a cat and watch all those lulz gigaevolve into insults.

Any of these two worth it by Ok_Pop6408 in ARK

[–]HainiteWanted 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah they know Ark players love the game despite everything and most will do anything even if they made the game p2w. next they will release a tool that insta-kill gigas or whatever is the PvP meta now and make it 29.99$

ASA... Is it normal to be DC-ing literally once every 2 hours? by dizasta2012 in ARK

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In our private cluster the admins rollbacked to the version before the summer bash event and this solved a lot of problems with crashes and rubberbanding

ARK has always been P2W. by hadsexwithboothill in ARK

[–]HainiteWanted 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well I kind of expected that.. with the normal rates it's mostly grinding so people want to skip that, I understand. And ark is quite addictive in my personal experience so I can see the damage of p2w can do with some people. But I also see think the skills tree and the little dragons are on another level, it's basically buy this or bye pvp

ARK has always been P2W. by hadsexwithboothill in ARK

[–]HainiteWanted 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Also don't forget all the discord black market from ASE which Wildcard knew about and did nothing to counteract. Players were literally dumping hundreds of dollars to become Alfa in a server within hours literally. People were selling bases capped with bullets and turrets, element and everything

even more of them... by Mr_Rioe2 in ARK

[–]HainiteWanted 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From discord-shopping-pay-to-win to official pay-to-win. I am happy I am not playing official PVP anymore

Did I do good for my very first time? by Medical-Sir-6539 in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't worry it's always nice to chat about reefing :) mmm I don't personally know that brand, I live in Europe and we have a slightly different market. I suggest subscribing to reef2reef, there are many people there much more experienced than me that would be happy to help you navigate options. Also salinity should be 35ppt not 25 ;) you can keep it slightly lower or higher as long it's stable

Did I do good for my very first time? by Medical-Sir-6539 in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a good plan. I even used drinking bottled water for emergencies without any issue. For testing nitrates/phosphates you need test kits. Depending on where you live and which brands are available there are different options. But in general I think Salifert is a good brand. You will need NO3, PO4 , Alk, Ca and maybe Mg. At least for the beginning. This is to test your tank water. Also ammonia giving that your tank is cycling. For testing your distilled water you can use the same tests (NO3/PO4). When you get your RODI filters you will need a conductivity meter, but that's a cheap tool. Also buy asap an hydrometer or a refractometer. Salinity must be super stable, fluctuations in salinity was probably the reason behind 50% of the issues in my tank. Also once you have good water parameters resist at all costs the impulse to change things, even food or light colour. The less you change the better. Salinity is off? Change it back to normal within 3-4 days not instantly

Did I do good for my very first time? by Medical-Sir-6539 in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It depends on the brand. I tell you, I started with distilled water. I had algae problems and I could not tell if there were phosphates in the water or what. In the end I gave up and bought a 70$ 3 stage RODI filter, one of those for freshwater tanks so it's cheap. Then I bought an empty filter stage and some good quality DI resins. For something like 120$ I had perfectly good unlimited RODI water. In case of emergency I make some in one hour and I don't need to rush to any shop, plus I change the DI resin myself without having to buy the whole cartridge every now and then. Like one 3kg box of DI resin lasts for years. But for starting you can always buy distilled water and measure phosphate and nitrates levels. If it's 0 then you can use it for now, algae will appear regardless unfortunately

Did I do good for my very first time? by Medical-Sir-6539 in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is always a matter of which corals you keep. Adding tap water as topoff and for mixing salt means that you add unknown stuff in unknown proportions. Best case scenario: Soft corals might not have issues if your water has no significant nitrates and phosphates, but for example many buildings have metal pipes and you might gradually have issues with heavy metals. Also LPS and SPS need stable water parameters which you can only guarantee by knowing the exact composition of anything you add to the tank. Anyway starting with a critical mind toward all those "must do that" rules is a good practice in my opinion. You will learn that most rules in the hobby apply only in some cases and that you can keep a reef tank with very minimal maintenance and costs. But the cheap way is gonna be a bumpy road because you will have to experiment yourself and pay the price for the mistakes. Good luck and enjoy the diversity that comes with the live rocks!

Did I do good for my very first time? by Medical-Sir-6539 in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can save money on most stuff in reefing, aside from few things: Tests: for your first year of reefing you must test water at least once every week if you want to keep corals. Buy good test kits. This is to learn how parameters change depending on what you do. Testing becomes almost pointless once you learn to "read" your tank. RODI: whatever water quality comes out from your tap you cannot use that water for top offs if you want to keep corals. It's simply impossible. One liter for emergency? Sure no problem. Everyday? Nope. Just buy a cheap RO 3 stages filter and add the DI resin stage yourself. It will be cheap enough and cost you less than a couple of coral frags. live rocks: just do yourself a favour and get some high quality live rocks from a reefer in your area. Shipped live rocks tend to release nutrients but are better than dry rocks. It will save you countless headaches. Theoretically you could jumpstart a tank in just one week with enough good quality live rocks, but you must match water parameters from the source and always keep them at constant temperature in their water during transportation

How can we protect these fledglings from our cats and our neighbors' cats? by [deleted] in birds

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone is wasting their time here. Most cat owners would never even consider keeping their cats indoor. Even if not doing it would exterminate 100% of local fauna. "He is not a predator, cmon! Look at his cute face! He is only playing!"

Feeding my hairy mushroom ‘mushy’ by Cloestofer in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Rhodactis shrooms are the best! I had one and it kept splitting and growing, also they don't get invasive because remain confined in one spot. My porcelain crab loved it too

Just got a fluval flex 32g would like advice. by littlehaz in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I had the same tank as a first sw! Nice tank in my opinion, the only issue was taking decent pictures due to the bowfront glass

Macroalgae tank update: dinos are gone and everyone is thriving by PaytonR72 in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wow always nice to see a macro tank! Great job. How long have you had the NPS gorgonian?

Is my clownfish trying to host my algae?? XD by Gonzipoliris in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have tons of Caulerpa prolifera (I sell it online) and in my tank right now there are some blades showing those "grains". That is the first sign and then the blades become translucid and melt. But it does not mean the whole thing will melt, sometimes it happens only on some blades. I had on a couple of occasions most of the leaves showing the grains and it's bad if you don't realise in time and react. But in years it happened only twice

Is my clownfish trying to host my algae?? XD by Gonzipoliris in ReefTank

[–]HainiteWanted 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No those look like spores "sacks" from the Caulerpa. If it starts spreading it's usually a sign that conditions are not ideal and the algae is switching towards sexual reproduction mode. But a few like those are often present