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Ashton

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Ashton last won the day on January 9 2019

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    15g

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Reef Keeper

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  1. So I was picking off some aiptasia that made it's way in on the frogspawn and it made me wonder what the tube like shells were all over the skeleton. I had originally assumed it was feather dusters or something similar. I did some research and discovered they were likely Vermetids.. I was especially interested to learn about Vermetids releasing stringy "slime" into the tank and potentially irritating corals. I'd been seeing lots of stringy goop coming off the fragspawn that I had assumed was from the frogspawn itself not liking something in my tank. Sure enough after manually removing all the Vermetids the frogspawn has been opening more and more each day (finally!) Yesterday (after the second week in a row doing a 30% waterchange despite perfect parameters), I decided to step it up with some slightly more challenging coral. I ended up with a Montipora Cap that's way too big for my current scape but I plan to glue to plugs on the back wall(found this for cheap at RCA, they said a local reefer brought it in, maybe one of you? 😊). I also picked up a nice frag of meteor shower Cyphastrea Google's nightmode is at it again. First pic is under daytime lights and you can tell where a hermit just walked right across the middle 😂 And this one's under all blues right before lights off: Looking forward for a new Aqamai KPS to get here soon, along with that I got some magnets to mount the Montipora to, and some reef roids to try out.
  2. Definitely sounds like you either don't have the settings right or it's a bad light. Mine is VERY bright at Max settings. Are you using the phone app? I'm currently using an AB+ variant similar to what Sierra is talking about except mine fluctuates throughout the day and has a lower max power. Even with that I still have it turned down with the acclimation mode.
  3. Alright figure I should probably post an update! Sorry it's been so long. I've been trying to get pictures to post here but had a really hard time filtering out the blues and the purples. Thankfully, I saw someone mention using Google's Night Mode and since I have a Pixel 2, I gave it a try. The results were astounding, so I'm finally ready to post an update. Things have been going well this far and there's a few new additions. First, I bought 3 frags from RCA, and these have all been in the tank for several weeks now: Random zoa frag: GSP (which has now fallen after being glued to the back wall 3 times and now lives on a small rock against the back wall): [/url Leather I planned on leaving just these three for a little while with a clean up crew, but saw someone here in the livestock forum trying to get rid of some of the last inhabitants of a tank they were shutting down and couldn't resist as all 4 were things I already wanted. Torch Coral: Frog Spawn (This poor thing still hasn't opened up after 2 weeks, hoping it makes it and is just taking a while to adapt): And last but certainly not least. A Yellow Watchman Goby: And his best bud/roommate, a tiger pistol shrimp: The goby+shrimp pair has added a ton of entertainment value to the tank if nothing else. They're very active, especially during feeding time when the shrimp always snaps at the goby until he'll venture out so they can both get food.They've definitely made it clear I can't leave anything on or near the sand that I don't want being stolen. This far, they've stolen the GSP frag once after it fell off the back wall, nearly every empty shell in the tank, and I've even found several live members of the cleanup crew flipped upside down and used as a makeshift barricade in the front of an entrance to their "lair". I've been monitoring parameters and everything's looking good except that I have been seeing weird nitrite spikes without an accompanying nitrate spike. I'm not sure if the nitrates are being controlled from something else in the tank or if my test kit is off, but either way everything seems to be happy other than the frogspawn. For now, I want to get a new powerhead and add some more random flow in some parts of the tank that don't get much. I'm currently looking at an Aqamai KPS, but haven't decided yet. Additionally, I need to get some sort of filter basket for the back compartment. I've been waiting for InTank to release theirs, but they still haven't finished the Waterbox 15 ones, so I might just try to make one out of egg-crate for the time being to hold my chemipure and filter floss. I'll leave you with a FTS:
  4. I'm going to put it on the back wall. I figure if it looks bad I can scrape it off with a razor blade. My first attempt at this failed miserably as it had fallen off by the morning. I'm using Gorilla Glue Gel but even despite it being a gel it seems to immediately disperse in the water when I put the frag into the tank. I'm going to try again, but for now I'm waiting to see some polyps come back out as I seem to have royally pissed it off trying to press it onto the glass. Once it seems to be doing okay I'll take it back off the sand bed and retry the glue process. Yep Josh mentioned that if I want a big population, I can feed a fish pellet every so often and keep the tank fish-less until the pod population really takes off. Really glad @Sierra Bravo mentioned it, both because it seems to be a great company, but also because it's Texan
  5. I actually just messaged PodYourReef on Facebook and Josh responded within minutes saying there's no need to provide phytoplankton in my tank right now and the pods should be fine feeding off detritus. Talk about customer service! I went ahead and ordered some Tisbe pods and Chaeto to put in the back
  6. Great suggestion, thanks. Another dumb question: Do I really need to feed pods phytoplankton? I've never intentionally fed pods before and they seem to do fine on their own, but maybe I was wrong?
