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MrJoels Evo 13.5 Journal


MrJoel

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  • 2 months later...

So here is an updated picture of the tank. I lost all fish to velvet, then lost Pavona Maldivensis, Rainbow Monti, Birdsnest & my meteor shower is almost totally gone though it does still have a few living spots I am hoping may regrow and recover. The favites coral took a hit and receded exposing skeleton on ~15-20% of the frag, but it has since regrown over all of the original and was started growing off of the frag plug onto the rock structure.

It is in need of another sandbed vacuuming.

Lust the turbo snail and one of the trochus snails. But I now have hundreds of baby trochus rapidly growing in the tank. They are starting to clean off some of the rocks where I was starting to have an issue with brown fussy algae growth. 

One of the candy canes heads is splitting and the other has grown a good amount. And the Euphyllia seem to be doing well. 

 

 

tank Dec 2017.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

So I am thinking about removing my skimmer and adding the InTank media basket in its place. The one issue I see this creating is I have been relying on my CO2 Scrubber in the skimmer intake to keep my PH stable.  I have also been thinking about building one of the DIY canister Chaeto reactors. Do you folks think that the Chaeto reactor will take care of the dissolved CO2 level well enough to not be an issue?

Also while I am making changes I will be plugging that accursed hole in chamber 2. I think that hole is killing flow in the rear and allowing detritus to enter the middle chamber and clogging the return pump faster than it would otherwise.

Also looking at replacing the lid with a screen and updating the lights. I am leaning towards the Kessil A160WE Tuna Blue but am also looking at the AI PRIME HD.

Any thoughts?

 

-----

Also toying with the Idea of putting a Canister filter for pumping water to the reactor and through my thermoelectric chiller as well as whatever supplemental media I would want to add to the canister. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since the alkalinity got way out of whack and I lost some corals and other were damaged , the survivors have bounced back well. The Favites coral had receded about a half cm from the edge, exposing skeleton.  It has since grown back over the die off and is now spreading over the sides of the plug and has started spreading on to the rock work on two sides. It is extending tentacles more and is feeding well.

5a89c2323027c_photo(1).thumb.jpg.6d701436e7d3d2469288ff01151278da.jpg

 

The green candy cane has gone from two heads to four heads and seem to be doing very well. They are also extending tentacles really well and feeding.

I had not realized how large the feeding tentacles were on these corals until about a 2 months ago when they really started coming out daily.

I still have a bit of a fuzzy rock issue as you can see in the images, but my astrea snails reproduced and IO currently have hundreds of tiny astrea snails on the glass and rocks. They are getting big enough that they are starting to clean off some of the rock work.

5a89c36290d46_photo(2).thumb.jpg.2a9abef3d663072930b8d5a4c7fe7d42.jpg

 

My branching hammer Is also doing well. It has gone from two heads to three. It looks better in person than I could capture in a photo.

5a89c6013e5df_photo(3).thumb.jpg.e05b04e30cedf303a5daf91df1bf20c5.jpg

 

The frogspawn seems happy too. It's hard for me to tell of it has grown at all.

IMG_1009.thumb.jpg.a77443d303883db774e82fa5259406e2.jpg

 

My acans are hard to tell. One day they will be all puffy, bright and happy looking. Then next they will look smaller and faded.  They feed well, and I have gone from 3-4 whole heads and one that was 2/3 of a head with the other part cut off to a cluster that seem to have more all the time.  Not sure if they are crowding themselves or if this is normal. It seems like with them being so tightly packed they would have trouble growing well.

photo.thumb.jpg.07e62db085bc8587084abff931d9cc64.jpg

 

I am about to rearrange the rock work in preparing the tank for hardware changes to filtration and lighting. I think I will be lowing the left side  and moving the whole thing a bit closer to the back opening up more sand bed in the front. I also need to clean out the feed line to the thermoelectric cooler as it has grown a large about of algae inside the tube. I think it has grown to the point that it may be restricting flow. 

 IMG_1008.thumb.jpg.9b975100071451b0bc9443bf1696bf53.jpg

 

This year I learned about what I should and should not do with my tank. Next year will likely be the same.  But hopefully next years mistakes will be new ones and wont result in coral losses like this last year.

#1 lesson, be better about keeping up with maintenance even when I have an issue. Don't lose heart and neglect the tank maintenance just because of a screw-up on my side.. 

