Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Freenow54]

Budget isn’t the concern, within reason. But I want to avoid shipped corals.

more ideas 1) Orange oxide zoa 2) spiderman Palythoa 3) )pink tipped torches lots of variations can be expensive and are aggressive to other corals beautiful but need room

 

[Luminous74]

Why not add something that brings more movement into the tank and makes the flow visible – for example a Euphyllia or a similar coral?
They are available in many color variations and add to the overall dynamics of the aquarium.
Of course, only if the light intensity and flow are suitable for it.

 

[Freenow54]

Why not add something that brings more movement into the tank and makes the flow visible – for example a Euphyllia or a similar coral?
They are available in many color variations and add to the overall dynamics of the aquarium.
Of course, only if the light intensity and flow are suitable for it.

be careful

they take over you will have to crop them

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Following, always appreciate the useful information.

I am aiming to gradually introduce more whites, I personally love the shallow reef look. Any opinion on white lights and algae growth? The only thing preventing me from increasing whites is my GHA which has yet to completely subside.

I don’t have any green algae problem on rocks and such. I do scrape the glass every 1-2 days. I’m not convinced that algae problems are enhanced by white light, but it may make it easier to see. A strong clean up crew can usually eliminate green algae.

 

[kobe6710]

Following, always appreciate the useful information.

I am aiming to gradually introduce more whites, I personally love the shallow reef look. Any opinion on white lights and algae growth? The only thing preventing me from increasing whites is my GHA which has yet to completely subside.

Okay got it thank you

Can’t wait to see how your tank progresses

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Magnifica Update

I noticed yesterday that the anemone had moved from the back glass to the front of the overflow, at the top.

This morning I see it somehow jumped to the rock island. I have no confidence it will stay there, but the powerhead guards will hopefully protect it if it goes that direction.

 

[Spencer]

So you felt like Microbe Lift Special Blend helped your cyano?

I just tried my second coral snow + MB7 application. The first one was uneffective. Going to wait a little longer before giving a verdict. I would maybe try an Algae Barn pods package next.

I'm trying to keep my NO3 and PO4 off (Hanna) zero with trisodium phosphate and ammonium bicarb. At least 3-5 ppm and 0.03 - 0.05 ppm, for instance. Do you agree with that measure?

I think the logic is that cyano will always outcompete "beneficial bacteria" in a nutrient-constrained environment.

 

[revhtree]

New Colony?

Since it seems like the anemone is happier where it is, I’m
musing about getting a hard coral colony to place on top of the rock island (center left in picture below). It’s a very central part of the tank that is clearly empty.

Since I had poor luck with shipped frags and better luck with local corals, I have been monitoring the local board for folks looking to offload colonies. I may contact some local folks as well.

I’m thinking something blue or yellow or green would look good on the rock island.

Thoughts?

You must be good at water chemistry since your coraline algae growth is insane!

 

[Freenow54]

You must be good at water chemistry since your coraline algae growth is insane!

It makes no sense at all . I have one tank that flourishes with Coraline , and no green . My second has no Coraline , but green algae on glass when I had a very small light meant for terrariums so I could see what I was doing in the sump , it grew green algae on the glass . They are all mainly are white light . The small one with the Coraline gets water flow from a canister filter , and a medium sized power head that is not stirring up the sand . The second Tank has flow from a canister and an echo Teck sump pump My third tank I left the lights on but no rock just empty , and it started stuff growing in the sand. I did not do any investigation , just turned off the lights. When I checked the next day with a flashlight it was gone. all the tanks have low power lights , and very little light from the home and remember saying this Randy ? No porch Light either

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You must be good at water chemistry since your coraline algae growth is insane!

Lol
Not sure what it means, but the coralline is going gangbusters now. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So you felt like Microbe Lift Special Blend helped your cyano?

I just tried my second coral snow + MB7 application. The first one was uneffective. Going to wait a little longer before giving a verdict. I would maybe try an Algae Barn pods package next.

I'm trying to keep my NO3 and PO4 off (Hanna) zero with trisodium phosphate and ammonium bicarb. At least 3-5 ppm and 0.03 - 0.05 ppm, for instance. Do you agree with that measure?

I think the logic is that cyano will always outcompete "beneficial bacteria" in a nutrient-constrained environment.

I think that’s a good plan, if for no other reasons than helping corals and less Dino risk.

 

[Spencer]

Do you think it's possible to have "too much" bacterial filtration (high surface area media) in a tank system?

My sump is loaded with ceramic balls + a bio brick + LR chunk and I'm wondering if I should cut back, given my chronically low nutrients. I've also cut my skimming to nighttime-only in the past (but not while fighting cyano).

I originally did this due to a very minimalistic display scape with dry rock.

I think that’s a good plan, if for no other reasons than helping corals and less Dino risk.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you think it's possible to have "too much" bacterial filtration (high surface area media) in a tank system?

My sump is loaded with ceramic balls + a bio brick + LR chunk and I'm wondering if I should cut back, given my chronically low nutrients. I've also cut my skimming to nighttime-only in the past (but not while fighting cyano).

I originally did this due to a very minimalistic display scape with dry rock.

Yes, I think it may be detrimental, allowing bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrate instead of corals consuming it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

System Update

Just got back from a multi day trip to NYC to celebrate my wife's birthday with a couple of musicals, some restaurants, etc.

Great trip, but one afternoon I got a low temp alert to my phone. 74 and dropping steadily. Worse yet, most of my temp sensors were offline, and the house was set to a low temp while we were away. Web cams on the tank looked OK, but the alarm was audible in the web cams.

Called one of my daughters at almost the worst possible time: 1 h before kickoff of the patriot's football playoff game. She is a huge fan and lives not far away.

