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1 Gallon acro-portrait - Final tank shot


East1

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11 hours ago, Break said:

Fascinating build and some creative chemistry solutions (no pun intended). Will be following this one!

Thank you! I'm really enjoying this tank.

 

It's really surprising to me that of all the stuff in my lab space I spend the most time staring at this tiny reef.

 

It sits next to this replicator, where the centerpiece plants contained within are so endangered in the wild that aside from the captive produced clones, there are less than  a few hundred in situ, and extremely limited in range. This set up was built to define an algorithm that would allow me to grow them indoors without expensive climate control - they require temperatures sub 70f and doing so without a peltier or AC proved challenging. 

 

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Or watching my little tub of Ranitomeya froglets, these are just about ready to permanently leave the water:

 

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but this definitely holds more of my attention per day than anything else. 

 

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I'm looking at getting a few more SPS corals and something to fill out that center section

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Had some discosoma mushrooms set to arrive today, but I think the heat wave must have killed them enroute, they were totally melted (and smelt awful 🤮 ) 

 

Probably gonna order some more SPS soon to fill in the space now I've got alk roughly stable. No sign of my tropic marin salt yet but now consumption is stable I feel a little better lowering alk. I'll probably run it at 7-8dkh. 

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1 hour ago, East1 said:

Had some discosoma mushrooms set to arrive today, but I think the heat wave must have killed them enroute, they were totally melted (and smelt awful 🤮 ) 

That's too bad. Do you mind me asking how long were they enroute. Was that the time you expected? Did they shipped overnight or 2nd day? How was the packing? I am hoping to ship some coral next week and am worried about the heat! I know your in the UK and I am in the USA but any input is appreciated. 

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Ah these were just in an envelope with some damp tissue sent yesterday.

 

I think they were sent via the post box so they probably got roasted in there before collection.

 

I did also receieve some monti shipped in a small envelope with some water but sent via the post office (so indoors all day) and it arrived totally fine, so I suspect either the post box or that they were cut too soon and didn't heal, but it was a $5 gamble so I'm not too bothered. 

 

2 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

That's too bad. Do you mind me asking how long were they enroute. Was that the time you expected? Did they shipped overnight or 2nd day? How was the packing? I am hoping to ship some coral next week and am worried about the heat! I know your in the UK and I am in the USA but any input is appreciated. 

 

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11 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Mushrooms always seem to be 50/50 with me when posted. Even with cold packs

That’s reassuring!

 

ill probably get one or two from my LFS, they now do phone orders and delivery within London which is dangerous.

 

i really wanted to have mushrooms growing out of the reef onto the pot, but in reality I can do the same with some LPS or something 

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Thanks for the info. I am hopeful that with putting the coral in screw top containers with water and maybe paper towels to reduce movement and padding then an ice pack in an insulated box that they will be OK.

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That sounds perfect, you can kinda loosely fold some saranwrap, it doesn't break down like tissue paper etc. 

 

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Thanks for the info. I am hopeful that with putting the coral in screw top containers with water and maybe paper towels to reduce movement and padding then an ice pack in an insulated box that they will be OK.

 

 

 

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Not taken many pics the past day or so, the tank is finally growing hair algae (fancy actually being happy about that?) as well as diatoms now that I added some silicate-rich water to the solution as well as more nitrates. The macros are growing - halimeda finally showing new shoots, as well as the monti healing over where it broke and showing good polyp extension, though still brown. 

 

I'll probably clean the glass once changing to Tropic Marin pro-reef salt. I'll do that after I've dialed in Alk , I got a bottle of TM All For Reef to add to my solution, my kH is still dropping slowly so I'm trying to bolster that up before adding more SPS.  

 

Loads of pods in this tank though, I think they approve of adding silicates for diatoms, tempted to add a trimma goby or something cus I'm almost certain it'd be able to survive mostly off the pod population in the tank. I'll see if anyone even has any of those fish these days. 

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It's a nice rainy day today. 

Added a surface skimmer to my little DIY pump - it's just a cut up inverted Lily pipe inlet, without it there was a thick scum but this seems to do the trick.

 

As with all things in the tank, there's a miniscule 0.2v voltage window where the balance of inflow and outflow allows the pump to surface skim without making a mess of microbubbles. 

 

Finally got my Alk on the rise now, so I can figure out exactly what the solution should be to dose this tank for the current bioload. I'm both looking forward to, and dreading, adding some acropora to this now. 

 

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21 hours ago, East1 said:

Not taken many pics the past day or so, the tank is finally growing hair algae (fancy actually being happy about that?) as well as diatoms now that I added some silicate-rich water to the solution as well as more nitrates. The macros are growing - halimeda finally showing new shoots, as well as the monti healing over where it broke and showing good polyp extension, though still brown. 

