Randy's 180G Reef-Photo Journal

[good one]

be careful once you start adding large polyp stonys to the tank. i placed a neon green scalymia too close the live rock that was covered with these things and w/in a few days, the tips of all those little feather duster things were bright green and holes in my lps!! just don't put any soft tissue too close if possible, not that it's harmful?? but it does seem to do some minor damage. IMO, nice coralline developing though!! what's your CA at?

 

[rdmpe]

My levels are generally
ca ~ 400
alk ~ 8.8/3.15
mg ~ 1300
The coraline is really going crazy. I dosed a gallon of two part in about a month and with pretty much no stony corals in my tank.

 

[rdmpe]

For the last few weeks I've found that dosing about 120ml of two part has been keeping my levels about steady but a little lower than I wanted. So in addition to the nightly dose of 120ml, I have been doing 30ml or 60ml extra in the morning or during the day. So I expected to see things up a little since last test.

This evening before dosing anything, I have
alk 9.3/3.31
ca 380
mg 1350

I think the calcium is a little low relative to the alk so I am going to bring it up a little while still dosing 120 ml two part nightly.

So I just added about 10-12 teaspoons of calcium chloride (dow flake) to a half gallon of rodi water and added to the sump return intake. I let it mix throughout the tank for a half hour or so and calcium is reading 405 now. I'll probably do another 10 teaspoons tomorrow night and that should get my calcium up in the 420 or so range where I think would be better balanced with the alk.

 

[rjwilson37]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7018791#post7018791 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
My levels are generally
ca ~ 400
alk ~ 8.8/3.15
mg ~ 1300
The coraline is really going crazy. I dosed a gallon of two part in about a month and with pretty much no stony corals in my tank.

I think you will find that once your system get's saturated enough with Calcium, things will level off a bit and you won't have to dose as much. My system goes up and down as far as how much I dose, what I mean by that is sometimes my calcium get's in upward of 460-480 and then at times it get's lower in the 380-400 range. This is why I keep an eye on things and check my calcium every other week, where when I first setup the tank, I was checking 1-2 times a week.

 

[rdmpe]

What levels start becoming a risk of triggering a precipitation event? I'm a little paranoid of that, but haven't found any general rule of thumb on where the real risk starts.

 

[ruppel]

The level that calcium will precipitate probably depends on the other ion levels in your tank. That would be my guess as to why there's no rule of thumb. And from my meager understanding of chemistry, I would guess that the main ion that would cause precipitation would be phosphorous. So if that's low, you probably have more security.

I have an unrelated question, and if it's inappropriate for this thread, let me know, but I would love details about how you set up your RO/DI unit to provide drinking water as well as aquarium water. I could justify getting a bigger unit with the wife if I could set mine up that way, but I have no clue how to do it.

Thanks

 

[rdmpe]

Hey Ruppel, I have zero phosphates and good magnesium levels, so I think that helps keep the calcium dissolved.


Here is my rodi unit

And here is how it is plumbed. Just a couple of tees and an extra valve and you are in buisiness.

With this setup, whichever valve gets opened receives water from the pressure tank which gets filled up with RO water. The RO water just feeds into the DI and out the "fish tank valve", or it feeds into the carbon filter and out the "drinking water" valve.

If you wanted your drinking water to go through the DI before the carbon, then you could just move the DI canister to the right side of that lower tee. I figure the RO and carbon are OK for my drinking water.

 

[ruppel]

So the tank is constantly under pressure, and just moves water when a valve is opened? And when all valves are closed, the system just remains pressurized?

Did you get the pressure tank from the same place as the RO unit? Do you need a solenoid valve in place for filling the pressure tank, or does that just fill when the pressure or water level drops? Sorry about all the questions, but I'm very anxious to try this...

Randy (also)

 

[ruppel]

Randy,

Never mind...I think I got all the answers at the airwaterice website. Thanks so much for your help.

Randy

 

[rdmpe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7028784#post7028784 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ruppel
So the tank is constantly under pressure, and just moves water when a valve is opened? And when all valves are closed, the system just remains pressurized?

Did you get the pressure tank from the same place as the RO unit? Do you need a solenoid valve in place for filling the pressure tank, or does that just fill when the pressure or water level drops? Sorry about all the questions, but I'm very anxious to try this...

Randy (also)

Hey Randy, sounds like you have it right. The pressure tank is just for convenience, it allows faster filling of containers as opposed to the slower flow directly from the RO membrane.
Good luck!

 

[rdmpe]

I posted these questions in the SPS forum but haven't received any answers yet. So maybe you guys can help. I have questions about my red lobo. It is basically my first stoney coral. I also have a small hammer coral. So here is a picture of the red lobo:

Obviously it is sitting in the sand bed now. First question is - I want to attach it to the rockwork. It seems like it has plenty of skeletal structure under it so that it could be attached to the rocks so that the living part is off the rocks where I don't think it will rub when it opens up.

