Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

My replacement ozone generator has been ordered and gets here Saturday. I’m grateful I was able to order it before the water got more yellow.

I started carbon dosing a couple of days ago when I added the new sand. It’s definitely adding bacteria to the water column. My zoas are opening more. For a while there they weren’t opening so much.

For now I’m dosing a tablespoon of vinegar in the morning and one in the evening. I ran out of Hanna nitrate reagents so I ordered them today. They’ll be here tomorrow.

I know my nitrates are still high, especially since I’ve been feeling the reef four times a day. I need to get them down so the vinegar dosing will help with that. More importantly I want to give the bacteria in and on the Ocean Direct sand I just added a boost. The bacteria in the sand needs to grow fast enough that neither cyano or dinos can gain a foothold.

I have diatoms on the new sand currently. A few very small patches of cyano have also formed on the sand bed. They’ve been smaller than dime sized and I’ve turned the sand over in those spots. I expect to see diatoms where the cyano was.

As I mentioned, I’ve been feeding the fish and inverts heavily. Their appetites have markedly increased since I started with ozone, which is a good sign. In fact, I’ve been feeding about double what I was feeding before then. They’re growing at a good clip. All this makes me happy. I love seeing creatures under my care thriving and happy. I’ve started feeding the nems less however. I don’t want them to split constantly. I DO want them to thrive and grow.

I feed the reef small amounts of my DIY frozen food at a time (which I mix with nori) so I can make sure what I’m feeding gets eaten. Once I see the fish lose interest I stop feeding and whatever is left over goes in the fridge until the next feeding. Of course, some of the food escapes. The shrimp and possibly the nems grab it though so there’s no waste.

 

[Fishy888]

The new ozone generator arrived. I was all excited. When I plugged it in and attached the airline tubing between the air pump and ozone generator I couldn't smell ozone!

I also noticed that no air was coming from the generator. The air pump I'm using has dual air outputs. It turns out the output I was using died. The other side is still working perfectly. After switching to the good air outlet there was ozone!

It was then that I plugged in the old ozone generator. It too is producing ozone now.

Note to self (and to anyone reading this):
If your ozone generator isn't working check to make sure it isn't because your air pump stopped working. Don't just assume it's the ozone generator.

I'm actually glad it's working. I'll either run both at half power or run just the one at full power. If I run both at half power, they'll likely work much longer than they would at full power. I'd have to drill a hole in the skimmer neck in order to be able to run both generators at the same time.

I'm just relieved that there's ozone again! It's not only good for the clarity of the water but the oxygen that would be consumed to oxygenate the DOCs can now go to the animals. If you've always had yellow water and you try ozone, you'll see a big difference in how active they get.

 

[Fishy888]

The new ozone generator is working like a champ. Since it hasn’t been super long since the system was without ozone I didn’t ramp up slowly. I set it to dose 100 mg/hr initially. The water became crystal clear last night so I turned it down to 90 mg/hr and the water’s still clear.

The anemones that split continue to stay together. They’re both growing rapidly. In fact they’re about the size of the parent anemone now. It’s easier to see all four through the front acrylic pane. From my seat I can see all four but I only see the tips of the splits.

My fish are quite active and have great appetites. They seem quite content. Sapphire the hippo tang (A.K.A. Dory) continues to grow rapidly. I’ve been adding Nori in with the frozen DIY mix when I feed the system. The fish get Caulerpa too.

The three shrimp are looking good too. All snails, conchs included, are all accounted for.

I thank the Lord for letting me have this small slice of the ocean in our living room. He made everything in there and keeps it going. Sure I do the maintenance, decorating and such but Jesus does the rest.

This reef gives me tremendous joy. Even when everything else looks bleak, I can look at the reef and see the hand of the Lord in it, and in my life too. To Him be the glory!

 

[Fishy888]

Some quick test results.

