180 build from scratch!

[michika]

Thank you!

We thought we had sorted out our RKE problem, but now we wonder if it even is an RKE problem at all. Our lights do not run the RKE. This morning when the T5s came on, at that same moment the skimmer pumps shut off, and turned on again. My first comment to Kevin was that we might be overdrawing the circuit when things start up. He gave me a big lecture about how power draw works, and my eyes glazed over.

At this point we/I do not know if the last time we heard the skimmer pumps if something else had just turned on. Maybe adding the RKE to the tank's circuit took it just too far, and is the cause of the skimmer pumps randomly turning off.

We are still seeing steady growth, and colour from all our SPS. Unfortunately I STILL can't get the white balance quite right. My photos have too much red in them. While this green piece shows reasonably well the green is a bit more of a neon green, and less yellow-green as shown in the photo. I'll keep working on getting it right.

When we first got it

This one here actually is a cream colour, with bright royal blue tips. I just can't get my camera to capture the colours.

And to show some growth, the photos below are from when we first got this colony

 

[michika]

This one is actually a light purple

My purple monti from a previous order,

The 'bush' is coming along well. Either it came with an acro crab, or one already in the tank, but there is one there now,

The supervisor is not impressed at our lack of sump progress

 

[jnarowe]

is that a fish in the #2 pic???

This thing with the lights and the RKE may be a known problem. IIRC I ran across some posts a long time ago about certain lights causing issues with the AquaController too. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I would hit the RKE boards and get some help.

 

[michika]

Yeah, that is my Scopas tang.

We never plugged our lights into the RKE, so we don't know why this strange skimmer pump thing keeps happening. The other explanation could also be that one of the two skimmer pumps are on their way out.

Today was supposed to be the monthly big maintenance day, but I'm heading out to an awards ball, so the tasks will be spread over the next week. Hopefully we can soon starting just picking a permanent day each month.

 

[jnarowe]

that is one freakin' fat scopas! wow!

This problem you are having with the skimmer and lights is not entirely uncommon. It will take some research but I know there is a reason and a "fix".

 

[michika]

We cleaned the skimmer pumps today, and so far everything has been running smoothly. I'm thinking that the skimmer noises we were hearing earlier were because the pumps were quite filthy. The fact that when the T5s came online and we heard the pumps stop was just coincidence.

I picked up two more yellow head jawfish to replace the pair that died. However they didn't even make it home in their bags. They were packaged separately because the drive was over an hour from the store home. I called the store immediately, provided photos of the corpses per their request, and then have been told too bad, they left the store, so its my own fault. I am not impressed, I've spent A LOT of money in this store over the years. I think this is the epitome of bad service.

The raccoon butterfly did not come out today for nori, so I am worried it has perished, or been eaten by something in the tank we still haven't identified or seen. I saw the fish yesterday when I was getting ready for our awards ball last night, but nothing this morning. I am already thinking the worse.

 

[maroun.c]

Sorry for the Jawfish that's really bad customer service.
Also hope your butterfly reappears. did you check the overflows?

 

[michika]

I've checked the overflows, the sump, and anywhere else it could be. I'll keep looking though, I really do hope that it makes an appearance soon.

 

[psteeleb]

great pictures - love the one of the dog. I think they know reef tanks = less dog attention

 

[michika]

My dogs are such attention freaks to begin with! My older dog gets jealous when too many people stand in front of the tank. She will paw at you and give you The Face.

Alright so a quick update before I vanish again for a little while.

We've decided not to attend MACNA, and passed our tickets onto a couple of derby girls who are at Rollercon in Las Vegas this week. We are picking up our house hunt again as I am coming to the end of my tolerance of condo living.

The butterfly did no reappear, and no body was found. This is now two fish that died in the tank with no remains. I suspect there is something unwelcome in the the tank, and it is capable of attacking fish under 2" at night. I'm thinking a crab of sorts.

We haven't had any more RKE problems since we ran through the update. I will move our lighting onto the RKE mid-August when I know someone will be home to watch the system. I've already sent off my MLC certificate, so now its just a waiting game. Overall I'm really pleased with the controller, the price is great, the customer service is fantastic, its a great little unit!

There are some color changes I am starting to see again. Some of the pieces that aren't growing were changing colors, and now some are changing yet again. I am so thrilled to have SPS again. My 28g nano really made me question how much I loved this hobby, and how much I was willing to put into it.

The chiller is doing amazingly well. It doesn't run that much, and its cured my fears of the tank overheating while I am out. It also has not impacted the evaporation on the tank. I still go through about 5g every 3 or 4 days.

The Doctor tang is growing at a stunning pace. The crap this fish drops onto my clams is stupidly big. So far the other fish have plumped up, but not gotten much bigger. I am hoping that this fish starts to slow down a bit growth wise, because this fish looks different every other week.

Our goal is to get out of our condo for November 1st, so hopefully we will have more luck this time around with the house hunt. Cue round 3 in the Calgary house hunt!

 

[tcmfish]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought raccoon butterflies weren't reef safe. I wouldn't put one in a reef. That being said I'm surprised it died seeing as it was in a reef, but I would like to know why you put it in the tank? Thanks

 

[jnarowe]

You know my CBB got stuck in a coral and died, the idiot. Maybe you have a mantis though? It takes a pretty cunning animal to take down a fish and eat the whole thing!

