Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You did a nice job with the aquascape. I like the small rock coming out of the sand on the right; that’s the best part.

It reminds of a rocky shore or an island.

Thanks. Hopefully the same can be said after the remainder of the rock is added. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ammonia update: Seachem alert continues to show nothing. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The light mounting hardware in place:

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

having experience with double enders and salt water, maybe grease them with graphite (scribbling on the locking rod with a pencil over and over and moving it so the dust goes into the mechanism) and possibly some generous silicone lube ontop so there aren't any open gaps, so they dont seize up if they haven't been opened up for a couple years and were subjected to salt spray. Even if they don't rust, salt crystals can jam the mechanism up.

Thanks again for this suggestion. While it turned my hands black, I treated the light mount hardware exactly as suggested (except I used powder graphite instead of a pencil). :)

 

[areefer01]

Thanks again for this suggestion. While it turned my hands black, I treated the light mount hardware exactly as suggested (except I used powder graphite instead of a pencil). :)

You know there are gloves that won't impact your dexterity ;)

Teasing of course.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You know there are gloves that won't impact your dexterity ;)

Teasing of course.

I didn’t realize until it was too late, but I have 3 more sets to do!

 

[Miami Reef]

Biota Yellow Tang update!

His name is Randall. :P

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Biota Yellow Tang update!

His name is Randall. :p

Omg, I hope he’s a good addition. lol

 

[Miami Reef]

Omg, I hope he’s a good addition. lol

Haha

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m working on getting all my lights up and running and encountered an issue with the coral glow. Any help is appreciated:

Help needed: AI Blade on myAI app

Hi folks, I could use some help from folks familiar with the myAI app and especially for AI blades. I have 4 blades, 3 freshwater and 1 coral glow. All of them work via the app dashboard , such as with “lights on 50%”. All stay on as long as they are supposed to. They also all seem to show...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok, lights are under control now. Had to delete the coral glow and add it again. Works now. These are the color controls I have:

 

[twentyleagues]

Ok, lights are under control now. Had to delete the coral glow and add it again. Works now. These are the color controls I have:

I was going to say I only had 1 until a week ago. So I dont know how well they play together. I picked up a freshwater to go on my new tanks fuge along with the coral grow I already have. I'll probably start with just the fw one and see what it is like.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Fwiw, the live sand apparently has some tunneling creatures in it, but I’m not sure what they are yet. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Tunze Skimmer Update

The Tunze 9410 skimmer is now all set and has been running very well for a few weeks. The organic load has been coming from the refugium.

I somehow misjudged the skimmer height relative to the water level, and it was collecting too much liquid because it was too deep in the water. Recall that in Brute #2 the skimmer is resting on an inverted laundry basket with the plastic cooling coils under and around it. Instead of trying to mess with the basket, I cleaned a flat rock I had (shale maybe) and placed it under the skimmer to reach the recommended 6" depth of water around the skimmer. That fixed the collection issue and it has been collecting dark tea skimmate for a while now.

Since I'm often not at the tank, I wanted to be able to collect skimmate almost endlessly, so I chose to use the foam extraction unit instead of the collection cup. That change too has been working well. Here's a picture of it attached to the top of the skimmer, and the second picture shows that foam rises in it, and out the tubing to the left, for collection.

Here's a look down the side of the skimmer into the brute can. The white tubes are the cooling coils. Water exits the skimmer in the dark ring at the bottom of the picture, and flows over to the white ring that has a 300 micron filter bag attached. It is removable, but particles larger than 300 micron might be worth catching. I'm experimenting with that. It is also suitable for putting GAC in the bag, and will likely try that when I think I'm ready to use GAC.

Here's a look at skimmate that has been collecting for about a week (picture is a 5 gallon bucket).

I set up a way to collect into a 5 gallon bucket from TBS by sending the skimmate down a section of PVC pipe cut to just allow it to enter through a whole cut in the top of the bucket. I drilled two holes in the pipe at the bottom end to unsure that skimmate can get out even if the pipe is flat on the bucket bottom.

Finally, I used another tbs bucket to cover the top of the skimmer as shown below. This allows for no moisture to escape to the room from the Brute, as the black tubing to the right of the picture is sucking out the air, keeping the skimmer using fresh air.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The second half of the TBS package (premium rock and the clean up crew) is likely to come mid May, as they will be busy with RAP Orlando.

