Chucktown BC 29 Mixed Reef

[c est ma]

+ 1 !

 

Fun vid!

 

Boy, those caps off to the left are looking so natural!

 

--Diane

[divecj5]

Happy 11 month birthday and great video!

 

Thanks. Every once in a while I like to take a video of the tank with my wife's point and shoot camera. Just gives the viewer a better idea of the movement in the tank and overall feel.

 

I have some frags and chaeto waiting in my car for you. See you sometime around 12:30.

 

 

+ 1 !

 

Fun vid!

 

Boy, those caps off to the left are looking so natural!

 

--Diane

 

Thanks Diane. At first I didn't really know if I liked the way the green cap looked on the left hand side of the tank but I think it's grown on me (and the rock). I have to get a picture of this but the clownfish like to hang out underneath it. It is really cool to see them do this. I'm not sure if they are just taking shelter from the flow in the tank or just like to hang out under there. It reminds me of diving on wrecks and reefs in the Keys where you will see schools of small fish hiding under ledges out and away from the current....and predators

[divecj5]

First off....Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!

 

Thought I would post some updated shots of the tank and also some new frags that I got from PodRod this past Friday. I was able to finally give her some zoa frags that I have had in the sand for a while so hopefully they are doing well in her tank.

 

She gave me a really nice blue/green Acro with gold colored polyps as well as a really nice hammer and a zoa frag as well. You can see them below.

 

New Acro (anyone have an ID)

 

Left Side

 

New Hammer

 

New Zoas

 

Happy as a Clam

 

Birdnest (see what it started out as when I got it below)

 

Before

 

Now

 

And to finish off, my two favorite shots. One is of the purple polyp cream based monti through the rocks and the second shows how my clowns like to hang out under the monti cap ledge

 

 

[diggman08]

HAPPY CINCO DDUDE... ill check out your new pics when i get to the house... my tank is still SLOWLLY COMING BACK... i bought some CHemiclean the other day to fight this RED and GREEN algae... its driving me maddd!!...ive come to the conclusion that it is being cause be exessive nutrients in my water.. so im gonna syphone, and do some seriousl water changes... yes ive been guilty of using TAp water for the last 5 months,, but im back to using RODI...

[PodRod]

I always enjoy your pics - they're so amazing! Looks like things are fat and happy in your tank and you definitely have a knack with montis. I really like the pic of the clown under the cap, it looks like he's in his secret hiding place.

 

Thanks again for the zoa frags - they're doing great and I love the colors!

[divecj5]

HAPPY CINCO DDUDE... ill check out your new pics when i get to the house... my tank is still SLOWLLY COMING BACK... i bought some CHemiclean the other day to fight this RED and GREEN algae... its driving me maddd!!...ive come to the conclusion that it is being cause be exessive nutrients in my water.. so im gonna syphone, and do some seriousl water changes... yes ive been guilty of using TAp water for the last 5 months,, but im back to using RODI...

 

Thanks Digg and glad to see you back around these parts. Sounds like you are on your way to getting your tank back to the way that it was. Changing back to RODI will definitely help clear things up. I know that the tap water around me isn't too bad but I still think it tested in the mid to upper 30 TDS....enough to throw things out of whack. With good solid waterchanges, chemiclean, and keeping on it I'm sure the tank will turn around.

 

 

I always enjoy your pics - they're so amazing! Looks like things are fat and happy in your tank and you definitely have a knack with montis. I really like the pic of the clown under the cap, it looks like he's in his secret hiding place.

 

Thanks again for the zoa frags - they're doing great and I love the colors!

 

Thanks PodRod. I appreciate the compliments on the pictures. For some reason Montis just really do well in my tank. I know that a lot of people say that they are pretty much bullet proof and you could nuke you tank and they would still survive, but I'm just not sure

 

I really like to watch the clowns and how they hover underneath the cap....pretty cool to see.

[diggman08]

wow dude.. i checked out alll your new pics and stuff yest... the tank looks great... the ole lady had to borrow my camera so i couldnt snap any photos.. but i will today or tomorow... im lights out neway for 2 days to help rid the algae

[c est ma]

I always enjoy your pics - they're so amazing! Looks like things are fat and happy in your tank and you definitely have a knack with montis. I really like the pic of the clown under the cap, it looks like he's in his secret hiding place.

 

+1!

 

Nice pics, nice coral, cute fish.

 

--Diane

[divecj5]

Thanks Diane.....I absolutely love your pictures as well. Just glad you get enjoyment from looking at them. I am going to take some more this weekend since I've moved a couple of things around.

