Mitten_reef’s IM30L

[--chris--]

Nice!  The last time I seen one of those it was barfing up a whole turkey breast.  

 

https://i.imgur.com/IO1QU8E.gifv

 

@micoastreefing I might be going to Founders for my Bday (first weekend in December) if I can talk my extended family into driving out.  Let me know what SPS you have with prices, I don't mind paying to dabble in sticks 🙂 

 

 

edit: why can't I easily embed imgur stuff 😕  Spent 10 minutes on that!  Good lord lol

[mitten_reef]

Worked at home today, which means a little midday tank time. 

 

[mitten_reef]

Away for the wknd. Got one BRS dosing pump set up to dose alk for 8 minutes twice a day. 

 

Crossing my fingers that the tank will be in good shape when we got home. 

[mitten_reef]

Tank looks pretty good, polyps are extending on almost everything in there. Gotta test alk later tonight. 

[WindyCityReefer.]

Just caught up on your thread - a lot has changed since I saw it last in person!

 

You will love having a dosing pump. I will agree that the consumption will go up drastically, but having the stability and peace of mind is fantastic. I could not imagine having a tank without one (unless you have a calcium reactor)! 

[mitten_reef]

So, just checked alk. We’re at 7.0 about half hour before the scheduled evening dose. Will keep an eye on this the next couple of days. If it stays steady here, then we’d be golden 7-8 range for the full day. 

[mitten_reef]

22 minutes ago, WindyCityReefer. said:

Just caught up on your thread - a lot has changed since I saw it last in person!

 

You will love having a dosing pump. I will agree that the consumption will go up drastically, but having the stability and peace of mind is fantastic. I could not imagine having a tank without one (unless you have a calcium reactor)! 

Thanks for dropping in. It sure has changed quite a bit, it took a bit of a hit with some SPS losses. I’m really excited to see how dosing pump will help me in the long run. 

 

[specore]

DID you go with the 1.1 ml brs doser, or the brs drews doser?

[Cannedfish]

I can’t believe you have gone this long without an auto-doser! Especially, with how good your tank looks! Welcome to the future! Seriously though, if I can somehow manage to do it, I’m pretty sure you will be able to do it twice as well! Good luck!!

[--chris--]

What are you using for the timer for the pumps?   I have one I used to use as an ato, it would kick on but not pump anything until it kicked off/on again (maybe it’s worn).

 

i would worry if that is normal behavior for these kinds of pumps!

[mitten_reef]

3 hours ago, specore said:

DID you go with the 1.1 ml brs doser, or the brs drews doser?

1.1 ml one. 

3 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

I can’t believe you have gone this long without an auto-doser! Especially, with how good your tank looks! Welcome to the future! Seriously though, if I can somehow manage to do it, I’m pretty sure you will be able to do it twice as well! Good luck!!

Yup, believe me, You’re not the only one that the blessing of Lady Luck. Haha. 

2 hours ago, --chris-- said:

What are you using for the timer for the pumps?   I have one I used to use as an ato, it would kick on but not pump anything until it kicked off/on again (maybe it’s worn).

 

i would worry if that is normal behavior for these kinds of pumps!

I’m using this one from back when every light on my tank is on/off only. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002K8U0WI/ref=psdcmw_3236443011_t1_B002K8M9HM

[mitten_reef]

photo taken with Adobe Lightroom app on iPhone - much better! And nicer adjustments available. 

 

Also, tested the alk last night a half hour before dosing pump came on. It seemed to have drifted down to ~6.7, slightly below 7.0 found last week. Might have to increase the number of minutes per day the pump is on by one or two minutes. 

[Polarcollision]

Ooooh! You got an Oregon tort?! It's a classic that has no rival when it comes down to the color blue.

