RyanRick's 65g DI(mostly)Y Build

[ryanrick]

Things are slowly chugging along. DT is growing flatworms, coraline, and turf(?) algae. I have a cleanup squadron in the coral QT tank waiting out a 45 day 81degF preventative quarantine.

The DT has two clowns, a Tomini and a lawnmower blenny. Diamond goby and melanarus wrasse in fish QT. One orange shroom has been the solo coral for the last several months.

This week, I placed an LPS/softie order with @SeaCo Nico that will be joining the cleanup crew in QT! I am very excited for this delivery.

FTS 5/21/2022:

Flatworms... I may post this photo in the hitchhiker ID forum - anybody know what these are? Hopefully the melanarus wrasse makes short work of these. I plan to siphon them into the QT as 'training' for the mel. If not, I am willing to try flatwork exit before adding other corals to the DT.

Turf algae pod playground. My tuxedo urchin will have to hold this in check before the snail/hermit crew can come in for the rescue.

I guess good live rock comes with extras. I'll probably end up exterminating the ball anemones. The algae pulls easily off of this rock.

Invert QT.

Snails in QT:

Melanarus in QT:

Tomini in QT a few weeks ago:

 

[SeaCo Nico]

Yes looks like Red Planaria flatworms. You have the right idea that wrasse should help. If you want to be more proactive the flatworm exit works on them but def follow instructions for it. You have a really nice setup can't wait to see it with corals

 

[ryanrick]

Yes looks like Red Planaria flatworms. You have the right idea that wrasse should help. If you want to be more proactive the flatworm exit works on them but def follow instructions for it. You have a really nice setup can't wait to see it with corals

I appreciate it! I'll try the wrasse first, but it's reassuring to hear good things about flatworm exit.

 

[ryanrick]

Last year was too focused on grad school and work - life is too short for a poorly maintained reef tank!

I just finished dosing chemiclean to rid the tank of a thick cyano mat. I repeated the dose three times because I thought it was continuing to reappear. When I turned on my white lights for a closer inspection, the red cyano had been replaced with a stringy brown film that appears to be dinos.

Game plan for the next few days is to dose microbacter7 in the mornings and run my UV during the night. The sandbed has been clearing up at night, so I am hopeful that they are going into the water column and running the UV will kill them off. I may run to the LFS to see if they have some phyto-feast to dose with the MB7.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Last year was too focused on grad school and work - life is too short for a poorly maintained reef tank!

I just finished dosing chemiclean to rid the tank of a thick cyano mat. I repeated the dose three times because I thought it was continuing to reappear. When I turned on my white lights for a closer inspection, the red cyano had been replaced with a stringy brown film that appears to be dinos.

Game plan for the next few days is to dose microbacter7 in the mornings and run my UV during the night. The sandbed has been clearing up at night, so I am hopeful that they are going into the water column and running the UV will kill them off. I may run to the LFS to see if they have some phyto-feast to dose with the MB7.

Best of luck with getting rid of the dinos!!!

 

[ryanrick]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure I have bryopsis too.. I'll try to post some photos this weekend.

 

[ryanrick]

Still battling dinos. I performed the siphon/filter/shake test to confirm that these are really dinos - the filtered water clumped within 3 minutes!

 

[ryanrick]

The sandbed currently looks like this. I think a several day blackout is in order with elevated nutrients and daily MB7 dosing. Currently running a 25W AquaUV at 200 gph from 10 pm to 7 am.

Nutrients have not bottomed out:
Phosphate .01
Nitrate 5 ppm
Alk 8.0-8.3
Ca 420
Mg 1380
Ph 7.9-8.3

 

[ryanrick]

The bloom primarily stays on the sandbed and mostly dissappear after the lights cut out. I am surprised the UV doesn't kill them.

 

[ryanrick]

I used a turkey baster to inject MB7 beneath the sandbed this morning. Curious to see how those spots look this afternoon..

 

[ryanrick]

Trying a 2 day blackout to see if the biome can take hold at all. UV running 24/7. Hopefully tomorrow provides good results!

 

[ryanrick]

It's strange that my little 10 gallon nano is more stable than the bigger tank! No algae or dinos in there!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Trying a 2 day blackout to see if the biome can take hold at all. UV running 24/7. Hopefully tomorrow provides good results!

Best of luck with the black out!

 

[ryanrick]

Came home hoping to see bleach white sand. Instead, my pet dinos were hanging on the top of the sand bed. Not as prominent as before the blackout, but certainly present still. The filter floss on a clip didnt attract too many dinos. Overall, not too bad, but discouraging.

I plan to keep nutrients elevated, blowing off the dinos each evening, and to run the UV 24/7.

Nitrate 50 ppm
Phosphate 0.08 ppb
Alk 8.9 dKH
Ca 420 ppm
Mg 1383 ppm


Side note: flucanazole did wonders for the bryopsis and turf algae! I feel like I have a second shot at this tank.

 

[ryanrick]

My 10g invert qt that has been thriving for over a year. I can't wait to move some of these pieces over to the main tank.

 

[ryanrick]

Best of luck with the black out!

Thanks! It certainly helped.

 

[ryanrick]

This last weekend I was able to run an airline from my skimmer to the attic space. I ran it in a 2in pvc pipe to allow me to run drain, RO and new SW lines from future storage tanks in the garage!

 

[Lebowski_]

You do great DIY work.

I'm dealing with some uglies too. Can be demoralizing...but we will get through it.

 

[ryanrick]

You do great DIY work.

I'm dealing with some uglies too. Can be demoralizing...but we will get through it.

Thanks for the kind words! I love how the hobby requires so many skills from DIY to chemistry - there is always something to learn.

 

[ryanrick]

Two days after the second blackout, and some dinos have reappeared on the top of the sandbed. Not many, but certainly a noticeable amount. I basted then away and we will see what tomorrow holds..

Thoughts on doing a third blackout? The corals (LPS/softies) don't seem too angry.