 

I'll probably clean the glass once changing to Tropic Marin pro-reef salt. I'll do that after I've dialed in Alk , I got a bottle of TM All For Reef to add to my solution, my kH is still dropping slowly so I'm trying to bolster that up before adding more SPS.  

 

Loads of pods in this tank though, I think they approve of adding silicates for diatoms, tempted to add a trimma goby or something cus I'm almost certain it'd be able to survive mostly off the pod population in the tank. I'll see if anyone even has any of those fish these days. 

Seems like you have a good understanding of your chemistry! What do you think of All For Reef's formula? I used Salifert's All-In-One years ago, to good effect, but AFR seems like all the rage - it was sold everywhere for a good while! I'm hoping I won't need to dose my new pico much, but if I do, I definitely want to keep it simple.

 

Also, are you at all worried about fish jumping out of that little tank? After loosing some myself, I built a mesh top for mine - didn't want to mess with my evaporation or lighting, but had to cut down on the carpet surfing.

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1 minute ago, Break said:

Seems like you have a good understanding of your chemistry! What do you think of All For Reef's formula? I used Salifert's All-In-One years ago, to good effect, but AFR seems like all the rage - it was sold everywhere for a good while!

 

I'm hoping I won't need to dose my new pico much, but if I do, I definitely want to keep it simple.

 

 

I really like AFR, in part from bias cus I've always loved Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt, but also because it's a little more 'complete' than All-In-One - AIO seems to lack iodene etc and was the main reason I was considering going with sourcing everything individually and reconstituting water,but I think it might be simpler to use silicate and amino acid enriched water with AFR for the remainder of my dosing, what seems to happen is that at the dose I use, the AFR converts to carbonate and I end up with a solution at about 17dkh, which adds approx 1.2dkh per day to the tank and associated minerals. The biggest test will be growing acropora, but I want to colour up the very stressed monti before trying that.

 

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2 minutes ago, East1 said:

 

 

I really like AFR, in part from bias cus I've always loved Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt, but also because it's a little more 'complete' than All-In-One - AIO seems to lack iodene etc and was the main reason I was considering going with sourcing everything individually and reconstituting water,but I think it might be simpler to use silicate and amino acid enriched water with AFR for the remainder of my dosing, what seems to happen is that at the dose I use, the AFR converts to carbonate and I end up with a solution at about 17dkh, which adds approx 1.2dkh per day to the tank and associated minerals. The biggest test will be growing acropora, but I want to colour up the very stressed monti before trying that.

 

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Very cool, good to know. 

 

What amino acids are you using and what's the source of them?

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Salifert Coralline Amino Acids, though I might get some Zeovit Pohls Xtra which also has a source of aminos, but I want the ZEObak range so I'll order it at the same time. 

 

In other news dialing in the alk to this degree has taken a whole Salifert test kit, I just opened a new one. 

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3 minutes ago, East1 said:

Salifert Coralline Amino Acids, though I might get some Zeovit Pohls Xtra which also has a source of aminos, but I want the ZEObak range so I'll order it at the same time. 

 

In other news dialing in the alk to this degree has taken a whole Salifert test kit, I just opened a new one. 

I feel you, I just discovered all of my Salifert kits were expired! Tempted to get some Hannah instruments, probably reliable enough my for basic needs (no SPS this time around).

 

Do you think any of the amino acid products by Polpy Lab are worth a look? My professional knowledge of amino acids and nutrition focuses more on humans, so any tips on what to look for in a coral amino acid mix would be much appreciated (assuming they actually provide ingredients somewhere instead of the usual "proprietary blend" bullshit).

 

Hadn't noticed the frogs before! Are they going into one of the rainforest set-ups? 

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ah no, those frogs are tiny and the rainforests are all open topped, they'd disappear and never be seen again, I have smaller viviariums running on similar systems, except they're not very photogenic, essentially just completely full of plants so the frogs can hide a lot, they seem most comfortable this way. 

 

I remember when Amino acids first became a thing that people started dosing, I think Italy was doing it the most noticably because you could get HGH over there legally , which they were adding to the systems with great results. 

 

I think that means most amino acid products are roughly the same, but I seem to recall Sprung tested each amino acid individually and that gives me the most confidence in their brand. 

 

Zeovit was superior in my mind because they blend things in interesting ways, so a lot of their products seem to target metabolic processes, rather than individual mineral levels. 

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9 minutes ago, East1 said:

ah no, those frogs are tiny and the rainforests are all open topped, they'd disappear and never be seen again, I have smaller viviariums running on similar systems, except they're not very photogenic, essentially just completely full of plants so the frogs can hide a lot, they seem most comfortable this way. 

 

I remember when Amino acids first became a thing that people started dosing, I think Italy was doing it the most noticably because you could get HGH over there legally , which they were adding to the systems with great results. 

