CSalt's 20" Cube MH life

[Csalt]

Checked nitrate a few hours after cleaning the sump and water change. Shows 0. Not sure how it can go from close to 20 to 0. API testers might be gaabaage

[Weetabix7]

Hmmmm..... that IS a little suspicious....

 

[Csalt]

Acro is starting to lose color(but the frags aren't) and starting to get film algae growth on the glass. Going to start using filter floss again.

Got another emerald crab. Started to regret it when it started to hang out in the pocillopora. Didn't see any missing flesh or polyps though. It's currently sitting on the acro. What he does next will decide if he stays or leaves.

[samnaz]

My emerald crab is kinda crazy. If he's awake and sees my hand or anything moving near his abode, he waves his arms around and attempts to grab at it, even if I'm far far out of reach. When I feed him with tongs, he grabs the tongs (not the food...) and holds on for dear life. He holds on so tight I could probably pull him out with them if I tried, ha. Luckily he never leaves the shadows of his den amongst the rocks, and I've never seen him bothering my corals. 

[Csalt]

Traded in some mushrooms and palys. Almost impulse bought a sebae nem. It was looking good but told myself 1 nem only. Came home today from work and now my bta is splitting.

[Weetabix7]

20 minutes ago, Csalt said:

Traded in some mushrooms and palys. Almost impulse bought a sebae nem. It was looking good but told myself 1 nem only. Came home today from work and now my bta is splitting.

 

Ha!!!

That was obviously a good call on your part!!

[Csalt]

2 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Ha!!!

That was obviously a good call on your part!!

Last thing I need is 3 nems running around. I've seen tanks where they rub against other corals and it doesn't sting them. Weird. 

[Csalt]

Found a Chiton and there's an aiptasia growing in the center of the colony of posillopora. Not sure how im going to get it out.

[Csalt]

Built a stand for the new tank. But i messed up and can't get the sump rotated to be side to side. So it's front to back. Not sure if I'm going to just deal with it or cut a hole in the side of the stand to fit it in. 

Could make a small box to butt up against the hole to cover that and store my ATO water. Haven't decided. 

[Csalt]

Quick pic.

[Csalt]

Got everything transferred over. Have to work on the scape.

The glue was like water and got everywhere.

Cracked my return bulkhead. Lots of silicone later its not leaking. Have to order a new one since lfs only had slipxslip not threadxthread.

Going to order a new cuc since most are missing. 

 

[debbeach13]

Tank looks good. Really good. I hope all goes well. It's a lot of work.

[Csalt]

56 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Tank looks good. Really good. I hope all goes well. It's a lot of work.

Switching tanks is a lot more stressful than it should be lol. Soaked my floor pumping out the sump. Forgot to put the hose in the bucket. Turned the pump off, went to get a towel and when I come back it's siphoning the water out onto the floor.

[Weetabix7]

14 hours ago, Csalt said:

Got everything transferred over. Have to work on the scape.

The glue was like water and got everywhere.

Cracked my return bulkhead. Lots of silicone later its not leaking. Have to order a new one since lfs only had slipxslip not threadxthread.

Going to order a new cuc since most are missing. 

 

 

Sorry for all the stress, but this does look good. 

[Csalt]

2 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Sorry for all the stress, but this does look good. 

Even the wife likes it. Says it, "looks like i know what i'm doing." lol.

Just have to rescape some rocks. If only I could get that dragons tongue to stay. Fishing line tied to a rock works.

[Csalt]

SPS did not like the move. Acro is brown and pocillipora  is missing some flesh. Birdsnest looks good though. It probably didn't help that 20% of my water was different salt (Ran out of RSCP during the switch and had to use quite a bit of the aquaforest.) Things are starting to settle in though.

 

Lost my goby. Pretty bummed about that. I didn't see him for a week and was hoping he was in the middle of the rock work. Found his crispy little body next to the stand this morning. Not sure what spooked him. Maybe dogs barking or all the snails that were added.

