Randy's 180G Reef-Photo Journal

[rdmpe]

Thanks FiberLux! Somehow I don't think that is an algae grazer sunning itself out back

Here's the latest addition to my tank... A black Longspined Urchin. I've always really liked these! They are so alien...

The body looks very black, the spines are dark purple that almost looks black.

 

[rock455]

cool addition -- don't get alarmed if your coraline algae starts to disappear!

 

[rdmpe]

Yeah, I've heard mixed things about these guys. On the one hand they eat coraline, but on the other hand I hear that they end up spreading it around and help it in that way. So I'll have to see how it turns out.

I am seeing some micro algae in my sump. It is growing on the macroalgae. It looks like there are some long filaments trailing out into the current off of some of the algae that is growing on the caulerpa. Maybe it is HA? I think part of the problem is that I trimmed the caulerpa back a lot. Maybe I took too much out. But anyway, when I trim it, I end up getting some die off within what is left. That die off tends to create areas prone to microalgae.

I've read something about the fact that if certain parts of a caulerpa plant are cut, the remaining parts die off. Something about it being the largest single cell organism - I can't remember any of the details.

Anyway, back to what I think might be hair algae in the sump, the snails don't seem to find it since they generally don't crawl around on the caulerpa. I'm not sure if I should worry about it or not. And I'm not sure what I could do about it either, since snails can't seem to find it...

 

[tgunn]

Randy,
Sweet pics of the pond! Makes me jealous; the only pond near by me is for ground water run off and it's frozen and covered with a few feet of snow. :lol:

Awesome urchin! How did you handle it? Or are they not as sharp as they look?

I have plenty of microalgae in my sump. I haven't noticed any growing on my chaeto yet though... I have started moving some snails to the sump to keep it clean, but I'm not too worried about it down there; better there than upstairs.

Not sure what to do about it on the chaeto though. Has the chaeto showed signs of dying off where the micro algae is?

 

[gkarshens]

Randy. Thought you might want to read this. The post is near the bottom about a Sally lightfoot crab.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=6781412#post6781412

 

[rdmpe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6781618#post6781618 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tgunn
Randy,
Sweet pics of the pond! Makes me jealous; the only pond near by me is for ground water run off and it's frozen and covered with a few feet of snow. :lol:

Awesome urchin! How did you handle it? Or are they not as sharp as they look?

I have plenty of microalgae in my sump. I haven't noticed any growing on my chaeto yet though... I have started moving some snails to the sump to keep it clean, but I'm not too worried about it down there; better there than upstairs.

Not sure what to do about it on the chaeto though. Has the chaeto showed signs of dying off where the micro algae is?

We love that little pond out back. It is probably about 2 acres so not very big. But the nice thing is that the people who live around it own it out to the middle. All of our property lines meet in the middle. So we can put a little dock on the bank or whatever. And it never freezes over!

The urchin is really cool. It isn't as sharp as you may imagine. It's easy to hold, just cupped in your hands it is fine. It has to be handled gently because the spines can be broken off pretty easily. I think if you put some pressure directly down on a spine it could get you. I found that it was very difficult to get the urchin out of the bucket I was acclimating it in. I had to try to slide a credit card under it to get it to release. This process broke some spines off that were pressing down against the bucket surface. I then moved it to a smaller container that I could put down into the display tank, so that the urchin could crawl out on it's own. I finished the acclimation in that smaller container and that worked out well.

The microalgae does not seem to be doing any harm in the fuge right now. It' is mostly in the caulerpa, just a little bit in the chaeto. So I'm going to leave it alone I guess.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6781820#post6781820 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gkarshens
Randy. Thought you might want to read this. The post is near the bottom about a Sally lightfoot crab.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=6781412#post6781412

Thanks for the link - that's good to know. Melev warned me that they were questionable. I have seen them launch themselves sideways into the open water when going after a piece of food that was floating by. I haven't seen them go after my two fish yet though. I guess if I have things dissappear I'll have to trade them in or something. They are really easy to catch - a little chunk of silverside in a tall drinking glass would do the trick. I wonder if they would have eaten the camelback shrimp I had a while back? Those shrimp sure were tough to catch.

I think my next animal purchase is going to be a couple of skunk cleaner shrimp and/or a peppermint shrimp. Those will probably be prime choices for the sally lightfoots to go after though, so that will be the first real test.

