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Dude your photos are huge!
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I know. How do I stop them from doing that? I use tapatalk to upload them. Never gives me a choice on size... |
Dont listen to them. I like that size.
But if you want to know its the setting in the camera setting that let you change the size. Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk |
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At least someone likes the giant pictures! Ah! camera setting makes sense. Actually now that I inspect the images they have a resolutions of 2048 x 1536 and if I check my phone settings that's the same resolution the camera is set to. I guess I have something to play around with. I also picked up a TDS meter yesterday. So I went around testing water sources. My tap water is 146 TDS and the water in my ato reservoir was 62ppm. I tested some ro/di water in my water storage container and it came out at 17ppm. I'm going to make some more water today and test it as it's coming out the ro/di unit and see what that reads. I hope I don't have to change my filters already! |
Ideally your water coming out of your RO DI system should be 0. I change my filters when I start to get a reading. One of the things you can do is run 2 DI filters. When you start to get a reading you remove the first DI and you move the second DI to the first and put now resin in the second Di filter. This way you are getting full usage out of each cartridge of DI resin and you have more purified water. There is a lot of good info on this system on the web.
Also Okanagan water is pretty hard and really puts a drain on your filter cartridges. At least it was when I lived there 30 years ago. |
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I think I need to change the DI resin. It has almost no black left in it. Probably left it a little too long. Good idea on the dual di filters. I will have to look into that. One thing it seems I need is a pressure booster pump. The psi out of the cold water line is 40psi. I am told I want at least 50psi. Yes Okanagan water is really hard. I was hoping to get more than 3 months use out of the DI filter. Especially with only making about 10 gal a week. |
Obnoxiously large picture time!
Tank seems to be doing well even with some holiday neglect. I got a new di resin cartridge so I can replace the old one and get my TDS back to 0. I still need to pick up a booster pump since I think my psi is low. It looks like I have a bit of turf algae on one of my rocks. I will have to hit that with some boiling water to kill it off. I had a couple patches of it on the same rock a couple weeks ago, but I must have missed this section. Fish are doing well. All happy and eating. Still low on cuc, lost 2 hermits in the last few weeks, but I have 2 ceriths that have laid eggs on the glass twice now. Corals for the most part are doing well. The Duncan has a new head starting! My red scan always seems deflated though and never has feeder tentacles out. The blue one beside it is big and puffy and always has its feeders out. Anything I can try to get it looking happier?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c547cda08e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...56d8b1b893.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2b85948b70.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...27066d562e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...854460964c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...25a373b42c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6f838214fd.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a1a8a8b3d9.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...66cf8d2b7f.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
Water change and water testing day yesterday.
Tank and inhabitants are doing well. The kenya tree has been dropping a few branches so now I have 3 of them... Getting patches of turf algae in the cracks of the rocks. I have been trying to kill the patches with boiling water. Seems to have mixed results. is there any CUC I can add that would eat it? I have been struggling to keep nitrates and phosphates under control. That is probably the first thing I should tackle. Tank Params are Salinity: 1.026 Temp: 78 pH: 8.2 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 20 Phosphate: 0.086 Alkalinity: 9.8 Calcium: 475 Magnesium: 1350 |
I have around 3 emerald crab, few snail, and a handful of mexican crab or whatever u call em. Seem to work but in the summer time there is still going to be a bloom.
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Ya I'm a bit worried about the summer when it gets really hot out. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
Water change day again.
Still struggling with high nitrates and phosphates. Although the phosphates have come down some. Algae isn't much worse, but it isn't getting better either. Tank Params are Salinity: 1.026 Temp: 78 pH: 8.2 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 25 Phosphate: 0.074 Alkalinity: 9.8 Calcium: 475 Magnesium: 1350https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b5bf6cdd46.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...adb0a5424c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bcdb1d9536.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...faaa94ed61.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
Im worried about your tank being so close to the window. One of the biggest rules in tank keeping is keep the tank away from outside sunlight. We dont get the best light spectrum for Saltwater tanks up here in the northern reaches.(Insert big paragraphs about light spectrum being refracted off of the atmosphere due to the relative angle of the sun to our continent)
That sunlight from the window could be one of your biggest sources for the algae growth. |
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Ya I had that thought too when setting the tank up. Unfortunately no matter where I set it up after all the furniture is in it will be near a window. I try not to have the blinds open for long periods of time. Mostly for taking pictures since then they don't turn out so blue. In the summer I will probably have to put some cardboard in the window to keep light off it. |
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Hey, that's a good idea! I will look for that for the summer!
Can you get it at home depot? |
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Plus there will be less heat from the sunlight blasted directly onto your tank as well. More stable. And when you're done with the tint grab a good hair dryer and heat the tint up and peel off |
Been awhile since I did a update. Still have high nutrients, but I have been slowly lowering them.
