Fishroom Reality Check

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+76 hours

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Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrite: >5ppm
Nitrate: 40ppm


Time to back off and let my nitrite reducers get some action. Don’t want to poison them with too much nitrite. Testing only for the next 48-72 hours, then 1/4 dose ammonia to boost if nitrites get down to zero.

I think I’m about a week away from complete.

Going fish shopping next week- couple small clowns, and a shrimp goby pair (if my lfs get some in on Monday)
 
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Well, that sucks.

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Have a support ticket in and they saw corrupt data coming from thevtemp probe. Attempting to reinitialize everything, but I can’t get access to classic dashboard. All my network info is legit though, so no idea

Anyone seen this when trying to connect to classic dash? This is after I use login credentials

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starypotter

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Awesome build so far I can't wait to see where it goes! If you want to add spaghetti worms maybe check out your local reefing clubs see if anybody has any you might be able to have, heck if I knew how to get mind off the rocks I'd send you all the worms you want they're all over and are starting to even irritate some of my corals. If you don't want to go that route there's a place that sells them although I never have personally ordered from them. IPSF.com although it seems pretty expensive for CUC I'd defintately try to check with some locals for the good pests if I were in your position.
 

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Great tank and set up.
Now that it is wet and has nitrates, I’ll start following. LOL.
Love the scape and basement room.
Envy!!!!
 

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Another Q-

Discussing the stocking plan with the wife last night and she thinks I’m being too conservative.

My original plan was to do the following-

1) pair of small clowns, TTM+prazipro, then 4 additional weeks in observation tank

2) after clowns finish TTM, add 2 small tangs (a yellow and a purple) to TTM+prazipro, then observation for 4 weeks

Let the tank equilibriate until after Christmas then do the next set- school of dispar anthias, goby shrimp combo, foxface, and a few undecided at this point, finishing in mid 2019 with a PBT.

Wife however wants to get the clowns, 2 tangs, anthias, goby and shrimp, and a golden dwarf moray by Christmas.

I think this is manageable from a bioload standpoint. Thoughts?

And for QT on the goby/pistil shrimp. Planning to purchase as a pair, separate the shrimp to its own 10 g until it molts (ich tomont will be stuck to the discarded exo) while doing TTM+prazipro then observation on the goby until the shrimp is ready, reintroduce for a few days in QT then add to DT.

Sand in a Pyrex dish during the observation for the goby? Or will he be ok for 4-5 weeks without sand?

Cheers
I like your approach better, except the PBT after the YT. I would add all the tangs at the same time if it were me.

Awesome build so far.
 
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I’ve been repeatedly advised to add the PBT as the final fish, due to aggression issues, not just with other tangs, but other fish in general.

Plan is to have everyone in the tank and have established territories before I add the PBT. It’ll also be the same size as the other tangs, or a bit smaller, to curb aggression.

Thoughts?
 
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So- 10 minutes on phone with Neptune regarding my suddenly not working lite, and theyvthink its a hardware issue. I need to send it in.

Except, they have no inventory for parts for the lite since the 2016 came out... so I’m looking at having to buy a new base unit. Direct from Neptune, it’ll be $200.

I am most displeased. I’m not even going to go into the suspiciousness of the EL coming out and the several new threads from people who’s older units are now failing...
 
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Ammonia, nitrite bottomed out.

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Re-dosed 10ml ammonia to bring it up to 1ppm, let circulate 60 mins then test-

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Re-test at 3pm tomorrow, see where we are at.

Also- Reefcleaners order made, CUC arrives Friday- straight to quarantine for 76 days. Kinda mistimed that [emoji51] but honestly the basement wasn’t really ready for a working tank.

Fish shopping tomorrow- couple small Ocellaris clowns and (hopefully) a Randall’s goby and tiger shrimp. Also putting my order in for a small yellow and small purple tang.
 
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Ammonia is back down to zero, but my nitrites still haven’t cleared. I’m guessing tomorrow, they’ll be done. My nitrite oxidizer population isn’t quite there yet.

Couldn’t get to the store today- Life got in the way

But I’ve got this going on-

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This *was* my TTM bench until I was advised to go another direction for QT. Velvet is so bad that a prophylactic treatment with copper power/ chloroquine for 14 days, followed by an additional 14 with other treatments as necessary, is more efficient and knocks out more pathogens for the work load.

It did mean I had to go and buy a few more HOBs, a bunch of meds, and some other sundries, but I want to do this right. I got two aqueon quietflow 10’s for $20. The only filter cassettes they have contain carbon, so I sliced them open and dumped the carbon from one of them and packed in some more floss (medication tank) and double loaded the other with the carbon (for invert cuc tank) In case.

It’s a 10g with hob, 3” pvc fittings, heater, air stone ammo alert- using it only fir really small fish, like my first pair of 1” clowns. I have a 20l (and picking up one more at $/g) for the tangs I have coming and foxface etc.

