Pastey's 200DD

[Pastey]

I designed my return plumbing with an eventual manifold for reactors so they won't be fed by a return pipe but by an easily controllable, pressurized return line.

My thought was to create the manifold with 4 potential outlets even though I'll only be using 2 to start off (GFO and GAC) and cap the end forcing all water to go through the reactors. I imagine pumping water passed the reactors and back into the sump is a bit of a a waste of energy.

Originally, I was thinking of getting a probe holder and just mounting the reactor returns back into return area or skimmer area of the sump. Is there any reason why that would be a bad idea?

 

[Sonicboom]

Ahh that changes everything, not sure why I thought it said drain. What you are planning should work fine. I had mine draining right next to my skimmer section as well.

 

[Pastey]

http://youtu.be/7qQqCGDnUSI

Clowns have been clowning around and laid their first batch of eggs.

 

[worm5406]

Any word on the young? Not that you were making it a 'catch grow and release' but just wondered.

Nice video too!

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/7qQqCGDnUSI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Pastey]

They hatched, I think 9-10 days later. I was surprised as I had read that most new pairs consume their first one or 2 batches. They laid again a few days later and I'm guessing this batch is about 4-5 days away from hatching. They moved their laying site just a bit but it's much harder to get a good look or even tell there are eggs there unless you look just right. No plans to attempt to catch or raise the fry in the foreseeable future though. Corals and fish will just get a "treat" every other week

 

[worm5406]

Keeps them busy and it is natural.

I know it is a few steps to hatch and raise them, I might one day when mine actually get laying in a visible spot. I think they are now, just hidden. She is at least 3 times his size.

 

[Pastey]

They've definitely been busy. They've laid their 3rd batch of eggs sometime in the last day or 2. My wife and I were out of town all weekend so they likely laid Sunday evening. Busy bees, those 2. What sucks is that the spot they choose is towards the back and I don't get to see them out and about as much

 

[worm5406]

Yeah that is a downfall with them sometimes.. They want privacy... I have seen some all out in the open.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Tried to watch the video but it said it was removed. Also you said you removed the carpet. Any reason why?

 

[Pastey]

Yea, we (wife and I) did some "internet cleaning" by consolidating and eliminating and adjusting our "web footprint". I went and made the video public so it's viewable now.

Originally, I moved the carpet from my DT to a dedicated tank with a pair of bicinctus clowns. Shortly after, I battled a case of meningitis and tank maintenance took a back seat. While I was sick, both clowns got a case of bacterial infection and died. By the time I was healthy (and willing) enough to get back into it, I had lost the desire to maintain more than one tank so I traded it in at one of our LFS here for some store credit. As far as I know, it's still on display...at least this way it's being appreciated since the tank I had it in wasn't in a room where it got seen.

 

[Pastey]

Ordered up some clean up crew additions yesterday that still haven't shipped from LA so I'm assuming something isn't in stock. I'll give them a few more days before I inquire.

Ordered various species that I've had good luck with in the past and some I havent.

Nassarius, trochus, and margaritas-- I've always had good luck with and they seem to live a long life. To hell with astraea is all I can say. Trying out a fighting conch again now that I have a large sand bed and I'm giving a pincushion urchin a go...not really as a CUC member but out of curiosity since I've never owned an urchin.

Also ordered a Hanna Calcium and Alk checker. I've grown tired of never knowing my levels. I rarely test because I have so little faith in the results. Time has come to get my tank dialed in so I can get my corals to take off like they should.

 

[Pastey]

I made a separate thread but I'll post here to keep things consolidated:

Hanna Alk and Cal checkers came in last night and, for the first time, I got results that I trust.

My Alk was 9.6 and my Cal was 404. These both seem reasonable and I was sort of surprised because I just kind of made an educated guess on the levels of kalk to add in my top off water. I currently add 8 tsp of kalk per 5 gallons of top off water so it's not quite saturated yet.

