Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

The reef continues to improve. My nitrates are more stable now. In fact they’re high. I’m around 75 ppm. Yeah. Nonetheless the dinos are pretty much history and coralline is gaining a decent foothold. I can see more collonista snails and the occasional chiton milling about. My sump is full of pods, chaeto and grape caulerpa.

As for the nitrates I’m going to let them gradually fall. I will test a bit more than I usually do just to make sure they don’t plummet. I haven’t dosed any nitrates to the system in a couple of days so later today I’ll do another test. My system still chews through nitrates like no one’s business though. I need to find a cheaper, larger bottle of ammonium chloride than the 8 oz bottles of Dr. Tim’s. I’m going to look at Randy’s recommendations again too because there was another type ammonium solution but I don’t remember the exact chemical formula for it. I do know my reef was loving the ammonium though. It would be nice to be able to have my nitrates around 10 to 20 ppm. To do that though and not have dinos come roaring back, I’ll definitely need the help of ammonium.

As crazy as it might seem I really want a ton of both chaeto and caulerpa. I’d like to get some Ulva as well. The tangs and sergeant major damsels all go crazy for it. I think they eat more than the powder blue relative to body size! The pods are another benefit. I’ve never had fish eat every last pod they could find like these guys do. You’d think they were part dragonette! Between that, my (relatively) rapidly growing coralline, my filter feeders, and a very slow growing aiptasia variety (still about an inch long) that hasn’t spread since I got this rock last November, and you can see why nitrate, and nitrogen in general, is ravenously consumed in my system.

My chaeto is about the size of a basketball right now. The caulerpa isn’t far behind. Of course it’s spread across the bottom of the 75 gallon sump so it’s more like a carpet which is spread out. I’ve held the mass of chaeto in my hand though so it’s definitely basketball sized.

If I had the room I would have done a display fuge but I’m beyond fortunate that my wife lets me have my setup like I do! It’s about 150 gallons actual total system volume. That’s just counting the water, not counting rock or sand. If I was bare bottom in both tanks I’d be at 180ish. That doesn’t sound like much, but the display has the footprint of a 300 gallon tank! It’s 6’ by 2.5’ and 14 inches tall so it takes up some space. Thankfully our living room is bigger than in any other apartments in town.

I did a small water change a couple of days ago. The sump still had a hole I hadn’t patched where the return line came in when it was my display. I patched it first then let it cure. Once dry I turned off the pumps and let the water drain back into the sump. I also siphoned off about 8 gallons of water from the display after getting as much crud off the rocks as I could, then I added about 30 gallons back to the system. That filled the sump to within an inch and a half from the top. I restarted everything and after the display filled back up I turned the return pump off just to make sure I set the level correctly. It was spot on. I restarted the return pump again and marked my fill line. I’d almost swear I’m not getting as much evaporation as I was before. It’s been a little more humid lately though so that might be playing a part too.

 

[Fishy888]

I’m writing a book yet again. I’ve broken it into two posts because I can get far too verbose.

I need to permanently mount my rodi system under my stand. I’ll run the hoses I need into the kitchen. It’ll be much better than having to carry the unit to and from the kitchen constantly and it’ll stay in relative darkness. True I have an algae grow light under the stand but I’ll make a surround for it so the light stays in the sump. I don’t need algae growing in my RODI media!

The RODI unit will need a booster pump for certain once mounted. It already needs one really since I only get 30 PSI out of the tap, measured when flushing the membrane. With the restrictor I get 48 to 50 PSI. It works well enough for now but it most certainly won’t once the RODI unit is mounted.

I still haven’t done an ATO yet. I’ve thought about using my rodi reservoir as an ATO reservoir as well. The problem is that eventually I’ll need to be able to dose kalkwasser. I’m still another year out from that yet unless my coralline grows even faster than it already is.

I would need another two lines to use it that way because I’d need to be able to stir the kalk and to draw the kalk-saturated water out. I’d need about 20 feet of line to go from the reservoir to the sump. I can mount an air pump to the stand the reservoir sits on but I’d need a decent pump to draw the water from the reservoir to the sump. I’ll also need to get a float switch or maybe a solenoid switch.

After that I want to get a decent ozone generator. Thinking about it, I’m going to ask Paul B which one he uses. If it’s good enough for his 50+ year old reef, it’s good for mine!

Down the line, closer to winter, I hope to get another wave maker or two. I could use the extra flow. By then I should have a decent amount of easy SPS at least. As good as things look right now, barring any royal screwups and/or crashes, I might even be able to get my first acropora. It would have to be an easier acropora. I’m thinking between Christmas and New Year’s Day I should be ready for that. Again that assumes things are stable and all.

