Rebuilding the Shallow Reef Tank Pt.2

[tanacharison]

Came home and noticed I have a tiny leak coming from bottom of my carbon media reactor. Pulled it and added acrylic cement around the base. Hopefully that works. Also skimmer cup was really full.. strange things happen when you leave for a day.

[tanacharison]

So my dry food is expiring soon and I wanted to try something new for the fish. I picked up Saki-Hikari Marine Carnivore hoping they would eat it and I'm very impressed so far. I've done 2 weeks of morning and evening feeding and my halkfish who never eats pellet food is now eating this product. The blenny and sixline are also both actively eating it but they would also eat pellet food occasionally before. I might pick up a bag of the herbivore blend for the blenny seeing as he won't touch anything on algae clips.

[tanacharison]

[tanacharison]

Well after struggling with Nitrates I decided to purchase a Brightwell Aquatics Xport plate and give it a try I figured extra area for bacteria to grow could not hurt. I'm still running biopellets for a carbon source and my carbon media reactor came back on early last week. Prior to adding the brick I had a range of 35-50ppm for Nitrates and 0.0-.03 Phosphates. After using the product for a week I'm around 10-30ppm Nitrates and 0.00 Phosphates. I'm sure I have phosphates I just can't ever pick up the color on a salfert test kit. What scares me is the sudden effects this will have on my coral, I already have a colony of zoas that never opened up today and one of my acans is starting to show tissue recession. I removed half of the brick hoping to slow the process. I will keep everyone updated on the reduction.

[Nola Bear]

p

 

Thanks. He likes to be in front of the camera.

Can't wait to get me a starry! So awesome! Keep it up~

[tanacharison]

Can't wait to get me a starry! So awesome! Keep it up~

 

Thanks! For some reason mine is not really big on eating algae but tons of fun to watch.

[tanacharison]

I think I might buy a IM 20 Peninsuala next week. No clue what I would do with it but I kinda want one.

[tanacharison]

Finally got around to cleaning my skimmer. This will be the first time I fully broken it down for a cleaning and I'm shocked at how much crap was in the pump. Everything is still looking ok in the reef. The zoes on the right side still won't open up but the pink monti on the same rock that browned out and I thought died is coming back to its hot pink. All the frags are still good. I will mount them over the next two days and I''m thinking about fragging some of my pink/teal palys. Fish are getting big and seem happy with each other.

[tanacharison]

FTS. Looks a little green not sure why

 

Finally got around to mounting frags. Even made some nice zoas frags I can give away once they start growing. I get afraid when I start cutting but it works sometimes.

[ninjamyst]

really like your sump area. how much coral frenzy and reef roids are you feeding? do you prefer one over the other?

[tanacharison]

really like your sump area. how much coral frenzy and reef roids are you feeding? do you prefer one over the other?

The combination of both covers the diversity of corals in the tank. I try to target feed 10ml of reef roids every other day. I can't tell if the flowerpot likes it or just closes up because of the target feeding. Sps slime like crazy. The lps react well to coral frenzy and I probably should target feed it more. The acan doubles in size when I start feeding it begging for more. I'm doing once a week 4-5 pellets a coral but I had to order a new feeding tool so it's been a while.

[FlowerMama]

I loved my starry, unfortunately he passed at the very end of my QT period waiting for ich to leave the 40g tank. He would though snuggle up to my rose coral and cause it to be closed and there was a baby right next to it so even if he would have lived I probably would have had to rehome him. And I do have my long nose, loves perching on a mounted puff of pipe coral. They're starting to learn they don't have to close just because he's perched on them. I love how peaceful it is and of course its design.

[ninjamyst]

The combination of both covers the diversity of corals in the tank. I try to target feed 10ml of reef roids every other day. I can't tell if the flowerpot likes it or just closes up because of the target feeding. Sps slime like crazy. The lps react well to coral frenzy and I probably should target feed it more. The acan doubles in size when I start feeding it begging for more. I'm doing once a week 4-5 pellets a coral but I had to order a new feeding tool so it's been a while.

i have coral frenzy and BRS reef chili but dont get much response from my corals. tempted to try reef roids but do i really need 3 different coral food....

