Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

Yes. In fact I'd like 2 mandarins or a mandarin and scooter blenny. That might be pushing it but I have boatloads of chaeto these days. I've intentionally left it to grow since I upgraded to the 75. Loads of pod real estate.

I'd say it's definitely doable in a 75. Maybe plan on setting up a pod farm and Phyto or plan on feeding pods frequently.

 

[tbrown]

Mandarins and dragonets can wipe out even a large tank without a very full refugium. I had a six-line starve in two weeks in my 75 because he ate all my pods in my 75.

 

[Fishy888]

Good point. I thought it might be a stretch, at least without buying tons of pods each month, to have 2 but a man can dream right? As much as I like scooter blennies the mandarin is my dragonette of choice. Before I go there I want much more rock so that even with the mandarin there will still be a self sustaining colony of pods.

 

[tbrown]

Rocks is the best plan! Especially if you have a refugium section you can fill with rubble. Chaeto is definitely a plus as well.

 

[Fishy888]

Tonight I was thinking about how grateful I am to have green film algae to scrape off the glass. It means no dinos any time soon. It also means my pods are starting to bloom.

Unfortunately aiptasia is rearing its head. I might need berghia at some point but at least for now I want to try super gluing them in place. I also discovered red bubble algae. I will soon remove it though it is sort of cool looking. Then again so is the aiptasia. At least, until it takes the tank over and chokes out my corals. I would rather deal with the bubble algae and aptaisia than dinos however.

My candy canes are looking a little better each day it seems. I tried to feed a head tonight and it held onto briefly. It will likely take some time before the candy canes redevelop their sweepers. The GSP were all out today. There are some new polyps trying to develop. Hopefully this means they'll take over the rock they're on soon.

 

[tbrown]

Tonight I was thinking about how grateful I am to have green film algae to scrape off the glass. It means no dinos any time soon. It also means my pods are starting to bloom.

Unfortunately aiptasia is rearing its head. I might need berghia at some point but at least for now I want to try super gluing them in place. I also discovered red bubble algae. I will soon remove it though it is sort of cool looking. Then again so is the aiptasia. At least, until it takes the tank over and chokes out my corals. I would rather deal with the bubble algae and aptaisia than dinos however.

My candy canes are looking a little better each day it seems. I tried to feed a head tonight and it held onto briefly. It will likely take some time before the candy canes redevelop their sweepers. The GSP were all out today. There are some new polyps trying to develop. Hopefully this means they'll take over the rock they're on soon.

I had one Peppermint Shrimp (I think he's still there) in my 75 and he rid my aiptasia over night. Berghia starve after they've finished cleaning the tank. Just another consideration.

 

[Fishy888]

Yeah I thought about the berghia starving. I'd have to go to the opposite extreme and encourage aiptasia. I will try the peppermint shrimp soon. I have been wanting some anyway for a while now.

 

[Fishy888]

So it looks like I have a ball anemone. I took a picture yesterday and one today after I fed it for the first time. I saw it open yesterday for the first time. Before that it looked like someone chopped a large aiptasia and left it's stump behind.

What is this?

My guess is that this is a coral of some sort. It looks like a zoanthid. At first I thought it might be an anemone however there's a bud on the stem. This is the first time I've seen it open since I got this particular rock. The tentacles are white currently but hopefully whatever this is can...

www.reef2reef.com

This is the thread where I got my ID. Here are the pictures. Note there's an aiptasia close by but it hasn't grown much since I've had this rock. The rock has been in my system about a month now. The first 2 pictures are from yesterday afternoon. The last 2 are from about 6:30 this evening after I fed it. Tomorrow I'll try to get a picture while it's eating. I wanted to make sure it would be able to hold its food and eat it completely since I fed it slightly too much. I think it's borderline so hopefully it'll digest its food ok. It will be fed less tomorrow.

If this actually turns out to be a genuine giant ball anemone I'll start a new tank for it. If it's a smaller ball anemone it should be ok according to my research thus far. Also people report that their smaller ball anemones hand out in caves and overhangs. Mine is about as much in the light as it can get. I read of a diver who always saw the giant ball anemones basking in the light. It will be interesting to see what it ends up being.

