TeenyReef's 10g Fusion - ATO Disaster

[teenyreef]

Sorry I've been neglecting my tank threads lately, I've just been too busy! I have one kid graduating from college, another one graduating from high school, and work has been crazy. But life is good and so is the tank

 

I put this chalice in a couple months ago. I think I finally found just the right level of light, not too bright, not too dark.

 

 

[jack1978]

46 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Sorry I've been neglecting my tank threads lately, I've just been too busy! I have one kid graduating from college, another one graduating from high school, and work has been crazy. But life is good and so is the tank

 

I put this chalice in a couple months ago. I think I finally found just the right level of light, not too bright, not too dark.

 

 

Congrats on all of the above, Teeny!

Nice pic, btw.

[teenyreef]

1 hour ago, jack1978 said:

Congrats on all of the above, Teeny!

Nice pic, btw.

Thanks, Jack

 

[ReefWeeds]

I'm sooooo far behind!  But i love this tank!  It's looking beautiful, Teeny.

[Mariaface]

 My brother and I are four years apart like that. He graduates next year! And my parents had to attend my college graduation, help me move the five hours back into the city, then attend his high school graduation.

 

Good luck!

 

[Chriswillz]

Absolute inspirational tank love following this build its a credit to you well done 

[Kyl]

Teeny do you still have the yellow assessor? Wondering if you've seen any aggression between it and your tailspot at all.

 

LFS seems to be selling theirs that has been in the store for a few months at half off ($50 CAD), debating it since my clown goby went carpet surfing yesterday and I'm not getting another one of those heh.

 

 

* Well I rolled the dice, we'll see if it pays off. It's an ORA bred assessor too, half off. Was out in the tank showing off before being bagged up

[teenyreef]

I have been terrible about making updates lately! Between my daughter's senior art show one weekend, her graduation the next weekend, lots of work at work, and the usual stuff with the rest of the family, I've barely had time even to feed the fish. I haven't changed the water in almost two weeks, although I did find the time to put in fresh carbon and gfo the other night. 

 

I'm looking forward to getting caught up over the three day weekend, and then it will be time for the June FTS! The tank has been pretty stable over the last month - the new acros are all still alive, and although they aren't quite thriving and super colorful yet, I'm happy that things are stable enough to keep them alive. I'm going to slowwwwwly work on decreasing nitrates and phosphates, and hopefully they will color up a bit more.

[Pjanssen]

I feel ya! With this stupid, er, I mean stupendous tank contest crap, er I mean rapture stuff going on,I'm so far behind in reading up on all my favorite tank threads and journals. Like I have time for a second tank. What was I ? 

[Lula_Mae]

Beautiful tank!  Doug 2 is super cute (well they all are)!

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

I feel ya! With this stupid, er, I mean stupendous tank contest crap, er I mean rapture stuff going on,I'm so far behind in reading up on all my favorite tank threads and journals. Like I have time for a second tank. What was I ? 

Just have to survive 100 days and then you can take it down!

[Pjanssen]

19 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Beautiful tank!  Doug 2 is super cute (well they all are)!

Just have to survive 100 days and then you can take it down!

Hahahaha. That would be a waist of ? ? ?

[Gradleg]

I love this tank! You did a great job on it. Im looking into upgrading to a nuvo fusion 20. Anyways, what is this coral called.(light green or mint and bluish) And if you had to pick your favorite coral or top 3 even what would they be? Thanks 

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, Pjanssen said:

Hahahaha. That would be a waist of ? ? ?

lol well that's true...do something easy maintenance so it won't be too much to keep up with for the time you have it up.

 

31 minutes ago, Gradleg said:

I love this tank! You did a great job on it. Im looking into upgrading to a nuvo fusion 20. Anyways, what is this coral called.(light green or mint and bluish) And if you had to pick your favorite coral or top 3 even what would they be? Thanks 

Looks like very pretty blastos to me!

[gone_PHiSHin]

those are 'teenylettis'!  

 

its a blastomussa merletti colony and i absolutely love them.  i've never seen that color variety anywhere else than this tank!

[teenyreef]

On 5/27/2017 at 3:05 PM, gone_PHiSHin said:

those are 'teenylettis'!  

