rdck99's 16g Nuvo Reef (Now w/NanoBox Duo + 1st SPS!)

[rdck99]

Could use some pictures... Those ORA plugs are the worst. The few I have gotten, I just removed from the plug completely. Did you actually cut the plug? I tried once and didn't come close.

 

I used to run my MP10 on Nutrient Transport mode. It is short pulse for like a half hour, then constant for like 5 minutes or so. You can check it out in the manual.

 

Not sure about the LPS issues. If the other heads look healthy I would just let it go.

 

With the crabs, I have heard dosing iodine will help with their molts. That could be the issue. I have snails go missing from time to time, and I had to spot feed my porcelain anemone crab, not sure if you were doing that, but they do not get enough food from filter feeding in our tanks in my opinion.

 

HTH

No, I wasn't able to cut the ORA plug - I got probably a 1/3 of the way through it, before the frag snapped off. Lesson learned!

 

After losing a couple emerald crabs awhile back, I decided to dose Seachem's Iodide every 7-10 days. So, I'd think that that plus my water changes would keep those levels in check, but who knows. I spot fed him some mysis every week, but maybe that wasn't enough? My pistol shrimp recently moved his den and is now closer to the RFA and porcelain crab, so perhaps the shrimp knocked him out.

 

I'm hoping to take some photos tonight - it's been too long!

[rdck99]

New FTS!!! (with a newly fragged, and much smaller toadstool)

 

First SPS - Green Birdsnest from ORA (much prettier in person - the detail of the green polyps aren't captured in the shot)

 

Clown Hosting Toadstool (well, only for a minute, and only when the pumps are off)

 

Frogspawn is loving the NanoBox Duo!

 

Mushroom Garden - Started w/3 heads and now has 20; I frag about 1 each week

 

Ricordeas also opening nice under the NanoBox Duo

 

Duncan Extension!

 

Rastas have gone from 3 heads to 20

 

GSP was stubborn at first but has grown nicely the past couple of weeks, now extending to the sandbed

[CrazyCarl]

That ORA birdsnest (seriatopora) looks more like a pocillopora to me. Does the skeleton have pointed or rounded tips? It is hard to tell with the polyps so extended. If they are rounded, then it is most likely a poci. ORA does sell a poci, so it could be that and not their birdsnest (seriatopora). You can check their website for a positive ID. I have heard people call poci's birdsnest too though, either way it looks good, as does the rest of the tank!

[jedimasterben]

Yes, that is a pocillopora, not a birdsnest.

[skyzpop]

 

Maintenance/Dosing:

• 4 ml every week of Seachem's Reef Fusion 1 & 2
• 1 ml per week of Seachem's Iodide
• 3 gallon water change every 7-10 days using Red Sea Coral Pro salt mix
• Filter floss swapped out with water changes
• Replace Chemi-Pure Elite and Purigen every 3 months
• Here's a link with my experience in Cleaning the Rear Sump Area.

 

I was wondering how the 3 gallon a week water changes are working for your tank?

 

I have been doing 5 gallon a week water changes since the beginning of my tank (about 7 months now). I recently started doing 5 gallon water changes every two weeks thinking my tank was 'too clean' for my Xenia coral which I read they prefer 'dirtier' water.

 

I have also never dosed anything and was wondering how your dosing has been working for you. I was under the impression that the Purigen would remove whatever is being dosed?

 

Love your tank and thanks in advanced for your response!

 

[rdck99]

That ORA birdsnest (seriatopora) looks more like a pocillopora to me. Does the skeleton have pointed or rounded tips? It is hard to tell with the polyps so extended. If they are rounded, then it is most likely a poci. ORA does sell a poci, so it could be that and not their birdsnest (seriatopora). You can check their website for a positive ID. I have heard people call poci's birdsnest too though, either way it looks good, as does the rest of the tank!

 

Yes, that is a pocillopora, not a birdsnest.

 

Thanks, guys. The store flipped back and forth a few times on whether it was a birdsnest or pocillopora. I had heard that birdsnests were a fairly easy starter SPS, which is what made me go that route. Hopefully, the pocillopora isn't too far down the line in terms of difficulty.

[rdck99]

I was wondering how the 3 gallon a week water changes are working for your tank?

 

I have been doing 5 gallon a week water changes since the beginning of my tank (about 7 months now). I recently started doing 5 gallon water changes every two weeks thinking my tank was 'too clean' for my Xenia coral which I read they prefer 'dirtier' water.

