Here we go! TinCanHero's First SW build - 93 gal 30" x 30" x 24" (LxWxH) Cube :)

[TinCanHero]

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[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for my customary new coral day update
Coral came today early this morning, everything looked great! a few things to note, instead of having 2 x candycane frags they gave me a colony instead with a few heads free Also my elegance it seems was a frag from a larger colony, it seems like it has no mouth thou.

So yeah, package came thismorning, opened it, dipped everything and tanked it. lots of copopods and a few starfish this time. Everything was retracted when i got it so i couldn't make much out, elegance was really tiny and really ticked off

Fastforward half a day now im home and everything is looking good! the elegance is still a little flopped over but hopefully it will rite itself soon! i cant see a mouth on it either, but i may just be missing it. Normally i wouldnt have bought a frag of it as i think i watched in a tidal gardens video that they never really look right after being fragged.

A few other things, ive had a small explosion in the last day or so of GHA on of my frag racks, im half tempted to pick a snail up and pop him up there tbh. I also purchased some 6% hydrogen peroxide today incase i ever need it.

I didn't get around to testing last night :/ although i have managed to get it done tonight.
Here is my results:
No3 10-15
po4 0.1 - maybe? i find it impossible to tell tbh - maybe i should get a Hannah checker
cal - for some reason i couldn't get a result and i tried 5 times, every time it was changing colour in the .1-.2 range :/
KH 12.5 - this scared me.. alot.

So yeah, something has gone array here, i think ive made a mistake but im not to sure what ive done yet, ill have to read up i guess. im going to assume its when i dosed cal for the 1st time a few days ago, basically my cal was a little "low" at the 430 range, i usually run at 460 so i wanted to bump it back up slowly so i used one of the online calculators and did 1/4 of the recommended dose, 9 grams if i remember. Im going to assume this has impacted the DKH of the tank, i did a little light reading at the time but i guess i got it wrong.. :/ This is probably why my coral took a hit the other day?
Anyway i have my tank filling for a WC in the next day or so.
PH is back up again, that day it dropped like crazy the window got shut, i opened it again and it bumped the PH back to 8, still low but stable so that's okey for now.

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for a small update,
Just a quick one, did a 100L WC this evening (tank is filling back up atm)
As im filling it back up i decide to try the whole "pressure wash" thing again, i had to stop after a few seconds as it was to effective if anything. I plan to formulate a way to use it to my advantage, maybe do it on a closed loop before a large WC for the next few times and then go for the closed loop with the tank running idea to force all of the crap down the overflow into socks / the skimmer.

I also noticed im seeing alot more red cyano on the rocks, im cleaning it as i see it with WC but i think its time to do a sump clean out since as i showed you guys its the cyano hotspot, its been what 5 months now so i guess its due i just need to be careful not to cause a bloom.

GHA is also a pain in the but, i picked up some hydrogen peroxide as a nuke option just incase (as i have with the cyano) not intrested in pushing the button unless my Zoas become way overgrown, but we will try placing them on the sandbed with some snails before we go down that route.

Last of all, and the reason im posting is i decided to take some top down pics while the tank was low on water, why havent i thought of this before now.. lol Also anyone noticed these "new" redsea branded salt bag "clips" there not resealable anymore..

Anyway, tank is almost full, Best be off.
Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for a small update.
Everything seems to be back to normal param wise, i think my neuts are running a little high on the high side still thou.
I have another WC waiting to go tomorrow, and ill do one more at the end of the week for good measure since i want to do my sump and pumps.
Sand is still looking good too, no more diatoms!

So whats the issues this week? well we have a few i guess with a few more on the horizon.

To start off, my elegance hasn't done so well in my tank, its been open but flopped down (as you can see in the pic from when i got it) I thought it might just need a few days but today it didn't look so great at the two "corners" of its smaller bit, tonight i noticed it was starting to lift from its skeleton at one of those parts and is fully retracted in that area.

