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Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - Breakdown Complete!


billygoat

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5 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Looks great! Been a while since I’ve checked in!

Thanks for coming back again! 😁 It looks like you've been very busy. I'm super impressed with the growth in your tank; it really looks beautiful!

 

This tank is definitely changing as it ages... my Eunice worm has re-discovered my last remaining bunch of Gracilaria hayi, so I think that within a few weeks there will be almost no fleshy macroalgae left in the tank. The system has come very far from the macro forest that it was six months ago, but I still think it's headed in a good direction.

 

Over the past few months I've become fascinated and obsessed with Caribbean gorgonians, and have decided to try purchasing a few from Gulf Coast Ecosystems to check out their quality. They offer 3-day priority mail shipping which is quite cheap; I have not seen any other vendor offering gorgs sent by "slow" mail. GCE has been amazing for macroalgae, so I have high expectations for their gorgs. Expect a full report soon! 

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Water change day today. Here's a top-down shot. That poor green mushroom right next to the jawfish's burrow is getting quite accustomed to being covered in sand. 😅

 

IMG_0724.thumb.JPG.5de848b2e143c464dbfc201158edd2f2.JPG

 

I also decided to remove my filter socks again, and added a few more pounds of rock into the back chambers in their place. I opted to use several larger pieces of rock rather than a bunch of rubble, so that I can more easily remove them to siphon out the back chambers every once in awhile. Hopefully the extra rock will bolster my biological filter and also serve as a safe haven for pods and other microfauna.

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1 hour ago, Firefish15 said:

What some people do is secure rubble inside a plastic mesh or screen pouch. Still easy to remove for cleaning, and lots of surface area.

Very true! That's probably the more efficient way to go about adding rock to bolster one's biofilter. But then again, if I use whole pieces of rock I can pull them in a few months and use them to jump start the 4g Waterbox that has been sitting in a box on my bedroom floor for four months but that I keep telling myself I'll never have the time or money to set up... not that I would do that, of course, since I don't have the time or money. 😅 But you know, just in case! 😂

 

36 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Maybe it’s been asked before, but will a jawfish  pair with a pistol shrimp like a goby?

Unfortunately no, yellowheaded jawfish do not pair with pistol shrimp. If a pistol came along the jawfish would probably punch it right in the face. Or maybe try to eat it, depending on its size. 😅

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3 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Very true! That's probably the more efficient way to go about adding rock to bolster one's biofilter. But then again, if I use whole pieces of rock I can pull them in a few months and use them to jump start the 4g Waterbox that has been sitting in a box on my bedroom floor for four months but that I keep telling myself I'll never have the time or money to set up... not that I would do that, of course, since I don't have the time or money. 😅 But you know, just in case! 😂

 

Unfortunately no, yellowheaded jawfish do not pair with pistol shrimp. If a pistol came along the jawfish would probably punch it right in the face. Or maybe try to eat it, depending on its size. 😅

Lol oh no!! I was curious about that. They’re so similar in shape I wondered if it was a similar mentality. 

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Yeah, I get what you mean about the time and money. My coworkers keep pushing me into getting a bigger tank (which has honestly been tempting, especially with discounts). I think I’ll be able to hold off for a long time though.

 

But I like how you’re leaving the door open! 😂

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10 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Yeah, I get what you mean about the time and money. My coworkers keep pushing me into getting a bigger tank (which has honestly been tempting, especially with discounts). I think I’ll be able to hold off for a long time though.

 

But I like how you’re leaving the door open! 😂

One of the things I've enjoyed most about this hobby is the way it teaches me patience. No matter what sort of setup you've got or how awesome your tank is, someone is going to have a system that is bigger, older, more stable, better lit, better stocked, etc. It's easy to see such wonderful aquariums and think "oh maybe I can just upgrade this and that a little," but once you head down that road you quickly find that the path is endless! So I think it's important to be content with what we have and remind ourselves of how far we have already come. It's easy to lose track of the fact that any successful system is a huge success. Keeping a slice of the living ocean in a glass box is no easy feat, and each of our aquariums has something unique and wonderful to offer. 😊

 

That being said, it's of course okay to dream of upgrades... 😂 Maybe some day!

