Byrdman's 40 Breeder

[Byrdman]

It's the bulb you forgot that i'm curious about...lol

 

I'm running 4 ATI B+ / Fiji Purple and a GE 6500.

Looks ok but a bit washed out, imo. I have several "slightly used" bulbs that i'll be switching around till i find the combo i like.

 

nice tank / setup...btw

 

Thanks. The last bulb is an ati purple plus. I'll take pics when they come in next week

[Byrdman]

My new bulbs just came in today. I will install them tomorrow and take some pics of the tank then. Two clowns seem to be doing fine except they took to the back corner of the tank and it's hard o feed them lol. I have added some coral from my 20 cause they were looming really bad in there because I have neglected that tank for a while since messing with this breeder. Hopefully they turn around in here but with this tank being young they may not. Pics to come tomorrow.

[Byrdman]

Here are a couple pics I took very quickly with my iphone. I have moved the two clowns from my 20 into this tank. As of now they just hang out in the back corner at the bottom under a rock ledge and only come out to eat. Still trying to get my midas blenny out but the damn fish goes into a hole in the LR when i stick the net in there lol.

NEW BULBS

OLD BULBS

 

Acan I got as three heads free from a MR Coral purchase. This thing has really growing.

 

I do have my little SPS frags in there from the 20 also in hopes they recover from my lack of care in the 20. The lights are stronger on this tank than the last so I am getting them accustomed to the lights then I will take some pics of them also.

[Byrdman]

Meh before I decided to go to bed I finished up my net top so I can rest with ease and dont have to worry about the fish jumping out now. Here is a pic of it.

 

[Byrdman]

Well I finally caught the midas blenny and got him in his new home. After about a day or two he has got him self three of four holes in the LR he comes and goes between them. Now the wife and I are trying to decide on the rest of the livestock. She wants a flame angel but I told her I cant risk it trying to nip at corals down the road.

As far as corals go a couple SPS frags that were looking bad in my 20L from neglect took the plung in the 40 also. I figured this would happen being the tank is so new but I figured I had nothing to loose. The other three or four along with the duncan and acan seem to be doing ok. I am going to wait a month or two or three before adding any more I believe or at least wait until the ones in there now stabilize and start growing. When its time to buy I'm torn between the 10 section at mr coral or getting some of the good deals off DD in the maricultured section. Some pieces are 30-50 for 3-5 in pieces. This way it would give my tank a little something to stare at instead of the little 3/4-1 in sticks. So far I love the flow that the mp40 has given me. Its about 75% in RCM and it seems to be about the right setting and doesnt blow the sand up at all.

I also done a 5 gallon water change yesterday with the Tropic Marine Bio Actif. I was impressed with the mixing as I had read that alot of people had problems with it being cloudy for up to periods of 48hrs. Mine seem to clear up withing 10-20 min after in the mixing bucket with a K3 ph. The parameters were all ideal with the exception of Mg coming in at 1100. alk was 8.0 and CA was 415. Those two numbers are roughly were I plan on keeping the levels with a Mg level of around 1250-1300.

I also have one other small problem that I have solved for now but dont like how its fixed and would like some input. My DT had alot of microbubbles that are coming from the output tube of my skimmer. At first I believed it to be from the drain line and stuck a filter sock over it and the problem persisted. After taking a closer look I saw how many bubble were exiting the skimmer so I placed the sock over this tube. My DT cleared up in about 10 min or so. My skimmer is in the first section of my sump with the output tube releasing the water into the middle chamber then finally the last chamber is my return section. I wonder if I shortenend up the output tube to not go so far down in the water in the middle section would it solve the bubbles? Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

[Byrdman]

Went to lfs picked up a few snails and added sone snails from my 20 to help with diatom outbreak. Also picked up a flame angel and purple dottyback and placed them in 20 for qt purposes. Pics to come in a couple days.

[Byrdman]

Ok so I am extremely pissed at this point and not sure what I want to do with my problem. Some of you know that I moved my coral from my 20 to this 40 breeder. Well the other day I noticed algea on a frag that I brought from the other tank. I toon tweezers and yanked what I could off the frag. Well I guess( because I have no other idea where it coul came from) that this algae was byprosis. It has exploded all over my rockwork and on my glass. It's not real tall yet but it's everywhere!!!! Now I really wanna cry and just tear the tank down and blow this tank up I've put alot of work into getting this looking good. Nit sure what I need to do to get rid of this stuff help advice would be helpful before I throw in the white towel!!

[gutterguy]

Ok so I am extremely pissed at this point and not sure what I want to do with my problem. Some of you know that I moved my coral from my 20 to this 40 breeder. Well the other day I noticed algea on a frag that I brought from the other tank. I toon tweezers and yanked what I could off the frag. Well I guess( because I have no other idea where it coul came from) that this algae was byprosis. It has exploded all over my rockwork and on my glass. It's not real tall yet but it's everywhere!!!! Now I really wanna cry and just tear the tank down and blow this tank up I've put alot of work into getting this looking good. Nit sure what I need to do to get rid of this stuff help advice would be helpful before I throw in the white towel!!

 

Try raising your magnesium. I have had this in my 29 for a while and have been dosing with Kent M magnesium. Off the top of my head I cant remember what reading you want (i think 1300-1500). I was dosing daily and tested the first two days then once a week and it seem to disappear. Now I havent dosed in a while i see some in a diffent spot.

