Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

I decided to wait on the maroons for now. I’m still a little gun shy after what happened with the gold rim. Besides, there are other things the reef needs right now.

Besides, I want to get everything I need for when I get the frags @Fish Styx has for me. I have to have enough glue and rubble clean and ready to go. I also need to make my lights adjustable. Hopefully tomorrow I can work on that depending on if I have the wood I need to get it done.

I’m going to buy some salt though and maybe look at our LFS in town. I’d love a Hawaiian feather duster or two.

It’s time for a decent water change. I’m probably going to do a 50% change give or take. It’ll pull the bacteria and the nitrates they’ve consumed out. I don’t want to have a big swing though so I’ll be testing nitrates just before the first bucket of new saltwater enters the system. It’ll be next week before I get the salt though. In the meantime I’ll see how my nitrates look tomorrow along with phosphates.

As for this guy….. I just realized I already had a picture so I guess I don’t have to wait until tomorrow to post it.

It’s adjusting to the new spot. It’s in a little more light than it’s been in. I moved it there a few days ago so it’s still adjusting. It’s polyps aren’t as open as they were but given time they’ll be back to normal.

Definitely not a Bubblegum. Looks identical to my plain red Digitata.

 

[Fishy888]

Definitely not a Bubblegum. Looks identical to my plain red Digitata.

I didn’t think it was. Still I only paid $15 for it so hopefully it colors back up.

I wanted a red digi anyway so I think I got one. Sadly though there’s exposed skeleton that had algae on it when I got it. I know I could cut that part off but I don’t want to shock it more so for now I’m leaving it. I suppose I could try H2O2 applied to the tip where the algae is using a Q-tip. Again though I don’t want to take it out of the water to do anything like that until it starts growing again.

 

[tbrown]

I didn’t think it was. Still I only paid $15 for it so hopefully it colors back up.

I wanted a red digi anyway so I think I got one. Sadly though there’s exposed skeleton that had algae on it when I got it. I know I could cut that part off but I don’t want to shock it more so for now I’m leaving it. I suppose I could try H2O2 applied to the tip where the algae is using a Q-tip. Again though I don’t want to take it out of the water to do anything like that until it starts growing again.

Super glue over the dead part works as well, but again, taking it out of the tank.

 

[Fishy888]

I didn’t think it was. Still I only paid $15 for it so hopefully it colors back up.

I wanted a red digi anyway so I think I got one. Sadly though there’s exposed skeleton that had algae on it when I got it. I know I could cut that part off but I don’t want to shock it more so for now I’m leaving it. I suppose I could try H2O2 applied to the tip where the algae is using a Q-tip. Again though I don’t want to take it out of the water to do anything like that until it starts growing again.

Super glue over the dead part works as well, but again, taking it out of the tank.

That’s not a bad idea. When it’s growing again I’ll do that. That would only take a minute or so.

 

[tbrown]

That’s not a bad idea. When it’s growing again I’ll do that. That would only take a minute or so.

I've done it to a Monti Cap in the past with good results. Montis grow fast enough they cover the super glue pretty quickly.

 

[Fishy888]

This has been an interesting day to say the least. The rigid tubing in the air silencer of my skimmer disintegrated today. I noticed the Venturi line just hanging loose from the bottom of the silencer.

The workaround itself was simple. I drilled out the tubing where it was glued to the top and bottom of the silencer and I ran some ozone rated tubing through the holes. I coupled the smaller diameter tubing to the larger diameter Venturi line that goes to the pump.

Easy enough to do. The original Venturi airline tubing from the pump to the bottom of the silencer is stiffening and will likely disintegrate soon as well. It’s the larger diameter tubing. I’ll get some ozone rated tubing of that diameter and that’ll be that!

Next up, since I’m doing this kind of work, is the wave maker. It needs serious love right now. I can tell the flow isn’t nearly what it should be. That will be tomorrow’s project though.