  • Like 2
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3 hours ago, MrJoel said:

Since the alkalinity got way out of whack and I lost some corals and other were damaged , the survivors have bounced back well. The Favites coral had receded about a half cm from the edge, exposing skeleton.  It has since grown back over the die off and is now spreading over the sides of the plug and has started spreading on to the rock work on two sides. It is extending tentacles more and is feeding well.

5a89c2323027c_photo(1).thumb.jpg.6d701436e7d3d2469288ff01151278da.jpg

 

The green candy cane has gone from two heads to four heads and seem to be doing very well. They are also extending tentacles really well and feeding.

I had not realized how large the feeding tentacles were on these corals until about a 2 months ago when they really started coming out daily.

I still have a bit of a fuzzy rock issue as you can see in the images, but my astrea snails reproduced and IO currently have hundreds of tiny astrea snails on the glass and rocks. They are getting big enough that they are starting to clean off some of the rock work.

5a89c36290d46_photo(2).thumb.jpg.2a9abef3d663072930b8d5a4c7fe7d42.jpg

 

My branching hammer Is also doing well. It has gone from two heads to three. It looks better in person than I could capture in a photo.

5a89c6013e5df_photo(3).thumb.jpg.e05b04e30cedf303a5daf91df1bf20c5.jpg

 

The frogspawn seems happy too. It's hard for me to tell of it has grown at all.

IMG_1009.thumb.jpg.a77443d303883db774e82fa5259406e2.jpg

 

My acans are hard to tell. One day they will be all puffy, bright and happy looking. Then next they will look smaller and faded.  They feed well, and I have gone from 3-4 whole heads and one that was 2/3 of a head with the other part cut off to a cluster that seem to have more all the time.  Not sure if they are crowding themselves or if this is normal. It seems like with them being so tightly packed they would have trouble growing well.

photo.thumb.jpg.07e62db085bc8587084abff931d9cc64.jpg

 

I am about to rearrange the rock work in preparing the tank for hardware changes to filtration and lighting. I think I will be lowing the left side  and moving the whole thing a bit closer to the back opening up more sand bed in the front. I also need to clean out the feed line to the thermoelectric cooler as it has grown a large about of algae inside the tube. I think it has grown to the point that it may be restricting flow. 

 IMG_1008.thumb.jpg.9b975100071451b0bc9443bf1696bf53.jpg

 

This year I learned about what I should and should not do with my tank. Next year will likely be the same.  But hopefully next years mistakes will be new ones and wont result in coral losses like this last year.

#1 lesson, be better about keeping up with maintenance even when I have an issue. Don't lose heart and neglect the tank maintenance just because of a screw-up on my side.. 

Live and learn!  We have all been there.  Good luck with your tank in the upcoming year!

  • Like 1
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  • 3 weeks later...

I think I may need to up my water changes. :P  Or get the Chaeto setup done. Or maybe both.

 A week or 2 ago the pump and cord did not have this growth. I can scrape if off easy enough. Nutrient import is already pretty low with only targeted coral foods with pipettes and a few pellets of food occasionally for the crabs.  

IMG_1038.thumb.jpg.515d6b3c2030b26899c28bcc749b2f1b.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tank maintenance and upgrade day.I cleaned the overgrown algae from the circulation pump.

I removed the fluval slimmer cleaned out the return pump and the detritus from the rear chambers as part of the water change.

I then installed the InTank baskets in chambers one and two. Chamber one currently has filter floss, chemipure blue and Red Sea reefspec carbon.  Chamber two has marinepure spheres in the bottom below the basket. And the basket will be used for chaeto which will arrive from Algae Barn in a day or two. I have scrapped the pattern off on the glass of chamber two where I have now affixed the Innovative Marine Chaetomax light. 

I am trying to decide between a controller and keeping stock lighting or upgrading the lighting. I probably don’t have  enough budget for both.

I have a trip with the family in a few months so automation may be the better route if I have to choose one or the other now.

  • Like 1
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  • 3 weeks later...

Since adding the InTank baskets the water level in the tank is higher and I am getting salt creep around the rim constantly. It is getting annoying.  Also, my Chaeto Algae seems to be getting lighter. I checked my Nitrates and they are now almost undetectable. I guess I will need to start feeding the tank more to provide enough nutrient to keep the algae alive.  I plan to move my tank to another room this weekend. Once that is done I will be adding fish again so the issue should resolve itself around then I think.

Could having the ChemiPure blue & carbon in chamber one be reducing nutrient available to the Chaeto in chamber 2 enough to make a difference?  Should I try swapping the Chaeto to chamber 1 and the ChemiPure blue and carbon to chamber 2?

