Rizakaniza's Cadlights 39g Pro Build Thread

[rizakaniza]

wow. you sure it's not broken?

A little off topic, but how long after setting up the BRS Reactor should I start seeing the algae die off? I have noticed that there is no new growth, but I kinda thought the old stuff wold start falling off the walls per se.

 

Also, I think you have the Dual BRS, right? I wonder if it would be worth it for me to mix carbon with my GFO or just drop a bag of Chemipure in there...

 

....Well, something really good came out of sticking "Hitch" in my sump overnight. He ate all the Grape Caulerpa!!! Yay, clean as a whistle. Somehow my LFS had sold me Grape Caulerpa and it has been a freaking nightmare. If even a tiny piece breaks off it spreads. I have almost completely irradicated it from my tank.

[Deleted User 6]

i have the single. and it's not a silver bullet for algae. you still need to track your nitrate and phosphate levels, keep up with your water changes, don't overfeed or overstock, etc, etc.

[rizakaniza]

i have the single. and it's not a silver bullet for algae. you still need to track your nitrate and phosphate levels, keep up with your water changes, don't overfeed or overstock, etc, etc.

The reason why I thought this was because I have done 2 water changes in the last month as well as having done a major cleaning of my sump of all detritus including having added a filter sock. I figured that having done all of that plus adding the reactor that all the algae would die off n a few days. At this point I really want to get all my params in a good range. My tests have indicated 0 Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates. I have assumed high phosphates, because of all the algae growth (cyano, GHA, Bubble algae, etc.). I'm not quite sure what else to do at this point with all that I have done, but still seeing algae.

[rizakaniza]

BTW, I paid $125 for the chiller. I think it needs a recharge though, which is no prob. It's been working fairly well, though, so far.

 

Today I took my wife to my new favorite fish store in Redondo beach, "Aquatic Fantasy." She fell in love woith a Marble Sea Star that we "had to buy." I'll be up another 2 hours acclimating it tonight...

[rizakaniza]

Here are a few pics of the chiller setup. I have the powerhead pulling water out of the return section of the sump and pumping into the skimmer section. I am currently keeping the tank between 78 and 79 degrees as averse to 78-81 degrees. I setup the fan to come on at 79.5 in case the chiller stops doing its job. There was a huge noticeable difference in overall coralline coloring since hooking up the Phosphate Reactor. All the colors are very, very deep and vibrant now. Even my neighbor who only comes by from time to time noticed a major difference in the colors. Lastly, I individually fed each polyp of war coral a single frozen mysis shrimp. It looks quite puffy and happy now. AFter all the lights went out I used a turkey baster and sprayed my superman montipora with phytoplankton mixed with saltwater. I was amazed to see the base almost immediately turn a dark color and the heads glow in orange (under the moon lights.) I showed my wife and she agreed that I was not crazy; the base went from red to a very dark shade of black/blue. I assume that means he's happy! I tried to take pics, but my camera is just not able to pull off any good pics in the dark.

 

 

 

[rizakaniza]

Just wanted to give a quick update. My chiller has been working fantastic. The tank temp has stayed beetween 78 and 79. I decided to keep the cad cooling fan hooked up and set to come on at 79.5 "just in case." I decided that I will also be purchasing a backup heater very, very soon. Both of my new corals are thriving. The base of the montipora has been steadily coloring up a darker color. At night the little heads glow bright orange under the moonlights. I have been hand feeding the War Coral mysis shrimp every 2-3 days. They are looking fairly plump already. I already see a new polyp forming. Maybe within a month or so they will begin growing onto the rock the frag is sitting on. Today I added some Red Leg Hermit crabs to take care of the remaining hair algae that grew on my rocks over the last few months. Since adding the reactor and sticking with bi-weekly water changes my coraline has been exploding in growth and color. Also, algae growth has come down significantly. I recognized that part of the algae issue was the simple fact that my CUC was not really up to par. We'll see what it looks like in a month or two. Lastly, the new starfish is doing wonderfully. That 3 hour acclimation really paid off.

[rizakaniza]

Just installed the new Phoenix 14k bulb. We'll see how it looks in the morning.

[rizakaniza]

The new bulb is definitely brighter! And definitely bluer. As a side note, my corals are doing wonderful. The {war} Coral is forming a new polyp and the Superman Montipora is really coloring up nicely. I thought these took a while to color up, but I'm being suprised every day.

[timdanger]

The new bulb is definitely brighter! And definitely bluer. As a side note, my corals are doing wonderful. The Coral is forming a new polyp and the Superman Montipora is really coloring up nicely. I thought these took a while to color up, but I'm being suprised every day.

