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Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down


Snow_Phoenix

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Few snapshots:

 

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Thanos:

 

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New guy (was in QT at store for 1 week, QTed at my home for 1+ week):

 

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Ultra-small Midas blenny. Quite skinny and will need multiple feedings to plump up properly. 🤔

 

The Lubbocks wrasse didn't make it in QT yesterday. It was QTed separately because it came from a different store that used copper on their fish. Quite a shame because the fish appeared healthy and I had planned on adding it to my reef this week. 😓

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Very nice looking blasto - Oh no! :[  What do you think happened? I am a little confused why copper treatments would be a reason to keep it seperate in QT; I had been under the impression that it was best to keep specimen seperate in QT anyways (except identical groups or bonded pairs). Did you have to put it into a QT (mature?) with the same Cu concentration or something? I'm mulling over your segregative effort, I just moved a mccosker's out of a reduced Cu treatment, to my coral QT, so I can make room to QT some conches - guess I'll just have to check on things when there's light.

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38 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

Very nice looking blasto - Oh no! :[  What do you think happened? I am a little confused why copper treatments would be a reason to keep it seperate in QT; I had been under the impression that it was best to keep specimen seperate in QT anyways (except identical groups or bonded pairs). Did you have to put it into a QT (mature?) with the same Cu concentration or something? I'm mulling over your segregative effort, I just moved a mccosker's out of a reduced Cu treatment, to my coral QT, so I can make room to QT some conches - guess I'll just have to check on things when there's light.

Hi Wonderboy - sorry for the confusion and if I wasn't clear. I didn't use copper (I make it a habit not to, since I have corals and I'm extremely worried of cross-contamination) - the store/my LFS that I purchased the Lubbocks wrasse from was using copper to treat all their fish (especially the wrasses). The Lubbocks appeared alright at the store, but there was a fresh batch of Rubyheads that were lying at the bottom of their DT and breathing hard. I presume it's due to the copper. I brought the Lubbocks home but acclimated it using a disposable bucket/sieve to transfer the fish into my own QT. 

 

Copper can be harsh on wrasses, and I was quite worried. The Lubbocks was doing okay in my QT but it ate sporadically. Nevertheless, it was healthy otherwise and had no signs of external parasites and no stringy white poop either. I figured since it's almost 2 weeks, I'd transfer it to my reef by the end of this week. But it died unexpectedly in the morning. I was treating it with PraziGold (lower dose) though. 

 

My tiny midas was purchased from a completely different LFS that doesn't use any copper to QT their fish because they run coral frag tanks and fish tanks with a unified plumbing system. So the risk of copper contamination is very high, and the manager himself told me he'd never use it, even if the fish has Ich. That's why the Midas was in a completely different QT bin. After my last round of wrasse-purchases, I realized it's best to QT a max. of 2 fish per bin and also add more caves/pipes/hiding areas. 

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Yesterday was a somewhat trying day for me. I was wrapping up a work-related project, so I was mostly preoccupied the whole day so I paid minimal attention to my tank.

 

I only realized late in the evening/early night that my tiny Midas was sucked up and chopped by my wavemaker. He sustained a lot of injuries - especially to the fins and head, and I knew that even if this fish miraculously lived, it'll never be the same again. It passed shortly after. :tears:

 

I noticed that it had a habit of sitting on the magnet of my wavemaker (the circular part that sticks to the glass, not the grates itself), even when the pump was turned on. I was worried and shooed him away with a chopstick, but he kept returning to the same spot. I genuinely thought the fish would be smart enough to move and find a better perching spot much later. It was eating mysis and pellets - and I did have high hopes for it. I do feel a bit wrecked by the whole incident. :sad:

 

All the blennies I've owned have always, always tried to squeeze themselves into my pumps (while it's off for feeding), but never have I had one actively sit on the pump while it was still turned on. 

 

What does baffle me a little is that this Midas is roughly the same size as my tangaroa (<2" long)- so I do have small fish in my reef without issue. But then again, a tangaroa occupies the sandbed, and my goby doesn't swim up to catch food/perch, so the chances of him being chopped by my wavemaker is nil. At one point, Goblin the GCG kept trying to slip into my wavemaker when I first started this tank. It's why I stopped using the auto-feeding mode and manually switch on-and-off my pump - so that I can check the wavemaker and see if he's squeezed himself in there first and shoo him out of it. He has since given up sitting on the wavemaker, but I have caught him perching on the wire several times, so I'm still extra careful.

