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Bobcat's 75gal First Reef Build


BobcatReefer

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Question: When should I set up the GFO and Carbon reactor? My assumption was that doing it right off the bat (like, now) would be a little counterproductive in getting the bio levels up and settled, and should wait for a month or two. Am I off base there?

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Dang, what a difference a day makes! Got the GFO/Carbon Reactor set up last night and felt like I could already see a difference this morning. Not that it's very scientific, but I certainly didn't see the crazy 1-day algae growth I saw earlier this week either. Got some chaeto from KimP and ordered some CUC help, so hopefully I can stay ahead of the curve and not be battling algae every day!

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It's definitely doing better, I'm just hoping it's truly because of what I'm doing! GHA is the culprit, and I got in and scrubbed a ton off the rock and glass earlier in the week, and 24h later, it was back 100%. I changed the lighting schedule to 7h of blue (11a-6p), no white, 6h night led (6p-12), and fuge light on 24/7. Yesterday, I did another (much more thorough) scrubbing, a 20g water change, and then fired up the reactors. Not only was the water much more clear this morning, I didn't see any of the same quick re-growth of the algae today like I did during the week. We'll see how that holds up over the next couple of days.

edit: Nitrates down to 5ish?, Phosphates .02 (pretty sure...I need to write this stuff down!)

edit2: looks like I can cut down the fuge light:

It will grow faster though with 4 watts per gallon or more of lighting on a 14 hour photoperiod.

this is my fuge light: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auqa-gadget-magnafuge-innovative-marine.html

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Stopped by the Dome today to pick out some fish that will be coming home tomorrow and need some advice on acclimating multiple bags worth of critters... As I mentioned earlier in the thread, my acclimation procedure to date has been to float the bag and add some water every 5 or 10 min and then into the main display after about 30m. Today, I have a dedicated acclimation tank set up, but I've never done a drip acclimation and not sure if I need to with fish or not?

Here's what's coming home tomorrow:

Pistol Shrimp

Yellow Watchman Goby

Rainsford Goby

Starry Blenny

Sand Sifting Star

My guess is to float the fish and drip the inverts - does that sound right? Probably shouldn't put the shrimp and star together for acclimation though, right?

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I've taken your collective silence as confirmation, so all death guilt will be shared! devil.gif

Power outage at work today, so I'm "working from home"...after I received my clean up crew while waiting in the dark for :30...and then stopped at the Dome on the way home.

Swapped out Blennies as the Starry had disappeared and a Tailspot showed up. Fish store elves?

3 Emerald Crabs - thinking 2 small ones in the display, big one in the fuge.

2 Fighting Conchs - one display, one fuge

~15 various tiny snails - all display

Sand sifting star - fuge

Pistol Shrimp - display

59ee4501f8247548699758d5e6f6c4dc.jpg
b72e5c516a691ccc22263ca706074234.jpg

Yellow Watchman Goby and Tailspot Blenny
40675e0cdcdad990e55977da48b708ba.jpg

Rainsford Goby
cc74336a4a14417a7086ad8d23139737.jpg

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There's a 3"+ DSB in the fuge and it's sand from my old tank so I think it's good to go for now and the bioload is only going to go up, so I think he'll be ok. My worry is that he and the conch will compete too much for the same food. Your chaeto is doing exactly what I wanted Kim - to stay in one dang place and in one dang piece! SOOO many little feather dusters!

bca3ca0197d972327d7f4d94f1d18925.jpg

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And yes, I am super excited! Pumped to have new fish in the tank and very much in hobby honeymoon phase, learning so much and executing ideas I've had for a while, techniques I've only read about, modifications to fit my exact situation, etc. My fish nerd level is redlining right now.

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There's a 3"+ DSB in the fuge and it's sand from my old tank so I think it's good to go for now and the bioload is only going to go up, so I think he'll be ok. My worry is that he and the conch will compete too much for the same food. Your chaeto is doing exactly what I wanted Kim - to stay in one dang place and in one dang piece! SOOO many little feather dusters!

bca3ca0197d972327d7f4d94f1d18925.jpg

That cheato came from Ty a while back with a bunch of feather dusters, so we both have him to thank. [emoji4]. Your fuge looks great!
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And yes, I am super excited! Pumped to have new fish in the tank and very much in hobby honeymoon phase, learning so much and executing ideas I've had for a while, techniques I've only read about, modifications to fit my exact situation, etc. My fish nerd level is redlining right now.

Less than 24h later, I want to throw tanks out the window! angry.pngangry.pngangry.png

My Yellow Watchman has vanished. 20g tank w/ nothing but PVC fittings in there, so I don't think he's hiding... He's not on the floor or table and my dog wasn't in the room at all, so he couldn't have been eaten after jumping... hmm.png

*fingers crossed* that he's just a ninjafish and/or I'm an idiot and he's swimming happily when I get home. ph34r.png

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And yes, I am super excited! Pumped to have new fish in the tank and very much in hobby honeymoon phase, learning so much and executing ideas I've had for a while, techniques I've only read about, modifications to fit my exact situation, etc. My fish nerd level is redlining right now.

Less than 24h later, I want to throw tanks out the window! angry.pngangry.pngangry.png

My Yellow Watchman has vanished. 20g tank w/ nothing but PVC fittings in there, so I don't think he's hiding... He's not on the floor or table and my dog wasn't in the room at all, so he couldn't have been eaten after jumping... hmm.png

*fingers crossed* that he's just a ninjafish and/or I'm an idiot and he's swimming happily when I get home. ph34r.png

What!? I hope he's just hiding too [emoji53]

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QT is not covered, but there's no dead fish anywhere, and neither is a jumping breed. I'm 99.9% sure the dog hasn't eaten any jumped fish either for a couple of reasons. 1) He avoids my messes entirely. If his ball or toy end up under/around any of the fish mess I have out right now, he just stands there and looks at me. Won't even go lay in his bed by the window because there's too much fish mess over there now. 2) Incredibly picky eater. Won't even take new treats from me - always has to be the same 3 or 4 varieties he already gets. No way he's pushing past the fish mess to eat a fish on the floor. 3) He is locked in my room overnight (he tends to have an early morning pee in the living room otherwise), which is when the fish have been disappearing.

No real way for fish to get sucked into the pump or filter. I guess a fish could get sucked into the pump inlet, but if that were the case, I'd see it.

Definitely going to figure out a cover situation though, because I feel like I should be quarantining all fish before going into the display, but this is getting ridiculous!

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