One last note. I might be getting an offer I can’t refuse on a bubble tip or two. They could grace the reef as soon as this week! If I go that route I’m thinking about getting a couple of maroon clowns and moving my current pair to another tank. I’d love to have the right anemone fish for the right anemone! It’ll be a bit though before I can get any maroon clowns though but that’ll give me the chance to set up an appropriate system and cycle it. It’s hard to find that deep, vibrant maroon color on any other fish. It’s definitely a color I could use more of in there!

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

48 to 50 psi would be ok for most, if you use a Filmtec membrane - as they are spec'ed at 50 psi.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

The 30 psi when flushing is irrelevant. I'm surprised it was that high during a flush. Typically it is more like 5 or 10 psi.

 

[Fishy888]

The 30 psi when flushing is irrelevant.

Thank you! I was wondering about that. It’ll drop though once I run the 25 feet of tubing from the stand to the sink though, right?

 

[Fishy888]

Whelp I’m now the proud owner of two RBTAs! They look awesome! My friend just gave them to me! She’s both an awesome reefer and an awesome person!

Here are some images from when I placed them on their rock.

This is the largest of the two.

Here’s the second.

They both look better now that they’ve both had time to settle in a bit. I’ll get some new images tomorrow. They’re beautiful!

I’m so grateful to Jesus for letting me have this reef and all the creatures that are in it. They are His handiwork! He has truly blessed me and has kept my reef thriving. Glory be to God!

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Thank you! I was wondering about that. It’ll drop though once I run the 25 feet of tubing from the stand to the sink though, right?

Not sure I understand your question - feel free to give us a call. 513-312-2343

 

[Fishy888]

The anemones are doing good so far. They haven’t moved or anything. One caught a little food when I broadcast fed the tank. It closed up about halfway then opened back up. They both look great.

I did some testing in the wee hours of the morning.

CAL > 500 ppm - Salifert
ALK = 7.7 dKh - Salifert
MAG > 1500 ppm - Salifert
NO3 > 75 ppm - Hanna
PO4 = 0.095 ppm - Hanna

Yes, my nitrates really are greater than 75 ppm. I’m not panicking over it though. I’m going to let my macro and my coralline take it up. They are all outcompeting the hair algae. It also helps that I have more of a cleanup crew and that PO4 is as low as it is.

I realize that PO4 is also bound in the rock and that the reading might not be accurate because the algae is taking it up. At least that’s what they always say. My take on it, which may be wrong, is that if the algae is consuming the PO4 then it’s not in the water column anymore. Plus with the high NO3 the hair algae should be outpacing the CUC and the macro if my phosphates were still sky high. The same with PO4 bound in the rock. If it’s being depleted from the water column faster than its being added then water should be leeching it from the rocks until the water column and the rock are at equilibrium with regard to PO4.

I feed a fairly low phosphate diet although I feed caulerpa to the tank and I add some vegetable matter to their frozen food blend too. I think dosing nitrates has brought my phosphates down via macro algae growth. They take up at least 10x the amount of nitrates compared to phosphates. The Redfield ratio suggests 16:1 but it turns out one size does NOT fit all in regard to Redfield. Nonetheless I’m getting the macro growth I want and my phosphates are being taken up faster than they’re being added through food, fish/invert waste, etc.

My coralline growth I believe is another testament to the fact that my phosphate reading is likely correct.

As for the other readings I’m fine with them. The MAG being high can help inhibit dinos from what I’ve read, but I’m not so sure if it really does. At the very least, it doesn’t by itself. Nonetheless it doesn’t appear to be bothering anything at this point.

My CAL is high but I have a feeling it won’t be much longer. My rocks are still mostly green but the coralline is definitely taking over now at a rapid enough pace that I can see older patches growing and new areas of growth daily. At the rate it’s going I’d expect at least a third of my rocks to be covered by July if not sooner.

Overall I’m very happy with my parameters and the overall health of the reef. My animals are healthy, eating like pigs, no signs of disease or stress, and my corals are quite happy too. The rocks are turning pink. I can’t ask for much more right now!

 

[Goaway]

What salty mix are you using? The stats looks like reef crystals.

 

[Fishy888]

What salty mix are you using? The stats looks like reef crystals.

That’s what I’m using. I know RC mixes high but that’s fine for me at this point.

 

[Goaway]

My CAL is high but I have a feeling it won’t be much longer.

I mean, thats why I asked. It's very high in the big 3. It's nice for sps/clam heavy tanks. But. if you are mostly lps/softy you'll save a few bucks going for the instant ocean.

 

[Fishy888]

I’m going to be adding a clam soon. Ultimately I’ll be clam and SPS heavy. I want to get the system used to it from now on. How have you been doing these days?

