Timmmysli's NPS journal

[timmmysli]

So no dosing of what exactly? Do you mean trace elements? All of my suns are rescue missions so I've been dosing strontium and some iodide to try and help with tissue regrowth.

I have to dose my 2 part for Alk and Ca.

I do dose reef actif but I swear by it. My tank looks 1000x better with it but next time I do use it I'll keep a close eye on the corals response.

In terms of skimming I keep the skimmer running al week but don't really skim anything until a water change then I use the skimmer to pull out around 20ltrs over 6hrs+.

My DIY sump setup with my skimmer doing a water change

 

[Timeless1483]

I was thinking of everthiing. I tried to dose Trace and all of the suns just went crazy, and I was using only a few drops for a 10 Gal. I have not tried the product Reef actif. I have used Fuel by Seachem a few times and if I over do it, everyone does not likeit. A fe drops for me is ok.

What are you feeding your tank and suns.

 

[timmmysli]

I tend to stay away from dosing multiple products as I think it can be rather costly and hard to verify whats actually helping

The actif is my main dose per week other than 2 part.

Each day the tank gets pellets for the fish 2x clowns (breeding like crazy) and 2x Bangaii cardinals who's also spawning regularly. Every few days I also feed nori to the fish and they all love it.

Each afternoon I add in 1 block of sp.brine shrimp then half an hour later I turn off all pumps and feed 2 blocks of mysis to the corals. When the pumps are turned back on the fish get any leftovers.

I was feeding double that while I was trying to nurse the corals but now I figured I should step it down a bit as some cyno turned up a few weeks back.

 

[fullmonti]

thanks for sharing, I'm still lurking & learning.

 

[timmmysli]

I'm still learning

I don't know much about np coral care. So far all i know is they love food every day but hate being fed too much to the point that they tend to rtn if really over fed. To get mine to open up is easy with a block of brine added to the tank but maybe something else might work just as well without adding the extra load on the system.

I really want to keep stocking up the tank but I'm thinking I'm hitting my bio load wall. My tanks very clean and stable but the little signs of water qual and cyno are starting to pop up. Everything still reads zero po4/no3 possible due to the reef actif and bacteria doses but I'm still a bit unsure on how much extra load the system can tolerate.

 

[timmmysli]

Some night time shots

Side on

And from above

 

[oldreefer76]

Looking good

 

[timmmysli]

Thank oldreefer76 I was going to agree with you that NPC's are cool as 80% of mine were free rescues but I just bought this fella

Wish me luck hey

Any advice would be great. For now I'm just going to try brine shrimp a few times a day. Hopefully if it can come out and hold down the brine I'll switch straight over to mysis and continue daily feeds.

It just came into the shop but it hasn't shipped well and has already been stung by a softie it was resting on in the lfs but still how could I say no to such a full on piece. Its around 8-10" tall.

 

[timmmysli]

Looks like this could be a good piece. Its started to come out a little bit for feedings. I guess I'll stick with the brine until its full expanded.

 

[velvetelvis]

In regards to food sources can anyone suggest some good inverts that might add larvae to the system on a regular basis. I currently have a pair of clowns spawning like clock work which I figure will help the system out in the long term. I was thinking of adding cheap glass shrimp with the hope they would release pretty often. Something cheap lol

Lysmata spp. cleaner shrimp will spawn regularly and release fry into the tank. Be wary of peppermint shrimp, though; in my experience, at least, they're not above sampling polyps if they get hungry, and they will eat up your tiny featherduster worms.

 

[timmmysli]

New addition Day 1

 

[Western_reefer]

How is the Black Sun Coral doing? Any update pictures?

 

[timmmysli]

Hiya,

The black sun is doing well. I had some slight tissue die off at its base when I bought it but that seems to have healed up along with a few open wounds from broken branches.

Will try to get some pic's up in the next week

 

[Western_reefer]

Hiya,

The black sun is doing well. I had some slight tissue die off at its base when I bought it but that seems to have healed up along with a few open wounds from broken branches.

Will try to get some pic's up in the next week

Ok, I also have a Black Sun Coral, its about 25 heads or so. I got it from a LFS, the Black Sun Coral was in really bad shape, polyps didn't come out and it was loosing a lot of tissue, but, with some TLC, its starting to come back to life.

What are you feeding yours?

 

[timmmysli]

Good to hear

Mine can eat nearly two blocks of mysids in an afternoon

I normally put a block of brine shrimp in the tank to get a feeding response then 15-20 mins later I feed the npc's

The black seems to love high flow and can hold down a lot more food than the yellow's.

 

[Western_reefer]

Good to hear

Mine can eat nearly two blocks of mysids in an afternoon

I normally put a block of brine shrimp in the tank to get a feeding response then 15-20 mins later I feed the npc's

The black seems to love high flow and can hold down a lot more food than the yellow's.

Nice!

Mine too! My Black Sun corals can take down 2-3 times as much food as my Orange Sun coral can! I'm currently feeding my Black sun corals fish eggs, it seems to go crazy for it!

 

[timmmysli]

Cool,

I have some fish roe that I normally feed to my clowns, I'll have to try them on the black sun's.

Should I be putting my new addition in a position where theres little to no light? It is getting some light and I wasn't sure if that would irritate it in some way. Its positioned in high flow to help remove any mucus.

I'm tempted to go back down to the lfs as they also had a dark red/purple version too but it was attached to a ugly large rock with some encrusting coral on it.

 

[timmmysli]

Sorry for the crappy pic but I'm finding it hard to take a picture of the whole colony while using a flash, will try later with the leds on.

As of feed time this morning

 

[Western_reefer]

Sorry for the crappy pic but I'm finding it hard to take a picture of the whole colony while using a flash, will try later with the leds on.

As of feed time this morning

VERY nice!! Love the Black Sun Coral!!

 

[timmmysli]

this is after a feed Does the fact that its shown a feeding type response indicate its actually feeding? Or just real hungry lol I fed an Aus product that is for raising fry, it has shrimp, fish, eggs, vitamins and minerals in its ingrdients list. Product note : stays in suspension longer, has a variety of tiny food particles.

Over here we don't have the great list of nps foods you guys/girls have in the states.

Are there any other feeds available that I could use? I've also used the excess water from mysis/brine shrimp as a feed.. I figured it would be full of tiny particles that could possible be consumed.