A Calm Blue Ocean - IM Fusion Pro 50 Gallon AIO Lagoon

[jcolliii]

Automated alkalinity testing is the primary reason that I bought the master tronic. I would test probably once or twice a week on a good week, but then on a busy week I would go without testing it all. And that's when things would get slightly out of control. Now I can just look at my phone, or look on my tablet and see what the values have been doing over the last couple of days. It makes the adjustments to my dosing so much simpler. As you've seen from my thread, there have been issues. I hope that a lot of those niggling little things are addressed in the next release of the app, but I have to say even with all of those little things, the instrument itself is very robustly built, and that I'm quite happy with it. It is pricey though.

 

[jcolliii]

Nice pictures as well! Coals looking happy. And that softy still looks like cespitularia to me!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Automated alkalinity testing is the primary reason that I bought the master tronic. I would test probably once or twice a week on a good week, but then on a busy week I would go without testing it all. And that's when things would get slightly out of control. Now I can just look at my phone, or look on my tablet and see what the values have been doing over the last couple of days. It makes the adjustments to my dosing so much simpler. As you've seen from my thread, there have been issues. I hope that a lot of those niggling little things are addressed in the next release of the app, but I have to say even with all of those little things, the instrument itself is very robustly built, and that I'm quite happy with it. It is pricey though.

I think it takes a lot of discipline to get an accurate reading of alk levels when testing manually. I try to test every two to three days and try to test around noonish. That 7.8 that I got a few days ago was evidence of how well that's going! lol

Nice pictures as well! Coals looking happy. And that softy still looks like cespitularia to me!

Thanks! I think the only coral really giving me any grief now is the cyphastrea. Second cyphastrea I've tried. They just don't seem to want to work for me. I'm starting to see some obvious growth just about everywhere else, though, and lots of happy polyps. And the numbers reflect it. From gingerly dosing a few mls of AFR just two months ago to...oh crap, I need to order some more of that...15ml/day now. The tank is hungry!

As for Solomon...I did try ordering a cespitularia from WWC last year but it arrived as a big ball of brown smelly goo. I might try again someday But whatever this guy is, he's super happy and growing like crazy which is awesome! I still love my softies.

 

[jcolliii]

My Chyphastreas were also really unhappy (one almost died - it was down to just a few polyps) until I moved it into much lower light, almost in the shade. It slowly turned around. Forgot about it for a few months and then looked at it again and it had covered all of the area it had lost and spread quite a bit! I think they like a lot less light than we generally think they do.

EDIT: Since then, I've been able to slowly move it up a bit and it does pretty well in the lower 3rd of the tank now in more direct lighting. I almost considered giving it away - glad I didn't... it has spectacular deep purple base with bright gold polyps now. Goldmember that one is called.

 

[jcolliii]

I think you're right on the ALK reading as well. I think it is super important to do it at exactly the same time of day every time it's tested for.

 

[TheWB]

What ever happened with the 3d printed parts you were getting from eelrivercoral? Did you do the project?

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

What ever happened with the 3d printed parts you were getting from eelrivercoral? Did you do the project?

Project still in progress. I got my first test print and it's really close! It's a much more compact venturi inlet attachment for a possible skimmer pump replacement. Once I get that nailed down, I just need to figure out how I'd like to connect the pump to the skimmer. I honestly had such a busy week last week that I haven't had a chance to test things out to figure out what the next step is. Hopefully in the next couple days!

 

[TheWB]

Project still in progress. I got my first test print and it's really close! It's a much more compact venturi inlet attachment for a possible skimmer pump replacement. Once I get that nailed down, I just need to figure out how I'd like to connect the pump to the skimmer. I honestly had such a busy week last week that I haven't had a chance to test things out to figure out what the next step is. Hopefully in the next couple days!

Cool, I’m patiently awaiting the results of your r&d on this because I’m going to need a new pump at some point myself and Mode ain’t picking up the phone, right.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

 

[jcolliii]

That's not your missing rainfordi, is it?

 

[TheWB]

That's not your missing rainfordi, is it?

Maybe it’s my missing rainfordi? That would be weird.

 

[jcolliii]

LOL - woopsy!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Maybe it’s my missing rainfordi? That would be weird.

Even weirder if my missing Yasha shows up in your tank!

That's not your missing rainfordi, is it?

Actually my red-lined wrasse.

Interestingly enough, the day before I took these pictures, he did go missing, though! He was one of the first fish in the tank so I've had him almost two years now, and in that time the only time that he's hid in the sand for a full day was when I did the dino blackout. You can almost set your clocks by his schedule. But last Wednesday he decided he didn't want to join the party and slept all day. Freaked me out, he's my favorite fish! It took all my self control to not go dig him up (I know where he sleeps). Anyway, long story short, next day there he was swimming around like nothing strange had happened. No idea why he decided to miss a day.

So he was a missing fish, for a day anyway!

 

[TheWB]

Even weirder if my missing Yasha shows up in your tank!

Actually my red-lined wrasse.