[divecj5]

I've got good news and some bad news with the tank. Of course I will start off with the good news first. I sold some pumps that I had laying around and I also traded in my green/purple lobo that I've had for a while. So I was able to get a bunch of snails and dry goods from the LFS. I am giving Chemi-Pure Elite a try this go around and I have already noticed some algae disappearing on the sand bed and some spots on the rock. I believe the main difference between regular Chemi-Pure and Elite is that Elite contains a phosphate remover which never hurts. I also got some more Calcium and Alk supplement but this time I am going to try Seachems new Aquavitro line of Ca and Alk and see how it goes. I just had lots of store credit so I figured I would give it a try. I know I can always fall back to Two Part if need be.

 

So on that end the tank is doing great....the bad news is that I lost the clam that PodRod gave me It had been doing alright in my tank since I added it. It never really expanded like the others clams did in PodRod's tank. I had been keeping it almost on the sand bed just perched up on a rock to give it something to attach to. A couple of days ago it kept wanting to move off the rock and down onto the sand. I think that it just wasn't comfortable there for some reason. Seeing as though I only have a 150w MH and PodRod had a 250w and keeps all her clams up higher, I decided to move it up and into the rockwork to see how it would do.

 

It looked fine yesterday all day...nice and open, not gaping, and looked pretty happy to me. Well I came back last night from a wedding that we went to to find the cleaner shrimp having a feast on the clam which was wide open and completely eaten Needless to say that I'm really really bummed out about losing this guy....he was quickly becoming a favorite in my tank. I'm just bummed out and feel bad about losing any creature of the sea. I'm just not sure what happened to it though since I just tested my parameters yesterday and they tested out just fine. Everyone else in the tank looks nice and happy.

 

On another note, my wife and I decided that we are going to be staying in the condo that we rent for at least another year and a half. I was happy about this because this means that I won't have to worry about moving the tank any time soon.

[nUgZ]

Sorry to hear about the clam man. They can be finicky sometimes. You should like those Seachem additives. I've been using "Fuel" and "Ions" and I couldn't be happier.

[divecj5]

Thanks nUgZ....just hate losing any addition in my tank.

 

I have been using Fuel for about a month and a half and like it as well. How much do you add to your tank?

 

I will have to report on the progress with keeping Ca and Alk in balance with these products. I used to use the dry mixes on my 55 gallon tank and they worked really well. Like the convenience of the liquid 100% more though since mixing was a pain.

[nUgZ]

I dose probably twice the amount they recommend twice a week.

[diggman08]

sorry to hear the loss dude.. keep your head up....

[PodRod]

Hey Adam,

 

I'm so sorry to hear about the clam - I know how much you really liked it. Don't give up! In fact, if you decide to replace it, I know of a gold clam that you had your eye on and it needs a new home....

[spanko]

I don't know Dive. I have tried a number of clams and have not had success with any but a T.deresa that was in the old lighting on the sandbed. With the 150 sunpod I have tried two croceas and a maxima and all have perished withing a couple of weeks. won't try another.

[TUDIZZLE]

Finally got caught up on your tank................I like the direction you are taking. Crazy to see the progression pics since the set up. looking forward to watching the sps grow in and mature.

 

 

Is that the same cheato I sent that you are passing around? That stuff grows like crazy

 

 

excellent pics as always!

[c est ma]

Aw, man, so sorry about the clam! It's always so strange when something goes from perfectly happy looking to happy-hunting-ground in the blink of an eye. And one sure hears that a lot about clams...

 

You certainly did all you could.

 

Glad to hear the good news part of that post.

 

--Diane

[divecj5]

I dose probably twice the amount they recommend twice a week.

 

I have been dosing the recommended amount but might start doing a little more to see the effect.

 

 

sorry to hear the loss dude.. keep your head up....

 

Thanks man.

 

 

Hey Adam,

 

I'm so sorry to hear about the clam - I know how much you really liked it. Don't give up! In fact, if you decide to replace it, I know of a gold clam that you had your eye on and it needs a new home....

 

Thanks PodRod. I appreciate it. I just hated that you gave it to me and then I didn't end up keeping it successfully. I'll PM you and we can see about setting up something this week.

 

 

Aw, man, so sorry about the clam! It's always so strange when something goes from perfectly happy looking to happy-hunting-ground in the blink of an eye. And one sure hears that a lot about clams...

 

You certainly did all you could.

 

Glad to hear the good news part of that post.

 

--Diane

 

Thanks Diane. That was the worst part....that it looked perfect and happy an hour before and then the next thing I see is it being chowed on by my cleaner shrimp.

[divecj5]

One of the many things that I've learned from this hobby (patience being one of them) is that it takes forever to get things stable and mature in a tank, and only takes a day or two for it to potentially crash and burn.

