Newbies IM 25 AIO

[10001110101]

Idk what lighting you use but if you have LED lighting easiest is just to make the spectrum like 10-12kish if you're using a phone cam.

 

Glad things are coming around, hope the move goes well!!

[Llorgon]

2 hours ago, 10001110101 said:

Idk what lighting you use but if you have LED lighting easiest is just to make the spectrum like 10-12kish if you're using a phone cam.

 

Glad things are coming around, hope the move goes well!!

I have a radion xr30. It's running the default LPS/soft program from coral labs that comes with it. I'm not sure what the spectrum is. It's pretty blue though. Not a huge fan of how blue it is.

 

I've tried a few phone camera apps, but I just can't seem to get enough of the blue out.

 

Anyways, not a whole lot to update on the tank. Things have been pretty steady. Most of the frogspawn is opening daily. The Kenya tree is growing and has dropped some branches that have found a home of their own in the tank. The acans look to be doing well. The little finger nail sized piece of forest fire digi that survived the move is showing some growth!

 

I am having trouble with my 2 mushrooms. They are tiny and looking worse every day. I'm not sure what the issue is. I have them at the bottom of the tank in a lower flow area. Maybe still too much flow?

 

Fish are all doing well and eating. I'm seeing some pods on the glass and the algae in the tank is going from brown to green so I think that's good?

[Llorgon]

Today is water testing and water change day!

 

I checked the spectrum that the lights are at and ecotech has the default spectrum for the LPS/soft program at 22k. So that's probably why all my pictures turn out so blue. That being said the frogspawn is starting to get a much nicer colour than it was in the 75 gallon.

 

Overall the tank is looking pretty good. Although a little empty of coral. Acans and Kenya tree are doing well. Most of the frogspawn heads are always open. I have lost on head though 😞 the mushrooms seem to be melting and I'm not entirely sure why.

 

The most exciting thing is the forest fire is growing and I can see green at the tip! In the 75 gallon the green would always fade away.

 

Tank Params are

Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Phosphate: 0.276
Alkalinity: 9.4
Calcium: 440
Magnesium: 1260

 

Some concerning things are the spike in phosphate and the drop in magnesium. Since next Saturday the tank is being moved and will probably be filled with fresh saltwater, should I correct those numbers or leave them?

 

In preparation for the move I picked up a garbage can to mix water in. Should be easier than a bunch of 5 gallon buckets!

[Tamberav]

I have that garbage can and plan to ditch the 5g buckets too. They make little wheel bases for them and it should be less hassle then hauling my buckets.

[Llorgon]

1 hour ago, Tamberav said:

I have that garbage can and plan to ditch the 5g buckets too. They make little wheel bases for them and it should be less hassle then hauling my buckets.

I had no idea they made wheel bases for them. I will have to look for them. That would make things much easier.

 

Your IM 25 tank is amazing. I hope I can get mine to look like that one day!

[A.m.P]

That's highish P04, but if it got there slowly and everything seems happy I wouldn't worry about it, better high than zero. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it's stable and not trending upwards.

[Llorgon]

On 11/23/2019 at 5:47 PM, Amphrites said:

That's highish P04, but if it got there slowly and everything seems happy I wouldn't worry about it, better high than zero. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it's stable and not trending upwards.

Unfortunately it has been steadily trending up each week. I have some rowaphos I might add a bit of that to bring phosphates down a bit.

[Llorgon]

Alright, moving day has come and gone and the tank and inhabitants all seem to be doing fine. Much better result for the coral on this move than the last.

I filled the tank with all new saltwater so hopefully that will help in lowering the rising phosphates I was having before the move. I'm excited to actually be able to start buying some corals and replenishing my cuc!

 

One thing I have to figure out is how to make water. The only tap I have that will fit the tap connector for the ro/di unit is in the garage, which is a pretty cold place right now. Anyone have experience with making or keeping saltwater in a cold garage?

 

And now for the important stuff, what should my first new coral purchase be?!?

[A.m.P]

You can store SW for quite a while in a sealed hardware-store bucket, it'll take longer to mix if it's too cold out there though.

[Llorgon]

The garage today is about 5C and I think it's about 0 or 1C outside. So it can probably get below freezing in there when it starts to hit -10C. I guess my best option would be to make my water in the garage then mix it inside and take the ro/di unit in the house when I am not using it so nothing in it freezes.

[Llorgon]

Been pretty busy unpacking and setting various furniture up. Wife went on a furniture buying spree... So I haven't had much time for the tank.

 

The tank has been doing well. At least it looks to be. Fish are eating, hermits are roaming around my snail is moving around. Corals for the most part are opening up.

 

I had one issue with my heater where it stopped working. I haven't had the chance to remove it yet so I just added another heater in there for the time being.

 

Finally got the time to make some ro/di water. Went to set it up in the garage and realized I had nowhere to put the waste water! So I've rigged it up under the sink in the bathroom. 

[Llorgon]

So was able to get a ok photo of my growing forest fire and what could be new growth on what once was a nice green Jedi mind trick?

[Llorgon]

Found the secret to taking better pics of the tank. Do it when the sun is in the room!

