Matt's natural reef

[Matt Carden]

Sorry to hear about the hammer, Apstasia and Peppermint. Wrasses like disappearing sometimes. I've known them to be gone for mostly weeks but sometimes months!

What are you using to test your PO4? Is there a nearby LFS that you could have test the water?

I have Salifert tests for the PO4, NI3, Kh, Ca, Mg, Ph. When I test PO4 the color becomes a dark blue.

 

[Matt Carden]

Well I finally got around to setting a trap for my Peppermint Shrimp. I set the trap on Sunday right after a little rearranging of my aquascape. So I had nothing Sunday or Monday night before I went to work on Tuesday morning. When got home from work Monday I had one Shrimp in the trap that was rehomed to the Sump. I reset the trap last night and this morning the other one was in the trap. I rehomed him to the sump and moved what's left of my Hammer skeleton to the display in Hope's that it will regrow.

I've had an outbreak of some ugly brown algea for a couple weeks that went away in the last couple days. This happened to be coinciding with the rearrangement of my aquascape. I was having to scrape the glass every day because of greenish brown algea for the last 4 to 6 weeks. Now there is a slight white film growing on the glass.

I asked my LFS to order some Wrasse last week. Hopefully he gets some that are on my compatibility list. I'm going there tonight after work to check it out.

I'm going to Siesta Key Beach, FL for vacation Memorial week and we're driving. I will be collecting some mud and NSW to add more biodiversity to my system. I'm also planning on detouring through Orlando on my way home to check out WWC in person.

 

[Matt Carden]

An updated pic of my new aquascape

 

[SeaDweller]

Ok so I've had quite the busy week between working 13 days on 1 off and the recent modification to my return piping to incorporate a Media chamber. I will post pics of my media chamber in the next few days. I also had an incident with my new Hammer frag with the consensus that my Peppermint Shrimp ate the Hammer! Apstasia is growing in my tank again so the Peppermints aren't doing there job so they gotta go. If I can trap them, I will banish them to the Sump. Otherwise I will need something that will eat them and not eat other iinhabitants. To top it all off, my Red Lined Wrasse was missing from Monday through Saturday only to show up today.

All of my new frags seem to be growing especially the mushroom and the Blasto.

I've been running GFO for 2 weeks now and my PO4 is still off the charts. I think I'm going to get an ICP test done because something could be skewing the PO4 test results. NI3 still between 0-2ppm.

Try running lanthanum chloride or the likes of agent green, phosphate rx. It’ll lower the PO4 in a controlled fashion via dosing and then you can maintain it with GFO.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Well I finally got around to setting a trap for my Peppermint Shrimp. I set the trap on Sunday right after a little rearranging of my aquascape. So I had nothing Sunday or Monday night before I went to work on Tuesday morning. When got home from work Monday I had one Shrimp in the trap that was rehomed to the Sump. I reset the trap last night and this morning the other one was in the trap. I rehomed him to the sump and moved what's left of my Hammer skeleton to the display in Hope's that it will regrow.

I've had an outbreak of some ugly brown algea for a couple weeks that went away in the last couple days. This happened to be coinciding with the rearrangement of my aquascape. I was having to scrape the glass every day because of greenish brown algea for the last 4 to 6 weeks. Now there is a slight white film growing on the glass.

I asked my LFS to order some Wrasse last week. Hopefully he gets some that are on my compatibility list. I'm going there tonight after work to check it out.

I'm going to Siesta Key Beach, FL for vacation Memorial week and we're driving. I will be collecting some mud and NSW to add more biodiversity to my system. I'm also planning on detouring through Orlando on my way home to check out WWC in person.

Sounds like a nice vacation you have planned. Siesta Key Beach is beautiful. I lived in Sarasota for a number of years and would frequent it.

 

[Matt Carden]

Sounds like a nice vacation you have planned. Siesta Key Beach is beautiful. I lived in Sarasota for a number of years and would frequent it.

