TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50

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30% water change was done on Saturday and chemipure elite is back in the overflow above the diy scrubber. No signs of any kind of algae except for a little film on the glass. All corals are ok except for one chalice that was on its way out anyway and all livestock seems fine except for the emerald crabs which I have not seen in a couple of weeks. I saw a claw though, and while that could be from an older crab that I know for sure died I think it’s most likely that neither emerald is with me anymore. For the moment the only real issue is Aiptasia. I’m going to try and take some out with F-Aiptasia again and see if it works better this time. There are a couple of them in places near corals that I really want to go away so it’s worth one more try. I wish the Berghia Nudibranchs had been bigger and more effective. By now I’m sure they are gone.
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30% water change was done on Saturday and chemipure elite is back in the overflow above the diy scrubber. No signs of any kind of algae except for a little film on the glass. All corals are ok except for one chalice that was on its way out anyway and all livestock seems fine except for the emerald crabs which I have not seen in a couple of weeks. I saw a claw though, and while that could be from an older crab that I know for sure died I think it’s most likely that neither emerald is with me anymore. For the moment the only real issue is Aiptasia. I’m going to try and take some out with F-Aiptasia again and see if it works better this time. There are a couple of them in places near corals that I really want to go away so it’s worth one more try. I wish the Berghia Nudibranchs had been bigger and more effective. By now I’m sure they are gone.
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Looking good! Loving that blasto. Shame about the nudis. If you lived down the street I'd lend you Big Mama, although I wouldn't be able to guarantee you'd have all your corals after lol.
 
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Looking good! Loving that blasto. Shame about the nudis. If you lived down the street I'd lend you Big Mama, although I wouldn't be able to guarantee you'd have all your corals after lol.
Thanks, I like that blasto too, it’s really big but it’s never grown a new head. I’ve had it nearly two years and it’s physically gotten bigger but no new heads ever. Must be something in the water lol.

lf I can’t get a handle on the aiptasia I just might have you fly Big Mama out here.
 

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Thanks, I like that blasto too, it’s really big but it’s never grown a new head. I’ve had it nearly two years and it’s physically gotten bigger but no new heads ever. Must be something in the water lol.

lf I can’t get a handle on the aiptasia I just might have you fly Big Mama out here.

I have a merletti blasto that puts out new heads like a machine. My wellsi has a head with two mouths but shows no further signs of splitting off or growing new heads, but I've had it significantly less time than you've had yours in the tank. Two years seems crazy. I've decided to blame PO4 in my tank. Gotta find something to blame!

If I could figure out how to raise peppermint shrimps I could go into business with a proven line of aiptasia eaters. Big Mama is always eating for hundreds! ;Hilarious
 
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I have a merletti blasto that puts out new heads like a machine. My wellsi has a head with two mouths but shows no further signs of splitting off or growing new heads, but I've had it significantly less time than you've had yours in the tank. Two years seems crazy. I've decided to blame PO4 in my tank. Gotta find something to blame!

If I could figure out how to raise peppermint shrimps I could go into business with a proven line of aiptasia eaters. Big Mama is always eating for hundreds! ;Hilarious
Peppermint shrimp are cheap enough that I may just get 4 or 5 more and see if they will do the job. Gotta do something. Salty Underground always seems to be out of anything other than the smallest Berghias and I’m not sure who else even has them.
LPS is weird in my tank. The Frogspawn and Duncan have shown a lot of growth. My red Acan was stuck on two heads forever then had an explosion to 12 and hasn’t really grown since. The Caulastrea and the Blasto both look great but have never grown any new heads. I have a Favia that is stuck in neutral and the one chalice I have just finally bit the dust but that one kinda got beat up a couple of times so who knows if it would have taken off under other circumstances. I’ve also lost a rainbow Acan and a Favia a while ago and neither of them ever grew before one fell in the other one and it was all downhill from there. I‘m usually too lazy to check Alk and calcium but the times I have tested they were around 10 for Alk and 420 for calcium. I have some two part but I never use it because I don’t do the testing enough. Nitrates are usually between 5-10. Phosphate is always under .10 and usually between .03 and .07. Something is limiting my lps growth but it’s hard to say what it is.
 

