schgr.cube's Ultum Nature Systems 45u - tons of new coral added

[Reefkid88]

How about a Aquablue Special or a 6500k bulb ? I am going to try a 65k with the Lux M's and see how it is,since 1 M is pretty much 4 Lux Rebel royals. It wasn't enough blue for me with just the 4 Lux T's in the NB array. 

[YHSublime]

That light would have been perfect for the low boy. I guess when it rains it pours, local reefer lost his lights just before a vacation, picked the fixture up at pretty much midnight the day they were leaving. 

 

It's nice to have equipment moving again, just about everything has sold, which is great, because the 80 put a big dent in my bank account. 

 

Like the T5 hybrid setup, everything is looking good. 

[schgr.cube]

35 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

That light would have been perfect for the low boy. I guess when it rains it pours, local reefer lost his lights just before a vacation, picked the fixture up at pretty much midnight the day they were leaving. 

 

It's nice to have equipment moving again, just about everything has sold, which is great, because the 80 put a big dent in my bank account. 

 

Like the T5 hybrid setup, everything is looking good. 

 

Thank you! Happy with how things are going, the SPS is finally starting to color up, which is great considering I definitely rushed things with adding SPS. Your anemone keeps trying to wedge itself into the rear entrance to my goby/shrimps cave system, and only about 1/4 of it is currently getting light. I don't even think I'll be able to get it back out at this point without ruining the caves, so I'm hoping it finds itself happy enough!

 

Damn, yeah that sounds like a better situation for the light anyway, I don't NEED to set this tank up, so that person definitely won out! It was a fantastic light for the price.

 

  

1 hour ago, Reefkid88 said:

How about a Aquablue Special or a 6500k bulb ? I am going to try a 65k with the Lux M's and see how it is,since 1 M is pretty much 4 Lux Rebel royals. It wasn't enough blue for me with just the 4 Lux T's in the NB array. 

 

Possibly, I just don't really want to order bulbs and play around with combos too much and have it be wrong. I have just a C+ and B+ on the front half of my fixture, and the color is perfect when I pull the whites down a bit on my LED, so I think I'll just emulate that on the back half. The back currently has a B+ and Actinic, and it has that kind of washed out Windex look when it turns on.

[schgr.cube]

@Sturgi_0225 so the Springers Damsel didn't really end up doing a good enough job, and I decided to use Flatworm Exit just about 10 minutes ago. Holy shit, there are SO many flatworms in my small little tank.... I followed the directions and think I prepared well enough, but we will see once the dust settles with all of this. Really hoping this isn't a massive problem.

[Reefkid88]

Oh schnaaaaps !!! Well make sure to siphon everything out super fast and get as many as possible because (I'm sure you know) they release toxins when they die and can nuke a tank. 

[schgr.cube]

1 hour ago, Reefkid88 said:

Oh schnaaaaps !!! Well make sure to siphon everything out super fast and get as many as possible because (I'm sure you know) they release toxins when they die and can nuke a tank. 

Yeah I was siphoning as much as I could, and kept changing out 100 micron filter pads every few minutes, seeing less and less in each pad. Also ran about 1/2 lb of activated carbon, and did a 25% water change just now. Things are looking a little upset, but not bad. I’ll keep the carbon in overnight and do another water change tomorrow. 

[Reefkid88]

That is probably the best thing you can do,so there is that. The carbon should absorb all that crap. Some Rox would probably do wonders. 

[schgr.cube]

On 9/1/2022 at 7:30 PM, Reefkid88 said:

That is probably the best thing you can do,so there is that. The carbon should absorb all that crap. Some Rox would probably do wonders. 

Yeah, all went well and no major issues. A few corals seemed unhappy, but everyone looks okay now. I would estimate over 1000 flatworms based on the filter pads I pulled out, but it could be well more than that because some spots on the filter pads were just a mass of red grossness lol. I still see a few flatworms, so I am probably going to end up doing this again tomorrow and see if I can completely eliminate them before they get a chance to regroup.

 

 

Not a tank update, but I got a new pup today. I'm not 100% sure on breed since she is a rescue, but she looks like she has some German Shepherd and Lab in her possibly. Meet Zoey, who already seems to be best friends with my five year old German Shepherd / Blue Heeler rescue girl Lucy.

 

[schgr.cube]

Round 2 of Flatworm Exit tonight. Substantially less flatworms to siphon and being pulled into the filter pad, but there were way more flatworms on the glass yesterday than I have normally seen. I’m not sure if the damsel decided to go after some, or if the population is really much smaller and was just put on the glass more than normal. 
 

picked up two new spotted mushrooms (green with orange and Superman), a golden eyes chalice, purple stylo, and a ponape birdsnest today. I’ll have to get photos tomorrow.   

