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

[spectra]

9 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Yeah, I'm always fighting the battle between more flow to keep the corals happy, and too much flow that moves the sand around. And then the goby and pistol shrimp move it all around anyway. 

 

Which reminds me, the coral growth has kind of slowed down the flow, I need to increase the flow from both MP-10's...

 

Yeah its nuts at times....................

 

I clipped the slimmer a bit ago and well now it has new growth about 3/4" out of where I cut it.....................nothing stops that coral

[teenyreef]

Just now, spectra said:

 

Yeah its nuts at times....................

 

I clipped the slimmer a bit ago and well now it has new growth about 3/4" out of where I cut it.....................nothing stops that coral

Those are my favorite kind of coral, the indestructible kind

[Merthynia]

14 hours ago, teenyreef said:

That's a good question - the water changes I'm talking about are just to get my tank's parameters at a baseline level in case any of them have risen to high with my ad hos dosing regimen. The goal of both the Triton and ATI methods is to minimize or eliminate water changes. 

 

It's a popular misconception that you can maintain element levels with nothing but water changes, but that's only possible by using salt water mixes that have levels significantly higher than what you want to maintain in the tank. That's why salt mixes like Reef Crystals and Red Sea Coral Pro exist, for folks that don't want to dose. But if you're keeping SPS, especially acros and other finicky characters, the swings in parameter levels this introduces is really bad. That's why Red Sea recommends RSCP for non-sps tanks, and recommend RSBB for SPS. 

 

Think of it this way: if my target alkalinity is 7.5, and it falls to 7.0 in a week, and I do a 20% water change with a salt mix that mixes at 8.0, then my alkalinity will go from 7.0 to 7.2 after that water change (20% of the difference between the two levels). So in that imaginary scenario, the only way to maintain my alkalinity at 7.5 would be to do 50% water changes every week, or switch to a salt with higher alkalinity. And of course all the other parameters would change at the same rates and proportions.

Hmm, so I picked the right one for my tank? I switched salt mixes recently since my last giant bucket ran out. The LFS around here carried quite a few brands but I decided to try Red Sea Coral Pro. I don't have any SPS and don't really plan on stocking more than one or two if ever.

[teenyreef]

13 hours ago, Merthynia said:

Hmm, so I picked the right one for my tank? I switched salt mixes recently since my last giant bucket ran out. The LFS around here carried quite a few brands but I decided to try Red Sea Coral Pro. I don't have any SPS and don't really plan on stocking more than one or two if ever.

Yep! If  you don't want to dose, and you don't need super stable parameters for sps, that's the way to go.

 

I spent all night tonight switching the dosers over to the ATI Elements. It was a typical 30 minute job that took five hours by the time I was done clearing out the tubing with RODI, cleaning out the caked up alkalinity solution, and cleaning all the dosing containers. And then doing it all again on the 10g tank. But it's done, and I did a 10g water change. I'll do another 10g in two days, and then get the dosing fine tuned. After another week or two and a few more water changes, I'll send in my sample for testing and see where things are.

[kimberbee]

On 9/8/2017 at 11:21 AM, Merthynia said:

Hmm, so I picked the right one for my tank? I switched salt mixes recently since my last giant bucket ran out. The LFS around here carried quite a few brands but I decided to try Red Sea Coral Pro. I don't have any SPS and don't really plan on stocking more than one or two if ever.

 

On 9/9/2017 at 0:57 AM, teenyreef said:

Yep! If  you don't want to dose, and you don't need super stable parameters for sps, that's the way to go.

Red Sea Coral Pro is the only salt I've ever used. Worked well for me so far! 

[teenyreef]

Wow, things got super busy at work last week, so I had not time to post because I was pretty much working around the clock. But I caught up on sleep this weekend, and made time to change the water and take a few pictures.

 

Things are going well overall. I'm dosing the ATI Elements, which has taken some adjustment. It's much less concentrated than the Seachem Reef Fusion, so my initial dosing levels were way to low and alk fell by almost a point in a couple days before I realized what was happening. I'm still getting it tuned in...it seems I need to dose about four times as much as I did with Reef Fusion.

