Seafurn's Old School Pico Gets An Upgrade - 365 Day Challenge

[Wingy]

More frequent water changes of a smaller percentage would probably be the safest way not to throw the tank off balance and will tell you if it is a trace element your lacking.  That being said my zoas were slowly getting smaller and some had lost color, I was using mostly blue also.  I turned off the white and added some red/green and they are starting to do better.  Unfortunately  so is the brown algae growing on the substrate but I will trade that for happy zoas.  

[SeaFurn]

Day 148

 

Didn’t do that big water change today. Tested the water, fed the corals, and then dosed nitrogen and phosphorus and everything looked fairly good - well, at least everything that I expected to look good, so I just let things ride.  

 

I’m starting to see some color appearing on the edges of the smallest recovering ricordea. When I’m feeding the corals I always make sure they get some. It’s slow going but I think they will fully recover. 

 

There have been no hiccups with the ATO since the one earlier in the week. I still haven’t figured out what happened

with that. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 149

 

Looking pretty good today. 

 

 

 

[Tigahboy]

Just 216 more days to go. 

[A.m.P]

8 hours ago, Tigahboy said:

Just 216 more days to go. 

But who's counting?

[SeaFurn]

Day 150

 

20 hours ago, Tigahboy said:

Just 216 more days to go. 

 

12 hours ago, Amphrites said:

But who's counting?

No doubt. Should I stop? Maybe just stick to the once a month FTS? 

I never claimed this was gonna be high in entertainment value.  

[A.m.P]

Nah, I think Tigah was goofing around and I was just joking with the obvious, your consistency is kind of crazy. I actually straight-couldn't do a daily update.

[Tigahboy]

I was only generally complaining about the length of this contest which is very lengthy. 😅

[SeaFurn]

Day 151

 

Another shot showing the dramatic effect of the salinity swing. I’ve mentioned that my acan has been looking good, but what I haven’t mentioned is how much it had shrunk down - like most of the corals that survived. 

You can see how much of its skeleton is now visible. The tissue of the individual heads used to be touching. I’m spot feeding it frequently to get it back into shape.

 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 152

 

Phosphates registered 0.04 today! About damn time. I’ve been taking it slow so I didn’t overshoot that by much. Nitrates are still low so I dosed a little more nitrogen. That should allow some of the phosphate to get used up. I think it’s going to end up being 3-4 drops

of nitrogen per day and 2 drops of phosphorus. 

It’s been quite a trial and error process trying to get the balance right.

[A.m.P]

1 hour ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 152

 

Phosphates registered 0.04 today! About damn time. I’ve been taking it slow so I didn’t overshoot that by much. Nitrates are still low so I dosed a little more nitrogen. That should allow some of the phosphate to get used up. I think it’s going to end up being 3-4 drops

of nitrogen per day and 2 drops of phosphorus. 

It’s been quite a trial and error process trying to get the balance right.

Hey, congrats, it took a crazy amount in my system too, hopefully this is a real turning point.

[SeaFurn]

22 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Hey, congrats, it took a crazy amount in my system too, hopefully this is a real turning point.

Thanks! I hope so too and that the ATO gremlins stay away! 

 

I’m still a little unsure what to do about water change though. In theory I’d have to immediately dose some amount to get nitrates and phosphates to pre-water change levels. Or should I not even worry about that and just stick to the normal daily dosing amount? 

[SeaFurn]

Day 153

 

Maybe my eyes are deceiving me but does it look like this zoa polyp is splitting or getting a second mouth? Do they even do that? I’ve never seen any others of mine do it. Normally a baby polyp sprouts up next to one. 

 

[A.m.P]

52 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Thanks! I hope so too and that the ATO gremlins stay away! 

 

I’m still a little unsure what to do about water change though. In theory I’d have to immediately dose some amount to get nitrates and phosphates to pre-water change levels. Or should I not even worry about that and just stick to the normal daily dosing amount? 

I dose the NSW.

[Tired]

It kinda just looks like two polyps growing really close to each other for some reason, but it's worth keeping an eye on. I know a couple of people swear they've seen zoa polyps split, and I suppose it's possible.

 

You might try gently bothering them with a stick or pipette, and see what that one looks like closed up. Easiest way to check if it's one or two polyps.