 

[rdmpe]

I picked up 20 lbs of Dead Sea Works brand Magnesium Chloride from a local RC member and I bought a 50 lb bag of Dow Flake brand Calcium Chloride from Pinch-a-Penny pool supply (I use it for my swimming pool as well). I already have a huge amount of baking soda (also use in my swimming pool). So I'm ready to make the DIY two part
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

 

[Airman]

Randy,

I see where you are going to buy a couple of peppermint shrimp. Today I hand feed mine an aiptasias. I had just finished feeding marine snow and I turned my sump pump back on. When a 1/2" fat aiptasias floated by. I have never seen them floating free like that. The only I think is that it released itself from where it was hiding inside of LR. I rarely see any in the tank thanks to the peppermint shrimp. I quickly removed it from the tank and grab it held it in front of where my peppermint shrimp stays. The shrimp went crazy and ate it in about 20 seconds. This sounds bad but I wish I had a couple more to feed them because it is cool to see them go nuts.

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6782751#post6782751 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
I picked up 20 lbs of Dead Sea Works brand Magnesium Chloride from a local RC member and I bought a 50 lb bag of Dow Flake brand Calcium Chloride from Pinch-a-Penny pool supply (I use it for my swimming pool as well). I already have a huge amount of baking soda (also use in my swimming pool). So I'm ready to make the DIY two part
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Sounds good!
I used the blender to mix everything up.. The dowflake seemed to mix quite well; it generated plenty of heat on it's own to ensure it dissolved adequately...

I had a helk of a time mixing in the baked baking soda for "part 2" of the recipe. Even after using the blender I still have a bunch of precipitate on the bottom of the jug. Next batch I'll try heating the water up before mixing.

Hey, I never thought of checking a pool supply company for the dowflake; I'll have to call around and see if they've got it.

Later,
Tyler

 

[MyMonkey]

Very nice. I had 4 of those Thin Stipped hermits in my tank.They did knock over things but they never bothered anything really. Other than small featherdusters. They make good refugium creatures though.

 

[rdmpe]

Yeah I'm gonna keep one of those crabs in the fuge.

Good info on the peppermint. So far I don't think I have any aptasia for them to eat though. What else do they eat? Just scavengers?

 

[gkarshens]

They pick at the rocks at night. They will also come out at feeding time and grab passing Mysis or other foods.

 

[rdmpe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6785122#post6785122 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Airman
Randy,

I see where you are going to buy a couple of peppermint shrimp. Today I hand feed mine an aiptasias. I had just finished feeding marine snow and I turned my sump pump back on. When a 1/2" fat aiptasias floated by. I have never seen them floating free like that. The only I think is that it released itself from where it was hiding inside of LR. I rarely see any in the tank thanks to the peppermint shrimp. I quickly removed it from the tank and grab it held it in front of where my peppermint shrimp stays. The shrimp went crazy and ate it in about 20 seconds. This sounds bad but I wish I had a couple more to feed them because it is cool to see them go nuts.

BTW - One of the LFS here says that they hand feed aptasia to their peppermints to get them started eating aptasia. I thought that was pretty cool.

Also - I recently read of some RC people who started some mysis shrimp in their fuges and found that they will reproduce and sustain a population in there. Pretty sure it was mysis anyway. That seems like a pretty cool idea.

 

[mcegelsk]

Love the thread! Thanks for sharing...I'll continue to watch!

 

[rdmpe]

Glad to have you along mcegelsk (I'm having trouble pronouncing that BTW)


I have been tinkering with my CA and KH levels. I accidentally noticed how much was left in the two part jugs. It was very uneven! :eek1:

There was quite a bit more KH part left compared to the CA part. So I started dosing a little extra KH since I wanted to bring it up anyway. I was also adding a very small amount of washing soda (baked baking soda) to my topoff water. Usually about 1/8 tsp in a gallon of topoff, just to give it a higher ph and bring the KH up just a little. So I got the KH up where I wanted it, at around 9.5/3.4, but my Calcium had also been slowly dropping. It got down to about 350, and I didn't want to use the CA part of my two part since that jug was already lower than the KH part. So then I went out and bought some dow flake. Over two days I dosed a total of about 30 tsp of dowflake in addition to my normal two part dose and the little bit of washing soda in the top off, etc. Then my next test my CA is up to 400 but my KH went from 9.5/3.4 down to 8.0/2.86 in just two days and I had dosed 60 ml of two part (along with some dow flake since I was trying to bring the CA up).

So will rising CA cause KH to drop? I never got any precipitation storms or anything drastic like that. Just wondering how the KH could take such a dive.

ANYWAY now I have things balanced fairly well I think. Hopefully I can just dose two part and keep things steady again.

