Here I go again.

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Mark Novack

Mark Novack

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Monday, 14 March. Nitrites holding at orange/amber or appox 2PPM in the big tank. Salinity is now 1.018. Still running dark and 29 Celcius.

Dipped some star polyps from my small tank. Decided to throw them out after dipping because they were holed through all over their tissues. Looked closely in the formation from where I pulled them and saw many tiny, about 0.2 mm, critters crawling over the rocks. Pulled out the entire formation and dipped it and vacuumed the sand in the area fully. Now I shall monitor the rest of the star polyps to see if they improve. Only one species of polyp was hit hard, the other two just stunted a bit. If the dip was effective they should show it soon. I have not seen another .2mm critter but its too soon to say. The dip was Red Sea used at full strength for the recommended 15 minutes. Everything was rinsed twice before returning to the tank.

My start-up plan has been politely eaten alive by many folks as being ridiculous but I have decided to stick to my guns and the advice from scholarly articles out of various universities with major marine biology departments and assistance from the U of Liege public aquarium lead technician.
 
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17 March, 1000hrs. Nitrites just detectable and dropping fast. Salinity 1.018. Temp 29C. I will be off to the store for a bucket of salt this afternoon to start raising the numbers and lower the temp a degree per day. The goal is to add a fish on Sunday. My Grandma Loretta, er, Gramma Loreto will be the first victim. That fish is going to get lost with all of that space. From 80 to 710 liters.

Bring on the diatoms! Let's get this show on the road!

Mark
 
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Friday, March 18, 2022. Salinity 1.019, temp 28C, lights coming on during day now. Scratched in my favorite purple coralline algaes from little tank. Added another brand of bacterias because it was there. Bought new test kits. Not really good at color difference between white, off white, arctic white, polar white, or snow white. I'll go back an get a small Sera kit of marine utility. Sera tests make different colors that I can read.

Technics are all working well. Pumps are pumping, no leaking, filter advancing correctly. I have far to much main pump power. I should manifold the feed and use one pump for all. Perhaps when all of the last utilities are running I'll get that done. I did not buy a back up pump for nothing...it did cost half price!
 
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Saturday, March 19. Salt is 1.021, temp is 27C and going to 26. Nitrites are now at zero. I have not yet tried a nitrate test. I will add a fish and see what happens. I hope I can get to him without taking the small aquarium apart.
 
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Transfering Hubertos was very anticlimactic. He swam right into the net. He seems happy but misses chewing on the baby hepatus' tail.
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Salt is low imo
It seems so but the tank did just make a complete basic N cycle in 20 days. Now it will have to go through its algae and diatom phase. I can only watch and see how it passes through before I can judge how everything is working. Up to this day, it seems to be very good. The fish is in, it has eaten, and I will continue testing daily for a blip on the ammonia/nitrite tests although I don't expect to see one.

Next step is to watch and feed the fish for a week.
 
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23 March, brown spots are appearing everywhere. The ugly part is coming! Fish is fine. Important parameters of cycle are fine.
 
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26 March. Very brown. Added snails and hepatus. Did 10% water change. Have some temporary corals hanging out while I get their home cleaned up.
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Today marks the end of the fourth week. Ammonia/Nitrites 0.0 all week. Ph 8.0 and steady. Need CO2 scrubber. Its always been that way new or old water. Baby Hepatus is doing better without the bristle worms of the small tank. No more itchy scratchy. Added 4 Lysmata shrimp 2 amb/2 deb.

Observations.

1. Snail poo makes the skimmer more active

2. Diatom growth is no longer rapid where the snails have cleaned it up and the bloom is slowing down.
 
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29March, 1230hrs added 11 snails, CO2 scrubber 1.5liter capacity, and one small Acanthurus Japonicus. It was a planned fish added early because it can be timid. Its eating very well. Diatoms are receding already and quickly. Live rock arrives this week.

Due to the energy cost increase, live stock is going to be difficult for a while. The major supplier in Europe is overwhelmingly understocked.

Tested parameters are:
Sal 1.023 going to a target of 1.024/25 with salted refill water.
Ph 8.0
Kh 8.0
Mg 1280 and I'm adding
Ca 420 and I'm adding
Nitrate was at 3 or 4 ppm but I have not checked since the brown appeared.

