The Reef at FernBluff

FernBluffReef · Nov 3, 2023

Simon_M said:
Have 625 G2 that has a Sump with same height 407mm and Weir height 280mm that is common to the 525 G2+. The adjustment to lower the Weir is only about 60mm. I changed from 600 Skimmer to 900 DC Skimmer just because this operates within the available Weir height whereas the 600 requires a platform - that I don't like (and shouldn't need).

Red Sea don't document the operation of the Sump - Skimmer and Weir very well. For a long time, I operated the Weir so that the Refugium area flowed through the slots into the Skimmer Section and over the Glass Screen and into the Return Chamber. The correct operation is for three levels (and a RS diagram would have helped explain this) Refugium Level drops down to Skimmer Level that drops down to Return Chamber Level. That makes the flow pass over the Weir, down through the Bubble Trap and entry at the bottom to the Return Chamber. The ATO+ has two heights and the lower one (fully pressed down) sets the water level.

I didn't like using a bought platform because RS with RS recommended Skimmer just shouldn't need one, IMHO, mine was too tall but without sufficient area to easily put the Skimmer down without worrying about the placement of the feet. Your base looks good - would it be good to round of the clear top? It is easy to catch the corners when maintaining a Sump/Skimmer. Putting the Skimmer Cup back on requires a lot of force - I wasn't sure my bought platform would take the punishment very well and the feet had a small area.

Great suggestion to round the corners of my skimmer platform. Will do that next time I have a reason to pull it.

I see the intent in the sump for three levels as you describe but am not seeing it work all that well

Thanks for the feedback, it’s appreciated

FernBluffReef · Nov 5, 2023

Lasts nights acquisition. A Instant Ocean Hydrometer. I am so happy.

These are so so much better than a refractometer and much less expensive. I lived by one of these 22 years ago. Glad they still make them

Yah just have to know how to use them.

The refractometer was constantly +/- 2 ppt salinity and you had to read it over and over again to get a reading you could half way trust, constantly going back to calibration solution. Can't be trusted although I did use the refractometer to confirm the hydrometer was spot on.

This Hydrometer was spot on first dip in the water

Refractometer is now being relegated back into its box only to be used when I need to double check the hydrometer which is likely never.

I still need to get a filter for my lens. Acclimation tank remains full of critters who are waiting to move into their new home. They should be able to move next weekend. Torch and Zoa will likely remain for a while as the 525 finishes its cycle with fish. Diatoms continue to bloom and a bit of green algae. (white light turned up in pic so green shows more than you see otherwise). Phosphates remain unmeasurable no matter how much I feed to date so tank surely has more maturing to go. Only 30 days old and has 6 fish, 2 corals and 9 snails. Wife wants to add more but they are well into isolation now before moving into their new home so no more new fish until post next weekend but maybe something to better kick start the Corallines......

FernBluffReef · Nov 10, 2023

Main display still isn't ready for fish yet....

Added some Microbacter 7 to the display.

Added a few critters to the observation tank, hopefully does not come back to haunt me

- Flame Angel (hard to find lately)
- Hammer Coral with greenish gold hammers
- A couple zoa's
- Green Favia
- 2 Astrea snails with some coralline to help seed

The birds nest and encrusting montipora became very unhappy yesterday when I turned up the whites a bit to get better color. My phosphates also remain unmeasurable. Turned lights down a bit on advise of LFS and dosed some 1.5ml of phosphate and some microbacter. Other than Phosphate the other parameters are doing good save I have not measured magnesium as yet. Nitrates are getting lower, measure around 10 with RedSea test. Critters are well fed, the better half sees to the spoiling.

Also I'm starting to be a bit concerned about the Ocellans Clown. He seems to be struggling a bit. He's under quite a bit of stress as the Misbar Black Clown just won't leave him alone. He's eating good but seems to be breathing harder and staying vertical or towards the surface more than he has. Some is just a clown being a clown and as eating fine he's just on watch but really needs to be separated to reduce the Misbar's terror.

FernBluffReef · Nov 12, 2023

New Blow Pop Zoa colony was on a small piece of live rock. We dipped, and removed some bubble algae. This morning found an aptisa poking out of a hole, removed and superglued. Crossing fingers no more are found.

