IM 10gal Reef

[anizato]

Hey what's up everybody?

 

I am restarting my reeftank. We recently moved and took advantage of revamping everything. I had algae problems in the previous house, I think I had poor water problems with my RODI at the previous house.

 

Anyway. We are restarting. Very exciting times. Nothing like starting a reef tank, you get to feel like a child all over again. 

The plan for this tank is to mainly be an anemone/maxima clam/monti/mushroom tank. I am also considering placing GSP on the back panel with an assortment of monti's shelving out.  Other coral will simply be testers or fillers, open for suggestions also.

As for fish. I was thinking: One Onyx clownfish (I already have), and maybe a goby/pistol shrimp pair. Open to suggestions for any other creatures.

I had a crab from the previous tank, he's been in the bucket with the fish for about 15 days now. Both seem well and thriving, eating that's for sure.

 

SETUP:

 

TANK: Innovative Marine Nuvo 10Gal Fusion (purchased from BRS in 2016)

SUN: AI Prime HD 16 (re-purchased BRS 2021, original purchase 2016)

HEATER: 50W Easy-Therm Submersible Heater (purchased BRS 2016)

RETURN PUMP: SICCE Syncra Nano Pump (110 GPH) (purchased BRS 2021)

POWERHEAD: Ecotech Marine VorTech MP1w ES (purchased BRS 2016)

ATO: AutoAqua Smarto ATO Micro (purchased BRS 2016)

OTHER:
Two Little Fishies Ball Valve 1/2"

BRS 6 Stage Chloramines DELUXE RO/DI System 150GPD (purchased BRS 2014)

Dr. Tim's One & Only

Fritz #9 Live Nytrifying Bacteria

Fritz RPM Salt Mix

 

Salinity: 1.025

Temperature: 77F

 

 

 

 

[Kev1n]

Nice one. Aquascape looks great.

 

I agree that setting up a reef tank is exciting.

[Airedale.Reef]

10 hours ago, anizato said:

Nothing like starting a reef tank, you get to feel like a child all over again. 

The plan for this tank is to mainly be an anemone/maxima clam/monti/mushroom tank

I dig it! I am a big fan of inverts myself and love to see it. Good progress so far. 

[anizato]

Happy Friday!

 

So I added my clownfish to the tank last week. Been on top of parameters. Feeding every other day, lightly and directly to the fish. Aside from the copepods dying in the filter sock, everything has been running smoothly. My next big project is cable management. My first attempt failed and all the cables are strewn about under the tank and that's not cool.

 

I stopped at the LFS today. I bought more pods to supplement the ones that died in the filter sock that I forgot to remove the night I introduced them.

I saw so many exciting things that I had to hold my self off from buying. 

 

I saw some sexy shrimp, cleaner shrimp, really cool brittle stars, some very nice nano fish.

 

IMG_8329.MOV

 

 

I ended up grabbing a Randall Goby / Randall Pistol Shrimp pair along with the bottle of pods and some fish only frozen food. Already fed the clownfish some of this and he was all over it of course, just a taste of the good stuff LOL

 

 

Something weird I noticed. So I don't check for pH. I only check temp and salinity when acclimating. The fish has been acclimating for about an hour now. His salinity is 0.20... which only means its going to take waaaay longer than expected to acclimate this guy.

The way I do it, I float the bag and open it clip it to the side of the tank and use a syringe to extract and pour water from the bag/tank. I make sure to spill out anything in the needle and I wipe it clean before dipping into the tank to suck water out for the fish bag. I know for a fact my store uses copper on their fish. The Yasha have been at the store for a couple days, they looked healthy and she grabbed the smallest one for me, it was the most active one of them all.

 

I haven't even started on the Pistol Shrimp. That acclimation is going to take forever also, I expect many hours of acclimation especially since I have to bring the salinity so high. My tank runs at 1.025. I use a digital refractometer, no more guessing games. After the RODI, its the best tool for the hobby.

 

 

Edited May 13 by anizato
not Yasha, but Randall Goby/Pistol-Shrimp pair

[Kev1n]

The goby is a beaut.

[Justind823]

Cool! You chose the exact same fish as me when I first set up my cube! That being said, your goby looks like and Orange Stripe aka Randall's goby, not a Yasha. My favorite shrimp goby actually, I love the high fanning fin.

