ADA - the 2 island reef

[vlangel]

The clam looks nice there.  Hopely it doesn't decide to rock itself off of there!  They can move a little.

[Andreww]

7 minutes ago, vlangel said:

The clam looks nice there.  Hopely it doesn't decide to rock itself off of there!  They can move a little.

Thank you. I hope so too.

The bottom part of the shell is held pretty good from all sides by the “cup” growth pattern of the monti cap in that area so I hope I won’t have any problems.

 

 

[Andreww]

Well I know what I said and some people will get mad at me for bashing a product that now I wanna buy. You know how that goes.

 

Im selling my MP-10QD and getting an AI Nero 5.

So if you’re interested in a very good condition MP10 QD, head over to the hardware classified forum.

 

Heres why I’m thinking to switch. I can place the powerhead on the overflow. Thats right. From the overflow pushing water towards the front glass then back it goes. I can’t do this with the MP10 because of the motor, and I’d have to get 2 MP10’s, one on each side of the overflow, but with the Nero5, I drop the magnet inside the overflow and call it good.

 

I will still have to deal with the cable but since it’s on the back and the overflow is black anyway, it’ll be pretty well hidden.

 

Time to order one.

[MrObscura]

One thing that shocked me the most getting into this hobby, and still does, is the price of wave makers/powerheads. 

 

I don't get it. Why do they cost so much? Its an impeller, a motor and a controller. It seems to be a trend in this hobby with prices, whereas outside it much more complex pieces of tech cost the same if not less. 

 

I guess the simple answer would be people in the hobby are willing to spend it, so they charge it. 

[Andreww]

Yeah that’s very true. As is the case with most other things made overseas and sold here for a premium price.

Im not saying they’re bad products, just overpriced.

 

Now you gave me something to think about lol. I might ditch the 300$ Nero5 idea and get an icecap 1k gyre pump.

At 130$, I’m keeping the MP10 as well lol.

 

 

[Andreww]

I had time to play with the tank today, especially the flow.

To keep the monti cap and birds nest happy, I would have had to turn up the flow way more than it was at. At that point, the clam wasn’t happy at all and would close up.

 

Moved the powerhead to another spot, clam mantle would blow up and fold onto itself because of high flow.

I guess a mixed reef is particularly hard to set up right in a small tank in regards to flow.

 

Easy to get the other side of the tank with a powerhead but harder to control it and make all corals happy. In a bigger tank it’s a different story.

 

Gave up on the icecap gyre idea as well as the Nero5. Icecap is over 4” sticking out in the tank and the Nero5 would look too funky with the teal propeller staring at me and I’m not sure it would help that much anyway being in that spot.

 

Moved the MP-10 back on the side, cranked it up on reef crest and moved the clam on the sand. Moved acans up front where ricordea used to be.

 

Took out ricordea and cynarina.

 

Glued the green Favia onto the overflow. I want it to start encrusting on it but I bet it’ll take awhile lol.

Next move is a couple more SPS. 

Thats about it.

 

[Andreww]

Something weird is happening.

Chaeto grew like mad, long fluffy strands. Then it filled in and it became very dense.

Then it stopped growing.

Theres definitely phosphate and nitrate in the water. Does it go through cycles ? 

[Andreww]

Read somewhere to rinse chaeto in tap water to eliminate the biofilm that has accumulated on it.

Well, here’s the result.

[kinetic]

11 minutes ago, Andreww said:

Something weird is happening.

Chaeto grew like mad, long fluffy strands. Then it filled in and it became very dense.

Then it stopped growing.

Theres definitely phosphate and nitrate in the water. Does it go through cycles ? 

It may have outcompeted some algae for no3/po4, but something else might have started competing now too. Another thing is, you could have just enough chaeto now that it can't grow anymore since it now has just enough nutrients to keep itself steady.

 

If it starts to diminish, you may also have run out of other trace elements, like Iron.

[Andreww]

21 minutes ago, kinetic said:

It may have outcompeted some algae for no3/po4, but something else might have started competing now too. Another thing is, you could have just enough chaeto now that it can't grow anymore since it now has just enough nutrients to keep itself steady.