Update. Superglue did not work. Aptisia poking its ugly head up in a nearby hole I missed. Hammer and chisel Infected piece of rock. Lost a few Zoe pops but the main colony is fine. Still crossing fingers and toes

FernBluffReef · Nov 17, 2023

Moving day.

The "Clowns" moved over to the display tank last night. Everyone else played hide and seek from the net and will move over the weekend as part of a water change where we will have to move some rocks and corals to get them.

Pic before moving day, white lights only hence shows the green algae which usually isn’t all that visible.

Corals were unhappy for a bit. Lights may have been a bit bright, zero phosphates and <10 Nitrate. Seem to be much better now that I fixed that.

Waiting for the Coralines to come along and cover the rock vs. browns and greens.

1 gallong of Copepods are due to arrive today to seed both tanks.

Not all that bad as tank has only been wet for 6 weeks, 2.5 of those weeks were cycling yet has had SPS Birds nest for 2 weeks now and other corals longer.

FernBluffReef · Nov 19, 2023

Flame Angel and Jewel Damsel relocated to their new home yesterday.

New tenants to the Office tank today
- Cleaner Wrasse
- Coral Beauty
- Pulsing Xenia (small frag and hope to keep relatively small)

New tenants to the display tank
- 10 Trochus

FernBluffReef · Nov 24, 2023

For 170
- Green Star polyp frag - acquired 11/23/2023, considering gluing to back wall
- Hammer Coral frag - acquired 11/23/2023
- Qty 2 Mocha Storm Ocellaris Clowns - acquired 11/23/2023

For 525
- Qty 10 - Trochus Snails - acquired 11/23/2023
- Qty 10 - Large Nassaris Snails - acquired 11/23/2023

525 is going to a substantial bacterial bloom. I assume as result of the new fish but also dosing phyto to see if the copepods I put in a week ago will reproduce, so far zero evidence.

FernBluffReef · Nov 25, 2023

- Gorgonian sea fan - photosynthetic variety - - acquired 11/25/2023
- Frog Spawn purple - acquired 11/25/2023
- Duncan - acquired 11/25/2023

Cleaner wrasse disappeared yesterday afternoon and was missing for breakfast. Searched everywhere inside and outside the tank. Then right after breakfast appears the wrasse looking for breakfast. Acting somewhat strange this afternoon vs. a normal very gregarious cleaner.

RS170 tank on watch for a bit fish wise. RS525 is going thru some type of bloom so isn't ready for more fish anyway nor any of the corals quite yet.... Be a week or two so there is time to watch the wrasse and his tank mates.

FernBluffReef · Dec 2, 2023

The bacterial bloom has been over for several days in the 525. Got a fish trap and the move-ins are happening quickly now.

- Pair of Mocha Storm Ocellaris clowns moved to RS525 on 11/30
- Coral Beauty moved to RS525 on 12/2
- Clown Goby moved to RS525 on 12/2

Acquired
- Ritteri Anemone (medium) for the RS525 and the clowns immediately took to it. Wife insisted, hopefully its not too early as it's a beautiful specimen. There is some to say with getting the Anemone early so it finds its home before introducing the corals, hopefully the tank is stable enough
- Joker Coral Torch - single head but awesome
- Japanese Toadstool - Also a awesome coral, found a bunch of vermetid snails on the plug and in the bottom of the coral - cut off plug and cut a couple out of the bottom of the toadstool

Found another two vermetid snails on the base of the torch we acquired a week or two ago and removed

FernBluffReef · Dec 3, 2023

RS170 for acclimation
-

Scobi Tang (small)

- Acquired -

12/3/2023

Direct into RS525 Display.
- Gobies which I've always understand have a slime coating to limit things like Ich
- Two dottybacks.... Could not get the other one out of the acclimation tank to transfer and better to introduce them both at the same time to limit fighting. Hopefully they are good ones.

Purple Striped Dottyback	- Acquired -	12/2/2023	- Move in -	12/2/2023
Splindid Dottyback	- Acquired -	12/2/2023	- Move in -	12/2/2023
Highfin Goby	- Acquired -	12/2/2023	- Move in -	12/2/2023
Mandrian Goby	- Acquired -	12/2/2023	- Move in -	12/2/2023

FernBluffReef · Dec 17, 2023

Most fish moved over to the display tank - starting to look like a fish tank

Birds nest and Gorgonian sea fan seem to be growing rapidly in the display now that they are there

Ritteri has been a concern for quite some time. Regularly deflating, mouth opened, etc. Moved to hospital for antibiotic treatment starting 12/15. Picture just before going to the hospital below. Finally got a coral lens so now the pictures are not so blue.

