NoOneLikesADryTang Posted November 24, 2023 Share Posted November 24, 2023 21 hours ago, BadCrab said: Unfortunately, the extremely gluttonous dottyback ate an entire dwarf cerith snail (shell and all) whole. Freaking dottybacks! 😳 21 hours ago, BadCrab said: We had planned on buying a home before the rate increases but now we're not entirely sure what we're doing. Between the rising interest rates, and the ridiculous home prices in the Phoenix metro I don’t know how anyone can afford to buy a house here currently. Glad you’ve still got the tank running. The tank keeper were just talking about how we hadn’t seen you at a FRAG meeting in a while. Quote Link to comment
BadCrab Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 A few updates over the last few months: December One of our cats realized there were shrimp in the tank in late December. Unfortunately, that's led to her hanging off the edge of the stand - where her claws have dug through the paint and into the cheap composite material below. It does not look good. The dottyback survived the snail-swallow but then carpet-surfed while we were in Vegas for the New Year. I will not be replacing it with another fish. The tank's been struggling with what I think is green cyanobacteria since December. I've tried dosing competing bacteria (Microbacter 7,) and I've added several varieties of pods. I regularly remove it manually, but it is ugly and it is annoying. 3 weeks ago I moved the tank from my office to the primary living area. Placing the tank where my partner sees it every day increases the likelihood of a future upgrade. I flirted with some used Red Sea systems, but landed on getting a Water Box or Aqua Japan if a glow-up is ever in the cards. I haven't finished cable management, but I did mount the DOS under the cabinet with the reservoirs. I am, ultimately, disappointed in the lack of growth and maturity in the tank. Most of the rock flowers have slowly lost tentacles and mass. Most of the corals have lost vibrancy. And I'm not sure where to place the blame. Over the last several months there have been mistakes - slight fluctuations in temperature or pH that could have been avoided - but overall the system has been well taken care of. It just hasn't thrived. I'd love to hear your opinions on how to get this tank's legs back under it. I've updated the livestock and equipment list at the start of this thread, and I've included pertinent data below (test results, PAR values, etc) Salt Mix: AquaForest Reef Salt Salinity: 1.025 pH: 8 to 8.1 Phosphate: Undetectable (High Sensitivity) Nitrate: Between 2ppm and 5ppm Alkalinity: 7.7dKH Calcium: 450ppm PAR Data Visualized: 4 1 Quote Link to comment
Sturgi_0225 Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Alk and p04 seem low, I’d start there try and bring them both up. neophos can help raise phosphate. shoot for .02-.04 alk can come up to around 8.2. also have you been feeding the corals or news with anything? It sounds like you have a very clean system and would benefit from an addition to some heavy feedings and phytoplankton to bring some nutrients into the system also the tank could be loose on trace elements. All for reef might work well for your system 5ml for every 26gallons a 1000ml bottle lasts me a long time in a 23 gallon nano 1 Quote Link to comment
geekreef_05 Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Thats an awesome looking reef! I can relate. Your numbers are ok. Your dosing bacteria. Whats the deal, right? Hows your coralline growth? Ive got two systems that have been up for a year and no coralline in either. Both started with fake rock and livesand. Today im gonna add liverock to the main system. Cause i feel like coralline and other key ingredients are missing. 1 Quote Link to comment
BadCrab Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 On 3/14/2024 at 6:42 AM, Sturgi_0225 said: also have you been feeding the corals or news with anything? It sounds like you have a very clean system and would benefit from an addition to some heavy feedings and phytoplankton to bring some nutrients into the system This has been a tough balancing act: broadcast feeding here is always associated with a difficult-to-manage algal bloom and target feeding is more annoying than typical with the gluttonous shrimp. Once a week or every other week I'll sit down with the flow off and pipette nano-pellets onto the ricordea and anemones. But it's clearly not enough to keep nutrients elevated. I ordered bottles of NeoPhos and MicroBacter 7 this week and began dosing. I'll keep the thread updated on PO4 management. On 3/14/2024 at 9:08 AM, geekreef_05 said: Hows your coralline growth? Ive got two systems that have been up for a year and no coralline in either. It's... limited. Coralline grows primarily on the MP10 wet side and acrylic shield. I recently added two chunks of rock from other systems, alongside a colony of Sinularia and BTA. I'm hopeful that it will inject a bit of the missing biodiversity. I took a few more photos to share in the thread today, with the clip-on lens filter. The green cyano was completely removed Saturday evening - it's amazing how quickly it bounces back. I may split the sinularia but I wanted to let it relax for a while, it's a fresh cut from a club member's colony. 4 Quote Link to comment
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