Most recent tests:

2/20 11:30 pm
CA = 415
KH = 8.0/2.86 (checked it twice!)
> then dosed 120 ml of two part

2/21 6:40 am
CA = not tested
KH = 9.15/3.25 (looking better)

2/21 7:30 pm
CA = 400 (still OK)
KH = 9.3/3.31 (still OK)

So now I think I'll just dose 60 ml of two part and try not to test either of them for a couple of days :rolleye1:

I haven't been testing the PO4/NH4/NO2/NO3 much since my bioload is so light. I've never had a detectable reading of PO4 or NH4, and NO2/NO3 had been dropping. They never really got very high anyway since all of my LR has been from other tanks. The max I ever saw was NO2=0.2 and NO3=5. So back on 2/16 I testd the NO3 just to see if it finally hit zero and it did :celeb: So now we'll see if I can keep it there.

 

[cerreta]

Randy, I am about to venture into building a 110tall with a closed loop. I was going to do a circular CL circuit as you have done, but I am still debating on putting the plumbing inside the tank or underneath it. I recall you debating this issue. Are you happy with the doing it inside the tank, or do you still wish is was plumbed from underneath? Any problems with the CL plumbing?

 

[rdmpe]

Hi cerreta,

I haven't had any problems with the CL being inside the tank. I'm not sure what problems I could run into other than blockage. I'm not sure how the CL could get blocked on return side though. Hopefully I'll never find out. If anything happened, I'd have to tear the whole tank down to get to it, so there is some risk there.

It is pretty much impossible to know exactly how the tank flow is going to work out until you have everything set up, even the rock. That's when you find out which areas are getting the sand scoured away, etc. So you need to try to build some flexibiliity into the setup so that you can somehow make adjustments to the flow direction after the rock and sand is in. I have 3/4" threaded sprinkler risers coming horizontally off my closed loop output towers. So I can screw any 3/4" FPT fitting on there. I've just used threaded 90 ells that I cut back to about 40 degrees or so. That allows me to deflect the flow upward slightly and has taken care of sand scouring issues and such. Another option would be to put a locline adaptor on the end.

So far it is working pretty well.

If my CL were under the tank, it would have to be suspended close to the top of the stand to try to minimize the space it takes up inside the stand. Even so, it would take up a lot of room, especially considering that my stand is relatively short at about 30 inches or so. It would also require at least two more holes through the tank and stand, although I don't think that would be a problem for my setup. For a tank that is made to be supported around it's edges rather than across the whole bottom, the holes could be a problem.

Good luck with your setup! Start a thread about it and post a link here!

~Randy

 

[conda]

Hey Randy,

I just noticed you have an AquaC skimmer. Which one do you have? I've been trying to dial mine in and thinking it's not working correctly since the skimmate is so wet, but after I saw your skimmer pic, mine looks the same.

How did you dial yours in and how did you determine where the water level was with all the bubbles flying around. I'm thinking now I may have done it correctly without knowing it.

Thanks

 

[rdmpe]

Hey Conda,

Well, my bioload is so low that I just don't have much to pull out right now. I have the EV-180 and it is run by a Mag 9.5. Mine is doing fine as far as I can tell. It doesn't produce much skimmate but I only have two very small fish and some inverts/cleanup crew. I only feed about 3 times per week max. So there isn't much to take out.

I have not messed with mine for a long time, so I can't remember the exact process I used. First thing to note though, they are very sensitive to the water level of the chamber they are sitting in. Is yours set up so that the water level at it's feed pump and at it's exit are always constant?

As for water level, when I have had my hands in the tank or whatever, so that it is not producing bubbles up into the tower, the frothy surface is approximately 1.5" below the top of the brown box. I will try to remember to confirm this the next time I'm feeding and the foam dies.

I have my air intake tweaked back to about 45 degrees or so, which makes my bubbles finer. Too much air seems to make mine "burp" large bubbles into the tower.

I do remember that what I did was to start off getting the bubbles to look nice and fine, and let it run very dry as in nothing getting up into the cup. I left it like that for a day or so to see what would happen, then slowly tweaked the gate valve to bring the foam level up to where it was producing some skimmate.

I could probably run mine a little wetter, but the foam coming out is just so light due to my lack of waste products, I haven't worried about it yet.

Hope this helps!

 

[conda]

Yes, my water level is constant, except when I turn off the power to the return.

So the bubbly surface when it is not producing skimmate is the water level?

I have an EV-240 with a Mag18 and the manual says to make the water level even to the black box. So what I did was adjust it so the bubbles bubble just at the start of the riser tube. When they said water level, I was not sure what they meant, I was looking for non-bubbly water, I guess I was wrong.

It seems to be working though, but it produces very wet foam. I have my air intake wide open, and I too notice burps into tower.

Thanks for the info.