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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Dawn's 56 gallon natural nutrient reef.


vlangel

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21 hours ago, vlangel said:

 I have not seen Cheerleader the pom pom crab in quite a while but he is pretty secretive and he may turn up when I least expect it.

 

 

2018-10-12_12-45-15

I knew he would turn up when I did not expect it.  He's a funny little mysterious crab.

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I still have an oil slick on the surface of the water after running the prizm pro protein skimmer.  It did not move much water and its an old piece of equipment so I wonder if the pump is dying?  (Although my experience with pumps as an aquarium tech, was they either ran or didn't).  Anyway I switched out the skimmer for the hob pump.  I added filter floss and carbon plus did a 100% WC.  Other than the surface looking filmy the tank looks good and I am happy with it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sick seahorses has necessitated some big changes once again in the shrimp chalet.  The ponies were moved into HT, which is this 10g aquarium.  So the barnacle blennies, the lone ghost shrimp from the chalet jar days, Cheerleader the pom pom crab, and the shrimp chalet coral rock have been moved into the 56g column tank.  The barnacle blennies are no longer in danger of being eatten by the seahorses since they are no longer in that tank.  Since the ponies got sick in the 56g tank, I plan to move them into the original 30g XH seahorse tank when they come out of HT.  I will disconnect the 56g from the sump, and make it an AIO with a HOB filter.  I will move the overflow box and the return onto the 30g XH which will stand side by side the 56g tank.

Both tanks together

 

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8 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Sick seahorses has necessitated some big changes once again in the shrimp chalet.  The ponies were moved into HT, which is this 10g aquarium.  So the barnacle blennies, the lone ghost shrimp from the chalet jar days, Cheerleader the pom pom crab, and the shrimp chalet coral rock have been moved into the 56g column tank.  The barnacle blennies are no longer in danger of being eatten by the seahorses since they are no longer in that tank.  Since the ponies got sick in the 56g tank, I plan to move them into the original 30g XH seahorse tank when they come out of HT.  I will disconnect the 56g from the sump, and make it an AIO with a HOB filter.  I will move the overflow box and the return onto the 30g XH which will stand side by side the 56g tank.

Both tanks together

 

So will this tank be coming down now? That will simplify your maintenance routine for sure. 

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21 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

So will this tank be coming down now? That will simplify your maintenance routine for sure. 

Do you mean the 10 gallon DT/QT?  If you do, it is already taken down because the 10 gallon is now the seahorses' HT.  So when the seahorses go into the 30g XH and the blennies and fish are in the 56g those will be the only tanks.  Actually the WCs on the 56g is the same as the 10g DT/QT...5 gallon a week.

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1 hour ago, vlangel said:

Do you mean the 10 gallon DT/QT?  If you do, it is already taken down because the 10 gallon is now the seahorses' HT.  So when the seahorses go into the 30g XH and the blennies and fish are in the 56g those will be the only tanks.  Actually the WCs on the 56g is the same as the 10g DT/QT...5 gallon a week.

Yes, I was thinking of the 10g where the barnacle blennies had been. 

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I switched out my old, used HOB filter for a new AC 70.  It's more appropriately sized for the 56g and maybe I will attempt to build a diy algal scrubber in its back chamber.  For now I am using it with the medias it came with.

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Looking at the above pic, I did not realize how much the par 38 coral compulsion bulb helped the coral on the shrimp chalet pop.  They look dull unimpressive under the T5s.  I plan to order another par 38 led bulb to hang over the fish fortress to use with the T5s.

 

Today the fish fortress got a good cleaning with the sand being vacumed and about an 8 gallon water change.  The fish all look good as do the inverts. 

 

I would still like to add a Midas blenny, a jawfish or 2 and a wrasse that can live in my size tank.  O yeah, and maybe a yellow watchman goby with a snapping shrimp.

 

I would like to have ricordias along the bottom of the rock retaining wall and some RFAs around the barnacle.  I already have 1 there.

 

For macro algae I would like some shaving brush and blue octodes.

 

Lastly I would like coco worms and tube worms.  So there are my long term plans ina nutshell.

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I ordered an abi 23 W tuna blue par 38 led today.  That should help with the color of the coral in this tank, at least on the right side. 

 

Today I took some time to study the flow and I switched out a 200 gph rio for an 800 gph.  Its a deep tank for its size so I felt more flow would benefit it. 

 

Another big change is I added a heater.  Its an old one so I am keeping an eye on it.  I always ran my reef tanks in the 78° range.

 

I am slowly catching the trocus snails and moving them to the seahorse tank.  I will probably put a few more blue legged reef hermits in this tank.