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Christopher Marks

It’s really progressing nicely @billygoat! Sometimes our vision changes along the way and we steer a tank in a different direction, but sometimes the tank does it all on its own. I wonder if it will be better able to support macro algae in the future as it matures? Keeping macro algae content long term in a mixed reef seems to be difficult by my observations.

 

Looking forward to seeing those new Caribbean gorgonians!

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1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said:

It’s really progressing nicely @billygoat! Sometimes our vision changes along the way and we steer a tank in a different direction, but sometimes the tank does it all on its own. I wonder if it will be better able to support macro algae in the future as it matures? Keeping macro algae content long term in a mixed reef seems to be difficult by my observations.

 

Looking forward to seeing those new Caribbean gorgonians!

Thanks for your kind words @Christopher Marks! I couldn't agree more with what you said about tanks sometimes going in a certain direction all on their own. I've noticed that in the past few months my thinking regarding reef keeping has undergone a transition: these days I observe my aquarium and make decisions based on what is going on inside, rather than trying to force things to conform to my own expectations. "What light/pump/etc. do I need to keep such-and-such a coral?" has turned into "What corals seem to thrive with the equipment that I've got?" I simply allow the tank to show me what works and what doesn't, and make stocking decisions based on what seems to do well. It was @banasophia's TOTM article that got me thinking along this path. I was impressed with the way she worked around the stock lighting on her BioCube (which many reefers view as insufficiently powerful) and created a vibrant reef by experimenting with what worked and what didn't work within the parameters she was given.

 

I believe that our tanks have a lot to tell us. Sometimes what they say doesn't align with the vision we have for them, but if we listen carefully we can find a path to success. Observation is the key. 😊

 

As for the new Caribbean gorgonians - to be honest I'm excited to see them too! Until now I have only ever received gorgs shipped by overnight mail, so I am very curious to see how these new specimens hold up with 3-day shipping. Gulf Coast Ecosystems is certainly a reputable retailer that has been selling gorgonians for quite some time, so I trust that they know what they're doing. I think that intentionally not offering genera known to have a poor shipping record (e.g. Plexaura) may be a key to their success.

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So, a confession: I've been blind-dosing small amounts of Brightwell iodine supplement once a week for the past month or so. I finally got a Red Sea iodine test kit and was eager to see the actual numbers, but the results have left me somewhat confused.

 

IMG_0727.thumb.JPG.291b2f179916d28bc31a3a4ae5a9ab07.JPG

 

This test calls for a "standard" vial full of RO water (right) and an unmodified vial of tank water (left). Drops of reagent are simultaneously administered to each vial to begin a reaction, and when the color in the "standard" vial matches the background (0.06 ppm), the tank water vial is "done" and a reading can be taken. According to the directions, the "standard" vial takes 5-15 minutes to match color, at which point the reading in the tank water vial is ready. Mine, however, matched color immediately. The photo above was taken literally seconds after adding reagent to both of these vials to begin the test. If this is an accurate representation of my iodine levels then I guess I am actually more or less spot on, but I have my doubts about the accuracy of this test. The "standard" vial is matching color awfully quickly, and in addition the directions state that the reading in the tank water vial will remain accurate for five minutes, which is very much not the case; it continues to change color constantly. After the allotted "5-15 minutes" mentioned in the directions, both vials have lost their color and turned more or less clear.

 

This is all very confusing, and I am uncertain as to whether I should take these results as accurate or chalk them up to bad reagents or faulty methodology. I repeated this test three times tonight and got the same result each time. Does anyone have experience with Red Sea iodine tests? I'd be very curious to hear if this has happened to anyone else.

 

I'll repeat this post in the water quality forum as well; perhaps someone can shed some light. 🤔

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I have never done this test so I am no help, but I must confess I put one drop of iodine in my pico every week for a while.  I decide after a few weeks that I needed to stop since I changed half of the water weekly anyway.

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Not much help but I dose iodide and use the Salifert iodine/iodide kit. I swear all these colorimetry tests are making me color blind, but I can usually mostly tell where my tank level is. Someone posted an article on NR a while back about the effectiveness of the tests in actually reading the levels and the Salifert test had a pretty good score. Before I was trying to use Seachem and it wasn’t super accurate.

