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Bruno's Waterbox 20
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BrunoL
Community Member
I love a good reefing gear delivery!
I got some assistance in battling the algae. The GKM has been running for 3 days now and honestly it's looking much much better. I also finished dosing H₂O₂, at the rate of 1ml/10G for a period of 5 days.
My softies look stressed out and some of them arent opening well. The Zoas and Rhodactis arent opening fully and the Euphyllia is still pretty much fully retracted. That said, I did notice this last night:
It would appear the Euphyllia is splitting from 2 heads in to 4 heads. I'm not sure if that's what is stressing it out as well or otherwise caused it to drop polyps but combined with the dinos covering it, the H₂O₂ dosing and the filefish nibbling on it 2 weeks ago, I think it's safe to say it's going through a rough time. I hope the coral additives and food can give it the strength it needs to pull through. You can also see the sand bed and the rock is looking much better and most of the dinos are almost gone. Thanks a lot to everyone who reached out to me with tips and advice on how to battle them!
On a sidenote, I tested water again, mid-week this time, and a full cycle:
Temp 25C (-)
Salinity 1025 (-)
dKH 8.2 (↓)
Phosphate 0.09 (↓)
Nitrate 10 (-)
Calcium 380 (↓)
Magnesium 1230(↓)
I'm upping my All for Reef daily dosage as it appears my alk, calc and mag are getting consumed faster than I'm currently dosing for. That Kamoer X1 came just at the right time.
I'll wait a little bit with the NitroPhos Minus until the algae problem is completely sorted.
That's it for now!
I got some assistance in battling the algae. The GKM has been running for 3 days now and honestly it's looking much much better. I also finished dosing H₂O₂, at the rate of 1ml/10G for a period of 5 days.
My softies look stressed out and some of them arent opening well. The Zoas and Rhodactis arent opening fully and the Euphyllia is still pretty much fully retracted. That said, I did notice this last night:
It would appear the Euphyllia is splitting from 2 heads in to 4 heads. I'm not sure if that's what is stressing it out as well or otherwise caused it to drop polyps but combined with the dinos covering it, the H₂O₂ dosing and the filefish nibbling on it 2 weeks ago, I think it's safe to say it's going through a rough time. I hope the coral additives and food can give it the strength it needs to pull through. You can also see the sand bed and the rock is looking much better and most of the dinos are almost gone. Thanks a lot to everyone who reached out to me with tips and advice on how to battle them!
On a sidenote, I tested water again, mid-week this time, and a full cycle:
Temp 25C (-)
Salinity 1025 (-)
dKH 8.2 (↓)
Phosphate 0.09 (↓)
Nitrate 10 (-)
Calcium 380 (↓)
Magnesium 1230(↓)
I'm upping my All for Reef daily dosage as it appears my alk, calc and mag are getting consumed faster than I'm currently dosing for. That Kamoer X1 came just at the right time.
I'll wait a little bit with the NitroPhos Minus until the algae problem is completely sorted.
That's it for now!
BrunoL
Community Member
Couple of updates. The Dinos (it was the Ostreopsis variant in the end) are almost gone. I've not had to syphon for a few days and the sand bed and rock work is staying clean. So far so good ... A few more interesting things happened though. I'm not sure the Euphyllia will pull through though and one of the Zoa frags is looking rough as well. The rest appears to be pulling through.
On a different note some other interesting stuff happened.
I found a hermit's corpse outside of a shell the other day, right where the clowns always chill out. I figured they roughed him up and got a little too intense. But then in the evening, I noticed I still had 2 hermits. Guess one shed his skin.
I also had a little clicking sound in the tank, I'm not sure what it is and I thought it was the filefish or maybe a snail tapping against the glass, but I heard it the other day in a somewhat quick repetition and it's not that. So my question is, what creature can make this kind of sound? I didn't buy a mantis or pistol shrimp ... Did a tiny one maybe hike back on the live rock all those weeks ago?
And then finally, I was checking last night if my bristle worm was still good (and he is) but I found another type of worm I hadn't seen before. Looks like a black-ish work, with white section and when I shined my light on it, it seemed to move by folding in. I'm guessing some sort of a fanworm?
