The Great Wave - Waterbox Peninsula 3620 - Alkalinity fluxing!

[DevilDuck]

Everything has been moved from the Fluval Evo 13.5, except for 2 sexy shrimp and some GSP that is growing against the back wall. The rock arch that was in the fluval is now positioned standing on one end and leaning on the new arch rocks forming sort of a cave on the right. 24 hours into the new scape and higher water flow, the anemones haven't moved...

 

Phosphate were high at .26 ppm so I added a bag of Phosguard to the sump to reduce it. Water is a bit cloudy, I also added a bag of carbon. I'm going to give everything a few days then send in my first ICP water test to get a baseline of what trace elements I may need to start supplementing.

 

 

I divided a section of the sump with coarse foam and turned it into a chaeto refugium powered by an old planted aquarium light.  I'm considering moving my two Sexy Shrimp to the sump, some of the fish I am looking into stocking I've read may make a meal out of them. Anyone else keep livestock in the sump?

 

[Murphs_Reef]

Yep..half of my tank lol.. got a green brittle star, 2 large hermits and 4 enormous turbos.. all been in for months 👍🏼

[KnH]

what refugium light are you using

[DevilDuck]

It's an older Chihiros RGB light for freshwater planted tanks. I think they current models have wifi control, this one is just a switch on the power cable to dim and change modes.

[DevilDuck]

I'm in the "I can't keep nutrient levels up" phase of the tank. Phosphate bottomed out at 0 and nitrates are holding at 5 ppm. Started dosing Neophos to raise the tank closer to .04 ppm of phosphate. I've shut down the skimmer and increasing my feedings

 

Bought a small PJ Cardinal and a Green War Paint Clown Goby from the lfs. Currently planning on keeping them in the Fluval 13.5 QT for 2 weeks.

PJ Cardinal is doing well, fully colored and eating. The clown goby seems to be just sitting in the corner of the tank. I did feed some baby brine shrimp and he did take a few bites. Hoping the goby comes around.

 

I also placed an order at Dr. Reef's Quarantined fish:

 

1 - Red Banded Pistol Shrimp

1 - Yasha Goby

1 - PJ Cardinal (finance' loves this fish)

1 - Porcelain Crab

1 - Exquiste Firefish

These should be here mid-Aug. 

 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

Your Goby might just do that forever. Mine loves to sit and watch the world go by all day.... Lazy little begger .

[DevilDuck]

I've been filling in the tank with some more coral from local hobbyists. I gravite to gonioporas and alveoporas so I might make the focus of the tank gonis and their relatives. 

 

I had a heck of a time with the rbta. It moved to a different spot everyday for 2 weeks straight. I managed to catch it trying to release and float. It's now in a lower flow section and hopefully will find it's happy spot. 

 

  Rbta invading my mushroom rock

 Recovering frags

Pretty In Pink Goni

 

I accidentally bought this goni twice. The taller one has been my tank for a few months and has changed colors under my lights. The 2nd frag shows the original darker colors.

 

Duncans

Some type of encrusting Monti, also recovering.

 

War paint green goby in the qt tank. He coloring up really well and loves live baby brine shrimp and mini blood worms.One more week before I put him into the display. 

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by DevilDuck
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[DevilDuck]

ATI Water Test Results are In!

 

https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/publicAnalysis/129605

 

The lab test confirm my Salifert test results of high Magnesium with the Fritz RPM salt mix. 

 

After plugging the numbers into the ReefMoonShiner's excel sheet came up with the following dosing requirements.

Placed the initial order ($250 worth!) and will start the dosing. 

 

 

Diatoms have started forming on the sand bed probably due to the high silicates from the new sand. I'm not worried about the diatoms for now since they will help out compete some other even nastier pest algaes. Besides, Larry the Conch is doing a great job of cleaning them up and turning the sand bed. Since the diatoms have shown up, he's been very active. 

 

 

[DevilDuck]

Time for an update!

 

Tank is doing well, with the exception that I managed to introduce some tiny flatworms. What I thought were spots of corraline on the glass, turns out to be flatworms. I've been vacuuming what I can see every day, and it seems to be keeping them under control. They don't seem to be eating or covering any corals, or having a population explosion. I did order some Salifert Flatworm Exit and extra carbon just in case I need to chemically eradicate them. 