There is an unfortunate oddity to how an electrician set up a dedicated line to the fish room, with a bank of 5 GFCI outlets, but ALSO a GFCI breaker. I'd rather not have the breaker, but in all the years that I've used it, I've only gotten trips from real tank events on the GFCI outlets, never the breaker itself.

Face timing with her in the fish room, we soon tracked down the problem to the breaker. It was tripped, but no apparent reason why, and I cannot now tell if it was a GFI trip or an amperage trip, but probably the former. In any case, when she reset it, everything came back online, with 4 more screaming temperature alarms. I was concerned that it might trip again any minute, or over the next 24 h as things on timers turned on and off, but no, all was ok.

The reset brought many things back online, including the return pump, the heaters, the skimmer, and various dosing pumps. That brought the tank temp down even more (down to 72) as the colder water in the sump in the basement fish room went upstairs. After she reset it, all has been running fine for several days.

It also turns out that the house had an apparent power failure. It's possible that some sort of surge or other event may have triggered the tripping since there is a fair amount of amperage on this 20 amp circuit (heaters, etc.). Not 20 amps, but maybe for long enough in a weird power situation to trip.

lessons learned:

1. Maybe replace the GFI breaker with a normal one, that way I only lose things on the same GFI outlet (I knew this, but never experienced such an issue in many years of use).

2. Put the return pump on its own entire circuit, or at least with very low risk items, since all heating and cooling fails if the return pump stops.

3. I might add a web cam in the fish room to see things like temp readouts and the refugium lights, as well as hear the return water trickling, etc.

 

[Renfield42]

Yikes. Glad it worked out in the end. Amazing how these things seem to always happen at the worst time.

A conventional breaker and dedicated pump circuit sound like a good idea. The additional camera would provide additional piece of mind and valuable info for remote troubleshooting.

Every time someone asks me if it’s hard to keep a reef tank they invariably realize you have to be a little nuts to be in this hobby.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Magnifica Update.

The magnifica is still on the rock island. It’s been moving a bit. One picture below shows what the foot often looks like. And I think the foot is its issue.

 

[Big E]

Magnifica Update

I noticed yesterday that the anemone had moved from the back glass to the front of the overflow, at the top.

This morning I see it somehow jumped to the rock island. I have no confidence it will stay there, but the powerhead guards will hopefully protect it if it goes that direction.

Just curious why it's mounted so low? They like a lot of intense light and flow. My friend that has numerous Mags are all near the surface on bommies and getting very high par and flow. Some of his Mags are ten years old.

I would try to aquascape the tank so the Mag has it's own bommie in the center of the tank keeping it away from the sides of the tank.

These are just suggestions that I'm giving based off his success. If you want more info I can get you in contact with him.

Imo, you have to design the tank with the Mag as the priority and work around the rest once it's in a good place.

 

[rishma]

Just curious why it's mounted so low? They like a lot of intense light and flow. My friend that has numerous Mags are all near the surface on bommies and getting very high par and flow. Some of his Mags are ten years old.

I would try to aquascape the tank so the Mag has it's own bommie in the center of the tank keeping it away from the sides of the tank.

These are just suggestions that I'm giving based off his success. If you want more info I can get you in contact with him.

Imo, you have to design the tank with the Mag as the priority and work around the rest once it's in a good place.

If you read through the thread, he did all these things. The anemone moves

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just curious why it's mounted so low? They like a lot of intense light and flow. My friend that has numerous Mags are all near the surface on bommies and getting very high par and flow. Some of his Mags are ten years old.

I would try to aquascape the tank so the Mag has it's own bommie in the center of the tank keeping it away from the sides of the tank.

These are just suggestions that I'm giving based off his success. If you want more info I can get you in contact with him.

Imo, you have to design the tank with the Mag as the priority and work around the rest once it's in a good place.

Thank you. :)

Just for the record, I have gotten and continue to get lots of advice from folks at Reef2Reef who are anemone experts, both planning the tank and dealing with this specimen. There are several threads in the anemone forum discussing it.

I’m not sure what you mean by mounted low. When the magnifica is on top of its planned rock island, the top of the anemone is in the upper third of the tank. That puts the par in the range that others at Reef2Reef keep them.

As to the location, it is as you describe, unable to touch any walls of the tank from the bommie top. The entire aquascape was planned with that design in mind. It has never left the bommie by touching the side walls and moving onto it. It leaves the bommie by detaching from the rock entirely and floating free. Same when it was on the glass at the tank top: it released.

I don’t think inadequate light is the issue that causes it to move. It has sometimes moved from higher to lower light, and did not move back.

While I do not know for sure, I suspect it has some foot problem that causes it to be unhappy with the grip it gets, regardless of the nature of the location or the nature of the surface.

 

[X-37B]

Thank you. :)

Just for the record, I have gotten and continue to get lots of advice from folks at Reef2Reef who are anemone experts, both planning the tank and dealing with this specimen. There are several threads in the anemone forum discussing it.

I’m not sure what you mean by mounted low. When the magnifica is on top of its planned rock island, the top of the anemone is in the upper third of the tank. That puts the par in the range that others at Reef2Reef keep them.

As to the location, it is as you describe, unable to touch any walls of the tank from the bommie top. The entire aquascape was planned with that design in mind. It has never left the bommie by touching the side walls and moving onto it. It leaves the bommie by detaching from the rock entirely and floating free. Same when it was on the glass at the tank top: it released.

I don’t think inadequate light is the issue that causes it to move. It has sometimes moved from higher to lower light, and did not move back.

While I do not know for sure, I suspect it has some foot problem that causes it to be unhappy with the grip it gets, regardless of the nature of the location or the nature of the surface.

You have a traveling nem. Sounds like it's foot needs to see an aquatic podiatrist, lol.
After it gets a few more miles in its travels it may one day find its spot.