Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

I went to frag one of the sponges tonight and in the process of gathering rubble I found a piece with some sponge on it. I still fragged a small piece which I attached to yet another piece of rubble.

The second image is of the rock in place in the sump. Along with the rocks came a bristle worm and a spaghetti worm. I also removed some GHA that had a ton of pods and dorvilleidae worms. I put it down in the cryptic fuge.

Now that I have some seed rock in the fuge I need to block as much light as I can from reaching the fuge. Of course I’ll need to check the water level occasionally and that sort of thing but it won’t be every day exactly. The rest of the time it’ll be pitch black in there. I need to get the doors and sides on the stand. Once that’s done though the fuge will truly be cryptic.

 

[Nate Chalk]

I went to frag one of the sponges tonight and in the process of gathering rubble I found a piece with some sponge on it. I still fragged a small piece which I attached to yet another piece of rubble.

The second image is of the rock in place in the sump. Along with the rocks came a bristle worm and a spaghetti worm. I also removed some GHA that had a ton of pods and dorvilleidae worms. I put it down in the cryptic fuge.

Now that I have some seed rock in the fuge I need to block as much light as I can from reaching the fuge. Of course I’ll need to check the water level occasionally and that sort of thing but it won’t be every day exactly. The rest of the time it’ll be pitch black in there. I need to get the doors and sides on the stand. Once that’s done though the fuge will truly be cryptic.

why

 

[Fishy888]

why

To seed the new cryptic zone in my sump. I’ve been researching cryptic zones for a while and I have some cryptic sponges in the DT. Once sponges and other creatures that like the dark start flourishing, they’ll consume nitrates, phosphates, and DOC among other things. They can even polish the water without having to buy carbon or anything.

 

[Mschmidt]

That’s exactly why I’ll probably go with an undersized reservoir. It can’t crash the tank if only 10 gallons gets into the sump. I just don’t want 10 gallons on the floor.

Got plenty of room in the sump for the display to drain and the reservoir to empty into it. But yeah, don't want any on the floor... like I came bact from Christmas to.

 

[Fishy888]

Got plenty of room in the sump for the display to drain and the reservoir to empty into it. But yeah, don't want any on the floor... like I came bact from Christmas to.

Sorry you had to go through that. I went through that last July when my 90 gallon cube just cracked at the bottom. Thanks to my wife catching it the second it happened and the fact that I had two 5 gallon buckets ready to go, I only ended up with maybe 10 gallons on the floor.

If it hadn’t been for the 90’s catastrophic failure I wouldn’t have gotten my 210 so sometimes positive things can come out of situations like this. Getting the 210 though was a miracle of God, especially considering how cheap it was.

Considering this is a small apartment though and that they’re letting me have this tank, I can’t go bigger and I doubt I’ll be able to afford another 210 so hopefully no leaks or catastrophic failures. And no ATO overflows hopefully.

 

[Mschmidt]

Sorry you had to go through that. I went through that last July when my 90 gallon cube just cracked at the bottom. Thanks to my wife catching it the second it happened and the fact that I had two 5 gallon buckets ready to go, I only ended up with maybe 10 gallons on the floor.

If it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have gotten my 210. That was a miracle of God, especially considering how cheap it was. Considering this is a small apartment though and that they’re letting me have this tank, I can’t go bigger and I doubt I’ll be able to afford another 210 so hopefully no leaks or catastrophic failures. And no ATO overflows hopefully.

thanks. this was a leaky drain. 3-4 gallons in the stand and about the same in the rug. caused no upgrade though (that's fine, it'd be a pain to change).

 

[Fishy888]

thanks. this was a leaky drain. 3-4 gallons in the stand and about the same in the rug. caused no upgrade though (that's fine, it'd be a pain to change).

Tell me about it. My wife wants us to move from our two bedroom apartment to a one bedroom apartment. I know she wants to move because we both have health issues that make the stairs difficult at times. For me it’s because I’m already a fall risk and the way they carpeted the stairs I’ve fallen down them once already and I’ve come close to falling down them more times than I can count. Arthritis and herniated discs don’t help either. Still I’d rather stay here but it might be better if we do. I’d rather move a 1 year old system with a few frags and soft coral colonies than a 5 or 6 year old system with many SPS colonies.

