Not that Garf's EVO 13.5

[Garf]

A dosing pump in my future? Did my water change today, and tank tested 6.6 alk before it. After WC, 7.1  I may have to up my dosage, I was trying 1ml a day, however I cannot recall if I dosed the last few days. Using All for Reef one part dosing. I guess my corals are growing, that is good. Last dkh reading was 7.3 on 8/20

 

Bought a few things from Reef Cleaners, I needed a few larger nassarius, so I also ordered a couple of limpets, a cowrie, and a couple of porcelain crabs. I decided I really needed some snails I need to keep righting after they tip over, so I got a few astrea. 

 

 

[Garf]

Sweet! I just saw my blue legged hermit spawning. I popped on my magnifying headset, was looking at what I thought was a hermit swapping shells. Then I noticed that there was a hermit in both. Cool, fight club! But then I see the larvae pouring out of the shell. Not sure what the other one was doing, but it didn't seem like fighting. Free food for the tank I guess. Then after a bit, I saw the larger crab, the one that wasn't carrying the eggs, do what I can only call as a really hard shake of the other hermit, and some more popped out. 

 

Probably impossible to raise any of them, but I turned the return pump off as soon as I saw them swimming around, and reduced the powerheads, to give them a chance to settle into the corals and the rocks. 

[Garf]

dKh…. argh!

 

I will just say, thank the gods I don't have an SPS tank. The onslaught of calcium and alk consumption caught me off guard yet again. Getting an handle on it, going to try the cheap Bluetooth dosing pump.

[Wonderboy]

Fun read :] Nice setup! Tagging along!

[Garf]

Ya, I know I promised pictures but I got distracted by something shiny.

 

Opened a new bottle of reagent, and Hannah tester gave me a reading of 8.6.  What the heck... Perhaps my previous reagent got contaminated, or diluted somehow. Saw in my journal I tested a few weeks ago with Hanna Checker and salifert, with the Hanna testing 1dkh lower. Apparently I wanted to believe the Hannah and that my corals were consuming. It looks like my dosing of around 4ml of All For Reef was pretty close. As I did not dose today, I expect a drop when I test tomorrow. So my all probably didn't dip as low as I thought it did, which my corals seem to be showing me. 

 

Cleaning my truelumen strips, I noticed that 6or so of the LEDs were not lit, so I imagine that strip will need to be replaced soon. So I replaced it with a RedSea Reef LED 50. It should be here next week, along with my Clearview Lids custom Evo 13.5 cover. If the Red Sea light works out, I will have my Bluefish controller for sale. 

[Alex64]

Loved reading this thread! Quick question... why did you cut holes in the top for the lumen lights - could you have just had them under the hood?

[Garf]

6 hours ago, Alex64 said:

Loved reading this thread! Quick question... why did you cut holes in the top for the lumen lights - could you have just had them under the hood?

Too close to the water on the edges, as it is, the lights are a bit too close to the water, I think this is how the first section of LEDs shorted out on the one actinic strip, the lid back corner dipped into the water as it tends to do when moving lid around.

[Garf]

FTS 9/11/2019

 

Notice the red foraminiferans in the middle, there are several smaller ones around the other rocks. 

 

I let the tank remain grungy, I did not scrape the glass all last week. I skipped the weekly water change, and will test tomorrow to see where params are at.  The cleanup crew kept one side of the glass rather well cleaned. The tail spot blennie took care of a large spot on this facing side of the tank. Scraped it today, and took some pics. I think the tank is happier with where it is at now, I see a cyphastrea that has polyps open more than I have ever seen it. Comparing my last FTS on 7/14 with this one (can see it on first post), I can see a lot of growth in several pieces, particularly the chalice on RFA island. I really wish the RFA on the big rock in back would go find the other two. 

 

Pom pom crab is doing fine. Those two shrimp from the lymasta genus are still around, while they are bigger, they hide better than the pom pom.  No signs of aptasia. The two porcelain crabs are nowhere to be seen. The limpets appear to be hiding well also, I need to check the back of the tank. I appear to have lost most of my nassarius snails, as a couple of hermits have nice, new shiny shells. I saw one out today though. 

