Susan's RS Reefer 3xl 900 Fantasy-Dream Build

[blaxsun]

is it a certain type of black sea cucumber or just a black sea cucumber
Here is what oceans garden has

Sand Sifting Sea Cucumber - Oceans Garden Aquaculture

Cucumbers are notorious for cleaning the sand bed of coral reefs and rock reefs eating detritus. They move along aerating the sand and release debris and

www.oceansgarden.com

Black sea cucumber. I think the sand-sifting variety are similar, but you do want the black ones specifically (they basically look like a long turd with no spikes).

 

[blaxsun]

Oh, I have got to get these damsels out! They are getting meaner. Instead of a quick bite and run, 1 of them goes at my hand like a jack hammer!!! Lucky they don't draw blood... Unlike my clowns....

Man, you guys really have it in for each other!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Man, you guys really have it in for each other!

I'd laugh if it wasn't the sad truth! Next week, I'm going to try to devise a net trap. Have 2 days off in a row. I will dedicate that time to their removal!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Black sea cucumber. I think the sand-sifting variety are similar, but you do want the black ones specifically (they basically look like a long turd with no spikes).

I will have to search for those then as the sand sifting ones have spikes. And do not do a lot of sand sifting lol's

 

[fishguy242]

Tiger tails are one of the best imo...

 

[Susan Edwards]

THIS IS WAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You all know how I say them DD's attack and run and don't draw blood like the clowns?

RIGHT? RIGHT?

WELL WRONG....
​

Looked at my arms today and I was shocked! My left arm/hand has like 10 bite marks. 1 bled quite a bit but I never realized. My right hand has a couple. The most aggressive one didn't just bite but kept biting. The clowns bite and run and most of the staghorns as well but that one *%^$& has turned into a royal you know what.

This is war. Those damsels have to come out. At this point, dead or alive. I don't much care!

You can't see them all but there are lots!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Tiger tails are one of the best imo...

I put one in my first tank at the advice of the LFS, fairly new set up. It crawled under a rock and died. And almost nuked my tank!

 

[blaxsun]

I put one in my first tank at the advice of the LFS, fairly new set up. It crawled under a rock and died. And almost nuked my tank!

I've had a few in the past with a similar experience. The fact that they're primarily nocturnal is part of the challenge, as they only work part of the time.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I've had a few in the past with a similar experience. The fact that they're primarily nocturnal is part of the challenge, as they only work part of the time.

I actually saw Dave moving. A bit. Like an inch lol's last night. He is back in the same place lol's. I think I saw him move no more than 2 inches out toward the center.

 

[Susan Edwards]

So, story of the added doser & switching of dosing containers....
Part/Day 1 (lol's-another simple hubby project turned into major hubby project)

Problem #1 -- I bought 3d printed dosing caps. They come with a short 2" pc of glass rod. Stick it into the top of the connector, stick tubing onto other end. Simple, right? Well my red sea dosing lines are too small for the connecting tubing.

Problem #2 -- I bought 4 large and 4 small dosing bottle holders. 8 total to go under the 2 dosers. Well, the pull out board isn't long enough.

Solving #1 hubby style: make a mold to connect the tubing to some R0 hard tubing. 2 molds out of 8 complete. He even is making them different colored lol's

Solving #2 involves making a holder to put the 4 500ml bottles in 2 rows. Might be a bit heavy but he thinks it will work.

So today: no doser mounted, 2 molds finished, 1 setting and the basic holder made though I think he has to fine tune it. Because my current dosing lines are rather tight as I moved the dosing lines to the first chamber where there is more flow (precipitation issues) the slide out board won't come out all the way. So now he wants me to buy more tubing to redo. Ugh on that!!

So some progress at least!

dosing stuff. replacing 3 chamber dosing container with bottles. A) To clean the chambers means emptying all chambers and B) I want to free up floor space in this part of the cabinet. Might even pull out the trident and put on the wall outside of cabinet. The small bottle holder is 1 unit, big bottles is 2 and 2

Mounting shelf-not finished

Mold and line into bottle. Will cut to 1.5 or 2"

tubing and glass rod. Don't fit

2 molds

 

[Susan Edwards]

Po4 today at .05
No3 13.1
No3 stable from yesterday's test which was 13. So happy with numbers. Means I have to keep dosing neophos.

