the salty puddle

[M. Tournesol]

Good news, I did see my rainfordi put in his mouth (eat?) some frozen food. Hope it's a good sign that he is learning that frozen food is edible and that his diet will not be 100% live food.

[M. Tournesol]

Looking closely 👁️ at the video, there was a pod next to the food  (you can see a little white speck next to the food disappears when the fish suck the food)

one step at a time 🙂 

Edited August 23, 2021 by M. Tournesol

[M. Tournesol]

Just showcasing the fluffiest of my corals 🥰. A seriatopora bird of paradise frag put in my tank 3 months ago.

[Subsea]

On 2/17/2021 at 6:56 AM, M. Tournesol said:

Thank you all. It's been 2 years since I started locking into reef keeping. The biodiversity aspect and symbiotic relationship are really what did drive me to test it. One of the original plan was to go with a Jaubert plenum (a french forum dedicated to it exist). For size/weight limitation I chose to go for a dirty approach after seeing WV Reefer reefs.

 

A little update on the puddle, all seem to be ok. Looking at it is like looking at a piece of wild grass. It's also a paradise for amphipod. I did count 50-60 amphipods just one the front glass.

As you can see in the first picture, my ceriths did naughty think. It is the second time that they did produce egg in the tank. 
here a photo of the egg and another of the three guilty snails(one may be innocent).

My first test for ammonia did return < 0.15ppm of total ammonia (< ~0.0132ppm free ammonia for 8.2 ph and 26 °C), nitrite and nitrate are still super low (respectively below 0.01 and 0.2). I should be ready for the fishes and if think go south, I do have some "ammo stop". The only think that I am missing is frozen food. 

 

The seller has a mated pair of yasha gobies. With it, I ordered 2 cypraea annulus (ring cowrie), a alpheus randalli, 2 sabelle sp and my first (test) coral (a pink seriatopora hystrix). 

Welcome to the dirty side of Reefing.  I prefer the term “nutrient rich”.   I caution you on keeping such low nitrogen in your water. In time you will find that desirable macro & coral will be outcompeted by dinos & cyno, which have highly adaptive nutrient survival mechanisms.

 

your writing style & sense of humor are refreshing.  Keep it coming.

[Subsea]

On 2/10/2021 at 11:27 AM, M. Tournesol said:

The Vision driving this build is a pocciloporidae only tank with a colony of trapezia poccilopora and a shrimp goby pair. The filtration was designed to be natural or "dirty" with only water change and, some time, carbon. It is composed of a canister filter cryptic zone, algae reactor in reverse daylight for PH stability and an inline heater.

 

Let’s talk biochemistry of cryptic sponges and their consumption of DOC.  ALL photosynthetic organisms give off dissolved organic carbon.  Coral DOC is predominantly lipids & proteins and macro dissolved organic carbon is composed of carbohydrates which is glucose.  Cryptic sponges process DOC so fast they would double in mass in 6 hours if it were not for detritus sloughed off.  MULM is the beginning of the microbial loop which moves carbon up the food chain.

 

PS:  considering that cryptic sponges process DOC from algae, I suggest moving algae reactor in front of cryptic refugium.

 

Do you really think that pH bufferring of opposite photocycle is necessary?  I don’t.  I suggest that oxygen is more important than pH.

 

https://wamas.org/forums/topic/78578-mulm-in-a-reef-tank/

[M. Tournesol]

9 minutes ago, Subsea said:

PS:  considering that cryptic sponges process DOC from algae, I suggest algae reactor in front of cryptic refugium.

Cool info, but this would place the pump blade🔪 after the algae reactor.

Because of my rainfordi, I prefer to have a maximum of surviving pods coming from the reactor (even if this is a disillusionment). 

10 minutes ago, Subsea said:

Do you really think that pH bufferring of opposite photocycle is necessary?  I don’t.

I am a beginner 😉, I don't know. But since I already did buy my reactor💸 I don't know why this would not be positive.

Having a reef tank rich in oxygen shouldn't be a bad thing (especially in my bed room. I am kind of a big sucker of O2 😳)

 

 

[Subsea]

I use robust circulation at water surface for gas exchange.   
 

with respect to pump harming pods, that may be true.  Any pods harmed would be easy food for omnivores.  Did I not see an army of Copepods in your display?   Because I am using a canister filter, all water that leaves it must pass thru pump impeller.  I often see whole Amphipods discharged into water.  As compact as your factory cryptic refugium, it makes no sense to change things.  When you build a larger system, consider DOC as food for cryptic sponges.

 

Your small algae filter will not much influence your oxygen.  Gas exchange with robust circulation at water surface is best.  To accomplish sufficient pH & oxygen bufferring requires an algae filter volume near 50% of display.

[M. Tournesol]

Thank 👍, I will take into account everything you said when I will be setting up this tank upgrade or future tank.

[Subsea]

1 hour ago, M. Tournesol said:

I am a beginner 😉, I don't know. But since I already did buy my reactor💸 I don't know why this would not be positive.

Having a reef tank rich in oxygen shouldn't be a bad thing (especially in my bed room. I am kind of a big sucker of O2 😳)

A big sucker of 02.  Too funny.

 

Your knowledge level is much more than a beginner, you said “I don’t know”.    The most important component of cryptic refugium is quality of live rock.  In all mature biodiverse tanks, cryptic sponges work on backside of live rock away from light. 
 

