Good Greef

Got ****. Pretty corals.

Add a JF Solar Flare to my collection today. This thing is INSANE orange! Here it is next to my RCA The Hotness mille.


Here's an update picture of my RR Firecracker, also looking amazing

On the effluent line between the geo reactor and the needle valve (so before the valve I guess).  Traps stuff coming out of the reactor so the effluent does not clog the valve.

Ive read about that. It clogged for the first time yesterday. If it keeps happening ill have to look further into this. All you did was insert it on the effluent after the needle valve?

I had effluent line clogging issues too.  Until Adam at Battlecorals told me his secret.  Worked like a champ for me, but everyone's setup is different ...
https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/0014775601
 
 

Cyanobacteria and bryopsis.  I want to get rid of the cyano and "not" the bryopsis. The lawn mower keeps the bryopsis in check and I dont want him to starve. I have started to vac and blow off the cyano. Reduced my lighting intensity.  It grows best in good light. The po4 is dropping, went from .06 to .04 in a month. Nitrate is a constant "1".  Mag has risen to 1500 with the addition of zeo-mag in the reactor. I have a basket in my overflow with red and green algae and a grow light on this. Any suggestions?

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?

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. 


 

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. 

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.

Great... just when I was looking at buying some maricultures.

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 

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?

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.

I like where you're going with the eviota gobies as well.

At one point, I was considering adding 7-10 green banded gobies (Tigrigobius multifasciatus) bc I thought it would be cool having a group of them popping in and out of my pukani.

Might still do it down the line, provided a stay away from more aggressive show fish.

No fooling... No gel filters... No saturation boost... No DSLR magic as I snapped it with my android phone... Just ATI T5s and SBREEF actinic bars... WYSIRL (what you see in real life)!  Wow!  I've always had them under LEDs or LEDs with supplemental T5s but under mainly T5s with actinic bars... Its mesmerizing!  Colorado Sunburst!  Wow!

I just hired 2 gobys. Im lazy and they work hard moving the sand around. Once the green gets on the rocks I will hire a lawnmower.

I here ya! Maybe you will have more patience than me and not run chemiclean and curse yourself with dinos!

Reefing should have a 2nd rule of reefing... 1st rule is of course don't talk about how much you paid for things with your significant other, but the 2nd rule of reefing should be nothing in your first year counts. The awesomeness ticker only starts at year 2. [emoji41]

Thanks Marc! I tried riding it out for a long time but with my spotty husbandry these days with the kiddo, I gave up on that after 2 months and blasted it with chemiclean. Usually cyano and most algaes will resolve themselves after the tank is stable and good husbandry practices are kept (including manual removal when possible) but I shortcutted it with the chemiclean and got what I deserved when dinos sprouted in its place, which is way worse!

Check out this flashback video of the cyano party in my tank!

This was 2 months after moving!

Haven't made an update video in a long time. It seemed like the perfect time to do one since its been about a year since I upgraded houses and had to move my established SPS tank.

There were ups and downs during the first year, dinos, cyano enough to blanket everything in a maroon wonderland, red flatworms so dense it looked like cyano, red turf algae, a weird November where I saw unending STN and lost some stuff, marine velvet episode that killed 2/3rd of my fish population... This time from a dipped frag of all things... And so I say with much relief, that after a long first year... Made longer because I had my first kid at roughly the same time we moved so I was introduced to parenthood and sleepless nights... That I'm happy the tank has made it to where it has today.

A lot of thanks goes to local friends that helped a sleep deprived guy who didn't even know which way was up or down move. Continued thanks to friends that helped me cut a hole in the wall for me to build an in-wall setup and frame up cabinet doors and add a bar to it.

Even those that couldn't physically help, the support given in the forums was amazing and pushed me to carry forward through the lack of sleep and exhaustion after taking care of a newborn and moving houses in the same month. It seems ridiculous looking back that it took 4 months to aquascape and only really 3 months ago did I really start to glue down corals permanently. I'm actually still working on the right of the scape as I still need to glue corals on that side of the rock. You'll see in the video the area I quickly glossed over as its just bare rock... Think of it as an blank canvas. [emoji16]

Anyways, I'll wrap it up. Thanks all for your support through the first year of my new tank at the new house with the new baby. I couldn't have done it without you! Here's the video!

Yeah, I try to cut multipoint chunksters when I can.  The 'standard' frags you get from vendors these days just take forever to grow out ....

How about a side shot of the frag tank ...  

To be honest, I have never kept this fish. The book on fish species that I have at home and the websites selling the fish don't mention water temperature. I did find a reference from Bob Fenner in, A Cool Fish in MOre Than One Sense: The Blue-Spotted Jawfish. Mr. Fenner is an authority on marine fish and I trust his recommendation. 
"The practical implication is that water off the Californias is appreciably cooler than the same latitudes in the West Pacific, with the habitat of this jawfish being mostly in the upper 50s to upper 60s, and rarely lower 70s. Being an old timer in this interest, including the hobby, trade, and sciences, I have seen a few cycles of cool to colder water organisms sold (or may I state misrepresented) as tropicals, including Catalina gobies, Garibaldi, Metridium and Tealia anemones, moon snails, many types of algae, etc. None of these will live for long in too-warm surroundings, and neither will this coolwater jawfish. No matter where you live, it is very likely you will likely need to buy and run a chiller to keep this fish."
Thanks for bringing it to my attention. My aquarium runs between 74-76 without a heater or chiller and I think it's best to avoid species outside of these parameters. I've kept both the Pearly Jawfish and the Tiger Jawfish and both come from the Caribbean. I liked the Pearly Jawfish the best out of the two and will probably go with that one. My tank is large enough that I could try multiple and they would have enough territory. Another thing to consider is sand depth. The Tiger Jawfish was kept in 5" of sand and he made his burrow straight down vertically. The Pearly Jawfish was kept in 3" of sand and he made his burrow diagonally. I need to clear the sand bed of 20 or so corals and then look at the feasibility of adding more sand. I have 2-3" of sand right now and adding 1 more inch may be too much trouble. 

Interested. PMing you.

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..

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.

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!