Digi Forest Resurrection

[Electrobes]

Argh! I am glad I actually do maintenance on my tank. I calibrated my dosing pump, it's a three head Kamoer, and discovered a bad valve on the third pump.. My Vinegar Doser. I don't know how long my tank has been without Vinegar dosing (I know it was not longer than a month.. I calibrate the Doser every single month on the dot) but my tank was showing it enough to bother me. I'm glad I found it!

 

[Electrobes]

I forgot to mention that despite having a Tunze 6105 and a 1" Sea Swirl (With the Eheim return) in my tank, my left side of the tank was just not getting enough flow.

I added back my Tunze 6095 and the flow has definitely returned to that side. Looks like it will be there to stay!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Coming back to it's glory!

I forgot I had Aviary (Photo App), so after taking a picture I played with it.

I have a new bulb combo. I removed my Aqua Blue Special and Actinic, and replaced it with a Coral Plus and a Blue Plus. The tank looks a little blurry, but I like it so far.

I also think a new cell phone is in my near future. I am constantly running out of memory on this one and I want a better camera.

 

[Electrobes]

Argh, I am frustrated. I did my weekly water change, and saw again (For the last few water changes) that I have a noticeable yellowing of the water. I am not too surprised by this.. But it's enough to bother me.

Though I haven't run carbon in quite a while, I apparently bought a gallon of BRS Rox recently. I whipped out my TLF 150 reactor and proceeded to implement about a half cup of GAC into the reactor. That's when the frustration began.

I initially blasted about two gallons of NSW through the reactor to get rid of the specks of GAC that got through.

I then ran it slow to calm down the reactor and have the rest of the GAC settle. Another 2-3 gallons of NSW.

Of course, when I installed it into the tank, specks got through and we're shot into the display. I am not happy. I yanked out the reactor.

As good as ROX may be, it's a royal pain to deal with. I may get rid of the ROX and switch to lignite carbon (pebble like form).

 

[Baby Ray]

I just found this thread and I love the simplicity of your tank's look. Really love what you have done.
I have been looking for a clam and the one you have is gorgeous!!!!!! What type is it?
Thanks

 

[Electrobes]

I just found this thread and I love the simplicity of your tank's look. Really love what you have done.
I have been looking for a clam and the one you have is gorgeous!!!!!! What type is it?
Thanks

Hi Baby Ray, and thanks! That clam is a Blue Squamosa I got from Live Aquaria a couple years ago.

 

[Baby Ray]

Hi Baby Ray, and thanks! That clam is a Blue Squamosa I got from Live Aquaria a couple years ago.

Do you target feed him anything or does it get all of its food from photosynthesis?
I have a smaller tank so I want to get a clam that is as small as possible without having to target feed him.

 

[dbl]

Christian...take a look at Seachem Carbon Matrix. It's spherical design doesn't flake and it doesn't compact during use...at least for me. Rinse it off for a couple minutes and put it to work. Just another suggestion.

 

[Paul87]

Christian...take a look at Seachem Carbon Matrix. It's spherical design doesn't flake and it doesn't compact during use...at least for me. Rinse it off for a couple minutes and put it to work. Just another suggestion.

I never really run carbon but I am a fan of seachem. That matrix is the carbon my buddy likes as well.

 

[Electrobes]

Do you target feed him anything or does it get all of its food from photosynthesis?
I have a smaller tank so I want to get a clam that is as small as possible without having to target feed him.

I have never target fed this clam, and I've never had any issues with it. Like most giant clams, the Squamosa can get pretty darn big, but it takes years for that to happen.

Honestly, if I had a nano I would aim for some crazy Maxima. I got the Squamosa because I wanted a clam that would get huge over time.. And found this unique one. [emoji5]

 

[Electrobes]

Christian...take a look at Seachem Carbon Matrix. It's spherical design doesn't flake and it doesn't compact during use...at least for me. Rinse it off for a couple minutes and put it to work. Just another suggestion.

TBH, as I do much of my ordering from BRS anyway, I'll probably pick up their version. I've used it before with success and its convenient. [emoji6]

 

[Baby Ray]

I have never target fed this clam, and I've never had any issues with it. Like most giant clams, the Squamosa can get pretty darn big, but it takes years for that to happen.

Honestly, if I had a nano I would aim for some crazy Maxima. I got the Squamosa because I wanted a clam that would get huge over time.. And found this unique one. [emoji5]

Thanks for your response, I will look into getting a maxima

 

[Electrobes]

I tried to upload a video via Tapatalk, buts not complying.. So here are some worse pics!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I love how your tank is coming along!

