Adventures in keeping a sps reef

[Llorgon]

Picked up a forest fire Digi frag yesterday.

Hoping the clown fish I ordered get shipped this week. I got an acclimation box to put them in just in case the yellow Tang is a jerk!

 

[Llorgon]

The clown fish I ordered finally arrived! It took 2 weeks for them to ship for some reason... I had to email about my order a few times. When it finally shipped they didn't include the unit number in the address... Lucky for me the FedEx guy called instead of just leaving. But they are here and alive. Plus I got one free astrea snail for my trouble.

Overall nice fish, but I wouldn't order from there again.

The clowns are an extreme Picasso and a blacker ice.

I also added another piece of dry rock to the tank to add some more hiding spots for future inhabitants.

 

[Llorgon]

Since the sb reef lights were having some issues. I decided to splurge and buy a couple of radion xr30 g5 blues for the tank.

They came yesterday and got them setup. They look nice and give off a ton of light. The fans on them are pretty loud and the Mobius app is pretty bad. But other than that no complaints so far.

 

[Llorgon]

All fish are doing well. The clownfish have grown a bit and the tang didn't really seem to care that they were added to the tank.

Since I got the pair of clowns I upped my feeding from once a day to twice a day. Since then my N and P04 have dropped to near 0. I've been dosing small amounts of both to try and bring them both up.

Corals seem to be doing ok. Not a ton of growth, but also nothing dying. Been having some trouble with colour. The birdsnest doesn't have any green to it and another unknown SPS is a really pale red.

I've sent away an ICP test to see if there's anything I'm missing parameter wise. Hopefully I get that back early next week.

 

[Llorgon]

Played around with the new radions this weekend. Set them to 40% intensity on AB+. Left all channel and overall intensity at 100%.

Testing with the seneye par meter gave me mid - high 200 par on most of the rocks with a few places in the low 300. Might be able to bump them up more, but I'll see how the corals do with these settings.

I also finally switched from filter socks to filter floss in the sump. I kept forgetting to change the socks and my wife wasn't a huge fan of me cleaning them in the washing machine so hoping this is easier.

Still waiting for the ICP test results to come in. Once I get the all clear on the water I'll look into adding some more frags.

Also still looking to add some fish. Leaning towards a one spot fox face and coral beauty. Still waiting for the foxface to be in stock at the usual place I order fish from though.

 

[BAMatter]

Since the sb reef lights were having some issues. I decided to splurge and buy a couple of radion xr30 g5 blues for the tank.

They came yesterday and got them setup. They look nice and give off a ton of light. The fans on them are pretty loud and the Mobius app is pretty bad. But other than that no complaints so far.

You may getter better light distribution and PAR by removing the plastic cover. Look into getting a mesh lid for it. Better gas exchange too.

 

[Llorgon]

I was actually pricing out screen lids today. The glass lids came with the tank. They are a pain to keep clean and you're right it would probably be better for par and gas exchange. It's about $150 for screen lids where I can build them around the RMS mounts.

Or I could go the cheap route and get some egg crate for $20 at home depot.

 

[ScottB]

Get the one spot foxface. Second only to the orange shoulder tang in algae management. A great working fish and model citizen. They do get big though and are hard to net out. I have one in each tank = four. Take care when moving them as some toxins are present. Seven inch fish have some fight but worth it.

 

[Llorgon]

Get the one spot foxface. Second only to the orange shoulder tang in algae management. A great working fish and model citizen. They do get big though and are hard to net out. I have one in each tank = four. Take care when moving them as some toxins are present. Seven inch fish have some fight but worth it.

I'm trying! Cant seem to find any place that has them in stock!

 

[Llorgon]

This weekend I played around with some powerhead settings on the wave engine and I switched away from the glass top.

Used some egg crate and it doesn't look that bad.

Had some issues this morning with the radions and the time change. One radion came on early and the other one stayed off. Reset them and they switched. Manually set the time change and then had to identify each light in order to get them in sync again... Very annoying!

 

[Llorgon]

Since removing the glass tops, I've noticed a sharp increase in PH and some increase in ORP from the Apex.

I am having some issues with my temp though. I can't seem to get it to be above 77F and sometimes it seems to tip down to 75F at night. I have 2 heaters, a 200W and a 300W

I'm new to the apex, are my settings wrong?

200w:
on temp: 77
off temp: 78

300w:
on temp: 78.2
off temp 79

I have a feeling my settings are off on this.

 

[Llorgon]

Well I bought a longnose hawkfish. It was supposed to come yesterday, but so far nothing yet. Might be delayed due to all the rain and mudslides in the area the last few days. Hoping it comes today... alive, but not looking good.

 

[Llorgon]

Hawkfish was delivered yesterday. Came almost a week late and very dead. So that was a bummer, but expected with the delay.

I seem to have solved my heater issue by setting both heaters to the same temperature. Now keeps the tank. At a nice 78f.