 

I have also never dosed anything and was wondering how your dosing has been working for you. I was under the impression that the Purigen would remove whatever is being dosed?

 

Love your tank and thanks in advanced for your response!

The water changes seem to suit the tank okay. I do get film algae on the glass every 2-3 days, but that's the only thing I consistently have to keep up with. If I fed less and/or had a skimmer or fuge, it probably wouldn't be so bad.

 

My nitrates are usually around 2-3 ppm (or less) and I've never detected phosphates, so I'd think my water is pretty clean, but my mushrooms grow like crazy, and I hear they like dirtier water...who knows. I can't really speak to what frequency/amount would be best for you, but I'd say if you're getting the results/growth you want, continue what you're doing and if something seems off, try changing the frequency/amount. Unfortunately, the majority of things in this hobby require personal trial/error, because each of our systems are so unique.

 

I can confirm that Purigen doesn't remove the usual things dosed...not sure what you may have heard? Have you tested your parameters yet? If not, start there, before you consider dosing. I've always heard that if you're changing between 20-30% of your water every week (which you and I are), your tank's not crazy stocked (which ours aren't) and you're using good salt mix (which we are), your parameters would be kept in check. Like so many other things, the 'norm' wasn't the case for me, because KH is consumed in my tank very quickly and it requires dosing. I usually dose about 4ml of Reef Fusion 2 once per week, and it's honestly not been enough/ideal - the KH is still too low. I've only just begun to test for Ca/Mg, so I can't speak on this subject much, but it looks like my tank will require dosing more than once per week, which will likely lead me to the BRS dosing pumps. If I could get by with once per week dosing, I'd probably continue the manual dosing route, but I travel too much to manage more than that. Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll do my best!

[CrazyCarl]

Pocillopora are easier than seriatopora IME. When I severely overdosed my tank with calcium, the poci was one of the few SPS that had minimal tissue loss. You should do fine with it. They are also very fast growing.

[DaveFason]

Thans for the update! Tank is looking great.

-Dave

[rdck99]

Here's an old picture from when I fragged my toadstool. It's about ready to be fragged again. I think it's already bigger than it was before.

 

Tank is doing good. I think I'm getting pretty good growth on the pocillopora. Sometime soon, I'll have to upload a before/after photo.

 

I also recently purchased a 3g tank for my office. It's going to be freshwater (not live planted) with nothing more than a few tetras and maybe a shrimp. Once it's up/running, I'll upload a photo, but for now, I'm battling this mopani wood. I've boiled it twice and have had it soaking for a few, changing out water every day, but it won't stop leeching tannins. Any recommendations on that front would be much appreciated!

[rdck99]

My 3g office tank is finally wet, but fish are still a few weeks away.

 

I really enjoyed setting it up - it's a nicely built little tank and it came with a sleek blue/white LED strip and a dead silent pump that sits in the rear chamber. I am also using a carbon pad and filter floss under the rear overflow, and I added a 25W heater. The glass lid fits almost perfectly over the top of the tank, so there's no room to add a tube for an air stone, so hopefully that's not much of an issue for my fish, when they arrive.

 

I was originally thinking a few tetras and a shrimp, but I'm now leaning more toward a few fancy guppies. I've read that tetras prefer groups of 6 or more and like horizontal swimming space, both of which my 3g cannot accommodate. Perhaps a second species of fish, as well as a shrimp and/or snail. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to share!

 

I never could get the tannins to stop leeching from the mopani wood I bought for my office tank (I even tried running purigen), so I ended up buying "natural aquatic wood" from Petco - basically, just wood that's been soaking in their tank for ages, so I was a bit more confident that it wouldn't still be leeching anything. Plus, I figure this wood would sort of act as live rock by introducing the beneficial bacteria to my tank. The tanks been up for a few days, and so far, the water is still crystal clear!

[rdck99]

All's well in my tank's world, but I'll share a few minor updates...

• The count is now up to two for how many friends I've turned onto the hobby. The one initially bought the same 16g Nuvo, but has already upgraded to a 90g and the other bought a 40g right off the bat. I'm really getting the itch to upgrade myself, but my house doesn't have a great spot for a larger tank. If/when the space does become available, I'm now eyeing the new Red Sea Reefer 65g.
• My 3g office tank is now home to a single male fancy guppy - I'll probably add him a friend, plus a snail at some point.
• I recently purchased the 2-part BRS doser. Despite pretty consistent 3g per week water changes with RSCP salt mix, I have a difficult time keeping alkalinity as high as I'd like, same with calcium, but to a lesser extent. I hope to have it up/running in another couple weeks.
• I've got the itch to add another VERY small fish...already having two tiny clowns and a firefish, what do you guys think? I was looking at a Rainfords/Court Jester Goby or other small goby.

