mhart032

Kind of breaks all the rules, I love it. looks really nice and healthy. 

Just a couple of pics, still no diatoms, or algae of any kind in the display. the fuge is growing like crazy. The chaeto has started to take off and the sea lettuce still grows like a weed. i do have some other algae growing on the fuge glass but im not going to clean it off just yet. ill clean out the fuge is a few weeks after the tank is more established.

The Butterfly and the Pear scale lose there minds over the sea lettuce when little pieces make it into the display.  I have been keeping sea veggies on a clip for them to graze on due to no algae in the display. 

this ATB skimmer is awesome, ive had a few skimmers in the past, but this one out performs most ive had. i have been stocking the fish side of the tank, I have to say ive been really enjoying the fish side, its been keeping my need for corals at bay for the time being. the parts for the lights will finally be here tomorrow, i can set them up but still too soon to kick them on, when i start seeing coraline on the rocks then ill kick them on. it should grow no problems with just the ambient lights, the fish all seem happy and are eating well, like pigs really. which is good because i need to feed heavy to start the Triton system. ill send my fist test off in a couple weeks. ammonia is 0, nitrates .02 and nitrites are 0, phosphates are at .02 the fuge is doing its job really well, PH has been stable at 7.98. haven't really measured dkh or calcium or mag for the time being, not to big of a concern with a coraless system, very little is using it, but last week it was in check. Ill hook the alkatronic up today never the less. 

so far here is my fish stock (mind you everything is Small - Meds)

2 clowns snowflake and ocellaris 

3 red cardinals

3 blue reef chromis 

1 red nose fairy wrasse 

1 fire fish 

1 royal gramma 

1 coral beauty angel

1 pear scale butterfly 

Everyone seems to be getting along just fine with no issues. the Angel did bully the pearl scale at first but quickly that stopped now they have no issues. the firefish is still skittish but comes out to eat and swim a little, then goes back to its tiny hole in the rocks.  

Tim with that being said, is the algae scrubber to efficient? would say something as easy as dumping the skimmer cup back into the system help uptick in the P04 and No2 quicker than dosing, as well as feed the bacteria to combat the weekend immune system? If it is deficient in those areas?  Would you think if it were that low that some sort of Dinos would be present? 

11 minutes ago, jolt said:

Based on all the evidence you've shared I still feel the acros are starving

Other than that im at a loss. Im really sorry. makes you kind of wonder if the wild acro was the start. 

****, thats odd. this might sound stupid but have you checked for stray voltage? normally it effects everything, but the acros being more sensitive, its a possibility. 

Also, how does the rest of it look? the LPS and soft corals Zoas if you have anything like that? if it was metal id think they would be showing some signs of stress as well. how to the skeletons of the rtn acros feel, soft or brittle? Id prob check alk with another test kit right before the dose and go from there. If the others dont appear to be stressed id prob rule out metals. you can buy test kits for chloramine at petco i believe or even Leslies pool supply. 

Can you isolate some frags in another tank possibly at the very least if it works to regrow things if its 100%? maybe get some saltwater from a different sorce IE the dome or from Jake and set up a system completely independent. I have the 20gal waterbox i just broke down if you need a temp system. has everything you would need. 

1 hour ago, Sierra Bravo said:

I've got Chips also and it is different.  I'll try to get a colony shot from the original owner.

I want to say that the chips was more purple tipped. I'm interested to see the colony.  Whatever it is it's pretty. 

If its Chips you will know once it settles in and see if it gets really shaggy from the polyp extension. If memory serves me right. I had some of it in the past, but mine was more green, but could have been water quality or lighting ( had it under Phoenix 14k mhs) bringing out the greens more. 

Everything is doing well, I kicked the skimmer on today for the first time, no issues there it's already building a pretty good head after just 15 mins. I got the ATO connected with a 20gal reservoir in the closet right being the tank (thank God thats done, this tanks used about 3/4 a gal a day with the vent) the ddrs and the dos will be wired up and hooked up in that closet with the alkatronic just to save some space under the stand, I am having a slight issue with temp, the tank is running cold with the vent rite over the tank blowing down, I might have to modify that vent to no directly blow on the top of the water. I still need lights hooked up and I don't ever want to talk about the bird'snest of wires I have to tackle but hopefully this weekend I'll be done with most of it. The new fish are doing great. The clowns are liking the open space, they won't stop swimming end to end on the tank, I think it's pissing off the royal gramma cause he doesn't come out of his hole much yet. The reef chromis are schooling no fighting that I can see but I haven't spent much time watching but they all swim togeather. The sea lettuce is still out of control I've cut it back once already to 1/2 and it's grown out a bunch already the cheato eh not so much. That being said, the fuge is doing exactly what I wanted it to from the start, growing algae to out compete the display I still have no algae in the display but plenty on the fuge glass. 

