Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

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.

I’ll have to model it out still (I can’t remember the software you used that last time) but I won’t be messing with the return pump.

The tee off would be in the drain line. That would be to empty the tank. I would use a second pump for that purpose.

The reservoir would get teed off such that hat I could use it as my ATO reservoir as well. It’ll be easier to see what I have rattling around in my head once I model it out and post it here. :)

 

[Fishy888]

Ok I just had a thought. I can just drill a hole in the other side of the reservoir and add a bulkhead there. I could run the tee from there to my ATO and to the saltwater reservoir. This way I can keep the spigot for the RODI where I can easily fill a bucket for the upstairs tank. I can then add another bulkhead to the saltwater reservoir and a pump to either fill a bucket for upstairs or to go directly to the sump during a water change.

I just finished blowing the dinoflagellates off of the rock surfaces and the edges of the corals. As per @EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal ‘s idea I took the skimmer cup off and I’m letting the skimmer run like that. I also dumped the skimmate back into the system.

The micro feather dusters have come out and my soft corals have all come back out. Other than the micro bubbles from needing to top off the system the water looks clear, especially for dumping literally an entire cup of skimmate back into the system. I’ll be testing NO3 and PO4 to make sure I don’t end up at the other extreme.

Coralline is making a comeback in some areas where it had significantly died back. Part of the die off was likely from when the system was moved and restarted. The other part was likely due to more intense lighting than it was used to. There are rocks that are more shaded where there was little to no dieback of coralline. In fact one rock in particular has had a coralline growth spurt.

I’m not exactly rushing out to buy SPS but the more coralline growing, the healthier my system is. That’s always a good thing.

 

[Fishy888]

Since removing the collection cup I’ve noticed a decent decline in dinos. There were still a few strings around but nothing like 48 hours ago. The GHA which was turning white has regained its color for the most part.

I’ll do another nitrate and phosphate check today. I think it’ll show both levels have at least become detectable. I definitely don’t want zeros for nitrates and phosphates but I don’t want ridiculous levels either.

I still expect the dinos to take a week or 2 to go away. Hopefully sooner. I’ll be watching things closely for sure.

 

[Fishy888]

It looks like my coral banded shrimp are coming back home tomorrow afternoon. Some more rock is coming too. Hopefully they’ll get along with the fire shrimp as well as they did with the L. bogessi shrimp.

I’ve removed more dino strings tonight. Thankfully they’re not severe at this point. I thought they’d be gone by now, especially since I’ve been feeding the tank while NOT skimming. I need to test NO3 and PO4 tomorrow. I’m not sure if the rock I’m getting tomorrow is live or not. If not I’ll buy a few pounds and keep feeding the tank heavily. Until the dinos are gone I won’t skim.

 

[Fishy888]

I got the rock and the shrimp today. The shrimp are going to town on the rocks.

Yes the dinos are getting insane. I’m going to see if I still have my UV sterilizer. If not that may be my next purchase.

As for the rock, it’s in the tank but I’m going to rearrange it. I got some really nice pieces too. Hopefully the bacteria from the rock I got today will outcompete the dinos sooner rather than later.

 

[Fishy888]

There’s some good news tonight. It looks like the dinos are starting to slow down a little. I’ve been feeding much heavier and I think it’s helping. I’m also seeing the GHA taking on a darker green, a hunter green color, in the spots with decreased amounts of dinos. I’ve also been manually removing strings every day.

I’m pretty certain that my increasing pod and worm population are contributing as well. The pods eat dinos. The worms indirectly help by eating and, well, pooping. The extra nitrogen and phosphorus will help.

I’ve got some ammonium chloride coming soon from Amazon. It’s Dr. Tim’s brand. I’m going to dose it according to @Randy Holmes-Farley ’s dosing recommendation. I’ll have to watch ALK but it’ll be worth it. It’s easy enough to add ALK.

I also have sodium silicate coming (Loudwolf reagent grade). That’ll help a ton but I have to wait until around the 30th until it gets here. I hope it comes earlier by some miracle but we’ll see.

Seeing what I’m seeing is very encouraging. I had been thinking about dosing a pint of tap water. Even though our tap water only runs 115 - 125 TDS I haven’t done it. I would have dosed it mainly for the silicates but there are wayyy too many unknowns with even dosing that little bit daily. I’m glad I held off on dosing tap water to my system, especially since I’m seeing progress without having to dose tap.

All three fish and all three shrimp are still doing well. Considering the fact that dinos have been running amok lately I’m pretty fortunate that my animals are doing so well despite the dinos.

 

[Fishy888]

The decrease in dinos continues albeit slowly. My Na₂SiO₃ solution should be here tomorrow, possibly today though I doubt it. Either way, that’s just another nail in the coffin for the dinos.

I might be adding some clean up crew today, possibly even a fish or two. The extra nitrogen and phosphorus would help ensure levels remain just high enough to keep the dinos at bay.

