Dawn's 56 gallon natural nutrient garden

vlangel · Feb 9, 2023

I turned the gyre down to 10% and there is still very good flow that covers the tank well. It is also dead quiet which is awesome.

I puttied down the new birdsnest coral on top of the seahorse statue. LOL, it kind of reminds me of King Louis of the Lemurs in Madagascar, (which makes me laugh)! I also puttied the yellow ball sponge that I have had for quite a while to the rock right below the seahorse statue. I had puttied my trumpet coral to the figurine's back, and puttied purple palys to the tail, plus I have the macroalgae, codium twined around everything. Slowly the statue is fading into the more natural background of the aquascape and I am pleased with the effect.

vlangel · Feb 13, 2023

I had glass tops made for my display tank. Prior to this I was using the front of a 30" glass top in combination of a diy net top. It looked pretty shabby but the price was right and it kept fish from jumping. The new glass top looks much cleaner, (although I still need to use a diy net top in the back where the overflow box is). Still it is a huge improvement and should cut down on evaporation, which was about a gallon a day.

vlangel · Feb 14, 2023

Today I installed another upgrade to deal with the evaporation that my aquarium system experienced,,, a float ATO. Since the furnace came on this fall, and especially now in the dead of winter when the furnace runs a lot, I have been dumping 2 gallons of water into the aquarium every other day to deal with evaporation. Fortunately my softie coral/macroalgae are pretty resilient about salinity but I knew it was not ideal. And then there is our big motorcycle road trip to Alaska coming up this summer, where we will be gone for at least 3 weeks. I did not want to overly burden my sister with tank care so it was past time to address the evaporation issue.

I had tried smart ATOs in the past and the sensors were never reliable. My very first ATO was a float type and it worked well so that is what I am using now. I should have a good idea by summer if this ATO is reliable. I never like to install anything brand new before an out of town trip as Murphy's Law often seems to happen. Anyway, it's working perfectly now at installation.

vlangel · Feb 17, 2023

I am doing my weekly water change and maintenance a bit later in the week than usual but the coral look amazing. Polyp extension has never been as good. It might be the gyre now that the coral have adjusted to it or maybe the ATO. I did not think that the salinity swung higher than .024 and I keep the tank at .023 . All I know is that the tank is in a sweet spot and it's really nice.

vlangel · Feb 18, 2023

I took some close up shots, not something I do very often.

vlangel · Feb 20, 2023

Well, an almost disasterous mishap happened to my tank. An anemone parked itself on the float valve of the ATO and emptied what was left of the water in the 10 gallon tank. That brought the salinity down .3 points so not good but everything looks alright, except maybe the feather dusters. I should have thought that was a possibility but had not. Live and learn and this lesson was not as painful as it could have been.

vlangel · Feb 24, 2023

I made a longish (11 + minutes) narrated video yesterday. Other than some of the feather duster worms not coming out, the tank did not suffer any ill effects from the ATO incident. I am still pondering how to remedy that situation. I may use a 5 gallons salt bucket instead of the 10 gallon tank as a reservoir and not fill it full. That way if there is another mishap not as much water will be dumped into the tank. I am also trying to think of a way to cage in the ATO float valve where water can freely flow in but not any creatures, like nems and snails.

vlangel · Mar 3, 2023

Ok, so I have pondered the ATO issue in my mind for a couple of weeks. Today I decided on a course of action. After I cleaned the sump and did my water change, I reset up the ATO but only in a 1 gallon container. I also covered the sump tank (to slow evaporation) as best I could with plumbing coming and out of it. The display tank is already covered which has slowed evaporation greatly. If that container is adequate for 5 or so days, I will consider this an acceptable solution. One gallon of water dumped into my 80 gallon system is no big deal, should a mishap take place. I am anxious to see how this works.

kevinl · Mar 4, 2023

Just a simple question, what's your PH run at?
Also I forgot to tell you that sample of water I took, I dropped it and it opened on the floor.
Bring in a water sample next time your at the store.

vlangel · Mar 4, 2023

kevinl said:
Just a simple question, what's your PH run at?
Also I forgot to tell you that sample of water I took, I dropped it and it opened on the floor.
Bring in a water sample next time your at the store.

