Starfishie99 Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 On 5/23/2020 at 8:28 PM, ef4life said: no algae problem now since there has been no daily feedings. I’ve been adding a little coral amino or a splash of food every few days just to keep some nutrients in the tank. Zoas haven’t really been happy, but the clove polyps are loving life and growing 🤷♂️. I forgot I still had the blue digi in the tank, it’s grown a tad, but it’s brown, it’s never had good color since I got it. anyways the may fts what are those in the second pic, they look like underwater ferns aha, are they the clove polyps? love your tank! 1 1 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 4 hours ago, Starfishie99 said: what are those in the second pic, they look like underwater ferns aha, are they the clove polyps? love your tank! Yes clove polyps 1 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted June 27, 2020 Author Share Posted June 27, 2020 June full tank shot, not much changed at all. Zoas just don’t seem happy. I’ve been adjusting the light intensity slightly to see what happens but idk, I’ll be getting a par meter in a few weeks from the local club to see what it actually is at. I did swap out the return pump again, the eheim 300 not enough flow, mj600 I tried was just flat out noisy, so I bought an eheim 600, seems like the right amount of flow, but it is sort of noisy, quiet enough to live with though. I ended up getting another bicolor dottyback last night. I had some frags for sale and a guy messaged me asking to trade the fish for a few frags. I took the dottyback, but sadly it’s very thin and stressed and hasn’t eaten. I didn’t think it would make it through the night but it’s still here today, very shy though so I haven’t gotten a picture. Not sure if it will make it through the next few days unless it starts to eat. 2 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 I like when reefers can work out a trade. I hope the fish adjusts to it's new home and makes it. 2 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted June 27, 2020 Author Share Posted June 27, 2020 36 minutes ago, debbeach13 said: I like when reefers can work out a trade. I hope the fish adjusts to it's new home and makes it. Thanks, 🤞🤞 1 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share Posted July 3, 2020 Dottyback is doing well so far, it doesn’t eat much, it’s very small and the pellet food I was feeding I think was too big for it, so I bought some smaller food and it seems to like it better. Still thin, but looks healthy. It’s getting used to seeing me now so it doesn’t just hide when I walk by the tank. I have the clubs par meter now, so this weekend I will be cleaning and measuring all the tanks. 4 lights to measure is going to be a drag to do, but worth it in the end. I really need to dial this prime in. new pictures/ par numbers this weekend. 2 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted July 5, 2020 Author Share Posted July 5, 2020 New dottyback video And par readings from the tank. The prime can really kick out some light at 100%, I was getting over 400 par on the bottom when I checked it. 5 Quote Link to comment
NoOneLikesADryTang Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 Glad he’s pulled through for you!! 1 Quote Link to comment
Elizabeth94 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 What a beautiful little dottyback. I used to have an orchid- Very active swimmers. 1 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 July’s fts, went with a sunrise look for this month. tanks still chugging along, I added a small piece of bubblegum digi I accidentally broke off the little mini colony from my bigger tank. So far it’s doing well. Zoas still aren’t really happy in this tank though. I’m Thinking about adding a couple more frags soon. 4 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 What are your nutrient levels at? Zoas really don't like super clean tanks, as a general rule. Quote Link to comment
NoOneLikesADryTang Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 I know you recently had the par meter - what kind of par are they in right now? Quote Link to comment
PicoMatt Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Very pretty cloves 😍 1 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 3 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said: I know you recently had the par meter - what kind of par are they in right now? Right now this is the primes setting and par output. so center is the highest par at 190, I have rastas there, they look ok, polyps are really small, but good color. Just behind them at 127 is the clove polyps which have been growing great. Off to the right at 109 is the zoas that just don’t look good, and really haven’t done well. 80 par is more clove polyps growing well. Left side - 140 par - monti digi frag doing ok but new to tank, same spot there is a blue monti digi that hasn’t grown or shown good color since