Mixed Reef 167gal Peninsula

[josephxsxn]

Thinking of using DIY Snow to try and beat down the Vermetid Snail that I have in the tank. Also looking at growing out some Aiptasia in another container to grow out the nudibranch that eat them. Figured I mite as well see what other problems I can solve now that I'll be doing QT... I feel like the Aiptasia is possible to beat, not so sure on the snails.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Great looking setup, the waterbox Peninsula looks amazing. Sorry to hear about the ICH issues.

 

[josephxsxn]

Ordered 3 Cultured Maxima Clams from Pacific East Aqua Culture today, cant wait for them to get here. Going to have to setup a small Clam QT to do a 10 day or so QT with them before putting them in the tank. I am thinking its an acceptable risk during my fallow period to add so long as I QT them for a bit and transfer them out into the display with at least 45 days to go on the countdown.

Been continuing to use the DIY reef snow, I do feel like it clogs up the little ones. But the large ones seem to be able to handle it, perhaps I need to increase my dose.

 

[josephxsxn]

Upgraded my fug light today to a Apollo Horticulture 24w LED and my PH hit a new high of 8.3. I believe its the additional photosynthesis taking place reducing the co2 in the tank due to the better light. This one is 2x the wattage of the old and from a better brand name and not a random china box.

 

[josephxsxn]

Got the clams in the mail today, they are hanging out in the QT I setup for them; plans to keep them there for 7-10 days before moving them into the DT.

Moved some corals from my Frag tanks into the Display tanks... Saddly I believe I also introduced Spionid worms that are borrowing into the poyps of some montiporas.. I should have inspected more in the frag, in the future ill have a Invert QT before Frag.. Hopefully they wont become a problem...

Added into the display

• UC Ultra Chrome Monti
• RR Topic Thunder Monti
• WWC Grafted Sunburst Cap Monti
• Frutie Pebbles Monti
• German Blue Forest Fire Digi Monti
• Blue Caulastraea
• Light Green Caulastraea
• Mint Green Caulastraea

 

[josephxsxn]

Some photos of the clams acclimating and in their QT setup.. Big shout out to @OrionN for help with lights that didn't break the bank for a QT. Think it really shows that a QT doesn't have to be top of the line. The 2 lights are 150 watt Cree 5000k flood lights.

So far they all have opened up and been feed twice now with Phytochrom and ReefBlizzard-O

 

[josephxsxn]

Clam QT is still ongoing you can read about that in the link below. Have some pest snails that need to be completely removed before they can go into the display tank, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hps-light-for-clam-qt.775422/#post-8196688

My display tank on the other hand has for the first time ever developed dinos! Have not spent any time trying to identify it yet but have been speculating as to what may have caused it: 1) increasing light recently by maxing out my cool white and warm whites on my G4 Radions, 2) marco alage in the refugium, 3) reduced nutrients in tank from no fish feedings.

I decided to turn off my macro algae light, it was getting killed off by hair algae anyway and fug has dinos mixed into algae. Increased my wet skimming on the skimmer. Going to keep the lights turned up and increase some tank coral feedings. Today probably after feeding this evening will put in some 1 micron filtersocks and try to pull as many dinos out as I can before going back to 200 microns.

 

[josephxsxn]

Still fighting the Dinos, they seem to go back and forth between growing and falling back. Trying some more things to slow it down. Basically I feel like the below actions are trying to make the water more dirty. I do find it interesting that a number of people stopped running the skimmer with good results making me believe that its exporting some natural competitor.

• Turning down the warm white first on my lights
• Silicate Dosing continues
• Decided to turn off the skimmer as per some threads
• Turned the temperature back down, for a while I tired 82F as per some threads. Moved it back to 79F tonight.
• Pulled my filter socks and letting the sump run sockless...
• Not cleaning my glass

In better news got a new Kessil A360X with the Narrow 55 reflector, this light is pretty much getting dedicated as a spotlight to the Maxima clams. Did some PAR measurements today, between this light and the light from the Radions I think the clams will be just fine.

