Bobbyb3 Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 sorry for my voice something this weekend really dried it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Well guess one of the anemones didn't like hanging out on its island Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Time to find this hammer a new spot. Every day I come home and find it on the sand and I put it back on its ledge. Then I seen this right after dinner. ok it was 2 head on one base but was more fragile then I thought. I pushed in to a hole in a rock broke like a wish bone. Lol now I have 2 bases with 1 head each. Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 I feed everyday at 6pm is that right? Should I do less? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 24, 2016 Author Share Posted June 24, 2016 Sorry to hear about the tang. I think it's important to point out the other 5 from that group are still doing well so it most likely died from a problem unique to itself and not from an issue with your QT. It is however, an argument for extending your QT time, resetting the 30 day clock to the day it died as day one. I know urchins can be annoying carrying around stuff but they are very important for controlling algae. They will scour algae down to the rock, removing the "holdfast" it grows from. Research by Martin Moe argues convincingly argues the degradation of the Caribbean reefs stems from the die off of Diadem spp. urchins in 1983. An excellent article can be found here: Vol. 20 2003 Coral Reef Restoration: Returning the caretakers to the reef By: Martin A. Moe, Jr. For feeding anytime is good to hand feed. I would strongly suggest getting an auto feeder to feed small amounts through out the day. Most of the fish we keep will feed all day long on the reefs and we should try to mimic that to some degree. It's not critical to hand feed to acclimate your fish to you (it is something most people enjoy however) but it is critical to interact and talk with them daily. They will not only recognize you from other people they will recognize your voice and I've had some of my clients comment their fish show both preferences and distaste for the clothes they wear. As for your BTA walking around, that's part of why I think of them as the biggest pest we can get in our tanks. They don't stay put and most species cannot tolerate being stung by them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 Here is the pic of the tang that is showing signs of stress. Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Ok both the remaining tangs went in to the dt with the royal gramas. Hopefully the 6 feet to swim will help them stop getting stressed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Tangs are looking good will have up a video later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 I got those 2 lights in so will add that to the chart. And I know we were talking about continuous feeding with an auto feeder is this a good one. http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Aqua_Feed_Automatic_Fish_Feeder_Automatic_Fish_Feeder-JBJ_Lighting-JB52015-FIFDFEAF-vi.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 2, 2016 Author Share Posted July 2, 2016 For those following Bobby's build I'll update the discussion we've had on moving the tangs out of QT early. We got 6 small captive raised Regal Tangs (See the video Ty found and posted here: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/36929-fish-export-video-finding-dory/ ). One of the problems I've run into over the years is they are very scittish fish and stress easily at first although once they become established in a tank and grow some they are typically very hardy but they should never be quarintiened by themselves. Two went into one of my QT with 3 Royal Grammas and a 3" Clarkii clown as dither fish and 4 went into a similar sized QT Bobby had set up without dither fish. As time progressed on of the Regal Tangs started acting lethargic and then a second as well. After loosing the second (and a bunch of txts and phone calls) I thought it was best to put the last two in his DT. We had two seperate QT and none of the fish showed any sign of ich in either system after 24 days (the spots on the 2nd regal were larger than the spots ich makes and were too few). I can keep the two regals in my qt where it's more likely to show up first so if it does we can go ahead and run a big UV on his DT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 2, 2016 Author Share Posted July 2, 2016 I got those 2 lights in so will add that to the chart. And I know we were talking about continuous feeding with an auto feeder is this a good one. http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Aqua_Feed_Automatic_Fish_Feeder_Automatic_Fish_Feeder-JBJ_Lighting-JB52015-FIFDFEAF-vi.html That will give us more than enough PAR for Acros, birdsnest and montis. What's the total now you spent, not counting fish and corals? Either that one or the ehiem works well. The eheim is a little smaller which I prefer but the programing menu is identical for both. I also use them for adding aragamight and or bicarbonate and or calcium carbonate to tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 We were at $897 but with $2 for craft screen for the overflow, $15 for the 1-1/4 Durso overflow and 118 for 2 three feet light bars that puts us right around $1032. I still need to get the Auto feeder $30 and a timer for the lights $10. Should be around $1072 when all done. And did my water change yesterday and here are all the levels Salinity 1.024 Ammonia 0.25 Cal 360 ppm Mag 1120 ppm Alk 2.9 Meg/L 8.1 dKH Nitrate 12 ppm pH 8.3 Phosphate 0 ppm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 And early on we were talking about making some kind of ATO. What goes all in to that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 7, 2016 Author Share Posted July 7, 2016 We were at $897 but with $2 for craft screen for the overflow, $15 for the 1-1/4 Durso overflow and 118 for 2 three feet light bars that puts us right around $1032. I still need to get the Auto feeder $30 and a timer for the lights $10. Should be