Sea lettuce for days this started out as a baseball size, I've cut it back once already. 

I'm hoping they do well, I've never really had luck with chromis but these are really nice looking. The blue/greens always seem to fade away one by one. 

I picked up a couple small fish today, 3 blue reef chromis, Royal from aquadome. That with the clowns will be ok for now. I'll get a couple more in a couple weeks. 

1 minute ago, jolt said:

I really like my leopard wrasses, and I feel all tanks need an algae eater of some sort.  I'm thinking your tank may be too small for a tang though?

I was thinking about tangs, I love them they are very pretty fish. If I were to get them, I'd have to get it small and pass it along after it got bigger which is not an issue I've never really had a sentiment attachment to fish tbh. Do that get me wrong they are beautiful to watch and all and they need good homes and cared for. 

I'm looking to start putting fish in my tank, I've added 2ppm of ammonia 2 days ago and it was processed and gone roughly a days time. I have a pair of clowns that I'll be adding from the 20gal but I want more fish I think I want roughly 10-12 fish in this system to start see how they process and go from there. I've never really been a big fish guy always had a pair of clowns and a goby or a 6 line wrasse and a couple of chromis but that was about it in most my past tanks. What would be good fish to start with besides the clowns? 

Just a quick update, tank is doing well still waiting for the anodize shop to finish the parts for the pendent then I can get started on the lights. I tested everything I could today, I was very shocked at the results I figured nitrates would be off the chart high from the ghost feedings, but starting the fuge during the cycle was the best idea ever. No phosphates no ammonia, no nitrites and pH is steady at 8.1 alk is at 9 nitrates we're in between .0 and .2 on the redsea test kit. The Cheatos not growing a bunch but the sea lettuce has exploded it's doubled in size and keeps growing. I've been running the fuge light  9 hours a day the tank has no algae of any kind growing yet which I don't expect it to giving the fuge. I'm feeding 2 cube is mysis frozen, brine and rods to feed the fuge everyother day.  I'll continue another month down this path dosing 1ppm ammonia every 3 days to keep the nitrites fed untill I start to see a rise in nitrates to keep building the bacteria population. Then I'll turn the lights on on see how it goes. 

I really like the look and color of the orpheks too. If I wouldn't have already had the radions I might have went that route, actually looked into it twice before I was impatiant and opened the radions. The colors are fantastic and the shimmer is perfect vs the diffused radion in my opinion. 

2 hours ago, FarmerTy said:

Haha... I think i need to trust this robot. I'm becoming less reliable these days as work is getting crazier.

lol.. 

Ive had issues with mine, have had to recalibrate it a few times as the ALK will jump up to 12.5 from 8.4/5. i have had issues mixing the reagent i normally mix up the entire 250ml concentrate when i get it. but eh still makes me nervious, maybe not so much when i get corals in the big tank i might not see the issues. the 20gal was very hard to keep stable on the alk side for sps. I killed a ton of higher end stuff. 

man thats to bad, it looked beautiful. 

1 hour ago, FarmerTy said:

I have it in monitor mode only... I have trust issues and can't seem to let go yet and let it run in control mode.

Same here, i find it can be inaccurate at times depending on the reagent mixed. it can get drastically out of hand quickly, as to how it wants to dose alk. 

Nothing to really update, things are the same, running the H380 over the fuge ghost feeding every day. the Sea lettuce is really growing, the Chaeto  not so much really. it is very dark green and looks healthy. I dumped 3 of the of algae barns 5280 16oz pods into the fuge last week and adding the phyto every day when i feed to get them established in the fuge. no lights over the display till i see more action in the fuge with growth. but most everything is right in line. the Triton came today, i ordered 2 sets of the core 7 10L kits so if they run out again i shouldn't see that issue. read to many horror stories about that. Triton says shelf life is forever, so we will see. I order the parts i needed from 80/20 inc for the pendent along with some other goodies for it. just waiting for them to ship ( so slow), but i really dont need the lights for another few weeks. Ill move the clowns over this weekend, there is enough ambient light to keep them happy and grow a little coraline while i wait. 

2 hours ago, FarmerTy said:

Tyree shout out today:

Tyree Pinky the Bear... Aka... Confetti-lite


Tyree Superman - lesser known one but what a beauty. Hard to capture the blue but think iridescent bright in person.

Its all right if your into pretty colors and great extension, but i apparently like mine either bone white or super brown. 

Mine sat for a few weeks while i was working on the plumbing it collected a bit of dust on the bottom pane of glass, I just cleaned it out with water and vinegar, no issues.  

I decided I'm going to hang them, saltwater.com won't take the rms mounts back cause I opened them, but oh well. I'm still figuring out what exactly I want to do, but I'll post pics when it's finished. The tank is cycled, the fuge is setup and still ghost feeding to feed the fuge.