Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

I finally got my water change out of the way, at least for the most part. I took 40 gallons out instead of the 32 I originally planned on so I need to add another 8 gallons of new saltwater. Tomorrow I’ll take care of that.

I stirred up the tank really well before I took the old water out. Even though there’s still so much to do, it’s nice seeing the tank look brighter, cleaner and clearer.

I’m going to add more rock to the center and left hand side of the DT tomorrow. If I have time I’ll also scrub some rocks. I want to get an urchin or two soon but I also want everything to stabilize first so I’m hoping in March to pull the trigger on a couple of urchins. Until then manual algae removal is my best friend.

This is how much more crud the skimmer has taken out of the water in the last 48 hours. About 2/3 of it is from the last 24 hours though.

I churned up the sand and blew more crud off the rocks. I’ll keep doing this daily until I get more flow lower in the tank. Hopefully that will keep the detritus, uneaten food, etc suspended until the skimmer can pull it out.

Dory’s doing great. I fed the fish not too long before I took this image of her.

Here’s Turkey, who’s not being too much of a turkey so far. He’s doing great too as are the rest of the fish and inverts. In this image he’s trying to blow pods and other potential food items off the rocks. As quickly as he banks while swimming and rights himself it’s a miracle I got this image.

It’s been a while since I posted pics of the sticks.

They’ve grown quite a bit. The purple digi has yellow brown polyps now. The tissue itself is still purple though.

This is my cabbage leather. I’ve had it for almost 2 years now. It started out as 2 “leaves”.

Here’s my duncans. They’re doing really well too.

This is my Kenya tree. It’s grown nicely too.

This last image is of my devil’s hand. I’ve had it for about a month or so.

 

[Fishy888]

Aaaannnnndddd THIS is why you’re supposed to wear gloves when working in the tank…. Silly James.

Yes, I’m still glad to have the little boogers.

 

[Fishy888]

So I made progress with the aquascape but I have more rock to add tomorrow.

The water is still cloudy but the skimmer’s on top of it. Plus tomorrow I get my CaCO3 powder. This will be a huge help.

Even with the water being cloudy it looks cleaner and brighter in person than the image shows. Hopefully it’ll look even brighter still as the flocculant does its work.

Well it’s that time again. It’s time to make some DIY frozen food. I picked up some of the ingredients today. There are still quite a few to get though. I got smelt, whole calamari (tubes and tentacles as the package says), whole tilapia (yes I know it’s a freshwater fish but the nutrition from the “guts” is important) and pacific oysters.

I’ve already got nori. I’ve also got some earthworms which I caught myself where no pesticides have been used in several years.

I still need to get shrimp, scallops, whiting, cod, tuna, salmon and ocean perch. I might add clams on the half shell too. I’m going to get peas, broccoli and garlic as well. I’d like to add Real Oceanic Eggs and perhaps some frozen mysis and krill but I have to mind the ol’ budget. Either way my goal is to improve my DIY frozen blend nutrition wise and to make my fish and corals enjoy it more.

 

[fishguy242]

you forgot Dr pepper ,steak n bacon!!...

 

[Fishy888]

you forgot Dr pepper ,steak n bacon!!...

Nah. The Dr. Pepper, steak, and bacon are for me. I’d share with you though.

 

[Mschmidt]

I really enjoyed the look on the persons face when I asked for 3 each shrimp and one scallop. "How do I charge this? It weighs nothing!"

 

[tbrown]

I really enjoyed the look on the persons face when I asked for 3 each shrimp and one scallop. "How do I charge this? It weighs nothing!"

Free?

 

[tbrown]

Restaurants have no problem charging for 3 shrimp and 1 scallop.

 

[Projects with Sam]

 

[Fishy888]

The water cleared out but it’s cloudy once again. This time it’s because of flocculant. Yup, my CaCO3 arrived today, and in one piece this time.

I dropped 3 tbsp worth in. As yellow as my water is, I want to make sure I get it all out. Since it’s harmless to the animals, this is one of the few cases where overkill is better than underkill, at least in reefing. I turned the skimmer off to give the flocculant a couple of hours to bind as much of the yellowing compounds and other debris as possible. The CaCO3 powder has been in the system for 45 minutes now so at 1:15 I’ll start up the skimmer again. I don’t know how long it’ll take to skim out the flocculant but I can’t wait to see the results.

 

[Mschmidt]

Free?