 

I'm quite crushed. Painful lesson - no small blennies in this tank. :tears:

 

And before you ask if my Starry had anything to do with this, he didn't. Thanos ignored my Midas completely - they were even inches away from each other on the first day, on the sandbed, and the big guy just stared him down for a bit before swimming (no chasing/nipping etc.) off to graze on the film at the back of my tank. I guess he decided the Midas was too small and not worth the effort of being bossed around. 

 

 

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Few pic. updates:

 

1. Corals:

 

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2. Starfish:

 

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(Gary in suspended-animation):

 

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3. Fishies:

 

Red:

 

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Nero:

 

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Goblin:

 

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Helios:

 

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Thanos:

 

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Casper:

 

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Tank view from my bed today morning:

 

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Tank is officially 4 months and 11-days-old. I guess the long-term goal is to make sure everything is healthy and thriving, and stocking it with more corals. 

 

I have also gravitated back to getting a CB for this tank - will most likely be my last fish. And I would definitely love to add another larger ornamental shrimp - either a Cleaner or a Fire. 

 

 

 

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Munch, munch, munch. 

 

 

I know I said earlier no more little blennies in this reef, but I shut down my picoreef and had to reassign my three fish to new tanks. I moved Spazz, the damsel to my nano - where he fits in very well with my Falco. All corals from my Pico went into my nano as well. Then I moved Miko my TSB and Prowler my circus barred goby into my 60G:

 

Miko's doing quite well in this reef - turns out my zoa-covered rock on the far left of the tank is extremely porous, so he slides into one hole and pops out the other like a mini weasel. He also actively swims out of the rock, and Thanos ignores him completely. Probably because he's too tiny, and he stays tiny, so there's no risk of them quarreling over territory. He also started eating immediately within the first day of being transferred - a rare thing, because most of my fish takes a few days to adjust before eating normally. Good thing is that since he loves the giant hunk of rock, he rarely ventures away from it except to sit on my cup coral. *And he's smart enough not to go anywhere near the wavemaker, or God forbid, sit in it while it's on like my previous Midas.

 

All my other fish - wrasses especially, do not bug him either. Which is good.

 

Anyway, here's a shot of Gary:

 

Not many pics this time, and not much to update. But I do have a plan of sorts going underway for this tank. Hopefully it'll all work out. Stay tuned. :wink:

 

 

 

 

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New dude:

 

Currently in QT - got his butt whooped by a flame angel at the store and has minor fin injuries. Otherwise, he's feisty and very, very active. Was eating pellets at the store - will feed him tomorrow morning. Just allowing him to settle in for a bit.

 

Also, few snapshots of my LFS today - all captions under the Insta pics:

 

(Feel free to skip this part if you find it dull):

 

I'll be dropping by the store next week again to pick up a few more supplies that I couldn't get today. 

 

As for the 60G, I need to do a DT WC. I know I've been saying it, and I've kept pushing it back, but I'll try my best to get it done tomorrow morning. Oh! And I bought a tiny green candy cane coral today. It's a super tiny frag with only two heads, but I've already glued it down to my main centerpiece rock. Hopefully it'll pop out a lot of heads in time. I was thinking of getting a mini torch next. Either that, or another softie. I did see frags of Xenia available, but I'm not sure if I should/should not get it. I have GSP, and it hasn't taken over my tank, so maybe xenia will be the same way (?) 🤔

 

Also got a nice free clump of fern caulerpa from the store too. Manager was in a very good mood - so the portion was extra large this time. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

New dude:

 

Currently in QT - got his butt whooped by a flame angel at the store and has minor fin injuries. Otherwise, he's feisty and very, very active. Was eating pellets at the store - will feed him tomorrow morning. Just allowing him to settle in for a bit.

 

Also, few snapshots of my LFS today - all captions under the Insta pics:

 

(Feel free to skip this part if you find it dull):

 

I'll be dropping by the store next week again to pick up a few more supplies that I couldn't get today. 

 

As for the 60G, I need to do a DT WC. I know I've been saying it, and I've kept pushing it back, but I'll try my best to get it done tomorrow morning. Oh! And I bought a tiny green candy cane coral today. It's a super tiny frag with only two heads, but I've already glued it down to my main centerpiece rock. Hopefully it'll pop out a lot of heads in time. I was thinking of getting a mini torch next. Either that, or another softie. I did see frags of Xenia available, but I'm not sure if I should/should not get it. I have GSP, and it hasn't taken over my tank, so maybe xenia will be the same way (?) 🤔

 

Also got a nice free clump of fern caulerpa from the store too. Manager was in a very good mood - so the portion was extra large this time. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m surprised he let a Flame kick his butt! 

