Keith's IM 100 INT

crabgrass · Mar 1, 2024

sugar said:
Just worried about the melanurus and CUC. I've heard it can vary, and people generally have better luck with the coris... so maybe I'll switch. I'd LOVE to have a pest control fella but I still want to be able to have shrimp, snails and crabs!

I only have 3 weeks experience with my melanurus, but he is a gentleman. I have about 100 snails, plus a conch and cleaner shrimp - and was a bit worried after adding him. No issues with my inverts yet. I feel like a feed pretty heavy (5x a day) and he is hungry all of the time, and greets my family when we get close to the tank. I am pretty pretty sure we could hand feed him if we wanted.

He loves Mysis, Blood worms, Pellets along with eating Nori with the Tangs and foxface

BubblesandSqueak · Mar 1, 2024

crabgrass said:
Ah OK. For draining the sump, I use the python connected to a sink faucet and it creates suction and drains the water out of the sump. I fortunatly have a utility sink about 20 feet from my tank. So that pump does not need to go into the tank. This process takes about 5-10 minutes total (including setup and getting hoses out).

The pump sits a trash can in my garage where I mix the saltwater and pumps it out. This takes about 5 minute to pump 10 gallons of water from my garage to the tank. Keep in mind, its traversing probably 45' in the house (non-linear, with a lot of 45's and differences in elevation), so the GPH coming out is way less than 800 gph.. probably closer to 120 (based on my guesstimate of 10 gallons in 5-ish minutes).

Putting the hoses back and draining them is another 5. In general it takes about 15 minutes end to end (+ however much time it takes to navigate a messy garage)

That actually sounds like a lot. ;-)
To minimize having to alter the ATO, I marked off measurements on a few old 5 gallon water jugs so I can suck out exact amounts and replace. otherwise I'd just run the hose out the front door which is 8 feet away ;-)

crabgrass · Mar 1, 2024

BubblesandSqueak said:
That actually sounds like a lot. ;-)
To minimize having to alter the ATO, I marked off measurements on a few old 5 gallon water jugs so I can suck out exact amounts and replace. otherwise I'd just run the hose out the front door which is 8 feet away ;-)

15 minutes isn't bad. If i was manually pumping it out and moving jugs back and forth, it would be pretty annoying given the distances. Ironcially, where I mix my salt is about 5-7' from where my tank is (through a garage wall). If I wanted to spend enough time, I would send a water line into the garage, and have an RO Bin. Then hook it up to a salt water mixing bin, and then do micro water changes during the day. However, the volume of water I have doesn't really warrent it, and its still sort of fun at the moment.

I am also going to attempt to pulling back from weekly water changes over the next 3-12 months:

Jan - March - Weekly 10%
April - June - EOW 10% Water Changes (instead of weekly)
July - Sep - Every 3 weeks - 10%-20% Water Changes (more frequently if required)
Oct forward - Monthly 10-20% Water Change (or as needed)

I will be doing some ICP tests before at every 1-3 months to see if I am messing anything up.. or missing some elements.

BubblesandSqueak · Mar 1, 2024

crabgrass said:
15 minutes isn't bad. If i was manually pumping it out and moving jugs back and forth, it would be pretty annoying given the distances. Ironcially, where I mix my salt is about 5-7' from where my tank is (through a garage wall). If I wanted to spend enough time, I would send a water line into the garage, and have an RO Bin. Then hook it up to a salt water mixing bin, and then do micro water changes during the day. However, the volume of water I have doesn't really warrent it, and its still sort of fun at the moment.

I am also going to attempt to pulling back from weekly water changes over the next 3-12 months:

Jan - March - Weekly 10%

April - June - EOW 10% Water Changes (instead of weekly)

July - Sep - Every 3 weeks - 10%-20% Water Changes (more frequently if required)

Oct forward - Monthly 10-20% Water Change (or as needed)

I will be doing some ICP tests before at every 1-3 months to see if I am messing anything up.. or missing some elements.

I’ve been making salt water and storing it since I have been unable to commit to a change schedule. Still haven’t attached the rodi unit up yet either. And all that I need to do is unhook the supply line, add the angle stop, hook the supply line back up and push in the 1/4” hose to the rodi but I did take the unit out of the box and placed it under the bathroom sink. Thinking to just place the fill container and waste line in the bath tub Incase of overflow forgetfulness.

crabgrass · Mar 3, 2024

Added a few Carberry Anthias to the tank today. Found a local seller who has a couple of QT tanks setup and was getting rid of a bunch of Anthias. They are all female at the moment.

3 of the 4 are all “schooling” together. The 4th has attached itself to my pair of clowns that just sit in the top right corner.

Unlike when I added the foxface and Wrasse a few weeks ago - which turned into a short lived civil war - this introduction appears to have been met with mostly open arms. The other fish the don’t seem to care or immediately attempted to socialize (the Social ones at least - Yellow Tang, Wrasse, and Foxface).

Total fish count - 13 at the moment.

2x Clowns
1 Royal Gramma
1 Lawnmower blenny
1 Kole/Bristletooth Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Melanurus Wrasse
1 Foxface
1 Watchman Goby
4x Calberry Anthias

+115 or so inverts

Pretty decent bioload for a tank that has been up and running for 60 days (credit to precycle rock, bio bricks, live rock, and the stuff from ipcs).

Gumbies R Us · Mar 4, 2024

crabgrass said:
Added a few Carberry Anthias to the tank today. Found a local seller who has a couple of QT tanks setup and was getting rid of a bunch of Anthias. They are all female at the moment.

