CCOMBS FIRST REEF!

[Eagle_Steve]

Is this a pod? I have seen the little white ones, but today while changing my filter floss I found a bunch of these guys. They jumped off the pad and on to my arm and hand, and I thought the alien invasion had begun....

Also! I am trying out reef roids. Today I fed the Acan and its little feeding tentacles came out. So cool!

Gammarid Amphipod. Eats detritus, film algae, and a healthy snack for the fishes.

 

[samnaz]

Is this a pod? I have seen the little white ones, but today while changing my filter floss I found a bunch of these guys. They jumped off the pad and on to my arm and hand, and I thought the alien invasion had begun....

Also! I am trying out reef roids. Today I fed the Acan and its little feeding tentacles came out. So cool!

Gammarid Amphipod

Edit Steve beat me to it!

 

[ccombs]

Hey y'all!

Tank is still chugging along. Every night my clown sleeps against the overflow grate and my anemone is always doing weird stuff, so you know, the usual stressful behavior that makes me think my tank is crashing.

I 100% put my monti too high and it bleached out partially. I am hoping it makes a recovery soon.

Tomorrow I am doing a 6 month deep cleaning (return pumps, etc.) and will post pics after that. I have also been considering adding an MP10 to get some better flow, but we will see.

Also, my tank is all softies and LPS (with the exception of the monti frag). So far everything is doing ok, but I am wondering if I need to watch my nitrate and phosphate more carefully now that my stocking of corals is rising. I don't really know if my tank is healthy or not. It seems to be, everything has good color, I just always live in fear that my tank is falling apart right in front of me, but I am not experienced enough to recognize the signs.

I am mainly concerned here because I cannot get chaeto to grow, and I think it may be a sign I am messing up.

Finally, I am fighting some bubble algae at the moment, as well as another algae that looks like hair algae, but is more of a white/grey and does not grow too far off the rocks.

 

[Victoria M]

I forgot to tell you to adjust the coral acclimation mode because the auto acclimation puts all the channels at 50%. You have to adjust the red, green, and white down from 50%. Might be enouraging the algae growth.

 

[Victoria M]

Did you have a chance to check the AI app yet?

 

[ccombs]

Okay, so I learned ALOT today. I would love the thoughts of @dantimdad @Eagle_Steve @samnaz and @Rick.45cal if y'all would be so kind.

Basically, I found where all my nitrate problems have been coming from. The amount of detritus in the back 'sump' portion of the all in one literally had a thick sludge of waste across the bottom.

I no longer own a siphon because of my AWC system, but I guess I now need one to take care of periodic cleanings back there. In the mean time until I get one, I stirred everything up back there so hopefully between my fish, CUC, and mechanical filtration, most will be taken care of.

Right now my tank is super cloudy from the mess being stirred up. I dropped some extra carbon in to help pull out anything I might not realized I have stirred up.

Do y'all have any recommendations for handling the sludge in the back? Should I stir it up every now and then so it does not settle out like it has?

This was the first time I had experienced a full '6 month' clean of the pumps, etc. and it was gross. I would love to get some tips on how to prevent dealing with such a mess every time I do a deep clean.

Anyhow, thanks in advance and I will update everyone shortly.

 

[ccombs]

Did you have a chance to vheck the AI app yet?

Hey! I am not exactly sure what you are referencing?

 

[Victoria M]

Hey! I am not exactly sure what you are referencing?

Total complete brain flatulence. Wrong thread. LOL

 

[dantimdad]

How about putting a small power head back there to keep it stirred up?

 

[samnaz]

If you can fit a small powerhead in the back chamber that’s your best bet. Otherwise, you’ll need to manually stir it up/blast it with a baster every month or two.

Do you use filter floss or pads at all? That’s good for collecting the sludge in the water column.

Hopefully the sludge and dead gunk you stirred up isn’t too much for the tank to handle. Normally I’d recommend a WC to clean some out quick, but if that isn’t possible, just wait it out and hope for the best I suppose.

