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Riding the Wave with Reef Casa: My Studio 12 Saltwater Build 🌊


banasophia

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On 11/11/2022 at 5:22 AM, debbeach13 said:

Once again Central Floridia was spared the worst of the storm. Unlike the coast, where the damage is severe.

That is the ATO I was talking about. After reading MrP's post I went ahead and ordered one. 

I spoke too soon. After almost 4 years of use, last night the pump on my oldest XP Aqua Duetto crapped out. Luckily, I had a spare pump on hand and everything is back up and running. Not bad for something that gets turned on/off 10+ times/day. 

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5 hours ago, MrP said:

I spoke too soon. After almost 4 years of use, last night the pump on my oldest XP Aqua Duetto crapped out. Luckily, I had a spare pump on hand and everything is back up and running. Not bad for something that gets turned on/off 10+ times/day. 

😫😫😫 aaahhhh you jinxed it!!! well, nearly 4 years is pretty dang good and at least it was just the pump and sounds like it didn’t cause any issues for your tank so that’s a relief. 😅

 

I have the day off work tomorrow so I’m hoping to finally get mine hooked up. Manual top offs are a big hassle and I have to top this tank off once or twice a day. I checked the salinity before and after my top off tonight. It was 1.026 before topping it off and 1.025 after. 
 


 

 

 

Oh and I think this is pretty interesting… check out what is happening with my alkalinity over the course of two weeks with no corals as my tank has been cycling. What’s going on? I need to do some research.

 

Fill day, which was 11/4:

 

C817CB17-C1DB-4AA8-BDDC-09162E2FFB37.thumb.jpeg.79fddf488f3ad58f535d23522131f31a.jpeg


Today, 11/17:

 

3B4B2E86-C2E9-4960-A0C8-10569320A226.jpeg.4147a66343e73a4cdc1a2171c34b44d9.jpeg

 

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31 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Oh and I think this is pretty interesting… check out what is happening with my alkalinity over the course of two weeks with no corals:

 

Fill day, which was 11/4:

 

C817CB17-C1DB-4AA8-BDDC-09162E2FFB37.thumb.jpeg.79fddf488f3ad58f535d23522131f31a.jpeg


Today, 11/17:

 

3B4B2E86-C2E9-4960-A0C8-10569320A226.jpeg.4147a66343e73a4cdc1a2171c34b44d9.jpeg

 


Okay, so what I found out is that in new tanks, the issue is that the conversion of ammonia to nitrate during cycling depletes the alkalinity. Another contributor can be precipitation of calcium carbonate, especially in new tanks. 

 

Here’s a thread about it:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/alkalinity-decline-without-coral.793292/

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25 minutes ago, banasophia said:


Okay, so what I found out is that in new tanks, the issue is that the conversion of ammonia to nitrate during cycling depletes the alkalinity. Another contributor can be precipitation of calcium carbonate, especially in new tanks. 

 

Here’s a thread about it:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/alkalinity-decline-without-coral.793292/

Interesting. My Anemone tank is nearing 2 years old and I have been stumped as to why the alkalinity drops as there are no calcifying corals, coralline algae, or any evidence of precipitation. Maybe the constant process of ammonia to nitrate is the reason. 

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32 minutes ago, MrP said:

Interesting. My Anemone tank is nearing 2 years old and I have been stumped as to why the alkalinity drops as there are no calcifying corals, coralline algae, or any evidence of precipitation. Maybe the constant process of ammonia to nitrate is the reason. 

Hmmm… I wonder… I need to read the thread more closely and research this further!! 

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14 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Belated Happy Thanksgiving. Looks like everything is going well. 

Thanks! I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving too!!
 

So far so good, though I am getting quite a bit of noise from the pump… need to take it out and take a look at it… sounds like vibration. How’s your pump been working? 
 

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6 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I was out of town for 11 days. When I got back home. I noticed a noise and suspect it is coming from the pump. I hope to investigate today.

Keep me posted… mine is making a vibrating noise, but two times when I’ve taken it out I’ve found a little piece of dog fur, so it may be that I need to make some kind of screen to protect the back chambers from stray golden retriever “fibers of love” floating in there… my doggos shed a lot!

 

 

Getting VERY close. Sandbed has some diatoms. Parameters from last night:

 

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ATO alert - it works! Unlike the Smart Micro ATO alert, it won’t wake me up in the middle of the night, but I will hear it when I’m in the vicinity.

 


Parameters tonight:

 

20E9FC18-E36C-42E0-89F4-6C4DD24595A7.thumb.jpeg.ca0683ab118f09f558dc843c72c92939.jpeg

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22 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I noticed a noise and suspect it is coming from the pump. I hope to investigate today.

