Tuffryu Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 A couple of new additions. Apologies for the bad iphone photos, but I can't seem to find the right angle with the light. Blue acropora frag Green pocillopora frag In LPS news: the button polyps on the ground are budding like mad. The clump in bottom right of the pic above started as 2 tiny polyps that I originally cut off the live rock and epoxied together while in the fluval spec. The clump has now grown to almost 10 polyps with the original 2 at the size of quarters. The polyps in the middle, i bought as a 3 polyp $5 frag and now it's going crazy as well. Kinda cool. Green posci is sitting to the left of the purple one in the badly saturated pic below. I fragged a few small branches of the green posci and stuck them together - to the right of the candy cane. We'll see if they make it. Shot of the blue acro to the right of the green monti digi. Seems to be happy so far. Link to comment
GavinW Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Your little fluval is phenomenal! I bought.a spec 2 for my girlfriend to get into saltwater and yours is inspiration. I love picos and nanos Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 Your little fluval is phenomenal! I bought.a spec 2 for my girlfriend to get into saltwater and yours is inspiration. I love picos and nanos Oh thanks Gavin! Appreciate the comments man. The fluval spec is a great tank. I took it down and upgraded to this eheim 9 gal. Good luck with your girlfriend's tank and be sure to post some pics. Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 The Smart ATO Micro finally came in, and man is this thing tiiiinnnyy. The power supply is bigger than everything in the box. lol. Very well built though and definitely getting what you pay for here. Will set it up in the next week or so. Link to comment
GavinW Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 The Smart ATO Micro finally came in, and man is this thing tiiiinnnyy. The power supply is bigger than everything in the box. lol. Very well built though and definitely getting what you pay for here. Will set it up in the next week or so. I just ordered one to replace a jbj ato for my fusion 10. Looks to be the best nano ato Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 I just ordered one to replace a jbj ato for my fusion 10. Looks to be the best nano ato Cool, let me know how it works out for you. Judging from the unboxing, it seems legit. Link to comment
Droy008 Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 ohh cool, I was looking at getting one of those. Looking forward to hearing your review! Link to comment
inevitable Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Your reef turned out really beautiful! I just started a similar build 2 weeks ago. I will post up a thread momentarily outlining the journey so far. Keep up the great work! Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 4, 2016 Author Share Posted January 4, 2016 Your reef turned out really beautiful! I just started a similar build 2 weeks ago. I will post up a thread momentarily outlining the journey so far. Keep up the great work! Thanks man! Appreciate the comments. It's still fairly new and I suspect I'll keep adding to it until I run out of room, but it's been fun so far. Good luck with your tank. Link to comment
Droy008 Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 So how do you like the smart ato? Link to comment
shinjo2040 Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Yes, please update us on how you like the Smart ATO Micro. Also, what did you end up doing with your 2.6g pico? Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 Yes, please update us on how you like the Smart ATO Micro. Also, what did you end up doing with your 2.6g pico? Hi Shinjo, the pico is in the garage lol. I may start it up again at some point to do some small LPS things. Haven't had a chance to test the ATO yet. Will do so probably this weekend. So how do you like the smart ato? Not yet Droy. Will try this weekend. I've been doing rigorous water testing and have had to start dosing the tank this week. After adding the last round of sps frags my cal levels dropped 20ppm and 1dkh Alk in 2 days! Will have to post about it tonight. lol Link to comment
shinjo2040 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 After adding the last round of sps frags my cal levels dropped 20ppm and 1dkh Alk in 2 days! Will have to post about it tonight. lol Those are super low parameters! What's the fix for that? Water changes or just dosing with additives? Still have so much to learn before my tank comes in the mail... and still a month after i set it up for cycling Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 Those are super low parameters! What's the fix for that? Water changes or just dosing with additives? Still have so much to learn before my tank comes in the mail... and still a month after i set it up for cycling LOL, Shinjo sorry - those are NOT the parameters of calcium and alk....those are the changes occuring in the past couple of days. After dosing for a few days things are looking much better. Calcium @ 410ppm, and alkalinity @ 7.5 dkh. Still want Alk to be around 9 so I will continue dosing. I did a 25% water change last weekend. This was the first time doing a water change since the new tank started (approx 2+ weeks now). I am dosing primarily because of the SPS in the tank. They are really drawing a lot more nutrients than I expected. I'm not one of those that does water changes every week as my nitrates are zero and phosphates are extremely low. I seriously don't think it will take a month to cycle your tank. If you plan on using RODI water with good quality live rock and live sand that is transported in water, it will cycle in a week as the die off will be very low to none. My fluval spec was ready after 3 days. In fact, I've heard about situations where if you wait too long without putting anything in it your beneficial bacteria will starve and algae starts. Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 FYI, this is the best glue I've used by far to glue frags to rocks. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 FYI, this is the best glue I've used by far to glue frags to rocks. +1 to that! I just got some before Christmas and it's great! Also, your calc/alk drop is normal - that's about what I get in my 4g tank. If you keep SPS in a pico, you almost have to dose. Water changes won't keep up unless you do 50% every day Link to comment
