Statics Reefer 170

[Staticmoves]

Rock work continues to clear up of diatoms and substrate is quite clear again, with the exception of a light dusting behind rock work. I have a new power head arriving tonight for my EVO, so I can recoup my Nero 3 and add to this tank for behind rock work flow.

Lubocks wrasse ate a few pellets tonight and tried some flakes and picked at algae wafer, so he’s getting the hang of it. 👍

aquamaxx reefer 170 roller filter arrived tonight as well. We like to take off in the summer to climb in Quebec, so roller filter will be nice for ease of maintenance. I still have my neighbour come feed the fish while I’m gone. I just leave him a bottle of wine and a glass. 🍷

[Staticmoves]

Assembly was easy, and quality appears good, ( but ask me a year from now ).

fitment in the sump was well thought out for the tight space involved.

I can now remove filter sock and replace with a media cup, to more effectively run carbon or other media’s, if and when need be. Or just a media cup of small rock chunks. We’ll see. But I like the options.

[Staticmoves]

No sign of diatoms in the sand.

rock almost clear of them. The odd small reddish dusting on the rocks in a couple areas. And more nice green showing up here and there on the rocks.

i have not been scraping back wall at all, as to leave something for the snails and copepods. Still feeding algae wafers as well for all.

Nassarius snails have been laying eggs every where, as soon as I implemented moon phase on my light. ( about a week after ).

over all happy thus far with tank levelling out, and dry rock cycling.

going to re check tank PAR readings in more detail this weekend and log all locations. 

Then transfer some coral from holding tank to display.

 

 

[Staticmoves]

I think this is week 10 update.

diatoms seem under control.

before WC today No3 10.0 and Po4 .06

and alk 7.9.

looking close at pictures, there are red and pink dots all over. Not sure I’ve seen coraline algae start like this. I did not seed, with the exception on snail shells. Could be dots of cyano, but does not blow off rocks. It looks like coraline.

Also some before shots of coral in holding tank before transfer to display tomorrow.

Once No3 hits around 5ppm I’ll pull the chemi pure.

the Aquamaxx roller filter has been great thus far, and I believe it will be a great tool in the nutrient stability process on the Macro level, and make micro tuning adjustments with the skimmer. (We’ll see ).

I’ll get the LPS going for a bit, and if they remain happy, and if that is coraline algae, then we’ll grab a couple SPS test frags.

will have to work on coral color and placement layout. 
as I have vertical rock work as I am looking to side mount and create off set shaded staghorn shelves. For nice front and top coral view, and nice shaded areas below for fish.

lets see what I can pull off.

 

[Tempestas]

I can't comment about the coraline, but those are nice healthy specimens in your holding tank

[Staticmoves]

5 hours ago, Tempestas said:

I can't comment about the coraline, but those are nice healthy specimens in your holding tank

Thank you.  
A few pieces I kept for the sand bed. I don’t know that the hammer is going in, as it grows like a weed, 7 months ago it was two small heads, I would have to dedicate a whole corner of the tank. I am looking for a few small fillers on the sand then down the road a nice crocea clam.

 

[Staticmoves]

Spent some more time with the PAR meter today.

Light is 10” from the water surface.

1” under the water surface is 350 umol .

exterior measurements are sand bed.

going to move corals up at sundown.

 

[Staticmoves]

Testing today

No3 9-10 ppm

Po4 0.01

Alk 142 ppm

going to pull the chemi pure now as not rid the tank of Po4.

I added the Acans ( I know micromusa), the Blastomusa and the favia.

Favia in 83 umol zone

Blastomusa in 62 umol zone

Micromusa (Acan) in 112 umol zone.

everyone happy so far, Blasto is still being shy.

[Staticmoves]

Micromusa, and favia seem happy in new lighting, Blastomusa looks happier today as well.

Forgot to mention that the light is on Acclamation mode, day 20 of 30. Did this for the fish.

once complete, I will be re measuring lighting levels.

going to mix a batch of AFR to night and prime the DOS, as I believe all those dots are coralline algae growing. I’ll keep a close watch on ALK consumption, as of right now WC’s are keeping it at 7.9, salt mixes at 8.1 and that is where I would like to be.

may start dosing 1ml a day if it starts dipping to 7.8.

[Staticmoves]

Quick update.

corals look happy still.

all the spots are coralline algae, and it’s really taking off, spots have doubled in size in about a week, even on the power head and back wall of tank in a few spots.

the conch has been surprisingly careful not to knock over or flip colonies.

mixed up some all for reef, hooked DOS up to apex, need to attach lines this Friday, will check parameters and by the look of the calcarious algae’s and the coral colonies I may start dosing 1ml a day to start things off, if need be to see how tank responds and keep a close eye on Alk.

Some photos from tonight.

cheers……..🤞

[pgrVII]

Nice looking tank! Scape is dope.

[Staticmoves]

8 hours ago, pgrVII said:

Nice looking tank! Scape is dope.

Thanks…. I’m still on the fence as to if the top rock is coming off or not.

[Staticmoves]

11 week update.

Stats before WC tomorrow

Alk 130 ppm ( time to start dosing AFR tomorrow ).

NO3 9-10 ppm

PO4 0.02 ppm

light diatoms on substrate last three days.

rock is doing good as green algae and coralline algae are competing there.

pic of top rock this evening, sorry about crappy pics. ( but you’ll get the idea with the coralline ).

Also slowed tank turn over and skimmer is now pulling great skim. Also tuned skimmer a little wetter. I’m happy with NO3 and PO4 levels.

I’m going to get to cleaning and installing my Nero 3 in this tank this weekend, going to set it up to move water behind rock work  about 4” lower than Nero 5 on opposite glass.

will storm tank and play with flow patterns.

its been great not having to touch a filter sock. Roller Matt has been working well.

