High Nutrient Macro Algae/Sea Grass Reef
- Thread starter vlangel
- Start date
Great pics Dawn! I like the loveseat view. I don't recall seeing it from that angle before. How's the fish community doing? Everyone still getting along?
vlangel
Premium Member
Thanks! Yeah, I was really sad about the clam and it happened really fast. I have 2 scallops in the tank and they are fine so I am not really sure what happened.
vlangel
Premium Member
Thanks Michael. I have taken pics from the loveseat before but I did change the rockwork a little on the left side of the tank which makes it look different.
The fish community are doing fine with everyone getting along well. I did lose Linus a while back and not sure if he was bullied to death by Marmalade or if he just died for other reasons. I will not get any more combtooth Blennies while I have Marmalade. He never shows aggression toward any other fish.
I also lost Samson so that was sad. The bump on his tail had gotten quite large and no doubt was the cause. I definitely enjoyed my 5 years with keeping seahorses. They are marvelous creatures.
The tank system is running great and now is extremely low maintenance. The fuge seems well established at this point and does the heavy lifting of the bulk of the nutrient export.
ThePurple12
New member
Samson died?? That was unexpected.
vlangel
Premium Member
Yes, he had that bump on his tail for about a year. Usually any bumps or air bubbles under the skin indicate an imbalance in their system so so knew it was only a matter of time.Samson died?? That was unexpected.
vlangel
Premium Member
Also as I cleaned the glass on my 30 gallon basement fuge I saw that a barnacle blenny ended up down there. Poor guy went through the holes in the standpipe, ha ha! I guess that is his new home as I will never catch him. There are lots of pods, shrimp larvae plus some frozen mysis will end up down there too.
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Looks good! It sounds like the barnacle blenny is in a good place to be!
vlangel
Premium Member
I feel like I should get some more barnacle blennies so that both the remaining one in the display tank and the one now living in the basement fuge will have a friend or 2.
I agree. They really like to be with each other.
vlangel
Premium Member
Today I am working on some maintenance stuff that does not need done every week but has actually become long overdue, ha ha! (That never happens to the rest of you folks, right?). My gyre was making an annoying sing song hum which is what started this endeavor. After I got the gyre figured out I decided that the T5HO bulbs should be changed,(especially since I could not remember when I last did that!). Uhhg! I only changed 1 actinic and 1 10k and I hope the coral do not go into shock from the new intensity. I think I will temporarily reduce the length of time the bulbs are on. That should have a positive effect on the color of my coral, as well as reduce or completely eliminate the little bit of red algae I get on the sandbed.
Another thing I did was get out my 2 part. When I had the seahorses I did water changes every week but I am not doing as many WCs now. Also I had switched back to IO from reef Crystal's so my guess is that my magnesium and alkalinity are probably low and maybe my calcium too. I should check parameters today to see exactly where stuff is. I think I will adjust the water I make in the brute can so that I am not making big changes in the tank. I still do WCs about every other week so that should help keep things fairly in check.
Enough nutrients seems to be somewhat of a problem. My macro algae in the fuge are growing like crazy and I suspect they are sucking up a huge amount of nutrients. I have an automatic feeder on the tank dispensing flake and pellets 2Xs a day plus I feed a cube of frozen once a day. That is a lot of food and yet the tank has very little nuisance algae. I hope to add quite a few more fish here in the next month which is the most fun way to increase nutrients! Wink wink! I am thinking a small goby/pistol shrimp pair if I can find one, a handful of barnacle blennies and at least 3 yellow tail damsels. A kole tang is not out of the question either if I can find one.
Lastly I would like to acquire some GPS once I get the nutrients up a bit. I have had GSP on the sand bed (where it can be controlled) in the past and it's beautiful when it waves in the flow. The green color will enhance the tank and it's a coral that should thrive in my tank conditions. So there you have it, present and future happenings to the natural high nutrient tank.
Another thing I did was get out my 2 part. When I had the seahorses I did water changes every week but I am not doing as many WCs now. Also I had switched back to IO from reef Crystal's so my guess is that my magnesium and alkalinity are probably low and maybe my calcium too. I should check parameters today to see exactly where stuff is. I think I will adjust the water I make in the brute can so that I am not making big changes in the tank. I still do WCs about every other week so that should help keep things fairly in check.
Enough nutrients seems to be somewhat of a problem. My macro algae in the fuge are growing like crazy and I suspect they are sucking up a huge amount of nutrients. I have an automatic feeder on the tank dispensing flake and pellets 2Xs a day plus I feed a cube of frozen once a day. That is a lot of food and yet the tank has very little nuisance algae. I hope to add quite a few more fish here in the next month which is the most fun way to increase nutrients! Wink wink! I am thinking a small goby/pistol shrimp pair if I can find one, a handful of barnacle blennies and at least 3 yellow tail damsels. A kole tang is not out of the question either if I can find one.
Lastly I would like to acquire some GPS once I get the nutrients up a bit. I have had GSP on the sand bed (where it can be controlled) in the past and it's beautiful when it waves in the flow. The green color will enhance the tank and it's a coral that should thrive in my tank conditions. So there you have it, present and future happenings to the natural high nutrient tank.
vlangel
Premium Member
So I checked my parameters and was pleasantly surprised in a lot of areas. I had dumped in a capful of magnesium, 2 part calcium and alk prior to testing. Anyway mag was 1450, a bit high, calcium was 450 also a bit high and alk was 9.5 which is ok but higher than I usually run. Nitrates were 5rpm so well controlled but present so that was good. Once my water is made I will do a WC with no adjustments to the IO which typically is low in everything so after a few WCs the parameters should come down to closer to NSW which is where I try to land. Nonetheless, the tank has run pretty stable considering how easy it is to maintain and how little that I do adjustments.
Ugh. This reminds me of all the work I need to do. Good for you! I'm still low on inspiration these days, but I know I've got stuff to do, so I'll gradually build up some gumption.
Good update. I'd love to see a pic (or two) of the fuge.
Good update. I'd love to see a pic (or two) of the fuge.
vlangel
Premium Member
Sorry to heap guilt on ya Michael, none of us needs that! Your tank always looks nice so you must be doing what is necessary. Here is a very short video of the fuge with ghost shrimp. The lighting is poor and the fish room is tiny and hard to get good pics.
https://youtu.be/diUQLcdKAqg
Wow, that looks great! So cool and natural looking. Thanks for posting!
vlangel
Premium Member
Thanks Michael. I looked at prior videos from the beginning of March and then in May and the fuge has matured very nicely. I am really happy with how effectively it is keeping nutrients down. Along with adding more water volume to the system and being a possible space for a bully fish, it has more than fulfilled my desires for it. Being gravity fed and then its overflow into the sump, it does not consume any more energy than the 20 gallon sump would alone. And it doesn't look too bad considering that its function is primarily utilitarian.
Who knew that aquarium keeping could be made easier by just adding plants? And isn't it bizarre these living filters are beautiful and worthy of display? Nicely done.
I sent you a package!
ThePurple12
New member
Niiiice! Seagrass time!
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