Kyle's Reef

[kp1991]

Heat.. it's going to be an issue for both tanks. Outside temperatures are slowly increasing and these T5 fixtures are obviously dumping more heat into the room, and directly into the water. I have left the frag tank with an 8 hour T5 photo period (2x 24W ATI Blue+), and it is already hovering near 80º F during the daytime with an ambient outside temperature of 20º C (~68º F). The DT with a two hour T5 period after work is currently rising .6º F in that time, and I can only imagine if a similar 8 hour period daily would also be driving the tank to near 80º F.

My solution has always been evaporative cooling, as it's both the easiest to implement, and the most practical. I don't have an AC unit, and leaving the windows open with the fans on all day while I'm at work is also out of the question. The only question at this point is how to go about wiring in the fans. Do I source out some more 24v and wire them into the second EB832 24v DC port, or just go with something that's already an out of the box solution. I have years of 120mm fan use from my PC watercooling days, so that form factor and noise profile is well known. Settling on 120mm for the sizing, and roughly 30 dBA for a noise profile, I lucked upon these AC Infinity fans on Amazon.ca that are 50CFM @ 30 dBA direct AC plug, or 20 - 70 CFM @ 16 - 38 dBA with their controller. I've since installed a single fan on the frag tank after work today and the temperatures have already stabilized back down to 78.2 (the turn-on point for the fan), but I will be ordering the dual fan kit to see if I can knock that temperature down while using a slower speed for complete silence. If that works out, it will be replicated on the DT - and there is a perfect amount of room left in the Aquaticlife T5 hybrid fixture to fit them.

The only problem with this solution is the requirement of an EB8 / EB832 / EB4 apex plug, and I'm already past maxed out for each tank. Still trying to figure that out, but I've put the feelers out locally to see if I can find a used EB4/8. While I had thought about going the 24v DC route again, the fans in that profile are not as easy to source, would require more DIY and aren't natively adjustable without further DIY. As well I can always make use of more Apex EB ports, so another bar just makes sense.

In livestock news, I believe the pink streak wrasse has passed away. I had seen no issue with it until one day it stopped being cryptically out and about, which was about four days ago. The social wrasse had never really shown any attention to it, nor any other tank mates, so I'm wondering if there is something more at play (after the loss of the Tailspot), or simply an age issue? Everyone else in the tank seems fine, so it is puzzling. The hard thing about these is if a fish does pass, by the time you notice the body is most likely already processed by the clean up crew. I've looked all over to make sure it didn't jump while the lid was off, but I haven't seen a Mr. crispy on the floor or behind the tank. I really liked that little wrasse, and had owned it for over two years. I'm hoping it was just age related, but we'll see..

The greenbanded gobies are so tiny, but also so spunky. Two of them most definitely do not like each-other and I have seen some physical altercations, but the largest of the four comes along and breaks them up quite quickly. I'm not sure if those are little males or females, or just such similar size that they are being aggressive, but so far there is no lasting physical damage. Feeding these guys is the real problem so far, they are only eating PE Calanus. Thankfully I have lots from the combo pack of PE Mysis I purchased last sale, but I'm hoping they can eventually progress to larger foods like the PE mysis pellets that everyone else eats. They're in the tank with the blue star leopard as the 20L system is running but I want to give it a solid time to get the biofilter established before it's filled with fish for copper. The gobies are so small though that I feel they will be the last ones going into the DT, and I may set up the 10 gallon IM fusion again solely for them to grow larger in after passing through quarantine. Once they get around 1.5" I'll move them to the DT, and hopefully by then they've settled whatever squabbles are going on . This video has some bad quality, but shows the little guys eating for the first time when I tried Calanus, or at least mostly eating.




The rest of the livestock is d0ing great, the frag tank acro frags and my DT montis are finally getting full colour back, and the chaeto in the DT is starting to take off under this H380 beast. I'm only running it for four hours at night so I don't nuke the cheato, but the mass is visibly quite a bit larger already, and the DT is still reading low phosphates (~.02), and zero nitrates. The only thing that's somewhat lacking are water changes, mostly due to space issues with all the junk I have going on in this place, but have to make a concerted effort to get back to at least 5g weekly.

You can circuit the 2 24v fixtures together yes as they are the same line voltage youll come out 48v series im a electrician so i can vouch but make sure its in parallel ++ - - if you cross the polarity youll drop the voltage and surely mess something up good luck

 

[Kyl]

In the end I decided to go with some AC fans. They're doing a great job, I don't have to worry about salt creep (so I don't care about IP rating as I did with my sump exhaust). But yeah, good suggestion.

 

[kp1991]

In the end I decided to go with some AC fans. They're doing a great job, I don't have to worry about salt creep (so I don't care about IP rating as I did with my sump exhaust). But yeah, good suggestion.