I stuck the whites on to take a pic and decided to just look around the tank with the whites on, something i never do or really see as its usually dipping off into blues by the time im home. Anyway i noticed a few problems.

I noticed some bubble algae on some of my frag plugs.. hiding under Zoa's mainly.

There is more GHA than i thought, its starting to get ahold in many places, although not out of control its posing a problem for my frags, especially my zoas that its growing inbetween and also my poor gorgonian, its still opening but its covered. im also seeing some of that macro algae that came on some of the plugs growing back again.

ive also noticed a nice pink huge starting to apear on my rocks in some areas.. nope not coraline but rather cyano.

One other thing im kinda scared about is the 6line wrasse i got. I told myself no more fish without your 60l tank turned into a QT. Man i wish i did it.. Im hoping im just being paranoid here but i noticed my wrasse fin is alittle torn in one place (been like this from day 1) and i can see a tiny white dot on his back at the start of his tail, its only on one side on the "dot" part of his pattern (actually while looking for a image of one to show you guys where it seems this wrasse has one in the same spot also, but its more golden in colour while mine is white. https://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/large/lg_76307_Six_Line_Wrasse.jpg)
Anyway i also noticed my Tang scratching his belly on some of the rocks yesterday, got me a little worried is all, i guess ill keep a close eye on everything.

Not much else to report really, Im putting the algae growth and cyano to a degree down to higher neuts and thats due to overfeeding and having a build up of crap in my tank and sump. That and the fact im due to have the ugly stage, iv gotten away with with it so far but if my timeline is anything to go by my tank is slow on everything

If anyone reads this one id really appreciate your advice and input, like what would you do about the GHA on the plugs etc

Kind regards & happy reefing
TinCanHero.

Not many pics today, sorry

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another small update.

A few things have happened since our last small update.
I did another WC last night, everything went well as usual. I didn't get a chance to clean the plugs up.. still kicking myself about it, the snails got up there again today? thou, cleaned most of the plugs up on that dirty rack but fell short when it got a bit thick with coral i think, unfortunately that is the effected area. I'm going to start to move and place a few coral this weekend i hope, that should allow me to clean and space the rest.

Next up i fragged my kenya tree, nothing major but i noticed it was touching my monti didgi and it wasnt liking it one bit so the kenya tree had a chop. stuck the 2-3" bit onto a rock with a elastic band, something to giveaway to someone Im really debating getting rid of the whole thing thou, im not exactly fond of it, it grows like a weed and i know it gives off toxins and i have a much nicer green leather coral, basically the same thing but nicer. I do like how the whole thing reacts at once when you touch it thou

While we are on the subject of coral my elegance looks alot better, its even stood up as id expect at the back the last few days, the front is open but flopped still. Im thinking what i was seeing is the elegance ripping down that weird flap it has, im not sure but it looks alot better.
My green stylo has been acting a little weird over the last few days, its been closed on one side, the side that had the red cyano patch on, today when i got home its fully closed up.

Had a bit of a **** up today too, i had some notifications today while in work - lost connection with the apex.. okey something isnt right.. I call home to see whats going on, apparently my slap job of a dolly wasnt up to the task. After my WC last night i went to bed before emptying my waste water, i started a new RODI drum off and called it a night. Thismorning someone tried to move the dolly with almost 2 drums of water on it, something ive never done (only moved it with 1 full before) the screws broke and both drums went over the floor tripping the power. A mess to clean up but its not a huge deal i guess.. until i get told 12 hours later the fridge and freezer are still off and have been used all day like they where on.... great.

Few last things regarding pests, red cyano is on the rise, hair algae is stable and im removing it when i do wc's and last of all i think i may have spotted a aiptasia on my GAS zoa plug. This is the plug that has what looks like a single bubble algae on it (although i think i remember it being a glue ball that just looks like one) that plug also has some GHA on it that was masking it, but if you look at the photo i posted in my last post of that coral you can kinda see the tentacles on the aiptasia either side of the stem, its really hard to make out but im 95% sure its one, unless its a weird baby from the GAS as its right at the base of it.

