Jump to content
inTank Media Baskets

Teenyreef's Deep Blue 30g - Massive Reorg


teenyreef

Recommended Posts

On 4/26/2017 at 10:24 PM, teenyreef said:

I got back from vacation last Sunday night, and the red cyano was in full bloom. I blew as much off the rocks as I could, and did a round of chemiclean. After two days, it looks a lot better, but I'm starting to get hair algae on the egg crate. I can't tell yet if the algae eaters are going for it, but I think they probably aren't since they would normally keep it at bay if they liked to eat it.

 

I'm debating between leaving it for another week just to see what happens, doing another round of Fluco, or trying a sea hare.

No thanks! Dinos are the spawn of the devil.

That's the one thing I hate about frag racks and eggcrates that it's a magnet for algae. Get some turbo snails to see if it helps. Only use chemicals if it gets overbearing. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
teenyreef
21 hours ago, cuboy said:

That's the one thing I hate about frag racks and eggcrates that it's a magnet for algae. Get some turbo snails to see if it helps. Only use chemicals if it gets overbearing. 

Yep, I've got all kinds of snails including a turbo and some astreas. But my Aquaforest salt, it turns out, is high in magnesium which isn't good for snails. I've recently switched over the Red Sea Blue Bucket, so we'll see if the snails get more active as the magnesium goes down.

 

In other algae-fighting news, I finally got around to putting my chaeto reactor together, from an old TLF Phosban 150 reactor. It's nothing fancy, and I wasn't very concerned about how it looked :)

 

Under construction:

20170508_210927.jpg

 

Light test:

20170508_211014.jpg

 

Operational!

20170508_212844.jpg

 

I filled it up with some chaeto I got from a local reefer. I'll be running the light about 18 hours a day, at night and in the morning when the main lights are off.

  • Like 11
Link to comment
teenyreef

Blueberry (the Springers Damsel), is one of the hardest fish to photograph I've ever had. He moves quickly, and he's a very bright shade of electric blue, all one shade, together with black, which makes it really hard for the camera to get right. Most shots end up being purple and monochromatic, and not at all the way he looks in real life. I took a bunch of pictures last night with the whites turned way up to help with white balance, and got one or two shots that turned out ok. To my eye, this one looks pretty much like Blueberry in real life:

 

Blueberry

 

 

  • Like 11
Link to comment
teenyreef
3 hours ago, Arce said:

Where did you get the light strip for the reactor? Do you feel the 150 is enough volume for the chaeto?

I got the light strip from Amazon, but don't buy the one I got, it didn't come with a power supply. But just for reference here's what I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WJZ0LNA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If I was going to buy another one, I'd probably do something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Nexlux-Plant-16-4ft-Waterproof-Spectrum/dp/B01H5FTTT0/ref=pd_sim_86_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01H5FTTT0&pd_rd_r=C334T1SDNPG6NXEJKJRS&pd_rd_w=4Rt7v&pd_rd_wg=KjvM8&psc=1&refRID=C334T1SDNPG6NXEJKJRS

 

As far as volume goes, I don't really know if the 150 is big enough. It's tall and narrow, but at least in theory the chaeto should grow in a fill the full column. And it has the advantage of keeping a high level of light all the way to the center of the column. But after filling it up, there's not room for much more than about two softball-sized clumps, broken up to fit. 

 

If it works at all, I'll probably upgrade to a larger reactor vessel.

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

Well, so far so good with the chaeto reactor. This was after about a week and a half:

 

20170520_225506.jpg

 

I like how you can see exactly where all the LEDs are, and even which ones were different colors.

 

The cyano and algae bloomed some more over the last month, but seems to be improving steadily over the last couple weeks. I've been stirring up the water and filtering out the mess, and watching PO4 carefully. I think the most recent bloom was directly related to a PO4 spike when I feel behind in replacing the GFO in the reactor on time. However, the coral frags still aren't doing real well. 

 

When I blow everything off today, most of the algae blew off, so it appears to be weakening. I changed 15 gallons of water to try and get things back on track. But I do think the chaeto reactor seems to be helping a bit.

