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sharkyahd

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Heck yeah! first post of pg 5!

UPDATE:
Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since I have updated the thread, but here we are. This post will be long and full of updates. On my last few posts I mentioned that I was able to link up with @N1tew0lf1212 and his wife, who are totally awesome. They are friends that my wife and I hope to continue to see on a more regular basis. During Reefstock, we acquired a RFA, neon green goni, and an indo torch from some great vendors. We also can't forget the hammers from our buddy!

Overview:
In the last two weeks or so we have had many challenges. My nitrates and phosphates have fluctuated to a point where I had to battle cyano. After trying to get rid of it as naturally as possible, my impatience led to my decision to treat with chemiclean.

My entire process:

1. Fed everyone more than usual because I wasn’t going to mess with the tank for at least 48hours.
2. Big water change of 10g, which is 2/3 of my tank volume. I tried to toothbrush off the rocks what I could and suck out as much of it with a siphon as possible. It did take some sand with it. TURNED OFF UV.
3. Added DOUBLE the chemiclean dose for my tank. My reasoning is If it works for March on Fragbox, it should work for me. Doubling the dose in his opinion lowers the chance it can build any resistance to future treatment because they're eradicated. Not sure how solid this information is, but I was ready to take the risk.
3.1 For the next 48hours I did a “Black out” it was not a true black out because the tank still got some light from the room itself. This was maybe three hours a day of light from the room. We have blackout curtains but I like sitting in the office to do some work. I did unplugged the tank light itself.
3.2 When I checked on it the end of the second day I could tell that it was wiped out. BUT I left the chemiclean in there to run another 2 days. Corals were beginning to be more agitated probably due to the nutrients bouncing around during this time, but I’d rather them a little agitated than smothered by cyano during the day when lights are on and I’m not home.
4. On day 4 I fed everything a fat amount because they’re mad and starving. No fatalities in the tank.
5. About 15 min after feeding I did another huge water change to suck everything I could that wasn’t water out of the water column. Probably closer to almost 80% water change. I also replaced all the floss, rinsed biomedia in new saltwater. Cleaned off ALL the equipment including heater, pumps, wavemakers, media baskets. While doing so I questioned all my life choices that led me to that point in my life.
6. After putting everything back together I threw in some chemipure blue. Then I dosed microbactor7 and switched my UV back on.


As of today (3/25/2023):
Phosphates: 0.104 and Nitrates are 9.8
These parameters are after dosing with Neonitro and Neophos because they bottomed out after my most recent water change. I have not checked the other elements as of yet (blasphemy I know) because I want to stabilize these parameters first. I do fairly frequent water changes, 30% once every two weeks, and do not have any SPS to suck the nutrients dry.

Losses:
- 2 heads of hammer coral
- Leroy the firefish goby

Most Recent Tank Shots:
Torches
Acan Island
Hammer Hill
Mtn Dew GSP
Neon Green Goni
Zoas
RFA
 
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sharkyahd

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For my ride or die readers of this thread, thank you for following my journey still. If you ever have any advice I would love to hear it! Or just a hi will do too!

I swear I want to keep my hands out of the tank, but the space is so small that there’s a little warfare going on and getting my flow right has been an absolute nightmare. Oh the joys of nano reefs. I did my second water change this week and this is what I found and my solutions thus far.

My indo gold torch and my purple Aussie highlighter torch (not a blacklight like I was told) and my green highlighter Aussie torch have been extending but maybe only 60% compared to when I just got them. They’re really healthy and happy otherwise— full polyps, no wilting, pulse with the flow, and they have a nice fleshline. The only thing I could think of was they need more space. When they initially had some the green highlighter was much happier. They were all still on the same rock. Fast forward to last night I reset the rock so it wasn’t wobbly on the stack and moved the green highlighter across the tank. He’s much happier with a lower flow and with lights just coming on the other two torches have extended to about $75%. I guess the thick green polyps from the highlighter were agitating the thinner polyps on the other two.

