90g Mixed Reef

[justingraham]

Looks cool

 

[leahfiish]

Took a quick video for today's update.
But can't find a way to attach it anymore?
Also Mr jawfish is still acting a little strange. I'm beginning to wonder if something might be wrong with his jaw?

 

[leahfiish]

About to do a water change.

 

[leahfiish]

Did a 20g water change, added a little bit more phosguard, changed the filter sock, cleaned the skimmer cup, and vaccumed the sand. Gonna try to do that all again on Thursday and see where my nitrates and phosphates are at.
Also going to dose remediation today.

 

[leahfiish]

Maybe my phyto is growing after all? Definitely not the cleanest culture though.

 

[leahfiish]

Tested my nitrates today - about 60 with the red Sea test, pretty high. So that explains all this cyano. I'm gonna up my carbon dosing, I've been doing 2ml a day to be on the safe side but at this point I think I need a little more. I can only do 20g water changes at a time which is not super effective at lowering nitrates on this case. I'm also considering adding mangroves to my overflow box but I don't want them to interfere with (clog) my drain lines, or provide a way for my fish to jump.

 

[justingraham]

Mangroves don't do anything besides look cool

 

[leahfiish]

I split my phyto culture. I should have strained the algae clumps out but didn't have anything to strain it with. I put about 1/4 into my pod tank and then put the rest into 2 new bottles, filled them up with 1.019 sg saltwater and microgrow. I'll have to get a strainer before the next split, and funnels because pouring 2l into another 2l is tedious. I still have more cultures from Florida aqua farms coming soon and I found another hobbyist to trade phyto with too.

Old bottle


I didn't have a lot of time at home today during tank hours so I barely got to look at the fish and corals.

 

[leahfiish]

Adjusted my powerheads and return pump flow a little bit to try to discourage some of those algae growth and cleaned some of it off. I'm still looking into other options for flow, I really like the gyre options but they are just a little more than I want to spend. But I really like the way torches move when you have a pulsing gyre and they seem pretty happy with it. I want something that I can set to do big and small alternating pulses, like 80%/10%/80%/10% etc. I don't want then to completely stop because I still plan on having Sharknose gobies and I don't want them perching in there and getting hurt. I'm also not sure if 1 gyre would really be enough to get around all of my rocks. On the left side I have them about 2 to 3 inches away from the glass, but they are against the back wall and the of overflow box stops a lot of flow. I'm thinking if I have the gyre going across the top of the tank from left to right that might work, or vertically left to right across the front panel of glass. But it's hard to get a good idea of how well it'll work and I don't want to waste money that could instead be spent on corals. So I'm still reviewing my options and seeing what's out there. It might be a black Friday purchase.

This is the back right side

 

[leahfiish]

On the bright side I do have a lot of pods and I'll be ordering some of Biota's captive bred mandarins as soon as they are available.

 

[leahfiish]

I believe the jawfish are getting ready to lay eggs again. They've both gone into the female's burrow and have been doing a lot of digging the last 2 days.
This blasto has really colored up in the last few days, it's gotten a really nice purple edge with yellowish green bubbles and it's huge. I hope it grows more heads soon (3 now). The Ricordias are also opening up very big, they are super happy. I think I'm going to move them to the right side of the tank, though, I was going to put some bigger lps where they currently are.

 

[Ben Weaver]

Blasto and rics are looking great what lights are you using?

 

[leahfiish]

Blasto and rics are looking great what lights are you using?

Kessil ap700

 

[leahfiish]

As my tank is approaching 1 year old its interesting to go back and look at old pictures. I've noticed that my acans are losing colors
Before (right one) June I think
There was yellow, teal and green
Now (front)

Mostly just orange with hints of green and yellow. Hopefully getting the nutrients down will bring the colors back.
Ive also seen a lot of growth from thus chalice
Feb

Now (October)

 

[justingraham]

Looks like diffent lighting

And don’t worry they are still alive now u can concentrate on coloring them up

 

[leahfiish]

The first pic was a little more blue light but it's more obvious on person, definitely not as many colors.

 

[leahfiish]

Tested the tds of my RO water yesterday... 110.
Time for an upgrade and new filters... That may be part of what's causing my algae.

I glued my rics to bigger pieces of rock to prepare to move them to the right side in jawfish territory.


My male jawfish stopped eating again today so I'm still thinking eggs again soon.

 

[justingraham]

110? Wow that’s high I saw a diffence in my tank at 2.

 

[leahfiish]

110? Wow that’s high I saw a diffence in my tank at 2.

Yeah I don't have a tds meter so I borrowed one. I was expecting it to be high but not that high. That should be easily fixed though, luckily.

 

[justingraham]

U have rodi unit or just an ro unit?

Also a tds meter isn’t that expensive to grab as they can sway out of calibration as well I recomend a handheld one