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Daniel92481

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Daniel92481

Hey reefers!🙂

 

It’s been a while since my last update and boy things sure have been crazy. First off, as many of you know, Texas was frozen for a few days. Some reefers lost everything! All the time, effort, and money spent! Gone.😪I did end up losing one turbo snail, most of the polyps of my whammin’ watermelons, and a few polyps of my utter chaos. Flash, my firefish and my fire shrimp thankfully both survived the ordeal. Although upsetting to have some losses, I feel very fortunate to have not lost it all. Seemed like it sure came close though. My power was out for 2 days. I woke up to the tank temp at 68.5°F and scrambled to find a solution. I was able to plug my tank into my trucks inverter for 17 hours while waiting for things to thaw out so I could go pick up the generator. My poor Lifegard Aquatics 25W heater wasn’t able to keep up the the freezing temps so I had to place my 75W Eheim heater (normally used for mixing my saltwater) in the tank. I cranked it up to 90°F and things started warming up gradually.
 

Long story short, thankfully my tank pulled through and seems to be doing well.🙂


I have continued following my bi-weekly maintenance routine of 80% water changes with good results. The water changes along with my chemipure blue nano packet have managed to keep my nutrient levels within a healthy range. My phosphate is normally <0.05 with nitrates between 1-2. Other than the chemipure packet, I’m only using filter floss that I change out weekly. 
 

I have added some frags, snails, a squamosa clam, and another fish recently. I ordered some snails online from one of the best places ever. They got lost in the mail thanks to USPS. When I finally received them, they were all DRT (dead right there). I managed to find some replacements from my LFS. 2 Turbos and 2 Trochus. 
 

As far as frags go, I have added a mystic montipora, meteor shower cyphastrea, Superman rhodactis mushroom, and some teal Kandy Kane’s. All the frags are acclimating well.🙂 The newly added squamosa clam is about 3-4 inches in length and really seems to like his new spot. He really expands throughout the day. 

 

Although all of these new additions are exciting, my new fish is probably the most exciting here. I recently added a captive bred blue mandarin. He’s so tiny! Only about 3/4 inch. I have had him for about two weeks now. He is responding well in his new home and plays well with flash and my fire shrimp. Being captive bred, he has been raised on TDO chroma boost pellets. I was already feeding flash and my fire shrimp these pellets so it has really seemed to work out for all three of them. Of course the mandarin, named Blu, never passes up a fat pod. He cruises around pecking at the rocks, glass, and sand. He is so cool to watch!🙂

 

I have one more piece of exciting reefing news to share within this update...

 

As many of you know, this tank was started after the break down of my Nuvo 40 that was running for a year. After some consideration, I have decided to start another tank! So exciting! I recently purchased the Nuvo Fusion 30L with APS stand scheduled for end of April delivery! I have already started acquiring equipment for the new tank and plan to start another build thread soon. Although more time consuming, I have grown to love this little 4.1 gallon slice of the ocean and plan to keep it running. Truth be told, I have never had two tanks running at once, so this will be a new experience for me.

Well, I think that should cover things for now. Thanks for reading! I have attached a few pics! Until next time reefers! ✌️

29635760-4CF3-4D47-9C74-9C4241BEDBE2.thumb.jpeg.42153db96c44ab6c11c6f4752cc2d0f5.jpeg36C49247-5021-4415-8CBD-36D5FED2E546.thumb.jpeg.bcd5475c4018b80590e98cd3adf3a993.jpegC03ED116-7ABD-4137-BCBA-8B91188C13F5.thumb.jpeg.68e484fcd898e14e1a8a03f17eeef184.jpegA2F26833-AB49-4856-A337-F4687E8D9251.thumb.jpeg.e387d17f454e5c8f8d656241736d4f4e.jpeg4EC87EB8-77F9-475B-A50E-B00F5126AB9D.thumb.jpeg.355798f9fc78cfe97023597ccd553dd0.jpeg18D883AF-4D97-477E-8EE2-5107BB2500BD.thumb.jpeg.382f78a67c56be70a4194062b06b6b34.jpegFD8088C1-B465-4A05-A955-E835F2D648D2.thumb.jpeg.08c53ff1b41bb1b24e0b86a0a641fed3.jpeg60889145-0D34-4713-B2F4-AD7453889F67.thumb.jpeg.aae9b1a2e7f65cd71e568caff2653c0e.jpeg