Thats what i have ac works great power bills worth it for me too lol its hot in the summer

 

[Kyl]

Meant 110v ac fans, no air con in the place :| Thinking about it though, will see how it goes with just the fans when the temps really heat up.

 

[kp1991]

Ac was my best buy so far so worth it

 

[Kyl]

Yeah, seems like for every good unit there are hundreds of garbage ones. Have to do more digging at what's available up here, our selection looks pretty limited vs the US.

 

[kp1991]

Shipping from us would probably suit you better if the cost aint to high order it from amazon or sumthin

 

[Kyl]

Things are holding steady for now, the only real updates are the QT tanks. QT tank #1 (Chrysiptera springeri, Elacatinus puncticulatus & Paracheilinus cyaneus) is holding steady at 1.75ppm Cu, the 30 day window will be up on June 27th. QT tank #2 (Macropharyngodon bipartitus & 3x Tigrigobius multifasciatus) has been dropping and the timer had to be re-set as of yesterday when it was re-dosed up to 1.71ppm Cu (tested 1.51ppm, not comfortable with that). Both tanks continue to have all the fish very active, eating and showing zero signs of internal parasites (healthy poo).

There is a bit of a decision to make once the 30 day timer on tank #1 is up, do I keep everyone in there and start the prazi treatments, while attempting to observe for ich to be present (with a strain releasing theronts past 30 days), get another temporary tank running like the fusion 20 so they're 100% ich clean, or go the canary route of adding a salt water acclimated black molley to observe if ich manifests. At this point I'd rather not have space taken up for a month again with another tank running and everything else that goes along with it, so the black molly route is very tempting. Other family members have freshwater tanks so once the molly has done it's job, it could be re-acclimated to fresh water and go in one of their tanks and live happy there. This would be the safest way for me to buffer transferring to the DT with what I have running, as I'm not sure how apparent ich would be on the tiny red-head goby, nor the damsel as I never saw ich or velvet signs on either of them while in the frag tank.

This would also mean that tank #1 could be broken down, sterilized, turned into the "clean" observation tank I had intended and be running in time for QT tank #2 to have finished therapeutic copper. Honestly I was just going to keep the fish in the frag tank, but once I saw whatever was going on it was a race to get them out of there, while not mixing with the BSL and greenbanded gobies which were living in the nano awaiting the QT stand re-assembly.

Kind of a boring period, some rewiring was done, the electronics cabinet needs a version two done (too much bulk in the current "back" space), and I need to come up with a better solution to keep the chaeto circulating in the refugium versus getting jammed in the corner, a design flaw of my sump.

 

[Kyl]

And I had a nice updated typed out, chrome crashed and poof..

I guess a coles notes list is the best way:

• No further livestock losses in either tank, or QT
• 30 days is almost up for copper treatment on the QT tank containing P. cyaneus, C. springeri & E. puncticulatus
• Crocea clam #1 has a large vermetid snail on it which I've glued shut, but will have to try and cut-off as per advice.
• Frag tank will be getting an additional two T5 banks. Picked up some more 24" Sunblasters for $10 BNIB
  
• On August 7th, coral and clams in the frag tank can be moved to the DT following 76 days fallow
• Dinoflagellates are starting to appear in the DT, my bio filter obviously isn't healthy
• Good timing for the above, the LFS now stocks AlgaGen Tisbe & Apocyclops copepods and I will be picking up a bag of each for the tanks
  
• The external tigger pod culture has exploded and I've already started a second one from the original culture. Will start putting them in the DT refugium section next week
• One of the SW-4's appears to be on it's way out, it stops overnight for some reason.
• The pink lemonade rescue frag has sprouted about 11 new branchs from encrusting, and the existing ones have gained a second tier of multi-branches. I have to think the T5's are directly responsible for this rapid increased growth
• I've modded the DOS heads with John Guest push connect FxPush fittings, no more air in the lines
• The gyres are now controllable via the ICV6 hub, and I'm hoping Apex support comes this summer. Setup was really easy.
• I'm mulling a salt brand switch to RedSea blue bucket..

My phone seems to be on its last legs, I can't access the internal storage via the USB tether anymore so no new pictures. I will leave with a few media pieces from the past little while posted in other threads.

Tigger Copepods, day 2:

Tigger Copepods, day 20:


brownchickenbrowncow by Kyl, on Flickr


clam_hitchhiker_2 by Kyl, on Flickr

 

[sromero287]

pm'ed

 

[Kyl]

So my phone is quite aged (Galaxy S4), but a guy at work did whatever to it overnight, and the USB port is now working again. Given my crappy photography skills, I still can't figure out how to get the tank to show well without the sort of overpowering glare the Kessils are putting out on the sand. To the eye it looks sort of dim but fluorescing like crazy, definitely not saturated like it appears.

