My 75 gallon reef

[tbrown]

Tbrown I think you are right. They are molts. Thank you. That is a good sign the crabs are growing and healthy. I'll take it.

Congrats amigo! Keep on keeping on.

 

[Fishy888]

One more piece of good news. My xenia have been doing awesome but I noticed a bunch of new polyps today. One of the frags' stalks have attached to the rock not only from the bottom but from the side also. The polyps seem to be trying to attach and form all new stalks. One has attached to the rock all on its own. I am attaching a picture of the whole xenia rock and a closeup of the stalk and the single polyp independently attached.

I am going to get to work on building my ATS soon. I need to get it running before I upgrade the lighting. Between the scrubber and water changes with ro/di (once I have my ro/di unit) things will fall into place as far as excess nitrates and phosphates.

I am amazed at the fact that not only is there coralline on my snails' shells but that is growing. With the not so good algae covering the rocks, the back and left side panel, and even the substrate in places, it is hard to imagine how coralline can exist in this system much less grow. I know coralline needs phosphates and nitrates but nothing like the levels in my reef right now. I don't have any test kits yet but I intend to get some soon.

The sugar dosing is going well so far. I didn't get the white vinegar like I wanted to today but I will get it tomorrow. I believe the corals are eating the bacteria.

The xenia is doing particularly well as the pics show. There is a ton of growth compared to when I first got them 5 weeks ago. I believe the sugar dosing has at least something to do with how well the xenia are doing. The GSP still have only the one polyp that has been open. I am attaching a picture of it as well.

 

[Fishy888]

Today there are 2 polyps open. So far the mat is still purple. I do see where the stolons look like they're plugged up but they are still very much purple.

I really have to get the hermits to stop messing with the cabbage leathers. They are keeping the polyps from opening. They aren't eating the coral but they are on the green film algae around the corals. Still there are other rocks for them to graze on so all three crabs that are keeping the corals from opening will be moved to a whole new rock. I still love the hermits though. I just need to entice them to move elsewhere in the tank.

The sugar dosing still seems to be going well. I got the vinegar today so tomorrow if all goes well I will start adding vinegar to the mix. It's almost a week of the sugar dosing but since I'll be adding vinegar to the mix I'll keep the sugar dose the same and add a teaspoon of vinegar and see how things react. I don't want to go overboard but I do want to be able to keep nutrients in check too. I do want a bit of variety as far as carbon sources go.

 

[Fishy888]

I performed some maintenance yesterday in the form of cleaning off some rocks though I left some of the rocks alone since hermits and snails were on them. It also left me one rock in particular where cyano can grow while I'm sugar dosing. I took a bucket filled with tank water and placed each rock in the bucket. I then proceeded to give them the scrubbing of the century. It certainly paid off. I had never seen water so brown. All those nitrates and phosphates got poured down the drain and it is my hope that I can get the green film algae or more cyano to grow on the rocks I scrubbed. It may not be an ATS but it is more like a cyano scrubber lol.

Clearly the sugar/vinegar dosing is working well. I am dosing 1 teaspoon of each at this stage. I started dosing about a week ago give or take. I will dose the teaspoon of sugar and of vinegar in the morning but starting tonight I will dose half a teaspoon of of both sugar and vinegar.

If you have been following this build journal you know I have been looking for lights. I may have to accelerate that search. While I was working in the tank yesterday I decided to take about half a sheet of nori to supplement what my snails and hermits eat. They went crazy for it. I never knew just how much of a mess nori can make. There were red flakes everywhere. Once I took the nori out I started straining the flakes that were in the water column.

In the process of straining the nori flakes out of the water I accidentally knocked my temporary lighting into the tank. As fast as I got it out of the water I thought nothing of it. All the LEDs were still lit. When it was time for lights out I tried to turn them off. The lights dimmed but would not turn off. It was then that I noticed 4 LEDs were out when I put the switch back to full lighting. This morning I saw the same four LEDs were no longer totally off. They were flickering however. I took the light (a beamswork 52 watt 36 inch DA 6500k freshwater light) apart and rinsed it with distilled water. Thankfully the traces look good and the lights themselves still work. I did see some corrosion in the solder joints of a few LEDs. It wasn't super bad but I will watch things. I might even try to desolder and resolder and see how things go.