 

[thedon986]

Looking great!

[Garf]

Long time no post. Got an email today, my clearview lid should be here on Saturday. I expect to be lidless soon.  

 

I think I will have to really acclimate the corals to the light, mainly because of some issues that popped up this week. I noticed one of my cyphastrea looked like the tissue was receeding from the skeleton a bit. Wasn't sure if it was tissue growing over the superglue, or STN or something. Last night, I took my magnifying headlamp to observe the tank, and noticed similar things on several corals, a couple more of the cyphastrea, and on my chalice. The chalice was odd, as the tissue looks healthy, just not attached to the skeleton. Pic was taken just now, and it looks like the amount that pulled away has doubled.

 

 

Did full param testing, everything is on track, but PH seems low, which maybe expected as the house is closed up.  Nitrate and Phosphate again have tested low, but that is nothing new for my tank. I feed a LOT, and broadcast feed KZ LPS amino and Coral Vitalizer, Fritz AZOCs every other day, as well as fish pellets daily and frozen stuff twice a week. I have also let the water changes go, trying to get my tank to "dirty up" a bit, to get the NO3 and PO4 up. Just before my last water change 13 days ago, I noticed great polyp extension on my cyphastrea, so I thought I would stick to two week water changes.  My euphylia are doing great, my hammer is really full as is my Duncan. 

 

EDIT: New salt mix params in red

 

dKh 8.6 (Hanna and Salifert)

CA 440 (475)

Mg 1470 (1470)

Ph 7.9

Salinity 1.026 (1.026)

NO3   1

PO4    .02

78.3F (78) 

 

What has changed:

 

A couple of weeks back, noticed one of the powerheads is not working all the time. Turning off and back on resets it for a bit. Adjusted position of powerhead down a bit 5 days ago, as I saw flow down low was a bit weak. 

 

New bag of salt from Fritz, 10/12 tested alk at 8.3 during last water change, did not test CA or Mg. Testing CA and Mg in new batch I am making now.

 

I turn off return pump when I broadcast feed, forgot to turn it back on TWICE this week (having probe in the back chambers did not trip the temp controller, fixed that by moving it out to display tank)

 

LEDs on the Truelumen strips are starting to fail, as the moisture in the lid are taking its toll. Noticed second blue strip had a section of approx. 6 LEDs out, the other blue strip has two sections or so, estimate a 10-15% reduction in output. 

 

So planning a 2 gallon water change today, and hoping for the best. 

 

 

 

[Garf]

Received the lid. Mounted up the reef LED 50, then opened the lid package. This is what I got. Notice anything wrong? 

 

 

Their website states light mounts must be on the rear side. Pretty sure on a peninsula tank the rear isn't the long side.  Also read their FAQ before ordering, where is says under placement of lights/feed doors:

 

"*Feed doors are placed, standard, front and center on lids. Feed doors are placed, standard, opposite the overflow (the other short end) of peninsula tanks."

 

Sent an email to them and waiting to hear back. Needless to say, I am a bit disappointed. 

 

[Proxo]

Get the coin back and go for the D+D jumpguard, some pics in my journal... Can be a hassle to put together but the black trim on it looks nice.

[Garf]

Nah, that looks too much like work. I hope they either credit me, or make it right. If I can get another light mount that reaches the middle of the tank, I can make do with this one. But spending 158$ and having to "make it work" by modifying it is unacceptable. 

[Garf]

Red Sea Reef LED 50 first impressions:

 

Oh the shimmer! I didn't know what I was missing. Not sure what sorcery this is, but it appears to light the shadowed areas in the tank also. 

 

Light looks great, but where I have it mounted, it doesn't reach the middle of the tank. I have a question into BRS to ask if the mounting holes on the LED 90 are the same as the 50. If they are, I can get a longer mount and hit the center of the tank. As it is, with the universal mount, I am about 1" shy. I was hoping that I could mount the light to the overflow divider, I was prepared by having a piece of acrylic cut to reinforce the divider area. 

 

Also, can't get the mounting arm to sit parallel to the water even when attached to the glass, it dips a bit. Is that typical of these types of mounts?