 

If you don't mind, I can maybe save you from making my SPS mistakes with the dosers and KH swings. I'd suggest dosing all Alk spread out throughout the night when pH tends to fall so that it helps reduce the swing. As pH naturally rises the next morning, my understanding is that the bicabonate buffer system naturally converts over to carbonate which, as you know SPS use to grow. A win-win for both issues. Occasionally if my container runs out unaware I'll find KH around 5 and will emergency dose 9 mL, which is the largest amount recommended by BRS calculators. This raises Alk out of emergency zone but it also causes a 0.2 pH jump in a matter of seconds. That's HUGE for SPS. SPS do survive it as promised, though the SSC browns out every time and all SPS polyps retract so it's clear it stresses them out. Your daily dosing 8mL in 30g is close-ish to my 9 mL in 24g so I'm concerned the stress will make them less resilient if/when other stressors happen. Can your controller dose more than 2 times a day? if so, try spreading those out at night ( I dose 12x from 11-5) and see how it does for you long term.

 

Nice choice of the 1.1 mL dosers. Mine are going strong 5 years later and they only need TLC once a year. Love them.

[mitten_reef]

5 hours ago, Polarcollision said:

Ooooh! You got an Oregon tort?! It's a classic that has no rival when it comes down to the color blue.

 

If you don't mind, I can maybe save you from making my SPS mistakes with the dosers and KH swings. I'd suggest dosing all Alk spread out throughout the night when pH tends to fall so that it helps reduce the swing. As pH naturally rises the next morning, my understanding is that the bicabonate buffer system naturally converts over to carbonate which, as you know SPS use to grow. A win-win for both issues. Occasionally if my container runs out unaware I'll find KH around 5 and will emergency dose 9 mL, which is the largest amount recommended by BRS calculators. This raises Alk out of emergency zone but it also causes a 0.2 pH jump in a matter of seconds. That's HUGE for SPS. SPS do survive it as promised, though the SSC browns out every time and all SPS polyps retract so it's clear it stresses them out. Your daily dosing 8mL in 30g is close-ish to my 9 mL in 24g so I'm concerned the stress will make them less resilient if/when other stressors happen. Can your controller dose more than 2 times a day? if so, try spreading those out at night ( I dose 12x from 11-5) and see how it does for you long term.

 

Nice choice of the 1.1 mL dosers. Mine are going strong 5 years later and they only need TLC once a year. Love them.

OT has been on my bucket list of corals, along with jack o' lantern, red planet, BoP, and leng sy.  I'm sure there are a few more I can't think of - oh yeah, red dragon is now back on the need-to-buy list 😓.  I'm just hoping to get some of these classics really growing in my tank, now that I'm comfortable with my reefing skill.  I mainly bought whatever was cheap in the past, because the price-per-piece of some of the bigger names scared me.  so suffice to say, it'll be another year or more before I dabble with the "high-end" designer acros. Unless of course @HarryPotter got creative with some frag packs in the next year.    

 

Thanks for the dosing time tip, much appreciated!  About the doser, I found it to feel well-built, although wasn't all that accurate out of the box when I calibrated it with water.  I think I get around 20 ml in 15 minutes.  I actually end up dosing 8 min twice a day....1 pm and 9pm.  so yeah, I'm at about 20 ml per day on KH.  No scientific basis whatsoever, just had to set it up to run so that I can take a couple of 2-day trips away from home during thanksgiving.  That is interesting about dosing at night or through the night.  I'll try to program that in this wknd.  The timer has 6 points on/off, so that's how many times I could spread it over the night/day.

 

  

[Polarcollision]

On 11/26/2018 at 5:56 PM, micoastreefing said:

OT has been on my bucket list of corals, along with jack o' lantern, red planet, BoP, and leng sy.  I'm sure there are a few more I can't think of - oh yeah, red dragon is now back on the need-to-buy list 😓.  I'm just hoping to get some of these classics really growing in my tank, now that I'm comfortable with my reefing skill.  I mainly bought whatever was cheap in the past, because the price-per-piece of some of the bigger names scared me.  so suffice to say, it'll be another year or more before I dabble with the "high-end" designer acros. Unless of course @HarryPotter got creative with some frag packs in the next year.    

 

Thanks for the dosing time tip, much appreciated!  About the doser, I found it to feel well-built, although wasn't all that accurate out of the box when I calibrated it with water.  I think I get around 20 ml in 15 minutes.  I actually end up dosing 8 min twice a day....1 pm and 9pm.  so yeah, I'm at about 20 ml per day on KH.  No scientific basis whatsoever, just had to set it up to run so that I can take a couple of 2-day trips away from home during thanksgiving.  That is interesting about dosing at night or through the night.  I'll try to program that in this wknd.  The timer has 6 points on/off, so that's how many times I could spread it over the night/day.