My cabbage leather corals have started to shed yet again. Several of my hermits like to nose around them. I am going to try to use more nori and keep the crabs off of the rock with the two cabbage leather corals. The rock itself needs to be cleaned still.

The xenia are looking great and they are growing. I will have to clean the rock they are on though since it's covered in cyano.

The GSP have two super small polyps out. The mat is still a vivid purple. Many of the stolons have closed off but there are some that are open. I hope some polyps come out of the open stolons soon. The closed off stolons hopefully will reopen and have new polyps that come out.

 

[tbrown]

Go enter the giveaway for @noopsyche

 

[Fishy888]

Go enter the giveaway for @noopsyche

I am going to enter it. Thank you tbrown3589

 

[Fishy888]

I am going to enter it. Thank you tbrown3589

Contest entered. Here's to hoping.

 

[tbrown]

Contest entered. Here's to hoping.

I won last month! I'm rooting for you!!!

 

[Fishy888]

There are 4 polyps out on my GSP. I expect an average of 2 extra polyps per day to open so I am thinking I will see 6 polyps open tomorrow. There should be 8 open on Friday. I believe that new ones will grow out of the mat where the stolons were damaged as well. Once that starts happening the GSP will expand. It's just going to take time but I am encouraged by what I see. That H2O2 treatment did wonders for the GSP. I will definitely keep a bottle or two with my other reefing supplies.

 

[Fishy888]

I came downstairs this morning to find our thermostat out. It is one of those "smart" thermostats. Thankfully they will come to look at it this morning. The tank is at 77 degrees currently. I usually keep it at 79. I am glad I have 2 heaters in there now.

I have decided to cut back a bit on the carbon dosing. It got to where only bacteria were growing on the glass. My snails kept losing their grip on the glass and I had to right them. I was dosing a teaspoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar in the morning. The night dose was half a teaspoon of each. I am going to do half a teaspoon of each in the morning and in the evening. The tank is clearer this morning and my snails are still holding to the glass.

My GSP has 11 polyps out currently. It has not had any new algae growth since the peroxide bath. The xenia look awesome. As for the cabbage leathers they have finished their sheds and there is only one hermit on the smaller of the two. Neither of them have polyp extension though. I imagine it will take a bit before they extend again. The hermits and clowns are are also doing well.

 

[Fishy888]

My tank has a decent amount of cyano growing on the substrate with the carbon dosing I have been doing. There are algae and bacteria (the white kind but also some cyano) growing on the glass as well. I have not exported the cyano or cleaned the glass because I have been sick for a week or so (no not covid but possibly pneumonia since my wife had it). I am getting better though so tomorrow I hope to rip up all the cyano and clean the front glass.

That said I took pics of all my corals just before lights out. My GSP had 13 polyps out at that point. The xenia is engulphing the rock it is on. I have another similarly sized rock I might let it colonize as well. After leaving my two cabbage leather corals alone most of the day, the hermits have come back to the rock they are on. At least the hermits aren't walking on them... yet.

 

[Fishy888]

I pulled up a good chunk of cyano off the substrate and I cleaned the front glass and half of each side. I will cut back a bit more on the carbon dosing since green algae stopped growing altogether and the snails need to eat too.

The GSP have made more progress today. There are 17 polyps open currently. I know that there are another 10 or so that could open over the next week or so but the stolons in the center of the mat are the ones that took most of the damage. Most of these stolons either still have damage and/or the ends are sealed shut. Hopefully this means they are healing and will develop new polyps.

I have placed a second rock to the left of my xenia in the hope that they'll colonize that rock as well. The more coral the better. Not only will they will help take up extra nutrients but they'll look good doing it.