I managed to get a blurry picture, not sure if anyone can identify from this? You can see the black worm sticking out through a hole in the coralline.
On a different note some other interesting stuff happened.
I found a hermit's corpse outside of a shell the other day, right where the clowns always chill out. I figured they roughed him up and got a little too intense. But then in the evening, I noticed I still had 2 hermits. Guess one shed his skin.
I also had a little clicking sound in the tank, I'm not sure what it is and I thought it was the filefish or maybe a snail tapping against the glass, but I heard it the other day in a somewhat quick repetition and it's not that. So my question is, what creature can make this kind of sound? I didn't buy a mantis or pistol shrimp ... Did a tiny one maybe hike back on the live rock all those weeks ago?
And then finally, I was checking last night if my bristle worm was still good (and he is) but I found another type of worm I hadn't seen before. Looks like a black-ish work, with white section and when I shined my light on it, it seemed to move by folding in. I'm guessing some sort of a fanworm?
I managed to get a blurry picture, not sure if anyone can identify from this? You can see the black worm sticking out through a hole in the coralline.
BrunoL
Community Member
I normally add some Aqueforest Purefood during lights off, but decided to give some today, with the white light on and the flow turned off. I wanted to see if I could maybe lure some critters out and get some pictures.
The fanworm didn't show it's body so not sure on that, but I'm pretty sure there's 2 decent sized bristleworms and bristle stars in pretty much every crevasse. I also noticed some movement on the back, behind the Tunze frag holder. It was hard to see but I'm pretty sure I saw some pods walking there, possible amphipods. I'm thinking they've installed themselves in the rock; around the magnet holding it in place on the back of it. That area is completely safe from every kind of threat. It's pretty cool as I never really dosed or added any, so I'm curious where they came form. That said, should they wander out, I'm pretty sure they'll get turned in to clown food ...
Finally, I still don't know where the clicking sound comes from, I didn't see any kind of shrimp or mantis ... The mystery remains.
The fanworm didn't show it's body so not sure on that, but I'm pretty sure there's 2 decent sized bristleworms and bristle stars in pretty much every crevasse. I also noticed some movement on the back, behind the Tunze frag holder. It was hard to see but I'm pretty sure I saw some pods walking there, possible amphipods. I'm thinking they've installed themselves in the rock; around the magnet holding it in place on the back of it. That area is completely safe from every kind of threat. It's pretty cool as I never really dosed or added any, so I'm curious where they came form. That said, should they wander out, I'm pretty sure they'll get turned in to clown food ...
Finally, I still don't know where the clicking sound comes from, I didn't see any kind of shrimp or mantis ... The mystery remains.
BrunoL
Community Member
Little update - Dinos appear to be gone now. Not had any resurgence since last update 2 weeks ago. Also took the time to check parameters again.
Temp 25C
Salinity 1025
dKH 8.4
Phosphate 0.07
Nitrate 25
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1320
The tally from the dinos is a Tectus snails, a clown and 1 Euphyllia. Kind of sucks but could have been worse. Also hard to say if they're really related. Could have been something else at the same time too.
So my nitrates have gone up a little, but still acceptable. My dKH, Ca and Mg all have gone up a tiny little bit, which means that upping the daily All for Reef dose is working.
There's been a lot of action lately. One hermit went homicidal on the other one. Last time one stole the shell from the other one, throwing him out. A few days later the same thing happened again, but the other way around except this time the one getting kicked out wasn't able to find a new shell in time, I found it dead a few hours later. RIP.
I also managed to find some GSP, I've glued it to the back panel, we'll see if it takes. I got a small 1/2 inch square from a local reefer here, we'll have to see. It's a pretty small frag but considering GSP's reputation I'm not too worried about it not taking well.
The clicking sound is still there, but I've still not seen where it comes from. There must be something hiding in there somewhere ...
Finally all the corals are doing great now, I have nice polyp extension on everything, except for the Rhodactis Forest Fire and the Euphyllia. The Rhodactis may pull through, however, I'm pretty sure the Euphyllia won't. I'm keeping it in the tank as there's still some fleshy bits down in the skeleton but I'm not holding my breath on it making a full recovery.
