Soggy's 40 breeder build.

Devaji

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^if your handy I bet you could glue that sucker. some weld on would do the job?

the guy at lifereef makes amazing stuff if thinking about a new skimmer might want to consider him. he prom could fix or make you a new cup too. supper friendly guy I would reach out and see what he could do for you.
 
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SoggyNW

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I think that's the plan. I was very tempted by the Bubble Magus Curve 5. But this skimmer does a good job and I think I'd feel guilty if I didn't try to fix it. The break was real clean so some good super glue should do the job.

However, the plastic is way brittle and I consider it to be one foot in the grave. I'm going to be keeping an eye out for a good deal on a skimmers, I'll feel even better if I can snap one up at a great price.
 
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Tiny but fun update. My astraea snails seem to be reproducing. I've spotted a few if these little guys on the rock work. I didn't realize astraea reproduced in aquariums but I'll take free snails any day.

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Call for help!

I've reached the end of the Kalk road. I'm currently mixing 4 tsp into 2 gallons of water and it is not keeping up. I've begun hand dosing Bionic 2 part but I know I need to automate it quick if I don't want to kill my tank with parameter swings.

So I'm asking you for your experience on which 2 part, equipment, and methods you are using. What do you wish someone had told you before you dove into dosing.

Thanks everyone, I'm off to do some homework.
 
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SoggyNW

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Lost my torch. Had it for over a year but it never seemed fully happy. A few weeks ago it began to recede and gradually shrunk to nothing. All of my parameters were in line and everyone else was happy so I didn't want to make any changes trying to save it. Tried dipping and ran some carbon but in the end I lost.

Everyone else is doing awesome
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SoggyNW

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Sorry about the torch but your tank looks great!
Thanks, it's been going well this year, minus the torch but oh well. Everything is growing like a weed and im maxing out what kalk can do for me. I'm thinking carbocalcium but I need to do more homework before I jump in.
 
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I had a 3rd 26hd that I didn't think I would need, figured it would be overkill on a 3ft tank. However with only 2 lights some of the coral on the ends of the tank weren't getting enough light and had one side shaded. So I dug out the extra light and spaced them out farther.

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Update. The tank has been running off of carbo calcium for a few months and most everyone is looking pretty happy. Also started mixing Bright well Coral Amino in with Reef Roids a few weeks ago so we'll see how that goes.

Also my lawnmower blenny disappeared. No body found.

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Update..

Picked up a green hammer and a handful of bumblebee snails and both are doing great. The hammer was a steal, 2 heads for $ 30 an when I got it home I could see that each head is pretty far along in splitting, so actually 4 heads.

As for the bumblebee snails, they appear to be working.on my vermetid snail problem. So cross my fingers on that one.

Also began adding vibrant to the tank to beat back my bubble algae. The bottle is a year and a half old, it hasn't reached its exp date yet so hopefully it's still potent.

Last, I'm having a bit much success with my green tipped birdsnest. It's really starting to grow into it's neighbors and I'm thinking about trimming it. The green stylophora was the first it came in contact with and it killed the birdsnest that it touched. I haven't decided what to do yet.

I need to get a frag tank going, I've go so many little bits and pieces on the sand bed. I could make some side $ if I could find anyone who wanted to buy it.

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SoggyNW

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Update:

The birdsnest is getting out of hand, I'm considering trading the whole thing in for smaller frags. Everyone else is growing about as well as it ever has. Odd thing is I have good growth but not good color. As an example my green tip acro is growing like crazy (in the wrong direction of course) but it doesn't have any green tips.

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SoggyNW

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Update:

I'm thinking the poor coloration is due to low nutrients. I have a few new test kits in the mail but my expired kits are giving me zeros for nitrates and phosphates. I've increased feeding a bit and the next step will be turning off the skimmer once I have the new kits.

Also I was noticing that the bristle worms are getting a bit nuts. During a feeding a few days ago I was noticing just the huge amount of worms that come out. Also I watched a worm the size of a pencil crawl out of the rocks. So reducing their numbers ins on the to do list.
 
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Update:

Just some top down shots.

You might notice some bleaching. I'm having trouble keeping up with the nutrients. It doesn't seem to matter how much I feed the weed corals just grow faster and the unhappy corals stay unhappy.

1)Green slimer anacropora grows like an absolute weed
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2) some sort of green)yellow tip acro. All of the branching growth to the left is sense I switched to All for Reef in December.
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3) top down of my bird's-nest that needs a trimming before it overwhelms all it's neighbors
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4) just the green anacropora scraps that I can't seem to give away. Stuff grows like a weed.
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SoggyNW

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Update: the birdsnest is truly out of control I've been trying to find a new home for it but I'm in a bit of a reefing dessert. I'm thinking about just hacking it apart and throwing away the pieces but that just sounds horrible. But I have to do something before it takes out all it's neighbors. What to do...?

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On a good note though we have some new friends. We have a new lawnmower blenny named Bubbles the 2nd. A Mexican turbo snail named Bob the tomato, and a pincushion urchin named The mail man. I love letting my son name all the new critters, you just can't think these things up yourself.

Lastly a note on the state of the tank.

Filtration:
Filter socks
Carbon

Dosing
All for Reef 50ml

Water changes
10 gallons a month

Feeding
NLS pellets
Home made frozen blend

No3 and Po4 are still undetectable but green and pink hair algae are now growing and the corals are coloring up somewhat. I'm thinking about adding trace elements to the mix but I need to do some homework on it first.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 63 36.6%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 34.3%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 24 14.0%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 15.1%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
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