Interestingly enough, the day before I took these pictures, he did go missing, though! He was one of the first fish in the tank so I've had him almost two years now, and in that time the only time that he's hid in the sand for a full day was when I did the dino blackout. You can almost set your clocks by his schedule. But last Wednesday he decided he didn't want to join the party and slept all day. Freaked me out, he's my favorite fish! It took all my self control to not go dig him up (I know where he sleeps). Anyway, long story short, next day there he was swimming around like nothing strange had happened. No idea why he decided to miss a day.

So he was a missing fish, for a day anyway!

That’s a nice looking wrasse. Not sure I’ve seen that one before.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

That’s a nice looking wrasse. Not sure I’ve seen that one before.

Halichoeres biocellatus. Super peaceful, loads of personality, and hunts the rocks all day. Surprisingly inexpensive, too. We just started to get the male coloring in December. I think it's a great alternative to the Melanurus for a tank our size. Not sure why it's not more popular.

 

[TheWB]

Halichoeres biocellatus. Super peaceful, loads of personality, and hunts the rocks all day. Surprisingly inexpensive, too. We just started to get the male coloring in December. I think it's a great alternative to the Melanurus for a tank our size. Not sure why it's not more popular.

I wanted two or three smaller wrasses but once I got the Orange Back by mistake I kinda felt like there should be no more.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I wanted two or three smaller wrasses but once I got the Orange Back by mistake I kinda felt like there should be no more.

To quote Bob Ross, I'd call an Orange Back a happy accident. Very beautiful fish.

 

[TheWB]

To quote Bob Ross, I'd call an Orange Back a happy accident. Very beautiful fish.

Yeah, it was a happy accident. It was supposed to be a Lubbocks. An orange back is supposed to be in at least a 90 gal tank according to LA. Since I also have a Tomini Tang I decided all the rest of the fish would be small. It’s worked out, neither seems unhappy and they often swim together.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

What is it with critters going missing in reef tanks? How on earth can they just go missing? I guess I could understand my Yasha in the 10g. Tiny fish, many large bristleworms, and the rock she lived in is a labyrinth that we shall never know the details of. That said...

Now I have a missing Peppermint Shrimp in my 50g. This was a large full grown peppermint shrimp. No signs of issues, I spot feed them every evening, but the other night there was only one to spot feed instead of two. I looked in every usual haunt. There are no signs this shrimp ever existed. I just don't get it. When they molt the molt sticks around for a week stuck to the MP40 if I don't retrieve it. I don't believe I have anything in that tank that would devour a whole peppermint shrimp, shell and all, in a day. It doesn't make sense!

It really is a weird hobby. Do freshwater people ask regularly "what is this thing in my tank" or "where did my <insert critter> go?" But these are normal questions for people with reef tanks.

Anyway, going to pull some equipment from the back chamber and see if she somehow got back there, although I think it's highly unlikely. I just need closure! The idea that one of my shrimps might have passed is not the part that's got me going crazy, they are both getting to be pretty old for peppermints, but I need to answer the question, what happened to my shrimp!?

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In other news, I finally got a dosing pump, I just need to figure out how and where to put it under my stand. I forgot to do my evening AFR dose again last night, so this is a project that really needs to happen. Part of the delay is that I really want to redesign my whole "under tank experience." It's chaos under there! I have all sorts of cable management devices laying around, I really need to use them.

Here's what I want to do under the stand, but I haven't figured out the actual design yet, and I'm not the handiest person on this planet. I currently have the shelf that came with the stand, and I like having that. But I'd like to add a divider down the middle of the lower section of the stand below the shelf so I can put wet things on one side and all of my electronics on the other. I'd like to further divide and be able to make use of three walls on the "dry" side instead of just two, in other words add a back wall, preferably not right at the back because again, let's try to protect electronics from water that might spill over the back of the tank (heaven forbid). Now here's where it gets tricky. I need the back wall to be moveable, I think, so that I can reach around to pass cords from the tank through to plug into the Apex EB on the front of the panel. This is where my creativity hits a roadblock. Like it needs to be maybe hinged to swing forward or sideways or something so I can get behind it if necessary, but I can't come up with a reasonable way to do that in this stand. Oh yeah, and I need to put a real bottom in that stand since they only give you this flimsy thing and I want to put my ATO reservoir on the "wet" side and the bottom of the stand needs to support that weight.

Something tells me that if I just start trying to build this it's not going to go the way I think it will. Or maybe it will in that it will be a disaster lol.

Or I could continue to avoid the whole thing, go make some salt water for a water change, and spend the afternoon scraping glass.

I think I need coffee!

 

[TheWB]

It is kind of a conundrum isn’t it, both the mysterious loss of livestock and what to do with the mess in the stand. I just put a couple of pieces of 2x4 under the flimsy floor, in between the aluminum profiles, to make it more stable for my ato reservoir. No need to do anything too complicated.
As for mounting equipment and wire management, that’s a tough one, mine started out good but once you start changing equipment out it all goes sideways. I’m going to try really hard with my next build to get all the electronics out of the stand and mounted on a controller board that’s away from the tank, maybe mounted on the wall. Maybe only the power bricks under the tank. That way everything isn’t packed into such a tight space and the wires won’t be all piled up. It’ll take some planning, pour me a cup of that coffee.