I'll leave you with a quick story...I haven't added/changed anything with the tank in a very long time, but decided to add an emerald crab over the weekend, because I have some bubble algae cropping up in a few spots. At the store, my wife decided to pay for the little guy, and it was literally the first thing she's ever bought for this tank. So, naturally, she's holding the bag and watching him all the way home, feeling a sense of ownership, more than she has for most of the other tank critters. After temperature acclimating him, I scoop him out of the bag using a spoon and dump him into my tank. Going against the current, he immediately swims directly into my rock flower anemone's mouth and is gobbled up and no longer visible within seconds. My wife is in the other room (thank god) and I'm feeling terrible - I literally spoon-fed her new pet to the anemone. 10 minutes pass, she's back in the room and I'm debating whether to tell her or just say he ran off into the rocks hiding, when all of a sudden, I see the crab reemerge and begin struggling to get out of the anemone! Using my turkey baster, I help push him out of the anemone and all is now well.

[rdck99]

Growth from my pocillopora - first photo/Jan15, second/Mar15, third/Aug15. I don't know what kind of growth is to be expected, but I'm pleased. Now that I'm dosing Ca/Alk, I'm sure the growth will be quicker going forward. What I'm most bummed about is that the polyp extension doesn't seem to be as strong as it was in the earlier photos. It's much less "fuzzy," plus it's showing less of its neon green color now. It's not quite as bleached in person, but definitely not as green as it was previously. I played around with the light's settings, thinking I had more blues on in the earlier photos, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. My NanoBox Duo reaches 52% max power during the day for five hours...could that much power/time be too much/bleaching it? I cranked it down to 45% to see if I see any difference.

 

This is a photo awhile back when the torch was stinging my toadstool (at least I assume that's what was happening). They've since been further separated.

 

Here's my extremely cramped/cluttered space behind my tank's stand - now complete with BRS' calcium and alkalinity two part dosing pumps/supplements.

 

Few other dosing-related notes:

• I have the black hose/clamp for the Tunze Nano Osmolator mounted to the top of my tank, above the sump, so to make sure everything matched, I purchased two more black Tunze clamps/brackets for each of the two dosing hoses.
• Before installing the dosing pumps, I raised my calcium levels from 370 to 460 and alkalinity form 6.4 to 9.
• I estimated that the tank was consuming about 5.0 ppm of calcium and 0.15 dKH, so the dosing pumps will only be running three minutes per day to start. If my math is right, this should boost 4.9 ppm of calcium and 0.12 dKH each day. I'll likely have to bump it up to four or five minutes, because I think my consumption numbers were rounded down too much.

Lastly, here's the latest FTS. After taking photos of this tank for over 2.5 years, I can't believe I can't get better quality out of my photos. Not that this is terrible, but despite the settings I play with, I can't get them as nice as I'd like. So many tutorials say, "use a tripod, correct the white balance, turn off the pumps and voila," but there's got to more to it...sigh.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Coming along nicely- gotta love the sps- so are you keeping Alk at 9? That might be causing the Poci to close up more or lose color. Try keeping it at 7 or 8 and see what happens- my tank runs best at 7 alk.

[DaveFason]

Like Sk8n stated maybe bump down to 7. As well the frogspawn looks like it is getting a little to much light.

But overall keep it up!

[rdck99]

Coming along nicely- gotta love the sps- so are you keeping Alk at 9? That might be causing the Poci to close up more or lose color. Try keeping it at 7 or 8 and see what happens- my tank runs best at 7 alk.

Thanks for the reply! The picture is before dosing anything with regularity and Alk was normally hovering between 6 and 7. Now that the dosing pumps are setup, I've raised Alk to near 9. Given your comments, I'll monitor more closely but whatever's happening with extension/color isn't from Alk being at 9 (maybe that'll also happen if Alk is at 6?). Before setting up the doser, my Ca had dropped below 375...not sure if that affects much beyond growth?

 

 

Like Sk8n stated maybe bump down to 7. As well the frogspawn looks like it is getting a little to much light.

But overall keep it up!