Temp 25C
Salinity 1025
dKH 8.4
Phosphate 0.07
Nitrate 25
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1320
The tally from the dinos is a Tectus snails, a clown and 1 Euphyllia. Kind of sucks but could have been worse. Also hard to say if they're really related. Could have been something else at the same time too.
So my nitrates have gone up a little, but still acceptable. My dKH, Ca and Mg all have gone up a tiny little bit, which means that upping the daily All for Reef dose is working.
There's been a lot of action lately. One hermit went homicidal on the other one. Last time one stole the shell from the other one, throwing him out. A few days later the same thing happened again, but the other way around except this time the one getting kicked out wasn't able to find a new shell in time, I found it dead a few hours later. RIP.
I also managed to find some GSP, I've glued it to the back panel, we'll see if it takes. I got a small 1/2 inch square from a local reefer here, we'll have to see. It's a pretty small frag but considering GSP's reputation I'm not too worried about it not taking well.
The clicking sound is still there, but I've still not seen where it comes from. There must be something hiding in there somewhere ...
Finally all the corals are doing great now, I have nice polyp extension on everything, except for the Rhodactis Forest Fire and the Euphyllia. The Rhodactis may pull through, however, I'm pretty sure the Euphyllia won't. I'm keeping it in the tank as there's still some fleshy bits down in the skeleton but I'm not holding my breath on it making a full recovery.
BrunoL
Community Member
Little update, I managed to see the source of the clicking noise!
Last night while looking around with a flashlight, I saw what appeared to be a little pistol shrimp. Pistol on the left claw, and kind of transparent with a blueish hue, somewhere around 1/2 inch in size.
I'll try and get a picture next time I manage to see it, as I'm curious to identify the species. I also noticed, I had some white stuff stuck to the panels and floating in the water, I wasn't sure what it was until I found this.
I think it's at least the 2nd load of eggs, as I've got a small snail crawling around as well. It looks like a Nassarius snail, it has a little trumpet.
I'll try and catch that one out as well so I can get a picture of that too.
Last night while looking around with a flashlight, I saw what appeared to be a little pistol shrimp. Pistol on the left claw, and kind of transparent with a blueish hue, somewhere around 1/2 inch in size.
I'll try and get a picture next time I manage to see it, as I'm curious to identify the species. I also noticed, I had some white stuff stuck to the panels and floating in the water, I wasn't sure what it was until I found this.
I think it's at least the 2nd load of eggs, as I've got a small snail crawling around as well. It looks like a Nassarius snail, it has a little trumpet.
I'll try and catch that one out as well so I can get a picture of that too.
Texx
New Member
Lookin' good!
I just set up my WB20 yesterday (transferred from larger tank). How is the InTank basket working so far? I'm going to see how the filter sock works out for now, but params and maintenance will ultimately decide if I keep it. I also have the Axis 40 and Nero 3...they are PERFECT for this size tank.
I just set up my WB20 yesterday (transferred from larger tank). How is the InTank basket working so far? I'm going to see how the filter sock works out for now, but params and maintenance will ultimately decide if I keep it. I also have the Axis 40 and Nero 3...they are PERFECT for this size tank.
Last edited:
BrunoL
Community Member
Hey, thanks for the comment Texx.
So far I'm really liking the InTank basket, I prefer it over the sock. There's a few reasons. I bought a square of foam from which I can just cut little sections that fit perfectly in the basket. I don't have much bio load in it, so I can change it out once a week. I find this much easier and faster than cleaning the sock. I had also noticed that it kept restricting flow, only 2-3 days after cleaning it, causing issues for the ATO and Skimmer water levels. I figured I didn't clean it well enough but scrubbing it or cleaning it more, seems to damage the sock material ...
I have Purigen & SeaGel (the premade 100ml bags fits perfectly) in the middle section and I use the stock Waterbox Filtermedia bag in the bottom one, filled up about half way with Seachem Matrix instead of the plastic bioballs that came with it.
I'm really happy with this setup. Best thing is that if I want to add something like ChemiPure, I can just add it in the middle basket with the other stuff without hassle.
