An Engineer's first struggle with Life Sciences - BELATED UPDATE! Corals!

[rolyat113]

I really like your scape! Excited to see what this turns into.

[RIP Sebastian]

 

Love the tank!

[mooker]

I really like your scape!

 

 

 

Love the tank!

 

 

Thanks, guys!

 

Advice from on high (or Harry, if you're on a first name basis): Apparently I was being far too stingy with food for a fishless cycle. I swung by my good LFS (not the sketchy one where I got that live rock) to pick up some frozen mysis cubes, and while I was there I got some water to replace the stuff from petco.

 

60% water change.... (is it even a water change at that point? Water exorcism?)

 

 

 

And it's raining shrimp!

 

 

 

 

P.S. I've got some parts in for the rPI automation/monitoring project, so updates on that to come!

[mooker]

BIG UPDATE! IT'S ALIVE!

 

 

I've never been so excited to see brown fuzz in my life. I don't know whether it was the water change, the mysis, or a combination of the two, but algae is finally growing on my live rock and the sand bed.

 

 

Also, I've got the first step of automation working!

 

 

I followed this tutorial https://timleland.com/wireless-power-outlets/to set up wireless control of my light from a radio attached to my rPI zero. Now I can set a schedule for my lights and control them remotely

[mooker]

I'm going to be away from the tank for the first time this weekend -- I was up late last night figuring out crontab (yay linux!) so that I could set a lighting schedule for when I'm gone.

 

I know it doesn't particularly matter with algae, but how many hours of light should my tank get a day? Are too many hours of light bad? Do the hours have to be contiguous? Does a regular schedule matter?

 

My current schedule is 7:05 am - 10:00pm on week days, 11:00 am - 10:00pm on weekends.

[tarunteam]

Hey,

 

Had a question. How would i replace a analog pot with rasp pi? I'm thinking specifically of Mars Aqua lights

[HarryPotter]

I'm going to be away from the tank for the first time this weekend -- I was up late last night figuring out crontab (yay linux!) so that I could set a lighting schedule for when I'm gone.

 

I know it doesn't particularly matter with algae, but how many hours of light should my tank get a day? Are too many hours of light bad? Do the hours have to be contiguous? Does a regular schedule matter?

 

My current schedule is 7:05 am - 10:00pm on week days, 11:00 am - 10:00pm on weekends.

It's better to have about 9-10 hour schedule, 15 is a bit much. I would reccomend something like 1-10 on a cheap timer.

[mooker]

Hey,

 

Had a question. How would i replace a analog pot with rasp pi? I'm thinking specifically of Mars Aqua lights

 

I am a beginner with rPI and reefs, so I don't have a great answer for you. Here is an article from adafruit on generating an analog output from an rPI https://learn.adafruit.com/mcp4725-12-bit-dac-with-raspberry-pi/overview-- looks like it's relatively simple, all you need is a $5 board and some patience. You should be able to use a multimeter to grab the max/min pot outputs, then pull out the pot and solder the DAC outputs directly to the pins and control via pi.

 

Good luck! and tell me how it goes. I've been very impressed with how easy it is to get into hacking together cool stuff with an rPI.

 

It's better to have about 9-10 hour schedule, 15 is a bit much. I would reccomend something like 1-10?

 

Would it be harmful to do 7:05 am - 10:00 am and then 3:00 pm to 10:00 pm?

[mooker]

Just ordered my cleanup crew from reefcleaners.org! I got their 10g Quick Crew, so my tank will soon contain:

 

• Dwarf Ceriths (10x)
• Nassarius (3x)
• Florida Ceriths (6x)
• Nerites (4x)

[rolyat113]

Just ordered my cleanup crew from reefcleaners.org! I got their 10g Quick Crew, so my tank will soon contain:

 

 

• Dwarf Ceriths (10x)
• Nassarius (3x)
• Florida Ceriths (6x)
• Nerites (4x)

go ahead and double that. That's what you'll have lol.

[mooker]

go ahead and double that. That's what you'll have lol.

 

 

What do you mean? I should order more? Or they send more than they say?

[HarryPotter]

What do you mean? I should order more? Or they send more than they say?

They send more than they say often

[rolyat113]

 

 

What do you mean? I should order more? Or they send more than they say?

He's terrible with counting!

[mooker]

The rise of the invertebrates!

 

I checked my levels last night:

 

pH: 8.1

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 7 ppm

 

My order from Reef Cleaners is en route, but with my tank ready I can't wait any longer --

 

I went to my LFS today and picked up 2x Trochus Snails

 

 

And a blue-legged hermit that my roomates have named Agrippa

 

 

Can't wait for the rest of my cleanup crew to come on thursday!