Thanks! I turned the light down to 45% (from 52%) power after taking the above photos, and my morning/evenings are around 30% power (referring to the power of the white lights). Would you crank down anymore, or reduce the photo period (45% lasts for around 4-5 hours).

[rdck99]

It's been a LONG time since an update, so I figured I'd post some notable events from the past 8 months. I'll also be posting photos and hopefully a new tank tour video in the not so distant future as well...

• Tailspot Blenny: my Red Firefish looked weak one morning, resting on the sand bed, and when I checked the tank a few hours later, his carcass was balled up, barely recognizable and just a few inches from my RFA - I'm assuming that in his weakened state, he floated into the RFA and there was no chance. After a couple months, I decided on tail spot blenny. My LFS had the blenny I wanted, my QT was set up but I had difficulty getting the ammonia down, and after a couple weeks of battling it, I decided to introduce him straight into the DT. I'm a little disappointed that I got lazy and went this route, but all's been fine so far. He's already gotten comfortable going to the top of the water to eat flakes, but I also clip in some algae flakes a couple times per week, which he goes nuts for.
  • My one fear...when I'm out of town, I usually time an auto-feeder to dispense pellets at the same time my controller turns the pumps off, to give the fish a 5-10 minute feeding period. However, as soon as the pumps are off, my blenny immediately darts inside the MP10 and hangs out. I have to lure him out with food before turning the pumps back on, so unless I want a chopped up blenny, my out of town feeding method will no longer work...if there are any good ideas out there, I'd love to hear them!
• Fuge: I'd been running with nothing more than purigen/chemi pure forever (I retired a skimmer and reactor a couple years ago), but decided I'd give fuge life a go. My phosphates were never out of control, but I liked the idea of the fuge balancing pH and the pod habitat more than anything. I quarantined my chaeto (from LFS) for 6 weeks before introducing to the tank, just in case some nasty hitchhikers came along. I went with InTank's fuge basket and the Nano Glow LED and I couldn't be happier! It's running the LED 11pm-7am.
• RKL Controller Expansion: my RKL had been maxed out for some time, as I had power strips connected to 3 of the 4 outlets (pumps, lights, dosers, heater), and when I added the fuge LED, I decided to get a second power bar. In addition to giving the fuge LED its own outlet/timer, I now have each of my two part dosing pumps on dedicated switches, as well as my Tunze Nano Osmolator (more on that below).
• Tunze Nano Osmolator: the Osmolator failed 2-3 times over a month, and I only avoided a devastating overflow by the dumb luck of my top-off reservoir not being filled completely when the pump/switch malfunctioned. Realizing I was playing with fire, I now have the Osmolator plugged into a dedicated switch on my RKL and using the Multi Timer function, the switch is only given power twice per day, for 45 seconds, at 8am and 8pm. Now, even if the pump malfunctions, it can only run for 45 seconds (as opposed to the pumps auto shutoff of 3 min) and because I chose power times that align when someone is usually at the house, it'll give me an opportunity to see/correct the problem (as opposed to happening unbeknownst to anyone at 3am). Obviously, evaporation isn't being corrected as instantaneously as before, but that's a price I was willing to pay. This bit of insurance has relieved a lot of stress/worrying.
• Bluefish Controller: random thought...when are we going to see the power bar, auto feeder, etc.?! I was bummed I had to invest in more Digital Aquatics gear.
• RFA Spawning & Something: my RFA appeared to spawn but didn't return to "normal" until a week or so later, which from what I understand, isn't normal and had me worried but he's fine ever since. Here's a photo of him spawning and a link to the thread that the lingering issues were discussed. http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/367216-rfa-dying-pooping-something-else-please-help/

• Duncans/Pocillopora Issues: my Duncan colony of ~15 heads has crumbled down to just 2. No clue what happened to them. I fragged the largest head and it's doing great on its own bit of LR. The duncan issue was from a couple months ago, but over the past couple of weeks I've also been dealing with RTN on my pocillopora - simply being new to SPS, I wasn't aware of the damage an alkalinity spike could cause, and I bumped my alkalinity up from 7 to 8 over a 1-2 day period. I've been monitoring and will resort to fragging if the tissue decay continues, but its seems to have slowed/stopped...fingers crossed! Here's a picture of the duncan colony before I fragged it.

[rdck99]

Been a couple years since my last FTS, so figured why not now? Not much has changed, except for my 40-50 head frogspawn no longer rules the land, as it succumbed to BJD, presumably from an unsuccessful fragging. It was devastating and is chronicled, with a great pic just before it started to decline, in the below link.