The skimmer needed a cleaning desperately anyway. It took a couple of hours to clean it really well. It turns out that even in the sump I’m starting to get coralline growth. I discovered it on the base of the skimmer. I probably killed it off too since it was exposed to air and freshwater for a time. Then again, a bristleworm survived the ordeal so maybe the coralline will too.

I’m starting to see more copepods in the DT now. Admittedly I have a bunch of black cyano now. I decided not to go crazy over it in an effort to get a pod bloom. It looks like it’s working which can only be a good thing. It might not make for good videos but there’s a method to my madness. Especially since I have much more sand than I had, I want to really get pods blooming, and other micro flora and fauna too.

 

[Fishy888]

Ok so I spoke about making my halides be adjustable. I need to increase PAR a bit, especially when it’s time for acros. The best way of course is to be able to move the lights down. Right now they’re stationary. I’m mulling over the idea of adding a third halide while I’m at it. That’s not definite though.

What is definite is that I’ve been designing and redesigning the upgrade in my head, and have come up with a solution that’ll git ‘er done and look good doing it.
It’ll be a bit like a double decker chandelier. The bottom part of the “chandelier” will be enclosed in a wooden frame, much like they are now.

I’ll have a couple of vertical pieces of wood with holes drilled in them which will allow for adjustment. Simple but effective. If I add a third halide, and I have everything I need to do it, I’ll have to buy at least one more reflector. Then again I’d likely buy 3 if I went that route.

Hopefully tomorrow I can begin the process of actually building it.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Ok so I spoke about making my halides be adjustable. I need to increase PAR a bit, especially when it’s time for acros. The best way of course is to be able to move the lights down. Right now they’re stationary. I’m mulling over the idea of adding a third halide while I’m at it. That’s not definite though.

What is definite is that I’ve been designing and redesigning the upgrade in my head, and have come up with a solution that’ll git ‘er done and look good doing it.
It’ll be a bit like a double decker chandelier. The bottom part of the “chandelier” will be enclosed in a wooden frame, much like they are now.

I’ll have a couple of vertical pieces of wood with holes drilled in them which will allow for adjustment. Simple but effective. If I add a third halide, and I have everything I need to do it, I’ll have to buy at least one more reflector. Then again I’d likely buy 3 if I went that route.

Hopefully tomorrow I can begin the process of actually building it.

I've caught glimpses of your current wooden light set up but haven't seen any specific pics of it. Would you mind sharing some pics of it?

 

[Fishy888]

I've caught glimpses of your current wooden light set up but haven't seen any specific pics of it. Would you mind sharing some pics of it?

I’ll have to try posting more pics later. For some reason it won’t let me post more pics right now. I have a feeling it’s an issue with my phone glitching. Once I get it working again I’ll post more pics.

 

[Fishy888]

So I cleaned out my wave maker yesterday. It’s working better certainly but the impeller is shot. Sadly it doesn’t appear that they sell replacement parts. I mean, I’ve had it for 3 or 4 years now so I can’t complain, but Jebao/Jecod would make a killing if they sold replacement parts! Sure it would mean a little less revenue at first but people would flock to them in droves when it came time to buy a replacement wave maker. When a company shows it’s looking out for its customers, people return and buy more.

That said, for what I paid for the wave maker I think it lasted a long time. I didn’t do the maintenance I should have on it, or it would have lasted longer. I’ll definitely buy from them again. Right now they’re the best budget option out there.

I should get several more months out of it at least. I’m hoping it’ll last until new year’s. If not I’ll figure something out. The last thing I need is for this thing to die on me LOL.

 

[tbrown]

I'm thinking that buying a Jecod new for the price of replacement parts for some of the other wavemaker brands...

 

[Fishy888]

I'm thinking that buying a Jecod new for the price of replacement parts for some of the other wavemaker brands...

It just makes more sense to me. These things are all made in the same cheap Chinese factories. I’m still going to hunt for a replacement impeller though. It’s clear that sand got in there and made grooves in the nylon (or whatever it’s made of). I’d like to have two working gyres in this system.