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Peppermint shrimp are cheap enough that I may just get 4 or 5 more and see if they will do the job. Gotta do something. Salty Underground always seems to be out of anything other than the smallest Berghias and I’m not sure who else even has them.
LPS is weird in my tank. The Frogspawn and Duncan have shown a lot of growth. My red Acan was stuck on two heads forever then had an explosion to 12 and hasn’t really grown since. The Caulastrea and the Blasto both look great but have never grown any new heads. I have a Favia that is stuck in neutral and the one chalice I have just finally bit the dust but that one kinda got beat up a couple of times so who knows if it would have taken off under other circumstances. I’ve also lost a rainbow Acan and a Favia a while ago and neither of them ever grew before one fell in the other one and it was all downhill from there. I‘m usually too lazy to check Alk and calcium but the times I have tested they were around 10 for Alk and 420 for calcium. I have some two part but I never use it because I don’t do the testing enough. Nitrates are usually between 5-10. Phosphate is always under .10 and usually between .03 and .07. Something is limiting my lps growth but it’s hard to say what it is.

I've started target feeding my LPS to see if that gives them a boost. Sometimes this tank feels like a giant science experiment lol.

The peppermints I have came from Algae Barn. They were both tiny, Lil' Papa was so small I didn't even think he'd survived until I finally spotted him about two weeks later. That said, I'm a believer in their effectiveness (just not totally their reef safeness). The interesting part is that I was sure that as much as they ate aiptasia they must spread it too (what could be more irritating to an aiptasia than being attacked by a peppermint shrimp?). I figured all the rocks I took from that tank and put in my nano with no peppermints to maintain would of course sprout aiptasia again. And they haven't. So the shrimps truly eradicated it. Mileage may vary and all that stuff, but if you get one that eats the stuff it would seem they are very thorough. Best of luck!
 
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I've started target feeding my LPS to see if that gives them a boost. Sometimes this tank feels like a giant science experiment lol.

The peppermints I have came from Algae Barn. They were both tiny, Lil' Papa was so small I didn't even think he'd survived until I finally spotted him about two weeks later. That said, I'm a believer in their effectiveness (just not totally their reef safeness). The interesting part is that I was sure that as much as they ate aiptasia they must spread it too (what could be more irritating to an aiptasia than being attacked by a peppermint shrimp?). I figured all the rocks I took from that tank and put in my nano with no peppermints to maintain would of course sprout aiptasia again. And they haven't. So the shrimps truly eradicated it. Mileage may vary and all that stuff, but if you get one that eats the stuff it would seem they are very thorough. Best of luck!
That’s always the thing with peppermint shrimp, you never know if they will eat the aiptasia or not. I do feed my lps, either with nano reef frenzy or with reef roids. That has not made much of a difference for the blasto or the cualastrea. I have no idea what I need to do to make them take off. I’ve had them both higher in the tank to see if it was a lighting thing. They are both on the sand bed now so they can’t get any farther away from the light. Maybe I should try and find them more shade. I did that for the Favia and I’m going to do it for the branching cyphastrea. I’m using an lps setting on the Reefi’s so I’m pretty sure they are not getting too much Par but I’ve never measured. I’m actually almost certain the cyphastrea is getting too much light but I have not found it a new spot yet.
 
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I have had merlitti blastos in my reef since I set it up.
They are beautiful and healthy but have never grown.
I was listening to something this morning and it was mentioned that blastos really like to be shaded. Maybe I’m giving it too much light? I dunno. There aren’t that many shaded areas in my tank so I’m not sure where I can put it yet.
 

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I was listening to something this morning and it was mentioned that blastos really like to be shaded. Maybe I’m giving it too much light? I dunno. There aren’t that many shaded areas in my tank so I’m not sure where I can put it yet.
Are they healthy looking?
Mine are but they just don't really grow.

If yours look good, don't stress yourself about it.
 
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Are they healthy looking?
Mine are but they just don't really grow.

If yours look good, don't stress yourself about it.
They are very healthy looking, they just don’t sprout up any new heads. I’m not stressed about it at all, but when many of my lps pieces don’t grow or encrust it does make me wonder if something might be off, either with lighting or chemistry. The tank in general is in pretty good shape and I don’t have any problem with Zoa growth and some lps like the Frogspawn, Duncan and the new purple torch are growing. It’s mostly the encrusting ones ( 1 chalice, 2 Favias, 1 Acan all failed to take off then died) that have not had much growth. I have some coralline but not a lot. Probably nowhere near as much as I should for being up and running for almost 2 1/2 years. I really need to send out an ICP test and just see where my parameters really are. Not to chase numbers but just for a general idea of what’s going on with the chemistry of the tank.
 

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I hear you.

Doing an icp test is always a good thing. It will let you have better insight into your reefs chemistry. Just don't go crazy chasing the numbers.
Some things it may show really aren't things we can do a whole lot about long term.

I'm happy the reef is going on the right direction for you.
 

