Teenyreef's IM40 Not-So-Teeny Tank - August FTS

[teenyreef]

Wow. Great photo!

 

The new frozen cubes were a hit with the pygmy. Messy if you follow the instructions though . One of my acans took part of the cube and wouldn't let go lol

That's great news!

 

When I feed frozen cubes, I put a little bit of tank water in a shot glass and drop the cube in. Wait five or ten minutes and it's all thawed out. Depending on how dirty the stuff is, I may rinse it out in a small fish net. Then I use a pipette to slurp it up and squirt it in the tank. I can either target feed or broadcast feed that way. It also lets me share one cube between two tanks.

I've been checking Po4 daily once the Xport stuff was in for a week. It's gone down by exactly .02 every day. Down to .09 from .11 yesterday. So it looks like it's working. Note: I haven't fed any reef roids since I measured Po4 on Sunday at .15. I think I saw Markalot say he'd found that reef roids seem to increase Po4 measurements. I'm going to re-measure after feeding tonight just to see if things change.

 

Well, I've been wondering why I keep getting Po4 spikes, and now I know.

 

Capture by TeenyReef, on Flickr

Feeding the coral food made the PO4 measurement go up by .15!

 

I don't think my actual phosphates didn't go up that much, I think the coral food creates an artificially high reading.

 

Now that I know, I'll measure PO4 at least a couple days after feeding the corals with powdered/liquid foods.

[Elizabeth94]

Wow! I realized when I was feeding reef roids nightly my algae acted up a bit more than usual. I cut it down to three times a week and I only feed my fish every other day. But I only have two fish, neither of which need daily or multiple feedings. Easy keepers.

[teenyreef]

Wow! I realized when I was feeding reef roids nightly my algae acted up a bit more than usual. I cut it down to three times a week and I only feed my fish every other day. But I only have two fish, neither of which need daily or multiple feedings. Easy keepers.

Yeah reef roids really need to be used sparingly, and not too often. I've pretty much settled on sort of a three day rotation:

Day 1: pellets

Day 2: pellets plus some kind of frozen (mysis/spirulina brine/krill)

Day 3: pellets plus coral food plus calanus shrimp (I mix up a pinch each of a few different powders, and a few drops of liquid stuff in about 10 or 20 ml of tank water).

[Proudgeek]

That's great news!

 

When I feed frozen cubes, I put a little bit of tank water in a shot glass and drop the cube in. Wait five or ten minutes and it's all thawed out. Depending on how dirty the stuff is, I may rinse it out in a small fish net. Then I use a pipette to slurp it up and squirt it in the tank. I can either target feed or broadcast feed that way. It also lets me share one cube between two tanks.

Well, I've been wondering why I keep getting Po4 spikes, and now I know.

 

Capture by TeenyReef, on Flickr

Feeding the coral food made the PO4 measurement go up by .15!

 

I don't think my actual phosphates didn't go up that much, I think the coral food creates an artificially high reading.

 

Now that I know, I'll measure PO4 at least a couple days after feeding the corals with powdered/liquid foods.

 

That's pretty much the procedure I follow for thawing. These specifically say not to thaw but it didn't work out. These are primarily sponge, algae, and plankton so it does not travel like other foods while in the tank

 

Thanks for sharing your findings on Reef Roids and PO4. Hopefully, they are false readings as you mentioned.

[RollaJase]

I typically follow up my coral feeding by hitting the tank with a calcium carbonate solution an hour or two later. I have found that this is a great way to make sure any leftovers get taken out by the filter sock or skimmed. I also kill the return pump for a good 30mins post spot feeding so that the circulation pumps sort of broadcast feed the rest of the tank to make sure as much food as possible gets consumed.

[teenyreef]

I typically follow up my coral feeding by hitting the tank with a calcium carbonate solution an hour or two later. I have found that this is a great way to make sure any leftovers get taken out by the filter sock or skimmed. I also kill the return pump for a good 30mins post spot feeding so that the circulation pumps sort of broadcast feed the rest of the tank to make sure as much food as possible gets consumed.

That's a great point, Jase. I do the same thing with turning off the circulation pump, but I don't do the calcium carbonate after feeding. I usually only do it after I stir up everything in the tank with the turkey baster.

