Not-so Symbiotic Nuvo 8 Build - New FTS

[D Z]

So here is the best shot I could get. It was just a quick picture before I went to bed last night, taken with my phone. You can see where the head in the back has split into the small one on the left and the right side is almost done splitting into 2 more. The head in the front is getting close to splitting into 3 heads now too!

[D Z]

I got some great shots of the tank tonight. The more and more I take pictures, the better they come out. Most of the time, though, I only take shots at night under the actinics. I am starting to really want to upgrade this lighting. The coral just does not get the color pop under daytime lighting as it should.

 

I'm also starting to really understand the desire to have an aquarium controller. I think I may start saving up for the new Bluefish controller and might possible build a custom full spectrum LED for the tank. Also, I'm really starting to feel like the MP10 is overkill for this tank. I might decide to just upgrade the return to a MJ900 and sell the MP10 to fund the controller/light. If need be, I can always add a Koralia Nano for extra flow down the line.

 

Ohh and I almost forgot, I finally got the zoa/paly frags off the plugs and onto the rock work. I like them a lot better where they are now, and the clownfish seems to be leaving them alone a lot more now.

 

Anyways, enough rambling, here are the pics:

 

New FTS

 

Close up of the Yuma

 

Close up of the Red Death

 

Close up of the Gorilla Nipples

 

Close up of the hermit

 

Torch Coral

 

Finally got a nice close up of one of the feather dusters

 

Last but not least, I got a cool side shot of the Yuma with the clown in the background

[Legendary Corals]

Interesting photos! I can't wait to see your rockwork covered with some more zoas. It's going to be a rainbow of colors everywhere.

[D Z]

Interesting photos! I can't wait to see your rockwork covered with some more zoas. It's going to be a rainbow of colors everywhere.

Thanks. I can't wait either! Especially after I get even more coral/colors in there to compliment what I already have!

[D Z]

One more cool shot of the Torch that my wife kindly sent me now that it is all open for the day!

[D Z]

I have started getting some green film algae in the past 2 days. I think it's time to finally add the rest of my clean up crew. I haven't really been lazy with this, just seems like every time I go to the LFS they do not have the snails that I want. I guess it's time to place an order with ReefCleaners. I just looked at their site and I can barely make the $5 minimum for what I want. Its such a shame to order $5 in snails and pay $5 in shipping, but I guess I probably would end up paying just about that much for overpriced snails if I did end up catching them in stock at the LFS. Oh well, I will probably end up doing that sometime next week as I will be out of town Friday - Sunday.

 

In the mean time, I think I will try to keep the Solar flare(daytime light) on a shorter photo-period to avoid any large outbreaks in algae and switch to feeding the clown once a day instead of twice to keep low on phosphates/nitrates.

 

On another note, I ordered a MJ900 and plan to replace the return pump with that. If I am correct, I should be able to run just the MJ900 with the spin-stream and get enough flow without the MP10. This will give me more room inside the tank and the option to sell the MP10 and put that $$$ towards a better light or controller or both!!

 

The lights I am using are not bad, but I have really been craving the look of the full spectrum lights I have been seeing around the forum lately. The coral doesn't look bad during the day, and they look great at night under just the ReefBrite, but I know that they could look better all of the time with a better lighting setup. I think I am going to eventually build a full spectrum light, and maybe incorporate the new Bluefish controller when it comes out. This way I can also make use of the sun rise/set features, and maybe even play around with the thunder storm and location simulating wow factors as well. All in due time.....

[ZeroEvoX]

Those photos are sweet man. Almost as sweet as the tank . Looking great!

[D Z]

Well, the tank looked good after being away for the weekend. A little bit of algae to scrub off the glass, but that was to be expected. My dog sitter seems to have handled the feeding and top-offs well, so that is great!

 

I switched out the return pump for the MJ-900 and removed the MP10W last night. It is less flow overall, but a definite improvement over the stock pump by itself. I think I like the flow where it is at now. With the MP10W, it was just so much that I could never get the water to be as clear as I wanted. I also think that it might get better flow/filtration into the rear chambers this way. I always felt like the MP10W was actually directing the water away from the overflow so we'll see over the next couple of days.