Rented a Par meter yesterday. Surprised the tanks are largely in the 180-250 range and the lights are currently only start of day 50% and 65% peak (blue) and start of day 25% and 45% peak (white) - even at the bottom of the tanks. Strawberry shortcake SPS bleached and moved down to corner where it's a bit lower. First torch we got also moved in a corner to recover as it wasn't able to handle the light - doing much better now but lost a lot of color.

Coralline algae starting to grow on the rocks in the acclimation tank

Added some more pods to the main display last week. The pods were fantastic but not sure what was in the water as the next day the main display was completely covered in a diatom explosion which burned off in a day or two with the UVs help, followed by some dinos that I'm hoping to keep in control.

FernBluffReef · Dec 21, 2023

Updated sump configuration on the RS170

Well after a couple months of frustration with a regularly over skimming skimmer and a rouge ATO, I finally got around to fixing.

I reinstalled the ReefMatt on legs vs. hung on the glass so it now sits just under 1" higher in the sump. This allowed me to raise the skimmer up by 1 1/4". I could not raise the skimmer without raising the ReefMatt due to interference issues in the small RS170 sump. The skimmer looks to be working better now which is kinda expected as per RS the skimmer is designed to be run in 6"-8" maximum yet the RS170 sump is a minimum 8" deep and not adjustable (seems like a recipe for issues).

I've also been having issues with the ATO on the RS170 constantly overfilling and lowering the tank salinity. I believe this to be the result of the small overflow and the time it takes for the water level to fully equalize after an event such as feeding. In short, the ATO turns back on before the water level has completely settled and the Reefbeet App only allows a maximum of 10 minutes before ATO on. By raising the skimmer, as my skimmer is set to 45 minute delay the sump now stays above level for longer, so the ATO hopefully won't go rouge anymore. Crossing fingers that the RS170 life will be better now. The ATO on the RS525 works like a dream, the RS170 has been a problem from the get go.

FernBluffReef · Dec 21, 2023

Ich has arrived… ugh

Scopus moved from the office / acclimation tank to the main display and within a few days of the move is now showing signs of what appears to be Ich. :-(….

Our best guess is it came from the Mandrian fish or the Splendid dottiback we added a few weeks back. The Maindrian died within 3 days of adding to the display, I added direct to the display as can’t see doing anything different with a Maindrian. The Dottiback I shouldn’t have added but I could not get the orchid Dottieback out of the office / acclimation tank with out tearing it down so I took the risk (mistake). We later noticed the Dottiback was missing some scales (assumed injured in being netted at the store) which eventually got worse and worse (died after about a week and was completely consumed by the CUC overnight- impressive efficiency). After returning to the LFS to replace the Mandrian we saw other dead fish in the same tank that both the Mandrian and the Dottiback came out off which finishes the back story.

At this point Scopi (as he’s called) has got maybe a dozen spots and has been seeing scratching. He’s eating well and acting otherwise normal.

Mitigation wise. I had been turning the UV off at night after dosing Live Phyto. Just leaving the UV on around the clock now. UV is being driven by a Scicce 3.0 at 80%. I have not actually measured the flow. The height is ~18” and has more 90 degrees then I probably should have so I figure based on the pump curve at at 100% it should push ~1,500lph (~400gpm) at most. As I’m running at 80% figure it’s probably closer to 300gpm. Aquaultraviolet says to run at 400gpm for parasites and not less to keep the unit cool so I think I should be at about right / for greatest benefit. Hopefully the UV along with the otherwise outwardly appearing healthy fish will overcome. No one else is visibly affected at this point but we have noticed fish taking advantage of shrimps cleaning stations - didn’t notice before so could be new behavior in response or could be related.

We did finally get a real QT tank (Fluval 13.5 EVO marine) but it’s currently occupied by the Ritterri which is undergoing antibiotic treatment. In the future we hope to be a bit better with QT but the full regimen I can’t see at this point

FernBluffReef · Dec 23, 2023

Turned the ATO on the RS170 back on Thursday evening..... After two days of saltwater make-up to get the salinity back in line.