Yeah we've been there before we love it. I lived in Indian Rock Beach for a year but I can't make money as Pipefitter in Florida so I had to leave.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Yeah we've been there before we love it. I lived in Indian Rock Beach for a year but I can't make money as Pipefitter in Florida so I had to leave.

That's a tough one unless you were to open your own business. Then you still have to have some good contacts and relationships with the right people.

 

[Matt Carden]

Water testing:

Test Salifert API

PO4 >3ppm 3ppm
NO3 25ppm 5ppm
pH 8.2
KH 10.9dKH
Ca >500ppm
Mg

 

[Matt Carden]

Well I cracked my sump! It's on the width side of a 50 g. I'm gonna try siliconing a piece on the inside from front to back, top to bottom with plenty of silicone between the new piece and the cracked side.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Well I cracked my sump! It's on the width side of a 50 g. I'm gonna try siliconing a piece on the inside from front to back, top to bottom with plenty of silicone between the new piece and the cracked side.

Whoa, that sucks! Also make sure to run a bead of silicone around the perimeter of the patch piece after attaching it.

 

[Matt Carden]

Whoa, that sucks! Also make sure to run a bead of silicone around the perimeter of the patch piece after attaching it.

I'm going to silicone it in like it was the new side I'm just not taking out the old

 

[Matt Carden]

My patch panel is in. Now to wait for Silicone to dry so I can turn back on my Sump.

 

[Matt Carden]

On a brighter side, I got a Coral Beauty to try to make a mate for my other Coral Beauty.
When I first put the new one in the Acclimation box there was definitely aggressive behavior by the original CB. Over the last half an hour the aggressive behavior has seized. Now he just keeps swimming by.

 

[Matt Carden]

I put water back in the tank tonight after patching the side panel of my sump. After running GFO and the aluminum based Phosphate removal media for about a month I have seen no reduction in PO4 testing levels. I decided to remove all media and let it be for a while and let my tank go for a while. I ended up with about a 20% water change because of this catastrophe so I won't need to change water for awhile.

I have a Nerite snail that's as big as my thumb. This thing is a monster compared to all my other snails.

 

[Matt Carden]

I released my new Coral Beauty into General population last night. All was good, a little chasing by the resident CB but nothing overly aggressive.

 

[Matt Carden]

As of yesterday everything still going well between my hopefully mated pair of Coral Beauty Angels. I also have a pair of Engineer Gobies as well hoping to have a mated pair. So far only one out at a time but I guess they are shy for the first couple weeks. I can always tell where they are because they seem to burrow in a straight line.

 

[Matt Carden]

I lost a Favia on Monday. The Polyps were kinda detached and flapping in the current on Saturday and on Monday when I got home from work there was only skeleton left.

 

[Matt Carden]

I have been having a problem with my Auto top off. First the Solenoid to my direct RODI top off wouldn't close. I tried stretching the spring but it didn't stop my tank from overflowing. I ended up getting an ASCO solenoid valve because I concluded that my water pressure was too high for the hobby level solenoid valves. This fixed the problem of the solenoid not closing and overflowing my tank. Now the controller relay is failing to send enough current to the solenoid to activate in a low water situation. I contacted autotopoff.com and they are sending me a new controller with a return label for the old one. Until then I have bypassed the controller and have to manually fill the sump daily with minor salinity swings.

 

[Matt Carden]

I have what appears to be a blueberry on my Ivory branch hitchhiker sps.

 

[Matt Carden]

I'm going on vacation for a week to Siesta key FL. I don't have a babysitter for my tank. We have someone who is going to check on our cat and feed the fish but not even gonna try to explain anything about the tank. I just have to have faith that when we get back, the tank will be ok. My auto top off is broken so my plan for that is to fill the sump as full as it will go. Lower the salinity so that as the water evaporates it won't climb too high. I figured to lower the salinity to around 30 ppt so that the salinity will be around 40 ppt when I get home. I lose about 1/2 a gallon per day so I should lose around 4 gallons to evaporation. My salinity has been going up by about 1 ppt between top offs so I hope it'll be good.