 

its a blastomussa merletti colony and i absolutely love them.  i've never seen that color variety anywhere else than this tank!

I got them from an LFS, they were one of the very first corals I ever had in this tank. And definitely one of my favorites.

On 5/27/2017 at 2:14 PM, Gradleg said:

I love this tank! You did a great job on it. Im looking into upgrading to a nuvo fusion 20. Anyways, what is this coral called.(light green or mint and bluish) And if you had to pick your favorite coral or top 3 even what would they be? Thanks 

Thanks! I think my current favorites are the "Teenylettis", all of the acans, and after that, the zoas on the zoa rock.

 

The acros are still getting adjusted to this tank, so they aren't exactly spectacular right now. So the top 3 may change once they get going 

[teenyreef]

On 5/26/2017 at 3:25 PM, Pjanssen said:

I feel ya! With this stupid, er, I mean stupendous tank contest crap, er I mean rapture stuff going on,I'm so far behind in reading up on all my favorite tank threads and journals. Like I have time for a second tank. What was I ? 

Ha ha, I know what you mean. Oh wait, I have THREE tanks. Arrgh. 

[gone_PHiSHin]

teeny i know we talked lighting before in this thread but i only got to see your peak/midday settings.  when you have a minute would you post your morning, midday, and evening settings together?  i want to see how much you ramp up and ramp down throughout the day.  

 

i recently started playing with my lighting over the last month or so and have gone pretty slowly with my adjustments.  however, i had two blastomussa wellsi colonies who all the sudden started receding and showing skeleton.  i moved them down to the sandbed, in a relatively shaded area, but they have not bounced back yet.  in fact they seem to be getting worse. i think i may have made the situation worse by doing harm to the corals by pulling them off the rock, they were glued down and didn't come off very easily.

 

none of the other corals have responded poorly to my lighting adjustments so i don't really know where to go with my settings.

 

as a side note, any suggestions on what to do with the receding blastos?  it's been a week and they are not looking better, i don't know if i need to take action or just leave them alone.   i'll probably start a thread about this but figured i'd start here while we're talking about it...

[teenyreef]

1 hour ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

teeny i know we talked lighting before in this thread but i only got to see your peak/midday settings.  when you have a minute would you post your morning, midday, and evening settings together?  i want to see how much you ramp up and ramp down throughout the day.  

 

i recently started playing with my lighting over the last month or so and have gone pretty slowly with my adjustments.  however, i had two blastomussa wellsi colonies who all the sudden started receding and showing skeleton.  i moved them down to the sandbed, in a relatively shaded area, but they have not bounced back yet.  in fact they seem to be getting worse. i think i may have made the situation worse by doing harm to the corals by pulling them off the rock, they were glued down and didn't come off very easily.

 

none of the other corals have responded poorly to my lighting adjustments so i don't really know where to go with my settings.

 

as a side note, any suggestions on what to do with the receding blastos?  it's been a week and they are not looking better, i don't know if i need to take action or just leave them alone.   i'll probably start a thread about this but figured i'd start here while we're talking about it...

Here are the screenshots for the IM10 Mini Tide settings. I've been considering bumping up the intensity at mid-day for a little while, but I'm going to wait until I get phosphates lower before I decide if I need more PAR.

 

 

 

 

 

As far as the blastos go, I don't have much useful advice. Maybe a Lugol's dip? It sounds more like a bacterial infection, which I've seen on my acans before. But I've never been able to reverse it once it starts.

 

I would put them in low to moderate flow with moderate to low light, and feed them daily.

[gone_PHiSHin]

thanks as always! 

 

I'm about to make a thread, hoping for more input!

[cobra2326]

Nice! Good to see the SPS are back in the tank!

[TheKernel]

Greetings,

Dustin here, I just got an IM Nuvo 10, and am starting my reef tank! 

Inspired by this post.  I wanted to get some info.  How's the refuge working?  I was thinking of doing that but was discouraged by an employee who sells these tanks at my local store; he suggested using the media balls and carbon.  I have the the light for it and the custom 20 media holder, the Kessil 160 and the desktop skimmer.  Currently I'm getting this DIY controller, but I'm tempted to use the Neptune system as you did, how has your experience been with that system? 