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I did actually go to the lfs and picked up 3 tiny blue legged hermits.  There is a lot of area to cover for 4 small crabs.  I also bougnt some red gracilaria.  I did not know that it was lots of little sprigs and its a bit of a mess but we will see how it goes.

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My RFA up and moved!  I am not sure where it went but only the moonlight leds are on atm.  When the other lights come on I will look again.  Also I saw one of the barnacle blennies out early this morning.  They are the cutest!  I don't if I may not be feeding the tank enough and that is why creatures seem restless?  It gets frozen twice a day and I always squirt some toward the barnacle blennies since they are shy.  I occasionally squirt some for the RFA but maybe only twice a week.  I am being cautious with food because WCs are much harder now that its an AIO.  Its all a balancing act.

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I can not seem to get rid of the cyano in the 56 gallon AIO.  I have been considering putting a UV sterilizer on this tank.  I know they are not real effective against most algaes that already have a foothold but I have read that they can help with cyano.  I never had cyano when I used to have a working UV.  Its going to be a pain with an AIO tank but the turbo twist can be set up as a HOB or inline.

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Yesterday my par 38 led came in the mail. Woohoo!  I need to get a socket and plug in cord for it and hang it over the  coral rock from the shrimp chalet to bring out the pretty colors.  I have been waiting for the lfs to get in 30" T5 bulbs for 2 weeks to no avail. 😑

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The par 38 led is now in place.  Its very blue but that is what I think I want.  It will be on with the 10K T5s so I am hoping that there is enough blue to create some pop of color in the coral and a little shimmer in the water.  I will take a pic when the lights come on.

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2018-11-09_06-13-07

Here is the tuna blue led. It is really blue.  I played with the settings trying to get to get it near to watch my eye saw but I had a tough time.

Since I wasn't really happy with the color anyway, I switched and put the Coral Compulsion bulb over the fish fortress and tuna blue bulb over the seahorse tank.  Meh, I am still not thrilled but its better, I think.

2018-11-10_03-17-14

Maybe if I move it up higher???

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Another disappointing thing I have noticed...neither Petco or my other lfs carry 30" high output T5s anymore.  30" have always been harder to get than say 24", 36" or 48" but they could always be ordered.  I see Dr Foster and Smith still have them so I guess I better order some.  It makes me wonder for how long however.

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This morning when I looked in the tank I saw what appeared to be lots of tiny white particles in the water column.  I thought,  "O no, because I dosed without testing the tank is precipitating!"  Much to my relief it was not that but actually my powerhead was barely out of the water and was making tiny micro bubbles. Just add water and the problem was all fixed!

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23 hours ago, vlangel said:

2018-11-10_05-12-10

Here are the 2 tanks together with the led par bulbs moved higher.  It looks better than the T5 alone for sure. 

Beautiful! :wub:

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13 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Beautiful! :wub:

Thanks teeny, I am pleased how the tanks look together.  I had thought when the seahorses live out their natural lives that I would take the 30 gallon down.  Now that I see how nice the 2 tanks look together, maybe I will move the blennies in the 30 and begin a predator tank with a small eel and tiny lion fish and a small puffer, LOL!  I do love predators!

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12 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Tanks look great! I wish I could paint backgrounds like that. Blennies nice and fat too!

Thanks Tamberav!  You could paint a backround.  All I did was tear newspaper in the shape of a mountain and used masking tape( rolled it to make it double sided) and attached it to the tank.  I also covered the sides and top of tank.  I used 4 colors of valspar spray paint, pale yellow, pale seafoam, pale steel blue and a deep midnight blue.  I started with the pale yellow first.  I sprayed a light coat on most of the 'sky' area.  Not too heavy, ( except in the center) because I want the other colors to show through a little.  Then I moved to the pale seafoam color and sprayed that around the heaviest pale yellow portion.  Then I went to the steel blue and sprayed around the seafoam area.  I finished off with the deep blue on the corners.  When I got the sky area how I liked it, then I removed the newspaper mountain and sprayed with the steel blue first so it would contrast against the sky, again not so heavy so the other colors could show through.  I sprayed a little yellow in the center of the mountains, a little seafoam around that and finishing off with deep midnight blue.  You can practice on paper first until you get the technique.  It does not take much spray paint.

 

The blennies are nice and fat, even the tiny barnacle blennies!  I love having chubby fish.

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Oh wow...see that sounds difficult to me lol but I suppose because I never tried. I may have to give this a shot on my next tank that isn't an aio.

 

You are very creative! Which is a wonderful thing to have.

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