Reefer 250 build
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tenurepro
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tenurepro
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A fishy update.
So I always wanted to have a leap of leopard wrasses as a chance to hopefully see some natural intraspecific behavior. Maybe even the development of a harem. I currently have a large male bluestar (Aka peacock) wrasse and a female ornate leopard wrasse. I learned that a local store was getting a shipment of ornates. The catch is that male leopards don't play nice, especially in small systems. The peacock was already lunging a bit at the ornate and was frankly outgrowing my tank.
So I decided to sell my bluestar wrasse to make way for a couple more ornates... it was a difficult decision because the bluestar male was gorgeous. but the new owner has a 150 gallon so I think he is going to like the bigger setup .
Today I picked up two smaller ornates. I acclimated them and into the display they went
Both dove into the sand within 15 min.
Hoping they come out in a few days to feed. I think that having the established ornate wrasse around will help get them used to eating prepared foods... wrasse see - wrasse do!
Then I hope that one of them will turn into a male so I can see the harem in action. But most importantly, I hope they don't introduce a horrible disease to the system. I don't have s QT tank that would be sufficient for leopards so it's a plug into the display and prey scenario. Wish me luck!
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So I always wanted to have a leap of leopard wrasses as a chance to hopefully see some natural intraspecific behavior. Maybe even the development of a harem. I currently have a large male bluestar (Aka peacock) wrasse and a female ornate leopard wrasse. I learned that a local store was getting a shipment of ornates. The catch is that male leopards don't play nice, especially in small systems. The peacock was already lunging a bit at the ornate and was frankly outgrowing my tank.
So I decided to sell my bluestar wrasse to make way for a couple more ornates... it was a difficult decision because the bluestar male was gorgeous. but the new owner has a 150 gallon so I think he is going to like the bigger setup .
Today I picked up two smaller ornates. I acclimated them and into the display they went
Both dove into the sand within 15 min.
Hoping they come out in a few days to feed. I think that having the established ornate wrasse around will help get them used to eating prepared foods... wrasse see - wrasse do!
Then I hope that one of them will turn into a male so I can see the harem in action. But most importantly, I hope they don't introduce a horrible disease to the system. I don't have s QT tank that would be sufficient for leopards so it's a plug into the display and prey scenario. Wish me luck!
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tenurepro
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An experiment on tank PH.
My tank's ph typically ranges between 8 (morning) and 8.1 (evening). Not bad. One of the main reasons for lower than desired ph is co2 buildup in the home. I can take some tank water and aerate it outside the house and it quickly rises in ph. But if I tank tank water and aerate inside the house, the ph stays the same -> classic test for lower ph because of ambient co2.
I wanted to get ph hovering around 8.2. Can't leave windows open because it gets pretty cold here in Toronto in the winter. Also don't want to drill a hole in the wall to feed my skimmer fresh air. So I decided to start dosing kalkwaser in my ato, which increases ph by removing dissolved co2 in the water. My tunze ato has a 5 gallon reservoir, which is consumed in about 4 to 5 days. I started with 1 heaping teaspoon of kalkwaser (seachem) in my ato container. That upped the ph a bit but didn't get me to the sweet spot. So the next ato refill, I added the heaping teaspoon. Now the ph is bang on; averaging 8.2 - see top panel in the fig. Below
But, rookie mistakes where made. So I've been dosing Redsea's two part to maintain alk and ca at 8.5 and 430 respectively. I didn't really tune them down when I stared kalkwaser dosing, which of course also increase alk and ca. So by the second ato-kalkwaser container, my alk shot in quickly to 9.9 and my ca to 440. I immediately stopped 2 part dosing to let alk and ca recover a bit. They are coming down and thankfully the spike didn't kill any corals. At this point, I am not sure how much alk and ca will come down; tank doesn't consume much yet; the amount of mall needed to maintain ph at 8.2 may give an equilibrium value of alk and ca that is higher than 8.5 and 430 respectively. We'll see
I'm the end, not sure if this is worth the trouble for a slight increase in ph. But I'll try it for a month or so and re-evaluate
On fig - ph measured by Seneye, which was 'trimmed' using a lab grade ph meter. Alk measured using salifert kit, ca measured using redsea foundation pro kits. graph made in r:ggplot2
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My tank's ph typically ranges between 8 (morning) and 8.1 (evening). Not bad. One of the main reasons for lower than desired ph is co2 buildup in the home. I can take some tank water and aerate it outside the house and it quickly rises in ph. But if I tank tank water and aerate inside the house, the ph stays the same -> classic test for lower ph because of ambient co2.