So far I'm really liking the InTank basket, I prefer it over the sock. There's a few reasons. I bought a square of foam from which I can just cut little sections that fit perfectly in the basket. I don't have much bio load in it, so I can change it out once a week. I find this much easier and faster than cleaning the sock. I had also noticed that it kept restricting flow, only 2-3 days after cleaning it, causing issues for the ATO and Skimmer water levels. I figured I didn't clean it well enough but scrubbing it or cleaning it more, seems to damage the sock material ...
I have Purigen & SeaGel (the premade 100ml bags fits perfectly) in the middle section and I use the stock Waterbox Filtermedia bag in the bottom one, filled up about half way with Seachem Matrix instead of the plastic bioballs that came with it.
I'm really happy with this setup. Best thing is that if I want to add something like ChemiPure, I can just add it in the middle basket with the other stuff without hassle.
BrunoL
Community Member
Couple of updates!
Went to Ikea this week and DIY'd myself a little storage cabinet.
The DIY part is the additional, half sized shelf. The idea is to have my dosing pump there and a little control board in the back behind it. I've not finished the control board for the 3 remotes yet, but the half sized shelf is in there. I still need to think about how I'm going to do the mini board.
For now I'm only dosing All for Reef, on a single Kamoer, but I may swap over to a 2 or 3 part system once this bottle is out. I find that my magnesium gets absorbed faster than my calcium, so every so often I need to manually dose extra mg.
On a different note, I got some new coral yesterday from one of the local reefers here. This gentlemen has a huge tank and took out like a 30-40 pound Acro. That beast will be the center piece for another tank but it was too big so several pieces were sawn of. Together with a piece of acro the size of my palm, I also got 2 smaller corals.
Little top view of the tank as of this afternoon:
So the cool thing is that I was able to take the piece, and essentially make an arch with it. I fixed it to the left rock, creating an overhang over the middle section. I'm not sure of it's really clear from the photos though. In the front you can see the 2 Montiporas, red digitata and a bicolor, forest fire digitata. I think They'll add some nice contrasts once they're fixed.
So the bad thing is that I had to take the rock out of the tank and fix the coral using the glue - epoxy - glue method, and then let it settle for a good 15-20 while holding it in place before adding it to the tank again. It was just too heavy to fix underwater. I suppose it's fairly visible, but it should be fine once it gets covered with algae and coralline.
My water did get a little cloudy for a few hours, and the Rhodactis on the back of the rock hasn't fully opened up yet, I think it's still angry from its time outside. The candy canes and other SPS's didn't seem to mind at all. I did add a little bag of activated charcoal to help filter out the residue and clear up the water. Surprisingly, the skimmer didn't go crazy ...
On a different note, my hermit whose mostly been very chill helped himself to a trochus snail house. I saw a snail making odd movements, went to check it out and saw 2 blue legs sticking out of it ... I think this is his 3rd victim now, after the 2 Cerith snails he evicted earlier.
I also noticed the GSP I had super glued (with Tunze Coral Glue) kind of completely dried out and calcified where I had the drip of glue. Since the GSP was a gift and the piece was only very small, almost all of it kind of dried up. There's a tiny bit left that's hanging on, with 3 polyps on it ... Has anyone else had that issue with Tunze's glue? Is it supposed to dry out the coral like that?
And finally, but this is more for a later stage, I did notice that in some areas, especially at the bottom of the corals and under the branches of the Acro I'm getting some receding tissue. I think the cause of this is the fact that these areas never get any light. With my single Prime16 fixed in the center, there's just some areas that now are in perpetual shadow. I think In the long run, I should probably upgrade my lighting game to a Hydra32, AI Blades or maybe even a Radion XR15, if I want to have better diffusion of light and more light coverage.
Anyway, that's all for today!
Went to Ikea this week and DIY'd myself a little storage cabinet.
The DIY part is the additional, half sized shelf. The idea is to have my dosing pump there and a little control board in the back behind it. I've not finished the control board for the 3 remotes yet, but the half sized shelf is in there. I still need to think about how I'm going to do the mini board.
For now I'm only dosing All for Reef, on a single Kamoer, but I may swap over to a 2 or 3 part system once this bottle is out. I find that my magnesium gets absorbed faster than my calcium, so every so often I need to manually dose extra mg.