The bucket is for dipping my clowns in ruby reef rally for brooklynella. Air stone, heater and a tiny powerhead to mix to get my salinity right (home= 1.025, store= 1.022).

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The 10g on the left is fir my cuc that arrives tomorrow- hob, heater and a lump of dry rock I have left over are going in there.
 
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Reefcleaners order came in. Dec 18 graduation day!

10g with about 3lb reefsaver and 3/4-1” Fiji pink I had left over. Hob with a biospira conditioned sponge filter.

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I floated for 15 mins, picked them out the bags, super quick rinse then into the QT. Recommended protocol. The hermits were up and about as soon as they hit the water, the snails are a bit slower to come round.

22 hermits of various size, biggest about thumb nail sized. 4-5 of them had hair algae attached, as did some of the larger snails, so only a matter of time before it establishes a renewable food source. Feeding on algae wafers for now.

So far, out of maybe 90 snails, I have 2 confirmed dead. Crazy good survival rate. I didn’t count the tiny babies that came in the bag, just too many to count.

Two year old was off daycare sick today, so couldn’t get to the store. One day next week at this point. For the best anyway- the 3 gallons of water I put in the bucket for reef rally dip smelled pretty funky this morning, despite heater, flow and air. Little perturbed by that.

Other than the usual instant ocean brown scum in my mixing barrel, the water I made 10 days ago seems fine. No real smell to it, just a real vague saline smell. So not sure how the bucket got funky- it was brand new last week and it’s only been used with RODI to top off the tank while it cycles.
 
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Also- nitrite are at zero as of 4.30pm.

That’s a 24 hour processing time for 1ppm ammonia to zero, and 48 hours for the resulting nitrite to hit zero .

Here on out it’s about maturing my nitrite oxidizer population so they can process in 24 hours, while keeping my accumulating nitrates low enough that a couple easy water changes can drop them <10ppm.

If I dose too much ammonia, I could get nitrite poisoning of the bacteria and stall the process. But if I don’t push it high enough, there’s no extra food source acting as an impetus to force an increase in their population number.

Not quite sure what I’m going to dose next, but I need to do it soon.
 

Dubs83

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Thank you for posting this process, Neil. I’m debating “resetting” my live rock still and it gives me some relief seeing how quickly you seem to be cycling this thing.

Also, I never QTd a clean up crew but following this has inspired me!
 
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No worries. As long as you are careful with your ammonia additions, use some bottled bacteria (biospira in this case, but looking at maybe adding a bottle of fritzyme 9 for diversity), and crank the temp up to 85 (speeds the growth rate), you should be good. If you can, reduce the water volume to a minimum, you will essentially concentrate the bacteria. With the added perk that the final nitrate reduction WC can be lower total water volume.

As for QT- no point in going to the hassle of quarantining only half of the residents. It’s an all in kinda deal. Aiming for a true disease free tank, not into disease management.

My only concern is how many of the cuc survives the 76 days in such relative high density. I need to keep on top of the feeding otherwise hungry hermits are going to go for the snails. I can’t justify a hermit only qt, but am thinking I can banish them to an acclimation box at the first sign of predation.

And my DT is going to look baaaad without any grazers for 73 more days. I might need an urchin or two before then (they just need a good rinse in DT water- no QT needed. They aren’t an attachment host for the ich or velvet parasites).
 
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Got some finishing touches done while babies napped yesterday

cd2c7b2b2197426b039fad353f35bd33.jpg


The pictures are of various nudibranches that we had commissioned by a friend of ours. She’s also done a few of Point lobos reserve topside abs underwater for us. Our special place where we would scuba dive 3-4 days a month (over 100 there) and where I proposed.

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And there’s a blown glass octopus up there too
 
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Janci

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Got some finishing touches done while babies napped yesterday

cd2c7b2b2197426b039fad353f35bd33.jpg


The pictures are of various nudibranches that we had commissioned by a friend of ours. She’s also done a few of Point lobos reserve topside abs underwater for us. Our special place where we would scuba dive 3-4 days a month (over 100 there) and where I proposed.

42b630c9f0bc6d37824c47e54a234f0f.jpg


918a51716390cddfd426daa003c85281.jpg

And there’s a blown glass octopus up there too
Love that last painting.
 
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Come on guys- if you’ve left likes, drop in and say hi, introduce yourself. I could always use more inspiration from everyone else’s set-ups! And it’ll keep me motivated to keep the thread going.

Come say hi!
 

Dubs83

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Come on guys- if you’ve left likes, drop in and say hi, introduce yourself. I could always use more inspiration from everyone else’s set-ups! And it’ll keep me motivated to keep the thread going.

Come say hi!

I feel your pain! I should have you know that I’m practicing pipe soldering as we speak!

Anyway, this is pretty inspiring man and is certainly making me take a look at my own upgrade. Nice work, Neil.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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