[tanacharison]

i have coral frenzy and BRS reef chili but dont get much response from my corals. tempted to try reef roids but do i really need 3 different coral food....

Acans, chalices and ricordea seem to consume frenzy. Oh and the billion brittle stars. I was going to try the chili but I went with the roid/poly booster combo. I did try coral gumbo but I just felt nothing reacted well and my tank got more dirty.

[tanacharison]

I loved my starry, unfortunately he passed at the very end of my QT period waiting for ich to leave the 40g tank. He would though snuggle up to my rose coral and cause it to be closed and there was a baby right next to it so even if he would have lived I probably would have had to rehome him. And I do have my long nose, loves perching on a mounted puff of pipe coral. They're starting to learn they don't have to close just because he's perched on them. I love how peaceful it is and of course its design.

My blenny likes to sit on my massive poly colony. Longnose is hands down my favorite fish. Next large build or upgrade I want to get a pair off divers den. I keep hand feeding mine but all I really want it to pet him. Why can't I have a fish I can pet? I guess the cat will do.

[FlowerMama]

I used to have freshwater like 20 yrs ago, my Oscar loved to be petted.

[ninjamyst]

My blenny likes to sit on my massive poly colony. Longnose is hands down my favorite fish. Next large build or upgrade I want to get a pair off divers den. I keep hand feeding mine but all I really want it to pet him. Why can't I have a fish I can pet? I guess the cat will do.

i want a longnose too but i have way too many fish already...hahah

[FlowerMama]

They're so laid back my friend's longnose lets other fish perch on him. They're like whatever.

[tanacharison]

i want a longnose too but i have way too many fish already...hahah

Everytime I check your thread I feel like I can do one more fish.

 

They're so laid back my friend's longnose lets other fish perch on him. They're like whatever.

They look like they would be aggressive but more like puppies. My damsel is the tank bully. I got bit 20 times today.

[FlowerMama]

Damsels usually aren't the nicest, maybe that's why some people put them in with mantis shrimp. Or maybe because some damsels are only $5 and they want to see their mantis have fun. I dunno.

[tanacharison]

Damsels usually aren't the nicest, maybe that's why some people put them in with mantis shrimp. Or maybe because some damsels are only $5 and they want to see their mantis have fun. I dunno.

Haha mantis shrimp scare me. When my damsels were 1/2 inch they were so cute and nice.

[tanacharison]

Nitrates 15ppm

Phosphates are .01

Alk 8

[tanacharison]

So I think my nitrates are at a stand still but I'm not unhappy. A lot of people run them much higher and have great results plus I'm seeing my pink monit come back from the dead with good color. Zoa's are opening back up just slightly smaller. I think this will be my balance point for my mixed reef. I skipped my water change last week and I had to dose every other day to keep up my alk... that's something I haven't done in months. It's more than likely the start of coral growth. I just wish I can keep a rainbow monit... it started bleaching at the top so I moved it away from the light and its stable but in the corner of my tank.

 

Still nothing on the phosphate test kit.

[tanacharison]

Stopped at LFS and picked up a few aco frags.. we will see how they do. My culpra is dieing and I'm assuming it's lack of excess nutrients. The 6 inch patch of bha that was growing on my sand has shrunk about half on it's own. It's getting more difficult to manage consistency with my alk dosing each day. All corals look great.

[teenyreef]

I just found your thread - I love this build! The drawer for electronics and cords is a great idea, and the sump looks really good. I'm using a bioplate in both my 4g frag tank and in my 40g tank, and I think it works well. It's not magic, but it really does bump up the biofiltration capacity.

 

I actually like my Hanna low range phosphorus checker, and now they make a low range phosphate checker so you don't have to convert with a calculator. The powered reagent is a bit of a pain to use, but once I did about 20 tests I got the procedure down. Now I don't even have to think about it when I do it.

 

I have the Salifert phosphate test kit and I hate it. I can't tell one shade of blue from another and I have no idea what my level is with it. So it's easy to use but I have no confidence in the results. The Hanna is harder to use but I know exactly what the result is.