Kimber's Squishy Tank - 2 years later...

[kimberbee]

FTS:

11.30.20

 

12.30.20

 

1.20.21

 

2.11.21

 

3.10.21

 

Tank:
Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 20 with stock return pump (211gph)

Equipment:
InTank media basket (x2) with filter floss, activated carbon (2TB), and Substrat Pro (~1 cup)
Finnex Titanium 100w heater (HMX 100S)
AutoAqua Smart ATO Micro
Nanobox Tide
Digital thermometer
Just under 20lbs Carib-Sea Fiji Pink sand
ReefCleaners dry rock (in use since 2015)

Corals/Inverts:
Splatter hammer
Sinularia
Neon Toadstool
Blue mushrooms
Superman mushrooms

Grandis Palys 
Assorted snails (florida cerith, nerite, dwarf cerith, nassarius, bumblebee)

Fish:
Squiggy & Lenny (~6yr old B&W clownfish)

 

My fish and some of the corals/rocks in this tank have been with me since I started reefing in 2014. A few years ago I upgraded from my biocube to a lagoon-style tank. I plan to get rid of some of my corals completely, and will only focus on a few pieces for this tank. 

[kimberbee]

Day 1: Of course the only coral in this tank that's upset is the hammer. 🙄 2020 has been rough on these poor frags, as this is the 4th time they've looked on the brink of death. I'm trying not to worry, and hopefully they will bounce back within a few days like they have in the past. 

 

I'm holding off just a bit for a FTS,  because the hammers really look bad.

 

I plan to get rid of the neon toadstools eventually, and my extra piece of sinularia. My focus will be on one rock for euphyllias, one rock for the duncan, one rock for mushrooms, and the sinularia in a corner. I'd like to be able to really grow out just a few pieces to fill on the space rather than have a large variety of coral. 

[kimberbee]

I accidentally deleted the FTS I took yesterday. 🤦‍♀️ I was hanging on to it to see if I could get a better shot today. I was hoping things would settle in and open up. I don't want to keep waiting, though, so I went ahead and used a shot from today. 

 

The hammer pieces are soooo pissed off. I hate it. This seems to happen a lot. Fingers crossed they hang in there. 🤞

 

 

 

The bright white is where the tissue receded. 😓

[Elizabeth94]

This will be a nice tank, love the idea. Euphyllias are so temperamental at times. I had a gold colored torch in a nuvo 10 for a while, but once I did a tank upgrade to the nuvo 20 it just melted away. 

[A.m.P]

Wow, I really hope the hammers recover... I lost all of my euphyllia after a tank transfer earlier this year, but it wasn't whiplash-inducing quick like that...

 

Sorry to see the toadstools go, but I certainly understand why, they're big, quick growing, and don't seem to fit the theme you want.

 

Definitely going to lurk about, really hope the euphyllia come around for you.

[kimberbee]

Day 2:

The hammers are starting to recover... phew... I was hoping I just needed to be patient. It's sometimes hard to just standby and wait, so I'm glad that they are already turning around. 

 

[Type-H20]

Tank looks good.  Glad your Hammers are recovering.  Love them, but when they start going its like dominoes sometimes.

[spectra]

Thanks for the link..........
what happened..................

 

[WV Reefer]

On 11/30/2020 at 2:00 PM, kimberbee said:

FTS:

11.30.20

 

Tank:
Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 20 with stock return pump (211gph)

Equipment:
InTank media basket (x2) with filter floss, Chemi-pure Blue Nano (x3), and Substrat Pro (~1 cup)
Finnex Titanium 100w heater (HMX 100S)
AutoAqua Smart ATO Micro
Nanobox Tide
Digital thermometer
Just under 20lbs Carib-Sea Fiji Pink sand
ReefCleaners dry rock (in use since 2015)

Corals/Inverts:
Splatter hammer (x4)
Duncan
Sinularia (x2)
Neon Toadstool (x2)
Blue mushrooms (×3)
Superman mushrooms (x4)

Grandis Palys 
Assorted snails (florida cerith, nerite, dwarf cerith, nassarius, bumblebee)

Fish:
Squiggy & Lenny (~6yr old B&W clownfish)

 

My fish and some of the corals/rocks in this tank have been with me since I started reefing in 2014. A few years ago I upgraded from my biocube to a lagoon-style tank. I plan to get rid of some of my corals completely, and will only focus on a few pieces for this tank. 