Honestly I want to run a lower phosphate and lower nitrate system, but not too low. I don’t want my corals to break when I barely touch them if you know what I mean. I DO want them to have proper CaCO3 skeletons and my rocks to not crumble. Sure I can run crazy high phosphates and nitrates but I’m also really wanting to have a magnificent anemone eventually. The truth is I’ve been wanting one for a long time. I mean longer than I’ve been on R2R. No, it’s NOT because of Finding Nemo. It’s because they’re amazing and so are the clowns that inhabit them. Mags need cleaner water too. Giant carpets do too. They’re tied with the mags on my preference list. I’d want a blue gig.

The fish and shrimp are doing well. I haven’t seen the emerald crab or the hermits in a few days but there are only three hermits and an emerald in there. They’ll pop up again soon.

 

[F i s h y]

The decrease in dinos continues albeit slowly. My Na₂SiO₃ solution should be here tomorrow, possibly today though I doubt it. Either way, that’s just another nail in the coffin for the dinos.

I might be adding some clean up crew today, possibly even a fish or two. The extra nitrogen and phosphorus would help ensure levels remain just high enough to keep the dinos at bay.

Honestly I want to run a lower phosphate and lower nitrate system, but not too low. I don’t want my corals to break when I barely touch them if you know what I mean. I DO want them to have proper CaCO3 skeletons and my rocks to not crumble. Sure I can run crazy high phosphates and nitrates but I’m also really wanting to have a magnificent anemone eventually. The truth is I’ve been wanting one for a long time. I mean longer than I’ve been on R2R. No, it’s NOT because of Finding Nemo. It’s because they’re amazing and so are the clowns that inhabit them. Mags need cleaner water too. Giant carpets do too. They’re tied with the mags on my preference list. I’d want a blue gig.

The fish and shrimp are doing well. I haven’t seen the emerald crab or the hermits in a few days but there are only three hermits and an emerald in there. They’ll pop up again soon.

If you have any nem questions just ask, ive kept about every type. my current giant nem is a 25 inch across mertens. i also have 2 very large black widow bubble tips. the larger one is about 14 inches across maybe more. Id love to get another mag as well. I have a great spot for one.

 

[Fishy888]

If you have any nem questions just ask, ive kept about every type. my current giant nem is a 25 inch across mertens. i also have 2 very large black widow bubble tips. the larger one is about 14 inches across maybe more. Id love to get another mag as well. I have a great spot for one.

I appreciate it! I know I’m a long ways away from a mag currently but, while I certainly want to keep corals, clams, etc I also want to build my system around the mag, at least as much as I can at this stage.

 

[Fishy888]

Ok, I did a thing…

Clams and corals on the left, big bad mag on the right. I think the right side is going to be empty for a while. Except for coralline algae hopefully as well as the occasional invert.

This has been a long time in coming but it’s been crazy busy. In a good way. Now things don’t totally look like I just dropped rock in there Willy Nilly. :slightly-smiling-face:

 

[Fishy888]

Ok so I did another thing, and two more besides. I got a tuxedo urchin that’s slightly smaller than a shooter marble and two trochus snails. My wife also got two trochus snails and a Zoa frag that’s in her system already. The water parameters between their tanks and mine were too great to let them go immediately but in about another 45 minutes or so they should be salinity and pH matched. That was thing one.

Thing two is that I dosed sodium silicate to the system. I hope to see some serious diatomage within the next couple of days but I didn’t go overly crazy either, opting to stick to Randy’s recommendation for dosing.

Thing three is that I dosed ammonium chloride to help bacteria and corals that prefer ammonium to nitrate. I’ll have to watch ALK but that bears close watching anyway.

Here are pics of the new guys.

 

[tbrown]

Ok so I did another thing, and two more besides. I got a tuxedo urchin that’s slightly smaller than a shooter marble and two trochus snails. My wife also got two trochus snails and a Zoa frag that’s in her system already. The water parameters between their tanks and mine were too great to let them go immediately but in about another 45 minutes or so they should be salinity and pH matched. That was thing one.

Thing two is that I dosed sodium silicate to the system. I hope to see some serious diatomage within the next couple of days but I didn’t go overly crazy either, opting to stick to Randy’s recommendation for dosing.

Thing three is that I dosed ammonium chloride to help bacteria and corals that prefer ammonium to nitrate. I’ll have to watch ALK but that bears close watching anyway.

Here are pics of the new guys.

Curious: why'd you choose Ammonium Chloride? I did the same thing but because my alk is high and needs to come down.

 

[Fishy888]

Curious: why'd you choose Ammonium Chloride? I did the same thing but because my alk is high and needs to come down.

Certain corals and bacteria prefer ammonia to nitrate so it helps those like me who have a chronic shortfall.

DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate. For this...

www.reef2reef.com

I feed heavily too and still have low nitrates.