Anyway, i don't really have time to transfer and upload pics today - sorry

Ill get some sorted for next time, hopefully ill have time to sort everything tomorrow

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update!

It's been a while, ive tried writing a update few times but every time i run out of time and I never get it done. So in that spirit ill keep it short so we can get back to regular updates.

- Red Cyano bloom is at its peak, looks crap - more info below
- same for GHA, what a crazy difference a week can make!
- had huge blooms, neuts somewhere.. turns out chato died due to cyano and i just didnt see it. blacked out sump a week or so ago and all cyano is dead and sump just looks dirty with detritus now.. Time to clean
- Coral looks good, some growing like crazy
- kenya tree is a weed.. ticking my monti off. i hate it. gona remove soon.
- mounted the Goni and candicane with DD putty to the rockwork.
- fish are good
- did i mention i hate GHA?
- No rewire yet, this week!
- removed bubble algae.. remember when i said in my post about that crap vendor i had some macro algae on the plugs? well nope it was popped bubble algae.. :/
- still no package from that guy mentioned above, he promised 2morrow but we will see.. :/
- got some stuff arriving 2moz

bla bla bla, anyway, everything is good apart from the GHA and Cyano, im cleaning it up alright for the most part thou.

Last off all quick story, crazy actually.. So pallys/zoa's can move. google tells me Nope. Im telling you they can and do. one of my single head pallys has moved from its plug to the plug next door. i though i was crazy but nope.. 100% over a month it moved, i cleaned the plugs today and separated the last tiny bit. i thought i snail nocked it and it landed there but i 100% have watched it go from 2/3 on its original plug to today where i broke the last little bit.

Anyway, pics 2moz. if i dont press post now ill end up back at square one again

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update.

So i guess tomorrow didn't happen, I made a post but again ran out of time to upload pics.

Lets get the bad news out of the way.
Its been a rough week for the tank, i messed up. Again.

That package i mentioned last time arrived, i ordered some salt, No3po4-x (Redsea) and some new putty. (You may already see where this is going..)
So i decided to get some "pox" to help bring my neut issue under control now my sump is clean and "rewired" as i noticed my nitrates where up at almost 20 and my phosphates at almost 0.1(? - Under full disclosure ill add a quote from my last post i didn't actually post under here).

in the spirit of honesty and openness i committed too: Im starting to annoy myself with my lack of water testing, id like to blame time as the cause but i think its both time and a onset of 'laziness' i swore i wouldn't have. I'm always in a rush in the morning and im always shattered when i get home this time of year. its since this cover went on, ive also been cleaning the glass less. i really need to come up with a better routine for testing!! -- i would have should have noticed my chato dieing through testing as a example.. BAD Tincan....

I decided to add 2ml per 100L (fup one) for my 1st dose late at night before bed and then i hooked the bottle up to my doing pump and set it to dose 8ml a day, 4 in the morning and 4 at night. I called it a night and went to bed, awoke the next day and just headed off to work as usual, around 9am my phone starts getting emails and warnings from fusion about the PH dropping. I had no way to get home during work and watched my ph drop to 7.73 by early afternoon before i got another notification.. 7.74.. thank god! The tank climbed back to 7.9 before lights out and dipped to 7.8 during the night before returning to normal the next day. I also noticed a bloom of bacteria (cloudy water) when i got home but that went overnight. I started a new WC tank off and just pulled the dosing pipe out of the holder and placed it in a glass that was on the shelf because i had to leave quickly again for a party that i was already late to. Anyway, messup no2 seems to be that i only calibrated pump 1 as that's all im using i assumed i had done all 3 when i set it up but i guess not.. although i didn't measure it it was 100% atleest 20ml in the glass when i got home (should have been 4ml) i guess thats why my ph dropped like a stone and i had a large bloom. Anyway i did a WC on Thursday evening (the next day) and i have another to go tomorrow.
All coral bar two are fine now.
My BTA when i came home Wed/Thursday had moved for the first time about 4-5 inches to the right under a ledge and was closed up tight also for the first time, its opened in that place since but hasn't inflated atall and is swapping from closed to open but not inflated. its currently closed in that place.
Next casualty is my large colony of superman monti. around 90-95% is dead. over the last 3 days its just stripped its flesh starting from one side to the other and now to both edges, the good parts look great still but its just pealing from the edges and its not stopping. if i had a way to frag it it would try and cut it a few mm back but i have nothing that can do the job.
most of the LPS looked like crap and was closed on day 1 but all are open and back to normal now. SPS didn't care, neither did the softies.

