I haven’t posted much lately because, well, not too much has happened lately. I did a 66% water change about 3 weeks ago give or take a few days. The water cleared out significantly but I lost some coralline. Not tons but some. It’s since started coming back like gangbusters overall, just not in the same exact places it died back. That said I have more coralline than I had before the dieback. It helps that my new CUC is doing an awesome job exposing the coralline which was growing under all that hair algae. Which brings me to….
My new cleanup crew is coming together! I bought 4 Mexican turbo snails this week. (Two of which I suspect are actually zebra turbo snails given the striped pattern and larger size. I’d put them at 3 inches.)
I also bought a tiger conch and a fighting conch this week as well as an astrea looking snail that doesn’t quite come to a point like normal astrea. Instead it has these knob like projections where the point would be, making it look flattened. I’ll get some images of it as well as the other CUC members I got this week so far. I plan on getting one more fighting conch Tuesday when they come into our LFS.
I purchased all the snails on different days so I could make sure they were acclimated properly and doing well in my system before buying more. I lost all but two Trochus snails and one hermit crab over the last few months. I originally had five. The two that are left are doing pretty well and it turns out they had at least one baby because now there’s a third that I just discovered this morning! It’s maybe 3/4 of an inch! I’ll post pics later today. I’m noticing more spirorbids and micro duster worms. In fact, after not seeing any limpets for several months dating back to late January or early February, I started noticing more of them! I’d say things are looking up!
That said though I’m dealing with dinos again. Thankfully I saw the writing on the wall before they showed up. I’ve been dosing more calcium nitrate. That’s kept the stringy dinos at bay. They’re in the sand bed and on the glass.. errrr… acrylic. Just not nearly to the degree they were when I had them the first time. I see cyano starting to replace the dinos. Hoover and Dyson (The tiger conch is Hoover and the Fighting Conch Is Dyson) are decimating the dinos in the sand bed. They grow back rapidly but my living vacuum cleaners have voracious appetites! I’ve noticed that the dinos take longer to come back than they did before introducing the two conchs.
Like I said earlier I plan on getting another fighting conch on Tuesday because I don’t honestly know if or when she’ll get them in again. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them there. I’m also planning on adding another tiger conch as well as a few nassarius snails and perhaps some astreas. That won’t be for quite a while though. I’m also going to get another urchin this weekend since my other one died after the transfer from the 75 to the new system.
Water parameters have been pretty stable with the exception of the large water change. Things look much better than they did before the big water change though. I’m going to be doing smaller, more frequent water changes now that I can take a couple days a week off. Mondays and Tuesdays are my days off. That’s when I do maintenance tasks such as making RODI, mixing ASW, and water changes. I typically clean the glass whenever it’s needed during the week whether I’m off or I’m working. The same with topping off the tank.
One final note. It’s always been rumored that our apartment complex was on backup power because of the nursing home next door and because we always had power when everyone else had none. Well, for the first time we had an extended power outage last night. It went off and right back on like it always has during the storms last night but about 5 hours later, just after midnight, it went out. The nursing home had power but we were without power until 4:30 this morning. It’s times like these I’m so grateful that I not only have the upgraded DT but that I have the upgraded sump as well! The water temperature only dropped 5 degrees in that time! We keep our apartment at 68 degrees. I normally keep the tank at 82. It dropped to 77. Not too bad. If this was the 75 gallon DT and 20 gallon sump the temperature likely would have dropped 8 degrees or so. My current DT holds 120 actual gallons and the 75 gallon tank is my sump now. Granted my total system water volume is about 140 actual gallons but I STILL haven’t patched the hole where the return bulkhead went in the old DT turned sump. I’m going to get that done today. That’ll only take a couple of hours to cure, then I’ll be able to add about 30 more gallons to the system! I’ll have 170, maybe even 175 actual gallons of total system water volume once done.
Overall I feel pretty good about how things are going. Even though I am about to have a good sized CUC I’m prepared to supplement them with Nori and Caulerpa Racemosa. Eventually the tang, and likely the CUC will have Ulva and Gracillaria too once I can buy it and grow enough of it.
Once my last hermit crab dies I won’t be replacing it. The snails are doing such an awesome job and I don’t want anything to happen to them. I also have limpets, chitons, and Colonista snails as well as various worm species. I’ll eventually add several emerald crabs and/or ruby crabs to the mix.
It sounds like I’m cramming these guys in my DT, however despite “only” holding 120 actual gallons, the footprint of the DT is 6’ x 2.5’. That’s the footprint of a 300 gallon tank! I’m going to add probably another 50 lbs of sand. I’ve mixed sugar sand with special grade sand and eventually I’ll get crushed coral too. After all, sand on the reef is NOT oolitic so it’s not going to be oolitic in my DT. I won’t go super crazy with the crushed coral but I’m going to have crushed coral mixed with rubble rock in the high flow areas between the Bommys and on the side of the tank where the return line comes in. That’ll help the turbo and astrea snails to go between the bommys without falling down and not being able to right themselves.
I know I’ve written a book. An entire volume of books in fact! I’m getting more excited about the progress that’s been made and the future of Perseverance Reef though! After the dismal start of the year when it looked like I was going to have to shut my 75 gallon reef down altogether, I now have three times the reef I had in terms of footprint, and it’s coming along great. By many measures, it’s healthier than ever! Perseverance Reef was absolutely appropriately named! It’s taken perseverance, determination, and plenty of work but it’s been fun and oh so worth it and then some!
