I can't wait for the wife to see it tonight :smile:
Let those frags grow while I battle this algae

And don't be surprised if you have to leave the shrimp in for a day or 3

I have to agree, the birds-nest looks good. I had a frag which was doing quite well and while on vacation something knocked it off and it ended up in the pistols cave.... Now im left with a 1cm branch with 10 polips from the salvaging process...
I am also very curios to see what else the pistol might hide in his cave under the rocks as he seems to be quite the pack-rat.

Well they are similar but the top hat snails grow much larger and have a huge algae appetite. My 9 astreas were not able to compete with one top hat snail as the astreas would eat algae for a day and sleep for the next two weeks which is obviously not enough to keep the tank clean.
The one disadvantage about the top hats is the size.... they tend to knock corals down if they are not glued.

With that being said one top hat is keeping the tank algae free and I dont have any experience with the turbo snails as JL always had bad batches of them.

That is one ugly crab! Glad to see that you caught it.

Yeah that thing is nasty. Was it a Gorilla Crab or something?

EDIT: Now that I actually look at it, I'm not sure thats a Gorilla crab. But an Ugly SOB none the less.

Ya, not a Gorilla
It was hairy, but not tarantula hairy :smile:

He met his new buddy this afternoon

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x.../LFSMantis.jpg

I figured it's only fair, since he ate the sea hare alive :twised:

I grabbed a few Strawberries while I was there ... can't hurt

Did some algae scrubbin' tonight
I turned off the return and hooked up an XP2, then I went to town with brushes
This is what I am dealing with

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01290.jpg

And after a couple hours of scrubbing and filtering

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01291.jpg

I made a couple accidental green birdsnest frags - clumsy

Next weekend I will start transferring the first fishies from QT :mrgreen:
I'm still trying to get the Bangaii to eat pellets, but the Clown and PJs love them, so they get to go into the DT first

try peroxide dosing for the algea may help you

I've looked into that, and it's been suggested before, but if I don't filter out all the dead algae, it'll just release the PO4 back into the water, won't it ?

yes scrub scrub away dose with peroxide right after.. and a bit every day its how i killed it all in my 50g.. then i stopped and i spent 8 hours friday night scrubbing again.. ppond ppl do this as well too.

you could also try elevating your mg.....most macro algae dont like high mg levels

Alright then
It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I have something indoors to do :wink:

Thanks

I've been keeping this as a backup, but thanks for the reminder :smile:
It had slipped my memory to try it

Lots of updates ...

So, the wifey surprised me with a brand new Tunze ATO for the QT
I had no idea she was doing this when I bought Rich's used one
I sold his yesterday

Thanks Donna :mrgreen:

Tues night I decided to start raising my Mg
I will start off by stating there is a possibility that my testing methods were off ....
Also, I should have waited a day after the WC before adding the Mg liquid

The end of a bucket of IO salt ....
NSW
11.5 Alk
520 + Ca ( I should have tossed the water at this point )
1250 Mg

DT
7 Alk
450 Ca
1250 Mg

I then did a 15+% WC and waited a couple hours
Next, I re-tested the DT
7.5 Alk
440 Ca ( ??? )
1250 Mg

As you can see, there is already a discrepancy in the Ca
NSW test must have been off, or minerals were interacting during testing as I tested the Ca 2 more times, and still read 440ppm

Next, I added enough liquid Mg to raise it by 100ppm
3 hours later, and I tested 1350 Mg

Now, here's where I deviated from advice and added another dose of liquid Mg
An hour later I tested the DT
6.5 Alk
500 Ca
1400 Mg

Again an hour and another retest
7.5 Alk
460 Ca
1400 Mg

Obviously at this point the Mg, Ca and Alk are trying to balance each other

Then, 2 days later ...
8.0 Alk
520 Ca
1350 Mg

pH and Sg have been stable the whole time
The only effects I have seen so far is one Turbo acting a bit lazy, and the Frogspawn has been remaining closed a bit longer than normal

I have just mixed 20g of NSW from a new bucket ( free T-shirt :smile: ) and will be doing a 15% WC soon as I feel the Ca is too high

I've also been doing WCs from the DT to the QT as ( I've mentioned before ) I am ready to start adding fishies to the DT

The Turbos and Strawberrys have been doing an OK job of keeping some sections of rock clean, but nothing huge

The Peppermints cleared out all but 1 or 2 Aiptasia
The timing is good as they will be getting leftover fish food very soon

Guess that's it for now

The DT now has it's first fishies
They are quite small so I'm not worried about adding all 4 to 110g of water
They are mostly feeling a bit lost in the space they have, but there's no signs of stress per se ... just some grouping with the cardinals
The clown is actually the most inquisitive of the bunch
Now I have to find some more critters for the QT :smile:

