Magic Kiwi's Tank Journal Thread

[Magickiwi]

Still have two chromis as of this morning so that's better news!

Put in the freebie frag you gave me last night reefwars. Thanks again for that. They are open and thriving today. May have damaged my large zoa colony though. When I tried to use putty to glue it to my live rock I think I squished a few polyps. The shrimp went insane when I put it back in the tank and there was white stuff coming out.

[Magickiwi]

Added a bunch of livestock last night:

* Sand sifting starfish
* Spider Conch
* 2x Ocellaris Clownfish
* Blue Tang
* Bubble Tip Anemone

Many thanks to Kien for the BTA, my hope is that it will host the two clowns. The clowns are captive bred and from what I understand they normally ignore anemones. The anemone decided to hoof it to an excellent spot for viewing, water flow, and light; but it also happens to be directly under my largest zoa colony The zoas were all closed this morning so I think the anemone may have laid the smack down on it. I'm planning on moving it later today if the nem is still in this spot. The nem is in its glory right now, wide open and red and bubbly.

So far the tang has been a ghost in the tank. He likely found some tiny crevice to sit and wait out the ugly giant that was so mean to him. The clowns are out doing their thing and aren't even slightly intimidated by me. My chromis are doing the same thing as the tang, which is strange because they never actually hide from me for long. So far the conch has moved a whooping six inches and didn't move overnight at all. The starfish has made a small tour but isn't moving at warp speed either.

Protein skimmer is still a microbubble factory but it is pulling black, thick and nasty juice from the aquarium so I can't fault it for that. Going to do the vinegar wash that others have recommended for it this weekend. Hopefully that settles it down and the bubbles go away. I've been searching for another HOB skimmer and I'm tossing two different models around in my head. The Deltec MCE600 is the front runner but that price is ouch! The other skimmer I'm considering is the Tunze 9011DOC. Both have excellent reviews on the net and I like the Tunze brand but the deltec has tons of features that the Tunze doesn't.

[kien]

Just got caught up on your build. Looking great!

The 'nem sounds happy! It's a double edged sword with 'nems. They are gorgeous and vicious, both at the same time.

[Magickiwi]

Originally Posted by kien

Just got caught up on your build. Looking great!

The 'nem sounds happy! It's a double edged sword with 'nems. They are gorgeous and vicious, both at the same time.

TYVM. That's high praise considering your tank and experience.

The film algae in my tank is starting to collect a bit, which his odd because my test kits are still showing nitrates well under the recommended maximum and phosphates are undetectable. My photo period was pretty long so I've taken a couple hours off to see if that slows down the film algae, although I'm concerned it will also slow down the coraline.

All other tank parameters are right where they should be. pH, temp, salinity, calcium, alk, etc. are right in the green. I'm running cuprisorb as well to take care of any trace copper that may be leeching from the rock/substrate or from the copper pipes in my house.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Magickiwi

TYVM. That's high praise considering your tank and experience.

The film algae in my tank is starting to collect a bit, which his odd because my test kits are still showing nitrates well under the recommended maximum and phosphates are undetectable. My photo period was pretty long so I've taken a couple hours off to see if that slows down the film algae, although I'm concerned it will also slow down the coraline.

All other tank parameters are right where they should be. pH, temp, salinity, calcium, alk, etc. are right in the green. I'm running cuprisorb as well to take care of any trace copper that may be leeching from the rock/substrate or from the copper pipes in my house.

Film algae on the glass or on your rocks? Glass film algae is normal. Just be thankful your tank isn't on the main floor with sunlight hitting it! With my tank in the living room I get crazy film algae growth thanks to the sun

[Dearth]

Originally Posted by kien

Film algae on the glass or on your rocks? Glass film algae is normal. Just be thankful your tank isn't on the main floor with sunlight hitting it! With my tank in the living room I get crazy film algae growth thanks to the sun

Same here with limited space half my 95 gallon gets sun and scraping the glass daily film algae on glass is one of those lil evils we get to live with however if it is on your rock/sand that is a different whole story

[Magickiwi]

Just picked up my brand new Tunze 9016 at the post office. Ordered from J&L as a 9015, looks like they decided to upgrade me to the 9016.

First impressions:
- wow this thing is a lot bigger than I expected
- The water doesn't go very far into the throat of the collection cup which is surprising
- wow this thing is a lot bigger than I expected
- motor is a little bit louder than the eshopps but seems to blend into the sound from the pumps so it's not too bad and I expect it will quiet down a little once it's broken in
- lots of microbubbles at first but within an hour there are almost none

Hopefully this will fix my obsession with microbubbles in my tank.

[Magickiwi]

Added an ozone generator to my Tunze 9016 this weekend. It is a real balancing act getting enough ozone in to affect my ORP reading but not adding so much that it escapes the skimmer/tank. I've read many warnings about ozone in the home and I'm aware that if it's detectable by your sniffer then it's bad.

The effect was amazing though. I would say that overnight my tank started showing signs of improved health. There was an obvious reduction in film algae on my glass and rocks. After my daylight period on Sunday (8 hours) I didn't even have to scrub the glass. My corals are brighter and my anemones are looking much more "perky". The fish seem to be better off too, although I have never had problems with the fish. (aside from a missing Chromis that I later discovered had tried to go for a walk).

My starting ORP was sub-one hundred and I was able to get it up to 192 within two days. Don't know if I'll be able to get it any higher without increasing the amount of ozone I'm generating. Which in turn presents a problem with it leaking from the skimmer/tank. Anyone have experience with a Tunze 9016 and ozone?

[Madreefer]

Hey why'd you decide to run ozone? I dont know of anybody that runs it. Always wondered how and what it does for skimmers to make them work so much better.