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Steph's 13.5 Invert Haven


StephLionfish

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StephLionfish
22 hours ago, rO.oster said:

Sweeeeet!!  Love the middle high arching ridge, gonna be good flow everywhere.  Congrats on getting wet.

Thanks! I hate to be another 13.5 with an arch, but it just works so well with the dimensions! 

 

19 hours ago, West1 said:

Very nice start

Thanks!

 

19 hours ago, yoshii said:

Lol Steph I started following this thread a little while ago and somehow didn't realize it was you! :haha:

lol, Do a double take? :huh:

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StephLionfish

Thanks! 

Finally added the Sicce pump I purchased, and the flow is quite a bit better. Without corals in there, it's difficult for me to see what the flow is really like, but hopefully in a couple of weeks I can start adding some lps. 

The LFS here kinda sucks (as I've probably mentioned), so most of my livestock will probably be purchased online. Any coral websites ya'll recommend?

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StephLionfish

I finally have some light algae showing up in spots. An unbelievable amount of water evaps from this tank, so I am definitely getting a ATO sometime soon. Even if that means overcoming my fear of a flooded floor. Just tested the water-

I have absolutely no idea what it is saying the PH is supposed to be, but I think I've got between 0 - .25 ammonia and 5 nitrate.

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Hi and welcome back. I am guessing that you were here before I came since I don't recognise you.

 

I assume you are/were a fan of lionfish?  Me too, although I don't have any now.  Anyway, I will be following.

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StephLionfish

I never posted on NR back when I had tanks originally, even though I had an account. I was mostly active on the big ship that seems to have sunken miserably since I've been absent. 

Speaking of which, when I made my accounts on the forums I was like 13-14, hence the terrible username lol. Lions were definitely my fav; I had several across three tanks, and a couple of mantis shrimp in two others. But we had a bad storm come through the area that knocked the power out for a couple of weeks, and all of my tanks crashed. :tears: :tears: 

Fast-forward out of my teens and I'm slightly more financially secure enough to start again.  :bowdown:

Thanks for joining the ride!

 

These were some of my friends I lost-

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  • Like 2
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That is a cool mantis shrimp!  My son had one back in the day but Shakira was a run of the mill mantis.  I have had lions, puffers and eels and someday maybe I will have them again.  Presently I keep seahorses. 

 

You will find this forum very active and there are a lot of great folks here.  I have found this forum very gracious and encouraging without the picking at each other that I have seen on other forums.  

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StephLionfish

Thanks! I had two- a N. wennerae and the P. ciliata pictured. I'd love to have a macro/nem/mantis tank again, but not in an apartment.

 

Moving along in the cycle. I tossed the rocks up onto the scape, off of the sand. I've noticed plenty of beneficials, including tunicates, sponges, spaghetti worms, sooo many pods, etc, but with the good come the bad. I've also noticed some digitate hydroids, and this algae that is probably bad?

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spaghetti

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FTS (notice the worm feeling free on the top left)

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ThisPlaceIsAPrison

This tank really looks good!  I know I would get more out of my EVO if I went topless and upgraded my light but I have very little evaporation with the lids on and I don't know if I want to deal with topping it off so often or getting an ATO.

 

 

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StephLionfish

Thanks everyone! 

17 hours ago, ThisPlaceIsAPrison said:

This tank really looks good!  I know I would get more out of my EVO if I went topless and upgraded my light but I have very little evaporation with the lids on and I don't know if I want to deal with topping it off so often or getting an ATO.

 

 

Oh yeah the evap is insane. It is a twice daily top off. 

 

I was about to purchase an ATO (and a CUC)  when I noticed in the past three days I've had an intense algae bloom... of bryopsis. I'm reading mixed reviews on the forums.. Some say redo the tank, some say let it ride out past the initial cycle (nearing a month old in a week I think), some say lose the lights for a few days. Does anyone have any thoughts? :tears: I've cycled many tanks and have never seen this stuff. It is the only algae I've had pop up from the cycle. 

Needless to say, I REALLY don't want to redo it... the rocks are epoxied and there's so many cool hitchhikers...

 

You can't tell from the pictures, but the tank is pretty green. 

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Also found some of these (algae eating?) nudis. 

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StephLionfish

Thanks for the link; it is pretty interesting. It seems like there's so many products on the market for this hobby that have some "mystery" ingredient that treats an unrelated problem. I saw a ton of people using Kent M to get rid of bryopsis, until they changed that secret ingredient and now it doesn't kill bryopsis/hair algae?

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I think the Kent M just raises the Mag up, and some people have had success choking back bryopsis with high Mg 1600? levels.  I think the preferred method these days is targeted peroxide treatments outside of the tank.

 

If its billowy, its GHA.  If its stiff and dark green, bryopsis.

 

Blue leg hermits and a strong CUC?  GHA seems normal to me at this phase.

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StephLionfish

It certainly seems like Bryopsis, and the tank is absolutely covered in it now! None of the rock nor the tanks the rocks I have came from had it from what I saw, but now in a matter of week, my tank is flustered with it. Like I said, I've never even seen this stuff before in my own tanks, even through cycles. I don't want to redo the tank, so I guess I'm looking into chemicals to rid the algae.

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Use fluconazole, it interferes with Byropsis cell membranes. Can be found commercially as “reef flux.” There have not been any documented negative effects to other inhabitants, to my knowledge.

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Sorry to hear it's growing like crazy, Steph. Is the tank still cycling? I wonder if it will bloom then die off later. Fluconazole works, but if you use it, just don't add in other macros, they won't like it either.

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Christopher Marks

I think you'll have good luck with the fluconazole, many members here have had success with it for bryopsis. Here's our big thread on the subject, lots of insight and success stories as you get through the discussion:

 

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StephLionfish

Thanks! Snails are in- going small for now. 3 Nerites, 3 astrea, star shell astrea, nassarius. It seems that these little orange nudis love my algae outbreak. I'd love to find someone to get some stomatellas, micro brittle stars, and bristleworms from. 

I totally wanted to impulse buy some Euphyllias today, but I didn't! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
StephLionfish

Still haven't dosed the tank, yet. Most of the algae has either been kicked up or died off, but it is still present so I'll likely end up doing it this weekend. I lost the star shell astrea and a nerite snail, but added three cerith snails. I also added corals: pink tip froggie, duncan, 3 acans, magician paly, snake polyps, blue caulastrea, 3 shrooms, and a pavona.

I filled the second slot in the inTank rack with liverock from the DT. I wanted to fill the bottom with it, and leave my carbon in the middle, but the darn fin in the chamber kept hitting the rocks.

 

:naughtydance:

 

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  • StephLionfish changed the title to Steph's 13.5 Invert Haven

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