Living Room Nano Peninsula

[YHSublime]

New “homemade” dosing containers

 

 

 

[Frag Factory]

They look great, how did you make them?

[YHSublime]

15 minutes ago, Frag Factory said:

They look great, how did you make them?

 

Thanks! They’re just glass Voss water bottles. I drilled the lids for a mur-lok bulkheads and used 1/4” acrylic rod tubing

for the inside.

[YHSublime]

Well, I found out that the acrylic tubing I bought for the dosing containers doesn't hold a prime. Works great with the RO tubing though. Defeats the purpose of a DIY project, as my intention was to rid the curled tube into the container. 

 

How did I find out? Well, good thing I test my alk daily. I thought my consumption was going up with the recent addition of a tiny clam, so for two days I upped the 2 part by 2ml, and alk was still progressively dropping. Last night I checked a manual run through of the pumps, and the prime on them was completely gone. 

 

Just glad I was home to catch it. 

[Reefkid88]

Ever thing about just getting airline tubing warm and then straightening it out ? I did that awhile ago an it worked. 

[YHSublime]

40 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

Ever thing about just getting airline tubing warm and then straightening it out ? I did that awhile ago an it worked. 

Yeah, I just wish I hadn't had put in a special order for the merlocs and the acrylic tubing, not that it was a ton of money, but I'm back to essentially what I started with. I talked to BRS, and they said the acrylic rods are too small for the bulkhead, so you really have to jam it in there. An ulterior solution would be silicon grease, or just gluing them in, which I may try, however, I'm not trying to play any risky games bc I don't want my tank sitter to have to do anything other than feed, and I'm traveling soon. 

[Reefkid88]

Oh no I completely understand. Its always a pain. Kinda like what I' going thru with my plumbing. I thought 1/2" drain and return would keep up but it can't..and its not even sumped,just a AIO.. So I' waiting on my 3/4" stuff now.. 

[vlangel]

Well I hope you get the bugs worked out the dosing system before you go.  I am sure that is a cause for tank anxiety.

[YHSublime]

1 hour ago, Reefkid88 said:

Oh no I completely understand. Its always a pain. Kinda like what I' going thru with my plumbing. I thought 1/2" drain and return would keep up but it can't..and its not even sumped,just a AIO.. So I' waiting on my 3/4" stuff now.. 

 

Bummer man! It's always something! However: I want to update with this was seemingly complete user error on my part. BRS was too polite to tell me I'm just dumb. I looked over everything again tonight, and really pushed the rods into the bulkhead, I definitely did not have them connected properly. I imagine this is probably what happened to the majority of people who left bad reviews on these pieces of equipment. It took a lot more force than I thought to make sure they really connect. Like, a lot. I re-primed and dosed what I collected from the test (20ml each solution, one in the sump, one in the display.) I'll obviously keep an eye out, but I'm fairly certain this was 100% me. 

 

11 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Well I hope you get the bugs worked out the dosing system before you go.  I am sure that is a cause for tank anxiety.

 

Oh boy, there should be some sort of forum or group for Tank Anxiety 😉

 

You're right, thanks for the well wishes, I think it was just user error. 

[YHSublime]

Well, my alk fluctuations from the dosing incident seemed to have not done any favors for the Orange Passion, which slowly has STN'd over the past 5 days or so. Part of the top is still there, so I'm hoping that it'll bounce back, but not hopefully. One piece out of all the many is not too shabby though. Everything else is exploding, just taking my alk into consideration daily, until I can finally get it balanced out again. 

 

I was able to move out a mini colony (large large frag) of forest fire digi, and accidentally broke off the chunk of setosa. I used the new construction opportunity to chisel off the Jedi Mind Trick colony that was approaching all my acros, already starting with the PC Rainbow. This involved removing the whole rock, a flat head screw driver, and a hammer. While the rock was out, I also took a razor blade, and scraped back all the GSP that had started a network structure under the rock and was starting to spread on the other side! 

 

I didn't bother cleaning the glass, and it's been a hot minute since a water change, even though I've got the water made up 

 

 

 

 

[Reefkid88]

Despite the alk problems,the tank looks flawless man. I'm sorry about the OP,I'm sure it will bounce back just give it some time. Did you inspect it at all,to make sure there is nothing else messing with it ? 

[YHSublime]

24 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

Despite the alk problems,the tank looks flawless man. I'm sorry about the OP,I'm sure it will bounce back just give it some time. Did you inspect it at all,to make sure there is nothing else messing with it ? 

Yeah, surrounding corals are fine, including the sensative red dragon. Who knows, the pocci is usually my canary with alk. Just letting things grow in now, I’ll have one more addition, to replace the old Jedi colony, don’t know if it’ll be a zoa or acro!

[YHSublime]

Cause' why not?

 

[Reefkid88]

'Cus who doesn't love seeing pics of this tank,'cus I do 🤝 !!!

[vlangel]

13 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Cause' why not?

