wildbill79 Posted September 27, 2014 Share Posted September 27, 2014 Cool setup! I like the minimal scape. Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted September 28, 2014 Author Share Posted September 28, 2014 Cool setup! I like the minimal scape. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted September 29, 2014 Author Share Posted September 29, 2014 Wisdom of the day: when trying to fix your plumbing, make sure to re-attach your return line before turning on the return pump. Man, that was dumb... Also my ATO created a back siphon, because my sump was so full and then my tiny ATO reservoir overflowed in my stand. It was just a great day... didn't take a new FTS as my water is always a bit murky after a WC. May get my first coral(s) tomorrow! Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted October 5, 2014 Author Share Posted October 5, 2014 A local gave me 3 free zoa frags The fully opened up the next day, but don't quite have their color back yet. https://flic.kr/p/pxmP1L'>https://flic.kr/p/pxmP1L'>IMG_6984 by https://www.flickr.com/people/127132658@N08/'>-niQo-, on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/pfTkfn'>https://flic.kr/p/pfTkfn'>IMG_6985 by https://www.flickr.com/people/127132658@N08/'>-niQo-, on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/pvmmPU'>https://flic.kr/p/pvmmPU'>IMG_6981 by https://www.flickr.com/people/127132658@N08/'>-niQo-, on Flickr My blue leg hermit, this morning I had to turkey baster out what seemed like a hermit body, but turned out to be a mold! I could however not find one of them, so thought it was actually a body. Found the poor guy in the overflow, hanging on for dear life! https://flic.kr/p/pvmdph'>https://flic.kr/p/pvmdph'>IMG_7019 by https://www.flickr.com/people/127132658@N08/'>-niQo-, on Flickr "Nemo" https://flic.kr/p/pvmhZ9'>https://flic.kr/p/pvmhZ9'>IMG_6989 by https://www.flickr.com/people/127132658@N08/'>-niQo-, on Flickr New FTS https://flic.kr/p/pxov9T'>https://flic.kr/p/pxov9T'>IMG_7009 by https://www.flickr.com/people/127132658@N08/'>-niQo-, on Flickr 1 Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 Not much going on, other then a bunch of different algae blooms: Diatoms, GHA and some red Cyano. Hoping to see some purple coralline soon! In the next week or so I have a live order coming in with some more livestock, especially to boost my CUC of two hermit crabs, they are making over hours and can barely keep up! Its a bit boring, the tank being in this "ugly stage." Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 After 6 months of silence, the tank is still going! FTS: May 8th 2015 by -niQo-, on Flickr FTS II: May 8th 2015 by -niQo-, on Flickr Right Side: May 8th 2015 by -niQo-, on Flickr Left Side: May 8th 2015 by -niQo-, on Flickr Center + Cleaner Shrimp: May 8th 2015 by -niQo-, on Flickr Coral update: Everything seems fine. Growing every so slowly. Most of it has decent color except my brown (supposed to be purple) Acro. Hoping to pick up some frags tomorrow. Fish update: Lost my first fish . Lost a six line wrasse as well and a peppermint shrimp. Not sure why. The clown ended up dead without any warning. The wrasse showed sign of sickness and died in a day, he had some scales 'sticking out' around his stomach. Got a new snowflake clown and cleaner shrimp, both seem to do well. Equipment update: Just got a Reefkeeper Lite and found out my heater (50W) is having trouble keeping the temperature stable, I put another 75W heater in there and things seem good. Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted July 1, 2015 Author Share Posted July 1, 2015 FTS July 1st: July 1st 2015 by Nico B., on FlickrWith new light fixture:July 1st 2015 by Nico B., on FlickrFrom the side:July 1st 2015 by Nico B., on FlickrMoved some things around on this side:July 1st by Nico B., on Flickr Found out my refractometer is incredibly affected by warmer temperatures, it will read 1.015 instead of 1.025. After continuously adding salt and not understanding what was going on, my corals started to act weird. Very frustrating! Also found a used NanoBox Duo, so I pretty much got my dream set up (except for the missing Apex)! 1 Quote Link to comment
ImNew:] Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 NICE! love the new light set up. Whats holding up the light?! looks like acrylic? Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 NICE! love the new light set up. Whats holding up the light?! looks like acrylic? It's actually a strip of metal painted white. The nice thing about it is that it automatically hides the cord. 1 Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 I think I'm still having issues with my refractometer. I just got a new one, but my corals aren't happy! A birds nest is losing polyps from the base up and a red montipora is also starting to lose polyps. The new refractometer (Red Sea), with American PinPoint calibration fluid (1.026). After using the calibration fluid, my refractometer reads my tank water as 1.021. If I calibrate it according to the manual, with DI water and set it to 0, my tank water reads 1.026. Except that the refractometer needs to be at 22/23 degrees Celcius to be calibrated, not sure how to get that done in the winter... What to trust? Seriously I thought it was easy to use refractometers and I've had al kinds of issues with them! As far as I know my other parameters are good. Temp is 78, nitrites and PO4 seems to be about 0 (with salifert), which I know should be up just a bit and I'm feeding a bit more to get it there. I'm doing weekly 2 gallon water changes on this 12 gallon system. Don't know what the Alk or Ca is. Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated, I'm getting annoyed seeing my corals not happy (except for my hammer, acan and ric) and having just invested money in a new refractometer! Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 Looks amazing!! Thanks! Quote Link to comment
D Z Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 I think I'm still having issues with my refractometer. I just got a new one, but my corals aren't happy! A birds nest is losing polyps from the base up and a red montipora is also starting to lose polyps. The new refractometer (Red Sea), with American PinPoint calibration fluid (1.026). After using the calibration fluid, my refractometer reads my tank water as 1.021. If I calibrate it according to the manual, with DI water and set it to 0, my tank water reads 1.026. Except that the refractometer needs to be at 22/23 degrees Celcius to be calibrated, not sure how to get that done in the winter... What to trust? Seriously I thought it was easy to use refractometers and I've had al kinds of issues with them! As far as I know my other parameters are good. Temp is 78, nitrites and PO4 seems to be about 0 (with salifert), which I know should be up just a bit and I'm feeding a bit more to get it there. I'm doing weekly 2 gallon water changes on this 12 gallon system. Don't know what the Alk or Ca is. Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated, I'm getting annoyed seeing my corals not happy (except for my hammer, acan and ric) and having just invested money in a new refractometer! Throw it out! I had the exact same issue with the Red Sea Refractometer and unfortunately went through a lot of the same problems as you are experiencing. I ended up going back to the el cheapo $22 Amazon refractometer and everything is stable again. http://www.amazon.com/Salinity-Refractometer-Aquarium-Seawater-Agriculture/dp/B005ES6MOQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453841038&sr=8-2&keywords=refractometer Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted January 26, 2016 Author Share Posted January 26, 2016 Throw it out! I had the exact same issue with the Red Sea Refractometer and unfortunately went through a lot of the same problems as you are experiencing. I ended up going back to the el cheapo $22 Amazon refractometer and everything is stable again. http://www.amazon.com/Salinity-Refractometer-Aquarium-Seawater-Agriculture/dp/B005ES6MOQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453841038&sr=8-2&keywords=refractometer Interesting. What I ended up doing is floating the calibration fluid in the tank for a while so it would have the same temperature as the tank water. After that I calibrated it again. I think it's good now. I just can't get over how they are supposedly such easy to use devices, but in reality they are finicky! It's hard to know if spending the extra $ is worth it or not! Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted January 26, 2016 Author Share Posted January 26, 2016 Beautiful tank! Thanks! It's not quite doing as well as it used to, but it's slowly moving in the right direction I think. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mangimi Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Do you have a new FTS? Would like to see what happened in the last month. In my topic you mentioned you also have very slow coral growth? The Nanobox you're running is supposed to be full spectrum, isn't it? Unfortunately I can't get the light here but I was thinking of someone getting it for me from the states. Probably it isn't the light. Do you run a skimmer? I love how high your overflow allows the water level to be. Mine is as high as it can possible get, the overflow won't work noiseless with higher flow rates. Quote Link to comment
