drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[110galreef]

Came home and saw some Cerith Snail eggs on the glass.

So thats what that is.....

I had that like 2 times now on my acrylic! 1st time i had no clue what it was....2nd time i saw it following a snail & just figured it was sort of slime trail!

Guess I was wrong!:hmm4:

 

[drummereef]

Great pictures - I hope you don't ever get tired of taking (and posting) them as your tank evolves! It's really hard not love the personality of the lawnmowers. Grinchy-looking little things...

Are you getting coralline growth lately on the Marco Rock?

As long as there are people interested in my tank I'll never get tired of sharing. I'm getting some coralline, not anywhere near a complete covering of the rocks but I have a few nice patches. I'm also getting some purple growing on the overflows as well. There's some neat colors like bright orange that are showing up in places. Kind of cool.

Really nice PE! I've been slaking when it comes to posting but I'm here ! Lol

Thanks afernandez. Glad you stopped in to take a peek. Glad to have you around.

Funny you mentioned that experience, well not funny that they all died, but I had the very same experience last month Qt-ing a shippment of fish I received. All four died within 5-days and this was after I setup a nice QT system.

What do you feel was the cause? I reviewed my entire QT process with the LFS that I purchased and they felt there was too much flow in my setup for the fish the acclimate properly??? I have since made minor adjustments to my setup to assure better success. Wish I had a better answer and/or cause and interested in your experience.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I'm not exactly sure what happened but my Chromis were bought at a local fish store. Looked like they were doing well in the tank at the store so I bought them. I'm guessing stress of QT, not acclimating to a stable environment. Or just possibly malnutrition. I tried feeding Rods, Flake, Pellet and they wouldn't eat. Might of fared better feeding them if they had been placed in the display from the beginning. Not totally sure...

So thats what that is.....

I had that like 2 times now on my acrylic! 1st time i had no clue what it was....2nd time i saw it following a snail & just figured it was sort of slime trail!

Guess I was wrong!:hmm4:

Ha! Yep, snail eggs.

 

[jjwill_sdsu]

How's the zeo cocktail going? Have you noticed a difference in your coral colors and/or water parameters?

 

[drummereef]

How's the zeo cocktail going? Have you noticed a difference in your coral colors and/or water parameters?

Hey jjwill_sdsu. I've backed off the Coral Snow somewhat, dosing 2x weekly now. I'll update everyone on the full dosing schedule tonight - or at least where it currently stands... I was very pleased with how effective it was in battling the filamentous cyano that is in the tank, as the pictures on previous pages showed. I'm still trying to get balance how much AAHC to dose throughout the week without creating a hair algae bloom. I haven't dosed much in the last couple weeks but have dose 2 times in very small doses this week. The Magic Brew I was dosing absolutely helped with polyp extension and added a little bit of color but still trying to get the right balance while avoiding any unnecessary blooms.

I have an update tonight on something else I'm working on so I'll fill you in on the details then...

 

[dhickey]

Wow

Wow

2 days and 2545 posts later, I'm all caught up. I learned tons from WaterKeepers newbie tank setup guide...long but good read. Now, I jumped onto your thread. The biggest thing I learned from you is that I don't know anything yet! :lmao: Really awesome build tons of info (which alot was over my head still), but entertaining all the way! Thanks alot!

Right now I am brand new to this, and I am trying to get a plan together for a small tank (55-75 gal range). I'm still trying to figure out where to start, actually I know that one, Tank, RODI, and salt mix! After that is where it gets fuzzy!:hmm2: Anyway just wanted to chime in and say good job!

David

 

[afernandez]

nice cant wait!!!

 

[crvz]

cool new fish, Brett, I hope it does well for you.

 

[drummereef]

2 days and 2545 posts later, I'm all caught up. I learned tons from WaterKeepers newbie tank setup guide...long but good read. Now, I jumped onto your thread. The biggest thing I learned from you is that I don't know anything yet! :lmao: Really awesome build tons of info (which alot was over my head still), but entertaining all the way! Thanks alot!

Right now I am brand new to this, and I am trying to get a plan together for a small tank (55-75 gal range). I'm still trying to figure out where to start, actually I know that one, Tank, RODI, and salt mix! After that is where it gets fuzzy!:hmm2: Anyway just wanted to chime in and say good job!

David

Thanks so much for the compliment David. I'm sure your build will be great! Let me know if there's anything I can help you with.

nice cant wait!!!

cool new fish, Brett, I hope it does well for you.

Thanks Chris. Me too!

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


So I thought I would update you on the current dosing schedule. I've made some changes in the last week so I'm still dialing it in.

The current schedule is:

1tsp ZEOzym / 9 drops Bio-Mate (Sun/Mon/Wed/Fri)
6 drops AAHC (Tues)
"Magic Brew" 9ml Coral Snow / 3 drops ZEObak / 6 drops AAHC (1x weekly after water change)


As mentioned, I started a new dosing regimen using a different set of KZ products. These are ZEOzym and Bio-Mate. ZEOzym is an enzyme based supplement that help break down proteins and increase bacterial metabolism. Bio-Mate is a bacterial supplement designed to "clean" rock and substrates. They can be used separately but work well when dosed in combination. Usually dosed a couple times per week, I'm dosing more frequently to see if it continues to help break down the mulm on my rock and sand.

Here's a rock before starting the ZEOzym / Bio-Mate dosing taken a few weeks ago. As you can see there is a "mulm" buildup on the rock. This is what the combination is specifically designed to break down.

And here's a rock after a couple weeks of dosing the mixture. Notice the "mulm" is significantly reduced and you can see the pores of the rock again. From my experience this combination works as suggested.

 

[iwishtofish]

Wow, that's pretty amazing! What is this mulm? Is it just algae, or a combination of algae and bacteria?

