My DIY frag table SAGA

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Yeehaw I am happy now to be one of the first in new frag subforum!

Beware you may see nothing but mad scientist mushroom stuff from here on out.
But if you have any questions on the build I'd be more than happy to assist.

Thanks Crabs
 
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And well so at this point, I might as well say. I dont care even though I probably should but I found this monster creepy crawling real fast in my sump?
Any idea what it may be? For sure an Urchin but is it good? Idk. But I definitely wouldnt have wanted to find out picking up a rock I will be much more carefuler.

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Had a bit of a scare here this last week after I overdosed my Nitrates! One by one my bounces lost bubbles and started shriveling up. Then my Jawbreakers.
After about a 90% water change this past week I got my nitrates down to 10-15ppm and everything bounced back but my JawBreakers are looking terrible.
Probably going to lose them idk!
Thank god my poletti came back!
Anyhow running live gulf rock in my reservoirs I had to add a tank mate to do some work. Copperband has only been here for a few days now and has totally eradicated my aiptasia in my sump. And it is a beautiful fish!
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BighohoReef

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@LRT checking in on the tank sounds like you got those nitrates down. Was the 90% water change the only thing needed?

Your jawbreakers will bounce back discos are so resilient. For all the trama I've put mine through it it's still kicking. I changed up the garden btw... Wife veto'd me having it dead center, now it's on the left side of the tank.

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@LRT checking in on the tank sounds like you got those nitrates down. Was the 90% water change the only thing needed?

Your jawbreakers will bounce back discos are so resilient. For all the trama I've put mine through it it's still kicking. I changed up the garden btw... Wife veto'd me having it dead center, now it's on the left side of the tank.

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Hey Big it's been pretty stressful here to say the least. Had another JB detach from a plug last night.
Now my Godzilla is shrinking up on me.
I did add some carbon. I think going from zero nitrates to super high undetectable nitrates and not catching it may have fried them honestly. All my ricordia are looking like they are toast as well.
Getting ready to do another 5 gallon change here in a bit.
Fingers are crossed here man.
Totally blows
 
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Quick update here. Ended up doing a deep clean in a few of my tables. After the recent nitrate boost I experienced a major nuisance algae explosion. This was the third in last week. I switched out frag racks with clean ones as well as scrubbed down the tables and used a sock to strain and put that water back in.
As well as ended up doing a 10 gallon water change.
I feel like I'm seeing a little light come back in the tunnel on my JB's they just looked a little better when white lights went out after the overhaul but we'll see.
I'm not longer chasing numbers.
Everything was ok before I overdosed my Nitrates. Maybe a little nuisance algae.
Going to continue to change 5-10 gallons every other day to get Nitrates back down closer to 5ppm. And see where things end up in the interim!
Feel like I overdosed so much I'm getting residual with all the effects now.
But i feel like I'm doing the right thing.
I had 3 baby JB's that where pretty much gone needle size and they have actually perked up a little to recognizable.
Heres a quick crappy pic thru the netting.
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Got an army of soldiers in this tupperware!
 
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Not out of the clear yet but seeing some good signs.
Although I am seeing what appears to be a crust of sodium nitrate forming on the top of the water in my table that has the least amount of flow.
Which would explain why my nitrates haven't budged from 15-20 last few water changes.
Total overhaul coming soon. Adding stronger return pump as we as equalizer lines and gate valves to get better flow and surface skimming thru the tables. Getting rid of alot of the pumps I have running and going to let gravity do the work!
JB babies I thought I lost seem to be doing the best. For reference the small one was barely a pin tip but coming back.
The other 2 looked the same but almost as big as pencil eraser one may be a little bigger now.
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My poletti that was the size of half dollar shrunk up to eraser size and no color is coming back now.
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Some of my bounces never looked better so they like the higher nitrates for sure.
My ricordia are still finicky like the JB'S but looking a little better.
Another water change coming and adding another equalizer line tonight.
 

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I'm glad to hear things are normalizing and coming back. A lot of work went into that save.
 
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I'm glad to hear things are normalizing and coming back. A lot of work went into that save.
For sure man it's been work around the clock in scramble mode for better than a solid week!
If and when I pull out of this I have some funnies. Your comment about your wife made me chuckle. Mine has almost totally taken over things now. Designing her own build and bringing home her own corals now talking about her salt water system is going to be much better than mine.
Lols man. Just need to get thru this!
 

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Awesome that she has her own build cracks me up that shes turned it into a sort of competition. Just wait she's probably going to want to start trading you corals lol. Having your significant other in the hobby is both a blessing and a curse. One now she knows how much I spent on all those small mushrooms, two now she wants the most expensive corals Oi o_Oo_Oo_O.

Still with ya man, watching and waiting to see things pull through.
 
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Awesome that she has her own build cracks me up that shes turned it into a sort of competition. Just wait she's probably going to want to start trading you corals lol. Having your significant other in the hobby is both a blessing and a curse. One now she knows how much I spent on all those small mushrooms, two now she wants the most expensive corals Oi o_Oo_Oo_O.

