Rimless 180g "2nd child"

[FarmerTy]

Some of you like Ty have been very helpful over PM''s, but maybe I can take some load off them and open things up.  

Haha, just kidding Marc. Happy to help. You know my opinion...MTC Procal with either a carbon doser regulator or hand-made stainless steel one with all the fancy gear.

 

 

[Good Greef]

Only suggestion i'd give is... make sure the reactor you choose uses a common recirc pump, not some inhouse or offbrand.  ie.  my carx uses an eheim1260, and i can replace it as needed easily.  if you calculate the volume correctly, you only need to "refresh" the media every 6 to 12mo.  if you go too small, it will "slush" up too quickly and be a maint nightmare.  if you go too large, your efluent flow would have to be lowered to the point it is susceptible to clogging. 
on my 180DT+, I run a "marine life aquatics CR-500"   21" x 4"diameter @ 0.15ml/min.  I use a.r.m. coarse w/ neo-mag (9:1 ratio).  apex ph settings:
If CaRktr > 6.61 Then ON 
If CaRktr If pH Defer 005:00 Then ON 
I have to get my #10 co2 tank refilled about every 6-9mo. (im actually due now!).  I have a backup tank (#5) to run on if i cant get it refilled that day (or its a weekend).  I use a "Milwaukee MA957 CO2 Regulator," but this isnt the best one out there.

Thanks for the tips. Ive heard similar things about not under/over sizing for those very reasons. Also didnt think about getting an easy to find pump. Initially I thought I could run it off my manifold, but have bee. Told otherwise.

[Good Greef]

4 hours ago, Sascha D. said:

IME the calcium reactor itself doesn't vary much by brand. Each reactor has a media cylinder with a circulation pump configured in similar ways. The difference between models will be chamber size and quality of parts. For example, the difference between a reactor rated for 150 gallons and one rated for 300 gallons may only be a larger chamber. IMHO you won't need a big chamber unless you plan to heavily stock the aquariumThe solenoid and pressure regulator varies greatly by brand and model. I'm really not qualified to give advice on these, but I think having a solenoid with a bubble counter versus a reactor with a bubble counter is much easier to use. Here is a link to A Guide to Using Calcium Reactors that may help answer some questions. 

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Option B: Open up my classifieds search to other brands. I've heard Lifereef, MTC, Vertex? Others? 

Korallin and Reef Octopus are popular brands that people in the club have had good results with. I have an old school reactor that's worked well for me. You can even DIY one!  I think that I have the plans saved somewhere if you're interested in going that route. 

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Option C: Scrap the CaRx and go with a dosing setup. It costs less upfront and if I eventually get the APEX Trident monitoring system it would be cool having the DOS setup sync with it. 

I would say the most common path for people is to start dosing and then move onto the reactor when the dosing requirements becomes more than they're willing to handle. That's pretty much how I got started! There are a lot of commercial dosing mixes out there if you have a favorite brand. I see a lot of people using the BRS stuff, but I haven't tried it myself. Here is a link to An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two Part Alk Calcium Supplementation System if you decide on a DIY mix. 

 

 

 

Thanks for the link. I know im probably overthinking things and that once I actually set it up, ill realize its not as complicated as I thought.

Ill pass on a DIY one haha. After the past 3-4 months, im itching to move forward from that.

And you're right, most ppl start with 2 part dosing then upgrade to a CaRx as needed. For the past 3 yrs I dosed Kalk from my ATO. I do plan on eventually being heavily stocked, especially with all the open space ive reserved. I can see myself stocking my tank 50% full of maricultred mini colonies and 50% from frags/mini colonies from other hobbyists. So i was thinking it would be best to just skip that dosing step and just "buy once cry once. " But I dunno, still flip flopping.

[Good Greef]

2 hours ago, FarmerTy said:

Haha, just kidding Marc. Happy to help. You know my opinion...MTC Procal with either a carbon doser regulator or hand-made stainless steel one with all the fancy gear.

 

 

Hah. I may just buy exactly what you have, so I can just follow you like a monkey. It will be alot easier and I can just bug you with questions muahaha!

