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MedRed's 60 Gal Solana XL: The End of an Era


MedRed

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Holy update! But I'm glad everything sounds well. Can't wait to see what addition you think of to complete the fishy family. A Pygmy wrasse of some sort perhaps?

 

More pics too please :D

 

Ha ha... Thanks paigee. I had a pygmy wrasse and adored him. He disappeared after awhile and I have no idea what caused his demise. I'd like to get something more colorful, but most of the wrasses are get too big for the scale of my tank.

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Nice update MR. I've been battling algae as well. It just sucks to be honest. My next tank will be nothing but dead rock and all corals will be fresh cuts and dipped or quarantined for 6 weeks. I have/had bubble algae, green hair algae, hairy crab, bryprosis, bristle worms, and a strawberry anemone. :rant: I really wish I had a tank with a sump so that I could have more options to try and control my nutrients. And I do this hobby why? :lol:

 

BTW, are you in need of a bright purple or neon green monti cap?

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Nice update MR. I've been battling algae as well. It just sucks to be honest. My next tank will be nothing but dead rock and all corals will be fresh cuts and dipped or quarantined for 6 weeks. I have/had bubble algae, green hair algae, hairy crab, bryprosis, bristle worms, and a strawberry anemone. :rant: I really wish I had a tank with a sump so that I could have more options to try and control my nutrients. And I do this hobby why? :lol:

 

BTW, are you in need of a bright purple or neon green monti cap?

 

I feel for you and your algae woes. I beat Bryopsis with lettuce slugs and kent tech m. Red turf algae with tuxedo urchins, dinoflagellates with the removal of my harlequin shrimp and water changes, caulerpa on my dendro frags with multiple full peroxide dips,and bubble algae with relentless manual removal and emerald crabs. The one algae I did want was coralline, but I had to eliminate my asterinas first and get to the point of not needing urchins.

 

In addition to these pest algaes and I have had colonial hydroids on a zoa frag, coralline eating asterinas, red flatworms. I've never had an aiptasia though.

 

I started with dry rock and dip everything. Quarantine frags would be smart but it doesn't take much ignite a hostile take over one in the DT. Sometimes you just have to deal with the pests. I would love a nice monticap but I have no place that can accomodate the shade it will ultimately create. Thanks yhough

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Your tank is definitely one of my inspirations for my tank.

How are the Candy basslets?

 

That's awesome! They are doing well. They recognize me as the source of food yet I'm not to be trusted. They get chased by the female clown but are too fast for her to do any damage.

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Jessy-Ray

Happy to hear everything is on the up and up. I really love your tank, I love your scape so much i tried to emulate it in my own tank (unsuccessful). Keep the updates and pics coming!.

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Im glad to hear everything is going well.

I have a bryopsis issues as well, how did the lettuce slug play with your other livestock?

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That's great! We need moar pichers tho :P

 

ha ha... soon!

 

Happy to hear everything is on the up and up. I really love your tank, I love your scape so much i tried to emulate it in my own tank (unsuccessful). Keep the updates and pics coming!.

 

Thank you Jessy-Ray!

 

Im glad to hear everything is going well.

I have a bryopsis issues as well, how did the lettuce slug play with your other livestock?

 

There were no issues other than they would let go of the rock they were on and sometimes drift into my dendros. I rescued them when I saw it. Sometimes I had to place them on the patches of bryopsis. The Lettuce slugs managed the bryopsis, but the Kent Tech M is what eradicated it. I actually use Kent Tech M in my dosing pump now instead of the cheap magnesium mixture.

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Does that help with all algae or just bryprosis? What level did you raise your Mg up to in order to get the algae to die off? Thanks.

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Does that help with all algae or just bryprosis? What level did you raise your Mg up to in order to get the algae to die off? Thanks.

 

Just bryopsis. The general understanding is that some impurity in it kills bryopsis. I don't remember what level I raised it to. The general rule of thumb is 1600 ppm, but it is relative to your starting point. Raising from 1200 to 1600 means a lot more Tech M is used than going from 1400 to 1600. Once you reach the threshold it usually dies off within a week or two.

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Just bryopsis. The general understanding is that some impurity in it kills bryopsis. I don't remember what level I raised it to. The general rule of thumb is 1600 ppm, but it is relative to your starting point. Raising from 1200 to 1600 means a lot more Tech M is used than going from 1400 to 1600. Once you reach the threshold it usually dies off within a week or two.

I stay at 1350, so that shouldn't be too hard. I'll give it a try, can't hurt. Thanks.

