Lionfish 90(ish) gallon peninsula build

[fermentedhiker]

Tank is plugging along. Today is cleaning day and I decided to take an FTS;

I probably should've waited until I finished

Something feels off with the tank even though tests seem within acceptable ranges. So I decided to try the ATI ICP to see if anything is out of whack.

Plan is to try another LTA once I'm convinced the tank is truly stable.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Got the ATI ICP test back. I haven't had time to digest it but the RODI test was interesting. My TDS meter gives me a 1 out of the RO and a 0 out of the DI section. It's a BRS 6 stage.

ICP items of note;
copper 1.77ug/l
zinc 11.33ug/l
nitrate 0mg/l
phosphorus 1.17ug/l
phosphate 0mg/l

Time to replace so cartridges even though the TDS meter is still reading zero I guess?

 

[fermentedhiker]

The ATI testing indicated that my salinity was only 30 PSU. Low an behold I checked the calibration on my Milwaukee and it was off by .002. I guess I should have checked it more often. So I've mixed up some brine with some IO and am bring the SG up to 1.026 over a couple of days.

It also indicated that my ALK was only 4.57 eek.... Work has been really busy and I missed the fact that my doser was having trouble sucking the alk solution(plumbing issue and not a real trouble with the doser) and hadn't been dosing ALK but CA had still been going. Manually dosing ALK to slowly get it back up which is going to a couple days.

It seems I'm low on Iodine as well. I was planning on starting red sea colors dosing but since that's based on CA useage and my CA is high I guess it'll have to wait until I get my doser dialed back in.

Nitrates are 0 but Phosphates are high so I'll have to deal with that as well.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Got the sg at 1.o26 again and Alk is now at 8. Ca still a bit high at 500. Hopefully now that ALK is up I'll see some more consumption to bring the CA down. Next inline is tackling the phospate(currently .22)

 

[fermentedhiker]

Picked up a Marine Betta and dwarf zebra lionfish from Bluezoo. Both arrived in good condition and went through acclimation in good shape. Also got a thorny oyster from DD which is hard to tell how well it is, but at least it didn't smell like it was in trouble.

 

[Oshengems]

I have a reef will be mostly sps I have been considering a dwarf sooooo bad I just love lionfish! But my hand at times is in the tank although not as often as before, but I know! The day I see one at my LFS my impulse will kick in I’m pulling the trigger. Only reason I want it from a LFS is because I wanna see it first i want a baby tiny one saw one in petco a few months back I think a ghost shrimp was too big for him never seen such a small lionfish but my sump was full of frags, I wanna use my sump fuge area to train him first if possible. Give us more pics!!! lol... that violotant looks awesome

 

[fermentedhiker]

I have a reef will be mostly sps I have been considering a dwarf sooooo bad I just love lionfish! But my hand at times is in the tank although not as often as before, but I know! The day I see one at my LFS my impulse will kick in I’m pulling the trigger. Only reason I want it from a LFS is because I wanna see it first i want a baby tiny one saw one in petco a few months back I think a ghost shrimp was too big for him never seen such a small lionfish but my sump was full of frags, I wanna use my sump fuge area to train him first if possible. Give us more pics!!! lol... that violotant looks awesome

I'll work on it. Everybody is hiding currently. I need to sit down and spend a couple hours cleaning the acrylic(glass is sooo much easier) which is hard enough to do without scratching but my GBR clownfish has decided that she's all that and tries to take my fingers off whenever I'm working in the tank. Way more of a problem than the two lionfish.

 

[najer]

I have a reef will be mostly sps I have been considering a dwarf sooooo bad I just love lionfish! But my hand at times is in the tank although not as often as before, but I know! The day I see one at my LFS my impulse will kick in I’m pulling the trigger. Only reason I want it from a LFS is because I wanna see it first i want a baby tiny one saw one in petco a few months back I think a ghost shrimp was too big for him never seen such a small lionfish but my sump was full of frags, I wanna use my sump fuge area to train him first if possible. Give us more pics!!! lol... that violotant looks awesome

I have a dwarf fuzzy that I feed by hand, it takes flake and frozen from my fingers, if my hand is in the tank, Sundays only unless I have a problem, it lurks in case there is food lol, I have had to nudge it out of the way before now to try and place things.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Urchin decided to spawn. Too bad it's all alone.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Purple reef lobster post molt hiding in plain sight.

 

[fermentedhiker]

I have to say getting and keeping the acrylic clear of coraline is like a full time job. Even my mightymagnet barely puts a dent in it. I'm trying a kent plastic scraper and it takes multiple passes on each spot to get rid of it. The Halloween and Blue tuxedo urchins eat some of it but don't seem to concentrate on any one type of algae or spot for long. Mr clean sponges work but the same as the others I have to scrub each spot just to do anything. That's a lot of surface area to scrub one square inch at a time. The primary problem is I got busy with work and let it get away from me and now I'm trying to beat it back into submission.

 

[fermentedhiker]

I"m also contemplating moving the GBR clown to my 125 softie/lps tank once it's up and running. That tank will have a large RBTA for him to live in. He loves any sand dwelling nem I put in this tank to death. I'm thinking if I get the anemone established before I introduce the clown it should do better. That will give me a little more room for bioload in this tank so I can be more comfortable getting a radiata lion as my showpiece fish. Not sure though. He's a massive digger and moves the sand bed all over. Since the RBTA likely will position itself higher in the tank for more light would that make the clown less prone to spending time reengineering the sand bed?

 

[najer]

I"m also contemplating moving the GBR clown to my 125 softie/lps tank once it's up and running. That tank will have a large RBTA for him to live in. He loves any sand dwelling nem I put in this tank to death. I'm thinking if I get the anemone established before I introduce the clown it should do better. That will give me a little more room for bioload in this tank so I can be more comfortable getting a radiata lion as my showpiece fish. Not sure though. He's a massive digger and moves the sand bed all over. Since the RBTA likely will position itself higher in the tank for more light would that make the clown less prone to spending time reengineering the sand bed?

Good luck with the coraline and the clown, have fun!

 

[fermentedhiker]

My clams. Blue Maxima is from @cultivatedreef and has been in the tank for 2 or 3 months. Gold and green maxima are from @PacificEastAquaculture and just arrived today.

 

[fermentedhiker]

So I lost the green maxima. It never opened up any more than this? My blue that i've had for months is still fine. The gold seems OK. Not opened up as much as the blue but not just barely opened like the green was. ALK dipped down to 5.5 because of a clogged dosing line, but nothing else seemed bothered too much by it. Thorny oyster is still happy as a................clam(sorrynotsorry). Might be time for another ICP test to see if something else is out of wack.

 

[samnaz]

How's the Bayite temperature controller holding up for you? I'm trying to decide on a temp controller and hadn't heard of that particular one. Was thinking of going with an inkwell.

edit... lol, I see you have majorly upgraded since then. just ignore me ;-)

 

[fermentedhiker]

How's the Bayite temperature controller holding up for you? I'm trying to decide on a temp controller and hadn't heard of that particular one. Was thinking of going with an inkwell.

edit... lol, I see you have majorly upgraded since then. just ignore me ;-)

No worries. Still using the Bayite temp controller. It's worked flawlessly so far. It turns out the cooling outlet was unnecessary as the tank never gets too hot. Inkbirds seem to be the most popular though and also work fine(I have one on another tank).

 

[fermentedhiker]

So I got home from work today to a dead Tomini tang. He looked perfectly fine this morning. Not sure what could've happened. None of the fish every fight for real. I mean not one torn fin ever.

 

[najer]

Sorry to hear that.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Ati ICP results came back. Page one