Beware the Shallows! jedimasterben's 80g shallow reef!

[jedimasterben]

Scratch that, the purple maxima has some new growth! Squammy still doesn't have any.




Got a few parameters today.

Salinity 31ppt (1.0228sg)
Calcium 450ppm [Red Sea]
Alkalinity 117ppm (6.552dKh) [Hanna]
Magnesium 1400-1450ppm [Red Sea]
Nitrate 0.0-0.25ppm [Red Sea]
Phosphate 0.02ppm [Hanna]

So my nitrate is too low and alkalinity is very very low. Nitrate kinda makes sense as I have not been feeding the tank often enough, but I have no clue why my alk is so low. Welcome to the low alk for no reason club! :mad2:

 

[skinz78]

I would raise the sg to 1.024 and then re check the alk. 1.022 seems low to me.

 

[jedimasterben]

That will only bump it up to 140ppm or so. Target is 200ppm. I'm going to mix some more saltwater to start topping off with to bring the salinity up to 35ppt.


Weirdest part about all of this is that I dosed about 40mL of sodium carbonate solution this morning a few hours before testing. I had forgotten to the last two days, so I was like oh crap! I don't think it should have gotten that low, though, and no calcium has been added nor has any precipitated out (my calcium is the same as it was last time I checked it).

 

[jedimasterben]

A Reef Angel is on its way to me.

 

[jedimasterben]

LFS end of year sales have been good to me!

Two lyretail anthias (females), a firefish (to go with my firefish I already have, hopefully they'll pair), a male gold molly, a female marbled molly are my new fishy additions to QT. For corals, I got a free alveopora, a free Montipora setosa frag (it's itty bitty, though), a pocillopora frag, and a stylo I think is the last one.

 

[jedimasterben]

Have gotten a pair of pearly jawfish, another two anthias (one lyretail and one stocky anthias, I think she is, came to the LFS in a bag of lyretails but she definitely isn't). I tried dripping a few guppies to SW but only one survived. When I was about to put him into the tank, I totally dropped him down the sink!!!! I was freaking out, then remembered that he might be in the little catch-thing under the sink, so I check there, and there he was! I was so relieved! After putting him in the tank, I was worried that he wouldn't do too well with all the flow, but he was swimming around in the flow of the MP10s at 100% and seemed to be doing really well! Then when I was feeding the tank a few hours later, I heard a whiirrrr-thump, and two halves of a guppy floated by. MP10s are deadly! And later that night, one of the jawfish jumped through my mesh top.


For the actual tank, I scraped off the black background yesterday, and the tank actually looks really nice like that, I think I may leave it. I have a couple of paint samples that aren't black to try, so we'll see.

I am completely changing up the tank. Gonna rescape for a minimalist build and change out the sand from the black sand I have to this:

Nature's Ocean Samoa Pink Gravel #2, 1.5-2mm in size, so plenty big enough not to get blown around by the MP10s and the Mp20 I just bought, which will immediately be upgraded to an MP40wES.


Also, MOLLY BEBBEHS!!

 

[skinz78]

Very cool that the Mollies are breeding!

 

[altolamprologus]

Sorry to hear about the fish How they get through holes in mesh is beyond me. That must take some serious aiming! Congrats on the babies though! They're just mollies, but I always get excited when mine have babies too

 

[jedimasterben]

That jawfish really, really wanted to find some carpet! Determined little buggers!

 

[jedimasterben]

The more I look at 'box of rocks' tanks, the more I'm put off by them (and my own tank!). Can't wait to get started with rebuilding everything!

 

[jedimasterben]

Turdy pics.


Check these out - mesenterial filaments from the hollywood stunner chalice. This thing really wants to kill the birdsnest near it.

Friends?

Friggin' LEDs make everything blue. This is a bright pink fire worm.

Got my new sand in. For comparison, the first pic is Caribsea Special grade.

This is the Samoa Pink 'gravel'. Definitely still just a sand :lol:

Stingray I saw at the beach the other day.

What could thiiiiiisssss beeeeeeeeee?

 

[peterthegamer]

Looking good! Hopefully this time you don't lose a lot or any at all.

 

[jedimasterben]

The algae scrubber will minimize (or eliminate completely) any ammonia or nitrite from any dieoff, so I think as long as I keep it going, it will all be ok.

 

[Hooked]

Love this tank so much that I ordered one! Looking forward to seeing your new aquascape. Do the 3 MP10s provide enough flow?

 

[jedimasterben]

I'm down to two at the moment. For the corals, yes, two is enough flow (even for SPS), but I don't really have many colonies of SPS, and detritus seems to build up in a lot of places. I tried to purchase an MP20 with intent to upgrade it to an MP40 and I got scammed, so waiting on that money to come back before deciding what to do.

 

[Hooked]

I'm down to two at the moment. For the corals, yes, two is enough flow (even for SPS), but I don't really have many colonies of SPS, and detritus seems to build up in a lot of places. I tried to purchase an MP20 with intent to upgrade it to an MP40 and I got scammed, so waiting on that money to come back before deciding what to do.

