Steely185's rimless 75 edge

[steely185]

I pretty much set it up like I did my breeder with the biopellets. I'm not too concerned about it. I've been feeding a lot of frozen so the water should be full of nutrients. I don't expect the pellets to strip the water clean before the bacteria fully colonize the pellets.

 

I plan on posting some pics to document growth I've seen lately. My birdsnest is exploding with growth and has at least double in size since I picked it up in August. The colors on my corals are really starting to get nice. I may move all my acans to my 20H to start to showcase them a little better. I just have to decide on if I want to keep them under par 30/38's or under halides/t5s (thinking of a cheap fixture like a fishneedit combo).

[Arkayology]

Sounds good man. Lots of stuff happening here. BTW, are you running gfo/carbon? Your thread is sorta messy from when you transfered tanks so I have a hard time finding these things

[steely185]

Yeah sorry about the mess. It was just easier than starting yet another thread. I have never run Carbon or GFO. I have occasionally dropped in a bag of chemi pure but not in close to a years time. This was part of the reason I decided to run biopellets again. I just want to run a clean ship this time and be able to feed heavily for the picky eaters like my copperband not to mention the corals.

[steely185]

Did some playing around with my camera and my 20H that I may make an Acan tank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

preview of adding a few acans

 

 

A few shots from the 75

August

December

 

 

 

[steely185]

test video that I did

 

[steely185]

I took a look at my biopellets tonight and they were slowing down a bit to where some were almost clumping. It was a real easy fix. I just turned the dial on the pump up by one notch and it got everything gently tumbling from top to bottom. I really like this reactor and it's super quiet. Can't wait for the benefits of biopellets to start kicking in on this tank.

[steely185]

I have been working a very small clean up crew in my tank for a while now. I've only had 5-6 hermits and 2-3 ceriths. I decided to beef up my crew and ordered a nice size clean up crew from reefcleaners.org today.

 

I ordered:

35 Assorted Hermits

2 Emerald/Ruby Mithrax Crab

60 Dwarf Cerith (always turns into ~100 or more based on previous orders)

24 Nassarius Vibex

22 Florida Cerith

11 Nerite Snails (Large)

18 Nerite Snails (Small - Medium)

 

I've been feeding frozen almost daily to make sure my butterfly stays fed. He eats but my female maroon has been aggressive with him since she started laying eggs. The result of feeding so much frozen has been a fair amount cyano/slime algae/small amount of hair algae and maybe some turf algae. I figure between the biopellets once they kick in gear in the next month or two and the clean up crew it should knock out my nutrient/algae issues. I may add a tang soon as well.

[steely185]

photo update after playing with some camera settings. video update to follow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a preview of my acan tank

 

[steely185]

[steely185]

I had my water tested today after about two weeks of calcium reactor usage. My Calcium tested at 500 and my kH came in at 8. Looks like all is well. This is running about a drop a second. I'm using the large ARM media and run everything on my APEX. The CO2 comes on at a reactor pH of 6.9 and shuts off at 6.5. It seems to be doing the trick. Colors have improved across the board as well as polyp extension. A few corals I set on the rocks two weeks ago have encrusted onto the rocks already. Cyano/slime on the rocks is started to reduce a bit as well. I think the biopellets are starting to do their thing. I've been adding MB7 every now and then to the sump to keep up the colonization of bacteria in the reactor.

[steely185]

Well I have got a few days off towards the end of the week. I plan on working on mounting a few frags somewhere. I may add a small branching island near the centre if I can make it flow. I still have to mount my red planet, birds of paradise and blue iris.

[animalmaster6]

The tank really is starting to look amazing. I love your giant gorgonian and that Setosa colony

[steely185]

Thanks Animal.

 

The gorgonian has been pretty hardy despite being non photosynthetic. I've been feeding frozen cyclopese every 2-3 days. I only wish I had more room for the gorgonian. I have some polyps that don't open because they are so close to the mp40 but it has stayed healthy.

 

I plan to mount some more frags this week and make another small branching rock structure for corals. I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out now. My clean up crew should also be here this thursday so that will be great.

[JR!]

this is making me want a bigger tank......o here we go

[steely185]

Here a few of my corals that have been getting their color back and a few to be mounted still

 

 

 

fiji leather, probably about 10" round

 

Blue Millie which is growing like crazy now, growing toward the light

 

 

Tricolor colony is getting it's nice deep color back again

 

 

Blue Iris

 

Red Planet getting it's green base back again

 

[steely185]

I'm glad I only have one maxi mini because it has got to be about 7" round. It's grown quite a bit since I got it and luckily hasn't dined on any fish. I'm looking for a porcelain crab to host the maxi.