 

I've decided to make this tank goniopora heavy as they are my current favorite coral. I also pick up couple of small hammers and torches.

 

08/06/2021 FTS 

 

 

 

 

This long tentacle toadstool is looking great as well as the gorgonian behind it.

 

 

I'm not completely sure about this Chili Pepper Monti. I think it's dead and looks nothing like when I first received it from LiveAquaria. It's just flat and purple, no polps.

Is it dead?

 

This is how it is suppose to look...

 

 

[DevilDuck]

Got some wrasses!

 

A small yellow Coris wrasse

 

A fat Possum Wrasse

 

The possum is very active and is always wondering the tank looking for snacks. Hopefully, they will make short work of the flatworms.

 

Also in qt I have a Springers damsel and a green chromis. 

[ninjamyst]

Beautiful tank!  Great choice in the yellow coris wrasse.  It will keep the flatworms under control.  Your montipora is not dead although very very stressed.  Could be water condition, monti eating nudibranch, or lack of light.

[DevilDuck]

On 8/8/2021 at 2:56 PM, ninjamyst said:

Beautiful tank!  Great choice in the yellow coris wrasse.  It will keep the flatworms under control.  Your montipora is not dead although very very stressed.  Could be water condition, monti eating nudibranch, or lack of light.

Thank you! I dipped the Monti once more in CoralRx and Lugol's and placed higher up in the rock work. We'll see if it recovers. I haven't had much luck with Montis. It's a shame, I really like the look of the spiralling plating variety. I've seen them grow like weeds in other people's tanks. 

 

 

[ninjamyst]

1 hour ago, DevilDuck said:

Thank you! I dipped the Monti once more in CoralRx and Lugol's and placed higher up in the rock work. We'll see if it recovers. I haven't had much luck with Montis. It's a shame, I really like the look of the spiralling plating variety. I've seen them grow like weeds in other people's tanks. 

 

 

Don't think yours is the cap type.  I have montipora that never recovered and stay dull color.  If you are looking for a cap, I highly recommend starburst montipora.  Orange body with yellow polyps.  Mine grow like weed and I have to give it out often.

[DevilDuck]

Added an unknown flasher wrasse. I think it's either a red tail flasher Paracheilinus rubricaudalis or the Carpenter's Flasher Paracheilinus rubricaudalis

Any wrasse experts know?

 

[DevilDuck]

Ugh, power and water has been out in my apt complex since 8pm last night. A water main break flooded the building's sub-basement and shorted something out.

 

Running the tank on a battery operated air pump and air stone. Fingers crossed.

[ninjamyst]

Good thing you have the battery air pump.handy

[mitten_reef]

24 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

Ugh, power and water has been out in my apt complex since 8pm last night. A water main break flooded the building's sub-basement and shorted something out.

 

Running the tank on a battery operated air pump and air stone. Fingers crossed.

Make sure to check temp every so often if you can. And put some ice in a container and float it to try to keep temp from going too high

[DevilDuck]

Just checked my security cam from my hotel room. It appears the power is back on now! This would make it almost 19 hour black out.

While sitting in the dark last night, I went ahead and ordered the Ecotech battery backup and started looking into portable power stations.

 

 

 

[DevilDuck]

Just got back home to power, ac, and running water! Checked the tank and everyone is accounted for! 

 

Some time during the day the rbta made his move....

 

 

"I'm the King of the World!"

 

[DevilDuck]

Added my first larger fish yesterday, an ocellate damselfish aka Princess Damsel. This is the first time I've seen one at the lfs did a quick look up in LiveAquaria before pulling the trigger.

Here's the LA photo, seem like a colorful addition. I was hesitant due to the "aggressive" rating but the lfs owner assured me it would probably be ok. 

 

I'm taking a bit of a risk since this is technically the 4th damselfish in the tank, the other being the two clowns and a Springer's Damsel. So far he's taken over the lower half of the tank sharing a spot sleeping spot with the green clown goby and blood red fire shrimp.  He not bothered by the clownfish at all but occasionally chases the Springer's Damsel away if it got too close. So far i'm only really concerned about my yellow coris wrasse, it has been behaving strangely. Hiding near the MP40 wavemaker and sticking to the surface of the tank. I haven't caught the occellate picking on him in particular, but I'll keep an eye out. 

 

Any have experience with this fish? 

 

 

Here's a more accurate picture of this fish, note the intense anger at the world... 