  • Like 11
Link to comment
StinkyBunny

I've been doing small, 5g every 3 days to reset the 93 cube, you could do the same to help this tank out, just scale it back to 3g.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

I think this tank has finally turned the corner! Algae is under control and the cyano is pretty much done. Growth of the chaeto in the reactor has slowed dramatically, which I think indicates that nutrients are truly under control. Nitrates still are at zero but now it's because nutrients are low, not because algae is consuming it all. 

 

The zoas frags are doing much better now! I moved some test sps frags in. Now I have to get nutrients up without another algae bloom. 

  • Like 8
Link to comment
23 hours ago, spectra said:

Good to hear things are looking up!

 

Needs a FTS though.

Thanks! Not much to show in the FTS that doesn't look pretty much exactly like the last one, though :lol:

 

I really hope I can finally start keeping sps in this tank so I can clear out the frag racks in the 40g. Then I'll start putting stuff on the rocks and there will be something worth looking at finally. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment

Well, I guess there have been a few minor changes since the last fts. The rocks are looking a lot more mature, getting encrusted with good stuff, although there's no purple coralline yet. And I did stick a piece of the blue kenya tree from the 40g on one of the rocks, so there's a little something there.

 

There are some dead sps frags covered with algae. I just stuck them in there after they died in the other tank, just to make sure they're really dead :lol:

 

2017-06-26 DB30 FTS

 

  • Like 7
Link to comment

I noticed that the chaeto in the reactor wasn't growing much any more. Part of that is probably because nutrients are now under control (nitrates are zero, phosphates are very close to zero). But the other problem could be that the hoses had gradually collapsed where they were bent, and the water flow was very slow. So I decided to put in some 90 degree fittings to see if that helps.

 

Here's after I cut the first hose to insert the barb fitting - you can see how narrow the hose had become.

 

20170703_140538.jpg

 

 

All fixed! The hoses still are a little bit flattened, though. I may try the nice BRS silicon hose, it's a lot more flexible and it might not collapse as easily.

20170703_235549.jpg

 

 

To deal with the low nitrates, I'm considering one or both of two options:

1. Get more fish, therefore more fish poop, therefore more nitrates.

2. Dose CaNo3 to bring up the nitrates at a controlled level.

 

I'm going to try option 2 first, and hopefully get one or more additional fish some time in the next week. Then hopefully I can back off the CaNo3 dosing after that.

  • Like 4
Link to comment

Well, "in the next week" turned out to be today. I found a nice pair of dispar anthias at the lfs that had been rehomed following a tank breakdown. So hopefully they'll be stronger than the usual lfs fish that are still recovering from shipping.

 

And literally 30 minutes after acclimating them, they were out and about, and chowing down on frozen food :D

Dispar Anthias

 

Giving the camera the stinkeye...

20170705-untitled-014-2.jpg

 

Blueberry, the springer's damsel. He's doing great and doesn't bother the other fish at all, including the new anthias.

20170705-untitled-017.jpg

 

Hank, the long nose hawkfish:

20170705-untitled-020.jpg

 

I forgot to take pictures of the Lorax :(

  • Like 10
Link to comment
StinkyBunny

I love Longnose Hawks, SO much personality in a small package. M named the LMB in the back Lawn Boy, John Deere went to a friend's hose to live in a 480g tank. Those Springer's are the cat's whiskers too, lots of personality in a small package. See if they can find you a Hifin Perchlet, another high personality/small package critter. I love Anthias, but the rate of live to dead is rough. The main thing is to get them eating and feed them a LOT of small meals, if they'll do pellets, set up a feeder to drop a few in at a time. That might also help with your nitrate issue. Je ne c'est pas.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
3 hours ago, StinkyBunny said:

I love Longnose Hawks, SO much personality in a small package. M named the LMB in the back Lawn Boy, John Deere went to a friend's hose to live in a 480g tank. Those Springer's are the cat's whiskers too, lots of personality in a small package. See if they can find you a Hifin Perchlet, another high personality/small package critter. I love Anthias, but the rate of live to dead is rough. The main thing is to get them eating and feed them a LOT of small meals, if they'll do pellets, set up a feeder to drop a few in at a time. That might also help with your nitrate issue. Je ne c'est pas.

