My Bonsai Reef

[sam_the_reefer]

 

Do you vacuum your sand bed regularly? Clear detritus from under the rocks occasionally? In these little tanks it's realtively easy to develop nitrate issues if the sand beds are left untouched for too long.

I vacuum parts of the sandbed where the detritus settle and "turkey baste" the rocks every time I do a wc (lately every two weeks). I've been trying to get my chaeto to grow and it is growing, but it looks like it's not big enough to keep up with the bioload yet. So, that's why I'm using purigen again to help keep nitrates in check (aiming for 10ppm).

[TFish77]

Crappy pic. I wonder if adding more of them makes them come out more...haven't seen him in a week.

 

fishy.jpg

 

In other news, the chaeto in a clamshell experiment was a success and I've expanded it to 3 shells now. Just makes it easier for the chaeto to stay put and makes it easy to trim. Will take an updated fts once it's grown.

 

That flaming prawn though ! If it makes you feel any better I didn't see mine during its entire 8 month life span until I found it against the powerhead.

[sam_the_reefer]

 

That flaming prawn though ! If it makes you feel any better I didn't see mine during its entire 8 month life span until I found it against the powerhead.

I see it from time to time and only when I'm NOT looking for it.

[TFish77]

I see it from time to time and only when I'm NOT looking for it.

 

Never fails! For such an expensive and beautiful fish you would think it would want to show off a bit.

[sam_the_reefer]

April FTS

 

Yellow Hammer

 

My fave zoa

 

Evil pavona taking over

 

Zoas vs Leptastrea

 

Cave dwellers

[sam_the_reefer]

Friend's tank exploded so I had to hold onto some of his LS. He's got some nice LS and I'll be keeping the babies they make in my tank. Will have a fellow reefer adopt the clam though, I don't think I can support a clam in my little tank.

[sam_the_reefer]

 

[Sk8n Reefer]

Loaner coral ? Loving your build - tanks looking great. ?

[sam_the_reefer]

My cleaner shrimp died today. I blame the clam, because the body was really close to it. It must have cleaned somewhere it shouldn't have and the clam must have closed on it...Or, maybe it's something in the water...wife said it was alive just an hour before I discovered it dead. Did some cleaning and a 50% water change and added some seachem prime. Also, made a DIY gravity powered ATO out of an extra water dispenser because we'll be gone for 2 weeks.

 

 

Question: Will the clam suck all the calcium and alk during that time and potentially crash the tank? I've been dosing 2 part to keep alk and ca in check...but alk drops about 1dkh/day since I've had the clam. Will adding 2 part in the top off work?

[sam_the_reefer]

Chaeto in clamshell experiment failed. The inner layer started dying and the chaeto started coming off of the mesh. So, I took it out and I'm back to using purigen and phosguard. I guess I'm limited to using these products in a sumpless and refugium less setup. Tank looks cleaner now though.

[sam_the_reefer]

Will be away for 2 weeks. Hopefully this won't be the last "nice" FTS I'll have for this tank. The DIY gravity powered ATO has been running well for a week and I used kalk to keep alk/ca up. Also, everything is plugged into a UPS in case of power outages and I should have 4 hours of power with the lights on or 6-8 hours with the lights off(night time power outages). Lastly, my boss from the US bought me a Prime and I'll be getting that early next month (very excited).

 

 

[sam_the_reefer]

Back after 2 weeks and just did a 50% water change and general clean up. I lost a candy cane "branch" because somehow it got dislodged and ended up on the sand bed (I blame the hermit crab). The SPS (mystery acro and pavona) look bleached and all the LPS and Zoas are not fully opened and looked pissed. Also a lot of precipitate have formed outside the tube from the ATO. My guess is that Mag must have dropped to cause this precipitate. I tested alk and it was at 5 dkh despite the kalk I added in the ATO. Thankfully the clam didn't die and everything (besides the candy cane face down on the sandbed) is still alive and should recover after a few weeks of care.

[Nano sapiens]

Before I go on vacation I like to do a trial run a few weeks before. I'll simulate the conditions for the period of time I'll be away and see if the set up can handle it. Alkalinity is the parameter I concentrate on, so the ATO/Kalk must be able to keep reasonable stability.

 

My last two week vacation saw alk drop only 1 dKh.

[J-Ranko]

I wonder, if the vacation is not too long, maybe it would be better to turn off dosing temporarily. It seems it would be better to allow a slight decrease on calc/alk while you're out rather than risk a spike in your absence. Or you could lower the dosage rate if a temporary cessation would be too much.