 

[tbrown]

So it looks like I have a ball anemone. I took a picture yesterday and one today after I fed it for the first time. I saw it open yesterday for the first time. Before that it looked like someone chopped a large aiptasia and left it's stump behind.

What is this?

My guess is that this is a coral of some sort. It looks like a zoanthid. At first I thought it might be an anemone however there's a bud on the stem. This is the first time I've seen it open since I got this particular rock. The tentacles are white currently but hopefully whatever this is can...

www.reef2reef.com

This is the thread where I got my ID. Here are the pictures. Note there's an aiptasia close by but it hasn't grown much since I've had this rock. The rock has been in my system about a month now. The first 2 pictures are from yesterday afternoon. The last 2 are from about 6:30 this evening after I fed it. Tomorrow I'll try to get a picture while it's eating. I wanted to make sure it would be able to hold its food and eat it completely since I fed it slightly too much. I think it's borderline so hopefully it'll digest its food ok. It will be fed less tomorrow.

If this actually turns out to be a genuine giant ball anemone I'll start a new tank for it. If it's a smaller ball anemone it should be ok according to my research thus far. Also people report that their smaller ball anemones hand out in caves and overhangs. Mine is about as much in the light as it can get. I read of a diver who always saw the giant ball anemones basking in the light. It will be interesting to see what it ends up being.

It's a good possibility! I love Strawberry/Ball Anemones in my sump. They can easily take over your tank, but after a while mine tended to stay in the sump or in the dark. They're pretty though.

 

[Fishy888]

I knew there was another "stump" like the 1 that grew into ball anemone number 1. Well that has opened up into ball anemone number 2. I believe there is 1 more but it's obscured with sand. I need to get that off the rock later.

It appears number 1 is ready for more food. I'll feed both of them today however. The fact that they're this close together makes me think they won't grow to gigantic proportions. I would love to see them reach ricordea size though.

 

[tbrown]

I knew there was another "stump" like the 1 that grew into ball anemone number 1. Well that has opened up into ball anemone number 2. I believe there is 1 more but it's obscured with sand. I need to get that off the rock later.

It appears number 1 is ready for more food. I'll feed both of them today however. The fact that they're this close together makes me think they won't grow to gigantic proportions. I would love to see them reach ricordea size though.

They stay tiny. Usually about 1/4" across max. They grow everywhere though - including on your glass eventually.

 

[Fishy888]

Today I got 2 peppermint shrimp. Not only are they healthy, they've been out eating algae ( and pods no doubt). Usually they dart for the rocks when first introduced. Tomorrow will reveal whether they hide like normal at first or if they stay out however.

My pod population is exploding now. I noticed the algae in the sump is thinning where the pods have been eating it. There are a ton in the DT also.

Tomorrow I'll be getting another bucket of reef crystals. Within the next few days I'll be doing a 25% water change. I'm hopefully going to get my water tested tomorrow by the LFS I got the shrimp from.

Admittedly I have been flying blind since I started this reef. Water changes have helped me immensely but now I have 2 stoney corals now. It's time to get actual parameters. For that matter it was time when I first started the reef. I just ordered the Salifert phosphate test kit which should be here by Tuesday. I should be able to get the nitrate test as well. I originally wanted to use Hanna checkers for N and P but I see mixed reviews on them. Considering the cost of Hanna checkers and the issues they have I decided to just use Salifert for all the tests I need. In addition to N and P I'm getting CAL, ALK, MAG, KH, Copper, and possibly trace elements. At 15 to 25 bucks a pop it's going to take a while to get all those but since I now know they do saltwater testing I'm going to rely on them until I can test for everything they test for.

I took a picture of the shrimp. The lights went off about an hour ago and they left the corner they were in. I assume they're in the rocks now.

 

[tbrown]

Hopefully they start knocking down the aiptasia tonight. Mine took a couple of days for them to touch it but then all 3 that were visible disappeared completely overnight and haven't reappeared.

 

[Fishy888]

Well step 1 of tank maintenance day is done. I cleaned the sponges in the overflow and adjusted the flow slightly higher through the return line. I also got the salt today so I will get step 2 done soon too. That would be the water change.

