PDR's RSR 350 - Retired

[DSC reef]

It might just be a timing thing man, after the tank matures a bit the zoas might grow a bit better. If the frag tank is shallower than the DT then the lighting intensity needs to be accounted for as for the type of light. EG, if your running leds on the DT, I'd stick with the same source. Try to mimic the flow as well. Zoas can take s bit of flow but new frags can come off the plugs easy.

 

[PDR]

It might just be a timing thing man, after the tank matures a bit the zoas might grow a bit better. If the frag tank is shallower than the DT then the lighting intensity needs to be accounted for as for the type of light. EG, if your running leds on the DT, I'd stick with the same source. Try to mimic the flow as well. Zoas can take s bit of flow but new frags can come off the plugs easy.

Yeah I know, but it has been up and running for 7+ months now, you would think it could at least grow some zoas lol. I do want to clarify, I said they don't grow well, I really mean basically no growth. It is better from actively dying like they were doing a couple of months ago in this tank. For reference, I have a colony of about 80 rastas on a frag tile and I found a picture I took of them from three months ago and they have not grown a single polyp.

I currently have t5's over the frag tank and led's over the DT. I have matched par (approximately, using a lux meter) and flow is similar, pretty high overall. Maybe I'm missing something, but if I plan on growing the zoa colonies out in the frag tank vs the DT, I don't see why I'd need the same lighting?

Here is my next question. If I'm going to try and replicate the DT, I will need to almost double the amount of fish in the frag tank in order to have the same general stocking level. The tank is a low boy (48x24x10) and it currently has two ocellaris clowns, a small (2") square tail tang, springer damsel and ornate wrasse. What fish would you recommend for that tank and those inhabitants to help increase the bioload? I would love to stick with captive bred if possible, but nothing I've seen has really jumped out at me.

 

[DSC reef]

I'd stick with T5 honestly. With all that being said I think it could be a nutrient issue. Instead of adding more fish (which you could easily) I would up your feedings. Reef roids mixed with oyster feast is a lovely combo. You don't need much and and you can adjust as you test nutrients.

 

[PDR]

I'd stick with T5 honestly. With all that being said I think it could be a nutrient issue. Instead of adding more fish (which you could easily) I would up your feedings. Reef roids mixed with oyster feast is a lovely combo. You don't need much and and you can adjust as you test nutrients.

I definitely think it's a nutrient issue. I should have mentioned this, but I ran tests again tonight and still read 0.00 p04 and 0 n03. I have been slowly upping my feeding over the last few weeks and I've about maxed out on feeding the fish without having a ton of leftover food. I have been upping my coral feeding as well, I'm up to two scoops of benereef, reef chili and reef roids daily. I have also been increasing my dose of Reef Energy A&B and am now at 5ml a day, which is over double the reccomened amount. I do still need to get some oyster feast to try. I'm to the point where I think adding more fish would be better than continuing to dump in more food and aminos. I'm just not sure what fish to go with.

 

[Fudsey]

Have you ever had the water icp tested?

 

[PDR]

Have you ever had the water icp tested?

No I haven't. To be honest I haven't really felt the need for an ICP test at this point. Now if I am able to get my nutrients up and still have some issues, I will definitely consider it.

 

[PDR]

So I spent some time reading through my build thread and man did I make some really stupid decisions ;Facepalm

I never felt like I was making quick changes, but reading the dates on some of these posts I’m shocked how quickly I flip-flopped on maintenance and feeding/dosing routines.

The good news is I believe I have learned more in the last 6 months through trial and error and research than I did my first 2 1/2 years of reefing. Even this past week I have had some more “advanced” chemistry-related aspects of reefing start to click. It really is amazing how much my perspective has changed in various aspects as I continue to learn.

With that out of the way, I wanted to update the thread with my "new" maintenance/dosing/feeding schedule. I realize I have flip-flopped on some of these, but as I said, trial and error and research have helped me decide what I want to do moving forward.

