Head-High IM 100 EXT

[Head-High and Glassy]

Week 7

Got a rose acropora, a rose montipota, and a short-spined urchin. Becoming more convinced that the flame hawk may have put out the eye of the pintail wrasse, who now sleeps in the corner of the tank rather than within the rocks. Flame hawk also dive bombs the cleaner shrimp on occasion, who seems unperturbed and is happily eating from a syringe.

Hooked up an osmolator 3 for ATO. Surprisingly simple and effective.

Also added the plank avast 3.6 with a kasa smart plug for mid-day and vacation automatic feedings. Clownfish became quite curious about this contraption after the first feeding.

I think i managed to find a dkh replacement level of all for reef at about 25-30 ml per day for this relatively new 100 g tank with 100 lbs live rock, 40 snails, and few coral. Not needing to add baking soda anymore at this amount.

Nitrate is basically undetectable with pawfly liquid test kit, but will probably wait for a problem to appear before trying to add anything to bring it up. Not really testing anything else other than salinity and dkh every day.

Had my skimmer overflowing for a little while after filling the sump from my last water change. Guess I need to keep the sump level on the low side during filling.

That's all the news fit to print.

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

Week 8

Just got back from a week away. Flame hawkfish had jumped out during that time, but the tank now seems entirely peaceful without it. Not saying it had it coming, but doing very well managing my grief. That leaves two clowns, melanurus, pintail, sleeper goby, 2 tuxedo urchins, a short spine urchin, astrea snails, hermits, and whatever came in on the live rock that I haven't caught yet.

Additionally, the toadstool was knocked off it's rock, a monti frag was flipped upside down, and another monti was half-buried under sand from the sleeper goby. But no total losses other than the hawkfish, now surely terrorizing the great tank in the sky.

However, the plank avast functioned as planned and the fish that didn't jump all had fat bellies with no water quality issues; the osmolator 3 with a brute trashcan full off rodi and afr kept the tank running and alkalinity just a tick below where I left it; and there wasn't a puddle of water on the floor (I was too scared to put a wifi camera on the tank because watching it crash/flood would have certainly ruined vacation, and there was nothing I could have done to stop it).

Today, instead of rushing back from vacation to buy something(s) at the LFS, decided to have Easter brunch and work on getting everything right in the tank first (actually my wife wisely wouldn't let me go, even after I dangled the 15% off Easter sale; in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the sale). So I ordered a Tropic Marin glass hydrometer to break the tie between the cheap square plastic needle hydrometer and the cheap refractometer, which are worlds apart.

I THINK THERE IS CORALINE ALGAE!!

WHOOO HOO!!

 

[kovy_]

Loving this thread. So brutally honest. Is this your first reef tank?

 

[kovy_]

[duplicate post]

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

Thanks! I briefly tried a saltwater tank in high school and never made it to anything that could even be mistaken for coraline algea. Each tiny paycheck I would decide between buying the smallest live rock piece that wasn't straight rubble and saving up for that second metal halide light, which I never did end up getting, as the only coral I ever tried did not make it long enough. I can't remember what happened to the tank. I left for college, and when I came back home for the summer it was just gone. Although I think my mom finding a dried up eel under my bed might have had something to do with its disappearance.

 

[Indiana Reefin]

I wouldn't worry about the mantis shrimp. I had one for a short period from TBS rock and I had much smaller fish. It never seemed to bother my fish or inverts other than crabs. It did a number on some of the gorilla crabs. I ended up catching it and giving it to a friend. It was very personable and would come out when I approached the tank and fed it. It would even eat food from tweezers. The mantis shrimp that come from the gulf stay pretty small and are not really worth tearing your tank apart to capture.

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

Week 9

Not much to look at, so only posting the pic for documentary purposes. Started adding Neonitro and Neophos in very small amounts, as salifert was reading ND, and coral not looking strong. Also a decent amount of algea so added some turbos and trochus.

Fish and other inverts all pretty good though. We've been enjoying our cleaner shrimp, so much that we added a blood shrimp. Also a red spot blenney.

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

Week 10

The tank seems to be getting more stable. Think nitrates are detectable by salifert. Phosphate is at 0.02 and hopefully rising, based on Hanna checker that I wasted two reagent packets figuring out how to use, including one spilled on the counter and one inverted reading probably because the vial wasn't clean. Didn't realize Hanna is basically still adding a powder reagent to a water sample and just digitizes the color change, until i bought it. Little surprised it came with only 8 reagent packs, so rationing is in effect.