[sam_the_reefer]

@Nano & @J-Ranko: This time was tricky because I have a clam and wasn't sure how much alk it would eat up in my little tank. Someone with a bigger tank will adpot the clam soon though. The sps look bleached but not totally white and it's starting to color up after I did the water change yesterday.

Edit: maybe bleached is too strong of a word...more like the sps turned pale but still had some color.

[Sharbuckle]

Incredible to see the changes this tank has gone through. Looks great. I'll be going away for three weeks in August. Did you have somebody looking after the tank for you?

[sam_the_reefer]

Incredible to see the changes this tank has gone through. Looks great. I'll be going away for three weeks in August. Did you have somebody looking after the tank for you?

Thanks! And it was on autopilot for 2 weeks.

[_l1mpan]

Many updates for the past few weeks. First, I thought that my fluffy toadstool was getting too big for my small tank so I gave it to a fellow local reefer. Next, my first attempt at incorporating macroalgae wasn't very successful. I found out there was a stone crab hiding in one of my rocks that made short work of any macroalgae I put in. That, plus my scarlet hermit likes macroalgae too. However, I managed to collect some very exotic LS with the help of another fellow local reefer.

 

First is this Green toadstool. When closed, it has a green cap similar to a rare green japanese toadstool. I'm not sure if this is the same because it's not rare where I collected it and it's not found in deep water, but in shallow seagrass beds.

 

Next are these micro zoas. They are 1/4 the size of my normal zoas and they are found in "hardened silt" subtrate which was quite a challenge to work with when mounting. They are really small and you really need a good eye to spot them in their natural environment, which my fellow reefer friend had.

 

Then there's these nice purple leptastrea with purple skirts and blue green eyes.

Lastly, here's a FTS:

 

 

My reefer friend also gave me a briareum frag (above the green toadstool) It looks like GSP but is light green with stiffer tentacles. I rescaped the tank and got rid of the stone crab while mounting the LS and currently have a diatom bloom from all of the sandbed disturbance. I've placed some Phosguard in my HOB which should help a bit with silicates but these diatoms should eventually go away. Nitrates are at 5ppm and Phosphates are at 0 before I added the Phosguard. Hope these new guys thrive in my system.

Hey xellos88,

Awesome tank! Really like the toadstools! Have you had the same LR and sand all 4 years? Thats really cool to hear someone hold on to their nanoreef for several years.

Im having trouble with diatoms/dirty sandbed in my 20 gallon after some months now. i think it was because i was disturbing my sandbed to much when cleaning. Did you do something else than using purigen and wait the diatoms out with regular waterchange? The sandbed went from that dirty to clean in just 2-3 weeks?

[sam_the_reefer]

Hey xellos88,

Awesome tank! Really like the toadstools! Have you had the same LR and sand all 4 years? Thats really cool to hear someone hold on to their nanoreef for several years.

Im having trouble with diatoms/dirty sandbed in my 20 gallon after some months now. i think it was because i was disturbing my sandbed to much when cleaning. Did you do something else than using purigen and wait the diatoms out with regular waterchange? The sandbed went from that dirty to clean in just 2-3 weeks?

Thanks! I've had the same LR in all 4 years. As for the sand, it's probably at 50% of the original sand now. I vacuum some sand along with detritus from time to time.

 

As for the diatoms, I was using phosguard as well as purigen and carbon. It took 2-3 weeks to clear up after I started using phosguard.

[_l1mpan]

Thanks! I've had the same LR in all 4 years. As for the sand, it's probably at 50% of the original sand now. I vacuum some sand along with detritus from time to time.

 

As for the diatoms, I was using phosguard as well as purigen and carbon. It took 2-3 weeks to clear up after I started using phosguard.

Okey, thats good to know. I run some rowaphos in my canister, so im just gonna run its course and let the bacteria break it down with some help with rowaphos. Keep up the great work, im excited to see future pics from your tank .

[sam_the_reefer]

Sad day. The basslet stopped eating and died.

 

 

[Nano sapiens]

Sad day. The basslet stopped eating and died.

 

Darn, that is a shame. Any unusal symptoms prior?

[sam_the_reefer]

 

Darn, that is a shame. Any unusal symptoms prior?

Yeah, it was like something was stuck in his mouth and he couldn't fully close it.

[Nano sapiens]

Yeah, it was like something was stuck in his mouth and he couldn't fully close it.

 

Strange...

[sam_the_reefer]

New toy!