First Time Build

[subsea]

Update on your rock is posted in your thread on my sponsor forum.

[Planeden]

sorry, i have been insanely busy and haven't had time to stop by the site. that rock is looking great. i'm very happy so far. thanks

[Planeden]

ok, hi guys.

i disappeared for a while, but the tank is still chugging away. since the last update i've added several mobile things and a few new stationary things. done some rearranging too, and finally decided where my corals were happy enough to glue most of them down.

first a FTS

And a side(ish) angle

i'm really happy with how it looks right now, and the inhabitants all seem happy where they are. i may still move the feather calupera closer to the over flow, but not sure of that yet.

fish/inverts:

2 clowns

yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp

royal gramma

molly

2 blue green chromis (need one more)

yellow pearly headed jawfish

pom-pom crab

two large brittle stars

once i get the chromi i'm fully stocked on fish. may add some more inverts, but haven't decided or figured out what kind.

corals

3 types of zoas

1 type of paly

purple tipped frogspan

long polyp mushroom leather or something

duncan

leptastrea

i think i'll be finised with coral for a while once i add a duncan, bubble coral, and then a candy cane, trumpet, hammer, or some other LPS.

designer rock for aquaculture ranch

this will have a lot of goodies on it. you can see the progress of it here i will be waiting until after this arrives to add any additional coral (beyond round 3 LPS corals above) so i can see how it will fit in the tank and have a better idea of what the space will be around it. it will be on top of the right side rock pile, replacing the current rock over the royal gramma in the FTS shot above. there will be some space behind it and the the side of it.

additional to add

i would like to add a birdsnest if i can so i can be one of the cool SPS people (ok, that may not actually be the reason). i may get some encrusting corals to grow up the back and the over flow. i will want to get some more NPS/low light corals to put on the outsides where the light is mostly blocked by the rocks. PAR there drops to around 15-25.

i think i will want a nem of some kind for the clowns. then there may be cucumbers, urchins, or other random inverts when the tank is fully, or at least, more mature.

recent fights

1. I am going through a bout with cyanobacteria. trouble is, i didn't know what is was at first. i actually thought (and reported above) that is was coraline algea. it was a very nice color so i enjoyed watching it spread around and was excited how quickly my coraline was moving. then i talked to smart people and, well, i started vacuuming . more smart people talks and i turned out the lights for a few days and reduced feedings and it receded back. but i wasn't able to do a water change. so i repeated turning out the lights a few more times until recently when i have done two weekly 20-25% water changes.

i'm currently down to one major spot it keeps coming up on in the sand bed. it is up in the front near the tall rock on the left. i'm guessing this is a fairly low flow area, so that would be where excess food and wastes get deposited. i focused a lot of syphon time on that area yesterday.

2. my alk and calcium were fairly low, lower than what is desired for any sort of LPS. i haven't done the proper testing to see why it was low, but with the recent water change routine and the better salt purchased, it is climbing. a week ago it was 420 ppm on caclium and 7 or 8 on alk. i need to check PH at varius times during the day so i can see if my PH is dropping at night (or day depending on the reverse lighting schedule power). i thought it was holding steady around 8, but then realized i usually checked at the same time each day. but, it's possible that it is not swinging down low enough to get the substrate to melt. or whatever it does . if it's not dropping, i may unreverse my lighting to see if it will. i think it needs to get down to around 7.8, so it wouldn't need a huge swing.

3. my QT/observation tank is now at the point where it is starting a cyano outbreak. i actually moved my last batch to the DT a week early so they wouldn't get covered. but i trusted the sources i got them from. i will spend a little time getting that cleaned up before adding another round of coral.

i think that's about it, and probably more than enough for you guys to read.

closer up pictures. i'm not a fancy photographer. i also didn't think about what i was doing, but i stirred in the patch of cyano so it wouldn't be glaring at everyone in the pics. so instead, my water is cloudy .

[Planeden]

I forgot to include pictures of the jawfish and pom-pom crab yesterday. the face on the back of the crab cracks me up.

Edited September 20, 2013 by Planeden

[+KimP]

Things are looking really good! I like the placement of the feather caulerpa. How's your jawfish eating?

[Planeden]

Thanks Kim. I'm just thinking about moving the Marco back a bit because it's tall and blocks the view behind it. But since there isn't anything behind it right now it works out.