Sadly not. 25 cents though.

 

[Fishy888]

Sadly not. 25 cents though.

Better than what the aforementioned restaurants charge.

 

[Mschmidt]

Better than what the aforementioned restaurants charge.

Oh that's for sure. But I'm also not then paying a teenager to not wash my spoon.

I say that having been the teenager not washing spoons.

 

[Fishy888]

The flocculant is doing its job.

Before I started the flocculant.

This is from this morning.

Obviously I need a bit more as there’s still some yellow but it’s much better than it was. I just wish you could see the difference in the images that can be seen in person. I’ll be out of town until tonight so I won’t use the flocculant today. Hopefully the skimmer will get the rest of the cloudiness gone. The fish and corals probably want me to wait as well.

I might treat the tank one more time with the flocculant tomorrow but after that I’ll be going to a once a week schedule. It took more of the powder than I expected but it looks like I did a 50% water change. The lights are much brighter looking in the water column.

The fish are out and about and seem happier. I wonder how many potential irritants the flocculant removed along with the yellowing compounds.

The skimmer is performing quite well. It’s hard to see in the image but the skimmate is a greenish brown color. That’s the flocculant working.

The flocculant is doing wonderfully but it’s NOT a substitute for water changes. Water changes take out potentially harmful bacteria and toxins. Water changes also take out potentially excess elements we can’t test for and /or replenishes them. I am considering doing the moonshiners method but even then I’d do at least some water changes.

 

[Fishy888]

I made my DIY frozen mix tonight. Just as I was about to open the package with the yellow fin tuna, I realized I messed up. I didn’t notice that it was treated with “filtered smoke”. I’ll exchange it for tuna that hasn’t been smoked. I’m just glad I noticed it before I used it in the mix.

The tilapia will need to thaw out in the fridge overnight. Ditto for the oysters which were in water. Tomorrow I’ll get them in the blender. I need to clean the earthworms too before I mix them in.

I have a few more ingredients to buy but I’ll probably make a separate blend of those once I get them.

 

[Fishy888]

The flocculant has done amazingly well. The water is much less yellow than it was but it could be improved upon still. I just ordered some 200 micron felt filter socks. Hopefully that’ll polish the water the rest of the way.

I tested CAL and MAG this afternoon (Salifert for both). CAL is >= 500 ppm and MAG is >= 1500. My salinity tests at 1.027 but with such high readings I suspect my salinity is higher than normal. I’ll have to retest it.

I got two more hermit crabs tonight. They’re both small.

So far so good. Hopefully they’ll eat some algae and they’ll thrive. I need to get some shells for them soon.

I’ve stepped up my feedings since making the DIY frozen food. My softies are veritable nitrate scrubbers. Hopefully the extra feedings will let me have some nitrates.

Last night I found a trochus snail that survived. I thought I lost them all. The lone survivor is in the sump where it has plenty of cyano and algae to munch on.

 

[Fishy888]

Although my filter socks got stuck in transit, yesterday, they should make it here today. I ordered six of them. That should give me a week or two hopefully between washes. I’ll order more in a month or two.

I consolidated the banks of outlets from my old 90 gallon cube over the weekend. They’re on one board now. I wired the first bank up, which is on a timer. The second bank is not on a timer and is meant for the pumps.

Both banks have switches and separate cords so they can be plugged into different outlets. Each outlet is on a 10 amp breaker which means I’m more than good to go especially since I also use those outlets for tools or appliances like the vacuum cleaner.

I mounted the MH ballasts on another piece of wood. That will be attached to the piece of wood with the outlets. When all is said and done (and when I get more wood) the “electrical tower” will resemble a pillar and be on wheels. The other two sides will hold monitoring equipment.

I chose not to mount the outlets and ballasts to the stand like I’ve done in the past. I don’t want to risk having a leak drip into the outlets should one ever occur. This design lets me keep my monitoring equipment at a height where I can read it easily.

I also cut the wood to frame the doors for the stand. I partially assembled one door last night. Later today I’ll finish assembling it and start on the second one.

All my fish are doing well. My corals and inverts are doing well too for the most part. The reverse Superman monti is struggling but hopefully it will turn back around soon.

Today I’m going to get the veggie blend made today. I’m using turnip greens, kale, carrots, fresh garlic, broccoli and nori. Eventually I’ll add other veggies too, hopefully other colors of nori, perhaps other types of macro algae.