Anyway, with story time out of the way, whats new?
- I cleaned the sump and all pumps in the sump.
- mostly rewired the sump still a little work to do.
- apex is now fully being used -- no more unplugging plugs
- GHA is growing less but is still a problem
- cyano is still a problem
- kenya tree must go, its stinging my monti and its taking up to much room and shouldn't have been there anyway.
- my green finger coral fell since i got to big and in the flow of a powerhead it landed upright and was happy on the sand so i left it there, anyway the monti fell on the finger and its gone black in some places, guess its dieing off there. not to bothered as its almost as weedy as the kenya tree and will probably frag itself.

not sure what else is new or has changed since its been a while. Not getting any new coral until the tank is back "clean" just working on that right now. If i had to comment on the state of my tank i wouldn't say its thriving, i need to work on stability and discipline a little more.

Anyway, here's some pics

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

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[NY_Caveman]

That is such a bummer having to watch those alerts from afar. At least you knew what happened when you got home, or you may have been wondering. Tank is still looking pretty darn good.

 

[TinCanHero]

That is such a bummer having to watch those alerts from afar. At least you knew what happened when you got home, or you may have been wondering. Tank is still looking pretty darn good.

Hey dude! Thanks for the reply!

I honestly think that PH probe might have saved my tank / reduced the damage. In all likelyhood i wouldn't have really noticed myself until after work the next day and by that time another 2 or possibly 3 doses by the pump would have been added.
I wrote that post Sat night and since then the monti has stopped dieing (left with 2 small bits). The BTA opened yesterday morning but didnt inflate and closed mid afterternoon/early evening. its opened up today pretty good but still hasn't inflated. Poor thing is still upset.

I have a WC to go later today, Im really thinking of using ChemiClean to get rid of the cyano. I read a post on Reddit yesterday about someone asking what it was in there tank, every single reply said to remove as much as you can manually and then use ChemiClean or another brand i cant remember.
I feel this way i can focus on cleaning the GHA up (its growing alot less this week) while reducing those neuts even more.

I'm a little hesitant of the "pox" now, but i think ill start using it again slowly and manually also.

Last thing, Thankyou for checking in and reading my posts, your likes let me know that atleest someone is reading and that means alot to me and keeps me posting Thanks!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Ha. Thanks. I am not a fan of chemicals for Cyanobacteria. It just seems to be attacking the symptom and not the cause. In my experience it always goes away on its own. Just my opinion. I know it does work for people.

As an example, I had a tank crash recently and had it everywhere. I blew it off twice a week for a month or so and it finally stopped coming back. There was some hair algae under that, but now the snails can get to it and that is being taken care of.

Here is my tank near its worst about 1.5 months ago, Cyano everywhere.

This was yesterday (forgive the reflection).

No chemicals. Just patiently blew it off until it stopped coming back. FWIW, I had a decent die off on a move (and some other issues) that I blamed for the outbreak. I assumed the tank needed to digest all of that and it appears it may be getting there. I still have a tiny bit in low flow spots.