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I stay at 1350, so that shouldn't be too hard. I'll give it a try, can't hurt. Thanks.

 

It has worked for me in two separate tanks.

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It has worked for me in two separate tanks.

For some reason I thought that stuff was expensive. Maybe I was mistaking it for 2 part. I currently use the Seachem stuff and it's a pain to make dissolve all the way in RO. I make just switch over to this completely.

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I buy the gallon size and fill up my mag container for my doser with it.

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/Kent_Marine_Tec...IADMILS-vi.html

 

After getting rid of my bryopsis, I started dosing 16 mls a day to maintain. I'm under 1600 ppm now and no byropsis. A gallon jug or maintenance should last me around 200 days accounting for some evap from the dosing container since it's not sealed.

 

oh yeah... high levels of mg can affect your snails.

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Vivid only has brightwell. Do you think it'd work the same?

 

It has to be Kent Tech M. It's the only one that contains whatever impurity that kills bryopsis. If they ordered it today they might get it by tomorrow.

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Spirofucci

Nice update MR! Glad to hear you beat the algae.

 

What about a Midas in there? Coolest fish ever.

 

Patiently waiting for pics, :)

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The conundrum: I'm seriously thinking of adding a couple of reactors for GAC and GFO. I currently run Purigen and Chemipure Elite in the filter sock. I'm changing this media so often that other than the cost of the reactors, the media would cost me less in the long run... although I still may use purigen. I'm worried about throwing the tank off balance or making it too clean. I wouldn't want my NPS and filter feeders to suffer from a reduction in the foods they eat stemming from a reduction in nutrients. I'm waiting on this as don't want to inhibit my new coralline growth and I'm assuming that having a coralline will further drive down available nutrients.

 

Lastly, I'm still debating getting a chiller and a controller.

What is GAC?

How often are you changing the CPE and Purigen and why so often, their usage life is quite a bit?

Are you running a skimmer? If you are and are worried about the nutrient level when you make the change to reactors, you could take the skimmer offline for a while to balance out the dirty in the tank. If you don't have a skimmer I'm clueless. Feeding more is never a good idea especially given your algae issues.

 

My vote would be a controller first. I have a fan that is blowing on the tank and being controlled by my Apex along with the heater. As of right now I have no need for a chiller. Here is the fan:

1309fbdc-3645-4309-9067-14a1134261c1_300.jpg

but any will do.

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Nice update MR! Glad to hear you beat the algae.

 

What about a Midas in there? Coolest fish ever.

 

Patiently waiting for pics, :)

 

Thanks Spiro! I already have a blenny, so I wouldn't want them to fight!

 

What is GAC?

How often are you changing the CPE and Purigen and why so often, their usage life is quite a bit?

Are you running a skimmer? If you are and are worried about the nutrient level when you make the change to reactors, you could take the skimmer offline for a while to balance out the dirty in the tank. If you don't have a skimmer I'm clueless. Feeding more is never a good idea especially given your algae issues.

 

My vote would be a controller first. I have a fan that is blowing on the tank and being controlled by my Apex along with the heater. As of right now I have no need for a chiller. Here is the fan:

1309fbdc-3645-4309-9067-14a1134261c1_300.jpg

but any will do.

 

I'm changing them once a month at this point. The Chemi Pure doesn't last all that long, Purigen does, but it's $10 for a new one. I am running a skimmer. I still need to use it as long as I'm running the biopellets. I'm thinking I'm going to hold off on the other reactors until my coralline gets a good head start. I currently have a fan blowing over the sump. It has helped for sure. So far I don't need a chiller, but it would make life easier.

 

just guessing but maybe its granulated activated carbon?

 

yes!

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I'm changing them once a month at this point. The Chemi Pure doesn't last all that long, Purigen does, but it's $10 for a new one. I am running a skimmer. I still need to use it as long as I'm running the biopellets. I'm thinking I'm going to hold off on the other reactors until my coralline gets a good head start. I currently have a fan blowing over the sump. It has helped for sure. So far I don't need a chiller, but it would make life easier.

CPE's site says it Lasts up to 4 months.

What would make it exhaust quicker? Phosphates? How are you testing and what are you testing which points to it being exhausted before its time?

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CPE's site says it Lasts up to 4 months.

What would make it exhaust quicker? Phosphates? How are you testing and what are you testing which points to it being exhausted before its time?

 

 

I'm not testing for phosphates, but I don't know if the amount of gfo in chemipure is enough to last for any amount of time in a tank my size. The carbon would for sure be exhausted in a month IMO. I haven't tested for phosphates and nitrates in a long time.

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