ALK - 7.9 dKh (Salifert)
CAL - 475 ppm (Salifert)
NO3 - 68.5 ppm (Hanna)
PO4 - 0.205 ppm (Hanna)

The carbon dosing is helping. There’s almost a seven ppm improvement in nitrates. Phosphates are ok where they are for now but I don’t want them any higher. My ALK needs to be right around where it is now.

 

[Fishy888]

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I have 4 Aiptasia anemones which have been with me for about a year now. In all this time only two of them split, and one of those was eradicated due to it stinging some Zoanthids.

My system has had fairly low phosphates for a long time. As long as the Aiptasia aren’t catching too much food they seem to be fairly steady state.

My phosphates have recently increased though. Part of that is because I haven’t been diligent about changing my filter sock out. The other part is because my growing fishes have bigger appetites than they did a few months ago. My Aiptasia anemones have grown a bit during the last 3 months.

It’s likely my Aips haven’t spread because phosphates have stayed down for the most part. It’s also possible that I have an Aiptasia species that doesn’t spread as easily. There are many Aiptasia species; I thought I once read that there are over 1000 of them!

Two of them are still small although they too have grown. The two big ones are on opposite sides of the tank. One has a quarter sized oral disk and the other one has a half dollar sized oral disk. Surprisingly that nem hasn’t split yet. Should they start getting out of control I have Aiptasia X waiting.

 

[tbrown]

I found boiling water from a syringe blasted straight at their mouth (doesn't even have to be in their mouth) worked more effectively than Aiptasia-X and Kalk Paste.

 

[Fishy888]

I did my testing for today.

ALK - 10.35 dKh
NO3 - 65.7 ppm
PO4 - 0.193 ppm

Methinks the carbon dosing is working. NO3 is coming down at a steady rate. My zoas are happy as clams with the added food source. I'm sure the soft corals are loving it too. Even PO4 has come down a bit.

The ALK I'm not sure about. It was 7.9 a few days ago. I dosed some to bring it up a hair but I didn't dose THAT much! Then again I've been known to make a boneheaded move or twenty in my reefing career so I'll double check my numbers.

I also got some quick maintenance done. The acrylic is clean now. The filter sock has been changed. I turned over some of the sand bed where some cyano was trying to regain a foothold. Everything looks pretty good.

My four RBTAs are looking really good. I did something crazy and fed one of my aiptasia some nori just to see what it would do. I don't think it liked it very much.

I can't believe how fast my fish have grown. My two sergeant major damsels particularly have grown massively. One is now bigger than my powder blue. The other one is right behind. The powder blue has also grown some since I got him. The Hippatus tang is growing rapidly. She's almost double the size she was when I got her. The sulfur damsel is growing too albeit more slowly. Really the only fish that aren't growing to speak of are the clownfish.

All three shrimp are doing well. The snails are doing their thing as always. It's a great day at Perseverance Reef!

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Hey there…

It makes me happy to log in after a few years and see that the Perseverance Reef is still persevering!

 

[Fishy888]

Hey there…

It makes me happy to log in after a few years and see that the Perseverance Reef is still persevering!

It's good to see you again! It has been a while. How are you doing?

 

[That Crusso Kid]

It's good to see you again! It has been a while. How are you doing?

I am doing well or, at least, well enough to have sufficient memory recall about friends from here and how I kind of pulled a Houdini (disappeared). So, I do owe an apology about that. (Ssshhhhh… don’t go telling everyone that I’m over here apologizing. It’ll ruin my rep.)

 

[Fishy888]

I am doing well or, at least, well enough to have sufficient memory recall about friends from here and how I kind of pulled a Houdini (disappeared). So, I do owe an apology about that. (Ssshhhhh… don’t go telling everyone that I’m over here apologizing. It’ll ruin my rep.)

Nah, no ruined rep. I was also in and out for a while. Life went crazy for a while there. It's great to see you back!

 

[Fishy888]

Earlier today I went window shopping at a LFS where they had a bleached LTA for $60. There’s a side of me that wants to rescue it.

While there’s an area with the appropriate sand depth in my reef I don’t think it would work. I’ll finally be getting some gold stripe maroon clownfish in another week or two. Between that and having BTAs I just don’t think it’s feasible.