“Hammer Hill” used to be a tiny rock with no space. After seeing the torches thrive, I added a bigger base rock and stuck them a good distance away. My frogspawn that’s looked super sad since we upgraded tanks is starting to come back after I gently cleaned his flesh line and the outside of his stock.

Im almost not getting extensions At all on the new #Goni. Any suggestions (@ReefSquad) are greatly appreciated!

everyone else is doing great. Marshall is still a jerk and I think it will only be him in there. But acans are fluffy and softies are starting to grow.

happy reefing everyone!
 

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hi, give them a few days to resettle before worrying...
goni ? pic ?
 
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We have first signs of Aiptasia... 2 that I can see on one frag. Not sure how it happened because I try to be careful when dipping and inspecting every nook and cranny, it must have gone unnoticed until last night, more than likely I'm just blind.

I tried to take the frag off and remove it but ofcourse... I dropped the frag and by the time it was all said and done I couldnt see them. At least all the drama happened outside of the tank. Lights are starting to come up this morning, so I have a decent visual, hopefully I can get it out and smother with some super glue.

Jebao SCP70 is coming in sometime this week... its late due to our great Colorado weather. Hopefully with this gyre flow I can get rid of the deadspots and add more flow all around. I have been going in with a turkey baster when the lights ramp down and blowing things off, but its getting unsightly with some of the buildup.

To anyone who plans on using #caribsea LifeRock Reef Tree, do your scape and then try to smooth over the space between rocks with epoxy, other rock, or cement. I am getting a lot of detritus buildup between these crannies and I'm tempted to take everything apart just to get rid of this problem.
 
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Nighttime Shenanigans:

Jebao SCP-70M First Impressions: Installed the #Jebao SCP -70M today and I am impressed. I have had this wave maker before minus the app connectivity in a 13.5g Fluval with success, so it made sense I would purchase this again. As for the app, I like visually being able to see what my flow and frequency is. It took literally maybe a minute or two to get familiar with the interface and I didn't have any problems getting the Wi-Fi up and running on it contrary to some of the reviews online. I have a dedicated 2.4ghz Wi-Fi for our smart devices, so it wasn't an issue setting it up. I also have my #NoopsycheK7mini hooked up to this channel.

Flow: With an upgrade there is more than enough for my cube. I think if it was a more rectangular shape it might be a bit weak, but even on 30% it is plenty of flow. I have my settings on SINE, Flow: 30%, Frequency: 80%. I did have to once again rearrange my scape to accommodate some of the coral. One torch has moved to the sand bed and the euphyllia (minus torches) have moved to another part of the tank completely because they were getting blasted. I am happy that the dead spots have been addressed, the stringy detritus was starting to become a nuisance.

Concerns:
Frogspawn: refuses to open completely like before. The flesh band is still halfway down the stock, so I'm thinking some detritus buildup and the flow may be the reason.

Zoas:
Nothing honestly too concerning, but my zoas seem to all be reaching for light, but I'm afraid that higher light will end up bleaching my torches that are about 2 inches higher than the zoas.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks in advanced.

Happy Reefing everyone!
 
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Jebao SCP-70M: Ended up being WAY too strong unfortunately. I loved that there were no deadspots, but it was just blasting the new torch to death, tips flying and all... I'm sure we will be returning this pump. I have already removed it and added back in the Hygger Mini. Its a shame because I had so many hopes for it. I think for my tank, the cube is so confining that the waves literally have nowhere to go... so they reverberate back on themselves creating almost twice the flow, that combined with torches being too high I think... it was just not gonna work. That's okay though-- right tool, right job.

In other news, we did a nice 30% WC last night, I re-rescaped to make sure we would get good flow everywhere and so we have an overhang to lower the light and make room for some new additions, hence the blank rows on the original post. We did get a beautiful 2 head (one starting to pinch up so 3 mouth) Miami Hurricane Torch. It's opened up beautifully with the lower flow.

I figure I need to give the Hygger a chance so I cranked intensity up 10%. I am also cranking lights up on the Noopysche day by day. At the strongest from 11am-3pm:
Blue = 45%, white = 2%, purple = 20%.