 

Of course that explains one thing...I always wondered why I was only dosing a couple ml in this tank when many people with similar tanks were doing closer to 8 or 10 or more. I thought maybe I just had really slow growth

 

I took pictures of almost all the corals to record progress, and I uploaded most of them to Flickr. For here, though, I'm just going to post the ones that are of corals I haven't shown in a while.  mostly zoas and palys. Plus maybe a few that turned out really good...

 

Raptors Rainbow palys from Legendary Corals. These have been coloring up well since I put them closer to the middle of the tank:

 

Rastas:

 

These guys have been growing back from literally nothing. I'm still waiting to see what they turn out to be when they get all colored up.

 

These are generic blue zoas I got from KP Aquatics. Or maybe they were the un-named bonus zoas I got from a shipment from Aquascapers, I'm just not sure which. Either way, they never thrived after I got them and almost died out several times. They are finally starting to grow and color up in this tank. I think it's been worth the wait 

 

A macro shot of one of the acans that turned out pretty:

 

One of the two heads of my yumas. These are the only yumas I've ever kept. I got them at the local coral show last year, and they barely stayed alive for a long time. For whatever reason, though, they have started to like the conditions in the tank and are starting to grow.

 

Coral Morpholigics Vice zoas from Aquascapers. I'm sure I've posted these frequently before, but I just love how their pictures turn out every time

 

These are either candy apply or whammin watermelon, I can never keep them straight. These particular ones are a really cool morph with little white freckles in them. They only get these when the light is just right.

 

I think these are smoldering cauldron zoas from ReefGen:

 

I was thinking these were searchlights but they don't have the yellow centers. I'll have to look through some old pictures to see what they really are.

 

These are classic purple death palys, but they tend to be more blue than purple. And for some reason in this picture, they turned out even more blue than they look in real life. But the picture was so pretty I just had to post it anyway

 

 

[jstuver]

Looking good!

[Lula_Mae]

9 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Wow, things got super busy at work last week, so I had not time to post because I was pretty much working around the clock. But I caught up on sleep this weekend, and made time to change the water and take a few pictures.

 

Things are going well overall. I'm dosing the ATI Elements, which has taken some adjustment. It's much less concentrated than the Seachem Reef Fusion, so my initial dosing levels were way to low and alk fell by almost a point in a couple days before I realized what was happening. I'm still getting it tuned in...it seems I need to dose about four times as much as I did with Reef Fusion.

 

Of course that explains one thing...I always wondered why I was only dosing a couple ml in this tank when many people with similar tanks were doing closer to 8 or 10 or more. I thought maybe I just had really slow growth

 

I took pictures of almost all the corals to record progress, and I uploaded most of them to Flickr. For here, though, I'm just going to post the ones that are of corals I haven't shown in a while.  mostly zoas and palys. Plus maybe a few that turned out really good...

 

Raptors Rainbow palys from Legendary Corals. These have been coloring up well since I put them closer to the middle of the tank:

 

Rastas:

 

These guys have been growing back from literally nothing. I'm still waiting to see what they turn out to be when they get all colored up.

 

These are generic blue zoas I got from KP Aquatics. Or maybe they were the un-named bonus zoas I got from a shipment from Aquascapers, I'm just not sure which. Either way, they never thrived after I got them and almost died out several times. They are finally starting to grow and color up in this tank. I think it's been worth the wait 

 

A macro shot of one of the acans that turned out pretty:

 

One of the two heads of my yumas. These are the only yumas I've ever kept. I got them at the local coral show last year, and they barely stayed alive for a long time. For whatever reason, though, they have started to like the conditions in the tank and are starting to grow.

 

Coral Morpholigics Vice zoas from Aquascapers. I'm sure I've posted these frequently before, but I just love how their pictures turn out every time

 

These are either candy apply or whammin watermelon, I can never keep them straight. These particular ones are a really cool morph with little white freckles in them. They only get these when the light is just right.

 

I think these are smoldering cauldron zoas from ReefGen:

 

I was thinking these were searchlights but they don't have the yellow centers. I'll have to look through some old pictures to see what they really are.