On a different note, I got some new coral yesterday from one of the local reefers here. This gentlemen has a huge tank and took out like a 30-40 pound Acro. That beast will be the center piece for another tank but it was too big so several pieces were sawn of. Together with a piece of acro the size of my palm, I also got 2 smaller corals.
Little top view of the tank as of this afternoon:
So the cool thing is that I was able to take the piece, and essentially make an arch with it. I fixed it to the left rock, creating an overhang over the middle section. I'm not sure of it's really clear from the photos though. In the front you can see the 2 Montiporas, red digitata and a bicolor, forest fire digitata. I think They'll add some nice contrasts once they're fixed.
So the bad thing is that I had to take the rock out of the tank and fix the coral using the glue - epoxy - glue method, and then let it settle for a good 15-20 while holding it in place before adding it to the tank again. It was just too heavy to fix underwater. I suppose it's fairly visible, but it should be fine once it gets covered with algae and coralline.
My water did get a little cloudy for a few hours, and the Rhodactis on the back of the rock hasn't fully opened up yet, I think it's still angry from its time outside. The candy canes and other SPS's didn't seem to mind at all. I did add a little bag of activated charcoal to help filter out the residue and clear up the water. Surprisingly, the skimmer didn't go crazy ...
On a different note, my hermit whose mostly been very chill helped himself to a trochus snail house. I saw a snail making odd movements, went to check it out and saw 2 blue legs sticking out of it ... I think this is his 3rd victim now, after the 2 Cerith snails he evicted earlier.
I also noticed the GSP I had super glued (with Tunze Coral Glue) kind of completely dried out and calcified where I had the drip of glue. Since the GSP was a gift and the piece was only very small, almost all of it kind of dried up. There's a tiny bit left that's hanging on, with 3 polyps on it ... Has anyone else had that issue with Tunze's glue? Is it supposed to dry out the coral like that?
And finally, but this is more for a later stage, I did notice that in some areas, especially at the bottom of the corals and under the branches of the Acro I'm getting some receding tissue. I think the cause of this is the fact that these areas never get any light. With my single Prime16 fixed in the center, there's just some areas that now are in perpetual shadow. I think In the long run, I should probably upgrade my lighting game to a Hydra32, AI Blades or maybe even a Radion XR15, if I want to have better diffusion of light and more light coverage.
Anyway, that's all for today!
Attachments
BrunoL
Community Member
New update! As always, lets start with the parameters.
Temp 26C - It's been hot here!
Salinity 1025
dKH 7.9
Phosphate 0.02
Nitrate 25
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1150
So it would appear that the All for Reef is doing a good job at keeping the Ca stable ... but the Alk and Mg levels aren't. I have about 1/2 of my AFR bottle left, I may go to a 2 or 3 part dosing system after. It would appear that the consumption rate of different nutrients isn't the same on all of them. So with that said, I'm open to recommendations on which 2 or 3 part to use!
Went to my LFS yesterday, before they close for the summer holiday and naturally I got home with some new stuff, some magnesium to get those levels up amongst others, some new snails and empty shells as the hermit has been growing steadily, and also some new inhabitants!
I brought back another clown, so my single one isn't as lonely, a juvenile six line wrasse and a juvenile yellowtail damsel. I know, I know, damsels can be a real pain but this one seemed somewhat chill. I observed him in the LFS for quiet a while he seemed to be tolerant to sharing his space.
So far it's been all dandy. The wrasse is really liking my stacked rockwork and has a great time swimming through the different layers and holes. It also gives him plenty of spaces to hide or sleep. The damsel appear to have claimed the shadowy area under the overhanging acro. The 2 clowns, well they're just doing clown stuff and wobble all over the place. They've still not found the BTA, despite it being right there in the center.
My LFS told me that they've never had a wrasse jump, but I did get a glass cover cut just to make sure. I'll be ordering a net cover soon. I wanted to get a Kraken one, but it would appear there's no EU retailers and there's no international shipping? The Waterbox cover is an alternative, but it really lacks in style ...