Jwilken02 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I have been having issues with my refractometer also of late, we have had a pretty cold winter here in North FL and the other day when I calibrated with fluid back to 35 ppt my water was reading less than 1.020 which was a bit shocking. I have been slowly losing an Acan which I have always found to be an easier coral to keep, I calibrated with RODI water and the fluid and found between the two my water is roughly .002 off like most seem to have. I manually got the water back to 1.020 and am now letting a saltwater top off bring it back to 1.026 slowly. I have two clowns, a sand sifting star, and a RFA that I am freaking out about... Luckily I have mostly zoas for coral so they seem to be doing fine. Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I have been having issues with my refractometer also of late, we have had a pretty cold winter here in North FL and the other day when I calibrated with fluid back to 35 ppt my water was reading less than 1.020 which was a bit shocking. I have been slowly losing an Acan which I have always found to be an easier coral to keep, I calibrated with RODI water and the fluid and found between the two my water is roughly .002 off like most seem to have. I manually got the water back to 1.020 and am now letting a saltwater top off bring it back to 1.026 slowly. I have two clowns, a sand sifting star, and a RFA that I am freaking out about... Luckily I have mostly zoas for coral so they seem to be doing fine. Yikes. I noticed the same thing... For some reason both my refractometer AND digital salinity meter are not working recently in S Florida. Bought new 35ppt calibration solution and after calibrating with 0TDS RODI it reads the solution at 1.019 or so. My tank has never had salinity fluctuations due to the ATO- all its existence it has tested 1.025 or 1.026 due to careful water changes but now both tools read much lower. Because I trust the tanks stability and the corals are doing great I will ignore it.... But careful you don't raise the salinity too high by mistake. Quote Link to comment
Mangimi Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 thats why I use a simple small hydrometer. never had any problems with those. Of course the salinity measurement isn't that exact, but it gives a good idea on where your tank stands. Quote Link to comment
Jwilken02 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Honestly with how confused I am about the whole thing, and regretting researching calibration with the insane amount of info, and scared that I am getting a bad reading as I also have an ato I might go buy a swing arm hydrometer and use them both to check each other. I mean when I test my RODI and set too 0 then rinse dry and test the calibration fluid (35 ppt) it reads at 36-37. Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted January 28, 2016 Author Share Posted January 28, 2016 Do you have a new FTS? Would like to see what happened in the last month. In my topic you mentioned you also have very slow coral growth? The Nanobox you're running is supposed to be full spectrum, isn't it? Unfortunately I can't get the light here but I was thinking of someone getting it for me from the states. Probably it isn't the light. Do you run a skimmer? I love how high your overflow allows the water level to be. Mine is as high as it can possible get, the overflow won't work noiseless with higher flow rates. You mean what happened in the last 7 months! Haha, haven't really taken much time to update... I'm about 100% sure it has nothing to do with the light. I love the light and people have had great success with them. Maybe I still have it too bright... The overflow is very high which I like, but I probably should have put it 1/4" lower. It is very silent though, so overall I'm happy with it as long as fish don't keep ending up in there! I have been having issues with my refractometer also of late, we have had a pretty cold winter here in North FL and the other day when I calibrated with fluid back to 35 ppt my water was reading less than 1.020 which was a bit shocking. I have been slowly losing an Acan which I have always found to be an easier coral to keep, I calibrated with RODI water and the fluid and found between the two my water is roughly .002 off like most seem to have. I manually got the water back to 1.020 and am now letting a saltwater top off bring it back to 1.026 slowly. I have two clowns, a sand sifting star, and a RFA that I am freaking out about... Luckily I have mostly zoas for coral so they seem to be doing fine. Yikes. I noticed the same thing... For some reason both my refractometer AND digital salinity meter are not working recently in S Florida. Bought new 35ppt calibration solution and after calibrating with 0TDS RODI it reads the solution at 1.019 or so. My tank has never had salinity fluctuations due to the ATO- all its existence it has tested 1.025 or 1.026 due to careful water changes but now both tools read much lower. Because I trust the tanks stability and the corals are doing great I will ignore it.... But careful you don't raise the salinity too high by mistake. My conclusion, based on very little experience, is that even the ATC refractometers are affected by how warm they are. Mine would read about 10 points lower than it actually was during the summer (No AC in our rental)... Which is unacceptable. I'm really hoping my new one won't be so bad! But at least now I can calibrate before each use if I have to. It is just frustrating this is not more stable as salinity is kind of a big deal in this hobby! Quote Link to comment