Still, now that my system is maturing and I finally have it close where I want it, and I’m getting coralline and everything, I really don’t look forward to messing with it. Then again there are potential positives that could come out of moving the tank too.

One bedroom apartments are rare here. The waiting list is usually a few miles long. I fear my tank will have reached maturity and that I’ll be set back a year maturity wise by the time we’d be number one on the list.

 

[Fishy888]

I’m happy to say that the sponge on the seed rock looks good so far. No melting or anything. In fact there are areas that look like they’ve grown slightly overnight. I moved the seed rock slightly to give the sponge a place to grow and not be directly touching the rock underneath. It shouldn’t be getting much flow where it is so it should do well and then it can grow on the bigger rock the seed rock is sitting on.

The first picture is from when I first put the seed rock in. The second picture is from a few minutes ago.

 

[Fishy888]

So I went to top off the tank. I still was way over the fill line in the sump because my salinity had been 1.034 (as per very much calibrated brand new actual saltwater aquarium refractometer). I had to dilute that of course but I never took the excess out of the sump. Tonight I took about 8 gallons of saltwater out of the system before adding RO/DI.

In the process of watching the water level go below the fill line (about 4 gallons below) I noticed that the seed rock was partly exposed on top. The sponge didn’t get exposed thankfully. Still, I felt it prudent to move it further down. So this is the first picture in its new spot.

It’s also a bit darker where it is and there’s likely less flow. Please pardon the reflection. The sponge lower down on the seed rock is partly covered with the reflection in the image but you can still make it out. It also looks much brighter in that spot than it really is.

 

[Fishy888]

First things first. A shameless plug!




This is my first YouTube channel. I’m going to be posting video updates of my system and discussing various aspects of reefing from a budget reefer’s experience. I’ll be talking about my failures and my successes.

Without R2R and the #Cronies I wouldn’t even be as good of a reefer as I am right now, (not that I’m great at it like many if not most of you) but with all of your help I’m going to be much better at it!

 

[F i s h y]

First things first. A shameless plug!




This is my first YouTube channel. I’m going to be posting video updates of my system and discussing various aspects of reefing from a budget reefer’s experience. I’ll be talking about my failures and my successes.

Without R2R and the #Croni#Croniesldn’t even be this good of a reefer as I am right now, (not that I’m great at it like many if not most of you) but with all of your help I’m going to be much better at it!

You are doing great. Just keep on the path. Less hands are better..less change is better. Stability is key.

 

[Fishy888]

Well it turns out that we got moved to the front of the waiting list for the one bedroom apartment because the others on the list aren’t already residents. There’s someone moving out of a one bedroom in May or June. So we’re likely moving into it by June.

I already have some bins and buckets but I’ll probably need even more. There’s a lot of rock and livestock to move and I want to keep it all wet. I’m hoping for a fairly seamless move of everything of course. I’ll be doing everything I can to make sure that happens.

 

[tbrown]

Well it turns out that we got moved to the front of the waiting list for the one bedroom apartment because the others on the list aren’t already residents. There’s someone moving out of a one bedroom in May or June. So we’re likely moving into it by June.

I already have some bins and buckets but I’ll probably need even more. There’s a lot of rock and livestock to move and I want to keep it all wet. I’m hoping for a fairly seamless move of everything of course. I’ll be doing everything I can to make sure that happens.

Check OfferUp, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace for those black plastic tubs? Walmart sells those clear plastic tubs fairly inexpensive as well. Or check local reef groups or even Petcos for salt buckets they'll give you free or cheap?

 

[Fishy888]

Check OfferUp, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace for those black plastic tubs? Walmart sells those clear plastic tubs fairly inexpensive as well. Or check local reef groups or even Petcos for salt buckets they'll give you free or cheap?

