Reef #2 - The Unplanned Upgrade (1 Viewer)

[Varig]

Right. Seems like the most likely first trial. I was going to empty the overflow. Dump in rodi and let it drip for an hour to “clean” it. Then empty the rodi, dry it. Glue it.

 

[reef junkie]

Is the overflow box easy to replace with a new one?

 

[Varig]

Easy is relative. I happen to have just purchased a new overflow box of the same style from the forum. So it’s a matter of gluing in new true unions. The old plumbling had a ball valve which I left because the fitting was too close to cut off and install a union. So of course it’s possible. Just more faffing about.

Since the leak is so slow and it’s on the emergency drain, it felt like it was worth trying to patch? Maybe that’s me being cheap and lazy? I take constructive feedback from the experts if I’m being an idiot.

 

[Varig]

Couple updates for the week. Finally got the new mixing station setup (thanks @turfman). Got it all checked for leaks, will start making water/saltwater tomorrow.



I’m in the middle of silicate dosing for the Dino’s. I’ll give it a week or so, then check the microscope and see if we’re starting to get a diatom bloom.

The only other point to note is request for advice. I just noticed a rip on the bottom fin of my yellow tang. He’s really starting to color up finally (from the translucent to yellow), he’s eating well and doesn’t look “stressed.” I’ve been watching them as much as possible and I haven’t seen any aggression at all. I even come down at totally wonky times (nights, mornings, etc.). I haven’t caught anyone in the act of chasing or nipping. That’s not to say it’s not POSSIBLE I’m missing it obviously. But are there other possible ways for a fin to get ripped? Hitting on a rock or? If the only possible way is aggression or nipping, I’ll obviously keep a closer eye and see if I can catch the culprit. Thanks in advance!

 

[MistakesWereMade]

I have had a few fish, including my yellow tangs, have damaged fins. Never saw any real aggression. They healed up and I haven't seen anything recently. I saw it on my marine betta a few times and that has been the most peaceful fish. I almost wonder if it happens by just catching rocks while swimming. If the fish isn't showing any discomfort I would just let it be. If it gets worse it would likely be aggression but you may see that while watching for it.

 

[Mathew0]

I would say it’s likely from squeezing thru rockwork. If you’re not seeing active aggression, there’s always a chance the yellow and someone else just has some stuff to work out . I pointed out some fin damage and what looked like bite marks on a hippo tang at new wave and thru that just happens when they’re trying to get to hard to reach bits of algae

 

[Varig]

Got it, thanks guys. I’ll just continue to be diligent monitoring them for any further signs of aggression. Hopefully it was just a rock thing and he/she will heal up without issues. I was hoping it was a good sign that it’s starting to color up, since it’s actively eating and doesn’t appear to be stressed. I guess we shall see. Silly fish

 

[spsick]

Update time?

 

[Varig]

Fair request. I will do my best this weekend.

 

[Varig]

Alrighty, Ben asked so I shall make it happen. Let's see if I can arrange this in any sort of logical order.

Fish:
The last update I was worried about a ripped fin on my baby yellow tang. Well, it turns out they can heal darn quick. I think the rip was fully healed up within 1-2 days of that post (which was just crazy). The new fish have settled in. I notice a little nipping from time to time, but nothing yet to the point that one fish is getting bullied enough that they won't eat or anything crazy like that. The nipping is either:

A) Long nose hawk going after my benggai cardinal
B) Tomini tang nipping at my Starry blenny

I have no clue what the hawk fish's problem is, he just seems to do it for fun. As for the tomini, it's actually pretty obvious that he goes after the starry anytime the blenny takes a scrape at the rocks. So I think that one is a food related squabble. I've been trying to keep even more nori in the tank to reduce that aggression if it's truly a feeding thing.

Beyond that, the fish are great. They're always out and about, it's got so much more life than the previous tank.


Dinos:
I believe I mentioned that I got the joy of battling dinos again with this tank (despite being hyper diligent to never let my nutrients bottom out). Oh well. This time it was small cell amphidinium (SCA). According to Mack's Reef that's another silicate dosing to resolve, so I busted out the water glass. I also added some established biomedia (post QT because I'm a crazy person). Regardless, I think this time I got on top of them sooner, so I think after a 2-3 month battle I'm almost out of the woods. The sand looks infinitely better than it did a few months back. When I take a microscope sample I only found 4-5 cells (versus 100s and 100s). So I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Algae:
This has been the most noticeable change from my smaller tank. I know that I got off on the rock foot with nutrients in that tank (rocks leaching phosphate), so it got out of control. I did much better in that respect on this tank AND since it's bigger and I have those 2 tangs, this tank has been basically algae free. As I mentioned, the rocks are currently so clean that I'm actually worried the herbivores aren't getting enough natural diet (clearly they grab the frozen when it's in the water, but that's not what they're meant to eat). I can't explain how much joy it brings to see the clean tank, versus ALWAYS dreading having to get in there and mow the rocks...

