Friar's Pico

[friar1]

And yes,

even more coraline showing up on the tank sides. Too bad it's acrylic !

 

Next time for sure, glass!

 

Friar

[friar1]

September FTS,

 

Algae still a problem

 

Now dosing 1.75 ml each part of C-Balance every morning before lights on. Coralline beginning to show up on rocks now.

 

[.Newman.]

if all else fails, add an emerald crab lol

[friar1]

Hello Newman

 

I have thought about that. Actually I was thinking about a red mithrax, but I understand those crabs pick at corals.

 

Still not sure what to do.

 

Friar

[friar1]

But I will not give up on my tank!

[.Newman.]

og course you should not give up on your tank. and yes emerald mythrax and red mythrax will pick on corals. in fact you should not see a rotting polyp of anything around your tank if youre keeping those crabs because they are great janitors/gardeners and will trim your coals xD

[brandon429]

the no1 thing I would do is simply drain the tank, run the blue jet lighter over every surface for a quick zap while the water level is down, wipe it all off with a paper towel, fill up tank by pouring water directly over the burn parts, then drain and fill one more time after completion because the first refill will carry mess into the water.

 

Don't worry about burning all the algae first round, just get 90% on first pass. Do the same in a couple days and it will be gone except for very tiny manageable areas the animals might have a chance of mowing. The cool thing is the process can take as little or as long as you like, either way is fine. Its just nice to know that if you want it all gone 100% in a week that can happen too...then, rely on the animals and increased feed coupling/water change attention to reduce the comeback.

 

handling the comeback and the current will be too much for any normal stocking of reef grazers...you know me guys Im a zapper and I say cook em book em

don't get the flame right up to the corals so you don't have to build deflector pads, just a good general swath of fire and you are fresh-starting by the weekend lol

B

[.Newman.]

friar, your big ricordea florida has such strange tentacle extension, that I think it may be a mini nem or maxi mini nem.

check out some of these nems for sale, and compare what you have with some of the nems here: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t=0&start=0

 

B7, B9, and B2 are particularly what I have in mind.

[c_k_kuehne]

you know me guys Im a zapper and I say cook em book em

 

A Man that thinks like me

[brandon429]

but it will also make you reef ocd you'll zap everything when you realize you have total control over your life rock communities at all times

 

it will look like drug paraphernalia around your pico (honestly ma the hemostats and jet flame lighter are for good, really)

 

Let the Bernzomatic (google images) grill lighter be forthwith known as the pico reefers most handy anti algae tool until a laser-fixed external tank bleaching tool is created.

[friar1]

friar, your big ricordea florida has such strange tentacle extension, that I think it may be a mini nem or maxi mini nem.

check out some of these nems for sale, and compare what you have with some of the nems here: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t=0&start=0

 

B7, B9, and B2 are particularly what I have in mind.

 

 

Hi Newman, checked out the pics, don't think it's a nem. My ric has a definite ric mouth, something i don't see on the nems pictured. I think the tentacle extension is because low light in that area. When i turn on the RB LED's the thing shrinks up a little and looks a lot more like a ric. but I see where I might be confused. Could be a nem, but I don't think so.

[friar1]

but it will also make you reef ocd you'll zap everything when you realize you have total control over your life rock communities at all times

 

it will look like drug paraphernalia around your pico (honestly ma the hemostats and jet flame lighter are for good, really)

 

Let the Bernzomatic (google images) grill lighter be forthwith known as the pico reefers most handy anti algae tool until a laser-fixed external tank bleaching tool is created.

 

Hi brandon,

Honestly, I really do want to do just that, but, Just don't have the guts to yet. I have that brittle star in there and it's hard to get it away from the underside of the rocks to take them out, or maybe I am just being lazy.

Seriously, I was able to burn a lot of the algae off this time, even nailed the side of the acrylic tank

 

You are right though about the CUC cleaning up after a flame pass. Every time I burn some algae, the Hermit just starts going around cleaning up around the areas I had the flame at. It's almost as if it is lazy and waits for me to tackle the big stuff for him ;0)

 

In any case, I am also thinking seriously about just putting in some Chemi Pure Elite in the in tank filter. after I get a new air pump for the thing. The old air pump is dying. It really appears I have a phosphate problem, since I am beginning to get Cyano on the sandbed as well. Something I have had to siphon out every water change in the last two weeks, though not a nuisance yet.

 

Maybe when it cools off a little, I will take out the rocks one by one and put them in a bucket of salt water with a good pump in it after I burn the algae. Then I can re-scape a little, though that might disqualify me from the contest.

 

Friar

[.Newman.]

i dont think rescaping will disqualify you. thats if you added new livestock or new equipment, that will disqualify you. but check with c_k just in case.