around $1072 when all done. And did my water change yesterday and here are all the levels Salinity 1.024 Ammonia 0.25 Cal 360 ppm Mag 1120 ppm Alk 2.9 Meg/L 8.1 dKH Nitrate 12 ppm pH 8.3 Phosphate 0 ppm OMG! We have gone so far over budget!!! Good to see the nitrates are dropping even though you have more fish and (I'm assuming) are feeding a bit more. It does look like we should start adding a magnesium supplement. The calcium is acceptable but border line, calcification starts to slow down below 360. You can start adding any calcium or magnesium supplement. I would recommend adding CaribSea's Aragamight. (At some point in the future we may want to look at a calcium reactor but it'll be awhile.) What I like about aragamight is it has bicarbonate, calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate in the same ratios as is found in coral skeletons. Your alkalinity is acceptable so technically we don't need to be using a bicarbonate supplement but of the three bicarbonate can be the one that drops the fastest and you are a ways from being too high. I've found it works well in an autofeeder dropping small amounts in daily. You will hear that dry powdered carbonate and bicarbonate supplements won't dissolve at the pH reef aquariums run at. There is very good science demonstrating this but it does not take into account the biology that goes on in reef aquaria. And while this scinece can be readily demonstrated in a lab trying to apply it to a reef system assumes the pH throughout a reef aquarium, under rocks, in nooks and crannies, is exactly the same. I, however, am quite certain there are many areas with low pH in reef systems. It also ignores the the potential for direct ingestion by the corals when corals grab fish poop.(1) When adding Aragamight you will initially see a slight drop in calcium and magnesium as those ions in the water stick to the surface of the powder. But it only takes a couple days for the biology to start dissolving it and releasing everything back into the water. An additional point I'd like to make here is these biological processes are at work dissolving all carbonate surfaces. Here's a link to a picture of part of a Pink Birdsnest colony sacrificed to show the dissolution of the skeleton after just a few months once tissue died from lack of light as the colony grew: (1) http://www.pnas.org/content/108/10/3865 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 7, 2016 Author Share Posted July 7, 2016 And early on we were talking about making some kind of ATO. What goes all in to that? The simplest is to have a tank mounted above the water line in your sump with a float valve that opens up when the water level drops. More involved setups use a controller, water sensors to and pump(s) in addition to a tank with RO. The sensors monitor the water level in your sump (or DT) and turn pumps on and off to replace evaporation. The tank for the RO water can be quite large but to prevent a flood I would not have it any larger than the spare volume of the sump when the return pumps are turned off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Did my water change today. Salinity 1.023 Ammonia 0 Nitrate 12 ppm I saved the water so should be able to finish up my tests tomorrow evening. I order the feeder and got a timer strip for the lights so we are up $50 more to at $1082. And for the feeder how many times a day should I feed and what times and amount? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share Posted July 12, 2016 I would set the autofeeder at least 4 times a day. as you get more fish you can start setting it to feed the second time at each time set for feeding. I would also suggest feeding a frozen food by hand, hold the cube in your fingers until it melts. It may take a few days but it acclimates fish to people and will reduce their stress level when people walk up to the tank. Initially the amount the autofeeder drops doesn't need to be much. I would use a piece of tape over the opening so it's maybe 3/16" square which should drop about a dozen or so pellets. You'll need to experiement a little and all the pellets should be eaten in less than a minute. I'm curious how the pink birdsnest frags are doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 ok I have been running the frozen food on Sundays. I will start doing it by hand. I have been doing half in the morning and half in the evening. I was dissolving it and pouring it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 Cal 380 ppm Mag 1000 ppm Alk 2.8 Meg/L 7.8 dKH pH 8.1 Phosphate 0 ppm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 I can not find CaribSea's Aragamight not even on their website. Looks like they Aragamilk now is that ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted July 14, 2016 Author Share Posted July 14, 2016 I wouldn't get aragamilk, it would be cheaper to just use epsom salts for magnesium, baking soda for bicarbonate and a cheap calcium carbonate supplement. You can mix them together as need and use the powder in the autofeeder. The ratio will depend on what's testing low. With the magnesium so low right now it would make up most of the mix. I would also be adding some to your new saltwater to help get it back up where it's needed. You can also mix them into your ATO or mix it into some ro water and add it to the sump to help get it back up. Looking at your corals they don't look too upset at the moment so I wouldn't try to raise the magnesium too fast. If it takes a week or two to get magnesium back above 1200 would be ok. Looks like we already have some new tips started on the pink birdsnest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbyb3 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Just as we talked about even with the levels I have all my corals have all their polyps out and the bird nest is showing new growth. I put 4 tablespoons of argamight and baking soda in last night. I told my wife that you said my pics were all off color. She is a professional photographer so maybe she can help me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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