Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

I've had several mushrooms do just that. They squish into a little ball and let go of the rock and go tumbling until they decide where they want to be.

 

[Fishy888]

A melting mushroom is very unlikely to spike parameters or cloud the water in that size system.

Chances are, it released, balled up and rolled around. Keep an eye around the base of rocks.

You may also consider pulling back on the feeding of the nem. With that massive lamp over it, it really shouldn't be needed.

Good point. I’ll start cutting back. I wanted to give the nem a good head start. it’ll likely catch some of the frozen food I broadcast feed and it has ample light where it’s at.

 

[Fishy888]

So far the new feather duster’s doing well. Something (or things) dug up the part of the worm that belongs under the sand. I know the flow slowly scours the sand in that area. My hermits probably didn’t help any.

We just picked up the three tanks from a close friend of ours who got out of fish keeping. There are two 10 gallon tanks and a 5 gallon tank. My wife wants to keep a freshwater tank. I’m going to try to convince her to take one of the 10 gallon tanks instead of the 5 gallon tank since I can’t think of any freshwater fish that would do well in a 5 gallon tank. I’m going to use one of the 10 gallon tanks to culture pods, bristle worms, etc. I might try to raise peppermint shrimp larvae eventually too. i’ll use the other tank to culture phyto.

 

[tbrown]

After all your talk about feeding your BTA I decided to spot feed mine. Tave him a nice sploosh of Reef Roids, Mysis Shrimp, Reef Candy, Reef Jerky, and Coral Cane. He took it, rolled it into a big ball, and vomited it onto my John Deere Leptastrea. :grinning-squinting-face:

 

[Fishy888]

After all your talk about feeding your BTA I decided to spot feed mine. Tave him a nice sploosh of Reef Roids, Mysis Shrimp, Reef Candy, Reef Jerky, and Coral Cane. He took it, rolled it into a big ball, and vomited it onto my John Deere Leptastrea. :grinning-squinting-face:

All that candy and jerky mixed with roids gave it an upset stomach LOL.

 

[Fishy888]

This morning I flushed the RO membrane and proceeded to make 25 gallons of RO/DI. I intend to do a water change tomorrow or Sunday.

My N and P bottomed out a few days ago but I’m getting them both up again. Color is coming back to corals that lost color. The mushroom that moved it turns out didn’t move far. It relocated an inch towards the center of the tank. I don’t know if it’s coincidence but I’m pretty sure lack of N and P at the very least helped cause the shroom to move and not open until today.

I noticed that coralline that faded for a time started coming right back again and I’ve found a few new areas of purple and pink. Nothing tremendous but I’ll take what I can get.

Today we really dodged a bullet. We had a crazy windstorm (we had gusts to nearly 70 mph at the peak) and it brought down a live wire about 50 feet from our patio door. You could hear the electrical surges and see the flashes and sparks coming from the live wire. Our power never went out though. It flickered quite a bit though causing the return to stop and start. Other than a small amount of detritus there was no damage done. Things are looking good.

 

[tbrown]

This morning I flushed the RO membrane and proceeded to make 25 gallons of RO/DI. I intend to do a water change tomorrow or Sunday.

My N and P bottomed out a few days ago but I’m getting them both up again. Color is coming back to corals that lost color. The mushroom that moved it turns out didn’t move far. It relocated an inch towards the center of the tank. I don’t know if it’s coincidence but I’m pretty sure lack of N and P at the very least helped cause the shroom to move and not open until today.

I noticed that coralline that faded for a time started coming right back again and I’ve found a few new areas of purple and pink. Nothing tremendous but I’ll take what I can get.

Today we really dodged a bullet. We had a crazy windstorm (we had gusts to nearly 70 mph at the peak) and it brought down a live wire about 50 feet from our patio door. You could hear the electrical surges and see the flashes and sparks coming from the live wire. Our power never went out though. It flickered quite a bit though causing the return to stop and start. Other than a small amount of detritus there was no damage done. Things are looking good.

Shrooms like nitrates for sure.

 

[Fishy888]

Shrooms like nitrates for sure.