 

If it starts to diminish, you may also have run out of other trace elements, like Iron.

Makes sense. I’m always having an adverse reaction from dosing iron in my tank.

Algae other than chaeto starts growing pretty fast so I’m not keen on dosing iron for that matter.

Not sure if the product itself makes any difference but I’m using Aquavitro Fuel which is iron gluconate.

Someone (I think R.H. Farley on RC) recommended Kent brand or something themselves mixed out of dry components, and mentioned they never had any problems with dosing iron even in big quantities in their refugium, albeit their refugium was very big , filled with numerous macros.

Not even sure what the correct dosage would be per gallon....

Aquavitro Fuel recommends 1ml per 10 gallons 3 times a week but I’m having problems with 1 ml / 30 gallons once a week.

 

[kinetic]

8 minutes ago, Andreww said:

Makes sense. I’m always having an adverse reaction from dosing iron in my tank.

Algae other than chaeto starts growing pretty fast so I’m not keen on dosing iron for that matter.

Not sure if the product itself makes any difference but I’m using Aquavitro Fuel which is iron gluconate.

Someone (I think R.H. Farley on RC) recommended Kent brand or something themselves mixed out of dry components, and mentioned they never had any problems with dosing iron even in big quantities in their refugium, albeit their refugium was very big , filled with numerous macros.

Not even sure what the correct dosage would be per gallon....

Aquavitro Fuel recommends 1ml per 10 gallons 3 times a week but I’m having problems with 1 ml / 30 gallons once a week.

 

Yeah dosing Iron is really a hit or miss. It's unknown how much you would really need, and it's impossible to test for. All my iron tests just show nothing, because most of it is absorbed quickly or it's just in such a low quantity anyway. For a lot of people, it seemed to help deepen the greens on their chaeto. But not entirely sure if there's scientific proof.

 

I'm dosing Aquaforest 1,2,3+, and it already contains trace amounts of it. I can't even grow chaeto though (or algae), so hope it's not being overloaded in my system haha.

[DaveFason]

Clam looks great! Are you planning on leaving it up there?

[Andreww]

17 minutes ago, DaveFason said:

Clam looks great! Are you planning on leaving it up there?

Hey Dave, like I said in my previous post, I can’t provide good enough flow for monti cap and birds nest without annoying the clam so I moved the clam back on the sand.

Im not touching it anymore.🙂

[Andreww]

Isn’t it funny how everything can turn on its head almost overnight?

Brown slime taking hold in my sump, and a little in my display now.

I didn’t see any bubbles on the slime but I’m positive dinoflagellates is what I have at the moment.

Snails that I have had for more than a year in my tank started dying one after another. I can’t think of anything else other than toxicity from the dinos.

Big turbo still chugging along but pretty slow otherwise.

Just did a water change, sucked out as much brown nasty slime as I could.

If all else fails, complete darkness for 3 days to follow.

I don’t want to think about this possible nightmare of an algae to take over the tank.

I won’t let it. period!

[Andreww]

I should mention, sand that has not been disturbed in months , I had to mess with it and give it a good ole deep clean . I’m thinking that’s when I released more than I should have in the tank.

And that’s when the chaeto stopped growing too...hmm

[Andreww]

Dead snails...

[kinetic]

14 minutes ago, Andreww said:

Isn’t it funny how everything can turn on its head almost overnight?

Brown slime taking hold in my sump, and a little in my display now.

I didn’t see any bubbles on the slime but I’m positive dinoflagellates is what I have at the moment.

Snails that I have had for more than a year in my tank started dying one after another. I can’t think of anything else other than toxicity from the dinos.

Big turbo still chugging along but pretty slow otherwise.

Just did a water change, sucked out as much brown nasty slime as I could.

If all else fails, complete darkness for 3 days to follow.

I don’t want to think about this possible nightmare of an algae to take over the tank.

I won’t let it. period!