Good luck!

 

[TinCanHero]

Ha. Thanks. I am not a fan of chemicals for Cyanobacteria. It just seems to be attacking the symptom and not the cause. In my experience it always goes away on its own. Just my opinion. I know it does work for people.

As an example, I had a tank crash recently and had it everywhere. I blew it off twice a week for a month or so and it finally stopped coming back. There was some hair algae under that, but now the snails can get to it and that is being taken care of.

Here is my tank near its worst about 1.5 months ago, Cyano everywhere.

This was yesterday (forgive the reflection).

No chemicals. Just patiently blew it off until it stopped coming back. FWIW, I had a decent die off on a move (and some other issues) that I blamed for the outbreak. I assumed the tank needed to digest all of that and it appears it may be getting there. I still have a tiny bit in low flow spots.

Good luck!

I did said WC last night, scrubbed some rock and hoovered up what i could. I decided to just be done with it although i was defiantly over the hump of the bloom. I added a airstone to the sump and cleaned and took the cap off and turned down the skimmer. this morning the sump was all foamed up and the skimmer was overflowing as expected. looking at the tank < 24 after dosing most of the cyano has gone, the coral that where covered and closed (the GSP) are clean and have opened today, the cyano that had been plaguing one of my stylos has all but gone, i hadn't noticed but it had killed back a small bit of the coral. All coral look happy and normal as do the fish and inverts.
Personally im normally against treating the tank with anything but this time its worked out well, i still kinda wish i waited it out but its done now. only bad thing ive noticed today (not saying its related but i didnt see this last night) is that my hammer has a few small patches of brown on its tips -- hoping this isnt the brown jelly. Its looking happy thou and fully extended.

Looking at this chemiclean in action its cleaning everything, it seems to be oxidizing to dissolve.

Your tank at its worse looks like mine did and still in places dose, makes me feel better
Im going to buy a few more snails this week hopefully. ill see if i can get someone to ship to me

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update.

some good, some bad - as usual it seems

After doing the WC i mentioned in the last post i decided to dose the tank with ChemiClean. its worked great, within 24h all Cyano was gone i did a 100L WC 48h after that and i have another to go tonight. The only downside to this seems i cannot get my skimmer to stop over skimming.. hopefully after todays WC it will start to work again, if not ill try rasing it up to see if i can get it to work again. Im also running carbon atm for two reasons, this is one.

The other reason im running carbon is because i removed my kenya tree from the rock during the last WC. I took a good look at my monti since its slowed down growing since the kenya tree has been in contact with it. I noticed that the new branches that grew out towards the kenya have had there tips killed. it looked like new growth from a distance but when it was inhand it was clear it was a small dead patch on the tip of two and maybe the edge that was pointing that way. the other side has grown more since then too.

My hammer has me slightly worried, I did say above that i noticed some brown patches on the top of a few of the tentacles. Its been fully extended, looking good and acting normal this whole time. It started when i did the WC the night before i did the ChemiClean treatment, and now i think about it i did nock it over slightly when cleaning around it. I'm finding it weird thou, I'm not sure if its me going crazy but im sure the patches have reduced and moved from one side of the coral to the other?

Last coral to mention is my BTA. Its still not looking to good :/
It moved back around to where it was happy for a while but a inch or two above. It started to open up fully for most of the day just not inflated and dull in colour due to this i think It was still going to bed and closing right up quite early thou. anway it moved back down to its original place yesterday and was fully open again when i came home from work, i thought "great" maybe it will settle back in and recover. but nope, i get home today and cought it in the act of moving around, its currently moving around the back of the rock as i post this

Last thing to mention is the GHA battle seems to be turning, ive been using a toothbrush on large patches while doing a WC and it seems to be growing back slowly enough that id call it manageable. so theres a bonus - 1-2 weeks and maybe we will be back on track

Kind Regards, TinCanHero.