So outside of that, the corals are doing pretty well. I have new coralline on the back rockwork and the pump. I also have some new darker coralline growing over the old lighter patches. That said I did fish out some asterina stars as there were quite a lot of them and I have the impression they were grazing on the coralline as well.
I thought the GSP wouldn't make it but a small patch seems to still be there on the back, and is growing new polyps. All 3 of the zoas have sprouted new heads. The montis are doing well and growing steadily too. I have had a head split on the candy cane, so it's filling up nicely as well and finally, the acros have great polyp extension and appear to be growing nicely. The seriotopora as well has had great growth and has several new branches. My rhodactis on the back of the rockwork is covering more and more as well. I just have the rhodactis in the front that isn't doing great. He's been shriveled up for some time, however I do see polyps on there and at times I do see the mouth, so it looks like he's eating, he's doing things but he's just not opening up. I'm not sure why he's been like that, considering the others are doing great...
I've also had snail eggs almost every 2 to 3 days on the side panels. Them nassarius certainly get busy a lot. Finaly, I sadly found an aptasia on the side, a single one. I pried it out with tweezers. I think it must have come in on one of my recently acquired frags. I got some Aptasia X just in case but since removing that single one, I've not seen more. The advantage of a smaller tank is that it's somewhat easy to just look closely at all sides and really inspect the rockwork.
That's it for today!
Temp 26C - It's been hot here!
Salinity 1025
dKH 7.9
Phosphate 0.02
Nitrate 25
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1150
So it would appear that the All for Reef is doing a good job at keeping the Ca stable ... but the Alk and Mg levels aren't. I have about 1/2 of my AFR bottle left, I may go to a 2 or 3 part dosing system after. It would appear that the consumption rate of different nutrients isn't the same on all of them. So with that said, I'm open to recommendations on which 2 or 3 part to use!
Went to my LFS yesterday, before they close for the summer holiday and naturally I got home with some new stuff, some magnesium to get those levels up amongst others, some new snails and empty shells as the hermit has been growing steadily, and also some new inhabitants!
I brought back another clown, so my single one isn't as lonely, a juvenile six line wrasse and a juvenile yellowtail damsel. I know, I know, damsels can be a real pain but this one seemed somewhat chill. I observed him in the LFS for quiet a while he seemed to be tolerant to sharing his space.
So far it's been all dandy. The wrasse is really liking my stacked rockwork and has a great time swimming through the different layers and holes. It also gives him plenty of spaces to hide or sleep. The damsel appear to have claimed the shadowy area under the overhanging acro. The 2 clowns, well they're just doing clown stuff and wobble all over the place. They've still not found the BTA, despite it being right there in the center.
My LFS told me that they've never had a wrasse jump, but I did get a glass cover cut just to make sure. I'll be ordering a net cover soon. I wanted to get a Kraken one, but it would appear there's no EU retailers and there's no international shipping? The Waterbox cover is an alternative, but it really lacks in style ...
So outside of that, the corals are doing pretty well. I have new coralline on the back rockwork and the pump. I also have some new darker coralline growing over the old lighter patches. That said I did fish out some asterina stars as there were quite a lot of them and I have the impression they were grazing on the coralline as well.
I thought the GSP wouldn't make it but a small patch seems to still be there on the back, and is growing new polyps. All 3 of the zoas have sprouted new heads. The montis are doing well and growing steadily too. I have had a head split on the candy cane, so it's filling up nicely as well and finally, the acros have great polyp extension and appear to be growing nicely. The seriotopora as well has had great growth and has several new branches. My rhodactis on the back of the rockwork is covering more and more as well. I just have the rhodactis in the front that isn't doing great. He's been shriveled up for some time, however I do see polyps on there and at times I do see the mouth, so it looks like he's eating, he's doing things but he's just not opening up. I'm not sure why he's been like that, considering the others are doing great...
I've also had snail eggs almost every 2 to 3 days on the side panels. Them nassarius certainly get busy a lot. Finaly, I sadly found an aptasia on the side, a single one. I pried it out with tweezers. I think it must have come in on one of my recently acquired frags. I got some Aptasia X just in case but since removing that single one, I've not seen more. The advantage of a smaller tank is that it's somewhat easy to just look closely at all sides and really inspect the rockwork.