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On 10/22/2019 at 8:56 AM, billygoat said:

Thanks! Now I just have to find a nice piece of art to hang above the tank, and possibly some posters to put on the walls. Does anyone have any recommendations? 🤔

Nice! Your tank looks really great in the room, and I love the shelving!!

 

Rather than purchasing someone else’s art, you could consider hangIng your own. 🤗 You can have your tank pics printed on canvas by Canvas on the Cheap... I ordered some and they came out great! And if you want to get creative, you can apply an artistic filter to your pic first using an app like PicsArt (free!), and then have it printed out. Here’s how your awesome jawfish pic looks using three different PicsArt filters, for example: 

 

2F3607A0-B04C-4D71-ABBB-6065DA567914.thumb.jpeg.333ce558ceb15ed4addcc3ed047a64c0.jpeg

 

CA4C9BA9-878A-43E9-B051-8930DF1C7810.thumb.jpeg.30f1cee6637445eb045546621e3c0b22.jpeg

 

9A97CBA5-D233-4747-89FF-C90318C481D2.thumb.jpeg.917b326cd3bb6a2b3397aa6f3cf91569.jpeg

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On 10/24/2019 at 10:43 AM, billygoat said:

Thanks for your kind words @Christopher Marks! I couldn't agree more with what you said about tanks sometimes going in a certain direction all on their own. I've noticed that in the past few months my thinking regarding reef keeping has undergone a transition: these days I observe my aquarium and make decisions based on what is going on inside, rather than trying to force things to conform to my own expectations. "What light/pump/etc. do I need to keep such-and-such a coral?" has turned into "What corals seem to thrive with the equipment that I've got?" I simply allow the tank to show me what works and what doesn't, and make stocking decisions based on what seems to do well. It was @banasophia's TOTM article that got me thinking along this path. I was impressed with the way she worked around the stock lighting on her BioCube (which many reefers view as insufficiently powerful) and created a vibrant reef by experimenting with what worked and what didn't work within the parameters she was given.

 

I believe that our tanks have a lot to tell us. Sometimes what they say doesn't align with the vision we have for them, but if we listen carefully we can find a path to success. Observation is the key. 😊

Ah wow, that’s really cool that was a takeaway from reading about my experience with my tank. I love the way you described your approach - that you are allowing the tank show you what works and what doesn’t - definitely very true for me as well.
 

I’d say maybe one of the most rewarding things for me is feeling very attuned to what is taking place in the little realm I’ve created, even when I know my understanding and awareness of what’s really going on is only scratching the surface. 💛 

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4 hours ago, billygoat said:

So, a confession: I've been blind-dosing small amounts of Brightwell iodine supplement once a week for the past month or so. I finally got a Red Sea iodine test kit and was eager to see the actual numbers, but the results have left me somewhat confused.

 

IMG_0727.thumb.JPG.291b2f179916d28bc31a3a4ae5a9ab07.JPG

 

This test calls for a "standard" vial full of RO water (right) and an unmodified vial of tank water (left). Drops of reagent are simultaneously administered to each vial to begin a reaction, and when the color in the "standard" vial matches the background (0.06 ppm), the tank water vial is "done" and a reading can be taken. According to the directions, the "standard" vial takes 5-15 minutes to match color, at which point the reading in the tank water vial is ready. Mine, however, matched color immediately. The photo above was taken literally seconds after adding reagent to both of these vials to begin the test. If this is an accurate representation of my iodine levels then I guess I am actually more or less spot on, but I have my doubts about the accuracy of this test. The "standard" vial is matching color awfully quickly, and in addition the directions state that the reading in the tank water vial will remain accurate for five minutes, which is very much not the case; it continues to change color constantly. After the allotted "5-15 minutes" mentioned in the directions, both vials have lost their color and turned more or less clear.

 

This is all very confusing, and I am uncertain as to whether I should take these results as accurate or chalk them up to bad reagents or faulty methodology. I repeated this test three times tonight and got the same result each time. Does anyone have experience with Red Sea iodine tests? I'd be very curious to hear if this has happened to anyone else.