All tests done with the power heads still running and my Radions turned off.
Light was 8" off the water surface
Measurement point was on my sand-bed 20" under the water surface
Measurement was directly under the narrow reflector
All using the narrow 55 reflector

• Color 100 (white light look)
• Intensity 100
• Violet 0
• PAR 150-190

• Color 100
• Intensity 100
• Violet 100
• PAR 200-250

• Color 50 (blue light look)
• Intensity 100
• Violet 100
• PAR 200-235

• Color 0 (just the Violet LEDs that are only usable behind the wifi app)
• Intensity 0
• Violet 100
• PAR 70-95

I lifted the measurement probe like 5 inchs off the sand to 15" depth and it was reading near 600!!!

 

[haitian_reefer]

Any update?

 

[josephxsxn]

Any update?

I was gonna wait until after Monday to update but lets do it now! I'll get some photos early next week with a good camera.

Dinos
Spent a few weeks fighting the dinos but after much work it seems like they have finally relented and my phosphates have returned to their normal above 0 levels. Now the goal is to return the tank temperature back to 80f (it was 83f during treatment) and get the lights back on a normal schedule. Something I didn't think of but want to make sure to note is if your going to do a tank blackout you should consider not dosing your supplements... Without the additional photo period length and intensity my alk consumption went down and overall value started to climb in the tank, as such cut the dose in half while it returns to normal.

I do want to note that for whatever reason it seems like my corals grew like crazy during this dinos infestation, more so then any other in my entire time in the hobby. The tank had ultra low nutrients (test kit zeros) during that time.

DinoID Confirmation please - Ostreopsis [Confirmed]

Recently my tank started to suffer from what I believe to be a dino outbreak, to help with treatment plans I picked up a microscope. After some reading and using the great dino id guide from @taricha I believe I have Ostreopsis but would love the experts to also share on opinion. Sorry about...

www.reef2reef.com

Clams
Clams are still alive but dont look to be doing well, one seems to be gapping some and the other bleaching. They came from the vendor with a pyramid snail infestation that I have been unable to beat, just this week I found 4 more pest snails on the clams at night. I felt like the bleaching one has been doing better after the last snail removal cleaning I gave it. Alot of lessons learned on what I would do next time I buy clams if these ones dont make it through the QT process but the big 2 are : 1) remove the clam from whatever its attached to as snails will live near the foot, which you cannot clean otherwise, 2) bust all the scutes with a spoon, its near impossible to truly clean the shell with them as tiny little things will hide in them away from your brush

Fish QT // Fallow Period Ending!!!!!!!!!
Best for last! This is the light at the end of the tunnel after 78 days. On Monday the fallow period in my display and frag tanks will be over and all the fish have been treated with copper and prazi-pro. Trying to decide if I put all the fish back at once or if I put them back in stages. I contribute doing this 78 day fallow to where my dino's came from, in the end the tank started to starve from lack of feedings. Lost 4 fish doing this QT; 1 new one got the same week I started QT, 2 that brought the ich/vellvet, and 1 clownfish I had for about 3 years for some reason that came from my frag tank.


Other
Been thinking about how to mount the A360X light I got onto my ecotech RMS... If anyone has any ideas lemme know, I have seen a few threads but none of them really meet my desires. Recently ordered an @AVAST Marine Plank Autofeeder and looking forward to getting it in Jan/Feb, been checking out the spyglass reactors to for use with biopellets (just thinking for now, no need for it today.)

 

[josephxsxn]

It's been a rough week... My Dog had to go to the ER 3 times for complications from getting nuetered and now also developed seizures during this. Some of the faimly was exposed to COVID recently with some positive tests... And to top it off just had to rip the carpet out of the basement as somehow the hose came off the barb of the Vetra pump... Pumped water all over, not sure how long it was going.. Lucky I have my heater in the display so all required life support still works if the sump is down... Sigh.

 

[haitian_reefer]

It's been a rough week... My Dog had to go to the ER 3 times for complications from getting nuetered and now also developed seizures during this. Some of the faimly was exposed to COVID recently with some positive tests... And to top it off just had to rip the carpet out of the basement as somehow the hose came off the barb of the Vetra pump... Pumped water all over, not sure how long it was going.. Lucky I have my heater in the display so all required life support still works if the sump is down... Sigh.

OMG! What a nightmare. Now you got me thinking I should tripple clamp my pump.