 

Tank is looking good and I like the direction you're taking it!

 

 

[Crawford_T]

Very cool new additions!

[anizato]

22 hours ago, Justind823 said:

Cool! You chose the exact same fish as me when I first set up my cube! That being said, your goby looks like and Orange Stripe aka Randall's goby, not a Yasha. My favorite shrimp goby actually, I love the high fanning fin.

 

Tank is looking good and I like the direction you're taking it!

 

Hey Justin I appreciate the praise. Thanks for the correction on the fish man, total slip there, I will edit it. You are absolutely right, it is indeed a Randall's goby AND a Randall's Pistol Shrimp.

On another note: I have some bad news everyone. 😓

 

After I was done acclimating. Once I decided to put the shrimp in, after hours of dripping ... RIGHT before he touches the sand, the clownfish comes out of nowhere like a raging miniature killer whale and takes a huge chomp out of the shrimp. I think he ripped his arm off, which was later eaten by the crab. I also read that in the wild they simply grow it back. But I have seen NO activity from the shrimp since he was put in.😪

 

On even WORSE news....🤐

The goby did fine, the clownfish completely ignored the little guy. He did fine, I observed him for a few hours before going to bed. At night, I felt too anxious and I had to see if I could take a peek at either of them. So I sneek out of my room and turn on my phone flashlight to guide my way as I tiptoe towards the tank. As soon as I reached it, however, I came upon a horrible realization when I saw a strange reflection off the floor from my lamp. I leaned in to see what it was and it was my fish, my dried up dead goby baby. 😵

 

My wife is very sensitive to these things and hates me for even having a tank in the first place. So I have to go back to the shop tomorrow and get another Goby and Shrimp pair? 🤠

 

I though about it, believe me, I was about to go to the store today; but I think the right thing to do is to find a glass lid. I currently have the Innovative Marine lid. it's a black plastic rim that holds the netting tight, and is hung by plastic clips that hang on the glass. So if I intend to keep a goby at all, I need to address this first.

 

 

[Kev1n]

This is not  good, things do not always go as we would wish. 🙁  The lid is a sensible approach. 

[anizato]

12 hours ago, KevMax said:

This is not  good, things do not always go as we would wish. 🙁  The lid is a sensible approach. 

agreed. I am going to the LFS now to go get some supplies and a Nassarius snail in hopes it can snatch up the Shrimp's little body and avoid some kind of spike.

Also thinking about adding a cleaner shrimp, but that's extra, maybe, we'll see LOL

I haven't run the lights at all, so there is absolutely no sign of algae anywhere. Everything is crystal clear. I've added pods and have a tiny little culture next to the tank. My goal is to put enough life in this tank before putting coral in and finally turning on the light on 'acclimation mode'
 

[Kev1n]

I would think you will be ok in respect of the shrimp causing a spike.  Nassarius are one of the better cuc members imo.  I have had the lights on at a low setting from day one for my nano.  

[anizato]

Went to the LFS. @aquaticcollection on socials, they are in Hayward, CA.

 

IMG_8363 (1).MOV
IMG_8363 (2).MOV  

 

Look at these awesome mushrooms 😍 One day soon I will have one 😁 I absolutely love the yellow!

 

I got some Sexy Shrimp. Five of them, I should've taken them all, there were only 3 more, but oh well, if they are there the next time I go I will surely take them.

 

 

 

It is so hard to keep an eye on these guys. 

 

The first night turned out to be challenging. Turns out they like the overflow, I assume it is because there are no coral. I haven't seen the fish attack them or anything, but I don't know if the Nassarius Snails would eat them or not. They hide extremely well, it is unbelievable how well thye hide. 

Hopefully their behavior changes from wanting to live in the filter sock to wanting to live in the tank where the coral are... or will be soon. 

 

I was thinking of getting the product made by Innovative Marine, https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auqagadget-intake-fish-guard-desktop-innovative-marine.html?queryID=923b7c3ec948f148e110545c549bfd21&objectID=4723&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products
This protective guard has many negative reviews. Mostly everyone says the water surface skimming is eliminated and the flow is significantly reduced into the overflow. I was thinking my MP10 is right underneath the overflow, so much so, that the water above it is almost in a constant tornado when the pump is running at 30%, which is my 100%.So hopefully I won't have any trouble with that. I know the pump is not sucking them into it because I have seen them jump right on the grates and just dance on the damn thing, these little guys are daredevils. 

