Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[rishma]

The pic doesn't show for me, but it is this:.

What made you choose that elixir in particular?

 

[tripdad]

Fair warning.....your spouse will say new and strange words when you open the bottle in the house!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What made you choose that elixir in particular?

Supposed same day delivery from Petco. I was going away in a few days and needed something fast. I was looking for one of the Purple nonsulfur bacteria products since I had seen a number of folks have positive effects.

I probably would have gotten a PNS product if I could have gotten it as fast.

 

[rishma]

Supposed same day delivery from Petco. I was going away in a few days and needed something fast. I was looking for one of the Purple nonsulfur bacteria products since I had seen a number of folks have positive effects.

I probably would have gotten a PNS product if I could have gotten it as fast.

Ah. Ok. Im not in a hurry. I heard PNS being very effective on nutrients, which I don’t love since I’m quite happy with my nutrient levels. I disrupted the system with urea I think. The consequences of experimenting.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Magnifica and Clownfish Trio Update

The anemone has now been in that same spot for a few weeks. One day I saw the foot lifting off, but it went back down. No movement overall. Maybe a foot issue, and in lower flow it does not get detached fully. In any case, it is not looking around for a better spot.

The new spot light has been on it a few days. Too soon to tell if it is a positive or a negative or nothing at all. I did decide to put the light on a timer, which seems to preclude any setting except full power. I raised the light a few inches to help compensate for the higher intensity, which also spreads it out a bit more.

The trio of clowns continues to work well. All three seem happily ensconced in the anemone and never leave more than 3”, even to get food.

Pics from this morning before and after the spot light turned:

 

[Freenow54]

Magnifica and Clownfish Trio Update

The anemone has now been in that same spot for a few weeks. One day I saw the foot lifting off, but it went back down. No movement overall. Maybe a foot issue, and in lower flow it does not get detached fully. In any case, it is not looking around for a better spot.

The new spot light has been on it a few days. Too soon to tell if it is a positive or a negative or nothing at all. I did decide to put the light on a timer, which seems to preclude any setting except full power. I raised the light a few inches to help compensate for the higher intensity, which also spreads it out a bit more.

The trio of clowns continues to work well. All three seem happily ensconced in the anemone and never leave more than 3”, even to get food.

Pics from this morning before and after the spot light turned:

Very Nice you have everything going coralline algae and a happy family with no bickering . Beautiful. What is the other fish ? Is it on its own or is there more ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Very Nice you have everything going coralline algae and a happy family with no bickering . Beautiful. What is the other fish ? Is it on its own or is there more ?

Besides the three ocellaris clowns, there are two azure damsels, three green chromis, a yellow tang, a male mandarin, and a one spot foxface.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This is what I mean by the foot lifting up. It did it again this morning. The anemone has not moved, however.

 

[fandaga]

This is what I mean by the foot lifting up. It did it again this morning. The anemone has not moved, however.

You think it’s still not happy? Maybe just fine tuning its placement?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You think it’s still not happy? Maybe just fine tuning its placement?

I suspect it has a foot problem that makes it want to keep readjusting. I do not see any other magnifica keepers report such issues.

 

[fandaga]

I suspect it has a foot problem that makes it want to keep readjusting. I do not see any other magnifica keepers report such issues.

Oh interesting. I wouldn’t have guessed that. Granted, I have limited nem experience with just rock flower and 2 BTAs. I applaud you for working through all these issues though. Your photos are beautiful - definitely a center piece of the tank.

 

[Dan_P]

Supposed same day delivery from Petco. I was going away in a few days and needed something fast. I was looking for one of the Purple nonsulfur bacteria products since I had seen a number of folks have positive effects.

I probably would have gotten a PNS product if I could have gotten it as fast.

You have succumbed to the siren song of probiotics!!!

 

[skey44]

I think Duncan corals are one of those corals that are so easy people expect them to make it through anything. In my experience when they don’t do well there are significant maintenance issues and general lack of maintenance and proper care requirements being met. I ran into this when I was working in a fish store and the LPS display would go long periods without maintenance.