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/108.abstract

 

Sponge Pump

“Darwin's Paradox” asks how productive and diverse ecosystems like coral reefs thrive in the marine equivalent of a desert. De Goeij et al.(p. 108) now show that coral reef sponges are part of a highly efficient recycling pathway for dissolved organic matter (DOM), converting it, via rapid sponge-cell turnover, into cellular detritus that becomes food for reef consumers. DOM transfer through the sponge loop approaches the gross primary production rates required for the entire coral reef ecosystem.

[WV Reefer]

On 2/17/2021 at 7:56 AM, M. Tournesol said:

Thank you all. It's been 2 years since I started locking into reef keeping. The biodiversity aspect and symbiotic relationship are really what did drive me to test it. One of the original plan was to go with a Jaubert plenum (a french forum dedicated to it exist). For size/weight limitation I chose to go for a dirty approach after seeing @WV Reefer reefs.

 

A little update on the puddle, all seem to be ok. Looking at it is like looking at a piece of wild grass. It's also a paradise for amphipod. I did count 50-60 amphipods just one the front glass.

I like it. 😊

[Subsea]

On 7/29/2021 at 7:49 AM, M. Tournesol said:

😬 I think some of my pest algae is going sexual.

I have an air pump. hope it will be enough.

 

Consider why macro goes sexual.  Most often, macro goes sexual when it is growing fast then nutrient limited, usually nitrogen or iron.

[M. Tournesol]

Today I am happy 😊. Schrödinger seems to be slowly recuperating. I see more and more polyp extensions.

[M. Tournesol]

It has been two days since I have remarked that two of my cerith snail were not visible 🤔. They could simply be hiding or could have been killed by the mantis ...

[Ratvan]

How does the shrodingers look now?

[M. Tournesol]

Not very good 😕. I did move the "rack system" yesterday to make someplace for the mantis shrimp trap.

 

[ahud]

Enjoyed reading through your build. 

[M. Tournesol]

Little GIF of my roommates 😊 (sorry for the goby 💩)

[M. Tournesol]

Looking at the growth rate of my corals, I decided to look at my KH, Ca and Mag.
Mag is ok between 1470 and 1500 but Ca and Kh are low. 6.5 for Kh and 390 for Ca 😱.
My 15% water change (instant ocean at 1.025) seems to not be enough to support all my SPS. Not surprising in an 8 gallons tank 😑.

 

Here is a photo of my 12 sps frags (the good ones and the bad ones).

I may have to start dosing 2 parts (only Kh and Ca). I am starting to be a real reefer 🤩.

Tomorrow is water change day. I will test the new saltwater and test the water of the tank after the water change.

[M. Tournesol]

The mantis shrimp is truly a magnificent creature but having a hunter that will have twice the size of my fishes don't make me comfortable 🙁. The possibility to keep it and have it in another tank (this one as I want to transfer all corals and fish in a 50*50*50cm cube) would take a minimum of 4 months 😔. It's really a difficult situation as she is blocking me from purchasing any other livestock that would be mostly shrimp.

If the stomatopods behave is self, I am not again waiting 4-5 months.

 

 

[M. Tournesol]

My tank KH is at 6. My water change kh at 35 ppm is at 12.5 🤦‍♂️.

I need to order asap somme balling components. 

[M. Tournesol]

1h30 after water change, the KH is at 7.2 😕

[M. Tournesol]

My raspberry-pi controlled dosing system is determined. Not cheaper but much more fun.

 

Every night it updates its values by looking at a google sheet.

 

 

 

[M. Tournesol]

Bad news, my Acropora is RTNing (started this morning).
It wasn't doing good for at least some months. I did move him a month ago but this didn't help at all, it only did get worse. I will let it die as I prefer to not move it anymore in the slim hope that all the colonies will not die.

It's a bummer as the tank is doing great 😕.

The zoanthids are happy.

The pocilloporidae are doing great if you ignore the yellow seriatopora hystrix.

Even schrodinger is growing back ...

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

51 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

Bad news, my Acropora is RTNing (started this morning).
It wasn't doing good for at least some months. I did move him a month ago but this didn't help at all, it only did get worse. I will let it die as I prefer to not move it anymore in the slim hope that all the colonies will not die.

It's a bummer as the tank is doing great 😕.

The zoanthus are happy.

The pocilloporidae are doing great if you ignore the yellow seriatopora hystrix.

Even schrodinger is growing back ...

 

 

 

have you been monitoring your alk?  those last two birdnests look like they're RTNing as well...

[M. Tournesol]

8 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

have you been monitoring your alk?

Yes, my alk was at ~7.8 yesterday. It's been almost a month since I started dosing balling and I am still in the process of adjusting the dosing. I did up it from 1.2ml x2 a day to 1.3ml x2 a day last night. I have already reversed the change.

 

8 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

those last two birdnests look like they're RTNing as well...

LOL, the last photo is a photo of a birdnest recuperating. Here is an old photo and a better newer photo (clean glass). 

On 9/10/2021 at 11:45 AM, M. Tournesol said:

 

 

The yellow has been STNing for months (too much flow). But some parts of it are growing...

 

Flow is a bitch in a nano shallow tank. Especially with a sand bed like mine. As a noob, I can tell you that this tank was a great idea 😑.

I suspect that too much flow might ("again" 🙄) be one of the principal causes of this Acropora RNT.