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Conner Reef Tank - JBJ28 (now in HD)


Aurortpa

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10 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

Thank you! She browses the back yard during the day, we live near downtown but had the luck to be on a third of an acre. At night she comes in and wears washable diapers—personally I like her bumblebee one but she likes pink.

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Awww.... I love her, she is precious. I like the pink, too!!! She looks like one happy, well loved, beautiful goat. 💗 What’s her name? 

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Yikes, so after dosing oyster feast and zoo last night, I came home to tank with an algae outbreak—specifically cyano galore 🤣

 

I expect this is normal, as I have been working to increase nutrients in the water. I am confident with patience—things will balance out and my system will be able to handle it tho. 

 

Royal gramma is getting along with everyone with the slight exception of my yellow watchman goby reminding him his home isn’t going to be anywhere “downstairs” where he lives.  I’m sure in time the gramma will find a nice rock. The Gramma, goby, and the tail spot blenny love playing around the GSP island.  

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Strawberry conch is so slow that to let him eat his treats, I have to put the forcefield up against the neurotic cleaner shrimp and the voracious nassarius.

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Water change day—finally have detectable phosphates but still no nitrates. 🤔

 

Spotted some possible bryopsis on my blue ochtodes macroalgae, so bathed it in peroxide/display water—will repeat tomorrow just to be safe.  I was worried the blue octhodes may react negatively, so I fragged a clean tiny piece just in case but at first glance it doesn’t seem affected.

 

Alk 9.9

cal 465

mag 1380

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So I now have pink ochtodes, haha...it may or may not survive.  I am betting I will find out in the next couple days.  Very glad I fragged some of it.  It grows super fast in my tank.  B7404D6E-719C-4FFC-91CC-CCAB9027E717.thumb.jpeg.51e85cbb53107ea7a3ab69444d27ff67.jpeg

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So when I was a general manager at Petco I remember we had these floating moss balls and got an idea looking at my blue ochtodes macro algae frag I am trying to grow. I purchased floating aquatic moss baskets (designed for FW setups) and stuck a small frag inside—if it fills out, it should look pretty cool floating around the top...kinda like a blue moon. 🌚 

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During my endeavors my 3 year old clownfish Jeronica decided to host and rest in my hand. ☺️

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Water change day...had a fiasco looking for a tiny plastic part from my gyre after I blasted it up into the night sky with the garden hose accidentally into the lawn...lol. Found it after 30 minutes 😅

 

All parameters within range.  Ordered some more sand for my tank, after siphoning I realized I’m running lower...typically I just discard the little bit that comes up during vacuuming the substrate so this must have happened over time.

 

Oh and surprise...baby stomatellas! 😍

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Loving this beautiful deep red macro algae. The LFS guy gave my a tiny cutting for free...was flat and paper thin.  It has turned out to be a beauty, with new shapes and rich color. I found out it’s name is rose petal macro. 

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Water clarity isn’t too bad for just adding 10 lbs of fine sand!  Rinsed first of course.  I added a cup full at a time, covering the cup until I reached bottom.

 

The sand was MUCH finer than I was expecting but with some flow placement adjustments the tank should be ok.  I have flow running on a lower mode until the rest of it settles in. It’s definitely bright in there with the new sand 😎

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So tested the water today for phos and nitrates...Z I P....  😲

 

I can’t believe it, so I added yet another fish...7 fish in a 28. My old self probably would have scolded me, as I wouldn’t think my tank could biologically sustain “so many” fish but apparently it is possible.  All my fish get along, besides the clowns fighting with each other at times, so I got a very peaceful fish, a small Pajama cardinal. 

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On 9/1/2018 at 4:24 AM, banasophia said:

Awww.... I love her, she is precious. I like the pink, too!!! She looks like one happy, well loved, beautiful goat. 💗 What’s her name? 

Thank you, missed this reply!  She’s definitely spoiled—her name is Tulip 🌷☺️

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My floating macro sphere I made is definitely growing a blue ochtodes frag I put in there...it was just a tiny piece of a branch—now it’s probably a third of the entire sphere.

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On another note, I have been gradually lowering my dkh over the past few weeks since it’s been very challenging to raise nutrients. I even increased the amount of liquid food I broadcast up 50% with no luck.  My new target will be 8 starting this week, since I’ve been at 9 for a few weeks now from my original target 10. ??  8 should be a good target especially since my premixed water is typically at around 8 anyway.

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Don’t chase nutrients with excessive feeding regiment. Your stocking is heavy and crap like Oyster feast and similar can give you nightmares. Target feeding can prevent over-feeding problems. Yeah, I know that it’s a PITA but less so than fighting outbreaks of algae or bacteria. 

Alk values fall into personal methodology for running a reef tank so I won’t get into that. 

I am not super strict in that regard myself as my Alk deviates from target 9 and bounces back and forward between 8.5&9.5. I call it a “buffer zone” to make myself feel better. 🤣

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7 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Don’t chase nutrients with excessive feeding regiment. Your stocking is heavy and crap like Oyster feast and similar can give you nightmares. Target feeding can prevent over-feeding problems. Yeah, I know that it’s a PITA but less so than fighting outbreaks of algae or bacteria. 

