Project 58!! (Image intense)

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6596585#post6596585 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MiddletonMark
Go right ahead Nick. :lmao: If I can't take a joke, I'm doomed.
Please ignore the man behind the curtain - I think I'm still the same guy ;)

Great shots, may I add. That Tang seems quite photogenic.

How do you like the chalk bass?
I've kept them in mind as an interesting fish for a small tank ... just wondering.

Lots of potential in frag alley ... kind of the most exciting part, as you see what the corals that you'll grow for the next few years look like. I wish they were in my frag alley, nice stuff :)
Click to expand...

Mark,
thanks about the shots...still to shoot more, I'll get some better ones with practice.

I really dig the chalk bass. He's very peacefull, not that bright, (wound up in the overflow several times, but I think he's figured it out by now. Max size is 3.1 inches according to Scott Michael. If your gonna get more than one, add them together. They can get territorial amongst each other.

Curt,
I wouldnt live in DC either, but I'm guessing it bothered you so much you wanted to post it twice for us??

:D

Nick
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6606985#post6606985 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
Curt,
I wouldnt live in DC either, but I'm guessing it bothered you so much you wanted to post it twice for us??

:D

Nick
Click to expand...

LOL!!!

I have ABSOLUTELY no idea how that happened. I regularly copy and paste my posts now before I hit enter because I've lost too many posts over the years. I also regularly have 30 windows open at one time. I must have thought I lost a post and re-pasted.
 
3-6-06

Short update.

I have my calcium reactor online after some entertainment with the cracked fitting. It appears that Ehiem changed some things on the Korallin reactors, namely, fitting sizes. This happened about 5 years ago...and no one told me.
:D

Anyway, I figured this out after ordering a new fitting from Marine Depot. When it arrived, it didnt fit. The unions connecting it to the reactor lid were smaller than the ones it replaced. So I ahd to buy a new lid, and the other fitting, (inlet) to get my reactor online.

I've never had a calcium reactor before so I was a little worried that I'd screw this up and dump a bunch of Co2 into my tank, nuking the pH, and wiping out everything. Happily, this didnt happen.

The reactor I have is the Korallin 1502. Its filled with ARM media, and has a pH probe port in the new lid I bought. The instructions Korallin includes with their reactors are almost useless since they read like a Sear's instruction manual:

"Putting hand of first on knob of left....What the hell...????"

Fortunately, there's a very informative thread here on RC about these reactors. Oddly enough its titled...URL="http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=699686&perpage=25&pagenumber=1"]Korallin Calcium Reactor[/URL].

The info there can be used to dial in almost any reactor, although it is geared primarily towards the Korallin reactors.

What I've learned from playing with my reactor for a week is this:

DON'T SKIMP ON THE NEEDLE VALVE, BUY A GOOD PRECISON ONE THE FIRST TIME. It will save you headaches and time. The one that came with my set up isnt bad, but its REALLY sensitive, one light touch will increase/decrease the Co2 bubble count radically.

Currently, after one week of being online, the reactor is running at:

10 BPM Co2
102 drops per minute effluent
Effluent DKh 30.24
internal reactor pH showing 6.5

The tank is holding steady with:

DKh 8.6
Ca 415

The reactors pH is a bit low from what I've read about ARM, but I'm not 100% sure thats the real pH. I did calibrate the probe prior to placing it in the reactor, but my understanding is that a pH that low will turn ARM into mush...and it doesnt look like thats happening.

I have the effluent from the reactor dipping into the first compartment of my sump where my skimmer sits and the overflow feeds so there is alot of oxygenation going on there and any excess Co2 should off gas fairly easily in there.

Nick
 
The only other thing to report is that I have managed to aquire bryopsis since I last posted a photo of my tank. It aint pretty and it freakin exploded all over my tank.

To deal with this, I've done 2 things:

Begun increasing my Magnesium levels and changed out my bulbs.

A friend of mine stated she has dealt with bryopsis in the past by increasing her Mag levels to 1500 and holding them there for a week or two. She says it quickly dissipates at that point.

Not doubting her, but curious about why this would affect bryopsis I asked Boomer about it. He said it could be because alot of algaes have less magnesium than surrounding water and increased mag levels will affect the algae on a cellular level, (increased concentration gradient requiring active transport removing the excess magnesium from its cells. Algae expends more energy and could also be loosing water while it expends extra energy, wiping it out...thats the short version).