[Sascha D.]

There's nothing wrong with planning for the future. One beauty of a reactor is that you can manipulate the gas and effluent to produce more or less output to meet your needs. Don't forget to clean it every six months to keep it running.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[FarmerTy]

Hah. I may just buy exactly what you have, so I can just follow you like a monkey. It will be alot easier and I can just bug you with questions muahaha!

Did someone say monkey?

Noooo!!! [emoji13]

[Good Greef]

Not much meat in this update. Just wanted to point out a few things I think I think..

1. I think I hate peppermint shrimp now. In the past month ive witnessed my three peppas harass any non fish livestock introduced to my tank.

Feather dusters I understood, even tag teaming and killing a cleaner shrimp maybe. But a healthy (albeit young) longspine urchin wtf? After a 3 hr drip acclimation, all 3 took turns pestering the urchin as it sped away and pointed its spikes toward them. Laughed and told my wife that theyd never get to his body.

Two hrs later, they were still messing with it and the urchin slowed down.. then they flipped it and I saw 3 spines had broken at the base. Finally I jumped in and caught all three into the sump to exchange. Two days later, the urchin is finally roaming again. F em.

2. After punting them, I put my feather duster back in the display. Its one of the soft tubed kind. Tonight as I was staring at the tank, I noticed the crown had bailed and was submerged in the sand 2 inches behind its tube. Bummer I thought.

Then all of a sudden, I witnessed another crown emerging from the tube? Huh? I read on advanced aquarist:

"Soft tube varieties reproduce sexually, but many form dense colonies of clones by a budding process called scissipary. In this process the posterior end of the worm breaks off and develops a new crown while the "parent" grows a new posterior."

How cool. Funnest things in this hobby are witnessing these natural processes occurring.. then googling to figure it out haha.

[Good Greef]

So a quick update since a lot has been going on over the past month:

Livestock wise: I've rounded out the docile Phase I by adding some inverts (tiger conch/long spine urchin), a smaller black ocellaris clownfish and a few of my favorite gobies, the Randalli and Auorora variant. Most aurora look good online but always seem faded in real life, but Hunter called me when this beautiful one came in. My QT picture here doesn't do it justice because my QT tank wall has smudges, but the tail is vibrant yellow with reddish spots outlined in blue.

 Phase II plan was to add 4-6 larger wrasses before adding the Phase III tangs/angels/aggressive fish. Ideally I wanted to start with the more docile/fragile Potters Leopard Wrasse ,  Red Tail Tamarin or Royal Pencil Wrasse. Not the easiest fish to  keep I know, but they are even HARDER to find. I've yet to find any online vendor or LFS with them in stock over the past 3 months, although I've asked them to notify me if any are available. After those wrasses were added, I was looking to add a Radiant and Melanurus to round Phase II out. So these wrasses may be put on hold for now, since I know the Radiant and Melanurus should probably be added after the other ones, unless yall tell me otherwise? But it looks like that once the Aurora is out of QT, I will start looking at Phase III fish instead since the wrasses theoretically can be added afterward.

Phase III (tentative): 2-3 inch Regal Tang, Blonde Naso Tang, and a Regal Angelfish or Zebrasoma genus. Should I QT and add the tangs separately since I only have a 20g long? And odds that the Regal Angelfish leaves my 5 inch maxima clam alone?

Skinning:  Finally making some progress here. I used 1/4 inch plywood for the doors because I wanted them lightweight, along with earth magnets to attach to the stand. I sawed out and bonded some 2x1 pieces of oak to the insides of the doors to act as a support and stabilizer. My main concern with such thin wood was warping, so I coated the doors first with 2 layers of stain, then 2 layers of black appliance epoxy, exactly what is used for refrigerators. I then bought these adhesive panels made of reclaimed farm wood and am in the process of adhering them to the doors.

