Theelderfox's Lagoon 25

[Silver Gooch]

Nice scape! I like the amount of sandbed to rock ratio you have going on.

 

[SliceGolfer]

A few new additions. Some zoas, gsp, Duncan, and pocillipora. Kh was low so I’m trying to raise it with Aquaforest 3 in 1. Is there anyone out there who used that product before. Day 1 doses 4 ml, day 2 6 ml, day 3 8 ml. The kh raise from six to now 7.0 over that time period. How high should I raise it.

The best way would be with soda ash and then use AF 3n1 to maintain dKH. I use 3n1 on my 40g. It works like AFR but is twice as concentrated across alk, ca, and mg.

 

[Theelderfox2]

I participated in a the wwc sale last week and picked up a few corals. I’m looking forward to their arrival next week. I got a few new frags in the tank I’ll post.

Also figured out the dosing for aquaforest 3 in1. (4.5ml daily) Stabilized the parameters as follows.

Nitrate 12
Phos 0-0.01 (hard to tell on the af test kit)
Calcium 420
Dkh 8.4-8.8
Mag 2800

 

[Tahoe61]

Those are some awesome Zoanthid. The tank is looking great.

 

[Theelderfox2]

I got my new coral delivery (pics to come). Also just ordered a 12” ai blade coral grow light. I want to get rid of some of the shadowing and the mega shimmer I have going on now.

I’m thinking my next purchase will be a 2nd small wavemaker to go with my gyre. Maybe the jebao slw. Maybe a Nero 3. I want something I can add to the back to keep two sides clear of wavemakers.

Also planning to diy a bracket to hold my blade with the kessil mount.

New coral additions this week.
Bali green slimer
2x electric daisy stylocoeniella
Sunset imposter Montipora
Seasons greetings Montipora
Jason fox enchanted forest birds nest
Charmanderz zoanthids

Pics to come

 

[Theelderfox2]

 

[Theelderfox2]

 

[Theelderfox2]

Update:
Parameters-
Salinity- 1.0265( finally stable)
nitrate- 10
Phosphate- .01 (attempting to raise)
Calcium- reading 500 but may be testing error
Magnesium-1450
Alk- 9.0-9.2

I’ve battled some issues with what I thought were Dinos for a few months. Turns out it was cyano after installing a uv and nutrient control, chemiclean fixed that. Then algae (green and brown) appeared all over the rocks. I let that go away on its own with some help rubble from a friend’s established system.

Turns out after that my refractometer calibration solution was off/ my refractometer from brs was bad, idk. My salinity was really low (like 1.020). Between that and blooms of various types I killed a few corals. I corrected that with a new tropic Marin glass hydrometer. (Now 1.0265)

Filtration wise I’m running carbon and rubble in the rear chambers. I removed floss and socks because they caused the water level to be erratic. (My main goal was to stabilize salinity) it seems to to be working however, I have white particulate in the water. It is most likely dust from the air and dog hair ( I have a shedder). I’m looking to address this in the future to clear up the water without affecting salinity.

As for fish….. I’ve lost quite a few unfortunately, most were due to jumping. Now I have a lid. Firefish jumped. Chromis jumped. Coral beauty jumped. One clown to uronema. I was on a trip and lost a clown for unknown reasons. So now we have only one clown and are looking to add more now that we have a lid. Between salinity and the jumping I believe I have rectified the issues causing the majority of deaths.

Chasing stability in a tank of this size has been a challenge as you can see. I installed a jebao doser for aquaforest 3 in 1. It has 3 ports so I have room for growth in the future. Additionally I am dosing neophos. My phosphate is often undetectable. A very successful reefer that has been mentoring me says it is way too low. Hopefully the fish/lid will help as well.

I want to add some advice/ thoughts for others. This is my third tank over 20 years. I always kind of did this hobby is in isolation. I am lucky to have a local reefer I met that has an aspirational system. (You may have recently seen his tank video on tsa YouTube) I follow his advice and as they say the proof is in the pudding. Find someone who does it well and be willing to ask for help. Even though it is easier than it was 20 years ago reef keeping still is a challenge especially when starting a new system.

 

[rayadog]

Love that digi! Your GSP Island almost looks at capacity

 

[Theelderfox2]

Love that digi! Your GSP Island almost looks at capacity

It’s getting there I’m thinking of growing it on the back because it is annoying to clean. Any cons

 

[Theelderfox2]

Made some big changes to the tank… I moved it across town about a month ago due to renovations at the house. When I moved it, I removed the sand and went bare bottom. I stopped dosing af all in 1. I started dosing all for reef. Around the time of the move the phosphate exploded to like .52ppm. I reduced it too fast and killed a few corals. They are starting to recover now. Phos down to .08. My nitrate never really got above 20, maybe the rocks were leaching it.

It is way easier to keep clean with bare bottom and I’m loving it. The amount of coral growth just in the past month has been far more than I saw over the previous 7 months…. Other than the zoas that is. Last week I got some new frags from TSA. (Ora mint pavona, seasons greeting monti, red monti cap, bi color frogspawn, & firework clove polyps)

I also had some algae issues with it growing on coral… like a brown fuzz I couldn’t scrape off. It is amazing how the corals, now happy w/ parameters are sloughing it right off day by day.

Currently keeping the tank super basic and it is working out now.

Lighting: kessil a360x and 12 in ai blade grow

Filter: media baskets with filter floss, carbon, and a few bags of max spec bio spheres and rubble

Flow: hygger crossflow, jebao
Small power head

Ato: Amazon ato, 2 gallon fridge water dispenser from Walmart

Dosing: jebao 4 head doser

Feeding: tdo chroma boost, reef roids, restor , brine shrimp

Live stock-

Fish: bicolor blenny, mocha ocellaris, yellow clown goby, pink damsel, neon cleaner goby

Inverts: Mexican turbo snails, tiger conch, nassarius snails, bumblebee snails, blue leg hermits, torchis snails, 2x peppermint shrimp, purple tuxedo urchin

Corals: duncan coral, watermelon chalice, a yellow golden chalice, Ora mint pavona, forest fire digi, gold hammer coral, peach hammer coral, neon digi, seasons greetings monti, contraband digi, white zombie zoas, aoi zoas, fruit loops zoas, unknown green zoas, blue mushrooms, bi color frogspawn, red monti cap, milka stylo, valida acropora, firework clove polyps, and more zoas I forget the names of.

Current parameters:
nitrate: 10-15 ppm
Phos: .06-.09
Alk: 7.5-8.3
Calcium: ~400
Mag: ~ 1350

I have been really only working about dosing by the alk after watching some tropic Marin videos about afr. Also switched to tropic Marin reef pro salt. I like the lower alk and really like how long you can store it. I make a months worth of salt water and leave it in a covered bucket.

Maintenance:
Clean glass daily, feed, water change every other week 5 gallons