I picked up a few new corals. A pac man, rainbow loom and Bali green slimmer. All are doing well so far. Rainbow loom is more green than rainbow, but it was like that in the other reefers tank as well.

My wife says I have too much green in the tank and that I need something blue or purple.

With the addition of these frags, I'm probably going to have to get my doser up and running. This is my first time using a doser. Any tips on setting things up?

My alk and cal consumption don't seem to be consistent day to day and I usually adjust my manual dosing mid week to keep things from creeping up. What's the best way to deal with that with automatic dosing? Dose a bit less than I would manually?

 

[ScottB]

Hawkfish was delivered yesterday. Came almost a week late and very dead. So that was a bummer, but expected with the delay.

I seem to have solved my heater issue by setting both heaters to the same temperature. Now keeps the tank. At a nice 78f.

I picked up a few new corals. A pac man, rainbow loom and Bali green slimmer. All are doing well so far. Rainbow loom is more green than rainbow, but it was like that in the other reefers tank as well.

My wife says I have too much green in the tank and that I need something blue or purple.

With the addition of these frags, I'm probably going to have to get my doser up and running. This is my first time using a doser. Any tips on setting things up?

My alk and cal consumption don't seem to be consistent day to day and I usually adjust my manual dosing mid week to keep things from creeping up. What's the best way to deal with that with automatic dosing? Dose a bit less than I would manually?

Sorry about the hawkfish. Get your wife a nice blue piece of Oregon Tort.

Which doser do you have? Pretty straightforward to just use your past history to set up the amounts. Important to test pretty regular for a few weeks. The size of those pieces (right now) won't add a lot of consumption so just go slow and measure.

Typically, people dose ALK overnight to help with maintaining a better pH number. It is important to test AT THE SAME TIME each day.

 

[Llorgon]

Sorry about the hawkfish. Get your wife a nice blue piece of Oregon Tort.

Which doser do you have? Pretty straightforward to just use your past history to set up the amounts. Important to test pretty regular for a few weeks. The size of those pieces (right now) won't add a lot of consumption so just go slow and measure.

Typically, people dose ALK overnight to help with maintaining a better pH number. It is important to test AT THE SAME TIME each day.

I was thinking oregon tort as well! I'll have to see if I can find a frag for a good price around me.

I have the Bubble Magnus BM-T11. How often do you suggest to test when first starting off with the auto dosing? Right now I check every week before water changes.

How much wiggle room for the same time? Like at exactly 7pm each time or is around the same time time at night ok?

 

[ScottB]

I was thinking oregon tort as well! I'll have to see if I can find a frag for a good price around me.

I have the Bubble Magnus BM-T11. How often do you suggest to test when first starting off with the auto dosing? Right now I check every week before water changes.

How much wiggle room for the same time? Like at exactly 7pm each time or is around the same time time at night ok?

Check around for any local reef clubs first. Don't forget to dip though.

I would test 2/3 times the first week at roughly the same time.

 

[Llorgon]

Sadly there's not much in my area for reefers. The downside of living in a small town. There is one guy who sells frags for less than what fish stores sell their frags for. So I'll have to see what he has for frags.

Ok. I can test a few times a week. I'm probably over thinking the setup of the dosing.

 

[Llorgon]

Finally got my ICP test results back. It took a bit over a month!

The test shows my salinity is high, but I calibrated both my Hanna checker and refractometer and the tank water came out to 1.026.

I apparently have some aluminum in the tank. I would assume that's coming from my water source so I will have to check my ro/di filters.

Alk is fine, calcium is a bit high, but the bucket of instant ocean I was using had calcium at 500 so expected. No idea why magnesium is so high. How would I get that down?

Other than that trace elements seem to be extremely off. Any tips on getting those back on track?

 

[ScottB]

Finally got my ICP test results back. It took a bit over a month!

The test shows my salinity is high, but I calibrated both my Hanna checker and refractometer and the tank water came out to 1.026.

I apparently have some aluminum in the tank. I would assume that's coming from my water source so I will have to check my ro/di filters.

Alk is fine, calcium is a bit high, but the bucket of instant ocean I was using had calcium at 500 so expected. No idea why magnesium is so high. How would I get that down?

Other than that trace elements seem to be extremely off. Any tips on getting those back on track?

The sample was reading High on those measures because the salinity was high. This would also imply that your ALK is actually low.

If you are doing regular water changes, I would not sweat all those "low" trace element readings. AF is just trying to sell you stuff (for the most part).

Nor should you worry about high aluminum or lithium. You are only out of range by 6/10,000ths on Al.
IORC mixes high in Lithium. A nothingburger in my experience.

I got my ATI test numbers back in 8 days. Maybe go there next time.

 

[Llorgon]

ok. That means both my salinity measuring tools are testing low after calibration. Which is annoying, but good to know.

I thought some of the trace elements were important?

The test had to go to Poland. Had I known that before buying the tests I would have gone for something else. I know for next time.