470 Gallon Mixed Reef - nuxx Reef

biecacka said:
Are you going to try to cultivate algae for them in a separate tank once they finish of the DT. Or maybe a local reefer might need hem.
I don't know, do they eat anything else?

Corey
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure, those little guys sure can hide / blend into the rocks.

I was thinking when all the algae is gone, I'll leave a medium sized one in the display and move one into the fuge. There is a lot of hair algae in there along with the Chaeto.

If I can keep verifying there is one left in the display and one in the fuge, when I see others I might just give them out to others in the area with larger tanks and GHA.

I think in small tanks (< 120 gallons), GHA is easy to manually pull. After being on a ladder for 3 hours pulling the stuff out of my tank (and getting like 10%), I have no sympathy for people who can just reach in their tanks and pull it. My bruises and sore back agree.

BTW: The Sea Hares have made a nice dent in the GHA that's left. I only started with one "live" area of GHA about the size of a quarter. All the rest is dead brownish snot that wouldn't go away. I'll take another video when it's all gone. Also the triggers, wrasses and Bandit have left them alone surprisingly enough.
 
Also just changed the settings on my A360WEs.

Moved maximum daytime lighting color down from 50% color to 48% color.

Moved maximum daytime lighting intensity up from 85% to 88% as well.

Increased flow to all the modes of the powerheads by 10% in the various flow programs.

If anyone's interested in parameters:

SG: 1.0265 (Want down to 1.026)
ALK: 9.0 (Want down to 8.5)
Ca: 510 (Want under 500)
MG: 1500
NO3: 0
PO4: 0
PH: 8.1-8.2
Temp: 78-79
 
A few pictures...

GHA on a rock about a week ago:

01282016_gha_old.jpg



Same rock and Bandit today:

01282016_gha_today.jpg



Also decided to move my Rainbow Hammer to less flow and less light. Not sure if it's just one of those corals that doesn't like my tank, or if it's fixable...

01282016_rainbow_hammer.jpg
 
biecacka said:
Love that Bandit. I want a nice showpiece fish in my tank at some point!

Corey
Click to expand...

Yeah he's a great fish.

Gave me a bit of a scare while in quarantine, was a really picky eater.

Got him over the hump with live sponges, nori, mussels and clams.

Finally started eating frozen blood worms in QT after weeks.

After a few days in the display he was eating everything offered :)

I'd like to add two more angels in time :)
 
Had a very rare power outage this morning...

Happy to see the return pumps never shut down, with each being powered by a UPS.

No backflow or change in sump height. Power was only out for about 2 minutes, but everything went well :)
 
Well the results from the Sea Hares are in...

Here are two videos of the tank, one from 1/21/2016 and the other from today (2/4/2016).

Results speak for themselves...

1/21/2016





2/04/2016




I have now moved one of the Sea Hares I caught last night to the fuge to eat the extra hair algae down there.

In other news, the "female" Crosshatch Trigger looks pretty beat up yesterday. I'm assuming something is going on with either fish in regards to changing sex, causing some issues. She also is hiding a lot yesterday and today, and I noticed her red/brown fins have changed to yellow...

The Black Tang was also pacing the "male" Crosshatch today, so that might have something to do with it as well. Maybe some sort of power void caused by removing the aggressive Yellow Bellied Blue Tang...
 
Silly Crosshatches acting "normal" again.

No hiding or twitching, also the "female's" fins have gone back to brown/red from the yellow they were yesterday...

 
Added a few pieces of new acid bathed Marco Rocks to the tank to round off an area of rock that I thought looked funny.

Here is a great comparison in the color of new Marco Rock and 2 year old Marco Rock :)

 
Harvested a little bit of chaeto from the sump...

02062016_chaeto.jpg



Should be getting a new fish to put into QT on the 20th of this month, so took some time to get her QT ready.

I had a large metal stand built for QT tanks, which could hold 2 40 gallon breeders and 4 20 gallon longs. After some thought I decided that this was overkill and moved the stand into the garage to hold garage stuff instead.

