Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[rishma]

Mandarin Update

The male mandarin is doing great and is now much larger than when it arrived. I do not spot feed it, but the tank has lots of small pods.

I’m considering adding a second female after the first was lost shortly after arrival
Last time (it just disappeared).

I started a thread in the fish forum to discuss.

FWIW, that clowns are still doing great in the anemone and do not appear to be having any negative interactions between them.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/adding-second-mandarin-risk.1125595/

I feel like they will be peaceful together until one becomes dominant and female. Then the question will be if they are open to having a thrupple.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I feel like they will be peaceful together until one becomes dominant and female. Then the question will be if they are open to having a thrupple.

Yes, that is my expectation as well. Somehow they are common in the wild. :)

 

[rishma]

I feel like they will be peaceful together until one becomes dominant and female. Then the question will be if they are open to having a thrupple.

Yes, that is my expectation as well. Somehow they are common in the wild. :)

I wonder if predators have something to do with it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I wonder if predators have something to do with it.

Could be. Bigger school of clowns to defend the home.

 

[Techie_]

Hey Randy, love what you do around here, I really appreciate it. On the advice of me LFS I ended up caving and getting a protein skimmer and added it to my 3 months old tank. Turned out to be a huge issue because I bottomed out my phosphates from a healthy 0.08ppm to non-detectable levels (hanna ULR) and dipped my nitrate to about 4ppm from 16ppm. I've ID'd the dinos as Ostreopsis. My question to you isn't so much as what to do about the dinos apart from pods, manual removal, and UV; but rather what can I do to keep the phosphates at a reasonable level. I had maintained 0.06-0.08 with feeding and 10% water changes for almost the entire 3 months and adding the skimmer totally nuked them after I started to produce skimmate.

In hindsight, I felt in my gut that it was too soon to add the skimmer but I blindly accepted their advice. Won't be doing that again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hey Randy, love what you do around here, I really appreciate it. On the advice of me LFS I ended up caving and getting a protein skimmer and added it to my 3 months old tank. Turned out to be a huge issue because I bottomed out my phosphates from a healthy 0.08ppm to non-detectable levels (hanna ULR) and dipped my nitrate to about 4ppm from 16ppm. I've ID'd the dinos as Ostreopsis. My question to you isn't so much as what to do about the dinos apart from pods, manual removal, and UV; but rather what can I do to keep the phosphates at a reasonable level. I had maintained 0.06-0.08 with feeding and 10% water changes for almost the entire 3 months and adding the skimmer totally nuked them after I started to produce skimmate.

In hindsight, I felt in my gut that it was too soon to add the skimmer but I blindly accepted their advice. Won't be doing that again.

I’m surprised a skimmer would drop phosphate, but regardless of the reason, dosing food grade sodium phosphate is easy and inexpensive. That’s one of the things I did with dinos.

 

[Techie_]

I’m surprised a skimmer would drop phosphate, but regardless of the reason, dosing food grade sodium phosphate is easy and inexpensive. That’s one of the things I did with dinos.

Perhaps it did not drop them then... That's just the only thing that changed between then and now. What do you recommend to take action against these dinos? leave the skimmer on?

 

[Miami Reef]

Do magnifica anemones readily split like bubble tips?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Perhaps it did not drop them then... That's just the only thing that changed between then and now. What do you recommend to take action against these dinos? leave the skimmer on?

I’d start a thread in this topic for more lengthy discussion. I’d dose phosphate and leave the skimmer on. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do magnifica anemones readily split like bubble tips?

Rarely. I do not recall if I have read of any first hand accounts.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Clown Update

One last clown update, then I’ll drop back to just posting about them if anything noteworthy changes. All is well with the three. No apparent wrestling or even the “vibrating” at each other, and all three just seem to be happily enjoying the anemone together. They like to eat TDO chromoboost pellets that I crush to a smaller size for them.

Here’s a pic:

 

[Techie_]

I’d start a thread in this topic for more lengthy discussion. I’d dose phosphate and leave the skimmer on. :)

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dino-id-please.1125655/#post-13821106
Already done :) thanks for your help!

 

[Miami Reef]

Clown Update

One last clown update, then I’ll drop back to just posting about them if anything noteworthy changes. All is well with the three. No apparent wrestling or even the “vibrating” at each other, and all three just seem to be happily enjoying the anemone together. They like to eat TDO chromoboost pellets that I crush to a smaller size for them.

Here’s a pic:

So beautiful. The clownfish eyes are completely black. What morph are they’? They are so cute.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So beautiful. The clownfish eyes are completely black. What morph are they’? They are so cute.

They are just wild type occellaris clowns, although I do not know the history of the parents. Dr reef raises them at his facility. No special marketing name. :)

 

[Miami Reef]

They are just wild type occellaris clowns, although I do not know the history of the parents. Dr reef raises them at his facility. No special marketing name. :)

Oh whoops. I just realized my clownfish’s eyes are also full black after looking at my photos. lol
The standard ocellaris clownfish is my favorite.

I think “zombie clownfish” is the most hideous thing to ever exist lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Oh whoops. I just realized my clownfish’s eyes are also full black after looking at my photos. lol
The standard ocellaris clownfish is my favorite.

I think “zombie clownfish” is the most hideous thing to ever exist lol

Like the red eye lab rat version of a clownfish. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Chemistry Update

pH 8.1 at 11:30 am (using newly calibrated pH meter, which probably now reads about 0.1 pH higher than previously)

Alk 8.0 dKH

AFR dosing timer upped from 14 min per day to 15 min per day

0.06 ppm iodide as KI added (typically once per week)

Iron and manganese added (typically once per week)

New bottle of phytofeast live swapped into mini fridge doser. That system is working very well, although the fridge internal temp varies more than I’d like since I want it close to freezing, but not freezing the phyto. Ranges 33 to 45 deg F inside fridge. I put a number of cold packs in the fridge to try to smooth out the temp.

 

[rishma]

Chemistry Update

pH 8.1 at 11:30 am (using newly calibrated pH meter, which probably now reads about 0.1 pH higher than previously)

Alk 8.0 dKH

AFR dosing timer upped from 14 min per day to 15 min per day

0.06 ppm iodide as KI added (typically once per week)

Iron and manganese added (typically once per week)

New bottle of phytofeast live swapped into mini fridge doser. That system is working very well, although the fridge internal temp varies more than I’d like since I want it close to freezing, but not freezing the phyto. Ranges 33 to 45 deg F inside fridge. I put a number of cold packs in the fridge to try to smooth out the temp.

What did you use to calibrate pH probe? Brand of fluid? DIY?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What did you use to calibrate pH probe? Brand of fluid? DIY?

I used pH 7 and 10 of this brand:

https://a.co/d/dQtzShR

 

[picea]

Can you talk a little bit about your thinking process when it comes to what you're dosing and the amounts? There are so many options - it's a little overwhelming to make sense of at times.