Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[kratosxxl]

I have auto feeders that deliver food (Prime Reef flake and TDO chromoboost small pellets) 10 times a day, and I add frozen food 2x per day when I am home.

wow thats a quite schedule :) do you also turn off wave makers during feeding ? I feed twice a day for now using Plank but i do turn off waves

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

wow thats a quite schedule :) do you also turn off wave makers during feeding ? I feed twice a day for now using Plank but i do turn off waves

I don’t do anything except let the two Eheim auto feeders and a Lonza brand equivalent deliver into floating ring feeders to make the food sink before floating away and over an overflow.

 

[Dan_P]

Chemistry Update

Nothing particularly notable, but I’m reporting it for completeness.

Nitrate 11 ppm (no change to ammonia dosing)

Salinity 34.6 ppt (sg = 1.0261) no change to AWC; made a new batch new salt water and added molybdste and nickel as I did last time)

Temp 78.5 deg F. Back to normal after the raising during the blizzard)

pH 8.1 at 12:40 pm

Alk 9.3 dKH. Rising a bit, but ok and hard corals and coralline are doing very well. Not going to reduce the AFR yet.

Phosphate 0.48 ppm. Continues to rise. I’m reluctant to use GFO or lanthanum, but I may get an external canister filter to better run GAC and do some mechanical particle removal.

I cleaned the skimmer neck. Photos below of the neck after a finger swipe, and a handful of the mud from it.

Made a new 1.5 L batch of AFR and 1.1 L of 0.1 N sulfuric acid for alk titrations from the 2.0 N acid I have on hand,

Looking at the quantity of mud, I would guess you skim on the dry side 100 mL liquid/day) and don’t clean the neck that often (once a month). Am I close?

 

[Dan_P]

Still catching up…two questions.

Am I seeing dinoflagellates on the sand?

The color of coralline is roughly pink or magenta. In the pictures above it can appear blue -purple. Can I safely assume that the camera software is at fault?

 

[Dan_P]

FWIW, I don’t seem to have dino issues, but green algae seems to be revving up. I’m ok with that, but the cuc, including the yellow tank and one spot fox

face are going to need to up their game:

The photo of the rock has brown patches not green. Is this the camera’ fault again?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The photo of the rock has brown patches not green. Is this the camera’ fault again?

Not sure when that picture is from, but I did have a bout of dinos about a year ago. It’s long gone and the current pests are all green hair algae. Cyano (came twice between dinos and now) is also entirely gone.

The color of the coralline and other stuff changes as I move the camera since the iPhone is somehow adjusting color to what it thinks it “should” be.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Looking at the quantity of mud, I would guess you skim on the dry side 100 mL liquid/day) and don’t clean the neck that often (once a month). Am I close?

Correct, I infrequently clean the skimmer neck and I let the skimmate collect in a salt bucket. Yes,,less than 100 mL per day.

 

[Dan_P]

Correct, I infrequently clean the skimmer neck and I let the skimmate collect in a salt bucket. Yes,,less than 100 mL per day.

Thanks, just trying to stay grounded.

 

[Dan_P]

Not sure when that picture is from, but I did have a bout of dinos about a year ago. It’s long gone and the current pests are all green hair algae. Cyano (came twice between dinos and now) is also entirely gone.

The color of the coralline and other stuff changes as I move the camera since the iPhone is somehow adjusting color to what it thinks it “should” be.

Thanks. I have been casually following your aquarium’s surface growth (periphyton) and was thinking about formalizing the observations. Looks like I need to use great care when compring colors.