 

[michika]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13065798#post13065798 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tcmfish
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought raccoon butterflies weren't reef safe. I wouldn't put one in a reef. That being said I'm surprised it died seeing as it was in a reef, but I would like to know why you put it in the tank? Thanks

I read 'reef safe' as a guideline, meaning that in the past it has been seen behaving in an un-reef friendly manner, or its diet includes something like SPS polyps. I added it because I wanted to try it, and for the record the little butterfly didn't touch SPS, LPS, or clams, and it was shaping up to being a great addition to my reef.




I hope its not a mantis, but I look most nights when I can with a red light just to see if anything catches my eye. I never hear clicking, or any of the other reported noises coming from my tank, so its so hard to figure out.

 

[tcmfish]

That made no sense that you read reef safe as a guideline meaning it has been seen behaving in an un-reef friendly behavior or ate SPS polyps, but seeing as the fish didn't make it there may have been something wrong with it. And it not touching the corals or clams could have been a sign that it wasn't doing good.

Well good luck and maybe you can try it again and see what kind of success you have.

Or in the future pyramid or zoster butterflies are reef safe and would be interesting choices for a reef.

 

[michika]

Sorry, its hard for me to be clear with my english after a long day at work. My brain just shuts off Friday afternoons.

I had an imperator angel before, not the one in this tank, that also thrived. It went to a new home when I moved about a year ago. Its now in a 400g system, and still doesn't nip/bit/eat things it shouldn't.

I think the butterfly, and the jawfish I had, died because it was cyanide captured. It is also possible that something slipped past QT. Regardless though, I would love to try again.

The whole point of me trying fish that aren't listed as "Reef Safe" is to push a few boundaries, find out for myself, and see if I can impact fish behavior. I want to try some larger angels, and some butterflies in the future. Its hard to find specific fish here, only one store locally really will order livestock in for you rather then just paying you lip service.

I am also curious about a theory that seems to be floating around in regards to fish behavior and aggression. If you keep your fish well fed it seems to reduce aggression, which may also reduce the fish's need to graze on clam mantles, SPS polyps, LPS, or softies.

 

[michika]

The enter button on the RKE doesn't work at all today. I've posted about it in the RKE bug thread, and we'll see what comes back from Digital Aquatics.

I am hoping that DA will eventually roll out support for an SG probe, Ca. prob, and dKH probe. Those three things would make my life so much simpler in terms of testing.

I've also noticed since running ozone, which is injected into the skimmer, that I can smell when my skimmer needs to be clean. The skimmer head needs to be cleaned every 2-3 days, and you can tell because the "tank smell" gets stronger. The downside to have to clean out the skimmer so frequently is that the smell is so foul, we have to keep the front door open for an hour after cleaning it. I don't know what we are going to do in the winter.

 

[tcmfish]

Many people have been keeping large angels in reefs for years now. Thats no surprise and most keep them in SPS systems and lots of others get lucky and have ones that do well in mixed reefs, but not many of the keep butterflies. I have seen a few attempts with pearlscales and Chaetodon ulietensis (Terry Seigel and Greg Schiemer). The latter was helpful in controlling nuisance pests such as majanos and aptasia and didn't bother anything. Here is a link:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=73243
Also feeding fish more will cut down on aggression because if you think about it fish defend territories in order to ensure that they will be able to eat for the day, but I doubt you will be able to feed a butterfly enough to stop it from eating coral (its target food in the wild). Fish graze all day long in the wild and although we can keep them fat they will still eat more. Think of tangs we feed all the time but they will still chow down on algae sheets or macroalgae if its in the tank.

Then again we would be nowhere if everyone did the same things and tried nothing new so good luck to you.

 

[michika]

Thanks for the link! I'll keep trying, within reason of course, and hope to be successful the next time around.


Since my holiday plans were cancelled I've been hanging out with my tank all weekend, and some very cool things have come around.

This morning my dKH is 9! I have hit my target level! My Calcium is a bit on the low side, but I'm super happy that I am almost at the point where I no longer have to fiddle with dosing!

Since we've added on the RKE almost everything in regards to my tank is automated, just the way I like it! I do a once a month day of maintenance; pump cleaning, reflector cleaning, probe calibration, etc. On a daily basis I clean the glass and feed the fish. A couple times a week the skimmer gets cleaned. My tank is now at the point where it is very hands free, and I get to spend a lot of time enjoying it, rather then working on it.

Now if I could only win the lotto so I could go buy more clams and corals.

We were chatting about my Vlaminig tang in the Show off your Tangs thread. I snapped a few photos over the last week of it.

This is Friday, we fed double the Nori we normally due to cover for our absence over the next couple of days. However I ended up staying home....

The naso is getting wide!

 

[michika]

RKE is chugging along, aside from the fact that the enter button doesn't work.

The mess of starting the tank is still around, but its slowly diminishing!

 

[michika]

From Coral Master

From WickedFrags.com

From Red Coral

Random Zoas that survived the move & subsequent disaster from my move in November 2007. They are open, and seem to have come back from where they were in December. However, they aren't growing, but damn are they pretty!