Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

As promised, here is what my reef looked like before I started the Perseverance Reef beautification project ( i.e. ozone and sand cleanings).

And here’s what it looked like a couple of minutes ago.

It’s a night and day difference! I started this project on the 28th of June. Not bad for 10 days!

I started testing my parameters last night. ALK was 8.8 dKh and CAL was 470. Spot on. Eventually I want to get test kits for trace elements, at least for the ones there are kits for. Water changes are a great thing but I’d like to figure out the best frequency my system needs. It’s not going to be long before I get my first Montipora and beginner Acropora corals. It’s going to be a couple of months yet but that’ll fly by soon enough.

I’m thinking about getting either an Acropora valida or a green slimer as my first Acropora. I’m thinking I’ll get valida first and the slimer second. I’ll also get a digitata or two to start.

Whatever I get will have to be ordered online since almost all our LFSs have shut down or in one case had stopped selling fish and is concentrating on aquaculture. I don’t think they’ll be open to the public. There’s still a LFS here in town but it’s a crap shoot as to whether they’ll have anything decent in stock and they are more freshwater oriented than saltwater. They do carry some frozen food like clams and silversides among others. Still, they don’t sell corals.

When the time comes I’m going to buy my corals here on R2R. There are two people on here that I trust in particular. I’ll approach them before long to see if they have any of the corals I’m looking for and if they’ll ship.

 

[Fishy888]

I just tested my nitrates and phosphates.

Nitrates = 75 ppm - Hanna. They were >75 ppm so that’s an improvement.

Phosphates = 0.196 ppm - Hanna. That’s up by about 0.1 ppm. It’s not the end of the world but I’d like to keep it under control. The rise occurred over a period of about a month so nothing drastic.

I’ve been feeding heavily though and my caulerpaholics go through the stuff like gangbusters. Surely that’s raising the phosphates.

I’m on the fence about going with GFO or LaCl. I have LaCl already and honestly it’s about the same risk to the reef as GFO. OTOH I have a GFO reactor. It just needs a pump and GFO. I’ll need a few 5 micron filter socks if I want to use LaCl. Thankfully there’s still time to decide.

 

[Fishy888]

My Nannochloropsis culture finally got here today. It was delayed a day but it still arrived alive. I’ve got it in a 2 liter bottle now with air bubbling in it. It’s under indirect light from my algae grow light under the stand but I’m going to add a small T2 (a.k.a. the curly Q screw in bulb).

I have a 2 gallon beverage dispenser that will be employed once my culture grows enough. I don’t know that I’ll use 2 gallons worth of phytoplankton but there may be other reefers I can give some to if need be. I mainly want to have enough to ensure that whatever else happens at least one culture survives. I might buy a little once or twice a year for the genetic diversity.

Edit: Here’s what my humble setup looks like now. I have plans to make a more permanent setup but it’ll be a while yet. For now I plan to culture Nannochloropsis, Tetraselmis, and Isochrysis. Once I’m successful with Nannochloropsis I’ll try Tetraselmis. Once I’m successful with those I’ll move onto Isochrysis. I might branch out into others eventually but I want to be successful with the big 3 first.

I have a 9 watt LED floodlight on the phyto, and it’s also getting spillover light from my algae grow light. So far there hasn’t been any clumping or anything to worry about.

My first attempt at Tetraselmis a couple of years ago was a total failure. Even with aeration the Tetraselmis clumped together in the bottom just hours after starting the culture. The culture was dead by the next morning. I’ve changed some things that I believe caused the failure. Hopefully I’ll be successful this time around.

 

[Fishy888]

My Nannochloropsis culture is getting darker. I’ll take it! Soon I’ll need to invest in some rigid airline tubing. I might keep my cultures in 2 liter bottles after all. It’s working pretty nicely and honestly I don’t need two gallons of any one species. I just need enough to dose my tanks with and to keep my cultures from crashing. We’ll see though. I’ve heard that Tetraselmis needs at least a gallon container to do well. I’m going to research that some more.

