Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[rishma]

Surprised you’re able to maintain phosphate with the much lettuce growing

 

[BeanAnimal]

Reminds me of how little I miss dealing with my refgium.
Are you testing and supplementing iron?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Surprised you’re able to maintain phosphate with the much lettuce growing

I did think it might drop. Might be The TDO chromoboost which I heard is high in P.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Reminds me of how little I miss dealing with my refgium.
Are you testing and supplementing iron?

No testing. I just periodically add manganese and iron (in addition to what AFR adds). Both have a wide range of acceptability and deplete fast.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Very hard to judge growth since they moved and the angle changed, but in the 35 days since I got these two freebie frags with my milka stylo purchase, they seem to have grown. The yellow/green one is starting to encrust where I glued it down.

 

[JonoH]

They look like a Bubblegum Digi and a Green Goblin Anacropora.

Looking good!

 

[spsick]

You’ll be throwing handfuls of them away in no-time!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

They look like a Bubblegum Digi and a Green Goblin Anacropora.

Looking good!

The guy I got them from did say bubblegum or forest fire digi and WWC Slimeball anacropora. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You’ll be throwing handfuls of them away in no-time!

Maybe, if I don’t kill them first. lol

 

[Miami Reef]

That’s some incredible growth for only a month in. Usually it takes them that time just to acclimate.

 

[JonoH]

The guy I got them from did say bubblegum or forest fire digi and WWC Slimeball anacropora. :)

Nice - it does look slighly different to Green Goblin!

All my Anacropora prefer slightly lower light than the normal Acropora, they dont tend to encrust much at all, but grow fairly well!

Bubblegum/Forest fire Digi grow really well, the fish will frag them off as it breaks fairly easily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Prep for Magnifica

Unlike corals, prepping for an incoming
Magnifica is a substantial process and there are two big issues to deal with:

1. Whether to do a multi day or even multi week quarantine, possibly involving antibiotic treatment for internal infections.

2. Creating a suitable place where it will stay put.

Because these two things need to be worked out, I ordered the anemone to arrive next week.

Dr Mac and Pacificeast are known for very healthy magnificas since they have their own collection and shipping operation in Tonga:

Our Tonga Station

We now have our own exclusive station in Tonga. We'll be culturing corals and clams, plus collecting fish, clams, corals, and inverts. We just received one of only 5 export licenses and the first ever aquaculture permit for coral and clam culture. Follow along as we develop this budding new...

www.reef2reef.com

Because of that, and because I do not have any other high value carpets in the tank that might be put at risk, my hope is to skip the qt if the anemone looks good when it arrives, and put it right into the tank.

But if it does go south, I will have to take it back out and into a hospital tank. I have all the equipment I need for that, such as a 20 gallon tank, pumps, heater, eggcrate to separate anemone from equipment, etc.

Today I purchased Cipro from Dr Reef. If I wait to order until I need it, it might be too late. So it and the anemone should both arrive near in time.

Exactly how I will induce the anemone to stay on the “island” where I want it is an ongoing stress. They climb toward the light (they love light) and so an island can keep them in place.

But they like flat surfaces. My island is not flat. I have to work out a perch for it from modifying rocks or using some tiles that I have. That will be my main job over the next few days.

 

[jonelder68]

Parameters

Temp 80-81 deg F
Nitrate 0.8 ppm
Phosphate 0.32 ppm
Alk 9.0 dKH
pH 8.07

Added iron and manganese
Added ~10 ppm nitrate as sodium nitrate
Added 0.06 ppm iodide

Looks like the AFR is dialed in well.

Ulva is growing like crazy in both refugia. I harvested more than a gallon (700 wet grams) and the refugia still look pretty full.

Before harvest

After harvest (pitcher says it is 2 1/4 quarts). I filled it more than twice.

Has Ulva over taken all the other macros?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Has Ulva over taken all the other macros?

There are still some red macros, but the ulva grows over them.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Magnifica Preparation

Did some dry rock prep this morning. I sorted through the old rocks from my last tank and selected one I thought might work.

The plan is to remove the upper left rock in the first picture (left of Koji wada). It’s the rock behind the red sponge and to the right of the Koji wada in the second picture.

I will replace it with the rock I crafted this Morning (assuming it fits, I’m just judging by eye). I first used a saw, then a file and sander to smooth the edges and rough spots near the cut.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I rinsed it in tap water to remove the rock dust, then placed it underwater in the dark brute that has the skimmer and cooling coils. The thought is for bacteria to get a place on it before it gets blasted by light in the display. I’ll move it to the display in 5 or 6 days, just before the anemone arrives.

I have no idea if this action will make a difference, but I cannot see it hurting.

A less risk taking person would check it for fit now, but I’m going to live dangerously and assume I eyeballed it well enough. If not, I’ll be in a panic Tuesday morning. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

General update

All the fish are thriving. The mandarin looks to be twice as big as when it arrived. The others also still like to hang around together. No more aggression between the foxface and the tang.

Coralline continues to slowly expand on the back glass, overflows, etc.

 

[Big E]

Magnifica Preparation

Did some dry rock prep this morning. I sorted through the old rocks from my last tank and selected one I thought might work.

The plan is to remove the upper left rock in the first picture (left of Koji wada). It’s the rock behind the red sponge and to the right of the Koji wada in the second picture.

I will replace it with the rock I crafted this Morning (assuming it fits, I’m just judging by eye). I first used a saw, then a file and sander to smooth the edges and rough spots near the cut.

What type of hand saw is that?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What type of hand saw is that?

No idea how to characterize it. Ordinary saw I’ve had for 40 years. Meant for wood, but it cut through the rock reasonably well. Not appreciably harder than cutting through a hardwood. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Magnesium Considerations

In my last tank I supplied all calcium and alk via kalkwasser, so I needed to dose magnesium, and to do so I added extra to my AWC water. The beauty of that plan is mag cannot ever rise higher than the new salt water. Thus, no testing was ever needed.

I’m going to do the same now that I use AFR on this tank. Let’s see how much I’d need.

Currently I’m adding about 12 mL of AFR per day. That’s not actually measured, just based on the doser 1.1 mL per min claim (which Miami says is off, but let’s go with it).

At 43,000 ppm calcium for AFR, that is adding about 0.5 grams per day of actual calcium. At 1900 ppm magnesium, it is adding 0.023 grams of magnesium.

By RMM, I choose to add mag at 10% of calcium, or 0.05 g of magnesium total per day. That is 10% of the calcium. Thus, I need to add 0.05-0.023 g Mg =0.027 g per day.

Since I am auto changing about 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters) per day, I need to effectively add 0.027 g Mg per 9.5 liters = 2.8 ppm of magnesium to my new salt water. It’s hardly enough to even bother with, but I will. It’s also not enough to worry about ionic balance, so I will use the old bag of Epsom salt I gave.

I make up about 80 gallons (300 L) of salt water at a time, so I need 2.8 ppm in 300 L, which will be accomplished using 6 g Epsom salts (using the chem calculator).

Easily done. I’ll change it in the future if the AFR dose changes significantly.