Hello

Looks like focusing outside the tank is difficult.

Titus

Yeah. If I have any angle on the lens to image through the glass the image will distort. I suppose I could go Manual Focus but I'm not quite that good.

Alright! The new skimmer came in! Bigger and better too! Bubble Magus Curve 5. I like that these new to me skimmers have a nipple on the air inlet to allow you to dose CO2 or O2 through your skimmer into your system. That's handy if I end up with a heavily loaded tank. And they are so freaking quite!

Anyways, all set up and running. Even in the break in period the skimmer already puts out a nicer foam compared to the last one. Which tells me that the last skimmer was just pooched to begin with.

And I still have room for the future refugium to go in after the skimmer and dual reactors and before the sump pump. Next week Im going to start buying a dish of Copeopods from Marine Life a week for a month and introducing them into the system. In a few weeks I can get the refuge up and running in the sump and then I can have nice things like a manderin goby.

https://i.imgur.com/rJSUWZr.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/FslQAIe.jpg?1

Got bored. Took pictures. Bought soe zoos

Now since it has been 6 years since I have had Zoos, I'll need help confirming their identity. I have had them before but just need a refresher. First three pics are the zoos in question.

Sorry for image quality. The wife left town with the good cameras so Im stuck with the phone camera on zoom

https://i.imgur.com/KIknVfE.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/g9WcvGZ.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/GN263yi.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/d3ur828.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/pHQTM6h.jpg?1

Oh yeah. I'm in the buying market for some Coral all local to Red Deer. willing to drive as far as Sylvan Lake or Lacombe or Innisfail. I just have to stay close to Red Deer for the next little bit. Anyways here's the thread with the details of what I am interested in.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...33#post1039633

Had an interesting micro bacteria bloom these past few days. Tank water was cloudy white and hard to see through. After a little bit of digging into it I came to the realization that the bacteria culture in the tank was having a huge bloom. So since I didn't have a UV sterilizer handy I changed out the filter socks 3 times daily and boosted my carbon in the sump 3 times fold. Bumped up the skimmer a tich. And within 24 hours the tank cleared up almost completely!

After the tank cleared up almost 100% I tested parameters again.

Salinity - 1.026
Ammonia - 0.25-0.5ppm 2 hours after feeding
Nitrate - Near 0ppm
Phosphate - 0ppm (Thank you GFO reactor)

One thing for sure though is I think I want to get a UV sterilizer on hand to handle any micro bacterial (both algae and live culture) blooms. I have been noticing that alot of peoples tanks go through these blooms from time to time and whenever a UV sterilizer gets pulled out to be used the problem is solved within 24-48 hours of flicking on the power switch.

Hello

Glad the bloom die down. Considering how handy a sterilizer can be at times like this it's probably a good idea to stock one or have it as part of any new tank planning.

Titus

Want to cut me a single head of this? Haha

Following along. Great looking tank, can't wait to see how this will turn out.

Let me grow it out for a few months first haha. It's got about 8 new heads starting to grow out. I'm excited to see its growth over the next while!

And thank you :biggrin: It's going to take awhile to stock it but I'm going to turn this tank into a garden of LPS and softies and Zoos and Palys

Alright. So it was time to start my dosing regiment. Now after going over how I did things with past tanks I determined that that process cost to much. I dosed a lot of different things to avoid products like Coral Snow and Reef Roids. I didn't want to have 6 or 7 bottles of product lying around and I didn't want to incur another $100 a month in maintenance. So after poking around for a bit and talking to the LFS guys here in Red Deer I decided to go with the ATI 2 Part Complete Dosing System.

This stuff is kinda impressive. Majorly covers the main Calcium/Magnesium/Alk/Potassium requirements but also claims to cover another 21 elements on top of that. So after some reading and research I determined that I am going to try this route.

https://i.imgur.com/coswHmD.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/jumaEHT.jpg?1

So I am currently dosing at 3.5mL non diluted of each bottle each day starting today. According to the instructions, I am to monitor my Alk and Calcium everyday at the same time to determine if I need to raise or lower my dosing. So at day one my Alk is at 11.5 dKh and Calcium is at 500ppm. Dosed 3.5 ml of each part. So tomorrow we shall check again to see what I need to modify. Very interesting stuff.

If this product works out then it will drastically reduce my requirements for supplements and water changes. Plus at the max recommended dose for my tank at full stock it would take 4.5 months for me to drain these bottles. But I'm no where near that. Currently it will take me a year and half to drain them. Damn, that's cost effective at $90 for both of the bottles.

I do not believe that these will be the ultimate cure all for every requirement for the coral. Will still need to direct feed coral their favorites like mysis/phyto. And I might have to add specific trace elements to help certain corals along. But at least I will not need all the bottles I had in the past.


In the meantime, enjoy a pic of me playing with my camera and Xmas tree lighting.

https://i.imgur.com/0Jmm6F2.jpg?1