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

[teenyreef]

5 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

When you sell if your shipping I would like to see what’s for sale.

I'm happy to ship, but since I'm just a regular guy I don't have any special deals with the overnight shippers. So it can be pricey, depending on where people are located. But I don't mind packing stuff up, and I've had pretty good luck with two-day shipping as long as it's not too cold or hot.

 

Ironically, the problem I have with the frags now is that they've gotten so overgrown they're starting to encrust to the frag racks. And there's some algae growth around the bases because of the lack of flow. I guess I really should just re-frag and re-plug them, but I'd like to move them into the DB30 frag tank when I do that. And it's full, plus it's struggling with pest problems.

 

I've just realized how I've managed to let myself get overwhelmed by the whole thing. Time to take back control! 

[DreC80]

Teeny, pm me with what you've got for sale (if you want to get rid of some stuff).   I'm in the Smithfield area so not too far from you.  Could make an "essential" drive for toilet paper and come back with some frags.

[teenyreef]

16 minutes ago, DreC80 said:

Teeny, pm me with what you've got for sale (if you want to get rid of some stuff).   I'm in the Smithfield area so not too far from you.  Could make an "essential" drive for toilet paper and come back with some frags.

Will do! Between this tank and the frag tank there's tons o' stuff 🙂

[debbeach13]

First you need to feel better. Shipping can be risky especially now but when the time is right we will talk more. Then I will PM my address  to get a quote. Take care

[teenyreef]

Thanks but I'm not sick, just lazy 😂

[Pjanssen]

Welcome back! You've been missed.

[teenyreef]

23 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

Welcome back! You've been missed.

Thanks! I'm going to try to be online more. It won't be hard to do better than I have been lately, but taking some time off has re-energized me 🙂

[teenyreef]

I've been using a "Smart Buddie" booster pump for my RODI system, which I highly recommend. It cranks the incoming pressure up to about 80 psi and makes the RODI system run much faster, and more efficiently. it flushes the membrane automatically when it gets turned on, and stops pumping when the incoming water pressure is low or when the outgoing pressure is high (like when you turn off the water supply or have a float valve that shuts off the flow).

 

Mine has worked flawlessly for over 5 years now, but quietly died the other night. No indication of problems, it just stopped pumping, and the status light kept going from green to yellow. The warranty is only one year, and while I would have loved for it to have lasted forever, I really can't complain.

 

I ordered a new one from Amazon and it came two days later just like nothing had changed in the world. I plugged it in, turned it on, and I'm back in business. I've glad it really was broken and wasn't just some stupid plumbing mistake on my part 🙂

 

Meet the new Smart Buddie, same as the old Smart Buddie:

 

 

[teenyreef]

I took a bunch of pictures tonight just to document where things are in the tank right now. Some corals look great. Others are pale. Others had their tips burned and have algae on the tips. But overall things a re slowly improving.

 

No-name pink acro. This one definitely likes the tank right now 🙂

 

 

left-front corner of the tank. The WWC yellow tips is pale, but you can see some yellow tips on the new growth. It's also turned into a very aggressive grower, sneaking under and around other corals. The cali tort is also doing great, and is really hard to keep trimmed back without cutting it with a dremel or chisel.

 

The monticaps are out of control. And this is after I trimmed the Idaho grape last month. The leng sy is growing but color has suffered.

 

This is one of my hopelessly overgrown frag racks 😞

 

 

[teenyreef]

More coral pics just to get a record of what the corals look like in the tank right now. Lots of burnt tips from an alk spike a few months ago (that's why there's algae on a lot of the tips). Colors are mostly "meh" but not too bad. The best news is there are several acros coming back from the dead. I've spotted little bits of encrustation where there once was nothing but deadness. That's pretty surprising to me since usually once acros decide to go, it's with extreme prejudice.

 

I'm hoping that soon I can use these pictures as the "before" comparison with some really nice looking "after" pictures 🙂

 

ORA pearlberry is pretty happy

 

 

ORA red Planet browned out but is starting to get some color back. The war coral in the lower left of the picture has been thriving the whole time. Nothing ever seems to bother it.

 

Battle Corals Bubblebath Unicorn isn't dead and is still encrusting. That's all I've got to say about that. Hoping this will be a great "before picture".

 

Cultivated Reef Electric Miyagi Tort. It's hard to see, but there's a little bit of Katropora growing on top of it on the upper left. When the Katropora grew into the tort, a tiny bit of it was left after I trimmed it back. It's been growing ever since.