Feeding/Dosing Daily Routine: At 12:00 pm I feed LRS Fish Frenzy and dose BRS Calcium. At 7:00 pm I feed LRS Reef Frenzy soaked in Selcon and dose BRS Alkalinity and Tropic Marin part C (I have just started the part c today, but this is something I have been planning on doing for a while, I just now got it in). I either feed nori or Hikari Seaweed Extreme pellets every day as well. About once a week I will add a cube of PE Calanus to the 7:00 pm feeding. I am wanting to further diversify my feeding by adding some Reef Nutrition products to the mix.

Maintenance: I do 10% weekly water changes. I make 30~ gallons of saltwater at a time so I can always have some on hand. I clean the glass as needed, usually every 2-3 days. I have decided not to continue to actively clean the sandbed. I change my filter socks on Wednesday and Saturday and empty my skimmer cup once a week. I clean my powerheads once a month (I try to at least) and my return pump and skimmer pump every 3~ months.

Current Nutrient Export: 10% weekly water changes, somatic 60s skimmer, Chaeto reactor (small somatic reactor, not sure how much impact it has).

Current Parameters:
Alk - 9 dkh
Ca - 450~
Mg - 1450~
PH - 7.9-8.1
No3 - 5~
P04 - .07
Salinity - 1.0255 (I aim for 1.026)

I have been debating adding aminos and honestly, after all the research I have done, I can't see any benefit to adding them to my tank with my stocking and nutrient levels.

I won't have any new pictures for a while as my tank is still a mess from having to catch a wrasse and move him to the frag tank. When work slows down (hopefully after next week) I should be able to get everything back in place and get some updated shots.

 

[PDR]

I just took a few minutes to look at my tank before going to bed and I was so happy to finally see two little brittle star arms peaking out of the rockworm. I have been hoping for months they would return after I killed them all (presumably) and they are finally back!

I also took some time to admire all the other microfauna that comes out at night. It’s pretty amazing all the little critters that live in our little ecosystems. I even spotted a couple species I had never seen before.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I just took a few minutes to look at my tank before going to bed and I was so happy to finally see two little brittle star arms peaking out of the rockworm. I have been hoping for months they would return after I killed them all (presumably) and they are finally back!

I also took some time to admire all the other microfauna that comes out at night. It’s pretty amazing all the little critters that live in our little ecosystems. I even spotted a couple species I had never seen before.

Best part of reefing is finding critters in live rock. IMHO

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Amazing tank @PDR . Beautiful pics.

 

[DSC reef]

Can we get an update please!

 

[PDR]

Can we get an update please!

I will have a big update tomorrow night, but in the meantime here is a teaser of what I spent 4 hours working on tonight.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks awesome! Cannot wait to hear more.

 

[DSC reef]

I will have a big update tomorrow night, but in the meantime here is a teaser of what I spent 4 hours working on tonight.

Wow! Looks great man.

 

[SaundersDVM]

- 100's of Florida and dwarf ceriths
- 3-4 Nassarius snails
- 8 conchs

That's a lot of sand sifting! No wonder your sand bed looks great. My 40 gallon reef constantly has some brown-reddish algae on it. I have a conch and a few nassarius. Planning to go bare bottom in my new tank (125 gallow FOWLR) to avoid the issue all together.

 

[PDR]

That's a lot of sand sifting! No wonder your sand bed looks great. My 40 gallon reef constantly has some brown-reddish algae on it. I have a conch and a few nassarius. Planning to go bare bottom in my new tank (125 gallow FOWLR) to avoid the issue all together.

I used to get some of that my sandbed as well. I noticed it went away when I stopped trying to actively clean my sandbed and when I increased the flow in the tank. I did lose a couple of conchs recently so I'm down to 5-6, and I can't ever seem to keep nassarius alive for long. I like the idea of bare bottom, but I like the look of sand, wrasses, and gobies too much.

 

[PDR]

Alright so I said there would be a big update coming tonight, but as some of you know I have been a little under the weather and I just didn't get around to it.

I will say that I have decided to slightly modify my maintenance routine listed in post #107. I have been on the fence with filter socks for a while, and since some of mine are starting to wear out I decided to get some of the mesh socks instead. I think it will be a good middle ground. After about a month of weekly water changes, I decided I really prefer daily water changes for a lot of reasons, so I have switched back to that.

Until I can get the full update written out, here are a couple of videos I took last night and today.

Sorry the video is off center, I didn't notice until it was lights out. Also, the fish are a little more active than usual because it was just before lunchtime and they were expecting food.


Speaking of food. Oh and this is a pretty light feeding compared to normal.


I thought this was so cute, my new tiny maroon defending his territory I know I won't think it's cute for long...


You can see that big sissy of a maroon swimming away in the back. I think this new guy might be some trouble though...

 

[PDR]

Alright so here is the promised update, only 8 days late ;Facepalm;Eggonface

Current maintenance routine:
- Daily 1.5 gallon water change (roughly 2%)
- Change mesh filter stocks on Wednesday and Saturday
- Clean skimmer cup and neck as needed - usually once a week
- Manually Dose 15ml of BRS ALK, Ca and Tropic Marin Part C
- I have been changing carbon (rox .8 run in a bag in the sump) every 2 weeks, but I am going to try and push it to once a month.

Feeding:
- Fish Frenzy at 12 and Reef Frenzy at 7 - I soak both in 10 drops of selcon before feeding (I have slightly reduced the amount fed during each feeding due to elevated p04 and no3)
- Nori several times a week
- PE Calanus once a week

Parameters as of 2/24/19
- Alk - 9.0
- Ca - 450 - (last tested on 2/2/19)
- Mg - 1450 - (last tested on 2/2/19)
- No3 - 20-25 - (up from 10 on 2/15)
- P04 - .21 (up from .15 on 2/15 and .1 on 2/2)
- Salinity - 1.025 - (1.026 is my target)
- Temp - 80.6-81.0

Recent changes/additions:
- 2/2/19 - added a juvi Maroon from ORA - successfully paired with my existing maroon thanks to @Lovemyreef2015 and @DSC reef
- 2/2/19 - added a Kamohara Blenny from ORA
- 2/20/19 - added a Striped Blenny from ORA, Smiths blenny from ORA, and maxima clam from ORA (the clam had to be rehomed to my frag tank due to harassment from my CBB. - Big thanks to @DSC reef for his help with the clam.
- 2/23/19 - I moved all my zoas from the frag tank to the display. I still have not finished placing all of them, but since I didn't really have room for them and I hate the look of frag plugs in the tank, I glued the zoas to rubble rock, then attached the rubble rock to a frag plug that I then buried in the sand to help with stability. So far it seems to be working out well.
- 2/25/19 - I took my way too small (and full) algae reactor offline and reworked my sump so I could run a fuge and skimmer.


Now on to some problems:
- Obviously my nutrients have been rising way too fast, I am hoping that reducing my feeding slightly and switching back to a fuge will help control the issue.
- My mandarin has been acting strange for the past few days and is starting to look thin. I have reached out to a couple of the fish experts and they weren't sure what's going on with him (or her?). Check out the video below and let me know what you think. No other fish are acting strangely.
- Some of my zoas were acting up but most of them are back to normal (incidentally, they started to recover the day after I removed the week-old bag of carbon from my sump, but I believe that to be a coincidence).
- I have not been able to keep sps and most lps in my tank for some time. I can move some from my frag tank and within a couple of days they start to look terrible. SPS flesh gets thin, starts to pale and polyps are retracted. LPS gets thin and retracted. After trying this multiple times I have come to believe my flame angel and possibly yellow tang are to blame. I have never observed my flame aggressively going after any of the coral but it could be just enough to cause issues. I also broke down and ordered an ICP test just to be sure there isn't anything strange going on.

I haven't taken many new pictures, but I'll add what I have. I've included some pictures of the issues.

Zoa issues:




LPS in the frag tank:


And the next day in the DT:


The zoas have not been fully placed yet, but here is how they look on the rock with frag plug on the bottom. I personally think it looks better than just a frag plug:


The new Maroon



FTS taken on 2/18/19


FTS taken on 2/23/19 after moving all the zoas to the DT. I'm just keeping those frag racks on the front until I get them sold off.


I was originally planning on keeping sps and/or the clam here, but since that isn't going to work, I could use some input.


Here are a few family pictures from my son's first birthday, a trip to the Georgia aquarium and his party






I think that's it for now! Next will be my frag tank update and issues.

 

[PDR]

Here is the video of the mandarin:

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looking good, brother!

This is an awesome picture! Happy Birthday!