kinetic Red Sea Reefer 170

[kinetic]

Latest full tank shot. Recovering from the crazy dino battle:

 

[kinetic]

Before and after, February 9, 2018 -> April 4, 2018

 

[RustyRocket]

Wow...thats a world of difference. Good job on the clean up! 

Still cant get over how clean your set up looks!!!

[jesseatam]

Great progress! Glad everything’s doing better 

[Noinoi24]

so intrigued with your photography skills. what camera are you using and how you do it? great tank. Im setting up mine as well.

[DaveFason]

Looking great Art. 

 

Noi - I am pretty sure he uses a RX1RII. His tank is in a damn near perfect placement with the natural light.

[Justind823]

How's this tank doing right now? 

[kinetic]

Update:

My dinoflagellates have been fought off by a constant 2.5ml dose of NoPox through my Apex DOS. My last remaining montipora has started to regain tissue and polyps have been extended for awhile now. Tank seems very stable.

 

The magnifica decided it hated its pedestal (I think it had to do with flow) and walked all around the tank, everywhere. It settled down in a new location near the other BTAs. It's been there for over a month now. I realized my gyre was probably in need of cleaning, and sure enough after I cleaned it, the flow was 10x stronger throughout. I bet if I tried to transplant the magnifica back to the pedestal location, it would be happy again, but I'll just leave it for now since it seems content.

 

I'll be replacing that pedestal with a few SPS frags from fellow reefers next week!

 

Here's a video I made with my camera. No filters, everything was just shot in camera and stiched together with iMovie. This showcases the beauty of being able to shoot with the right white balance right in the camera:

 

 

 

And a couple photos:

 

 

 

You can see, especially in the sand, that there's a good amount of weird algae growth now taking hold, away from the snails. I feel like this non-pristine look is a good sign of maturity, as the tank nears it's 1 year birthday(?). Unfortunately, my two BTAs have not done as well, with the rainbow being stung like crazy as the magnifica fought for that spot. I hope it recovers.

[kinetic]

On 4/4/2018 at 6:31 PM, RustyRocket said:

Wow...thats a world of difference. Good job on the clean up! 

Still cant get over how clean your set up looks!!!

Thanks! It takes a lot of effort to keep things uncluttered! I could still do better...

 

On 4/4/2018 at 6:31 PM, jesseatam said:

Great progress! Glad everything’s doing better 

Thanks a ton!

 

On 5/1/2018 at 11:43 PM, Noinoi24 said:

so intrigued with your photography skills. what camera are you using and how you do it? great tank. Im setting up mine as well.

I usually use the Sony RX1Rm2, but sometimes also my iPhone does just fine. It's all about white balance!

 

On 5/2/2018 at 4:39 AM, DaveFason said:

Looking great Art. 

 

Noi - I am pretty sure he uses a RX1RII. His tank is in a damn near perfect placement with the natural light.

Thanks a ton Dave 😉

 

And yes, that's the camera! Sometimes iPhone too.

 

On 6/27/2018 at 11:06 AM, Justind823 said:

How's this tank doing right now? 

In really good shape!

[kinetic]

Just added my second Neptune DOS. I'm now maxed out on my modules on my Apex Jr.

1. FMM (for ATK)
2. FMM (for topping off my topoff reservoir from RO/DI)
3. VDM (controlling my return pump speed)
4. DOS (for dosing Alk and Ca)
5. DOS (for dosing NoPox and maybe acropower)
6. Auto feeder
7. Extra EB4

Since my tank only has a tiny piece of a montipora, the Alk dosing is really low, I can maintain 8.2 dKH with only 3.5ml of the Aquaforest 2+ a day. Ca is undetectably used, so I'm not even dosing that anymore. Once I get the new SPS pieces in, I anticipate my Alk/Ca to start being consumed again. My Mg is so high because of my Aquaforest salt, so I don't think I'll ever need to dose that.

The Nopox is keeping dinoflagellates at bay, and unfortunately I'll have to do this forever. I stopped dosing for a week and I started seeing dinos come back. I started dosing again and within two days they were all gone again. I've found the sweet spot of 2.5ml a day that keeps the dinos out.