Jwilken02 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 My conclusion, based on very little experience, is that even the ATC refractometers are affected by how warm they are. Mine would read about 10 points lower than it actually was during the summer (No AC in our rental)... Which is unacceptable. I'm really hoping my new one won't be so bad! But at least now I can calibrate before each use if I have to. It is just frustrating this is not more stable as salinity is kind of a big deal in this hobby! Yeah it truly is very frustrating, when you lose faith in a piece of equipment as important as that it is very nerve racking. I have an instrument rating in helicopters and know how important it is to put your faith in your instruments, so I brought both my refractometer and a sample of water yesterday down to my lfs and sure enough no matter what we tried my refractometer was reading roughly .020 lower than the reading we were getting with the LFS refractometer. We tested 3 different systems that are held at different salinities too. My water was reading at 1.020 when I would test but when we tested it with the stores refractometer it read 1.022 so I brought it up to 1.023 last night and plan to bump it up to 1.024 this evening. I will be leaving for the weekend unfortunately so hoping to get it done before I leave. As for growth, I agree with you niQo, I think this has more to do with the maturity of the tank rather than the lights. I do think that you will see better growth with T5s and MHs over LEDs but I also believe LEDs are more than enough to get growth. I know with my old Biocube I had mediocre growth for roughly a year under a 150w MH but after that first year everything exploded in size in just a few months. Like mentioned before its all about stability, which is what makes reefing in such a limited amount of water so tough. Quote Link to comment
Kijho Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Do you just have the 1 clownfish? I have 2x clownfish (pair), bicolor blenny, and watchmen goby... not sure what additional livestock I'll add for the 20, but I'd like something more.. perhaps I can see if LFS' will trade my Blenny in for a firefish or something... I'd love a pair of firefish perhaps, and then maybe another pistol shrimp to pair with the goby (as I don't have one now, but had one long ago and loved it).. Quote Link to comment
niQo Posted January 29, 2016 Author Share Posted January 29, 2016 Yeah it truly is very frustrating, when you lose faith in a piece of equipment as important as that it is very nerve racking. I have an instrument rating in helicopters and know how important it is to put your faith in your instruments, so I brought both my refractometer and a sample of water yesterday down to my lfs and sure enough no matter what we tried my refractometer was reading roughly .020 lower than the reading we were getting with the LFS refractometer. We tested 3 different systems that are held at different salinities too. My water was reading at 1.020 when I would test but when we tested it with the stores refractometer it read 1.022 so I brought it up to 1.023 last night and plan to bump it up to 1.024 this evening. I will be leaving for the weekend unfortunately so hoping to get it done before I leave. As for growth, I agree with you niQo, I think this has more to do with the maturity of the tank rather than the lights. I do think that you will see better growth with T5s and MHs over LEDs but I also believe LEDs are more than enough to get growth. I know with my old Biocube I had mediocre growth for roughly a year under a 150w MH but after that first year everything exploded in size in just a few months. Like mentioned before its all about stability, which is what makes reefing in such a limited amount of water so tough. I think thanks to my refractometer issues I've had a hard time keeping 12 Gal. of water stable! I'm hoping I can get it stable and see some more growth soon. Even simple corals like zoos are not doing well at all at the moment, barely opening up... Do you just have the 1 clownfish? I have 2x clownfish (pair), bicolor blenny, and watchmen goby... not sure what additional livestock I'll add for the 20, but I'd like something more.. perhaps I can see if LFS' will trade my Blenny in for a firefish or something... I'd love a pair of firefish perhaps, and then maybe another pistol shrimp to pair with the goby (as I don't have one now, but had one long ago and loved it).. I have 1 clownfish, 1 allen damsel and a yellow watchmen goby (and some inverts). You have 4 fish in your Spec? That's quite a few! 1 Quote Link to comment
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