Blaxsun's Abyss: Red Sea 750XXL

[Susan Edwards]

bummer on your cat's eye and gsp. I thought those were pretty indestructible. Love your inhabitants list. Impressive. I should do that just to keep records. My 45's are set prety close to yours, except middle of each side of tank. At night I just do a straight 40% regular flow with alternating to give a "rest". I think I run reverse for 5 min and forward 10. How high do you have yours set. Most of my settings except night are at 50

 

[Susan Edwards]

How did you get your links to go right to the post and not the page. I love the way you did your first page.

 

[blaxsun]

bummer on your cat's eye and gsp. I thought those were pretty indestructible. Love your inhabitants list. Impressive. I should do that just to keep records. My 45's are set prety close to yours, except middle of each side of tank. At night I just do a straight 40% regular flow with alternating to give a "rest". I think I run reverse for 5 min and forward 10. How high do you have yours set. Most of my settings except night are at 50

I think the cat's eye succumbed to a combination of different environment (flow, lighting, placement), initial placement and fish curiosity. It sucks - but at least it wasn't a $600 coral. I've got a lot of fish, so anytime I add a new coral species I have to find a cheap one in case it ends up being dinner!

 

[blaxsun]

How did you get your links to go right to the post and not the page. I love the way you did your first page.

Oh sure, np. When viewing the messages, look to the upper right corner above the first line of text.

If you click on the #442 (or whatever number it displays for you), it should open a new window. Then just copy and paste that link and if you want to add some quick links somewhere just use that as the hyperlink.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Oh sure, np. When viewing the messages, look to the upper right corner above the first line of text.

If you click on the #442 (or whatever number it displays for you), it should open a new window. Then just copy and paste that link and if you want to add some quick links somewhere just use that as the hyperlink.

very cool! thanks

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

very cool! thanks

Alternatively, click the icon to the right of "New" and then click "Copy"

 

[Susan Edwards]

Alternatively, click the icon to the right of "New" and then click "Copy"

Thanks. Got my links working. I love the way blaxsun set up his first page

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Thanks. Got my links working. I love the way blaxsun set up his first page

Me too! I only wish I had the time to document things the way he does, lol!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Me too! I only wish I had the time to document things the way he does, lol!

I set up my first page like he did. Just did a inhabitants page and a parameter/dosing page. Will do a feed page next and when I update I can just add to that one page and not repost the entire long lists.

 

[blaxsun]

Feb 13. Killing GSP: A Reef Tank Achievement
Apologies for the lack of updates - I've been helping some friends out looking after and troubleshooting their new tank setups. So somehow I've managed to completely kill every GSP colony in my tank. In terms of reef achievements, I consider this in the top 0.1% percentile.

I had to toss 4 large GSP colonies (probably a good 6-8" in diameter) as they started "dissolving" (the underside of each was breaking down into teeny tiny bits of purple that were getting blown around - making an absolutely mess). I retained a really nice volcano-shaped neon green GSP colony and a yellowish-green GSP colony that had grown over one of my main rocks (including a very nice duncan, zoa colony, favia and one rockflower).

The overgrown one is not doing well as the favia has returned to its former glory and even some of the zoas are returning. I noticed today that a dozen or more polyps are out in full, so perhaps it's managed to survive whatever was ailing everything else. The volcano shaped GSP colony looks effectively dead - but there are still a few polyps so I'm cautiously optimistic it might recover as well.

The weird thing is that *everything* else in the tank (soft, LPS and SPS) are doing just phenomenal. My LFS is at a complete loss and so am I. Parameters are all normal, and other than the previous cat's eye that I added (which was nowhere near any of the GSP colonies) - nothing new has been added (fish, coral or invert). I'll post some images with the next update.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Feb 13. Killing GSP: A Reef Tank Achievement
Apologies for the lack of updates - I've been helping some friends out looking after and troubleshooting their new tank setups. So somehow I've managed to completely kill every GSP colony in my tank. In terms of reef achievements, I consider this in the top 0.1% percentile.

I had to toss 4 large GSP colonies (probably a good 6-8" in diameter) as they started "dissolving" (the underside of each was breaking down into teeny tiny bits of purple that were getting blown around - making an absolutely mess). I retained a really nice volcano-shaped neon green GSP colony and a yellowish-green GSP colony that had grown over one of my main rocks (including a very nice duncan, zoa colony, favia and one rockflower).

The overgrown one is not doing well as the favia has returned to its former glory and even some of the zoas are returning. I noticed today that a dozen or more polyps are out in full, so perhaps it's managed to survive whatever was ailing everything else. The volcano shaped GSP colony looks effectively dead - but there are still a few polyps so I'm cautiously optimistic it might recover as well.

