Money's Evo 5 *Lets Try this Reef thing*

[Lula_Mae]

Yeah that works too haha ^^ it will depend what you can find locally (usually get mine at Walmart but not all have the style I like).

[money88]

3 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Like this:

ah thanks! I will look to see if I have one or something similar that will work

 

Oh and I forgot to mention my Jebao SW-2 came

 

 

Neat little pump this is how it looks in my tank

 

[Weetabix7]

7 minutes ago, money88 said:

ah thanks! I will look to see if I have one or something similar that will work

 

Oh and I forgot to mention my Jebao SW-2 came

 

 

Neat little pump this is how it looks in my tank

 

 

Nice!!!

How do you like it in the tank??

I still haven't tried any of the Jebao, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts. 

(I'm still recycling the "old school" powerheads in my fish bin that I pulled outta the closet, lol.)

[money88]

On 4/28/2017 at 4:25 PM, Weetabix7 said:

 

Nice!!!

How do you like it in the tank??

I still haven't tried any of the Jebao, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts. 

(I'm still recycling the "old school" powerheads in my fish bin that I pulled outta the closet, lol.)

So far so good. In my opinion worth $50 easily vs $23 for the Hydor 240. Smaller, more controllable, and quiet. 

 

Funny thing was when I first plugged it in it was on full blast. It knocked every one of my corals over or off the rock. 

[money88]

Update from the weekend

So yesterday I went and bought two new corals. Pictures will come soon hopefully tonight after they are a bit more settled in. But I went and picked up a Brain (favia) coral and another Ricordea (Orange / Purple). I got a pretty good deal on the ric it was usually $18 per head for the orange and I got two heads for the price of one so it is already much bigger than the green one. The ric seemed to settle in pretty quickly and the brain well to be honest I cannot really tell; I don't know a whole lot about them. 

 

After I got home last night, I topped the tank water off because the salinity was at 1.027 from evaporation. I really need to get my Auto Top Off working with summer right around the corner, so that will be my priority in the next week or two. Well after topping the tank I noticed that my new SW-2 pump was blowing my corals around; not because the flow was too strong but because it was more random and it would lift up the ric's and float them around the tank. So I decided that I was going to try and glue my green ric to the rock...more like attempt to I should say instead. The ric is attached to some small pebbles so I took it out of the tank and put some BRS Extra Thick gel on the pebble and tried to stick it to the live rock. It didn't work and the glue seemed to go everywhere attaching to the sides of the ric. I got nervous and took the ric out and tried to remove as much as I could so I didn't harm it. I figured I would try another method that I saw on BRS TV; creating a glue bubble under the water and trying to put that on the rock then pop it while placing the ric onto it. Well needless to say that didn't work either...the glue got everywhere...my fingers, the ric, the live rock, and my tweezers. So I again took the ric out and tried to remove as much as I could and then figured I'd be done for the night. The ric looked really pissed off and wouldn't really open much the rest of the night and showed some darkening. I really hope I didn't impede its ability to open by gluing it's sides to the pebble or something  

 

Maybe I should try epoxy instead for the rics because they have a lot less to glue onto? They are only attached to a few small pebbles so maybe epoxy would allow me to just kind of stick the small pebbles into the epoxy instead? Well in the meantime I have the circulation pump off so my rics aren't floating all over my tank, or so I thought. When I woke up this morning it appears that my pistol shrimp thought the green ric would make a good door to his cave because I saw it perfectly in place in front of one of his entrances this morning. 

 

 

[Johnin714]

11 minutes ago, money88 said:

Update from the weekend

So yesterday I went and bought two new corals. Pictures will come soon hopefully tonight after they are a bit more settled in. But I went and picked up a Brain (favia) coral and another Ricordea (Orange / Purple). I got a pretty good deal on the ric it was usually $18 per head for the orange and I got two heads for the price of one so it is already much bigger than the green one. The ric seemed to settle in pretty quickly and the brain well to be honest I cannot really tell; I don't know a whole lot about them. 

