Monique's Wave (reefer 525XL)

[spiraling]

Not much to report
Nitites going down. Diatoms have started.
I'ts just a waiting game.....

 

[spiraling]

Its just like watching paint dry... .... but longer..... ..... months longer......
Nitrites still there. Lots of diatoms now. I went from a few spots to fully brown rocks in a few days.

I might get some cleanup crew and some pods here soon. Otherwise nothing happening until late April. Why? Because I think a longer cycle is the better route. 3 - 4 months is my target. End of April will be close to 3 months. I really want to move my livestock over, but I recently read an article from Eric Borneman about tank cycling. Old article, relevant data. He noted the PH swings of a new aquarium as everything (bacteria, algae, other organisms) gets established into equilibrium. I've had PH swings as monitored by the Apex. I can't explain them, so I assume its part of the tank cycling causing the swings, as he described. My plan is to wait out a lot of the algae cycles with minimal livestock and hope for the best.

My problem is I want to put in coral, but I need to know where the nem will plant itself first so it doesn't sting them later. So basically I need to have a tank nem ready before I can really move much over. And that takes a fully cycled and stable tank.....

 

[smokin'reefer]

Most people recommend waiting as long as you can before doing an anemone. I jumped the gun and it didn't end well for the nem. Although I had better luck in my smaller tank, my 90 was a different story. I know its hard to wait a full year like most will recommend, try and hold off as long as you can to help your tank build up its stability. I'm close to my year mark and have noticed that my corals are starting to do a lot better. Might be something to it.

 

[spiraling]

So I did a 20 gallon water change on Friday, and yesterday the tank was super cloudy. I guess I need to check my RODI filter.

The good news is the tank is almost done with the nitrogen cycle. Only a little Nitrite. The biopellets have reduced the nitrates from about 5 down to about 0 (api test kits suck pf course, but are a quick data point)

Diatoms are thick. I scrubbed them off on Friday, which might have contributed to my current cloudiness. I want to add a snail or two, but the tank is sooo ugly I feel bad putting them in there.

 

[spiraling]

My tank looks sooo bad. Diatoms and cloudy. But It looks like I might be on the end of diatoms from the white spots that are starting on the rocks again. cyano here I come!

I have my parameters stable (enough for a new tank). But I don't know what to do with the cloudiness.
I did add my first occupant, a trochus snail from another tank. He had vermitid and some algae on his shell (and that tank has some bubble algae) so he got a good scrubbing and a shell dip in H2O2. His name is Tank, since he is the first inhabitant, so he owns the whole tank

 

[ksfulk]

Oh... the waiting....

 

[spiraling]

Here is all I have to look at currently...

 

[spiraling]

I added a second snail. It truly is double the fun.


....b......patient........

 

[spiraling]

The diatoms are dying out, and will probably be gone in another week or so. No signs of cyano yet.

I will start transferring some corals in a couple of weeks, and maybe up the CUC by then.

Yep. boring.

 

[spiraling]

So the caulerpa in my other tank was starting to choke out some corals. I moved a bunch over yesterday, meticulously taking them off their frag plugs, remounting, and dipping in revive and bayer. The zoas got an h2o2 dip for algae too. They are mostly still looking grumpy. its nice to have something to look at in the tank.

 

[Pongo]

Sweet progress.

No pics, it didn't happen.

 

[spiraling]

So I went on vacation and let the tank settle a little more. I have another bacterial bloom. Its just like Eric's article said it would be.
I killed almost all of my acro that I dipped and put in this tank.
I think I can save part of the tort is all. Th strawberry shortcake is my saddest loss.

I will be ordering some chaeto and pods coming up to get that food source started. And I need fish!
I'm trying to figure out how to get my gobi/shrimp pair out of my rsm 130 without taking apart all the rock, so I can leave the clowns and nem in there until the new tank is more stable.
I do love the techiness of the apex, and I can tell from the orp when a bacterial bloom is starting.

... and a 5 minute H2O2 dip did NOT kill all the caulerpa. I'll be moving back some pieces until I can get it eradicated off the zoa frags.

 

[spiraling]

Huge scare today.
Yesterday I changed carbon, and with a manifold that messes with the water level in the weir, so it was super noisy this morning without enough water. No problem, I was getting things adjusted.

