Hermie's 23 Gallon Nano Build

[najer]

Looking very nice.

 

[Hermie]

Growth Comparisons:



Couple notes...

• the best grower has been in the highest light and is a very active eater.
• I need to epoxy around the favia's skeleton and remove the tube worms so it can droop it's flesh down to the base.
• The chalice has been fairly slow growing, but I will note that the past month it's been extending a single feeder tentacle at each mouth whereas it's never done this behavior before (no tentacles). So I expect the chalice to start growing faster now that it can capture food more effectively.
• I think both favias are the same species... (or they are goniastrea).

Overall very happy with the general recovery of all the corals, you can see exposed skeleton and algae in the original pictures, which is gone now and they are all growing.

 

[Hermie]

Just tested Alkalinity:

8.5~9 dKH


Also just dosed 30 gal dose of Fluconazole in the Display since I am seeing some hair algae start to come back.
I removed the PhosGuard from the Sump and turned off the skimmer air pump.

 

[Hermie]

Just tested Alkalinity:

7.5 dKH (just under)

So I may need to up the dosing of kalkwasser... if it gets at 7 or below...

 

[Hermie]

Some interesting pictures taken under actinic lights (450nm), but I did a white balance adjustment:

actual appearance to my eyes:

The weirdest thing to me is the pop in the background candy cane coral in the back. I can hardly see it in the blue photo, but it pops in the white balance adjusted one.

 

[Hermie]

Just tested Alkalinity:

7.5 dKH

 

[Hermie]

new frags (color balance is a little off, I'm colorblind):

 

[Hermie]

Due for an update... posting this to hold myself to doing a post with parameters and photos by the end of today.

 

[Hermie]

Salinity today:

23gal = 32ppt (1.024 sg)
10gal = 1.022 sg

 

[Hermie]

I look back at the pictures taken a year ago and I can't believe how time flies. Some of the corals have grown some have hardly budged. Algae has taken hold again, and Aiptasia found its way into the tank. I'm having some success with kalk-paste, and I have a squad of peppermint shrimp on standby in the QT tank. Challenges were a likely alk spike exacerbated by return flow on the SPS, so they got hit pretty hard and almost all of them got damaged. The Miyagi tort is still kicking, but algae is trying to overtake the other tort, the monti setosa and the monti spongoides. I'm basically trying to manually remove as much algae as I can and get my refugium chaeto back online. The chaeto is starting to grow well, I just have to keep up my end of the bargain and trim/siphon as much algae as I can from the display.
I've recently undertaken some rescapes to improve water flow both in the middle top of the tank and the middle back. Basically I removed a rock that was "bookending" the gyre pattern, so that detritus can no longer build up back there. Salinity tested today at just under 34ppt, and I did a water change with 5gal of 36ppt water.
I'll try to post some photos soon once I get the glass finished off.

I'm digging out of a big hole but I think my corals are willing and attempting to recover. Reefing is hard with a puffer.

Oh yeah, and basically my entire cleanup crew except Urchin and 2 cowries died during this last "crash." I really have no idea what happened. It could have been multiple factors, I mean I do have ideas but I cannot say for certain.

My refugium light was rusting and I had an aggressive kalkwasser dosing schedule which likely lead to alkalinity spikes. It could have been a cascade effect once one or two of the snails died, but since the cowries survived and 1 ghost shrimp, I don't think it was copper or heavy metals that killed my inverts. I think it was the alkalinity.

 

[Hermie]

Coral winners currently:
Cyphastrea
Acan Echinata
Micromussa
Platygyra
Caulastrea
Goniastrea

Runners up:
Appleberry Monti
yellow eye Chalice

Coral losers:
Acro yellow tipped tort
Monti setosa
Sponge* (not a coral, it's been fighting algae really hard. I took it out)

Participation trophy:
GSP
Oxypora chalice
miyagi tort
Monti spongoides
splatter hammer
gi joe favia
sunflower NPS (I forget the name) common dendro

 

[Hermie]

Testing:

dKH 5.5~6

=\

going to start dosing kalkwasser again this weekend

 

[Hermie]

just tested

5~5.5 dKH


Kalkwasser is hooked back up and will start dosing about 100ml / day to start.

 

[Hermie]

Just tested:

• 5 dKH (now ramping up dosing pump on-time)

Salinity, w/ swing arm hydrometer:

• 1.0225 (1.0265 adjusted @ +0.004 sg)

So salinity is about where I want it, but not seeing an impact w/ the kalkwasser yet.





Just added 5 corals (sinularia, lobo, turbinaria, nuclear calaustrea, cyphastrea) and will post pics once I epoxy them in place.

 

[Hermie]

Just tested

Alkalinity

• 5.5 dkH

Going to dose 2 part to get up to 6.5 dkH and reasses in the next few days. The kalk is not increasing alk at a rate I'm comfortable with (too slow).

 

[Hermie]

overdue pic update:

ORA neon sinularia

blue/pink/red cyphastrea:

blastomussa merleti:

lobo:

nuclear candy cane:

monti spongoides (mainly growing from base now):

fts:

 

[Hermie]

some notes with the current aquascape:

• I've attached GSP to the back wall hoping it will grow well and color up the rear glass/rock.
• still battling aiptasia (its causing troubles for some corals like the dragon soul goni, and sps), I have 4 peppermint shrimp in QT that I'll move over very soon.
• I just did a serious hair algae trimming (2 or 3 rounds of it) hours at a time just snipping away at all the hair algae with a siphon tube to suck it into a filter sock. It takes a really, really long time to do it and it's very difficult to reach every nook and cranny. I've almost gotten to every reachable surface, so I have 1 more session before I think I'm finished for now (manual removal). Once I cut the hair algae, the urchin moves over the rock and cleans it; so hopefully we can tag team this.
• various thoughts about a lot of the corals, but the bottom line now is I need to get the alkalinity in check so that I can get some calcification going. I'm sure my low alk is a big reason why there's hardly any coralline crustose algae.

 

[Hermie]

Just tested:

Alkalinity

• 6.5 dKH

 

[Hermie]

Just tested:

Calcium

• ~420ppm

 

[Hermie]

Just tested:

Alkalinity

• 6.5 dKH

Spotted the Peppermint shrimp trio out and about scavenging the rocks. They are funny, but I haven't noticed any fewer aiptasia yet. At least I know they aren't scared to leave their daytime hideout.