90g Mixed Reef

[leahfiish]

Added a pincushion urchin, a hairy mushroom, and 2 orange Ricordia to the display and purchased my first 2 fish which are now in a 10g qt. Two wrasses: Cirrhilabrus Solorensis and Paracheilinus mcCoskeri (I'm pretty sure, at least... It might be a carpenters...). They are hanging out together in the 10g. I intent to do tank transfer method, just not sure if I wanna do it before or after Christmas since I'll be away from home for a few days.
I'll get some pictures tomorrow of the new additions.

 

[leahfiish]

http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/584d7d142bdde/20161211_112118.jpg?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/584d7d3ede9f7/20161211_112108.jpg?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/584d7d3d90cdb/20161211_112103.jpg?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/584d7d4a1cbf6/20161211_112055.jpg?


Both fish look great today and ate some spirulina brine shrimp.

Sorry about the sideways pictures, not sure how to fix it?

 

[leahfiish]

Here's a better picture of the urchin. He's really awesome.

 

[leahfiish]

Transfered the fish to the next 10g last night right on schedule. They're doing great so far, eating spirulina brine shrimp, PE mysis, and NLS marine pellets.

 

[leahfiish]

Woke up to the temp in the Qt at 86! Somehow the heater was set that high, which is strange since it was fine last night... Luckily the fish don't seem too bothered, I adjusted it back down to 79. I'm glad I had a powerhead and an airstone in there. The powerhead won't be reused though (not enough time to dry it) so hopefully that won't happen again.

 

[leahfiish]

Added 10 trochus snails, 5 small nassarius snails, and 1 scarlet hermit to the display today. I'm starting to get a lot of diatoms now that the light is on. I'll probably need a bunch more but it's a start.

 

[leahfiish]

I really want this red and green striped Acan that's at my lfs right now but Im afraid I have too much algae (diatoms) for it right now.... Ugh.

 

[leahfiish]

Ughhhhhh. Woke up this morning to both of my fish dead. They looked totally fine last night, ate pellets, all was good.
Salinity 1.021, ammonia (showed safe on the ammonia alert) , nitrite 0, temp 78, all fine. I have been adding half a cap of prime in every day to lock up ammonia. I had a small powerhead in the tank pointed at the surface for flow. I didn't have an airstone because I ran out of airline tubing (have some now though but figured they were fine with the powerhead). The ph was a little bit low at 7.8.My only explanation is that maybe I used too much prime + the lack of airstone? Even that doesn't seem like it would cause them both to die because the powerhead I believe is rated for like 450 gph although I had it adjusted down. It was still agitating the surface.
No signs of any kind of disease or anything on the fish. This sucks.

 

[leahfiish]

Thinking about it more, I'm pretty sure that must be what happened. Since they sleep at the bottom, there would be less oxygen and the prime would make it only worse. So since I didn't have an airstone they must have suffocated.

I'll make sure to always use an airstone in the future and maybe measure out the Prime a little better.. [emoji22]

I'll have to wait until after Christmas to try again.

 

[leahfiish]

Added 3 large turbo snails to help with algae.

 

[leahfiish]

Did a 20g water change yesterday, siphoned the sand, and cleaned the glass to get rid of most of the diatoms. The skimmer is still driving me crazy and constantly overflowing. Might add some corals soon, depending on how quickly the diatoms come back.

 

[leahfiish]

Acclimating these guys right now: a skunk cleaner shrimp and another urchin to join my first one. Hoping to pick up some fish to start the qt process again on Friday.

 

[leahfiish]

Shrimp and new urchin seem to be doing great.
Unfortunately I can't say the same of my turbo snails. Of the 3 I have, 2 have been very sluggish lately and today I think they're dead. I flipped them over and placed them on a rock to see if they move by the morning but I don't have high hopes.
I've put in some carbon in a filter bag, and some purigen as well. Hoping to do a water change tomorrow, but my RO unit is so darn slow at making water I'm not sure if it'll be ready by then.

Also have some frags picked out and set aside at the LFS, can't wait to add them but I want to make sure my tank is ready.

 

[sundog101]

How are you liking the kessil so far?

 

[leahfiish]

How are you liking the kessil so far?

Loving it, I can't wait to get more corals to put it to use. No issues with the app, controlling the light is pretty easy. Also, all of the white and blue color options make the tank look beautiful, I can't decide which I like the best.

 

[Mel 2038]

Things are looking good! Looking forward to more posts.

 

[leahfiish]

Checked parameters today as I've noticed my urchins losing some spines and those turbos were definitely dead.

No ammonia or nitrite, pH 7.8, salinity 1.026, phosphate was about 0.1, nitrate 5-10 ppm. Doing a water change and adding phosguard tonight.

 

[leahfiish]

Did a 20g water change. Scraped glass, siphoned sand. Moved the rocks on the left slightly to try and facilitate more room for various corals. It looks more symmetrical now but that will change as I add coral. Added a little more than 2/3 cups of phosguard, dosed 3 caps of prime (just in case). Fed the shrimp a small piece of seaweed.

 

[Leaellynasaura]

Sorry about the two fish you lost. I wonder if the rocket up to 86 and the drop down to 79 was too much. Have you tried fish again?

 

[leahfiish]

Sorry about the two fish you lost. I wonder if the rocket up to 86 and the drop down to 79 was too much. Have you tried fish again?

I was wondering that too but they were showing no signs of stress. :/
No fish yet, waiting for weather to improve a little bit so my lfs can reorder. Hoping for Friday.