TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50

[TheWB]

I started dosing phyto about five months ago and dose it (almost) every day. I started with 1ml/gallon of the phyto from @Eldredge. I now dose 2ml-2.5ml/gallon. I don't know that I can say I see a difference but the tank just 'feels' more dialed in. I've had cyano 'challenges' (opportunities?) for six months now. I don't actively fight it other than blowing it off the rocks when it encroaches on a coral or maybe grab a mat or two during a water change. I started the phyto mainly to compete with the cyano and the GHA (mainly gone now except for a small patch I just keep trimmed. While it did not eliminate either 'pest' I feel it has prevented them from taking over and everything just looks a little happier. It could just be me trying to rationalize the expense but I'm going to keep doing it.

I also dose some copepods from @Eldredge occasionally, some Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods about once a quarter and Reef Stew (a locally produced phyto/copepod/brine shrimp mix) every month or two. It makes me feel good. I know my Nassarius snails and micro brittle stars seem to appreciate it.

I’m probably going to keep up with it, just to see how it goes. I may try adding some copepods too. I’ve never really had any that can be seen in this tank. I added the 5220 from AlgaeBarn twice but they definitely did not establish and take off. Should probably look into different sources. I’ll check out Eldridge.

 

[TheWB]

Made time to get some testing done this morning. May 1st was the last time so I missed another week.
Alk up from 7.3 to 8.0 with increased dosage of AFR, about 7ish ml per day.
Cal down from 425 to 400
Mag down from 1275 to 1260
PO4 down from 0.04 to 0.03
NO3 up from 2.4 to 14.1 with added dosing of NeoNitro. Might need to back that off a little.

So this weeks take away is that I was able to increase Alk back to where I’d like it to remain stable, around 8, but Cal and Mag continued to trend down a little. I’m going to roll with another week of AFR at 7ml per day and see if the trend continues.

 

[tharbin]

I’m probably going to keep up with it, just to see how it goes. I may try adding some copepods too. I’ve never really had any that can be seen in this tank. I added the 5220 from AlgaeBarn twice but they definitely did not establish and take off. Should probably look into different sources. I’ll check out Eldridge.

I also never really have a population. I get a little bloom of copepods from time to time, then my Firefish gain weight and next thing I know the copepod bloom has crashed. Might be some correlation there...

There definitely are always at least a few in the tank because they bloom from time to time.

What I miss is that the old purveyor of Reef Stew also had a few amphipods in the mix but the new owner has only copepods, brine shrimp and, I believe some rotifers in a medium density phyto soup. I liked having some amphipods in the tank so I may have to break down and buy some.

 

[TheWB]

I haven’t done an FTS in a while and this tank is coming down and getting moved in about a month. It will not go back together the same, they never do, so it’s time to document a few things before the move.

 

[TheWB]

A few growth shots.

The original test piece of SPS. This Green Slimer had completely grayed out and now has come all the way back and is growing new branches.

A trio of super easy SPS. Green Digi, Red Cap and Slimeball Anacropora. All have more than doubled in size.

This Lemon Lime Favia ended up in ice cold shipping water due to Fedex being terrible. It also broke into two pieces. It looked really bad but I think the smaller piece is coming back nicely and the bigger one is looking better.

You can see where the smaller piece broke off.

Lately the branching Cyphastrea has been undergoing a growth spurt. I really like this piece and will always have one in my tank.

Caulastrea has also grown several new head recently. It was stuck on 4 forever.

Light green with pink and yellow tips torch is popping a couple new heads.

Rainbow Goni still looks good but still hasn’t grown off the sides of the plug. It has nice colors though.

 

[TheWB]

Todays test results.
Alk down from 8 to 7.7
Cal at 400 so no change.
Mag up from 1260 to 1365. Last week was an outlier, probably test error.
I was dosing 7.5 ml per day with AFR. Need to up it again and see where we land. Trying to stabilize at 8. This would be easier if I tested more than once a week but I just don’t have the time. There may need to be some automated Alk testing in my future.
NO3 down from 14.1 to 11.9 I stopped dosing NeoNitro.
PO4 up from 0.03 to 0.06 I’m attributing this to more flake this week and less frozen.

Seeing a return of whatever the algae is that lives on the rock the red monti cap is attached to. Flux RX makes it go away, sometimes for quite a while, but it always comes back on that rock eventually. I really wish I could find something (fish, snail or crab) that would eat it. I don’t really want to get an urchin.

 

[jcolliii]

Have you moved the tank yet? Those corals are looking great! That anacro has really taken off!

 

[TheWB]

Have you moved the tank yet? Those corals are looking great! That anacro has really taken off!