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Glad to hear most of your livestock made it through the storm... that’s incredible you were able to power it with your truck. Your tank looks so beautiful, love the rock flower. Looking forward to seeing your new tank. 

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Daniel92481
On 3/27/2021 at 10:16 PM, banasophia said:

Glad to hear most of your livestock made it through the storm... that’s incredible you were able to power it with your truck. Your tank looks so beautiful, love the rock flower. Looking forward to seeing your new tank. 

Thanks! It was definitely nerve wracking wondering if it would pull through or not. The shrimp, flash, and all but one snails survived the chilly 68.5°. Hard to believe! 

On 3/27/2021 at 10:17 PM, JR! said:

looking great brother

 

Thanks JR!🤘

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  • 3 weeks later...
Daniel92481

Hey reefers! Just wanted to give a quick monthly update. In anticipation of receiving my new 30L, I’ve been acquiring some additional pieces for grow out in the pico. After my last update, I realized that my biweekly water changes alone were not enough to keep up with the ALK and Ca demand of my new additions, especially the squamosa! I swear that thing drinks ALK and Ca with a straw! Anyways, I’ve been testing and adding Kent Marine part A&B nano accordingly. I figured I would rather add these supplements vs. trying to stabilize with additional weekly water changes. The Kent Marine A&B two part is almost effortless and works well with me adding to the tank after I manually top off RODI every night. So far, so good.

*New additions*

-Cespitularia

-Sunny D zoas

-Radioactive dragon eyes zoas

-Bird of paradise 

-Rainbow stylophora

-Ahh-mazing ricordea 

-Hellfire torch (2 head)

-Dragon soul torch

-Glitter bomb goniopora

ALK has been from 6.5-7.5 since my last update, adjusting accordingly with two part. The goal is to continue with this plan until my new 30L settles in and I can start moving some corals over. Until next time reefers!
346E6A23-AEA3-4362-B623-F4C1CF523127.thumb.jpeg.301a1a992987a9c14393d6255982ae41.jpeg

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Daniel92481
1 hour ago, A.m.P said:

Haha, yeah, clams and that stylo will drink ALK, the clam may also start tanking your CAL independently/out-of-sync with your ALK so be sure to watch both!

Haha yea, I have been checking daily, trying to stay on top of it. He does this cool thing where he periodically shuts his mantle in a quick motion, throwing up sand and I’m guessing pods too? Every time he does this, my mandarin goes nucking futz! 😄

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23 hours ago, Daniel92481 said:

Hey reefers! Just wanted to give a quick monthly update. In anticipation of receiving my new 30L, I’ve been acquiring some additional pieces for grow out in the pico. After my last update, I realized that my biweekly water changes alone were not enough to keep up with the ALK and Ca demand of my new additions, especially the squamosa! I swear that thing drinks ALK and Ca with a straw! Anyways, I’ve been testing and adding Kent Marine part A&B nano accordingly. I figured I would rather add these supplements vs. trying to stabilize with additional weekly water changes. The Kent Marine A&B two part is almost effortless and works well with me adding to the tank after I manually top off RODI every night. So far, so good.