I really only plan on QTing a small group of fish at once, so I though the 55 (my first reef tank :sad2:) I had sitting around would make a good QT. I also like 40 gallon breeders, but since I'm putting it in a closet the width might be an issue. Also if I need, I can just throw a 20 or 40 together quickly if I need another QT if the 55 is being used.

Cleaned off a bunch of MarinePure spheres with hydrogen peroxide and then washed them with a bunch of PVC, powerheads, heater, etc... in vinegar.

02062016_marinepure.jpg



Tried to get all inventive with the QT. Trying to put two levels of PVC in the tank to give the new inhabitant more choices of where to seek shelter. Think it turned out all right.

02062016_55_qt.jpg



Tank will run two HOB filters filled with the MarinePure spheres and filter pads. I'll seed the tank with some dirty filter pads from the display and a bottle of BioSpira. Will try to get it wet tomorrow and also finish netting the eggcrate cover.

Tank will also run two powerheads pointed at the surface and two bubblers. Two thermometers and three ammonia badges should help make sure everything's in check. I've also had good luck dosing Stability everyday, so I'll continue that. Unless a bio-bloom is noticed, then I'll cut back.

Also the Blue Linckia finally came off the glass in the display, so I shot a picture of him. It and the Orange Linckia just make laps around the glass all the time, rare to see them in the rocks/sand. Really wanted to keep one of these for a long time, finally having success. Guess there's enough for them to eat in the tank.

02062016_blue_linckia.jpg
 
New QT mostly ready...

Forgot I had LED tops for a 55 laying around, perfect for the QT tank.

They don't snuggly fit around the two HOB filters, so I'll need to figure out a way to close them up, but I'd like to also use something like eggcrate with netting to allow the tank to breath a little. Talking about a 1" gap around the filters.

Also, need to pick up two new cheap airstones today. The only ones I had around were micro-bubblers...

Going to add the Bio-Spira today and dose stability everyday starting tomorrow. Also have some filter pads sitting in the display's sump, that I'll put in next week. Also going to add a polyfilter in a day or two to pull out anything that might have snuck in chemical/metal wise.

Need to check for stray voltage as well, but should be fine.

Hopefully everything will be ready for the 20th :)

02082016_qt.jpg
 
zoasguy said:
What a journey...
Click to expand...

Thanks!

QT tank had a bad smell last night after 24 hours. Went ahead and added the BioSpira and drilled some holes in the tops for help with gas exchange. It was gone this morning :)

Just need to make netted eggcrate covers for the gaps by the filters now.

Also going to play with the position of the bubblers to help with bubbles in the tank.

02092016_qt_tops.jpg



 
nuxx said:
Thanks!

QT tank had a bad smell last night after 24 hours. Went ahead and added the BioSpira and drilled some holes in the tops for help with gas exchange. It was gone this morning :)

Just need to make netted eggcrate covers for the gaps by the filters now.

Also going to play with the position of the bubblers to help with bubbles in the tank.

02092016_qt_tops.jpg



Click to expand...

Sounds like one of the fish pulled a classic Dutch Oven prank. :0)
 
McPuff said:
Sounds like one of the fish pulled a classic Dutch Oven prank. :0)
Click to expand...

Nah it's empty :(

Waiting until the 20th for it's inhabitant :)

Just think it's new tank smell.

Went away after adding the BioSpira, now just started dosing Stability as well. Going to add some dirty filter pads in a few days and also run some Polyfilters to make sure anything weird gets pulled out.

Re-arranged all the powerheads (removed one large one) and bubblers, now getting just a few bubbles, but no microbubbles in the upper right corner.

This video was last night, but there was still a ton of bubbles in the tank from playing around all day with different setups. This morning there are just a few. Maybe 20% of what's in this video.

 
Peter, I'm not sure if I've commented in this thread, but I have been following it for a while :)

Not sure if you said or not, but what's the new fish going into QT?????
 
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