125 Gallon Office Tank

[bluecheese]

Coral Snow Day 12

Once again seeing less cyano on the sand. Cyano on the rocks is almost nonexistent.

There are a few low-flow spots in the tank where the cyano is making its last stand. I spend extra time blowing that area out before adding the snow.

 

[bluecheese]

I used the same container to make my snow.

I have a bunch of these that I've saved up over the years. They're super convenient for stuff like this.

 

[bluecheese]

Coral Snow Day 13

 

[bluecheese]

Day 16

Too much going on this weekend, so I was not able to get to the office to dose the Coral snow.

Monday is water change day.
Changed filter socks
Water Change
Syphon out substrate
Clean the glass inside and outside
Clean protein skimmer collection cup. The skimmate was black this morning. Its normally a dark green. But today was straight black. I assume from all the junk the Coral Snow is picking up.

I did not dose the Coral Snow after the water change because I don't want a million questions of "Why does the tank look like that?"

I'll dose the Snow this afternoon when less people come by my office.

The picture below was taken after the water change and syphoning the substrate. As you can see, there is still a little cyano on the sand even after syphoning.

 

[bluecheese]

Day 17.

Still some cyano on the sand. Will once again dose coral snow after blowing off the rocks and sand.

Cyano seems to be sticking to low flow areas between rocks. No real way for me to get any kind of good flow there.

 

[bluecheese]

Day 18

Still cyano in the usual spots. I was hoping it would be eradicated by now. Not sure if Chemi Clean would have been the best option, but it definitely would be the faster option.

I want the cyano to be eliminated before I add more corals, and I'm at the point where I'm getting a little frustrated. But I'll carry on with the snow and Microbacter for now.

 

[bluecheese]

Day 19.

Cyano in the usual spots on the sand.

Rocks are mostly Cyano free.

This week will likely be the last week where I dose the Snow/Microbacter daily. I'll probably dose it weekly after a water change.

In the DIY Coral Snow thread, it was mentioned that mixing the coral snow with coral food is a good way to feed the corals. I may give that a shot.

 

[bluecheese]

Did the weekly water change yesterday. I've decided to only dose the snow on Mondays after the water change, and possible on one other day of the week, probably Thursday.

The sand is much cleaner. Though there are still some stubborn spots of cyano that are mainly in lower flow areas.

The water has been much clearer in the tank since I started this journey 24 days ago. I'm certain the weekly snow dose will help keep the tank clear.

Microbacter7 was dosed yesterday with the snow. I dosed Purple M today and Clean a few hours later. I'll continue dosing all three bacteria products weekly to see how they impact the tank.

I was also thinking of adjusting the water change schedule. Right now I pre-mix 35 gallons of salt water in a Brute container. So I'll do 3 weekly water changes of 10 gallons each, and a fourth with the remaining 5 gallons.

I think I'll start performing 2 weekly 10 gallon water changes, then do a 15 gallon water change on the third week. Though I'll be mixing more water now, I'm hoping the increased amount of water changes monthly will help with clearing up some of these lingering algae issues.

 

[bluecheese]

Picked up a Royal Gramma last week for a little LSU Purple and Gold flair.

After acclimating him and introducing him to the tank, he disappeared. I didn’t see him all week.

I figured he died.

Then, last night when I was leaving the office, I spotted him coming out of a hiding spot on the rock.

Saw him twice more today.

Hopefully he’s getting more used to his surroundings, and I’ll be seeing more of him.

This was the best picture I could get before he darted back into his hiding spot.

 

[bluecheese]

So I’ve been having issues with high phosphates recently. Like really high, and I’m not absolutely sure why.

I feed sparingly. I change filter socks twice a week. I have a dialed in protein skimmer that weekly fills the collection cup with dark green skimmate. So I’m at a loss.

I’ve been using GFO to bring the phosphate level down, but every time I get to a good level and pull the gfo, the phosphates jump up again.

I posted this in the chemistry forum, and received some great advice. I'm thinking that my rocks and/or sand may be leaching phosphate into the water column. Not sure if that’s true, but it seems like a solid explanation.

Instead of constantly having to deal with switching out gfo in a reactor, I’ve decided to create a chaeto refugium in the sump.

My sump is a Seemless Sump. It had this reservoir tub which currently houses a protein skimmer, biological media, and it’s where I feed the water to the reactors.

I was trying to think of a way to block off a section of the reservoir to house the chaeto and light.

I saw an old BRS video last night where they recommended using Aqua Mesh. Seems like a good plan.

So I ordered some Aqua Mesh last night

I already have a Tunze Chic light from when I first tried a refugium

And I ordered a ball of Clean Chaeto from Algae Barn.

I’m hoping this is the easy solution I’ve been looking for.

 

[bluecheese]

Been a while since I've updated this thread.

Had some issues with high phosphates, which caused some issues with some kind of turf algae. I've gotten than mostly under control.

There's still some cyano here and there, but its been mostly eradicated.

I did buy a toadstool a few months ago. Not too long after putting it in the tank, the stalk broke.

I removed it from that rock and tried different methods to keep what was left of the coral anchored to another rock.

First I tried poking toothpics through the stalk, then anchoring those with epoxy.

But the stalk was rotting away, and broke free of the toothpics.

So I then used some sewing thread, and tied the toadstool to the rock.

This seemed to work. But, the thread started cutting through the cap of the coral. I decided to leave the thread on there, thinking that I'd rather the cap be split as long as the coral anchored itself to the rock. I figured I'd likely get two corals out of this.

So yeah, the coral has split, but it appears to be fully anchored to the rock.

I moved it to a better location in the tank, and this is what it looks like now.

I also added fireworks clove polyps to the tank. They're on their own separate island far away from any other rocks. So hopefully it stays put.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Great save!