[schgr.cube]

Back to a closed loop:

I know I talked about dropping the sump, and after weighing back and forth on things a bit, I decided it was for the best. I wasn't able to get things where I wanted them with flow and cleaning the overflow, but I also had a hard time with the small glass lily pipes (I broke one). I decided to pick up some 17mm Aquario Neo Flows and went back to a closed loop, this time on the wavemaker pump instead of the canister filter. I have to say I am much happier with this setup, and things are easier to clean overall (although I didn't do the best job today for this FTS.

 

I have a Ice Probe chiller I'll be picking up next week that I need to plumb into this setup, which I do have a plan for. Once I have that figured out, I'll grab a decent shot of inside the cabinet.

 

A few photos from today, I snapped about 50 of the hi-fin goby since he was out for quite a while, but couldn't really get the shrimp in the same shot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[schgr.cube]

I'm starting to get frustrated with the flatworms. They aren't actually doing anything bad, but they are still present even after multiple does of Flatworm Exit, and I don't want their population to get out of control at all.

 

I have dosed four times now, and I don't know if it is actually doing anything at this point. The Springers Damsel doesn't seem to care (I might starve it out a bit at this point and see if it helps), so I don't know if I should swap it our for a Sixline Wrasse (temporarily), or try a Peppermint Shrimp and see if it picks at them at all. 😡😡😡

[Reefkid88]

Try a six line,that might be your best bet,or the KZ version of flat worm stuff (I think they have one). 

[schgr.cube]

1 hour ago, Reefkid88 said:

Try a six line,that might be your best bet,or the KZ version of flat worm stuff (I think they have one). 

 

Yeah the sixline is probably the better option overall, the KZ stuff seems like it isn't meant to kill so much as help keep your coral protected. I don't see the flatworms hurting anything right now, but worry about them growing to such large numbers that they crash the system.

[Reefkid88]

I had them REALLY bad once,and they never crashed the tank,just everything got pissed and closed up but still grew. 

[schgr.cube]

19 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

I had them REALLY bad once,and they never crashed the tank,just everything got pissed and closed up but still grew. 

 

Yeah, I would still like to avoid that as well lol. Honestly they are just so obvious on the glass too, so I would really prefer to just be rid of them altogether. I'm going to keep siphoning them out for another few days and see what happens... I only spotted two this morning.

[schgr.cube]

Ugh, add another thing to my shit list. My pump just died. I made a mess trying to take it apart (I could have done a better job with setting it up, tbh...), but it really seems toast. I am just going to bite the bullet and buy something I know is good quality, so I called a local shop to make sure an Vectra S2 is in stock, and they do!

 

I know it is pricey, but quality comes at a cost and I couldn't really find any other wavemaker pumps that I can run closed loop how I want.

[Reefkid88]

Just get a six line for a little. The S2 will be nice,and definitely do the job for sure. 

[schgr.cube]

On 9/16/2022 at 3:36 PM, Reefkid88 said:

Just get a six line for a little. The S2 will be nice,and definitely do the job for sure. 

 

Yeah I might, I would need to re-home the Springers Damsel first. I ultimately don't want either fish, so that isn't ideal anyway.

 

 

And yeah its a great pump, but it really makes me want a Radion now to just use one app for everything lol.

[schgr.cube]

Not much new to report, but I am looking at houses tonight!! 😱

[Looselyhuman]

Delete. I'm an idiot replying to old comments again.

[YHSublime]

1 hour ago, schg said:

Not much new to report, but I am looking at houses tonight!! 😱

here, or FL?

[schgr.cube]

2 hours ago, Looselyhuman said:

Delete. I'm an idiot replying to old comments again.

Now I’m curious what you said! Lol

 

1 hour ago, YHSublime said:

here, or FL?

 

Neither. Lancaster, so not tooooo far away. 

[Looselyhuman]

14 minutes ago, schg said:

Now I’m curious what you said! Lol

Lol. I just said sapphires have worked really well for me against flatworms, but that I didn't really notice they were doing the job until the flatworms were basically gone.

 

I swear I was following this thread,  but apparently not, because the comment I replied to was on page 6. Derp!

[YHSublime]

On 9/26/2022 at 6:55 PM, schg said:

Neither. Lancaster, so not tooooo far away. 

 

I can't keep up with you man! 

 

I still have your doser, but I just got back from a week of travel for business and got walloped with the big C. We will get it figured out. 

[Reefkid88]

Sheesh,I know I was kinda getting excited that he was thinking of moving here lol.