aviator300 Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Mouth for me too. After doing it for a while, I got the timing down so I don't usually get anything in my mouth, though Yup, but the occasional surprise really cleans my sinuses out. Hey Kijho, it's great to see you so happy and excited about the hobby again after all the frustrating times with the Spec. 1 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Psh. I have one of those self-starter vacs. You just have to stand there jerking it up and down for a while to get it going... But at least I don't get any in my mouth! 3 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 Psh. I have one of those self-starter vacs. You just have to stand there jerking it up and down for a while to get it going... But at least I don't get any in my mouth! Can I make this my sig? 4 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted April 30, 2016 Author Share Posted April 30, 2016 Went on vacation for a week; Come home to full diatoms (or so it seems). Everything gone a slight brown color, no more pure white dry rock. Not sure if good thing or bad thing. Figure my main course of action will be some very frequent WC's moving forward. Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Don't feel bad, seeing something like this isn't unusual in the first two to six months. It's part of the ugly new tank process. 2 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 2, 2016 Author Share Posted May 2, 2016 Checked some params. before doing my water change yesterday. They seem alright.. Diatoms blooming.. I was worried about stirring up the diatoms in the sand while doing the WC. I tried to be as least disruptive as I could, but ultimately still had brown diatoms flying all around the tank post water change. I feel like that isn't a good thing and causes the diatoms to only bloom further? Ugh.. I then also added a spin stream 2 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 I could be wrong but I always try to keep my sand stirred up especially if diatoms or cyano are growing on it. Get it in the water column so it can get filtered out, that's my approach. 3 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 3, 2016 Author Share Posted May 3, 2016 I could be wrong but I always try to keep my sand stirred up especially if diatoms or cyano are growing on it. Get it in the water column so it can get filtered out, that's my approach. Should I stir it all up, and then do some insane filter floss changes immediately following after (water will be murky) but I do have a great filter setup in there right now... The gamble. I'm slightly, just slightly worried to do such .. I mean, I had the bad experience with the bubble algae destroying my Spec V. Gamble? I'm tempted to do it now because what you mention makes total sense.. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Should I stir it all up, and then do some insane filter floss changes immediately following after (water will be murky) but I do have a great filter setup in there right now... The gamble. I'm slightly, just slightly worried to do such .. I mean, I had the bad experience with the bubble algae destroying my Spec V. Gamble? I'm tempted to do it now because what you mention makes total sense.. I would use a siphon hose to gently skim off what you can from the surface first. Then use the hose to stir up the sand and suck up the crap. Just do one section at a time to avoid causing a cycle. Use a valve, or just kink the hose, to keep the water from siphoning too fast and sucking up all your sand. Once you have all the sections clean, you keep up with it by just stirring up one section at a time with a turkey baster. When I do it, I crank up the MP10 to keep as much of the detritus suspended in the water as I can, and then change the filter floss after a couple hours. 2 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 3, 2016 Author Share Posted May 3, 2016 I would use a siphon hose to gently skim off what you can from the surface first. Then use the hose to stir up the sand and suck up the crap. Just do one section at a time to avoid causing a cycle. Use a valve, or just kink the hose, to keep the water from siphoning too fast and sucking up all your sand. Once you have all the sections clean, you keep up with it by just stirring up one section at a time with a turkey baster. When I do it, I crank up the MP10 to keep as much of the detritus suspended in the water as I can, and then change the filter floss after a couple hours. Thx man, !! Going to give it a go maybe tomorrow or Wednesday, might pickup a new sand vacuum (my old one is broken) haha.. 1 Quote Link to comment
