Cycled123 Nano to 180g
- Large Build
- Thread starter cycled123
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Where to start...lots of stuff this week! I guess I will go in order, lol.
First my husband got one of the panels done for the side of stand. The panel is held on my magnets to the steel stand. Fairly heavy but easy to remove. There will be a small ledge to hide the gaps on top once complete.
Got a Turbo twist 36w UV sterilizer during the 25% off flash sale on live aquaria. Got mostly for another layer of protection against ich/velvet but wow did it clear up the water that I thought was pretty good to begin with. Water is now crystal clear! It fits nicely over the sump and will be easy to get to to change bulbs.
Got a new marble starfish. So far stays out and doesn't hide. Just cruises the tank. Also added new fish to quarantine. Gold midas blenny, long nose hawkfish, royal gramma and purple firefish.
Just received my ATI water analysis results about an hour ago. Nitrates are insanely high. Looking for ideas on how to lower. Salinity was low but testing with 2 refratometers at home shows we are at 1.025. One is calibrated with RO the other with calibration fluid. I have no idea what else is important. I will follow recommendations listed at the end once I can find the supplements listed.
First my husband got one of the panels done for the side of stand. The panel is held on my magnets to the steel stand. Fairly heavy but easy to remove. There will be a small ledge to hide the gaps on top once complete.
Got a Turbo twist 36w UV sterilizer during the 25% off flash sale on live aquaria. Got mostly for another layer of protection against ich/velvet but wow did it clear up the water that I thought was pretty good to begin with. Water is now crystal clear! It fits nicely over the sump and will be easy to get to to change bulbs.
Got a new marble starfish. So far stays out and doesn't hide. Just cruises the tank. Also added new fish to quarantine. Gold midas blenny, long nose hawkfish, royal gramma and purple firefish.
Just received my ATI water analysis results about an hour ago. Nitrates are insanely high. Looking for ideas on how to lower. Salinity was low but testing with 2 refratometers at home shows we are at 1.025. One is calibrated with RO the other with calibration fluid. I have no idea what else is important. I will follow recommendations listed at the end once I can find the supplements listed.
Completed a large water change on Sunday of approximately 60 gallons. That's all we could manage. Added a biopellet reactor today. It has its own pump and fits right next to the skimmer in the sump.
After doing some research we think the Tin in our water analysis was coming from our water change hoses. The connectors were nickle plated brass. My husband has now changed them out to plastic. It was kind of a chore because they are drinking water hoses and not a standard size. We couldn't find any stray screws or rusting magnets or the like in the tank. Hopefully changing the hoses fixes the problem. I added the recommended potassium and maganese. Trumpet and acans look a little happier. As far as salinity we took a sample to LFS and we are spot on 1.025 same as refractometer at home. Don't know why ati says its lower. I'm going to stop worrying about that though. I figure 2 refractometers, a milwaukee instrument tester and apex all say we are good.
Attended a coral swap over the weekend about 2hrs from our house. A ton of neat stuff but didn't get much. Just a blue frogspawn, a mushroom and some rock flower anemones. We had my grandfathers 101st birthday to attend after so were not going home until much later. My husband and I booked a trip to Chicago in November for our anniversary to attend Midwest Aquatic Convention. Can't wait!
After doing some research we think the Tin in our water analysis was coming from our water change hoses. The connectors were nickle plated brass. My husband has now changed them out to plastic. It was kind of a chore because they are drinking water hoses and not a standard size. We couldn't find any stray screws or rusting magnets or the like in the tank. Hopefully changing the hoses fixes the problem. I added the recommended potassium and maganese. Trumpet and acans look a little happier. As far as salinity we took a sample to LFS and we are spot on 1.025 same as refractometer at home. Don't know why ati says its lower. I'm going to stop worrying about that though. I figure 2 refractometers, a milwaukee instrument tester and apex all say we are good.