 

These are classic purple death palys, but they tend to be more blue than purple. And for some reason in this picture, they turned out even more blue than they look in real life. But the picture was so pretty I just had to post it anyway

 

 

Love your zoa collection! In the pic with the vice zoas--are those blondies in the upper right?

[teenyreef]

20 hours ago, jstuver said:

Looking good!

Thanks, Jackie!

11 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Love your zoa collection! In the pic with the vice zoas--are those blondies in the upper right?

Thanks! Yes, I think that's what they are...I got them from ReefGen at our local coral show last year, and I couldn't remember what Laura said they were called. But that's what they look like to me.

[Lula_Mae]

9 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Thanks, Jackie!

Thanks! Yes, I think that's what they are...I got them from ReefGen at our local coral show last year, and I couldn't remember what Laura said they were called. But that's what they look like to me.

So pretty!  I have a 2.5 polyp frag that's currently growing a vermetid pair better than the zoas. I like how bright and cheerful they are.

[teenyreef]

12 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

So pretty!  I have a 2.5 polyp frag that's currently growing a vermetid pair better than the zoas. I like how bright and cheerful they are.

Crush those vermetids like they are the spawn of satan!

 

Because they really are 

[WV Reefer]

On 9/18/2017 at 12:34 AM, teenyreef said:

Wow, things got super busy at work last week, so I had not time to post because I was pretty much working around the clock. But I caught up on sleep this weekend, and made time to change the water and take a few pictures.

 

Things are going well overall. I'm dosing the ATI Elements, which has taken some adjustment. It's much less concentrated than the Seachem Reef Fusion, so my initial dosing levels were way to low and alk fell by almost a point in a couple days before I realized what was happening. I'm still getting it tuned in...it seems I need to dose about four times as much as I did with Reef Fusion.

 

Of course that explains one thing...I always wondered why I was only dosing a couple ml in this tank when many people with similar tanks were doing closer to 8 or 10 or more. I thought maybe I just had really slow growth

 

I took pictures of almost all the corals to record progress, and I uploaded most of them to Flickr. For here, though, I'm just going to post the ones that are of corals I haven't shown in a while.  mostly zoas and palys. Plus maybe a few that turned out really good...

 

Raptors Rainbow palys from Legendary Corals. These have been coloring up well since I put them closer to the middle of the tank:

 

Rastas:

 

These guys have been growing back from literally nothing. I'm still waiting to see what they turn out to be when they get all colored up.

 

These are generic blue zoas I got from KP Aquatics. Or maybe they were the un-named bonus zoas I got from a shipment from Aquascapers, I'm just not sure which. Either way, they never thrived after I got them and almost died out several times. They are finally starting to grow and color up in this tank. I think it's been worth the wait 

 

A macro shot of one of the acans that turned out pretty:

 

One of the two heads of my yumas. These are the only yumas I've ever kept. I got them at the local coral show last year, and they barely stayed alive for a long time. For whatever reason, though, they have started to like the conditions in the tank and are starting to grow.

 

Coral Morpholigics Vice zoas from Aquascapers. I'm sure I've posted these frequently before, but I just love how their pictures turn out every time

 

These are either candy apply or whammin watermelon, I can never keep them straight. These particular ones are a really cool morph with little white freckles in them. They only get these when the light is just right.

 

I think these are smoldering cauldron zoas from ReefGen:

 

I was thinking these were searchlights but they don't have the yellow centers. I'll have to look through some old pictures to see what they really are.

 

These are classic purple death palys, but they tend to be more blue than purple. And for some reason in this picture, they turned out even more blue than they look in real life. But the picture was so pretty I just had to post it anyway

 

 

Wish I could grow zoas....... they hate me.   

[vlangel]

O man those zoas sure are pretty!  Such vibrancy and gourgeous color.

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Crush those vermetids like they are the spawn of satan!

 

Because they really are 

Yes, yes they are lol.  I pulled it out today, broke the tubes off and glued over the ends.  Hopefully that stops them  I don't even know where they came from! 

4 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Wish I could grow zoas....... they hate me.   

Zoas hated me for years, I am hoping the current batch does better.  They have been alive probably longer than any I've ever had so fingers crossed lol.

