Jared’s 365 challenge - new uns 40c

[debbeach13]

Tank looks good. That is a nice addition. Sounds like you are going to be busy.

[ef4life]

So I finally got around to installing the kamoer x1 dosing pumps. I’ve had these on the shelf for almost a year now 😂. When opening the second one up it was missing the little barbed tubing connectors so I can finish setting it up now. Sent an email to coralvue so hopefully they can send me the parts ASAP.

 

First doser will be for all for reef, the second will be used as an ato for a while, just a small daily dose and I will still have to top up manually, just once a day vs 3-4 small ones. There is room for 2 more x1s on the little shelf I built, if I don’t add more x1s, it’s a nice little extra shelf space under the desk that I will put to use sooner or later.

here is the current state of the control panel. Starting to look a little crowded but still very manageable. I have a 100oz bottle coming for a reservoir that will fit perfect under the shelf. A tiny bit Bummed I’m not installing a hydros under here right now 😅

 

 

[ef4life]

Coralvue was great, they are sending out the little barbs I need. I also inquired about buying a spare dosing head and they are sending me one, so I’m happy about that. 
 

This showed up today 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

[ef4life]

49 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

[Tired]

Looks about like the box my latest ReefCleaners order came in. Sturdier box than previous orders, I like it. You didn't by any chance get one of those squat lobsters, did you? 

[ef4life]

59 minutes ago, Tired said:

Looks about like the box my latest ReefCleaners order came in. Sturdier box than previous orders, I like it. You didn't by any chance get one of those squat lobsters, did you? 

Not a clean up crew. I have never heard of a squat lobster but now I’m interested 🤣

[Tired]

It's a little crab-like animal, closely related to porcelain crabs and hermit crabs (but not crabs or lobsters), and the kind RC sells normally lives on crinoids. Don't get a crinoid, they're basically impossible to keep and need to be left in the ocean. Crinoid squat lobsters, on the other hand, are fine for aquaria. They don't need the crinoid as long as you feed them, as their typical diet is stealing from the crinoid. They're supposed to be reef-safe and safe with small mobile animals, but there isn't much information on them to be sure with. I have a little one. They're cute, but I don't know much about it yet because it's still new.

[ef4life]

[ef4life]

Looks a little bit too big 😬

 

but damn it is pretty. 

[seabass]

Those seams are sexy.

[ef4life]

So I haven’t done much with the new tank yet. I’m still in the thinking, planning, seeking inspiration stage. I’m also really in no hurry To set it up as the little pico is doing well and I just spend a bunch of money on supplies and dosing pumps for the other 2 tanks, I also added 15lbs of dry rock to the order for the pico

 

i did take a stroll through floor and decor looking for stone, they discontinued the stuff I used before in the pico but had some similar 24”x24” travertine that would work. I also was thinking some type of marble - the white/grey Carrara could be a cool look at first.

 

Probably not wise but i did add a 3rd fish to the pico 😬 a friend was breaking down his tank and was needing to rehome a small chromis, so I took it in. I didn’t want to add it to my 40 and upset the established group. Clowns in biocube would have killed it.  So into the pico he went. He gets along with both the tsb and ycg. They all have their own little spaces to hide out alone even in such a small tank. So far the nutrient levels have stayed the same - basically zero. So as long as things keep going smoothly the chromis will stay until the upgrade. 
 

 

[Tired]

Cute addition, but it's a good thing you're getting a tank upgrade. A 5gal isn't enough space for a chromis (or just about any active fish) long-term. 

[ef4life]

26 minutes ago, Tired said:

Cute addition, but it's a good thing you're getting a tank upgrade. A 5gal isn't enough space for a chromis (or just about any active fish) long-term. 

Yeah for sure. If I didn’t have the pico I would have put him in the frag tank, and still can if I need too.

[ef4life]

So tropic Marin pro salt and all for reef have been really hard to get lately, so I’ve had to switch salts, hopefully the higher alk content of the Red Sea salt wont shock any of my tanks.

 

all for reef is just plain expensive - $33/1L if you can find it even - I just bought the brs 10L diy all for reef kit - so mixing it myself it will be a ton cheaper - down to about $11/1L. 
 

new nano tank updates 

 

- I purchased my new return pump for the tank. Im Mighty jet 326gph, I debated on going to the larger 500gph model but decided against it as I doubt I would need it and that much fellow could probably suck the back aio chamber dry.

 

I decided to stick with the travertine for the new tank. A single 24”x24” piece should give me all the stone I need to build out the overflow. I’m going to try out a pretty crazy corner overflow box - it will be cool if it all actually works like it does in my head.