Attended a coral swap over the weekend about 2hrs from our house. A ton of neat stuff but didn't get much. Just a blue frogspawn, a mushroom and some rock flower anemones. We had my grandfathers 101st birthday to attend after so were not going home until much later. My husband and I booked a trip to Chicago in November for our anniversary to attend Midwest Aquatic Convention. Can't wait!
Our QT woes continue. Woke up to 3 dead fish in QT. Ammonia light blue on badge. Fish were eating but acting a little sluggish since adding CP. Can CP mess with bacterial filter? Oxygen levels? Anything else? Did not have any trouble using CP on last batch but completely drained the tank to move it to a better location. Used biospira to start it and ammonia badge was yellow when added fish. Completed a 50% water change for the one remaining fish and added more bacteria. He is eating but hiding (firefish--has always mostly hid). No obvious signs of anything on the fish. I will restart CP once ammonia down. I'm very much a proponent of QT but sure wish we could find some healthy fish
Not much to report this week but we did add a bonded pair of longnose hawkfish to QT and the parrotfish to the DT. The pictures do not do this fish justice! So many different colors. He is settling in nicely 
Ento-Reefer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2017
- Messages
- 771
- Reaction score
- 930
Your tank is looking beautiful. I love the parrotfish. That is definitely an unusual and stunning fish.
Lost the firefish in qt Nothing visible on him but stopped eating and wasted away. The hawkfish should be ready for the display next week. I just realized I never mentioned the ruby longfin fairy wrasse, four line wrasse and gold midas blenny I have in another qt (we currently have 2 going). This one we are running copper and they have been therapeutic for 10 days and seem to be tolerating it well. I know it is risky but we took down the coral qt. Everything in it was dead or dying and I did not want to keep buying coral just to watch it die in qt. Transferred anything looking alive to the display 2 weeks ago. Since transferring everything has opened and in some cases growing in the dt. Parameters in qt were very close to what is in the dt (alk .2 higher and ca, nitrates and phosphate the same). Tried lots of different lighting and flow patterns but nothing seemed to work. So made the decision to save what we could and shut down. We will just dip and add to display. Literally lost a weeping willow leather. Glued its plug to a rock in the dt and next morning leather was not there. Haven't seen it since
Was so excited that the one remaining rock nem that we could not get off a large rock when we transferred tanks finally moved to a rock I could remove from the display. Rock flower would not release from the small rock either so put it in the 37g in hopes that it would move. Walked by the tank before I went to bed and got excited because the nem was moved to a new rock. Thinking yay I'll move the rock back to the 180 when I get up. Woke up to 2 of the BTAs on the small rock... sigh.
My husband finished the stand It's gorgeous!!!! Had one mishap of drilling to far through top of a board that will have to be fixed in spring when warm enough to stain outside again.
Someone also asked me for some pics of how the tank fits in with the flow of the house. These were taken before the final lip added to stand. Please ignore the mess!!!!
Lastly finally got a good look at a hitch hiker crab in our rock work. He has been there awhile but finally got a pic. I do not think it is a "good" crab. How do I get it out??? I suspect its been in the same rock for months. Off course it is one with palys on it that I really don't want to mess with.
Nothing visible on him but stopped eating and wasted away. The hawkfish should be ready for the display next week. I just realized I never mentioned the ruby longfin fairy wrasse, four line wrasse and gold midas blenny I have in another qt (we currently have 2 going). This one we are running copper and they have been therapeutic for 10 days and seem to be tolerating it well. I know it is risky but we took down the coral qt. Everything in it was dead or dying and I did not want to keep buying coral just to watch it die in qt. Transferred anything looking alive to the display 2 weeks ago. Since transferring everything has opened and in some cases growing in the dt. Parameters in qt were very close to what is in the dt (alk .2 higher and ca, nitrates and phosphate the same). Tried lots of different lighting and flow patterns but nothing seemed to work. So made the decision to save what we could and shut down. We will just dip and add to display. Literally lost a weeping willow leather. Glued its plug to a rock in the dt and next morning leather was not there. Haven't seen it since Was so excited that the one remaining rock nem that we could not get off a large rock when we transferred tanks finally moved to a rock I could remove from the display. Rock flower would not release from the small rock either so put it in the 37g in hopes that it would move. Walked by the tank before I went to bed and got excited because the nem was moved to a new rock. Thinking yay I'll move the rock back to the 180 when I get up. Woke up to 2 of the BTAs on the small rock... sigh.