[teenyreef]

Well I had another crazy week at work but I was able to go to our local coral show today (MAMAX), which is small but really fun. I won a $100 gift card in the raffle for an lfs in Richmond VA which is about a two hour drive away, but I just happen to be going there for a wedding in a couple weeks, so I expect to pick up a new coral or two then. 

 

There's not a lot of room for more corals to grow out in this tank so I planned on picking up just one or two new corals at the show, only if I could find some nice pieces at a good price. 

 

Turns out there were lots of nice pieces at good prices 

 

Here's part of the haul from the morning trip. I went back later and got more after finding some nice montis at a great price

 

 

Here's a close up of the middle one. This is Cherry Corals Voodoo Magick. 

 

 

More pics tomorrow! 

[Felicia]

Looking great, Teeny!  I absolutely love your zoa collection.  You have some really nice colonies and I love the mix of colors you have in there.  Definitely taking some inspiration from you zoa garden for my new tank!

 

Aquarium shows are so fun!  Glad to hear you got to go check it out.  Gena and I are going to Reef-a-Palooza in Orange County in a few weeks.  Nice finds!  Love the green and orange on that SPS frag.

[Tuffryu]

On 9/7/2017 at 5:13 PM, teenyreef said:

I've been experimenting with different salts, and different trace element dosing approaches lately. I've tried both Aquaforest and Fritz, and liked them both, except they both tested unusually high in magnesium, like close to 1600. I'd be inclined to blame the test kit, but I've tried multiple kits from multiple brands, and my Triton test results for this tank matched my magnesium levels as measured by the test kit, so I think it's accurate. Also, when the mag levels were high in my tanks, the snails were affected, getting very sluggish, which John from Reefcleaners has said will happen with magnesium at or over 1500.

 

I even tried multiple batches of Aquaforest, before seeing online that other people have reported the same thing. For the Fritz, I recently met Shawn Hale from Fritz, when he was at an LFS giving a seminar on their products. We had a nice talk, and he gave me some encouraging feedback that they are really looking to provide a salt mix that comes as close as possible to natural sea water, and that he thinks they are going to reduce their magnesium level to be closer to NSW. But he said my magnesium shouldn't be so high, and he asked me to send him the batch number so he could check to see what the levels were for that batch. Unfortunately, I haven't heard back from him

 

At the same time, I've been dosing a somewhat haphazard combination of trace elements, including those already present in Reef Fusion 1 & 2, Red Sea Colors, and a few other miscellaneous bottles of stuff. Based on my Triton test results, it seems to be working pretty well, other than my consistently way high iron levels. But it's a daily pain in the butt and I'd really rather take a simpler approach that is easier to maintain in the long run.

 

So, I've switched back to Red Sea Blue Bucket, which I was always pretty happy with. The main reason I stopped using it was because none of my LFS's carry it any more. But since I can't find any other salt that has consistently mixed up the way I want, I'm willing to pay a bit of a premium to get it shipped.

 

I'm also going to try the new ATI essentials program. It's similar to the Triton method, in that you send your water off for analysis, and you dose using their three part stuff which includes all the trace elements. For me the difference is that ATI method isn't based around running a refugium, and it's a lot cheaper. But before I send off for my first sample analysis, I'm going to do several largish water changes using the RSBB salt, and continue running my Polyfilter for a few more weeks. The idea is to get all the trace element levels, especially the iron, to a baseline level that reflects the ATI dosing program, then the test results will show what I need to adjust.

 

If this works as advertised, then I won't have to do separate dosing of trace elements any more. I'd like that

 

 

 

This is an interesting thread Teeny - in particular ATI essentials program. I'm really interested in updates and what you learn as I'm realizing that I probably need to do something similar. I don't test iron, iodine, or other trace elements - but I do dose trace elements sparingly.

 

I've been using RSCP for a while now (about a year), primarily because I needed higher ALK/Cal levels during water changes. My levels currently are starting at 7.3-5 beginning of the week and ending at 7 dkh. So I end up doing about 1/3 of a water change, and dose lots of b-ionic alk (25ml or so). Are you using RS blue because of the trace elements or for optimal Alk/Cal levels? or both? 

 

I haven't used the blue bucket because I've been advised that Pro would be better for an SPS dominant tank - but I am curious. I'm also back to running an ULN tank so I probably should look to keep alk closer to NSW. 