[SeaFurn]

Day 154

 

July 31, 2020  FTS

 

[SeaFurn]

21 hours ago, Tired said:

see what that one looks like closed up

Took a close look at it while it was closed up this morning. It’s definitely just one polyp. Will see if it keeps developing like it’s going to turn into 2. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 155

 

PSA - For those of you who use a Hanna salinity checker. Today is the second time that the checker has suddenly lost its calibration even though it still indicates it’s calibrated.

This morning I checked the salinity in both of my tanks. 1.026 in the pico, 1.024 in the 45. Then I used it to mix new water for my 45. No issues up to this point. Later in the afternoon I used it to check the temp in the pico and the salinity popped up as 1.024. Wait, what? That dropped. Weird.

I then checked the 45 and it was 1.022. That dropped too. This was making no sense. 

Then I used my refractometer to check the salinity in both tanks. Sure enough, the readings with the refractometer matched the readings this morning. The checker had somehow lost 0.002 on its measurements. After recalibrating it, the measurements again matched the morning readings. I’m glad I caught it. Not sure how I’ll catch it if it happens again. I’m losing a bit of confidence in this instrument. 

 

[debbeach13]

Glad you double checked. That could have messed things up.

[SeaFurn]

28 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Glad you double checked. That could have messed things up.

Yeah...I’m gonna use my refractometer occasionally just as double check from now on. I sure don’t need any more mess ups! 

[Wingy]

Do you swish the Hanna around or dip it in?  I have found I need to really swish it if I have recently rinsed it. The only thing that makes sense is that some fresh water is being trapped somewhere and hasn't had time to evaporate.  A few months ago mine started acting strange, randomly shutting off and giving wild readings, until I reseated the battery.  I was going to call about having it replaced thinking there was a loose wire or bad connection but on a whim tried reseating the battery and that fixed the problem.

[SeaFurn]

Day 156

 

Goals for August:

1. Stability

2. Stability

3. Stability 

 

Specifically, I’m talking about salinity and maintaining nitrates and phosphates. Seems pretty straightforward but it’s been a challenge for me. 

I’d also like to get some tank maintenance accomplished starting with getting the ABS tacked back down. (As long as I don’t change my mind and go with sand). That’s gonna take a little planning as I’ll have to move everything out for a brief period while the silicone dries. While I’m doing that I should probably clean the back chambers. 

I’m also hoping that I can keep the zoas mostly open during the month and that they gain a little size back, along with the acan and a couple of the ricordea. We’ll see. 

 

13 hours ago, Wingy said:

 

Do you swish the Hanna around or dip it in?

 

I swish it around and then hold it steady while it registers the reading. 

After I’m done I dip it in RODI and dry it off.  

I’m glad reseating the battery fixed yours. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 157

 

A baby Rasta making an appearance while the Solar Flares (to the right) remain closed for the 3rd straight week (maybe longer - can’t remember).  I just wish I knew what causes them to do this for extended periods.

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 158

 

These Cat Eye zoas have been curled up for a couple weeks. Their mouths are still gaping open a little and the green color is slowly coming back in their centers. How about that hammer though?! 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 159

 

I’ll save you all the 1:30am drama and just say the ATO failed AGAIN - this time completely overfilling the tank and completely draining the RODI container. The floor was soaked and the tank was at 1.017. I don’t know how long the corals were exposed to that. So I immediately moved everything to the 45 and cleaned up the mess.

Today the corals looked as

good as ever in the 45. Amazing.

I guess that goes to show that the 45 is a pretty healthy tank.

Now I’ve got to decide what to do. I know I don’t want to keep the corals in the RFA breeding tank. Do I move them back to the pico or set up the IM10? Or go even bigger in general for more stability. I’ve even considered just moving the zoa rock into my bowl and calling it a day. That bowl was so easy. 

 

So much for August being the month of stability. I don’t have a lot of good things to say about XP Aqua Duetto. Mine has proven to be completely unreliable. 

(Yeah there’s a bit of hair algae in the tank but the clownfish have eggs so I haven’t been messing with their flower pot) 

And below are the rest of the corals. Look at how relaxed that ricordea is.