When I had dinoflagellates, I only lost a couple snails, but most were totally fine (trochus, cerith, nassarius). I only really lost them once I started killing them with DinoX. When they were growing, I didn't have any issues with anything dying.

[Andreww]

Dang, you chemically destroyed them?

I couldn’t, not when my clam is in there. 😔

[kinetic]

25 minutes ago, Andreww said:

Dang, you chemically destroyed them?

I couldn’t, not when my clam is in there. 😔

You can read my thread, but it was a 5 month battle (or more). I tried increasing NO3/PO4 in the tank (both removing all filtration other than sand/rock, overfeeding enough to make anthias fat, and manually dosing no3/po4), which only made dinos grow to the point where it killed all my corals. Then I tried that, with DinoX. Killed a few inverts, but somehow fish and anemones made it. But dinos would just keep growing. So I realized I was struggling so hard to keep no3/po4 up, and dinos wouldn't let anything else outcompete (I had a nasty strain), so then I went the direction that my tank somehow naturally wanted to go, which was very low no3/po4. I added my skimmer back and some marinepure balls, then I started dosing NoPox. After running DinoX and NoPox for two weeks, all the dinos went away. What happened was the bacteria that I was growing with NoPox was outcompeting dinos finally. IF I stop dosing nopox, the dinos return. So this has been working for probably 4 months now, no dinos in sight, all things doing pretty well. So it wasn't just simply "chemically destroying" them, I tried everything. I didn't have a clam, so not sure how that would do.

[Tamberav]

😞

 

that sucks...I clean my sand every week because holy crap sand can get nasty fast. I can't imagine going months. 

 

when I had dino I did multiple blackouts and siphoned it through a filter sock and replaced the water. It got pretty weak looking over time but I ended up over dosing alk which caused a pH spike and all the dino died (along with the sps). I still have and use the same rock and havnt seen it return and that was years ago.

 

Hope I didn't jinx myself. Dino seems to love macroalgae btw.

[Lula_Mae]

Ugh dinos suck. I dosed bottled bacteria and live phyto along with no water changes and a long blackout, 5 days or so. Lost some zoas along the way including before I realized what I had. Hope you can beat it soon. 

[Andreww]

7 hours ago, Tamberav said:

😞

 

that sucks...I clean my sand every week because holy crap sand can get nasty fast. I can't imagine going months. 

 

when I had dino I did multiple blackouts and siphoned it through a filter sock and replaced the water. It got pretty weak looking over time but I ended up over dosing alk which caused a pH spike and all the dino died (along with the sps). I still have and use the same rock and havnt seen it return and that was years ago.

 

Hope I didn't jinx myself. Dino seems to love macroalgae btw.

I hear ya on the sand issue.

The top layer has always been cleaned up and sucked out of the tank if algae of any kind was growing on it but this time I deep cleaned it going all the way to the bottom and siphoning out the nasty stuff. 

I don’t know why I thought it’s a great idea, I used to do small sections which is always better...

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, Andreww said:

I hear ya on the sand issue.

The top layer has always been cleaned up and sucked out of the tank if algae of any kind was growing on it but this time I deep cleaned it going all the way to the bottom and siphoning out the nasty stuff. 

I don’t know why I thought it’s a great idea, I used to do small sections which is always better...

We all do things that seem like good ideas at the time lol.  I forgot, I also ended up removing all sand and transferred water and all to a different spare tank (needed the space on my desk lol). Fingers are crossed for you. 

[Andreww]

3 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

We all do things that seem like good ideas at the time lol.  I forgot, I also ended up removing all sand and transferred water and all to a different spare tank (needed the space on my desk lol). Fingers are crossed for you. 

Haha isn’t that true? ...thank you, sump lights are off for this week, we’ll see how that goes.

[Andreww]

I’ve seen a decline in the dinos in the sump since turning the lights off.

In the display tank, I’ve tried sucking them out last night but today they grew even more than before.

So I decided to do a 3 day blackout . The hardest part will be the waiting...and hoping the clam will be ok. Also the Anthias....If I don’t feed the guy for even one day, his belly shows it...