 

After I got home last night, I topped the tank water off because the salinity was at 1.027 from evaporation. I really need to get my Auto Top Off working with summer right around the corner, so that will be my priority in the next week or two. Well after topping the tank I noticed that my new SW-2 pump was blowing my corals around; not because the flow was too strong but because it was more random and it would lift up the ric's and float them around the tank. So I decided that I was going to try and glue my green ric to the rock...more like attempt to I should say instead. The ric is attached to some small pebbles so I took it out of the tank and put some BRS Extra Thick gel on the pebble and tried to stick it to the live rock. It didn't work and the glue seemed to go everywhere attaching to the sides of the ric. I got nervous and took the ric out and tried to remove as much as I could so I didn't harm it. I figured I would try another method that I saw on BRS TV; creating a glue bubble under the water and trying to put that on the rock then pop it while placing the ric onto it. Well needless to say that didn't work either...the glue got everywhere...my fingers, the ric, the live rock, and my tweezers. So I again took the ric out and tried to remove as much as I could and then figured I'd be done for the night. The ric looked really pissed off and wouldn't really open much the rest of the night and showed some darkening. I really hope I didn't impede its ability to open by gluing it's sides to the pebble or something  

 

Maybe I should try epoxy instead for the rics because they have a lot less to glue onto? They are only attached to a few small pebbles so maybe epoxy would allow me to just kind of stick the small pebbles into the epoxy instead? Well in the meantime I have the circulation pump off so my rics aren't floating all over my tank, or so I thought. When I woke up this morning it appears that my pistol shrimp thought the green ric would make a good door to his cave because I saw it perfectly in place in front of one of his entrances this morning. 

 

 

Have you ever tried holdfast by instant ocean? It works pretty good and its like a putty and it hardens underwater in like 7 to 10 mins. I use it in my larger Main tank and use my long tweezers if i can to sometimes  hold the coral into place with the putty until it hardens then i remove the tweezers (dont put putty on the tweezers). Reef safe and not as messy as super glue if you accidentally forget to turn off your pumps while trying to glue frags down. I just followed along i have a Spec V as well and looking forward to your progress as well.

[Lula_Mae]

Rics and mushrooms can be hard to get to attach!  When I first got a St. Thomas mushroom years ago, it wasn't attached to anything so I placed it on the rock where I wanted it and loosely wrapped some bridal veil mesh from the craft store around it.  I used the kind that's got a nice open weave, about 1/4" holes, not the tightly woven tulle.  I recall having trouble figuring out how to get the mesh to stay lol.  But you could wrap it round and rubber band the ends in place.  Alternately, place the rics with some rubble bits in a dish (a shot glass, bowl, soap dish, etc.) and give them a few days to attach to the rubble, then glue or epoxy the rubble down.

 

When you were trying to glue it out of the tank, did you try dabbing the gluing surfaces dry?  Sometimes that can make a difference!

[money88]

54 minutes ago, Johnin714 said:

Have you ever tried holdfast by instant ocean? It works pretty good and its like a putty and it hardens underwater in like 7 to 10 mins. I use it in my larger Main tank and use my long tweezers if i can to sometimes  hold the coral into place with the putty until it hardens then i remove the tweezers (dont put putty on the tweezers). Reef safe and not as messy as super glue if you accidentally forget to turn off your pumps while trying to glue frags down. I just followed along i have a Spec V as well and looking forward to your progress as well.

I haven't tried any sort of epoxy or other glues. Last night was the first attempt at it and it was a disaster. It would have been a bit of a confidence booster to glue an easy frag plug instead of try my first time on a tiny pebble a ric is attached to. I will have to check out some other options though thanks! 

 

40 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Rics and mushrooms can be hard to get to attach!  When I first got a St. Thomas mushroom years ago, it wasn't attached to anything so I placed it on the rock where I wanted it and loosely wrapped some bridal veil mesh from the craft store around it.  I used the kind that's got a nice open weave, about 1/4" holes, not the tightly woven tulle.  I recall having trouble figuring out how to get the mesh to stay lol.  But you could wrap it round and rubber band the ends in place.  Alternately, place the rics with some rubble bits in a dish (a shot glass, bowl, soap dish, etc.) and give them a few days to attach to the rubble, then glue or epoxy the rubble down.

 

When you were trying to glue it out of the tank, did you try dabbing the gluing surfaces dry?  Sometimes that can make a difference!

