Goats Nuvo 10 Aquarium Journal

[ReefGoat]

Yeah I only tested the ability of the bacteria that I established one time aside from the initial 4ppm dose of ammonia. I only spiked it to around 1ppm for the  test and it brought it down to 0 in 24 hours. I wasn't "dosing" the ammonia per say. It's the MicroBacter7 that I have been dosing daily during the cycle. Anyways I chose to get away from the RSCP salt because the dkh is rather high in that particular salt. It was brought to my attention by another user after I had already bought it and started my tank with it. I tested the dkh during the cycle and sure enough the RSCP was on the high end. My plan is to run my dkh around 9, Nitrates at 5 and everything else the usual parameters. Yea we did start around the same time! Also I plan on using the MicroBacter7 once a week after my 50% water changes. I have also changed my mind on livestock and this will be a coral only tank. No fish.....I will have a small CUC along with feeding the corals. I changed my mind because I don't really have an interest in keeping fish. The coral is what fascinates me. 

[Kdrof]

Regarding fish - That is where I was at and wanted Coral only, but I decided to get one tiny fish to fit into the ecosystem and hopefully help feed the coral, CUC, etc.. But I hear ya, I was right with you when I dove back into the hobby. Curious to see if you change your mind down the road to one or two fish to get some more movement in your tank 😎

[ReefGoat]

This morning made 2 weeks into the cycle. I added my last dose of Microbacter7 this morning. For the cycle I have been dosing it daily since the start. From now on I will only be adding it once a week after the Sunday water changes. I tested again and the parameters are holding steady. I have now started running the Kessil and will post the first program I am trying out (hoping the algae bloom, if any. Isn't too bad). I will start my 3 gallon weekly water changes as of this Sunday and continue to do so from now on. In two weeks I will add the only filtration that I will be using in this tank. Poly filter for floss and a small amount of ROX carbon. Still planning on adding the first corals around my birthday which is May 30. I'm thinking some VERY colorful Zoas on the  smallest rock on the very bottom right. The lone one separate from the main rock. If I see that the Zoa garden is off to a good start. I will move on to the Acan garden on the larger front rock to the left of the planned area of the Zoa garden. I'm really excited for this and very anxious to see how successful I will be OR NOT BE LOL. 

[Kdrof]

Well, you have proven hardware that is in many other successful builds - so unless configuration of those are off.... I think it’s just patience and husbandry to succeed  may be the hardest part lol

[ReefGoat]

I just wanted to log that I am feeling an extreme urge to buy the Nanobox Mini Tide Plus. Those colors that thing is throwing are amazing. The place I purchased my lighting from didn't carry these but man........Julia is going to kill me............LOL I will at least wait until Fall. Maybe I'll give away the Kessil and spectral controller to one of the younger folks on here that's on a tight budget and their parents won't fork over the coins for some lighting LOL. 

[ReefGoat]

So It's been pretty uneventful since the last update on the 14th. I mentioned in the last update that I was starting the lighting cycle and was anticipating some algae. Well 3 days into the lights being turned on the brown, what I'm assuming is diatom algae started to take hold. It's not a full blown invasion but it's there and seems like it could easily tip the scales and turn into a full blown invasion. I use RO/DI and Red Sea blue bucket salt, rinsed my sand and have had lights out the entire cycle so far. I'm chalking it up to the high amount of nutrient action that was going on during the cycling process and high amounts of said nutrients. I've noticed that turning the lights out stops it dead in its tracks. The spots that I cleaned did not return. I didn't have a high amount of white in my spectrum either. Kessil was set to mostly blue as that's appealing to me........Right now my attack plan is to clean it as it see it and leave the lights off. I have also bumped my water changes to 2 a week for the time being and just wait it out. Suggestions and tips would be appreciated if you're willing to offer LOL. 

[Stoops718]

8 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

So It's been pretty uneventful since the last update on the 14th. I mentioned in the last update that I was starting the lighting cycle and was anticipating some algae. Well 3 days into the lights being turned on the brown, what I'm assuming is diatom algae started to take hold. It's not a full blown invasion but it's there and seems like it could easily tip the scales and turn into a full blown invasion. I use RO/DI and Red Sea blue bucket salt, rinsed my sand and have had lights out the entire cycle so far. I'm chalking it up to the high amount of nutrient action that was going on during the cycling process and high amounts of said nutrients. I've noticed that turning the lights out stops it dead in its tracks. The spots that I cleaned did not return. I didn't have a high amount of white in my spectrum either. Kessil was set to mostly blue as that's appealing to me........Right now my attack plan is to clean it as it see it and leave the lights off. I have also bumped my water changes to 2 a week for the time being and just wait it out. Suggestions and tips would be appreciated if you're willing to offer LOL. 