spectra Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Yep normal for a new tank. My 20 did the same thing.....also if you can get some snails in the sand or even a few conches. They work ok for keeping the sand kind of clean. 2 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Yep normal for a new tank. My 20 did the same thing.....also if you can get some snails in the sand or even a few conches. They work ok for keeping the sand kind of clean. Good point! I have nassarius snails, they stay below the sand until they smell food, then they come up like zombies from the grave. 2 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 3, 2016 Author Share Posted May 3, 2016 I have like 6 nassarius and maybe 10 trochus snails right now! They do very good, but they aren't eating the diatoms LOL (as I had originally hoped for). Have 5 little hermits too which I quite like, none of them eat any corals which is nice ! 1 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 Did another water change today! Feels good to be really on-top of things in the tank!! It's seriously so much easier to do a WC with the bigger tank than my older Spec. I picked up a small sand vacuum and gave it a go, and it worked incredibly well - VERY well I would say. Every night I was agitating the sand very lightly, just enough to pick a little up at a time, and then next morning changed out the filter floss. So then I did a final vacuum of the sand today and it looks much better. I'll see how it goes in the coming days, might stick on this schedule of doing up to 2x WC's a week!! Been adding the coraline booster too, would love to just turn this entire tank vibrant purple! Some iphone pics, because it actually takes surprisingly well photos right out of the camera with the whites turned up just a little on the AI Prime! 3 Quote Link to comment
spectra Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 Get some yellow safety glasses......pics will be a little better with the iPhone. 1 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 IMG_2318 by Spencer, on Flickr IMG_2336 by Spencer, on Flickr IMG_2352 by Spencer, on Flickr IMG_2361 by Spencer, on Flickr IMG_2385 by Spencer, on Flickr IMG_2396 by Spencer, on Flickr IMG_2402 by Spencer, on Flickr 6 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 8, 2016 Author Share Posted May 8, 2016 That one halloween hermit is a real asshole. I feel like my snails go into like a sleep mode where they sleep for 2 days straight without moving. I've seen it happen before, then they suddenly become super active again. Problem is.. the hermit keeps getting them. He's murdered two this week! He's only getting the Trochus snails, though... which is particularly odd because those snails normally have their rotating spinning shell they use as self defense. But they don't for some odd reason. Guess I'll need more snails too. They're expensive here, too.. like $4/ea.!! 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 That one halloween hermit is a real asshole. I feel like my snails go into like a sleep mode where they sleep for 2 days straight without moving. I've seen it happen before, then they suddenly become super active again. Problem is.. the hermit keeps getting them. He's murdered two this week! He's only getting the Trochus snails, though... which is particularly odd because those snails normally have their rotating spinning shell they use as self defense. But they don't for some odd reason. Guess I'll need more snails too. They're expensive here, too.. like $4/ea.!! Reefcleaners.org is your friend for snails. Order a 10g package since you already have some and just need some more. $20 shipped Check out their forum in the sponsors area for reviews. 1 Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 8, 2016 Author Share Posted May 8, 2016 Reefcleaners.org is your friend for snails. Order a 10g package since you already have some and just need some more. $20 shipped Check out their forum in the sponsors area for reviews. I don't think they will work for Canada though Customer border will keep it for a day and they may die ! Quote Link to comment
Astinus Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 I don't think they will work for Canada though Customer border will keep it for a day and they may die ! Try talking with John from Reef cleaners. Explain ur situation. Might help. Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted May 8, 2016 Author Share Posted May 8, 2016 Not a reef related update, but hello ~ This is me!! Was watching a movie with my girlfriend last night when an aurora alert popped up on my phone. There's been quite a few false alerts or alerts where nothing was visible lately, but this came up as a KP 6 which is pretty high (9 is maximum). So we headed out not too far away and it was very very vibrant, you could really see them dancing just with your eyes alone which isn't very common! IMG_2601 by Spencer, on FlickrIMG_2602 by Spencer, on FlickrIMG_2606 by Spencer, on FlickrCamera moved slightly on this shot as I had it on the window of the car, but the purple was streaking very vibrantly at times..IMG_2610 by Spencer, on FlickrIMG_2607 by Spencer, on FlickrIMG_2613 by Spencer, on FlickrIMG_2615 by Spencer, on FlickrIMG_2616 by Spencer, on Flickr[/urlIMG_2600 by Spencer, on Flickr 7 Quote Link to comment
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