I changed the bulbs because they've been running for slightly more than a year, and I'm pretty sure there has been a spectral shift, possibly towards wavelengths more beneficial towards bryopsis. We'll see.

Nick
 
Wow...been a month since last update....

04-06-06

Bryopsis is under control, but not eradicated. Unfortunately, I cant point to one factor and say "this is what caused it to recede", because I had three things happening at once.

1....increased magnesium, but was never able to get it to 1500 ppm. Dont know why, but every time I got it close, it would lower and I ran out of magnesium supplement.
2...changed out my light bulbs. The previous ones were at least a year old, and needed to go anyway.
3...the long spined urchin finally decided to eat something besides corralline algea.

I've had some issues to deal with. Two of my corals are really looking like crap. The chicken foot didnt make it and died and the pretty green and pink tipped colony bleached badly and is slowly receding. I really think this was caused by some temp swings I had a month ago. I left a fan on while it was warmer and it dropped my tank temp to 73 overnight.I've also found redbugs again and as an added bonus pyramid snails. Fortunately, the pyramid snails are only on my Astrea snails and not my clams. I asked Dr Ron about them and he states pyramid snails are are not opportunistic parasites. If you find them on snails, they wont go on clams, and vice versa. For the whole thread:
Pyramid Snail or Something Else?

Everything else in the tank is doing good otherwise. I'm seeing new growth in just about everything else in the tank, and my onyx percs are displaying mating behaviour. We'll see if they actually spawn or not, but its neat to see them acting like that. I wont try and raise any of the fry.....alot of work and we all know how lazy cops are. :D

I attribute all the new growth in my corals to the stability created by the calcium reactor primarily, and several conversations with a friend on husbandry and other issues in reeftanks. After talking with him, I now change 5 gallons of water a week as well as changing carbon once a week. I will still do larger water changes once a month, but weekly changes will be smaller.

I'm also keeping up the logbook. May not be necessary for anyone else, but I find it helps me out significantly.

I have halimeda growing in the tank. Kinda interesting....but nothing is eating it as far as I can see, and I can eventually see it becoming annoying. But it grows slowly so its not like the end of the world, its better looking than bryopsis at any rate. No idea where it came from, it just started growing one day. So far its only on the left side of the tank. We'll see what happens with it and where all it goes.

Anyway...here are two new pics....taken 04-04-06

Full_tank2_04-04-06-1.jpg


Rightside_04-04-06-1.jpg


Nick
 
Nick, what is the maze / brain coral sitting upon? It looks like an easel.

What spectrum lighting are you using now?
 
The Maze brain is on a rock that I drill holes into and inserted 3/8 inch acrylic rods in as legs. Its not the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but it does allow me to siphon under it and also cuts back on sweeper tentacles for some reason. The coral has some long sweepers, I've seen it zap frags 6 inches away. The A. valida to its left would not be safe in its current location if the platygyra wasnt elevated like that. I'll take a closer pic of the pedastal its on when the lights come on.

I'm still using AB10k's. I've cut back on them an hour, so they are only on 10 hours, with an hour of Actinic supplementation on either side for dawn/dusk type simulation.

Nick
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7129816#post7129816 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
The Maze brain is on a rock that I drill holes into and inserted 3/8 inch acrylic rods in as legs. Its not the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but it does allow me to siphon under it...
Click to expand...

I forgot you had a BB tank. I'm seeing more and more of them now, and it doesn't even bother me like it did in the past. ;)
 
I love this "reef diary." :)

I have random halimeda events too. It shows up, grows for a while, goes away, comes back... I like it b/c it never takes over. It adds a little variety to the display, and if you don't like it, it's really easy to remove.
 
Thanks Mcbeck! I enjoy posting things about it, I just wish more of them were positive lately instead of the plague O parasites I've been dealing with.
However, I have a plan.

thetickmd1.gif


I'm going to have to spend some money here, but I will purchase another 20 gallon tank, (have one already) and will set up a QT with it. The QT will be for a minimum of 4 weeks, most likely, longer than that. All acro's will be removed from the tank and placed in a 15 minute dip of Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure. Alledgedly, this stuff is the best so far at wiping out the AEFW's I hate so much. It has also been rumored to take out RedBugs as well.

