Walker's 90g - brb nuking algae

[NanoTopia]

Fallback ON for heaters can fry your tank as well. Most people have Fallback OFF for heaters for this reason.

 

Do you have your sound warning, sound alarm, email set up to alert you of temperature variations? Your temp. probe is hooked directly to the main controller and should still be working even if your lose contact with a EB8.

[Walker]

Fallback ON for heaters can fry your tank as well. Most people have Fallback OFF for heaters for this reason.

 

Do you have your sound warning, sound alarm, email set up to alert you of temperature variations? Your temp. probe is hooked directly to the main controller and should still be working even if your lose contact with a EB8.

I don't have the email alert set up as my bridge has been quite flaky. I've replaced it but haven't gotten around to the alert. Good idea on the sound alarm though, a better alternative than FALLBACK ON.

 

My reasoning for FALLBACK ON is that the heaters have their own individual thermostats anyway, but you're right, it's better to have the alert and make it fail safe as opposed to fail on.

[jndragon]

Very nice thread. I'm sorry about your Yellow dying on you. Like yourself, I started my wrasse collection with McCoskers that cost me a pretty penny. Anyway, I had a BRS clear net top and everything and during a water change/ coral placement move, I lost my wrasses to jumping. Beautiful fish but the tendency for them to jump was way too high for me to try it again with flashers. Out of curiosity, could you show some more shots of your netting top. I was interested in how you were able to get your return line into the tank and still keep a clean seal for your netting. All of my attempts end up looking really ghetto. I was eventually going to build myself a canopy and using netting for the back wall to keep all of my fish in.

[Walker]

My flasher and fairy wrasses have taken to chasing each other sporadically now. I hope they calm down a bit as the Lubbock's fairy is a bit stressed and goes to hide in the top corner a lot.

 

Very nice thread. I'm sorry about your Yellow dying on you. Like yourself, I started my wrasse collection with McCoskers that cost me a pretty penny. Anyway, I had a BRS clear net top and everything and during a water change/ coral placement move, I lost my wrasses to jumping. Beautiful fish but the tendency for them to jump was way too high for me to try it again with flashers. Out of curiosity, could you show some more shots of your netting top. I was interested in how you were able to get your return line into the tank and still keep a clean seal for your netting. All of my attempts end up looking really ghetto. I was eventually going to build myself a canopy and using netting for the back wall to keep all of my fish in.

 

I didn't really have many pictures of the netting build as it was late (yawn) but the key is to not be afraid to trim down the corner plastic and use them upside down if necessary. I used sharp wire cutters and a hacksaw to get it done. If it didn't quite fit because of the trimming, I used a hammer to get it in. Maybe a bit barbarian, but it works.

 

As for the gap, there is about a 1/4" gap between the return line and the frame, which is acceptable to me. If I was very anal (and if I had extra netting) I can probably redo the screen to a much smaller (1/8" or less) tolerance but I'll live with it. If it worries me enough I'll superglue some gutter guard around it.

 

I was thinking of a canopy as well but I decided that I liked an open top better. I barely notice the acrylic "legs" anymore.

[Walker]

Ich ;_;

[Roshan8768]

That sucks...GL. I'm assuming you already have the fish in a QT

[Arkayology]

 

Maybe a little obsessive about Apex programming...?

 

CrestMed - Reef crest 90%

CrestLo - Reef crest 50%

LagNite - Lagoonal 60%

 

MP10:

Fallback CrestMed

Set CrestMed

If Time 06:00 to 11:00 Then CrestMed

If Time 11:00 to 13:30 Then TSMMorn

If Time 13:30 to 21:30 Then CrestMed

If Time 21:30 to 23:00 Then CrestLo

If Time 23:00 to 06:00 Then LagNite

MP40:

Fallback CrestMed

Set ASyncM10

If Time 00:00 to 01:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 01:00 to 02:00 Then ASyncM10

If Time 02:00 to 03:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 03:00 to 04:00 Then ASyncM10

If Time 04:00 to 05:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 05:00 to 06:00 Then ASyncM10

If Time 06:00 to 07:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 07:00 to 08:00 Then ASyncM10

If Time 08:00 to 09:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 09:00 to 10:00 Then ASyncM10

If Time 10:00 to 11:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 11:00 to 12:30 Then ASyncM10

If Time 14:00 to 15:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 15:00 to 16:00 Then ASyncM10

If Time 16:00 to 17:00 Then SyncMP10

If Time 17:00 to 18:00 Then ASyncM10

If Time 18:00 to 19:00 Then SyncMP10

There is no such thing as too obsessive when it comes to the Apex!