 

Tank still looks great even with the alk incident.  Nice FTS!

[YHSublime]

4 hours ago, vlangel said:

Tank still looks great even with the alk incident.  Nice FTS!

 

Thanks! I’m not quite sure what’s been happening here, I went from about 20ml of ESV 2 part a day down to 5ml. I’ve been holding steady for the past 10 days at 9.3 dkh. 

 

The only change was a clam (died) but the uptick on consumption was 15ml each part and climbing prior to the addition of the clam. 

 

Im not going to chase it, as I’ve tested sometimes twice a day, just have a hard time understanding the sudden halt in dosing. 

 

I’ve been traveling a bunch, so I hope it keeps steady when I’m away, as I just picked up a JF Homewrecker!

[Reefkid88]

Maybe the clam was consuming majority of what you were doing ?! Its a small possibility. 

 

 Oh really now ?! That coral will fit in perfectly in your tank. 

[YHSublime]

4 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

Maybe the clam was consuming majority of what you were doing ?! Its a small possibility. 

Yeah, that's why I mentioned it. It just seems funny, the uptick before the clam was 15, the removal of the clam was 5, the clam alive and present was 20, fuzzy math I guess.

 

4 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

 Oh really now ?! That coral will fit in perfectly in your tank. 

 

Agreed. So good you could smack yo' mamma! As soon as I got it in the tank, I immediately could tell what all the fuss was about. 

 

 

[Reefkid88]

I love the Friday reference lol. But I agree,it is just a ridiculous coral,for sure. Have you seen some of the Acro's Vivid has....just WOW..Idk where they are getting this stuff at nowadays but good lord.

 

https://vividaquariums.com/collections/signature-series-coral?sort_by=price-ascending

[YHSublime]

4 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

I love the Friday reference lol. But I agree,it is just a ridiculous coral,for sure. Have you seen some of the Acro's Vivid has....just WOW..Idk where they are getting this stuff at nowadays but good lord.

 

https://vividaquariums.com/collections/signature-series-coral?sort_by=price-ascending

 

I have seen. It's crazy, so is a lot of pricing. A small tank deserves show pieces, and I hope to work down from the 30+ acro's in here to maybe 10.

 

I will say, this is the first coral I have added to my tank that in my regular lights (pictured) looks even better in person than it does in any of the photos. Under all white I would not pay it any mind, but a bit of blue tint and it just glows. My photo's don't even capture or show the red/yellow on it as well. I'm very impressed. 

[Reefkid88]

They are VERY VERY expensive,that is for sure,but there is always going to be people who are willing to give their unborn child up for a few frags lol. I love your collection so far. There is some no name really nice pieces and then the few very popular pieces. My list is pretty short and has some pieces nobody would want lol. 

 

 That coral just glows like crazy under blue's,but it also has to grow into itself and then just wow. 

[YHSublime]

Well lots of changes pretty much right after my last update. I have been doing a ton of traveling for work lately, so I'm always shocked the tank is even still running every time I get back. 

 

 

I rescaped the back area of the tank. I LOVED what I came up with. The giant RBTA I added did not, and I found it stinging half my shrooms to death, so I had to adjust the rock a bit. I am happy with what it is now, but really liked what I had before I had to twist the rock in a direction I didn't like as much in order to get the nem happy. 

 

 

The GSP started as a fun project, but now is turning into a big chunk of work. I'm trimming it back all the time, and it's starting to get on the rock (I've epoxied over) but now its no longer a game, it is time to go. My picture updates would lead you to believe I don't do anything with it, trust me, I trim it like once a week!

 

 

I added a red grow light to the sump. I have NEVER been able to grow cheato before. I have cheato down there, but what has started to take off is the dragons breath macro I left. It had blown all over the sump and was in little pieces that I was sure would die. They have not, and have started sprouting, and growing from the bottom. I will soon have more Dragons Breath than cheato, which I think will be kind of cool! I also rubber banded the rest of it (big clump) to a rock, and it has started growing great in my frag tank as well! 

 

Can anybody spot my recent addition? I'm not one for fish names, but this one I've dubbed Baby Beaker. I've had over a year of pods building up, and BB has taken to LRS as well.

 

[vlangel]

Good luck with the Copperband.  Sounds like Beaker is off to a good start but they can be challenging to keep long term.

[YHSublime]

On 2/1/2019 at 7:43 AM, vlangel said:

Good luck with the Copperband.  Sounds like Beaker is off to a good start but they can be challenging to keep long term.

Thanks, I know I'll need it. I had a Copperband for several years before, as a matter of fact, Larry used one of my videos for marketing when he was first getting started as it used to eat LRS from my hand! This isn't it, but a similar video I took as well:

 

 

 ended up breaking down that tank. The new owner lost it in a power failure 😞

 

This tank will be too small for it very quickly, but I have a suspicion I will have no trouble finding a new home. 

[YHSublime]

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