My favorite part of the tank is the anemone area that has the original split plus two clones, the purple monti, orange setosa and pink lemonade acro. This is also where the sexy shrimp hang out, right on the nice bubble algae cluster.. Opposite of it is the bright neon tyree toadstool, which I'm glad to say has really taken off since moving from the nano tank. The best part is the anemone shrimp has taken up residence on and around it, so it finally has a house that the clowns won't evict from.

The one clone of the bubbletip is much more vibrant with fluorescence than the parent and other clone, and I'm really not sure why. Maybe I should call it an ultra rainbow and sell it for $100, .


anemones_clown by Kyl, on Flickr


tyree_toadstool by Kyl, on Flickr

 

[Kyl]

.. And the DT and frag tank are both reading zero nitrates again. I've taken the frag tank chaeto offline, and the DT is down to an hour a night just to keep the chaeto alive (QT'n chaeto is a pain in the butt). I know the tank has a very light bio-load right now, and even with heavy feeding the combination of the skimmer and chaeto is obviously just too much removal for nitrate to steadily read. For now I've removed the filter sock, let dKH slide to around 7.3 and am doing some homework on nitrate dosing which may be required just to keep things stable. I can already see the monti caps losing colour again, they're my canaries. Phosphate has been steady on both, 0.02ppm, so at least that's one thing not to worry about.

Stand wise I'm still trying to figure out the best way to finish the last panel and route all the cords exiting. Originally it was going to be up through the plywood "cap" behind the tank that covers the rest of the stand, but now I'm wondering if having an exit on the side panel with a slot to remove attached wires should the door have to be completely taken off might be the better route. I did get some time to play with 3d printing some spacers for the bottom of the stand panels to level the doors just above the bottom of the glass. Heights had to range from 4mm to 14mm, the floor is rather un-even in spots.


door_leveling_feet by Kyl, on Flickr


door_feet_installed by Kyl, on Flickr

Unfortunately after installing them I've realized that the stand is slightly trapezoidal shaped rather than completely square, like 3mm shorter at the top of the frame than the bottom. I'm not sure if that was done to give it a slightly better rigidity versus side-shifting, but I am kind of choked with the panel gap it shows. Nitpicking, but still, I wanted a square stand not a slightly trapezoid one. Now I know why the one panel never did quite line up correctly.

And who doesn't love copepods? These tigger pods since June 1st have become a thick jittering cloud in the culture tank. I'm just about ready to split the culture fully and then start putting them into the DT sump.


pods_july3 by Kyl, on Flickr


pods_july3_2 by Kyl, on Flickr

 

[Kyl]

I actually like the Coles notes version of an update:

• I got a weird look from the hydro store while buying KNO3 for "dosing my fish tank"
• Both the DT and frag tank are reading 1ppm NO3 after dosing, and re-dosing for the past couple of days. Slow and steady, hope to settle around 4ppm
• Dinos are really ticking off the gorgonian, but haven't settled on much else
• Still haven't settled on how to get the QT fish into the home stretch, but they're doing excellent in copper. Both tanks are at least 30 days therapeutic @ ~1.75ppm
• Hanna HR Copper checker is a godsend
• Second banks of T5's have been installed on the frag tank
• 23 days and the new frags / clams can go in the DT
  
• Apocyclops pods in the frag tank are all over the glass, hope to get a bunch to hitch-hike into the DT
• Tigger pods have been added to the DT twice, and the culture is very thick. Amazed at how easy they are to culture.
• Clowns have been really picking at the rock under one of the anemones, wondering if it's a sign they may start spawning

And I found the anemone shrimp, still alive in the tank.

zoas_shrimp by Kyl, on Flickr

 

[Kyl]

I've put a couple swishes worth of pods in the DT refugium over the past two weeks and noticed quite a bit of movement while testing a new return at minimum speed this evening.



Seems they've taken up residence in the refugium, hope they stay put.

 

[Kyl]

• 14 days left for fallow on the clams, frags and new inverts!
• Both fish QT tanks are done copper and currently running through prazi-pro treatments. No white poo spotted in either tank
• Tigger copepods aren't as visible in the fuge with the flow off as they were previously, might be making their way to the DT mostly
• Frag tank is full of the apocyclops pods, they're all over the glass / frags / clam rocks. Hope they transfer to the DT well.
• Nitrates are holding around 2-3ppm after KNO3 dosing. SPS colour is really starting to come back on the frags, and the monti caps are regaining vibrance as well
• The pink lemonade acro in the tank is really taking off and turning into a mini colony
• Dinos in the DT are still appearing, though not as much as before I started KNO3 additions
• Starting to plan what the next / final additions to the DT will be fish wise.
  
• Trochus snails are breeding like rabbits, there's at least 40-50 5-10mm juveniles all over the DT / sump now. Hoping I can keep them going and eventually start selling some to the LFS for credit.