Yea the rics are attached to quite a bit of small rubble already but it's a pretty small surface area so the gluing seemed to ooze all over the place. I may end up needing epoxy as well just to fill some of the gaps in the rock I am attempting to put it on. I have heard of some different approaches at attaching rics using string, rubber bands, bridal veil etc but I have heard that many of those end up splitting the ric.

 

Yep right when I took the ric out of the tank I dabbed the small rubble it was attached to on paper towels to try it the best I could. The glue stuck really nicely to those pebbles and is actually still attached to that today as it wouldn't come off. It was mostly the fact that it oozed over onto the ric itself and then it did not stick to the live rock. I was mostly worried about the stuff that oozed thinking that it may impede its ability to open and spread out.  

[money88]

So I think I damaged my green ricordea last night in my gluing attempt. It appears to be turning black and losing color hopefully it will recover

 

 

[Weetabix7]

It looks like it's opened up and is puffy. 

Do you have any lugol's that you could do a healing dip with?

1 cup tankwater, 1-2 drops lugol's iodine, 3-5 mins, return to tank.

[money88]

It is definitely not as open as it usually is. But good thing is it's not completely closed...well that is unless I managed to glue it into the state it's currently in and it can't open or close

 

I do not but I hear wonders about it so it sounds like it may be worth picking up.

[Rain24]

Yes, pick up Lugol's! It never hurts to have it on hand. I got mine just in case and I was so glad it was there when I left my bird's nest out of water for too long.

 

You are also validating my every worry about getting a mushroom/ric. LOL. I hope it perks up!

[Lula_Mae]

Definitely get the Lugol's--if your LFS doesn't have it, Amazon does (I use Kent Marine brand).

[money88]

21 hours ago, Rain24 said:

Yes, pick up Lugol's! It never hurts to have it on hand. I got mine just in case and I was so glad it was there when I left my bird's nest out of water for too long.

 

You are also validating my every worry about getting a mushroom/ric. LOL. I hope it perks up!

 

20 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Definitely get the Lugol's--if your LFS doesn't have it, Amazon does (I use Kent Marine brand).

 

Lugol's is on the way, it will be here on Thursday usually around midday. I also went and picked up some epoxy to give that a shot as well for mounting. I also ordered some Reef Chili from BRS to make sure the corals are still getting food if the PE Calanus is too large. 

 

My last order was some cheapo macro camera filters for my DSLR with some magnification (+1, +2, +4, +10). Hopefully it will do some help me capture some nicer pictures without having to drop $600 for a full blown macro lens yet. So I will most likely wait another day for those to arrive before taking any pictures of the new corals. I am still trying to figure out where I want everything to go on the rock as well. I am even having an inclination of rearranging my rockscape as well...but worried because I don't know where the pistol would be and wouldn't want to hurt him. I have an idea where he is and it's not usually under a rock but instead in a small opening in a rock so I have no idea how I would go about getting him out. Maybe for now I will just leave it but I just feel like I don't have a lot of rock space and floor space because of the current positioning of the rocks. 

 

Here is the picture of the pistol shrimp using my Ric as a door. Sorry for the bad quality and the dirtiness of the tank; it was early in the morning after getting back from travel for a few days. This was when it was 'open' he also had it further left completely in front of the entrance; unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture of that one because I didn't realize what he was doing until after I saw it move again.

[teenyreef]

Wow, your story about gluing the ric brought back memories, that's exactly what happened to me with my first ric 

 

Your front door ric may actually do just fine. As long as it's opening up and not getting blown put of place, it may attach to the rock right there. 

 

How are the zoas doing? 

 

As far as the pods go if you want a predator I highly recommend a pink streaked wrasse. It's small enough for even a 5.5g tank as long as you keep up with water changes. 

[money88]

14 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Wow, your story about gluing the ric brought back memories, that's exactly what happened to me with my first ric 

 

Your front door ric may actually do just fine. As long as it's opening up and not getting blown put of place, it may attach to the rock right there. 

 

How are the zoas doing? 

 

As far as the pods go if you want a predator I highly recommend a pink streaked wrasse. It's small enough for even a 5.5g tank as long as you keep up with water changes. 

So the ric appears to be doing a little better still a little darker than it originally was but I gave it a few days before taking it out again to remove a little more of the glue that I think was preventing it from opening. Now after I have removed that it seems to be opening up a lot more again which is a plus. I may give it a shot using some epoxy / super glue combo after work today to get these things set in place. I'd like to get these glued down or secured so I can run the circulation pump, because I had to turn it off as it was blowing everything around. 

