HOB 40 Breeder***Update 5/6.... New Growth Pics!

[Roshan8768]

Just because I'm bored, and there's nothing much going on in my reef. Some more pics of my planted tank... reborn!!!

 

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[Roshan8768]

Apparently my RBTA split! However, they are no where near equal size, there's just 1 big one a little smaller than the size I bought it at, and then 1 tiny one that is obviously the split. However, the split is bubbled up, and appears to be healing up nicely The larger one has shorter tentacles right now, but has moved around a bit. Will post pics soon!

[DannaM]

That's great that your BTA split so soon after you getting it everything looks healthy.

[Roshan8768]

pics!!

 

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rbtas

 

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Left Island

 

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Right Island

 

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Nice polyp extension on the Devil's Hand frag

 

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Trumpet

 

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My lonely clown

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Hammer might be starting to grow a new head

 

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Better FTS

 

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[Roshan8768]

Also rigged up the 750s and left the K1 in there for now, will post pics with the powerheads in tomorrow. Looks pretty different with an additional 1400gph in there!! Hoping that my RBTAS stay put

[Roshan8768]

So I test my water today (not something I regularly do).

 

The calcium is 500

The alkalinity is between 7-8

 

WTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

How did my calcium get that high??? I use Oceanic salt, and I don't dose... I tested 3 months ago, after which there have been 2 water changes of about 5 gallons. Back then it was at about 450-460... how did it go up? I dosed a teaspoon of alk hoping that this would bump the calcium down, not sure if this will work though???

[Roshan8768]

Nobody??? What does somebody have to do to get attention around here, I post on other people's threads all the time, and help others out when I know something that can help them. Starting to get tired of talking to myself here... is there something I'm missing/should be doing?

[Walker]

I believe Oceanic has pretty high Ca (and very randomly high, from the searches I've done), so it might be just the salt you are using. Check your salinity as well - if it is high your Ca will be proportionally higher.

 

You can't dose anything to bring it back down, just make sure that your magnesium is high enough to prevent it from precipitating. Let your corals consume the calcium/alk. Also, you might want to try a lower-calcium salt (Instant Ocean?) as you have mostly LPS. If you switch, that will bring the Ca back down as you do water changes.

Oh, and Members' Aquariums are pretty quiet except for high-traffic threads - you should post in the Water Chemistry or General Discussion forums. I talk to myself quite often in my tank thread .

[Roshan8768]

I believe Oceanic has pretty high Ca (and very randomly high, from the searches I've done), so it might be just the salt you are using. Check your salinity as well - if it is high your Ca will be proportionally higher.

 

You can't dose anything to bring it back down, just make sure that your magnesium is high enough to prevent it from precipitating. Let your corals consume the calcium/alk. Also, you might want to try a lower-calcium salt (Instant Ocean?) as you have mostly LPS. If you switch, that will bring the Ca back down as you do water changes.

 

Oh, and Members' Aquariums are pretty quiet except for high-traffic threads - you should post in the Water Chemistry or General Discussion forums. I talk to myself quite often in my tank thread .

 

 

Alright then will leave it alone. I'm probably going to switch to Tropic Marin, as I just finished my giant 7 gallon bucket of Oceanic. I've never tested for Magnesium, but it's probably high enough as I've never seen any precipitate forming. I think I'm just going to stop water changes for a month or two, and just leave everything alone because this is what happened while I went on vacation, and that is easily the best I've seen my tank at!

 

Thanks Walker!

[Walker]

Ca of 500 is definitely on the high side but I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I'd definitely watch for pumps seizing as the moving parts tend to be precipitate surfaces. I've heard really good things about TM pro-reef so it should be good.

[markalot]

Nobody??? What does somebody have to do to get attention around here, I post on other people's threads all the time, and help others out when I know something that can help them. Starting to get tired of talking to myself here... is there something I'm missing/should be doing?

 

Look at my thread, same issue. Like most people I read a lot, and like a lot, but don't post very much. Sometimes I long for feedback, but a high traffic thread would be a nightmare. I'm trying to manage my follows so that I get instant notification on slower threads and no notification on fast moving threads. There was a point where I would get over 100 notifications a visit ... unmanageable.