-- ill post some pics later! i have another update that you guys wont want to miss

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Back for another update. Finally!!

First up, sorry its been a while! Life has been hectic, lots of work on although the season is coming to a end now at last also ive been fairly unwell for the last ~6w.

Anyway, so whats been going on? hows the tank!?

Well first off, that massive ciff hanger i left you guys on needs addressing. I went to take photos of the tank for the last update and as i was going so my nems mouth started to stretch sideways and and got longer and longer. I noticed this was odd so i decided to watch. a few minutes later it started to pinch itself into a figure of 8 shape. Instantly i knew this was the nem going to split. Ive never seen this before but i instantly was 100% sure. Anyway i watched the whole process, it took about 3h in total. It would pulsate into a figure of 8 then back into 1 again over and over each time the foot moved away and it got wider, eventually when both had a good part of the mouth it tore itself into 2 using the pulsating movement and a slight moving apart. i was surprised with how controlled the process was, ive seen videos of people catching the end of the process and the nem is literally taring itself apart but this was different, it was controlled and even. It was awesome!

well everything was starting to come back into good shape, the GHA was almost taken care of, coral was growing well and everything was happy.
I decided it was time to visit a good shop about 50 miles away from myself as they normally had a good stock of pistol shrimp. So i headed up, had a great time and came home with a few new additions. I got a candy cane pistol, a yasha goby, a fungia coral & a frag of GSP along with some dry goods and a pair of orange filter glasses (there awesome!)

- I see this update going on forever so ill try and keep it short and ill bullet point the rest.

So I tank everything and the goby darts between two rocks in a small gap, the pistol jumped out of my hand as i was trying to put it on the sandbed and landed on the end of my lowest fragrack. it went under the rack and hung out on the bottom of a plug, this was like a inch from the sand bed and it was in a place that was narrow between the rock and the glass so i thought if it jumps down it will most likely land there. Anyway i watched it for 20mins ish and it stayed put, i went to the toilet, came back down a few mins later and it was gone. Ive seen neither since tanking them but what i did have was a massive neut spike that cased another bloom of GHA, even more this time. I couldn't find the source of the bloom this time so im assuming the goby died shortly after tanking it.

So basically ive been fighting GHA since then, this time its everywhere and alot of it. Its even in the sand bed.
I started to freak out a little, WC's where not bringing the neuts down faster than they where building, and the gha was growing faster than i could remove it. Then i became rather ill, more so than i have been in years and the tank took a back stage for a few weeks (still kinda is). probably the best thing for the GHA and neut problem as it soaked up all of the neuts and grew dence. I also added a Caulerpa macro algae pack from the web, a few small strands of Taxifolia, Prolifera, Racesmosa & Peltata and i cut feeding back along with skipping a day here and there.

Last week i did a WC and toothbrushed a area in the top of the tank clean, not much has grown back in that area so im pretty happy. Im going to do a string of WC's as fast as my RODI will let me over the next week or two and clean the tank down head to toe along with the sand.

Anyway, ill bullet point some interesting things that has happened since last speaking.

