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

[debbeach13]

^ or it might have messed with the flow. 

[banasophia]

11 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

^ or it might have messed with the flow. 

True! I feel like many of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the hobby have been from overcompensating for some kind an issue and having my actions lead to even bigger problems. 

[debbeach13]

Absolutely BUT sometimes it leads to finding out something new. 

[banasophia]

So the Innovative Marine fish guard arrived and it’s not perfect but it kinda fits and I think it may do the trick for now to keep Hank from getting into the back chambers.

 

I ordered the small size and it fits nicely over the intake area but I had to cut the tab off that usually creates the hook for hanging it over the back wall because the back glass is thicker in this tank. 

 

I used a hack saw to cut it off. Now it’s a really tight fit with the lid, and the tab for the lid holds the fish guard in place. Without the lid, you’d need to find a way to temporarily secure it (so you could take it off for cleaning)… I’d probably use some short black zip ties myself because they could easily be removed and replaced whenever you need to take the fish guard off. 

 

Not sure whether I’ll use this long term but it gives me peace of mind for now and seems like it could work just fine. I don’t think Reef Casa has a fish guard out yet, but maybe they’ll come out with something. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

A few pics of Marshall my sweet lil possum wrasse… love this little guy! Still need to figure out the photography for this tank, but hopefully you can at least get an idea of his cuteness. 

 

 

 

And here’s Marshall with a glimpse of the new goby in the bottom left… it only pops out ever so briefly, and I’ve seen the shrimp even less, but still hear it snapping sometimes.

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Looks like you made it work and Hank should be safe now.

[ml86743]

The adventures of hank...Glad he's okay!

[banasophia]

Yes, let’s hope it works! Still don’t know why he’s sleeping on the sandbed these days instead of in the corals. I hope he’s okay. I think he was wild caught so he could be getting old since I’ve had him 3 1/2 years. 

[banasophia]

So happy to see this tonight! Years ago I had an emerald that really helped keep my spider sponge free from algae in the Biocube 16, and there was an emerald that liked to hang out on my sea fan at the LFS before I bought it a couple months ago so I was hoping to have a similar situation. I have added quite a few emeralds to the tank, hoping to get one that would take on the job.

 

I have been discouraged because none of them were interested. And I ended up with too many emeralds in the tank, and they were bugging the fish… one had taken up residence in the pink candy cane where Hank likes to perch, and a couple others liked to stand guard in front of my goby/pistol shrimp’s caves blocking them in or out, so I finally gave up on the idea and I’ve been catching the emeralds this week one at a time and relocating them to my other tanks, but I left one. And wouldn’t ya know… the one remaining emerald did her thing after the water change tonight!! 

 

 

[banasophia]

My little goby… so tiny and cute. I love how his shrimp buddy snaps from time to time so I know he’s in there okay even though he’s shy and I don’t see him much. 

 

[banasophia]

 

My acans don’t glow much… not sure why not… is it just these particular acans, my light settings, something I need to feed or adjust as far as my tank parameters… I’m thinking I probably just need to adjust my light… will try to play with it this weekend

[banasophia]

Okay so I did a little experiment tonight to see if I could figure out what’s going on with the acans… it was the light settings!

 

Here’s a pic with the new settings, the corals are glowing so much more. 

 

[banasophia]

I changed everything… I hope the corals will adjust okay and that I don’t grow extreme algae. 

[debbeach13]

What settings are you using now?

mine turn on at 3   20% 20% 5%

ramp up at 6          60% 50% 40%

and turn off at 11    0-0-0

[banasophia]

I’ll have to check.. I went by appearance.

 

What I did first was hold a Kessil over the tank (with the Halo lights still on) and dial up the blue to see if the acans could still glow with an adjustment in the light settings, or if it was an actual change in the coral tissue that caused them to look drab.

 

The colors popped beautifully as I turned up the blue, so I could see that the colors were still there, they just weren’t being enhanced with the right spectrum of light.
 

Then I just played with the Halo to get the look I wanted. I set it with a really white phase that should photograph better with my iPad, a blue phase with blue and cyan turned way up, then a dimmer blue phase to keep some fainter blue until I go to bed, then for a while when it comes on the next day before the white lights kick in.
 

I probably should have ramped things up, but it seemed confusing to do that since I was titrating to a specific look.

 

Your corals already look great under your settings!

[banasophia]

White light phase, no filter, pump & powerhead running

[MrP]

What are you feeding the NPS? I've been trying to keep up with your thread but maybe I missed it.

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, MrP said:

What are you feeding the NPS? I've been trying to keep up with your thread but maybe I missed it.

I’m mainly feeding Reef Nutrition Oyster Feast and Live Phyto twice a day for the sea fan… about 2-3 drops of each every time. And then when I feed the fish I usually feed a frozen food that includes baby brine shrimp or rotifers which may be small enough for it to eat. Sometimes I also add in a pinch of Coral Frenzy or some whole and crushed up Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet pellets… I think it can probably eat the crushed pellets.
 

It looks like the sea fan may close up from time to time for a few days, then sheds and opens back up. Not totally sure of its pattern yet. I have not cut off any dying tips on it at all… looks like it is maintaining okay so far in my system. 

[banasophia]

The dino came back after I changed the light settings a couple weeks ago, and it got pretty bad, so I’ve been running really limited lighting for the past week or so to get it back under control… it’s looking much better and the corals are all doing okay except for the montipora digitata… I hope it will be able to recover once I turn the lights back up again. 
 

 

[debbeach13]

Glad to hear that things are headed back in the right direction. I am curious. Did you notice any shift in the water parameters? Comparing dino's at their worst - dino's receded - dino's returned.

Wondering if there is a trend, or what nutrients they fed of off.

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Glad to hear that things are headed back in the right direction. I am curious. Did you notice any shift in the water parameters? Comparing dino's at their worst - dino's receded - dino's returned.

Wondering if there is a trend, or what nutrients they fed of off.

I haven’t tested much lately, had to order more test discs, so I’m not sure… my nitrate and phosphate should be well above zero though based on the last time I tested. I did get my new case of discs though, the box is sitting on the kitchen table still… I’ll plan to test before my water change tonight or tomorrow night. 

[banasophia]

Turned the lights back up today, the sand is looking so nice right now, I hope it will stay dino free this time. The two montipora and the sea fan are on the edge I think, I hope they can all recover… the sea fan started losing tissue for the first time this weekend. The skeleton is white underneath. I hope I don’t lose it, and wonder if it really is nonphotosynthetic. 
 

[banasophia]

First top down shot.

 

If you look closely you can kind of see how my green rockflower decided to move to a spot where it blocks the pretty yellow one beneath it from view and from the light. 

[banasophia]

Glad I took the top down… really showed me how much my gorgonian is blocking the light from the orange ricordeas on the right… need to move the gorg a little. 

[debbeach13]

The sand is looking great. Nice top-down picture. Your right it is a good way to see which corals might be too shaded. I really hope the sea fan recovers. How's Hank?