 

I'll start doing the calcium carbonate after feeding because it's a great idea. It will be interesting to see what happens with the PO4 readings, too.

[RollaJase]

That's a great point, Jase. I do the same thing with turning off the circulation pump, but I don't do the calcium carbonate after feeding. I usually only do it after I stir up everything in the tank with the turkey baster.

 

I'll start doing the calcium carbonate after feeding because it's a great idea. It will be interesting to see what happens with the PO4 readings, too.

You can kill two birds with one stone and blow the rocks off and stir up the sand before dosing the calcium carbonate also . I try to blow the rocks off twice a week (3 if I am doing a water change) so bundling this in with my Friday evening coral feeding is good way to spend less time in the tank and more time enjoying it.

 

Keep us posted on any changes to the PO4, I'm curious to see how this change may effect it .

[teenyreef]

You can kill two birds with one stone and blow the rocks off and stir up the sand before dosing the calcium carbonate also . I try to blow the rocks off twice a week (3 if I am doing a water change) so bundling this in with my Friday evening coral feeding is good way to spend less time in the tank and more time enjoying it.

 

Keep us posted on any changes to the PO4, I'm curious to see how this change may effect it .

That's what I usually do - I just never thought to combine it with cleaning up after the feeding. After I got the new, higher reading, I changed about seven gallons of water, vacuumed the sand, blew off the rocks, changed the floss, and squirted in a generous helping of Ben's fake Coral Snow, aka calcium carbonate. I'll check phosphates again tomorrow night and see what happens!

[NYfishies]

Hey teeny, how do you like the skimmer? My ghost skimmer is just not doing enough...

[teenyreef]

Hey teeny, how do you like the skimmer? My ghost skimmer is just not doing enough...

It's pretty good. No microbubbles and it works effectively. It just barely fits in the first chamber so it's a bit difficult to adjust or get in and out for cleaning. This tank is new so it's still pretty clean which makes it hard to judge how good the skimmate is. Right now I clean the cup once a week and it looks like dirty mop water. But I definitely like it better than the Desktop Ghost that's in my 10g tank.

[gena]

So far it's been slow going, but it's only been about a week. Nitrates are the same, around 5. Phosphates were high, then I added GFO, and when I replaced the GFO with the Xport Po4, they were at .05. They bounced back up to .17 when I checked on Saturday. But they seem to be going back down: .15 on Sunday and .11 today. And that's with no water change since I put them in.

 

I didn't expect it to start doing great stuff overnight, so I'm just happy things seem to be headed in the right direction.

 

As far a quantities go, I just used the same amount of Xport Po4 as I did for the Xport No3. It's weird, they give a formula for the No3, but nothing for the Po4. I think they just forgot. In my case, I think it worked out to 50 grams of each, which was about six or eight croutons.

 

I'll try increasing the quantity if things don't continue to get better by the end of the week.

That looks like a great mix, a little bit of everything. My angel is a pig. I feed a variety and change it up every day. About every other day I only feed pellets, and he's getting used to eating them although he's not crazy about them yet. On the other days, I feed either mysis shrimp, spirulina brine shrimp, or krill (all frozen). He likes all of them.

 

I suppose I should feed some veggies too - I have some veggie tabs that he might like.

 

If you get desperate, you could try live food. Maybe live bloodworms?

 

Speaking of brine shrimp, when I fed some tonight, look who came out for dinner! Sheldon, the Tanaka's Pygmy Wrasse

 

20160808-untitled-019-Edit.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

Such a cool fish!!!! If I didn't do a PSW I'd totally get one of those .

[toybox22]

You should post some FTS. It's been awhile! I'm about to buy all my rock tomorrow and get my tank scaped. Could use some inspiration. haha

[aviator300]

That's what I usually do - I just never thought to combine it with cleaning up after the feeding. After I got the new, higher reading, I changed about seven gallons of water, vacuumed the sand, blew off the rocks, changed the floss, and squirted in a generous helping of Ben's fake Coral Snow, aka calcium carbonate. I'll check phosphates again tomorrow night and see what happens!

What does CaCO3 do after blowing the rocks or stirring the sand?

[RollaJase]

What does CaCO3 do after blowing the rocks or stirring the sand?

