Hans and his SCA150 adventure in the Dakotas.

[hhaase]

Part numbers are looking good for the new lights. I won't bore you guys with the details, but in summary I'm looking at 20%-40% increase across all of the rockwork. This is with that third channel of hyper-violets not powered up yet. I'll let things acclimate for a week or two before I work on that channel any further.

I started dosing Potassium Nitrates today. According to the formula, it should be dosing 0.2ppm per day. I'll run this for a bit and keep an eye on numbers and keep an eye on the livestock in the tank. Others have noted a fairly rapid improvement in coral coloration with nitrate dosing, when they had a low nutrient situation like mine. But they were also more aggressive than I am going to be and manually dosing larger amounts with bigger intervals. I don't know how quickly the biopellets will be exporting the nitrates, so I'm going to have to find a balance in there somewhere.

 

[hhaase]

Light upgrades are done, channel 3 is working, but I'm only having it powered up for 5 minutes a day right now to start acclimating things. I'm getting approximately 200 to 400 PAR on the rockwork now, which is prime mixed-reef numbers. Really quite happy with the lighting project. I did have to get a bit creative in mounting that last driver. But I'm ok with the cosmetic compromise to get it working.

I also started slowly dosing potassium hydroxide yesterday as well, to try and raise my nitrate level. Starting at a very light dose via an available head on the dosing pumps. 25ml per day, which should give me 0.2ppm per day, before it gets consumed. I'll test weekly so that I don't get caught chasing numbers too badly. Completely anecdotal, but my toadstool does seem to be extending a lot better than it has in a while. Still not full extension, but I'll take what I can get as long as the trend is toward improvement.

 

[hhaase]

Something is possibly wrong. Lost a banggai cardinal, which has disappeared since yesterday. No evidence of where it went, I assume it died and the serpent ate the remains. My damicornis is also bleaching a bit in a bottom side location. Might be a reaction to the lighting changes, might be a reaction to all the mayhem the past week. But between these two I'm going to keep a closer eye on the tank. All the other livestock are acting normally. No need for drastic action without a diagnosis.

Then I've got some odd pale-white fluffy tubular looking things growing on some of the rockwork too, generally in non-lit areas. Not sure how long those have been there but it's the first time I've seen them. Zero chance it's an aiptasia or majano, almost looks like maybe pineapple sponges. I'll monitor them before making any decisions.

Testing is also showing some changes from normal. The magnesium level is the only one that I feel is way out of whack from ideal, but the bigger concern is how many are different than normal. Though I haven't tested calcium in a couple weeks and the nitrate dosing may have contributed to the phosphate reduction via boosting the bacteria in the biopellets. I'm going to be taking the biopellets offline anyway, since I have some chaeto arriving tomorrow, so I might as well do that tonight, now that the phosphate numbers are down.

Salinity 1.025 (Normal)
Temp 77.5 (Normal)
Ammonia 0 (Normal)
Kh 9 (Normal)
Nitrates 0 (Normal)
Calcium 390 (down from 440)
Phosphates 0.08 (down from 0.42, which is good normally.)
Magnesium 1180 (down from 1300)

All of this was enough to justify a water change, I only had about 15 gallons ready to go. Both of my storage tanks are refilling now so that I can do more if needed tomorrow.

I also need to start dosing magnesium and calcium it seems. This'll make Calcium, Alkalinity, and Nitrates in the pumps (until nitrates don't need additional dosing). So for now I'll dose the magnesium manually. I'm hoping the nitrate dosing will only be for a short time. Pulling the biopellets from circulation should help with the over-export of the nitrates.

 

[hhaase]

Well, now that we're stable again, I kinda did something silly. They were having a sale locally.

I didn't have a frag rack, but I am handy with basic CAD stuff and my 3D printer, so I knocked out a quick one for a few of the pieces. Nice little torch (Maybe a hammer they say), a funky looking favia, and I believe an Alveopora that looked pretty sharp. So far they seem happy. Couple more days and I start to move them toward their new homes.

I can't get a good picture of the Acro that also came home. He's pretty well encrusted on the frag disc, and came with a friend in some Montipora. I'll have to cut these apart once they get settled in but it's neat seeing them competing on the disc like this. Too bad I can get the colors right, the Acro is a nice dark purple but with green at the tips of the growth. If the PAR is there, this one should really take off quick. Meanwhile the Monti is green with purple polyps, so exact opposite in colors.

 

[hhaase]

Dosing needs a bit more tweaking, but everything is either maintaining or trending in the direction I want very slowly.