Raising the ReefMatt and Skimmer appears to have resolved the issue with the RS170 ATO constantly overfilling the sump. Rather than just dumping water in the sump and as a result overfilling, making the skimmer go nuts , etc. The ATO is now adding incremental tiny bits of water though-out the day as it should.

FernBluffReef · Dec 24, 2023

Out of the hospital

Ritteri checked out of the hospital yesterday morning and moved back to the display tank. Clowns were immediately upon him just loving it. He is re-acclimating nicely. We left him on his hospital rock so as not to stress with forcibly removing him from it. We then put the rock next to the structure he was on before so he could feel it and hopefully find his way back to the top where there is more light and flow. So far, he's happy to acclimate where he is.

Still need to work on my pictures some more.

FernBluffReef · Jan 5, 2024

Critter of the week

Saw one on the rocks earlier in the week.

This one I caught on the glass and removed.

I must imagine they came in on something LOL.

Removed the Nudibranch to be safe but again where there is one I imagine there may be more

FernBluffReef · Jan 20, 2024

Display Tank continues to progress.

Picked up 4 torches on sale, now have 7 to build our torch farm. The 4 are still acclimating at the bottom of the tank before we figure out final placement. Our Par is around 200 at the sand bed so most corals from LFS have to start low else bleaching

Picked up a deal on a Rainbow Pectinia Coral Colony, a show piece to go with the Ritteri and Torch Farm as primary focus areas - along with the fish of course, can't forget them.

Ich resolved after about five days and no sign of return, glad for that. Scopus still has a small hole around his eye worried a bit about hole and head so have added vitamins for that and the Ich. Not sure if that is what it is or... He's still skittish in the tank. Wonder if could also be a fluke or nothing but an injury but it’s stayed for a while so watching.

We've also had an episode of Zoa eating nudibranchs. So far I've caught and removed five nudibranchs. Zoa's are largely opening back up, but I will still remove dip at least once more. I've never found any eggs, but there were two distinct species of Nudibranchs so I picked them up somewhere.

A second Mandian (mate) has now been added to the office tank so the male has company. This one is clearly malnutritioned, so we have work to bring it back into full health. The smaller Office tank is not hosting pods all that well vs. the larger tank so we are having to supplement them.

Parameters are getting closer to where they should be, although I'm having to dose NeoPhos every day while struggling to keep measurable

- 78.2F, 34.4 Salinity, 4.3 Nitrate, 8.1 PH, 8.2 KH, .02 Phosphate, 433 CA, 1450 Mg

The Ritteri continues to improve and has climbed back up most of the structure where we want it to ultimately reside. They say Ritteri's like flat surfaces but this one seems to want to hang off the edge of the shelf and spread out from there. Whatever makes it happy PAR in that area is in the range of ~250. Once the Pectinia coral has time to acclimate we will start to increase the lights a bit more where the PAR will go to ~300 and if the Ritteri finally moves where we want it, it can get about 350 and from there we will see if it demands more light but right now it seems really happy. It’s interesting they say the Pectinia likes low-medium light as the this one was in 325-350 PAR when we purchased.

I'm also very unhappy to report that my two Mocha Storm Ocellaris clowns are not a couple. One decided to pair with the wife's Ocellaris clown and they own the Ritteri. The other Mocha storm is hosting on the rock nearby, feel sorry for the guy.

Pic of Ritteri, Pectinia, Torches and overall tank updated.

FernBluffReef · Feb 17, 2024

Feb 17, 2024 update. 3.5 months since tank first wet. Tank is now fully stocked with fish if not over stocked (18 total).

My plan to pair the Mocha Storm clowns was thwarted when one paired with the standard Ocellaris. So we now have an interracial couple in both tanks. The Scopus now is generally getting along with the new RedSea Sailfin. Introduction was rough, I was hoping it would be not too bad as the Scopus only had a few weeks to get comfortable before the Sailfin appeared, but it did not turn out that way as within a few hours the Sailfin had multiple puncture wounds and would not fight back.

Ritteri (Magnifica) has finally moved to its intended location on top of the structure near the gyre and is doing fantastic. It's reaching for the light but were not able to turn up too fast due to the tank still maturing. The uglies are in full swing. Dinos are starting to wane and are being replaced with some form of green turf algae. Cleanup crew is being stocked up to deal with the situation.