Waterbox 20 first reef build
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tinyfellows
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My tank turned 4 months yesterday. I recently added an orchid dottyback which has been so fun to watch swim through all the holes in my rock. I also added a Tailspot blenny who I haven’t seen since I added him so I’m a little worried about him. But he’s probably hiding in the rock on the back side of my rock work. Most of my corals are rocking and rolling. My Duncan has some new heads coming in my gsp is spreading along my glass nicely. I moved my Nero 3 around and am getting better flow on my hammer and frogspawn which they seem to appreciate. My birds nest doesn’t seem to be too happy. Some of the birds nest is bleaching from the base. So I’m probably going to frag off those branches and see if the healthy branches stay healthy. My single head acan isn’t as puffy as before but I think that’s from my 10 day trip so it’s starting to puff up again. Then my bta seems happy just hasn’t been doing much growing. I am still struggling with my ph I have a window opened next to my co2 scrubber but it’s still sitting at 7.5to 7.8. So I’m trying to figure out a way to fit some sort of kalk set up into my limited space. That or take my skimmer offline and set up some chaeto to run at night.
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Projects with Sam
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looking good! I think the pH boost from air exchange from the skimmer is probably better then the refugium. I'm also in that range. its fine. you'll get higher with kalk, and you'll probably want the alkalinity anyway.
Projects with Sam
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hmm I'm not sure. I think you can double-up but I don't think you want to unless you have serious alkalinity requirements. I'd just stick with what you've got going since it seems to be working! :)
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tinyfellows
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I started dosing Red Sea ab plus over the weekend and I like to think I am see see a difference in my corals. For sure my single head acan is much happier he is back to being puffy where as last week his skin was stretched tight on the skeleton. I haven’t seen my Tailspot blenny since I added him last Wednesday so not sure if he made the adjustment. But he was a little guy and there are a lot of places for him to hide. So I will just keep an eye out for him. Especially after seeing some of the holes my dottyback has come out of I have hope.
Projects with Sam
7500 Club Member
he'll be around.
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tinyfellows
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My orchid dottyback has been in the tank for 3 weeks and so far it has been playing nice with everyone. My cleaner shrimp is out as much as before the addition. At what point can I consider him friendly. I want to get a couple sexy shrimp to have host my Duncan or frogspawn. But I also don’t want to introduce them to a death sentence.
Projects with Sam
7500 Club Member
did your tailspot blenny ever turn up?
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tinyfellows
Active Member
I haven’t seen them yet the one time I saw him after putting them in they were looking stressed so I’m not hopeful on that one. I never saw a body or a spike in nutrition though so I’m not sure. Looks like I should just dm you any questions since you are the only one replying to my thread lol
Projects with Sam
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haha people tune in late. I was under the radar for awhile before anyone started looking at my thread.
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tinyfellows
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If nothing else it’s a good log to go back and look at and see what I was doing when my reef was rocking and rolling
TheWB
2500 Club Member
People come and go watching your thread. Most of them don’t comment. I’ve got over 50,000 views but over the course of the thread there have only been maybe 10 people who interacted with me regularly. Just keep posting your progress and if you have issues go to the appropriate forum and post a question. You’ll get more targeted help that way. Commenting on other peoples threads is also a good way make yourself a little more well known. I really just post stuff on my thread as a journal for me to remember what’s happened with my tank. I never really expected anyone else to follow along but I’m always happy when someone posts a comment or asks a question. Makes it a little more fun.
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tinyfellows
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It’s been two weeks since I started dosing Red Sea ab + and I can absolutely see a difference. My birds nest that had no polyp extension and I was getting close to pulling the frag from the tank has great polyp extension I can see them waving in the flow. Today I also noticed that the branches have become significantly thicker though there isn’t much color but I will take it. My Duncan and acans also seem to really love the stuff. I think I’m going to have to love my green acan that is by my Duncan already as they are getting close to touching I should have known when I glued the acan so close. The only thing in my tank that doesn’t seem to be thriving is my tiny bta. It’s not thriving but doesn’t seem to be dying.
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tinyfellows
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Tank turned 5 today so I went to my lfs where I picked up a couple sexy shrimp, another bta, a couple zoa frags, and another Nero 3. I wasn’t happy with my flow as I couldn’t get good flow along the back wall without whipping everything around. So I placed it down low on the same side as my other Nero to create some cross flow and so far it’s looking good. The zoa frags are ticked off currently as this was the first time I actually removed the frag plug. One of the frags was a singular head and I didn’t even notice it came off when I took the plug off. I glued it back on and I’m hoping it makes it a accidentally glued it on at a 90 angle to the light so hopefully it makes it cause it was so bright and beautiful at the store . The new bta decided to set up shop right by one of my acans so I moved it. But now I have a glob of super glue on the rock that’s pretty ugly but oh well that’s part of the learning process.
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tinyfellows
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I was getting tired of emptying my skimmer cup every couple of so I bought a magtool nano skimmer. I went to install it today and it was an 1/8th to 3/16th to big so I am going to be taking a dremel to it to see if I can get it to fit. I should probably return it but I enjoy diy projects and people seem to love this skimmer so I’m going to give it a go. I saw a thread with someone doing to same to a cad50 skimmer and getting it to fit and as far as I can tell they are basically the same. I will take pictures and document the progress and post them on here and probably start a diy thread for it.
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tinyfellows
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I was able to turn the skimmer on for a couple of minutes before I had to leave and boy is it a beast. The height of bubbles was probably about half of the whole body of my last skimmer an eshopps nano skimmer. I’m hoping it pulls enough air for my co2 scrubber to work its magic. With my eshopps I was running my ice cap co2 scrubber for a couple months and none of the media changed color and my ph never changed.
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