Jason's 300 gallons of frustration and fun

[ReefNoobie88]

Honestly no idea. Was picking out a few fish at WWC and picked it up then. My clowns haven't paid it any attention yet though it is still rather small.

Sooooooo you should totally head down to WWC and snag me up one! It’s a beauty as puts my teeny tiny rainbow to shame.

 

[Radman73]

Sooooooo you should totally head down to WWC and snag me up one! It’s a beauty as puts my teeny tiny rainbow to shame.

Lol! Unfortunately I don't think they have any in stock right now. Keep an eye on their web site, the web price was the same as the store price.

 

[ReefNoobie88]

Lol! Unfortunately I don't think they have any in stock right now. Keep an eye on their web site, the web price was the same as the store price.

I’ll have to do that then. Pretty jealous you’re so close to WWC too lol. Thanks and happy reefing!

 

[Radman73]

Sadly, I had to euthanize the engineer goby in QT today. For the last couple of days he’s largely just let the flow blow him around while he was vertical and he was having trouble swimming to get food.

So, onward we go. First batch of QT was 25% success rate. Second was 33%. Not happy but learning. May have some options to leave QT, at least prophylactically medicated QT, to others.

With the Melanarus in the tank I now have 6 fish in the 220. Nice to have the active wrasses in there.

 

[Radman73]

Really excited. Just got my Reefsicle from Smarter Reefs delivered. If it works as planned, and I've heard it does, it will make feeding the tank a breeze for tank sitters!

 

[Radman73]

So, reefsicle didn't seemingly go as planned. It does indeed add food over a roughly 8 hour period but I believe it instigated a battle for food. I came back from a short, 3 day, vacation to 5 fish instead of 6. Initially, I thought my orange back had perished due to an unplanned power outage caused by my utility company swapping out my electric meter without telling me. So, tank was without power for anywhere from 4-8 hours.

But, the next morning I finally saw the orange back at around noon. But he immediately went back into hiding. Quickly discovered the reason was the melanarus wrasse. None of this behavior was exhibited in the 2 weeks prior so I do believe the lack of several large feedings per day increased competition for the small amount dropped into the tank throughout the day by the reefsicle. The fairy comes out when I broadcast feed and does get food but after a few minutes the melanarus chases him back into his hiding spot.

As long as the fairy is getting food, I'm inclined to ride this out and see if it subsides as food becomes "widely" available during a regular 3 feedings per day. If not, I'll try the coke bottle fish trap and see if I can catch the melanarus and banish him to the fuge or back to my 60 cube for a while before reintroducing him. Hopefully with other fairy wrasses added to the tank to spread aggression.

The reefsicle will still have its purpose, primarily feeding anthias once I get a healthy set.

 

[Radman73]

The orange back is still very shy and careful but it at least swims around below some rocks and along the back of the tank now. And the melanarus is far less aggressive towards it. For now I'm planning on keeping both in the tank and see if it works out over time. Also, the melanarus is an early to bed type so typically in the sand by 7pm and the orange back comes out more then. Have a short vacation next week and then we'll see about adding some other wrasses.

 

[Radman73]

A well fed tank seems to be a happy tank. Or, at least, happier. As long as I do several feedings the melanarus backs off the orange back. No need to remove either for now.

I have a yellow eye kole, Lubbock's wrasse, and an exquisite firefish in the 60 cube for now. They've been there a little over a week and all are eating and seemingly doing well. Taking a different QT approach this time as all spent time in copper before getting to me. I'll observe for another couple of weeks and then do TTM with praziquantel on tanks 2 and 4. Otherwise, I think they're good to go.

 

[Radman73]

So, in the garage based fuge I have a pump to supply the chiller. The return to the fuge, just a hose, managed to work its way out of the fuge and dump 70 or so gallons of salt water onto the floor. Thankfully it happened when I was home and also thankfully I had enough water made up. What a way to do a water change!!!

 

[Radman73]

Been a while. Nothing horrible has happened other than losing my one SPS. Anemone is struggling as well. Had to travel for two weeks and alk and calc both got extremely low. Fish are still fine as are the LPS.

I did get some work done finally to help with this. I ran a USB cable into my garage to an EB-8. All of my garage based equipment is now controlled through the Apex including my DOS. I have the DOS set up to dose 2-part courtesy of BRS. I also was able to move my ATO pump out into the garage so it has up to 30 gallons of ATO to burn through now instead of barely 10. This should make vacations much easier.

Pics of course:

 

[Radman73]

Gotta love simple solutions. I finally made the time to get calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium in their proper(ish) ranges. But my ph was still running a little low in the 7.75-7.8 range. Acceptable but not ideal. Since I already had a wall penetration I went ahead and ran some tubing from the garage to the skimmer inlet and 24 hours later ph is up to 7.97 and seems to still be steadily rising. Cost all of $9 for tubing before using spray foam to seal the PVC wall penetration.

Next up is some hard plumbing and only short tubing runs for the chiller. The tubing always gets crimped where it goes over the edge of the tank...

Also, have a reef club buddy holding/QT'ing some fish for me. A Carpenter's flasher, Marble wrasse, and possibly a Red Coris wrasse. We'll see how they're doing when I get back from vacation in a couple of weeks and then get them transferred into my QT system.

 

[Radman73]

Lost my orangeback fairy wrasse last night. Jumped into the overflow and got stuck in the drain plumbing. I heard the backup overflow increase its flow rate. While investigating I noticed the orangeback missing and figured that's what happened. Opened the drain valve all the way and he came out but was already gone. Disappointed as he was my favorite and has been with me for 4-5 years.

