Keydivers 57g rimless "deep blue"

[keydiver]

Acclimated half my sps yesterday, and they're doing good. So right now the other half is acclimating! Tomorrow is gonna be placement day. Gotta run to home depot and get super glue/epoxy putty. The Monday I have three coral orders being shipped: here's what they contain.

 

Package one: from forum member longpig

5 polyps pink and golds

8 polyps jokers

10 polyps sunny D's

2 polyps blue hornets

a small green plate

 

Package two: from aquasd.com

crazy pinwheel plate

some rainbow acans

 

Package three: From another forum member via trade

10+ polyps nuke greens

20 polyps purple deaths

german blue digi

maybe a couple small mini maxi nems

 

Really excited for all this stuff! Pics will be up tomorrow once I place everything. Still have the catch the anthias and midas blenny from my other tank. Also, I started my vodka dosing and i've bumped it to .9 ml per day. So far I haven't seen any difference but I am hopeful because my skimmate has gotten much thicker and darker.

 

Also toying with the idea of adding a lagoon/macro tank (probably 20-30g) through the wall onto my kitchen countertop. I realize that I probably should have done this earlier, but I wouldn't be drilling anything, I would need to find a way to easily connect it to my current system.

[got2envy]

Looks great!! I think that AI' s are so cool ever since I saw the lightning storm effect demo on you tube

[keydiver]

Looks great!! I think that AI' s are so cool ever since I saw the lightning storm effect demo on you tube

 

Hah I watched that too and I use the weather profile. It's a cool little addition but fairly pointless. I like the cloud cover more than the lightning.

[got2envy]

So I go check on the tads today and what do I see a liitle yellow /blue/red froglet I have been checking daily so this little guy must have been hididng under a leaf. I loaded the container with springtails The other 4 are still in the water and I couldn't get a good look to see if they were sprouting back legs yet.

[Deleted User 4]

Wow, how did I miss this the 1st time around...very nice tank build. Subscribed.

[keydiver]

Wow, how did I miss this the 1st time around...very nice tank build. Subscribed.

 

Thank you sir

 

So I go check on the tads today and what do I see a liitle yellow /blue/red froglet I have been checking daily so this little guy must have been hididng under a leaf. I loaded the container with springtails The other 4 are still in the water and I couldn't get a good look to see if they were sprouting back legs yet.

 

WOOHOOO!!!!! Success!!! That makes me very happy

 

Make sure you don't put TOO TOO many springtails, cause they'll stress the little guys out if they're crawling all over them. Also, what are you using for a morph out container? To grow mine out, I use joshsfrogs extremely low maintenance method, and i've had great results. Very few casualties, I never have to do WC's, and it's easy to feed them. I think it's the best method for me as I've got a ton of other stuff on my plate right now and not enough time to do it in.

[got2envy]

I use a plasic shoe container that they sell at publix with the white lid..I use moss and tilt the container a little so they can climb out easily If your yellow heads ever breed let me know

 

I will take a pic tonight and post

[GTi]

Sweet tank and rockscape! I am in the process of moving from my 29 G BioCube to a sumped 60G rimless. I struggle to get a rockscape I like but yours looks great! I have my tank and stand and I'm just waiting on a Glass Holes kit and the sump.

[keydiver]

I use a plasic shoe container that they sell at publix with the white lid..I use moss and tilt the container a little so they can climb out easily If your yellow heads ever breed let me know

 

I will take a pic tonight and post

 

Sweet! I'll let you know when my BYH's start to call

 

Sweet tank and rockscape! I am in the process of moving from my 29 G BioCube to a sumped 60G rimless. I struggle to get a rockscape I like but yours looks great! I have my tank and stand and I'm just waiting on a Glass Holes kit and the sump.

 

Thanks man! I must've spend hours sitting in my garage getting the rocks to where I like them. I originally had 2 other structures, neither seemed to get the job done. Really it's all about creativity and persistence to find the one that you like best.

 

Everything has transferred over well! Planning on getting some pis up soon. Went through 25g of super glue to get my oral where I like them.

[got2envy]

Your my froggy daddy

 

This is how I keep them

 

[keydiver]

Your my froggy daddy

 

This is how I keep them

 

 

 

hahahah!!! yay! He's a cute little guy. I hope you get one of the ones with no black at all except for one little center dot. It looks so cool.

[got2envy]

that would be awesome!!

[keydiver]

Wow, 2 months since my last update... It's been quite a while. Well, the majority of my sps colonies bit the dust in the transfer, not sure what went wrong. That was well over a month ago. Since then i've slowly been building up my zoa collection, since i'm skeptical to put hard corals in this tank.