A bit later I hear the noise of the return pump without enough water. You know the one. I look inside the sump, and I'm about 5 gallons short. I KNOW it was fine just a half hour ago, so I panic and start looking for leaks. Nothing on the floor, nothing anywhere.

Finally I look in the ATO bucket. I was almost out, and I had turned off the ATO while I was doing adjustments. Apparently it backflowed into the container, about 5 gallons worth. Problem found.

Refilled the tank, and cut the ato input so it didn't touch the water. whew!

I hate tank scares!

 

[spiraling]

It was a big weekend in the tank. I was home had had some free time this weekend, which is unusual, so I moved a bunch of residents in.

First was the nem. It took me about 2 hours, a credit card, and a small screwdriver to get his foot off. Overall I think I did pretty well. There were no tears, although the surfaces looked a bit ragged. I caught the clown first. They took like a minute to catch , since they hang out in the nem. Once I had all three I acclimated them (both tanks are same temp and salinity) Then put the very ticked off nem in the crack where I wanted it to stay. Turned off the powerheads and waited.

After several hours of opening and closing it seemed to stay. The clowns hid under a rock nearby. When the lights went our the nem stayed open enough for the two clowns to sleep, and everyone looks pretty good today. I'm sure they are still a bit freaked out.

 

[spiraling]

Today I wanted to get the gobi and pistol over. I tried for days to catch the pistol in a trap, but no luck. So after the nem was out I removed all the rock and coral, except the one they live under. I vacuumed out most of the sand. Then we pulled the rock out and put it in a bucket of water (since it has corals on it). We caught the goby pretty quickly. The shrimp was no where to be found. Then my husband said "Its not in the sand - I bet its in the rock". I couldn't see him, but I put the rock in an empty bucket and he dropped out a few minutes later. A little acclimation and he went into the hole I planned for him in the tank, then he moved a few rocks to cover the entrance a bit.

I saw goby only once after putting him in the tank, with a big frown on his face, as usual. I'm not sure where he is, but I assume he will pair with his buddy in a day or two.

whew! it was a big weekend!

Now I need to move over more corals, but that will be a little ways down the road.

 

[679x]

That's a cool aquascape. It's going to look even better with coral on it.

 

[spiraling]

That's a cool aquascape. It's going to look even better with coral on it.

Thanks!
The corals that looked big in my small take look sooo small in this one But I'm really satisfied this weekend of the progress!

 

[spiraling]

After two days the shrimp (Waldo) and goby paired back up. The shrimp as been very busy this afternoon clearing out a cave for the two of them. I'm very happy as both the nem and the shrimp chose the spots I made for them!

 

[spiraling]

Must.... be... patient.....
Now that I have some fish and corals I want to add! add! add! new stuff.
{sigh}

 

[spiraling]

The good, the bad, and the ugly

First the good:
I received my coral order from myreeftoyours today. I've ordered from them several times and have been happy with the pest free, nice looking corals. They are in the tank and doing well so far. I forgot to take a picture before the lights when out

The nem has good color and is starting to expand. Not to the full amount yet, but looking good and staying in its spot. The clowns have been exploring the whole tank. I think they are deciding to have a family. They are scrutinizing every rock as they swim by. I've had them about 3 years, so it might be time. They are named after the supercross legend Ryan(female) Dungey (male) who just won his fourth championship, and is thinking about a family himself.

Next the bad:
We haven't seen the goby since the weekend. He looked good then, no injury or apparent sickness. We've seen the shrimp doing some minor digging. I hope goby is OK, he's a favorite. I have more concern because I just lost a fresh water angel, Sanchez. I've had him over 5 years. The other day he had some suspicious white spots on his head (ich? flukes?) and then he died that night. I haven't changed anything (but routine maintenance) in his tank for several years, so I can only assume there was something always there, and he finally weakened and succumbed to the the parasite. My fear is that I transferred it to the tank, and to goby, but the clowns look fine. Time will tell. I hope he shows up tomorrow.

Now the Ugly:
I hadn't measured nitrate or phosphate for a while, since the tank looked great. The phos is right in range at ~.04, but the nitrates were a solid 0. Bad. I've added amino acids and flourish nitrate (not flourish, which has copper) and have the nitrates up to a little under 2ppm. Within hours of adding them I had a huge diatom outbreak, so the rocks and sand are covered in brown. I thought I was through this phase, I wish I had measured sooner. The corals that I added a month ago are very pale in color, so hopefully this helps.