The weird thing is that *everything* else in the tank (soft, LPS and SPS) are doing just phenomenal. My LFS is at a complete loss and so am I. Parameters are all normal, and other than the previous cat's eye that I added (which was nowhere near any of the GSP colonies) - nothing new has been added (fish, coral or invert). I'll post some images with the next update.

flatworm?

 

[blaxsun]

flatworm?

Nothing that I can see. The ones on the rocks are coming back in spots but the volcano-shaped one has been dormat for days now.

 

[blaxsun]

Feb 19. Worm Sign
Man, if these little suckers gain a foothold... they quickly become a nuisance! After 2 days of sump maintenance I came away with numerous cuts, scrapes and bruises from the little suckers...

Some of the before images:


Inside the main overflow 'muffler' (EzeClean or equivalent is your friend here!)


Rear sump chamber that holds the Nyos skimmer (left) and pair of Nyos reactors.


Front right chamber (retrofitted for ReefMat) that now holds the bio media.


Base of one of the Nyos reactors (sponges = good, worms = not good!)

 

[blaxsun]

Feb 20. Lost & Found
So after several months I decided to add another fish. I settled on a "problem" flameback angelfish which supposedly likes acans and blastos (and as it turns out, I have one or two current fish that like those as well - which is why I don't have any). What's not to like about 40% off?

This isn't the actual shot (stock footage, will update when he decides to cooperate), but he took instantly to the other reef inhabitants (no aggression or fighting with the other two dwarf angelfish) and has been a model citizen so far.
..........

While performing the gruelling sump maintenance I found what I thought was a piece of black silicone floating in one sump chamber and when I went to snag it - it wriggled away! A fish! With flashlight and net in-hand I snagged the little sucker, of which it was revealed to be the long lost starry blenny that disappeared last September. So he'd apparently been living just fine off "the scraps" this whole time (6 months!) Back into the main display you go!

Also stock footage as wouldn't you know it - I haven't seen heads nor tails of him since reintroducing to the display. So I'm now back up to 49 fish again.

 

[blaxsun]

Feb 21. Blaxsun's PSA for February 2023
Just a general PSA for those with a tank having successfully run for at least a year:

• DO test and recalibrate your Neptune Trident each time you replace any of the reagents. The Trident will drift over time and there are differences between reagent batches. On my most recent Trident recalibration alkalinity was off by -1dKH, calcium by +50ppm and magnesium +200ppm!

• DO calibrate and test your dosing heads annually. I couldn't figure out why my dosing kept climbing but the volume actually being dispensed didn't match what the dosing heads said. My alkalinity head was reporting 20-25% higher consumption than actual and my calcium-magnesium head was similarly off by 10-15%.

• DO tackle any algae or pests frequently and immediately. This includes things like green star polyps, xenia, spirobid worms and green hair algae.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Feb 19. Worm Sign
Man, if these little suckers gain a foothold... they quickly become a nuisance! After 2 days of sump maintenance I came away with numerous cuts, scrapes and bruises from the little suckers...

Some of the before images:


Inside the main overflow 'muffler' (EzeClean or equivalent is your friend here!)


Rear sump chamber that holds the Nyos skimmer (left) and pair of Nyos reactors.


Front right chamber (retrofitted for ReefMat) that now holds the bio media.


Base of one of the Nyos reactors (sponges = good, worms = not good!)

Exactly what worms are we talking about? Spirorbids?

 

[blaxsun]

Exactly what worms are we talking about? Spirorbids?

Yeah. I scraped the overflow this evening to get the worst of them. Still have to tackle the return pump chamber, but I need to dismantle part of the tank to access it. Maybe my project for March...

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Yeah. I scraped the overflow this evening to get the worst of them. Still have to tackle the return pump chamber, but I need to dismantle part of the tank to access it. Maybe my project for March...

You know you're going to miss a few and they're going to come back... Save yourself the trouble of getting into the tight spots, lol.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Feb 19. Worm Sign
Man, if these little suckers gain a foothold... they quickly become a nuisance! After 2 days of sump maintenance I came away with numerous cuts, scrapes and bruises from the little suckers.

Some of the before images:


Inside the main overflow 'muffler' (EzeClean or equivalent is your friend here!

That photo gives me the creeps lol.

 

[blaxsun]

That photo gives me the creeps lol.

You should've seen what I pulled out of the filter sock I used to filter the sump while I was scraping (I completely filled three 100-micron sock filters).