bt's 40B upgrade

[btmedic04]

Decided to use the polyplab wwc flow pattern with 2x vortech pumps at 75% and so far everything seems happy.

My skimmer has been going nuts nonstop even fully closed, so I took the drain plug out and will let it run for a few days before I start to consider tinkering with water levels etc.

 

[btmedic04]

Ran some testing last night to get my baseline parameters. Im showing .25 ammonia but it could very well be the API test kit. Going to keep a close eye on it. The important thing is all of my critters and corals look good right now.

Temp: 77.2
pH: 7.81
Ammonia: .25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0.02
Salinity: 1.026
Alk: 7.9
Cal: 430
Mag: 1420

My reef octopus classic 110 nwb skimmer is still going nuts 2 days in. Ive had it for the last 4-5 years in storage so it never was broken in other when I ran it in a bucket with vinegar and water. Currently running the depth at 7.5 inches but im willing to bet theres probably some manufacturing stuff on it and on my sump. I guess I need to quit being impatient lol.

Lastly I made a few purchases. Algaebarn finally got some chaeto in stock so I purchased some along with pods and phyto. I also had a bunch of reward points on amazon and purchased a seneye reef monitor for the par meter. It was kind of hard to pass on getting it for $70 which is cheaper than renting the BRS par meters now since Ohio now charges sales tax on online orders =\ Everything should be here by Friday

 

[btmedic04]

One week in and everything is still looking good. My skimmer broke in the night of my last post and has been pulling out some nasty stuff. Sump skimmer skimmate smells far worse than any nano skimmer skimmate I've ever smelled before. I also got my algaebarn order for 5280 pods, & oceanmagic and a tennis ball size of chaeto. Going to give this innovative marine aquagadget chaetomax light a little bit of time to see if it can grow chaeto quick enough to maintain my nitrates and phosphates.

I also got the seneye in and discovered that I needed to increase the intensity of my lighting as I was only getting around 100 or so par at the top of my rock work. I'm now at around 250-300 so the sps should start taking off again. That chaetomax fuge light is only putting out about 50 par where the chaeto sits, but it's at 90% pur.

Lastly I did a 15 gallon water change. I know that's quite a bit for this size tank but I figured since it's new glass, sand and some new rock that I'd get any silicates etc out. Will be going with 5 gallon water changes from here on out.

 

[btmedic04]

I added some ulva to my refugium this week. I figured having a variety of macros would be good, plus I could feed some of it to my flame angel. Also did my 5 gallon water change for the week. Still dosing all for reef but I'm up to 24ml a day and the amount keeps climbing. Debating between kalkwasser or getting the new kamoer for pro dosing pump and switching to ati essentials pro.

 

[btmedic04]

Oh and I also received my lid from clearview lids. It looks fantastic and I highly recommend them! Definitely worth the wait!

 

[btmedic04]

I added a Royal Gramma over the weekend. He hangs out in his cave but comes out during feeding time so I'm hoping that once he's been in there a while that he will come out more.

I also signed up for a WWC gold subscription tonight and I'm pretty excited to see what they pick for me. It will be arriving on Saturday. Also there is a local frag swap happening on Saturday that I will be attending. It will be my first one and I'm looking forward to it too!

Lastly, I noticed that my ulva was bleaching under my prime fuge at 100% on all channels so I put it into acclimation mode at 75% reduction for 2 weeks. After 3 days its already looking much better. Hopefully i'll be able to crank the settings back up. If not, ill try running at 50% and see how it does.

My tank is humming along and everything is coloring up nicely!

 

[Dempsey941]

I won a gold club subscription from WWC and they sent over some sweet frags you will not be disappointed!

Also how has your flame angel been doing? I have contemplated adding one, but I am semi hesitant because I like my corals.

 

[btmedic04]

I won a gold club subscription from WWC and they sent over some sweet frags you will not be disappointed!

Also how has your flame angel been doing? I have contemplated adding one, but I am semi hesitant because I like my corals.

Nice! Now I'm really looking forward to Saturday!

When it comes to my flame angel and corals, I've noticed that he's been pretty interested in my GSP over the last couple days but I cant tell if he's picking at the algae on the mat or at the polyps. I do see a few polyps that are short/missing some branches on individual polyps but none of my other corals have any signs of damage. I'll be keeping a close eye on him and my corals. I'm ok with him picking at the GSP long as he doesn't touch the other corals or causes so much damage to the GSP that it begins to die off.

 

[btmedic04]

Upon second glance of my gsp I've realized that the polyps weren't short as if they were eaten. They just weren't fully extended due to the lighting being off. As of right now, I do not believe my flame angel is nipping at any of my corals but I will continue to monitor and let you all know if that changes

 

[btmedic04]

Another week, another 5 gallon water change and tank maintenance. I recieved my hanna ulr phosphate checker (the new ulr model) and it is soooooo much nicer than trying to guess if theres a color change or not. Phosphates have been reading at 0.01-0.02 with the checker during the day, but I have continued to dose 1.6ml of seachem phosphorus after my fuge light turns on. This seems to have helped as my ulva is now taking off. The chaeto could go either way right now as it looks to be about 50/50 alive and dead. I'll give it another week to see what happens. Nitrates are still a tad higher than I'd like at around 20 but everything is coloring up nicely so I'm just going to continue with my maintenance routine and see where the tank naturally stabilizes itself at.