The jawfish seems to be eating fine. i fed cyclopease (something like that) right after acclimating him and he ate it. Today I feed mysis and he was a little late, but was able to fight his way away from the brittle star tenticle and grab a few. It was hilarious when he bit the tenticle and moved it out f he hole and spit it out. Anyway, the only problem seems to be that the current moves the food away from his door. He will either need to move or come arther out to get it.

[JamesL]

I really like the new tank layout. Looks very natural.

And I am jealous... you have a jawfish and a pom-pom crab! I still want to get a pom-pom for my Symbiosis tank. Would love to get a jawfish for the large tank, but not while the damsel devils are in there.

[Planeden]

thanks james. i have not seen the pom-pom crab since he scuttled away and found a rock to hide under. at least, that's what i hope he is doing.

i don't want to add insult to injury, but i really love my jawfish. he has made his burrow right in the center of the tank. you can usually at least see his head just inside the entrance. but he is starting to pop out and say "hi", or more likely "FOOD!?!?!", when i peer in the tank. he is still sharing his nest with the brittle star, so it is a funny little dance when they are both trying to get food.

fortunately, i'm really happy with all my fish. after adding the chromis, who kind of school with the clowns, it seems to have brought peace to the tank and everyone is a bit more out in the open. i have been been seeing the goby/pistol almost every day. now if only the pom-pom crab will figure out that it's safe to come out. maybe he comes out at night, haven't had a lot of night viewing time lately.

[Planeden]

quick update:

another water change and ran a full panel of tests (well, all i have anyway). my color reading accuracy on an API test kit is quite limited, so we get ranges on most of it. and "abouts" on the rest. nothing maeasured to two or three decimal places.

amonia = 0 ppm

nitrite = 0 ppm

nitrate ~ 5 ppm

phosphate = 0 - 0.25 ppm (I find it a little funny that some can measure 0.03 ppm as ideal and i get something that is between 0 and 0.25 ppm)

alk = 8 - 9

ca = 400 ppm (lower than i expected, but possible i miscounted)

Ph (2:00 AM - two hours after sunset) ~ 8.0

Ph (11:00 AM - one hour before sunrise) ~ 7.4

Ph (2:30 PM) ~ 7.8

note on the Ph. this is the first time i am testing at various times of the day. also, i'm trying to get rid of at least some of the cyano in my sump, so i did not run my fuge lights last night. i will leave them off for a few days. i'll be curious to see if it has an effect on my ca and alk since it should be disolving my substrate at that level. i will also rerun the test after i restart the reverse cycle fuge lighting.

[Planeden]

well, it's a good news/bad news sort of day.

good news - I finally fixed that small leak in the return pump.

bad news - my light is not lighting up. link for advice here, for anyone interested. so much for my followup Ph through the day test.

[Planeden]

the gods may be telling me that reefing is not for me. the light going out yesterday was the first sign. now, i'm sitting here in my office and hear a giant pop and everything on my desk rattled. kitten: asleep on a box. dog: asleep on his bed. I look under the desk and the support had broken away from the top. My OT broke my desk. Fortunately, the desk didn't collapse, yet, and a 10 gallon tank was moved in about 15 minutes. except i have to figure out how to get the light over it, but that will wait for another day. maybe i should move the macro and light to the DT while i'm waiting to figure out what's up with the Sol .

one more sign and i may post a "getting out of the hobby sale. everything free before the gods set fire to the place". it'd suck if the fire was the next sign, but then i wouldn't have to worry about giving everything way.

[victoly]

Reefing not for you, or the powers that be merging all of your tanks into ONE MEGATANK

[ckyuv]

I think you are mis interpreting the gods sign and Ian is right, time for a bigger tank!

[Planeden]

Reefing not for you, or the powers that be merging all of your tanks into ONE MEGATANK

i think my cardinal tetras may not appreciate living with the clown fish .

I think you are mis interpreting the gods sign and Ian is right, time for a bigger tank!

interesting idea, except for the fact that the smaller one already broke my table .

[Planeden]

desk replaced, lights back on, no other signs from the gods. so, new coral photos. picked up from RCA on tuesday.

all sitting in OT:

candy canes - had a fancy name with radioactive and green in it, but we just call it cool.

sun coral - want some more NPS to go in shaded areas with low light.

palys - i like palys

[victoly]

I see you've given the proper offerings to appease the gods.