Because of the grooves and such the impeller doesn’t stay straight. This creates drag on the impeller and blades, and it makes a lot of noise compared to how it used to run. At least I still have flow. I should be able to make it to January at least. I’ll be looking for used gyres as well.

 

[Fishy888]

I just picked up the wood I needed. I made a design change that saves a few extra bucks and accomplishes the same task, namely, the adjustable part. Instead of buying extra wood and drilling a bunch a bunch of holes I decided to use a threaded bar with some nuts to adjust the height of the lights.

I’m using 1x6 to keep it light weight but sturdy. The unit will be long enough for the third halide to be mounted in it. I don’t know that I’ll have it all done today but I’m certainly going to try.

 

[Fishy888]

I made some progress on the lighting yesterday.

I’m about halfway done. Today I’ll remove the T5s from the hood and potentially install them above the sump. I’m going to use the reflectors from the T5s for the halides. For blue light, I’ll use some LED strips. I found some on eBay that look like they’ll fit perfectly in my custom fixture.

The fixture will be adjusted by nuts that attach to the top of the hood. The threaded rods won’t be visible unless you look up inside the hood.

Needless to say, the adjustments I make to the lights will be small and slow.

 

[Fishy888]

Today’s progress…

The T5s have been removed from the hood as well as you can see in the above image.

I’m excited about the possibilities this’ll open up. As I inch closer to being acro ready, my lighting being adjustable up and down will give me the PAR acros need. Not only that, but it’ll make it easier to acclimate corals from lower light systems.

 

[Fishy888]

It’s done!

The lights were 31 inches from the euro bracing. They’re now 24 inches from the euro bracing.

Between that and the third lamp (a 4000k lamp like you can find at Lowe’s) you can really see a difference in brightness.

The corals seem to like the increase in light. My digitata, which died back a bit but has started coming back like gangbusters, has its polyps extended even more. It’s still under the 6000k lamp like it was before and it gets some light from the 4000k lamp. Please excuse the diatom covered acrylic. Tomorrow I will be cleaning it.

The 4000k lamp is in the dead center. The nems are getting light from it and from the other 6000k lamp. They seem happy so far.

My system was without light for 2 days. Some of my coralline died back but it’ll come back.

 

[Fishy888]

As of tonight my system is back on its normal lighting schedule. In order to create a “sunrise” effect I have the center halide coming on an hour after the left and right halides come on and go off an hour before the left and right halides go off.

I cleaned the sand bed and the front acrylic today. I blew the black cyano off of the rocks too. It’s much brighter in there now! The corals seem happy so far.

My hope is that my coralline can adapt. Some has died off but much of that was from 2 days with no light. I’m also hoping that some GHA will replace the black cyano now that there’s more PAR. The snails will happily mow it down.

Now that the lighting is done, I’m going to leave them at their current height for at least a couple of weeks if not a month. I’m not in a rush to mess with things. I could tell the system wasn’t getting enough light though so that’s why I built the new fixture. Now that I have the lights at 24” above the euro bracing it’s time to watch the corals, especially the digi.

The fish and inverts are all doing good. I think they’re a bit confused after having almost 24 hours of light after 2 days of darkness. As I’m typing this the lights are about to shut off for the night at their normal time.

I’m excited to see how things progress now. I hope to add more corals within the next month or so. I really want to get a REAL bubblegum digi among others.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

As of tonight my system is back on its normal lighting schedule. In order to create a “sunrise” effect I have the center halide coming on an hour after the left and right halides come on and go off an hour before the left and right halides go off.

I cleaned the sand bed and the front acrylic today. I blew the black cyano off of the rocks too. It’s much brighter in there now! The corals seem happy so far.

My hope is that my coralline can adapt. Some has died off but much of that was from 2 days with no light. I’m also hoping that some GHA will replace the black cyano now that there’s more PAR. The snails will happily mow it down.

Now that the lighting is done, I’m going to leave them at their current height for at least a couple of weeks if not a month. I’m not in a rush to mess with things. I could tell the system wasn’t getting enough light though so that’s why I built the new fixture. Now that I have the lights at 24” above the euro bracing it’s time to watch the corals, especially the digi.

