Paulie's Lagoon 25

Pauliex77x · Mar 10, 2020

Completely forgot to mention that out of nowhere yesterday there were white specs jumping around all over the glass. Don't know where they came from but there are pods everywhere. Must be doing something right lol.

Nitrates are a little low I think and the original zoa's I put in haven't been opening fully for a few days. Trying to overfeed a bit to help with that.

Don't know if calcium over 500 is a good thing. And magnesium test kit should be here today. Skipped the weekly change because I didn't want to drop nitrates any lower. I'll do one no matter what this week.

All in all I think everything is going ok. Might try to get one more zoa and a different color acan before letting the tank settle in for a while.

Pauliex77x · Mar 11, 2020

Lol another bacteria bloom and algae bloom on the sand. Guess overfeeding backfired a bit. Gonna stop worrying about keeping zoa's happy and let them come along for the ride with the LPS which are looking happy.

Pauliex77x · Mar 15, 2020

I think the Saxby schedule for the AI prime is a bit too strong. Corals are doing good but the schedule was too long and I think that's the main culprit for the GHA I have growing (along with the overfeeding for a few days.) It's not out of control though and my parameters are still good. I swapped to the BRS AB+ for now but powered it down about 60% or so and its peak is only 4 hours. Hope it's enough for growth.

Calcium is still over 500 but reef crystals does that apparently. I'm still dosing brightwell chaetogrow about 6 drops every day. Also started dosing Coral aminos. It says about 10 drops for 25 gallons so I'm only doing 5 drops a day for now. 2x a week I'm using polyp lab's polyp booster and reef roids. Not using any of it long enough to form an opinion so we'll see how it goes. Fridays testing was all looking good

Green goby is still in quarantine. I need to do a WC and clean it up a bit. The T5's put out alot of light and algae grows easily. Might actually turn that into a budget reef after I transfer the goby to the lagoon.

Pauliex77x · Apr 2, 2020

It's been a while so here's a few coral pics. Starting to see some growth from the GSP, galaxea, Favia, and the acan. No new polyps on the zoa's yet.

GHA isnt out of control but I may drop a bag of phosguard again to see if it helps. Growth means I'm doing something right I guess lol.

Pauliex77x · Apr 17, 2020

Some new pics, favia and Acan have joined the club starting to grow. Must be doing something right.

TheWB · Jun 28, 2020

Been a while since you’ve updated. What’s going on with your tank?

Pauliex77x · Jun 29, 2020

ill take some pictures and write up an update in the next few days. short version is things are going ok.

Pauliex77x · Jul 5, 2020

Things are ok for the most part. Haven't seen the green clown goby in about 3 months so I'm gonna guess he's crab food. Clowns are doing well. Snails actually reproduced and there are about 12 or so small trochus snails all over the place.

Corals are doing a little better than OK. I had a really bad hair algae outbreak that I just couldn't get out ahead of. Dropped in some phosguard and the GHA disappeared. But I think it stripped the water of nutrients and corals kinda stalled growing. It also killed my chaeto. About 3 weeks ago I removed the phosguard and things are starting to grow again. Here are some pics from the other day.

Seems to be some chaeto growing off the rocks now. Ive been harvesting it and putting it in the fuge basket.

I don't feel that I'm getting the results I want from the single prime so I've ordered some ati bulbs and I'll be using my T5 fixture over the lagoon until I can get a hybrid solution figured out.

Also felt that my Aqamai kps was doing a good job but I thought my flow could use an upgrade. Picked up a jebao slw20 and put it in today. It's about double the gph and it's really a great fit for the lagoon. I have it set at about 70% for now and the zoas that never open up have actually started to open.

Just put in an order to cherrycorals.com for some frags, including one that was on my must have list. I'll post some pics when I get them in the tank this week.

So all in all I'm still enjoying the hobby. And still learning as I go.

Pauliex77x · Jul 7, 2020

Shout out to the guys at cherrycorals.com for the quick delivery of my order. Everything was well packed and arrived alive.

I've 100% wanted a Mushroom and a hammer since day 1. The hammer hasn't opened up fully yet but the colors on the riccordia are amazing. The acan will add some red to the tank and I couldn't pass up the mango zoa. Colors are amazing. Gonna wait for them to settle in for a day or so before finding a permanent spot for them all.

Absolutely going to order from cherry corals again when my budget 10g is set up in the bedroom.

TheWB · Jul 7, 2020

Pauliex77x said:
Shout out to the guys at cherrycorals.com for the quick delivery of my order. Everything was well packed and arrived alive.

I've 100% wanted a Mushroom and a hammer since day 1. The hammer hasn't opened up fully yet but the colors on the riccordia are amazing. The acan will add some red to the tank and I couldn't pass up the mango zoa. Colors are amazing. Gonna wait for them to settle in for a day or so before finding a permanent spot for them all.