I did my first online coral order from fragbox. I ordered a trumpet coral, pink acan, favia and cyphastrea. All arrived in good condition except the trumpet. I think they will be sending a replacement. For the most part corals have been doing well. The Kenya tree is dropping branches like crazy. Been selling them as I can. My Duncan is showing some new heads starting. Unfortunately I lost the small surviving piece of forest fire digi. Fish are all doing well. I've started working on my 75g so I can get the yellow Tang out of the small tank. Ran into a issue though when I noticed the 75g stand was compromised. So yay building a new stand...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8a4e04823b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...aecadd674c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...71a69a02d2.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1b15c887fb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e43a38f1f6.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4322a1449e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f95c70d841.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
Great pics Llorin but they are MASSIVE and go off the page, even on my desktop PC :lol:
Post before and after shots of your stand !! |
It's been a busy few weeks, but I finally have time to update on the tank.
Fish are doing well. All eating like pigs! Corals doing well as well. Duncan has new heads, frogspawn is getting bigger, the new acan I bought a few weeks ago has a new head. A cyphastrea I had in my 75 gallon which I thought died in the original move has come back. I see green and 3 red spots! On the bad side. The algae has been getting worse. Due to high nutrients and a bit of neglect the last few weeks. This weekend I was able to do a bigger clean. I did a 10 gal water change, cleaned the sand, scrubbed rocks in the tank as best I could, removed rocks/old snail shells that were covered in algae and scrubbed them with peroxide to really kill the algae. Over the last week I have been experimenting with vodka dosing in an attempt to lower nitrates and phosphates. I have yet to see a decrease, but I am hoping it comes soon! |
I think I cut my dosage to the "maintenance level" for vodka dosing a bit to soon. When testing with salifert phosphate test kit since I ran out of reagent for my hanna it was reading 0 and my nitrate test read 0.
Testing last night after getting more reagent my phosphate is still at 0.046ppm and nitrate using the red sea test kit is at around 1.5ppm Going to up my vodka dosing from 0.6ml/day to 0.7ml/day and see if phosphate starts to come down a bit more. |
Alright. More giant picture time!
Tank is doing well minus hair algae. It's always hair algae! Someone help me get rid of the hair algae. All the fish are doing well and always hungry. Corals seem to be doing well. I had one coral that I thought was dead make a comeback which I am happy about. Seeing some new growth on my acans, Duncan, hammer and frogspawn. I sold my Kenya tree as it was dropping branches everywhere and taking over the tank. Now I have room for more corals! I have got my nitrate and phosphate under control. They both read 0 on my last test. I don't think it's true 0 as algae is still growing. I would like to have a bit of nitrate and phosphate so I guess the vodka dosing is still a bit of a balancing act to find what's right for the tank. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...329ade9882.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8ff887669f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...13ee1316ed.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...994469a966.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7dfff4c193.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5ace32d6e0.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a02e79d3eb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6afdfe6f3f.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
Anyone have any tips on getting these corals going?
The first two I got in early Feb and I haven't been seeing any growth. The acan I have had for a year now and it just won't grow. The other 2 acans I have are growing perfectly fine. But this guy always looks unhappy.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...da95ffc29c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1abfddb4dc.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1e79f5e035.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
How's everyone enjoying their quarantine? Not a whole lot is different for me. I already worked from home. Except now I don't go to the gym after work. Or able to do anything on the weekends.... My wife wasn't taking the whole no gym thing well so she bought a Bowflex for the garage. I must say it's very different from dumbbells.
Anyways back to the tank. Things are pretty stable right now. I seem to have my nutrients under control. With dosing 0.55ml vodka a day nitrate is at 1.5ppm and phosphate at 0.009ppm. I wouldn't mind getting nitrates to be 5 ppm, but I will leave it as is for now since everything looks happy. Unfortunately I'm still getting gha on the rocks. Winning in some spots and losing in others. I have been picking it out by hand and using a stiff brush on the rocks as well. But it's hard to get into all those little crevices. Still trying to find some more cuc, but it's been difficult due to things shutting down. I can order from Ontario, but they are getting hit hard with the virus so I would rather not have things shipped across country. Fish are all doing well. Never much to report with them. Corals doing well. I moved my cyphastrea do a higher light and flow part of the tank, but it got knocked down by a snail and burned the favia a bit. Moved it back to a safer spot after that and the favia has recovered surprisingly quickly. I've also started feeding the corals with lps pellets every Friday. I've moved my water changes to once ever other week. Doing weekly was raising my alk and Cal a bunch. All was at 10.2 and Cal at 500. After 2 weeks they are down to 9.6 and 480. So at least thing are growing! What does everyone use for calcium testing? I have salifert test kit which I find to be kind of annoying. I also have Hanna calcium test kit which I can never get consistent results.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7ba0f09b12.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0edd5d0369.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2a4ef07f87.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4cb6baec72.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f81bf8f59e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...728490be18.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
Been awhile since I updated on the tank. Tank is doing ok, going through a bit of a rough patch I think.