[Walker]

That sucks...GL. I'm assuming you already have the fish in a QT

Just my luck it shows up in the display after I've already added the fish ;_;. Right after I broke down the 35g too. I can't spend the time to hospitalize everything right now (especially with a paired yellow watchman and shrimp)... not with a 7 month old. I'll have to tough it out and hope overfeeding with garlic can drive it to subclinical levels.

 

My fault though, I was doing very abbreviated QT.

[Walker]

Well, the tank is doing well except for the ich. On the plus side, feeding the fish well with selcon and garlic have suppressed it enough that there hasn't been outbreaks in 2 weeks. I'm hoping that if I can keep it down to a couple of spots once a month, it'll be ok.

 

On the plus side, my extremely virulent form of coralline made it to the new tank and is now busily encrusting the back side of the aquarium. I give it 3 months before you can't even see through to the wall.

 

Without much ado, the rescue tang that started this. It is now feeding well and eats most everything. It took nearly a week to warm it up to mysis. Note that I got another coris wrasse as well:

 

This frogspawn sulked for the entire time it was in my 35g. Now with more flow and more powerful lights, it is rebounding nicely. The YWG/pistol make their home right under it.

 

I am very impressed with the way the green slimer responded to the new tank. It now has a LOT more PE and has a much brighter green colouration, very much in-line with what I expect a green slimer to have. It's become slower growing though, as the higher flow forced it to thicken branches.

 

My fastest grower: neon green birdsnest. This thing grows so fast that it covered a 1" gap between it and the rock next to it in a month. I'll have to prune it quickly to prevent it from overruning that corner of the tank.

 

 

Aaand FTS. If you look closely, this is one of those rare moments when I captured all 8 fish in the tank:

 

 

[Walker]

I found out today that my vinegar doser tube input was out of the vinegar water line >.<. It means I've missed dosing for at least a week, maybe more. I've restarted it now.

[Walker]

After a month, I finally got a good shot of the pistol shrimp and the YWG playing:

 

 

And an animated GIF of the "bulldozer" in action:

 

[jestep]

That shrimp is awesome. The yellow eye Kole's have always been my favorite tang. Color is amazing, and they keep it when they get older unlike many other Ctenochaetus.

[Walker]

After almost a month of having that Apex Fusion beta invite, I finally reflashed my controller and tried it out. I always stress out when I flash any device, let alone something that I *really* don't want to brick. Everything went fine except that my MP40 settings got lost. It's a little annoying but nothing mission-critical.

 

The Apex Fusion controls pretty much just port over the normal functionality to a website (as opposed to accessing the Apex directly). It's kinda nice to see Neptune use Google graphs, and the new Vortech controls are nifty. Overall though, I expected more, but Fusion is functional and it's nice to be able to use this instead of the usual Apex UI, which can be clunky on a smartphone.

[NanoTopia]

After almost a month of having that Apex Fusion beta invite, I finally reflashed my controller and tried it out. I always stress out when I flash any device, let alone something that I *really* don't want to brick. Everything went fine except that my MP40 settings got lost. It's a little annoying but nothing mission-critical.

 

The Apex Fusion controls pretty much just port over the normal functionality to a website (as opposed to accessing the Apex directly). It's kinda nice to see Neptune use Google graphs, and the new Vortech controls are nifty. Overall though, I expected more, but Fusion is functional and it's nice to be able to use this instead of the usual Apex UI, which can be clunky on a smartphone.

I also upgraded my apex to Fusion, I still use the old platform. Apex hosting the SMTP is probably the only improvement I can justify on the new Fusion. The mobile version is difficult to navigate on a smaller device, buttons are too small IMO. So I use the old version still. Interesting to see if they follow anyones feedback and improve the beta version before official release. Honestly I think Fusion is more of an advertising campaign than a real improvement to their system. They could have implemented SMTP hosting 10 years ago.

[Walker]

I also upgraded my apex to Fusion, I still use the old platform. Apex hosting The SMTP is probably the only improvement I can justify on the new Fusion. The mobile version is difficult to navigate on a smaller device, buttons are too small IMO. So I use the old version still. Interesting to see of they follow anyones feedback and improve the beta version before official release. Honestly I think Fusion is more of an advertising campaign than a real improvement to their system. The could have implemented SMTP hosting 10 years ago.

I actually use the new platform more now. For some reason, it's a lot more responsive than the old one for me.

[NanoTopia]

I actually use the new platform more now. For some reason, it's a lot more responsive than the old one for me.

I haven't noticed, I will compare them tonight.

