Basement Office with a View

[X-37B]

Keeping it stable, nice!
I alternate between W1 and Else modes every few days to a week.
W1 varies between fast and slow pulse every week or so.

 

[Gaspipe]

Staying with it! Just switched powerhead from W2 to Else.
@90's reefer

• Should I be concerned with NO3 creeping up to 5.0?
  • Currently using 3 tbs POX swapped out every 2 weeks.
  • Next week swap POX & do 2- gal (10%) WC
• dKH and Mg a bit high, so skipping daily dose today.
  • I did feed before testing but did NOT dose
  • Will test dKH tmrw before dose time

As always, thank you for your guidance!

 

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I have had severe back pain and have been myself this week.

I have been able to dose daily, and today I measured dKH before dosing.
7.6 dKH at noon.
skipping today's dose.

 

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Tests this morning, changed POX and a WC.
I didn't dose today due to WC. But looks good..

 

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I'm going to keep track of this lil red guy. I think those "points" going up are new... I may be wrong.

 

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Strange, I just measured dKH and it's still 7.0 (same as 24 hours ago)

1. Sat Noon dKH: 6.7
2. Sat 1PM 2g water change (10%)
3. Sun. Noon dKH: 7.0
4. Monday Noon dKH: 7.0

I'm going to dose 1ml Part 1, 2 and Trace and will measure again on Tues at Noon.

 

[X-37B]

Strange, I just measured dKH and it's still 7.0 (same as 24 hours ago)

1. Sat Noon dKH: 6.7
2. Sat 1PM 2g water change (10%)
3. Sun. Noon dKH: 7.0
4. Monday Noon dKH: 7.0

I'm going to dose 1ml Part 1, 2 and Trace and will measure again on Tues at Noon.

I just reduced my 2 part amounts on my nano and frag system. No changes but demand went down.
Just keep an eye on it and adjust as needed. You have a good handle on it now.

 

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Well trouble in paradise.

My royal gramma's tail was mauled. Just a few days ago it was nipped. Then a few days later it was growing back nicely. Almost 100% recovery.

Next day after I mentally said that, it's all off. Poor guy. I tried to grab him and separate him. No luck.

I created a more secure cave for him which he hides in. He does come out to eat. Grabs 1 or 2 bites and runs back to hide. I feel terrible. I'm not even sure who is the attacker, even the clown goes after him now.

Over the weekend my nitrates spiked to 13.0 I just did a 4 gal (20%) WC. It's one week early. I may do another, but 10% this time.

That "lil red guy" broke off. I re-positioned it. Doesn't look so good. Finger's crossed.

 

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Forgive the poor picture quality. I noticed some dead tissue in the lower left of this acro. As well as some pull back on the base. Will need to monitor this.

 

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This weekend's metering:

I use Hanna Test Kits for:
Alkalinity
Phosphate
Nitrate
Temp & Salinity I use Hanna's Pen

Calcium: RedSea
Magnesium: Saliferts

 

[X-37B]

This weekend's metering:

I use Hanna Test Kits for:
Alkalinity
Phosphate
Nitrate
Temp & Salinity I use Hanna's Pen

Calcium: RedSea
Magnesium: Saliferts

Stability is looking good. Nice job!

 

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So we're due for an update.

Jan:

My royal gramma healed up nicely. What helped was I made a cave from ruble that only he was able to fit in and after a few days of resting there and only coming out for food he was back to normal.

After some more time he was out and swimming around but staying away from the damsel. Last week I saw the damsel going after him again and I saw red. I was finally able to capture it and put it in a time out.

Well the RG was about swimming and seemed so happy so I decided to re-home the damsel. Shame he was such a handsome looking fish.

Sunday the 29th I goto the LFS and pick up a spottail blenny and a small adorable DaVinci clown to keep Cheeto company.

Cheeto the larger clown is like 8x bigger and she went straight to the little guy. Protecting him and all. They actually slept on the floor in the corner together. I thought this was perfect.

The spottail blenny was hiding. After a day it would come out graze 3 times then back to hiding. 48 hours later he comes out and grazes but still runs to his spot. Now he actually relaxes on a LR branch. Pretty cool.

Now the bad news:

My lil clown is not looking good and is just sitting on the floor and has a long strand of poop still not released. He's not eating with last two (if not 3) feedings today. Cheeto has sort of left him, she is swimming like he was never there and occasionally visits.

I hope this lil guy makes it. My findings and video is HERE

To almost add insult to injury when I turned off the powerhead for feeding the TSB made the PH a cave! Thank goodness I looked for him before turning it on.

I have the PH going on and off a few times throughout the day for a "free swim" time. I hope this guy doesn't get blended up! I may need a dam cover now.

 

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Forgot to mention.

Today I was admiring how well everything is coming together. The fish all look happy, the TSB is coming out of his shell.

I go to get lunch, come back and the RG has bits of his tail off. Dam Cheeto must have beat him up, perhaps it wasn't the damsel after all! But I would see the damsel continue to chase the RG.

 

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So it's been a tough week...