[JamesL]

Just a warning .. those palys could take over your tank. Those look like the same ones I got from RCA years ago, and they dominate 1/3 of my 75g. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing .. I am content with them covering up the rock. Though they have smothered some smaller zoas.

[+KimP]

Thanks Kim. I'm just thinking about moving the Marco back a bit because it's tall and blocks the view behind it. But since there isn't anything behind it right now it works out.

The jawfish seems to be eating fine. i fed cyclopease (something like that) right after acclimating him and he ate it. Today I feed mysis and he was a little late, but was able to fight his way away from the brittle star tenticle and grab a few. It was hilarious when he bit the tenticle and moved it out f he hole and spit it out. Anyway, the only problem seems to be that the current moves the food away from his door. He will either need to move or come arther out to get it.

What about turning off your powerheads occasionally for feedings? Then he might get more food. It's a pain but then he for sure eats. Or you could get an apex, then turning things off for feeding is super easy! Anyway, just a thought! I love the new corals! Sun coral is more difficult than dendros are. You might want to make yourself a feeding syringe of some sort to spot feed those guys. Maybe you already do.

[Planeden]

I see you've given the proper offerings to appease the gods.

yeah, gotta pay the piper. apparently, or hopefully, they like coral more than fish .

Just a warning .. those palys could take over your tank. Those look like the same ones I got from RCA years ago, and they dominate 1/3 of my 75g. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing .. I am content with them covering up the rock. Though they have smothered some smaller zoas.

oh. thanks. i'll keep that in mind when i place them in the DT. they are on some sort of thin shell, so i'm started kicking around the idea of mounting them to the back of the tank. if they are fast growers this may be a good option. assuming they will spread across the glass.

Thanks Kim. I'm just thinking about moving the Marco back a bit because it's tall and blocks the view behind it. But since there isn't anything behind it right now it works out.

The jawfish seems to be eating fine. i fed cyclopease (something like that) right after acclimating him and he ate it. Today I feed mysis and he was a little late, but was able to fight his way away from the brittle star tenticle and grab a few. It was hilarious when he bit the tenticle and moved it out f he hole and spit it out. Anyway, the only problem seems to be that the current moves the food away from his door. He will either need to move or come arther out to get it.

What about turning off your powerheads occasionally for feedings? Then he might get more food. It's a pain but then he for sure eats. Or you could get an apex, then turning things off for feeding is super easy! Anyway, just a thought! I love the new corals! Sun coral is more difficult than dendros are. You might want to make yourself a feeding syringe of some sort to spot feed those guys. Maybe you already do.

i'll keep an eye on him, but i think he is doing ok. he is getting bolder about coming out farther and i always stick some food right in front of his burrow. so, i think he is getting his fill. but i will keep that in mind. funny thing is, i dropped some pellets in for him the other day, but he showed no interest once they hit the sand. although, he did have a tussle with the hermit crab that was crawling along the top of his door.

i don't have a feeding syringe. i just stick the foodcicles into the water and give them a good shake up stream from whoever i want to feed and stick a good pinch right in the dendros big mouth. but, i am planning on adding phytoplankton to the tank, too. this would be easy enough to do with a syringe. i'll have to look into what people use for that.

thanks for the insight (and wise cracks) guys.

[Planeden]

Thanks Kim. I'm just thinking about moving the Marco back a bit because it's tall and blocks the view behind it. But since there isn't anything behind it right now it works out.

The jawfish seems to be eating fine. i fed cyclopease (something like that) right after acclimating him and he ate it. Today I feed mysis and he was a little late, but was able to fight his way away from the brittle star tenticle and grab a few. It was hilarious when he bit the tenticle and moved it out f he hole and spit it out. Anyway, the only problem seems to be that the current moves the food away from his door. He will either need to move or come arther out to get it.

What about turning off your powerheads occasionally for feedings? Then he might get more food. It's a pain but then he for sure eats. Or you could get an apex, then turning things off for feeding is super easy! Anyway, just a thought! I love the new corals! Sun coral is more difficult than dendros are. You might want to make yourself a feeding syringe of some sort to spot feed those guys. Maybe you already do.

you know what i did? i forgot i sent you a PM about thinking he may be starving . let me expand. I think that he is eating enough at one time, but i'm wondering if i should be feeding more than once a day. but, he does seem to get full.

so, for anyone else jumping in thinking "what are these people talking about?", the body shape of my jawfish has me concerned. he just looks skinny, but i think it is because he has a big head. the girlfriend looked at him and looked at the internet and thinks he's fine. anyway, i will send it up to the wisdom of the forums. i have some really bad cell phone pictures (thought about it at the last minute). my glass is not clean, but i was afraid if i did a thorough scrubbing he'd hide. if anyone can make it out, let me know what you think. or, i can try to get better pictures later.

ms. p, since you also asked about the royal gramma, here is her normal hang out. sometimes she schools with the clowns and chromis, but this is her little cave she hangs out in. but she floats up to the front to say hi whenever we come near.