 

I was just saying that the maxi mini nems in those pics looked similar to your ric.

dont you have any chaeto in that tank? the chaeto should be helping to soak up the nitrate and phosphate. I recently removed the chemi pure elite media from my fuge(cuz i think its absorbing most of my dosing of trace elements) and I am experimenting whether cheato can handle the tank all on its own w/o help of chemical media of course then comes the problem of eliminating toxic slime and chemicals secreted by the corals....i guess chemical media is a must for that, but so far my corals have been looking ok.

 

of course BBQ algae is much more tasty to your hermit than tough and stringy live algae

[c_k_kuehne]

Yea well I took out a plug of zoa's and with a tooth brush scrubbed them clean last night. I was as gentle as possible with an old tooth brush -- but I did scrub. They are starting to come back out tonight. Did this to 2 frag plugs of zoa's

 

Don't be scared -- torch or scrub away

[friar1]

of course BBQ algae is much more tasty to your hermit than tough and stringy live algae

 

 

:lol:

 

i dont think rescaping will disqualify you. thats if you added new livestock or new equipment, that will disqualify you. but check with c_k just in case.

 

I was just saying that the maxi mini nems in those pics looked similar to your ric.

dont you have any chaeto in that tank? the chaeto should be helping to soak up the nitrate and phosphate. I recently removed the chemi pure elite media from my fuge(cuz i think its absorbing most of my dosing of trace elements) and I am experimenting whether cheato can handle the tank all on its own w/o help of chemical media of course then comes the problem of eliminating toxic slime and chemicals secreted by the corals....i guess chemical media is a must for that, but so far my corals have been looking ok.

 

of course BBQ algae is much more tasty to your hermit than tough and stringy live algae

 

 

Yes I was thinking about chaeto too. I can only do one or the other, either Chemi-Pure or chaeto.

 

 

pffft!

 

 

 

Friar

 

Oh wait a minute! I don't have to put chaeto in a fuge (Don't have a fuge ), I can just throw some in the tank right?

 

Still a nooooooob

 

 

Friar

[.Newman.]

yes lol you can put it in the tank. i thought you already had a fuge going...apparently i was wrong, it should help your tank.

[brandon429]

Friar!!

 

Buddy I had a mindsqueeze just now. newman reminded me our capfulls are standard 5 mils, I think you once told me that but for some reason I missed it I kept thinking 2 mils was a capfull. Im adding about 4 mils each time I dose, to a gallon, you could still be 50% underdosing or close to it.

 

The label descriptions of c balance are not the upper limits of usage, instead of mon/wed/fri dosing I moved to full time dosing daily and splitting up the dosers a day apart. I dose my reef daily with about 4 mils of one solution, then 4 mils next morning of the other etc such that I pretty much dose every day of the week.

 

 

if you add that up, and extrapolate that to potential dosing in the 3 gallon tank I get:

28 mils per week per gallon, 14 mils per gallon of each doser per week

x3gallons=42 mils weekly individual, 84 mils weekly combined dosers

this is all dependent on one cap being 5 mils* (milliliter)

>6mils of a single doser, alternating mornings, exactly what I do in my vase = turbo 3 gallon

 

sick huh

[.Newman.]

h/o, friar's is a 1.5 gal tank so it would be half that...unless youre talking about your own 3 gal, brandon, and im missing the picture xD

[brandon429]

at 1.5 gallons he's just a step up in mil's from my max dosage but my max dosage is still pretty high even for his slightly larger tank, it has less command of the ions...

 

I typed all that yak to arrive at the great dose of one capfull each time c balance when being used in a 3 gallon tank either by the m w f schedule or the alternating doser per day schedule. I don't have a 3 gallon you know this lol it was just pico math hopefully not gone awry

[.Newman.]

right, the new daily dosing is also an interesting option. I know that I will do the m w f approach with my tank .

[friar1]

Brandon, Newman.

 

I have 3 ml syringes, one for each part. I have moved from 1.5 ml each part, ten minutes apart, daily to 1.75 ml each part daily.

 

It looks like it is still going ok, there is some coralline on the rocks but very little still. Not growing fast. I will wait a week and move to 2ml each part daily if I feel the need. Want to take it slow so as to not to have problems.

 

Friar

[brandon429]

just to save me from having to go back and edit 15 posts would you help me one more time by verifying how many mls is in a full c balance cap? you may have already told me but I have to delete my pms monthly or they get full. the reason I was asking is because maybe on the gallon c balance editions the caps are larger, that could be a problem, or on the 16 oz ones maybe the caps are smaller than the industry standard 5 ml. must know thank you so much!! this will help me speak less in capfulls and more in mls for you scientific types

[friar1]

Hi Brandon:

 

A cap full, filled to the brim from the 16oz bottle, is about 6ml

 

Friar

[brandon429]

duly noted thanks Sir~

[.Newman.]

if its the same size as most other additives (i dont have my C balance yet so idk yet) then it should be 5 mL, not filled to the brim, but comfortably filled to near-full capacity so that you dont spill while youre holding or moving the full cap. thats 5mL. im sure you can stuff 6mL in there too. I used a 1mL syringe to test this (with a standard additive cap)