Jan. 23rd: Re-homed Tony Starcki the damsel to a new home. I miss that **** already.
Jan. 29th: Went to LFS and bought a TSB and a baby DiVinci Clown.
Jan 31st: The clown was not actively eating nor swimming. There was no sign of aggression from the larger clown (Cheeto) or Thanos the RG, or the shrimp.
Feb. 3rd: The TSB dies
Feb. 4th: The baby clown dies.

Without going in all the details, reefing is a *****. Monday afternoon I'm admiring my tank looking how great things are going.

• Thanos, back tail is almost full, is swimming around and seems happy not being chased my Tony Starcki
• the TSB is coming out of his shell, grazing on the walls
• Cheeto and the lil guy become buds, swimming around

Grab a bite to eat and Thanos' tail is chewed up. It's clear Cheeto was the one biting, not Tony! But Tony had to go, he was always chasing Thanos. I was afraid to add any more fish.

And that's when things went from bad to worse.

Parameters for the weekend as I tested on Sat.
Changed carbon.
2.5 G water change

Need to dose more Part 1&2 and get dKH north of 7.0

@90's reefer is my slightly higher Mg due to Trace Element dosing?
I expected nitrates to be slightly higher due to the two fish deaths.

 

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Loading some pics of my frags. Some have really exploded!

 

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Next steps:

Feb 7th some corals from WWC.

I wanted to get fish again asap, but @Daenion suggested in another post, best to wait 45 days. Monitor your current fish's health and go from there. I think that is sound advice.

My initial thoughts were to add 3 more fish to the two I have and cleaner shrimp.

1. A baby clown to keep Cheeto happy
2. Another TSB b/c I absolutely love that it eats algae and it feels like a reward when he comes out
3. 1 gobby from the list below

• Hector Goby (Ambligobius Hectori)
• Purple Firefish Goby M (Nemateleotris Decora)
• Clown Yellow Goby (Gobiodon Okinawae)

I'm being advised that a 2nd clown will make Cheeto very very aggressive AND I should only house 4 fish max in my WB25.

I have some time before I add fish

We'll see.

 

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WWC just delivered 6 new corals!!

Here they are all lined up like good soldiers.

BC Bubble Bath Unicorn Acro
WWC Pink Passion Acro
Hobgoblin Duncan

WWC Pineapple Pen Mile Acro
WWC LA Laker
Mystery Leptastrea

 

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Triton UPDATE found HERE

Dosed the Ca over the two days and will begin the six 15% water changes.

My biggest concern is harmful metals (Tin specifically).
This weekend I will be inspecting magnets.

WWC Coral Update:
Unfortunately DOA: Bubble Bath, Pink Passion and LA Laker.

 

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I'm posting some good news while I have it

Since the last issue I had where I added two fish and lost them within 48 hours, I waited 6 weeks to make sure the tank wasn't infected.

So yesterday my shipment arrived, and I woke up today to everyone swimming around. The tank feels tranquil right now. Everyone has their fins, they slept in different parts of the tank. No chasing, just lovely flowing movements.

New additions:

1- Tailspot Blenny
1- Purple Firefish
1- Orangeback Wrasse
2- Emerald Crabs
1- Blue Tux Urchin
5- Astrea Snails

In two weeks, I will write a full review on @ReefBeauties as they hit it out of the park (tank?) with this experience so far. As of today A+++

Another update:

Yesterday I went back to dosing Kalk but this time I added a Kamoer X1 doser. 2 Part has been great but I need some sort of automation for the summer as I am away for 3-4 days. Also, add the 5-7 day vacations it was something I needed to do.

Last night was the first auto dose, starting at 10:30 (30 min after my last light goes off). From my research Kalk raises PH and at night PH dips due to lights being off, so this only made sense.

Currently Schedule:

21 Gallon Water Volume
Container: 1,892 ml (.5 gallon w/ .5 TBS kalk)
Dosing 190 ml over 11 plans between 10:05 PM and 8:05AM

Parameters tested at Noon:

Mar 20: 7.9 dKH (no dose)
Mar 21: 7.8 dKH (no dose)
Mar 22: 7.3 dKH (Kalk 190ml at night)
Mar 23: yet to be tested and will update

AVG Consumption: .3 dKH per day

Updates to come!

 

[Gaspipe]

Some (more) good news...

This site was awesome to help me determine how much Kalk to dose.

Kalk Contribution Calculator

Aquarium calculator; Estimate the contribution of a kalk solution towards the calcium and alkalinity of a system.

www.hamzasreef.com

Today's alkalinity was: 7.3 dKH which means as of now 190ml of Kalk is the perfect amount to maintain my parameters.

Plan of Action:

• Dose 1ml Trace per day
• Leave it 190ml Kalk per day
• Test alkalinity each day
• Sat or Sun test all paramaters
• If alkalinity stays at 7.3 dKH, I will maintain 190ml Kaly, but will also add 2ml Part 1 & 2 on Monday. My goal is to get ~8.3 dKH.
• I will continue to dose 2ml of two part each Monday till I achieve this level.

The reason I switched to Kalk was as mentioned for stability while away. I am still manually dosing trace (1ml/day). Once my trace and/or kalk is depleted I plan to switch to TM All For Reef.

One dosing head, one container, all automated. The powder is cheap (enough) for me due to the small volume.

PS: Hanna Marine Monitor is ordered. This will allow me to monitor my PH, Salinity & Temp from a single source.