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01299.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01300.jpg

Today I bought a pair of cleaner shrimp from J&L for the DT and they are happily sharing a station already

I also bought, from J&L, a Hector's Goby and Starry Blenny
Both are less than 1.5"
And from Island Pets I picked up a One Spot Foxface who is about 3 or 3-1/2". It was apparently there for weeks and eats mysis. I spotted what may be MI ( one spot ) so it's currently acclimating in a drip bucket with a small amount of ParaGuard. It's peed at me, but is still swimming around, so all looks good so far

The blenny, goby and fox are going in the 20g QT for probably 6 weeks
The LR I have in there right now is overgrown with fuzzy and long, hairy, dark green algae so I figured now is a good time to add some grazers
I've added a tray with some sand that I will inject with tigger pods for the goby, plus I am populating the tank with tigger pods. I just have to read up on how to add this bottle of phytoplankton to the pod bottle :wink:
I may get a small batch of chaeto to float in the QT for some pods too .. not sure yet. I'll make sure the little dude doesn't starve as it's too small for mysis ( apparently ), but we'll see

If the Hector doesn't stay fat, I'll either post him or take him back
The Starry will have a field day in the QT
The Fox, well, won't be terribly happy in a 20g for up to 6 weeks, but the fact it eats mysis will help

Pics to follow over the next day or 2, after everyone has some color back

Gooduck with the starry and make sure you post updates. I would eventually want to add a dragonet in my 75 but it looks like the whole project is being pushed for a while as I have to drain the tank (save as much water as possible) and level it as right now it is not leveled (should have measured instead of assumin the floors were even)...

I'm more concerned about the Hector goby rather than the Starry blenny
Dragonettes are another issue I won't try right now - good luck with yours if you ever do ...

Oh I wont be adding any pod eating fish for at least 7-9 months or when I can make a fudge that can sustain enough pods for them.

I'm in the process of also making a custom refugium which would be connected from the sump return, however I need a very odd size tank and I was quoted $125 for a custom acrylic sump approx ~ 12long, 20high, 10wide... so now I'm contemplating if i should just scrap my old style sump and put a new one in there with a refugium and switch the external pump for a submersible.

Well, the cleaner shrimps didn't make it. One died about 16 hours in, and the other about 20. Just dropped to the sand upside down and that was it
I tested everything and nothing is off. Also no copper shows on test
I use Elos and Seachem kits
It's been 3 days since the tank saw any stress guard, so that is long gone
They were only in the bag for an hour on the way home, a half hour temp acclimating, and 45 mins of dripping in a bucket with an air stone
I doubled their water about 3 times then placed them in the DT with my hand
I'll have J&L test my water tomorrow, but I don't think they'll find anything as the peppermint shrimp are doing fine
Guess it's just one of those things

So, on the happy side, all the new QT fish are eating well
The hector is on tigger pods and seems interested in mysis
The starry and fox are eating mysis and pellets

Hector likes the sand bed

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01307.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01302.jpg

Look dead center to find the blenny ( under the hector )

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01303.jpg

Fox's spot is pale, and was in the store as well

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01309.jpg

That's a cute pic of the hector and blenny! Sorry bout the shrimp, that sucks! I've had my cleaners for about 6 months now and my fire shrimp for a year! Hope your water tests ok, but I think sometimes these things happen.

Ya, I'm pretty confident J&L won't find anything off

I meant to add that I'll grab some veggies for the fox tomorrow as he doesn't seem interested in the current algae growth
Plus some chaeto for the QT as the tiggers aren't cheap

I spoke too soon ...
The hector eats cyclopeeze :smile: so no chaeto for now

J&L found nothing wrong with my water ....

I'm adding these sump pics for daplatapus' thread

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01314.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01316.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01313.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01315.jpg

Not sure why but I can't keep cleaner and pepermint shrimp either and my water is good...however I do have a CBS who has no problem with the water and a pistol again with no issues.