Fish are doing well and eating as always. The larger clown has started to host in the frogspawn which is cool to watch. Corals are ok. My frogspawn has 2 heads that aren't looking great, but the rest of it is big and seems fine. My duncan coral has been closed up since Sunday afternoon about an hour after I did a 10 gal water change on the tank. Acans are doing well including the one that was always a little deflated. It is now big and has feeding tentacles out! The cyphastrea isn't doing great, but the one near it seems to be growing fine. Still battling gha. I think I have got my nutrients under control using vodka dosing. I tested my water last night, 2 days after my last water change. Tank Params are Salinity: 1.026 Temp: 78 pH: 8.2 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0.5 Phosphate: 0.018 Alkalinity: 9.5 Calcium: 435 Magnesium: 1470 I added some calcium last night and will test again today to see where calcium is at. |
And some giant pictures!
Anyone have any idea what is in picture 4? It's the underside of the frogspawn. It has a bunch of white almost stringy stuff on it.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b033f47cf8.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...fdfba1daef.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...670fdc8970.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...05ed7a550d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6c14fd7750.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
Hi Llorgon, hard to see from the pictures but some kind of sponge?
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Probably some sort of filter feeder I would guess. It doesn't seem to be bothering anything at the moment.
I will see if I can get a better picture of it. |
Have you tried a Mexican Turbo for the GHA? I'm not sure if J&L has any at the moment, give them a call.
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And a better shot of the weird white stuff on the bottom of my frogspawn.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4139e174a3.jpg Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk |
I would say it's a sponge. The tube with opening is called an operculum. Some of the sponges in my tank are really growing. If they get in the way, I just pull them off. But I find they are no match for any corals - they just stay in the shady spots or under the coral.
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The tank has seen better days. Since my large water change 2 weeks ago my duncan coral has been closed up. I tried feeding it and I got one head to take a LPS pellet, but didn't get it to open up. I have tried moving it and still no luck.
Also noticed that my two kenya trees have been really closed up the last few days so something is going on. The acans, favia, hammer and frogspawn are all doing well though. I did my regular 5 gal water change yesterday and I'm hoping that will help the tank. I tested the water and nothing out of the ordinary. Calibrated and rechecked salinity and it was still at 1.026. I've put in fresh carbon which hasn't helped either. Any ideas on what could be going on? |
Alright, been awhile since I posted an update. Work has kept me crazy busy!
Tank is doing alright? Not great, but not terrible. For the most part the corals are doing well. I have 2 heads of my frogspawn that are looking very pale and not really opening up. The rest of them are big and happy though. My one cyphastrea is dying. I'm not sure why. The other one in the same area as it has been growing. I have tried moving it around, but no luck with it so far. Also been having troubles with my duncan. For the last month or so it hasn't been opening up. Just closed up one day and hasn't really been open since. I have tried to up my feeding of the corals more, but so far that hasn't helped. Still fighting gha. If I keep up with my daily brushing of the rocks it seems to say in check somewhat, but I was away for the long weekend and I am still trying to catch up from that. Still dosing vodka. Dosing 0.7ml/day. It's been working well to keep nutrients low although I think it needs to be lower since I still have lots of gha growing. I did pick up a bottle of waste away and did my test half dose last night. Hoping that can help things out. I am low on CUC, which is probably at least part of the problem. Unfortunately there isn't anything available locally and nothing is shipping. How does everyone manage nutrients? I feel I am really doing a poor job of it. I have filter socks that I change out weekly and do a 5 gallon water change every weekly and 10 gallon water change and sand vacuum every 2-3 weeks. |
Been pretty busy lately and had a couple week long camping trips. Tank husbandry has suffered a bit.
Honestly the tank is pretty stagnant progress wise right now. Haven't found a good lfs around Kelowna that has a good supply of fish, corals, cuc. And with covid not many places are shipping. So no new corals and still in desperate need of more cuc. Anyone have insight into Okanagan reef stores? I have also noticed a lot of frags from local reefers are much more expensive than on the coast. Fish are all doing well, corals are not dying, but also not seeing much growth though. My Duncan has been closed up for months now. It's not dying and eats when I feed it, but little to no polyp extension. Trying to fight back this gha. Seems to be a losing battle though. Been dosing vodka and waste away while doing weekly water changes. Nutrients are low. nitrates 1.5ppm and phosphates 0.015. I seem to always have this problem with gha. All 3 tanks I have had all ended up with huge gha problems. And nothing seems to ever eat it. Managed to get a couple turbo snails and they have no interest in it. How can I beat this?!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a71cd4dd14.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...059ecc67e4.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2d64daf66d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...eac47d3465.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c6cee38c07.jpg Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk |
Yes, its hard these days with covid to get a decent cuc.