Since that is fairly far off, I'm wondering if I should add any food for the tank in the meanwhile. There are at least 2 hermit crabs, and probably otehr creatures that want food. There may be plenty on the base rock and sand, but maybe not. I just don't know.

In the meanwhile before deciding, I think I'll bring up a little of the macroalgae from the sump to the main tank, in case it has parts that creatures may like to consume. There is some microalgae growing on it as well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Just messed around in my refugium to see what has survived the past month. Several red macros I got from a local (AFboundguy) seemed to be doing very well. There was some detritus/microalgae on them, but fluffing it around a bit and it is clear they have grown well. Several pics below, moved to the display. Most stayed in the refugium.

The wild macroalgae I got from the ocean (first picture) is hanging in there, but maybe not growing much. There is also some ulva (I think) and green hair algae.

 

[afboundguy]

Just messed around in my refugium to see what has survived the past month. Several red macros I got from a local (AFboundguy) seemed to be doing very well. There was some detritus/microalgae on them, but fluffing it around a bit and it is clear they have grown well. Several pics below, moved to the display. Most stayed in the refugium.

The wild macroalgae I got from the ocean (first picture) is hanging in there, but maybe not growing much. There is also some ulva (I think) and green hair algae.

Glad it's doing well sir! Mine is a mess right now and I need to trim and re-arrange them myself!

 

[dwest]

Tunze Skimmer Update

The Tunze 9410 skimmer is now all set and has been running very well for a few weeks. The organic load has been coming from the refugium.

I somehow misjudged the skimmer height relative to the water level, and it was collecting too much liquid because it was too deep in the water. Recall that in Brute #2 the skimmer is resting on an inverted laundry basket with the plastic cooling coils under and around it. Instead of trying to mess with the basket, I cleaned a flat rock I had (shale maybe) and placed it under the skimmer to reach the recommended 6" depth of water around the skimmer. That fixed the collection issue and it has been collecting dark tea skimmate for a while now.

Since I'm often not at the tank, I wanted to be able to collect skimmate almost endlessly, so I chose to use the foam extraction unit instead of the collection cup. That change too has been working well. Here's a picture of it attached to the top of the skimmer, and the second picture shows that foam rises in it, and out the tubing to the left, for collection.

Here's a look down the side of the skimmer into the brute can. The white tubes are the cooling coils. Water exits the skimmer in the dark ring at the bottom of the picture, and flows over to the white ring that has a 300 micron filter bag attached. It is removable, but particles larger than 300 micron might be worth catching. I'm experimenting with that. It is also suitable for putting GAC in the bag, and will likely try that when I think I'm ready to use GAC.

Here's a look at skimmate that has been collecting for about a week (picture is a 5 gallon bucket).

I set up a way to collect into a 5 gallon bucket from TBS by sending the skimmate down a section of PVC pipe cut to just allow it to enter through a whole cut in the top of the bucket. I drilled two holes in the pipe at the bottom end to unsure that skimmate can get out even if the pipe is flat on the bucket bottom.

Finally, I used another tbs bucket to cover the top of the skimmer as shown below. This allows for no moisture to escape to the room from the Brute, as the black tubing to the right of the picture is sucking out the air, keeping the skimmer using fresh air.

I put GFO in my skimmer bag. It’s much simpler than any other method I’ve tried.

 

[rishma]

The second half of the TBS package (premium rock and the clean up crew) is likely to come mid May, as they will be busy with RAP Orlando.

Since that is fairly far off, I'm wondering if I should add any food for the tank in the meanwhile. There are at least 2 hermit crabs, and probably otehr creatures that want food. There may be plenty on the base rock and sand, but maybe not. I just don't know.

In the meanwhile before deciding, I think I'll bring up a little of the macroalgae from the sump to the main tank, in case it has parts that creatures may like to consume. There is some microalgae growing on it as well.

Are you planning to light the tank right away?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Are you planning to light the tank right away?

What do you recommend?

My thought is to light it at a low level, enough to keep the coralline and anything else that needs light alive. It will be a month until the next rock arrives, and that seems too long to go unlit to me.

I really don’t know how much light it needs, but tbs says that most things on the rock prefer low light.