 

[Goaway]

Pretty well. Reefing is quite the battle. One thing after another.
I'm thanking God I am getting more sleep these nights. Lil one is out of sids range. But, now getting into other kinds of trouble.

Looking for another reef store. Chatam has one, i never went there though.

One of my fish is pulling frags behind my rocks and letting them die. I cant figure out which tang it is. Might be the chocolate. As she/he's biggest.

 

[Fishy888]

So far the nems are looking good.

I haven’t fed them directly yet. I’ll try that Friday or Saturday. In the meantime they’re getting whatever they can catch when I broadcast feed.

The fish and inverts are good and healthy.

I need to clean the back panel. The water isn’t quite as yellow as it looks. While I still want to get an ozone generator, I want to try getting some 1 micron socks. I’d think they’d help take out at least some of the yellowing. In the meantime I hope to do my weekly 10% water change tonight.

 

[Fishy888]

Tonight I saw something I always wanted to see but I never thought I would. It turns out that my powder blue has been seeking the cleaning services of my fire shrimp!

The fire shrimp is usually hidden, even at night. Since I rearranged the rock I noticed he’ll peek out from a cave entrance even by day sometimes but especially in the evening and the early overnight hours. Tonight was the first time I’ve seen this behavior in any tanks I’ve ever owned!

Things are stabilizing and coralline is gaining a good foothold although it’s still outnumbered by the hair algae. The fact that there’s as much coralline is there is helps confirm that. I see new spots almost daily, as well as old growth expanding and laying down new calcium carbonate. The snails, of which I’m adding another two today, are doing a pretty good job keeping the GHA at bay but I feel that two more will help.

It’s quite possible that with my water chemistry stabilizing that the shrimp feels comfortable setting up a cleaning station. It could also be that the powder blue was already getting cleaned inside that cave hidden from view. It could even be both! I’m just excited to have witnessed this in my system!

The cleaning session lasted perhaps 5 seconds but it was still amazing to watch. I wonder, if I get another whether the original one will train the new one so to speak? I know this though. My next “fish” will likely be a second fire shrimp!

There’s something else I saw which I knew was a distinct possibility. I’ll have to deal with it before it gets out of hand. My seemingly slow growing aiptasia were three a few days ago and are now six! I’m going to try and find some pickling lime although almost no one around here carries it anymore. Either that or I’ll have to order kalkwasser online. I’d prefer the pickling lime route because I wouldn’t have to wait for it to come via the slow boat! I could also try peppermint shrimp. The bogessi are the peppermint shrimp that actually eat aiptasia reliably, not wurdemanni. The problem with that is that sooner or later they’ll become someone’s snack. The coral banded shrimp come to mind as does the fire shrimp. It’s the former I’m more concerned about.

If only aiptasia weren’t bent on world domination. I’d love to keep some seeing how beautiful they are! I can’t risk it in a tank that will have acropora, clams, etc in it though. My RBTAs won’t fair well with aiptasia in there either.

Speaking of the nems, they got their first meal Wednesday night. They gobbled it up. I gave them very small portions to see how they’d do. They did great with it. After they ate they were all bubbles! I gave them both another small piece of food each late last night and they took it like they never ate before. Again they were all bubbles after they ate. I won’t feed them today but Saturday night I’ll give them slightly larger portions. I don’t want to overdo it though. I’m going to start feeding them twice a week. Saturdays and Wednesdays.

My fish are all good and healthy. Sapphire, aka Dory, is growing quickly. I’m certain she’s grown half an inch already! She loves caulerpa! In fact the only fish in the tank that I haven’t seen eating it are the sulfur damsel and the clownfish.

Soon I’ll have a cycled tank upstairs which will be used to grow macro algae for the tangs. I’m going to move my clownfish into it and get either tomato clownfish or maroon clownfish. I’m leaning toward maroon but I think tomato clowns would be cool too. The maroons will be easier to get but sometimes one LFS about 2 hours away gets them in. I like both kinds equally though.

 

[Fishy888]

I added two more zebra turbo snails Friday afternoon and they’re doing great so far. All six turbos are doing well, and the reef looks awesome!

Looking at images of my reef you can see more of where I’m going with the biome type. I find patch reefs quite interesting and it can be argued that there’s more biodiversity in and around patch reefs than on the larger reefs. I’m not sure if there’s a type of ornamental macro algae that tangs won’t decimate but I’m seriously considering adding some if there is. If not it’s not a big loss.

Many of the creatures I find most fascinating live in lagoons, in and around patch reefs. I want a richly biodiverse reef, meaning not just corals but sand dwelling feather dusters, clams, sponges, etc. I love porites and brain corals, and tabling acropora. Montipora is another favorite of mine. All these and many other animals live and thrive in patch reefs. Of course, so do host anemones and their associated clownfish.

