Susan's 125 gal re-reboot. 3rd Times the Charm

[Susan Edwards]

@Reverend Turtle No apologies needed. Love conversations!! For the first time, I bought bayer dipping and boy, did stuff fall out!! I followed up with revive and another one I have that is an iodine dip, but the bayer seemed to knock everything out. Might give that a try! So far, so good. Only one I haven't seen "fleshed" is the chalice. No idea what it is supposed to look like.

 

[Reverend Turtle]

I might try Bayer, I just have had bad experiences with pesticides and my ability to breathe, so have been reluctant. I guess I could always break out my old respirator from when I worked with other noxious chemicals...

 

[Susan Edwards]

I didn't notice any super strong smell or have issues and I have asthma

 

[Reverend Turtle]

So last night I emailed them about the nudibranchs, just to let them know that they have them in their system. They emailed me back this morning, apologizing and gave me full credit for the montipora. I must say, that even though I've had issues with some of the order, customer service has been phenomenal.
I didn't ask for, nor was I expecting anything from them on the frag, just wanted them to know they had an issue.
I would recommend them based on that alone.

 

[fishguy242]

hi ,how how is it coming along??

 

[Susan Edwards]

hi ,how how is it coming along??

So far, pretty good. New corals seem to be doing well. Have the galaxy on the sand. Debating whether to move it up to see if it will grow faster or do better. Others I had, had longer tentacles. Also haven't seen any stingers on it. Will post some pics in another post.

Having to deal with the green dusting of algae on glass every couple of days and turkey blasting sand for the brown dusting. All i'm sure from replacing sand, and total water volume and that will all settle out.

2 things left to do: set up doser after hubby adds a shelf for it, and the manifold to change water faster.
Yesterdays testing
Ca 380
Alk 8
Mg 1280
No3 Between 40 and 80. Still too high. Added more bio spira and prime
po4 .36 way down from 1.43 at beginning of this. Might add another bag of phos guard to the return pump chamber

Added some macro algae to the sump. red grace. I think. Looking for chaeto and maybe a hamster ball to put it in. Maybe a better light for the refugium. this is what I have

The 45 gal with the clown has a nice "waving field of algae" on back glass. Will scrape most off but clown is hosting in it! Will leave it some. Tested the water today and everything looks pretty good. We'll go back to the lfs for another clown for it. Had one. They forgot to give me when I checked out! Didn't charge for it. Just forgot it.

 

[Susan Edwards]

here are my corals after almost 2 weeks for some, 1 week for others. Also some of what has survived through some very tough times lol's

Paly / rhodactis rock. GSP rock behind. Survivors

White Tipped leather. Returning nicely

Blue Toadstool. Also returning nicely

Giant palys. My husband's favorites. True survivors

Pretty eyes cyphastrea or blue planet cyphastrea. Pretty eyes I think!

blue planet ecyphastrea

Blue eyed leptastrea

Silver eye & purple leptastrea

Forrest Fire Rhodactis

acans. Aussie from coloring?

pink pop chalice

Poci green

superman monti didgi Not sure it is super happy here. It is sideways as I don't want to glue it down if I need to move back down. The frag disk is where it was before I knocked it off...

Poritidae

candy cane day

candy cane at night

mint chip blastos

galaxy on bottom. not sure if it should be higher

ricordias 3 of them

 

[Susan Edwards]

oops, forgot Mr. Duncan. He's loving the tank thus far.
2nd pic is after he snagged some food. Fat little beastie

 

[fishguy242]

hi,starting to come together nicely!! nice additions

 

[Susan Edwards]

hi,starting to come together nicely!! nice additions

so what do you think about the galaxy on the sandbed. And the digi? Should it be lower? Galaxy higher?

It is strange not to have almost daily tank work! If I could get the no3 down, I'd be super happy. Adding more phosguard tonight but i'm not unhappy where po4 is.

 

[fishguy242]

yes maybe indirect light ,good flow w digi,galaxy really does not matter ,but place where you want perm,it will grow like crazy in no time and have 6" sweepers in future,recommend up around overflow with flow aimed across to overflow,if that makes any sense to you

 

[Susan Edwards]

yes maybe indirect light ,good flow w digi,galaxy really does not matter ,but place where you want perm,it will grow like crazy in no time and have 6" sweepers in future,recommend up around overflow with flow aimed across to overflow,if that makes any sense to you

Will shift the digi down a bit
Galaxy right side? Top of the rock so the stingers don't sting below? Or are you talking left side

 

[fishguy242]

good morn ,does not really matter,looking at last fts ,i'd say right

 

[Susan Edwards]

so tonight, I dug around in the sump to locate the heater and make sure it's not buried under media bags etc. It was. Freed it up--should try to stick it to the sides of the sump maybe--horizontal of course. And there is a lot of gunk down there. Granted, some is still the real fine sand that got sucked down while i was replacing sand. I had vacuumed all water out in sept. but I hadn't emptied the skimmer side of sump of the media bags. I think this area is part of my no3 issues.

So going to remove all media bags (will put them back in). Some have phosguard or purigen, some have rubble, some are bio bead type media. I also have blocks of marine pure. So will take it all out, put in a bucket to save any copepods, and vacuum out that side and get it clean. Noticed there is fine sand in the pump area so will try to get that too.

Question is, do the blocks of marine pure need replacing Or just put back. Or take out half, and order more? Really want to try to get my no3 down. Will pose this question on the forum.

Move my galaxia up to the right top. If more than one galaxy can exist close to each other, that might be a the galaxy peak! I think I can adjust flow or add another powerhead to keep sweepers only to the right.

The digi didn't like being lower so I moved it back up. Will go google it's placement again. It was better on the bottom, but I know they need more light and flow than that. Everything else looks good so far.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,not sure about blocks,never used,would think only replace one at a time,just a guess,i'll look for post ,galaxy peak love it,there is a few nice varieties out there ,one has golden/orange in it

 

[Susan Edwards]

hi,not sure about blocks,never used,would think only replace one at a time,just a guess,i'll look for post ,galaxy peak love it,there is a few nice varieties out there ,one has golden/orange in it

Can galaxy's live close to each other without killing each other? I think I must have a short tentacle version unless that comes later. Will have to reseach. I do love them.

The blocks are 2" and there are 20 of them.

 

[fishguy242]

yes i believe they can,yes you have more condensed species,still thinking if changing out blocks,only half ,wait until new ones establish,the change 2nd half ,guessing 60 days

 

[Susan Edwards]

yes i believe they can,yes you have more condensed species,still thinking if changing out blocks,only half ,wait until new ones establish,the change 2nd half ,guessing 60 days

I just checked my last order, and it was Jan. of this year for the marine pure.

 

[fishguy242]

Never used ,waitin on the reef to reply on other thread,don't want to pull out of unanswered yet,morning if no replies

 

[Reverend Turtle]

Bio-pure should be good for years. You can replace them if they are clogged with detritus, but swishing them around in a bucket should clear them up a bit.