Coach Steve Posted December 16, 2019 Author Share Posted December 16, 2019 I finally got an ATO set up. Just in time for holiday travels. I went with the IM hydrofill TI. It’s has two sensors rather than one. They complete a electrical current from what I understand and thats how it decides when to add water. The pump is loud so I hid it under the reservoir with a little stand I built with a false door in the front. All in all it’s a good ATO. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted December 16, 2019 Author Share Posted December 16, 2019 And some current photos of the tank with a few coral close ups. 1 Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 Some updates: Added a random flow nozzle. Does what it’s intended to but does seems to slow the amount of water being pushed around. Order a jabeo sw-2 controllable power head. Should be here this week. I also got an intank filter cover for the back, I was getting algae growth in the back chambers from the kessil spilling light over the back. Still going strong. Got a few more corals but I’m really running out of room. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 I got a pistol shrimp and goby pair today. The shrimp made quick work digging out a home under the rock work. Not positive on the I.D. of the goby. Looks to be a high fin of some kind. Eating well already. Anyone have an idea on the species? I couldn’t Get a photo of the shrimp, quite elusive. Also included my light schedule. Pretty basic ramp up and ramp down, stays on the blue side of the spectrum. Anyone running a kessil controller with opinions on a better light schedule? 1 Quote Link to comment
SURVEYMAN46123 Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 Looks great! I need to look into that back chamber cover. Quote Link to comment
jservedio Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 Looks awesome! Super clean setup. One little tip when taking pictures of your aquarium/corals, set your White Balance as high as it goes or shoot in RAW and change the White Balance after the fact. Most cameras and phones won't automatically correct for lighting temperatures much beyond 7500k and since most of us keep our reefs well beyond 14,000k the photos look way, way more blue than what your eyes see. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted January 16, 2020 Author Share Posted January 16, 2020 2 hours ago, jservedio said: Looks awesome! Super clean setup. One little tip when taking pictures of your aquarium/corals, set your White Balance as high as it goes or shoot in RAW and change the White Balance after the fact. Most cameras and phones won't automatically correct for lighting temperatures much beyond 7500k and since most of us keep our reefs well beyond 14,000k the photos look way, way more blue than what your eyes see. Thanks! I’ve already got the bug for a new tank and I’m just starting to feel closed to finished with this one. I’m using an iPhone for photos. I’ve messed with the camera a little but didn’t see a way to adjust the color. The blue hue drives me nuts! Was considering buying a lens cover from the lfs. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 18, 2020 Author Share Posted February 18, 2020 Finally decided to start testing my water again. MG 1400 ppm dKH 10.5 Calcium 475 ppm A little in the high side I think. I was nearing the bottom of the bottles of b-ionic and I am thinking it may have been a little more concentrated. Did a water change and took some photos during the process. Had some coral warfare finally (to be expected with how packed in they are) had to move my Yumas to the sand bed, will be covering entire sand bed in them most likely. Maybe a few Acans and maxi minis as well. Also, I think I’m done with the Kessil. Colors just are not working for me and I’ve got some terrible shading going on. I’m going to go with 2 AI prime HDs and angle them in towards the middle of the tank. Better light spectrum, more customizable, and will help with shading. 2 Quote Link to comment
TatorTaco Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Have any more thoughts on the Jebao doser? I'm strongly considering a doser purchase but I'm weary of crashing my tank due to it spazzing out on me or requiring constant fiddling. 1 Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 On 2/19/2020 at 10:23 AM, TatorTaco said: Have any more thoughts on the Jebao doser? I'm strongly considering a doser purchase but I'm weary of crashing my tank due to it spazzing out on me or requiring constant fiddling. So the doser has worked flawlessly as far as doing what it is meant to do. It’s quite consistent, has not stopped working or malfunctioned in any way, and has has freed me from my daily routine of dosing by hand. I think it may be over board on a nano but I go out of town for periods of time where an ATO and auto doser seemed necessary. If your thinking about it I would consider your nutrient uptake and decide if it’s worth it for you. I have mine calibrated to dose 2 drops of b-ionic on the top of each hour. I have calibrated it as low as I could get it and it still may be a bit high for the tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