That’s a great idea! I’ll give that a shot. Moving the tank makes me a bit anxious but it’s also an opportunity to clean everything really well and to make adjustments that need to be made. I’m glad I didn’t finish the closed loop now. I might not even have to remove the bulkheads and plumbing from the DT if everything goes right.

My biggest fear is of having to put all my fish into bins for potentially 24 hours while I make 200 gallons of water. I’m going to take some water from the DT with me because it’ll be needed for the fish and live rock.

Unlike when the 90 gallon cube met its demise I already have a tank. I have enough bins for the fish and corals. For the larger rocks with sponge on them but no corals, I might try to frag the sponges that are on them. I don’t see a way for me to keep larger rocks in water when I remove them. They’ll go into bins right away but there’s no way I can remove the big rocks while keeping them under water for at least 30 seconds.

I might make some “baffles” to hold in the rocks in the cryptic fuge. Maybe. I’ve stacked the rocks in there such that they don’t touch the glass. As thin as the glass is on a 75 gallon tank it wouldn’t take much to break it. Whether it’s pressure points or a rock slipping and causing an avalanche I can’t afford for anything bad to happen to the sump. I might try to make a box of sorts too. If I go that route I’ll have to.use lexan so I can see what’s happening in the fuge from time to time.

As the move gets closer and I have my plans in place, I’ll be discussing the move on my YouTube channel. I hope some of you will check it out over time and let me know what you think I should do differently or what I should keep doing. I appreciate everyone who’s been following my build thread. Thank you!

 

[Projects with Sam]

Subscribed!

 

[Mschmidt]

Check OfferUp, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace for those black plastic tubs? Walmart sells those clear plastic tubs fairly inexpensive as well. Or check local reef groups or even Petcos for salt buckets they'll give you free or cheap?

And if they look new enough at the end of it, can be returned.

 

[Fishy888]

Well it looks like I’ve got dinos, and I don’t mean Jurassic Park. I suspected this a couple of days ago but now I’m certain. They and their strings are all over my corals, my rocks, the sand and the back glass. I keep blowing them off the corals and they’re back in less than an hour. Yup, dinos. Definitely dinos.

I found someone with some rock that’s been in a sump for 30 years. It’s free too. I get to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. My nitrates are nonzero thankfully, so the beneficial bacteria should outcompete the dinos fairly quickly. Although I don’t like cyano I’d rather have it than dinos. Hopefully the beneficial bacteria outcompete both.

 

[Fishy888]

I took a closer look tonight and thankfully there are rocks that don’t have dinos on them. There are shaded areas on the sand with no dinos.

As of right now the dinos aren’t anywhere near as bad as they were the last time I dealt with them.

 

[907_Reefer]

Good to know. I’m pretty sure an optical sensor will be the way to go. I’m going to check out the Osmolator 2. It’s going to be a month or so before I can get it but I want to get my research done from now. Thank you @Nate Chalk! Please keep ‘em coming everyone!

I run the Tunze Osmolator 3155 as well, 1.5 years no issues. Only nuance I have is positioning it in the DT so it has some flow to keep the sensor from gunking up. #NoSumpProblems. I have it in a good position now and haven't touched it to even clean the sensor in months.

I did crack part of the housing (pump output) by man-handling. Zip tied it and no issues

ATO is my favorite equipment on my tank..

 

[Fishy888]

I picked up about 10 lbs of live rock rubble today. I’ve also shut the lights off for the day. The rock hasn’t had aeration in a couple of days but the water was shallow enough and cool enough that it should have decent oxygenation.

The rock has been added to the system. It’ll go a long way towards eradicating the dinos.

Edit: I’ve had the lights completely off since noon today. It’s not a true blackout in that ambient light still hits the DT. Overnight the good bacteria should make their way onto the surfaces of the rocks, corals, and areas of sand. This will likely occur first in close proximity to the rubble I’ve scattered in the worst affected areas. Over the next week or so there shouldn’t be any visible dinoflagellates left. The last thing I need during the move is a dino outbreak!