In for the new stuff! 😊

[kimberbee]

9 hours ago, spectra said:

Thanks for the link..........
what happened..................

What happened with what? 

[spectra]

1 hour ago, kimberbee said:

What happened with what? 

ok missed the links in your old thread............  I retract my statement above......... 

[kimberbee]

Hmm...

 

 

This guy hasn't ever looked this good. I might have to keep it!!

[A.m.P]

Tyree toadstools are gorgeous for sure, love the pink base.

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, kimberbee said:

Hmm...

 

 

This guy hasn't ever looked this good. I might have to keep it!!

So gorgeous! 🥰

[kimberbee]

Week 2: The hammers are making a great recovery, which makes me very, very happy. Nitrates and phosphates are still very low, but the possible dinos are minimal on the sand. My other tank looks much worse, so I'm not as concerned about what's going on in here. 

 

On the To Do list: get the grandis palys mounted on something, cause right now they are just chillin' on the sandbed. 

 

[kimberbee]

Week 4: Everything seems to have handled the move very well, and though the hammer's were very upset after the move, they have bounced back quickly. I suspect I have dinos - there's a rusty colored substance on my sand bed and my phosphates and nitrates have been 0 or near 0 the last few weeks of testing. I test every 5-7 days while adjusting my dosing, and I just ran a whole set of tests this afternoon:

 

Alk: 9.1

Ca: 425

Mg: 1200

Phos: 0

Nit: 20

Ph: 8.19

 

I have been dosing ESV A (1ml) and B (1.5ml) and these numbers have stayed steady enough for my liking. 

 

I am glad my nitrates are rising, however, now I don't know if I need to start lowering them. I am pretty disappointed that my phosphates have not gone up at all. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears. I was hoping to just cut back on water changes and increase feeding, but it's not having the results I was hoping for.

 

FTS:

[Elizabeth94]

Feeding reef roids always spikes my phosphates the next morning. Do you feed any of that? From what I can tell in your most recent photo things look pretty good. 

[kimberbee]

14 minutes ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Feeding reef roids always spikes my phosphates the next morning. Do you feed any of that? From what I can tell in your most recent photo things look pretty good. 

I was feeding a bit of roids 2x a week. I got lax a this past week cause of the holidays. I'll make more of an effort to use it a tad more. 

 

Things do look pretty happy, other than the rust colored sand. I don't want to change too much too fast, when the corals are decently happy!!

[A.m.P]

FWIW, it doesn't look like the right color for Dino's.
Close, but not quite that color of translucent off-orange.

[Elizabeth94]

I found that fighting conchs do a great job keeping the sand turned and if it turns out not to be dinos- they’ll probably eat it up. 

[thecoralbeauty]

Clicked because i literally have the opposite problem in my tank right now- phos are too high. 

Your tank looks gorgeous and that doesn't look like dino to me. 💜

[kimberbee]

22 minutes ago, thecoralbeauty said:

Clicked because i literally have the opposite problem in my tank right now- phos are too high. 

Your tank looks gorgeous and that doesn't look like dino to me. 💜

Thanks!

 

I feel like it's gotta be diatoms or dinos, and it's in both of my tanks. Both tanks have been at 0 for nitrates and phosphates for a while now. This tank has it the least, and nitrates are finally rising. 

[A.m.P]

I wouldn't worry about the nitrate, most animals will be fine even over 50, P04 is tricky though seachem phosphate is pretty cheap. About as expensive as any substitute will be and you can use their dosing calculator to boot, another upside is the small bottle will last A LONG time XD

 

Honestly looks more like diatoms to me, but it's hard without a close-up and neutral white balance, even then...

[kimberbee]

1 hour ago, A.m.P said:

Honestly looks more like diatoms to me, but it's hard without a close-up and neutral white balance, even then...

They've been around for a while, and always get worse after a water change. I used to think it was diatoms, but with phos/nitrates reaching 0 for a few weeks, I kinda figured it's highly possible it's dinos. 

[thecoralbeauty]

Have you tried this? It worked when I had Dinos. Just a thought since it’s easy enough.
 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/helpful-method-for-identifying-dinoflagellates.216508/