 

I use Kent salt, which has calcium of 550 and Alk of 8 to 9, with mag around 1400. I love it because I can stick to dosing just Alk and let the Calcium slowly fall between water changes. Oceanic has a similar makeup, but from what I've read not as reliable. Still, many swear by their salt and love the high calcium content. Alk swings can hurt corals, but Calcium swings seem to do no harm as long as it stays above NSW levels.

[Roshan8768]

Look at my thread, same issue. Like most people I read a lot, and like a lot, but don't post very much. Sometimes I long for feedback, but a high traffic thread would be a nightmare. I'm trying to manage my follows so that I get instant notification on slower threads and no notification on fast moving threads. There was a point where I would get over 100 notifications a visit ... unmanageable.

 

I use Kent salt, which has calcium of 550 and Alk of 8 to 9, with mag around 1400. I love it because I can stick to dosing just Alk and let the Calcium slowly fall between water changes. Oceanic has a similar makeup, but from what I've read not as reliable. Still, many swear by their salt and love the high calcium content. Alk swings can hurt corals, but Calcium swings seem to do no harm as long as it stays above NSW levels.

 

I know what you mean about the thread traffic... it's all about finding the right balance. We'll see what the levels look like with he new tropic marine salt.

 

Here's an update on that tank in the MSC at A&M. They have a couple of bird wrasses, a royal gramma, some kind of tang , and a small queen angel. So far, its just live rock. There's some urchins in there, a couple of arrow crabs, and a condy anemone. Both the wrasses have a bad case of ich though... wish I could do something about it.

 

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[Roshan8768]

So any ideas for stocking? I don't plan on getting anymore fish until the end of this year, but always good to start shortlisting

 

Maybe a couple more chromis to make it 3 total? Need a male clown, but not sure whether to get a regular or the black morph. What else?? Has to be an aggressive eater, and has to get along with the fish that I currently have. Probably also no tiny fish that the anemones might eat... maybe a gramma, firefish, blenny? Throw out some cool ideas. Also need a centerpiece fish, either an angel or something

[Roshan8768]

Tank looks good... Duncan has a new polyp, BTAs are looking good, but not bubbling up in the high flow. Lots of growth on the GSP and Xenia. Trumpet looks happier in new location with less flow.

[Roshan8768]

Did my first water change in a month today. Tank looks good except for the algae on the sand bed which was taken care of after I vacuumed. Have cut back on feedings, flake 3 x a week and frozen once a week. Anemones and LPS get fed once a month. Also removed the filter floss, purigen,and phosguard from the AC110. I have used varying amounts of both materials in my filter over the past year and have still battled algae on the sand bed, so I'm going to remove it and see if there are any issues. At this point, I think that the filter floss is just a nitrate trap because I don't change it out often enough. I can always just run some when I need to clear the water up

 

 

 

 

Water is still cloudy from water change.

 

 

Anemone corner

 

 

 

Duncan

 

 

Topdown

 

 

 

My phone can't handle the actinics... the sand bed is shining

 

It does however make the BTAs look fantastic

[Walker]

I really like your BTAs... wish I'm brave enough to put BTAs in my tank but I figure I'm fully stocked with corals, let alone something that can walk around and sting stuff.

 

As for suggestions for stocking, I would seriously look at a blenny. The tailspot is my fave, but a lawnmower/molly miller may be more utilitarian. Dunno about a centrepiece fish - I wanted a cherub but convinced myself not to as I can't bear the thought of my corals being nipped. If/when I do upgrade my centrepiece wishlist would be a mass of wrasses and a kole tang.

[Roshan8768]

I really like your BTAs... wish I'm brave enough to put BTAs in my tank but I figure I'm fully stocked with corals, let alone something that can walk around and sting stuff.