 

I am currently half way through reading your 4g thread (figured I would start from the bottom of your tank list and work my way up) and noticed you have had quite a few rics yourself so if you have any suggestions on gluing or epoxying please feel free to drop that knowledge.

 

The zoas appear to be doing better, a few polyps are opening this week that were not last week but there are still signs of pox. I plan to do furan 2 dips again for 3 days starting on Sunday to hopefully get rid of them all together. 1 or 2 polyps seem to be really struggling, one almost turned completely black and not sure that one will make it. But overall it at least appears to be doing "better".

 

In terms of the pink streaked wrasse, I don't think that having that and a yasha goby would be very sustainable for my maintenance goals. I currently do not have a yasha yet but really am wanting to find myself a goby to pair up with the pistol here soon. So hopefully the pod problem will figure itself out?

 

Also here is a picture I took of one of my new Rics. I still owe you all some good pictures of both the new corals. Hopefully I will get to that either today or early next week. Well I will have to if I come home again with something new . Sorry this one is a tad blurry

 

[money88]

How do people think a Nanobox Tide Plus M would do over this tank? Would it provide enough coverage etc?

[money88]

Well, no responses in the short period about the light but I bought it anyway (stupid impulse buying). Hopefully the light will do well I need to ask Dave for some mounting ideas to properly get it positioned the way I'd like. I want to be able to mount it from the back still like the current light is mounted. I think my corals will really like the upgrade when it gets here though. Super excited to get a new light that I have only heard good things about. Seems like everyone on these forums has nothing but good things to say about the nanobox series.

 

Well in other news time for a tank update. Friday was a busy day for this tank. First I started off by feeding the corals Reef Chili then a small amount of shrimp mostly for my cleaner and pistol shrimp. It was extremely exciting to see how nicely my corals were taking in the Reef chili. AND my pistol shrimp came out to get some of the calanus; this is only the second time I have seen him since purchase!

Then after feeding I scraped all the glass and took out about 15% of the tank water vacuuming the best I could. I did this so I could more easily mount some corals. Or try to again...

Using epoxy and super glue (which was all sorts of hard from last time I used it) I managed to get 3 of my corals mounted; both Rics and my favia are now secured on the middle rock. The right ric I didn't use any super glue because last time that ended up horribly where as the orange ric had a little more rock to glue with so I used a small amount for it. Then I removed the frag plug from the favia which was extremely easy using a razor blade and glued / epoxied it to the top of the middle rock. Here is a picture of my mounts. I used a little too much epoxy but I will let it slide as it was my first time using it and didn't know what to expect. Practice makes perfect they say. (Also sloppy phone picture right before I left for the weekend, everything was really mad and sliming)

The zoas are looking A LOT better as of Sunday most of the white spots are gone I am going to do another 2-3 dips starting tonight to finish it off and help it out. But polyps I haven't seen open in a week are slightly opening so lets keep our fingers crossed. After gluing the corals I removed another 10-15% of the water and then added fresh saltwater back in completing the water change. Before I started vacuuming I took out the media basket and replaced the filter floss and added a new chemi-pure elite pouch removing the old one and removing the large carbon bag that came with the tank initially as well. 

[Lula_Mae]

Glad your zoas are looking better!  Tank's looking nice!  Hopefully everything gets over being mad lol.

[money88]

10 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Glad your zoas are looking better!  Tank's looking nice!  Hopefully everything gets over being mad lol.

Thanks, everything was looking much happier at the end of the day yesterday! Both rics were opening up almost to the fullest I have seen, the duncan still opening and being happy, and the zoa a few polyps. Didn't get time to start round two of furan 2 but plan to tonight. I went to go do it and noticed I didn't have any saltwater heated so I turned the heater on and just decided to do it today.

[Lula_Mae]

29 minutes ago, money88 said:

Thanks, everything was looking much happier at the end of the day yesterday! Both rics were opening up almost to the fullest I have seen, the duncan still opening and being happy, and the zoa a few polyps. Didn't get time to start round two of furan 2 but plan to tonight. I went to go do it and noticed I didn't have any saltwater heated so I turned the heater on and just decided to do it today.