 

[ccombs]

If you can fit a small powerhead in the back chamber that’s your best bet. Otherwise, you’ll need to manually stir it up/blast it with a baster every month or two.

Do you use filter floss or pads at all? That’s good for collecting the sludge in the water column.

Hopefully the sludge and dead gunk you stirred up isn’t too much for the tank to handle. Normally I’d recommend a WC to clean some out quick, but if that isn’t possible, just wait it out and hope for the best I suppose.

I do use filter floss. I guess my thoughts on stirring up the gunk is that it is already in the tank, so it can't further contaminate it. It wasn't deep enough to be like stirring up a deep sand bed and releasing bad junk. Hopefully the tank can handle it and there aren't any unforeseen problems like you mentioned.

I also found why my chaeto isn't growing. The caddy I use to hold it had developed a thick bar of algae on the outside of the caddy completely blocking the light. My grow light worked really well, so well it grew algae in front of the chaeto lol.

I like the powerhead idea and will look into investing into one to keep that stirred.

That is also the reason I am thinking of adding an MP10. I am sure there are some spots in my tank that would benefit from so flow keeping junk from collecting.

Everything is looking alright currently. It was interesting to see the corals close like they were being directly fed when I stirred up all the gunk. Hopefully the manual removal of the gunk will help with my nitrate issue and the stuff stirred up will be processed naturally by the tank and by my filtration.

 

[ccombs]

Total complete brain flatulence. Wrong thread. LOL

No problem haha. I understood what you were asking about the AI lights, just not how it applied to my Kessil lights lol.

 

[ccombs]

How about putting a small power head back there to keep it stirred up?

I love this idea. How come I couldn't think of something so simple lol.

 

[ccombs]

@dantimdad and @samnaz you guys are too smart with these simple and effective ideas. Glad to have y'all around!

 

[ccombs]

Next Morning Update-

Nitrate 80ppm. Roughly where it normally sits. I know this is high, but even with the emergency water change method it will rise back to this level within 8 hours. Hopefully this will fall as the tank processes the gunk and I try to manually remove some more.

Phosphate 1ppm. This is actually lower than I thought it would be with my current algae situation. I know it is still a bit higher than desired, but I was expecting 2-3ppm.

The monti is continuing to bleach, even though I moved it lower. I think it is a goner. The anemone was acting strange yesterday. I am not worried yet, I am going to see how it behaves today.

Everything else looks pretty good, I might just call the monti a loss and try SPS another time.

 

[ccombs]

Also, a quick tip for anyone following along. I have been judging how I should work on my aquarium based on how the animals inside behave. One of the best indicators in my opinion is the lowly shrimp. I keep a close eye on the molting schedule of my cleaner shrimp. If he is behaving odd or molting too frequently, I use this as a good indication that there is something bad in my water.

 

[Victoria M]

@dantimdad and @samnaz you guys are too smart with these simple and effective ideas. Glad to have y'all around!

Hey! What about me and my very smart idea to adjust your AI lights! LOL

 

[Rick.45cal]

The powerhead back there is definitely your best option. Your monti bleaching is a little worrysome, I wouldn’t give up on it, it will take a long time to recover if it is going to. Glad your feeling well enough to do some tank maintenance

 

[Rick.45cal]

Some of the encrusting montis are light sensitive, some of them don’t care how bright your lights are. You were smart to move it since it bleached, my guess is that you are right in suspecting light intensity as the culprit.

So you’re doing all the right things, you can’t be expected to ever be able to read all the signs your inhabitants are telling you, I still get stumped by things all the time, you’re doing an excellent job of picking up the clues they are giving you. Lots of ups, downs, and confusing grey areas in this hobby!

 

[ccombs]

Here are some pics I grabbed today. Anemone is looking good (I think? lol) and looks like it might be trying to split. It has one sort of blister thing on it that I am monitoring. It is in an impossible place to grab a pic, so I did my best. Sorry for bad Monti pic, I haven't cleaned that side of glass in a few days and the dang fish knocked the plug in the sand.

In the monti pic you can see the grayish algae I am talking about. I have read the common algae thread and it looks like a hybrid of several lol.