-- Lots of GHA everywhere
-- RODI unit broke, tank was going 3-4d without topups for a good 2 weeks+ :/ coral hated this
-- nem split, both halfs doing well, one half decided to walk around the tank over a frag rack set up shop ontop of coral, then move to the top of the tank by a powerhead shrunk to nothing and tried to die only to be encouraged back to life by daily feeding right at the water line. its since moved to the sandbed today looking better and bigger everyday. other nem stayed in the same place since splitting until yesterday when it walked around the tank, its now next to my goni :/
-- Elegance has its good days and bad, still having a hard time feeding, failing most of the time. Its also a killer killing two snails so far and i expect my cleaner shrimp today.
-- kenya tree is a pain in my butt - still.
-- candy cane has grown like crazy, gone from 3 heads and mouths to much larger with 13+ mouths and its starting to split it looks like.
-- hammer has been doing okey, it was doing awesome before i let the tank go, its gone from being a round single head into a shape that more looks like its splitting into 4 separate heads, almost like it has corners now.
--zoas are a mixed bag, some are doing aweful, some look great and have filled there plugs and some have gotten huge with long necks.
-- all other coral are hanging on, i wouldn't say anything else is going awesome. some are growing most are just chilling.
-- my green plating monti has been growing around other corals on the rack, its a mess.
-- cover is really annoying me still, its even growing GHA since the net dips into the tank.
-- my cleaner shrimp ive found dead today at the base of my elegance, i have a feeling the elegance got it, the silly ****** steals food from it all of the time, ive caught it in the act of sticking it hands into the mouth of the elegance to force it open to rob food from it. The shrimp molted last week so im guessing it wasnt fully hardened up? the small bta is right next to it also, like the bta is 3? inches from the base of the elegance and the shrimp is in the middle. (the elegance is up atm so referencing the plug its on, not the flesh)
-- fish look great.
-- tank looks like crap.

There's probably alot more im not saying here, i just cant remember. Anyway to finish up, my goal is to sort the tank out over the next week or two and get it cleaned up. Ive got some white boards above the tank now so hopefully that will encourage me to stick to a rota. Swapping socks etc.

Next up is chasing one thing and that's stability. I just want my tank back stable, and everything happy and growing again. Im tempted to get a calcium reactor. The deltec PF501 with a apex probe and expansion port along with a constant dosing pump - your talking £900. either this or i wait another 3-4 months and get the Trident along with 1 DOS pump and stick with liquid dosing auto done. tbh i cant decide what to do, if the Trident was here now id go for it.

Once all of that is done im really tempted to "steal" my 4.5ft sump from my freshwater tank and plumb it in behind the tank and do away with the smaller sump inside the tank. It would give me more room for a better skimmer, a bigger fuge and more room for pumps etc, also i could build a manifold and use the 12k LPH return pump i have. this then lets me upgrade to my ultimate goal of running two 4x2 frag tanks on a rack along with so much more.

Anyway, enough ramble. Ill post some pics later? (ill really try this time! )

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Back for another update!
I decided to prepare images before posting this time so you guys don't just have a bunch of ramble from me

What's changed since my last post?

First up, the cleaner shrimp isnt dead, it just molted again i came home and it greeted me as usual, i was pretty happy about that!

Not much i guess, Ive done a few WC's since last time cleaning alot of the GHA out of the tank, a good 90%+ is gone, and about 60% of the rockwork has been cleaned with the toothbrush, its not growing back to much either

Found baby bristle worms or some other small baby worms

I used some aptasia-x i had from that bulk 2nd hand buy i had (came in useful again ) I had two in the tank on plugs, both from the same vendor, the good one actually. The first was on my Granny apple zoa, its been looking really sick for along time and i could never work out why. It spawned a new head and it looked more like the pics with the aptasia like lashes, i could never see its disk while it was young but i had a feeling it could be aptasia but it was at the base of the zoa just like a baby. Anyway it turned out it was a aptasia. the second was on the flavia plug, ive know it was there for a while but i could never "catch" it, glad i didnt as i know now that could cause it to spread. I let it grow a little bigger so i could treet it, i did that a few days ago on both when i realized the other one was aptasia too. Aint seen either since and the zoa is looking much better already!

I also found a colony of bubble algae on a pavona frag, it was covered in GHA so i missed them until now.

Not much else has changed, pulled a bunch of GHA out of the sump too, the caulerpa is growing fast! some cyano down there too.. everything in the tank looks okey, still alot of work to do!

Apparently im FINALLY getting the last bit of coral from that seller tomorrow. only 4 months late.. :/

Few things i missed last time.

-- Moved the kenya tree because it touched the new growing tips of my 1st coral, the monti digi. Those tips have since died and have GHA on them atm but the otherside has started to grow faster so i guess its alright.