The hermits have been leaving my cabbage leather corals alone. Cyano is growing on that rock near the larger of the cabbage leathers. That is probably why the crabs are leaving the leathers alone.

The clownfish have been resilient through all this and are as feisty as ever. They were attacking my hand and arm as I was cleaning the glass. The hermits are doing well. In fact it is probably time to buy a few more shells for them soon. As for the snails I have not had to right them or anything since reducing the dose yesterday. I am going to skip tonight's dose altogether and do a quarter teaspoon each of sugar and vinegar starting tomorrow, once in the morning and again in the evening.

I bought some small frozen shrimp to give the hermit crabs some meat. The flow does not let them get any of frozen food I feed the fish. They get plenty of algae/detritus but they need meat too. The bristle worms also could use it too.

As for the snails I have been giving them nori with the absence of new algae growing. I have been thinking about giving them the occasional leaf of romaine lettuce or even kale. Before I do that however I will do more research on this topic.

 

[Fishy888]

I decided to terminate the carbon dosing for now. I finally have some green algae growing on the glass and on the rocks. It may be too late however for my snails. They have been falling off the rocks and off the glass. I have been righting them but I don't know how much longer they will make it. I tried supplementing them with nori but it doesn't seem to be enough. The only good news is that if they die the hermits will have escargot for dinner.

One thing is for certain though. The carbon dosing created a ton of cyano on the sand. Today was harvest day. I cleaned the cyano off of several rocks today as well. Pure nutrient export happening there. I did leave some however so it could recharge. I will keep exporting it for as long as it grows.

My corals are doing well for the most part. I took some pictures just before the lights went out. My biggest concern is with the cabbage leathers. The hermits were all over the smaller one today. One of the rocks that I cleaned just happened to be the rock the leathers are on. The hermits had to find new digs for a bit. As for my GSP they are pretty much steady state. There were 17 polyps out again today. There is the hint of a new polyp and stolon developing where one of the old stolons completely broke off however. My xenia are doing well. There are all manner of new polyps growing at the bases of the stalks.

I am thinking about restarting the dosing soon. If I do it will be more on the order of 1/8 of a teaspoon each of sugar and vinegar. The corals seemed to react to the carbon dosing well. They certainly had a nice stream of food in the form of bacteria. I believe the zooxanthellae also benefitted from the carbon dosing directly. The xenia particularly responded well. I know it was only a week of dosing but I think the xenia grew a bit more during the week of dosing compared to the weeks before the carbon dosing. I just have to make sure green algae dominates the bacteria growth if I restart.

I am surprised how easy it was to shut down the algae growth altogether. I use tap water currently. Where I live the water quality is much better this time of year than in the summer months. Even so I expected there to still be a bunch of both nitrates and phosphates out of the tap. I expected even higher numbers in my system due to top offs. I know the water company will change the additives they use in our tap water once it gets warmer. By then I hope to have a ro/di unit (probably in March). I also hope to get a Hannah tester for nitrates and phosphates before summer.

The water at the peak of dosing was noticeably cloudy but not to the point of depleting the water of oxygen. I was still able to see to the back of the tank. In a previous tank I did end up with water so cloudy I couldn't see the back of it after sugar dosing. I dosed about the same amount of sugar and vinegar if not less than I dosed to this system at the peak. That other tank had nitrates at 80 and phosphates were upwards of 2 (not 0.2 or 0.02) however.

 

[Fishy888]

So far today the hermits have stayed away from my cabbage leathers. Unfortunately there are some beige spots on both corals. I have attached closeups of both. At least those spots have not melted yet but it has probably been 3 weeks since the last time I saw polyp extension.

The snails are still alive but I don't know how long that will last. Green algae is slowly but surely growing on the rocks so if the snails can hold on a few more days they might just have enough food to survive and eventually thrive.

Algae is starting to grow again on the GSP. That said the 17 polyps are out today. Even though no more polyps have opened, the ones that are open have noticibly longer tentacles. The polyp that is growing back from a stub of a stolon is twice the size it was yesterday. That one still has short tentacles.