 

[josephxsxn]

All of the fish are now back in the display tank and the fallow period is over. HAZAH! Let's hope I did it all right and that the sickness is gone for good. Worries that I may have hurt the Naso tang catching it in the QT will have to wait and see.

Photo of my largest Lithophyllon probably close to 8 inch's in diameter. Was look extra good today.

 

[josephxsxn]

Recently had an ICP test done just to do it during the dino outbreak. Nothing to interesting going on, reported low levels of zinc and bromine.. Slight uptick in arsenic.. I didn't do any water changes while fighting the dinos, and just did the first one a few days ago of about 20% due to the return pump leak lol.. I figure with some simple weekly water changes any levels will return to normal no issue. Looks like potassium is starting to trend down toward 300.

 

[josephxsxn]

Been playing around with mounting my Kessil A360X to my RMS ecotechs bar. So far the simple solution seems to be using a washer that I cut to fit the RMS bar slot along with some nuts. First attempt was with just the washers that turned out to be to large. The chain should make it simple to raise and lower the light to the PAR I need. The most annoying thing is the stiffness of the power cord, it causes the light to not hang straight down but to have a slight tilt.

 

[josephxsxn]

Took some photos with my Cannon EOS Rebel T7i today, never really used it for tank photos before. Saddly almost all the photos I try to upload from the camera are to large of resolution and get blocked. Left the Blues on today as I still have not turned on any white light after the dino outbreak, finally got back to 12 hour long photo-period this weekend. Super happy as well to have the fish back in the tank.

 

[josephxsxn]

In the winter the trees don't block any of the light to this room in the early and late parts of the day. Photo of the Lithophyllon in sunlight.

 

[josephxsxn]

Today I hooked up the auto doser to the lanthium chloride solution and have it going directly into the skimmer body. In the past I would dose from an IV bag or just put a few drops in manually into a filter sock. After watching some episodes of Gallery Aquatica I saw Cam running the line right into the skimmer. After a few attempts at dosing into the skimmer by removing the lid I decided to go auto.

The solution right now is 2000ml RO water and 250ml Brightwell Phosphate-E. Dosing 8ml per day access 8 cycles (each getting 1ml.) Phosphate levels at starting this are 0.28ppm. the lid required no modification as I was able to get the line through the vent slits.

 

[josephxsxn]

Got my Avast Marine Spyglass Reactor today medium size, setup on the manifold off my return pump. After alittle frustrating search for tubing the proper size at 2 different hardware stores (menards and ace) with no luck I decided to just use a barb as a union between the stock clear tube and what I could buy. Overall works fine this far. . The tumbling is so amazing, it's effortless to make happen.

Going to be running biopellets with this reactor and added 50 grams of Brightwell Katalyst. This is about 15% of the recommended amount for my tanks calculation. Additionally before setting up the reactor I did a Aquabiomics microbiome sample kit, I plan to do another in a few months after the biopellets have been online to see if there are any major differences found.

 

[josephxsxn]

Some maintenance the other day, while some may laugh its been nice to get back to the normal schedule after the dinos have resolved, including water changes. Continued following the Katalyst biopellets instructions and have been dosing MB7 daily @ 15ml while colonizing the biopellets with the skimmer off for an hour or so during that. The skimmer continues to produce more slime then ever before; very likely from the biopellets.

• Increased cool whites to 20%
• added 50 grams more of Brightwell Katalyst
  • +15% based of target for current nutrient levels, now at 30%
• added 130ml of MB Clean (skimmer off for 4 hours after dose)
• cleaned and stirred up the sump
• 15% water change
• soaked protein skimmer in citric acid for cleaning
• cleaned sump filter floss
• test - dkh 8, nitrate 12-16ppm, phos 0.27ppm
• increase skimmer lanthanum dose to 12ml (2000ml ro + 250 phosphate-e solution)
• tuned 2 part dose

While I didn't expect based on the tracking number to get it until Monday my Avast Marine Plank Autofeeder it was delivered Saturday! Its now up and running, assembly was easy and quick. Fish are currently getting feed Freeze Dried Mysis from it 2x a day, for 1 minute each time, over time ill ramp this up as i gain confidence. Looking into other freeze dried foods I can preload into the unit. It does a great job so far delivering slow exacting amounts into the water column; the plank and tube in the water really help keep the freeze dried foods suspended beneath the surface.