[Garf]

one and a half weeks since last water change. The chalice is pretty much toast. the tissue looks good, just receded off the skeleton. in fact, the upper section still had tentacles coming out at night.  All of my other corals look ok, the cyphastrea seem to be extending their polyps more, hopefully they will fully recover. Pretty sure they didn't like the reduced light when some of the strip LED lights failed. I could probably have simply increased the intensity of the Current Truelumens through my Bluefish controller and kept them around for a few more months.  But who knows how long they would have lasted. While they are water resistant, the enclosed lid was a bit too much for them over 6 months. 

 

Havn't cleaned glass in over a couple weeks, didn't even do it before last water change, it has been rather clear. I removed around 60 of the small colonista snails, they were all over the place. They have been ascendant for a long while now, I think at least twice as many are still left. Perhaps this will allow my tank to get a bit more grungy and get some measurable nitrates and phosphates. Hope I don't wack my tank out of balance too much. 

 

The lighting adventure is over, I got a Reef LED 90 mount (the one for 22" tanks). This is definitely the way to go with the Reef LED 50 light, don't waste your money on the universal mount. It is still a bit off center, I need another 3/4" or so, but there is no way to adjust it. I guess they figure if it is 1" or so, it is close enough. Also, I am sure they were designed with Red Sea tanks in mind. I had to shim the clamp part so the upright arm was closest to the glass, giving me more reach towards the center. I can get almost exactly to center by reversing the clamp, by having the long side/screws on the interior of the sump area, but this put the bottom anodized aluminum mounting clamp in the back chamber area water. I figured this was Not a Good Thing, so today I swapped it around. 

 

Just realized I have one more short trip on the lighting journey, I would like to lower my light by an inch or so. Right now, it is like 8 1/2" off the surface of the water. If I can get it around 7 1/2", it will reduce a bit of light spillage. Plus, when I slouch in my desk chair next to the tank, I wont be able to see the very top of the LED lens. 

 

Clearview lids made good on their error, I received a replacement in the mail yesterday. Here is a pic of the tank with it all setup.  New pixel phone appears to adjust the white balance to fight the blues, and I found it hard to get an overall shot of the tank. This one was taken with the clamp on orange filter, it was way too red at most distances. Will have to work with it more to see what I can do with it. 

 

I have had it with the Current USA eFlux pumps. When they were working, they were not bad. Good flow, lots of options. I think my controller is bad, as several of the LED status lights are out, and one of my pumps is refusing to run. I ordered a Tunze nanostream 6040, which I thnk I can place in the back right corner without having it be too obtrusive.  I also ordered the Tunze optical sensor, so I will run it with my light cycles. I will keep the working eFlux pump, which I will continue to run 24/7. If the controller or pump fails, I will be ordering another Tunze 6040.

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

Sorry to hear about the chalice, that's not only awful but one of the most bizarre things I've come across.

[Garf]

The chalice is gone. Done disappeared, shriveled up and skeleton is all that is left.

 

The cyphastrea are loving the new lights, polyps are extending, not seeing any more receding flesh.  Two of my acans aren't looking so good, I can see some exposed skeleton in them. The polyps are extended and full during the day though. I really think the temp swing I had really did a number on them, coupled with the poor lighting.

 

The Tunze nano stream is great. I had an issue setting it up. I put it horizontal and it was too powerful, even on the lowest setting. After futzing with it a few days, I turned it vertical, exactly like the Bulk Reef Supply video had it. Perfect amount of flow in this orientation, as it is a bit deeper. 

 

Pic tomorrow of the front side of the tank, its all dark now. Saw the Pom Pom crab, he looks happy, bigger, and two nice nems in his claws.  Pretty sure I am down one shrimp, I have never seen two out at once. Both porcelain crabs are still hanging around. Pretty sure I will see the inverts when I feed frozen tomorrow.

[Garf]

It's been a while. Tank is doing fine. Lost two acans, perhaps my shrimp got hungry.  Blue one is doing great, perhaps it wasn't as appetizing.  Female clown is spending a lot of time outside of the lair (the overhang in back of my tank, carpeted with hairy shrooms). She is swimming a bit into my goniopora, alveopora and duncans. 

