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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Paradise on the Prairie


flatlandreefer

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I have a Red Sea alk kit whose results seem questionable because the color transition is so gradual and indistinct. I got a Salifert to double check it (the Salifert color change is very distinct), and it turns out it was measuring about the same level, so it was basically accurate, just difficult to use. :mellow: 

 

That feeding station looks like it could simplify feeding frozen food.  I typically have to use a small cup and thaw the cube, then use a turkey baster to drop them in the tank in small increments. And of course a lot of it just disperses and the fish miss several pieces. 

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flatlandreefer
1 hour ago, J-Ranko said:

I have a Red Sea alk kit whose results seem questionable because the color transition is so gradual and indistinct. I got a Salifert to double check it (the Salifert color change is very distinct), and it turns out it was measuring about the same level, so it was basically accurate, just difficult to use. :mellow: 

 

That feeding station looks like it could simplify feeding frozen food.  I typically have to use a small cup and thaw the cube, then use a turkey baster to drop them in the tank in small increments. And of course a lot of it just disperses and the fish miss several pieces. 

 

I had the basic Red Sea kit that only measures to the nearest Dkh so it's kind of hard to see trends in alkalinity when dialing in dosing but it definitely did work. 

 

I ended up moving my birdsnest to the small rock feature on the right side of the tank right below the mp10 so it will definitely recieve plenty of flow. Hopefully it colors back up! 

9DF1B24D-9055-4D90-AFC8-8EBEBC8D67D9.jpg

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flatlandreefer

Unfortunately one of my filefish died last night. He wasn't swimming very good at all yesterday and was laying in the corner of the tank when I went bed last night. I'm not sure what happened, it almost looked like he was having seizures when he was swimming. I woke up this morning and it looked like the rock nem ended up eating him.  Too bad i really liked having the pair. The bigger one, I'm assuming the female is still doing well. 

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flatlandreefer
2 hours ago, kimberbee said:

Sorry about your file fish :(

 

Really nice tank, though! 

 

Thanks! 

 

I'm not sure what happened, its kind of frustrating to see a fish struggle and you can't do anything about it. 

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flatlandreefer

The file came back from the dead...kind of. I somehow missed him in the overflow. I took a Tupperware container and poked some holes in it and put him inside. His fins are nipped very bad and he can't swim well. He is still alive but I don't know what his odds are, probably not very good but in going to try my best to save him. 

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flatlandreefer
8 hours ago, J-Ranko said:

Does it look like he might have any parasites? I hope he makes it.

 

Not that I can tell. I think he has been having issues because his dorsal fin is damaged, watching a filefish swim it appears that the dorsal fin is how they keep their balance. He is still laying on the bottom of the container but he has shifted a few times. When he swims he swims in a vertical position and gets pushed around by the current. 

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flatlandreefer

Other bad fish news. My wife woke up this morning and called me freaking out because there was a fish on the floor. Looks like my yw goby decided to go carpet surfing, he was the last one that I thought would do that as I have never seen him off the sandbed. 

IMG_3334.JPG

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flatlandreefer
3 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Dude that sucks :( What a way to start the day. How's the filefish looking this morning? Do you think it was the one that got into the superglue?

 

I guess when stuff happens everything happens at once...hopefully not in threes!  I don't think the file has anything to do with the superglue, it has been a while and he was eating fine before this happened.  He is still alive, he looks around when I am looking at him but he is still on his side.  I have noticed the bigger one occasionally getting after him but I never thought too much about it because I didn't see that behavior all that often. 

4 hours ago, Shoob1e said:

Sucks man, screens can be eye sores but after my first one did I had to add one

 

I was really trying to avoid a screen but it might have to happen now...

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flatlandreefer

Well the filefish officially passed away yesterday. I ended up feeding his corpse to the rock nem who ate him in 15 seconds flat, I figured it was a much more proper burial instead of the toilet or trash can. So now I am down to three fish...

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  • 1 month later...
flatlandreefer

Unfortunately my feather duster wasn't happy with his placement for an unknown reason.  Below is a link to a video of the worm leaving his tube.  I was not able to wait around for him to completely vacate his tube and found him being eaten by one of my acan colonies.  I ripped him from the acans and then fed him to my RFA.  Poor guy he was one of my favorite things to watch in the tank. 

 

 

 

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  • 5 months later...
flatlandreefer
1 minute ago, Christopher Marks said:

How has your tank been doing these days @flatlandreefer?

 

I need to do an update, maybe I will get it done after the thanksgiving holiday. Most things are doing well but I am having trouble with my sps especially acropora. I have not gotten growth from my acros and I just had one STN for no apparent reason the other day. Part of me wants to attribute this to starting with all dry rock but I'm not sure. 

 

Overall things have started to noticeably mature after the one year mark and I am starting to become happy with the look and will be gearing more towards LPS in the next year until I see results that will give me confidence to go back to acros.

 

Anyway i will post an update with pics in a week or so! 

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flatlandreefer

Post Thanksgiving update:

 

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything in this build thread. I am very busy in the summer so that is one reason but another reason has been due to algae frustrations and frustrations with SPS growth and RTN. I will try to address most of the changes in this post but I'm sure I will miss some things. 

 

Last time I posted back in June I had some algae issues but most of my problems were related to cyano. I have since gotten my cyano pretty much in check, there is still some in some low flow areas around the rocks but virtually none on my sand bed. Currently I am battling some sort of hair algae on my rock work, it isn't really green or red but more of a brown. I have had to get rid of my gorgonians and birds nest because this algae spreads very easily through the water column and anything with a lot of branches gets covered with it even in a very high flow area, one exception in my monti digitata. I am hoping this is not byropsis but I am not totally convinced it is because it doesn't have the brush like appearance like I see on most pictures. 

 

My green acropora STN d first and I cut the tip off to keep it from spreading. The STN is contained to the side facing the power head and the base has not been effected so I am leaving it be currently. My blue acro started to STN a week or so ago, I am leaving it for now until it progresses further. My monti cap has not grown much, almost positive because it receives too much light but I have left it in place because it has been growing away from the light and is encrusted so it is hard to move. My didgitata has been doing very well so far.   I have also added a setosa that I am excited about. 

 

Most of my lps and softies have been doing well. My acans seem very happy, trumpets have been growing, frog spawn is splitting, love my leptoseris. The one weird thing with my lps is my echinata has some eyes that are green and some of the new eyes do not have green, I assume the green will fill in with time. I bought a goniopora a few months ago and really enjoy it, adds a lot of movement. 

 

Everything has been good with my fish, clowns are happy and so is my file fish. I added a tail spot blenny a month ago but he is still pretty shy. I also added a few blue leg hermits to help with algae on the rock work. I struggle to keep snails because they all seem to get eaten by the rock nem, he hoards all of the shells underneath and they are impossible to recover. 

 

I have been running a diy algae reactor, seems to work ok and grows chaeto but nothing to brag about. I have also been running a small dose of GFO in addition to carbon. Nitrates are hanging around 5 and I have never had detectable phos but I have not tested in a while. 

 

There is some debris floating around in the pics below, I had just blown off by rock work, also the reason why the frog spawn is closed up. 

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