Tony's 10 Gallon Reef Journal

[Tony Bologna]

Corals are still alive and appear to be thriving after 1 week. I'm pretty sure the ricordea is going to split and a baby discosoma is growing where one of the larger mushrooms had been before it moved to the other side of the plug. Both corals were a little angry after the water change yesterday but they look fine today.  Parameters are stable and maintenance is simple enough. I plan to keep adding mushrooms a couple at a time for the foreseeable future. Since I'm only keeping soft corals, I'm not planning to start testing Cal or Mag unless DKH gets out of whack. Thanks for following along. Here are a couple pics of my shrooms alive and well after 1 week. It is also worth mentioning that I haven't seen any type of pod in several days. I'm sure Flash the chubby Damselfish thought they were delicious.

[Tony Bologna]

 I just realized that my reef is a little over 3 months old. My corals are doing well. I purchaded 2 mushrooms. On Day one the discosoma moved across the frag plug revealing a second mushroom hiding underneath it! A third mushroom is already growing where the foot had been. The ricordea mushroom is splitting and has moved to one side of the frag plug. The rock the ricordea was on looked like it had some kind of green algea on it but now it looks like little green rings with tiny metallic blue centers. I think they may be tiny little zoas. Time will tell but that would be a cool hitchhiker. It looks like I got 4 almost 5 mushrooms and some zoas for the price of 2 shrooms! The current USA orbit light looks nice runs cool and so far it is getting the job done. I'd recommend it for keeping mushrooms in a shallow tank. The sicce nano 270gph powerhead and seachem tidal55  filter are absolutely silent. They provide adequate flow and my water is crystal clear with low nutrients. I think this is a great low maintenance setup. I've had a ton of fun so far and after 3 months I feel like I'm just getting started. Things are pretty stable and not much changes from week to week. I'll probably update monthly going forward unless something happens or I get new corals. Thanks for following along.

[Tony Bologna]

Just when I thought this was going well we had a power outage that lasted the better part of a day.

Within a couple days I lost 3 snails had quite an algae bloom and the ricordea looks ok but not great. The discosoma haven't fully opened since but they aren't dead. The Damselfish appears to be unaffected. I did the Usual waterchange yesterday and have been testing. Nothing looks off but I'm sure dead snails led to ammonia to nitrites to nitrates and phosphates which contributed to the algae problem. I replaced the snails yesterday. I'm just waiting and hoping everything gets better.

[Tony Bologna]

I have done 2 waterchanges 2 gallons each and scrubbed the filter since my last update. My 2 new astrea snails turned out to be 2 of the laziest trochus snails ever. I can't tell them apart in a bag at the lfs but once they get home and I can see the foot it is easy to tell. I'm not impressed with either Lfs in Greenville SC but this isn't about that. Algae is receding parameters are in the normal range alk is 10dkh but I use instant ocean so that is about right and has been consistent. Mushrooms still look like 💩. It looks like that power outage nearly killed them. I hope they bounce back. 

[Zer0]

Power outages crashed three of my tanks in the past, which is why I took a long break from the hobby. It wasn’t until a year or two after I got a generator that I considered getting back into things, which resulted in the tank I have now lol. I would say the best thing you could do is get a battery backup for your powerhead or hob filter so at the very least you can keep the water oxygenated. 
 

Sorry to hear about the losses, I hope everything else pulls through!

[Tony Bologna]

Thanks Zer0. Things keep getting worse. Algea receded and dinos surged. I added extra carbon to the filter and lights are out. I'm still wrapping my head around how fast things happen in a nano tank.