  7. Added a small frag of Zoas, a leather, and some GSP last weekend. Zoas have been doing great but the leather and GSP aren't doing so hot. I'm guessing it's just due to a fast change because I didn't realize my salinity was pretty high when I first added them due to evaporation. My BRS RODI unit came in last night so after setting that up I got the ATO in place and have the salinity back where it should be. Any recommendations on where to order pods from? Reading online it sounds like a lot of places tend to sell free swimming, freshwater, or cold water species that I want to avoid. I've heard Tisbe sp. are the ones I want? Would something like this be my best bet? Also, I checked the Nitrates this morning and they're pretty low. Is that normal after a cycle due to the low bioload? I had expected them to be pretty high at the end of the cycle, but I've always cycled with live rock in the past which brings more stuff with it.
  8. Sounds great. Have a few followup questions: 1. When I get pods, do I put them in the back sump with the Chaeto, or just dump them straight into the main display? Maybe they're small enough to go through the return pump without problem? Are these something I can get at a LFS? In the past I never seeded my nano's with them. 2. I didn't really think this through before but I really like GSP and figure it would be a good one to start with because of how hardy it is. However, I hear it spreads like weeds so I'm wondering if I can still put it on some of my rock work and take it off later or if I shouldn't even bother with the hassle and either skip it all together or glue it onto the back wall?
  9. Update: Ammonia is down to near 0ppm, Nitrite is 0, and Nitrate looks like it's somewhere between 10 and 20 (slightly hard to read with the cheap API kit I got for these tests). Feels weird to have cycled in one week, but this is my first time doing a dry cycle with bottled ammonia and Bio Spira. Maybe this is okay? Honestly not entirely sure what to do at this point. Tank has no algae so I feel like a cleanup crew would starve. Should I just get some hardy (and cheap) softies and wait for algae growth before adding a CuC?
  10. Thanks for the info you two. I was thinking I wouldn't end up with a lot of the other organisms since they'd have no way into the tank. I guess I underestimate how many may come in with coral. However since this is a very small system, I'll have less coral going through it over it's lifecycle which means less chance to seed it with good things. Might still consider getting a seed rock either from one of the stores around here (or maybe from one of the members here :))
  11. So now after looking at more and more tank builds here I'm wondering if maybe I messed up going with dry rock. Wondering if I'm going to miss out on a lot of the beneficial filter feeders, sponges, worms, etc that come with good live rock. Any opinions on getting a small piece of good live rock to put in to seed the other rock? I figure if it's small enough I can potentially avoid some of the nasty hitch hikers, but maybe at that point I'd miss out on most of what I mentioned above so maybe it's not even worth it?
  12. Oh that's no problem! I frequently lurk on R2R too so I can follow your progress there as well. I noticed you asked about media baskets in your thread. I spoke with the InTank people over on nano-reef and they said they're actively working on the waterbox 10/15 baskets and it hopefully shouldn't be too long. I believe they're also building stuff that has black acrylic so you can black out some of the smoked glass to prevent lights from bleeding through. I asked to be emailed when they were ready so if you're interested I'll let you know when I hear something.
  13. Thanks I really like your 120 build thread, I've been slowly making my way through it as well as many of the other really detailed build threads here. I don't know what it is about ARC members posting really detailed pictures of their build, but I love it! Think you'll make a thread for your 10 gallon, or will I just have to settle for occasional pictures on your other thread 😛
  14. Hey everyone! Finally excited to start a build thread for my new Waterbox 15g. The system is currently cycling so other than turning the lights on to take pictures and testing water parameters, I'm remaining hands off on the tank for now. Equipment: Tank: Waterbox 15g Light: AI Prime HD Return pump: Will be a Sicce 1.0, Amazon ran out of stock and canceled my order so I need to order one from somewhere else. Also contemplating getting a spin stream Heater: Cobolt Aquatics Neo-Therm 75W ATO: Smart Micro Back compartment filtration: only using the filter stock while the tank is cycling. Once cycle is finished I'll switch over to filter floss, chemi-pure blue, and eventually chaeto in the middle compartment Rock: Reef-Savers dry rock Sand: Fiji Pink Live sand Water: Using water from RCA until I can get an RODI system ordered and set up Cycle Additives: Dr Tim's Ammonia + Biospira Stand: Hacked together two separate pieces of Ikea furniture to make a stand that both fit the dimensions of the tank, and also gave me room to store supplies and an ATO container Future Plans: In previous Nano's I've had, I loved a lot of movement, so I'm definitely planning on getting some Euphillia like hammer & torch corals. Additionally I love the look of Ricordea. Livestock wise I don't have anything decided. I've always liked the idea of having a small pistol shrimp and goby pair, but that might be a problem in a smaller tank where I'll want to utilize the sandbed for corals. Current pictures (you'll have to forgive the messy wiring, buckets, and dirty glass, I took pictures pretty fast after getting everything set up): Front: Left: Right: Top:
  15. Think I could realistically do this starting from scratch, or would you still recommend I get some sort of RO/DI filtration even if it's minimal?
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