Exactly. I’m feeding almost double the frozen food I was feeding to help raise nitrates. Phosphates briefly touched bottom too. I’m feeding a little more of the pellets than usual to get phosphates gradually back to where I want them. I’m seeing some progress thankfully.

 

[tbrown]

Exactly. I’m feeding almost double the frozen food I was feeding to help raise nitrates. Phosphates briefly touched bottom too. I’m feeding a little more of the pellets than usual to get phosphates gradually back to where I want them. I’m seeing some progress thankfully.

Neophos is cheap and easy for controlled phosphate dosing.

 

[Fishy888]

I might end up using it and neonitrate before all is said and done.

 

[Fishy888]

I got a new scrubber with the three aquariums the other day. Today I put it to work. The DT is a hot mess but it’s already clearing. There’s much less lyngbya in the system though. I also harvested some from the sump.

The wave maker got its first cleaning as well. I knew the pump wasn’t putting out as much flow. It’s putting out plenty now. I used a vinegar and water mixture to clean it. I discovered a few spirorbids and some coralline on the wave maker. Hopefully I didn’t kill it, but as @Lost in the Sauce put it, I might be singing a different song when said wave maker is covered in coralline.

The feather duster is loving life however. The corals are probably liking it too. The nem seems ok but time will tell if it likes the higher flow. Here’s to hoping.

 

[Fishy888]

Things are clearing out now.

I’m also seeing progress with getting my N and P up to safe levels.

My Kenya tree was looking ghostly for several days now. It’s noticeably colored up compared to where it was. I also have much less lyngbya in the DT than I did last week. Here’s another coral that lost some color but not nearly as much as the Kenya tree had. It’s looking noticeably better as well.

Some of my coralline has also regained color although I lost some to the nutrient bottoming. Not tons but some. As I think about it my GSP look happier too. The duncans have more color too. The xenia never really lost color but they’ve spread to another rock so they’re on four rocks now. I’m going to have to do something soon or I won’t have room for any other corals.

 

[Fishy888]

I just checked on the tank and fed the fish and discovered the anemone looking stringy and gaping again. I stirred things up pretty good though. It did the same thing the first two days I had it then it started looking normal again. It was still gaping but it gradually got better. My guess is that it’s getting ready to do a water change. It’s shrunk and retracted it’s tentacles. I would actually be more worried if it was flattened like a pancake. One other positive is there’s no indication that it wants to walk. I’ll have to keep a closer eye on it.

Edit:
I just went back down to grab a snack and I looked in the tank. I knew it was likely doing an internal water change but I expected it to look like that for a while like when I first got it. In the time I posted this it went back to this…

It’s back to what it normally looks like this time of night. Just like that. I’ll take it!

 

[Fishy888]

Since I started upping the feedings I’m seeing diatoms as well as the micro algae I get on the glass. The rocks are getting more lyngbya on them but as I get the N and P where I want them the lyngbya will give way, quite possibly to coralline. My coralline is coming back quite nicely too and I’m seeing more of my brittle stars. I’m making some progress thankfully.

I need to get rid of some more of the algae in the sump. The lyngbya is covering my chaeto so I’m going to work on eradicating the lyngbya in there too. @EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal My system will hopefully look as good as yours.

 

[Fishy888]

Here’s a FTS taken about an hour and thirty minutes ago.

Diatoms and lyngbya are starting to cover the rocks. They’re also developing on the sand in the dead zones in the back. I also see normal red cyano starting.

I haven’t done a phosphorus test in two weeks plus. I’m going to check it tomorrow. Most likely my phosphates are above 0.1 ppm but my corals are growing nicely so I’ll leave them alone. This weekend I’m going to get my water tested at the LFS. I expect that my nitrates will be between 5 and 10 ppm. If so I’d be quite happy.

I’ve been feeding my tank fairly heavily. If it can be done I’d rather use food than chemicals to keep N and P at healthy levels. It’s bad enough that I had to dose LaCl as much as I did a few months ago.

As for my corals they’re doing well. Here’s a picture of my duncans taken right after I took the FTS.