Overall: The tank is doing great and I love being able to feed 3-4 times a day since now I have sump space for the nutrient export vehicles, unlike my 75g. After the diatoms phase seemingly ended, I started getting this white bacteria bloom in the same spots the diatoms were. They are easily blown off and tootbrushed and things have gotten better each week. But my filter socks do clog after 4 days with a slimy clear bacteria. I am not carbon dosing anything, but on national forums this seems to be more common lately for people who start off their tanks with all dead rock/sand, and who seed their tank with a Dr. Tim's type of bacteria. Those are the 3 common denominators it seems, but for now ill just manually remove and hopefully it disappears completely.

I ordered a geo 618 reactor and an aquarium plants carbon doser for my alk. control from aquariumplants.com. Unfortunately the reactor is delayed for the 3rd time because Mr. Geo has been sick and is behind on hand making them. Since I only have 6 small coral frags and the clam, I'm not worried about alk upkeep. But I do plan on hitting yall up for frags/mini colonies very soon!

 

[FarmerTy]

I would introduce the regal angelfish with the docile fish, like nowish. It is a very shy fish and needs to be established ideally before any other larger fish. Also, they are very hard to get eating. Most often, they may not ever eat and die on you. I've had a much higher success rate with the Red Sea variety than the Info-Pacific one.

For all fish, just go to a LFS and have them order it for you. Jake at RCA found me every fish I was looking for with my new tank. It also helped me control the order in which they were QTed and introduced instead of waiting on what's available.

For the tangs, QT one or two at a time in the smaller QT and add them to the tank by smallest and least aggressive first.

[Good Greef]

I would introduce the regal angelfish with the docile fish, like nowish. It is a very shy fish and needs to be established ideally before any other larger fish. Also, they are very hard to get eating. Most often, they may not ever eat and die on you. I've had a much higher success rate with the Red Sea variety than the Info-Pacific one.

For all fish, just go to a LFS and have them order it for you. Jake at RCA found me every fish I was looking for with my new tank. It also helped me control the order in which they were QTed and introduced instead of waiting on what's available.

For the tangs, QT one or two at a time in the smaller QT and add them to the tank by smallest and least aggressive first.

Thanks Ty. Ill look into the Regal sooner rather than later. I wish it was as easy as walking into a LFS, but everytime I goto RCA Jake isnt in, and the other nice younger gentleman just tells me there's no promise of getting those wrasses in bc the supplier may not have it in stock.

I shop more at Aquadome so that may be why its not too easy. But Hunter and Gary said similar, especially with the Red tail and royal pencil since they are rarely available especiallt lately. But if I wanted a male flame wrasse or something available they can definitely get one for me...

But you must have the magic touch Ty!

[FarmerTy]

 

 

 

Thanks Ty. Ill look into the Regal sooner rather than later. I wish it was as easy as walking into a LFS, but everytime I goto RCA Jake isnt in, and the other nice younger gentleman just tells me there's no promise of getting those wrasses in bc the supplier may not have it in stock.

 

I shop more at Aquadome so that may be why its not too easy. But Hunter and Gary said similar, especially with the Red tail and royal pencil since they are rarely available especiallt lately. But if I wanted a male flame wrasse or something available they can definitely get one for me...

 

But you must have the magic touch Ty!

 

I'm just not difficult Marc! [emoji14]Bwahaha. Just kidding. Some of those fish on my list did take a couple weeks before they found them.

 

Aquadome used to carry pencil wrasses all the time! I will agree that wrasses aren't always available as well as certain anthias so there's always a waiting game for specific ones.

 

[Good Greef]

So ive read up alot on how shy and timid the regal angelfish can be. I guess I also read from yall that if you intro an angel into an existing sps tank with many colonies, the angels nipping will likely be spread around so you cant notice it much.

But if I intro it now, then start slowly adding frag by frag, it may impact them more negativelt since it will focus on the few frags that are there even more?

Each fish varies and I know that. So im just stuck..

[FarmerTy]

So ive read up alot on how shy and timid the regal angelfish can be. I guess I also read from yall that if you intro an angel into an existing sps tank with many colonies, the angels nipping will likely be spread around so you cant notice it much.