Well I got the water test done. They did PH, NH3, NO3, and NO2. I assume they used API since that's what's in the master test kit. Sooooo.....

NH3: slightly elevated. I know it might be the typical issues with the API ammonia test but it may have spiked because I stirred the sump up last night while topping off and adjusting flow. The siphon broke in the overflow. No water was spilled and I have that issue resolved. Anyway moving on....

NO2: 0

NO3: 0

PH: 8.3

I had my suspicions that N was crashing. I noticed the algae on the glass in the sump has been thinning out too fast for the amount of pods I have in the sump. The chaeto hasn't been growing much lately though it looks and feels quite healthy. As a result I just dumped a decent amount of frozen food in there. I had been feeding heavily up until about a week ago. I still feed a decent amount but I am worried about P being high. I'll know soon enough. I am happy otherwise with the numbers.

About that overflow....

It's certainly NOT 1200 GPH. I am thinking 1000 MAYBE. I HATE false, inflated stats. That said though I am partly to blame for the issues I have had with it. I hadn't cleaned the sponges in a good 2 weeks. Since I feed copious amounts normally, so much that my wife said, "It looks like a snow globe in there. If this was a freshwater tank that would be very bad", those sponges were clogged so flow through them was impeded. That does tend to break siphons. Still, if I turn the flow all the way up in the return line, even with a perfect siphon the overflow just can't keep up. There's no way that thing is 1200 GPH.

If I could safely and realistically move the tank out I would try to get it drilled. That or upgrade to a reef ready 90 or 120. I really would like to have this one drilled though. I have heard of people draining their displays halfway and drilling them but that idea scares me. We all know there's a good chance, maybe a 50/50 chance, that the tank cracks. I also worry that glass shards might fall into the tank. I'll look into it though as it's much safer than U-tubes.

So the shrimp ate both of my prominent aiptasias overnight. Both were on opposite sides of the DT. These guys rock! I just hope if more ever pop up that they'll eat them too. Since I feed flake and frozen they might never eat another aiptasia lol. Hopefully the aiptasias never return either way. BTW these shrimp are Lysmata Boggessi and not Lysmata Wurdemanni. They did wonders overnight. I will get more in here for sure down the road.

Edit:

I forgot to add that my salinity was tested at 1.027

 

[Fishy888]

I decided to postpone the water change until today. I added the last of the sand to the system. It was primarily added to areas in the rockwork that was bare bottom. I also added some in areas along the edges and filled in areas in the center where the sand was thinner. All together I likely added a half gallon of new sand to the DT. It shouldn't destabilize the system though. Most of it was added to the areas that had no sand at all.

 

[Fishy888]

Tonight I got the water change done. I also fixed an issue with the return line. I cut the pipe down a bit where the tee holding the loc line connects to the return line. Now the nozzles are at a proper height.

I finally glued my GSP to the rock it's on. I did get glue on a couple of polyps but that shouldn't hurt toohings. Hopefully now the mat will grow over the rock and actually attach itself as it grows. I'll be watching it though.

The candy cane coral has a few strings of hair algae growing on it. I pulled it gently off. Looking at it closely I can truly say it has come a long way since I peroxide dipped it, mainly to get rid of the tons of hair algae that was growing on it. At that point I wasn't even sure if it would survive. Now it is regaining flesh. Several polyps actually have all their flesh and have been opening nicely.

The shrimp have been doing well. I haven't looked for them tonight but they were out last night. My clowns decided to excavate some of the sand out from between the rocks. The cabbage leather was the recipient of the "excess" sand. It took it in stride though. It was wide open, sand and all.

Last night I got the heaters turned down. The system was running at 84. It had been for at least a month. I thought about leaving it at that temperature since many diseases and things like dinos don't do so well above 80. I was reading an article though that warned that at 85 the oxygen depletes fairly rapidly. I don't need that. Plus I started thinking about the fact that if a heater thermostat sticks those corals and fish would become seafood bisque in maybe an hour or two. Dropping it to 80 or even 78 would give me much more time since I have 100 gallons (probably something like 85 actual gallons given that a 75 isn't really 75 gallons). I turned it down last night to 81. It took about 12 hours to fall to that temperature. Since I don't have space (yet) for a brute trashcan in our apartment I have to rely on mixing water on the fly. The temperature dropped to 74 briefly because of that. I did empty half the DT though. So far everything still looked good after lights out. The GSP will likely sulk for a day or two. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Fishy888]

My cabbage leather is growing its first new "leaf" since I've had it. The largest "leaf" is splitting. It has amazing polyp extension. The GSP has been opening more each day since gluing it down. Things are going quite well.