 

I think that means most amino acid products are roughly the same, but I seem to recall Sprung tested each amino acid individually and that gives me the most confidence in their brand. 

 

Zeovit was superior in my mind because they blend things in interesting ways, so a lot of their products seem to target metabolic processes, rather than individual mineral levels. 

HGH in reef tanks - that's an expensive dosing regimen!

 

I know Sprung was reluctant on amino additives at first and then went on to develop Acro-Power.

 

Did some searching and it looks like Salifert’s Coralline Aminoacids is partially based on this paper: Biosynthesis of ‘essential’ amino acids by scleractinian corals which is pretty interesting - among other things they found that "eight amino acids normally considered essential for animals were made by the five corals tested, although some of them were made only in small quantities." I think that definitely lends some credibility to the metabolic process approach for sure!

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18 minutes ago, Break said:

HGH in reef tanks - that's an expensive dosing regimen!

 

I know Sprung was reluctant on amino additives at first and then went on to develop Acro-Power.

 

Did some searching and it looks like Salifert’s Coralline Aminoacids is partially based on this paper: Biosynthesis of ‘essential’ amino acids by scleractinian corals which is pretty interesting - among other things they found that "eight amino acids normally considered essential for animals were made by the five corals tested, although some of them were made only in small quantities." I think that definitely lends some credibility to the metabolic process approach for sure!

 

I meant Salifert not Sprung! I've not noticed a difference between the two so I assume they're similar.

 

I think the metabolic processes Zeovit targets are quite specific, too. For example Zeostart has a carbon source and nitrate, to ensure that all excess phosphates are metabolised. I've seen similar ratio based things with Acropora, for example the threshold between CaCO3 and NO3 ,where there's an imbalance - for example excess CaCO3 and not enough NO3, the animal seems to die back as a result of excess CO2 build up I think because NO3 is limited, the zoox cannot produce enough oxygen locally at the tips where coral mass is smallest to keep the microclimate (or nanoclimate) stable. 

 

There are other metabolic balance processes like that I'm sure that KZ are aware of, I've noticed their products have interesting effects on the bacterial popualtions too. 

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5 minutes ago, East1 said:

 

I meant Salifert not Sprung! I've not noticed a difference between the two so I assume they're similar.

 

I think the metabolic processes Zeovit targets are quite specific, too. For example Zeostart has a carbon source and nitrate, to ensure that all excess phosphates are metabolised. I've seen similar ratio based things with Acropora, for example the threshold between CaCO3 and NO3 ,where there's an imbalance - for example excess CaCO3 and not enough NO3, the animal seems to die back as a result of excess CO2 build up I think because NO3 is limited, the zoox cannot produce enough oxygen locally at the tips where coral mass is smallest to keep the microclimate (or nanoclimate) stable. 

 

There are other metabolic balance processes like that I'm sure that KZ are aware of, I've noticed their products have interesting effects on the bacterial popualtions too. 

Interesting, I appreciate the explanation - sounds like I'll have to give KZ's catalog a look!

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een a little while since I posted, I’ve added a few more sps to the tank and wanted to ensure stability before posting.

 

as I mentioned in @teamschreiba new thread, I’ve had issues with pocillopora in my smallest tanks, turns out it’s a flow issue - where acro and montipora can endure many kinds of flow I’ve found that pocillopora get stressed out and fully retract under certain flow conditions, but I’ve not figured out which specifically.

 

also seems to be that halimeda doesn’t like growing above 9.5dkh, not sure why.

 


 

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teamschreiba

Yours looks pretty happy in that picture though!  Figure out the flow this time? 
 

I wasn’t going add any pocillopora but when I purchased a couple frags from a local reefer he kindly threw some in for free! We’ll see how it does... no PE yet but only been in the tank for 24 hours. 

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10 hours ago, teamschreiba said:

Yours looks pretty happy in that picture though!  Figure out the flow this time? 
 

I wasn’t going add any pocillopora but when I purchased a couple frags from a local reefer he kindly threw some in for free! We’ll see how it does... no PE yet but only been in the tank for 24 hours. 

They're quite picky for the first 48 anyway, that picture was taken about 15 minutes after moving the pump half an inch, for two days before that it had almost 0 PE to the point I added some poly filter and did a water change :lol:

 

It's remarkable how the flow impacts them. What I found is that angling the pump to create a little gyre that runs along the front glass and sweeps water up against the side of the bonsai pot and through the branches from below has an almost instant impact on PE. This makes sense because it is primarily a reef slope coral where the flow tends to sweep upward toward the reef crest. It doesn't seem to like strong water movement and I liken it to some of the deep water acros. 

 

Here's the 'before' pic 15 mins prior. 

 

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