It looks like my duncans are going to have nine polyps instead of just seven. I’ll take it! My cabbage leather has amazing polyp extension as does my Kenya tree. The Kenya tree has grown a bit more lately than the cabbage leather. My GSP are doing better and are slowly taking over the rock they’re on. My xenia look awesome. The mushrooms are hanging in there. I need to get more rock to shade the shrooms.

My coralline’s growing a bit. There’s a spot where green coralline’s starting to grow on one of my rocks. The pink coralline seems to like my lights because it’s growing in places that are right under the reflector. In fact the coralline that I found growing on my wave maker is pink.

It survived (approximately) a 10:1 water to vinegar bath. That was what I used to clean the wave maker. I fully expected it to die but I’m glad it didn’t.

 

[Fishy888]

I am starting to think I have a zoa muncher somewhere. My iron oxide zoas are all dead. Yesterday was when I suspect the last zoanthid was eaten. It still had plenty of color when I last saw it. It looked perfectly normal yesterday morning. Last night I saw a hermit crab on the spot where the zoanthid was. Today I saw it was gone. No trace of it anywhere. It’s possible that there weren’t enough nutrients and it died but I would think I’d have noticed that.

Speaking of crabs I haven’t seen my emerald crab since the day after I got it. I assume it either had trouble molting or it molted and was eaten. It was about an inch long so some hungry critter likely got it.

That said everything else is doing quite well. I’m seeing even more diatoms and cyano. growing on both rocks and sand, than last night. Not that I like diatoms and cyano but it’s an indicator of my nutrients coming up. This is good for the corals, especially my duncans. They’re growing faster than I’ve ever seen them grow. My soft corals are loving it too. So far feeding the system more heavily is paying off. I just have to make sure I don’t overshoot the levels I need.

 

[Fishy888]

This guy’s a rising star.

 

[Fishy888]

I got 20 gallons of water made last night and salt added. It’s mixing and warming up as I type this. In the morning I’ll change out the water. I figure I’ll do smaller water changes more frequently.

Thankfully I have two 10 gallon tanks to hold the new water as well as a circulation pump and heater for each. I should be getting a brute trash can within the next couple of months.

I harvested more algae from the sump. It was time. Hopefully my nutrients, especially nitrates, will go up oh so slightly. If I can keep feedings fairly consistent (volume per day, not necessarily the same exact time each day); and if I harvest the algae in small amounts but more frequently, my nutrient levels should stay stable. So far it seems to be working.

At some point, probably around the time I get a brute trash can, I’m going to get some pumps and plumbing. This way I can automate water changes somewhat. I’ll still have to lug buckets of old water from my system to the kitchen to dump it but that works. The new water will get pumped into the sump.

All my animals are doing well. I’m seeing more of my brittle stars again. I’m also seeing the asterinas out more often.

 

[Fishy888]

I wasn’t able to sleep well because I’m coming down with something. As a result I decided to do the water change about an hour ago. I harvested about half a cup of cyano from the sump while I was at it. It’s nowhere near as bad as it was before thankfully but I wanted to get the loose pieces out so they don’t mess with the return pump.

It looks much better than it did a while ago. It looked like pea soup because of the bits of algae that got chopped up in the return pump. At least there’s a happy Hawaiian feather duster in there eating it up… literally.

I feel like I’m finally getting SOME control over the cyano (lyngbya) situation. It’s not growing as fast as it was. Hopefully it stays that way. I’m going to keep feeding like I’ve been feeding and maybe the RIGHT kinds of algae will start growing.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

At some point, probably around the time I get a brute trash can, I’m going to get some pumps and plumbing. This way I can automate water changes somewhat. I’ll still have to lug buckets of old water from my system to the kitchen to dump it but that works. The new water will get pumped into the sump.

Depending on the distance from your tank to the sink (or a door to the outside), you could probably pump your old water to a drain (or driveway, etc) as well. Changing water from the sump has worked well for me for smaller changes - less chance of accidentally blowing sand on the coral when I put the new water in.

*When you get the Brute, do yourself a huge favor and buy the dolly too.