Since things are running low in nutrients, I'm thinking of dosing a bit of acropower once the SPS have established themselves. I may have to increase my NoPox, but at least there will be more food for the corals. I will, however, introduce a bunch of chromis (6) into the tank after I finish their QT. Hopefully the poop will help and acropower not be needed. If I do dose acropower, I'm planning on dosing throughout the lights off period, with the outlet tube going right into my return chamber.

[kinetic]

Updated my DOS:

DOS 1
Pump 1: Aquaforest 1+
Pump 2: Aquaforest 2+ and Reef Minerals diluted

DOS 2
Pump 1: NoPox
Pump 2: AcroPower 

My magnesium is off the charts high (multiple test kits) because of the AquaForest Reef Salt. I don't think I will ever need to dose Aquaforest 3+. Since 3+ also comes with other things, I bought just the reef minerals and diluted it into the Ca solution (2+) so it will be dosed with calcium. Currently the load is very minimal, so I barely dose 2ml of Alk/Ca a day.

NoPox is needed in my system to keep dinoflagellates from growing. It also seems to keep my tank fairly void of algae, just enough to feed the cleanup crew. Any algae that does grow is white, not sure why (iron?)

AcroPower is an experiment. Since the tank runs pretty low on nutrients, I want to supplement some stuff in the water for the corals. I only have a few nubs (thanks @tankguy), but hopefully they'll take hold and start using Alk/Ca and benefit from the AcroPower.

[RustyRocket]

Can you use the DOS on its own? I've heard good things about it....but I dont have the APEX. 

I might get it regardless since after meeting one of the reps and him walking me around it, I'm contemplating on getting the full APEX. $899 is kinda hard to swallow though. 

Do you plan on upgrading? 

 

How many clowns do you have left in the tank? Total fish?

Also just noticed, that acrylic feeding box, how does it hang there? And where did you get it?

[kinetic]

19 hours ago, RustyRocket said:

Can you use the DOS on its own? I've heard good things about it....but I dont have the APEX. 

I might get it regardless since after meeting one of the reps and him walking me around it, I'm contemplating on getting the full APEX. $899 is kinda hard to swallow though. 

Do you plan on upgrading? 

 

How many clowns do you have left in the tank? Total fish?

Also just noticed, that acrylic feeding box, how does it hang there? And where did you get it?

I believe you need an Apex controller to use the DOS, and it's not standalone. You can, however, get an Apex Jr. controller and it'll work great. I am rocking a used jr. with 7 modules running on it without a single problem. You can find them for just a bit over $100 used on for sale forums! You won't be able to run the new EB8 that can track electricity usage, nor the new Trident for Alk monitoring, but it does everything else.

 

I only have 3 clowns, and probably borderline too many fish.

 

Mocha Gladiator pair, fancy white ocellaris, ORA orchid dottyback, golden sailfin blenny, 2 chromis viridis (4 more in a QT waiting to go in).

 

The acrylic box was from BuildingAnObsession.com. Not sure if they still carry it though or if they're sold out. Easy to make on your own though if you need!

 

---

 

Porcelain crabs are so cool. There's tons of poop floating around these days, so for the almost 1 year birthday of the tank, I decided to also add in this guy:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7rW9Y16VtQ&feature=youtu.be

[kinetic]

Sad to see my mocha gladiators go, but they were moved to a great home! Officially dwindling down to one clown, I picked up a new one from Chad Vossen! A premium davinci ocellaris, just about an inch. Hoping to pair him with my existing davinci from Sustainable Aquatics.

 

The little one is going crazy trying to push itself out of the box, the larger has been in there for 2 days, so he's kind of over it.

 

 

 

He has a curmudgeonly old face:

 

 

But very symmetrical as you can see on his other side:

 

 

Both clowns looking at their future together:

 

 

My existing clown's look:

 

 

It's incredibly difficult to photograph them while they're always facing the other direction, smashing their faces white, into the opposite side of the breeder box lol.

[kinetic]

Good news, just let the two clownfish out of the breeder box. I dipped the box low enough for them to find the opening up top. Took a few tries but they finally got out. My original clown went right back to the magnifica, and the new little guy followed him. Jumped right in! Both started doing the shaking dance immediately and have been at it for awhile. It's amazing to see them smash around through the mag.

