Found my passion in seahorses, but have I lost my mind? My first (public) build. 60g rimless

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Hello all!
So I did the major water change and a few more since and I am still seeing GHA since my vacation back in June. It is suffocating my Gorgs. I'm getting a bit frustrated since the GHA started. I realize the No3 and PO4 readings are being masked by the GHA. My Macros are being outcompeted and I lost my Red Titan @vlangel. I'm really upset about it. I put in a call to Dan over at Seahorse Source and had a pow wow with him about my tank. He suggested I try a new (to me) product to help reduce the organics. It is a probiotic. I have been using it for one week yesterday. What is has done: Made my coral VERY happy, increased the appetites of the seahorses, significantly reduced the detritus in the tank (my main reason for trying it and it's intended purpose in my situation). I purposely did not vacumm the tank at all this week as I wanted to see how much detritus build up occured or didn't. I will continue to use it and monitor it's benefit.

So bad news: my wonderful Jebao/Jecod CP 25 bracket broke. I cannot for the life of me find a replacement and Jebao has not responded to my emails. I had purchased a CP40 for my 90 and installed that into my 60 and low and behold in less than a years use between the two tanks it keeps shutting down and malfunctioning. So I am now without a powerhead. I have others that I will have to use in the meantime. My guy at one of the LFS said he might be able to DIY the bracket for the CP25 so I can use it again. Here is the rub.....I had a perfectly good Maxspect Gyre on the 90 as well and sold it when I took the tank down. GRRRR.......

During my conversation with Dan, I mentioned to him how much I am not liking the barebottom tank. There are several reasons.
1. aesthetics-even with all of the coral, rock and Gorgs, it still looks so unnatural.
2. I can't keep enough CUC happy. I know I need more of these guys but the best of them do much better/require sand.
3. Algae growth on the floor is a pain to clean.

I told him about my wanting to revamp and he said if he had a DT for seahorses he would do it exactly the way I am leaning.
I went and bought some dry sand and I am thinking I will revamp the tank to a more natural habitat. I want to recude the height of the rock work and remove some. I want to add the sand so I can increase my CUC. I want to plant more seagrass type macros for a seabed look. (I will not get seagrass specifically just some similar caulerpas.) I want to add Mangroves to the dt.

Thoughts on this new approach?
 

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Hi. Nice tank.
I agree. Adding some sand will not only improve the looks but also add a bit of filtration. I have white coral sand but thought black may be good

20 yrs ago when I had reef tank I had caulerpa mexicana. And it grew great and cleaned out the water. But I had to prune it each month to give more natural look.

Did you consider Seagrass ? More natural but harder to keep ? I am currently Looking for some caulerpa also. Hard to get in this state.

I see you have a blue striped pipefish. What does. He eat ?

And what do you feed the gorgonians ?
 
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Hi. Nice tank.
I agree. Adding some sand will not only improve the looks but also add a bit of filtration. I have white coral sand but thought black may be good

20 yrs ago when I had reef tank I had caulerpa mexicana. And it grew great and cleaned out the water. But I had to prune it each month to give more natural look.

Did you consider Seagrass ? More natural but harder to keep ? I am currently Looking for some caulerpa also. Hard to get in this state.

I see you have a blue striped pipefish. What does. He eat ?

And what do you feed the gorgonians ?
Thank you!
I am not considering Seagrass as my breeder suggested against it in a closed system. It requires a deep mud bed if I'm not mistaken.
I do have two varieties of caulerpa I am growing and it's doing great!
The Bluestripe didn't make it unfortunately.
The NPS get feed reef roids, phyto and more recently I am using Sanolife Mic-F probiotic and the corals love it.
I did end up adding sand last week. I added Seachem Meridian dry sand.
 

vlangel

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It's been a busy summer so I am just now catching up on your thread. I am sorry to hear about the red titan and your blue striped pipefish.

I totally get why you want to add sand as I felt exactly the same way. I loved the bare bottom from a husbandry aspect (although I hated scraping it also) but it never satisfied me aesthetically. Even with diatomous/cyano and algae I prefer the sand. I would love to see a pic!

How are the ponies? My herd is good and I seem to have hit my stride with the tank.
 
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It has been a busy summer @vlangel! Yeah I was upset about both.
I am enjoying the sand so far. I do need to add one more bag though. It's just a tad too shallow.
I am having gha issues mainly on my gorg's. But after 2 40g water changes and two 25g water changes I've started Flucon treatment. Went back to my AquaExcel skimmer (rated 210g I believe) and installed an algae scrubber for when the treatment ends and all is back online. I am treating for 21 days however, I will do a water change maybe two during treatment and just replace the dose I took out. Then a MASSIVE water change at the 21 day date. I just can't let the trates and phos escalate over 21 days. It is recommended to forgo water changes and gfo/carbon. and skimmer goes down for three days. Socks cleaned daily. I am seeing a lot of gha in the sock so that's a good sign. Still dosing MIC-F daily.
My ponies are doing well! It was quite a sight to see Abby and Phoebe explore the sand. They kept blowing into it! My guess, coming from Dan at Seahorse Source they never saw sand before! It was comical.
I am so happy to hear your tank is doing well and so are you! Great job! Post pics lately?