 

I should be getting my custom clean up crew tomorrow. I will also probably do some rockwork and mount some frags in the tank to fill in some spots. I'm expecting a package from BRS on Friday. I've got some more loc line coming to add a second return line to the tank for some flow behind the rocks and on select corals. I've also got replacement media for my ro/di and some dry tonga branch rock (I miss getting the real stuff from back in the day). I will use that rock on my acan tank.

 

I'm going to keep my eye out for a nice tang (kole, tomini, or mimic lemon peel) to add to the tank in the next couple of days.

[animalmaster6]

I love that clam!

[steely185]

Thanks. I've added an ORA spotted mandarin today along with the cleanup crew. Haven't seen him since but I'm sure he's in hiding.

[steely185]

New resident in the tank

 

 

 

 

[Arkayology]

Nice addition to your tank. How did the reefcleaners order fair?

[steely185]

Everything turned out well with the order. The snails have been out and about the tank all day.

 

A few of my other projects got delayed today so I won't get to them just yet.

[steely185]

My new clean up crew has been very active at night. Hopefully they keep up the good work. I brought in reinforcements just in case. I purchased a ice 4-5" bristle tooth tomini tang today. He's the largest fish in the tank. He's very shy at the moment but he should help make short order of the algae. The tank is looking good. I'm very happy with the color of everything and growth lately. The bare spots on the overflow are also starting to get plenty of coralline algae growth thanks to the reactor.

[steely185]

I picked up a nice tomini tang this weekend. This is my first tang. He's about 5-6", fat and gorgeous. He's very shy with people around the tank but not around his tank mates. He's been eating plenty of algae on the rocks and glass. He has a few markings that look like he's scraped himself on a rock or may be developing a little bit of lateral line erosion. I'm going to keep an eye on this though. I'm hoping it's just stress from the move to a new home. I have plenty of variety of foods and nori (the julian sprung marketed type) to feed. I'm going to monitor it for a few days.

 

I've been feeding fairly heavy lately so I need to check my nitrates just to be sure. I may possibly do a water change. My pH has been running low lately as well due to the calcium reactor. It's been hovering in the 7.7-8.1 range during the day (dips to about 7.65 at night) even while adding kalk in the top off. I slowed the drip of the effluent to about 1 drop every 3-4 seconds to see if that will help increase the pH. I was running at a drop per 1-2 seconds. The reactor pH has been running between 6.5-6.9 (cuts off at 6.5 and back on at 6.9). I've been running about a bubble every 1-2 seconds for the CO2 when the solenoid is open. The last I tested the calcium it was high at 500 and a dKH of 8. I use the large ARM media. The corals haven't shown me any signs of stress at all. They have actually improved their color and growth quite a bit lately. Coralline algae is also starting to grow more now on the glass and overflow as well.

[steely185]

The tomini looked much better yesterday. I do believe it was just stress from the move. His colors are very vibrant now. He is still very shy. The ORA mandarin is looking pretty pathetic. I'm not convinced he will make it. He shows no interest in food or searching for food in the tank. He is very inactive and starting to get skinny. I have plenty of pods in the tank but he doesn't even look for them. I got my fingers crossed but don't have high hopes of survival. I tried two different sizes of mysis and cyclopeze with him in a breeders net. He didn't show any interest. I almost wish I spent less and got a wild one that was at least actively searching for food. I picked this one because he was an ORA mandarin (thinking he had a better shot at survival) and he was swimming around the tank at the store.

 

Coralline is really starting to take off in the tank. I'm seeing lots of new patches on the overflow, glass and some of the rockwork now. I'm anxious to see what it looks like in a month. I made some additional adjustments. I set my controller to turn on the solenoid at >6.5 pH and turn it off at <6.4 pH to keep it a little more stable in the reactor. I also backed off the drip rate. I have about 1 drop every 4-5 seconds and it's dripping near the skimmer. I'm hoping this will help keep the pH a little higher. I plotted the pH overnight and it's dipping down to 7.68 or so overnight (not horrible for night time but could be better). I'm also going to start using more kalk than before in my top off water to help further increase the pH and buffer it.

[Lawnman]

WOW tank is looking really nice. Only thing i hate about that coralline is when it gets on the silicone in the corners. Scares me to much to try and scrape it off.