My nems are growing fast. The largest one has a 2 inch oral disk. It’s grown by 50% in the 3 months I’ve had it. The clowns I’m getting are about an inch long. I don’t think they’ll wear the nems out at that size.

I’m getting them from Biota. I’ll likely buy some yellow tangs from them eventually should the maroon clowns do well. I’ll also be getting a jewel urchin from them.

 

[Fishy888]

I just did a quick check of my nitrates. They're 56.4 ppm now. Once I get to 20 ppm I'm going to ramp down slowly until I hit about 10 ppm. At that point I'll dose enough to maintain nitrates in a comfortable range and to feed my softies.

I'm pretty sure that at one point I had around 100 ppm of nitrates. They're half that now. While I could have done a massive water change to bring them down it would have been a waste because other than the high nitrates the water is good. I typically do a 30 or 40 gallon water change every other week. Plus bringing nitrates, or any other parameter, down to quickly is asking for trouble.

Carbon dosing is working so well that, despite the fact that I'm feeding more nori and frozen food than I've ever fed my system, my nitrates have improved by 9.3 ppm over the last week!

 

[Fishy888]

I got a gold rim tang tonight and a bubblegum digitata (I believe that's the name). It wasn't something I expected but the opportunity and the means to get them came about fairly quickly.

As I was acclimating the new guy, I rearranged the rocks. Now gold rim tangs are also called powder blacks. My powder blue is definitely the boss of the tank and, being conspecifics to a point, there was some aggression. At the peak of the bullying tonight the powder blue nipped the dorsal and tail fins.

The powder blue chased the powder black for a good half hour once I let it out of the bag. After the half hour the chasing stopped, only to be resumed about 10 minutes later. The chasing only lasted 5 minutes give or take, then stopped again for about 10 or 15 minutes. He did this with my hippo tang too, pinning her in a corner that first night. By the next day however he was swimming with her like nothing ever happened.

Even though there was nipping and chasing, no blood was drawn thankfully. I think the powder blue wants to make sure the new guy know's who's the boss of the reef. It'll probably take a couple days, maybe more, but I believe they'll get along better. If things look like things are going to go south, the powder blue will get sumped until the powder black gets better acclimated and stronger.

The gold rim tang is smaller than the powder blue so I think that might keep the aggression down. Also the fact that gold rims have a primarily black body (at least when not stressed) will help keep the aggression down hopefully.

The bubblegum digi is a beautiful red color. I'm going to slowly acclimate the digi to higher PAR. The last Montiporas I tried in this system got burned because of the PAR being so high, even on the bottom. I've since raised the lights much higher and the digi is on a frag plug that I placed in the sand in a shady place. It's got awesome PE, likely because of my carbon dosing. I'm not complaining! I am excited to see the digi eventually go from a frag to a nice, branching colony.

Speaking of carbon dosing, I've been finding a bacteria of some kind that makes mats that have the consistency of GSP mats, and not the stringy cyano mats. It's a very dark green to black color and looks oily. I don't mind dealing with it since my nitrates are coming down nicely.

Later today I'll post some images of the tang and the digi.

 

[Fishy888]

The new guy is hanging in there. He has more of the black color in his body now. The powder blue isn’t chasing the powder black now. The powder black is staying in the corner the clownfish occupy. When he tries to swim away from that area the powder blue keeps him in check. He did the same thing to my hippo tang when I added her and that worked out great in the end. I’m pretty sure it will be the same for the gold rim tang (A.K.A. powder black).

The digi looks awesome. Excellent polyp extension still. I’ll post images of everything soon.

 

[Fishy888]

Sadly things didn’t exactly work out as planned exactly. I was foolish for even trying this. My gold rim is dead. My powder blue killed it.