That said, I must now move on to testing for mag and phosphates to see what is limiting growth. I'm trying to pinpoint my lack of LPS and coralline growth which is pretty much non-existent. My pH isn't perfect with lows in the 7.8-7.9 and highs in the 8.0-8.1 range but it's way better than it was pre-kalk which was mid 7's consistently.

While I do have GHA in my tank, I have essentially halted growth since I started dosing vodka and am now up to 4.6mL daily dose level. I plan to hold here for a bit and see how the tank reacts over the course of a few weeks.

I've recently made adjustments to my lighting intensity, duration and spectrum. I've increased the overall intensity, shortened the schedule to make the duration more natural and increased the color spectrum. This was all pretty recent so it's too soon to tell how the corals will react.

Anything I'm missing or maybe should consider? I think I've got a mag test so I'll give that a look tonight but if the test kit is out of date, I'll probably trust it as much as I trusted my other tests before the Hanna checker.

 

[dave.m]

If you change too many things at the same time you will never be sure which change helped/hindered your tank.

Dave.M

 

[Pastey]

Very true and I've kept that in mind. The only real change I've made has been my lighting. I'm not looking to change my kalk saturation level as there doesn't appear to be a need to and the vodka dosing has been a gradual increase for the passed few months. Depending on how my mag levels are, the tank is in a hold pattern. If my mag levels are really low, I'll look to bring them up to more suitable levels.

 

[Pastey]

http://youtu.be/j3WxoBN6XxE

Pulled the trigger on an Achilles tang today. Looked healthy and was eating at the store but it definitely needs some fattening up. The saillfin was following it around for a while and posturing up but no major aggression. The Achilles is now asserting some dominance over the other fish and is actively picking at the rockwork. It is ignoring the nori but I'm sure it'll find it eventually.

 

[Pastey]

After a few days, the Achilles is doing well and I think has settled in. I didn't witness any chasing or posturing yesterday (the little time I got to watch the tank). I've noticed it doesn't spend as much time in the turbulent (middle) section of the tank as much as I expected it to. Instead, it spends a lot of time around the substrate looking for food. I've been throwing in 1/4 sheet of nori and it's usually gone around 24 hours later. I know it's snacking on the hair algae still left in the tank and it also took LRS readily. It still has a ways to go putting on weight but even after just a few days of heavy feeding, I can already see a difference.

Current fish list:

(1)Achilles tang
(1)Sailfin tang
(1)Gold midas blenny
(1)Flame dwarf angelfish
(1)Red Headed Solon Fairy wrasse
(1)Diamond goby
(2)Occy. clownfish
(1)Blue chromis

 

[Pastey]

Achilles as REALLY put on some weight fast. This thing eats every thing I throw at it. I can't seem to keep nori in the tank. If I add some before I go to bed, it's completely gone by the time I wake up. I'm trying to walk that fine line between getting it to put on weight and not over-feeding the system. I've started doing 5g water changes every afternoon just to add a little extra nutrient export even though that only comes out to be about a 2% change

 

[Pastey]

Brought the Nikon out for a couple of shots

Achilles putting on some weight. It still has a ways to go to be as fat as the sailfin but it has twice the appetite!




FTS:


L/S:


R/S:


Red Goni Island:


Zoa island:

Pinks, oranges, sunny d's, fire and ice and gumbys. Hoping to stumble across some king midas or similar bright yellows, a deep red and maybe something like a tubb blue to add and then let them grow out.

 

[jdraider75]

That Achilles is a beautiful fish. Nice tank too. Keep up the good work!

 

[Pastey]

Thanks. It's still got some weight to put on but I'm confident if it keeps eating the way it is, it'll be plump in no time.

Ordered a 20g ATO reservoir from Advanced Acrylics about a week ago and it's due to arrive at the end of this week. Now I can stop using the eyesore 5g buckets I have to refill every 2 or 3 days and I can start making my kalk ATO water in bulk.