But if I intro it now, then start slowly adding frag by frag, it may impact them more negativelt since it will focus on the few frags that are there even more?

Each fish varies and I know that. So im just stuck..

With angelfish and acros, more than likely you can say goodbye to most polyp extension initially. Some will stop doing it once they realize they don't get anything from it but then others are serial nippers. Either case, if you plan for no polyp extension with acros and angels, then you can only be surprised if they don't nip.

Regals are truly shy and can even be timid enough to not come out and eat and starve to death. Adding it with the initial fish would help a lot in that regards but honestly, you got a 1 in 3 chance of getting one to eat for you. I just wanted to be realistic with the fish as it is a very picky eater and often the initial hunger strikes is enough to weaken and kill it before you ever get it trained on prepared foods. Again, red sea regals have higher chances in my experience and are more open to eat initially. I also feel like they come in healthier and fatter, which may be a product of their importing process.

Lots of colonies will help but I had no issue with frags either or adding frags later with my angels. That's usually a mindset of an aggressive nipped. Having more colonies will help disperse it if possible but I don't think its a requirement necessarily. Main reason is when you get an aggressive nipper, they end up targeting one or two colonies anyways so it doesn't really matter if you have 40 giant colonies IMO.

[Good Greef]

Quick update but not..

Over the past 60 days my tank has went through puberty..

It went from diatoms -> tons of white bacteria blooms on my rock that blew off easily w/ undetectable  no3 and po4(using red sea pro and hanna ulr). So before adding a few frags from Ty and 3 maricultured from Aquadome, I dosed Spectracide Stump remover to raise no3 to 5ppm. Also upped alk from 6.87 to 7.5 using baking soda bc my Carx wasnt setup yet.

Before I left for vacation params were: SG @1.025, [email protected], Mg@1450, Ca@405. I then added the tester corals. Dad fed the tank and baby lol for the next 5 days. When we returned, had a major Cyano outbreak that covered the rocks/sandbed/corals. Bad news is 3 of the 6  Marucultured and frags STNd and were smothered in cyano.

Long story long, I spent 30 mins a day basting the rocks and changing filter socks every 48 hrs. Was tempted to go the chemiclean route but am glad I refrained. 2 wks later and tank is spotless again whew, and I'm finally seeing swarms of pods at night.

Now, some updates/pics of livestock. Hippo Tang made it through 3 wks of QT and I recently bought a beautiful male Isoceles Fairy Wrasse. Never seen one in person and (my)pics don't do it justice, but probably as sexy as a male flame IMO. Pics dont show the vibrant pink underbelly.

Another funny, interesting thing is happening. Last tank i traded in a YWG/pistol shrimp before the upgrade and swore off pistols since they mess with the elevations of the sandbed. My Randalli goby has been fine living by himself, but I recently added a smaller Red Fire Shrimp which has now joined him in the cave. Its been 2 wks and they spend 24/7 together. Never seen that happen before but if it remains, I'd be stoked as i get the best of both worlds.

Lastly, I should be setting up my Geo 618 and my 30g acrylic ATO from advanced acrylics in the next week as well, which would be the final large piece of the build. Im also logging in all my params on APEX, as well as all details/changes including prazi doses in QT, when things die, etc. So hopefully I can print this out later.

 

[Good Greef]

Just had a scary situation with my Isocleles in QT.

This morning I decided to do a 2nd treatment of Prazi (1st treatment was on 4/18). Normally ive done one only for other fish, and even knowing some wrasses dont handle Prazi well, the first round went smoothly so I did.

Well, I moved a Nest camera so I could observe it from work. Throughout the day, I noticed it was hovering near the surface and swimming less. Got home, fed it and it ate, and adjusted the pump to help oxygenate the water even more, b/c could tell it was breathing heavily.

Then it started getting worse, very fast. So I panicked and decided to do a quick 50% water change, but before getting started it started laying on its side. So I thought it was a goner and decided to move it to the DT to get it cleaner, non prazi water.