My husband finished the stand
It's gorgeous!!!! Had one mishap of drilling to far through top of a board that will have to be fixed in spring when warm enough to stain outside again.
Someone also asked me for some pics of how the tank fits in with the flow of the house. These were taken before the final lip added to stand. Please ignore the mess!!!!
Lastly finally got a good look at a hitch hiker crab in our rock work. He has been there awhile but finally got a pic. I do not think it is a "good" crab. How do I get it out??? I suspect its been in the same rock for months. Off course it is one with palys on it that I really don't want to mess with.
Stand is beautiful!
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
Lost the firefish in qt
Was so excited that the one remaining rock nem that we could not get off a large rock when we transferred tanks finally moved to a rock I could remove from the display. Rock flower would not release from the small rock either so put it in the 37g in hopes that it would move. Walked by the tank before I went to bed and got excited because the nem was moved to a new rock. Thinking yay I'll move the rock back to the 180 when I get up. Woke up to 2 of the BTAs on the small rock... sigh.
My husband finished the stand
Someone also asked me for some pics of how the tank fits in with the flow of the house. These were taken before the final lip added to stand. Please ignore the mess!!!!
Lastly finally got a good look at a hitch hiker crab in our rock work. He has been there awhile but finally got a pic. I do not think it is a "good" crab. How do I get it out??? I suspect its been in the same rock for months. Off course it is one with palys on it that I really don't want to mess with.
It looks great! I had a crab I needed to remove and found I could get him easily at night when he was more brazen. Some people try to trap them with food probably also best laid at night.
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
No expert, but I always found squid or clam meat to get the best responses from livestock.
Went to the Midwest Aquatic Convention this past weekend in Chicago. Picked up some beautiful frags
SPS (and galaxia going to try to put on back glass)
Mushroom
Bicolor frogspawn
Yellow, purple and orange gorgonians (still trying to decide on placement so just thrown in for now)
The hawkfish are settling in well in the tank. Shy at first but now all over the place. Had a bit of a scare the first night. The female kept hiding in the rock next to where our serpent star lives. The next day couldn't find her for 12+ hours. Was starting to think the serpent had a huge meal but right before I left for work that night she was out swimming. Still don't know where she was. She's been out ever since.
SPS (and galaxia going to try to put on back glass)
Mushroom
Bicolor frogspawn
Yellow, purple and orange gorgonians (still trying to decide on placement so just thrown in for now)
The hawkfish are settling in well in the tank. Shy at first but now all over the place. Had a bit of a scare the first night. The female kept hiding in the rock next to where our serpent star lives. The next day couldn't find her for 12+ hours. Was starting to think the serpent had a huge meal but right before I left for work that night she was out swimming. Still don't know where she was. She's been out ever since.
Had our reef society meeting at our house. Got a lot of great feed back and tips. Also used clubs par meter on the tank. Top of the rocks was only around 180-200 and bottom 50 so we have ordered another orphek v4 compact as we now have "sticks". My husband also took my sons car in to get a new windshield which happened to be a block away from LFS. We now have 2 more beautiful acros and a blue galexia. I know one is a california torte and the other not sure of name but it is a beautiful purple. Black Friday also got us a back up varios 8, alk and phos hanna checkers, a tunze nano scraper for 37g tank (I hate my flipper nano) and supplements.
Similar threads