shinjo2040 Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I seriously don't think it will take a month to cycle your tank. If you plan on using RODI water with good quality live rock and live sand that is transported in water, it will cycle in a week as the die off will be very low to none. My fluval spec was ready after 3 days. In fact, I've heard about situations where if you wait too long without putting anything in it your beneficial bacteria will starve and algae starts. I haven't heard that but that's really good to know especially since i do have live sand and and transported water (Nutri-Seawater). But i didn't get live rock and instead I got that Caribsea South Seas Base rock so i'm concerned that it will take a bit longer for the bacteria to get established in it. Clipping off 3 weeks from my expected live stock date is very exciting thought! Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 I haven't heard that but that's really good to know especially since i do have live sand and and transported water (Nutri-Seawater). But i didn't get live rock and instead I got that Caribsea South Seas Base rock so i'm concerned that it will take a bit longer for the bacteria to get established in it. Clipping off 3 weeks from my expected live stock date is very exciting thought! Yea so the base rock will need to "cure" and grow beneficial bacteria for sure. Just feed the tank like you have some fish in it with decent frozen food so you don't introduce phosphates in some of the cheaper flakes. For a full cycle like yours, you could just go for a big water change once nitrite goes down. +1 to that! I just got some before Christmas and it's great! Also, your calc/alk drop is normal - that's about what I get in my 4g tank. If you keep SPS in a pico, you almost have to dose. Water changes won't keep up unless you do 50% every day Thanks teeny. I'm finding this out quickly as I am dosing daily to get numbers back up. There's no way I can do that many water changes nor would I ever want to lol. The dosing is working which is the good news, and testing every couple of days is showing numbers going back up. Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 Updates. So i bought an orange montipora setosa frag and a gree acropora frag. The glue is incredible. Poscillpora frags look like they're growing afros. LMAO Candy cane are budding like mad after dosing and the frags from the green posci made it and are starting to fluffy up. The monti caps are growing which is the most fun for me. Side view. I need another beer. Happy Friday fools! Go Seahawks!!! Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 Alrighty! Touch down Seahawks AND the micro ATO is finally installed! I love this thing as it works really well. So the sensor uses magnets to stay fixed in the tank. The tube from the pump is also fixed in the tank with a magnet. Really strong magnets at that. I'm using an old 1 gal goldfish bowl that has freshwater (RODI from my local store) in it. The ATO stays lit blue when it's in the tank and flashes blue when it's pumping. There's a fail safe shut down mode that turns the light red if the sensor realizes that the dose timings are not consistent - aka water is out of reservoir etc. I just never realized how often it pumps as it goes off every 5 mins or so. I've had to start documenting parameters to help keep up with calcium and alkalinity. It's actually helping me figure out how much I need to dose and when. Kinda boring post so apologies. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Looks really nice. I love how small the sensor is. You should check out aquaticlog.com - they have a phone app too. I use it to track all my parameters and water changes and dosing. Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 Looks really nice. I love how small the sensor is. You should check out aquaticlog.com - they have a phone app too. I use it to track all my parameters and water changes and dosing. It's a great ATO. I'll have to check out aquaticlog. Thanks for sending! Link to comment
shinjo2040 Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 That Smart ATP Micro system looks super slick. How much water do you think it tops off with per day? Keeping a log is always important and i appreciate you sharing yours. Not boring at all. Also, congrats to your Seahawks! #lacesalwaysout Link to comment
Tuffryu Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 That Smart ATP Micro system looks super slick. How much water do you think it tops off with per day? Keeping a log is always important and i appreciate you sharing yours. Not boring at all. Also, congrats to your Seahawks! #lacesalwaysout Seahawks! Indeed! lol The ATO is really nice I have to admit.I just set it up today so I'll have to give it a few days to know. I was probably adding back approximately 2-3 cups a day. I just added my tank to http://www.aquaticlog.com/. Will have to see if I am able to keep up with it or not. The pen/pad method seems like it will be much simpler. Link to comment
DrPete Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 I haven't heard that but that's really good to know especially since i do have live sand and and transported water (Nutri-Seawater). But i didn't get live rock and instead I got that Caribsea South Seas Base rock so i'm concerned that it will take a bit longer for the bacteria to get established in it. Clipping off 3 weeks from my expected live stock date is very exciting thought! I started my Spec iii with live sand and nutri-seawater and found it took every bit of 3+ weeks to cycle. Ammonia went up and down in about 10 days but Nitrates stayed high for 2+ weeks and then dropped to zero overnight. ymmv. Good luck with the tank Link to comment
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