 

[Tony Bologna]

Today marks the fifth and final dose of Dr Tims Waste away which followed a 3 day blackout and daily doses of Dr Tims refresh. Corals are dead. All snails are dead. The yellowtail Damselfish is a survivor. I added a blue leg hermit because they are not listed as sensitive to refresh. He survived and has been grazing on the green algea that is taking hold on the rocks. I suddenly don't mind green algea. It is way better than dinos. Dr Tims website suggests a large water change tomorrow. I'll check parameters after that. I've increased feeding and will reduce water changes to every other week or once a month depending on nitrate and DKH values. I'm shooting for 2 to 5 ppm nitrates and 10dkh give or take. I was thrilled to maintain very low nutrients but that may have contributed to my problems. Looking back I missed some warning signs of Dinos. Air bubbles. Struggling snails. What I thought was algae or cyanobacteria receding when the lights were out only to return when the lights were on. I owe my deceased trochus snails an apology for calling them lazy as they were likely suffering from toxins in the dinos they ingested. This has been a messy learning experience that unfortunately resulted in several dead animals. The dinos appear to be gone. The tank looks clean and ready for another clean up crew and a hardy coral or two. Just over 4 months in and I'm hopefully on the other side of my first disaster.  Hopefully I've learned a thing or two that will help me to avoid repeating the same mistakes. I purchased an airpump that runs on D batteries and an air stone. In the event of another power outage this may help by providing some flow and oxygenation. I also learned what dinos look like and that viewing my aquarium under white lights only every now and then can help differentiate the various organisms that grow in there by showing their actual colors. Browns greens and pinks look alot alike to me under blue lights. Thanks for following along. Hopefully better days are ahead.

 

[Tony Bologna]

Today was a busy day. I tested for nitrates and it is still undetectable. I am attempting to raise the nutrients in this system by increasing feeding so I also increased the population a little today. This represents a major shift in philosophy for my nano reef. The initial plan was to keep the bioload to a minimum, feed lightly, and keep nutrients as close to 0 as possible. Now I'd really like to see 2 to 5 ppm nitrates and a detectable amount of phosphate. I really don't want the dinos to get a hold on my reef again. I added 2 astrea snails because they are efficient cleaning machines and I purchased 3 tiny blue leg hermits and some empty shells just for fun. When I got home I counted 5 hermits! All of the new inverts are active and grazing. I was so relieved when the snails acclimated and behaved normally. 

I may have jumped the gun but I placed an order with World Wide Corals today too. The new corals should be here Tuesday. I went with some fast growers so we'll se what happens when GSP Xenia and daisy polyps compete for space. Hopefully they will grow and things will go well for a while and I'll have the confidence to buy something pretty like a couple RFAs for the sandbed down the road. Thanks for following along. 

 

I would really like a little more biodiversity in this reef. How risky would it bee to add corals from WWC without dipping them? Do you think I'd end up with some interesting hitchhikers or just a load of pests? Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Tony Bologna]

My shipment arrived from World Wide Corals today. The Daisy Polyps and Xenia were fully opened and looking great within a couple hours. The GSP is taking it's time but the frag looks healthy.  Thank you WWC! This was my first purchase from WWC and I understand why they are considered one of the best in the industry.

[Tony Bologna]

I'm beginning to think this tank is cursed. The new corals are opened and looking good and Flash, my Yellow Tail Damselfish decided to jump. There are a couple gaps in the lid near the powerhead and the filter/ heater that really can't be avoided. After living through the dino infestation a blackout and all the dr Tim's stuff he jumped today. SMH... 🤪

 

[Tony Bologna]

Thanks Zer0. It is tough losing a pet.

On a happier note my tiny green star polyps look happy today. I'll take what I can get.

[Tony Bologna]

I picked up a little clown at the LFS yesterday. He rejected NLS pellets but chowed down on some misis shrimp.

I turned the powerhead off because the current seemed a bit much for the little guy while he was adjusting. The new corals appear to appreciate the reduced flow too. Could the 250 gph flow from the tidal55 be enough for a 10 gallon softie reef?

Thanks for following along.

[Jaren45]

13 hours ago, Tony Bologna said:

I picked up a little clown at the LFS yesterday. He rejected NLS pellets but chowed down on some misis shrimp.

I turned the powerhead off because the current seemed a bit much for the little guy while he was adjusting. The new corals appear to appreciate the reduced flow too. Could the 250 gph flow from the tidal55 be enough for a 10 gallon softie reef?

Thanks for following along.