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Reefi Uno unboxing and installation.
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I repurposed an old cutting board from the kitchen to mount the power supplies. They are pretty heavy and I didn’t want them laying on the floor of the stand.
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‘There’s absolutely no glare even from this angle. The reeflectors are amazing. It makes a big difference to not need a shade anymore.
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I still need to do some wire management. I believe I’m set up on the default LPS setting and I’ve selected a 15 day acclimation period. I’m not really comfortable messing around with the settings too much at the moment. I’m sure I’ll figure it out.
Special thanks to Daniel at Reefi @danlu_gt for meeting up with me at the LFS last week so I could pick up my Unos personally rather than put them through shipping. I really appreciated that a lot.

How's it going with the new lights? I've been getting the urge to upgrade from my AI Primes.
 
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How's it going with the new lights? I've been getting the urge to upgrade from my AI Primes.
I like them a lot. The tank looks good and there aren’t dead spots because of the single point source in the middle of the tank like there was before. I just used the built in template for lps and have left it alone since the beginning. It doesn’t make much sense for me to start messing around with the settings when I don’t have a par meter. I think there are many good choices for lighting on the market so it’s hard to go wrong but for me the Reefi Unos were a great choice for both value and performance. I’m also pretty sure that if I ever upgrade the size of my tank it won’t be to one that is more than 48” long so these two lights can grow with me without needing to add more units or supplemental lighting. You also can’t beat the 3 year warranty.
 
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Just ordered a Reef Octopus VarioS-2 to replace my return pump. The smaller pump will give me more room in the middle chamber for other stuff and I’ll be able to connect it to my Apex for control and monitoring. I’ve been running a CurrentUSA 6009 since the tank started and based on how quickly the matching wave pumps failed I feel like it’s a good time to replace it. It’s done well but I think it’s time. This should create enough room to add another big bag of Seachem Matrix to help with biological filtration. My scape looks more substantial than it is and I tend to overfeed. I think I’ve always been a little short in the filtration department.

In other news I just lost my little green mini torch. Not sure what happened, it just kinda shrunk up and didn’t come back. Then I caught a hermit crab picking at it but by then it was already gone. It happens though, and everything else seems to be doing well.
 

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I'm sorry to hear about the torch. Sometimes for whatever reason, things just don't make it.

Good decision on replacing the pump though. You can use the old one as a backup or put it to work doing something else.
 

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Just ordered a Reef Octopus VarioS-2 to replace my return pump. The smaller pump will give me more room in the middle chamber for other stuff and I’ll be able to connect it to my Apex for control and monitoring. I’ve been running a CurrentUSA 6009 since the tank started and based on how quickly the matching wave pumps failed I feel like it’s a good time to replace it. It’s done well but I think it’s time. This should create enough room to add another big bag of Seachem Matrix to help with biological filtration. My scape looks more substantial than it is and I tend to overfeed. I think I’ve always been a little short in the filtration department.

In other news I just lost my little green mini torch. Not sure what happened, it just kinda shrunk up and didn’t come back. Then I caught a hermit crab picking at it but by then it was already gone. It happens though, and everything else seems to be doing well.

Looking forward to hearing about the new pump. My tank came with the MightyJet which seems to be pretty decent but I've got it maxed out. It just doesn't feel strong enough when you start to get some equipment and media in the back. Consider that in the SR60 they use two MightyJets.

Too bad about the torch. But now you've got room for something new!
 
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I'm sorry to hear about the torch. Sometimes for whatever reason, things just don't make it.

Good decision on replacing the pump though. You can use the old one as a backup or put it to work doing something else.
Thanks DJ, yep, I get it, things happen, stuff doesn’t make it. I really liked that little guy but it was really small. Maybe a crab damaged it trying to get some food or something, who knows.
 
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Looking forward to hearing about the new pump. My tank came with the MightyJet which seems to be pretty decent but I've got it maxed out. It just doesn't feel strong enough when you start to get some equipment and media in the back. Consider that in the SR60 they use two MightyJets.

Too bad about the torch. But now you've got room for something new!
The big thing for me with the new pump is to tie it in to the apex and also to save some space. I would have no problem using the Mighty Jet because I’m not really using the return pump for flow. 3-5x turnover an hour is ok with me. I don’t have any sps and there are one of each size of the IM wavelinks in the tank for flow. I just wanted a new pump and the Varios-2 has the nice feature of being apex controllable so I went with that.

Definitely planning on some new corals soon. I’m considering changing up the aqua scape though so I might do that first. I’ve kinda backed myself into a corner with options for coral placement with the way my scape is currently set up. I’d like it to be a lot lower but I also need enough cave space for the Tang to hide. I have not quite worked it all out in my head yet.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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