Our first reef tank. 65g

Rennurdoar · Dec 24, 2022

Well just a quick update. Not sure what caused him to, but we lost our carpenter flasher wrasse 'crimson' today/last night. At some point he must have jumped out of the tank. When I didn't see him around for feeding this morning, then still not seeing him this afternoon I started looking around. 6 months and never had a jumper, looks like I'll be looking for a mesh lid now.

Everyone else is still doing great. The new snails and emerald crabs we got to replace the lost ones are going to town. Our Ultra Gold torch is all expanded and doing great today. Still have two torches and an ultra indo hammer struggling. I have hope they'll make it.

Will be doing another WC for our weekly WC on Monday. Taking today off lol. Have ordered another Tropic Marin Hydrometer to replace the one I broke when I knocked it over... It'll be here Wednesday. I hope everyone has a great Holiday! Happy Christmas eve to everyone also!

Rennurdoar · Jan 2, 2023

Just a quick update.

Just checked water params. Had been slacking the last couple of weeks. Just figured all is well since everything looks to be doing well. Only thing really out of whack is my Nitrates and Phos. Both showed 0 which is surprising to me, since a lot of people told me I needed to lose the cannister filter because it would be a nitrate factory. Fed a little more this morning, may have been underfeeding. I have been feeding 1/2 cube of enriched omega Mysis shrimp, also one or two squirts of apex pods at the same time. I usually feed that twice a day. Still put live baby brine shrimp in a couple times a day. May up my frozen half cube to three times a day. All fish seem healthy and happy currently though.

Anyway, here's my parameters:

Alk: 10
PH: 8.13
Cal: 400
Sal: 1.026
Mag: 1420
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0
Temp: 77.6

Subsea · Jan 3, 2023

Rennurdoar said:
Here's another picture five minutes later with the gorgonians polyps almost all out! Looking nice, but I might be a
little biased, haha

Yellow Gorgonian - Diodogorgia nodulife

How long have you had this NPS Gorgonion

Rennurdoar · Jan 3, 2023

Subsea said:
Yellow Gorgonian - Diodogorgia nodulife

How long have you had this NPS Gorgonion

We had it about 6 weeks. It was showing some nice growth during that period also. It didn't survive the stray voltage either, a few days after I noticed it was deteriorating. I may go get another from my LFS, it was $20 so a great deal (I think), and they have a few others close to the same size.

Subsea · Jan 3, 2023

Rennurdoar said:
We had it about 6 weeks. It was showing some nice growth during that period also. It didn't survive the stray voltage either, a few days after I noticed it was deteriorating. I may go get another from my LFS, it was $20 so a great deal (I think), and they have a few others close to the same size.

Russ Kronw, diver/owner of live-plants, collects these in deeper water, so I assume lower light. I buy them from the divers at $16 each. You got a good deal as I pay for transportation.

Rennurdoar · Jan 3, 2023

Subsea said:
Russ Kronw, diver/owner of live-plants, collects these in deeper water, so I assume lower light. I buy them from the divers at $16 each. You got a good deal as I pay for transportation.

Good to know! Those look great in your tank also! I'll be making another trip to my LFS this week, I've been thinking about getting another yellow and they have a purple one also about the same size last time I was there.

Rennurdoar · Jan 5, 2023

Got our order in from @AlgaeBarn today! Had a slight issue with shipping but everything arrived alive. We have a Mandarin dragonet, ornate leopard wrasse and a six-line wrasse that all love the pods! I can see pods on the glass every evening, not as many as before the SVE so I wanted to replenish our population. Our corals love PNS Yellow snow also! We dose 30ml of phytoplankton twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.

We've been out of photo, yellow sno, probio for about 2 weeks so really glad our order got here! I'll be placing another order tomorrow for photo also. Should have ordered 3 on my last order, but wasn't thinking...

Our corals from @SBB Corals will be here on the 12th of Jan. One day before my birthday, couldn't ask for better timing! Can't wait to get them in the tank and hopefully all goes well. Getting another new gyre wavemaker tomorrow also to replace the last 'cheaper' wavemaker I have in the tank.