After the 15 minute dip, corals will go into one of the 20 gallon Q tanks for a week. Then it will be placed into another TMPCC dip for 15 minutes, and the 20 gallon QT will be broken down and the other tank will be set up in its place. The 1st tank, will be cleaned and dried for a week before the process repeats itself. The idea being that one week of being dried out should wipe out any AEFW eggs laid in the tank during the week the QT is wet and holding corals.
During this time, the main tank will be acro free with the intent being to starve any red bugs or AEFW's still remaining in the tank. These parasites are acro specific and wont eat stylophora, montipora, seritopora's or porites that will be left in the tank.

God willing and the creek dont rise, I wont lose too many acro's during this 4 week adventure and I should be AEFW and redbug free after its all said and done.

The fun part will be doing this EVERY SINGLE TIME I GET A NEW CORAL. AEFW's will lay eggs on anything, so at the very least QT-ing all new corals,rocks,or sponges will be a necessity. I will only have to dip new acro's, everything else can sit for a month which should kill any AEFW's or redbugs hitchhiking along....

I'm trying to figure out what would be needed to have a full time QT set up that would best allow me to accomplish what I need:

1...BB tank(s) for swapping out, and cleaning/sterilizing between treatments.

2...Some sort of bacteria media for biological filtration. I'm thinking Bio-balls or some similar media, the issue then becomes nitrate reduction. I'd have to be able to clean the media semi-regularly, (thereby killing off the bacteria it houses), so its got to be something like bio-balls, with a denitrator of some sort hooked into the system.

Thoughts or comments?

Nick
 
You can get a Marineland Penguin bio-wheel filter for about $20 at PetSmart. It's great for QT and you can bleach the wheel (and then use a dechlorinator). They also have little pre-filters with carbon in them. Granted it's not a lot of carbon, but it's a 20 gallon SPS only QT, right?

If the situation calls for it, you can run it without the pre-filter and/or without the wheel and use it just for circulation.

I don't think nitrates will be an issue b/c you'll be doing 100% weekly water changes and I assume low/no feeding.

HTH!
 
Yeah, I thought about that, but I'm looking at either leaving the QT set up permanently, or cycling the bio media in and out of the main tank after a significant period of drying out during a QT cycle.

For example, a permanent QT would have a Damsel of some sort as a permanent resident, (all but bomb proof, and capable of surviving cycles that would inevitably occur in a QT environment), or
using a handfull of bioballs (I have several billion of these left over from a wet/dry filter) in the QT tank for a week, and then sterilizing and drying them for a week like the QT tank. Meanwhile, fresh and sterile bioballs, (handfull) would be placed in the sump of the main tank to pick up bacteria for the nitrate cycle.

thinking more about this, a combination of the two would work best. Setting up a permanent QT with a few PVC elbows etc for shelter for the damsel, (easy to clean and cheap), bio balls for filtration, Remora or Bakpak skimmer for organics, and a denitrator running for nitrate removal...all of this is full time.

For acro QT'ing, place acro in dip first, then into QT for a week. After the week, set acro in another dip, remove damsel, drain and sterilize everything in the tank, and let dry out for a week. Set up new QT tank with frsh bio-balls, heater, powerheads, PVC elbows etc, and return damsel and coral to Qt for another week.

Make sense or am I complicating this beyond all belief?

Nick
 
I think you're overcomplicating it. ;)

If you're doing 100% water changes, I really don't think the denitrator will be necessary. I don't think you even need to skim the water. 100% weekly water changes on a low load tank should be more than sufficient for QT.

You can still use the bio-balls in the Marineland filter, and it's a cheap filter. I think that's your lowest investment option.

Even if the damsel is a full time resident, you still don't need a denitrator or skimmer for him. He'll keep the bacteria growing, and you'll do a 100% water change when you have something new to QT, so all the nitrates & organics will be removed before the new item goes into QT.

Try the Marineland filter w/ the bioballs and just do some water testing to see if you really need to add more equipment. I think you'll be surprised.

You could even skip the bio-balls and get a second bio-wheel, or have 2 wheels in addition to the bioballs. They sell replacement wheels pretty cheap.

All that being said, I'm not sure keeping a QT running 24/7 is worth it. You can keep the bio-media in the sump of the main tank and just pull it out when you're ready to QT something.

Alternatively, you can QT all those pretty new frags at my place... :D
 
Be happy to QT at your place if it means you keep all the redbugs and all the flatworms in your tank and not mine.

:D


Good points about complicating the QT process...
I think your right, but I have this tendancy to try and re-invent the wheel.

Nick
 
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