That's it for today!
Gumbies R Us
Certified Noob
That storage cabinet is a great idea! My wife converted one of her old storage cabinets into the storage cabinet for our tank, haha.Couple of updates!
Went to Ikea this week and DIY'd myself a little storage cabinet.
The DIY part is the additional, half sized shelf. The idea is to have my dosing pump there and a little control board in the back behind it. I've not finished the control board for the 3 remotes yet, but the half sized shelf is in there. I still need to think about how I'm going to do the mini board.
For now I'm only dosing All for Reef, on a single Kamoer, but I may swap over to a 2 or 3 part system once this bottle is out. I find that my magnesium gets absorbed faster than my calcium, so every so often I need to manually dose extra mg.
On a different note, I got some new coral yesterday from one of the local reefers here. This gentlemen has a huge tank and took out like a 30-40 pound Acro. That beast will be the center piece for another tank but it was too big so several pieces were sawn of. Together with a piece of acro the size of my palm, I also got 2 smaller corals.
Little top view of the tank as of this afternoon:
So the cool thing is that I was able to take the piece, and essentially make an arch with it. I fixed it to the left rock, creating an overhang over the middle section. I'm not sure of it's really clear from the photos though. In the front you can see the 2 Montiporas, red digitata and a bicolor, forest fire digitata. I think They'll add some nice contrasts once they're fixed.
So the bad thing is that I had to take the rock out of the tank and fix the coral using the glue - epoxy - glue method, and then let it settle for a good 15-20 while holding it in place before adding it to the tank again. It was just too heavy to fix underwater. I suppose it's fairly visible, but it should be fine once it gets covered with algae and coralline.
My water did get a little cloudy for a few hours, and the Rhodactis on the back of the rock hasn't fully opened up yet, I think it's still angry from its time outside. The candy canes and other SPS's didn't seem to mind at all. I did add a little bag of activated charcoal to help filter out the residue and clear up the water. Surprisingly, the skimmer didn't go crazy ...
On a different note, my hermit whose mostly been very chill helped himself to a trochus snail house. I saw a snail making odd movements, went to check it out and saw 2 blue legs sticking out of it ... I think this is his 3rd victim now, after the 2 Cerith snails he evicted earlier.
I also noticed the GSP I had super glued (with Tunze Coral Glue) kind of completely dried out and calcified where I had the drip of glue. Since the GSP was a gift and the piece was only very small, almost all of it kind of dried up. There's a tiny bit left that's hanging on, with 3 polyps on it ... Has anyone else had that issue with Tunze's glue? Is it supposed to dry out the coral like that?
And finally, but this is more for a later stage, I did notice that in some areas, especially at the bottom of the corals and under the branches of the Acro I'm getting some receding tissue. I think the cause of this is the fact that these areas never get any light. With my single Prime16 fixed in the center, there's just some areas that now are in perpetual shadow. I think In the long run, I should probably upgrade my lighting game to a Hydra32, AI Blades or maybe even a Radion XR15, if I want to have better diffusion of light and more light coverage.
Anyway, that's all for today!
BrunoL
Community Member
Thanks hah, I'm in 2 minds about getting a door for it, we'll see but as of now, I'm kind of liking it this way.
I did have another update though, one of my clowns went MIA. Last night when I went to bed, both were in there chilling out, this morning only one came around when I wanted to feed them. It sucks because it's my original one that's missing and I was making great progress with handfeeding him. I looked everywhere but I've been unable to find him. I stirred the sand bed as well, but nothing. Honestly I'm pretty puzzled. I guess my CUC may have gotten to him but I'm not sure why, or how, a completely healthy fish would go down and how it could get vaporized in like 6-8 hours ...
I did have another update though, one of my clowns went MIA. Last night when I went to bed, both were in there chilling out, this morning only one came around when I wanted to feed them. It sucks because it's my original one that's missing and I was making great progress with handfeeding him. I looked everywhere but I've been unable to find him. I stirred the sand bed as well, but nothing. Honestly I'm pretty puzzled. I guess my CUC may have gotten to him but I'm not sure why, or how, a completely healthy fish would go down and how it could get vaporized in like 6-8 hours ...
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