[Walker]

Time for a monthly update. The theme - coral warfare and annoying pistol shrimp. Because of my reluctance to dive into the 90g, I've let the corals fight for space as they grow.

 

Exhibit A: Torch vs Green Birdsnest.

The torch is probably the most aggressive LPS I have, and the green birdsnest is the fastest-growing SPS I have. A birdsnest would have no difficulty overgrowing an SPS, but LPS is a different matter:

 

Exhibit B: Hammer vs Green slimer

Both very passive corals, but the hammer can really pack a sting once the green slimer grew close enough to annoy it.

 

Exhibit C: Bird of Paradise vs Pink Prostata

Both SPS, but the prostata is much much more aggressive. I've personally witnessed mesenterial filaments liberally sprayed across the growth tips of the BOP. On the other side, the BOP is faster-growing and I wouldn't be surprised if branches of it shade the prostata if I let it grow more.

 

Just to mention it - the pistol and goby combo is very entertaining, but is annoying when they create massive sand dunes next to corals.

 

And pictures of last month's additions all happy-like:

Kole Tang:

Coris Wrasse:

 

And I still have no idea what this wild coral is. The colouration and growth pattern make me want to label it an echinata, but I really have no idea.

 

FTS 2014-05-02:

[Walker]

I have no idea what's in Reef Roids, but after trying it in both the 35g and 90g, I can definitively say it has some sort of bubble algae rocket fuel. I stopped using it a couple of months before I moved tanks, and the bubble algae receded. I just started using it again a month ago, and one rock is positively bubbling with red bubble algae. I'll stop using it as I don't really see an effect with my corals anyway.

[Walker]

** RTN alert beep beep*

 

My large BOP colony is in the early stages of RTN. Apparently I've been frying my corals with too much light. I reduced the photoperiod last week but it might have been too much already for the BOP and green birdsnest, as both have bleached. So far it's been restricted to just a couple of branches so I am leaving it be. If it progresses much more I'll start with the fragging.

[NanoTopia]

** RTN alert beep beep*

 

My large BOP colony is in the early stages of RTN. Apparently I've been frying my corals with too much light. I reduced the photoperiod last week but it might have been too much already for the BOP and green birdsnest, as both have bleached. So far it's been restricted to just a couple of branches so I am leaving it be. If it progresses much more I'll start with the fragging.

Check potassium and salinity, gods speed!

[Walker]

Update: RTN halted at one branch. A reduced light cycle plus coral frenzy has worked. I'll see how it goes next week and maybe reduce the light cycle even more if doesn't look like stuff is recovering.

[Walker]

More RTN update: seems like a reduced light cycle only slowed down the polyp loss on the BOP and birdsnest. Strangely enough, the rest of my corals (including an exceptionally finicky bali tricolor) are ok, and are probably happier now, with better colour on some of them. Now I am thinking that with the transition to a higher-powered skimmer, a GFO reactor, and more vinegar dosing, I have gone past the deep end of ULNS. I should have thought of it eariler - I switched to a high-capacity bulk GFO right before the RTN started.

 

I have shut down the GFO right now but will continue with the increased feeding to bump phosphates higher. Once there's recovery (and presumably algae growth), I'll restart the reactor with 1/4 of the GFO.

[Walker]

More RTN update: BOP has stopped RTN'ing (for now). Green birdsnest colony looks like it's on its way out . I hold out some hope that a portion of it will survive (it did the last time I OD'd on GFO) and I'll trim around it.

[Walker]

I've also backed off carbon dosing from 35mL to 20mL. The hope is that it will help the corals recover faster.

 

One observation through - I thought I was overfeeding my fish a lot, but I doubled their mysis to dirty up the water and surprise surprise, they ate ALL of the mysis anyway. I'm gonna get fat fish.

[Walker]

I've had a revelation - the aquarium was waaaayyyy into ULNS with the GFO and carbon dosing. I went on vacation (to Hawaii, no less) for 10 days but set it up so my tank sitters overfed the tank, reduced carbon dosing, and took the GFO offline. I also stopped my zeo additives.

 

I came back and the skimmer was apparently malfunctioning for a week, so I essentially had no nutrient export for that time. The RTN'ing corals didn't come back, unfortunately, but the ones that did survive were so much brighter, healthier, and more colourful. They have started consuming more calcium again as well.

 

Of course, there is now an algae bloom on my overflows and return, plus a diatom bloom on my sand. I'll have to figure out how to balance nutrient import and export again.

 

I'll try to document the changes when I can, but for now, I am floored at the changes and will have to revise my export routine appropriately.