 

So I won't be getting any more Sexy Shrimp until I get that fish guard. Hoping that will do the trick. But I do like the idea of having lot's of Sexy Shrimp. So maybe I will be getting some carpet anemones. Who knows. For now, the fish guard and coral are the next chapter in this tank's future. I will be adding some coral from a coral collector next week. Hopefully they have some nice stuff. See you next week!

[anizato]

...

IMG_8363.mov

 

no words. 

[Airedale.Reef]

Looks like you have a solid LFS near you - nice! Some good looking corals -I too really like that yellow mushroom! 

[Crawford_T]

Seems like a super nice store, maybe I’ll have to make a trip over there one of these days. 
 

I'm so jealous of how clear your water is.. I think I’m dealing with a bacterial bloom of some kind, can’t get it “crystal clear”. 

[anizato]

1 hour ago, Crawford_T said:

Seems like a super nice store, maybe I’ll have to make a trip over there one of these days. 
 

I'm so jealous of how clear your water is.. I think I’m dealing with a bacterial bloom of some kind, can’t get it “crystal clear”. 

mmm ... I see. How is your RODI filter doing? How long has it been since you changed the membrane?

 

Maybe try running your lights for less time during the day.

 

[Kev1n]

The mushrooms in the store do look nice. I can see why you want one.

 

Your reef tank looks really nice and clean. The shrimps are awesome. I think it would be worth taking a punt on that guard for the overflow.

[mitten_reef]

17 hours ago, anizato said:

Look at these awesome mushrooms 😍 One day soon I will have one 😁 I absolutely love the yellow!

the OG Jawbreaker shrooms are pretty awesome, I have a mini colony growing on a 3x3 tile right now.

And here is one of the most epic Jawbreaker mushroom colony I've seen on here: https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/360492-bommie-sps-uwdanno/page/30/

 

 

[anizato]

You all have your mouths full of reason. 🙃 So I went ahead and the fish guard is on the way. Along with some coral dip and coral glue.... so you all know what that means 😁

 

All in all it's not that painful to remove the sexy shrimp from the filter sock, just flip it upside down inside the tank at an angle so they slowly make their way towards the opening before I lift it, it does suck to see debris come back into the tank but well, that's what the other sock is there for, right? LOL

 

For now, I am going to leave them in the sock. They seem comfortable in there for the moment. Once the fuis guard arrives I'll do what's necessary to place them in the tank. I will probably already have coral in the tank by then.

 

Stay tuned...

[Kev1n]

7 hours ago, anizato said:

Along with some coral dip and coral glue.... so you all know what that means 😁

I don’t know.  What does it mean? 🤣

[anizato]

A few updates: First Phosphorus ULR test. First dKH test. RODI unit issues and upgrades. and ... drumroll 🥁... first coral were introduced into the tank.

 

So after a week long delay of my package including my Hanna Checker Phosphorus ULR and dKH readers and reagents I was able to perform the tests. I was surprised at the results as I have been very anal about feeding only every 3rd day (so skipping 2 days in between feedings, and only feeding a miniscule amount of frozen food, and the clownfish eats every pellet I throw in there, the three Nassarius I should get anything that lands on the sand. So I don't understand my numbers and perhaps someone can understand what is going on.

I have also been dosing phytoplankton each night, about 6 or 8 drops, so I will be cutting that out for a minute. I haven't seen a single pod since I dosed them, so I am not sure I even have any 🙈

 

So the results for the Phosphorus was 59ppb which is around .181ppm so that is pretty hi, wouldn't you say?

As for the dKH it turned out to be 6.8

 

I did a 3 gallon water change. 

 

I will test again tomorrow.

 

Moving on to the RODI situation.

 

I purchased two 100GPD membranes to produce 200GPD and much less waste water. I also reinstalled my HM D-2 Deluxe Dual-Inline TDS Meter. First line reads the water leaving the 3 canisters before the membranes.

 I am pretty sure I connected the System wrong. So if anyone out there can take a gander at my setup and tell me what I did wrong.