A lawnmower blenny sure would eat it. Try decreasing the light by an hr a day. What lights do you run? Manual removal every day until you make a dent. Hard when you are working. Google hydrogen peroxide as a cure. You have to use a syringe to spot the gha But there was a limit. Check,but I think 10ml per gallon a daY? Its a battle. good luck |
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I am fully stocked on this tank fish wise. So until I get my 75 gallon setup again(hopefully I can finish the stand soon) no new fish, but I will keep that in mind. Great suggestion. I have radion xr30 LPS setting, 25%. Light comes on at 10am and off at 9pm. I have been scrubbing the rocks every night. Seems to be helping the rocks. Today I took my scrapper and siphon to the back wall. Worked great. I have tried the hydrogen peroxide. Spot treating it works great, but no luck on more than spot treating. Boiling ro/di water also works great for spot treating. |
How often do you vacuum the sand bed right to the bottom? If it isn't being done regularly and if the sand is less than 4 inches deep, the sand could be trapping a lot of detritus which is leaching nitrates and phosphates into the system and fueling the algae. Reading back in the tank's history the nitrates and phosphate were slowly climbing, then there was the algae outbreak, and now there is enough algae to bring the water-borne nitrate and phosphate to low levels, but they are still being added to the system and growing more algae.
If the sand hasn't been cleaned to the bottom in a while I would start with just a small section at a time per week, say 10% or less, so that the system isn't destabilized too much. Then after a couple months once the whole bed has been initially cleaned, start cleaning the whole thing every two weeks or so. I don't know your tank or your methods; this is just a guess on my part so take it with a grain of salt. Anyone else want to chime in on this? |
Right now I vacuum the sand bed once a week when I do my water change. At first I wasn't really doing it, then I started to do it every other week. Now for the past few months I do it weekly. And yes I do go down all the way to the bottom of the sand bed.
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Hi Llorgon
I’ve been having a bit of a battle myself with green cyano that came in after my Vibrant treatment for bryopsis. I feel like I’m gaining some ground and it’s after I finally stopped the Vibrant (they claim it takes care of cyano but um, NO). It’s been several weeks of manual removal (blowing off the sheets and netting it out). I think you have to export it however you can out of the tank rather than have it recycled by CUC, chemicals etc. I even took some rocks out of the tank to brush off in a bucket. There were a couple of tuffs of some kind of turf alga that I couldn’t pull off so I scraped it off with an exacto knife. So yeah, a lot of elbow grease. I just spent an hour blowing the rocks with the turkey baster and now my thumb hurts haha. But the tank looks much better. Anyway, good luck and stay with it. I really believe in vacuuming the sand too |
Thought I should revive this thread since the tank is still going. This tank is my longest running tank, no other tanks made it past 7 ish months. I have definitely noticed that as time goes on the tank gets more stable.
I still have a bit of an algae issue, but nothing like before. I was able to get some snails and did a dose of fluxRx and it worked wonders. I also removed the rock on the left and replaced it with some live rock from an established system. The original large frogspawn I had in the tank on the left slowly died for unknown reasons. I added a new one and it has been doing well. I moved the skeleton to the back of the tank and I can see some new small heads on it so it must not be completely dead! The piece of liverock I got from the established tank had a rock flower anemone and some zoa's on it. Both have been doing well. I have added a couple hammers and frogspawns that are growing nicely and I am hoping to start a small euphyllia garden in the top left. Hoping to find some nicer ones since I seem to now be able to keep them alive! On the right side of the tank, I have those staxx rocks that I made a bit too high. I have an unknown red sps that is doing really well near the top of the tank. I am thinking of adding some more encrusting corals to the structure, but I'm not sure what kind. I've tried a few cyphastrea that never take. So any suggestions on what would work are welcome! The favia that literally did nothing for almost a year has finally started growing and spreading which is nice to see. The jedi mind trick I have in the back corner has also exploded in growth. I keep hoping that it is going to spread up the back wall, but so far it's going on the sand instead. :cry: In the front I have started a little acan garden. Really like these corals. They grow decently well and I seem to be able to keep them alive. Although one of them hasn't been doing well and is down to one head. Maybe one day I can get most of the bottom covered in acans then I don't have to vacuum the sand! The one part of the tank that still struggles with algae is the back wall. I've wanted to get a coral that will cover it, but all my attempts have failed so far. I tried some montipora and none of them took. Maybe I just need some gsp and trim it to stay on the back wall... Stocking is still the 2 clowns and the royal gramma. They are all doing well and eating like pigs. Right now, my main issue is aiptasia. I have been injecting them with lemon juice, but more keep coming up. |
Here's a few shots of the tank today.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...71af3cc757.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b7c19c3f2b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4102725825.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...79c72974fc.jpg
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