Corals seem super happy still in the system.

[Staticmoves]

Pulled the Nero 3 from my EVO today, cleaned, reassembled and installed in the reefer 170.

picked up a Sicce nano to replace the Nero 3 in the EVO, also added a RFG to the EVO. This will be a frag tank of sorts.

Need to grab some egg crate and stilts.

small blasto frag that has been holding on by a thread, separated tonight. Have another small frag of blasto in the EVO as well.

will frag hammer as well.

A couple shots from this evening.

i started dosing All For Reef yesterday.

will be checking Alk daily this week to adjust accordingly. 
I think the rock will be covered in coralline in about 2 months at this rate.

Copepods have established quite well. They are covering the glass and rock, and adding that extra game for the fish. ( keeps the hawk fish busy.)

 

[Koleswrath]

On 12/29/2023 at 4:57 PM, Staticmoves said:

Say hello to “Strange Brew” for all you 40 year old plus Canadians.

AKA “Brewster”. 
I know. Had to hit the Canadian thing hard here with the Plaid jacket on the fish.

and if you Americans out there have not watched strange brew the movie yet, get on it!

Skimmer is now tuned to pull.

 

 

Ha, just saw this. Excellent name! Might have to go with "Hosehead" for one of my clowns.

[Staticmoves]

Hmmm……

I’ll just float these here for a bit, then a little revive dip.

Once set in location I’ll try to get some photos to compare in a few weeks or months.

left work early yesterday to visit Candy Corals on the way home. 
been busy with the tank, and need to up my photo game.

pulled out some older cameras we have.

i will play around this weekend.

still light diatoms on the sand, but none really on the rock with all the coralline taking over.
 

[colormegone]

Lookin good. Do you just acclimate them and no dipping?

[Staticmoves]

2 hours ago, colormegone said:

Lookin good. Do you just acclimate them and no dipping?

Had the plugs bandsawed off, temp acclamation, then dip, rinse and in.

[Staticmoves]

Week 12 update.

Coralline growth still quite explosive. Pretty cool to see.

Acros and Digi in order of pics.
 

1. Purple bonsai valida

2. Pac-Man 

3. Acid rain

4. Twizzler

5. Crackerjack

6. Superman Digi

7. Red Dragon Carduus 

 

let’s see how it rolls with these.

skipped WC this week as nitrates are 2.5 and Phos 0.00.

starting reef roids with frozen every other day max three days a week. 
I believe the Coralline is soaking up the Nutrients.

this is with 7 fish in the system, this is maxed out.

the last added live stock was 2 Yellow Staghorn damsels. ( my wife describes them as the Prairie chickens of the tank.)

Still have not had a chance to work on Photography, my apologies.

 

[Staticmoves]

Week 13 update.

diatoms came back, relatively thick for about a week, then have started to subside again.

a few of the Acros have some bleaching.

but the blueberry bonsai, and red dragon look happy, and the acid rain is polyped out and looking very happy.

the digitata is fluffy and happy as well.

twizzler, pac man and Cracker Jack partially bleached and not as happy.

coralline growth still rocking along.

the aqua maxx roll filter is great during diatoms.

Dosing 3.2ml per day All For Reef to maintain 152ppm of ALK. (Mostly coralline uptake at this point I would imagine.)

 

[Staticmoves]

Week 14 update.

last weekend I tested 0.0 no3 and 0.0 po4.

i pulled some carbon I was running to clear water a bit, and retuned skimmer to dry skim to keep some more gunk in the tank. May look into dosing no3 and po4 if I can’t do it organically, just enough to show up on testing.

in an effort to avoid Dino issues.

here are some pictures from a few days back. My pics are still poor, but present.

recent observation shows some acros starting to color up on one side.

and I noticed the Skelton on the Superman digitata starting to blue up a bit.

All for reef seems to be keeping things stable so far, as well as raise it. 

coralline is still going gang busters as well.

 

[geekreef_05]

Impressive coralline growth for only 14 weeks! 

[Staticmoves]

Week 15 update.

just changed my first roll on the roll filter.  Not bad considering that first roll has dealt with diatom blooms. Once tank gets past the phases, I would reckon probably getting 2 months out of a roll. As opposed to 1.5 months at the moment.

i have been monitoring PO4 at 0.03 ppm and NO3 at 0.00 ppm. So I have removed  my marine pure bio media balls from my sump ( in steps ) in an effort to have more available nitrates in solution.

once I started removing the bio media, I have had cyano start showing up on the substrate, however not much on the rock work. I’m ok with that.

started seeing some of the Acro frags settling in and more polyps color up after a few initial bleachings.

looking forward to some encrusting soon.

a snail fragged my digi for me. 
I started some rubble in my holding tank for glueing frags to. I have two small blasto frags to glue to rubble and the newly fragged chunk of digi. I will hold these frags in the holding tank Incase of a future main tank issue or die off.

while I’m at it I will frag my hammer coral and mount them on chunks of rubble, for  future trades.

been very happy with the ease and stability of the All For Reef so far.  Hoping on it success for long term viability.  Still on 3.2ml per day. ( again I would chock the majority of consumption up to coralline at this point).

have not had to re dose Pods yet, as they still seem to be thriving and keeping the hawk fish busy.

i removed the remainder of the bio media in the sump today. 

[Koleswrath]

That Hawk fish is sweet, one of my favs!

[Staticmoves]

A couple quick week 16 update pic’s.

coralline is still kicking butt, and keeping most of the uglies off the rock work.

been feeding more reef roids lately to try and raise PO4.

going to order some items to start to dose PO4 and NO3, as they were undetectable last weekend. Going to test water today to see if reef roids helped this week.