 

I finally figured out the reason for the sudden explosion of diatoms. I've been miss reading the color changing DI resin in my RO Buddie. It seems the resin is completely exhausted and my RODI water was 20ppm out of the unit! I ordered replacement of all the media, but I think it maybe time for an upgrade when this set is exhausted. The water here in Dallas is especially hard on the media and I am spending a lot on the frequent replacements. I am kicking myself for not buying a larger RODI system when during marinedepot's liquidation sale...

 

 

 

 

 

[Xj reefing]

That’s some pretty fish you got

[DevilDuck]

Been a while since my last update, and it has been an eventful week. Late last week, my apartment complex lost power, water, and air conditioning. Summers in Texas means 100 degrees days, no air conditioning means it becomes a life-threatening situation. I've been in and out of hotels this entire week. The situation was so bad that it became local news: City: Hundreds of Residents in Downtown Building Without A/C – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth (nbcdfw.com)

 

As of yesterday, power and water has been restored, but the engineers have not yet been able to revive the antiquated air conditioning system. They estimate it will be at least friday before the system can be fully restored. 

 

I've been struggling to keep temperatures at a reasonable level in the tank. My 18th floor apartment has seen indoor temperature upwards of 90 degrees in the late afternoon. I've been monitoring the temperature with my security camera and been running back and forth between the hotel and the apartment in order to add more zip lock baggies of ice in order to keep the tank in the low-mid 80's. I have fans blowing over the display and the sump as well as fans circulating air around the living room. 

 

My RBTA and black torch are not looking good due to the temperature fluctuations. A couple of gonioporas have not opening up fully either. My yellow coris wrasse has been MIA for a couple of days also. Fingers crossed I stay sane enough to make it until friday. 

 

[DevilDuck]

Good news. Today air conditioning was restored to my apartment! Hoping this is the end of the 6 day ordeal. 

 

A lot of coral have been unhappy. I am almost sure to lose my black torch since tissue has start to necrosis. I'm trying to do Lugol's iodine dips daily to try to save it. 

 

My rbta has not been happy. The bubbles have disappeared and the tentacles have a deflated stringy quality to them. 

 

 

I have not seen my small yellow Coris wrasse and I fear the worse has happened and he has passed away somewhere where under the sand. 

 

My shipment finally arrived from Dr Reefs quarantined fish this morning, so I'm extra glad that my apartment is habitable again. 

 

Unfortunately, the Yashia goby that was part of my order was DOA. They did not hesitate to call me and refund price of the goby 30 mins after I emailed them. Great service!

 

I also added some beautiful purple barnacle clusters before I had to evacuate the apartment last Sunday. 

 

[Jungle_vip]

How’s everything going? Power outage and extreme heat is my worst fear

[DevilDuck]

Hell of a week! My small yellow coris wrasse has not been seen in a week, may have been the first fish causality of the AC outage. He was the smallest fish in the tank next to the green clown goby, he was already acting oddly before the AC outage and the fluctuating temperatures may have been the nail in his coffin.

 

My shipment arrived from Dr. Reef Quarantined fish the day that the AC was repaired. Unfortunately two fish did not survive past the first few days. The Yasha goby was DOA and an exquisite firefish died after a couple of days in the tank.

 

Losing three fish in a week is pretty demoralizing. 

 

On the brightside, the following did survive the shipment:

 

- A really nice Spotted Porcelain crab

- not as nice looking Green Porcelain crab

- very small Randall's pistol shrimp 

 

Both crabs have positioned themselves in the crevices of the rock work. I hope in the next few days they come out into the open more. 

The Randall's pistol (candy cane pistol shrimp) is less than an inch long. Instead of digging his own tunnel or cave, instead he took up residence in one of the purple barnacle shells. 

 

You can almost make out this antenna and beady eyes in the bottom barnacle. For such a small dude, he holds his own against the Ocellated Damselfish. Now named Big Richard because he's a huge Dick to every fish in the tank. I can hear him snapping whenever Dick gets to close.

 

 

The larger tiger pistol shrimp has dug his own lair under a large turbo snail shell I picked up in Puerto Rico.  It's a crowded space now that both the Randall's and the Blue Spotted Watchman share the same hole. 

 

I've been toying with the idea of trapping Big Richard and trading him in at the lfs. My finace doesn't like him at all. I'll give him a few more weeks of observation.