I wanted to get ph hovering around 8.2. Can't leave windows open because it gets pretty cold here in Toronto in the winter. Also don't want to drill a hole in the wall to feed my skimmer fresh air. So I decided to start dosing kalkwaser in my ato, which increases ph by removing dissolved co2 in the water. My tunze ato has a 5 gallon reservoir, which is consumed in about 4 to 5 days. I started with 1 heaping teaspoon of kalkwaser (seachem) in my ato container. That upped the ph a bit but didn't get me to the sweet spot. So the next ato refill, I added the heaping teaspoon. Now the ph is bang on; averaging 8.2 - see top panel in the fig. Below
But, rookie mistakes where made. So I've been dosing Redsea's two part to maintain alk and ca at 8.5 and 430 respectively. I didn't really tune them down when I stared kalkwaser dosing, which of course also increase alk and ca. So by the second ato-kalkwaser container, my alk shot in quickly to 9.9 and my ca to 440. I immediately stopped 2 part dosing to let alk and ca recover a bit. They are coming down and thankfully the spike didn't kill any corals. At this point, I am not sure how much alk and ca will come down; tank doesn't consume much yet; the amount of mall needed to maintain ph at 8.2 may give an equilibrium value of alk and ca that is higher than 8.5 and 430 respectively. We'll see
I'm the end, not sure if this is worth the trouble for a slight increase in ph. But I'll try it for a month or so and re-evaluate
On fig - ph measured by Seneye, which was 'trimmed' using a lab grade ph meter. Alk measured using salifert kit, ca measured using redsea foundation pro kits. graph made in r:ggplot2
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tanksfishtank
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Great looking setup!
tenurepro
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tenurepro
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Sadly - the red star melted away over the past two days 
Also, the new leopard wrasses are jet lacked. Haven't been seen them, but I see signs of sand displacement in the morning. Last night I checked at 3 am and found one out. Tried to feed her but she ran into the sand. Not sure what to do? Hoping they get on eastern standard time soon!
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Also, the new leopard wrasses are jet lacked. Haven't been seen them, but I see signs of sand displacement in the morning. Last night I checked at 3 am and found one out. Tried to feed her but she ran into the sand. Not sure what to do? Hoping they get on eastern standard time soon!
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tenurepro
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Ornate wrasse update : I added 2 females 12 days ago. One has been coming up late at night and stays up for a couple of hours in the morning before going to sleep. She took a nls pellet a couple of days ago but today she actually took a few pelletes during morning feeding, so that is a pretty good sign. She was actively searching for them and chewing them.
Still have not seen the other new ornate. I am going away on vacation next week, so I've added an extra feeding cycle on my autofeeder (3 times a day) just to make sure there is a lot of pellets to go around.
Here is a picture of the new ornate (background) with the ornate I already had - Ariel
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Still have not seen the other new ornate. I am going away on vacation next week, so I've added an extra feeding cycle on my autofeeder (3 times a day) just to make sure there is a lot of pellets to go around.
Here is a picture of the new ornate (background) with the ornate I already had - Ariel
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
tenurepro
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tenurepro
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Heading out for a pre-Christmas vacation to Cozumel. Hope to get some scuba in.
Finally managed to get and setup an ecotech battery backup - good thing too as we are expecting freezing rain and ice in Toronto in a few days. I only connected one mp10 to maximize run time. Setup a temp ato container with 10 gallons of water - should be good for 10+ days. Auto feeder is in place and have a friend coming to clean the skimmer twice next week.
Hoping I come back to a happy tank!
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Finally managed to get and setup an ecotech battery backup - good thing too as we are expecting freezing rain and ice in Toronto in a few days. I only connected one mp10 to maximize run time. Setup a temp ato container with 10 gallons of water - should be good for 10+ days. Auto feeder is in place and have a friend coming to clean the skimmer twice next week.
Hoping I come back to a happy tank!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
tenurepro
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Back from first leg of vacation. Sps look in good shape in terms of color and growth. I was dosing kalkwaser while away (4 tsp per 5 gal Rodi). Lack of co2 in the house raised ph to about 8.3 - 8.4 (from 8.2 and 8.3) and I think this helped with growth - noticing very obvious signs on the mr packman and several other frags. Alk dropped to about 7.3 from 8.9, so started dosing alk in addition to kalk to keep things balanced.