Not ideal. But had no choice. It laid on its side once introduced for about 7 minutes, then slowly swam in a cave. Now an hour later, its swimming around... thank god it's  not breathing heavily anymore, but I'm not holding my breath.

I thought Prazi was ineffective after 72 hrs, so I only did a 25% water change after dose 1. In hindsight, I shouldve done a bigger water change in between rounds?

Would yall skip 2 rounds for wrasses?

 

[FarmerTy]

I think that was just a fluke with the wrasse as a week with a 25% water change should have been fine in my opinion.

I always do two rounds of prazipro but wrasses are definitely sensitive to it generally speaking.  The big joke to that is that they are also the usual suspects for intestinal worms so treatment is often needed.

Prazipro is reef safe, did it on my tank on two multiple occasions over the years with no issues if you wanted to try the 2nd round.  You could also just let it be and monitor for white, stringy poop and decide if you need to retreat it.

Good quick thinking to save its life.  That's why you're not supposed to introduce a fish on your build thread until it makes it into the display first.  You don't want to jinx yourself. 😛

[Good Greef]

9 hours ago, FarmerTy said:

I think that was just a fluke with the wrasse as a week with a 25% water change should have been fine in my opinion.

I always do two rounds of prazipro but wrasses are definitely sensitive to it generally speaking.  The big joke to that is that they are also the usual suspects for intestinal worms so treatment is often needed.

Prazipro is reef safe, did it on my tank on two multiple occasions over the years with no issues if you wanted to try the 2nd round.  You could also just let it be and monitor for white, stringy poop and decide if you need to retreat it.

Good quick thinking to save its life.  That's why you're not supposed to introduce a fish on your build thread until it makes it into the display first.  You don't want to jinx yourself. 😛

It was "just a fluke..." I see what you did there lol.

I agree. I shoulda just posted pics of my cyano instead to avoid any jinx 

[FarmerTy]

3 hours ago, Good Greef said:

It was "just a fluke..." I see what you did there lol.

I agree. I shoulda just posted pics of my cyano instead to avoid any jinx 

That was just a happy coincidence.  I'm not nearly that clever or funny. 😊

[Good Greef]

Need some help ID ing this on my Naso in QT. Its on day 5, picked it up from the wholesaler's bag at RCA a few hrs after it arrived.

Looks like abrasions. On day 1 saw a little on one side only. Finally got it to eat mysis and cyclopeeze on Day 3. Went to Dallas for 36 hrs and came back to him swimming calmly. But looks stressed bc now dark gray.

Is this flukes? I haven't dosed prazi yet bc I was waiting for it to eat more. It just is swimming lethargic and showing no interest in food since ive returned... after eating well 2 days ago.

[Good Greef]

Welp the Blonde Naso didnt make it past day 6 in QT. Really went downhill fast in 48 hrs.

On the national forums, a well known store owner noted an observation I observed over the past month myself:

" I think it's a mild bacterial infection caused by small scrapes (not to mention stress too) from being caught, shipped, held, caught, shipped, held again, caught and shipped. I see so many Naso Tangs come into my shop like this that it's very easy to not want to order them anymore."

Most Nasos ive seen lately at various LFS have also have hose white abrasion marks. Anyone else observe that?

Still trying to fine tune the CaRx. Got some frags and pieces waiting. 

[FarmerTy]

I would say abrasions too though I haven't experienced bacterial infections from abrasions before, thought not saying it can't happen though.

Blonde nasos are just tough to get through QT... which I find odd because they are hardy once settled into a new tank.

What are the issues with tuning the CaRX?

[Good Greef]

Ty,

So I got the CaRx online on May 2nd. As I mentioned on Jolts "Calcium Reactor Experts" thread, my goal was to tune it by:

-Setting a constant effluent flow to to prevent clogging; Dont touch the psi or bubble per seconds going forward
-start at a high PH range and program Apex to control solenoid
-test daily; adjust Ph range downward until it matches tank needs

-May 2nd: Started CaRx PH range at 7.4-7.5
-Kh dropped slowly over the next 4 days, so I kept lowering my Ph range to compensate and added baking soda to get back to 7.5.
-Kh started climbing once my Ph range inside the reactor 6.9-7.0 on May 6th, as you will see on my apex screenshot.
-To prevent it from going above 8, I slowed down the effluent from 230ml/min to 70ml per minute. This worked and has alk slowly declined the past 3 days (which I am letting it until it gets back to 7.5).