Everything that shows up on your rock I am anticipating on mine, so I am following your progress closely!

 

[afernandez]

very nice!

thank you very much! i really love your documentation , i might just go zoe.... it going to be your fault! :lol:

 

[drummereef]

Wow, that's pretty amazing! What is this mulm? Is it just algae, or a combination of algae and bacteria?

Everything that shows up on your rock I am anticipating on mine, so I am following your progress closely!

It is quite effective from what I've seen so far. It's really cleaned the rock up dramatically over just a couple weeks. I don't know for sure what the mulm is but I'm guessing all of the above, a combination of excess bacteria, detritus, and some cyano and algae. The ZEOzym is an enzyme which really helps to break down the muck. I'll continue to update the progress.

I would suggest at least getting some Bio-Mate for your rock. It stinks like raw sewage. :lol: But from what I understand, it's a specific strain of bacteria that doesn't need a carbon source to proliferate. This is essential, imo, for bacterial survival when dosed into the water column. That's why it must go straight for the rocks and substrate when dosed.

very nice!

thank you very much! i really love your documentation , i might just go zoe.... it going to be your fault! :lol:

Don't blame me! :lol: :rollface: No really, I think they are good products. A little expensive depending on the size of your system but from my initial doses, they seem to work.

 

[110galreef]

I wonder why u have that mulm on your rocks....
Too light of a cleanup crew? Again i started my tank almost identical to yours (Dry rock, MB7, shallow sand bed, biopellets) and never had any rock or alga issues, other than the minor HA outbreak on a few flat pieces of rock, which the lawnmower cleaned up very quickly. Rock is very clean & so has sand bed....

But I do have a large collection of snails & crabs...too many that i have had some of each die, but I did aquire like a 100 snails & crabs as part of a "package deal" of corals!

 

[cromedogg33]

I have to wonder why you guys needed cleanup crew at all. I have stopped dosing MB7 for the time being as the pellets are in full affect.

My tank has taken a huge turn for the better in the last couple days. I'm almost completely 100% gone of the filmatious algae and have seen nothing else.

Maybe my tangs/LM took care of the algae and I never needed a cleanup crew.../shrug

110 I noticed you took your pellets offline. Any particular reason why?

 

[drummereef]

I wonder why u have that mulm on your rocks....
Too light of a cleanup crew? Again i started my tank almost identical to yours (Dry rock, MB7, shallow sand bed, biopellets) and never had any rock or alga issues, other than the minor HA outbreak on a few flat pieces of rock, which the lawnmower cleaned up very quickly. Rock is very clean & so has sand bed....

But I do have a large collection of snails & crabs...too many that i have had some of each die, but I did aquire like a 100 snails & crabs as part of a "package deal" of corals!

I'm not really sure the answer to that. I know some people go unscathed and others like myself have to deal with it. I know for sure 99% of the issues were cyano related, not the run of the mill HA or diatoms. I would guess your CUC really took care of business in your tank. Remember, I only had 9 Mexican Turbos in the beginning. My tank is looking a ton better btw, since i think the cyano is getting snuffed out.

I have to wonder why you guys needed cleanup crew at all. I have stopped dosing MB7 for the time being as the pellets are in full affect.

My tank has taken a huge turn for the better in the last couple days. I'm almost completely 100% gone of the filmatious algae and have seen nothing else.

Maybe my tangs/LM took care of the algae and I never needed a cleanup crew.../shrug

110 I noticed you took your pellets offline. Any particular reason why?

That's great new cromedogg. It's possible your tangs and LM took care of it, my LM is really going after what's left of mine. I don't know why I didn't get one a long time ago. :lol:

 

[afernandez]

Crome- how long have u had your pellets in effect?

 

[110galreef]

110 I noticed you took your pellets offline. Any particular reason why?

well, to be honest, i jumped the gun maybe a bit early w/ the corals. I added a frag tank (40g) to my system (5 weeks back) and about 70 frags & 12-15 colnies of sps about 8 weeks back. These were aquired from a local reefer that was teaing down a tank. Many of the current frags were made from colonies that were STN due to my less than ideal holding tank & placement in my DT while I setup the frag tank.

A few of my colonies were fading or still had minor tissue loss. So i pulled the biopellets to be sure they were not effecting the corals colors or tissue. I don't think it was the pellets, rather the given tank teardown, transfer & holding of the corals that did it......But I figured better safe than sorry.

Also the lack of understanding on what to feed corals in a ULNS is still a mystery and drummereef i fell is reallly closing in onto this. But again I didn't want to sacrafice 15 colonies & 70 frags.

I hope to be able to bring the biopellets back online soon. But want to get atleast my tissue loss under control, before adding more to the mix, so I am contolling one variable at a time.

At the present time tissue loss seems to have stopped, colors seem to be a little better, however many of the one's that were pretty browned are coloring up nicely. Nitrates & PO4 are still inline were they were w/ biopellets. 0 & .02-.04 respectively. Hopefully I will see more progress in 2 weeks and then slowly bring the biopellets back online & then maybe incorporate some of the majic brew!

 

[Taqpol]

Have you ever tried skimming wet right after you blow off your rocks with a turkey baster or powerhead? I used to blow off the rocks in my old tank all the time, and I've taken to doing that on this tank too.

 

[drummereef]

Have you ever tried skimming wet right after you blow off your rocks with a turkey baster or powerhead? I used to blow off the rocks in my old tank all the time, and I've taken to doing that on this tank too.

Yes, many times in fact. When I do this I put 200 micron socks under the drains to catch the detritus. It's amazing how much junk has come off the rocks since first putting them in the tank. I don't know where it all came from but there was quite a bit of junk. :hmm5:

 

[sledge760]

very very nice!