Basement Office with a View

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3rd Pic from top on the lower side you will see a 10 reading. I bought a cyphastrea and placed it on the vertical/shaded wall.

I was hopeful that it would encrust up it. Would have been a cool view from my seat to see a wall of red. But after the readings, I moved it.

 

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Wonder what this is...
1 of the 3 frags of zoas I bought from JasonFox live sale have refused to open. I was able to get one polyp to open but the others are as tight as a clam's... lips?

Then today this happened.. it's like it sheds it's skin.

 

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I love that I get to watch my tank every day for hours because it's in my office. Last night's episode: The Three Stooges.

 

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**Picture Updates**

Here are some pics from the JasonFox R2R sale that I bought. The only one that wasn't purchased there was the mushroom. That was from WWC R2R sale.

I'll post the pictures I saved from their site. Allows you to see what they sold vs what I got. I will let you be the judge.

 

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This is what I was looking at when I bought the corals...

 

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Will post some pics...added two fish from LA's DD.

A Royal Gramma and a Melanesian Starcki Damselfish. They seem to be doing ok when the Damsel doesn't chase the Gramma. Lucklily it's more of a "made you flintch" vs a full blown car chase around the tank.

Tested for the first time:
Alkalinity: 5.4 dkh
Phosphates: 0

Both testers are Hanna and using the ULR reader. Salt is Tropic Marin Pro Reef. May have to start working on rising my Alk

 

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9 new frags from Zoanthids.com R2R Sale... some pics I was able to save.

 

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An idea... I bought a sac with draw string to add carbon. Seems like it's a pain to remove the carbon and then add new ones. I think I may buy this, fill like 20 or so at a clip then use them like tobacco pouches. When I need one, rinse, toss out the old, insert the new.

Thoughts? FYI I only use 2tbs every two weeks.

 

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So, took this LR out of my tank to attach some zoas to it. Well any of the beneficial bacterial it had dies and this is what happened....

I placed like 3 snails on it to try and control it, only one stayed on and so far it's cleaning up the algae that are between the zoas. Hopefully within a week or so it's all done.

 

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I started to "drip" Kalkwasser. Alkalinity is ridiculously low. I tested today and it's 4.4 dKH. on Sunday Dec 12 it was 4.1 and each day I was testing, and it was increasing by .1 then it reversed.

Dec 16th 4.6 today the 18th 4.4. I increased the drip a little.

Today's testing results:

	KH dKH	Ca ppm	NO3 ppm	PO4 ppm	S ppt	tº F
Dec 18	4.4	450	0.00	0.01	34.4	78.2

My brown algae is suppressed. Between manually removing it and taking some rock into peroxide. Hopefully it will be eliminated 100%.

I added a green emerald crab today and along with a top crown snail, and three other snails. I added two of them in the middle chamber. Hope they do well and keep it clean.

I know I owe some pictures. I'm just exhausted. Hopefully soon.

 

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I have a Melanesian Starcki Damselfish that was added one month ago. I love how this guy looks and admire how he swims freely around the tank and he def. runs the roost, ahhhh reef.

Unfortunately, he bullies the poor royal gramma. I even moved my zoa garden rock to the rear where the RG seems to stay most of the time.

It's tough to find some nice colorful fish that will get along and are suitable for a nano tank like mine. Well after many attempts of research on how to try and get this reef to be "calm" I found this interesting site with a lot of in depth info.

Had I saw this before I would not have purchased the Starcki. I didn't know I would need a dam 100 gallon to have this damsel as well as some other fish. I'm going to try and mix up the diet and feed more frequently to reduce aggression.

As of now the RG has no torn fins.. he just gets chased. Anyway good source of information...

Starck's Demoiselle | Animal World

The beautiful Starck’s Demoiselle is highly prized, and much sought after by aquarists! The Starck’s Demoiselle Chrysiptera starcki is a fish that just about every fish lover, at some time or other, has hopes of keeping in their aquarium. It makes an excellent aquarium pet as it is easy to keep...

animal-world.com

 

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I just tested a fresh batch of salt using TM Pro Reef and my alkalinity was 5.2 dKH.

Hmmmmm.....

You can find the post HERE

 

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So here is something positive for a change. I bought this little guy in October from Jason Fox during a R2R sale.

I was wondering if this thing was growing as it didn't seem to. Well here is a pic today.... Glad to see it's happy in it's new home!

 

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Some pics that are over due....

 

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Mr. @Lasse

Can you point me in the direction of an oxidator? I don't know much about it except that you are a big fan and it's not as popular in the States as it is in the EU.

Remember I have a small (25 gallon) tank and it's still relatively young (~5 months).

Thank you in advance!

 

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**WARNING Upset reefer and bad language used for no good reason**
Do not read if you get offended










This hobby can really suck moose c0ck sometimes (most times).

This is what I have been dealing with even with months upon months of research...