3 of the 4 are all “schooling” together. The 4th has attached itself to my pair of clowns that just sit in the top right corner.

Unlike when I added the foxface and Wrasse a few weeks ago - which turned into a short lived civil war - this introduction appears to have been met with mostly open arms. The other fish the don’t seem to care or immediately attempted to socialize (the Social ones at least - Yellow Tang, Wrasse, and Foxface).

Total fish count - 13 at the moment.

2x Clowns
1 Royal Gramma
1 Lawnmower blenny
1 Kole/Bristletooth Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Melanurus Wrasse
1 Foxface
1 Watchman Goby
4x Calberry Anthias

+115 or so inverts

Pretty decent bioload for a tank that has been up and running for 60 days (credit to precycle rock, bio bricks, live rock, and the stuff from ipcs).

Your livestock list is looking great!

crabgrass · Mar 7, 2024

Have you Seen this Boy? Missing in Action

He goes by Rocky, and is my lawnmower blenny. I introduced a few Anthias over the weekend, and the Blenny started acting odd. He was perched up on a powerhead earlier this week for like a day, and now has been MIA for the last 2-3.

The new fish are the polar opposite of aggressive (all they do is school together or hide). Out of all of the fish in the tank above, the Gansters are the Blenny, Gramma (suprisingly) and the Kole tang. With the Blenny as the big (or little) boss of the squad.

Now he is MIA. I haven't seen a pack of snails or hermits working on a body, so I am going to assume he isn't dead - yet. However, I am concerned. The rest of the fish seem healthy, so I don't think its is disease. Possibly shock?

Anyway, the family is on high alert searching for him. While he is easily the ugliest fish in the tank, his personality made up for it as one of our favorites. He was full grown when I got him, so its also possible his time in the sea just ran out.

crabgrass · Mar 7, 2024

Two Coins for the Ferryman

I was expecting to write this post for the Lanwmower (still MIA), but we had another casualty. One of the new Anthias jumped out of the tank. Which is pretty amazing because I have a lid fully covering it outside of the auto feeder. It was discovered on top of the lid about 12 inches from the feeder. 1 in a 1,000,000 chances, right?

3 of the 4 have been pretty social and calm. 1 has been hiding a lot and ultra skiddish (it also jumped out of the tank as I was putting it in and bellyflopped 5 feet onto the floor). Since I still see the 3 social ones in the tank I am taking a guess the skiddish one was the jumper

crabgrass · Mar 15, 2024

crabgrass said:
Have you Seen this Boy? Missing in Action

He goes by Rocky, and is my lawnmower blenny. I introduced a few Anthias over the weekend, and the Blenny started acting odd. He was perched up on a powerhead earlier this week for like a day, and now has been MIA for the last 2-3.

The new fish are the polar opposite of aggressive (all they do is school together or hide). Out of all of the fish in the tank above, the Gansters are the Blenny, Gramma (suprisingly) and the Kole tang. With the Blenny as the big (or little) boss of the squad.

Now he is MIA. I haven't seen a pack of snails or hermits working on a body, so I am going to assume he isn't dead - yet. However, I am concerned. The rest of the fish seem healthy, so I don't think its is disease. Possibly shock?

Anyway, the family is on high alert searching for him. While he is easily the ugliest fish in the tank, his personality made up for it as one of our favorites. He was full grown when I got him, so its also possible his time in the sea just ran out.

A little late, but sadly last weekend partial remains (spine and skin) of Rocky were recovered in the tank. Cause of death is unknown, however we suspect one of two things:

After moving to the new tank, his diet switched almost completely to Mysis shrimp. Which could not have been good for him (we fed lots of other food, but only seemed to eat shrimp). He appeared to have become morbidly obese and possibly died of diet and/or other health complications

He was the ring leader for the bullies in the tank. Always getting in other fishes faces. Its possible one of them had enough of the attitude and decided to put a stop to his oppression..

We will never know for sure, and there were enough remains to even take a guess.

Rocky was our family's favorite fish, however I don't think the inhabitants of the tank liked him very much. His disappearance triggered a sharp contrast in attitude with the entire reef population. The Royal Gramma came out of hiding and now is active in the tank for the first time in months. The Foxface and Bristletooth have put down their differences and are able to share a meal together peacefully. Anthias are now able to school passively in the tank. Even the Clowns have ventured a few inches from where they host the drainage filter.

BubblesandSqueak · Mar 15, 2024

crabgrass said:
A little late, but sadly last weekend partial remains (spine and skin) of Rocky were recovered in the tank. Cause of death is unknown, however we suspect one of two things:

After moving to the new tank, his diet switched almost completely to Mysis shrimp. Which could not have been good for him (we fed lots of other food, but only seemed to eat shrimp). He appeared to have become morbidly obese and possibly died of diet and/or other health complications

He was the ring leader for the bullies in the tank. Always getting in other fishes faces. Its possible one of them had enough of the attitude and decided to put a stop to his oppression..

We will never know for sure, and there were enough remains to even take a guess.

Rocky was our family's favorite fish, however I don't think the inhabitants of the tank liked him very much. His disappearance triggered a sharp contrast in attitude with the entire reef population. The Royal Gramma came out of hiding and now is active in the tank for the first time in months. The Foxface and Bristletooth have put down their differences and are able to share a meal together peacefully. Anthias are now able to school passively in the tank. Even the Clowns have ventured a few inches from where they host the drainage filter.

Just like a Soap Opera.