Finally having coralline algae starting to grow on the plastics and some rocks. Can definitely see the purple and pink circles. I slacked a little with testing water params, and now have noticed the tank is starting to use elements in between our weekly WC. I did a 5-gallon water change today after checking parameters. I'll check parameters again this evening after dinner, so the water has had time to mix back up. Will be interesting to see where my numbers are again.

Pre-water change today

DKH - 9
PH - 8.08
CAL - 360
SAL - 1.0267
MAG - 1400
Nitrate - 0
Phos - 0

Nitrate and Phos still showing 0 like the other day. I did a big scrubbing of the rocks yesterday and removed some GHA. GHA is still there but I don't consider it out of control yet. I'm going tomorrow to get some more snails and see if they help. I've still been feeding benepets 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday evenings. Feeding 1 half cube of frozen enriched Mysis shrimp twice a day, also now tossing in some dry pellets once a day. In between feedings I'm feeding a few squirts of apex pods.

Cleaning the skimmer about every 3 days also. It's not overly loaded, and I don't think would be exporting to many nutrients. I'm thinking my Nitrate and Phos is just from the little GHA I have. So, working on that now, hoping to see a rise in nitrates by Saturday or next week. Here's some photos from today though, taken this morning right after the lights came on. Then I switched to white only to get a FTS with white lights.

Rennurdoar · Jan 7, 2023

Went and picked up some new food to make our own slurry. Also picked up ten Astrea snails and one nassarius snail. Wanted 5 nassarius, but they only could find one

The Astrea snails are making short work out of the GHA already! I put them on the rock with my torches, they've already cleared about a 2" spot! This is great! Lol

Rennurdoar · Jan 11, 2023

So just wanted to give a quick update again, been a couple of days. Still having the 0 Nitrate and 0 Phos, so still trying to get that up. Not sure why it's 0 now

It's been about 5/6 days since I topped off the copepods and started dosing Oceanmagik and ProBio from @AlgaeBarn since I had ran out for a few weeks. That, plus the 10 astrea snails are amazing. Our water clarity has cleared back up, the GHA has definitely subsided with just a little left. Do you all think this little bit of GHA would be the cause of our 0 No3 and Phos?

Here's our Parameters from this evening: (I use Red sea coral pro, black bucket)

Alk: 11
Cal: 440
Mag: 1440
Sal: 1.0264 (tropic marin hydrometer)
PH: 8.06
Temp: 78.1
No3: 0
Phos: 0

Here are some images from this evening from 6 days ago, and tonight so you can see the difference as well!

Gumbies R Us · Jan 12, 2023

Tank is cleaning up nicely!!

Rennurdoar · Jan 12, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Tank is cleaning up nicely!!

Thank you! I'm extremely happy that it's cleaning itself up! Just the Astrea snails, Oceanmagik and a top of copepods. I think they're making great progress for just a weeks' time! It's definitely nicer seeing less green/brown everywhere haha

Rennurdoar · Jan 12, 2023

Our new corals came in today from @SBB Corals !! Couldn't be happier! Here's some quick shots!

Here's some more teasers, the 3 mystery ones I still can't figure out are the 3 on the Right in the rack of just sticks. They all are labeled the same. Also posted the labels so you all can help me figure out what they are. Anyway, some pictures of them in the tank. Will move more around to more permanent places in the next couple of weeks.

Ahh looking at them out of the bag. I believe they say SBB Tiger which I think would be:

SBB “Tiger” - Sbb Corals

sbbcorals.com

So that's even more awesome!

Rennurdoar · Jan 13, 2023

Here's our video for our @SBB Corals they've been in the tank over 24 hours now. The purple hammer has really started filling out. Looks great next to the two SBB Big bird hammers! That trio is named 'Pinky and the Brains' lol. The Sungod milli has some great PE and is sort of funny, nice bright and harry on one side, smooth and pale on the other. Have it set to get some good light love all around hopefully. The Ultra gold indo torch from last sale makes an appearance too!

I just need to get a single frag magnetic rock mount for the back glass for that awesome Red hulk monti! Enjoy the video, and sorry on my poor video skills lol. I'll get better!

Also, sidenote, how does the flow seem to you all? Need more, less, more chaotic, less chaotic, good as is?