Some musings about coral layout, and what I can do with the rocks the clams are on coral wise without it bothering them. The acro arch I'm hoping to eventually populate with 10-12 different types, and the anemone rock can house 1-2 as well on the back. The far left rock with the red monti and purple poci is down to just the duncans and a hammer that doesn't really expand much from all the flow. I do have a couple more acans to re-home with the sps frags, so I'm thinking about mounting them near the bottom of that rock where I had my original ones almost two years ago before they slowly started to wither away. There's also the gorgonian to figure out a location for, teal and fluorescent green trumpets, a torch and some octo spawn to account for. I know right now with little interference in the middle of the tank the flow just rips around, but as that mid section takes hold with acros it should calm the bottom portion of the tank down a lot more so hopefully the bottom of the arch rock work is a good location for the LPS. Or possibly even mounting them to the clam rocks as the branching LPS won't really grow nuts, though they can throw sweepers out..

I'm most anticipating adding the three emerald crabs to the tank as the darn bubble algae is really going all over the place. There's been hesitation to use vibrant as I don't want to nuke the chaeto, but might start as the photo period for the fuge is so low right now to prevent nitrate bottoming out that it probably doesn't matter if the macro does die off.

Tank wise, I feel like it's in a good spot right now.

 

[Kyl]

Another week of progress:

• Coral / Clam fallow period of 76 days is one week away
• Nitrates holding 3ppm DT / 4ppm frag tank, both with PO4 around .02
• Dinos are really visibly reducing in the DT, I have to attribute that to the KNO3 and tigger pods
• A few net swishes of tiggers are going into the DT every week now
• The second fighting conch I thought was dead is still puttering around in the frag tank, so that's two of them for the DT on August 7th. I'm going to put one urchin in the DT and keep the second one in the QT/ Frag tank permanently
• LFS let me know my waiting list for a Yasha Ray shrimp goby came in. Picked it up today, it's in the 10 gallon QT the leopard wrasse started in.
• Going to pick up a pistol shrimp for the Yasha, not sure if it will be a candycane or something a bit larger
  
• Starting to get some green pigment back in the four seasons frag, it had bleached severely but always kept a lot of polyp extension.
  
• Largest of the rockflower babies is about 1-3/4" now, think I'm going to keep them in the frag tank another fallow cycle. Still feel too small for the DT.
• All QT fish are on second round of prazi-pro, seem to be handling it fine. 50% water changes for both tanks soon and I'll move into complete observation mode. One was in therapeutic copper for 48 days, the other 35, hoping that was long enough.
• Giving a lot of thought to the final fish list again, want another fairy wrasse, royal gramma..

yasha_goby by Kyl, on Flickr

 

[Kyl]

It was transfer day! Both clams, the cleaner shrimp, fighting conchs, emerald crabs and urchins are in the DT. The clams were open after about 10 minutes, didn't need to be burped and already the emerald crabs are going at the bubble algae. No coral has been moved over yet, that's the job for tomorrow. Need to make a temporary egg crate stand to sit in the tank since my little frag racks from the nano tank don't have enough hold through the thicker glass.

I think from this point out it's going to be SPS frags going forward. More acro / mili, need to get a replacement forestfire digi, some more encrusting montis, etc. Also not sure on what would be a good coral for the clam rocks, since they're "islands" in a sense, but I don't want anything long term bothering the clams..

 

[Kyl]

clams_dt by Kyl, on Flickr


ricsncans by Kyl, on Flickr


dtfrags by Kyl, on Flickr

Frag tank is looking rather empty, going to have to change that starting tomorrow
Going to most likely pick up some fresh cuts of Cali Tort, Teal Turaki, Blue Staghorn, Pink Milli and a Wasabi Tort.

empty_fragtank by Kyl, on Flickr

I think going forward for encrusting frags they will be glued to a piece of rock rubble first, then attaching that rubble to a traditional plug. Probably going to snip the frags off those plugs, put the plug back into the frag tank after making sure the "parent" survives in the DT. The green slimer did have a big set back in the frag tank from the nitrate crash and a run in with the torch, but it's growing back so quickly that I think another 3-4 weeks that skeleton will be entirely covered again.

 

[Kyl]

This started as a three head frag in ~March 2016 and is over 100 total heads now. It's been broken up multiple times and I have four more clumps each about half the size of this rock. I believe they're Armor of God zoanthids, going to try and offload three of the other bunches.


zoa-paly by Kyl, on Flickr

 

[Kyl]

Got some new sticks today, a lot of pieces from a really nice guy who can now clean his glass without worry of breaking a colony piece off . That's now 10 acros and a millepora, now to find some encrusting montis and.. well I'm not sure what else.


new_sticks by Kyl, on Flickr