ADA 120-P + Elos Mini dual NPS tank journal

[fullmonti]

That is really beautiful, photo & critter.

 

[flying_dutchman]

How is your sea apple doing?

 

[uhuru]

I'm going to add this to the dendro study group thread but here is an aggressive dendronephthya that got into a war with a nearby dendrophyllia. It got one of its branches burned off and has started growing it back (circled in red).

 

[uhuru]

That is really beautiful, photo & critter.

Thanks!

How is your sea apple doing?

Unfortunately I lost my sea apple during my tank move.

I've actually been thinking of breaking down the elos and moving the remaining corals into the ADA. Not sure though.

 

[happysak]

Mike, are you planing to have cuttings of your fans and gorgonians for sale? Mine tank is to small to have full size colony.

 

[uhuru]

I had considered it but probably not at this time. Any cuttings I make from my older gorgonians I would use them to stock my ADA tank because it still needs a lot more corals right now. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a larger gorgonian if you see one you like. Just cut it up and spread it throughout the tank. It actually helps bring everything together that way. This is what I did with the elos mini, sometimes cutting the gorg into 4 pieces to fit it into the tank.

Here is a recent pic of my feeding setup. I'm now feeding H20 Life Nanno9 Live Phytoplankton from the beaker on the right. The magnetic stirrer only stirs the plankton gently and it comes on every hour. To the left I still mix all of my FM foods as well as frozen cyclopeeze, ova, baby brine shrimp and rotifers.

 

[uhuru]

So someone snagged the chironephthya from DD that I wanted right while I was on the phone with a live aquaria rep!

I ended up getting the larger, more expensive, and less healthy looking one. Hopefully I can get it into good shape. I have a black one that came in pretty bad condition that has been making a slow but nice recovery.

Congrats to the other chironephthya buyer, hope they are on here so we can keep track!

 

[fullmonti]

It was me!
Definitely will give up dates. Any needs other than normal NPS tank setup?

 

[uhuru]

Should be fine, that one looked very healthy. Its pretty cool seeing the one I have now making its recovery. The dead tissue is literally sloughing off and being replaced with new tissue (and polyps). I'll try to get some pics this weekend. The polyps don't look big enough to capture cyclopeeze, at least not the one I have right now. What it eats I can't see but I do see it closing its polyps and capturing something.

 

[uhuru]

Nothing special, but it was food prep time so I thought I'd share some pics. I buy as much food in bulk as possible and chop it up into cubes. This saves me a ton of money and makes the hobby affordable somewhat. This will give you an idea of how much I feed daily (1 cube of each item per day).

bulk cyclopeeze cut into cubes

rotifers

nutramar ova

baby brine shrimp

It takes me about 3 minutes per day to drop the cubes into a flask, add 1.5 tsp of the powder food mix (also prepared in advance) and 10-15 drops of Ultra Min D.

The powder food mix consists of:
NLS Reef Micro Feeder
FM Ultra Clam
FM Ultra Seafan
FM Ultra Min F
FM Ultra Zoa
FM Ultra Life
FM Ultra Pac

And thats it!

 

[dainiusiva]

nice update, i like a sneek peek behind the scenes

 

[uhuru]

glad someone enjoyed them, here are a couple more behind the scenes pics:

The water prep room... its not pretty but it serves its purpose. Included is a 50g FW reservoir, 45g SW mixing brute, and 150g SW reservoir.

Filling the 150g SW reservoir that automatic water changes are made from. This is plumbed about 150ft. as the water has to travel to the other side of the house and upstairs to reach the display tank.

 

[fullmonti]

I'm sure every one will enjoy your pics & info, I know I do.

Is it best to keep SW reservoir agitated while being stored?

How much of the nanno 9 live do you feed a day?

Thanks

 

[uhuru]

I do keep it agitated but I don't know if its totally necessary. The reason is only a small amount is pumped into the sump at a time, and it quickly equilibrates with that water once it enters the sump. I'm still experimenting with how much live phyto to dose. Its certainly different than dosing dead phyto. I already went through about 300ml in just 3 days so about 100ml per day. I noticed ZERO algae growth on the glass which is unusual. The water seemed to get extra clear after the first day, but then started getting a little cloudy by the second day.

I'm going to back off about 50% on the dosing to see how that goes, so about 50ml/day. I also might do 1 week of dosing and 1 week without dosing. Keep in mind I feed a lot of ultra clam so I never completely stop dosing phyto.

 

[fullmonti]

OK thanks, also what do you use for liquid in with the FM dry foods & the cubes of frozen foods, & how much of the dry in the mix, & volume per day on this too please. The reason I'm asking so many questions, I'm going to change how I feed & still trying to decide exactly how.

 

[uhuru]

I use ro/di water. SW would be better but I need to adjust the salinity of my tank water to account for it. With ro/di it just replaces some of the evaporated water so no change in salinity over time. I use 1.5 tsp of the dry food mix and add enough water to make 1200ml. From this, 100ml is dosed per hour. On weekdays I only fill the flask once a day. On weekends I often fill it twice in a 24hr period.

 

[fullmonti]

Looks like I may not be feeding enough of my mix each day. That might explain why my carnation is not so happy. I will up dose & see what happens.

I think I have a really good idea for feeding & auto water change combo. When I get it thought through I'll post the idea & see what every one thinks.

Thanks
Jim

 

[SWINGRRRR]

What kind of pump are you using for the 150ft run? I have to go up about 9 feet, then across about 50 or so. I bought a Mag 9.5, I'm hoping that's enough.

 

[glparr]

Swingrr, might pay to check a head-pressure chart. I don't think a Mag 9.5 will be very effective at that height and distance. I use a 9.5 on my 40 breeder to push water through two elbows, a 45, and 3+ feet of height and sometimes wish I had a bigger pump. Here's the chart link.
Gary

 

[uhuru]

I'm using a litermeter 3 peristaltic pump. If you're doing large amounts of water at a time its not the best option. You're going to want a powerful, pressure rated pump. If you're doing small amounts its great. Theres also the Reef-Filler pumps that a lot of people use.