Kh is at 8.5/9 .... I only have an API test so some vagueness in there, but consistent and in-range, but I did increase a bit.
Calcium is steady at 340 .... I increased the dosing today a touch. Going to be a while to dial this in.
Magnesium is up a touch at 1190 ... some vagueness in this, since it's right between points on the Red Sea test. But increasing dosing either way of epsom salts to start bringing it up more.
Phosphates are at 0.03 on the Hanna .... right where I want them
Nitrates are at 0.5 on the Hanna ... Good rate of increase, need to bring it up a bit more. No dosing change.

 

[hhaase]

Today I decided to sit down, watch some videos, do some research, and try and get some photography sorted out. It's been a while since I've done any macro work, so I needed the refresher. I've got some work to do on post-processing, and my Pentax 35mm macro is not optimal for this. It just doesn't have the reach. Particularly for where I want to have my Acro. I'm already shopping for a more appropriate lens.

Speaking of the Acro, I separated it from the monti that was growing on the frag plug. This was my first time cutting a frag plug like this, and I butchered the poor monti. It seems to be recovering, but time will tell. Polyps seem to be doing ok but there's some damage to the flesh in the middle of the frag.

But I think I've made a bit of progress today on presenting this tank to you.

 

[hhaase]

Nobody asked, but the photos do show it, so I might as well comment on something.

Yes, I've got dino's, or at least I think it's dino's.

Short version is, I'm just not stressing out over it. The tank is still fairly new (9 months), and I used dry rock, so there's going to be some uglies as it matures. I'm dealing with it. I just don't freak out about things like this any more. Slow and steady.

Long version.......

I've had them for a while actually, and an occasional hint of cyano or gelidium as well. Neither have really ever been significant. While present on most of the rock and substrate, the dino's never look to be 'healthy' and haven't thrived. Anything red seems to die off in a week after appearing in a patch on the substrate. I've also never had a hint of any kind of green algae. Since I started doing proper testing finally, it showed an imbalance between phosphates (a bit high, but not crazy), and nitrates (undetectable). This further reinforced my theory that the biopellets are too aggressive at removing nitrates.

Now that the biopellets are offline, the chaeto and refugium are online, and I'm dosing nitrates for the time being, things are slowly working back into the proper balance. Having a better coral-focused light spectrum is going to help too. Tank health is definitely improving as best I can tell. All of my stony corals are looking healthy, with good color and polyp extension, and the older pieces have seen obvious growth. Softies have always just kinda 'been there'. Not receding, but not growing. Since they're not in any risk of dying that I can tell I'll worry about them later after I get done with this phase of nutrient tuning.

Slow and steady. No quick fixes, no 'magic bottles', my focus is to work on my basic husbandry skills and maintaining the ecosystem. About the only other upcoming change I see myself doing any time soon is perhaps try to introduce some more lower life form biodiversity like pods and such. Otherwise for now I just want to let the most recent changes settle and let the system balance itself.

 

[hhaase]

Eventually I do plan on upgrading lights, not that I know which ones yet (though I do have some ideas). Being eurobraced, this tank has limited options for mounting. I'm going to have to do some kind of frame or hood.

Here's what I'm looking at for a potential frame idea. The top cross-pieces are channels, so I can make little sub-frames that'll let me change lights and adjust spacing as needed by just sliding them in and out. I'll likely do the sides and front with stainless sheeting to match the stand, and hinged doors on the front.

Not 100% sure if I'll go this route though. just brainstorming right now. I may also take out that front crossbar, not sure if that's actually needed.

 

[hhaase]

I'm super happy with this shot. New lens is working fantastic now that I'm getting a feel for it.

 

[hhaase]

A couple more that I can use to look for growth now. Still have a few more to document but I'm really happy with how these pictures are progressing.

The Monti took a beating when I fragged it, but the polyps seems to be doing well.

 

[hhaase]

Tank is still nice and stable, it's time for more of a cleanup crew. I've had some in the past, a few turbos and astrea's, but I'm down to a single astrea that I know of.... an he's happily cleaning the SAME stinking frag disc all day, every day. Maybe wanders a bit away from it once in a while, but then he's back to that same disc soon after.

So I've got some fresh reinforcements on the way. Some hermits, a bunch of cerith's, a few more nassarius, some trochus, and a pair of money cowrie's. I've already got plenty of shells for the hermits, so hopefully there won't be any issues there. First time with Cowrie's, that'll be interesting.

 

[hhaase]

This poor monti cap! It was the 2nd frag I put into the tank, and I goofed big time. I had it right on top of the left side rock pile, and I was still using the original dual 30w LED's in the fixtures. It got bleached out badly and never recovered. I honestly thought it was completely dead. Half of it had broken off and fallen into the substrate where I just let it sit out of apathy.