 

The Setup:

 

So the way I have it setup the line IN reads 41ppm TDS and after the DI resin it reads 8ppm TDS so something is wrong definitely. Because after 7 filtration steps the TDS should obviously be 0ppm TDS. 

My city water according to the city water is 45.1ppm TDS. So I highly doubt my filtration is not capable of getting rid of that. I am more confident that the way I connected it is totally wrong.

I also noticed two elbows are dripping. One leaving the waste line of the second membrane into the 800ml flush valve. The second is leaving the second membrane's screwcap elbow. 

I saw a package of like 30 replacement elbows and RODI supplies for like $12 on Amazon if anyone reading this needs that information 😉

 

Finally, the first coral have gone into the tank. There are six pieces, one colony of zoas, one utter chaos frag, one hammer frag, two red mushrooms and supposedly a jawbreaker baby. They all come from a local reefer, she hooked it up and hopefully the jawbreaker likes my tank and decides to multiply because I can't think of a better thing than a yellow rock full of shrooms.

 

I did notice a significant amount of algae on the frags so I did a heavy peroxide dip for like 30 minutes. Trimmed the plugs as much as possible and after a thorough rinsing they went into the tank, 

 

So far there are no signs of algae one any of the frags, the peroxide seems to have succeeded in killing all the algae, The zoa colony is open and the Utter Chaos is beginning to show its skirt. The two red shrooms are happy as ever and the tiny jawbreaker baby is still extremely stressed, no signs of yellow anywhere yet. 😐

[Kev1n]

Hope you get your RODI issue sorted out. Looking forward to seeing some images of the frags in your aquarium.

[anizato]

CORAL HAUL!!

 

Hell yeah! super excited, first coral haul for the tank! Got a bunch of coral of different kinds.

 

I went to a different LFS today. A bit of a drive, but man was that worth it. @Neptune Aquatics had a great collection of EVERYTHING you could want. I was impressed by their frag selection, which left me penniless.

 

First thing you see as you walk in is a nice selection of plants for the freshwater freaks, but as you continue right you see a tank of carpet anemones. HUGE carpet anemones, Green, Red and Rainbow. Unreal. I say an Enormous Colorado Sunburst, size of my head! Their collection of Red Flame Anemones was unreal, I will probably be returning for one of those. 

 

Again, HUGE selection of frags ranging from $9,99 all the way to $how bad do you want it? 

I picked up a decent selection of frags. I went off color and look as opposed to chase some kind of fantasy name that makes a 

Dipped them.

...by the time I glued them in, the sun was cast. 

 

So stay tuned for some hopefully opening frags. I focused on single frags and I ventured on getting something I have never tried before, goniopora. Couldn't find it red, but I think I got a yellow one? only time will tell.

 

My lights are on acclimation mode still, and will be for the following 85 days/from 90. So they will slowly ramp up from the initial 4hrs a day, From 2-6pm. But the tank sits near the window facing north, so it kind of gets morning sunlight from sunrise untill about 8:30am, when the house begins to block the direct sunlight. So I guess nature gives me a time to start the tank. 

 

Does anyone know how long a tanks lights should run for? I mean, if my tank rises with the sun, should I just obey nature and turn it off when it gets dark? My question really lies in, if I am going to have a party, is it cool to extend the light on certain days? So friends can enjoy the tank while here?

[Kev1n]

I personally run a schedule so I get evening viewing when I spend more time in the location of the tank. I run 8 hours with a ramp up and down. Will be extending this by a few more hours soon.

[anizato]

Without further ado... 

 

1st FULL TANK SHOT

 

 

On the right hand side of the display I have my ATO in a mason Jar displaying the temperature of the tank, and the glass flower pot in front is a Tiggerpod culture.

 

 

And....

 

The first closeups of the coral haul

 

A couple of acans hanging above the yellow ricordea and red mushrooms, hoping that hammer opens up.

 

 

Some Zoa Frags next to a Yellow Goni

 

 

The future Zoa corner. Utter Chaos struggling to open and a new frag up top popping out.

 

 

The encrusters! put a few on the rock, looking forward to the coloration here.

 

 

Here's hoping this rainbow monti takes over the top surface of the rock!

 

and a small clip of the Goni moving.