burtbollinger's Red Sea Reefer 170 (converted to planted)

[burtbollinger]

Just now, DAP said:

Looking awesome!

You have great taste in corals?

jack o lantern is my favorite coral.

 

thanks!

 

re jack o lantern...hard to find that color anywhere else...bright orange with the green highlights.

 

 

 

 

[MockandRoll]

Tank looks great. You have a nice assortment of colors and coral. What is your CUC? 

[burtbollinger]

2 minutes ago, MockandRoll said:

Tank looks great. You have a nice assortment of colors and coral. What is your CUC? 

3 narssarius snails.  3 astrea snails.  6 small maroon/blueish leg crabs

 

Frankly, I could probably use a lot more snails, but every time I go to the LFS the guy literally refuses to sell me any because he doesn't believe I should be using them.   I let him push me around then I leave.

 

He has a TOTM worthy tank that has ZERO CUC....and figures that I shouldnt need one either I guess.

[MockandRoll]

38 minutes ago, burtbollinger said:

Frankly, I could probably use a lot more snails, but every time I go to the LFS the guy literally refuses to sell me any because he doesn't believe I should be using them.   I let him push me around then I leave.

LOL. That is the first time I have heard of a LFS talking a customer out of a purchase. Sounds like your CUC is solid. Maybe one turbo snail and a shrimp in the future.  

[burtbollinger]

50 minutes ago, MockandRoll said:

LOL. That is the first time I have heard of a LFS talking a customer out of a purchase. Sounds like your CUC is solid. Maybe one turbo snail and a shrimp in the future.  

no shrimp with acans, IMO

 

also another update for tonight...:

 

started a dose of three 200mg pills of Flucanazole tonight...

I have a very small but increasingly noticable amount of bryopsis hypnoides growing in the sandbed.  Not the thicker, bushier plumosa, which I have fought before, this stuff is slightly thinner...took a while to admit to myself that this was, in fact, bryopsis.

 

took skimmer, purigen and my carbon/gfo reactor offline...replaced with GFO only.

 

[MockandRoll]

5 minutes ago, burtbollinger said:

no shrimp with acans, IMO

 

You are right with the cleaner shrimp (skunk, fire) but I think pederson shrimp are awesome additions to a CUC.  I have been experimenting with multiple ornamental shrimp (Bruuns, pederson, sexy, anemone, venus) in my tank. I have been finding out some are awesome and some just suck and cause nothing but problems. 

[burtbollinger]

23 minutes ago, MockandRoll said:

You are right with the cleaner shrimp (skunk, fire) but I think pederson shrimp are awesome additions to a CUC.  I have been experimenting with multiple ornamental shrimp (Bruuns, pederson, sexy, anemone, venus) in my tank. I have been finding out some are awesome and some just suck and cause nothing but problems. 

yeah, seeing lame ass peppermints walk over and eat my acans is something I will never forget.  Pure rage...never again.  

[burtbollinger]

picking this guy up tonight from a local, private reefer I've bought most of my corals from...he texted me that he had "hot fire" and I needed to see it.

 

I've wanted a single RFA to tuck in the back...moderate-low light/moderate-low flow...and this one looks like it does the trick as far as the colors I'm going for.

 

$75 bucks.

 

[MockandRoll]

25 minutes ago, burtbollinger said:

picking this guy up tonight from a local, private reefer I've bought most of my corals from...he texted me that he had "hot fire" and I needed to see it.

 

I've wanted a single RFA to tuck in the back...moderate-low light/moderate-low flow...and this one looks like it does the trick as far as the colors I'm going for.

 

$75 bucks.

 

Great pick up! I have found to turn off all pumps, place where you want and keep pumps off for 20 minutes or so. Then make sure to feed them the first day. Just an opinion but if they get fed early they are less likely to go walking. 

[burtbollinger]

6 minutes ago, MockandRoll said:

Great pick up! I have found to turn off all pumps, place where you want and keep pumps off for 20 minutes or so. Then make sure to feed them the first day. Just an opinion but if they get fed early they are less likely to go walking. 

he's already attached to some rubble, will this help as well?

 

Want him in the sandbed...@ here

 

[MockandRoll]

11 minutes ago, burtbollinger said:

he's already attached to some rubble, will this help as well?

 

Want him in the sandbed...@ here

 

It will move off the rubble and attach to something more secure. That spot looks good. I have mine in a lot of flow and they don't seem to mind so anywhere will probably work. I feed mine daily.

[burtbollinger]

1 minute ago, MockandRoll said:

It will move off the rubble and attach to something more secure. That spot looks good. I have mine in a lot of flow and they don't seem to mind so anywhere will probably work. I feed mine daily.

i guess in a perfect world he'd stay on sandbed and not move towards that new green chalice....good chance he'll put foot down on sandbed?  also, I dont need to worry about that MP10 above his head, do I?

[MockandRoll]

1 minute ago, burtbollinger said:

i guess in a perfect world he'd stay on sandbed and not move towards that new green chalice....good chance he'll put foot down on sandbed?  also, I dont need to worry about that MP10 above his head, do I?

How deep is the sanded? They will attach to the bottom glass if it can reach but not sand only. I have buried a pvc pipe before and they attached to it. They will not release and float if healthy. However they are relatively fast walkers. The powerhead is a possible problem. 