I think my cleaning the sand bed has inadvertently led to hair algae overtaking some of my coralline. Despite that the sand is much whiter and cleaner overall. For the phosphates I’ve decided to just get a couple of 1 micron socks and dose LaCl to drop them slightly. Then I’d just dose enough to keep them steady.

My animals are doing great. The fire shrimp is waiting for fish to clean, and my snails are doing their thing. All my fish are doing awesome as well.

 

[Fishy888]

Last night as I was getting ready to go to bed I heard the sound of my display draining into the sump rapidly and the water level dropping.

My return pump failed. Error code 4 on my Jecod return pump. Incorrect voltage. I figured it was a momentary hiccup. Sure enough it came right back on. I went to sleep and everything was working fine. That was at 3 AM.

I woke up about somewhere around 7:30 AM to the sound of my wave maker cavitating. Sure enough it was the same error code. This time I couldn’t get it to reset. Thankfully I had a backup power supply, and it was only 4 hours give or take.

I might lose some coralline on the sides and back of the tank where the water level dropped but it’ll come back. The main thing is that the pump is working and all my animals are doing fine. I’m really grateful for that.

 

[Fishy888]

The return pump is working like a champ now. I’m going to get another spare though. Hopefully the return pump and wave maker will last at least a few more years still.

My Nannochloropsis culture is growing nicely!

This is an image of the culture when I first set it up.

Here’s what it looks like now.

The culture is 3 days old. It’s darkening nicely. I’m going to get another 2 liter bottle and use it to split my existing culture once it’s ready to be harvested. I’ll hold some back to dose as well. I’m going to start with super small doses, like between a teaspoon and a tablespoon. I certainly don’t want 150ish gallons of Nannochloropsis after all.

 

[Fishy888]

My Nannochloropsis looks awesome tonight! So good in fact that I think I’m going to split it tomorrow or Thursday.

I might get a Tetraselmis starter culture in a couple of weeks. I’d like to get either Isochrysis or Tisochrysis once I’m successful with Tetraselmis.

I’m wondering if I can use pickle jars to culture algae. The glass is not a problem. It’s the lids. They’re metal. I know at TSA they do videos about their algae. They use foil to cover their jars.

Eventually I hope to culture enough of it to give some away or sell to or trade with other reefers. Especially when I start culturing Tisochrysis and possibly others. That’s well into the future though. For now I’m excited at how successful this culture has been.

One other thing of note. The price of rigid airline tubing is ridiculous! I was using regular airline tubing and of course it wouldn’t stay in place for more than a day, sometimes less than. I replaced it with RO tubing and the results are amazing! It fits the air pump perfectly. I’ll be using it from now on for all my cultures.

 

[Fishy888]

I “split” up the culture today. That is, I took maybe 50 ml to put in the fridge and the rest went here….

I also raised the salinity of the culture to 1.020 from the 1.019 I started with. I feel that if I get my culture’s salinity to 1.026 it’ll be more likely to survive long enough to get eaten.

About 7 ml got dosed to the display. Once I do nitrate and phosphate testing on the 20 gallon, assuming I like the numbers, I’ll dose about 1.25 ml of phyto.

I’ll also be testing NO3 and PO4 in the display later today. I forgot to do it beforehand but I want to make sure I don’t end up with pea soup. I have a UV sterilizer but I have a feeling my pods will enjoy it.

With the ozone running I hardly get any skimmate but I’m willing to bet very little makes it to the collection cup, especially since the skimmer is literally surrounded by Chaetomorpha and Caulerpa! That algaes FULL of pods!

My animals are doing nicely. The fish continue to be quite active which is awesome. I catch the fire shrimp looking for fish to clean every once in a while.

While things aren’t perfect yet, they’re getting better and a bit more stable everyday. I hope having some phytoplankton in the system will affect the biome positively. I also look forward to getting other strains of phyto in there too. The more nutritious and diverse the pod population the better my animals will all do.

