Livewreck's 10 gallon reef - On Autopilot

[metrokat]

Well that's nice

yup. The first treatment should be double dosed, or they come back for sure.

[Livewreck]

You have to take the instructions and dose double. they become immune after the first treatment.

 

I didn't know that. Thanks.

 

As it turned out, I did double-dose the tank today just on a hunch. But I'm glad you posted that info because until I read what you wrote, I was worried that I over-dosed the tank.

 

I also let the tank run for 4 hours before re-introducing carbon, and 5 hours before doing a 25% water change. - If this doesn't work to rid the tank of flatworms, what would you suggest I do next?

[metrokat]

You don't have too many FWs right now so running carbon that long after treatment would not have made the toxin levels high. However if you did have a crazy infestation, unless you have no fish, the carbon should be brought back online sooner rather than later.

[Livewreck]

Lots of changes made since last post. I took out most of the SPS corals, added an ORA green Sinularia, and a Caulastrea. I'm waiting for an ORA blue Cispitularia to become available. The tank lacked motion. I have only one fish (a yellow clown goby) and it doesn't swim around, except to feed. Replacing SPS for soft corals provided more movement in the currents and makes the tank "come alive." I think SPS corals are beautiful - especially Acroporas - and I love SPS tanks that have at least a few sizeable fish to provide motion In the tank. IMO, an SPS only tank is like a beautiful Still Life painting. I'm not knocking it. I just prefer a tank that doesn't require a second look to know that it's alive

 

On the reef keeping side, I added an Apex Jr. Controller and a 2-part dosing system that I bought from Bulk Reef Supply. I have to send Kudos to both BRS and to Neptune Systems. In both cases, their instructions, videos, and online web instructions made setting up the Apex Jr. controller and the BRS dosing pumps a snap!

 

And I love the Fusion software that comes when you set up the Apex Jr. It's a great, simple way to record and graph water parameters. In the past I tried to use an Excel Spread Sheet, but I find the Apex-Fusion software much easier to use.

[reefernanoman]

Lots of changes made since last post. I took out most of the SPS corals, added an ORA green Sinularia, and a Caulastrea. I'm waiting for an ORA blue Cispitularia to become available. The tank lacked motion. I have only one fish (a yellow clown goby) and it doesn't swim around, except to feed. Replacing SPS for soft corals provided more movement in the currents and makes the tank "come alive." I think SPS corals are beautiful - especially Acroporas - and I love SPS tanks that have at least a few sizeable fish to provide motion In the tank. IMO, an SPS only tank is like a beautiful Still Life painting. I'm not knocking it. I just prefer a tank that doesn't require a second look to know that it's alive

 

On the reef keeping side, I added an Apex Jr. Controller and a 2-part dosing system that I bought from Bulk Reef Supply. I have to send Kudos to both BRS and to Neptune Systems. In both cases, their instructions, videos, and online web instructions made setting up the Apex Jr. controller and the BRS dosing pumps a snap!

 

And I love the Fusion software that comes when you set up the Apex Jr. It's a great, simple way to record and graph water parameters. In the past I tried to use an Excel Spread Sheet, but I find the Apex-Fusion software much easier to use.

Waiting on pics .

[Livewreck]

Just an iPhone snap shot. (The GSPs on the rock at left, front have been closed for a couple of days. They would open soon.)

 

I'll take better photos in a few days.

 

[Cencalfishguy56]

Just an iPhone snap shot. (The GSPs on the rock at left, front have been closed for a couple of days. They would open soon.)

 

I'll take better photos in a few days.

 

Gsp makes me mad lol when it closes, it freakin closes!

[OsiViper]

Looks good, can't wait to get my 10 gallon up and running!

[Livewreck]

Finally, this tank takes care of itself... pretty much, anyway.

 

What a pleasure it is to have the Apex Jr. - especially when hooked up to a dosing system. My Alk and Calcium levels are rock steady. Because I have such a small aquarium (10 gallon... holds 8 gallons of water), I had to dilute the two part solution I got from BRS. I simply added twice as much water to the dosing salts. When set to the shortest dosing time option of one minute, the dosing pumps deliver just the right amount of solution to keep my Alk at about 9.3 and my Calcium at 430.

 

I do 1 gallon WC each week for 3 weeks and a 2 gallon WC on the 4th week of the month. I run my Ghost Skimmer from 7 PM to 7 AM. I also use Carbon, Purigen, and Phosban in my InTank Media Basket. Nitrates are consistently below 5 and Phosphates are not at detectable levels. The Tunze nano assimilator (ATO) does the rest of the work.

 

This is like having my cake and eating it too! Going on vacation for three weeks at a time is no longer a problem. The only chores upon return is cleaning the glass and doing a 2 gallon WC. - I love it!

[Livewreck]

I bought two new corals: a Cespitularia (ORA's Blue Xenia) and some Uttery Chaos Palys.