 

Tricolor Valida. This one died about two years ago. A few months later I noticed there was a tiny spec of color still on the rock. This is how far it's come back since.

 

Mummy eye chalice. When I was taking this picture, I noticed some encrusting sps growth in the upper right, where I had several acros die off. So something's coming back, I'm just not sure what it is yet.

 

Here's a closer look. 

 

In this picture you can see more of the surrounding corals. The big coral is the blueberry shortcake. I'm not sure what the green encrusting one is yet. I think it's probably the Jason Fox Hateraid, but it also might be the Cultivated Reed tabling acro that was really pretty.

The encrustation next to the mummy eye might just be more of the blueberry shortcake sneaking around trying to take over everything. But I'm hoping it's one of the other corals that dies on that side. I'll be able to tell a lot better once they start growing some branches and they get in the light and color up.

 

[teenyreef]

Oops, here's one more coral comeback picture. There's sunset montipora coming up from down lower in the rocks. The little bit on the lower left is a neon green stag, and the one on the upper right is a Katropora. I'm so happy to see things coming back from the dead!

 

[Nano sapiens]

24 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

 I'm so happy to see things coming back from the dead!

Isn't that the truth.  Finding something coming back that you thought was gone...priceless!

[teenyreef]

On 4/30/2020 at 10:14 PM, Nano sapiens said:

Isn't that the truth.  Finding something coming back that you thought was gone...priceless!

Yes! It's also really helping me get my motivation back to get this tank back on track.

[teenyreef]

Speaking of motivation...tonight I decided I really needed to make more room in the frag tank so I could move a few of the frags out of this tank. So I took two zoa rocks that I'd moved to the frag tank to recover (back when all the zoas in this tank started dying) and put them back here. Hopefully they'll do better now.

 

So that freed up a little space in the frag tank, and I decided to pull some of the frags off the big frag rack. But when I tried, I realized most of the frags were encrusted with vermetid worms and couldn't pull out. So I took the whole frag rack out and started working on it. Then I found out about half the frags had grown into each other. So if there was any doubt that I've been waiting too long to deal with this problem, this really got me going.

 

Here's what it looked like after I took it over the the fragging area by the frag tank:

 

There are some mini colonies of katropora, cali tort, and bird of paradise, all growing together. 

 

So that kind of got me going on the other frag racks, and I moved most of those frags over to the frag tank too. So now all I have left is one little frag rack on the left side! 

 

While I was at it, I trimmed the monticaps waaaay back, and stirred up the sand. Then I cut the dosing level in half since alk and calcium consumption is going to go down a lot with so many corals and pieces of monticap removed. I checked alk this evening, and I'll check again tomorrow to fine tune the dosing level.

 

This isn't the best FTS I've ever taken, but it's such a relief to be able to see to corals again 🙂

2020-05-03 IM40 FTS:

 

 

[Nano sapiens]

57 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Speaking of motivation...tonight I decided I really needed to make more room in the frag tank so I could move a few of the frags out of this tank. So I took two zoa rocks that I'd moved to the frag tank to recover (back when all the zoas in this tank started dying) and put them back here. Hopefully they'll do better now.

 

So that freed up a little space in the frag tank, and I decided to pull some of the frags off the big frag rack. But when I tried, I realized most of the frags were encrusted with vermetid worms and couldn't pull out. So I took the whole frag rack out and started working on it. Then I found out about half the frags had grown into each other. So if there was any doubt that I've been waiting too long to deal with this problem, this really got me going.

 

Here's what it looked like after I took it over the the fragging area by the frag tank:

 

There are some mini colonies of katropora, cali tort, and bird of paradise, all growing together. 

 

So that kind of got me going on the other frag racks, and I moved most of those frags over to the frag tank too. So now all I have left is one little frag rack on the left side! 

 

While I was at it, I trimmed the monticaps waaaay back, and stirred up the sand. Then I cut the dosing level in half since alk and calcium consumption is going to go down a lot with so many corals and pieces of monticap removed. I checked alk this evening, and I'll check again tomorrow to fine tune the dosing level.

 

This isn't the best FTS I've ever taken, but it's such a relief to be able to see to corals again 🙂

2020-05-03 IM40 FTS:

 

 

I think fraging is just one of those things that we tend to put off.   Problem is, it's not one that goes away and just gets more daunting as time progresses.

 

I let corals grow out until I notice that others lower down are reaching for a bit more light...then I go at all of those that overhang the rocks or are in my way when cleaning...all at once.  Usually, I'll have a few months until I have to break out the cutter again.