 

Case in point being my tank. Things had been cruising right along on the Carolina Reef for the past couple of months. I recently added two Tunze nanostreams and had them in the back left and right corners about halfway up the glass and pointing directly across the tank at opposite walls. They have been in there for about three weeks now.

 

I noticed that there was a little bit of sand moving around when I first added them but nothing too crazy. The last couple of days I noticed that the sand was getting a little thin in the front left corner and it was starting to build in the middle of the tank. I didn't really pay too much attention to it since nothing looked bad and there was no sand storm.

 

Well when I got home yesterday afternoon, I basically had a bare bottom tank in the front left corner and all the way along the left side . I thought oh, how nice of the freaking powerheads to move my sand around

 

Needless to say that now I had a sand storm on my hands....all of my rock and corals had a nice coating of goop on them. I'm assuming that the goop was all of the detritus that had been trapped in the various layers in the sand bed and that now had been sufficiently stirred up. I quickly turned off the powerheads and return pump, broke out the handy dandy turkey baster and went to town. My wife came home from work about halfway through my process. She doesn't even ask me anymore when she sees that I have my hands in the tank...she just laughs now and goes along her way. It is a pretty common occurrence for us to be sitting there on the couch watching tv or messing with the dog, me to glance over at the tank and notice something out of place and for me to spend the next 15 minutes messing around with the tank. She just thinks I'm crazy I'm sure.

 

Anyway, I blew off all the rock, picked up all the corals and shook them off upside down in the tank, moved the powerheads lower and pointed them more at the surface, and turned everything back on with the lights off. I came back from our dog obedience class and it looks like I did a good job of placing the powerheads so this will no longer happen.

 

I'm sure that I've destroyed a good bit of denitrifying bacteria in the process of all of this but everything is looking pretty good still.

 

I have read that one of the reasons why tanks that have been up for a long time end up crashing is that there isn't enough flux in the system. When you think about a natural reef say in the Keys, every once in a while a really big storm or hurricane will come through and destroy certain areas of the reef. One hurricane actually turned a 500 ft wreck that was in about 80-110 ft of water on it's side. This actually benefits part of the reef because it culls out the weak, breaks off corals (aka natural fragging) and keeps things mixed up.

 

So one of the thoughts to keeping a reef long term is to every once in a while give it a good shake down....that's at least how I view things.

 

Sorry for the ramble.....just thought I would share an hour of my life yesterday.

 

Reefs in general are very fragile and our little systems are even more fragile. One little thing going awry can throw our whole systems off.

[diggman08]

dive did you say you have 2 Nanostreams..... dude i think 1 would be plenty enough... i have 2 koralia 1's in mine.. but they have about half the output has nanostreams... ( but i bet if you put them on a wavemaker..intermitting in like 5-10min intervals then you would be in business my friend there something about them turkey basters.. i dunno.. there addictive once your start blowin stuff off

 

im sure you already know this.. but i would try not to stir around with your sand too much... maybe just the top layer.. but i wouldnt get too deep...

[divecj5]

Yeah, I might have gone a little overboard with 2 Nanostreams!!! I now have over 50X turnover in my tank which is great but the sand isn't too excited about it. The SPS are loving the flow though which is all I was worried about. It is a lot of flow but, like the Koralia, the flow is really nice and diffuse. What is different between the Nanostreams and the Koralia seems to be the shape of the flow. The nanostreams just get flow EVERYWHERE around then while the Koralia seem to be more direct in front of it.

 

What is crazy is that some people mod their Nanostreams and get them to push out +1000 gph per pump!!!

 

I hear ya about mixing up the sand bed too much....that is what happened as a result of all of this yesterday. I definitely don't plan on stirring it up any more now.

[PodRod]

Same here Adam - I had a similar experience after installing my second nanostream but finally found the right angles for flow. No sandstorms and the SPS are in heaven! My turkey baster is an important piece of equipment for my tank. Heck, I've never basted a turkey, but I sure know how to use a baster!

 

Glad to hear you got it all worked out...

[divecj5]

Thanks Karen. I think that I have the angles just right now with both nanostreams....took me another 15-20 minutes worth of fiddling around with them yesterday again. They are both pointed a little more at the surface than I would have liked but all of the corals seem to still be really happy so that's all that matters to me.

 

I hear ya about the baster....it is definitely one of the cheapest reefing purchases and probably most used tool behind some long tongs.

[diggman08]

glad you got the nano's set right.... dude i just bought a 36wt dual current usa light setup for my Pico.. (in classifieds). it looks just like our sunpods but only 12" long.. its got dual daylight/actinics and white Moonlights.. i cant wait to get it... big upgrade from the 13wtt single clamp on eeyhh.. i think the stock clamp on may be the TICKET for my Fuge light on the BC.. clamp i right on the 3rd chamber wall