 

I am not letting my consistently low nitrates and phosphates bother me, I havn't tested those for a few months. I do get film algae on glass, and have some hair algae on one of my rocks which I have bee manually removing. 

 

Light finished it's acclimation schedule, and I think I have the intensity set where everything is happy. Seeing a lot of growth in my corals after a couple months of slow or no growth. Havn't been testing at all the past month and a half, and only occasionally dosing. In November I noticed alk increasing, so I dialed dosing back to keep it around 8.3 

 

Started back with every other day manually dosing, and prior to my last water change Monday, testing showed dKh at 8.0.  It's getting almost to the point where I can tell where my params are at just by observing the tank! Not going to push my luck, will test at least every week as well as before water changes. 

 

I finally dropped the $ on a secondary temp controller and titanium heater from Bulk Reef Supply. My Inkbird and 50w Cobalt are now my backup. The BRS setup is nice, controller was 0.1degree off from the Hannah Instruments temperature probe. My Inkbird turned out to be 0.6 degrees off. 

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

47 minutes ago, Garf said:

It's been a while. Tank is doing fine. Lost two acans, perhaps my shrimp got hungry.  Blue one is doing great, perhaps it wasn't as appetizing.  Female clown is spending a lot of time outside of the lair (the overhang in back of my tank, carpeted with hairy shrooms). She is swimming a bit into my goniopora, alveopora and duncans. 

 

I am not letting my consistently low nitrates and phosphates bother me, I havn't tested those for a few months. I do get film algae on glass, and have some hair algae on one of my rocks which I have bee manually removing. 

 

Light finished it's acclimation schedule, and I think I have the intensity set where everything is happy. Seeing a lot of growth in my corals after a couple months of slow or no growth. Havn't been testing at all the past month and a half, and only occasionally dosing. In November I noticed alk increasing, so I dialed dosing back to keep it around 8.3 

 

Started back with every other day manually dosing, and prior to my last water change Monday, testing showed dKh at 8.0.  It's getting almost to the point where I can tell where my params are at just by observing the tank! Not going to push my luck, will test at least every week as well as before water changes. 

 

I finally dropped the $ on a secondary temp controller and titanium heater from Bulk Reef Supply. My Inkbird and 50w Cobalt are now my backup. The BRS setup is nice, controller was 0.1degree off from the Hannah Instruments temperature probe. My Inkbird turned out to be 0.6 degrees off. 

 

 

 

The BRS Finnex rebrands are really nice heaters, I'd probably still put it behind the inkbird since it can act as a kill-switch in the case of stuck-on or a short. Oddly enough exact temperature-readouts may actually be a major-contributor to the new scourge of heater-failures, ideally you want them to cycle on and off as few times a day as possible - so by that metric the inkbird turning them on when the temp falls 1.5-2 degrees and then back off once it's gone up 2-3 is actually closer-to-ideal for the heater itself. It's anyone's guess as to what's best for corals (well not-really since you can ust look up daily-temp swings and studies on their tolerance however some swear small-fluctuations are absolutely awful for their systems), but I imagine small temp-swings like that are little-to-no-concern. 

Come to think of it I think aquairum co-op did a video on something like this the other day where they talked-to and interviewed the folks who mnfctr all the heaters in china, might be worth checkin-out if you want something more detailed and structured than my ramblings.

[Garf]

FTS 4/20/2020

Over a year old. Things are doing fine, feeding phyto almost every day, had a surge in some hair algae, but I seem to have a handle on it now. Since my tank is on my desk, to the left of my work at home setup (two monitors, keyboard and mouse), I rearranged the space off the living room to get the tank off the desk. Told my wife the blank area where the bookshelf used to be is reserved for a cabinet, and that I would be moving the aquarium once I sourced a cabinet.  Well, I may have accidently purchased a Nuvo 25g Lagoon with that cabinet. Now to somehow inform the wife, better hurry, it is schedule to arrive tomorrow...

 

Wish me luck on my transfer, I will transfer it after I have the tank setup and a short cycle period, not planning on adding any new rock, just some more live sand.