In your last picture the powerhead looks to be just firing straight into the water column. If you think it's too much flow I would try to point it up towards the surface, should do a good job dispersing it all over the tank while not blowing everything around

[Tony Bologna]

Thanks for the tip Jaren45.

[Tony Bologna]

Full Tank Shot

[Tony Bologna]

I gave the little clown a couple days without the powerhead on to get settled in. The 250 gph flow from the filter is not enough to keep my corals healthy. The Xenia started gerting a little dark on a couple tips and only half of the daisy polyps were open midway through day 2. I turned the powerhead back on but pointed it at the surface as suggested by Jaren45 and everything was looking good by the next day. I attached an unrelated critter pic below.

[Jakesaw]

On 7/25/2021 at 12:59 PM, Tony Bologna said:

Full Tank Shot

Do you have alot of empty shells. If not, it  looks like a lot of crabs for such a small clean tank.  They getting enough food?

[Tony Bologna]

The last time I purchased hermit crabs the girl at the LFS gave me a bunch of empty shells. I only have a few crabs.

[Firefish15]

Ah, that’s a bummer. Do you think it was just a mistake?

[Tony Bologna]

Thanks firefish. I wasn't clear. The bunch of empty shells were a bonus when I purchased a couple crabs. Jakesaw was concerned that what looked like a bunch of crabs in the FTS might not have enough to eat. I was reassuring him that there were only a few actual crabs in there.

[Firefish15]

Ah, gotcha. That’s better than a sketchy LFS. 

[Seadragon]

I love your Xenia and GSP!  Your discussions on here inspired me to hook up an extra Battery Backup UPS I had right away to my Nano Reef tank.  It does provide me some peace of mind knowing that this precaution may have helped to prevent the death of my corals one day.

 

Just a few ideas I had for you...

1. I'm using a Circulation Pump Controller (Wave Controller) for my tank that alternates between two circulation pumps.  This adds redundancy in the event that if one circulation pump fails, I have another available to circulate the water until I can replace the faulty pump.
2. Also, I not only face my circulation pumps towards the water's surface to add more water agitation for increased oxygen transfer, but I also face the pumps toward the side glass wall (at about a 45 degree angle or so) so that the glass absorbs much of the force which then disperses throughout the tank at a more bearable speed for the corals and fish.
3. You may want to rethink about placing the GSP frag on your main rock structure.  Once the GSP spreads and encrusts onto your main rock, it's nearly impossible to get rid of unless you remove the rock.  This can be bad because GSP will encrust over most corals that are on your main rock structure.  (The only exception might be a coral with powerful stingers, but you're still taking a big risk with the GSP encrusting over expensive corals that you may purchase in the future.)  I would recommend adding it to either an isolated rock that is all by itself on the sand bed or near the back wall of your tank -- GSP is so beautiful when it covers and encrusts the back wall of a tank!

 

Xenia on the other hand is so easy to remove, I don't find it much of a problem and I actually desire for it to grow all over my rocks and wherever else it can take hold.

[Tony Bologna]

Thanks for the helpful advice Seadragon. I have moved the GSP to the top of the center rock which is easy to remove from the tank so I can either trim it as it grows or replace that rock down the road if needed. I like the idea of running two pumps alternating from one to the other to create more random flow. The current USA DC power heads will work with my loop controller and may be the next big upgrade to the system. I also have adjusted the powerhead slightly so that it points upward and into the current from the HOB which has disrupted the linear flow from both resulting in more random flow. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions.

[Tony Bologna]

5 months FTS

[Tony Bologna]

My little reef is 5 months old! It went through a rough patch but thanks to some good advice and the experiences of other reefers on this forum I was able to get things back on track. The corals from World Wide Corals are great. I did not dip them and have not noticed any pests. I have noticed a growing population of copepods which I appreciate. I have found that I can go 2 weeks between water changes without any negative impact. I do have more algae but the CUC is keeping it in check. Coroline algea is also spreading across the rocks. My Xenia and daisy polyps are growing faster than the GSP and I hope that trend continues. Thanks for following along.