 

i've been going back and forth on phoenix vs. radium vs. something else -- i don't want something that's going to end up with a "windex" or "washed-out" look with reduced color differentiation between shades of purple/blue/green/orange/etc. that seems to be the biggest challenge with the phoenix. i guess you'll still need to let it break in fora while before being able to tell what it's going to do for you, but i'd be interested in hearing your impressions.

[rizakaniza]

Went to the MAX Expo with my wife today expecting only to buy some dendro, but came back instead with...

 

...4 frags of Zoa's

...1 small frag of Blastomusa

...1 small frag of frogspawn

...1 medium frag of green acropora

...and 1.5 heads of dendro

 

 

Pics will come as things begin opening up...

[rizakaniza]

Here are some nappy pics from my Olympus FE-340 of my new corals from he MAX Expo. This is under my old actinic bulbs (yes, it's definitely time for replacement...)

 

 

By the way, if any of you know the names of anything yo see here, please let me know.

 

Here's my favorite helper of the tank making sure no nasties come off our Acro. Paid $30 for this (my memory is fading).

 

Paid $15 for these.

 

These are actually a sort of vibrant sunflower seed looking yellow color. Paid $10 for these.

 

Notice the small bud coming out the right side. Got this whole thing for only $25!

 

These haven't fully opened yet, but they are a crazy electric/neon orange. Paid $10 for these.

 

Frogspawn. Paid $15 for this!

[rizakaniza]

My mistake...the Dendro Frag has one large head and two new small ones on the left and the right side for a total of three heads! Woohoo!

 

I noticed some aiptasia on the frag of sunflower looking zoas! I'm off to get me a syringe so I can juice it with some lemon. Also, I'm going to pickup some Rod's Food today. I've heard so much good stuff about it. I did try to feed my large Dendro head with some Marine Pellets, but it was a no-go. Strangely enough, though, one of the tiny new heads grabbed a pellet and swallowed it somehow. Very suprising.

 

Also, though the Frog' Spawn was looking quite deflated this morning, it has perked up quite a bit. I have yet to secure anything to the rocks with superglue, except the Dendro. I'm having a rough time deciding where to place everything. The acro is on my top priority list to glue down as it's so heavy. Also, I need to decide where to permanently place my superman Montipora. found him upside-down in the sand twice in the last three days. Despite this, there is very clear blue coloration happening. WHat a hardy coral!

[rizakaniza]

Today I visited Socal Tropical Fish store out in Fullerton, ca. Apart from the fact that all the tanks were infected with bubble algae and aiptasia, they had some real quality merchandise that I have not seen anywhere else (except online). I bought a large package of Rod's Food Original blend, an Elos KH test kit, and some "Blue Life Aiptasia Control."

 

The Aiptasia Control was probably a better choice than the syringe, because the aiptasis was kinda small. It is a sort of Kalk fluid that you squirt out of a plastic syringe (no metal needle) and the fluid dribbles out kinda like wet chalk. We'll know by tomorrow if it worked or not.

[timdanger]

Today I visited Socal Tropical Fish store out in Fullerton, ca. Apart from the fact that all the tanks were infected with bubble algae and aiptasia, they had some real quality merchandise that I have not seen anywhere else (except online). I bought a large package of Rod's Food Original blend, an Elos KH test kit, and some "Blue Life Aiptasia Control."

 

The Aiptasia Control was probably a better choice than the syringe, because the aiptasis was kinda small. It is a sort of Kalk fluid that you squirt out of a plastic syringe (no metal needle) and the fluid dribbles out kinda like wet chalk. We'll know by tomorrow if it worked or not.

 

i've had good luck with aiptasia control with my peppermint shrimp. 100% effective (and, not bothering my frogspawn because i'm trying to keep the tank well-fed).

[rizakaniza]

Experienced some excitement last night and this morning. Firstly, My large Dendro head decided to put a good scare into me. It seems to have regurgitated his food and then went completely limp. I thought it was a gonner. So, I prayed that God wouldn't let him die. Then this morning I fed the tank some Rod's Food. I fed the Dendro a chunk of shrimp and it ate it and then has been perky all morning. Actually the entire tank looks very happy after feeding Rod's Food.

 

The second bit of excitement came as I realized the waterfall sound completely disappeared. I took a peak in the overflow and noticed the water level was running above the overflow openings. The water level in the display increased by an inch or so with not much space between the water and overflowing the display. So, after some annoyed hesitation, I shut off the pumps, syphoned the remaining water out of the overflow, and pulled the durso out of the overflow. Guess what I found? The durso had gotten all clogged up with all sorts of goodies. I cleaned it up and reinstalled everything. It's all runnin wonderfully now. Except, the waterfall sound is back again....grrrrrr

 

All-in-all it's been an excitied 24hrs.