Do you have your skimmer running?

[ReefGoat]

It won't be in until Thursday. The I.M Ghost had to go....Not only was it taking up needed room in my middle chamber for future plans. It was sending out micro bubble hell and I couldn't get that EL-CHAEPO venturi valve to work. You'd think on a $150 dollar skimmer they'd have a better valve than a little .50 plastic valve. But oh well.......It was either the bubble line was too low and ineffective or the cup filled up with water in 10 seconds. I searched for DAYS, scouring the internet. I tried every trick that I could find. Vinegar bath and then RO rinse. Filter floss in between the chambers, adjusting water level in the chambers, 7-10 day break in period. Nothing worked........I took it out, washed it and put it in the closet and ordered a Reef Glass skimmer. So Thursday i'll be skimming again. 

[ReefGoat]

Oh yeah, the Ghost was also causing a very strange film on the top of the water. It was odd

[Kdrof]

Nice dude. I had similar issues when I tried that skimmer. Even after breaking in it was never great for me. I went to the eshoppes skimmer in my previous build and that was pretty solid. Also, was pretty quiet as well. I am awaiting the nanobox but have been trying to keep my rigged LED strips going to have the tank under light. I wonder if I should do a decent size change to get some nutrients down post cycle and potentially not have or limit a diatom bloom. Looking forward to seeing your new skimmer!

[ReefGoat]

2 minutes ago, Kdrof said:

Nice dude. I had similar issues when I tried that skimmer. Even after breaking in it was never great for me. I went to the eshoppes skimmer in my previous build and that was pretty solid. Also, was pretty quiet as well. I am awaiting the nanobox but have been trying to keep my rigged LED strips going to have the tank under light. I wonder if I should do a decent size change to get some nutrients down post cycle and potentially not have or limit a diatom bloom. Looking forward to seeing your new skimmer!

Can't wait to see yours under the Nanobox. Stoked for you!! 

[ReefGoat]

As far as the water change after cycle goes. I think when you see your ammonia get to 0 and your nitrates spike up really high. That's when you do your first large water change. I've already started my weekly water changes. 

[ReefGoat]

So, today makes 1 month exactly the tank has been set up. Seems like it's been a lot longer LOL. I basically have moved from cycling and waiting mode to weekly maintenance mode. I am doing weekly water changes of 2.5 gallons and adding just a pinch of magnesium and the Microbacter7 for maintaining the bio filter. The reason that I am adding the magnesium is because the Red Sea blue bucket seems to mix a tad low on magnesium using a Salifert test. I have also started skimming as of 3 days ago. The parameters are holding very steady and exactly where they should be. I know I don't have livestock yet, but I still like to see them staying steady. My "reef cleaners" 10 gallon package will be here Thursday (10 dwarf ceriths, 3 nassarius, 6 Florida ceriths and 4 nerites). Pretty excited to get some life in there and I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will make quick work of these Diatoms. I am still having Diatom problems. I know that the tank is only a month old but they are hideous when they kick up. I have been running the light on a very limited schedule (about 4 hours a day). Hoping it keeps them at bay until the cleaning crew gets here. Hopefully I can kick the light schedule up to 8 hours a day once I get the CUC and in a month or so the Silicates will be exhausted by them and I can get my first coral haul. I can't wait until I can post some pictures of the first corals. I am getting a new phone too! I think i'm going to go with the Samsung Galaxy Note because I have seen some VERY nice pictures on here that people are saying they used their Galaxy to take the picture. Anything will be better than the Blackberry Passport. That's all for now

[ReefGoat]

