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Cultivated Reef

ADA Zero Equipment Build - Life got in the way but I'm updating again!


Frag Factory

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Frag Factory
10 hours ago, sapling said:

That’s a beautiful frogfish! It reminds me of koi color patterning 

He's a handsome little bastard for sure

 

Does this mean they're friends?

 

IMG_20180803_163005.thumb.jpg.76722cd92b10333f7e471435c8d75767.jpg

 

I've been worried for the crab since Ike arrived. Ike just spent 10 mins watching him then backed up defensively when he walked past 😂

 

 

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Just from the reputation of these guys I definitely wouldn't be surprised if Ike made a move eventually.  Such a cool fish!  I've always wanted one but just never been ready to do a one fish tank.  

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Frag Factory

I'm hoping to get the crab out, he's not easy to grab at all. I've also been keeping Ike well fed to hopefully reduce the chances of it happening.

 

I'm going to be setting up a frag tank/coral QT soon. Hopefully to act as a "back up" of corals I buy over the next few months if something was to happen. He can live in there if I can get him out. He's the most productive member of the clean up crew and I quite like him.

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I was doing a search for ADA tanks since I've been considering a smaller tank and was pleased to see this thread so new and active.  I'm still super confused how you got the bulkhead to go on both sides of the glass, and then through a hole in the stand.  Is their a name for this kind of method where I can do an image search online?  Does the return flow pretty much shoot straight up, or is it deflected somehow? 

 

 

Do you have a build thread @reefhound for your 60f?

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47 minutes ago, TatorTaco said:

 

Do you have a build thread @reefhound for your 60f?

I don’t think so... started as a new born rock flower tank..

i lost them all.. and went a different direction 

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Frag Factory
6 hours ago, TatorTaco said:

I was doing a search for ADA tanks since I've been considering a smaller tank and was pleased to see this thread so new and active.  I'm still super confused how you got the bulkhead to go on both sides of the glass, and then through a hole in the stand.  Is their a name for this kind of method where I can do an image search online?  Does the return flow pretty much shoot straight up, or is it deflected somehow? 

 

 

Do you have a build thread @reefhound for your 60f?

The bulkhead goes through the glass only, the stand has 2 x 80mm holes drilled in it that the tank sits on and the bulkheads just poke through. 

 

The flow just points straight up, that's correct. It's not very good use of flow but at 44x turnover it works.

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Frag Factory

Not much to do today, took the day off to build a new desk in my office but the wood doesn't turn up until later...

 

Did a water change, cleaned Ike's filter.

 

I think I found why I couldn't get nitrates under 10-15ppm... And why people call them nitrate factories

 

IMG_20180810_144853.thumb.jpg.76c520ee4be0b7d51bff1486edd4902f.jpg

 

This is a 3 gallon bucket, on a 7 gallon system. This is a lot of Ike shit. I also found 3 rivershrimp in there live.

 

I might cut his feedings from 2 shrimp a day down to one...

 

Also going through a bit of an algea boom, having to scrape the glass twice a day. I've not tested phosphate, going to get the LFS to do this when I get more RO water tomorrow.

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Frag Factory

Nitrates after this morning... It's the first time I've used the left hand side of the colour chart since cycling 🤐

 

IMG_20180810_152148.thumb.jpg.cc69db0ecfab8854967f5c40435eefc7.jpg

 

Going to run another 3 gallon water change in a few days. There's still more crap in the gravel I can remove.

 

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12 hours ago, Frag Factory said:

The bulkhead goes through the glass only, the stand has 2 x 80mm holes drilled in it that the tank sits on and the bulkheads just poke through. 

 

The flow just points straight up, that's correct. It's not very good use of flow but at 44x turnover it works.

 

Thank you so much for the explanation.  That actually makes 100% sense to me now.  

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Frag Factory
4 minutes ago, specore said:

I thought these guys were more like 2x a week eaters...

The shrimp I get are pretty small, I was also a bit concerned he hadn't eaten for a while before I got him (he just got into the shop the morning I got him from the wholesaler). 

 

After capture, taken to distribution,  airport, land in the uk, taken to customs, distribution then the whole saler and LFS I was worried he hadn't eaten for a couple of weeks so I was trying to fatten him up a little. 

 

It's something I'm going to watch for sure going forward. Corals and other livestock seem very happy (as does Ike). I just need to keep on top of it.

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@Frag Factory I wouldn’t worry too much about the phosphates affecting your corals except the acropora, most of your corals would do fine with small amounts of nutrients in the water. I hear you on the nitrates though, my old sat at roughly 15ppm even with skimming,chaeto, and live rock just cause of the heavy feedings I used to do. Was worried about my court jester eating properly

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Frag Factory

More than happy with coral health, everything is going great with the exception of 1 zoa polyp that will not open.

 

I just don't like the algea.

 

I've cut the photo period down to 8 hours (from 12), hoping this helps and I can slowly push it back to 12 hours over time. Also going to watch food.

 

It's all new tank teething problems, nothing huge.

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Frag Factory

Since the photo period change and the filter cleaning session I've only had to scrape the glass once. However surface scum has increased. Currently removing it daily with kitchen paper towel.

 

Fed Ike:

 

Still feeding him live, probably won't train him to eat frozen. Don't want his natural instincts to be "forgotten". All he does is sit around and eat. If I ever see small damsels/chromis I'll pick him up a date, I'm trying to vary the diet as much as I can with gut loading.