 

As far as how the inhabitants like the change, the torch seems to love it. It is more open today that it has ever been, and the torch was the 1 piece I was most worried about. Everything else looks happy as well, including the clownfish.

 

I'm going to give it another day or two to see how everything reacts to the change in flow, but so far it looks like a positive change. Therefore, I'm probably going to be selling my MP10W and putting the money towards upgrading some of the other hardware. Maybe the media basket and the rest towards the lights/controller...

 

Picture of the torch:

Those photos are sweet man. Almost as sweet as the tank . Looking great!

Thanks man. You tank is looking great as well! I love your Acans. I think that might be my next livestock purchase.

[D Z]

So I have not updated this thread in a little while, but I got some new additions yesterday and figured I should included them here. I stopped by the LFS to get some salt and ended up getting a Duncan and a Ricordea. The colors in the ric are just amazing.

 

Also, they finally had some Nassarious snail so I picked up some of those and got an emerald crab as well, so maybe I will not be placing an order with ReefCleaners after all. Now I just need to find some Ceriths.

 

The Duncan was just starting to open up. I will take a couple more shots of it tonight once it has fully acclimated and opened.

 

The new Ric

 

My new Emerald crab saying hello

 

A new picture of the gorilla nipple zoas. These have colored up so well.

 

An updated shot of my yuma

 

I will get some more pics of the Duncan tonight, as well as a new FTS.

[D Z]

The Duncan acclimated very well and was opened up most of the day. Here are a couple good shots and an updated FTS.

 

Duncan earlier this evening in the Daytime lighting

 

The new Rainbow Ricordea in the Daytime lighting

 

Duncan in the Actinics

 

FTS earlier this afternoon

 

Moonlight FTS

[D Z]

So good and bad news this morning. The new corals are both doing well, but I found my new emerald crab dead this morning. Not really sure what happened, but I managed to get it out of the tank before leaving for work.

 

I got around to mounting the Duncan a couple nights ago, so I figured last night was a good time to take some more pictures. I ended up with some good shots of everything, including some pretty cool top down, water distortion shots. Let me know what you think.

 

New FTS with the Duncan mounted

 

A couple shots of the left side of the tank where the Rics and Zoas are

 

 

Another nice closeup of the new Rainbow Ricordea

 

While I was taking pics, one of my Astrea snails decided to come up to the surface to say hello

 

A nice top down shot of everything

 

And I thought this was a cool picture with the water distortion

[Alex B]

Cool new stuff! The ric is sweet! Start filling that thing up!!!!

[D Z]

Got some new stuff over the weekend, but have not had time to get good pics of it all yet. I got a pretty cool Blasto frag and a single head of Sunny D. I have wanted both for a long time, so I am pretty happy with the new additions. I will try to get some good pictures up tonight.

 

I am also starting to deal with an issue with a little bit of green film algae and hair algae on my rock. I am not sure what is the cause of this as I keep up with my weekly water changes, and feed pretty lightly. The one time that I did have my phosphates tested, they were 0. My nitrates are always pretty low as well. I think I do need to add some more of a CUC, but I still am not sure what exactly is causing this. It hasn't gotten out of control yet, but I definitely do not want it getting any worse. Any input?

[D Z]

Well, the algae doesn't look too bad tonight. I need to do a water change tomorrow so hopefully that will continue to bring it down, although I really do not think it has anything to do with nitrates or phosphates. I had my LFS order me some cerith snails to add to my CUC and should have them on Friday or Saturday, as well as a small turbo. I think I am going to try another emerald crab, which should take care of any remaining hair algae.

 

Anyways, here are some pics of the new Blasto and SunnyD

 

SunnyD Zoa

 

Blasto

 

New FTS

[D Z]

Well I had quite the frustrating night, last night. I ended up stopping by the LFS and picking up a Mexican Turbo and Emerald crab yesterday. I added them to the tank and the emerald immediately started picking at the rock and eating algae. I was very happy with that, until I caught him eating my new Blasto. He picked a good chunk of flesh off on the baby head on the left side of the frag. Luckily, it did not touch the main head, but still pissed me off beyond belief. As soon as I saw him doing that, I gave him a good blast with the turkey baster to get him to stop while I figured out what I was going to do.