[gibs]

HI Planeden sorry I am stepping in the middle here but I haven't ready all of this thread but it is a very interesting discussion. But about 4 pages in the thought of a skimmer or non-skimmer came up. I just wanted to throw this out, have you looked at the idea of a algae scrubber yet? When I had my 85 up I came across this interesting tidbit and after doing some research swapped out my skimmer for a algae scrubber and never had to dose GFO again. It aerated my water just like the skimmer and kept all of my nitrates and phosphates in check. In fact the only downside I had is that so little algae was growing in my display that I had some die off from cuc because they were no longer getting enough algae to eat. This was really slow but over the course of a few months at least 10 snails and 5 hermits died.

Anyway if you are interested in looking at it here is a link to the type of scrubber I built and some great forums for more information on them.

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/showthread.php?1687-The-new-Upflow-Algae-Scrubber-(UAS)

[Planeden]

HI Planeden sorry I am stepping in the middle here but I haven't ready all of this thread but it is a very interesting discussion. But about 4 pages in the thought of a skimmer or non-skimmer came up. I just wanted to throw this out, have you looked at the idea of a algae scrubber yet? When I had my 85 up I came across this interesting tidbit and after doing some research swapped out my skimmer for a algae scrubber and never had to dose GFO again. It aerated my water just like the skimmer and kept all of my nitrates and phosphates in check. In fact the only downside I had is that so little algae was growing in my display that I had some die off from cuc because they were no longer getting enough algae to eat. This was really slow but over the course of a few months at least 10 snails and 5 hermits died.

Anyway if you are interested in looking at it here is a link to the type of scrubber I built and some great forums for more information on them.

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/showthread.php?1687-The-new-Upflow-Algae-Scrubber-(UAS)

thanks. that's pretty interesting. i'm not sure how easy it would be to add a dedicated light to my setup. i'm not sure how important that really would be since i do have a fuge light. soon i'll be adding some more macro to my display (for pretty more than cleanliness), but my crop of culerpa prolifia is doing very well in my fuge. i've also found a place to add some cheato. soon about 90% of my sump will be full of macro.

[Planeden]

i finally got around to performing my Ph test through the day with my reverse lighted fuge and my AI Sols back up and running. readings were taking about every 2 hours for 24 hours (i worked though the night, so it was a good time to run the experiment) using the API liquid tests. Ph was at 8.0 +/- 0.1 each time. i seriously think that the 8.1 reading (once in tank late monrning) was an anomoly. i'm not convinced that the 7.9 was acurate either, but it may be dropping to 7.9 right before tank dawn and coming back up ro 8.0 almost immediately.

testing my Ca and Alk, i typically get 400 - 420 ppm Ca and Alk approx 7.0. i would like these to be a little higher as i want to have several LPS. i typically run my Red Sea Coral Pro salt at 1.022 sg to 1.025 sg. so, i think the calcium is about in line with that (400-420 @ 1.022), but the Alk seems a low (should be 11.3-11.7 dKh). i should also check these levels with the mixed up water before adding it to the tank to see if the salt mixes low or if my tank eats alkalinty. i'm not sure what that would mean, or what would eat it, but you know.

I am curious what you guys think about running my fuge light during the tank day time so i can get my Ph lower at night and disolve my argonite to buffer my Ca and Alk. this seems like an easier solution than doseing, if it works of course.

[Bpb]

May seem obvious, may not. Do you mix/tumble your salt bucket periodically? It's a heterogenous mix of grains and they will separate out over time which will greatly skew your parameters. I give the bucket a good roll and tumble every couple water changes and the fresh mix is spot on with what is advertised.

[Planeden]

i make my water one WC at a time and have an air stone running it in for 12 - 24 hours before adding it to the tank. in 5 gallon buckets it seems that the airstones do a good job keeping things moving and stabilizing the salinity.