Another Build Thread You Won't Read

[FishLvR]

When you need to shoot an intruder. At your neighbors house.

 

[FishLvR]

So here is the state of the Dino.

As you can see there is none except two small areas below the rock. I will be treating nightly with H2O2. Lights will stay on 15% blues. I'll go up 5% twice a week.

 

[FishLvR]

So far dino is still gone. I am still hitting the trouble area of weird algae with H2O2 nightly. All pumps off, 100mL, on the algae and into the pores of the rock. Letting it sit for 20 minutes. Stopped daily dosing of MB Clean and MB7. Back to weekly. Blues up to 30%. Still running UV. Will probably until refugium gets set up. Dosing 8oz of phyto and topping off pods weekly. My pods are not multiplying as well as I thought they would, but they live...LOL.

 

[FishLvR]

Still dosing phyto by the absolute cup fulls. The zoas like it a lot. Still hitting the weird dino with H2O2, 100mL all over their island rock. Today I noticed a nice dusting of the rocks of diatoms. Woot. Testing the tank tonight to make sure my nitrate and phosphates are in the range. Still rocking 30% blues. Corals are iffy with it. The lights are pretty darn high off the tank. The full 30% is only 4 hours instead of six too. I'm gradually going to raise the par.

 

[FishLvR]

All my live rock and sand is coming Tuesday so I decided to find a way to mount my kessil tuna flora. I moved all the equipment to the first chamber and the heater to the last chamber. If it ever runs dry the heater melting is the least of my worries.

Good luck ever changing socks.

I had some pipe I thought well this will work. So I notched it out to fit over the sump walls.

Then I thought I better eye bolt it with a stainless steel eye bolt and hang it using wire. A little scary because this is where the water level is when the pump turns off. It's kissing the light. Probably not good. But safety last!

Then after an hour I got it all installed.

A job and hour well spent.

How did I manage to get my weird foot in every photo? I swear it's worse in real life.

 

[FishLvR]

So Gulk Live Rock came in. This is pretty amazing. I already said this, their website is informative. I knew exactly when I was getting the product. I ordered on Friday and it came today. FANTASTIC. Now I am pretty sure I busted their ballz on a thread about wet newspaper and paper towels just being "good enough". Turns out it is good enough. No die off, still wet, not stinky. Lots of critters. Found a tiny little crab. Tons of worms, I didn't bother pulling them all out of the paper towels I figured there would be enough in the rock.

My first order with Tampa Bay which I think will ship on 8th, not sure if it ships the 8th or if I get it on the 8th, is the same type of order. Live sand and rock for a smaller tank. I figured I wouldn't have enough sand and rock for the refugium but instead of trying to add more to an existing order, I thought I would try Gulf Live Rock.

I also ordered macro algae from Gulf Coast Ecosystems that will be here tomorrow.

So here is a few photos of the sand and rock from Gulf. I didn't look to close just tossed it in and said YOLO! There is even a cute little spongy coral.

 

[Red_Beard]

Very cool, you will to post up pics of any unique critters that make their way out of that rock.

 

[Hardy_Reef]

I'm specifically going through this thread since you said nobody will.

 

[lubeck]

I really liked my gulf live rock. Good dude. You will see tons of life after a couple weeks. Most likely a mantis too

 

[FishLvR]

I really liked my gulf live rock. Good dude. You will see tons of life after a couple weeks. Most likely a mantis too

When tampa gets here next week it should fill up that area pretty good. Excited to see how it stacks up.

 

[FishLvR]

Macro algae came in. Looks like algae. They threw in some chaeto it looks like which I have like zero use for but oh well it was a sampler pack. Maybe it can float around in there. I bet after a few weeks I'll be tossing it because it will just take over. I want a little eco system not a chaeto farm. Maybe I can contain it in something...

 

[FishLvR]

It wasn't chaeto duh. Its that cool bluish junk. I forget the name. I'll learn them all later. It's going to be a while until I get tampa's live rock so this isn't their final resting place. I'll likely use fishing line to secure them to rubble then place where I want them. This is my first time doing macros so I'm excited.

I ordered a Hanna ulns for phosphate because I can't read the color change anymore since apparently when you turn 46 everything on your body breaks all at once.

Still culturing pods. It's not going well because my airline tubing keeps falling off the check valve. Soooo I might say f it and lose he check valves and set the air pumps up above.

 

[FishLvR]

 

[FishLvR]

Going through anion like mad.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Going through anion like mad.

Are you on well water? High silicates? That's the one I plow thru also, because we have high silicates

 

[lubeck]

My DI only last a month.

 

[FishLvR]

My DI only last a month.

Cation barely touched and mixed bed looks OK. Still reading zero on the way out. So what you are saying I should stock up?

 

[twentyleagues]

Cation barely touched and mixed bed looks OK. Still reading zero on the way out. So what you are saying I should stock up?

Same here. I think its a high co2 in mine. I have added to and started threads on the subject. Doing a test with aerating the water outside did nothing for me ph wise so I thought it was not co2. Possibly the test equipment I used (cheap). Dont have crazy high silicates either. The strange thing is the anion resin will turn back to blue just hanging out in a container of ro/di water. Started keeping it for regen purposes but the consensus seems to be to not use it without regen. I was thinking if it was mostly co2 that I may be able to allow the co2 to off gas and get a longer/more use before replacing or regen.

 

[FishLvR]

Going through anion like mad.

Are you on well water? High silicates? That's the one I plow thru also, because we have high silicates

Nope. Just city water.

 

[FishLvR]

Cation barely touched and mixed bed looks OK. Still reading zero on the way out. So what you are saying I should stock up?

Same here. I think its a high co2 in mine. I have added to and started threads on the subject. Doing a test with aerating the water outside did nothing for me ph wise so I thought it was not co2. Possibly the test equipment I used (cheap). Dont have crazy high silicates either. The strange thing is the anion resin will turn back to blue just hanging out in a container of ro/di water. Started keeping it for regen purposes but the consensus seems to be to not use it without regen. I was thinking if it was mostly co2 that I may be able to allow the co2 to off gas and get a longer/more use before replacing or regen.

Crazy. I mean. I don't mine changing it out every three months it's just interesting.