On the fish front - I saw some bullying today - the resident ornate leopard wrasse was picking on one of the new ornates that I added two weeks ago. The poor wrasse would get chased around till it hides in the sand. Perhaps my tank can only support a single leopard [emoji47]. Will try to catch the new wrasses and find new homes for them, after I get back from my second half of family holidays.
Merry x-mas and happy holidays for everyone!
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On the fish front - I saw some bullying today - the resident ornate leopard wrasse was picking on one of the new ornates that I added two weeks ago. The poor wrasse would get chased around till it hides in the sand. Perhaps my tank can only support a single leopard [emoji47]. Will try to catch the new wrasses and find new homes for them, after I get back from my second half of family holidays.
Merry x-mas and happy holidays for everyone!
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tenurepro
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You know your are a reefer when your are staring at your tank when you are at home and staring at natural reefs when you are on vacation...
Here is a little movie of some cool fish from Cozumel Mexico. I had planned on scuba but my left ear didn't cooperate so went snorkeling instead. So nice to see tangs, angelfish and wrasses in the natural environment.
https://youtu.be/Cq-AF5uKScc
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Here is a little movie of some cool fish from Cozumel Mexico. I had planned on scuba but my left ear didn't cooperate so went snorkeling instead. So nice to see tangs, angelfish and wrasses in the natural environment.
https://youtu.be/Cq-AF5uKScc
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tenurepro
New member
6.5 month update. Things are going well. All but two Sps frags are growing and coloring up.
Here is an update video, featuring some underwater footage taken with a GoPro
https://youtu.be/b-e3NbFmn_o
Picked up 4 more sps frags from a local reefer. Two encrusting montiporas - mystic pink (with blue polyps) and mystique (green with blue polyps). An light blue acropora tenuis, and ORA's bird of paradise.
New ornate wrasses are not playing nice together, one is now in jail (aka fuge). Wondering if a little chill time will help. I may sell one off.
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Here is an update video, featuring some underwater footage taken with a GoPro
https://youtu.be/b-e3NbFmn_o
Picked up 4 more sps frags from a local reefer. Two encrusting montiporas - mystic pink (with blue polyps) and mystique (green with blue polyps). An light blue acropora tenuis, and ORA's bird of paradise.
New ornate wrasses are not playing nice together, one is now in jail (aka fuge). Wondering if a little chill time will help. I may sell one off.
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tenurepro
New member
Shelfs: finally built a little shelf for the cabinet. I had some stackable plastic containers for adaptors and fish food etc. but the system didn't work too well when I tried to add the ecotech battery backup in the cabinet. I built a custom shelf out of 1"x6" cedar, 1"x3/4" and 1"x3" nailing strips. Bottoms shelve for the battery, middle for adaptors and top for food and tank goodies. A few pics...
Bottom shelve
Complete unit
Unit in the reefer 250 cabinet
This still gives me lots of space for the 5 gal ato jug.
Minor change of scape: been thinking about changing the middle tier in the center-left of the tank. Initially, I had a couple of flowerpots, a torch and a hammer on the bottom, and a red forest fire digi in the middle tier. The digi mysteriously faded away and yesterday I woke up to this
Seems like the torch is attacking the hammer. Then I wondered if the torch also attacked or bothered the red digi that was slightly above it? Anyway I took out the torch and placed it in the sand to the back. Flowerpots also got moved to the sandbed off to the back. Then I rearranged the rockwork to create a lower bench with a couple of archways.. I really like the look...
New arrangement
I also epoxied some new frags:
Ora birds of paradise... great color and motion
New encrusting mystique monti... stunning blue polyps on green base
New encrusting mystic pink monti
And a new acropora tenuis. Mother colony is baby blue
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Bottom shelve
Complete unit
Unit in the reefer 250 cabinet
This still gives me lots of space for the 5 gal ato jug.
Minor change of scape: been thinking about changing the middle tier in the center-left of the tank. Initially, I had a couple of flowerpots, a torch and a hammer on the bottom, and a red forest fire digi in the middle tier. The digi mysteriously faded away and yesterday I woke up to this
Seems like the torch is attacking the hammer. Then I wondered if the torch also attacked or bothered the red digi that was slightly above it? Anyway I took out the torch and placed it in the sand to the back. Flowerpots also got moved to the sandbed off to the back. Then I rearranged the rockwork to create a lower bench with a couple of archways.. I really like the look...
New arrangement
I also epoxied some new frags:
Ora birds of paradise... great color and motion
New encrusting mystique monti... stunning blue polyps on green base
New encrusting mystic pink monti
And a new acropora tenuis. Mother colony is baby blue
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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