 

I decided to just get him out of the tank. As much good as it was doing with the algae, I did not want to risk having it eat chunks of my beloved coral as well. I wish I would have thought about it before blasting him with the baster as I could have just pulled out the top piece of LR and got him then and there. Unfortunately, it went into hiding after the turkey baster incident. I set up a small trap, but he did not seem to go for it. Later that night, I found him back out and about and tried to grab him with my tongs, missed and ended up putting a nice little cut into my new SunnyD polyp. At that point, I just wanted him out, so I ended up pulling my LR out piece by piece until I was able to get him. So that turned into a fun process of getting the rock set back up at 12AM and a bad night of sleep.

 

Well, you live and you learn. I knew the risk of the emerald crab before putting it in there and just was hoping for the best, but unfortunately, it did not pan out well. Hopefully, the Blasto and SunnyD will heal up from the incident, it's still too early to tell at this point. It really does suck, though, because I really liked that emerald crab. It was eating a lot of my algae and I even got some cool pictures before I caught him red handed, literally. Here are some pictures of the little bugger:

 

 

The damage he did to my Blasto baby head

 

The trap I set up

 

The aftermath

 

 

On a good note, I am getting some good growth out of most of my frags. I noticed that the unknown, gorilla nipple look-alike had a couple polyps kinda hanging off of the LR. During my last water change, I fragged them off and now have a small 3 head frag of them. Still have not decided what I want to do, but I may try to sell/trade them back to the LFS, depending on what they will give me for it.

 

After fragging off the 3 hanging polyps. You can also see some of my hair algae here.

The small frag that came off.

 

The Red Deaths are extending down towards the rock really well. I believe these "fingers" will eventually turn into new polyps. This was taken right after a water change, so that is why they are all closed up.

[D Z]

So things are still getting back to normal in my tank. For the past week, all of my zoas have been reluctant to fully open. I think its a combination of moving everything around from the emerald crab incident and low calcium. I had to move the rockwork around again on Saturday to get everything back to the right place. I finally got my hands on some new testing equipment and the calcium and magnesium we both low, so I am sure that has something to do with it. The blasto is still loosing color and is not looking good. It ate really well last night, so maybe that will help. I also put it back on a frag plug and moved it down to the sandbed where it can get less light, just in case it is bleaching due to my lighting.

 

I will be picking up some 2-part to start dosing tonight to get the calcium under control. I think I might pick up a new coral food to add some more diversity. I am leaning towards oyster delight, as that is in stock at the LFS.

 

Here are the full test results I got last night before my water change:

 

April 16, 2014

Temp: 75.7 F

Salinity: 1.024 SG

Ph: 8.2

Alkalinity: 8.4 dKH

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: <1 ppm

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Phosphate: 0 ppm

Calcium: 350 ppm

Magnesium: 1200 ppm

 

I also got my hands on a siphon, and cleaned my sand pretty well last night during my water change. That should help too, as I was starting to build up a little bit of detritus on the sand bed.

 

I got a new Rasta polyp and some new mushrooms last weekend, as well as a yellow clown goby. That will probably complete my collection of fish and mushrooms. I might still add 1 or 2 more types of zoas, depending if something catches my eye.

 

Once everything gets back to happy and normal, I think I might try adding in some zeovit additives, specifically zeobak and the nano power package. I think this might help with over all coral health, growth, and color. Still researching this, but am leaning towards it. I definitely want to get everything else back to stable before adding anything new, though.

 

And time for some pictures:

 

The frag I cut of the un-names palys

 

My sunny-d is healing, but still isn't 100% happy

 

The new YCG getting along well with my O. Clown.

 

And likes to sit in my rainbow ric

 

The blasto while it was eating. It had a big piece of food in its mouth. You can see how its color is off.

 

A couple nice shots with the new mushrooms

 

 

Duncans have been happy throughout the ordeal

 

And it looks like my yuma left behind a piece of its foot. I believe this will be a new baby! That, I can be happy about.

[D Z]

Monday Afternoon Update:

 

I picked up some BrightWell Aquatics Reef Code A and B on Friday. I also picked up some salinity calibration fluid and some Coral Smoothie Oyster Delight. It turns out my refractometer was calibrated a little bit high, which could have a little to do with my low Calcium. Once I had the refractometer calibrated properly, my tank water tested at about 1.0225, so a little bit low. I did a small water change with water mixed at 1.03, and was able to bring it up to 1.025, which also brought the calcium up to 420. I am planning on checking the calcium tonight to see where I am at after 3 days, and then dose accordingly.