 

[Electrobes]

I have made the reef test gods angry apparently... Though my tank still looks great:

The only changes I made was to lower the dose of Alk and Cal by about half for the time being... Until normal levels arrive.

 

[Electrobes]

So today's random test day was much kinder than prior. But it leaves a bit if a repeating mystery that I am dealing with:

My nutrient levels are pretty on par with what I am looking for. Now that I am no longer aiming for a very ULNS tank, I am also keeping my Alk a bit higher than usual (8-10 dKh).

The mystery that has shown up yet again is my higher Alk and Cal. I haven't dosed in three days, ever since I discovered my Alk at 9 and my Calcium reflecting higher than I ever anticipated.

Since I've cut off the Doser, the Alk kept increasing to 10.2 dKh. It has since dropped to 10.1. At least it stopped increasing.

I am performing an earlier than normal water change, as I'll be out of town for a while. I am still using Aqua Forest's Reef Salt. I tested the Alkalinity on it and at 32-33ppt it was at 8.5, which is higher than I expected.

Here's hoping I don't come back to a parameter mess when I get back!

NEWS: My green Digi was having Polyp recession for inexplicable reasons. I was seriously stressed as I just could not find the reason for it.

A reefer friend of mine came over to see the tank for fun when while talking he cut me off and "Hey, your mimic Tang just nipped at your green Digi!".

Thinking he was high, I watched for about a minute and sure enough, that SOB did indeed nip at the Digi again!

Needless to say the Mimic Tang was evicted and I wish my green Digi a speedy recovery.

FEEDING: I've cut my normal feedings by about half, as it looks like I was just over feeding the tank. I now feed one cube of PE Mysis and one cube of LRS food a day, plus I now feed about a half sheet of Nori.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

How many fish do you have?

 

[Electrobes]

How many fish do you have?

I am now down to 10. Four medium sized, the rest smallish. And did you ever get my pm? [emoji13]

 

[Electrobes]

Hoooo boy, have I got a doozie of an up date for y'all.

I was away from the house for six days for vacation with my family. We hire pet sitters to take care of our two dogs and for the past several months they have also fed my fish once a day (In the morning). To do this, they do and use the same things I do when I feed my fish: a thingie you put the frozen food in (It's like plastic netting on a piece of pvc pipe, and the fish eat through it), but before doing that you push a red button (Which shuts off the skimmer for an hour).

Unfortunately, in the morning I was getting back home, the pet sitter forgot to push the button and a series of unfortunate events took place.. all because of one silly flaw I missed. You see, when she forgot to press the button and fed the fish, the skimmer naturally went nuts, and dumped out a weeks worth of skimmate into the tank. This normally wouldn't be the biggest issue, but the skimmer was juuuuuuuuuust too close to the sump wall and top lip. As it overflowed, some went into the sump, and some went outside the sump.

The above caused a couple problems:

- The skimmate suddenly being dumped into the water column made all sorts of livestock upset. My already irritated corals (Thanks to the stupid Mimic Tang that has since been evicted) finally kicked the bucket. The rest of the corals looked mostly fine.

- The salinity of the tank dropped from 34-35ppt to 29-30ppt. Awesome.

Needless to say, I had a pickle on my hands, and to boot, I came home with five new corals!

- Large Orange Cap
- Medium Purple Cap
- Large Purple Rim Cap
- Frag of Forrest Fire Digi
- Frag of Superman Digi

Well... I was up that night until 1:30am doing several things. While NSW was being made, I cleaned out the skimmer neck and cup, gravel vac'd the sand bed, changed out the filter socks (Several times as I was cleaning), and cleaned off some of the tank walls. I eventually did a 10G water change.

The next day I got another 10G of NSW ready, and while it was being mixed I cut out several RTN'd corals (Some German Blue Polyp and Green Digis). It was then I thought of a new design for what I could do with the Caps. Originally, I was going to put them on acrylic discs and let them grow from the sand bed, with the discs hidden under the sand. Instead, I fragged out the center rock of the German Blue Polyp, and stuck the large purple rimmed cap in the center.

For the center rock with the green digis, I took out all the digis on my left of the rock, and put the large orange cap there.

For the rock on the right, I stuck the purple cap in the middle and will put the other new digi frags on the rim of the rock.

I think this will look great and really look forward to seeing these all grow out.

PARAMETERS:

As you can guess my parameters were probably screwed. In total I did two 10G water changes and I just tested this morning to see how everything panned out. The next posts will show the results and some pictures.

I do want to say this, I bought a Salifert Alk test after hearing worrying issues with the Hanna Checkers. I tested using both and I'll show the results in this post:

Salifert: 9.9 dKh

Hanna dKh marine: 10.1 dKh

Not too bad, thankfully.

 

[Electrobes]