Perseverance Reef

Fish Styx · Feb 8, 2024

Fishy888 said:
Come to think of it I use plain CaCO3 powder as my coral snow. I considered the use of MB7 to make a coral snow recipe I read about on R2R but since I’ll be using the BB I’m leaving that idea alone.

Would using plain CaCO3 while dosing BB cause any problems? I wouldn’t think so but I want to be sure, especially since my system is actually approaching something like maturation. I don’t want to do anything to set that back.

Nope, not at all. That is the base of my recipe. Just make sure it is food grade @ 97% purity or better.

Fishy888 · Feb 8, 2024

Fish Styx said:
Nope, not at all. That is the base of my recipe. Just make sure it is food grade @ 97% purity or better.

Absolutely! Mine is food grade. It’s 97%

Mschmidt · Feb 9, 2024

Fish Styx said:
Next time I see you, I'll send you home with a bottle to go with your frags ;)

you, sir, are a generous man.

Fish Styx · Feb 9, 2024

Mschmidt said:
you, sir, are a generous man.

I do what I can :smiling-face-with-sunglasses:

Fishy888 · Feb 13, 2024

And it begins….

The transition to a cryptic sump has begun. I intend to move away from a lit fuge. I might put up a low power red light however so I can see what’s going on in there from time to time and to be able to change out my filter socks.

Before adding the rock I added tonight I cleaned a little bit of sludge off the bottom.

Yep, just a little bit of sludge.

Depending on how things go today I want to add more rock. I have quite a bit I can add still. It wouldn’t be a very cryptic cryptic sump if I left it as is, now would it?

I’m going to put off the T5 lamp replacement for just a little longer. I’m going to a not so local LFS in a couple of weeks. I have a few things in mind that I want but I’ll only get one, maybe two at most. I’m looking to add a fish but I haven’t made up my mind yet as to what fish I want. On the other hand I might grab a coral rock. The fish is more likely at this point.

Goaway · Feb 13, 2024

Fishy888 said:
The rest of the fish are doing well. I need to research why Pepper the lunare wrasse has a sunken area on his underside.

I would have to re-read the thread, Do you know how old the lunare is? There are 3 things i know can cause sunken belly, maybe 4. But I lack experience with 1 of them.

1. Internal parasites
2. Water conditions.
3. Lack of proper diet
4. Illness of some kind.

Has the wrasse been improving since you got the SG adjusted?

Fishy888 · Feb 13, 2024

He’s doing better. He’s been improving for a while now and it shows. I’d say it’s almost gone. Dory looks better too.

He already had the sunken belly when I got him, and before they were rescued they were only fed flake food. I’m pretty sure diet was to blame. Granted my high SG likely didn’t do him favors.

Fishy888 · Feb 13, 2024

I made a little more progress. Looks like a trip to storage will be needed however.

The above bucket of rocks went into the sump tonight.

This is how it looked in the sump after clearing out overnight.

After adding the new rock…

It still needs more rock but some of the rock from the display will go to help seed the rock in the sump with micro dusters and the like. Combined with the rock I have in storage, there should be enough or close to enough to finish off the cryptic part of my cryptic sump.

I already have some cryptic sponges in the display but they’re in places where I can’t access them, hence the cryptic moniker. The good news is that they should start propagating into the cryptic zone where there’ll be conditions far more conducive to their growth.

Since I’ve made this much progress on this project I contacted reef farmers on Facebook and got an idea of prices for their cryptic sponge seed rocks. They have a few packages available, and the ones I’d need would be around $200 if I wanted to get what’s recommended for my system.

The thing is I already have some cryptic sponges growing in the DT. My thoughts at this point are that by the time I have a good sized bioload my sponges should already be taking over the cryptic zone. I don’t think I really need to spend that kind of money necessarily. If things don’t go the way I expect however I’ll keep reef farmers in mind.

I do need to research sponge power however. I want to make sure it won’t interact negatively with what I plan to dose such as NP Bacto Balance.

Fish Styx · Feb 13, 2024

Fishy888 said:
I made a little more progress. Looks like a trip to storage will be needed however.

The above bucket of rocks went into the sump tonight.

This is how it looked in the sump after clearing out overnight.

After adding the new rock…

It still needs more rock but some of the rock from the display will go to help seed the rock in the sump with micro dusters and the like. Combined with the rock I have in storage, there should be enough or close to enough to finish off the cryptic part of my cryptic sump.

I already have some cryptic sponges in the display but they’re in places where I can’t access them, hence the cryptic moniker. The good news is that they should start propagating into the cryptic zone where there’ll be conditions far more conducive to their growth.

Since I’ve made this much progress on this project I contacted reef farmers on Facebook and got an idea of prices for their cryptic sponge seed rocks. They have a few packages available, and the ones I’d need would be around $200 if I wanted to get what’s recommended for my system.

The thing is I already have some cryptic sponges growing in the DT. My thoughts at this point are that by the time I have a good sized bioload my sponges should already be taking over the cryptic zone. I don’t think I really need to spend that kind of money necessarily. If things don’t go the way I expect however I’ll keep reef farmers in mind.

I do need to research sponge power however. I want to make sure it won’t interact negatively with what I plan to dose such as NP Bacto Balance.

I dose sponge power every morning and also use Bactobalance. No adverse issues.

Goaway · Feb 13, 2024

Fishy888 said:
He’s doing better. He’s been improving for a while now and it shows. I’d say it’s almost gone. Dory looks better too.

He already had the sunken belly when I got him, and before they were rescued they were only fed flake food. I’m pretty sure diet was to blame. Granted my high SG likely didn’t do him favors.

Flake food is not enough for sure. Glad you're seeing improvements on these 2.

Fishy888 said:
I do need to research sponge power however. I want to make sure it won’t interact negatively with what I plan to dose such as NP Bacto Balance.

I keep seeing all kinds of np bacto posts. I wonder if they'll eat dinos?

Fish Styx · Feb 13, 2024

Goaway said:
Flake food is not enough for sure. Glad you're seeing improvements on these 2.

I keep seeing all kinds of np bacto posts. I wonder if they'll eat dinos?

It does not, but sponge power helps to get rid of dinos. The primary ingredient being silica feeds diatoms to outcompete the dinos. CuC them wipes out the diatoms.

Fishy888 · Feb 13, 2024

Fish Styx said:
I dose sponge power every morning and also use Bactobalance. No adverse issues.

Good to know. Any advantage I can give the sponges the better.

I hope they’ll outcompete my vermetid snails eventually but they’ll require a multi pronged approach. That’s not the reason I decided to go the cryptic sump route however. It’s just that it would be nice if it helps.

Goaway · Feb 13, 2024

Imteresting reads here. My dinos arent as bad as I've read about other cases. They'll devour coraline algae. I just mean the monsterous growth i read about.

Now the vermin snails... im done cutting my hands on them. They gotta go.

Fishy888 · Feb 13, 2024

Goaway said:
Imteresting reads here. My dinos arent as bad as I've read about other cases. They'll devour coraline algae. I just mean the monsterous growth i read about.

Now the vermin snails... im done cutting my hands on them. They gotta go.

That makes sense. When nutrients crash I imagine the coralline dies and the dinos go to town on it.