 

Also, I've searched and cannot find what SPS means? Everyone says it but I can't never find the meaning.  

 

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, TheKernel said:

Greetings,

Dustin here, I just got an IM Nuvo 10, and am starting my reef tank! 

Inspired by this post.  I wanted to get some info.  How's the refuge working?  I was thinking of doing that but was discouraged by an employee who sells these tanks at my local store; he suggested using the media balls and carbon.  I have the the light for it and the custom 20 media holder, the Kessil 160 and the desktop skimmer.  Currently I'm getting this DIY controller, but I'm tempted to use the Neptune system as you did, how has your experience been with that system? 

 

Also, I've searched and cannot find what SPS means? Everyone says it but I can't never find the meaning.  

 

SPS is an acronym for small polyp stony corals, such as montipora and acropora.  LPS stands for large polyp stony corals like blastomussa and euphyllia species.  Reefer jargon can take some getting used to!

 

There's a lot of different ways to run a tank that can work, not sure what the media balls are but a lot of times things like that can trap detritus and produce nitrates.  Carbon is good though.  If it were me I probably would do some chaeto in the back but then I like macros lol.

 

Also, to Nano-Reef!

[teenyreef]

4 hours ago, TheKernel said:

Greetings,

Dustin here, I just got an IM Nuvo 10, and am starting my reef tank! 

Inspired by this post.  I wanted to get some info.  How's the refuge working?  I was thinking of doing that but was discouraged by an employee who sells these tanks at my local store; he suggested using the media balls and carbon.  I have the the light for it and the custom 20 media holder, the Kessil 160 and the desktop skimmer.  Currently I'm getting this DIY controller, but I'm tempted to use the Neptune system as you did, how has your experience been with that system? 

 

Also, I've searched and cannot find what SPS means? Everyone says it but I can't never find the meaning.  

 

Unfortunately I stopped running the refugium just a couple months after I started it. There just wasn't enough room in the small back compartment in the IM10, and instead of getting good chaeto growth, I got no growth, with lots of detritus accumulating in the chaeto.

 

In the InTank media basket, I run floss, and then carbon. When I run gfo, I mix it with the carbon and change it every two weeks along with the carbon. I also run the skimmer because I have so many fish.

 

I personally would not use media balls, as @Lula_Mae pointed out, many reefers believe they trap so much detritus that they do more harm than good. Unless you are into removing and cleaning them out every week or two. That's way too much work for me, and I spend a lot of time on my reefs as it is

 

With what you've got planned, I would just run carbon, and maybe some gfo if your phosphates get too high.

 

As far as automation goes, the Apex is great but it's not cheap. However, now that they have the new model controller, you can find the older model (which is what I have) on the used market a lot cheaper. The nice thing about the Apex is that you can get a lot of modules to control other things, such as Vortech wireless pumps. Plus there is a real wealth of information on the web about how to setup and program the Apex, which makes it a lot easier to work with. On the other hand, doing a DIY controller would be lots of fun and you'd have the advantage of really understanding how it's put together. I'm a computer professional with a lot of experience with both hardware and software, but I'm not willing to put in the time it would take to get a DIY controller to have the same capabilities of the Apex.

[teenyreef]

I've been a bad blogger, just no time to keep up! But things are finally starting to calm down a bit, all the graduations are done and the family is starting to relax and enjoy the summer. 

 

The tank has been doing pretty well but I had a minor disaster the other night while changing the skimmer cup. As I lifted the cup up, I knocked the gooseneck for the light out of place, and the light wasn't tightly clamped to the tank. Next thing I knew the light was in the tank 

 

Fortunately, since all the high voltage stuff is in the driver box, outside the tank, it didn't hurt any corals or fish. But I had to send the light back to Dave at Nanobox to check it out because it stopped working. The bad news is, it needed a new driver board. The good news is, Dave looked at it right away. Even though I just sent it in on Monday, it will be back on Saturday, all fixed. In the meantime, I've got my old PAR 30 bulb hanging over the tank just to give the corals some light.

