Fish tank diary
Started tank 3/22/2020
Water change 2 gallons. 1/2 cup per gallon salt.

3-24-20
Added 1 med shrimp
Added 1/2 Dr tims
Added 1+ capful of Microbacter
Covered sunny side of tank.
Lights off.
Slimmer off.
Alkalinity is 34
Temp 77
Added microbacter 2 more times.
4/1
Added another shrimp
Ammonia seems to be lowering a little.
Ph and salinity seem constant.
4/2
Removed shrimp
Added 1/3 dr Tim’s
Added all 4 prodibio
Added 1 cap microbacter
4/4
Added a small piece of shrimp to keep cycle going.
Ammonia is down.
Turned on protein skimmer.
4/8
Added 2 clown fish.
Feeding ting pellets 2-3 pinches 2 times per day
Frozen reef food 1 x per day with selcon and garlic. .5 of cube.
Added 2 drops garlic to tank water
4/9 they are eating but still shy
4/10
Added emerald crab, scarlet crab, blue crab, bumblebee snail, turbo snail, and another snail
Acclimation over 3 hours with stress guard
Fish are eating well.
Fed 3 pinches pellets 1 pinch flake
Fed 1/2 cube reef food. Soaked in
Selcon
Turned on low setting lights. Around 10% for 8 hrs
Have blocked west side of glass with cardboard to make sure no sunlight makes it in.
Added Seneye
Temp 76.9
Ph 8.2
NH3 .001
NH4 12.26
Salinity 36.6 ppt
Cleaned what looked like aptasia off of one snail with tooth brush and peroxide. Pulled snail out of tank.
All inverts are alive and moving around. Except one large shell. Not sure if it’s alive or not.
One of the crabs has coraline algae on its shell
Clownfish not picking on each other at all really. They like pellets the most but seem to eat other stuff a little too.
4/11
Have added 1/2-1 capful of microbacter the last 3 days.

Temp 75
PH 8.23
Phos .34ppm
4/12
Water change. 25%
One of crabs was dead when I picked him up to check. Hadn’t moved for a day. This was before water change.
Accidentally started water change with straight RO. Maybe 1 gallon. Unheated. Put old water back in. New temp was 74.5.
Mixed and heated new water.
Put it a little higher salinity but the tank salinity is still lower than before the ro addition. 33.4 or so.
After reading, I think this is actually better. So I’ll leave it. Gonna recheck it in a couple hours to see if it is the same etc.
added a cap of microbacter.
PH 8.26

4-13-20
calc 543
DKH 7.0
Temp 77
PH 8.22
Added 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to AO. Need higher Alkalinity. 8-9.
4/14. Thing seem stable. Moving to .5 cap microbacter every other day. AO still full from yesterday. Will check alkalinity tomorrow.
4/15
Alkalinity 7.8.
1/2 ao water is gone. Might be close when it’s all gone.
4/16
Alkalinity 8.2
4/17
Alkalinity 8.2.
Added .25 teaspoon baking soda.
Salinity 1.025
Calc 488
4/18
Temp 76
PH 8.31
Increased lights by 50%
4/19
Wire management for devices under tank.
Looking at UPS systems and potentially adding raspberry pi for Seneye WiFi and other stuff.

4/21
Added a few corals. Probably jumping the gun.
Dipped in Coral RX but didn’t acclimate like I should have. .
4/22
Corals are alive but most are not looking great. Star polyps have not come out at all.
Xenia looks good. Hammer looks ok.
Water parameters looks good.
Did another water change yesterday. 10%
Phos .41
DKH 8.3
Salinity 1.025
Temp 77
PH 8.29
4/23
Indopacific algae arrived.
Soaked it in coral Rx for quite a while. Saw some pests drop off. Went ahead with scraping in tank after 10 min of soaking.
They gave me a freebie coral. Not sure what it is. Treated it with coral also.
Fingers crossed, I’m a little worried that I may have introduced something into my tank.

4/28
Water change std
Water seems a little cloudy. Wondering about micro bubbles. Seems like small particulate in water. White. Maybe bubbles,
Everything else seems the same.
Little tiny white bugs on inside of glass. Guessing copepods. Where did they come from? Betting they came from the ipsf order.
Temp75.8
Ph 8.13
Salinity 1.025
Phos .52 ppm
DKH 7.7
4/29
Added purfiltrum and phosguard to combat phosphate and and ammonia/nitrates etc.
fingers crossed
Noticing some dark “sediment” in low points of rock.
5/1

Phosphate coming down.
Palys look like they are dying. All shriveled.
One snail died.
One crab hasn’t come out for days. Probably dead too.
I will check ammonia tomorrow but it may not register with the filters I put in. Tank seems to be clearing a little. Considering a 40% water change tomorrow. Not sure about that though. May just ride this out. Don’t want to create another cycle and set the tank back.
Added microbacter. 1/2 cap.
Phos .41ppm
5/2
Tank is visibly clearer.
Paly corals are opening a little.
Leather coral looks awesome.
Frogspawn looks ok.
Gsp still not out.