 

I'm pretty sure my ionic balance is way off because my parameters are as follows:

Calc- 490ppm

Magn- 1600ppm

alk- 8.4

 

The strange part is, my fresh salt water (from both reef crystals and red sea pro salt) are both giving my readings of 1600ppm and 7-8 alk.

 

Anyways, here are some pics. I've got a large shipment of zoas coming in tomorrow that i'm pretty excited about, so I'll get an updated list then.

 

FTS 9/11/12

pink n golds

eye of rah

WoW's

cornbreads punk rockers

my clementines

capt. america

deresa (both my clams have been fine in the tank since day 1)

small ric garden (eventually trying to get enough to cover the base of the left tower)

zoa rock

purple death colony

magicians

nomnom plates (i'm having plate issues, no idea why but I'm starting to get tissue loss on them)

[keydiver]

Updated Zoa list:

pink n golds

rastas

sunny D

my clementines

Wobbygongs

KO nightmares

nuke greens

purple deaths

emerald paly grandi

eye of rah

mind blowing paly

pink hippo

armor of gods

god of war

purple hornet

blue hornet

cinnamon grandi

cornbreads punk rockers

king midas

magicians

lunar eclipse

mohawks

blue agave

captain america

[got2envy]

let me know when u wanna frag the Clementines and King Midas

[flampton]

Wow looks like you'll have one of the best zoa gardens going. It will look amazing when it fills out, and same with the ric garden on the other 'tower'. Pretty freakin cool.

 

Just curious since I just learned about it and am thinking of implementing it, I noticed you're dosing vodka for carbon. Have you seen the info on Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C) dosing for zoa tanks? I am considering it for a gorgonian tank that I'm putting together. The question is whether the Vit C adds more than just carbon, but help with redox as well as with coral health (it has supposedly cured zoa pox, but I've never seen a controlled experiment)

 

Just a thought, because I will be dosing carbon, and vodka is a lot cheaper than Vitamin C.

[ek9vboi]

Never saw this, I'm on the FMAS section on RC and don't see you posting there. LOL, clean set up and the rock structure is excellent.

 

Have you don't a par reading on the AIs? It could be why your SPS are eating dust.

[keydiver]

let me know when u wanna frag the Clementines and King Midas

 

Will do . It might be a while though lol.

 

Wow looks like you'll have one of the best zoa gardens going. It will look amazing when it fills out, and same with the ric garden on the other 'tower'. Pretty freakin cool.

 

Just curious since I just learned about it and am thinking of implementing it, I noticed you're dosing vodka for carbon. Have you seen the info on Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C) dosing for zoa tanks? I am considering it for a gorgonian tank that I'm putting together. The question is whether the Vit C adds more than just carbon, but help with redox as well as with coral health (it has supposedly cured zoa pox, but I've never seen a controlled experiment)

 

Just a thought, because I will be dosing carbon, and vodka is a lot cheaper than Vitamin C.

 

Hey thanks man! I'm really excited to see how it grows out. Right now it just looks like a bunch of frag plugs. As far as dosing vitamin C, I have heard of it and I've been planning to look into it more. I'm not very familiar with it though, and there's not that much information out there about it. But it's an interesting concept that has shown some great results in others tanks.

 

I stopped vodka dosing when my sps started dying, but now that my tank is somewhat stable, I'm planing on bumping up the regime again.

 

 

Never saw this, I'm on the FMAS section on RC and don't see you posting there. LOL, clean set up and the rock structure is excellent.

 

Have you don't a par reading on the AIs? It could be why your SPS are eating dust.

 

Thanks man! I'm not really as active on RC as I am on here. Have you checked out floridareefer.com? There's a lot of cool guys on there. I haven't gotten a reading on my AI's and I'm always worried that they're too strong. I do have them dialed back to about 40% white, 60% blue and 60% Royal blue, but I think even that may be too much. Any thoughts?

[keydiver]

Wow looks like you'll have one of the best zoa gardens going. It will look amazing when it fills out, and same with the ric garden on the other 'tower'. Pretty freakin cool.

 

Just curious since I just learned about it and am thinking of implementing it, I noticed you're dosing vodka for carbon. Have you seen the info on Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C) dosing for zoa tanks? I am considering it for a gorgonian tank that I'm putting together. The question is whether the Vit C adds more than just carbon, but help with redox as well as with coral health (it has supposedly cured zoa pox, but I've never seen a controlled experiment)

 

Just a thought, because I will be dosing carbon, and vodka is a lot cheaper than Vitamin C.