It wasn’t immediate either. In fact the day after I added the gold rim, the powder blue wasn’t constantly chasing him like the night before. The problem was that the powder blue was keeping the gold rim in the corner where my clownfish stay. The clownfish were fine with it until they weren’t and the gold rim ventured out farther than the powder blue wanted. When the gold rim refused to go back in the corner they went behind the rocks. There, the powder blue took chunks out of his dorsal fin, tail fin, and half of his right pectoral fin. It happened in the blink of an eye.

I knew the risk deep down but pride and temptation got the best of me. I have had a lot of success with this system including how well the process of introducing my hippo tang went despite the powder blue being there first.

Some good came out of all of this however. I rearranged the rock and it looks great. Plus I did get my bubble gum digi which is doing great so far.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I almost felt like quitting over this. That fish didn’t have to die. I should never have tried it, but lesson learned. I’ll never do that again!

There are still some great things coming though. Despite the carnage, the reef is doing great. Nitrates are dropping (and tomorrow I’ll be testing nitrates again). The fish, nems, and other invertebrates are doing quite well. Plus, in the beginning of October I’ll be ordering two gold striped maroon clowns. They’re still juvies, with white stripes which will get their gold coloring as the clowns mature. I’ll be getting a jewel urchin as well. I’m getting them through Biota.

As I always tell everyone who watches my channel, When I do something good, I’ll post the results. When I do something stupid, I’ll post that too. I shot the video on this but I haven’t edited it yet. That’ll come out on Sunday or sometime next week.

 

[Fishy888]

So far my digitata (which I don’t think is actually a bubblegum “digi”) is doing nicely. It’s still the same color as when I got it. The coenchyme (flesh) is pretty much the same color as the polyps, which are the same copper/rose color as my RBTA’s tentacles.

The similar polyp and coenchyme colors make me think this coral isn’t M. samarensis (I.E. bubblegum “digitata”) but that it’s actually a true M. digitata. Once it colors up some I’ll know for sure. If it really is M. Samarensis it’ll have a green coenchyme and red polyps.

Either way, it’s doing great so far. I’ve glued it to a rock and moved it to the opposite side of the tank, with similar flow and lighting.

Speaking of lighting I’m going to make my halides adjustable. My reasoning is that I don’t want to move the digi up so high that it wouldn’t have room to grow. It likely will need more light than it’s getting right now.

Since I also want Acros and clams, I’ll need the PAR. I don’t think I’ll have to drop the lights down super far to get the 500ish PAR I’d need (assuming I need to at all). If my digitata colors up in the next couple of months I should be fine to leave things alone. If it stays brownish then I’ll definitely need an increase in PAR.

Dropping the lights another 6 inches would make a difference for certain. If I drop them a foot I’ll likely be able to have Acros down to the sand bed. Since I also want my Montis I’ll have to keep them somewhat shaded in the event that I drop the lights down that far.

 

[tbrown]

Pictures?

 

[Fishy888]

Pictures?

I’ll get a picture tomorrow when the lights are on. So far so good though.

 

[Fishy888]

I decided to wait on the maroons for now. I’m still a little gun shy after what happened with the gold rim. Besides, there are other things the reef needs right now.

Besides, I want to get everything I need for when I get some frags I’m expecting. I have to have enough glue and rubble clean and ready to go. I also need to make my lights adjustable. Hopefully tomorrow I can work on that depending on if I have the wood I need to get it done.

I’m going to buy some salt though and maybe look at our LFS in town. I’d love a Hawaiian feather duster or two.

It’s time for a decent water change. I’m probably going to do a 50% change give or take. It’ll pull the bacteria and the nitrates they’ve consumed out. I don’t want to have a big swing though so I’ll be testing nitrates just before the first bucket of new saltwater enters the system. It’ll be next week before I get the salt though. In the meantime I’ll see how my nitrates look tomorrow along with phosphates.

As for this guy….. I just realized I already had a picture so I guess I don’t have to wait until tomorrow to post it.

It’s adjusting to the new spot. It’s in a little more light than it’s been in. I moved it there a few days ago so it’s still adjusting. It’s polyps aren’t as open as they were but given time they’ll be back to normal.