Muraki's Mr. Aqua 22 Long

[Muraki]

Still looking for a few more recommendations.

 

Took a short video of the Mandarin that I have had for 8 months or so. I forget the actual purchase date. Have 1 picture from June 4th. So I assume around then. Received him skinny from the LFS.

 

Taken today during the evening when the lights are nearly out. Sorry for the poor quality, as I only use my phone for pictures or videos.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v91/KarKaz/Mobile%20Uploads/th_20170131_180123.mp4

 

 

The wonderful cucumber that is also 8 months old in the tank and has been doing nonstop work on the sandbed.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Nice to see some updates! Sorry I can't recommend a doser as I haven't even started mine up yet! Lol. Need to do that as I have quite a few corals in the tank now! Ahhhh, procrastination! I have a Marine Color doser, but no review yet! I keep looking at that beast of a light and don't feel so bad about my 4 NanoBox pucks! Lol. What kinda intensity are you at? Mine is about 10" off the water & currently at about 50%.

[holy carp]

I'm pretty happy with the BRS 1.1ml/min dosers if you have a controller, because they are easy to use for small dosing increments.

 

If I was going to get a stand alone doser (and had the money sitting around), I'd lean towards the Pacific Sun Kore 5th for some really precise control and fancy options like integrated ATO and magnetic mixers.

[wheach]

I'm pretty happy with the BRS 1.1ml/min dosers if you have a controller, because they are easy to use for small dosing increments.

 

You can also use these just on a cheap timer outlet if you don't have a controller.

[Muraki]

Kamoer dosing

Vertex DC Libras

Bubble Magus BM-T01

Pacific Sun Kore 5th

BRS 1.1ml/min dosers

 

So far the top 4 seem most appealing, as I really want something with a built in controller. I'll have to go thru some reviews to rank them. Hopefully can get more here on NR to give me their opinions.

Nice to see some updates! Sorry I can't recommend a doser as I haven't even started mine up yet! Lol. Need to do that as I have quite a few corals in the tank now! Ahhhh, procrastination! I have a Marine Color doser, but no review yet! I keep looking at that beast of a light and don't feel so bad about my 4 NanoBox pucks! Lol. What kinda intensity are you at? Mine is about 10" off the water & currently at about 50%.

I'll have to check the distance from the water, but currently running Blues at 75%, Cyan and Violet 65% and Whites 35%. With the 6 pucks, this light is a little crazy. 0 dead spots for sure. I really should get a PAR meter sometime to make sure I don't over do it.

[Scorched]

I've been using a BRS 50ml doser on a simple timer with kalk and it has worked quite well. Im thinking about doing two 1.1ml dosers for 2 part on the updated build. If you don't have a controller the first 4 options are probably better as 2-3 timers and 2-3 dosers will come out the same or more than the integrated units and those have more control and features that simple timers do not.

 

Good luck with your research on those guys.

[Subsea]

On 1/16/2017 at 12:48 PM, Muraki said:

Long overdue update. FYI, I still consider myself a rookie in the reefing hobby. I have bad habits, i'll admit it.

 

6 Fish

Original CUC from tank start up

 

Salinity: 1.026

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrites: 0

Nitrates: 0

KH: 9

Calcium: 440

Magnesium: 1250

 

4 Months without a water change and counting. Personal experiment.

 

History:

Haven't updated much with new corals. Lost some of the LPS corals from unstable water parameters in my previous posts. I now dose 2 part and parameters remain stable. The above is where I keep the parameters with minimal swings. I made the mistake of trusting the numbers on the red sea coral pro salt. Not once did I ever see the numbers they promised. So water changes would always create a swing in my tank since I did not dose/test back then. I was also occupied in a time consuming project of renovating a house with only 2 people, so I did not purchase anything new after the coral loses. Just concentrated on stability for months before any more purchases.

 

Changes:

Since dosing 2 part, I have just began on trying sps and lps corals, so very few in my tank and only frags. I purchased a Green Mandarin back in June 2016. Took the time to train him to eat frozen. Now happily eating reef frenzy. I have also not done a water change on the tank since September. I top off with freshwater daily and manually dose daily. I recently got a Monti back in November, that is now fully encrusting the plug, an acro 3 weeks ago that is beginning to encrust, a plate coral that was the size of a nickel that is the size of a half dollar now. I began dosing and once parameters were stable, the plate coral was the first piece that I used to "test" my tank out. Also have a bird nest, but that has been moved into the sump for heal time since apparently I have sexy shrimp that has a taste for it. I have had to manually control some of the soft coral growth by removing the rock and taking a toothbrush in the sink to it for removal, otherwise chemical warfare creates havoc in my tank. Sadly whenever I frag the soft corals or the release polyps, they end up in the trash since I am not motivated to ship.