Neophose 20-25 ml a day
Nopox 6 ml
Nyos Zero 1.5-2 ml twice a day
Nyos Bio 2-3 ml twice a day
AB+ 30 ml 3-5 xs a week. Should do daily
RS Trace 5-8 ml 3 xs a week. New doser will be to dose these 4 at 2-3 ml daily
color abcd

Debating when I finish the brs alk/ca/mg of trying the Red sea brand or sticking with brs. Not sure the brand really makes a big difference? I did RS's "recipe" online for a 220 tank.

The three they offer is
Growth Rate : Exceptional/Coloration good
Growth Rate : Great/Coloration great
Growth Rate : Good/Coloration exceptional

Not sure what my goal should be. Growth over coloration? Or go for coloration over growth.

The big difference is in the Trace Colors 3.3, 2.5, 1.7, and the ab+ 33, 33, 66 (growth good, color exceptional)

they also have numbers for alk, ca, mg and nopox but these are dependent on testing, corals etc. and not a set amt.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Okay, I have to rant a bit. I just did another cuc order with reefcleaners. 185 bucks. I did ups overnight as the last order, via priority mail was late and had a good 50% loss. This order I had 42.00 loss. The loss was once again with the same animals I've tried before: turbo snails, prickly ceriths, chitons and a crab. I got 1 refund for 23.00 instead of 24. No biggie as when I put in after several days for the rest, I adjusted what I was owed (this wasn't the first time my "refund" was less than what it should have been--usually for a lot more than a dollar and I just went with the flow so to speak. Esp. the last order where I had a 50% loss and didn't get the refund I had calculated.

I had let John know after the chitons were refunded that I was waiting a few extra days on the snail and ceriths. Today I let him know that none of them had moved or shown life. He refunded to correct amount but now says he won't guarantee live arrival as my account has higher losses.

I'm irritated as at his suggestion I used ups overnight and the same problem animals still did not make it which to me speaks that they are shipping out inferior animals either already dead or not healthy enough to survive overnight shipping. 1 crab arrived in water brown and foul! Last order with crabs, same thing. 1 not making it. And I let him know!

It's his business, and I can't believe I'm the only one who has doa's. Maybe no one else asks for refunds but this is an expensive hobby and I can't pay for what I don't receive. And almost 200.00 order to me isn't a small order or even an small customer to just brush off. This is horrible customer service and I am not at fault here.

edit: so now john says he refunded because even with ups overnight I had losses but won't in future. I copied his alive on arrival statement on his website and told him it was his policy to guarantee live arrival, not refunding out of the goodness of his heart. That's it for me.

On a good note: I won another LA gift card
On a sad note: My diamond goby is either dead or dying. It's been losing weight. I know there is enough food in the sand as I feed super heavy. Plus I'm sure there are pods there are my mandarin is a fat little pig

 

[blaxsun]

I'm fortunate that my LFS is close by and either has anything I need on-hand or can get it in short order (including hard-to-get fish or inverts, which usually only take a week or so).

They also ship across Canada and offer a 100% live arrival guarantee for corals, inverts and fish. They typically only ship out Tuesday-Thursday to avoid anything potentially being held more than overnight.

I've watched them package up their shipments and they go to great lengths - including expensive insulating containers, triple-bagged items, oxygen infusing and hot and cool packs when needed.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I'm fortunate that my LFS is close by and either has anything I need on-hand or can get it in short order (including hard-to-get fish or inverts, which usually only take a week or so).

They also ship across Canada and offer a 100% live arrival guarantee for corals, inverts and fish. They typically only ship out Tuesday-Thursday to avoid anything potentially being held more than overnight.

I've watched them package up their shipments and they go to great lengths - including expensive insulating containers, triple-bagged items, oxygen infusing and hot and cool packs when needed.

that is good. This guy uses the foil bags and cool packs. I'm just so suspicious that the same animals arrive dead every time. That tells me it is a stock issue. We've had more words. I won't be doing business with him again. Even though I got my refund, I got very poor service and attitude

 

[Susan Edwards]

Today I moved a colony of bird's nest to the sand bed. Making room for a acro to go there. I have a bigger colony and don't need 2. Should go over to the marketplace and put them for free.