*New additions*

-Cespitularia

-Sunny D zoas

-Radioactive dragon eyes zoas

-Bird of paradise 

-Rainbow stylophora

-Ahh-mazing ricordea 

-Hellfire torch (2 head)

-Dragon soul torch

-Glitter bomb goniopora

ALK has been from 6.5-7.5 since my last update, adjusting accordingly with two part. The goal is to continue with this plan until my new 30L settles in and I can start moving some corals over. Until next time reefers!
346E6A23-AEA3-4362-B623-F4C1CF523127.thumb.jpeg.301a1a992987a9c14393d6255982ae41.jpeg

 

I am drooling one day mine might look that good.

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Daniel92481
2 minutes ago, dwdenny said:

I am drooling one day mine might look that good.

Hey, thanks! It will, just keep doing what you’re doing! I have found that it takes a lot of patience, and I have close to zero haha🙄

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  • 4 weeks later...
Daniel92481

Another quick update here… 
 

All in all, pico is doing good. I rearranged a few corals due to warfare on my Duncan. I had to move the candy cane down a little, while moving the Duncan to the right side where the bowsers used to be. I now have them on the left side of the rock for now. My Duncan was turning black in the spots it was getting stung by the candy cane. I didn’t realize that they would sting any of my corals. Now that I have moved the Duncan out of his way, the Duncan is definitely looking better and starting to recover. I also have some sad news to report about one of my newest additions. Sadly, my glitter bomb goniopora disintegrated. So heartbreaking! I have lost a few corals during the few years I’ve been in the hobby, but this one definitely hurt the most. Not only because of its beauty, but because it was a cool $299, making it the most expensive coral I’ve lost to date. Ugh! I guess these are things that we have to be prepared for. Just sucks. On a brighter note, the other corals are doing well, I would say thriving in this system. I’m still manually adding top off every night, as well as testing parameters biweekly. To maintain levels, I have also been adding Kent Marine nano A&B every night. Usually between 10-15 drops, keeping ALK at 7.5-7.7. I had some extra space between my new 30L and the pico, so I decided to set up another cool little tank. It’s a 1/2 gallon micro reef. I posted some info about it on another thread if you want to take a look! I will also post a few pics of it here along with some new pics of the pico. That should be it for now. Just trying to keep things stable as can be.
 

Thanks for reading reefers! Now for some pics!😃C9943E2F-056E-4435-BC26-35A71E95FD02.thumb.jpeg.2dba2108403d9f367225851cd83cdcba.jpeg4C0E193F-A7B7-4098-BB98-68845341F20A.thumb.jpeg.b379602c6a9ffd5eaaff3ea9e598f6e9.jpeg8DE0CE5F-2039-4EF9-8E68-974565C75BF4.thumb.jpeg.064e43566d67fd731a352e81b226a7d1.jpegB7ED0F2E-CCBD-45A5-BA6D-B7F9320AD696.thumb.jpeg.1374890adf35db0c4b6eb6033f5406f8.jpeg

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Sorry about that glitter bomb goni. Feels like a kick in the gut just reading about it!

Love the way that big RFA looks front and center in the tank! I have a nice mini maxi carpet that loves wedge itself in spots that are not visible from the front of the tank. Every other month it will move out to a brighter spot and bulldoze everything in its way. Stay out a few weeks then crawl back into the crevice in the middle of the night. So frustrating.

 

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Daniel92481

Hey, thanks a lot! Just part of the hobby, I guess. It definitely still stings a bit haha. 
 

Yea, that is frustrating! They do their own thing that’s for sure. I had an RBTA in the past that used to plop itself on my high dollar zoa garden. No! I had to get rid of him. He was so beautiful though. This RFA has moved one time since September. He moved from the side to the front of the tank. Fingers crossed he stays put! 😄

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Daniel92481
6 minutes ago, dwdenny said:

Wow that is horrible and I think I would curl up in a ball and sulk for a bit. 

Maybe I did haha. The other expensive one I lost was when I had the Nuvo 40. I bought a little shop of horrors zoa single polyp for $249 and accidentally smooshed it with my gorilla thumb. It was tiny, like the size of a pinhead. Ridiculous! Haha

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