 

[kinetic]

Tank Updates:

NYOS Skimmer has been working well, almost too well. I've opened up the outlet to keep the water level low and the bubbles are cranked down, yet it's still pulling even wetter than before. I haven't been using a filter in the filtersock/filtercup, so this might be why. Anyone have a suggestion?

I removed the big black sponge that goes in the baffles between the skimmer and return. It just seemed to get clogged too often without the filter sock being used. I would take it out every month and it would just be filthy. I think it's good for removing microbubbles, but my skimmer does a good job not letting them out and/or the baffles are enough, so I'm considering just leaving it out completely.

I added a handful of marinepure biospheres into my filter cup instead of filter floss. The filter floss and any other media constantly got backed up within 5 hours. I think this is because I'm dosing NoPox all day (2.5ml a day) and the bacteria builds up really fast. The spheres will hopefully grow more bacteria on the surfaces and maybe keep bacteria growth off the display's glass. It's helped a bit, but I'm still cleaning the glass every 3 - 4 days.

I'm still using BRX carbon ROX 0.8 in a mini reactor. I just changed it out, and I probably should've changed it out earlier. I'm thinking of just using my Aquamaxx jumbo reactor for carbon, since I don't need to run an algae reactor anymore. It might be overkill?

My calcium intake in the tank has finally started making a dent. I've needed to dose 2ML of Aquaforest 1+ for ALK maintenance for months now, but finally last week my Ca levels started to drop a teeny tiny bit. My tank was at 470ppm Ca, and finally dropped to 450. I started dosing 0.2ml (yup, 0.2) of Aquaforest 2+ to keep it around 450. I hope this increases so I have an even dose of 1+ and 2+.

My goldf sailfin blenny started chomping on some new SPS frags I got. This is bad news. It hasn't touched my older ones. It stripped most of the tissue off within hours. The blenny keeps the tank super clean, even the snail shells clean. But this SPS tissue chomping is bad news. I'm considering getting a fish trap to get him out and finding another blenny. Should I just not have any blennies? The SPS frags still have a bit of tissue left and lots of polyp extension. I'm feeding Reef Chili and Acropower daily to hopefully help these frags recover. I've also placed them right in front of my Orchid Dottyback's cave, which the blenny will NOT venture to ever.

[JavaJacketOC]

How do you like the amount of flow from the gyre and what are you running it at?

 

I'm going to set one of these up as an sps dominant tank but am not sure on the water movement pump yet.

[kinetic]

16 hours ago, JavaJacketOC said:

How do you like the amount of flow from the gyre and what are you running it at?

 

I'm going to set one of these up as an sps dominant tank but am not sure on the water movement pump yet.

Tons of flow from the Gyre. Can barely keep the sand down running it at 30%. I have it peak to 45% at times, and the sand gets blown around. The amount of water movement is plenty for SPS.

[JavaJacketOC]

What are you running your light at? 

 

 

[silvertoe]

Any updates? I can't wait any longer!

 

[Christopher Marks]

Happy New Year @kinetic, hope you're well! 🎉

 

How are the davinci clownfish and magnifica anemone doing these days? More importantly, how have you been? We miss ya!

[kinetic]

33 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Happy New Year @kinetic, hope you're well! 🎉

 

How are the davinci clownfish and magnifica anemone doing these days? More importantly, how have you been? We miss ya!

Happy new year! Everything is doing well. I didn't add anything new, no new equipment tweaks, everything is just alive. A tiny bit of growth in the SPS, but nothing to write home to. I took a few new FTS, but they look just like before.

 

My Alk/Ca intake has increased probably 2x in the past couple of months, but that's the only change.

 

On 12/31/2018 at 3:46 AM, silvertoe said:

Any updates? I can't wait any longer!

 

 

Not much!

 

I think it's a good thing that nothing has changed, things are just slowly growing and maturing well.

[Christopher Marks]

Hey that's great to hear, slow n steady is good with reef tanks 🙂!

[RustyRocket]

What happened to all your SPS's I didnt see them in the videos

[Christopher Marks]

We miss you @kinetic! Hope you're well!