It bonds to the detritus and floating particles and makes it easier for it to be skimmed out or filtered through mechanical filtration. It will make your water crystal clear, after making it milky lol. Calcium Carbonate is basically what KZ sells as Coral Snow, the DIY stuff is much purer however and significantly cheaper. Ben wrote an article about it a while ago.

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/364821-diy-kz-coral-snow-with-97-purity/#entry5120953

[WhiteWulfe]

Go away for a few months and I come back to teenyreef setting up a Fusion 40..... Looking rather interesting already!

[teenyreef]

Such a cool fish!!!! If I didn't do a PSW I'd totally get one of those .

Thanks, Gena! He's a little bit bigger than my Fitzgerald in the 10g tank, and the red color really pops. I can see him from all the way across the room when he comes out

You should post some FTS. It's been awhile! I'm about to buy all my rock tomorrow and get my tank scaped. Could use some inspiration. haha

I'll get one this weekend!

It bonds to the detritus and floating particles and makes it easier for it to be skimmed out or filtered through mechanical filtration. It will make your water crystal clear, after making it milky lol. Calcium Carbonate is basically what KZ sells as Coral Snow, the DIY stuff is much purer however and significantly cheaper. Ben wrote an article about it a while ago.

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/364821-diy-kz-coral-snow-with-97-purity/#entry5120953

That's exactly what I would have posted, thanks Jase

Go away for a few months and I come back to teenyreef setting up a Fusion 40..... Looking rather interesting already!

Thanks! And welcome back!

[teenyreef]

You can kill two birds with one stone and blow the rocks off and stir up the sand before dosing the calcium carbonate also . I try to blow the rocks off twice a week (3 if I am doing a water change) so bundling this in with my Friday evening coral feeding is good way to spend less time in the tank and more time enjoying it.

 

Keep us posted on any changes to the PO4, I'm curious to see how this change may effect it .

The day after I fed reef roids and dosed calcium carbonate, PO4 was down to .12 (from .24 right after the feeding), and was at .11 the next day. So I think my "real" PO4 level is around .12 and it seems to be slowly decreasing from the Xport PO4 stuff.

 

By comparison, when I looked at PO4 levels in the days after feeding reef roids without the calcium carbonate, it took about three days for the measurements to get back down. So it really does seem to help.

 

Of course, I don't know if any it this really matters. I think the base level reading is what's important. I'm not trying to chase numbers to get PO4 at a low reading every day.

[teenyreef]

I got an MP10 from a fellow reefer here on N-R. I set it up the other night on the opposite end of the tank in slave mode. I'm really happy with the results. It really breaks up the laminar flow from the single MP40. Now my sand doesn't migrate from one end of the tank to the other any more and flow is nice and random.

 

I'll bet I can turn up the flow a little more now

[ninjamyst]

you should have told me you wanted an MP10! or maybe I missed this in this super fast thread =P. but i have one lying around from my old 12 gallon. maybe i will use it for the new 12 gallon...

[teenyreef]

you should have told me you wanted an MP10! or maybe I missed this in this super fast thread =P. but i have one lying around from my old 12 gallon. maybe i will use it for the new 12 gallon...

Dang! I should share more on this thread

The one I got ended up having a bad ceramic shaft, but it turns out you can replace the frame and shaft for $20 so it was no big deal. I also upgraded it to Quiet Drive and wireless. When I added it all up it still worked out about $30 cheaper than a new one.

 

Here are the controllers. The right hand one is the MP10. It's orange because it's in slave mode.

 

20160813_142137.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

[ninjamyst]

mine was the older one so you probably better off getting the newer one to match =P. i know it will drive me crazy if one controller is black and one is white...hahahah

[teenyreef]

mine was the older one so you probably better off getting the newer one to match =P. i know it will drive me crazy if one controller is black and one is white...hahahah

When you get the Quiet Drive upgrade kit, it comes with the new black controller. Basically it's just a new controller card and case that you just plug your old driver into.

I took a quick cell phone video to show the flow with the two pumps. This is tidal swell at 25%.

 

[dropped]

I think you can get more flow in there

[StinkyBunny]

That's just about right for a ritteri anemone, you would need more light though.

[DaveFason]

Glad you are pumping it full of flow. Your corals will love you!

 

-Dave