Corals:
Everything I've added into the tank so far has seemed pretty happy. I made that first big addition of corals after my meeting a few months back and things have grown well. The hammer has gone from 2 heads to 7 or 8. The duncan is growing, the blasto merletti is probably twice the size. @BlindSwordsman will be happy to know that I did NOT kill the second frag of space invader that I got from him (though I tried ), and it has grown maybe ~2x from where it was in the QT tank. Overall I'm very happy with the growth on most of the corals. I would say that my bubblegum digi started to grow, but then lost a lot of polyp extension. So it seems less happy. I "think" it was a lack of flow (flow is still a bit of mystery to me). It's either that or my nutrients (I'll get to that in a bit).

And in the QT tank I've been extremely pleased with the growth of the various acro frags that I have acquired from various local reefers. Previously I had killed any acro I tried, but many of the frags I have now have gone through the full 76 day QT and still look great, with new growth and everything. I will admit I'm a bit reluctant to move them over to the display (because it's still only ~5-6 months old and the nutrient topic again), so I think I'll just let them continue to grow and be happy in QT for a few more months while the DT gets a bit more stable.

With that, a few pictures and videos:

Display tank FTS and a quick walk around video:

- Sorry it was getting a bit late, maybe I'll grab one at max light tomorrow afternoon.





Coral/Invert QT:

Couple of side shots:



Top down:


Growth on my tri color milli. I didn't get a very good starting picture, but you can see it was sort of a 1" tall V (two sticks).



And one of my favorite new corals, my @Fishfoo Beach Bum Acan







So, that's all the good news I think. What's going on that's bad? Well...I still haven't fixed that small leak in the emergency overflow pipe. It's still so slow that it doesn't actually drip, there is just salt creep. I know I need to fix it...one of these days. I have a plan at least now for what I want to do. I've been traveling a lot recently for work though, so priorities have been on keeping reefing time to a minimum and dad time to a maximum.

And maybe more importantly....

Nutrients:

Things started off so well with the tank. For the first 5 months or so I was able to keep my nitrates around 5-10ppm and my phosphate 0.02-0.1ppm. Not super stable I know, but it was a new reef so I wasn't worried about it. I was just happy it was bouncing up and down. For reference the tank started at the end of November and there were 6 fish in the tank. Then on January 31st I added the 5 additional fish, one of whom died (again because I'm an idiot) a few weeks after. Even with that though, the nutrients stayed pretty stable through mid March, so I don't "think" this is due to substantially higher bioload and insufficient filtration. Anyway, on March 22 I was at 8ppm nitrate and 0.1ppm phosphate, basically the same range. But over the last month I've tested 3 times (I try to test weekly, but missed one due to those work trips) the results were:

Date	Nitrate (ppm)	Phosphate (ppm)
4/2	19.8	0.18
4/8	19.2	0.24
4/19	25.3	0.27

So yea...not the trend a guy wants to see. I know they aren't like CRAZY EVERYTHING IS GOING TO DIE high....but they aren't good either, especially those phosphate levels. So I'm at a bit of a loss. Here is what I have running:

-Filter floss in the overflow
-Skimmer 24/7 (it's dark brown, but not sludge. It's a RO 110 classic and I empty the cup every 2 weeks. So maybe that gives an indication on how much skim I'm pulling out?
-ATS running 12 hours per day

I also do a 10% weekly water change, though this week I increased it to 20% thinking that maybe a few slightly larger changes would help me get in front of the trend.

In terms of feeding, I put in ~1/2-2/3 of a sheet of nori per day (it's gone every day and I watch the fish eat it, so I think it's getting used). A mid day feeding with pellets (TDO) and an evening feeding of frozen (mixture of LRS Reef Frenzy and PE Mysis). I try to follow that rule of "don't add more than the fish will eat in ~1-2 minutes. The fish all seem plump, so I don't think I'm underfeeding, but I will say that the food never seems to last more than 30-60 seconds. As in, I don't think I'm "cutting it close" on the 2 minute thing, they seem to vacuum it up right away. I do NOT rinse the frozen, I just thaw it and feed it. I'd always thought the "brine" would be in the water column for feeding corals/pods etc. Oh, and I dose 5-10mL of phyto every day (thanks @Reefer Oz ).

I guess...any thoughts? I'd like to try to drag the nutrients back down to that ~10ppm nitrate and 0.05-0.1ppm phosphate range and get it to hold stable. I'm clearly not opposed to a fairly large water change (50% or whatever) to kick start the process, if that's what people thought would help. But I also don't want/need to make drastic changes. I have RowaPhos that I could throw in a reactor or in a mesh bag, but that wouldn't take care of the nitrate.

Anyway, if anyone has thoughts on this let me know. As I have mentioned previously, I'm still absolutely stoked by the new display tank. It's so much more of a joy to look at with the coral and fish that are in there now versus just the algae farm. And I can't wait to start adding in some of those sticks and watching them grow.

Cheers!
David

 

[reef junkie]

What an update. Tanks are looking good.
Ive been feeding nori to my tank a little more lately and have noticed elevated levels in Po4 and No3. Im feeding twice a week and it’s allowed me to stop dosing No3 and Po4. Im curious if you cut back on the nori to a few times a week if that would help get Po4 lower And maybe No3 would follow?

