Isn't that a lot more work?

[Dustin07]

Congrats. I look forward to continuing to follow your progress.

I am both excited and terrified, ha. The systems are so much more complex than my current situation.

And yesterday I really ticked the tank off, somehow I got sloppy and ended up with a little too much salt in my water change causing my shrooms, frogspawn, bubble, pretty much everyone to shoot some stress into the tank. I got that fixed fast though and everyone looks good this morning.

 

[Dustin07]

we don't have the bigger tank yet, the seller had some fish and corals in it still that were yet to be relocated and he flies tomorrow for 15 days. So when he returns, we're supposed to connect.... I'm honestly getting pretty excited. I have some ideas. I sorta want to shape the rock like the island of molokini. (but fully submerged of course). that would leave a "beachy" area in the center for anything I want down at sand level. I also think I'll move my giant zoanthid rock lower in the water. even though my zoas grow well up there, they are so short, I think they're a little too high in the par rating right now.

I almost crashed my tank sorta. I was doing a WC and did not get my salt mixed well enough. as I added it I saw thick salt going into the tank, some landing directly on my mushroom. (he's still mad, but recovering), then a few days later had some zoa melt. I assume it's all related. I think I have it all cleared up but it's raising new questions for me about zoa melt.

this is the first time I've seen Utter Chaos melt, but it looks like it's just a few. it's the second time I've seen my pink diamonds go through melt. I gave them a revive dip and put them back in the tank but I still lost probably 10 polyps or more.

Only thing I can think is:

a. my falt for the salinity crisis even though it was short
b. maybe it's just normal for a colony to melt a little bit. everyone seems to have theories on random sudden zoa melt. I've only seen it a few times now and I'm still learning...

 

[griss]

That aquascaping sounds cool. Can't wait to see it when you (finally) get the tank and start making progress.

Sorry to hear about the salinity crisis.

I won't comment on the Zoa melt issue as (while I do have quite a few) I a far from an expert on Zoa. As you know, I'm more of an Acropora and R. Florida person.

 

[Dustin07]

My last couple WC's with the purple bag of instant ocean have not left my tank looking good. My mushroom has shrunk about 50%, my BTA has not been very puffy. I had some melt on a few pink diamond zoas and a couple utter chaos (which has never happened) and one of my torches has been acting a little withdrawn.

In the past, I always used the orange instant ocean, and I've seen people (I think you were one of them @griss ) talk about a bad bag of salt causing chaos. so Yesterday I checked my salinity again, then did a 10% WC with the orange bag.

almost instantly I felt like many of my corals were looking better, and my frogspawn is looking the biggest it has been in months.

I'm really starting to think that the purple bag I have is not good. It seems like the salt density is way off and there could be some other weird issue, IDK.

I won't comment on the Zoa melt issue as (while I do have quite a few) I a far from an expert on Zoa. As you know, I'm more of an Acropora and R. Florida person.

I have never done an iodine or KFC dip but I'm thinking of upping my 'medical supplies' for the next time I see a little melt. this time I lost a few polyps from two different strains but I sorta just let it happen because I could tell it seemed isolated and that it wasn't going to be the entire colony. It's still a little bit of a bummer, but coincidentally happened right after I started using the new purple bag of instant ocean...

 

[griss]

Yes, I had two different buckets of Coralife (different, but close, batch numbers) that has super low Alk and super high Ca that caused issues with my tank.

I've also heard that salt can settle and stratify in the buckets. So, whenever I get a new bucket of salt, I roll it around on the floor to to ensure everything is mixed well. Also, when getting a new bag or bucket of salt, I always mix a small batch and test if for Salinity, Alk, CA and Mg to ensure it's a good batch.

That said, you might want to mix a batch of salt with the purple bag of IO, test it and see if there are any parameters that are off.

 

[Dustin07]

I'm just throwing this in here so I can reference it later. I'm still looking at that Redsea XL 425 (88 gal + 24 gal sump) but I have concerns about weight (and the redsea reputation of course).

Proper Floor Support for Large Aquariums

Why a strong foundation matters We’ve often discussed the importance of using a sturdy aquarium stand to support your tank. Water, glass, and ornaments add up to a lot of weight, and you don’t want to rely on a flimsy piece of furniture to keep your aquarium secure. If the stand collapses...

fishtankadvisor.com

I'm very very torn on it. Fortunately the owner who is selling it to me is still out of the country until Nov 22nd so I have time to think and plan still.

Thing is the price is what's getting me. It's probably sitting with $7k in value for $1400 complete... and he's tossing in all his extra live rock, corals that haven't sold (not sure if I want them, but, hey) offered to help if I want to keep his water, etc.

it's been a rollercoaster lately trying to decide. My wife had a final surgery related to her breast cancer last winter/mastectomy last week so obviously priorities shifted a bit (she's doing very very well, clean bill of health and all incisions healing wonderful), then we rebuilt a deck (but I got a hell of a deal on that too so that helped financially). But my very simple 40g is just... way overfull now after 3 years of collecting lol. It would be nice to have some room to grow...