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I'm not sure how my mistakes would benefit anyone on this site, but I'll update my journal anyway.

 

Mistake #1:

 

Today morning I woke up to freezing cold room and one dead fish in my tank. I did wake up in the middle of the night and fumble with my A/C remote to increase the temp., but I was very groggy and it was extremely dark in my bedroom, so I'm not quite sure what buttons I hit - but apparently I switched on 'fan-mode' for my A/C and cranked it up to the max. Usually, I run auto-mode, where the A/C self-regulates and adjusts the fan speed according to the internal temperature in the room. But at max., the fan will be spinning at max. speed regardless of the internal temperature. 

 

In short, I screwed up and my water temperature (in the tank) was 20'C in the morning and very chilly. Usually, my tank temp. hovers between 24'C to 26'C. So a drop like that and I did piss off a few things in the tank, and it looks like it offed poor Red, the flasher wrasse, as well. :sad:

 

The rest of my animals were sluggish, but thankfully very much alive. Did a headcount for all the fish - everyone present and accounted for except Prowler, but that is one fish I had difficulty keeping track of, even while he was in my Pico. I *presume he's alright and still clinging upside down, somewhere at the back of the tank.

 

Mistake #2:

 

I finally did a nice WC for my DT today. Everything was going on well until...I accidently sucked up part of my cynarina coral with my gravel pump. The suction force was strong enough to rip the flesh of the coral right down to the skeleton - and my pump was full of coral goop and slime (which was smelled horrible and was a pain to clean). I estimate 20% of the coral is visibly damaged from my carelessness. :tears:

 

I've never sucked up a coral before - tiny FW fish, yes, many years ago - but never a large LPS. The coral was sliming very badly even after my WC, and I know this might sound weird, but Gary the starfish started *eating the slime. :blink:

 

(Not the coral itself, mind you, just the slime that was being shed). 

 

I don't want to stress out the coral anymore today, so I'll probably give it an iodine dip tomorrow and *hopefully it'll recover in time.

 

Mistake #3:

 

I usually have a small motor pump on hand that I use to pump back freshly made SW into my tank after each WC. Well, my pump completely failed on me. And I had to use the bucket-method to refill the tank, which gave me a bad backache, and also caused a neck strain I woke up today morning with to get worse. In short, it's best to check if all the equipment - even the spares, are working first before attempting a large WC.

 

Mistakes aside, the tank is much cleaner-looking (did a lot of maintenance - basting, scrubbing, stirring) and I *think the animals look better. I might invest in a mini-heater and plug it in every night before I go to bed though. Still am researching for a good heater online, and if it's even worth purchasing in the first place, because it's sweltering hot here otherwise. 

 

 

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So, things are finally improving again and my damaged cynarina is bouncing back. One part of the coral still remains 'pinched' but otherwise it is almost back to its usual puffy size:

 

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My elegance:

 

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Mushroom mountain:

 

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One of my yumas:

 

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My new candy cane and cyphastrea frags:

 

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Gary chillin' after binging on coral slime:

 

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Saron shrimp (and his 'ghost' trail when he ninja'd outta view):

 

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Casper the tangaroa:

 

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Thanos the Starry blenny:

 

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Goblin the GCG:

 

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Miko the TSB:

 

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Quick shot of my sump + fuge. I run it skimmerless and have devoted one area of the sump to host some macro (fern caulerpa) and small LR pieces. 

 

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I also run very heavy carbon in the sump chamber at the back. Other additions include RowaPhos, floss pads and coral stones in zipped bags. 😊👍

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Nice! Everything looks great - especially the cynarina! I had no idea that saron shrimps could focus their chi to produce decoys and teleport, but that looks like proof to me right there lol

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38 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

I had no idea that saron shrimps could focus their chi to produce decoys and teleport, but that looks like proof to me right there lol

^This caught me by surprise too. There be ninjas in this tank.  :ninja::lol:

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Tiny update - it is notoriously difficult to get a good pic of the clownfish because they constantly wiggle their butts as they swim. After several dozen attempts, I managed these few shots: 😓

 