[mooker]

I added the cleanup crew from ReefCleaners last week:

 

 

After I added them, all my levels spiked, and my hermit crab died (RIP Agrippa, won't be naming any more inverts for a while..)

 

Since then I've been doing almost daily water changes trying to keep my ammonia down. The past few days things have seemed to settle down as far as chemicals go. Lost a few snails along the way, but algae growth seems to be coming in nicely at least. The snails that are alive seem very happy.

 

Going away this weekend... If the levels hold steady, I'm going to put in an order for some hardy corals and a clown early next week!

[Mariaface]

If you're worried about ammonia levels, a temporary bandaid (between water changes) would be to dose Seachem Prime or Safe and a bacterial supplement (Stability, Microbakter). Prime and Safe will lock ammonia into ammonium form so that it isn't nearly as harmful, and it's still available for beneficial bacteria to process.

 

Ammonia is also an inorganic nitrate form that algae will gladly use, given the opportunity, so you may want to keep the lights off for a bit.

 

+1 to the banded trochus snails and the Reefcleaners cleanup crew; they're all awesome!

[ninjamyst]

very nice! for future reference, you probably dont need that much clean up crew in the beginning. there isn't much for them to clean up... but great choice in trochus as they are one of the best at eating algae.

[Mariaface]

And on that note of there not being much for them to clean up: Don't be afraid to feed them!

 

I once accidentally starved out a pair of mexican turbos that had been in my tank a good year or so..

[mooker]

If you're worried about ammonia levels, a temporary bandaid (between water changes) would be to dose Seachem Prime or Safe and a bacterial supplement (Stability, Microbakter). Prime and Safe will lock ammonia into ammonium form so that it isn't nearly as harmful, and it's still available for beneficial bacteria to process.

 

Ammonia is also an inorganic nitrate form that algae will gladly use, given the opportunity, so you may want to keep the lights off for a bit.

 

+1 to the banded trochus snails and the Reefcleaners cleanup crew; they're all awesome!

 

 

very nice! for future reference, you probably dont need that much clean up crew in the beginning. there isn't much for them to clean up... but great choice in trochus as they are one of the best at eating algae.

 

Thanks for the advice, guys! Yeah, the trochus are my fave by far. Not a fan of the nerites. Far too adventures for my taste. I found one a good five feet from the tank.

[mooker]

Well, it looks like the brown fuzz I was so excited about ended up being dino...

 

 

Currently weighing my options on how to deal with it. Leaning towards tearing everything down and re-starting, since I don't have any livestock aside from the snails.

 

Any thoughts on keeping my snails alive?

[Mariaface]

Nah, don't start over. Dinos are everywhere, so I wouldn't start worrying until they start choking out other life.

 

What you want to do is outcompete them, and maybe up the flow and get a small skimmer. I'd outcompete them by turning off the lights until you have photosynthetic animals, and dosing beneficial bacteria (Microbakter, Seachem Stability, etc). You can also strengthen your filtration for nutrient export once you've started feeding corals/fish, because any inorganic nutrients will lend to dino/algae growth if lights are on.

[mooker]

Nah, don't start over. Dinos are everywhere, so I wouldn't start worrying until they start choking out other life.

 

What you want to do is outcompete them, and maybe up the flow and get a small skimmer. I'd outcompete them by turning off the lights until you have photosynthetic animals, and dosing beneficial bacteria (Microbakter, Seachem Stability, etc). You can also strengthen your filtration for nutrient export once you've started feeding corals/fish, because any inorganic nutrients will lend to dino/algae growth if lights are on.

 

Thanks for the advice! That makes me feel a lot better, actually. I currently have my tank covered with a cardboard box (yay for 10G cubes!), and I'll order some beneficial bacteria now.

 

Seems like it's worth giving this method a shot -- worst case i'm back to where I am now.

[Mariaface]

Careful covering it completely; you still need adequate air flow. So long as you don't have a strong light source aimed at the tank, you should be fine.

[mooker]

Careful covering it completely; you still need adequate air flow. So long as you don't have a strong light source aimed at the tank, you should be fine.

 

Ok, will do.

 

Is there any specific brand of beneficial bacteria you recommend?

[Mariaface]

 

Ok, will do.

 

Is there any specific brand of beneficial bacteria you recommend?

 

 

I'm partial to Stability and Microbakter, so I'll recommend those I also hear Dr Tim's is great stuff, but I haven't used that one (yet)