As my reef starts becoming more hard coral dominated I’ll remove some of the rock from the display tank. I’m definitely adding brain and Christmas tree worm rocks (porites) to my reef. They go on the sand so I can take rocks corresponding to the size of the sand dwelling colonies and add them to the sump. The rock wouldn’t be leaving the system, just going from the DT to the sump.

I know, I’m borderline obsessed with having coralline but it just has so many benefits that I can’t imagine having a reef tank without it! In order to encourage it to grow, I’m employing the same method I used to encourage the GHA to outcompete the dinos and cyano I had. The difference is that going from GHA dominated rock to coralline dominated rock is slower and requires more attention.

Of course, most reefers know to get enough cleanup crew to keep the GHA mowed down. This not only makes the GHA more manageable, it makes it easier for coralline to colonize. I’ve been adding CUC lately to replace the hermit crabs that have died.

This time around I’m going snail heavy. I have six Mexican and zebra turbos, a couple of Trochus snails, and three conchs. I’ve done my best to make sure the snails I got had as much coralline on their shells as possible. Admittedly it helps that I have a bunch of collenista snails, some with coralline as well. Not only will my CUC keep the GHA under control, they’ll also spread coralline spores.

It seems like it’s working. It’s still a slow process, and if you look at the reef, it’s still very much dominated by GHA but every few days I find new spots of coralline on the rocks. It’s easy to notice right now because there’s so much GHA. The pinkish purple dots stand out on the dark green background. Older coralline growth is expanding as well. Slowly but surely the balance is shifting towards favoring hard coral growth and away from algae world domination.

 

[Fishy888]

I should’ve seen it coming but I didn’t. The smallest of my Mexican turbo snails got itself wedged in the drain line. I was more worried about it being my nems. Tomorrow I’ll get the parts I need to make a snail/nem guard.

I suddenly heard this slurping sound coming from the drain line. Sure enough a snail made its way in. I managed to quickly shut off the return pump. Then I tried to move the snail. It let go and fell to the bottom of the first 90 degree bend. It made a hollow thud because it was blocking flow before it fell and the water quickly pushed it down. I was hoping it made it into the filter sock but unfortunately it hasn’t. I’m going to buy a couple of caps tomorrow. One for the nem guard and one to completely block the flow of water so I can dismantle the drain line and rescue the snail.

I think it’s still alive but it might not be. After all it fell two feet through air. Then again if the snail was dead I’d think the rushing water would have jammed it into another bottleneck or it would have been pushed all the way out. I’m glad I took the night off. I can only hope the snail is still alive and that I can get it out soon. Thankfully the big box stores open in 6 hours give or take.

 

[Fishy888]

So far the snail hasn’t come out of the drain. I’m taking that as a sign of hope at this point. If the snail was dead I would expect it to have come out of the drain and into the sump or to have wedged in one of the 90 degree bends such that flow would be blocked. Flow is normal, so much so that if I hadn’t seen the snail enter the drain line I wouldn’t have noticed a difference, at least not until I went to count the snails.

Hopefully in a few hours I’ll be able to cap the drain and take the plumbing apart. I didn’t have the funds to add unions to the plumbing when I plumbed the sump but I made a way nonetheless to get the plumbing apart in case of emergency.

 

[Fishy888]

Success! The snail is alive and well. I took apart the drain line. Within about 30 seconds the snail detached from the pipe and came out the rest of the way. It closed its operculum and I put it back in the DT. Whew! Now that that’s done my anxiety level is going down!

Of course I turned the pumps off so the drain line would, well, drain. Since the water was calm I was able to peer down at the RBTAs and they look happy. One gaped for a second but it quickly closed its mouth. They’re happy as clams now that the flow is back on. I’m glad they look as good as they do.

Thankfully all fish and inverts are still doing well. It took about an hour give or take but I’ve had the flow off longer than that before.

Just know, this is never happening again! No more free rides down the drain. This ends now!

 

[Fishy888]

So I tested my water today. My nitrates are still >75 ppm. The red color of the test cuvette is not as bad as at a point.

My phosphates are at 0.224 ppm. They’ve come up a tad.

In an attempt to stabilize pH I’ve been running my fuge light at night and keeping it off during the day. I originally had it on 24/7. There isn’t as much growth of chaeto and caulerpa as there was but it’s not significantly less.

There’s less GHA with the snails but coralline is still growing. Just a little slower than before but it’s still growing at a noticeable clip. I haven’t changed anything else so I’m going to try extending the hours the lights are on a couple of hours earlier and a couple hours later to see if more phosphate gets taken up. There are plenty of nitrates so more macro growth should keep the phosphate level in check.