 

Also when removing by hand do not release any in the tank if possible, it spreads faster than gha

 

good luck

[Arkayology]

Bryopsis on glass? Are you sure? I have never seen it on glass (and am just starting to get over a nasty outbreak of it in my tank. Got a pic?

 

This stuff is REALLY hard to get rid of. It roots deep in your rocks and keeps coming back. You should start raising your Mg now and reducing your photoperiod. Make sure you manually remove this stuff as well when the Mg starts doing it's job.

 

I dosed Mg and vodka and bought an tuxedo urchin my my attempts to get rid of the stuff. Only now am I getting the upper hand (it has been a 4 month long fight) and I am not sure if it will ever totally go away.

[Byrdman]

Purple Dottyback.

 

Pics are taken on Iphone and arent very good. Flame angel is eating pellets and shrimp like a monster. He is constantly foraging for stuff on LR and things floating around in water column. The dotty back seems to just eat mysis and looks as if he snags some pods when he sees them. Ill monitor them for another week and if all seems well at that point I'll put them into the DT.

 

Ordered some tech M to combat the byropsis. People have been suggesting that it could be cause the tank is new although I have never had this problem before and haven't read much about this type of algea being present in new tanks. I tried to get pics of it on the glass but Its just small strands here and there in the diatom patches that are on my glass. I know it has to be byropis due to the feather like strand coming out of it. Follow ups to come later.

[Byrdman]

Well my phone doesn't capture how purple this garf bonsai is but I am just pumped at how much pe it has had over the past week or two even with all the crap going on in my tank in the pic you can see the byropsis growing in the rock work.

[Byrdman]

Most of the byropsis algae has gone except for some in the sand which is easily removed by siphoning. I saw something just now while watching my tank before the lights went out. There was a piece if byropsis algae floating around the water column and the Midas blenny swam up to it and ate it. He never spit it out, I watched him swim back to his perch and hang out. So now I have a blenny that eats byropsis lol. Also I got a frag pack coming from someone off RC. Pics to come when they come in. 

[gutterguy]

Hey Byrdman, congrats on ridding the alge, Hows that flame with picking at your corals, especially the sps. My wife has been buggin me to get one, but they make me nervous. Also I want to get some clams eventually.

 

Thanks

gg

[Byrdman]

Well I just have the four sps in there right now which I need to take pics of. The flame does pick at my green ponci every now and again. Here lately the pe hasn't been all that great. He is well fed I just think he thinks it's algae cause he is constantly picking at the rocks. If it gets worse or he picks at these new ones then he is gone. My wife is the reason I got the flame angel too. I'll keep ya posted on it

[Byrdman]

My frags were sent out to me tues and ups lost the box and had no idea where it went from the original destination. Luckily the box showed up this afternoon and amazingly it seems around 5-7 of the original ten frags made it. The guy I purchase them from is going out o his way an sending me replacements plus more since ups refunded him the shipping since they lost the package originally. I'll take some pics of the frags that made it in a day or two when they come around.

[gutterguy]

The horror stories of shipping around the holidays..at least they made it to you, good luck.

[Byrdman]

Yea I used to work at ups years ago and I know what kind or bulk is shipped this time of year. These last few days before Xmas are crazy lol

[Byrdman]

Took a couple pics of some frags I got that are settling in. I am amazed at what growth that has popped up on my garf since I took the first pic a few weeks ago. Here are a couple pics.

Screaming green birdsnest. 

Tubs birdsnest. 

More to come if I can get a decent pics. Frags that survived two day shipping are starting to color up too ten more frags coming tomorrow!!

[Byrdman]

Rest of my frags arrived today in good shape will take some pics of them over the next couple days. Reading info about mb7/vodka dosing I think im going to give this a try.

[Byrdman]

Well I am in the fourth day of doing mb7 seeding instructions. The cyano seems to be about 80% gone. I am also about to do a five gallon wc tonite or in the morning. I am also getting some ha in some spots too. Seems I am getting every type of algae u can get with this new tank. I think I am still going to go vodka dosing route after the second week of mb7 my mg is high now in hopes to rid the tank of the remaining byropsis. Would high mg be a bad idea while dosing vodka. My alk is 8 dkh and cal is 440.

Corals seem to be doing well I can see new growth on the frags I received. Got about six or seven more to place in their final spots here in the next week or two. Need to snap some pics if the frags even if they aren't very clear so I can keep track of growth shots.

[gutterguy]

More updates and pics.. I see your selling your mp40 for two mp10s. are you going to have them synced. Would love to see video of that!

[Byrdman]

My latest coral piece from LA ordered a speciosa acro also but damn thing died upon arrival. Other coral seems to be doing well. Only problem im having is getting dosage of two part right because of everything i have added. Going to get this tank stable before adding anything else.Will try to take some sort of fts and pics of frags here soon.

I have the two tens running now. Can u sync the non wireless versions. I tried to set up the master and slave pump today but they blinked the right colors but never reset to start the operation.

[Byrdman]

Double post

[gutterguy]

Sorry to hear about the coral. As far as the vortechs I don't think you can sync if they are not wireless, not sure though . This still has to be awesome flow in there, I have an mo20 and its a lot.

 

Good luck

GG

[Byrdman]

Yea I thought so to about them being non wireless. I'm still trying to figure out the best settings for each of them. One is constant now and other is on rcm.