 

[Fishy888]

Last night I dosed about 1/4 cup (59 ml) of phyto. I noticed that my zoanthids were wide open. I haven’t seen them looking this good since I’ve had them.

I typically dose half in the DT and half in the sump where my chaeto and caulerpa are. That way the bulk of my pods get first dibs in the sump. The concentrated phyto gets into the chaeto where I would imagine some of it gets trapped. Plus the pods in the chaeto should be able to grab individual cells much more easily than if they were already well dispersed.

I still haven’t tested the main system or the 20 gallon system for NO3 or PO4. I should be able to today though. Since I know my nitrates are high, I’ve been reluctant to add phyto to the 20 gallon system.

If I like the numbers I’ll dose a teaspoon (5 ml) to the 20 gallon system. I’ll be culturing pods in that system, especially in the sump. The clowns in the main system will end up in the 20 gallon system once I get my maroon clowns. I imagine once I add my current clownfish to the 20 they’ll eat every pod they can find. Then again I’ll also dose phyto aggressively in that system once I get enough pods. At that point even the clownfish won’t be able to eat them all.

My dosing will ramp up as my pod population ramps up in both systems. I did bump up the amount of phyto I’m dosing to the DT a decent amount, but I have much more in the way of coral and pods in my main system than in the 20.

That said I’m going to dose my 59 ml worth each day until the pod population blooms in the main system. In the 20 I’ll start with a teaspoon and in a couple of days I’ll bump it up to a tablespoon (15 ml).

Even with my pod munchers I don’t see why I couldn’t get a substantial pod boost in the DT especially if I supplement them with pods from my 20 gallon pod culturing system from time to time. Eventually they’ll become self sustaining even with my fish eating pods to the degree that they do.

 

[Fishy888]

It’s about time to split this culture once again.

I’m going to take half of it and use a little to start a second culture. The rest will be to feed the reef and the pod culturing system.

There’s good news. Both coral banded shrimp are very much alive. They really like coming out just as the sun rises. My system gets some natural light. It’s not bright enough to grow coral by any means but it helps a little I think.

All my animals are doing well. My hippo tang is growing rapidly. I’ll have to see if I still have images from the day I added her to the system. I’ll take a current picture and post them.

 

[Fishy888]

And then there were two….

Yes it’s not a perfect setup but tomorrow I’m going to make it a little better tomorrow. Eventually I’ll build a cabinet or just get some shelving and move my cultures out of there.

For now I just have the two Nannochloropsis cultures going. Next week give or take, Tetraselmis will find its way to Perseverance Reef! After that, I wonder…. Should I do Isochrysis or Tisochrisis?

 

[Fishy888]

I got some good news today. My friend has another RBTA she’s giving me tomorrow, as long as it doesn’t go back on a rock. There’s a place I have more or less picked out for it, on the same rock as the other two.

Tomorrow I’m going to test nitrate and phosphate. I’m also going to clean the acrylic and the filter sock will get replaced.
It’ll be interesting to see how much phosphate has increased with my phytoplankton dosing. I’ve likely fed my reef about a pint since I started the Nannochloropsis culture.

All my animals look great. Hopefully in October I’ll be able to get my maroon clowns. After the new year I hope to do some coral shopping too.

 

[Goaway]

Did you lose the other rbtas? And no mater how much you think a spot is nice for them... They make the choice themselves.

 

[Fishy888]

Did you lose the other rbtas? And no mater how much you think a spot is nice for them... They make the choice themselves.

Nope. They’re still in the same spots I put them in. They have the tallest rock in the tank and loads of light and flow.

I know they can move around but hopefully the new nem will stay in place too.

 

[Goaway]

That's wonderful news. Sometimes I miss something and with all kinds of updates, I might have skimmed past something important. Glad the nems and everyone is well!