I cleaned the glass yesterday and had a film of green again today. Need to see what causes a sudden film of green algae on glass. Usually takes 3 days or so. Also did the turkey baster to half-little more than half of the sand bed. I don't do water changes with a siphon--too difficult with the size of tank and my short arms and too many branching corals that get banged, so raking and blasting are what I need to do. Need to rake once a week and blast at least 1/3 or half each week as the sand has more silt and brown stuff now. Wish I could feed less but I don't want my numbers to bottom out totally. Will test tank tomorrow to see if I stirred up lots of cr**. I did use the diy marine snow which clears the water column in 2 hrs. Changed socks too.

New corals ship out tomorrow. Need to finish researching them and figure placement

Ran my par all day on right side rock. only got up to 249 so I hope that is high enough. Wondering if I need to put another rock on top to raise it up? These are brand acros coming on thursday. Thoughts? Pic below of the rock. Is 240 high enough par? I'll run the par again tomorrow (the stick in the tank holds the par meter) and I'll also run it with the clear lid insert on the lid. Might have to not use that.

I can also lower whites to raise the kelvin. Per RS program 100/50=20k and 100/10=23k I don't want as low as 10% white (unless white causes more algae which I've read has been debunked). But could settle for 30% and somewhere around 21-22k So far everything is happy at 20-21k (100/40)

 

[blaxsun]

The tank is looking great! The Neptune PAR probe seems to be reporting about ~10% less, so you're probably getting closer to ~275 PAR. I'd check the PAR at other levels, corners and along the front of the tank to get a better indicator of what some of the other spots are receiving.

 

[Susan Edwards]

The tank is looking great! The Neptune PAR probe seems to be reporting about ~10% less, so you're probably getting closer to ~275 PAR. I'd check the PAR at other levels, corners and along the front of the tank to get a better indicator of what some of the other spots are receiving.

So I'm probably okay for the acros on that right rock without adding to the structure to make it taller? I printed a pic of my tank so I can write the par numbers. and keep the kelvins to the 20-21k? I so want these new corals to survive lol's

 

[blaxsun]

So I'm probably okay for the acros on that right rock without adding to the structure to make it taller? I printed a pic of my tank so I can write the par numbers. and keep the kelvins to the 20-21k? I so want these new corals to survive lol's

I've always gone off PAR (and not kelvins), but I think if you're around 250 or higher for the acros you should be fine (mine are in that 250-300 PAR range).

 

[Susan Edwards]

So excited to get my new corals tomorrow!! Planning where to put them. Have 10 coming!
UC Strawberry Shortcake
Tyree Purple Dragon Eyes
Vivid's Rainbow Delight
WWC Pantera Rose (or Rosa)
RR Starfire
Chaos Cyphastrea--branching
Tyree Pinky the bear
Oregon Blue Tort
Darth Maul Porite
Red Robin Stag

Here are a few par readings with the apex. I'm not sure how much water flow affects lighting but on the right, I do hhave a gyre that runs mostly 50-70% with various patterns throughout the day. The plastic inserts def. lower the par. I'll have to over the next 2 days run more par tests. Ran out of full light time. But it looks like I barely hit 230-250 with 1 spot at 300.

I might see about moving my big birds nest down to have a prime spot. Means I'll lose a bunch of branches which I'll frag. Or leave it and see how the other spots do. Can always shift later. Also could move the pavona to a different slot. It has almost encrusted the rock it is on--separate. I don't see it encrusting the tank structure. Thinking I may not want it where it can maybe encrust upward into the acros. Can't move the pocillipora under the 313 as it has probably encrusted. Which is too bad as I could put a different coral on that tip of rock.

Will retest that 70 spot as it should be higher there.

Coral mounting places

possibly move the birds nest

thinking I might be able to put 4 on top of this rock. Maybe 5 with 1 on the back bump not circled. Will prob. mount on rubble to make moving easier if needed.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Okay, here is my plan. I hope.... All frags mounted first on rubble and then placed so it will be easier to move if needed. Tried to consider those that I know table.

This does fill my tank lol's. Need to work on hammers and torches next. On right rock below acros, and then meat corals on bottom

If any one sees something that won't work, let me know!