I love mine. It’s in a good spot where it should be able to get pretty big in the background of my tank.
This was a 4 polyp frag 8 months or so ago. Love the growth rate and movement it provides.

Still loving my Duncan! Haha saw a new reaction to this old post today and I realized how much mine had grown so I snapped a pic. I also had to
Move the space invaders chalice because it and the Hydnophora were too close for comfort. I’ve also fixed the surface film issue by adjusting the returns.

Hope you get the foot issue figured out Randy! Following.

 

[Aquacrazed]

Par measurements for my lighting test.

Spot light off, about 1” from oral disk of anemone (which is facing sideways), with sensor facing up 208

Spot light on 25%: 285

Spot light on 100%: 585

After 3.5 h on 25%, no negative reaction:

Are you keeping the spotlight on for only 3.5hrs? Any reason why? I'm doing the same thing (copying you). I got a 36W hygger spotlight for my nem and I am only running the blue spectrum. It's getting around 350 PAR combined (main light is a XR15 running AB+) and seems quite happy and hasn't moved in the last 2 weeks since adding it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Magnifica Update

One night recently the anemone came off the wall and onto the rocks below it. It’s been holding in that same spot the last few days. I don’t know what to think. It is partly in the spotlight and
mostly not. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Are you keeping the spotlight on for only 3.5hrs? Any reason why? I'm doing the same thing (copying you). I got a 36W hygger spotlight for my nem and I am only running the blue spectrum. It's getting around 350 PAR combined (main light is a XR15 running AB+) and seems quite happy and hasn't moved in the last 2 weeks since adding it.

The idea was to mimic the brighter part of the natural day. Don’t know if that means anything to it, but it was a guess. :)

 

[Freenow54]

Magnifica Update

One night recently the anemone came off the wall and onto the rocks below it. It’s been holding in that same spot the last few days. I don’t know what to think. It is partly in the spotlight and
mostly not. lol

I think and only a thought that when Coral have had enough the just close up. Maybe even " molt " to grow ? My Fiji tree does it for days then comes back full bore. I may have added too much Seachem Photo Plankton because another flowering if you will Coral is now acting the same way. I'm a little worried. So the point and the beauty of it is maybe its had enough , and since it can move that's what it does instead of closing up. I am interested in seeing if it moves back after a while if you don't chase it with the light

 

[Lasse]

FWIW

I have a similar down going of my cyanobacteria mats after first five days of CaCO3 powder and skimmate - wait a week - 2 days of new CaCO3/skimmate snow - wait a week.

I have no sign of lesser calcareous algae - more the opposite.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Freenow54]

I think and only a thought that when Coral have had enough the just close up. Maybe even " molt " to grow ? My Fiji tree does it for days then comes back full bore. I may have added too much Seachem Photo Plankton because another flowering if you will Coral is now acting the same way. I'm a little worried. So the point and the beauty of it is maybe its had enough , and since it can move that's what it does instead of closing up. I am interested in seeing if it moves back after a while if you don't chase it with the light

Hope you don't

mind this if so please say so. Pics of what I meant

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

AWC and Chemistry Updates

Got my two warranty replacement BRS 50 mL/min dosers used in my AWC. Both recently died and were still within the warranty window. AWC has been off for a couple of weeks.

I installed them and calibrated the flow to see how well they match. I ran the timer for about 10 min and weighed the output at the dispensing locations (sink drain is maybe 40 tubing feet from the pump so I wanted to calibrate in the actual use situation)

Inflow: 57 mL/min
Outflow:59 mL/min

Pretty close. If I make my AWC water to 36.2 ppt, it should stay around 35 ppt.

Other chemistry today:

Alk: 6.7 dKH I upped the noncalibrated BrS 1.1 mL per min doser from 32 min per day to 42 min per day. Dosing is at 9 AM, 2 h after lights on.

PH at 11 AM: 7.86
Nitrate 9.6 ppm (fine, no ammonia dosing changes)
Temp: 79.0 deg F
Salinity: 35.1 ppt, 53.2 mS/cm, sg = 1.0265