Dont hold me to this, but I don't think I will be making anymore livestock purchases in a good bit. That urge is strong, but I need to save some money to get some different hanna checkers and a better return pump. Some days the return pump is silent, days like today, it could wake an entire nursing home.

Parameters today:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 76.8
Nitrates: 12
Phosphates: 0.117


Questions:

- can I attach #zoas side ways on a rock, where the polyps face me instead of the light?

- How do I go about gluing #frag plugs to rockwork, right now everything is place on the rock work minus my #acans, like puzzle pieces I can remove, but come the time to glue it down, how should I do it?
 

fishguy242

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Questions:
- can I attach #zoas side ways on a rock, where the polyps face me instead of the light?
yes pretty much ,they'll adjust ... ;)

- How do I go about gluing #frag plugs to rockwork, right now everything is place on the rock work minus my #acans, like puzzle pieces I can remove, but come the time to glue it down, how should I do it?
Gel type superglue, to disk ,to disk to rock ,to flat area of rock , your choice.;)

ps : don't touch your mouth/eyes w workin with zoas/coral...:)
 

Eric R.

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How do I go about gluing #frag plugs to rockwork, right now everything is place on the rock work minus my #acans, like puzzle pieces I can remove, but come the time to glue it down, how should I do it?

I just superglue mine to the rock, but superglue - epoxy - superglue works well too (like in this video from BRS)

 

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sharkyahd

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Questions:
- can I attach #zoas side ways on a rock, where the polyps face me instead of the light?
yes pretty much ,they'll adjust ... ;)

- How do I go about gluing #frag plugs to rockwork, right now everything is place on the rock work minus my #acans, like puzzle pieces I can remove, but come the time to glue it down, how should I do it?
Gel type superglue, to disk ,to disk to rock ,to flat area of rock , your choice.;)

ps : don't touch your mouth/eyes w workin with zoas/coral...:)
Thanks so much! I was wondering how I was gonna do it, I was thinking about glue torches to frag disks that are purple and then disks to rock, probably wont be til after we move.

As for zoas, those guys will also probably live on a ledge before getting glued later on too. Hopefully they will overtake and hide the frag plugs!
 
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I've had success squirting a homemade kalk paste into their mouth, then covering them with it. Also works on majanos. F-aiptasia also works well, basically the same idea in a pre-made product. https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/f-aiptasia-killer-1-oz-franks-tanks/
Thanks Eric (didnt mean to say Frank, watching true crime and typing isnt my brightest idea)! Right now, I hate to say it but theyre at bay. I heard F-Aiptasia can kill coral as well if I'm not careful right? That part makes me nervous. I was thinking about borrowing someones nudibranch but will muster up some courage to try the kalk paste or F Aiptasia!
 
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fishguy242

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Small tank, only can do one every few days, biggest concern ,alk spikes ,too many too fast... ;) :)
 

Eric R.

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Small tank, only can do one every few days, biggest concern ,alk spikes ,too many too fast... ;) :)

I had a few aiptasia and majanos in a 13.5g tank. I think I did one aiptasia first then the other two a few days later then a few days later all the majanos. Most of the paste kinda hardened in place and dissolved over time. I wasn't testing alk the whole time, so I don't know how it affected alk. Also didn't have anything that seemed to react badly or that was particularly sensitive to alk swings. But yes it's prudent to use a reasonable amount for your tank volume and track alk if you're concerned.
 

Eric R.

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I believe so far there is 2 on one acan frag and one on the goniopora frag. tsk tsk tsk.

I would be careful about trying it if it's near a sensitive coral. Mine were by themselves. The paste does cover a decent area directly around where you apply it so might not be able to use it if it's right next to a coral, I didn't try that specific situation.
 
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Wow it's been a long time, but for those still on here, I am updating what weve got in the tank now. Thinking about getting rid of a lot of stock to make it an all Acan Lord tank... who knows! Trying to get more involved in the hobby again, life has been pretty crazy!
 

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