 

  

If my new Apex gives a heads-up the next time alk runs out I’m plannning on getting my 3rd OT. And 3rd red dragon. Sigh. They’re probably haunting me at night as payback for not noticing the container ran dry. Have you seen pro corals rainbow? It doesn’t table like RP but it does turn gold and red. It’s hotgeous. <— I typed gorgeous; iPhone AC is definitely swankier than me. 😂. 

 

@HarryPotter, you do fancy frag packs? I’m in. 🙂 

 

just in in case I wasn’t clear, the total dosed per day is whatever the tank needs. It’s more that 8-10-ish mL in our water volume all at once jumps pH too fast.

[mitten_reef]

Tank is getting some trimming this wknd. @--chris-- will be in town to pick up some frags. 

[tanacharison]

All this dosing made me check my levels... Need to place a order for more. Tanks looking good. Have you noticed any color changing with the daily dosing. 

[--chris--]

[mitten_reef]

29 minutes ago, tanacharison said:

All this dosing made me check my levels... Need to place a order for more. Tanks looking good. Have you noticed any color changing with the daily dosing. 

just a little bit, a few pieces are starting to have nicer colorations.  Need to keep an eye on others.  Will be ramping the light back up too, now that I can easily maintain alk.

[DaveFason]

10 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

just a little bit, a few pieces are starting to have nicer colorations.  Need to keep an eye on others.  Will be ramping the light back up too, now that I can easily maintain alk.

Like @Polarcollision said with dosing the ALK. Through the night works extremely well. In the past I had eight different dosing times throughout the day for ALK. I also dosed the CAL thirty minutes before the lights are on at my max setting. At this point my tank looked best. 

 

-D

[mitten_reef]

So I've been wanting a dwarf angel, have some store credit at LFS.  So I ended up taking a pygmy angel home today.  The funny thing is, it may be the exact same one I dropped off to the store years ago - weird how things worked out.  This guy/gal is fat and happy in their frag flat, so I'm hoping that he won't nip any corals in my tank.  While ultimately I wanted a flame angel, I think I'll wait until my future/larger tank before I get one of those.

[specore]

11 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

So I've been wanting a dwarf angel, have some store credit at LFS.  So I ended up taking a pygmy angel home today.  The funny thing is, it may be the exact same one I dropped off to the store years ago - weird how things worked out.  This guy/gal is fat and happy in their frag flat, so I'm hoping that he won't nip any corals in my tank.  While ultimately I wanted a flame angel, I think I'll wait until my future/larger tank before I get one of those.

Such great little fish

[--chris--]

11 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

So I've been wanting a dwarf angel, have some store credit at LFS.  So I ended up taking a pygmy angel home today.  The funny thing is, it may be the exact same one I dropped off to the store years ago - weird how things worked out.  This guy/gal is fat and happy in their frag flat, so I'm hoping that he won't nip any corals in my tank.  While ultimately I wanted a flame angel, I think I'll wait until my future/larger tank before I get one of those.

I had a Flame (nipped stony's but ignored softies) and a Potter.  I swapped the flame + money for the Potter, which was a perfect reef fish.  However, after a few months it stopped eating and withered away.  I don't know what happened.  

 

I REALLY like the pygmy angels due to their size and activity levels, good choice!  

[specore]

7 minutes ago, --chris-- said:

I had a Flame (nipped stony's but ignored softies) and a Potter.  I swapped the flame + money for the Potter, which was a perfect reef fish.  However, after a few months it stopped eating and withered away.  I don't know what happened.  

 

I REALLY like the pygmy angels due to their size and activity levels, good choice!  

And longevity.  Pretty bulletproof.  Always wanted a Potter's, but seems your experience is the norm.  

[--chris--]

It was a bummer.  BEAUTIFUL animal and it ate pellet (and frozen).  It just gave up or something.  

 

OTOH, there is a store in Detroit that has had a pygmy and a pair of clowns in a 24 gallon 'cube for over a decade.  Every time I go I check in on them first, and they are always there.