After turning the power off so I could add a RFA the pump was quiet when turned back on. So, I did not mess with it.

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On 11/3/2022 at 5:33 AM, banasophia said:

Here’s what I came up with for my first real YouTube video. I’m a big dork, but the tank and kit are very cool.
 

 

 

I will leave a comment on your YouTube, my name is JonS_VLog there. :)

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23 minutes ago, JonathanS said:

I will leave a comment on your YouTube, my name is JonS_VLog there. 🙂

Oh that would be awesome, I will check it out, thanks so much!! 

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Guess what?! Hank moved into his new home tonight!! He seems to really like it. 💛💛💛

 

First I transferred some corals to the tank to make it a cozier casa for me fishie: three different gorgonians and part of the neon green sinularia that were from the Biocube 16, and a frag of my pink candycane that has been lying on the sandbed in the back of my Evo 5 for the past year yet seemed to be in reasonably decent shape. I’m not sure I will keep the corals where I put them tonight so I superglued them pretty lightly so I can move them later if needed.

 

I transferred Hank to the tank and also my clownfish, temporarily, because I had to take the scape out of the Evo 5 to catch Hank and decided I may as well take the clownfish out too and replace the Samoa Pink sand in the Evo 5 with the remaining Caribsea Ocean Direct sand left over from this tank. I removed the old sand from the Evo 5, replaced the sand, did a 100% water change, added a bit of BioSpira to that tank, and I’ll let it run until the new sand settles then put the clownfish back in that tank with his beloved torch coral.  
 

Cleaning up the corals before transferring them to the Studio 12, and getting ready to add the pre-cut filter floss and a bag of carbon from the Reef Casa saltwater setup kit to the first chamber of the tank. 

DDD414FA-AE04-4E7B-A6BE-C2AB5D1DE843.thumb.jpeg.bcb98f6ef7423d8f95f8558830e42bcd.jpeg

Glued the corals to the scape:

925FF15E-11CA-400A-8BB3-404823670643.thumb.jpeg.b7686d62d365899e758fa169c0e07350.jpeg


With the orange clip on filter, right after gluing the corals:

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Hank, chillin out in his new digs after lights out tonight.

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The clownfish is hanging out behind the scape and Hank found a nice little spot on the rock and is right next to one of the two asterinas I intentionally added. 

49F78004-0BF0-41A8-8F15-394FA6E3C2FF.thumb.jpeg.dc7ccd257ad6efe819437e9eef2ff433.jpeg

 

 

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Also, as you can see, there are diatoms on the sandbed, so it was time to place my order with @johnmaloney at Reef Cleaners for my starter cleanup crew. I submitted the request for custom cleanup crew recommendations last night and he replied this morning so I placed my order.

 

My crew for this tank, along with some much needed additions for my other two tanks, should arrive on Tuesday.

 

For this tank he recommended the following for now:

EA28B853-7E88-4087-BC55-26B9AA810B98.thumb.jpeg.2a7d182a12454706ae5937626dc24401.jpeg

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4 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

How nice, the cycle only took about 3 weeks. I think it looks great in there. Welcome to your new home Hank. 

Yes, right around 3 weeks. The directions don’t say to re-challenge with an additional dose of ammonium chloride, just wait until ammonia and nitrite reach 0 then add 1-2 fish.


I’ll move the clownfish back to his tank tonight, the new sand in the Evo should be settled by then.

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Okay, the sand has settled in the Evo already and the clownfish seemed pretty inactive so I went ahead and netted him and moved him back to the Evo. 
 

Now to order Hank’s new little friend… I don’t like him to be lonesome! Any guesses what my next little fish will be? 

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Okay… I just paid a small fortune for my new little fish that I ordered because the FedEx was $75!!! I ordered a tailspot blenny and I’m specifically trying to get the variety that is orange and blue rather than the usual brown. There seems to be debate about whether they are two different varieties vs. color change from a mating display. We’ll see what I get… could just be a regular TSB in which case I totally overpaid. 😬☺️🤞
 

76DAE27A-214E-48EE-89FC-BB04FE4C9193.thumb.jpeg.b0ac6686ca5225d1e4f3b3bbccca0e7f.jpeg

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Okay… I think it’s a bad sign that Pete’s Aquarium is located in a town called Fishkill, NY?! I may have made a bad decision. 😬😬😬

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  • banasophia changed the title to Riding the Wave with Reef Casa: My Studio 12 Saltwater Build 🌊

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