• My damsel is a ****. Even after researching and thinking it would be ok and adding him last (with a royal gamma at same time) he's a prick.
  • So I move the one rock I have (zoa garden) to the back and hoping that this minor change will mess him up and he leaves the RG alone. The Damsel swims toward the front, the RG swims anywhere the damsel isn't.
  • So my Zoas start to shrink weeks later and I'm like ok time to move the rock back. While I am doing this some how my RG goes missing. I look everywhere and no luck.
• 2 weeks later I see the RG swiming in the rear chamber of my WB MiniP 25. He goes from the 2nd to the 3rd chamber.
  • He seems good and happy, I was half tempted to keep him there.
• 3 days later, after making sure he's eating well I return him to the main display
• Right away the dick (damsel) is going after him.. but like really going after him. After a few days I turned into an animal and snapped.
• That night I was determined to capture the damsel. After many long hours of back and forth I finally get him and toss him in the back chamber.
• I'm now ready to get rid of him to a local reefer. But I warn them, I may have ich. I'm not really sure. I have a UV and I see my clown scratch on the LR from time to time. So I tell them to QT it if the want it.
• Some more research, I'm reading that a time out and a mirror sometimes helps.
  • So after like 2 weeks (evil I know, I'm not proud of this) but I really wanted it to work. I took the damsel out and placed it inside a fish box inside the display. My thoughts are let the damsel see the other two fish and hopefully it will chill out.
• 3 days in the cage and I let it out at night with lights off
• The damsel is now just a jerk, a big jerk. But a lot better then the dick he was.
• Things seem ok... then I notice my hammer is closing and things don't look right.
  • Thanks to @Fragbox Corals ( Canadian YT channel) I remember he said "if ya hammers look bad check ya salinity". So I do and it's 34.8 (34.6 is my goal), but I recalber the Hanna pen.... well I'm way off... it's so low I forgot what it was, perhaps 32.
  • So I remove some water and add some SW, but not too much b/c I don't want it to spike too sharply.
  • Over the next few days with the ATO off and adding very salty water I get it to 34.6. Torch is dead, two acros dead (i just ordered too)
• Then I notice that the ATO keeps going off. I THINK this is b/c the filterpad gets dirty and reduces the waterlevel in the return chamber and activates the ATO.
  • So I reduce the waterline in the return thinking less fluxuation = less ATO activity. Well even though the water line was about 2" above the return pump I would get micro bubbles. But salinity was better.
  • I do some more research and I saw that this could trigger a vortex and cause micro bubbles. I'm going away for 5 days soon so I said let me just leave it as is, some bubles won't hurt while I am away but salinity change will.
• I come downstairs last night and there is water all over the dam place, the light on the ATO is flashing red and the return pump is very low blowing bubbles into DT and making crazy sound.
  • I turn off the return pump, unplug the ato and check salinity. Low, but not too bad. I toff off the tank with SW from my bin, unplug the ATO and figure within 24hours my salinity will be back.
  • I clean up the mess and assume the issue was a vortex hit, reduced the water level and the ATO kicked on, over flowing the tank till the ATO breaker tripped that too much RODI water was being pumped. So I raise the optical eye to allow more water in return chamber, eliminating the votex.
• I come down tonight there is a little water leaking again! But not as bad since I have the ATO unplugged.
  • I have no idea how or why. I'm checking to see if there is a leak in the tank.
  • I worked from home this week and was in my office all day. I went up to eat dinner at 7PM. Came back down at 8:30. The only thing that changed was:
    • I changed the filterpad like 6PM (but was still down there after)
    • At 7:57PM my return pump goes off, 3 min later my auto feeder activates, 7 min later my power head goes off, 5 min later my return and power head cativate again.
    • 15 min feed mode
    • I normally do not have this program running but recently have due to vaction coming up and I wanted the system to run a few days while I monitor it.
  • I have activated feed mode a few times no leeks.
  • I see no leeks from seams

I am beside myself. I have a vacation in less than 48 hours and contemplating tossing everything in a tub or place a tub under this floating display and say **** it.

What I think i will realistically do is:

• Place a plastic bin under
• reduce the water in ATO
• have the ATO turn on w/ a timer twice a day for 1 min
• turn off my UV AND close the valve on it so I know it won't back syphon or some crap

 

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Not sure if this will work

 

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Try this?

 

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So far no leaks...

Decided to test my salinty pen today as my clam is closed...

Order of Testing	Display Tank	SW Bin	Packet 1	Packet 2
1	34.6	34.9	Cal
2	35.6	-	33.8	Cal
3	-	-	34.9	33.8
4	35.6	36.0	34.9	34.4

Not even sure what to say any more.

Game Plan:

1. Get Display to 34.6
2. Have sensor just below water line with new pad filter
- as the pad gets clogged the water level lowers in return chamber
3. Have ATO go on for 1 min twice a day (kinda silly I agree, defeats the purpose of an ATO)
4. Have bins to collect water that spills

What would I consider a victory:
all the water stays in the tank and not in the bin
no alarms going off
Clam, Inverts, Fish & Coral live
Salinity stays between 34.4-34.8