 

As for suggestions for stocking, I would seriously look at a blenny. The tailspot is my fave, but a lawnmower/molly miller may be more utilitarian. Dunno about a centrepiece fish - I wanted a cherub but convinced myself not to as I can't bear the thought of my corals being nipped. If/when I do upgrade my centrepiece wishlist would be a mass of wrasses and a kole tang.

 

My BTAs havn't moved more than inch or so since I got them, so hoping they stay put for a long time. Yeah I ended up starting another thread in the fish section due to a lack of traffic around here. I'm more or less set on a neon goby pair and a royal gramma. Probably will get a randalls/shrimp combo as well. Will keep thinking on the centerpiece fish... maybe a tomini or kole tang or a juvenile large angel. That's a long way off though... still need to get a replacement clown before any of these

[Roshan8768]

Monthly update, not much going on... candy cane is filling out to three full size heads, and the palys are growing up the skeleton of the candy cane. The hammer is starting to reach the size where the head starts to split. Anemones look fine except for the LTA, which just isn't a good fit for my aquarium... I've had it for almost 2 years, and it has never really looked happy (too much flow and not enough/fine sand and clown pissiing it off). Duncan is starting to bud a second head, so 3 full size heads and 2 buds on the way. I moved the rock with the plate coral on to the sand bed and placed it so that the plate is resting level with the sand bed. Hopefully, the plate will expand more and eventually break away from the rock.

 

Noticeably less algae on the sand bed this month. Cut out flake food almost entirely and have been feeding NLS Thera + spectrum pellets every other day. I think they get fed frozen twice a week. Almost no algae growth anywhere, and the coralline growth is taking off again!

 

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[Roshan8768]

I was just looking through my pictures, and it's quite obvious that the metallic green palythoas were opening up much bigger 2 months ago when the only flow was a K1. Do you think that this can be attributed solely to the flow? It looks really small and stringy in the higher flow and just doesn't look happy compared to a month ago... Any ideas? I'm not sure that there's a better location for the colony without really messing up my rock scape... maybe I should find timers for the power heads?

[Roshan8768]

Also anyone know of a good brand of flake that doesn't pollute as much?

[Roshan8768]

Tank looks good, little to no nuisance algae. I switched to NLS marine flake because the fish aren't huge fans of the pellets. Also have a ton of chaeto growth in the refugium and there's a lot of larger pods (amphipods?? almost 1 cm long) visible in there. Cleared up my sand bed in the front left corner a little bit, moved the hammer frag onto the rock work. Added a frag of maroon candy cane with green center, but it wasn't looking good at the LFS so I got it for $5. Also changed the light cycle for the refugium, previously had it running the same photo period as the tank, have now switched it to run when the display lights are off.

 

Some stuff that I pulled out to of the refugium:

 

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... and where it came from

 

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FTS:

 

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LPS corner:

 

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GSP:

 

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Palys:

 

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Top down view of the duncans:

 

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My RBTAs:

 

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Was having some issues with the rock flower anemone not doing so well because it was getting stung by my RBTA. For whatever reason it hasn't decided to move by itself yet, so I took some time to separate them myself.

 

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Need to take care of this...

 

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After reorganizing:

 

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And a night view of my tank:

 

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[Roshan8768]

Got me some new fish today! Added a small male perc to pair with my female occelaris, and they seem to be getting along fine after the initial dominance display. Also added a tailspot blenny that appears to be hiding in the rock work. Hopefully I'll see the TSB out and about a lot more in the coming days.

[th64]

I like seeing successful sump-less setups. Nice pickups on the fish but I think you should definitely increase frequency of water changes.

[Roshan8768]

I like seeing successful sump-less setups. Nice pickups on the fish but I think you should definitely increase frequency of water changes.

 

Thanks!

 

I would but honestly, the past 6 months have been the best that I've seen my tank. Tons of coral growth and virtually no algae other than coralline. I have mainly softies and LPS, so that may be why, but so far so good! I plan on sticking with what I'm doing now which is a 12 gallon water change once every 6 weeks and dosing alk about once every 3 weeks.

[Walker]

Tailspot blennys are awesome . It was one of my wishlist fish when I first started my tank. Once it gets used to its new home it'll be out and about.