 

Tank also looked cute, added an Acro, red Monti and Duncan's last week. I like.

 

IMG_20180812_160019.thumb.jpg.34bf97a8b813a08d35147af4293208bc.jpg

 

Ike also looks magnificent when hungry.

 

IMG_20180810_175052.thumb.jpg.f3331ac70239090aa05192d6435e4799.jpg

 

Xenia is growing fast, almost at the rocks... I might take it back to the LFS and keep a tiny frag... Or set up a QT/Frag Tank and it can go wild in there. 

 

My emerald crab also shed his she'll last night, not seen him yet. Hoping he packed on another 5mm so he isn't boarder line food size for Ike. 

 

EDIT: The emerald crab was out earlier, he's ####ing huge. No longer worried about him becoming a snack, probably packed on 1/4" in shell side and probably the same again in claw/leg length.

 

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Tank looks great.  Thanks for sharing some more pictures with us.  

 

My wife name our emerald crab Hercules because he's so big - you can see him in the tank from across the room. 

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Frag Factory
11 minutes ago, sapling said:

that emerald crab is probably eating real good thanks to Ike too! 

I've been power feeding him formula 1 pellets on a BBQ skewer since I got Ike. Glad it's paying off. 😎

 

He's by far the hardest working member of the clean up crew. With a high bioload he needs to stay. The rock I have was covered in turf algea which he's destroyed. 

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Frag Factory

I think I'm over the hump on my nitrates, last Friday's mega clean a d sponge removal from my canister filter seems to have done the trick.

 

Nitrates have FALLEN to 2ppm in 5 days... Despite me feeding and I've not done a water change since. Perhaps my mechanical filtration turned biological and was producing nitrate faster than the rock could gerlt rid of it. 

 

IMG_20180815_134800.thumb.jpg.8421a0a3eaaecc191f470bd7ca64585e.jpg

 

The glass has the slightest possible coat of film algea on the glass and I've not cleaned it since the weekend. 

 

I needed more RO so I went to the LFS today, also picked up some Zoa's, a goniopora (I never had luck with these last time I had a tank) and a fungia. Also grabbed 30 rivershrimp for Ike. Pictures tomorrow when they settle in.

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Frag Factory

New coral pictures!

 

First, a fist sized rock of whamin watermelon and another Zoa! A score at £15 

download70a075ba_storage_2femulated_2f0_2fDCIM_2fCamera_2fIMG_20180816_223618.thumb.png.7bd6abf803c86072a273cd977536e985.png

 

Next up a super bright Fungia. One of my favourite corals, used to have crazy growth on these in my last tank. 

 

IMG_20180816_223641.thumb.png.c7297c1de0ab46f9530bf40583c15da7.png

 

And finally, a Goniopora. One of my favourite corals but I struggled with these in the past. Hoping I can get past that this time. It's still settling in but looking far better today than yesterday.

 

downloaddd2a3798_storage_2femulated_2f0_2fDCIM_2fCamera_2fIMG_20180816_223649.png.8355b12a8cd7189104e5d45abb367741.png

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Beautiful tank, I like the very clean look with this type of overflow. I was wondering, there is no flow at all in this tank then (beside the small one created by the canister) ?

 

Might think about covering one side of each restrainer (the ones facing each others), it may avoid the return flow to go straight back to the canister and maybe create some sort of flow pattern to go over all the tank.

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Frag Factory
4 hours ago, madtrax said:

Beautiful tank, I like the very clean look with this type of overflow. I was wondering, there is no flow at all in this tank then (beside the small one created by the canister) ?

 

Might think about covering one side of each restrainer (the ones facing each others), it may avoid the return flow to go straight back to the canister and maybe create some sort of flow pattern to go over all the tank.

Flow is good! I've got a hugely overpowered canister filter (1100lph) in a 25 litre tank. I am using the flow very poorly in terms of efficiency but it sort of hits the surface and rolls around all sides of the tank.

 

The Duncan, Goni and Xenia in 3 of the 4 corners of the tank are all gently buffered.

 

I did drill a large hole in the top of the return strainer which aims most of the flow at the surface, I'd say very little gets pushed out of the strainer grill.

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On 8/17/2018 at 8:49 PM, Frag Factory said:

Flow is good! I've got a hugely overpowered canister filter (1100lph) in a 25 litre tank. I am using the flow very poorly in terms of efficiency but it sort of hits the surface and rolls around all sides of the tank.

 

The Duncan, Goni and Xenia in 3 of the 4 corners of the tank are all gently buffered.

 

I did drill a large hole in the top of the return strainer which aims most of the flow at the surface, I'd say very little gets pushed out of the strainer grill.

Makes sense now, thanks! 🙂

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Leave the Xenia in there to suck up the Nitrates >:)! Also the sooner you start feeding damsels the faster your frogfish grows. My little painted (passionately named baby Hellboy by the fellas here) grew from thumb nail size to about 2.5 inch close to 3 in a couple of months. If your filtration can handle it, feed variety and heavy when they under 1y.o. when they are most prone to sudden frogfish death syndrome. After it passes 1 year old in captivity, it'll most likely do well for you long term.  

Also saltwater mollies are great friends (Fish are friends AND food). There's a few frogfish owners here which keep them as you'll find going to the LFS for shrimps and fish gets old real fast. I started with 5 mollies and converted them into saltwater and fed them Formula 2. These guys drop babies every month or so, cull all males and you'll have an endless supply of saltwater fish. 

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