Phoenix stage

[iamacat]

You should definitely breed your clowns if you have the time and an extra tank!

 

[iamacat]

 

[iamacat]

Some new additions. Acans didn’t do well transferring off the plugs as I fractured the skeleton, ooops.
Green with blue tip frogspawn
Gold hammer
Red cap Monti
Forest fire Digi
Yellow zoas not pictured

awaiting new test kits. Believe it or not it’s been 1.5 years since I’ve tested. The Trident clogged up in the midst of my health issues and I never cared to fix it. Great product for starting a system, but my numbers didn’t waiver for 13months and I got tired of the excessive testing and reagent alerts anyway. I never had an issue (when healthy) seeing problems early and adjusting my nutrient load. But I don’t want to live that life anymore. I’m shooting for higher goals so testing will become a regular event.

I’ve also been investigating Kalk to boost my pH. I’ve got space in my cabinet for the icecap small stirrer and an extra DOS head available. Once I have some fresh Alk and Ca values I will investigate further.

I’m also considering moving away from the Prodibio products. I don’t have an issue with them but I just feel as tho I’m not getting much of a boost from continuing. The Hydrospace bacteria has my attention and that’s something I can brew on my own which also interests me.

 

[iamacat]

Calcium 533

dKH 7.9
Mag 1260
Salinity 35.0
Temp 78.8-79.2 all day every day

dropping the AFR from 18mL/day to 9mL/day. Will test again in 3 days. The Ca has likely slowly increased as I am reading other people’s experiences. Even tho it reads 533, rechecked 535, the corals are doing good. This might me why the zoas have been tighter tho.

not ideal but I felt something wasn’t in great balance. Glad I’m testing again

 

[iamacat]

Not making any changes but ordered some soda ash to have available to dose through my open DOS head if the dKH drops below 7. I am not really worried about the elevated Calcium, but I would prefer to balance it out and get my dKH to 8.5 where it was for the first 1.5yrs.

hopefully decreasing the AFR works and I don’t need to intervene. If necessary I wouldn’t mind adding the soda ash for a pH boost if it also means bringing my Alk and Ca into better harmony

 

[iamacat]

Xenia Warrior Princess

youtube.com

Please leave a message

youtube.com

Trying to appreciate and enjoy the Xenia fields

going to be chopping a good chunk out in a week or so. Had to order smaller pruners to get the littlest boogers off the rock. Goal is to keep them strictly on left quadrant of the coast to coast overflow. Waiting to time it out between the fry hatch and new spawn. The Torch will be relocated to the main rock the forest consumes.

 

[iamacat]

After calling around to both (yes surprising I have more than one now in my region) I decided to place an order at Reef Cleaners. Neither LFS had the quantity of bumble bee snails I needed for my vermetid snail infestation. It’s not awful but bad enough I need a crew not 2-3.

emerald crab to take care of the small population of bubble algae that has crept in

I haven’t had hermits in years and I’m ready to let someone else manage my rock cleaning. I’ve also ordered a team to clean up the sand.

peppermint shrimp will hopefully eat the small population of aiptasia I have recently discovered. I can’t get lemon juice into them due to size and location. Peppermint will be rehoused once his/her job is done. I’m wondering if my coral banded shrimp will even allow it to happen. Hopefully the CB allows the peppermint to work day shift while the CB continues night shift

 

[Skeeter4890]

Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on lol, I got my new addition today and I’m in love looks way better in person than in pictures, it’s also not opened up in this picture just put it into the tank!!!!! Now just need to find me a pink streaked wrasse!

 

[iamacat]

Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on lol, I got my new addition today and I’m in love looks way better in person than in pictures, it’s also not opened up in this picture just put it into the tank!!!!! Now just need to find me a pink streaked wrasse!

Looking forward to seeing it grow!

I do have a lot going on. It’s all good tho.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Very nice. Congrats!!!

 

[iamacat]

I went into the new test kits a lil wet and wild without enough understanding of the instruments.

Before retesting today I’ve researched more on the Hanna calcium checker. I definitely overshot the amount of sample needed. That’s likely why I had such a high Calcium result. Now that I know how to use that special pipette, I should get an accurate reading in a little bit.

 

[iamacat]

Test day two, electric boogaloo:

salinity 34.0
pH 7.95
dKH 7.5
Ca 502
Mag 1350

I for sure was inadequate in my testing methods first go around. This took me half the time (not including opening reagent bottles or battery install).

I have historically found my salinity to be 33-34.5. The past 8 months I have been slowly increasing it to 35 but it never stays there. Always settles into 34 +- 0.3.