 

I'll repeat this post in the water quality forum as well; perhaps someone can shed some light. 🤔

You are much better reefer than I am! I dose Kent Tech I long acting iodide on a weekly basis per directions, and must confess that I’ve never tested my tank’s iodine levels. 😬😬😬

 

I’m assuming you already read the manual and watched the demonstration video from the Red Sea site, but just in case you want to review to be sure you are doing the test correctly, here’s a link to the Red Sea page that has both. Looks like a fairly complicated test to do, and that it’s very temperature sensitive. 


https://www.redseafish.com/coral-coloration-program/iodine-pro-test-kit/
 

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Sorry @billygoat I use salifert, too - I like it because it can read in the thousandths - it doesn't sound like you're doing it incorrectly... I would say that as long as the tank vial doesn't become dark or too light during the life of the standard, your iodine levels are probably near regular. Maybe you could try dosing a gallon taken from your system a little heavily with iodion and see what happens to the tank water vial? That will consume test resources though...

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I was just reading in a few places - sounds like the Red Sea iodine test reagants are easily spoiled if stored in too high of temps (probably outside your control). Testing over-dosed water may be necessary to verify reliability... the tank vial should turn clearish relatively quickly in this case?

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Thank you all for your wonderful feedback and all your ideas! I've contacted BRS about the test kit to see if they can refund it or even just exchange it for a Salifert kit instead. I think I'm going to fiddle with the Red Sea test a bit more when I get home from work today, but I have my doubts about its accuracy for sure. I think exposure to high temperatures may have spoiled the reagents, as @Wonderboy mentioned. It certainly has been quite warm here recently (90+ F yesterday) and the package containing my test kit was sitting in the sun on my porch for some number of hours before I got home from work and picked it up. 😬 I've had good results using Red Sea Ca and KH tests so I thought I'd give this one a try too, but based on your responses it seems like Salifert is the way to go for iodine.

 

Also thanks @banasophia for the great art suggestions! I think I remember seeing you mention the PicsArt app over in the chat thread, but for whatever reason it slipped my mind when I was thinking about art for my own aquarium. Using it to make actual canvas "paintings" is a great idea! The corner of the house where I have my tank is kind of a desolate spot (which is part of the reason that nobody else cared if I appropriated it for my fish tank adventure 😅) but I am trying to beautify it as much as possible. On my days off I often spend hours sitting in that area and observing my aquarium (usually while drinking plenty of coffee), so I think it's worth the effort to make it look nice. 😊

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10 hours ago, banasophia said:

You are much better reefer than I am! I dose Kent Tech I long acting iodide on a weekly basis per directions, and must confess that I’ve never tested my tank’s iodine levels. 😬😬😬

 

I’m assuming you already read the manual and watched the demonstration video from the Red Sea site, but just in case you want to review to be sure you are doing the test correctly, here’s a link to the Red Sea page that has both. Looks like a fairly complicated test to do, and that it’s very temperature sensitive. 


https://www.redseafish.com/coral-coloration-program/iodine-pro-test-kit/
 

Just to double check on the iodine test... did you bring your standard vial with the RODI water to tank temp first by floating in the tank for 10 minutes, then remove from the tank and add the scoop of the powder to the standard vial (only), then add the two types of drops to both the standard and tank water vials simultaneously?
 

I’m thinking if the float/powder step with the RODI standard vial is missed, that could explain the sort of results you observed, so just wanted to run this past you just in case... 😊

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20 hours ago, banasophia said:

Just to double check on the iodine test... did you bring your standard vial with the RODI water to tank temp first by floating in the tank for 10 minutes, then remove from the tank and add the scoop of the powder to the standard vial (only), then add the two types of drops to both the standard and tank water vials simultaneously?
 

I’m thinking if the float/powder step with the RODI standard vial is missed, that could explain the sort of results you observed, so just wanted to run this past you just in case... 😊

I did indeed do the float and powdered reagent steps, which is part of why I am so confused as to these weird results. For the time being I have decided to take a step back from the whole situation and observe the tank for awhile without any dosing of any kind. I've got a feeling that this system is mature enough now that weekly water changes alone might be enough to meet my corals' needs. I'm not averse to dosing if it's necessary for the health of my livestock, but if I could get the tank going @WV Reefer-style without anything but water changes that would be an ideal spot for me. 👌

 

A few new gorgonians should arrive on Wednesday! I'm so excited. 😁 It's going to be a real forest of 'em in there.

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  • billygoat changed the title to Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - Breakdown Complete!

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