Second question - it seems to only extend the polyps when the lights are off. Is that normal? Is it filter feeding during this time and using light when the lights are on?

Thanks!
Randy

 

[rdmpe]

After dosing about 20 teaspoons of calcium chloride over two days (in addition to my regular 2-part dosing) I tested the Ca and Alk this morning
Ca = 435
Alk = 9.6/3.43
This is right around where I want them so that worked out well. Last Mg test was 1350 so I probably will not test that for a couple of weeks, it tends to change pretty slowly. NH4, NO2, NO4 and PH4 have been coming up zero for the last several tests...

 

[tgunn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7037007#post7037007 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
I posted these questions in the SPS forum but haven't received any answers yet. So maybe you guys can help. I have questions about my red lobo. It is basically my first stoney coral. I also have a small hammer coral. So here is a picture of the red lobo:

Obviously it is sitting in the sand bed now. First question is - I want to attach it to the rockwork. It seems like it has plenty of skeletal structure under it so that it could be attached to the rocks so that the living part is off the rocks where I don't think it will rub when it opens up.

Second question - it seems to only extend the polyps when the lights are off. Is that normal? Is it filter feeding during this time and using light when the lights are on?

Thanks!
Randy

With my frogspawn I used epoxy putty (it comes in a tube and it's almost like plasticine; you slice off a piece and knead it in your hands for a few minutes until it mixes well)... I used a pretty big blob of it and kinda smushed it into the base of the frogspawn skeleton and wrapped it around the base a bit (make sure not to cover any live tissue).. I left a big blob on the bottom and pushed it into a hole in the rock and smoothed out the putty so that it grabs onto as many little bumps in the rock as I can.

I find the epoxy doesn't actually stick to the coral or rock, but it solidies and makes a nice mechanical bond..

Alternatively you could take the coral out, dry off the skeleton base with a towel and use super-glue gel to glue it to something that's easier to place in the rockwork. I've seen nylon bolts used; you can then just drop the little bolt into a crevice or hole in the rockwork. That way the coral can be moved around.

I'm not sure on the light requirements of this guy, but my fungia (an LPS) is extending it's polyps during the day now that I moved it to a lower light area. It still puffs up even more at night. I have a feeling as it gets used to your system it'll open up more as well. It took my frogspawn a few days to start coming out more.

Tyler

 

[rdmpe]

Thanks Tyler, I think I'll use some of that epoxy. I have some here that I used to help my rock piles sit more stable...

I have a small hammer that I'm also going to mount to the rock that way...

 

[melev]

It eats at night more easily, when the fish are asleep. You can feed it solid meaty foods, like mysis, chopped krill or chopped silversides.

The problem may be if you have shrimp that steal the food, even reaching into the polyp and pulling it out after it is essentailly eaten.

 

[rdmpe]

Well, that won't be a problem right now. The skunk cleaner shrimp I had recently purchased seem to have probably become a $30 snack for the sally lightfoot crabs But the next time I see the polyps extended, I'll try some mysis or brine shrimp!

 

[good one]

my lobo in the bottom left of these pics always feeds in the am. when i get for work in the morning, the sides are folded inside out and the polyps are completely extended. i've only see it open once or twice during the day and that was after feeding oyster eggs

 

[rdmpe]

Got some new things from the lfs... no pictures yet though.

Yellow Coris Wrasse - a known flatworm eater and very nice bright yellow color. The crazy thing immediately buried itself under the sand and hasn't come out yet (~12 hours) :lol: from what I've read this is normal.

Green Mandarin - very good coloration on this one, not sure if male or female, have to research that one... I have tons of pods in the tank and fuge and this one is in really good shape (not skinny) and was already picking at stuff in the tank yesterday evening. My biggest concern here is that the sally lightfoots might bother it. I'm going to try to catch and remove the sallys I think... I also decided to buy a batch of pods from www.oceanpods.com just to charge up the fuge some more since I'm adding the Mandarin and the Yellow Wrasse at the same time - both eat pods from what I've read.

Queen Conch - this one is about 1.5" and is really cool. Hoping it will help keep the sand bed surface in good shape.



Update on the eight line wrasse - I think I posted earlier that I had returned him to the lfs since it was showing some signs of a problem and I had taken it home against their advice to leave it for a week... My bad... So far they have not been able to nurse it back to 100% although it is still hanging in there. But in any case, they are going to get me a new one. I'll let this one stay there for a while before bringing home.

I still don't have any type of QT tank set up

 

[tgunn]

Sounds like some great new tank inhabitants... You'll have to post pics of everything.

Good choice on getting a conch; I have a strawberry conch and he does an amazing job of keeping the sand bed clean and tidy..

You really need to get a QT set up and running.. I've just got a cheap 10 gallon with a HOB filter and powerhead; no problems with anything I've had to QT so far.

Tyler

 

[rdmpe]

Yeah and I have a 10g tank sitting in my shed, with a stand and everything... It's a matter of time and space (or so says Carl Sagan)...