[ef4life]

I don’t even have the new 40c started and I’m already thinking of another upgrade 😂

[ef4life]

Mighty jet arrived, now I can measure out how big the overflow is going to need to be to fit the heater, pump, a tray for mechanical filtration, and enough room to get a hand back in there to clean. 
 

im going corner overflow, ideally i will have no wave pump in the display, I hope to provide enough flow with the return only, and it has a pulse mode so I can get a little wave action. If not, either my small jebao or one of the small gyres will be added in. 

[ef4life]

Wow!!! that mighty jet pumps some water. Even on the lowest setting I think it pumps way more than it claims. 
 

I did also buy my travertine, so I do plan to get working on it pretty soon.  I bought some ledger stone travertine that looks very natural, flat on the back and almost indistinguishable looking from actual dry rock on its face. So it should make a perfect natural looking rock wall. I still have left over over flow weir teeth from the original build too.

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

It might be worth trying a VCA RFG nozzle, on constant mode. I really liked that combination on our challenge tank. The pulse mode was fine, but it was nosier than the constant mode. 
 

The RFG nozzle really does a good job of randomizing flow. We put them on the 80 gallon, and 20 peninsula. I also have one on my little pico tank. I’m a big fan - plus he’s local to us and part of the FRAG group. His shop is over on your side of town, or most of the LFS here have them in stock. 

[ef4life]

1 hour ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

It might be worth trying a VCA RFG nozzle, on constant mode. I really liked that combination on our challenge tank. The pulse mode was fine, but it was nosier than the constant mode. 
 

The RFG nozzle really does a good job of randomizing flow. We put them on the 80 gallon, and 20 peninsula. I also have one on my little pico tank. I’m a big fan - plus he’s local to us and part of the FRAG group. His shop is over on your side of town, or most of the LFS here have them in stock. 

If my plan works, I won’t have a standard return outlet for one of the rfa to work on.

 

the idea is to make the return pump shoot across the bottom of the tank, to keep detritus suspended, and to make a gyre current directly to the overflow. The hard part is I have to build the entire overflow box just to prove the concept and see if it works how I intend.

here’s a quick drawing on what I’m planning to do. Corner overflow, with multiple small bottom return jets to hopefully evenly distribute the flow across the tank bottom.

[ef4life]

Here’s the travertine I picked out, the smooth piece is the bare bottom, and maybe part of the overflows structure. The rough stuff is the ledger rock and I plan on doing the vertical wall out of that - it’s going to be a hermit crabs dream tank. Although the glue holding it together is suspect. I plan on cutting them apart to smaller pieces to get rid any glue, muriatic acid dip the pieces, and then re-glue it all together with something reef safe (probably just super glue and fine sand) and finally give it an rodi soak for a couple days.

[ef4life]

I haven’t done much of angry with the new tank, the little 5g is still chugging along nicely. A little cyano but nothing major. 

 

im getting excellent growth from my candy canes. All 3 fish are doing well and get along, still have near 0 no3 and po4 was .02 on Saturday when I tested. Alkalinity was low at 6.4 so I increased my dose of the all for reef. 
 

Dirty glass and a frozen water bottle today, tanks running a little warm in the afternoons, inkbird high temp alarm went off at 83* so I have some usb cooling fans coming for the inkbird to control. We haven’t turned on the ac yet, swamp cooler has been keeping up once the sun goes down but the house is getting to 82* in the afternoon. Hopefully we can get another 3-4 weeks without ac

[ef4life]

blue candy canes really have taken off, the one head up front split into 5 heads.

 

Plate coral is happy, I can’t say it has had too much skeletal growth, but it’s flesh is nice and puffy and great color. blue hammer isn’t in the greatest shape, it died back a bit and it’s rather small but doing ok now. 

 

these greens get a lot of flow and the polyps have stayed rather small, but steadily growing and splitting.

 

 

this bird of paradise has been growing well the polyps are pretty translucent compared to when I put it in, but the flesh is nice and green, but pale. I would assume some nitrate would help, I ended up pulling all the acros because the ycg was destroying them. Seems he won’t touch birdsnest coral, so I have a tiny chunk of pink I added in we will see how it goes. Ycg also destroyed the digitatas. 

[Tired]

Check the filters in your RODI unit. I got a cyano surge when I forgot to change my carbon for too long. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

12 hours ago, ef4life said:

I ended up pulling all the acros because the ycg was destroying them.

That's too bad to hear. They're so cute, but they're so destructive to SPS. Sorry to hear that he's wreaked havoc on your corals.