The xenia are still pretty much the same. They still look awesome. I was looking at xenia prices recently and I see sites charging 35 plus dollars for a 1 inch frag of xenia. I'll be rolling in the dough soon. If I sell enough I might be able to afford a single 100 dollar yellow polyp! LOL. Jokes aside I am happy the xenia are doing well.

If the hermits decide to stay away I hope to see polyp extension within a week or so on the cabbage leathers. I am going to throw a small shrimp in the tank and see if the hermits go for it. That might keep them off the corals for a while.

 

[Fishy888]

I put a shrimp in the tank about 30 minutes ago. There are already 3 hermits on it.

 

[Fishy888]

Last night I discovered some new polyps on my GSP. They are at the edges of the mat. There are 22 polyps out now. (I missed some super small polyps when I counted earlier. There were 29 polyps out as of 8:30 tonight.)

My snails seem to be doing better. I haven't had to right any of them today. They are on the rock the cabbage leathers are on. I put them there because the green algae is most plentiful there right now. It is my hope that between the nori supplementation and the green algae they have been grazing on that the snails are getting stronger again.

The hermits have been better behaved today. I believe the shrimp I put in yesterday helped in that regard. They have also eaten some of the nori I put in the tank. Between that and the shrimp I think they will realize there are other areas they can graze on. There is a second rock that I have been cleaning every time I see cyano on it. The hope is to get some green algae growing there for now. I see signs of it growing on the rock but it is not nearly as robust on the rock with the cabbage leathers.

I have decided to increase the depth of my sand bed to an inch or so. I added 2 cups worth of sand today. I am also pulling as much cyano off the substrate as I can. I would like to keep the cyano mainly on one rock and off the sand. This way it would be easier to export.

I did see a bristle worm today while I was cleaning the rock my xenia are on. It is about 1.5 inches long. That's twice the size it was when I got it. The more clean up crew the better right now so I am happy the worms are doing well.

I hope to find someone who has some brittle stars locally. More live rock would help too. I am fortunate that I don't have runaway hair algae. I have quite a bit of cyano currently but even that is getting under control.

My concern is what to do for the snails once I run out of green algae and end up with coralline algae instead. I know I could cultivate GHA for them. I know they can eat veggies but I am not sure if the snails get much if any nutrition from them. Either way I will research this and have a plan in place for when that day comes.

 

[Fishy888]

It looks like one of my snails is about to die assuming it hasn't already. It pulled far inside its shell. The operculum is drawn tight but as weak as this snail is I don't see it surviving the weekend. There is a second snail that has gone missing, shell and all. Being a Mexican turbo snail I doubt it left the tank. The third is doing well relative to the other two. It might have a chance. If they all survive long enough I will buy some algae wafers for them. Hopefully that will help. If they die however I will probably not replace them unless I get a bunch of GHA growing. I might also just get 1 Mexican turbo snail. It would be the only one in the tank. Even though I have hermit crabs I really want cerith snails and/or trochus snails. I want to avoid astrea snails since they can't right themselves.

I started cleaning the sand again yesterday afternoon. It needed it. I will do more of it today. I just have to make sure I don't lose any bristle worms in the process. I normally see them under, in, or on rocks in this tank and in others. Still I did find one the other day while I was pulling cyano up off of the sand so I will be as careful as possible.

My hermits are thriving however. Since I have 10 of them they should be able to get things cleaned up if the snails die. I am glad they are omnivores. If I carbon dose again and the algae dies off the hermits can eat meat. I will also get some algae wafers for them.