A few weeks back I saw a slight glow of pink in the UV light, and I found that there were maybe 4 polyps which looked like they were trying to stage a comeback. I found a spot to wedge it into the rock and just left it alone to see what would happen. To my surprise it colored up and grew!

Today I decided it was time to finally move the little guy, hopefully into a location with very similar PAR, but also better for the aesthetics of the tank and more photogenic too. We're REALLY zoomed in here. It's maybe 4mm x 8mm in size, which is at least double what it was when I rediscovered it. For a size comparison, that's a human hair just to the left of the monti. Oops.

I'll just keep it clean and see what happens. It would be great if this recovers.

 

[hhaase]

Still struggling to maintain nitrate levels, which I guess is good? Something has to be consuming it and I don't have much algae to worry about. Corals are looking healthy and I'm seeing some hints of growth in the new frags. Not much coraline progress but it's present. I'm probably over-exporting. Phosphates are barely registering too. I've decided to cut the skimmer time back, and shutting it down for 7 hours a day. Refugium light had been on for 9 hours a day, I'm cutting that back to 7 hours.

Also added a fair sized cleanup crew yesterday. A mix of nassarius, cerith, dwarf cerith, trochus snails, a couple cowry's, and a few "reef safe" hermits. We'll see how these guys do.

 

[chousecat]

Love how detailed you are with these posts, looking forward to what the tank has in store. So I see corals but are there any fish? Could help bring in nutrients to combat dinos

 

[hhaase]

Fish stocking is pretty light right now. 1 clownfish, a pair of kupang damsels, one banggai cardinal, and one firefin goby. I previously also had a lawnmower blenny, but he jumped, which was a shame as I really enjoyed him. I lost a banggai cardinal for unknown reasons.

I keep checking the local shops for more fish but I've either been unhappy with the choices or the condition of the livestock. I'm really really picky with bringing home fish as I don't currently have the ability to quarantine. But I am looking to add more.

 

[zukihara]

Keep up the good work! I'm interested to see how the corals do.

 

[hhaase]

Same here! So far things are looking promising for the corals, even that tiny shard of monti cap. Calcium consumption isn't excessive but it's definitely increased from a few months ago. Certain pieces are showing good growth now. On that purple/green acro, the green appears to be area of active growth, and it's got a LOT more green on it than when it arrived. Photos are suggesting some fresh polyps are about to break out.

I did have a small setback on my new favia, it looks like it got stung pretty bad by the hammer while sitting on the frag rack. A couple polyps had some areas burned back to the skeleton. After moving him to a safer spot the polyps appear to be recovering.

For a fun picture, check out the growth amount on this Astrea snail. It was a petco purchase, and I'm convinced they paint the things purple to make it look like there's coraline covering their shells. But it does give a chance to see how much growth it's had since introducing into my tank. This guy always stays in the same area, never ventures more than a couple inches from here. Does a great job cleaning his square inches of rockspace though.

 

[attiland]

Same here! So far things are looking promising for the corals, even that tiny shard of monti cap. Calcium consumption isn't excessive but it's definitely increased from a few months ago. Certain pieces are showing good growth now. On that purple/green acro, the green appears to be area of active growth, and it's got a LOT more green on it than when it arrived. Photos are suggesting some fresh polyps are about to break out.

I did have a small setback on my new favia, it looks like it got stung pretty bad by the hammer while sitting on the frag rack. A couple polyps had some areas burned back to the skeleton. After moving him to a safer spot the polyps appear to be recovering.

For a fun picture, check out the growth amount on this Astrea snail. It was a petco purchase, and I'm convinced they paint the things purple to make it look like there's coraline covering their shells. But it does give a chance to see how much growth it's had since introducing into my tank. This guy always stays in the same area, never ventures more than a couple inches from here. Does a great job cleaning his square inches of rockspace though.

I have similar discussions on my snails. and I think it is related to the food they were eating in my tank for a few months. I am now expecting to see more pink shell sections as coralline started to take over almost every grazing areas

 

[count krunk]

Why does your u pipe have a point on it?

Also it looks like you tank has minimal rock, have you thought about adding more?

 

[hhaase]

The point is the air vent for the secondary overflow, keeps it quiet. Most people assemble that part from pvc fittings and drill a vent hole. I opted to have fun with a 3D printed version.

I’ll likely be adding a bit more rock at some point. I have about 100lbs in there right now but I want a fair amount of empty space. Not looking for a huge amount of rock work though. Maybe something to add a small arch or shelf along the right side. Perhaps some shelf rock.