 

Cespitularia is easier to control than it's close close cousin, pumping/pulsing Xenia. In order to keep it in check, I'm growing it on its own rock that just rests on my main Live Rock. When needed, I can simply lift out the smaller rock and trim back, or frag, the Cespitularia.

 

The color is just coming in. The stalks will be pale blue and the tentacles will be a golden color - I hope. Behind the Cespitularia is a Ponape Bird's Nest which has changed colors since I first acquired it, it was a green/yellow with pink tips. But now its a vibrant pink and pale green mixture.

 

The Utterly Chaotic Utter Choas Palys:

 

Front view with Yellow Clown Goby in partial hiding):

 

Goby in Paradise:

 

Side view:

 

One more from the front:

 

 

 

[teenyreef]

Awesome pictures! I'm glad everything is doing so well. I can't remember - what kind of doser are you using? I had to dilute my solution too in order to get things under control.

[Livewreck]

Thanks, tr. I bought this BRS 2 Part Calcium & Alkalinity Total Package. It comes with the salts needed to mix up solutions of Alk, Calcium, and Magnesium, and it also comes with two dosing pumps. The pumps deliver about 1 ml of solution per minute, which is the shortest time interval allowed by my Apex Jr. controller.

 

However, when the salts are mixed according to the instructions that come with the kit, running the pumps for one minute would deliver twice the amount of Calcium and Alkalinity required to keep the Alk and Calcium at the levels I want. So I cut the concentration in half. I dose Alk at 1AM and Calcium at 9AM.

 

Topping off the Magnesium is a simple once every 2-3 week process by simply adding the Magnesium mixture directly into the tank. The amount of Magnesium required is easy to determine using the calculators on the BRS website.

[teenyreef]

Gotcha - thanks! I'm currently running the Jebao doser, which doses one ml in about a second I managed to get just the right amount of dilution to keep things stable in my 4g tank, but it's crazy how tricky it was to get dialed in.

 

I ordered a set of BRS dosers for both my tanks and I plan to hook them up to my Apex Jr., too. so it's good to hear that they are working for you.

 

When I played around with using my Apex Jr., though, I was able to get it to dose for as little as one second. Are you sure you're limited to setting it to one minute? I did a manual program, but I don't remember exactly what I put in. Let me know if you need me to look it up.

[Livewreck]

teenyreef, I need to clarify what I wrote. The limitation on dosing times is not due to the Apex Jr., but lies with the accuracy of the dosing pumps I bought from BRS.

 

I wholeheartedly recommend the BRS pumps that come with their 2 part dosing system because they are inexpensive and they get the job done; but they are not high precision dosing pumps. If you run the pump ten separate times for one minute each, and collect and the amount of liquid delivered in each of the ten samples, you will find equal volumes in each of the samples collected. But if you shorten the delivery times to 10 seconds, you will notice a measurable difference between each of the ten samples.

 

If you watch the outflow drops when the pump is running, you'll see something like this: one drop will be delivered each second for 10 seconds, and then no drops for 2 or 3 seconds... and then that pattern repeats itself. A high precision dosing pump would 1) allow you to set how many drops it delivers each second and 2) deliver the same number of drops per unit time regardless of how long (or short) a time it runs.

 

The BRS pumps deliver a set volume (nominally 1.1 ml/min), and do so in a slightly variable manner as described above. The instructions that come with the pump recommend that you calibrate the pump by running it for exactly 10 minutes while collecting the fluid output, then dividing that volume by 10 to determine the actual volume delivered per minute. To be honest, I forget whether my two pumps deliver 1 or 2 ml per minute, but both pumps deliver the same volume per unit time. And they deliver consistent volumes if run in one minute increments.

 

I know there are those who say that dosing is not needed in nano reefs and that frequent water changes are all that is necessary. I have no argument with that philosophy. But it is certainly easier to achieve consistent water parameters using dosing pumps. And they allow one to go on vacation for several weeks without having to arrange for a friend to do the WCs or risk a crash due to an imbalance in Alkalinity. It's sort of like ATO systems. They are not required, but they sure make nano reef keeping much easier and, therefore, much more enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

 

[Livewreck]

Just thought I'd post my results so far:

 

I also measured the Alk and Calcium in my replacement salt water mixture. (I use Tropic Marin Pro). Calcium is 430 and needs no adjustment. The Alkalinity is only 7.7 dKH so I added 3.7 ml of the BRS Alkalinity solution to the 4 gallons of mixed salt water in my 5 gallon bucket to bring the Alkalinity to 9 dKH. That way there will be no Alkalinity swing during my next WC (which I'll do later today).

[teenyreef]

OK, now I understand. That's the same problem I had with my current doser. Small doses (under about 2 ml) are not very consistent. It's disappointing that the BRS doser just does the same thing, but slower. On the other hand, it's easy to dilute the dosing solution so I'm not worried about it. Thanks!