Been feeding twice a day only. Mostly frozen. One tiny pinch of pellet each time. No flake.
phos .36ppm
5/4
Added reef booster. 25%of a nano vial.
5/6
Added ferric oxide.
calc 497
4/9 4 gal water change
DKH 7.5
Phos .13 ppm


Added a chaeto reactor. Waiting on the chaeto.
Should be here this coming week.
Ph is low. 7.8. Graph says it’s consistently lowering.
Looks like alkalinity is low.
PHOSPHATES ARE LOWERING!!! yay
Will take out phosphate media after I add the chaeto and have seen the phosphates go to 0.
Considering air stone in sumbut no room...
Need to get ATO going and get rid of the one I have I guess.
Starting to does one part solution for calcium magnesium and alkalinity.
Polyp lab One.
1/2 cap per day to sump.
Green surface algae is showing up on top faces of rocks.
Lighting schedule has been increased in ramp up for a shorter time to target light output.
15 days from current level of light 45% to target 85%
Day length has increased also.
May cut lengthwise back.
5/11
Built grow tank for phytoplankton.
Filled with RO.
80 ml algae barn ocean magik
1ml hydro fertilizer.

Starting color.

5/12
New Seneye slide
Calibrated salinity probe.
Numbers are a little different now.
Might be the recent water change.
Might be the dosing I’ve been doing.
Ph went from 8.11 to 8.15 after dosing.

Salinity 1.021
Temp 77
Ph 8.15
Added WiFi leak detectors
5-15-2020
Phosphates 0!!!
Removing phosphate media to see if Chaeto reactor does its thing.
Calcium seems high. Maybe bad test?
Salinity is low. I’ll raise it with water change.
I guess the meter needed calibrated and was letting me mix water too low. I’ll calibrate more often.
MG 1160
salinity 1.021
DKH 9.5
Phos 0
Calc 560
Started tank 3/22/2020
Water change 2 gallons. 1/2 cup per gallon salt.

3-24-20
Added 1 med shrimp
Added 1/2 Dr tims
Added 1+ capful of Microbacter
Covered sunny side of tank.
Lights off.
Slimmer off.
Alkalinity is 34
Temp 77
Added microbacter 2 more times.
4/1
Added another shrimp
Ammonia seems to be lowering a little.
Ph and salinity seem constant.
4/2
Removed shrimp
Added 1/3 dr Tim’s
Added all 4 prodibio
Added 1 cap microbacter
4/4
Added a small piece of shrimp to keep cycle going.
Ammonia is down.
Turned on protein skimmer.
4/8
Added 2 clown fish.
Feeding ting pellets 2-3 pinches 2 times per day
Frozen reef food 1 x per day with selcon and garlic. .5 of cube.
Added 2 drops garlic to tank water
4/9 they are eating but still shy
4/10
Added emerald crab, scarlet crab, blue crab, bumblebee snail, turbo snail, and another snail
Acclimation over 3 hours with stress guard
Fish are eating well.
Fed 3 pinches pellets 1 pinch flake
Fed 1/2 cube reef food. Soaked in
Selcon
Turned on low setting lights. Around 10% for 8 hrs
Have blocked west side of glass with cardboard to make sure no sunlight makes it in.
Added Seneye
Temp 76.9
Ph 8.2
NH3 .001
NH4 12.26
Salinity 36.6 ppt
Cleaned what looked like aptasia off of one snail with tooth brush and peroxide. Pulled snail out of tank.
All inverts are alive and moving around. Except one large shell. Not sure if it’s alive or not.
One of the crabs has coraline algae on its shell
Clownfish not picking on each other at all really. They like pellets the most but seem to eat other stuff a little too.
4/11
Have added 1/2-1 capful of microbacter the last 3 days.