Absolutely going to order from cherry corals again when my budget 10g is set up in the bedroom.

That’s a nice looking batch of frags.

Pauliex77x · Jul 12, 2020

Changed up the scape and moved the wavemaker to the back of the tank. Zoas haven't been happy for a few days and im not sure why. One set has been pretty much closed for it seems like months. Moving them away from the light and into some softer flow for now and I'll go from there. Gonna swap the prime for T5's later on this week when I get some time so lighting won't be an issue for anything. Haven't tested in a while so I'll do that today along with a water change. All my LPS, the GSP, and the mushroom are all happy and growing. Hopefully the zoas snap out of it and start to spread because I feel like I'm not getting the growth that I should be.

Pauliex77x · Jul 12, 2020

So tested for the first time today in about a month. Alk is a little low and I think system is too "clean" and that's why zoas arent happy. Gonna look into how to start dosing coralaminos the proper way and see if I can't get nutrients back up a bit.

TheWB · Jul 12, 2020

Pauliex77x said:
So tested for the first time today in about a month. Alk is a little low and I think system is too "clean" and that's why zoas arent happy. Gonna look into how to start dosing coralaminos the proper way and see if I can't get nutrients back up a bit.

How many fish do you have, I can’t remember? Instead of adding a supplement it might be better to add a fish or two and feed a little more. Get your nutrients up that way and then let it settle out.

Pauliex77x · Jul 12, 2020

TheWB said:
How many fish do you have, I can’t remember? Instead of adding a supplement it might be better to add a fish or two and feed a little more. Get your nutrients up that way and then let it settle out.

Just the two clowns. I had a green clown goby that disappeared. Guessing he's hermit food. I feed reef roids once a week to the corals but after about a day or so the favia and acans have their feeders out looking for more.

I may add a lawnmower blenny or something like it eventually but I'm kinda content keeping the # of fish to ,3 or 4 at the most

Pauliex77x · Jul 16, 2020

After about 5 days of dosing the coralaminos and turning off the skimmer for a few days, my zoas are all starting to open up. I'll test for nitrates phosphates and alk tomorrow to see where they are at go from there.

TheWB · Jul 16, 2020

Awesome!! It’s always good when you make a change and see a positive result.

Pauliex77x · Jul 16, 2020

Yeah it is. They seem to be adjusting well to being moved out from under the prime and the favia and the ricordea are also happy being moved under it closer. The hammer is twice as fat as when I first put it in the tank. Small doses of the coralaminos seem to be working so far. Gonna keep it at 10 drops a day for a while though and just see how it goes. Iodine might be helping too but im not doing more than 1ml a week until I can get a test kit for it. Also considering maybe feeding the reef roids twice a week instead of once. But I'll wait to see the feeding response from the favia and acans this weekend as they were just fed yesterday.

Pauliex77x · Jul 19, 2020

Tested alk phosphates and nitrates today. Alk is back down to 7 again. Guessing corals starting to use it up now. Still sure that calcium and magnesium are at the higher end of where they should be so I'm not sure if a water change just for alk is the answer.

Pauliex77x · Jul 31, 2020

New temp controller came today. Still working out the controller but this will take care of my 4 degree temp swings at night when the AC is off downstairs. Also swapped out the prime for the T5's and I'm happy I did. The coverage on the tank is much better and I'm old school I guess when it comes to how the T5's look. Moved the prime upstairs to the QT tank that I added sand to and adding some dry rock after I scape it when it comes tomorrow. Also ordered some seachem reef carbonate to bring Alk up without having to do a water change. I'll test sometime before Monday to be sure everything else is in line. I really am not seeing the growth I think I should be other than the GSP. Zoas really aren't growing much and I need to figure out why. Here's some pics.

Don't mind the wire mess I'll do some management when I get a chance.

Pauliex77x · Aug 2, 2020

Today's test results

Alk was low. I got some seachem reef carbonate to dose. Probably could have gotten away with doing a big water change but all other paramaters seem to be fine. Alk being low is the only thing I can think of keeping zoas growth rate low. Doing the math was a bit of a pain as the dosage on the seachem is in meq/L not dkh. Converting it took a few minutes but a single 5ml dose raised it to 7.4. I'll do another dose tomorrow and keep it at around 8-8.5 from now on.

Tested the new 10g budget reef today for the first time too. It's actually the QT tank I was tired of looking at empty. It has a simple 10$ ATO from Amazon and a tetra whisper 10 HOB filter that has just enough room for 2 chemi pure packets. I had an aquaclear 70 running on it but the pump is having issues. I'll play with it and try to get it up and running again but for now the whisper and my Aqamai kps wavemaker is plenty of filtration and water movement for a 10g. The Prime HD is overkill I think but I'll dial it back.

I'll take some pictures after I get the new rock I ordered into the tank later tonight. Really like how the scape came out but I don't want to spoil it before it goes in the tank.