I also went to C-Sea fraggenstein on Saturday and had a really good time. That was the first frag swap I've been to and I'll be going again next year. I might even make some road trips to other shows next season. Of course I had to pick up a few things. I gotta Walt Disney frag and a jingle bells cyphastrea.

FTS 10/28/19

Jingle bells cyphastrea

Walt Disney Acro

Ever see a clown goby hosted by frogspawn?

 

[btmedic04]

It's always been a goal of mine to successfully keep a mandarin, however it was not an option with my previous tanks as they were a lot smaller and lacked a separate sump with a dedicated refugium. I've been watching the pod population in this system and it is exploding and I feel like I'd successfully be able to keep a mandarin in here. After lights out there is so much life in the display tank and in the refugium as well. With that being said, do you all think it would be ok? I currently do not have any wrasses or other fish who's primary diet are pods. Also heres a few macro shots of some of the pods in my refugium to help you judge

 

[btmedic04]

Tonight I realized I hadn't taken any time to look down into the tank from the top in a while and decided to do so. It looks like everything is settling in, coloring up and beginning to grow. I'm happy to report that my fuge is finally taking off too. I stopped dosing phosphates as I started to notice a a tiny spot of cyano starting to form on the rock under my green stylo. The dwarf cerith snails make short work of it. Anyway let me know what you all think!

 

[btmedic04]

My WWC gold coral club package arrived today and @WWC picked some awesome pieces out! Thank you and I cant wait for these to come out of QT and grow! The pics were shortly after adding them to my frag tank. Everything started opening up shortly after so I'll grab better pictures tomorrow

 

[btmedic04]

The last 24 hours have been frustrating to say the least. My flame angel decided cyphastrea was delicious and ate the new growth on my frag, so I pulled it and put it back in the frag tank to recover. I then spent 30-45 minutes hunting him down and finally got him out of the tank and took him to the LFS. Maybe one day when I have a 100+ gallon tank, I'll revisit a dwarf angel after my frags become colonies.

To top it all off, I went to clean some macro algae out of my skimmer pump since I noticed bubble production wasnt great and I discovered the ceramic impeller was broken so I pulled the whole thing out. I bought this skimmer 6 years ago when I was with the ex, so I used the broken impeller as an excuse to upgrade skimmers and will have a reef octopus essence s-130 arriving tomorrow. My buddy at the LFS told me to bring in the old skimmer on sunday and he'll hook me up. When it goes, the last vestige of her will go with it!

 

[jeeperreefer]

very nice setup. i wanted the 40g breeder but did not have the room.

 

[Zos4me]

Looks great 40s are nice tank I just built mine a few months ago as well

 

[btmedic04]

The new skimmer arrived Friday and is currently breaking in. The reef octopus essense s130 is so much nicer than the 110int. I really like how easy it is to disassemble for maintenance. Hopefully it starts pulling out scum soon. Added bonus my cats really enjoy their new box!

I also picked up a baby yellow eye kole tang who is about the size of the palm of my hand from lips to tail. I know it will outgrow this tank and when it does, it will be rehomed or I will have upgraded to something at least 125 gallons or more. So far it seems to be doing really good and happily picks at the rocks all day and has started eating mysis and little bits of nori that fall off the clip and float in the water. Hopefully it learns to eat from the clip. I've also rubber banded a little bit of ulva to a rock for it to nibble on.

Speaking of ulva, I think I may have to do my first harvest from the fuge soon. I also picked up some more chaeto from the LFS. This stuff isnt brittle like the stuff I have remaining from algaebarn. I'm still debating on taking the algaebarn chaeto out, but it hasnt died off.

 

[btmedic04]

Took some ulva to my LFS and still have quite a bit in my fuge. While there, I picked up a cleaner shrimp so I too can be annoyed when it steals food from my corals lol. My yellow eye kole tang figured out the nori clip and happily eats from it all day, every day. It's still super shy and hides when I approach the tank while standing, but if I approach while crouching, it seems less inclined to take cover. Due to this, I have had to become creative when feeding. I crouch as I approach, and feed the tank by putting a pinch of flake food by the return pump intake in the sump. It's a bit of a hassle, but worth the effort to ensure my tang puts on some weight. My back and knees hope the tang gets used to me approaching normally

 

[btmedic04]

Also trying to figure out what these whitish/pinkish calcerous growths are on my rock. They dont move and require a bit of effort to scrape. Coralline maybe?

 

[Dempsey941]

Also trying to figure out what these whitish/pinkish calcerous growths are on my rock. They dont move and require a bit of effort to scrape. Coralline maybe?

Nerite Snail eggs by the look of them