The fish and inverts are all doing good. I think they’re a bit confused after having almost 24 hours of light after 2 days of darkness. As I’m typing this the lights are about to shut off for the night at their normal time.

I’m excited to see how things progress now. I hope to add more corals within the next month or so. I really want to get a REAL bubblegum digi among others.

I’d tell you to keep us posted but I know you will.

Looking forward to updates!

 

[Fishy888]

Yesterday I did a 40 gallon water change. I’m going to do another one soon. I also started a deeper cleaning of the sand. The black cyano is going bye-bye. I cleaned the acrylic as well. Between all of that and the lighting upgrade it’s much brighter, like being at the reef bright.

I also discovered the first purple coralline growth. The snails have some on their shells but it never grew. Not until now. With the higher PAR it seems to have awakened. I also found some on the locline and nozzle from the return. On the snail shells the purple coralline now has a white edge which indicates it’s growing.

The Montipora is holding its own currently. Its polyps don’t extend as far but they still extend. Given time they’ll extend fully once again. All my other corals are doing great. The anemones love the higher PAR.

The fish are also doing excellently. They’re as active as always, with good appetites.

 

[Fishy888]

I did another 40 gallon water change today. Things are looking great!

I’ve noticed some interesting changes since adding a little more PAR vis a vis the height adjustable lighting and third halide. First is the sudden proliferation of purple coralline along with the hot pink. Both are growing quickly. Second is the aiptasia….

That’s not an aiptasia! It seems I have 4 curlicue anemones instead. Two of them are growing like weeds. The other two have moved somewhere I can’t find them yet.

Here’s what the larger one looks like currently.

This is the smaller one.

The smaller one’s even started getting the curlicue look!

I suspected that they might be curlicues because their proportions didn’t match that of typical aiptasia anemones I’ve encountered in my reefing career. The size ratio of the oral disk to tentacle length favors the oral disk. The oral disk is much larger than in an aiptasia of the same size. The oral disk is held close to the rock while aiptasias don’t. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there have only been a couple of splits. Aiptasia would have found its way into places you wouldn’t believe. I don’t doubt they’d find their way into our beds at night…. Ok maybe not. Still, I’d have a crazy amount of aiptasia by now if they were the most common types of aiptasia found in our systems.

I suspected they were possibly a slower growing aiptasia species but even the slowest growing aips would have split more than these guys have. Seeing what I was seeing I researched aiptasia like anemones. Curlicue anemones were one of the first hits on my Google search. The problem was that I didn’t see the curls or the banding at the time. As a result I just figured I had some uncommon aiptasia species.

I started suspecting I might have had curlicue anemones a couple of months later when the oral disk grew to about 3 inches in diameter but the tentacles weren’t lengthening as fast. Also, I didn’t remember the coloring around the oral disk being present in the common aiptasia species.

Fast forward to the change in light. At first, I started noticing a bit of a green tinge to the off white coloring surrounding the mouth. Definitely not a characteristic of any aiptasia I’ve heard of. A couple of days ago (about 4 days after the lighting change) I noticed the curling starting in the larger nem’s tentacles. 2 days ago the curling became quite pronounced. I don’t see the bands on the tentacles yet but these nems can grow to a foot in diameter! Both of these guys have a lot of maturing to do yet!

I haven’t fed the curlicues directly like I do with the BTAs but now that I know what they are I’m going to try feeding them tonight directly. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

It turns out that there are two types of shrimp that are hosted by these anemones. Pederson shrimp and Spotted shrimp are the two in question. I’m going to see if I can get some.

Oh and the largest nem has been touching a Kenya tree yet it hasn’t caused it any harm. It turns out that while they aggressively sting, their venom isn’t potent at all. This system is definitely anemone heavy!

I know I wrote a book but it’s a pretty awesome discovery, at least to me. I’m glad I didn’t try to kill them. If you ever have an “aiptasia” that doesn’t spread, you just might have a curlicue anemone!