Oh good!  Yeah I forget to plug my change water heater in all the time lol.  Forgot to add that the nanobox will probably be great over this tank!  Maybe some overkill haha.

[Weetabix7]

19 hours ago, money88 said:

Well, no responses in the short period about the light but I bought it anyway (stupid impulse buying). Hopefully the light will do well I need to ask Dave for some mounting ideas to properly get it positioned the way I'd like. I want to be able to mount it from the back still like the current light is mounted. I think my corals will really like the upgrade when it gets here though. Super excited to get a new light that I have only heard good things about. Seems like everyone on these forums has nothing but good things to say about the nanobox series.

 

Well in other news time for a tank update. Friday was a busy day for this tank. First I started off by feeding the corals Reef Chili then a small amount of shrimp mostly for my cleaner and pistol shrimp. It was extremely exciting to see how nicely my corals were taking in the Reef chili. AND my pistol shrimp came out to get some of the calanus; this is only the second time I have seen him since purchase!

Then after feeding I scraped all the glass and took out about 15% of the tank water vacuuming the best I could. I did this so I could more easily mount some corals. Or try to again...

Using epoxy and super glue (which was all sorts of hard from last time I used it) I managed to get 3 of my corals mounted; both Rics and my favia are now secured on the middle rock. The right ric I didn't use any super glue because last time that ended up horribly where as the orange ric had a little more rock to glue with so I used a small amount for it. Then I removed the frag plug from the favia which was extremely easy using a razor blade and glued / epoxied it to the top of the middle rock. Here is a picture of my mounts. I used a little too much epoxy but I will let it slide as it was my first time using it and didn't know what to expect. Practice makes perfect they say. (Also sloppy phone picture right before I left for the weekend, everything was really mad and sliming)

The zoas are looking A LOT better as of Sunday most of the white spots are gone I am going to do another 2-3 dips starting tonight to finish it off and help it out. But polyps I haven't seen open in a week are slightly opening so lets keep our fingers crossed. After gluing the corals I removed another 10-15% of the water and then added fresh saltwater back in completing the water change. Before I started vacuuming I took out the media basket and replaced the filter floss and added a new chemi-pure elite pouch removing the old one and removing the large carbon bag that came with the tank initially as well. 

 

Excellent, love seeing all this positive stuff happen in your tank!!!! 

[money88]

16 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Oh good!  Yeah I forget to plug my change water heater in all the time lol.  Forgot to add that the nanobox will probably be great over this tank!  Maybe some overkill haha.

Yea I swear I always forget either the RODI or the saltwater and it seems to always be the one that I need at that time.

 

Glad to hear you think the light will be sufficient if not overkill. I can tune it way down if necessary so that is a plus. I am just extremely excited for a light that I have control over (ramp up, intensity, multi color etc) instead of just an analog timer and whites. I think my corals will definitely appreciate it too. I will have to do some research but I most likely need to start off at a really low intensity and slowly ramp up a little to not shock the corals. 

 

5 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Excellent, love seeing all this positive stuff happen in your tank!!!! 

Thanks! Always appreciate the support and the knowledge you have already shared with me. 

 

Oh also forgot I had a short video I took of my pistol shrimp of him scavenging for food. This was right before I cleaned up the back wall which as you can see has a bit of algae

 

 

[Weetabix7]

8 minutes ago, money88 said:

Yea I swear I always forget either the RODI or the saltwater and it seems to always be the one that I need at that time.

 

Glad to hear you think the light will be sufficient if not overkill. I can tune it way down if necessary so that is a plus. I am just extremely excited for a light that I have control over (ramp up, intensity, multi color etc) instead of just an analog timer and whites. I think my corals will definitely appreciate it too. I will have to do some research but I most likely need to start off at a really low intensity and slowly ramp up a little to not shock the corals. 

 

Thanks! Always appreciate the support and the knowledge you have already shared with me. 

 

Oh also forgot I had a short video I took of my pistol shrimp of him scavenging for food. This was right before I cleaned up the back wall which as you can see has a bit of algae

 

 

 

This is really cool!!

 

Also, although I haven't used them myself, I have heard nothing but good things about Nanobox, and Dave is a great guy. 

[fishfreak0114]

Any updates?  How's the tank coming along?