Thanks for the info. Sucks that you got scammed :sorry: Hope everything works out in the end. I would love to put 2 MP40s on mine, but that's a lot of cash and maybe overkill.

 

[Hooked]

Have gotten a pair of pearly jawfish, another two anthias (one lyretail and one stocky anthias, I think she is, came to the LFS in a bag of lyretails but she definitely isn't). I tried dripping a few guppies to SW but only one survived. When I was about to put him into the tank, I totally dropped him down the sink!!!! I was freaking out, then remembered that he might be in the little catch-thing under the sink, so I check there, and there he was! I was so relieved! After putting him in the tank, I was worried that he wouldn't do too well with all the flow, but he was swimming around in the flow of the MP10s at 100% and seemed to be doing really well! Then when I was feeding the tank a few hours later, I heard a whiirrrr-thump, and two halves of a guppy floated by. MP10s are deadly! And later that night, one of the jawfish jumped through my mesh top.

For the actual tank, I scraped off the black background yesterday, and the tank actually looks really nice like that, I think I may leave it. I have a couple of paint samples that aren't black to try, so we'll see.

I am completely changing up the tank. Gonna rescape for a minimalist build and change out the sand from the black sand I have to this:

Nature's Ocean Samoa Pink Gravel #2, 1.5-2mm in size, so plenty big enough not to get blown around by the MP10s and the Mp20 I just bought, which will immediately be upgraded to an MP40wES.


Also, MOLLY BEBBEHS!!

Any updates on your tank remodeling? What size is the mesh on your top - 1/4" or 1/2"?

 

[jedimasterben]

The room the tanks are going into is painted, my desk is made, and both stands have their frames built, reinforced, and are in place. I still need to skin the stands, plywood the bottom of them, and then they'll be ready. I have all the plumbing en route from a few places (new bulkheads, misc fittings that Home Depot doesn't have), and I have my TLF kalk reactor on the way, as well, should all be here on or before Friday. The new tank is cleaned, I need to drain it and put it inside. I need to drill the 20g fuge, buy and silicone glass baffles into place, get my algae scrubber box assembled (basically just glass panels for four sides, open top and bottom), and the big thing - waiting on my new LEDs, not sure when those will be coming in, but it will be a few weeks. I've also got to try and track down the right amount of Meanwell LDD drivers, LEDGroupBuy bought all of them in the US, so it's very difficult to find them in stock now! I'm stuck deciding between spending $200 on four 12" MakersLED heatsinks, or just going with much cheaper, larger plate heatsinks and making a custom cover for them. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Hooked]

The room the tanks are going into is painted, my desk is made, and both stands have their frames built, reinforced, and are in place. I still need to skin the stands, plywood the bottom of them, and then they'll be ready. I have all the plumbing en route from a few places (new bulkheads, misc fittings that Home Depot doesn't have), and I have my TLF kalk reactor on the way, as well, should all be here on or before Friday. The new tank is cleaned, I need to drain it and put it inside. I need to drill the 20g fuge, buy and silicone glass baffles into place, get my algae scrubber box assembled (basically just glass panels for four sides, open top and bottom), and the big thing - waiting on my new LEDs, not sure when those will be coming in, but it will be a few weeks. I've also got to try and track down the right amount of Meanwell LDD drivers, LEDGroupBuy bought all of them in the US, so it's very difficult to find them in stock now! I'm stuck deciding between spending $200 on four 12" MakersLED heatsinks, or just going with much cheaper, larger plate heatsinks and making a custom cover for them. Decisions, decisions...

Wow, you are all in on this remodel. Would like to see algae scrubber when you get it assembled and in place.

 

[jedimasterben]

Yeah, I figured this time I really need to do it right. I'm love my tank, but it is far from what I had originally planned and what I want from it. It will be very different than it is now, and I'm really struggling with coral selection and resisiting buying a ton of new or different corals.

The main tank, I'm planning on it being true bommie-style, I'm gonna go with SPS, zoas/ricordea around the base of the main rock structure, and gorgonians or some LPS that can withstand higher flow somewhere for some 'flowies' in the tank. The small tank will be everything else that can't find a place in the main tank.

As of right now, I have about 7 birdsnests, 2 stylos, 2 pocillopora, 7 montipora digi/spongodes/setosa, four acros (most of which are not doing well), eleven zoa/paly pieces/colonies, two big leathers, a wall frogspawn, a wall torch, a branching torch, a branching hammer, two duncans, five ricordea, a dozen mushrooms scattered about from a liquefying incident with an MP10 (lol), a plate coral, 7 acans, a blasto piece, a yellow sun coral, and a large black sun coral. I've also got three clams (two large maximas and a little squamosa), five maxi mini anemones, and a crapton of hunks of macroalgae that I need to find space for.

I think I'll have my work cut out for me!!