Thanks, Stinky! I was excited to find some anthias that had come from another reefer's tank, so I was able to avoid the inevitable mortality rate (at least, so far). I'm thinking I'll feed them twice a day, once when I get home from work and once before going to bed. So far they take frozen as long as the pieces aren't too large, but they are ignoring the pellets.

 

I'm hoping that heavy feeding will help with the nitrate levels. I've started dosing CaNo3, and gotten nitrates all the way up to 1 as of last night. Hopefully as the heavier feeding for the anthias takes effect I can back off the dosing.

On 7/5/2017 at 10:26 PM, Reid_bry said:

Your fish are always such an amazing and unique part of your reefs! and this tank is no exception! 

Thanks! I was talking to a local reefer with a lot of experience with bare bottom tanks, and his advice was to cram way more fish into it than you'd normally think was a good idea, just to avoid nutrient starvation. So I may add even more fish in the future, although probably no more than one or two of the smaller variety. Maybe some blue chromis, even through they tend to die easily. They'd be really nice schooling around in the same tank with the anthias.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
On 7/5/2017 at 10:39 PM, WV Reefer said:

The Anthias are beautiful!  I thought the Hawkfish was my favorite but now Im not so sure! :) 

I feel the same way. They're always out swimming around, and because one of the powerheads is near the front, they tend to hang out right at the front of the tank.They add a great splash of color to the tank.

  • Like 4
Link to comment

The hairworms that I've been fighting in the IM40 have made an appearance in this tank too :rant:These guys are different from the usual spaghetti worms, they pack a powerful sting, and keep zoas from growing and appear to kill sps. Removing them from the zoas in the IM40 had a positive effect almost overnight, so I know it's more than just opportunistic scavengers appearing where things are dying for other reasons.

 

They must have hitchhiked in on one of the zoa frags, and it looks like they've been here a while because there are several growing on one spot in the rocks, and they've made their way into some nooks and crannies on the gsp frags and a couple of the zoa frags.

 

I've had fairly good luck injecting boiling water into their hiding places in the rocks, but you have to be able to get the water right down into where the body is, so sometimes it takes repeated applications. I could just cut out the pieces of the zoa and gsp rocks where they are living, but I'm taking this as a chance to do some experimenting. Here's what I've tried so far, with mixed results:

1. Peroxide dip - works pretty well if it's strong enough. A dose strong enough to kill the worm usually ends up burning the zoas a bit, but the recover. Unfortunaly, this won't work for sps or other corals that can't handle peroxide, and it's useless for live rock since that would kill so much other stuff on the rock. 

2. Bayer dip - I had high hopes for this, but the one time I've tried it there was no success. I may try it again with a stronger dose, though.

3. "Reef Primer" dip (potassium salts) - again, high hopes, but no success with the one try. May need a stronger dose, or repeated doses.

4. Injection of peroxide directly into the worm's burrow while the frag is in the water - no luck.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
On 7/5/2017 at 9:07 PM, teenyreef said:

Well, "in the next week" turned out to be today. I found a nice pair of dispar anthias at the lfs that had been rehomed following a tank breakdown. So hopefully they'll be stronger than the usual lfs fish that are still recovering from shipping.

 

And literally 30 minutes after acclimating them, they were out and about, and chowing down on frozen food :D

Dispar Anthias

 

Giving the camera the stinkeye...

20170705-untitled-014-2.jpg

 

Blueberry, the springer's damsel. He's doing great and doesn't bother the other fish at all, including the new anthias.

20170705-untitled-017.jpg

 

Hank, the long nose hawkfish:

20170705-untitled-020.jpg

 

I forgot to take pictures of the Lorax :(

 

NICE, love the new, healthy Anthias, as well as all of the other cool fish in here!!!

 

Too bad there's no Spaghetti Eatin' fish...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
StinkyBunny

Anthias take a royal beating in the supply chain. Those guy need to eat all the time, they can't handle a few large meals, they can't absorb all of the nutrients they need that way. This is the reason they have such a high mortality rate. My guy in The Solomons gets them in the last minute and they do quite well.

 

Did you buy a blue laser like the one I loaned you? If you did, try that on those worms. I've cooked them in place with mine, it kills them.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...