180 gallon SPS focus build

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Thank you!! I’ve been looking to do this for a while. How well does the mini fridge chill the phyto?

It's chilling pretty well.
flir_20210212T184637.jpg
 

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I love the doser setup with the aqualifter, it’s ingenious! I might end up doing something similar for Reef Nutrition Mysis.

Another source of automatically disable phyto and zooplankton you can consider are EasyBooster and EasySPS.
 
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I love the doser setup with the aqualifter, it’s ingenious! I might end up doing something similar for Reef Nutrition Mysis.

Another source of automatically disable phyto and zooplankton you can consider are EasyBooster and EasySPS.

Yeah. Those will be easier to do since they don't require refrigeration. But it's more expensive and hard to find. Reef nutrition foods are readily available in all my LFS.
 
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I just realized that I could run the dosing line off the manifold instead of the aqua lifter pump. So I did just that.
Add a 1/4 hose from the manifold
PXL_20210214_060515182.jpg
Then feed that to the dosing line.
PXL_20210214_060534631.jpg
Now one less pump to worry about. Added a ball valve there so that I can turn it off without going over to the tank side.
 
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I have to say, I didn't like the quick connect manifold fold there. More precisely, the gray right angle valve. It's less than half a year in, and it's already getting pretty difficult to turn. I can't open or close it with a single hand anymore. Maybe I'll look into redoing that. But I do like how little space that take. In that perspective, I'm not sure I want to go back to the pvc fitting version of it at all. I'll keep look out for other options.
 
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I noticed a lot of these critters in my tank after lights out. Apparently they're digitate hydroids. The info on them are mixed. But given that they're hydroids, I'll assume they have the ability to sting. So it sounds worst than vermetid snail that I have been try to avoid, which don't sting. I was actually noticing some acros have unusual amount of sting cells out, that's when I was looking for causes and noticed them. I think I found the cause.

While looking for info about it, there don't seem to have good way to eliminate them. A bit unfortunate for me, I am dosing quite a bit of plankton food at night, for acros and NPS. It's the opposite of limiting food source. Fish is absolutely not a good choice, because those critters only come out at night, when fish are sleeping. Snails and hermits might help. Among the common ones, bumble bee snail is the one that I don't have, and the one that I am thinking about giving it a try.
 
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Got a christmas tree worm rock yesterday. Wanted one for so long. This one is especially interesting as it has all the colors, blue, red, white, black, etc. And it seem to be aquacultured somehow. The LFS have 10 came in, all look similar in size and shape. I'm very curious how it's made.
 
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I think the digitate hydroids situation is getting out of hand. Just a couple days their numbers seems doubled. I think I really need to do something about them. So I cut down the auto feeding. PhytoFeast to half, and stopped oysterfeast. Also tried to manually remove some. But that didn't work too well. All I can do is pull their tentacle out. Not sure how fast they can regenerate from there.
 
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Ever since I added DIY All-For-Reef as part of the regular dosing, I'm having hard time at the alkalinity daily swing. I have been always dosing consistently across 24 hours, and were able to hold alk stable. But now, if the dosing is consistent, either the alk in the morning will rise, or alk at night will drop. The difference were as much as 0.4 dkh. So I have to change dosing to dose a bit more during the day. So I'm dosing 36ml AFR during the day, and 24ml during the night. The alk difference between morning and night is finally drop down to 0.1.
 
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PXL_20210228_041412074.jpg
Got tired of manually dosing red sea trace color. Finally setup a doser to take care of it. I got the Jebao doser because it's cheap. All I need is couple ml per day. If it skip a day, or dose a bit more, it doesn't really matter. So I don't think it need those $350+ doser.

Currently dosing Red Sea Trace Color A + B + C, and NeoPhos. Today's test shows NO3 10ppm, PO4 0.04ppm. Now dosing about 0.01 ppm every day. My theory is phosphate is quite low that it limit nitrate consumption in both coral and algae reactor. So adding phosphate will reduce nitrate. There are two stopping criteria. First is phosphate over 0.1ppm, which means my theory of it being limiting factor is false. Second is nitrate lower than 5ppm, which mean the two are back to balance. I will in turn increase other type of food input to raise both, like increase amino acid dosage.
 
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New frags from @Battlecorals arrived today.
PXL_20210303_203041196.jpg

From left to right
  • Rainbow's Army, Acropora sarmentosa
  • Skinny Love
  • Kermit Song granulosa
  • Lemon Hammer
  • Blood Bank
  • Aussie echinata
Pretty happy with the order. All frags are encrusted out. Package of them is pretty good too.
PXL_20210303_183135453.jpg
 
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The name game is a controversial topic in reefing. LFS are from time to time trying to promote no name indo frags. But after playing with both side for a while, I more and more value the name game.