 

[Fishy888]

It’s about that time. A major water change is incoming. Probably a 50% change. I had a snail die on me somewhere along the line and I couldn’t so much as find its shell. Strangely its operculum found its way into my filter sock along with some snail meat.

I wish snails would show signs like anemones and fish do before they die. I’d have taken it out at that point.

Cyano is trying to take over the reef. At least it’s not dinos again. Once I do my water change I’ll start carbon dosing. That’ll get nitrates under control. I’m also going to get phosphates under control too. They’re not totally horrible but with me dosing phyto I know they’re going up.

Thankfully my fish and inverts are doing good still. My corals are doing great as are my anemones. There’s just more cyano than I’d like. Hopefully the water change and carbon dosing will eradicate most of the cyano. That along with dosing good bacteria and getting LaCl under control. I’ll have to wait another month to get Tetraselmis but my parameters need to get back in line.

 

[Fishy888]

I wasn’t sure if my friend could make it today but she did. Welcome to Mt. Nem!

I apologize for all the scratches. I need to get the sanding done and buy a corded buffer. First I need to get some other things squared away though.

The new nem is in the center. It’s starting to regain its color. It’s moved about a centimeter but it’s sat still since. The others did the same thing.

Of course it remains tbd if the nem moves overnight. I had to change the trajectory of the return flow so the new guy didn’t get shorn off the rock. All three have good flow. In fact I’d say they have better flow now. It’s definitely more even.

Edit: Well it looked like it was happy where it was. It’s on the move. Thankfully it hasn’t let go of the rock. I’ll be watching though. There’s a couple of holes in the rock in the direction it’s headed. Let’s hope it picks that area.

It’s regained its color so I know it’s going to be alright health wise. It just needs to keep out of my wave maker. I’m sure it will though.

 

[Fishy888]

It took until 3:30 give or take this morning, but the anemone has indeed settled in. I originally placed it here in the center.

From there it moved to the bottom of the rock. It took about 6 hours to move. It’s about 4 inches from where I placed it. And yes, I moved the GSP colony in the image above.

The new nem looks somewhat deflated in this image but it’s not. It’s the angle from which I took the shot. The other two nems have stayed in place. I was watching to see if they’d move too since I redirected the return flow.

I wonder if the nem was seeking lower light levels. It’s a darker brown, almost red. It came from the same system as the other two nems so I know they’ve been well taken care of.

I ordered six 1 micron socks and some Microbacter 7 today. That’ll help knock the cyano back some and allow me to very gradually lower my phosphates. I’m aiming for an average of 0.1 PO4 ppm and 10 ppm NO3 give or take. I’m not looking to chase numbers so much as I want a stable range (like 0.08 ppm - 0.12 ppm PO4 and 8 - 12 ppm NO3).

There’s another colony of GSP that might get moved that’s blocking the view of the new nem. It’ll probably get moved to my lifeboat system today.

 

[Fishy888]

Well I guess it decided to hide out from the light. Though it’s hard to see in the image, the nem still has bubble tips and is fully open. It’s just hiding in the cave area. So far the nem hasn’t moved from where it is for about an hour. It’ll be on the move again back towards the light I would think, once it’s feeling better.

Of course it could quickly go downhill too. I’ll be watching closely in any event. I think it’ll make it though. It’s actually got color again and it looks healthy. It just needs time to adjust the rest of the way.

 

[Fishy888]

The nem is out of hiding once again. It’s been in its current spot since about 4:30ish yesterday afternoon. It’s just reoriented itself so it gets the light. We’ll see if it stays there or starts moving again as it gets used to the system.

Tomorrow my MicroBacter7 and 1 micron filter socks will arrive. I’ll test my nitrates and phosphates today in advance. Since I’ve been dosing phytoplankton I know my phosphates have increased. That’s the biggest reason for my phosphate concerns right now. It seems my zoanthids love the phytoplankton, and I dose about a cup every 3 days. I’ll continue doing so but I don’t want my phosphates getting out of control.