Algae update

All's lookin good so far
All I did was try to raise my Mg, but then my Ca went kinda high, so since then all I have done is to try and keep everything in check
I have done a couple WCs to keep my Alk and Ca inline, and only once have dosed liquid Mg to keep it up around the 1350-1400 mark
I never got a chance to raise it up anywhere near 1600

With proper params and quite the work crew, I'm now wondering how everyone will get enough to eat :smile:
Most of the rock has been stripped clean by the urchins, turbos and top hats
You'll have to look at the top left and top right rock piles to find what's left

I'm still scrubbing the glass and overflow box, but I'd say it is definately under control

Future plans may involve re-homing possibly 1/2 of the main crew as I don't even have any coralline left to speak of :surprise:

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01320.jpg

What a difference... Tanks looking really good dude, hopefully all the corals are doing just as good. It's only a matter of time before the tank starts to fill up with coralline algae then it's bye bye urchin. I never really like urchin except when they are on a nigiri sushi. The one I had clear cut the tips of 4 of my sps colonies and needless to say it went back to JL. Keep an eye on that guy.:wink:

Wow! is that 5 heaters I see in your sump?

Yup that's the heating unit... Looks cool doesn't it? However for the ammount of water he has running, I think they are more efficient.

Hey Greg seeing as your sump is very well organized and made up, I might have to bug you on what's the best way to make some sump dividers...

I want to add a refugium to my sump and can't quite figure out if I should add an external tank divided into a refugium/ato compartment or if I should just modify my current sump and add a refugium to it.
What's better? Fast moving water or slow moving water over the refugium? Currently I have three pipes with gate valves running off my return pump, and I could easily take one and redirect it to a refugium...

One of the return pipes goes through a media tower which runs filter floss and carbon (makes a ton of noise) one runs into a extra compartment for the tunze skimmer as it is finicky about the water level and the third gate valve is capped at this moment.
I bought a euroreef rs100 which will replace the tunze skimmer and one of the returns so I will have at least two rerun pipes available for a refugium.

Yup
3 x 200w on an RKE and 2 x 250w on a Ranco for backup if the circuit for the first 3 fails
I like redundancy :wink:

There's a lot of personal preference involved there
You'd get better advice and some great tips if you start a thread

Yup, I'm getting some great growth. It's almost time to post some shots
As for the urchins, I will probably remove both in a month or so
I'm just going to play it by eye for now and see how it goes
I think the snails will be able to keep up once the HA calms down

Wow looks much better now bud :) now I gotta start putting the livestock back into mine tomorrow

I've decided to give away one of the urchins as 2 is now 1 too many
Man, these little guys, along with the turbos and tophats, have decimated the algae issues :smile:

Today I added 6 ceriths, and am waiting for J&L to get more nassarius and cleaner shrimps

I may shorten the observation time for the 3 dudes in the QT tank as they are all eating really well and I've seen nothing to indicate there are any issues

6 weeks in QT is safe, but I'm impatient
Plus, I feel bad for the foxface ( Smudge ) being in such a small tank, and I'd like to see the hector's ( Hector ) have a go at all the isopods in the DT

Well, I finally got a good pic of Smudge
Ignore the spots on the tail, those are on the glass

Looks like it's not MI. When I blow up the image, the spot is not concentric, nor is it raised
I think it's a scar
Plus, it's been 14 days
The odds of it being a case of internally erupting MI are slim, and as I stated, it's not a raised bump

So, looks like these 3 new guys in the QT are going into the DT this week :razz:

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...DSC01330-1.jpg

A week ago I bought a couple felt filter socks, just to see how long they'd last before overflowing
I'm quite happy to say they're not even close to overflowing yet
I was only getting a day, or even only half a day, with the mesh socks
I thought it was the excess algae in my DT, but with it gone, such is not the case
Here's the kicker
The mesh socks are 300 micron, and the felt are only 200
So, I've bought more felt to have 2 full sets and the mesh are going into a box, only to be used when the felts are in the wash

So nice not to have to change socks first thing in the morning and then worry about getting home to do it again
Plus washing socks every 2 or 3 days was getting a little old :wink:

My felt socks initially lasted over a week when they were new. Now they last just under a week before they start to overflow. I am still working out a good way of cleaing them. The washer works but it's not perfect. I think I have 8 socks now that I alternate in and out before I have to breakdown and clean them.

Smudge, Hector and Bennie went into the DT last night and have settled in nicely
Smudge has eaten all the turf algae already :smile:

I may have to start saving for a better camera

Bennie found himself some tunnels to hang out in inside probably the best rock for viewing him


http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01370.jpg

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC01372.jpg

Nice setup, really like the way you have arranged your sump.

Wow dude, everything is looking great. I see that birdsnest is growing quite a bit. I think it's almost time for a visit. I will have to bring some presents over.:mrgreen:

Thank you. Took me 4 attempts to get it to this point :rolleyes:

Thanks Rich. I can't wait for some massive growth :smile:
The birdsnest is doing well, but a lot of what you see are all the extra frags you gave me
Maybe you could bring your camera with you ? Please ? :smile:
Presents are always good :mrgreen: