Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

Perc's are much meaner than laid back occy's, get a smaller picasso to pair w yours, 4-5 occy's
tank raised ,cannot follow nem rules in ocean,hit or miss on the nems ,most likely will go in almost any bta,sebae,
should work...

You forgot powerhead, feeding tube, heater...

 

[fishguy242]

You forgot powerhead, feeding tube, heater...

Can't we all just get along...

 

[Fishy888]

Will do. They can go in anything, that’s for sure. I’ve had them do that. I like the idea of having clownfish paired with their natural nem hosts but since I’m a year away from being nem ready I might end up reconsidering that. I know BTAs can go in much earlier than any other host anemone. Still I want to wait 6 months at least before attempting a BTA.

 

[Fishy888]

Good news! No more cyano! Bad news. Dinos. Bah.

The first thing to for me to do is to NOT panic and throw a bunch of chemicals and cure-alls into the reef. Such chemicals cause more harm than good and since it’s not even on the sand yet I think it can be turned around by adding some silica as per Randy’s method of getting diatoms to grow. Of course nitrate and phosphate need to be used n balance. My phosphates are low (at least in the water column). I don’t know what my nitrates are yet (my Hanna checkers for nitrates and calcium come tomorrow. I’m hoping to convince my wife to let me open the nitrate checker when it comes and put the other one under the tree). I imagine that with the growth of polyps and healing softies my nitrates are low too (many of my soft corals had extremely small polyps most likely due to being in bags for a while when the person who donated the equipment gave it to my other friend who gave me my current setup).

Either way I’ve been feeding small amounts of my frozen mix since making it. I’m going to ramp it up. That should help increase both P and N in a balanced fashion.

I have some GHA currently but not tons. Usually with high P it’s everywhere and thick as can be, even in the presence of low N. I had that problem the last time. This is what my system looks like at a glance.

My PO4 is sitting at about 0.09 ppm.

I never understood how N could be high and P low in anyone’s system but many people dealing with dinos have that problem. Food, especially flake food, is high in P. I’m going to dig deeper into this mystery (to me anyway).

That said my corals are just loving life (with the exception of the mushrooms which are doing much better than when they first went in). Each one is as open as can be. The problem is they won’t for long if I just let things go. Like I said though I’m not in panic mode. The dinos haven’t completely taken over so I need to feed the good bacteria that I still have. That and I need to manually remove what I can. That’s my plan of attack. If the dinos were everywhere and well advanced then I’d have to resort to Dr. Tim’s dino fighting chemicals (which I can’t remember the name of exactly but one kills off the Dino’s and is quite aggressive and the other is a bacteria that outcompetes any remaining Dino’s). As it stands now increased feedings are going to help big time.

My male turned female clownfish looks awesome! She has a much larger appetite too which is another reason I think she is indeed a she. Her fins have healed. If all goes well I’m going to get a male Picasso and 5 ocellaris clownfish sometime within the next 3 weeks, perhaps as late as the first week of the new year. That’ll be awesome. It’ll also help keep dinos at bay and my softies happy.

 

[Fishy888]

I ended up buying two sergeant major damsels and an emerald crab who’s hard at work. Besides the clownfish I want to add a yellow coris wrasse but we’ll see on that one. Here are the new arrivals.

In this image the damsels look larger than the clownfish but it’s actually the other way around.

Here’s Mr. Crabs

I got them for a good price. I won’t be buying anymore fish until I get the clownfish which will probably be at least until after Christmas, most likely after the new year. I might add brittle stars, bristleworms, more hermit crabs, and maybe another emerald crab. So far everyone’s getting along pretty well. Hopefully it stays this way.

I know these damsels are semi aggressive. The clownfish will be too. I’ll be watching things closely though. If it looks like WW3 is going to break out I’ll find a new tank or a new home for the damsels. I’m hopeful everyone gets along. I think they will but nothing is a guaranteed in reefing, or in life. As such I’ll be watching closely.

 

[tbrown]

When I was snorkeling in Hawaii back in June, it was a lot of fun to see schools of Sergeant Majors with babies swarming.

 

[Fishy888]

The sergeant majors are doing great so far. Mr. Crabs is in hiding. Perhaps if I add SpongeBob and some crabbie patties Mr. Crabs will come back out. Or I could just add cash….

Ok in all seriousness, just since adding the sergeant majors I’ve noticed a substantial decrease in dinos overall. I do see some trying to get on the sand in one spot.

Here are some images of the reef tonight.

You can see that the dinos are far less on the rocks and corals. They have certainly increased on the sand. The sand layer is very shallow so it won’t take a ton of good bacteria to kick out the dinos altogether. Fish poop is amazing. Who knew?

My toadstool looks awesome and the tentacles grow longer each day. I’m so glad it pulled through!

 

[Fishy888]

I did a little bit of maintenance on the tank last night, mainly along the lines of topping off the tank and taking the good ol’ turkey baster to the rocks. I also added some CaCO3 powder as a flocculant afterwards. I’m glad I saved the powder.

The dinos are still an issue though nowhere near as bad as they were at their peak. I’m going to test for NO3 and PO4 hopefully today. I saved the LaCl I was using in the old tank. If need be I’ll use it to lower my PO4. I want to make I know what my NO3 is. If it’s not zero then it’s likely PO4 is close to zero. Of course, I won’t let LaCl anywhere near my system if PO4 is crazy close to zero.

If the rock is full of PO4 and I draw it out with the LaCl, will the rock just crumble when I touch it? Also will the Ca in the water column along with the CO3 in the water column get deposited on the rock as CaCO3? Will fresh CaCO3 fill in any cracks that might occur in the rock due to CaPO4 being drawn out? These are questions I have at the moment although I won’t be making any knee jerk reactions here. I don’t want to get stupid low on PO4, or NO3 for that matter.

One other thing. It looks like I’ll be getting more rock on Sunday. It’ll be at least two buckets full.

 

[Fishy888]

Whelp there’s a new denizen in Perseverance Reef today! I got a fire shrimp. I didn’t think to take a picture of it (they’re hermaphrodites so “it” is the best pronoun I can come up with) before releasing it into the reef.

It swam faster than I’ve seen any creature swim to the other side of the tank. It then promptly swam into the rockwork where it remains. I expected that though. It was in a “tank” the size of a betta bowl with no hiding spot. It’s been like that for at least a month. I hope to see it again soon. I’m glad it has the opportunity to feel safe and be less stressed.

For those of you who have fire shrimp, how long did it take before you saw your fire shrimp to come out of hiding at first? I want to breed them once I get enough of them. I’ve bred several species of shrimp, and while most of my larvae don’t make it, some definitely do. I am learning more and getting better at it however.

 

[Fishy888]

I got a picture of the fire shrimp last night/early this morning.

Although the image was taken late last night/early this morning the shrimp is out enough that I can see him this afternoon, and he’s looking great.

So it turns out my detectable nitrates are zero. I’m going to check for detectable phosphates soon. I assume they’re near or at zero as well. The good news is that with heavier feedings I don’t see as many dino strings as I did even a couple days ago.

I do need to make sure N and P consumption doesn’t go out of control. GHA is one of the consumers. I don’t know what percentage of consumption comes from GHA however. My soft corals are growing however. I’d say consumption is close to 50/50.

 

[Fishy888]

I just got a new image of the newest denizen of the deep. It’s the best one yet.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Dose iodide if you have it. If iodine in the water is too low I heard shrimp can't molt.

 

[Fishy888]

Dose iodide if you have it. If iodine in the water is too low I heard shrimp can't molt.

Good point! I’m going to buy some as well as the liquid glass @Randy Holmes-Farley mentions.

The resulting diatoms serve as a ward against dinos and for organisms that feed mainly on diatoms. Oh and I’m going to buy some sodium nitrate and/or get another fish or two.

I don’t want to go too crazy on adding fish just yet but I might do so since this system has zero nitrate per Hanna high range. That and I want to get some blue damsels. I like yellow tailed blue damsels but since I want a pair of sulfur yellow damsels and I’ll need semi aggressive damsels that can hold their own with the sergeant majors I’m considering a pair of blue devil damsels including a male. I’m only considering them at this stage though.

 

[Fishy888]

I ordered 50 ft of 1/4 inch RO tubing. I’m going to start building the cabinet to hold my RODI unit and reservoir. Instead of wheeling it to the kitchen and back I’ll just hook up enough hose to reach from the sink to the input of the RODI unit. I’ll likely have to drill a hole in the reservoir’s cap to fit the line from the RODI unit’s product water output.

I might change my mind on this next part’s design but I’m thinking I’ll tee off the output of the reservoir after the spigot. One branch will be used for my ATO and the other will be for drawing buckets to make saltwater with.

I really want to get another 32 gallon trash can to use as a saltwater reservoir. If I can finagle it into a cabinet my wife would approve (chances are slim but not necessarily zero) then I’ll plumb the reservoir to allow for drawing fresh RODI water and the ATO while allowing water to flow down to the saltwater reservoir. Of course there would be a heater and a decent mixing pump.

I would then have a pump that would pump saltwater into the sump during a water change. I’d have a pump to siphon water out during a water change obviously but I’ll discuss that in a bit.

I’d need to be able to tap the saltwater reservoir as well so that, like with the RODI reservoir, I can carry buckets of saltwater up to my wife’s system.

The ability to siphon water using a pump would be awesome, especially with a gravel vac attachment inside the tank. The thing is that I’d have to either drill another hole in the display (which won’t be happening, I can tell you that) or I’d have to somehow Shanghai the overflow and pump the tank water into the kitchen sink.

I could accomplish just that very thing using a ball valve and a tee. Perhaps a second ball valve so that when water is being drained normally the second valve would block any water that tried to flow through the tee into the siphon pump. When it’s time to use the pump I could close off the first valve and open the second valve so water could flow through the pump and out the hose to the kitchen sink.

I’d have to use a hose of some kind. I’d like to use either PVC hose or a decent quality garden hose that won’t kink in 2 seconds. @Projects with Sam I’d love your input on all this please. It would be appreciated!

Edit: My wife is actually going to let me go forward with the saltwater reservoir idea. That will help both of us, especially if I get SPS and/or either a ritteri or carpet nem Even if I just get BTAs it’ll be awesome to have a reserve of seawater that’s matched temp wise, salinity wise, etc. I know my wife wants a BTA or two as well. It’s crucial in a smaller system like hers.

 

[Fishy888]

I haven’t been feeling the best today so I just went down to check on the reef. I see dino strings. It’s not reached epic proportions yet. I’m going to dump the skimmate back into the system a little bit at a time. I’m also going to cut the skimmer for a while. I’ll put it on a timer which will turn on when the lights go out and go off when the lights come back on. The fuge light will also be on the night schedule.

The fire shrimp was completely visible about 30 minutes ago. I didn’t have my phone and I didn’t want to disturb it. I hope it will venture all the way out soon. Hopefully just after Christmas it’ll have a friend or three.

I’m hoping I can get some L. bogessi shrimp as well. I might even get a pair of skunk cleaner shrimp too. I primarily want fire shrimp. They add a beautiful fire engine red to the reef like few fish (that would live happily in a 75 gallon tank anyway) and corals can!

 

[tbrown]

I haven’t been feeling the best today so I just went down to check on the reef. I see dino strings. It’s not reached epic proportions yet. I’m going to dump the skimmate back into the system a little bit at a time. I’m also going to cut the skimmer for a while. I’ll put it on a timer which will turn on when the lights go out and go off when the lights come back on. The fuge light will also be on the night schedule.

The fire shrimp was completely visible about 30 minutes ago. I didn’t have my phone and I didn’t want to disturb it. I hope it will venture all the way out soon. Hopefully just after Christmas it’ll have a friend or three.

I’m hoping I can get some L. bogessi shrimp as well. I might even get a pair of skunk cleaner shrimp too. I primarily want fire shrimp. They add a beautiful fire engine red to the reef like few fish (that would live happily in a 75 gallon tank anyway) and corals can!

I was running mine 4 times a day, 1.5 hours each time on my 125 and felt like I was overskimming.

 

[Fishy888]

I was running mine 4 times a day, 1.5 hours each time on my 125 and felt like I was overskimming.

I have chaeto and softies and I feel like cutting out the skimmer will do a lot of good. My biggest worry is that pH will swing at night like Tarzan on a vine. I’m thinking of running the skimmer without the cup and only at night. I might not even need to run it at all since I have the chaeto.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Why not just run it with the cup off? That way you don't actually skim but you do get the benefit of gas exchange...

 

[Fishy888]

Why not just run it with the cup off? That way you don't actually skim but you do get the benefit of gas exchange...

I’m going to do that. Thank you! My thinking cap isn’t as firmly attached to my noggin as it usually is at the moment.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I ordered 50 ft of 1/4 inch RO tubing. I’m going to start building the cabinet to hold my RODI unit and reservoir. Instead of wheeling it to the kitchen and back I’ll just hook up enough hose to reach from the sink to the input of the RODI unit. I’ll likely have to drill a hole in the reservoir’s cap to fit the line from the RODI unit’s product water output.

I might change my mind on this next part’s design but I’m thinking I’ll tee off the output of the reservoir after the spigot. One branch will be used for my ATO and the other will be for drawing buckets to make saltwater with.

I really want to get another 32 gallon trash can to use as a saltwater reservoir. If I can finagle it into a cabinet my wife would approve (chances are slim but not necessarily zero) then I’ll plumb the reservoir to allow for drawing fresh RODI water and the ATO while allowing water to flow down to the saltwater reservoir. Of course there would be a heater and a decent mixing pump.

I would then have a pump that would pump saltwater into the sump during a water change. I’d have a pump to siphon water out during a water change obviously but I’ll discuss that in a bit.

I’d need to be able to tap the saltwater reservoir as well so that, like with the RODI reservoir, I can carry buckets of saltwater up to my wife’s system.

The ability to siphon water using a pump would be awesome, especially with a gravel vac attachment inside the tank. The thing is that I’d have to either drill another hole in the display (which won’t be happening, I can tell you that) or I’d have to somehow Shanghai the overflow and pump the tank water into the kitchen sink.

I could accomplish just that very thing using a ball valve and a tee. Perhaps a second ball valve so that when water is being drained normally the second valve would block any water that tried to flow through the tee into the siphon pump. When it’s time to use the pump I could close off the first valve and open the second valve so water could flow through the pump and out the hose to the kitchen sink.

I’d have to use a hose of some kind. I’d like to use either PVC hose or a decent quality garden hose that won’t kink in 2 seconds. @Projects with Sam I’d love your input on all this please. It would be appreciated!

Edit: My wife is actually going to let me go forward with the saltwater reservoir idea. That will help both of us, especially if I get SPS and/or either a ritteri or carpet nem Even if I just get BTAs it’ll be awesome to have a reserve of seawater that’s matched temp wise, salinity wise, etc. I know my wife wants a BTA or two as well. It’s crucial in a smaller system like hers.

So the 32 gallon saltwater mixing bin is a great idea, the RODI reservoir is a good idea; I’d put a float valve in the RODI container if you can. I got lost in the woods regarding what you’re planning todo for draining.
If anything I think you mentioned t-ing off your return pump to send H2O to the kitchen as needed.