Tonight I noticed some dino strings turning white at last. I doubt it was because of the ammonium dosing but I DID notice pods eating away where the strings were turning white.

 

[tbrown]

Certain corals and bacteria prefer ammonia to nitrate so it helps those like me who have a chronic shortfall.

DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate. For this...

www.reef2reef.com

I feed heavily too and still have low nitrates.

Tonight I noticed some dino strings turning white at last. I doubt it was because of the ammonium dosing but I DID notice pods eating away where the strings were turning white.

I understand that. I'm curious why you chose Ammonium Chloride instead of Ammonium Bicarbonate.

 

[Fishy888]

I understand that. I'm curious why you chose Ammonium Chloride instead of Ammonium Bicarbonate.

I see. It’s less likely to lose ammonia to the air and doesn’t smell as bad as ammonium bicarbonate. It has a lower pH than ammonium bicarbonate.

 

[tbrown]

I see. It’s less likely to lose ammonia to the air and doesn’t smell as bad as ammonium bicarbonate. It has a lower pH than ammonium bicarbonate.

Makes sense. I chose Chloride because it helps lower my chronically high alkalinity. I haven't seen a dip in pH which is good and I have smelled very little ammonia smell in the week I've been using it.

 

[Fishy888]

Makes sense. I chose Chloride because it helps lower my chronically high alkalinity. I haven't seen a dip in pH which is good and I have smelled very little ammonia smell in the week I've been using it.

Yeah, I get that. Obviously I don’t have any ALK depleting corals or anywhere near enough coralline to drag it down at this point nor am I dosing ALK or anything else besides Na2SiO3 and NH4Cl.

I dosed enough Na2SiO3 this morning to get to 3 ppm (2 ppm this morning, 1 ppm last night) and enough NH4Cl to get to 0.2 ppm. So far all of my animals are doing well and showing no signs of stress, including the newest denizens of the deep.

I arrived at the 3 ppm idea for Na2SiO3 from some threads on inducing diatoms to fight dinos. I’m getting a silicate test kit, possibly Hanna but Salifert at the very least. Until that comes I’m going to shoot for 3 ppm doses twice a week. I have a couple of limpets and most likely other creatures that would welcome the silicates.

 

[Fishy888]

The dinos are still hanging in there but so am I. I’ve been manually removing them. Since I’ve been stirring up a bunch of crud I’ve suspended the ammonium chloride dosing for now.

I just got done another round of manual removal. I’ve been doing it every hour or two. I’m getting a little less each time in the net (and socks) each time. I’ve also gone through 4 filter socks so far today.

Once I clean the glass I’ll get another picture. There are still dino strongholds obviously but there’s a vast improvement overall.

Either tonight or tomorrow, time permitting, I’m going to break out my cheap scope and see if I’m getting more diatoms. If I am though I can’t tell. Here’s to hoping they totally outcompete the dinos sooner rather than later.

 

[Fishy888]

Good news. GHA is taking over where the dinosaurs left off! Bad news. GHA is taking over…. Ok that’s not such bad news. Much better than dinos. I haven’t had to be as heavy handed with the manual removal today. In fact I haven’t done any manual removal today so far. The amount of dinos has come down considerably despite the halides being at full brightness.

I just finished testing for nitrates and phosphates. I still have ALK and CAL to do. So far….

P - 157 ppb which translates to…
PO4 - 0.481 ppm Hanna
NO3 - 0.0 (youch) Hanna
ALK - 6.7 Salifert

Ammonium Chloride dosing incoming. I’ve got to get these nitrates up!

That said, I realize that to an extent the nitrate depletion is due to GHA but OTOH there isn’t all that much algae on the rocks. Not enough to deplete nitrates to that extent. Then again GHA is growing on the glass now so who knows?

Once I get ALK and CAL tested I’ll edit this post to include the results.

 

[Fishy888]

Hopefully I can find my microscope today but I’m noticing a trend. While I still have stringy dinos, I also have what I believe are diatoms. They don’t look slimy nor are they stringy. Of course they might be another form of dinos but that’s why I need to find the scope.

Thankfully my animals have all made it through dinogheddon thus far and are looking good.

I’m amazed that I’ve been able to dose as much NH4Cl as I have and STILL no detectable nitrates! As it is I need to pick up some baking soda and, well, bake it. The product of that will be my ALK supplement for the time being. I’m probably going to get some stump remover since the potassium and nitrate would help right now to get GHA better established.

Of course sodium nitrate would be preferable to potassium nitrate normally but with dinos nothing is normal. That said, one bottle of potassium nitrate should be enough to get GHA in and hopefully dinos out. That and getting my ALK back where it belongs.

I wish we had real live rock direct from the ocean sold in LFSs. There was a time, then we all became wimps. I personally would rather worry about gorilla crabs and bobbit worms than these stupid dinos. At least my case of dinos isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. I’m grateful for that!