Whew...thats a lot to type on my phone.

Now - the issue is I came home today and my effluent had completely stopped. Which is ironic, bc just a week ago I told myself id leave my effluent at a constant stream to prevent this from happening..

After closing then reopening the ball valve on manifold, the effluent is back. How do i prevent this from happening until I can stock my tank with enough corals, to be able to raise my effluent flow again? 

Note: Ive been testing alk sometimes 3x per day, which explains why so many points plotted. 


 

[FarmerTy]

Ty,

So I got the CaRx online on May 2nd. As I mentioned on Jolts "Calcium Reactor Experts" thread, my goal was to tune it by:

-Setting a constant effluent flow to to prevent clogging; Dont touch the psi or bubble per seconds going forward
-start at a high PH range and program Apex to control solenoid
-test daily; adjust Ph range downward until it matches tank needs

-May 2nd: Started CaRx PH range at 7.4-7.5
-Kh dropped slowly over the next 4 days, so I kept lowering my Ph range to compensate and added baking soda to get back to 7.5.
-Kh started climbing once my Ph range inside the reactor 6.9-7.0 on May 6th, as you will see on my apex screenshot.
-To prevent it from going above 8, I slowed down the effluent from 230ml/min to 70ml per minute. This worked and has alk slowly declined the past 3 days (which I am letting it until it gets back to 7.5).

Whew...thats a lot to type on my phone.

Now - the issue is I came home today and my effluent had completely stopped. Which is ironic, bc just a week ago I told myself id leave my effluent at a constant stream to prevent this from happening..
After closing then reopening the ball valve on manifold, the effluent is back. How do i prevent this from happening until I can stock my tank with enough corals, to be able to raise my effluent flow again? 
Note: Ive been testing alk sometimes 3x per day, which explains why so many points plotted. 


 

That unfortunately might be the reactor itself causing the slowdown. I've had two reactors that did that as well and I ditched them and got ones that didn't. It took me months of slowing effluent rates and all kinds of experiments before I threw in my hat mind you.

I felt like it had to do with building pressure in the CaRx body as the CO2 was added which slowly caused enough pressure in the reactor to cause the effluent to lock up but that was just a wild theory. With nothing changed, I swapped to a different reactor and it worked like a dream. Effluent always stayed the same with my MTC Procal and also with a cheap used PM CaRX I had as well.

How many bubbles per second are you doing right now?

[Good Greef]

That unfortunately might be the reactor itself causing the slowdown. I've had two reactors that did that as well and I ditched them and got ones that didn't. It took me months of slowing effluent rates and all kinds of experiments before I threw in my hat mind you.

I felt like it had to do with building pressure in the CaRx body as the CO2 was added which slowly caused enough pressure in the reactor to cause the effluent to lock up but that was just a wild theory. With nothing changed, I swapped to a different reactor and it worked like a dream. Effluent always stayed the same with my MTC Procal and also with a cheap used PM CaRX I had as well.

How many bubbles per second are you doing right now?

Bubble count is at 5 seconds per bubble on the carbon doser.

I'm only a few weeks in. Ill bet im messing this up vs. Geo making a faulty reactor.

[FarmerTy]

Bubble count is at 5 seconds per bubble on the carbon doser.

I'm only a few weeks in. Ill bet im messing this up vs. Geo making a faulty reactor.

That's a pretty slow bubble rate but it seems to be close to matching your tanks needs. Nice job getting it that close already!

Hopefully it is just the initial startup with it. I was trying to help someone as well in Houston with the same issue and he had a Geo too. I've never owned one but they have a good rep. There a tons of people with Geos and I don't hear that problem too often so maybe its not the reactor. Just odd the timing that yours and this other guy's was doing it.