So today was a pretty exciting day. Not only is my cleaning crew doing a FANTASTIC job of cleaning those diatoms up. I have been running short light cycles and the diatoms have been fought back LOL. I did a 4 hour lighting on Wednesday, 4 hour lighting on Thursday and 8 hour Friday and then 8 hour today while is was away.........GETTING MY 1ST CORALS. There was no new growth and what was there has started to fade and dust away. I had to drive about an hour and a half away to go to a place that I heard had a pretty decent "frag" selection. Not only did his collection impress me very much. What this guy sells as "frags" are what most online retailers consider colonies. I was surprised. His prices were so friendly that I bought three pieces. I won't be adding the next corals until I return from vacation which is in the first week of August (about 2 months or so). So here's to hoping these little corals like what i'm providing them and they thrive! I hope you guys don't judge me too much on their sizes but this is what he sells as frags. I know it's more respected for someone to buy a tiny piece and grow it out. Pictures to follow. Phone is charging 

[Type-H20]

2 hours ago, ReefGoat said:

So today was a pretty exciting day. Not only is my cleaning crew doing a FANTASTIC job of cleaning those diatoms up. I have been running short light cycles and the diatoms have been fought back LOL. I did a 4 hour lighting on Wednesday, 4 hour lighting on Thursday and 8 hour Friday and then 8 hour today while is was away.........GETTING MY 1ST CORALS. There was no new growth and what was there has started to fade and dust away. I had to drive about an hour and a half away to go to a place that I heard had a pretty decent "frag" selection. Not only did his collection impress me very much. What this guy sells as "frags" are what most online retailers consider colonies. I was surprised. His prices were so friendly that I bought three pieces. I won't be adding the next corals until I return from vacation which is in the first week of August (about 2 months or so). So here's to hoping these little corals like what i'm providing them and they thrive! I hope you guys don't judge me too much on their sizes but this is what he sells as frags. I know it's more respected for someone to buy a tiny piece and grow it out. Pictures to follow. Phone is charging 

Nice.  Waiting for the photos.😎

[Ranjib]

Very nice setup.

Probably I have missed it somewhere in this thread, can you share what chiller you are using?

[ReefGoat]

[ReefGoat]

11 hours ago, Ranjib said:

Very nice setup.

Probably I have missed it somewhere in this thread, can you share what chiller you are using?

Thank you very much. Chill Solutions chiller. It's basically heat sink plates and a oversized computer fan. With inlet annd outlet. I ran it inline with the Sicce. 

[ReefGoat]

as usual sorry for the quality of the pictures. I still haven't bought the new phone yet. I have the kessil set to an 8 hour cycle cycle with a 3.5 hour ramp up to 25 percent. I'm hoping this will get them use to the kessil slowly. 

[ReefGoat]

Ok so sorry to repost the same pictures but I was able to mess with the stock photo editing program on my phone and it helped out A LOT. So you're getting a repost! I found that a simple adjusting of the "white balance" took out that kessil blue and really made the corals colors show up better. 

[Lula_Mae]

15 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

Ok so sorry to repost the same pictures but I was able to mess with the stock photo editing program on my phone and it helped out A LOT. So you're getting a repost! I found that a simple adjusting of the "white balance" took out that kessil blue and really made the corals colors show up better. 

Those look great! Glad you were able to tone down the blue. 

[ReefGoat]

Thank you very much! 

[ReefGoat]

Ah. The ups and downs of reef keeping. So last night, a freak thunderstorm rolled through and we had a power outage for about 2 mins. NO BIG DEAL right? WRONG! When my aquarium booted back up. The Apex came online and the display was acting a bit strange. I was watching to see if it would plane out and then the display went  blank with just the orange back light on. Then I noticed that my base unit was off (no lights on). Messed with everything and came to the conclusion that the base unit was broken somehow. Which is strange because every thing is plugged into a surge protector and this wasn't a lightning strike, just a simple power outage. Nothing else in the room is broken (Xbox, Alienware, Chameleon cage, TV, the rest of the Aquarium) just the base unit.  So the Apex is down right now. I have contacted Neptune and they responded very quickly. I really hope they can fix this unit or replace it. I have found others that have had their Apex base unit crap out after a power outage. Seems to be  a problem with some of them. 

[Stoops718]

Bummer on the Apex but good looks on the corals.

[ReefGoat]

Yeah I'm hoping that Neptune can fix it or replace it. It does have a warranty. A simple power outage shouldn't be a death sentence for a 600 dollar piece of hardware. I have faith they will come through.