SliceGolfer Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I run Jebao dosers on my tank. My secret to more consistent doses at small amounts are to dilute the minerals with RODI water. I do a 50/50 mix and double my dose. So, 5ml of Alk becomes 10ml, which allegedly makes Jebao dosers more accurate. And if the doser goes to crap, it’s dosing at 50% strength. 1 Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 26, 2020 Author Share Posted February 26, 2020 On 2/22/2020 at 11:02 PM, SliceGolfer said: I run Jebao dosers on my tank. My secret to more consistent doses at small amounts are to dilute the minerals with RODI water. I do a 50/50 mix and double my dose. So, 5ml of Alk becomes 10ml, which allegedly makes Jebao dosers more accurate. And if the doser goes to crap, it’s dosing at 50% strength. That’s a good idea. I’m running liquid additive though. Would the alk just chalk up and settle at the bottom? Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 26, 2020 Author Share Posted February 26, 2020 The good news today, no more flat worms... the bad news I may have nuked my tank. I used flat worm exit after seeing the flatworms had returned and begun to grow in numbers. I’ve used it in the past with out issue. I dose it watch for the reaction add more if needed then I do a water change to remove all those dead little buggers out of there and replace my carbon. Today I had a brain fart and forgot I was out of salt... I used what little I had left to do a water change, maybe a gallon or so. to make matters worse the salt water store is closed today. Some corals have had less of a reaction than others. My inverts basically melted instantly. The clowns have struggled, their eyes are gazed over. No sign of the goby and pistol shrimp pair. Sad day at Coach Steve’s house. Quote Link to comment
TatorTaco Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 11 hours ago, Coach Steve said: The good news today, no more flat worms... the bad news I may have nuked my tank. I used flat worm exit after seeing the flatworms had returned and begun to grow in numbers. I’ve used it in the past with out issue. I dose it watch for the reaction add more if needed then I do a water change to remove all those dead little buggers out of there and replace my carbon. Today I had a brain fart and forgot I was out of salt... I used what little I had left to do a water change, maybe a gallon or so. to make matters worse the salt water store is closed today. Some corals have had less of a reaction than others. My inverts basically melted instantly. The clowns have struggled, their eyes are gazed over. No sign of the goby and pistol shrimp pair. Sad day at Coach Steve’s house. I'm sooo sorry to see this. The EXACT same thing happened to me with the EXACT same results a month or so ago. That stuff is wicked dangerous if something goes wrong while dosing it. The kicker - I still have flatworms. Don't forget to re-dose. I've just started dosing it every couple weeks and hope I can break the lifecycle. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 26, 2020 Author Share Posted February 26, 2020 5 hours ago, TatorTaco said: I'm sooo sorry to see this. The EXACT same thing happened to me with the EXACT same results a month or so ago. That stuff is wicked dangerous if something goes wrong while dosing it. The kicker - I still have flatworms. Don't forget to re-dose. I've just started dosing it every couple weeks and hope I can break the lifecycle. Yeah I just made a stupid mistake not having fresh salt water ready to go. It’s the fact that those little guys are toxic when they die. I usually do my best to suck out as many as possible before they have a chance to release the toxin upon death. This morning I woke up and all the Coral is fine. Money wise that’s a relief. But the poor fish aren’t so lucky. I still think they have a chance at survival. Time will tell. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 The tank survived the flatworm meltdown. I changed half the water yesterday and the filter media to try and purge any toxins left. I may have started a re-cycle or lite re-cycle of my tank with the mess I made the last few days as I’m starting to see the light brown algae maybe diatoms like a new tank in the power head and RFG nozzle. All inhabitants are back to normal minus the pistol shrimp goby pair... I thought I heard a few familiar snaps of the shrimp but I haven’t seen them since the initial nuke went off. And the cleaner shrimp hasn’t eaten just kinda of sits there still. Hopefully he recovers and my goby reappears. 1 Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 Tried my hand at editing a photo for better realistic color. First try ever editing a photo so keep that in mind! I got rid of a lot of blue but still couldn’t get it perfect. 1 Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 Here’s some of the damage from coral warfare going on in my tank as they each encroach on each other’s territory. Some corals are in the sand bed for recovery and I have high hopes they will recover. The chalice which was a beautiful pink and orange however appears to be soon deceased thanks to my star polyps (don’t buy them!) taking over everything. And then the last picture I don’t know what this coral is, it’s never grown, doesn’t really change, and has an ugly brown algae spot in the middle. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted March 3, 2020 Author Share Posted March 3, 2020 Everything survived the flat worm exit melt down and is back to normal minus the goby. The stung corals in the sand bed are growing back nicely and I picked up a long tentacle plate coral. One of my favorites. 3 Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 Started filling out the sand bed more in the front and I’m liking how it looks. Quote Link to comment
Coach Steve Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 Been gone a while. Got really sick, wasn’t Rona virus, for a few months. Think everything is on the up and up now. Tank is still chugging along. No major issues other than some slight algae appearing in the crushed coral sand bed. I am having to stir it up to keep it looking white. I got carried away on the corals and have really packed this im10 beyond its holding capacity. Going to have to upgrade at some point as there just isn’t enough room to grow now. my parameters: Temp:79 Salinity:1.025 dKH:10 Calcium:480 Magnesium:1400 Nitrate:Between 0-5 (api test) Phosphate:Between 0-.25 (api test) 1 Quote Link to comment
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