[Addinali]

Tank looks pretty sweet Ill be following.

[HarryPotter]

Hi! Nice tank

 

Can you post a screenshot of your apex doser programming? I am having trouble figuring it out. Oscillations? What?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Livewreck]

Thanks, Addinali.

 

Hi! Nice tank

Can you post a screenshot of your apex doser programming? I am having trouble figuring it out. Oscillations? What?

Thanks in advance!

 

Thanks Harry.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by my dosing program, but I'll post shots of how I set the 4 outlets, as well as my simple dosing schedule for Alkalinity. (It's basically the same settings for Calcium except that I scheduled that pump to run from 9:00 AM to 9:01 AM. Programing the Apex Jr. is very easy once you hook up to the internet and sign on to their ApexFusion website. I think you can program the Apex Jr. without the internet, but it's not nearly as simple and easy as when using ApexFusion. Once you have used ApexFusion to set your outlets, you do not need to stay connected to the internet, but I love the ApexFusion on-line software and consider it a major selling point of the Apex controllers.

 

My Outlet Settings:

 

My Alkalinity Dosing Schedule:

 

If you need additional info, let me know and I'll try to help.

 

 

 

 

[HarryPotter]

Eek harder than I though! I might try out the (uber cheap) marine magic or jebao dosers. For under $80, hard to go wrong w. 4 peristaltic pumps!

[Livewreck]

Eek harder than I though! I might try out the (uber cheap) marine magic or jebao dosers. For under $80, hard to go wrong w. 4 peristaltic pumps!

 

Actually, the set up was very easy. All I had to do was to name each outlet by typing over the default names (although I could have easily used the default names) and then set the On and Off times. Nothing to it.

 

The Jebao quad-dosers seem nice and from what I read they are easy to set up. Seems most folks are pleased with them, too.

 

The reason I went with a separate controller, rather than choosing self-regulated dosing pumps, is that if the pumps malfunction and stay On, the tank will be toast in a matter of minutes... long before I realize something malfunctioned. With the Apex Jr. controller, I set the default setting on the outlets that provide power to my pumps to Off. So no matter what might fail - pump or controller - the worse that can happen is that my Alk and Calcium will slowly decrease over several days, giving me plenty of time to diagnose and correct the situation.

 

In addition, the controller provides a safety feature to prevent the tank from overheating. If my heater's thermostat goes bonkers and gets stuck in the On state, there is no way my water temp will exceed 80 degrees because the controller will shut off power to the outlet I plug my heater into.

 

While it's not a 100% rule, you usually get what you pay for. I've sunk a lot of money - and even more important, a lot of time and effort - into my little 10 gallon reef. I'd hate to have that investment go south, so I chose my equipment carefully... and then I cross my fingers and hope for the best.

[Livewreck]

Not quite a year, but lots of changes since last post. The tank has settled down nicely and appears to be in good balance. Water parameters have held stead for many months now... ever since I started dosing.

 

Since my last post, the Cespitularia melted; I added two Frogspawns (one yellow tipped, the other a typical green with purple tips); a small yellow Rock Flower Nem, and a tiny Xenia frag which, so far has a really nice dark gray/brown color.

 

Front View

 

Side View

 

Close up of the Rock Flower Anemone (which is yellow, and not green as in this photo)

 

I'm pretty sure I've been under-feeding the aquarium. The Sinularia hasn't grown at all in the 5 months since I bought it, and the Zoas have grown only a bit. I feed the one fish daily but only feed the corals about once a week. I'll step that up to 3 times a week and see what happens.

[GavinW]

amazing fusion10! love it. I have one as well that has been running for about one year now too. I manually does ALK once a week which keeps it around 7-8dkh, and I don't have to dose calcium because my weekly water changes keep it stable. I am curious about a dosing pump and how to set one up with my apex jr. I would like to go home for christmas break and not have to worry about my alk slowly withering down. I would love some tips! thanks

[uwharrie]

All I have to say is Beautiful Tank!

[Livewreck]

Dosing with the systems sold by Bulk Reef Supply is incredibly easy. They have several instructional videos on their website about dosing and how to do it. If you can connect your Apex Jr. To the Internet via an Ethernet cable, running the dosing pumps via the Apex Jr. is also very easy.

 

Like you, I travel on occasion and that's why I decided to dose instead of relying on water changes. But I have to say that dosing is incredibly easy and allows me to leave the tank unattended for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. In fact, even if you don't travel, dosing will provide a lot steadier chemical environment than will water changes once a week.

 

I only dose three things: Alk, Calcium, and Magnesium. The first two are dosed automatically via pumps, and the Magnesium is adjusted manually about once every 3 to 4 weeks. I dose the Alk at night (less of a pH change) and dose Calcium in the morning. The smaller chemical package sold by BRS will last about a year in my little 10 gallon.

 

Check out the BRS website.