Managed to grab a massive mithrax with the steak tongs. Probably should have chucked him on the grill, but my wife's horror was palpable, notwithstanding the kid's applause. They now want me to attack anything that moves with the tongs. But I'm pretty sure this guy cleaned off a zoa plug, ate half my toadstool, which at the current rate seems likely to take 5 years to regrow (but can't believe it's still alive with polyps out!), and afr the feather dusters off my frogspawn.

And finally saw this guy after 2+ months! But he's so small at 1" that he couldn't possibly be harming anything and is so blindingly fast that the tongs are way out of their league.

I think I see a bend toward the light in the branch of this solar flare that wasn't there when I bought it 6 weeks ago!!

The resilience of everything so far inspired me to drop a black chip on a wwc pantera rose frag that in 5 years might be visible with the naked eye, if it lasts that long and we haven't sold our house and retired to a tiny condo by the beach.

Might be time to get a filter for the camera.

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

Week 13 ish (will confirm in the next post)

Lost my smooth acropora. I think part of it got shaded pretty badly and died and the rest didn't recover.

Also lost the blenny through jumping. Trying not to buy any more fish until i can get a lid. Also taking it slow on coral until i feel comfortable stuff is living.

But everything else seems pretty good. I got rid of whatever brown slimy stringy bubbly stuff I had pretty quickly by adding some turbos and raising nitrates/phosphates.

Solar flare has its first new tip!

This torch and frogspawn seem pretty good so far.

Moved this tenuis down a little. Thought it might be getting too much light.

Caught this guy about five minutes after putting the glass with mysis in the tank. The blood shrimp was persistantly curious, which served only to aggravate and encourage the crab to get in there first. He tried to hang on to the edge of the glass with one claw but the mysis was just too enticing, and he let go. He knew right away that he'd screwed up--rapidly flailing all his legs as he fell to the bottom. Gave the blood shrimp some extra food for the assist.

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

Almost 4 months.

Due to jumping, fish are down to 2 clowns, yellow-headed sleeper goby, and melanurus wrasse. Descanso en paz. Just ordered a lid from Kraken.

Coral and inverts all seem to be doing well. I've been adding AFR, neophos, and neonitro into a 5 gallon bucket that I use for ATO, which has been working well. Also need to replenish salt the same way.

Maybe alkalinity is a little high based on white acro tips? But it has started growing a second new tip and is slowly encrusting the frag plug.

Obviously not very stocked at this point. Just going slowly and making sure the new stuff grows before adding more.

This sunset cap is slowly encrusting. Probably wants more light though.

Overall, spending a pretty decent amount of time on testing, maintenance and viewing, but enjoying it so far.

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

4.5 months

Added a yellow tang and a midas blenny. All the fish are eating and doing well. Lid should be here tomorrow.

Couple new corals.

Updated blurry pic of solar flare with 2 new tips visible.

Have been using all for reef to maintain alkalinity but not really testing calcium at all. Thought I'd take a look, and it ended up being off the chart >500. So dialing back the AFR and adding a little baking soda but having to tweak the amounts to not have alk drop too much.

Have 2 mp40s on one side of the tank and not happy with the flow on the other side but scared to move one of the mp40s because the solar flare is doing so well. Contemplating some sort of gyre for the other side.

 

[Head-High and Glassy]

Almost 5 months.

Current fish are 2 clowns, melanurus wrasse, yellow headed sleeper goby, midas blenny, yellow tang, and copper banded butterfly.

Kraken lid arrived. Great to have peace of mind after losing 4 fish to jumping in a few months. Looks great and is pretty easy to deal with for cleaning, feeding, and stuff. Only issue was the radion rms arms for the slide must be different from the cutout template they use, because I can't fit the clamp piece that screws in. The slide is still sturdy without it though, so will take my chances.

Couldn't resist a copperband butterfly at the LFS. It wasn't eating there and it isn't eating here either. Tried clams on the shell, live blackworms, and the usual mysis etc. It was curious about the blackworms initially but now is a solid pass. Still picking at the rocks though. Added some pods from algea barn, so we'll see. For the first day, the yellow tang was a real jerk, backing into him and trying to tail whip him, but has mainly lost interest now.

Have some cyano, but not too bad yet so basically leaving it be. Any hobby where the motto is "first try doing nothing" is my type of hobby. Same approach I've been using for raising kids.

Also got an orbit 4 for the other side of the glass from the 2 mp40s. Really like it but only have it running at like 15% or else it would be pushing water onto the floor. Now have all my pumps on kasa smart outlets so I can kill the power for feeding etc, because I haven't figured out how to do that on the app--feed mode still looks like a cat-4.

Couple pics.