[A.m.P]

If you have the ability you can try adjusting your iso down to 50-100 and your white balance up to 10000+, that should help a bit with photography.

[Llorgon]

Tested my water last night

Tank Params are

Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0.402
Alkalinity: 9.9
Calcium: 480
Magnesium: 1280

 

Phosphates are really high so I added some rowaphos. Haven't had any big algae outbreaks yet...

21 hours ago, Amphrites said:

If you have the ability you can try adjusting your iso down to 50-100 and your white balance up to 10000+, that should help a bit with photography.

Thanks! I will give that a try.

[Llorgon]

Here is a long overdue update. Been busy lately and haven't been doing much with the tank until tonight. 

 

I've been sick, we've been unpacking and my wife got hit in her car so that's a write off so dealing with that as well. She's fine, just was a bit shaken up.

 

Anyways, the tank has been going pretty well except for my phosphates which have been steadily climbing. 

 

Fish are doing well and eating. Corals for the most part are doing well. My forest fire digi is slowly growing and I can see a bunch of new heads starting on the frogspawn. My one acan is doing great, but the red one could be doing better. It always seems to never be fully inflated. I've tried feeding reef roids, but they sit on top of it. The other acan eats it perfectly fine. Any ideas on how I can get it to perk up?

 

I tested water and did a water change tonight. 

 

Tank Params are
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Phosphate: 0.463
Alkalinity: 9.8
Calcium: 480
Magnesium: 1350

 

I added my last bit of rowaphos to the tank and after lots of tweaking I have finally got that ghost skimmer dialed in. Hopefully that will help get the phosphates under control.

[Llorgon]

[Llorgon]

Picked up a hammer and Duncan frag. 

Hopefully I have better luck with this hammer than the others I have tried. The last few I had in my 75 gallon would be ok for a few months then slowly melt away.

 

Also picked up some chemi pure to help bring down my phosphates.

[Llorgon]

I picked up a TDS meter yesterday. So I went around testing water sources. My tap water is 146 TDS and the water in my ato reservoir was 62ppm. I tested some ro/di water in my water storage container and it came out at 17ppm. I'm going to make some more water today and test it as it's coming out the ro/di unit and see what that reads.

 

I hope I don't have to change my filters already!

[Llorgon]

Tank seems to be doing well even with some holiday neglect. I got a new di resin cartridge so I can replace the old one and get my TDS back to 0. I still need to pick up a booster pump since I think my psi is low.

 

It looks like I have a bit of turf algae on one of my rocks. I will have to hit that with some boiling water to kill it off. I had a couple patches of it on the same rock a couple weeks ago, but I must have missed this section.

 

Fish are doing well. All happy and eating.

Still low on cuc, lost 2 hermits in the last few weeks, but I have 2 ceriths that have laid eggs on the glass twice now.

 

Corals for the most part are doing well. The Duncan has a new head starting! My red scan always seems deflated though and never has feeder tentacles out. The blue one beside it is big and puffy and always has its feeders out. Anything I can try to get it looking happier?

[Llorgon]

Water change and water testing day yesterday.

 

Tank and inhabitants are doing well. The kenya tree has been dropping a few branches so now I have 3 of them...

 

Getting patches of turf algae in the cracks of the rocks. I have been trying to kill the patches with boiling water. Seems to have mixed results. is there any CUC I can add that would eat it?

 

I have been struggling to keep nitrates and phosphates under control. That is probably the first thing I should tackle.

 

Tank Params are
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Phosphate: 0.086
Alkalinity: 9.8
Calcium: 475
Magnesium: 1350

[A.m.P]

If your N03 and P04 are climbing quickly you may be overfeeding. Otherwise if they're stable @ 20 and around 0.1 you're actually not very high up there at all.

Algae is part of a tank's ugly phase, I do not advise using boiling water, spot treat with peroxide instead and remove manually.

Most CUC members will eat just about any algae while it is still sprouting and young, once it starts to grow nothing but some of the larger herbivorous fish will be interested in it.

Hermits, trochus, and astrea are all about the best you can do otherwise, some people have algae blenny's which actually nibble on it, or lettuce nudibranches but neither are guaranteed in any way and the latter can be difficult to keep.

 

[Llorgon]

P04 usually is climbing. I added some chemi pure and it has taken it down to 0.08 from 0.4 so far. Nitrate seems to stay around 5-20ppm depending on how long I go between water changes. I have got a bit off track over the holidays so I'm just now getting to back to my weekly water changes.

 

I will have to pick up some peroxide and give it a try. The boiling water has worked well so far. The algae goes white/grey and then the hermits eat it.

 

I feed 1/4 of a cube of frozen a day for 4 fish. I have been trying to feed the corals with reef roids once a week as well.

 

I have 4 trochus snails on order so hopefully they help out when they get here.

[A.m.P]

You could try doing less frozen, or making your own blend. Pellets can be allot easier on your system, and frozen as a treat, or even every other day, usually still goes over pretty well. Reef roids is also known to spike P04, but it sounds like you've got things about where they should be anyway.

[Llorgon]

I throw in some pellets and flake food about once or twice a week. But I have 3 kinds of frozen food so those are the go to for me.

 

I will experiment with less feeding of frozen and see how that goes.