Blacknifes 50g Battle of SPS learning

[blacknife]

overpacked DT: currently running 2xmp10 2xac300 with no media. mj900 with prop and a k2 i think. should be enough flow around all that rock.



I think it could survive like this untill i have a bigger tank if need be. as long as i get those frags/colonys on the frag rack thats just wedged between the rock and the glass somewhere.


Jail


all coral packed into the dt now, except for the starfish food that is in the fuge.

My son wanted his fishy out of the sump so I tried without a plan to get it out of the baffles. It quickly jumped in along the heaters then when trying to catch him out of there squeezed under the cryptic rubble/rock area. I've had enough playing with the tank he can stay there if i fish him out i have to shut down the pumps and do a water change as I think it needs a quick cleaning.

[blacknife]

Just curious when SPS, particularly montis start warfare on eachother will it affect all corals in the tank? a few of mine are fighting, and this week i was a little lazy dosing, and some of them have some damage. First i thoguht it was high alk, or one of the powerheads shifted and was blowing to hard, but now I am a little stumped.

ALK was HIGH at the start of the week. 151 or so on the hanna and is now back down to 135. calcium was down to 320-340 today, way down. kids kept me from testing anything else earlier but perhaps now that they are in bed I will catch up on my reef work.

Oh well time to pull out the chisel, though I am guessing I should go get one just for the tank and not use one that has been collecting who knows what in the garage.

Possibly related but doubtful. I am due for a zeo change ran out of bak this week. I am happy with the zeo results but might just call it quits as its almost time to go work on the road again as the local job hunt is not going well. though this will require acquisition of some kind of replacement for the 40b, perhaps just to run as a fuge section or fuge/frag tank.

right now i have all my extra rock. the mkoskers that the dottyback keeps beating up, and the coral muncher starfish the gf does not want me to get rid of squished in the 20 gallon that should just be the fuge. and I am Pretty sure the starfish is eating every sponge he can get to on the rocks. so much for cryptic LRR fuge.

Ohh one more gripe.. my skimmer that ran quietly for almost a month after getting used decided to start being really loud last week too. nothing looks wrong to the impeller or motor to my eyes but something must be out of whack in it. Cleaned it once last week I will try again. its in the basement so it does not drive me too nuts. but if it was in the living room.. it would be out the window by now.

[blacknife]

I picked up a used 65 g to put where the 40b used to sit. It happened to come with a stand. Now the gf does not want me to tie it into my system she wants me to set it up as fowlr upstairs somewhere. I guess i need to keep shopping for a frag tank.

Yesterday we had guests, the gf's friend and her three kids. They thought i was downstairs when i was really in the bedroom. While down there the kids were playing in the tank and did something to the starfish, either poking, grabbing, or taking it out of the tank and then squishing it. Try getting the truth out of a four year old an hour or two later. Pretty sure it was the older visiting boys but who knows. I guess its time to skirt in the stands.

[blacknife]

Moved the 20g up on top of the stand again.. temporary frag tank instead of fuge.. all extra rock is crammed in the sump.. where i did not want it. DT was opened up slightly.

I will be skirting the sump next week.


at least i have a frag tank again.. its nice to have somewhere the frags can grow without constant harassment from large snails, hermits and angry bab/marooons...

Mr coral muncher is happily in the sump with the rock, but all the more reason to skirt the sump in as the kids can easily get in there.

I chipped up some of my fighting monti's yesterday too but some of them are looking pretty dull from poor placement the last month or 2.. but they should get nursed back to health where they are and be able to be shared out soon enough.

[blacknife]

I am not quite sure how this works.... Starfish eats coral.. Temporarily gets banished to sump..then finds himself a new home in the living room, while all my corals and fish are still in the dungeon.


set up a 65g upstairs over the last few days, decided tonight to throw protesttar coraleatius in there as well as one baby conch.

Tank quickly went from its planned ST-fowlr to starfish with all the softies I don't want to spread through my frag tank. I believe its official tittle is "The girlfriend wants it but I don't want it in my tank".

It only got half the sand I planned on. I had a bucket and a half of sugar sized which took its time in the buckets well. I had another bucket and a half or 2 buckets of CC mixed with sugar fine and it was solid black and smelly even after some washing... gross. There is enough for the current inhabitants. It is sumpless and currently skimmerless, so I was contemplating a DSB. Low maintenance is priority. I need to figure out some good critters to suggest she put in there once its stabilized in a couple months.