 

It other news, I realized that the containers I was using to get RODI from a friend/LFS was leeching TDS. Within 24 hours of getting 0TDS water, the TDS read 180. Not good. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered a RODI unit from BRS. I am using bottled, distilled water until it gets here.

 

I also ordered the Zeovit Nano Power Pack as well as Zeobak. I plan to start dosing that next week. I will try to document it as well as I can. I am really hoping for some increased growth rates and color pop, as well as overall coral health. Hopefully, it can help with getting these zoas to have better polpy extension as well as coloring back up my blasto.

 

And I ordered a top off unit from Avast Marine. This one I particularly cannot wait for. Now I won't have to carry 7 gallon jugs to/from the store and I wont have to worry about remembering to top off the tank every night!

[D Z]

I am getting excited for all of my new goodies that are coming. I ended up ordering an InTank media basket as well, yesterday.

 

Last night, my Calcium tested at 400, so a little bit low again. I dosed as much as I could(about 4.25 ml) per the bottle, which should have brought it up to around 412. I'll check again tonight and see where it is at.

[D Z]

Well all of my new goodies came in last week. I was out of town for the weekend, so I have not had time to do much other than unbox it all. I should be able to spend some time on it this week, though. I also ordered a new heater(not shown) and am waiting on some Brightwell Aquatics Magnesium supplement to arrive. I believe I have my calcium/alk situated now, so now I have to start with the Magnesium dosing. Here are some teaser pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[D Z]

Well, I haven't had a chance to do all of my upgrades yet, but I have yet another one in route!!!!

 

Dave posted the 2 leftover Tide's from RAP for sale and I just could not resist. This beauty is soon to be mine!!

 

[Alex B]

Build is getting good!

[D Z]

Build is getting good!

Thanks man. Now I just need to find some time to actually install all the new goodies....lol. I really need to stop going out of town.

[D Z]

Well it was a busy end of week/weekend. I got a chance to get all of my new stuff installed on the tank. So far, I am very happy with everything. The new InTank media basket is nice. It is a definite improvement over the stock one. I have it running SeaChem Matrix Carbon and some floss for now. The Avast Marine ATO is working great. I love everything about it except for how far it sticks out of the tank. If I had this running in a sump, it would by far be 100% the best ATO. I will get used to seeing it, I guess, but its working well and that is what matters the most right now.

 

I started the zeovit nano package + Zeobak on Thursday. So far, so good. I have not noticed too much of a difference yet, but it is still early.

 

I also had a chance to build a stand for my new RODI system and get that all set up. I am pretty happy with the BRS system so far. No complaints.

 

 

 

And best of all, I got my new light from Dave!!!!! So far, I am absolutely loving it. I think I have it all set up the way I want, now. I fiddled with it throughout the day yesterday. Not the best pics, taken with my phone. I will get some more better ones tonight or tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is not reef related, but still cool. Got to go see The Crystal Method on Saturday. It was an awesome show!!

[antsypants]

Great looking tank and photos! The whole symbiotic relationship theme is interesting too. Though your title says otherwise, if you ever want more symbiosis, I'd suggest a pom pom crab They're pretty small and shy but really fun to watch

[D Z]

Great looking tank and photos! The whole symbiotic relationship theme is interesting too. Though your title says otherwise, if you ever want more symbiosis, I'd suggest a pom pom crab They're pretty small and shy but really fun to watch

Thanks! I started out wanting to incorporate as much symbiosis into the tank as possible. I came to realize really fast that it cannot be forced, though. A lot of the symbiotic relationships I was hoping for just have not naturally happened, i.e. clown hosting... Also, some of my original plans have changed, i.e. I will not be adding an anemone. I have thought about adding a pom pom. I am not really sure if I want any more crabs, though. I have 1 big hermit that is probably a bit too big for this tank as it is; he was inherited from a friend. And I just recently had a bad experience with an emerald crab. I'll think about it, though.

 

Thanks again for the kind words.