[rizakaniza]

...arggghhh...the incessant clicking in my tank really drives me bonkers some days...

 

...I still don't know what's making it!

[timdanger]

So, after some annoyed hesitation, I shut off the pumps, syphoned the remaining water out of the overflow, and pulled the durso out of the overflow. Guess what I found? The durso had gotten all clogged up with all sorts of goodies. I cleaned it up and reinstalled everything. It's all runnin wonderfully now. Except, the waterfall sound is back again....grrrrrr

 

one of the downsides of the post-reactor-installation algae die-off, eh?

[rizakaniza]

one of the downsides of the post-reactor-installation algae die-off, eh?

Oh, good call! That's probably true; wonder why I didn't think of that.

 

In fact, the Chaeto in my sump has not grown at all since installing the Reactor. Normally I would have had to cut it down twice in this time period. Strangely enough, though, there is a persistent brown algae that has been growing on the glass as the week goes on. I don't know how, though, because as of last nigh my parameters were as follows (keeping in mind that I also added 8 coral frags in the last 48 hours):

 

Salinity: 1.026

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Phosphate: 0

PH: 8.2

Total Alk: 3.5 meq

KH: 8

 

That's right boys, read 'em and weep!

[rizakaniza]

Just had my parameters checked at the LFS and all checks out.

 

Only problem is Ca is 320

 

...time for a water change...

 

[Picked up a Ca Test Kit by API]

[timdanger]

Oh, good call! That's probably true; wonder why I didn't think of that.

 

In fact, the Chaeto in my sump has not grown at all since installing the Reactor. Normally I would have had to cut it down twice in this time period. Strangely enough, though, there is a persistent brown algae that has been growing on the glass as the week goes on. I don't know how, though, because as of last nigh my parameters were as follows (keeping in mind that I also added 8 coral frags in the last 48 hours):

 

Salinity: 1.026

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Phosphate: 0

PH: 8.2

Total Alk: 3.5 meq

KH: 8

 

That's right boys, read 'em and weep!

 

 

well, i've never had any detectable nitrates or phosphates, and although my hair algae is much much better lately, i still grow a ton of chaeto (and now that crazy pink cotton candy algae) in my sump. display stays relatively clear. glass still gets some film algae on it, and i do still have hair algae. so, parameters are one thing, but i think the phosphate reactor is key.

 

i am going to get a BRS reactor (hopefully the dual one so i can run carbon too) when the nano-reef group buy comes around at the end of the month.

[rizakaniza]

well, i've never had any detectable nitrates or phosphates, and although my hair algae is much much better lately, i still grow a ton of chaeto (and now that crazy pink cotton candy algae) in my sump. display stays relatively clear. glass still gets some film algae on it, and i do still have hair algae. so, parameters are one thing, but i think the phosphate reactor is key.

 

i am going to get a BRS reactor (hopefully the dual one so i can run carbon too) when the nano-reef group buy comes around at the end of the month.

 

BTW, I wanted to mention that to you. Now that I realize I have enough room, I would recommend getting the Dual Reactor. If I could do it over again...

 

...who knows, maybe in the future I will just swap it out with a dual...

 

...maybe after I upgrade my skimmer though

[rizakaniza]

RUSTY FLATWORMS!!!

[rizakaniza]

flatworms everywhere! And noone has Flatworm Exit in stock where I'm at!!!

[Rehype]

Are they the large or small variety?

[rizakaniza]

Unfortunately they are the rusty brown kind. Not sure how to tell if they are large or small though. I'll be picking up some FWe from marinedepot tomorrow. Luckily they aren't too far of a drive from me. Then, I've prepared 10 gallons of salt water for a massive water change. As well as that I will have a massive amount of carbon ready. If need be, I will swap out the gfo I have in my reactor with carbon. I'm taking these guys out!

 

 

 

On a side note...and a sad note as well. I woke up to some chemical warfare this morning. I hadn't yet glued any of my frags down and I found my acropora lying on top of my dendro. Not wuite sure yet, but my big head may be a gomer. It was half white and covered in stringy stuff. The acro was oozing stringy stuff half the day. Also, something knocked my superman monti upside down in the sand for the 5th time. So, I glued these 2 frags down using some glue I got at the MAX Expo and some putty. The monti is looking okey, though it seems to have some dead spots. The acro finally stopped oozing and is in recovery mode. It's probably goodd that I wait until tomorrow to do the FWE due to this stress.

 

Lastly, I took some time to stir up my sand bed. I actually measured it at roughly 1.5- 2 inches all around. After a good stirring it' looking a lot cleaner.