 

Pests:

Flatworm issue is basically non existent now. I still have them, but only in my sump and in small numbers. I assume between my Goby and Mandarin, the display remains clear of them. Vermatid snails, Still there but not actively controlling them. I remove them when and if I remove rock for maintenance. Digitate Hydroids. Surprisingly enough, something is clearing them out of the display as well, not sure who, but my sump is full of them.

 

Algae Annoyance:

I do get this light brown film hair like algae on the glass and minimal on rock. Also likes to grow on other macro algae. Easy clean up and removal with an algae scraper or tooth brush, finger works too. This began to appear once I increased the intensity of my light. This algae does not appear in my sump.

Hair like fuzz on the rocks, potentially is GHA in the growing faze, but never reaches more than 2mm tall before someone mows it down.

 

In the sump, I do have GHA, but the Chaeto and Caulerpa out compete it and the GHA is minimal and is easily removed manually. Normally grows on the Coraline algae on the glass. I also have turf algae growing in the highest flow areas, I let it be and keep it trimmed since I like it.

 

Cyano grows in the sand but takes a long time to get to a point I have to do anything about it. I normally siphon it thru a filter sock to remove the cyano from the tank. The sand I get in the filter sock is cleaned with water from the sink, air dried, and added back to the display.

 

Maintenance:

- Feed reef frenzy daily and generously

- Manually dose daily

- Test KH and Ca once a week (Salifert)

- Test KH and Ca every 2 days with API for reference (They are so fast and cheap)

- Test Mg once a week (Salifert)

- Top off every 1-2 days. Roughly 1 gallon of water per top off

- Prune algae when I feel like it or goes somewhere I don't want it.

- Scrape/clean glass every other day.

- Thorough scraping with razor once a month

- Remove unwanted soft corals once a month

- Remove traces of Cyano and other unwanted algae once a month or less

- Sand bed is normally every 1-2 months leave most of the work to my cucumber.

- Change filter sock once a week / Wash the old one.

 

Maintenance takes less than 20 minutes a day since I have been keeping up with it.

 

 

Pictures: Note chaeto in the back left of the tank, Mandarin hunting ground.

 

 

This was a nickel not long ago. Can see a tad of the brown film algae on the left of the rock.

 

Monti purchased on thanksgiving. Encrusting nicely, I did get monti eating nudi's from this frag. Acro is a few weeks old and you can see the new growth beginning to encrust the frag.

 

 

Birdsnest recovering in sump from sexy shrimp brutality

 

My soup:

 

 

 

"Oreo and Nemo" Oreo is a dick and bites the hand that feeds him.

 

 

This started as a quarter size

 

Please excuse the cucumbers lovely sand pile.....^

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following.  

I read your first post, then went to the last page and read, then jumped around.  So, I did not read complete thread thru.  If my comment is addressed somewhere else, no worries.  

 

As an experiment with no water change, you mentioned chemical warfare playing havoc.  Are you using GAC?  

 

The above post is very detailed and shows an awareness of predator prey behavior in a reef tank as well as nutrient recycling with complex food webs to produce live food.

 

I enjoyed reading.

[DaveFason]

Great update! Maybe I could make it your way soon to check it out. 

 

[Scorched]

3 hours ago, DaveFason said:

Great update! Maybe I could make it your way soon to check it out. 

 

 

His update is over a year old.  You should go over there and see what it looks like now and have him show us.

[Muraki]

Yea I have been slacking with updates. Not much has changed other than the corals I do have are growing out. Nothing else is really new. Haven't been buying to many corals or stocking the tank much. I do need to go do a major cleaning this weekend as it has been a few months since I have pruned algae and removed unwanted coral polyps from rocks it shouldn't be on. 

[Muraki]

Tank still lives!

Still slacking on updates. Not much has changed. Went thru a Calcium spike which did a little damage, lost a couple things. But overall the hardier corals had no issues. What really got me down was I lost both cleaner shrimp to the spike. Have not added anything new to the tank in a good long while, I only keep trimming back the GSP, and pruning the Gorgonias all the time. Removing random Anthelia that keeps sprouting all over the tank when they throw polyps. I think I went over 2 years without a water change before I spiked my tank. Nitrates forever remain 0-1 on all test kits. API, Red sea, and Salifert. So overall. My tank still looks the same, but without the sand. Concentrating on work, house, ducks, quail, and the new pup we brought home on May 13th. 

[Tamberav]

Would love to see updated pic even though not much has changed! I love how natural the tank looks. Sorry about the shrimp 😞

[Muraki]

What is everyone using currently to share photo's now? Seems like I will abandon Photobucket with their recent changes. 

[tmc1313]

3 hours ago, Muraki said:

What is everyone using currently to share photo's now? Seems like I will abandon Photobucket with their recent changes. 

I use postimage. It's free and very user friendly.

[holy carp]

I'm still using tinypic mostly, since it requires no account, and postimage as my backup

|   TinyPic   

|   PostIMG

[YHSublime]

This tank still going? Would love an update!