Florida Ceriths were DOA. They must be pretty sensitive. They were DOA when I ordered some last year too. Everything else is fine though.

[samnaz]

Reef cleaners? They say it sometimes takes days for the Ceriths to come out, so I waited like almost a week. Mine were all definitely dead, too. 

[Csalt]

15 minutes ago, samnaz said:

Reef cleaners? They say it sometimes takes days for the Ceriths to come out, so I waited like almost a week. Mine were all definitely dead, too. 

Yea. They stank pretty bad but i gave them a chance anyways. Waited a week and nothing. 

[Csalt]

quick update

SG 1.025
Nitrate 0 maybe 2? Slightly darker than 0 but nowhere near 5
PHos .03
PH 7.8 (lights out)
KH 8
Cal 450
Mag 1300

water change due tomorrow

 

Probably a week or two after switching new tank I lost half of the pocillipora colony, Acro is bleached (probably gone). Lost the monti after moving it halfway up the rock work. Last week birdsnest lost flesh. 

I turned down the lights back to stock settings thinking it was bleaching the coral reflecting off the new sand.

Seem to have some die off with the Macroalgae.

Other than that..... everything else is good.

[Csalt]

How about a long overdue update

Currently using Marinemix reefer salt from BRS. I like it. I'm actually getting some growth. I think i'm finally getting some sps growth but not sure. Getting coralline growth also which is great because I haven't been able to do that ever. The hammer coral looks like a hammer now and not some blob bubble/hammer crossbreed. I can keep zoas and not melt and I get growth with gsp after having zero since the first piece was added. I also bumped up mag too which would have something to do with it. I've always had lowish mag in my systems. Also clean my sandbed too now.

The BTA is looking good again. Was kinda not doing good during the aquaforest period. Stayed shrunk up near the bottom of the rock.

Sometime when it warms up some I'm going to make a larger stand so I can use my old 20l as a sump and have room for a refugium.

 

the bad.

Used aquaforest salt for awhile (10kg worth0 didn't like it. I tried their dosing regiment and it was all bad. Was getting cyano, bacteria and algae blooms on the rock, was all bad. Not really any growth. 

Lost the Duncan coral to brown jelly. Was only able to save 3 heads. 

Lost a blenny and wrasse to a large male emerald crab. I'm 100% convinced it was the crab because the fish would sleep in the rockwork and guess who else hung out in the rocks? He was also very aggressive.

Algae and bacteria blooms pretty much took out the purple pocillopora  colony and ended up having to frag it all.

Skunk shrimp died about a month ago. Felt kinda bad, not sure if it was age related, had him since almost the beginning. He was acting kinda off a day or two before he died. 

 

I'd like to try some more sps eventually. Maybe move the hammer to the rockwork and either get a clam or elegance in it's current place. 

Everything just seems to be going good.

[debbeach13]

I just got Aquaforest salt. Which one did you not care for? I have to go check I think I got the plain reef salt. 

[Csalt]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I just got Aquaforest salt. Which one did you not care for? I have to go check I think I got the plain reef salt. 

The regular reef salt. Some people have had good luck with it, I was not one of those people. Make sure you test the salt though. I had high calcium(over 500) and mag was on the lowish side. The carbon dosing and additives wasn't helping my situation either I think. Probably not enough bio load, even with only dosing half recommended.

There's some great looking tanks on the aquaforest FB page though.

[Csalt]

Added a couple frags and an old Koralia 425gph to the tank. Took some coercing to get it freed up.

Monti looks like a florescent red under blues.

Thinks he's being sneaky.

[Csalt]

Noticed a lot more Asterina starfish too.

[Csalt]

Been thinking about going back to the 20l with T5. Better growth and colors were nicer. Would miss the shimmer of LED though, so maybe a hybrid some time. Maybe get another 20l to use as a large sump/fuge. Also noticed this Royal Gramma doesn't eat pellets. Only frozen.

Nem is looking good.