I tested my TDS coming out the RODI and was disappointed to find a reading of 14. I had a new well drilled 2 months ago and it appears I will need to expand my 4 stage unit by adding an extra VOC and having two DI canisters on the expansion. I changed all media including membrane back in September and hadn’t noticed much exhaustion when I checked on it in February. It’s not super convenient to get to as I have to slide the washer dryer out to get to it.

this is likely why I have observed a slow population of bubble algae and cyano in the tiny crevices of low flow. Nothing is problematic YET

I will continue the AFR at 9mL a day and test again in 3 days. If dKH is 7 I will bump the AFR up to 13.5mL/d

 

[iamacat]

dKH - 7.3
Ca - 520

pH was down to 7.82 this AM which is the lowest in quite some time. Decided to test and with the Alk dropping again I mixed up 1.25tsp of Soda Ash into 500mL RODI and administered 250mL. This pumped the pH to 8.05 immediately. Decided to divide the SA over 2 days because i didn’t want a big pH swing and the dKH increase was right on the cusp of the danger zone. The dosing was to raise to 8.5dKH.

finally got my Phosphate and Nitrate reagents. Bummed to see double 0, always got me at roulette too. Turned skimmer off since I have a nice pH boost. Fed heavy today with reefroids mixed into the Rods Food. Nori sheets for the tangs. I think I’m going to add reefroids back into my auto feeder to dust up the pellets. Plan to continue heavy feeding for the next week with the skimmer intermittently off based on pH values.

AFR bumped back up 13.5mL/day to keep boosted Alk at 8.5. Will observe Calcium and if that continues to climb I will be turning the dosing pump off and be dosing only the SA untill the Ca drops to 450.

 

[iamacat]

Left the skimmer off all night and the pH dropped significantly. Added the remaining 250mL SA.

things are coming together in my mind as I dabble. I’m unintentionally running an ULNS and that’s not what I had constructed. I am going to stop the Prodibio products for the time being and monitor my Nitrate and Phosphate levels. I’m thinking about adding the SA to my available dosing head and dosing that to off set the night pH drop. Will likely be dialing back the AFR to balance.

my fleece roller does a fantastic job to the point my skimmer doesn’t pull much skimmate. It’s really been an aerator and CO2 scrubber more than a skimmer due to the low nutrients. I’m going to schedule the skimmer to be off periodically through the day to encourage elevating the nutrients. Will continue with increased feedings untill I start getting positive tests. If no results in a week I have the Plus NP TM in my cart.

feeding has always been consistent with the AFS but I tend to get off track with the frozen and Nori. Need to be better about that and get in a rhythm. I was tentative with over doing it since moving and seeing some nuisances cropping up.

 

[iamacat]

Wow. BRS had 50% off on the XF330 so I grabbed another as back up since I’ve already replaced one. Figured the other will go at some point. Ordered the Plus NP by TM as well

 

[iamacat]

Triton ICP results came in today. Sample was sent the morning after my first round of testing.

only non perfect results were Iodine and Phosphate at the lower end of the “green” spectrum.

these results are what I was expecting. The small zoas were clueing me into potential Iodine deficiency as well as low Nitrates and Phosphates. I have a whole KZ coral colors system unopened so I am going to resume that program. I didn’t want to after I moved because I wanted to see how the tank would read out with a new water source. I’m very pleased with the ICP results and it has greatly helped me focus my approach.

ReefCleaners order arrives today. Water change planned. Will begin the coral colors program after water change.

dKH 7.9 today. Will add SA and return AFR to 18mL/day. ICP calcium was 435. Not sure why my testing results are elevated. Must be my methods which I am new at so not shocked

 

[iamacat]

Had to re-glue my hammer and frogspawn as one of my bulldozer 12+ year old turbo snails knocked them off exiting the Coral Banded Cave.

These red marks are bites from the Xenia Warrior Princess. I decided to prune some of the tiny Xenia around the euphyllia garden and she fought me on it.

small water change of 5g. Dosed the KZ colors program. .7tsp of SA.

waiting for the reefcleaners delivery. I watched the vermetid snails on the mushroom rock catch a ton of food in their mucus last night. I’m like 99% sure they have decreased in size due to this as well as the irritation from the snails spiky tubes on their fleshy underbelly. These snails only appeared in the past 4 months

 

[iamacat]

Blue spotted watchman tried to eat the peppermint shrimp 2 seconds in. Luckily I had the Tongs of Death ready to intervene. Shrimp scurried into the Xenia and was seen dancing over the rocks after lights out.

Goby did successfully eat two Vibex snails. Those aren’t going to feel too good coming out.

 

[iamacat]

AFR returned to 18mL/day as my KH went from 8.6 to 8.1 in 24hr. 1/2tsp SA added. pH 7.87 pre, 7.99 post.

Phos was 0.33 last night with 0 observable NO3. Cleaned glass as it was filthy and dosed one pump of Plus NP. Phos 0.00 this morning. Added 3 pumps of Plus NP. Max dose for my tank.

going to continue monitoring KH daily and will likely add the SA to the free DOS head. Benefiting my pH and alk consumption. Will check calcium tomorrow, the ICP test showing much lower than my tests gives hope that the 18/mL was a good dosing rate and I just need to assist the KH minimally.

 

[iamacat]

Florida fighting conch tipped the torch over so I had to get it back upright. Crazy how many heads this thing has split into over a year. Last count was 18 heads now from 3 last April. Seems like every week now I’m observing a split. Might frag it apart to allow for more expansion when I move it onto the Xenia rock in a couple weeks.

dKH- 8.2. SA added
Calcium - 452

balancing out nicely since adjusting down the AFR briefly and boosting the KH with the SA. pH settling 7.93-8.29 through the day and night. If consistency is reached I will be DOSing the SA.

continuing the TM Plus NP at 3pumps early in the day. Tank looks great today. Noted decrease in nuisances. Bumble Bee snails are hanging out in the main sectors of Vermetids.