-- Mounted the nice GSP to the back glass, the other two are on the sandbed, one hates its life and is dyeing.

-- Sucked up a few frags with the hoze while doing WC's, apparently i never learn.. even took a zoa polyp off yesterday..

-- the superman monti is dead.

-- the montidigi has a featherduster growing from its plug

Theres probably more but i cannot remember.

Anyway, photo time..!
They are in date order but that's about it, all random, not so great pics but its what i have - i still suck at photos
Oh, there are some pics of the reef shop i went to. Check the display out downstairs, only 2yo from frags! :O
Kind regards,
TinCanHero

 

[TinCanHero]

More pics, had to resize a bunch.. whey to go and make some crappy pics worse

 

[TinCanHero]

more

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update.
3 in one week, crazy!

So i received the "last" of the coral ive been waiting months for!! i have to be honest, about 90% of it is ****, as i expected.
There was no heat pack in the box so everything was really cold when i got it, everything was closed up tight also.
A few things where bleached to hell, like the GSP and hystrix a few things had fallen off there plugs and there where plenty of hitch hikers. even some baby brittle starfish? so small that they where dead after the dip or i would have tanked them. to be honest there where 10+ different types of hitch hikers and i did wonder if i should tank them at one point. Also had some bubble algae on the plugs visible!! like what the heck..?!
Also again, im missing things. i just give up with this seller, never had someone be so awful before now in any line of business let alone the coral trade.
Overall im disappointed at the quality and customer service, total dog ****. But i will say when i average it out i paid around £3 a frag and if the customer service and quality (pests, algae, and just lack of care) was better i would be happy. I mean yes there pretty crap frags for the most part but some are good but where talking rock bottom prices here.

So yeah, nothing much else to report, still cleaning, another WC to go tomorrow? and another on Sunday hopefully by then ill have all of the rock work clean and i can focus on the sand and sump next week.
One of my clowns jumped the weir when i had the net off earlier. first time its happened with this pair, female again... lol didn't need to net it as it jumped back as soon as i placed the net in.


One last thing, I may be going for that extra setup. Depending how expensive this week turns out i may have 2 zoo med low boy (48″ x 24″ x 10″) tanks to add to the system eventually soon
Im also still in two minds about what to go for, a cal reactor or a trident and dos. Im still waiting for the trident to be launched here, apparently early signups will happen soon
I know i want the trident, A) because im lazy and B) because its just friggin awesome. Id like a cal reactor but im leaning towards a dos for now to use the auto dose feature, its just there so expensive! i just have a bad feeling about using a cal reactor atm so much to **** up. I have been looking at the new deltec twintech reactors but there 1500 model is £1700 £2k for the 3000 model :O cant be affording one of those, as much as id like one

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[Soylent Wrasse]

It's been really fun seeing the growth of the coral from when you started till now. Keep up with the maintenance and you'll see the hair algae and cyano start giving way. Glad the anemone found a home spot. I was laughing out loud at the pics of the time lapse pics of it crawling around the tank.

Keep it up!

 

[TinCanHero]

It's been really fun seeing the growth of the coral from when you started till now. Keep up with the maintenance and you'll see the hair algae and cyano start giving way. Glad the anemone found a home spot. I was laughing out loud at the pics of the time lapse pics of it crawling around the tank.

Keep it up!

Hi @Soylent Wrasse!
Thanks for your kind reply!
Ive been trying for the last few days to compress and timelapse a 30min 4k vid i have of it spitting for you, my phone only got to 12% before i decided another week of battery draining wasn't cool
Its been a great pleasure to watch them grow myself, although ive had my ups and downs im really enjoying it!
The GHA is on its way out, after tonights WC ive removed most of it from the rockwork.
I took a few more "top down" pics for you to enjoy, ill post them in just a second, there a little blury due to dirty water but you can see the new growth
All the best!