In any case, all else seems well with the tank. I've been able to slowly drop my alk over the last couple of weeks while calcium has held steady. I have 6 bar goby's in QT along with a marbled wrasse. They spent 4 weeks in copper before getting moved to the 60 cube. They're all eating well though the wrasse is pretty picky. The goby's are all pretty small so I'll likely keep them in there for several months and see if I can get them larger before the transfer. No rush on any of them to be honest.

 

[Radman73]

Father’s Day weekend project. Ordered a 2x3 piece of black acrylic to use as an aquarium control station. I’ll mount my apex, gyre, and stream 3 controllers on it. I also have some gray flex conduit to run cables through and try to make it look a little bit better.

The acrylic came with one corner broken. I snapped a pic in case I couldn’t snap off a piece right above the break. Thankfully I was able to and I didn’t need the additional length.

I used stand-off’s screwed into regular wall anchors to mount the acrylic to the wall. There’s just enough room to stuff power supplies up behind the panel though they’d still be visible walking in the room. At least it’s an option.

Wish me luck with the wiring lol!

 

[Radman73]

First summer with the 220. Temp got to a little over 83 so I bought a clip on fan and aimed it at the fuge in the garage. 12 hours later temp was back down to 82. Controlled via the Apex of course. Not even sure I'll need the chiller but will hold onto it just in case. The fan is just far cheaper to run then the chiller.

One of the bar gobies jumped. Yes, there was a screen but they are/were extremely small. The rest, and the marble wrasse, are still doing great. They'll likely stay at least a few more weeks or longer. No rush to move them until I get other fish in.

 

[Radman73]

Well, my single SPS isn't dead after all. I assumed it was a goner when I saw algae growing on it but it's still fighting. Ironically the base and tips seem to be alive with the middle section getting some algae growth. Not much growth in general from it yet though.

I finally have my anemone coming out again too. I had changed some flow in the tank and it started trying to reach out through very small holes in the rock, now it's coming out through a larger hole. Tips are very short and deflated so I know it's in rough shape. I'll feed it some mysis 1-2 times per week and hope that more stable parameters, light feeding, and it coming out more helps it recover.

Other corals are all doing well. I have a couple favia's, a hammer, and a few acan frags. All acan's except one have grown new heads. The acan enchinata's have grown 3-4 new heads each. Harder to tell on the favia's though one most definitely has not grown new heads.

Regarding my toothless overflow, it sort of has teeth now lol! I took a piece of egg crate and cut it to size. It actually fits perfectly over the overflow raising water level about 1/4" and it's 2 squares deep. The pressure of water going over it actually holds it in place extremely well. It won't prevent small fish from going in(Gobies and blennies beware) but would have kept my orange back from going in. Frustrated that a cheap solution with materials I already had on hand didn't come to me until it was too late. But, better late than never.

Still trying to plan future stock. The checkerboard wrasse and bar gobies were never in my original plans but they don't really keep me from getting anything I originally wanted either. Fun times regardless.

 

[Radman73]

Another bar goby jumped despite a fairly tight fitting lid. In the interest of bar goby lives, I transferred them over to the DT today where they will, hopefully, have a much better chance at not jumping to their death. I've turned down flow for now as my primary concern is that they'll get sucked into a powerhead. They spent hours in an acclimation box with no fish seemingly even notice that they were there and since unleashing them the rest of the fish still seem to not notice them.

Marble/checkerboard wrasse is still in the 60 cube. Hopefully for another couple of weeks.

 

[Radman73]

Aaaaand another bar goby gone. No idea where, but I'm down to two. Searched all around the tank, in the overflow, in the sump, opened the drain valve and flushed the overflow.

Everything else is doing fine. Marbled wrasse is still chilling happily in the 60 cube. I might move him over in the next few days. Acclimation box will be used. Somewhat worried about how the melanarus will respond.

Still working towards stability. My pH hasn't varied by more than .09 over the last week. I don't think I've ever had it that stable lol!

 

[Radman73]

Been a while since I updated. Things are going along okay. I've lost a couple of frags of acans where they just shriveled up and disappeared. A favia is growing quite well though and other acans have added a head or two. Fish are all doing fine. Getting some light dusting of cyano for the first time on the rocks, first in this tank at least. Just letting it be for now to see if it works itself out. PO4 is at .02 and nitrate is undetectable per the test kits so I'll ride it out for now.

Still have a marble wrasse in QT that's been ready to come over for a couple of months now. Maybe this week lol!

I'm starting to slowly raise the lighting intensity in the tank as well. I've probably been way too slow in this regard. The 2 kessils are only at a max of 28% right now so I'll be bumping them up 2-3% per week and watch how everything responds.

Otherwise, almost on cruise control at this point until I go fish shopping again.

 

[Radman73]

My Halichoeres hortulanus, or marbled wrasse, is in his acclimation box in the new tank. Like an idiot I forgot to put a small container of sand in there so I'll have to carefully add it later while trying to keep the wrasse in the box. Should be fun.

Looking forward to letting him loose in the tank. The lubbocks, melanarus, and yellow fin flasher are checking him out for now with the flasher seemingly the most interested followed by the lubbocks. The melanarus has largely ignored him but I'm sure that would change if I let him out now. Will pick up a mirror to tape to one end for when I do release him.

In any case, that's the last of my QT fish to be moved over so now I can start considering new options. With no significant vacations planned until March of next year the next 4-5 months should be prime time to add some additional livestock so we'll what the budget allows.

 

[Radman73]

Brief moment of panic early this morning. Checked on the fish, before lights on, and the marble wrasse was on his side in the acclimation box. Got a red flashlight and he was breathing. So, just sleeping behind the tub of sand instead of in it. All is well now. Other than he wants out.