 

 

[Orangutran]

Tank looks great! Do you use the photo app Snapseed? They updated it recently, so you can adjust the curve of individual colours. When you take down the blue channel, tank pics look pretty realistic. It has white balance as well of course.

[teenyreef]

On 9/27/2017 at 6:36 PM, Tuffryu said:

 

This is an interesting thread Teeny - in particular ATI essentials program. I'm really interested in updates and what you learn as I'm realizing that I probably need to do something similar. I don't test iron, iodine, or other trace elements - but I do dose trace elements sparingly.

 

I've been using RSCP for a while now (about a year), primarily because I needed higher ALK/Cal levels during water changes. My levels currently are starting at 7.3-5 beginning of the week and ending at 7 dkh. So I end up doing about 1/3 of a water change, and dose lots of b-ionic alk (25ml or so). Are you using RS blue because of the trace elements or for optimal Alk/Cal levels? or both? 

 

I haven't used the blue bucket because I've been advised that Pro would be better for an SPS dominant tank - but I am curious. I'm also back to running an ULN tank so I probably should look to keep alk closer to NSW. 

 

 

So far so good with the ATI essentials. Adjusting the dosing was a huge change. I mixed the dosing elements at the more diluted ratio per their instructions for smaller tanks, but I won't do that again. 

 

With Seachem Reef Fusion (which is a liquid), I was dosing about two ml per day. With ATI, I'm up around 45ml per day and just starting to get it fine tuned. So the difference in concentration was huge.

 

As far as RSBB goes, the goal with sps is to keep parameters as stable as possible, so I wanted a salt that mixed up as close to my alkalinity levels as possible, and then use the dosing to keep the levels up.

 

RSCP is definitely the one to use if you don't dose, because you need to elevated levels to keep your parameters consistent. If you're only dropping .3 to .5 in a week, I'd say dosing isn't that critical for you yet. I probably lose that much in a day.

On 9/28/2017 at 4:37 PM, Orangutran said:

Tank looks great! Do you use the photo app Snapseed? They updated it recently, so you can adjust the curve of individual colours. When you take down the blue channel, tank pics look pretty realistic. It has white balance as well of course.

Thanks! I've heard good things about Snapseed, but I use Adobe Lightroom to adjust the color of the pictures. Usually all I have to do is put the eye dropper on a neutral colored part of the rock or sand. That typically results in reducing the blues as much as possible, and a slight reduction in the reds. If necessary, I tweak it by hand until it looks like it does to my eye in real life.

[teenyreef]

On 9/24/2017 at 4:57 AM, Felicia said:

Looking great, Teeny!  I absolutely love your zoa collection.  You have some really nice colonies and I love the mix of colors you have in there.  Definitely taking some inspiration from you zoa garden for my new tank!

 

Aquarium shows are so fun!  Glad to hear you got to go check it out.  Gena and I are going to Reef-a-Palooza in Orange County in a few weeks.  Nice finds!  Love the green and orange on that SPS frag.

Thanks, Felicia! Reef-a-Palooza should be lots of fun. I've never been a to a really big reef show, I'm waiting for something to come back to the Washington, DC area, as all the other locations are a long drive away from me here in Virginia.

 

That frag is my favorite so far. I've never had an sps coral that was truly orange. 

[teenyreef]

I got all the new corals glued up today but didn't have a chance to get pictures before I had to go to a wedding. Pictures tomorrow

[Lynton]

1 hour ago, teenyreef said:

I got all the new corals glued up today but didn't have a chance to get pictures before I had to go to a wedding. Pictures tomorrow

Thats teasing ?

[Reefkid88]

 Those sps look suppppper good,nice haul for sure. You always have the best luck at winning stuff man lol. 

 

 All the sps talk around here lately is making me want to set up the sps nano tank again !! 

[gone_PHiSHin]

2 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

 Those sps look suppppper good,nice haul for sure. You always have the best luck at winning stuff man lol. 

 

 All the sps talk around here lately is making me want to set up the sps nano tank again !! 

[Nola Bear]

Looking good Teeny! Look forward to seeing the new pics~