The richreef saga, 55g to 125g

[RichtheReefer21]

Welp.. time has come for the next round of QT to go into DT.

Little anxiety about my female davinci clown giving the strawberry psuedo a little body check upon arrival. I say female because the davinci has outgrown the snowflake implying the dominance being established and the beginnings of conversion to female. She has started challenging me by making short dashes at my hand when tinkering in the tank. But nothing crazy. A nip here and there, with purpose.

Not worried about the starry blenny. Hes gonna be the biggest thing in the tank once he gets in, so should be fine there.

Will update later tonight or tomorrow when I take the plunge again.

Debating shutting the QT down for a while but I am still shopping for a sand sitting goby that isnt a diamond sleeper. I'm worried if I leave the QT fishless for too long I wont maintain enough waste to keep the bacteria colony alive. Not sure what my time frame is to manage it while I wait to find my goby of preference.

 

[cmcoker]

Bacteria will be fine, can throw a little food in once a week if you want.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Alrighty. No one is dead or injured. Psuedo took a ride on the carpet once. But is fine.

Psuedo is in a crack between rocks on the left side in the 6lines area, so he got some **** from the wrasse initially but seemed to have calmed down now.

The blenny is tucked away with a new friend. Both seem pretty stressed, naturally... but going ok so far. Fingers will remain crossed.

For some reason I cant upload atm. Will send a few when it decides to work for me.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

 

[RichtheReefer21]

For some reason when I upload landscape style photos they post in sideways. Bleh.

Such a good shot of the blenny and blue CB shrimp meeting.

 

[NY_Caveman]

For some reason when I upload landscape style photos they post in sideways. Bleh.

Such a good shot of the blenny and blue CB shrimp meeting.

The orientation is usually set on your phone. My iPhone occasionally gets it wrong with landscape images, but does not always show this unless I look at it away from the device.

 

[Fudsey]

I rarely upload directly from my phone. I like to look at them on my PC before I do.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

I get that the starry blenny depends on its camaflouge and by instinct holds still. But I couldnt believe he has never prolly seen a CB shrimp and just let the shrimp graze around his head like this.

Was entertaining to say the least.

All is well today. Wrasse is leaving the psuedo alone and the blenny is perching on the gyre...

Gonna tear down the 55g and set the 10gal back up and cycle it for the last couple additions for livestock before I start saving for the sump equipment.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

I rarely upload directly from my phone. I like to look at them on my PC before I do.

No PC in my house. Tablets and smart phones. Hehe

 

[Fudsey]

You need one of these to PC game

 

[RichtheReefer21]

You need one of these to PC game

Nice. I used to play counter strike 1.6 religiously on PC when I was younger. Traveled and competed up and down the east coast, had a sponsor and everything. Was fun.

Got into my 20s and lost interest and time.. PC became outdated and just never replaced it. No need really. I have an old gamer friend who just got a new setup and said he would send me his old one for free. Might take him up on it.

We'll see.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Bittersweet tonight as I empty and prepare to clean and store the tank that got me started. Been through heII and high water with this puppy. Learning curve, the realization of patience, the saltiness of not QTing, and the hell that followed.

The plan is as it has been, conversion to a sump for the 125g. But I had to give the setup that got me started a final salute and farewell.

Till the time comes when u are the heartbeat of my operation, ciao.

An overnight vinegar soak and then final cleaning before storage.

Update on the DT:

Bowing in shame as I lose the battle with the algae. I am coming to terms with the fact that the canister and underpowered skimmer and mcguyver hotb chaeto fuge just ain't gonna cut it. Vibrant is coming this weekend.

Say a salty prayer that it goes well and I can figure out how to maintain it until tax season for my sump setup.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Alright. Havent checked in for a while...

I have the vibrant on hand, but still scared to pull the trigger dosing. The algae has not expanded. But is still there. Only on 4 rocks. Might pull them and do another manual scrub.

All livestock are well, only 1 of my original 6 sps frags have managed to survive. BTA is still impotent.

Tax season is coming and hopefully the project to drill and sump the tank will follow shortly thereafter.

Buuuut... I have had a new back thought. Which is to move everything back into the 55 and run the canister on that, and perhaps get a 3rd hydra26hd and add 2 t5 fixtures on either side to my canopy, go bare bottom, sps dominant, predator tank.

Once I get my finances figured out post tax returns I will make the decision and update. There may be a richreefreboot thread going up thereafter.

We shall see ;Writing;Woot;Wacky

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Up for a midnight tinkle.. falling back asleep is futile..

Dendrophyllia looked hungry, so I decided to try a time lapse of feeding my colony, thought I'd share.. on the menu: minced krill, eyeballs and all, mixed with some LRS frenzy nano.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Looks like a spaghetti worm has taken up the VIP villa below the dendro, good location choice considering the available scraps missed during feeding.

As u can see... once I do a feeding, the march of the nesar's is always soon to follow. CB shrimp visited at the end too.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Love the dendro vid, krill eyeballs.. yummy

What do you keep your Mg at? Temporarily pushing it above 1500 can sometimes help with algae and I have found Kalkwasser can be a big help as well although maybe not directly but it fuels Coraline growth like nothing else and once you get Coraline growing it will out compete the undesirables.. very cheap and easy to implement you can simply gravity drip it into your tank overnight.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Love the dendro vid, krill eyeballs.. yummy What do you keep your Mg at? Temporarily pushing it above 1500 can sometimes help with algae and I have found Kalkwasser can be a big help as well although maybe not directly but it fuels Coraline growth like nothing else and once you get Coraline growing it will out compete the undesirables.. very cheap and easy to implement you can simply gravity drip it into your tank overnight.

Ive heard of this, and have been keeping Mg above 1450 the last 2 months. Coraline has started sprouting all over the back glass and Im continuing to scrape some shells and frag plugs that i have that are covered already to help seed them and encourage spreading it across the tank.

Kalkwasser will be implemented once I get my sump and ATO via Tax returns. I will prolly start a reboot thread for the new setup and let this one die out. We'll see.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Kalkwasser will be implemented once I get my sump and ATO via Tax returns. I will prolly start a reboot thread for the new setup and let this one die out. We'll see.

You don’t really need a sump for your Kalkwasser and I personally don’t like adding it to my ATO because it’s dependent on evaporation which can vary greatly, it will also foul your ATO pump and it’s really best to dose Kalk during the night because it can raise your ph substantially.. I like to drip it right into display near a power head or return line only after lights are off.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

You don’t really need a sump for your Kalkwasser and I personally don’t like adding it to my ATO because it’s dependent on evaporation which can vary greatly, it will also foul your ATO pump and it’s really best to dose Kalk during the night because it can raise your ph substantially.. I like to drip it right into display near a power head or return line only after lights are off.

Ya, I'm not gonna add it to ATO, I've read the same issues. Just don't wanna set anything up until my sump is complete. That way I do it all once and done. Same with my control console I am planning. Gonna wait till I get my sump, ato, dosers, etc and do it all in one shebang.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Although I have a Doser on my new tank for Kalk below is the method I have used since I started reef keeping and what I currently use on my 14 gallon nano.. just a simple drip system made from a travel cup with valve to adjust amount going into tank of course you would need a bigger container for your tank.