So far I am really pleased. I hope the Japonicus does well. Next fish is hopefully a Naso Elegans in a few weeks.
 
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30March, 1030hrs. PH is now at 8.2 solid. That is a first for my home. I once saw 8.3 in my first tank with an open house, new water and a bare tank. 7.9 was the average in my best tank. I installed the scrubber at 1230 yesterday and now at 1030 the next day, aquarium twilight just starting, the PH is a solid 8.2. Yesterday evening it was 8.1 but I thought it might be the natural daytime Ph rise. In fact, there is nothing growing yet that would elevate the daytime Ph significantly.

The Cynarina is showing the change. Its not too happy for the moment but its early in the day. It was fluffy and toothy all night so I think it will be fine. It eats like a hog.

My take on the CO2 scrubber is that it works. No hassle at all. My store is not being naughty with the prices either. They are not repackaging and tripling the price of Soda Lime. They are buying it, applying a small mark-up for creating the supply chain and selling it at democratic prices. Instead of classifying it as hobby material, they classified it as a veterinary treatment, reducing the sales tax from 21% to 6%.
 
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Thursday, April 7 2022 update. Diatoms have come and gone away suddenly and naturally. No action to clean up was taken. They did their thing. I overshot 1.025 and salinity is 1.026. I have l placed 5 acropora specimens to see what happens. They are ocean cultured from Bali Aquarium. The specimens transfered from the small aquarium are all doing great, the new Acropora are extending their polyps slowly. Yesterday, I added my three fresh pieces of Indonesian rock after a week in the bucket showed nothing on the tests. Although there was nothing in the bucket but a little sediment, after plopping them into the tank I did see pods and wormy things exiting the rocks and going into the sand bed.

Fish situation is beautiful. I now have the Gramma Loreto, Paracanthurus Hepatus, Acanthurus Japonicus and Naso Elegans. After 2 days of attitude, the three surgeons are now schooling together. This is the first time I have seen three species of surgeons school. This is great because there are more surgeons coming next month.

I have created a stressor in the tank with PH. My Milwaukee Ph pen went out of calibration so quickly that I thought my Ph was overshooting so I removed the scrubber. After realizing that nothing on the pen was correct, I found that it had shifted 0.4 on calibration in a few days. I'm not storing it correcly I guess. I think I will spend money on a proper probe instead of killing more snails. I lost 4 of 22, not too bad. I got them out before they decayed away.

This is by far the best and smoothest start-up I have ever had. I'm loving the blue background of the tank and I have learned how to use the white balance on my phone camera to take a decent picture.

I'm tapping this out on my tablet. I'll take some photos and post them from my phone.
 
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And some photos. Note the surgeonfish hanging together. The malplaced rocks are the new live ones that will go into the sump in a few months.
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11 April, coraline algae is appearing in flecks across the rocks. Center acropora has growing tips now.
 
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24 May 2022. Paranoia is heavy. The upper is almost stocked. No losses, everything is showing a millimeter of base growth per day or two. Rock is mostly clean but there is still a diminishing carpet on the sand. Calcium reactor is running and performing well. Alkalinity is almost dialed in with no outrageous swings. Consumption is high for a young tank but I see where it is going into coral skeleton and coralline growth.

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16 June 2022. The algae carpet on the sand is 99% gone. There is a small cyanobacteria layer here and there. I changed resin cartridge on the RODI machine and did two small water changes and the cyanobacteria is diminishing rapidly so I am making up a significant water change. Growth is the best I have ever had. The favia and favites have grown in the 3 weeks since their introduction, zoas are popping up well, and all 30 acropora are skinned to the rock.

I have used Red Sea AB+. Perhaps it did something. I have stopped the dosing to see if there will be a change. I am feeding my fish with Aqua Forest liquid artemia and the coral polyp response to that is better than with the coral foods or AB+. What does what for what is still a question.

I have Montipora nudibranchs! Luckily, nothing is difficult to detatch and start a dipping process.

Next week is a 600 hand picked pieces arrival at Reef Corner in Belgium, an hour from here. I will be there. Its an in store and online store with the largest collection in Europe. I have been hoarding cash for next week in hopes of hoarding some nice pieces.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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