I'm uplaoding a video I just took. This is the OFFICIAL PREMIER posting of my tank with sand.....LOL
 
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The video never went up!? Well, here is one I took today. Everything is looking very happy!

The treatment is over ( I actually extended it for a week longer) and I did in fact do water changes during and replaced the Flucan that I took out. Seems to have worked well. I have all of the parameters in check too. Phos dropped to 0 and Nitrates dropped to 2.5! (Salifert). I did a 35 gallon water change last Sunday and fifteen gallons today.

I am also still dosing MIC-F daily. I am also adding a different probiotic by Aqua Forest-Pro Bio S. I added a box of Marine Pure spheres to the sump (quart) in addition to the two plates that are already in there. I also increased my carbon and other medias. Plus I added two more bags of sand.

All of this has increased the bacteria colony, and it shows. I am very happy at 11 months in. And.....I am loving the look of the sand.

I'm almost ready for my forth and final seahorse that I will home in this tank. Four is my lucky number :)

 

Dr. Dendrostein

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Hello all!
So I did the major water change and a few more since and I am still seeing GHA since my vacation back in June. It is suffocating my Gorgs. I'm getting a bit frustrated since the GHA started. I realize the No3 and PO4 readings are being masked by the GHA. My Macros are being outcompeted and I lost my Red Titan @vlangel. I'm really upset about it. I put in a call to Dan over at Seahorse Source and had a pow wow with him about my tank. He suggested I try a new (to me) product to help reduce the organics. It is a probiotic. I have been using it for one week yesterday. What is has done: Made my coral VERY happy, increased the appetites of the seahorses, significantly reduced the detritus in the tank (my main reason for trying it and it's intended purpose in my situation). I purposely did not vacumm the tank at all this week as I wanted to see how much detritus build up occured or didn't. I will continue to use it and monitor it's benefit.

So bad news: my wonderful Jebao/Jecod CP 25 bracket broke. I cannot for the life of me find a replacement and Jebao has not responded to my emails. I had purchased a CP40 for my 90 and installed that into my 60 and low and behold in less than a years use between the two tanks it keeps shutting down and malfunctioning. So I am now without a powerhead. I have others that I will have to use in the meantime. My guy at one of the LFS said he might be able to DIY the bracket for the CP25 so I can use it again. Here is the rub.....I had a perfectly good Maxspect Gyre on the 90 as well and sold it when I took the tank down. GRRRR.......

During my conversation with Dan, I mentioned to him how much I am not liking the barebottom tank. There are several reasons.
1. aesthetics-even with all of the coral, rock and Gorgs, it still looks so unnatural.
2. I can't keep enough CUC happy. I know I need more of these guys but the best of them do much better/require sand.
3. Algae growth on the floor is a pain to clean.

I told him about my wanting to revamp and he said if he had a DT for seahorses he would do it exactly the way I am leaning.
I went and bought some dry sand and I am thinking I will revamp the tank to a more natural habitat. I want to recude the height of the rock work and remove some. I want to add the sand so I can increase my CUC. I want to plant more seagrass type macros for a seabed look. (I will not get seagrass specifically just some similar caulerpas.) I want to add Mangroves to the dt.

Thoughts on this new approach?

Hope everything works out.
 
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Hope everything works out.
Thank you, Jomama! Time will tell. It always does. I'm hoping the changes I've made continue to help the tank flourish. I will be adding lignite carbon to my bituminous carbon too. This way I am hoping to capture both large and small dissolved organics.
 

Dr. Dendrostein

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Thank you, Jomama! Time will tell. It always does. I'm hoping the changes I've made continue to help the tank flourish. I will be adding lignite carbon to my bituminous carbon too. This way I am hoping to capture both large and small dissolved organics.

Try also Hiatt filtration carbon. I think its embeded with bacteria. I just start using it. Resaults like day n nigbt
 
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An update. Everything in the tank is doing really well! My gha is almost undetectable. I put a diy ATS in the sump and it's starting to really take off. Testing is coming back good and at levels that I prefer. I also implimented the use of the two carbons and it made a huge difference. I put the carbon in for about 3 days a week and then remove it as it really strips the water and the corals show their dismay.
Yesterday marks one year that I have had Phoebe and Abbie!
I also have a new addition.... a Spider Sponge
20181011_074613.jpg

20181011_074637.jpg

20181011_074659.jpg
 

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