There's a high likelihood I'll be getting a 30 gallon cube Tuesday afternoon. It'll be a while but it will be a reef tank as well. I'll make a new build thread once all my ducks are in a row regarding the new build.

The shrimp are doing well. I haven't seen any coral damage so far. They've left my little feather dusters alone and they haven't harmed my spaghetti worms either like I heard they would. They sure love frozen food though. They were all over it yesterday.

I was hoping to be able to share my phosphate reading but the post office didn't deliver the test kit. I forgot to change my address with fleabay so it went to what they call markup. That's where they slap the forwarding labels on the mail that needs to be forwarded. Thankfully there's no extreme heat here. Even if they leave the AC off in the post office it won't get past 80 today. I should have it Monday.

I really don't want to have to dose chemicals to the reef but I can't keep nitrates up and I see what might be a few small patches of dinos forming. So far though it's only on the sand and in small patches. So far no long strings but I am keeping an eye on things. Even if it's dinos I'm dealing with I am not going to be baited into knee-jerk reactions. I did that before and it never works out well. It might not really be dinos though. I added a ton of sand recently and there are diatoms as a result. I suspect it's growing over some cyano I had at one point. Then again it looks enough like dinos that I'm going to cut back the amount of light the sump's getting. That should help a lot combined with heavy feedings. Once I get the phosphate kit I'll know if they've crashed too although I doubt it.

Even if dinos are trying to get established they haven't started encroaching on the corals. The GSP is my canary in the coral mine. They'll be the first coral the dinos will infest IME. In the meantime I'll increase feedings again and cut the lighting schedule down for the sump. I might have to do so for the DT too. I have some wiggle room there since the tank gets about 12 hours of light, with 10 hours at full brightness. I have a 6 lamp T5 light.

I am quite optimistic about how things are going. The dinos won't last long if that's even what they are. I'm much better equipped to handle it this time around and I have caught it early. I have a big pod bloom happening and that will help also. So far no dinos that I can see in the sump. I also have corals and fish that are thriving. They will keep thriving too if I have anything to say about it.

 

[Fishy888]

I just found a spaghetti worm tunneling through the sand bed up against the front glass. It's eating and probably searching for a spot to call home for a while. I took pictures of some my corals also. There's a video too which I'll post if I can get it uploaded.

Please pardon the algae. I took the images while sitting down and there's a bunch of algae I left for the pods. I also want to keep it so any potential dinos get quickly outcompeted.

I turned off the chaeto's lights. Around 8 I'll have them come back on for the night. The lights have been running 24/7 under the cabinet since the move which is almost a month now.

 

[Fishy888]

I got my phosphate test kit today aaaannnnddd..... It's as I feared. Slightly north of 1ppm. Not 0.1 or 0.001, but 1. In fact I think 1.25 is more accurate.

I know I have a few options but my plan of attack will be to get nitrates up a little at a time until the phosphates get consumed. At least that's my plan for now. I need to research this a bit more. I want to avoid the issues that might occur with lanthanum chloride and GFO. Dosing nitrates probably would help assuming I dose 100ppm worth plus whatever the tank needs to thrive.

It amazes me that this system doesn't have insane amounts of GHA and other nasties. I do have hydroids on the glass though. They're green. They're on the opposite end of the tank from my corals. I'll be watching them to make sure they don't go too crazy.

 

[Fishy888]

I have dinos for sure. They go right into the water column at night. The UV lamp in the sterilizer got replaced today because it's about 6 months that the old lamp was in service. Strangely the LED power indicator light won't come on but the lamp clearly works because I tested it while it was out of the water. It glows like it's supposed to do so I reassembled the sterilizer and took the air line tubing out while I was at it. No more microbubbles.

The lamps are fairly cheap but that's to be expected with cheap units. I want to find better lamps so I'll be researching them.