Alk values fall into personal methodology for running a reef tank so I won’t get into that. 

I am not super strict in that regard myself as my Alk deviates from target 9 and bounces back and forward between 8.5&9.5. I call it a “buffer zone” to make myself feel better. 🤣

Yeah you are right, I’m at the point asking myself “what will be too much food” and “exactly how will I find out I crossed the line” lol.  Hmm, you know, I didn’t really even think of target feeding the corals, SPS in particular—might just do that, thanks @A Little Blue

 

I’m sticking with my current feeding regimen despite having no detectable phos or N03 still and adjusting the alk to better balance the ultra low nutrient environment. I was trying to manipulate a parameter, one that obviously naturally wants to stay that way, so I’m just going to go with the flow instead of fight the wave. 🙂

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45 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

Yeah you are right, I’m at the point asking myself “what will be too much food” and “exactly how will I find out I crossed the line” lol.  Hmm, you know, I didn’t really even think of target feeding the corals, SPS in particular—might just do that, thanks @A Little Blue

 

I’m sticking with my current feeding regimen despite having no detectable phos or N03 still and adjusting the alk to better balance the ultra low nutrient environment. I was trying to manipulate a parameter, one that obviously naturally wants to stay that way, so I’m just going to go with the flow instead of fight the wave. 🙂

Yeah, the best gauge in most cases is your eye. Your tank can tell you a lot about what’s going on in it. I’m not saying testing is optional tho. Lol 

Especially the big three. 

 

I don’t target feed SPS corals. Only LPS, RFA, Dendro, gorgs get special treatment. Everything else gets reef-roids, Acro-power and sh&tload of live phytoplankton. Fish gets fed 2-4 times per day (small amounts). 

 

Set your Alk levels where you feel comfortable. If you can keep it stable within 1 point, you shouldn’t have any major problems. But then again, my corals got used to already mentioned  “buffer zone” 🙄 that fluctuates quite a bit. 

I think my corals learned to take a punch and are more forgiving of my occasional negligence. Lol 

Just don’t run your tank this way or quote me, it will save me some embarrassment. 😉

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34 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

Up to 4 times a day?!  I only feed once but heavily lol.  

That is if I have the time ofcause. Minimum twice to three times with dry food. If and when I can, they also get gold pods and some frozen mysis to share with Dendro and RFA. Weekends is the usual feast time when all corals are fed super-duper mix. 

Fish are always fed small portions tho. 

Helps keep the phosphates down and keep the bellies full. 

This is my hypothesis 🙄 based on extremely precised eyeballing the filament algae growth, detritus sediment and overall water clarity. Lmao

(Funny but there is some truth to it)

I can honestly say that I haven’t tested phosphates or nitrates in years ..... wait, I’m lying. I tested both once this year. 🤫

 

 

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This comparison pic shows how fast some macroalgae grows...the top pic is from only 10 days ago, where the frag was freshly glued, looking dull, and thin.  Clearly in the bottom pic we can see how established, colored up, and much thicker it is now.

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My macro garden has been flourishing, so much that I got to trade some over growth in for corals at the LFS! 🤗

 

Parameters are stable, alk 8, cal 420—I had no choice but to lower alk gradually from my normal 10, as my macros keep the tank wayyy too clean to hold a higher range. Altho it was done over a period of many weeks some acros responded negatively altho most seem unaffected. In time the few affected should recover.

 

I also reduced my broadcast feed to 1ml from 1.5ml...even tho I wasn’t registering any detectable nitrates or phosphates at the bigger broadcast, my skimmer seemed to be taking out so much more gunk than I’d expect to find each day and it seemed overly unnecessary.

 

Blue Octodes went from scraggly to explosive growth in so little time. I am confident I can frag in a few weeks.

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PJ the pajama cardinal is settled in. My Springerii wasn’t too happy about him, but PJ has grown a lot and is now bigger than the Springerii. Isn’t that Karma in action 🤣

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Caulerpa Prolifera has also been thickening.  I love this macro as it gets barely any light behind the rocks, just lots of flow but it is growing and is very polite as to not grow onto rocks, prefers the sand.

 

The unidentifiable red macro I have, which has a calcified skeleton is a verrrryyyy slow grower. I hope it starts taking off one day, as this would be an ideal macro for others interested in macros but weary of overgrowth.  

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Tiny cleaner shrimp is definitely a medium in size now! My purple CBS and him only ever bump into each other at night, they seem to have an agreement on splitting the tank space.

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Mr. TSB irritating the galaxy cloves.

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One of my Panama cardinals is named PJ as well.  I have 2 and the other is Jammies.

 

I love all of your macro algaes.  I used to have rose pedal but I keep the seahorses tank too clean for it to grow.  If I ever see remnants of it again on my rock I am going to move it into my 10 gallon QT.

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