 

[spsick]

Awesome update!

For the nutrients- did you get some new algae smeared on the ATS screen? If you’re still just getting brownish snot on it it’s prob not doing a ton of lifting.

I would turn up the skimmer so it skins a little wetter and see what that does for your nitrates. A properly sized skimmer should be able to manage.

And golly that’s a lot of Nori! Really a half sheet?? I know you’re doing to keep the aggression down between the tang and blenny but is suspect the blenny will need to go. Then your tang will stay busy doing his job and you won’t need as much.

 

[Mathew0]

Glad to see things running smoothly this round, mate.
When my nitrates spiked to over 30 in the 125, I didn’t really do anything and they eventually came back down to 15-20 on their own.
Phos; well I also feed a 1/2 sheet of nori every day. However, there are many more and larger mouths. You could cut back on the nori, fold/roll it tightly so it doesn’t shred as easily, maybe do 1/4 sheet a day. If the timing works, you could split into 2 feedings.
Phyto: I love the idea of Phyto and feeding the pod culture, etc. However, Jen cautioned me against dosing Phyto early on my 1st tank b/c it can spike nitrate and phosphate.
You might need to make a choice between Phyto OR nori for a little while. Conversely, corals eat nitrate and phosphate. More corals might just be the answer

 

[Varig]

Thanks for the feedback. A couple notes. First, I have been feeding LRS Nori (it was just what I first bought). Those sheets are a different shape, so what I've been putting in is ~3"x4" tightly rolled into a 1/4" tube and put into a nori clip. Then maybe a 2"x4" piece, folded in half and put into one of those mesh nori feeders (put on opposite ends of the tank). Together that added up to about 1/2" sheet of the LRS, because those sheets are something like 10"x4". Is that equivalent to a normal sheet of Nori?

I guess speaking of that, I am out of that LRS nori, do folks have a recommendation on nori? Do you just get whatever from your local grocery store?

Regarding the ATS and algae, no, I haven't smeared it on yet because it's in QT. Yes, I know....I have issues. But Humblefish says 14 days on algae, and if I'm going to go to the work of QTing anything wet that goes into my tank, why would that not include algae? 2 more days on that.

THAT being said, the discussion of the "snot" on the ATS got me thinking. I did adjust down the light schedule on the ATS on March 23rd (the day after the last "normal" reading. Talking with Jason he thought that might have been part of the reason it was staying "snotty" instead of turning into normal turf algae, because I was running too much light (went from ~20 hrs to 14 hrs). So definitely a pretty substantial reduction. Even though it was growing slimey ick, perhaps it was doing more than I thought with that 20 hr light schedule? I will 100% keep that in mind after I seed it with the good algae from Jason and see what happens.

Regarding the skimmer, I will look at making it a little wetter. Is there any "rule of thumb" on whether the cup should fill once a week or every X days? I know the specifics will vary, but since this is my first tank with a real skimmer, I feel like I'm running blind.

Regarding the phyto, I will think on that for sure. I can understand if I was dosing huge amounts that it could be an issue. I think 5-10mL is actually a pretty low dose for a 65 gallon system, but I could be wrong. For what it's worth, I was dosing the phyto continuously from the beginning (alongside the pods), so the phyto was going in when the nutrients were staying level. Really the only "smoking gun" at this point is that 6 hour reduction in ATS light schedule. And the added nori feedings for the aggression. Perhaps that's what's driving it. Let's see if I can start to suck down those levels with the better turf algae. If not, I might need to make more drastic changes.

And @Mathew0 - fair enough on the "more coral to eat the nutrients" plan. I like how you think. Perhaps I should just suck it up and move some of the sticks over that have finished their QT. I shall think on this.

 

[reef junkie]

I run the same skimmer and I just try to make sure I’m not getting any build up of sludge in the neck below the collection cup. If I see it start to build up I adjust the water level up. I try and keep the water level just below the black ring where the collection cup neck and skimmer body meet. I empty and clean weekly. Sometimes it’s pretty full sometimes it’s a little lower. But if I clean weekly the skimmer seems to perform better.

Can’t answer the question on the nori amount and how it compares. I use the omega one. Think they are 3” by 8” sheets. I use 1/3 of a sheet once to twice a week. Definitely increased my po4 by adding this to my weekly feeding.

 

[Mathew0]

My sheets are 7.5x8.5 inches. Standard sushi rolling size. I get it from Amazon for fairly cheap in 4-packs.

 

[Varig]

Dang it! I jinxed myself. I made a comment that I thought the female emerald crabs were fine. Well, I just watch one picking at my milli polyps today. Time for him to go.

Anyone want an emerald crab? I don’t have anywhere to put her. But also don’t want to just straight kill her….

 

[Jjdurrant]

Doh! Never again for me

 

[Varig]

It’s too bad. They worked a treat on my bubble algeeee.

 

[Mathew0]

You’ve got a sump