Funny you should ask. As I write this I’m standing in front of my new house. Just completed the pre-move-in walkthrough. Closing is next Friday with moving in over the weekend and then the tank gets moved by a LFS/Maintenance Co on 6/21. It’s all lined up and waiting to happen.

That Slimeball Anacropora is indeed growing very well. It was well taken care of before it made it into my tank so it had a good start.
How’s your tank been doing? Conspicuous lack of updates recently. Are you spending all your time trying to make an Apex work in a lake with that grant money, lol.

 

[jcolliii]

Nice pad! Closer to or further from the Sound?

Early spring and summer I spend a lot of time out at the horses and I have had some projects that I needed to get done on the Mini - working on restoring the interior, new crank pulley and front main seal, and a few other things. Still have work on the front suspension left to do, and hopefully - at least half of the car will get paint this year (I plan on doing a show quality paint job, so I can't afford to do it all at once).

Tank is on cruise control and is doing very well. Growth is steady - two of the Acro frags I bought a few months back are encrusting and sending up new growth. ASD sent me something that is coloring up phenomenally - greens, yellows, and reds, but looks like a deep water type. I need to do an update and will try to get some pics soon. The Mastertronic has been working pretty much flawlessly and does a great job keeping me knowing what all of the parameters are up to.

First year grants with the NIH take a notoriously long time to approve, so still no money yet. Subsequent renewals take much less time I hear - but I have a lot of equipment and chemistry I need to buy before I can really get going on that. Unfortunately, it's just a waiting game right now.

 

[TheWB]

Nice pad! Closer to or further from the Sound?

Early spring and summer I spend a lot of time out at the horses and I have had some projects that I needed to get done on the Mini - working on restoring the interior, new crank pulley and front main seal, and a few other things. Still have work on the front suspension left to do, and hopefully - at least half of the car will get paint this year (I plan on doing a show quality paint job, so I can't afford to do it all at once).

Tank is on cruise control and is doing very well. Growth is steady - two of the Acro frags I bought a few months back are encrusting and sending up new growth. ASD sent me something that is coloring up phenomenally - greens, yellows, and reds, but looks like a deep water type. I need to do an update and will try to get some pics soon. The Mastertronic has been working pretty much flawlessly and does a great job keeping me knowing what all of the parameters are up to.

First year grants with the NIH take a notoriously long time to approve, so still no money yet. Subsequent renewals take much less time I hear - but I have a lot of equipment and chemistry I need to buy before I can really get going on that. Unfortunately, it's just a waiting game right now.

Thanks. I’m moving about 3ish miles to the southeast so technically a little further away but not too much. I am closer to Mt Ranier and when there’s no cloud cover the view is spectacular. I’ll have to remember to take a pic next time the mountain is out. The view from my house is obscured by trees unfortunately but literally just around the block the view just driving down the street is amazing.

I forgot you have other hobbies. I guess it’s ok to spend time on those too lol. Make sure you post up a pic of the Mini once it gets its paint job.

 

[TheWB]

The tank move happened today. It went pretty well. Everything was removed, drained, transported and set up again in 3 hours and 15 minutes. The only broken coral was a piece of the Slimeball Anacropora. Of the fish I could see only the Zebra Barred Dartfish looked really stressed, as it should because I took away its sand bed. My scape had morphed over the years and spread out to the point where there was pretty much no open sand. Consequently it had become quite dirty. So for now I go bare bottom which isn’t very noticeable as coral and rock take up almost all of the space. I’m actually pretty pleased with how it looks considering that the coral was just basically piled in with not a lot of thought other than sps up high.

One of my tank movers got slashed by the Tomini Tangs scalpel and got a nasty cut. He powered right on through though which I appreciated.

My rainbow bubble tip anemone either split or had a part ripped away so now I have two instead of one.

One of the guys managed to scrape all of the rebel pulsing Xenia off of the rock my Duncan is attached to so hopefully that’s now gone for good.

I also had them take away several of the rocks covered with the invasive Alien Antivenom ZOA. It was pretty much everywhere and still us on several different rocks. It’s a weed but there’s a lot less of it now.

The salinity was a little low in the new water the lfs crew brought with them so that wasn’t great. I’m leaving the ato off and topping up with saltwater until it gets back to normal.

I just did not have the energy to get my skimmer reinstalled so that’s the only thing left to do as far as hardware goes.

This is more or less what the tank looked like at noon today before the move.

I had to leave right away after the tank was set back up so I didn’t get a chance to observe until I got home at 10:20pm. It’s lights out at 10:30 so the pic below is pretty dim.

I’ll post some better pictures tomorrow.

Overall tank moving day was a big success.