 

[Fishy888]

The socks made it here today and I’ve put them to work. Well, I put two of them to work. They’re definitely catching stuff but I’m eventually going to get some 50 micron socks to run once in a while to improve water clarity. I’m going to get 100 micron socks too.

Of course the skimmer along with the filter socks should do quite a bit for water quality and clarity. Even though things aren’t where I hoped they’d be entirely, there are some great things happening now. Coralline is making a comeback now in a few places.

My fish and corals are doing alright. Even the reverse Superman looks a little better.

 

[Fishy888]

Today’s been a busy day at Perseverance Reef. It started with me seeing water on the floor and a bulkhead leaking. Water was trickling out but when I went to tighten it I noticed it was quite loose. Thank God the leak wasn’t massive because it easily could have been. I tightened it good though and I’ll periodically check the bulkheads from time to time to make sure they’re still tight. That’ll be even more important when the closed loop comes online.

I’ve been deep cleaning the rocks and sand last like crazy, trying to keep it up in the water column until the filter socks could pull it out. I replaced one of the socks tonight because it was overflowing. That was between 7 and 8 last night. As of midnight this morning the second one is clogged already. Two of the three drains run into that sock though so that’s part of the reason. I’ll replace it in the morning. The sock on the first drain will probably start overflowing today or tomorrow. I’m using 200 micron socks.

My goal is to get as much of the crud in the sand one off the rocks as I can. Once I get the DT clean enough that 200 micron socks aren’t picking up much I’m going to move on to running one 50 micron sock and one 200 until my water is clear as a bell. Then I’ll go back to running two 200 micron socks like normal.

My skimmer pump stopped working about 3 days ago. I messaged the seller because the ceramic rod broke. They sent me a new impeller and I put it in. As soon as I started it it immediately started producing what looked like meringue. It was white in the collection cup with super fine bubbles. As more accumulated in the cup it had a green tinge to it. Still I wonder if perhaps the socks had some sort of residue in them. That might explain the issue with the digis as well.

I also realize that I’m totally throwing stability out of whack but this had to happen sooner or later and now that I have better equipment than I had last year, it’s time to get this show on the road. They might not thank me quite yet but my fish and inverts, especially my corals, will thank me when my system stabilizes at much better levels than before.

Here’s a picture from before I started my deep cleaning, which I’d say I am nearly halfway through so far.

Here’s a picture from last night.

The water is still cloudy from me churning up the mulm in and on the sand and off the rocks.

I didn’t get to test nitrates yet today but I’ve been feeding heavier even as I’ve been deep cleaning the DT. I’m seeing signs that it’s paying off in terms of nitrates. I’m seeing a small resurgence of hair algae. I don’t mind it too much but I want it to stay manageable. Hopefully with less mulm clogging up pores in the rocks I can get good bacteria growing.

Wednesday night I made my veggie blend. It’s all veggies, no meat. The fish gobbled it up and the juices should feed my soft corals and break down relatively quickly into nitrates (and phosphates… ugghhh).

 

[Fishy888]

Here are some closeups of my corals. I didn’t take closeup pictures of the reverse Superman coral because it’s looking bad. It’s in one of the images though.

I’m hoping with the increased feedings that my nitrates will increase enough to help increase coral health. Right now I’m excited that I likely have a trace of nitrates.

Things are starting to get better, and not just how the reef looks. I’m excited for the changes that are occurring. Like I said in a recent post, my coralline is coming back.

There’s more on the back glass. Another reefing buddy is giving me some coralline shavings and possibly some blue mushrooms. He’s awesome too.

I’ve started seeing several asterina stars out on different occasions, and one of the two has been growing so as long as I can keep nitrates up but not to the point of ridiculousness I think great things will happen.

I’m hoping for a resurgence of micro life. Not the bad kind of course but the good guys, the kind that will help my micro brittle stars to come back and my asterinas to become more plentiful. Thankfully I have amphipods galore and I’m sure there are loads of copepods too.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that my water out of the DI resin reads 1 TDS. I’m replacing the sediment filter and the carbon block along with new resin. I’m buying the kit from BRS next week.

Hopefully I’ll also get a pressure gauge, another canister or two, and a booster pump by fall.

I’ll have to make more RO/DI today as well. I’m evaporating about 5 gallons a day right now, perhaps a little more. I have just enough RO/DI left to top off the system which also needs to happen today.