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I did some housekeeping on the tank. I removed and rearranged the rock to open up the sandbed more.  I may still make some more changes to the rock to give the frogspawn an area of reduced flow as I think the flow is too high for it right now.  I also added a pair of Wyoming White clowns.

https://youtu.be/rMx8IGpMoXM

IMG_1095.thumb.jpg.b8673b3a18bc4cbe4f81f1a804e75ab1.jpg

 

I also modified the surface skimmer overflow clip to better direct the water into the InTank basket in chamber one. Previously a lot of the water ran off the edge of the overflow and ran down the side of the basket bypassing the filter media. So I heated the plastic and used pliers to bend the whole thing down slightly and also angles the edges up to better channel the water into the filter floss. This seems to be working much better even if it is not pretty. =P

 

IMG_1073.thumb.jpg.dc322f930d16e96753d43ab5bfa71251.jpg

 

  • Like 2
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When I checked the tank this morning before work the Clowns were in the Xenia.  I guess we'll see if that becomes a normal thing for them.  It would be weird to me for them to choose to host there in the first 24 hours. But I would not complain. No picture since the house and tank were still dark at the time.

 

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StephLionfish

Sorry to hear about your problems with the hydroids. I have them as well, and almost lost an acan.

Beautiful clowns! That's some mad extension on those candy canes!

  • Like 1
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Looks like at least one Clown has some intestinal parasite. Last 2 days they have One or both not sure has had long stringy white poop after eating.  I thought nothing of it until this morning I saw another person post about it and replies said It was most likely a sign of an intestinal parasite that could damage the intestines and kill the fish. 

Should have the medicated food here tomorrow. I am really hoping I do not lose my fish again. I waited a year to add fish after the Velvet killed my fish and now in under a week my fish are sick again. Realistically I believe they would have had the parasite before I got them. Should probably tell the shop I got them from.

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Any idea what this stuff is? It is on a few snail shells. It is on almost all of the old pieces of rock. It looks white and fuzzy. Is it algae?

30825A66-E200-4E4B-9C15-9ECD29249F85.jpeg

16765EC0-FDFB-462B-B1D6-E7FCCC087480.jpeg

07F7BE22-B0AC-4CFA-9D59-CC59965078FB.jpeg

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7 hours ago, MrJoel said:

I am disliking the green sand. Do people change out sand from time to time?

I'm currently trying to remove ALL of my sand. Not sure if I would stay sandless or switch to something less messy.

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On 4/13/2018 at 12:27 AM, MrJoel said:

Looks like at least one Clown has some intestinal parasite. Last 2 days they have One or both not sure has had long stringy white poop after eating.  I thought nothing of it until this morning I saw another person post about it and replies said It was most likely a sign of an intestinal parasite that could damage the intestines and kill the fish. 

Should have the medicated food here tomorrow. I am really hoping I do not lose my fish again. I waited a year to add fish after the Velvet killed my fish and now in under a week my fish are sick again. Realistically I believe they would have had the parasite before I got them. Should probably tell the shop I got them from.

What are you feeding the fish? My clowns get white stringy poop after being fed frozen mysis. Apparently this is not uncommon as I’ve seen other people on forums report the same thing. Doesn’t mean its not a parasite but that could also be the cause. Do the fish appear healthy otherwise? 

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4 hours ago, TheBig053 said:

What are you feeding the fish? My clowns get white stringy poop after being fed frozen mysis. Apparently this is not uncommon as I’ve seen other people on forums report the same thing. Doesn’t mean its not a parasite but that could also be the cause. Do the fish appear healthy otherwise? 

Just moist pellet food. Cant think of the brand off hand. I have not fed Frozen recently since my acans have been responding well to coral frenzy powder and pellets target fed through pipettes.  I will keep that in mind if I feed frozen mysis again though.

After feeding the clowns the medicated NLS HexShiled pellets the white stringy poop seems to be gone.  I am still keeping an eye on them, but it looks like it is cleared up.

 

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Here is an updated Picture of the whole dirty tank. I got the Reefkeeper Lite setup now to control the lighting in the tank and the fuge as well as the heater. Hopefully automating the photoperiod will help with the display algae.  I will probably also swap the positions of the Xenia and Cyphastrea since the cyphastrea does not seem to like the light in the middle.

 

IMG_1156.thumb.jpg.169d25b6176729dcfa5e592599b7a54e.jpg

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