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And here are some bonus bits - Goblin peeking and Thanos flashing his colors (territorial display):

 

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And, two FTSes today: 

 

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And two FTVs:

 

Tank turns 5-months-old by the end of this month. 😊👍🐟🐠

 

 

 

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Few snapshots:

 

Miko was out and posing today - he's constantly pecking at the rocks for microalgae and pods  which is good:

 

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Zani faded out last night when the lights were off. Otherwise he's very yellow:

 

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Some coral shots - acid green rhodactis, red devil, bullseye rhodactis & blasto merletti:

 

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I will try to get a better shot of my latest corals - but since I glued the to the centerpiece rock which is at the back of the tank, I can only get a blurry sideshot of them. Otherwise, I will try to get a topshot. The cyphastrea looks really neat, in particular. 😊

 

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Hey everyone,

 

So quick update - I have a mixture of both good and bad news. We'll start off with the bad news - I lost my angel in QT day before yesterday. The fish showed signs of gill flukes, so I was treating it with Prazi in QT. I was up for a WC when I woke up in the morning and saw it upside down, at the bottom of the QT bin. :sad:

 

My guess is either the parasite infestation was too much, or I overdosed Prazi. (?)

 

Either way, R.I.P. Feisty angel. :tears:

 

I was quite heartbroken since I have been losing several aquatic animals of late. And the losses seemed to be one after another. Needless to say, I was wrecked, and also losing a *lot of money in acquiring fish. So I decided to dial it down and wait it out. I'd love to try again and get another CB in the future, but only if the specimen is healthy, and *maybe from a different LFS for the time being. Right now, my tank(s) are on auto-pilot, and I'm only scrubbing the glass and feeding the animals.

 

Back to better news, I spotted Prowler, my Circus Barred Goby, for the first time today since I added him to the reef! He looked chunkier and very healthy - was glad to catch a glimpse of him. The 60G overall is doing fine. I do get some film algae on the sand, rocks and glass, but it's nothing some quick maintenance won't fix. My Cynarina is bouncing back from being ripped - it's almost back to its *full puffy-self! :happy:

Here are some latest shots of my tank:

 

Casper:

 

Gary and his lazy butt:

 

Miko has become more confident and now explores the other side of the tank frequently:

 

Thanos and his lobo friend:

 

Nass snail's handiwork today morning:

 

Quick glimpse of the reef under heavy whites:

 

 

I'll maintain the once-a-month-LARGE-WC routine since that seems to work best for my tank. Growth is admittedly slower with only minor dosing and lesser WCs, but I find the system a lot easier to handle this way. And my animals seem healthier when I spend less time tinkering with the tank - so I'd like to keep them thriving as much as possible, especially the sea stars, which have notoriously poor survival rates in home aquaria. 

 

Gary alone has sparked the interest of an animal group online due to his unique coloring. The group requested permission to use some of my pics and vids about Gary in a short documentary-video about starfish. I agreed. Not sure how it will all pan out, or if Gary will be a 'star' of a star, but we'll see. Either way, I'm monitoring all my animals to make sure they are well-fed at all times. I think that their well-being is far more important than accumulating followers on SM anyway. 

 

I do have two aiptasia on my centerpiece rock, which has stung my RBTA very badly. I'll try squirting some hot lemon juice and hopefully this will be the end of them. 

 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Sorry to hear, nothing worse than losing a fish. especially when in QT.

Everything and everyone looks great though

At least he didn't get a chance to pass on whatever he had to the rest of my fish in the reef. That would have been a disaster. Imagine trying to ferret out of tiny GCG in a large tank full of hidey-holes and coral. I'd have to tear the tank down just to get everyone out. *shivers* :scarry:

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4 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

At least he didn't get a chance to pass on whatever he had to the rest of my fish in the reef. That would have been a disaster. Imagine trying to ferret out of tiny GCG in a large tank full of hidey-holes and coral. I'd have to tear the tank down just to get everyone out. *shivers* :scarry:

Very true that would have been a nightmare

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On 9/2/2019 at 12:31 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

I found out another possible cause of the bleaching - I run a tank with high nutrients which benefits my LPS and Softies the most. But when I changed the water, I stripped down the nutrient levels to 10ppm and 0ppm. That is a large swing from what my corals are accustomed to. And running anything at zeros is never truly a good thing in my system. 

 

Bingo!  Good Sherlocking!