[debbeach13]

That's a show piece right there. How are the colors?

[Cannedfish]

I think we need to finally have "the talk." I know it's awkward, and there is never really a great time to do it, but it's better to just get it out of the way. We need need to talk about those dendros. They are incredible... I'm not even mad!

[teenyreef]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

That's a show piece right there. How are the colors?

The colors are decent but not great right now. Pretty much the way it is for all the sticks in the tank. Too much algae overall, nitrates and phosphates are at zero. I just need to fix some of the basics - keep up on water changes, make sure the clean up crew is replenished, etc..

 

I put in a snail bomb order with Reefcleaners last night so that will help.

 

I also hope removing the frag racks helps with circulation, which should also help with nitrate levels.

41 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

I think we need to finally have "the talk." I know it's awkward, and there is never really a great time to do it, but it's better to just get it out of the way. We need need to talk about those dendros. They are incredible... I'm not even mad!

Lol, they're one of my favorite corals. And I don't even have to play Ray Charles to get them to eat!

[Matteo]

Nice! 

[teenyreef]

10 hours ago, Matteo said:

Nice! 

Thank you, sir 🙂

[teenyreef]

Ok, just finished changing the water and completely organizing all the frags in the frag tank, followed by stirring up the sand and doing a 10g water change in this tank. The circulation is already obviously better, when I stir up the sand there's a current to carry it away now instead of just falling back into the sand.

 

I also put some kalk paste on a couple trouble spots where larger sps is trying to take over valuable but smaller sps. In the (bad, cellhpone, cloudy water) picture, I'm killing off the ORA Pearlberry that's trying to encrust next to the Bubblebath Unicorn. I have a million pearlberry frags and only one Unicorn, so the pearlberry loses. Hopefully without taking out the unicorn. 

Here, it's the WWC Yellowtips going after the Oregon tort. It worked its way over there all the way from the other side of the pink acro and the cali tort. Bad yellowtips, bad coral! 

 

I probably spent another six hours doing all this tonight but I'm so happy it's done. 

And as a reminder, you can never have too many buckets. At least until it's time to clean them all. 

 

[teenyreef]

The kalk paste did a great job of killing corals right where I applied it, and leaving everything else untouched. I don't recommend ever doing this on immature frags, though, as I expect they wouldn't survive. After all, small expensive stick frags usually promptly die if you look at them funny or tell them "just kidding!" jokes about their mother.

 

I had an...interesting...night tonight. I started scraping algae, feeling virtuous and happy about how the tank is cleaning up, when there was a big splash and a flash of color in the corner of my eye. Almost like a fish had jumped right out of the tank. Unfortunately, right in the back. Right where there's about an inch of clearance between the tank and the wall. 

 

I got a step stool and a flashlight so I could at least try to see if the fish was anywhere close to being in reach. I also got a glove, because i was pretty sure it was the rabbitfish and I didn't want to get stabbed/stung. When I got back, I could hear fish flopping sounds. Arrgh.

 

But when I got up and started looking around, here's what I found:

 

He jumped right into the filter caddy and was resting comfortably on the floss. 

 

I flipped him back into the tank and he went right back to swimming around looking completely happy. I'll check on him tomorrow but I do wish there was some way to get him to pick lottery numbers for me 🙂

 

I spent another hour or so scraping algae, cleaning the outside glass, and cleaning the circulation pumps. It was routine maintenance for the MP10s but I had never ever pulled the Rossmount Mover pump since I put it in years ago. I had noticed some bad noises about six weeks ago, like it had sucked up some sand, but it got quiet after a few minutes and I assumed it was all cleared up. Turns out it just stopped turning. So that is probably part of the circulation problems I've been noticing. I soaked it and cleaned it and WOW what a difference in the circulation on the sand bed. 

 

All in all, the tank is already a much happier place now.

[Matteo]

I had a similar experience cleaning my new oscar tank. The male got scared and tried jumping out the tank. Instead he hit his head on the corner of the tank rim and gave himself two nice little gashes 🙄

 

He's totally fine and actually almost healed up after three days but jeez 🙄 what a wuss... 😂 

[Ratvan]

3 hours ago, Matteo said:

I had a similar experience cleaning my new oscar tank. The male got scared and tried jumping out the tank. Instead he hit his head on the corner of the tank rim and gave himself two nice little gashes 🙄

 

He's totally fine and actually almost healed up after three days but jeez 🙄 what a wuss... 😂 

Wait until it catches you in the face

[Matteo]

8 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Wait until it catches you in the face

😘😘😘 Is all I expect from him