[debbeach13]

That coral colors are beautiful

[burtbollinger]

12 minutes ago, MockandRoll said:

How deep is the sanded? They will attach to the bottom glass if it can reach but not sand only. I have buried a pvc pipe before and they attached to it. They will not release and float if healthy. However they are relatively fast walkers. The powerhead is a possible problem. 

1"

[MockandRoll]

2 minutes ago, burtbollinger said:

1"

If the foot can reach, it may attach to the bottom glass. 

[jesseatam]

My RFA is next to rockwork but has its foot in the sandbed which is around 2" so yours should be fine. Also I feed mine once or twice a week.

[burtbollinger]

Nitrates - 5
Alk - 9
Cal - 470
Mag - 1440
Phosphates undetectable on basic Hanna.
Fritz RPM salt....8 gallons a week water change
O TDS RO/DI water out of new unit.
2 Clownfish, 1 Royal Gramma - fed 1 fingernail sized bit of LRS Reef Frenzy daily.
Nanobox Duo light - 80 blues, 20 whites

I was and still get a covering of brown hairlike algae/cyano? on my rocks and sandbed. It blows and brushes off but it is annoying. It was really bad until I stopped dosing Red Sea Reef Energy, cut back on Reef Chili and I added a few more CUC members...Currently I have about 8 cerith snails...3 narrsissus snails and a handful of hermits. 

Adding more snails has helped keep the rocks clean, as has adding a GFO reactor and Purigen bag....but I still get more than a dusting of this brown stuff on my sand after a few days.

I have lowered my whites quite a bit and lean more blue now....

Lately, I have been sucking out sand and replacing with rinsed clean sand...but it too gets dusted brown after a few days.

I was thinking about adding more snails that prowl the sandbed...continuing to suck out offending brown sand, and keep up on water changes...also keep on top of replacing GFO in the reactor. Is there anything else I should be doing? Again the tank is 9 months old...and still ZERO coraline algae. Could I still just be feeling the growing pains of a newer tank?

[Christopher Marks]

Hmm, that is a tough thing to chase down nine months in. You've been replacing some of the sand lately, what's your motivation for that? Are you worried it could be the source of your issue? What kind of rock and sand went in at the start?

[burtbollinger]

2 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Hmm, that is a tough thing to chase down nine months in. You've been replacing some of the sand lately, what's your motivation for that? Are you worried it could be the source of your issue? What kind of rock and sand went in at the start?

Walt Smith 2.1 dry rock that had soaked for a month prior....sand is Tropic Eden Reef flakes.  

 

Sand getting pulled was just to improve appearance and remove some of the offending brown stuff.  Only the top layer is yanked ususally...sometimes I hear Brandon429 and others mention ripping and cleaning areas of sand...so I figured give it a shot.  The side area was really bad, so I did do a rip and replace there.

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Yeah, that wouldn't hurt to just freshen up the sand bed. Have you considered a macro algae reactor? Perhaps the added nutrient export will slow the other algae?

[SeaFurn]

Sounds very frustrating given what you've reported. 

 

How often do you clean the sump? 

 

Does all of the Reef Frenzy get eaten? I assume it does. 

Do you drain the moisture from the food or just drop the fozen piece in? I noticed there's a cloud of microscopic seafood that disperses into the tank when I just drop a frozen piece in so I've been draining it. 

 

I like the macro algae reactor idea. 

 

[burtbollinger]

6 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Sounds very frustrating given what you've reported. 

 

How often do you clean the sump? 

 

Does all of the Reef Frenzy get eaten? I assume it does. 

Do you drain the moisture from the food or just drop the fozen piece in? I noticed there's a cloud of microscopic seafood that disperses into the tank when I just drop a frozen piece in so I've been draining it. 

 

I like the macro algae reactor idea. 

 

1

sump is very clean....i blast it regularly and most filth is caught by the filter socks.

 

All food is eaten but I do not pre-rinse, with LRS I've been assuming that is acceptable.

[kinetic]

With your parameters, doesn't look like you have a huge excess of nitrate/phosphates to feed it. Or it's the algae that's actually absorbing it. The two things I would think about/try is to outcompete it with either way more skimming (basically remove junk before it gets into the ammonia -> nitrate/phos cycle), or with a lot of macroalgae to basically starve the tank of phosphates/nitrates way before anything else can get to it. GFO, however, should work pretty well. If you use at least a mini BRS reactor full of their high density GFO, you should be pretty good for a month or so.

 

There's always zeovit reactor, that can bind to things before they turn into ammonia. It's annoying because you have to "toss" the reactor media manually twice a day and all that... but it could help. Kind of extreme, and probably not worth it, but something to think about.

 

EDIT: I remember back in the day, I had a 4 month old tank that got a bunch of red slime/cyano and it wouldn't go away until I used chemipure for a week. Then it was gone and never came back. That plus I tripled my flow. Not sure if this is related, but maybe worth a try.

[MockandRoll]

How bad is it? Can you post a pic? Do you have dead spots on your sandbed? You can always increase flow. High flow really helps reduce algae growth. Don't worry about coraline, it will come in time. My tank is also 9 months and coraline is just starting to show up.