 

After a bit of research, I went ahead and ordered some powdered vitamin C. It sounds and looks like people have gotten great results with it, and it's also a form of carbon dosing. Once I get my alkalinity in check anyways. Still haven't figured that one out yet. 2 boxes of salt and both mix to give me a 7.4 alk...

[flampton]

I hope you got the Sodium ascorbate (or Ca or Mg ascorbate), I hear the straight up ascorbic acid will eat up your buffering capacity. Good luck! and will be following as I want to see this first hand. I found a a old thread on another forum that Albert Theil might have introduced this technique years ago, I haven't asked Albert yet if this is true. It would be interesting if the founder or at least promoter of the technique had some wisdom.

 

Anyways I meant to PM you, but figured hey maybe someone will get some info about this as well. I'm starting a tank of PS Gorgs like I said in my previous post. My main attraction will be a Sea fan Gorgonia ventalina. I'm not keeping a DSB as I had problems with one in the past and even though it was likely my fault I'm not going back. Anyways I was interested in Macro's that are associated with the Gorgonian forests. I figured out some calcaraeous alga like Cymopolia barbata and Halimeda opuntia. I'm wondering about other Caribbean macros that are associated with the biotope. Obviously as a diver and macro hound you're more familiar than the lay reef keeper,

 

Thanks,

Eric

[keydiver]

I hope you got the Sodium ascorbate (or Ca or Mg ascorbate), I hear the straight up ascorbic acid will eat up your buffering capacity. Good luck! and will be following as I want to see this first hand. I found a a old thread on another forum that Albert Theil might have introduced this technique years ago, I haven't asked Albert yet if this is true. It would be interesting if the founder or at least promoter of the technique had some wisdom.

 

Anyways I meant to PM you, but figured hey maybe someone will get some info about this as well. I'm starting a tank of PS Gorgs like I said in my previous post. My main attraction will be a Sea fan Gorgonia ventalina. I'm not keeping a DSB as I had problems with one in the past and even though it was likely my fault I'm not going back. Anyways I was interested in Macro's that are associated with the Gorgonian forests. I figured out some calcaraeous alga like Cymopolia barbata and Halimeda opuntia. I'm wondering about other Caribbean macros that are associated with the biotope. Obviously as a diver and macro hound you're more familiar than the lay reef keeper,

 

Thanks,

Eric

 

Yeah I made sure it was sodium ascorbate so I don't kill my buffering system. Sounds like a great idea you've got with the patch reef biotope.

 

Other macros you should look into: pencil cap, rhicopheonix sp., padina sp., udotea sp., possibly ochtodes or botryocladia sp. Red dictyota if you want it, but it's kind of invasive so I wouldn't risk it.

 

Send me a PM once you're ready for some macros, I have a couple species of padina, red grape, ochtodes, red dictyota, and some different types of caulerpa like c. paplisades, c. prolifera, cactus caulerpa.

 

Edit: Also spatula algae is pretty prevalent on the patches

[flampton]

Sweet, Thanks for the help. I'll be sure to hit you up.

[gena]

I just looked up spatula algae. It looks way cool if it's the same thing you are talking about. Red and spikey looking? Have you ever grown it in your tank?

[keydiver]

I think the south Florida heat may have something to do with my ionic unbalance when I mix the SW. I used teh same batch of salt mix in a 5 gal bucket full of water at room temperature, and it yielded perfect results. So now our WC's are back on track. Vitamin C should arrive tomorrow, and I'm now back to ground zero on my 2 part dosing regime.

 

 

Also, Add Candy Apple Reds to the zoa list

[keydiver]

I've started vitamin C dosing now that I have my alk and calc in check,

 

I'm continuing to do WC's to try and lower Mg which is still hovering at 1600ppm

 

Here's my dosing schedule for Vitamin C for those interested:

Day 1-3: 1/16 tsp twice a day

Day 4-7: 1/8 tsp. twice a day

Day 12: begin 1/4 tsp twice a day.

 

That would effectively bring my vitamin C levels to about 7ppm, a bit higher than the recommended good-health dose, but my tank is mainly zoas/palys, and the dosage can be increased to 30ppm without any ill effect, so I think that's a good level.

 

I may try to standardize my dosing by dissolving X amount into solution and running it through a doser, but I need to figure out the math first. and make sure I'm going to stick with Vit C dosing. So far I have noticed a darker, smellier skimmate, but no noticeable change in polyp size or color.