putting it in way back when. 115 par - some little orange zoas that seem to be doing well. That whole left front area used to have lots of red mushrooms and gsp on it, they aren’t doing great in the light from 115-140par. The couple mushrooms left are so tiny and shriveled up. Gsp is ok, but not looking amazing. Some gha on the left rock mixed in with the gsp Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 5 hours ago, Tired said: What are your nutrient levels at? Zoas really don't like super clean tanks, as a general rule. I haven’t been testing this tank, but it’s been getting 1-2g water changes almost every week since I set it up. Now that I have a fish again I am feeding the tank regularly, I do have algae growing on the glass and some gha algae on the rock so it’s not zero nutrients. I have been running carbon lately to pull anything from the water that might be bad just as a precaution and I have it sitting around. Quote Link to comment
NoOneLikesADryTang Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Doesn’t sound like it’s a light issue, then. What are your phosphates and nitrates are? I’m wondering if all that travertine is sucking up all your phosphates. Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 It's possible it's very low nutrients, and the algae is sucking up all the available stuff. Especially considering the carbon. You should definitely check your nutrient levels. Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted August 4, 2020 Author Share Posted August 4, 2020 On 7/31/2020 at 6:15 PM, NoOneLikesADryTang said: Doesn’t sound like it’s a light issue, then. What are your phosphates and nitrates are? I’m wondering if all that travertine is sucking up all your phosphates. On 7/31/2020 at 6:49 PM, Tired said: It's possible it's very low nutrients, and the algae is sucking up all the available stuff. Especially considering the carbon. You should definitely check your nutrient levels. Tested Saturday before cleaning Yes phophates are low, looked like .01-.02 to me, but hard to tell at that range with the Red Sea test. Nitrates was 0 for sure. But the alk,ca,mg was all ok since nothing has been consuming them really. Quote Link to comment
NoOneLikesADryTang Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Definitely sounds like it’s running a little too clean for the zoas liking. I’ve seen good growth on our zoas with them in tanks with nitrates anywhere between 5-40. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Oh, that's your problem right there. Your phosphates should be somewhere in the neighborhood of .05, and nitrates should be much higher than 0. Your zoas are hungry! Stop doing water changes for awhile, let the nutrients build up. They'll appreciate that. You may get a bit of an algae bloom, but that won't do any harm as long as you have a pipette handy to keep it off any corals it might try to grow on. You're probably going to have an algae situation going on for a little bit. Right now, all the pest algae is thriving in the low nutrients, and using its ability to do so to take over. When there are more nutrients, other, less hardy algae types will crop up, and will compete with those. If/when you find the right balance of snails, feeding, and water changes, and the algae gets to the point where many species are competing, your pest algae should pretty much vanish on its own. It'll still be in the tank, but there will be small enough amounts that you won't notice. 1 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted August 16, 2020 Author Share Posted August 16, 2020 Taking some pictures last night with the new camera after I cleaned the tank. nitrates and phosphate are still too low, I’ve been feeding pretty heavy - a few mysis shrimp, small amount of phytoplankton and roe, and a half scoop of brighwell reef blizzard L everyday. Algae growth hasn’t exploded though, but the levels aren’t coming up. 4 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted August 16, 2020 Share Posted August 16, 2020 At least you know no one is hungry. 1 Quote Link to comment
ECLS Reefer Posted August 16, 2020 Share Posted August 16, 2020 Your camera seems to be doing great- what did you get? 1 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 6 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said: Your camera seems to be doing great- what did you get? Canon t7i dslr. It’s way better than an iPhone, learning to use it to get great pictures is going to be a long process, so many buttons and settings it is overwhelming. But I’ve been reading and watching YouTube videos on photography and I’ve learned a ton already. 2 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 I didn’t have to work this morning so I was taking pictures of the pico. Out of probably 50 photos changing settings to try and get it to look right, only 1 made the final cut. So this is my August fts 4 Quote Link to comment
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