Temp 75
PH 8.23
Phos .34ppm
4/12
Water change. 25%
One of crabs was dead when I picked him up to check. Hadn’t moved for a day. This was before water change.
Accidentally started water change with straight RO. Maybe 1 gallon. Unheated. Put old water back in. New temp was 74.5.
Mixed and heated new water.
Put it a little higher salinity but the tank salinity is still lower than before the ro addition. 33.4 or so.
After reading, I think this is actually better. So I’ll leave it. Gonna recheck it in a couple hours to see if it is the same etc.
added a cap of microbacter.
PH 8.26

4-13-20
calc 543
DKH 7.0
Temp 77
PH 8.22
Added 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to AO. Need higher Alkalinity. 8-9.
4/14. Thing seem stable. Moving to .5 cap microbacter every other day. AO still full from yesterday. Will check alkalinity tomorrow.
4/15
Alkalinity 7.8.
1/2 ao water is gone. Might be close when it’s all gone.
4/16
Alkalinity 8.2
4/17
Alkalinity 8.2.
Added .25 teaspoon baking soda.
Salinity 1.025
Calc 488
4/18
Temp 76
PH 8.31
Increased lights by 50%
4/19
Wire management for devices under tank.
Looking at UPS systems and potentially adding raspberry pi for Seneye WiFi and other stuff.

4/21
Added a few corals. Probably jumping the gun.
Dipped in Coral RX but didn’t acclimate like I should have. .
4/22
Corals are alive but most are not looking great. Star polyps have not come out at all.
Xenia looks good. Hammer looks ok.
Water parameters looks good.
Did another water change yesterday. 10%
Phos .41
DKH 8.3
Salinity 1.025
Temp 77
PH 8.29
4/23
Indopacific algae arrived.
Soaked it in coral Rx for quite a while. Saw some pests drop off. Went ahead with scraping in tank after 10 min of soaking.
They gave me a freebie coral. Not sure what it is. Treated it with coral also.
Fingers crossed, I’m a little worried that I may have introduced something into my tank.

4/28
Water change std
Water seems a little cloudy. Wondering about micro bubbles. Seems like small particulate in water. White. Maybe bubbles,
Everything else seems the same.
Little tiny white bugs on inside of glass. Guessing copepods. Where did they come from? Betting they came from the ipsf order.
Temp75.8
Ph 8.13
Salinity 1.025
Phos .52 ppm
DKH 7.7
4/29
Added purfiltrum and phosguard to combat phosphate and and ammonia/nitrates etc.
fingers crossed
Noticing some dark “sediment” in low points of rock.
5/1

Phosphate coming down.
Palys look like they are dying. All shriveled.
One snail died.
One crab hasn’t come out for days. Probably dead too.
I will check ammonia tomorrow but it may not register with the filters I put in. Tank seems to be clearing a little. Considering a 40% water change tomorrow. Not sure about that though. May just ride this out. Don’t want to create another cycle and set the tank back.
Added microbacter. 1/2 cap.
Phos .41ppm
5/2
Tank is visibly clearer.
Paly corals are opening a little.
Leather coral looks awesome.
Frogspawn looks ok.
Gsp still not out.

Been feeding twice a day only. Mostly frozen. One tiny pinch of pellet each time. No flake.
phos .36ppm
5/4
Added reef booster. 25%of a nano vial.
5/6
Added ferric oxide.
calc 497
4/9 4 gal water change
DKH 7.5
Phos .13 ppm


Added a chaeto reactor. Waiting on the chaeto.
Should be here this coming week.
Ph is low. 7.8. Graph says it’s consistently lowering.
Looks like alkalinity is low.
PHOSPHATES ARE LOWERING!!! yay
Will take out phosphate media after I add the chaeto and have seen the phosphates go to 0.
Considering air stone in sumbut no room...
Need to get ATO going and get rid of the one I have I guess.
Starting to does one part solution for calcium magnesium and alkalinity.
Polyp lab One.
1/2 cap per day to sump.
Green surface algae is showing up on top faces of rocks.
Lighting schedule has been increased in ramp up for a shorter time to target light output.
15 days from current level of light 45% to target 85%
Day length has increased also.
May cut lengthwise back.
5/11
Built grow tank for phytoplankton.
Filled with RO.
80 ml algae barn ocean magik
1ml hydro fertilizer.

Starting color.

5/12
New Seneye slide
Calibrated salinity probe.
Numbers are a little different now.
Might be the recent water change.
Might be the dosing I’ve been doing.
Ph went from 8.11 to 8.15 after dosing.

Salinity 1.021
Temp 77
Ph 8.15
Added WiFi leak detectors
5-15-2020
Phosphates 0!!!
Removing phosphate media to see if Chaeto reactor does its thing.
Calcium seems high. Maybe bad test?
Salinity is low. I’ll raise it with water change.
I guess the meter needed calibrated and was letting me mix water too low. I’ll calibrate more often.
MG 1160
salinity 1.021
DKH 9.5
Phos 0
Calc 560