 

On 9/2/2019 at 12:31 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

So I ramped up feedings today

I wouldn't overfeed to get there.  (Just in case you might be going that far with it.)   

 

Go up to the max. of whatever your critters will really eat....other than that, I would only disable any filtration going on if possible (save the skimmer), and wait.

 

The only short-term measure I might suggest is to dose liquid phosphates up to >=0.03 ppm (and maintain it there) as that would satisfy requirement's for photosynthesis and may allow re-population of the coral's dino's to begin or to go faster.

 

Not sure I'd say that's necessary though...just that it might help.

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1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

 

Bingo!  Good Sherlocking!

 

I wouldn't overfeed to get there.  (Just in case you might be going that far with it.)   

 

Go up to the max. of whatever your critters will really eat....other than that, I would only disable any filtration going on if possible (save the skimmer), and wait.

 

The only short-term measure I might suggest is to dose liquid phosphates up to >=0.03 ppm (and maintain it there) as that would satisfy requirement's for photosynthesis and may allow re-population of the coral's dino's to begin or to go faster.

 

Not sure I'd say that's necessary though...just that it might help.

Hi, thanks for the pointers! I did overfeed the tank - as much as the animals could eat + a tiny bit more. Levels are back up to 25 ppm (nitrate) and 0.03ppm (phosphate). 

 

I run a skimmerless system though. If I were to manually dose PO4, won't I need a skimmer to get rid of the precipitate? 🤔

 

Either way, I do have spots of film algae here and there, but nothing overly extensive that cannot be solved with some quick maintenance, and maybe another small WC. 

 

Add-On: Will find a way to boost PO4 to 0.25ppm, because that was the original level before my WC (just checked my notebook). Will retest the water in a week or two. 

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1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I run a skimmerless system though. If I were to manually dose PO4, won't I need a skimmer to get rid of the precipitate? 🤔

Tell me if you're ribbing me....but no precipitation would be involved with dosing phosphates.   And if you're already seeing some PO4 on a test then that's old news anyway.  🙂 

 

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Either way, I do have spots of film algae here and there, but nothing overly extensive that cannot be solved with some quick maintenance, and maybe another small WC. 

No sense it swinging nutrients back down when you just got them up where you wanted them.  I would leave it alone....even the algae.  Let things settle like this for a while if you can before doing anything else.  (Maybe aside from adding CUC if you thing it's called for.)  When you finally clean the glass I bet it'll be like a whole new tank.  🙂 

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44 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Tell me if you're ribbing me....but no precipitation would be involved with dosing phosphates.   And if you're already seeing some PO4 on a test then that's old news anyway.  🙂 

 

No sense it swinging nutrients back down when you just got them up where you wanted them.  I would leave it alone....even the algae.  Let things settle like this for a while if you can before doing anything else.  (Maybe aside from adding CUC if you thing it's called for.)  When you finally clean the glass I bet it'll be like a whole new tank.  🙂 

Nah, not ribbing you - I genuinely wondered if a skimmer was needed if PO4 dosing was involved. 

 

And yes, the system is skimmerless - has been skimmerless from the start. Here's how my sump looks like:

 

 

I'm actually ultra-light on the CUC - had one hermit in this tank that I booted to my nano because he was constantly un-gluing all my frags and made it a habit to toss them to the sandbed, or feed them to one of my brain corals.

 

I currently have a single Turban snail left, two urchins, and three (?) nassarius. I rely more on manual cleaning (scraping the glass, basting the rocks, stirring up the sandbed) every five to six days. It only takes me 15 mins each time to do a clean-up. But it takes me 2+ hours to do a large WC, which is why I do it sparingly as well. (My arms are quite weak due to several previous surgeries, so lifting buckets of SW takes time)

 

I was thinking of adding more Turban snails - and *maybe a Halloween hermit. Among all the hermits, this one is the least jerk-ish of the lot. 

 

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I recommend a medium sized pump and tube for WCs - especially if you're not trying to reinstigate things - and it's quick. That's super frustrating about the hermit - I saw micro hermits at ipsf.com - halloweens are fun of course. Haven't had to deal with deconstructive crabs myself - but I almost pour the super glue over the frags/rocks lol - I immediately drip SW on it with a pipette to control it - have you tried using more glue? I really like the basket in the 'fuge to keep the chaeto near the light - I'm curious though if it's not possible to mount the light in there to the back panel? Also is water exchanged ambiently/aided w/the powerhead?

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  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

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