The Kiddie Pool - Reflective's 225ish

[Harold Green]

I don't think I've ever seen a design with that many filter socks so I'm wondering why. I have a 75gallon sump with a drain chamber that feeds two filter socks so there's nothing over the socks. My return pump feeds a gfo/carbon reactor and that feeds the refusium so I have a slow flow through it.

 

[Reflective]

I don't think I've ever seen a design with that many filter socks so I'm wondering why. I have a 75gallon sump with a drain chamber that feeds two filter socks so there's nothing over the socks. My return pump feeds a gfo/carbon reactor and that feeds the refusium so I have a slow flow through it.

I noticed the flow through the drain socks has to be reduced significantly when I use felt socks otherwise it just flows over the socks. I definitely prefer the felt socks, so I wanted to add more. On the refugium side, I don't plan to leave them in all the time. Mostly when I stir the sand, blow off rocks and harvest macro algae. I somehow make a huge mess every time I trim the macro algae.

 

[Reflective]

Got my purple sump from @Elite-Aquatics! Found another place that makes purple pvc that matches the purple on the sump, so I'm going to use that to install it when it comes in. Not really looking forward to having to redo all the plumbing and whatnot, but really looking forward to a much more functional sump.

Also got a new camera lens so here is a couple of shots. Next time I will turn off the pumps and not try to take pictures when the lights are turning off. Was just excited to try the lens out.

I did not do enough research on my Melanurus Wrasse. I saw lots of "reef safe" and bought him because I had a flatworm problem on my glass. Didn't seem to affect any corals, just made the glass ugly. He took care of that problem really quickly. Then he was a model citizen for a bit... a month or so. Then one day I see my skunk shrimp torn in two and the wrasse was very very fat. Then I realize I hadn't seen the larger one of my peppermint shrimp in a while and found it's body (well part of it's body) wedged in the cave it liked to live in. I saw my smaller peppermint shrimp the next day, then have never seen it again. Did some "who ate my shrimp" research and found my Melanurus to be the culprit. I thought reef safe included invertebrates but I was wrong. My Coral Banded Shrimp is still alive. Hopefully he's mean enough to survive because I really enjoy the diversity the shrimp added to the tank.

I did have a temporary cyano problem, which seemed to fix itself after a certain amount of time. Nothing I tried worked (lights, nutrient export, siphoning, scrubbing, more flow, more siphoning). I got sick and ignored the tank for about a week and noticed the problem started to fix itself and a couple days later was gone.

More recently a hair algae problem started, which might have actually been linked to the dead peppermint shrimp in the rocks since I have no idea how long it was in there. I don't have many algae eaters (only a few snails and hermits) in the tank so I bought a yellow tang. He was worthless for cleaning up algae. I would see him nip at the algae maybe once an hour or so. Just one little nip and would just end up tearing off a bunch that he didn't eat so it would float around the tank for a bit. :mad: It was then suggested I get a foxface. So I bought a One Spot Foxface and he is amazing. I saw him eat more while I was doing dishes then I had seen the tang eat the entire time I had him. And he is so tiny compared to the the tang. A bonus is that the tang seems to have caught on to what the foxface is doing and now eats WAY more algae. The tang actually follows the foxface around and copies where and how he's eating. Saw them both floating vertically eating off the rocks this morning.

 

[Nomadic1]

How much weight can your light rack support? I like the concept.

 

[Reflective]

How much weight can your light rack support? I like the concept.

I think the light on there right now is around 50 pounds. When I sent my design to Faztek I told them it needed to be able to hold 100 pounds and they said the 1.5" bars would be able to do that.

 

[Reflective]

Definitely still fighting the hair algae problem right now. Going to try some GFO. I've noticed a steady decline in many of my corals since the problem started and I am consistently getting reading of 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. Prior to the algae problem I had around 5ppm nitrates and a slight blue on the Salifert test kit for phosphates. The only thing that doesn't seem to care are my ricordeas, GSP and my anemones. The zoas don't seem to be dying, but they definitely close up and won't open when the algae starts surrounding them. SPS go from not as much polyp extension, to a loss of color, then stn till dead. Some acans and favia I have are slowly receding although not completely dead, but I am starting to see the sharp skeleton on some of the acans. The only acan that seems happy is the one that gets completely buried in sand every night by my diamond goby. Every morning all the sand is off it so I'm not exactly sure what happens but I've stopped trying to fix it myself because blowing the sand off it just seemed to irritate it. Maybe I should just bury all of them each night
I tried cleaning all the algae out and I would start to get readings of nitrates and phosphate and corals would start to perk up, but then about a week or two later the algae would be out of control again and the corals would continue to decline or die.
I also tried feeding less, less lights, etc. but nothing seemed to help so I'm wondering if my marco rock is leaching phosphates. I hope that is the problem and that it can be fixed with the GFO, but I'm not sure how long rocks leach phosphates for. I also might try dosing nitrates, but am not sure if that will just fuel the problem more.
Definitely frustrating but I haven't lost all hope quite yet.

 

[Reflective]

I think the GFO is working. Phosphates still say 0 but after doing another 40 gallon water change to get rid of all the hair algae everything looks much happier. The acans were the most obvious change because they are covering their skeletons again.

Usually after a week or so I start seeing the hair algae come back but this time I'm not seeing it return. Fingers crossed! I am dosing a 1/4 teaspoon of Sodium Nitrate every 3 days to keep the nitrates from going back to zero.

I will have to see if the 1 SPS stick and a half survive. It's half because I cut off a bunch of the dying tissue and have this little nub of a frag left. I don't even remember what the other SPS stick is. Hasn't grown, but still has polyps and hasn't lost any tissue. If they are still alive in a month I will try buying another frag of something hardy and see how it does. Can't tell if the favias will survive either, they do look a more puffy.

I haven't stopped dosing the Triton Elementz but probably will soon since I think I need to go back to doing water changes. Was really hoping it would work out since I am having twins in February and not having to do water changes would have been awesome. My most recent Triton test showed that I had Tin in my water, which I am going to use Detox to remove, but I know that's not the problem because my previous test showed 0 Tin and I was already having problems with the SPS slowly dying.

Tank currently:

 

[Reflective]

Finally!

Saw them in the anemone for the first time the other morning. I am super excited.

I did panic a bit after I saw them in it because when one of them left it he started doing barrel rolls all over the tank and rubbing on everything. I thought he was sick or something the way he was swimming, but I think he was just feeling good because he stopped a few minutes later.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Awesome! Can we get an updated FTS? I'm loving that shelf!

 

[Reflective]

I actually just sold this tank. It was just too much work for me with being a work from home mom with a 4 year old, 2 year old and two newborns. I didn't have time to properly care for the tank and wanted to see it go to a good home before everything started declining to the point of no return.

I will be back though! Maybe once all these kids are in school! Although probably a much smaller tank... I got a lot of college to pay for!