 

Since Dave had the light anyway, I asked him to upgrade the LED array to the latest version, which will replace the old warm white LEDS with mint LEDS. From what I've seen and heard this is a great upgrade because the mints can provide higher PAR without washing out the color, plus the overall color balance is better. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it looks!

 

I also asked Dave to put on a longer gooseneck, to provide a little more clearance for the skimmer cup... 

 

Fortunately, I took a few pictures last week before the light took a bath. I have lost a couple of the acros that I put in, but the others are still doing well. One of the ones was lost because I found an aiptasia underneath it after removing the plug, but I'm not sure why the others went bad. It may just be due to the tank still being a little immature and unbalanced after the soft reboot.

 

I've also stopped running gfo completely, and I'm just doing PhosphateRX to control phosphates. I've also stopped running carbon, at least for now. The idea is to keep nitrates at a natural level (about 10) while keeping phosphates low for improved color. So far so good - as you can see from the pictures, the acans and other softies are quite happy, and the remaining acros seem to be doing fine.

 

I took this top top down right before feeding time:

 

Here are the acans after feeding. I love how they get all puffy and full of food

 

Doug, the leopard toby puffer:

 

You can see the ORA Pearlberry acro just below the red monti cap, it's doing fine.

 

A couple more acros, along with the chalice. A few days after I took this picture, I lost the smaller acro for No Apparent Reason

 

California Tort (left), and Rainbow Tenuis Chef (right). The tenuis started receding after this, so I pulled out the remains, and it's recovering in the 40g tank. That's when I found an aiptasia underneath the plug, which I think was causing the problem.

 

Zoa garden #1:

 

Zoa garden #2:

 

That's it for now, I hope to update more frequently from now on!

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

I've been a bad blogger, just no time to keep up! But things are finally starting to calm down a bit, all the graduations are done and the family is starting to relax and enjoy the summer. 

 

The tank has been doing pretty well but I had a minor disaster the other night while changing the skimmer cup. As I lifted the cup up, I knocked the gooseneck for the light out of place, and the light wasn't tightly clamped to the tank. Next thing I knew the light was in the tank 

 

Fortunately, since all the high voltage stuff is in the driver box, outside the tank, it didn't hurt any corals or fish. But I had to send the light back to Dave at Nanobox to check it out because it stopped working. The bad news is, it needed a new driver board. The good news is, Dave looked at it right away. Even though I just sent it in on Monday, it will be back on Saturday, all fixed. In the meantime, I've got my old PAR 30 bulb hanging over the tank just to give the corals some light.

 

Since Dave had the light anyway, I asked him to upgrade the LED array to the latest version, which will replace the old warm white LEDS with mint LEDS. From what I've seen and heard this is a great upgrade because the mints can provide higher PAR without washing out the color, plus the overall color balance is better. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it looks!

 

I also asked Dave to put on a longer gooseneck, to provide a little more clearance for the skimmer cup... 

 

Fortunately, I took a few pictures last week before the light took a bath. I have lost a couple of the acros that I put in, but the others are still doing well. One of the ones was lost because I found an aiptasia underneath it after removing the plug, but I'm not sure why the others went bad. It may just be due to the tank still being a little immature and unbalanced after the soft reboot.

 

I've also stopped running gfo completely, and I'm just doing PhosphateRX to control phosphates. I've also stopped running carbon, at least for now. The idea is to keep nitrates at a natural level (about 10) while keeping phosphates low for improved color. So far so good - as you can see from the pictures, the acans and other softies are quite happy, and the remaining acros seem to be doing fine.

 

I took this top top down right before feeding time:

 

Here are the acans after feeding. I love how they get all puffy and full of food

 

Doug, the leopard toby puffer:

 

You can see the ORA Pearlberry acro just below the red monti cap, it's doing fine.

 

A couple more acros, along with the chalice. A few days after I took this picture, I lost the smaller acro for No Apparent Reason

 

California Tort (left), and Rainbow Tenuis Chef (right). The tenuis started receding after this, so I pulled out the remains, and it's recovering in the 40g tank. That's when I found an aiptasia underneath the plug, which I think was causing the problem.

 

Zoa garden #1:

 

Zoa garden #2:

 

That's it for now, I hope to update more frequently from now on!

 

Those acans are soooooo pretty.