Still with ya man, watching and waiting to see things pull through.
Lol for real man. She has dragged me out to all lfs within 45 min driving distance.
She's planning some kind of super display build cause mines ugly.
I'm sure you noticed the non mushroom related coral posts.
I kinda dont know how to feel about it all at the moment hahaha.
Man
 
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Well I just cant seem to get my Nitrates to budge from 15-20 nitrates no matter what I do so I'm going to stick to 5-10 gallon water changes until I get there because I am seeing some improvement in some of the Jawbreakers. They just dont like the high nitrates I dont think. Or I just fried them idk.
That being said. And I cant tell you if it's the higher nitrates or not. Or just going from 0 nitrates to nitrates in the water but some of my mushrooms have almost doubled in size. I can tell you for sure that it has been beneficial!
Some of my bounces are making new bubbles and showing much better color.
So I think I'm going to ride it out. A d just keep some nitrates in the water and some phosphates so I'm not running a sterile system.
They are all eating mysis and reef roids as well. So maybe the super higher nitrates and phosphates isnt really necessary?

Poletti-
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Wwc OG
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Few randoms-
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Havent fed them since the mishap.
Everything is eating reefroids now.
They love it!
Including everything that is and is not eating mysis shrimp.
Wife most likely feeds them mysis shrimp on a daily basis!
Any how I turn off flow. And target feed. Slowly coating the shrooms.
The reaction is pretty much instantaneous now for most like they know, but some take 5-10 minutes to close up.
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BighohoReef

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I’m tempted to test your theories! Everything’s look good!
 
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I’m tempted to test your theories! Everything’s look good!
Lol thanks big. Honestly I have no theories as of yet. Just watching and trying to learn sir. I can say I've seen certain things I'm trying to make sense of.
And made some horrific mistakes throughout the process!

Not sure where your nitrates and phosphates sit. Mine zeroed out.
If I had done it correct I would have raised my nitrates to 5 to see how it reacted with my phosphates that I currently zeroed out raising nitrates.

Slowly I guess.

Reef roids and mysis shrimp are a no brainer. Just turn off flow and set a small to medium sized mysis shrimp on a ricordia. Mouth opens and they gobble it up everytime.
Bounces also like mysis and reef roids as well as discos.
I've got them all eating now man.
 

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Lol thanks big. Honestly I have no theories as of yet. Just watching and trying to learn sir. I can say I've seen certain things I'm trying to make sense of.
And made some horrific mistakes throughout the process!

Not sure where your nitrates and phosphates sit. Mine zeroed out.
If I had done it correct I would have raised my nitrates to 5 to see how it reacted with my phosphates that I currently zeroed out raising nitrates.

Slowly I guess.

Reef roids and mysis shrimp are a no brainer. Just turn off flow and set a small to medium sized mysis shrimp on a ricordia. Mouth opens and they gobble it up everytime.
Bounces also like mysis and reef roids as well as discos.
I've got them all eating now man.
Haven't we all made mistakes in this hobby?!? I'm hoping I'm not making one with adding rainbow nem to the tank, it'll be going through QT for a few weeks then I'll add it.

According to salifert we're sitting pretty at .25ppm I can never really tell what it is with the color sheet lol. Phosphates at .03...

I am using a mixture of benepets and mysis with about 8ml of a/b+. Too much? We're gonna find out... the only one I really see eating is the St. Thomas... wish I could get that curled response out of my JB. I feel like we haven't found the secret sauce yet, I do have reefroids perhaps I'll swap that out with the benepet.

Feeding response on your mushrooms is awesome, always makes me happy to see that response.
 
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Haven't we all made mistakes in this hobby?!? I'm hoping I'm not making one with adding rainbow nem to the tank, it'll be going through QT for a few weeks then I'll add it.

According to salifert we're sitting pretty at .25ppm I can never really tell what it is with the color sheet lol. Phosphates at .03...

I am using a mixture of benepets and mysis with about 8ml of a/b+. Too much? We're gonna find out... the only one I really see eating is the St. Thomas... wish I could get that curled response out of my JB. I feel like we haven't found the secret sauce yet, I do have reefroids perhaps I'll swap that out with the benepet.

Feeding response on your mushrooms is awesome, always makes me happy to see that response.

Right on i know my wife is planning to get a nem for the clowns to host.
The only JB ive been able to get a reaction from feeding is the Poletti. It doesnt close fully just cups the reef roids kind of like the ricordia cup the mysis shrimp and suck them in i guess.
Pretty sure my wife is feeding mysis daily. I feed reed roids once or twice a week. And AB plus in between the reef roid feedings.
 
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Not sure what this guy is got it as a freebie in a bounce package deal but I'm digging the colors coming out these last cpl weeks. Quickly becoming my favorite kinda haha
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Cpl randoms-
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Hey man,

Since you asked for it in my other thread, here's my advice and what I would do if this system was mine.

1.) Get some cool fish that generally stick near rock work, maybe a damsel and a couple pseudochromis in one and a pair of cardinalfish and a fang blenny in the other. In my experience these fish won't jump in those combos, though no guarantees

2.) Feed those fish well with a high protein flake food like Formula 1

3.) Get some cleanup crew a bit soon after adding the fish. Tiger trochus if you're not securing corals well and mexican turbos if you are. I also love cortez red keg hermits and think they should be a part of every system

4.) Lay off the dosing once you get some fish

5.) If you get algae add cleanup crew, if nutrients get low add more fish and feed them
 

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Not sure what this guy is got it as a freebie in a bounce package deal but I'm digging the colors coming out these last cpl weeks. Quickly becoming my favorite kinda haha
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Cpl randoms-
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Man you gotta let me know when you do those order... mushrooms are on fire! What’s amazing is your gonna end up with rocks covered with them;)
 
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