I have not tested PH in a while but it has always been 8.2 or so. Our PH out of the tap is 8.2 or 8.3. It was a pain when I kept freshwater angels that like it slightly acidic.

Ha ha, yes I will bring in a water sample the next time I come. I am running out of room in this tank so won't be adding many more coral. I like to see some sand too.

vlangel · Mar 6, 2023

I am getting a very small amount of GHA for the first time ever. Its a miniscule amount but from what I have read, I wasn't taking any chances. I pulled every strand! I needed to get rid of some bubble algae anyway and blow the dust from the rockwork. Also my corkscrew nem was stinging the purple plume gorg so I adjusted that. Space is becoming a premium commodity. Some say that it's time for a bigger tank but I think I will just make things work with the tank I have. I don't really want more work and I love having a mature tank.

vlangel · Mar 14, 2023

I had a little GHA again this week, not much but maybe I should check nitrates and phosphates to make sure they are still in the range they usually are.

The ulva and the red grape caulerpa are really growing like crazy. The codium has slowed down but is still growing and the rest of the macros look good but it's difficult to know if they are growing. It's not much if they are.

I am still getting film algae at about the same rate and all the coral look good. Oh yeah, and I need to clean my gyre this week.

vlangel · Mar 22, 2023

With my macroalgae growing so well along with the green polyps and purple photosynthetic sponge popping up different places, I used today as a time to reclaim some areas for the marine life that I want to grow there. That means using tweezers to eradicate and then just plain doing some old fashioned weeding. I got lax the last few weeks at doing a good job on the glass so started that process too. Tomorrow I will finish what I started.

vlangel · Mar 23, 2023

Today I ran my gyre and Tunze powerhead in a bleach/water bath to clean the algae off of them. The gyre especially is moving a lot more water now. I also finished the glass although I could still do even a better job but will probably settle for 'good enough'! LOL
I did a water change and also used a brush on rockwork to clean debris and detritus off of it. Tomorrow I should test my nitrates and phosphates just to make sure that they are not being depleted too much. Maybe I will take a few pics too.

vlangel · Mar 24, 2023

I tested my nitrates and phosphates because I was worried that they may be being depleted. They are still ok but have definitely come down and will need to be watched. NO3 is 10 ppm and PO4 is .25. I am sure that it is the ulva because of it's phenomenal growth. I am going to need to keep it trimmed back a lot and I plan to increase the frozen food for the fish by adding a 3rd feeding, which they won't mind, I am sure. Pics to come this afternoon hopefully.

vlangel · Mar 24, 2023

vlangel · Mar 26, 2023

So, yesterday's high winds has our power out since 7 pm last night. Fortunately, about 10 years ago I bought a 1000 watt power inverter. We hook it up to our Dodge Charger and have 2 extension cords, 1 for the fish tank and 1 for our fridge. I am only running a power head and lights on the display. The sump is aerated by a battery back up. We have a fireplace and kerosene heater to keep us and the tank warm enough. This happened about 5 years ago and we did just fine for the 4-5 day outage.

vlangel · Mar 27, 2023

The power came back on after being out only 24 hours. Everything is fine and now running back to normal. The temperature got down to 70-71°F but I know from having seahorses (who need cooler temps) that nothing will be impacted by that. So all is well that ends well!

kevinl · Mar 27, 2023

We were out for 30 hours, I need to get a bigger generator, Mrs was complaining the only thing getting getting power was the the fish tanks. I ran the pumps and heaters & reefbrite strips. I have way to many radions to run everything together, I have 16 xr 30's, I would need another generator for them only. She was not a happy camper!!