BTW, it's only about acros. Those named torches are BS, periods. That holy grail and dragon soul, I have seen numeric vastly different frags under the same name, and basically identical one under both names.

I have bought quite a lot of no name acropora frags from Indonesia. They're cheap, usually $25, less than half of the cost of named frags. But for some reasons, those corals seem to be less resilient in captivity. Less than half of those frags managed to survive pass 6 months. Then for those that did survive, half look actually crap and boring after the coral settle down. Thought there are couple gems come out at the end, the real cost of those, are like 4 times their actual prices. It's like blind boxes, a gamble.

In comparison, among the several dozens named acros frags, I only lost two. (Well besides the deep water ones like hawkins enchinata and red dragon. Still haven't figure out the key for those.) All named frags are relatively resilient, and have stable colors. They already went through the captivity adaptation test, and revealed their true color. There is no more guessing game. In the end, it's cheaper to buy them for a specific color than no name blind box indo acros. But of course, it's only true if buying from reputable seller.
 

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I think the digitate hydroids situation is getting out of hand. Just a couple days their numbers seems doubled. I think I really need to do something about them. So I cut down the auto feeding. PhytoFeast to half, and stopped oysterfeast. Also tried to manually remove some. But that didn't work too well. All I can do is pull their tentacle out. Not sure how fast they can regenerate from there.
How’s this worked out for your hydroid situation? Going through the same issue.
 
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How’s this worked out for your hydroid situation? Going through the same issue.

It's still pretty bad in my tank. I tried to brush off the rock, but didn't really help to remove the hydroids at all. It only damaged the coraline and end up got some algae growing instead. I'm currently out of idea what to do with the hydroids. Not sure if they will go away by themselves.
 

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It's still pretty bad in my tank. I tried to brush off the rock, but didn't really help to remove the hydroids at all. It only damaged the coraline and end up got some algae growing instead. I'm currently out of idea what to do with the hydroids. Not sure if they will go away by themselves.
Same here man. They don't seem to be bothering anything in my tank, but I feed frozen soaked with vitamins and selcon. I was going to try your method of removing the juices or switching to pellets, meanwhile stop dosing reef energy AB+. Also not sure how I got these either. Never saw them in my old system or coral QT until recently in my new display. :confused:
 
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Same here man. They don't seem to be bothering anything in my tank, but I feed frozen soaked with vitamins and selcon. I was going to try your method of removing the juices or switching to pellets, meanwhile stop dosing reef energy AB+. Also not sure how I got these either. Never saw them in my old system or coral QT until recently in my new display. :confused:

BTW, I don't rinse frozen food at all. All the juices go into the tank. Also I still dosing phytofeast and AB+, only stopped oysterfeast. I have mouths to feed in the tank, like NPS gorgonia and christmas tree worms, that I don't think stopping all is a good idea.

I am not totally sure if the hydroids are bothering anything. The thing I noticed is that many of the acropora frags have extended sting cells coming out consistently. They're different from the normal polyps extended. In my other systems in the past that don't have hydroids infestation, I rarely see those sting cells came out. Usually when I saw them it's when two corals getting close and start fighting. So I'm considering the possibility that the hyroids triggered their defense system and put them into fighting mode. I lost couple frags after the infestation started, but can't tell if it's causation or coincidence. But I do thing that having corals fighting mode enabled all the time will take away the energy that otherwise be used for growth. That's my current running theory.
 
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After 6 months, I'm already getting annoyed by the Vortech pumps. They're so frequently get out of sync, or failed to connect from mobile app. Their wireless connection just so unreliable. Last night one of the pump managed to get stuck in the software that I found no way to fix. Have to delete it, factory reset, then add it back. It also to be the master for all other three, so I have to reprogram them all. Not fun.

I kind of want to change to gyre instead, with wave engine. Before, I was worried about cleaning them. But now I realized, I can also buy an additional pump, so that I can swap out for cleaning. Will also get extension cord, to move the connection point to above the tank near where the cord comes out, so that I don't have to run the wire everytime swapping.

But with almost two thousands invested in Vortech pump and batteries, I'm hesitate to throw them out after half a year.
 
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I should mention the primary reason for the thought of switching is I never like the flow pattern the Vortech pump can generate. Two MP40 at an end is not enough to push water all the way across 6ft tank. Not the it has not enough raw power, but it's the current is so turbulent that it disperse around 4~5 ft mark. I think a real gyre pump will do a lot better at pushing the current to the very end.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

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