00W's AIO Smorgasbord

Reef Devils · Jan 31, 2024

kevgib67 said:
The best thing I’ve experienced is a tuxedo urchin followed by turbo snails but you need to crop the algae and keep it short for them to eat it.

Yeah I have heard urchins do a good job but can mess up your corals.

00W · Jan 31, 2024

GOOD MORNING Y'ALL

Lowell Lemon · Jan 31, 2024

Watching the sun come up and good morning to you as well.

ESABOE · Jan 31, 2024

kevgib67 said:
The best thing I’ve experienced is a tuxedo urchin followed by turbo snails but you need to crop the algae and keep it short for them to eat it.

Agreed! I have two tuxedos that were added to CUC a few weeks ago, they are like John Deere lawnmowers. Also, my tank is only 4 months old and I just started the uglies at 3.5 months so like Kev said, part of new tank maturing. I have added Ocean Magik phytoplankton to tank daily since initial cycle was complete ( along with copepods). What I failed to read in instructions was to add more as needed once you started to add fish, corals, etc. In the four days now that I increased dosage, already a big difference. I also added a new batch of copepods at the same time, total newbie error on not understanding instructions on a product.

I’ve been curious about adding HY Per to tank, thanks Kev for dosage meaurement.

ESABOE · Jan 31, 2024

Reef Devils said:
Yeah I have heard urchins do a good job but can mess up your corals.

As long as you glue/epoxy them down well, they won’t take for a ride. They haven’t hurt any of my corals and most of mine are tiny frags that they could easily crush

ESABOE · Jan 31, 2024

kevgib67 said:
I like it but it is the only salt my LFS carries. My lfs is awesome and I don’t want them going anywhere so I try to buy everything I can from them even if I can get it little cheaper somewhere else.

I use Tropic Marin - it’s very good but expensive, For same reasons that Kev does, my LFS uses it for their saltwater and I try and support them as much as possible, plus they do all my water changes and bring the water too me. I would have gone with Red Sea (a bit cheaper I think), however, most of the thought leaders believe it doesn’t matter as long as it’s a quality one. That’s why the veterans in this hobby still use IO.

ESABOE · Jan 31, 2024

00W said:
GOOD MORNING Y'ALL

Well Good Morning Sweetheart!

ESABOE · Jan 31, 2024

ESABOE said:
As long as you glue/epoxy them down well, they won’t take for a ride. They haven’t hurt any of my corals and most of mine are tiny frags that they could easily crush

Even though Kev does not approve, one of my urchins wears a cowboy hat and it has cut down 99% of the hitchhikers he normally would add for protection. My other one is fill of shell fragments and unfortunately a hermit crab and a snail on occasion which I promptly remove - lol.

kevgib67 · Jan 31, 2024

ESABOE said:
Even though Kev does not approve, one of my urchins wears a cowboy hat and it has cut down 99% of the hitchhikers he normally would add for protection. My other one is fill of shell fragments and unfortunately a hermit crab and a snail on occasion which I promptly remove - lol.

Yee haw, cowgirl!