 

[tharbin]

The tank move happened today. It went pretty well. Everything was removed, drained, transported and set up again in 3 hours and 15 minutes. The only broken coral was a piece of the Slimeball Anacropora. Of the fish I could see only the Zebra Barred Dartfish looked really stressed, as it should because I took away its sand bed. My scape had morphed over the years and spread out to the point where there was pretty much no open sand. Consequently it had become quite dirty. So for now I go bare bottom which isn’t very noticeable as coral and rock take up almost all of the space. I’m actually pretty pleased with how it looks considering that the coral was just basically piled in with not a lot of thought other than sps up high.

One of my tank movers got slashed by the Tomini Tangs scalpel and got a nasty cut. He powered right on through though which I appreciated.

My rainbow bubble tip anemone either split or had a part ripped away so now I have two instead of one.

One of the guys managed to scrape all of the rebel pulsing Xenia off of the rock my Duncan is attached to so hopefully that’s now gone for good.

I also had them take away several of the rocks covered with the invasive Alien Antivenom ZOA. It was pretty much everywhere and still us on several different rocks. It’s a weed but there’s a lot less of it now.

The salinity was a little low in the new water the lfs crew brought with them so that wasn’t great. I’m leaving the ato off and topping up with saltwater until it gets back to normal.

I just did not have the energy to get my skimmer reinstalled so that’s the only thing left to do as far as hardware goes.

This is more or less what the tank looked like at noon today before the move.

I had to leave right away after the tank was set back up so I didn’t get a chance to observe until I got home at 10:20pm. It’s lights out at 10:30 so the pic below is pretty dim.

I’ll post some better pictures tomorrow.

Overall tank moving day was a big success.

Glad the move went well.

 

[TheWB]

Got the skimmer running and turned on the uv. Also started mixing in some extra salt to get back up to 35. The anemones have both disappeared. Not sure if they moved or died. I guess I’ll figure that out eventually. Couple of quick shots from my quick pit stop home. Headed back out to finish off clearing out my MiL’s house.

The tank is right next to a window that doesn’t have blinds yet so these pics are a mix of daylight, Reefi’s and the Orphek lens kit filters. Looking a little washed out.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Got the skimmer running and turned on the uv. Also started mixing in some extra salt to get back up to 35. The anemones have both disappeared. Not sure if they moved or died. I guess I’ll figure that out eventually. Couple of quick shots from my quick pit stop home. Headed back out to finish off clearing out my MiL’s house.

The tank is right next to a window that doesn’t have blinds yet so these pics are a mix of daylight, Reefi’s and the Orphek lens kit filters. Looking a little washed out.

Looks like the move was a great success! I break more stuff just syphoning sand some days. Heck, I had more angry looking corals just trying to fix the duncan that the hermits flipped over this morning (again). It looks great. Must be a huge relief.

 

[TheWB]

Looks like the move was a great success! I break more stuff just syphoning sand some days. Heck, I had more angry looking corals just trying to fix the duncan that the hermits flipped over this morning (again). It looks great. Must be a huge relief.

It really is a huge relief.
Other than one of the nems not being visible at the moment I can account for all inverts in the tank being open and generally looking ok.
I just fed the fish and everyone showed up to eat except the zebra barred dartfish who was looking pretty ragged the last time I saw it. The wrasse is out swimming around for the first time.
I have preliminarily decided that maybe I can live without sand. As long as there’s enough rock and rubble covered in coral pushed up to the front like it is now I’m not really missing it. We’ll have to see if that changes over time but for now I’m leaning towards bare bottom going forward when I upgrade.Here’s what the front right side looks like right now. I don’t even notice that there’s no sand.

 

[TheWB]

Side shot this morning with natural sunlight shining in. Don’t have any window coverings at the new house yet.

 

[TheWB]

The baby nem that split off the main nem has finally come out of hiding and for now is in a pretty good spot for viewing.

The big nem is behind the Gorgonian but it’s far more visible than it was before the move.

And a current FTS just because.

 

[tharbin]

The baby nem that split off the main nem has finally come out of hiding and for now is in a pretty good spot for viewing.

The big nem behind the Gorgonian but far more visible than it was before the move.

And a current FTS just because.

Your tank is looking really good.

 

[TheWB]

Your tank is looking really good.

Thanks. Apparently a tank move with a 100% water change and the complete removal of the sandbed is good for your tank, who knew. I really need to do some testing though just to see where it’s at.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Thanks. Apparently a tank move with a 100% water change and the complete removal of the sandbed is good for your tank, who knew. I really need to do some testing though just to see where it’s at.

No kidding, I'm suddenly wanting to move my tank! Looks great!