Rennurdoar · Jan 14, 2023

Just another quick daily update. Yesterday went and picked up 10 more Astrea snails, 5 more Nassaurius snails, and 3 things of different pods to add some more in. The New purple hammer is getting huge! Loving everything so far. Hopefully all tank inhabitants still continue to love their little 'Lost reef of Atlantis' we've made for them!

Rennurdoar · Jan 14, 2023

Just a quick video showing the surface agitation we have for the tank. Trying to get flow right for a LPS and SPS in a 65-gallon is going to be a fun challenge! haha

Rennurdoar · Jan 14, 2023

Water parameter update:

Alk: 10
Cal: 420
Mag: 1410
Sal: 1.026
No3: 0 (Edit: thought it might be 1, no, still 0 wishful thinking)
Po4: 0
PH: 8.11
Temp: 77.8
Time: 10:20 pm

So hopefully my Nitrates and phos are starting to come up. Will keep monitoring and testing. Going to do another 5-gallon WC just to top off any trace elements and for stability. I think I'll do 5-gallon WC every three days. Sunday and Wednesdays.

Rennurdoar · Jan 15, 2023

Just a daily update with everything. Some tank pictures under white lights so it's easier to see how much GHA the snails and everything have already cleared up, in just a week! Also, wouldn't be complete without a daily video!

Water Parameters:

Alk: 10
Cal: 400
Mag: 1410
Sal: 1.026
No3: 0
Po4: 0
PH: 8.11
Temp: 78.1
Time: 9 Pm

Did a 5-gallon WC today also around 11 am. Then done the tests after enough time. Tomorrow I'll do tests again at 1ish I think so I can see how much the tank is using. Here are some pictures and the video!

What's the red? Cyano? The Astrea snails eat/clean it up so not too worried, just curious if it's cyano. It's what I think it is, brushes off easily.

And the video!

Rennurdoar · Jan 16, 2023

Just our nightly update! Everyone is still living happy and looking healthy! Also finally got the Liquid level sensor for the Apex installed yesterday. Definitely like being able to see exactly how much water has been lost due to evaporation. Makes it easier to keep the level exactly right. After I took the video, I went to town with the toothbrush, brushing off the cyano on the frag rack and on a couple other places. Hopefully it all clears up soon. The Astrea snails eat it, so I'm not too worried.

Here's our parameters for today, and a video!

Alk: 10
Cal: 400
Mag: 1410
Sal: 1.026
No3: 0
Po4: 0
PH: 8.08
Temp: 78.0
Time: 9:20 Pm
Water Level: 14.2" (Have it set on Liquid level sensor 15")

Rennurdoar · Jan 18, 2023

Well, I missed yesterday's update. My father flew into Tampa, and I went and picked him up and we proceeded to fish the Skyway pier. Not much luck, just a small mutton snapper and a toadfish. Still a good time, nonetheless.

When we got back, I checked the parameters. Then when I did my 3 day 5-gallon WC. Then checked the parameters again this evening. Here are the parameters with times:

Alk: 9.5
Cal: 400
Mag: 1410
Sal: 1.026
No3: 0
Po4: 0
PH: 7.92
Temp: 77.2
Time: 10:30 AM
WL: 14.2"

Evening Check

Alk: 10
Cal: 400
Mag: 1410
Sal: 1.026
No3: 0
Po4: 0
PH: 8.10
Temp: 78.5
Time: 9:30 PM
WL: 14.2"

Here's our evening video update also. I'm about to clean off the top rock, been slacking the last couple of days...

Rennurdoar · Jan 21, 2023

Didn't get a video uploaded yesterday but have one from yesterday. So, I'm uploading two videos today. I'll be traveling the next couple days, so probably won't update again until Tuesday. May update tomorrow morning before we leave. Also, didn't test on the 19th, but tested yesterday. Also did our 3 day 5-gallon WC today as well.

Water params yesterday:

Alk: 9.5
Cal: 400
Mag: 1410
Sal: 1.026
No3: 0
Po4: 0
PH: 7.98
Temp: 78.6
Time: 9:52 PM
WL: 14.2"

Yesterday's video:

Today's video after 5-gallon WC:

I'll post water params this evening at some point.