[blacknife]

I guess I will have a few more frags to get rid of for fragfest or whenever.
I have been trying to find something interesting to put in the starfish tank upstairs.. trying to keep the tank low maintnance fowlr.

so i am talking to the gf about my tank telling her i want to try to round up all the mini gbta and bta and get rid of them. she tells me to put the clownfish and some of the nems in the FO tank. my two questions were something about does that mean i can buy leds to keep the BTA's alive?, and can the dottyback go too? I think the leds were a yes and the dottyback was a firm no.


SO the next part was catching the maroons in the 55 with to much rock in it. 4 buckets of water and 3/4 of the rock moved now they are out of my tank.


Re-scaping shall wait untill the kids are in bed..I should pick up some more glue before than as i have a feeeling the frags are not finished smashing themselves free of the rocks.

On a plus note it looked like there was lots of detrius in the sand under the rocks where i can never get to so i did about 15g of sand siphoning water change ... 15g of brownish stank water I wonder if thats why the sps have not been looking their best the last month and a half or so.

the 2 biggest pigs of my tank are now out which gives me some more room to play, I love my neon dottyback but i should have caught him while i had the tank half drained just because he is so mean..

[blacknife]

Quick FTS of the redone rock.. might stay this way for now.

Upstairs FOWLR+starfishfood+nems:



Dungeon DT FTS:


Dungeon Fragtank FTS:


Alot of things were out of position with either to much or not enough light while i had all the rock crammed in one tank so nothing really looks good right now. I was having some good colors and growth earlier this summer before things started breaking and acting up, so hopefully it goes back to that way.
I am sick of some of my 1-2 year old frags still looking like frags while I know some people I have sold/given frags too have had enough growth to pass them along all ready.

I chiseled/smashed most of the encrusting sps off some rocks that went up to the starfish tank, but the chunks came out pretty small, I guess just leave them in place and let them grow unless they magically heal up before fragfest.

I only have PC lights on the tank with the clowns in it. the nems in there were all cheap/free if they keep on looking good i might have to get a nicer one in there. I wanted to get rid of all the little mini bta's on that one zoa rock but i could not get them off so the whole rock went up there they just split to much to keep in my other tank. one batch all splits as soon as they get a little bigger than a toonie, and the other ones were about 4 inches across then just split before i decided to move them here

[blacknife]

My pump is putting out lots of micro bubbles.

I don't think its the plumbing, I think I got all the leaks with that out a few months ago.

I just went to clean the strainer again<cleaned it last night> and after I pulled off the strainer my pump started making buzzing noises.


can't do anything till the kids are in bed but here is hoping it just needs a good cleaning<never ever cleaned it yet since purchased used a couple years ago... doh>

[blacknife]

Something has been munching on my zoa's, the last few days it has been eating toonie+ sized chunks out of previously healthy mats. the last three days it has all been confined to one rock, a fist sized rock with mostly goldeneyes on it.

now the rock is in about 10 pieces and i have one of those nasty worms <enuncid?> with the three feeding tentacles by its mouth, sitting in a container beside the tank. heh.. I tried to take some pics of it but I need a better container or to not be distracted by the rest of things in life for a few mins to set up a shot of the little demon.

hopefully That is the only one.

[blacknife]

I have been slowly moving most of the lps and zoa's up to the 65g with the clowns in it.
I have been running a calcium reactor since fragfest, and its almost dialled in now. I do not have a controller or solenoid yet, just started slow and slowly bumped it up until it maintains ca and alk. my ca is steady and high< it was high when i started trying to dial it in> and the alk fluctuates with the changes.

most of my sps are slowly getting more colour but they still seem dull to me. one of my bluish acros turned grey back after the tank cracked and the new growth is finally vibrant blue again but the grey has not left the body. it is also growing uneven as it is almost in front of the AC70 fuge and my return. I think i might get a sea swirl for the return, or another mp10 or a 40, and ditch the fuge.


I have a few possible upgrades in the near future. A friend who is downsizing offered me a 180g for a good price, problem is its in Calgary, also perhaps a 150 from a fellow canreefer with a cracked bottom. thinking depending on glass size and condition the 150 could get cut down to a 48x30x12 frag tank instead of the 48x24x30 as it sits but who knows as this has not been discussed with the gf yet


After not working all summer I start work again on tuesday unfortunately I have to work on the road, 10 day shifts for now, right when my sps are looking good. i will have to give the GF a crash course on zeo, and if she cannot do that perhaps switch to some other form of dosing to keep nutrients down. The plus side is that means its time to buy some toys for the tank. Right now I think I am sold on a reef-angel controller. I have some computer programing background but do not want to do a full diy audrino controller, I think the reef angel has enough packed into it for its price to give the bigger names a run. I would love a proliflux but can not justify the price... <yet heh>