Yesterday my GSP were full of algae. It was so bad that most stolons were buried in algae. I gave them another peroxide bath and brushed the algae off as gently as I could. A few more stolons came off but they were already damaged so they would have come off anyway. Nonetheless I worry for the super small polyps the most. They were where the worst algae was. I also am concerned at how quickly that algae builds up on this coral. When I was sugar and vinegar dosing there was no buildup of algae. The algae started about 2 or 3 days after I stopped the dosing. If my snails do die I will likely re-commence the dosing. I have thought about possibly taking small frags from my GSP. They would be able to conform better to the rock they are on. I would also have a couple of colonies so if one died another would still survive. If both colonies survive there would be more coral to take up nutrients. Every bit helps. I likely will do this later today if I am going to do it.

The cabbage leathers are very much in shedding mode. I am going to take a toothbrush to that rock and attempt to clean the green algae from around the corals. If worst comes to worst I'll take a few of the hermits out and put them into a small tank I keep running (a 5 gallon tank). I am thinking of trying to frag the larger of the two. I want to avoid that if I can. My thinking is that if I could get a frag of two onto a rock the hermits won't touch they might be able to live and thrive.

My xenia are doing awesome. They are loving life in this tank.

 

[Fishy888]

As of today I am down to one Mexican turbo snail. That snail is going to have plenty of green algae now. Between cleaning the sand bed and the rocks like I have been doing it appears the scales have tipped in favor of green algae.

The hermits are doing well. I am going to put a number of them in my 5 gallon tank for now. This will keep them off my cabbage leathers and hopefully they'll extend their polyps once again. Once I get more rock I'll put them back in the display tank.

The GSP are still closed as I expected today. I already see that brown algae making a comeback though. It probably doesn't help that I stirred up the sand bed like I did. I have only done half the sand bed so far. I am going to do more over the next few days. I hope to have it done by Wednesday.

The cabbage leathers are coming out of their latest shed and it even looks like a single polyp has extended on the larger of the two corals. There are three hermits on the smaller leather at the moment. Once I move the hermits to the 5 gallon tank the corals should recover nicely.

The xenia is still doing well but their growth has slowed since I stopped the carbon dosing.

I am going to restart the dosing but no where near as much as before. I want there to be food for all my corals but I want the green algae to stay dominant for the snail's sake. I will start with 1/8 of a teaspoon each of sugar and vinegar. Hopefully this will also keep the brown algae off of GSP or at least slow it down. I will increase the dose very slowly until the water begins to cloud. At that point I'll decrease the dose to where it was just before the tank became cloudy. When I was dosing the tank it took about 1/2 teaspoon each of sugar and vinegar, once in the morning and once in the evening (for a grand total of 1 teaspoon of each per day) before the green algae totally disappeared from the glass. The tank was very cloudy by that time. As a result dosing until the tank gets slightly cloudy won't kill off all the green algae. It may slow down though.

The snail that is left appears to be doing well. I have not had to right it once since I stopped dosing before. That snail was the smallest of the 3 and was purchased at the same time as the second snail. That was a month ago give or take. My first turbo snail lived 2 months or so in my system. I wonder if it was not only the lack of green algae that killed them. They most certainly ate cyano along with what little green algae there was. There is no doubt that nutrients are high in my tank. As a result I am going to start building my ATS soon. I don't have a sump in place yet but that will also be dealt with after I get my ro/di system and after the move if it happens before summer. Speaking of the move I will only have to move once. The apartment they move us to (in the same complex) is going to be our new apartment and will have already been renovated. Moving the tank will be child's play compared to what I was expecting. It will certainly be easier on the corals than I expected which is awesome news.

I am going to either add on to the stand I have or build a new stand for this system. I have a 45 gallon tall tank I will use for a sump but I may try for a bigger sump down the line. I want room for it under the stand. The ATS will be its own unit and will drain into the sump. There also needs to be room for it under the stand. By not having the ATS screen directly over the sump there will be room in the sump for a small skimmer, the heaters, at least one of the emperor 400s, a calcium reactor, and whatever else will be needed. I also need a place for the ro/di. I doubt they'll let me install it under the sink. As a result I will likely have to install it under the stand or to the side of it. I will also have to install a hose I can attach to the faucet and put away when not in use. My plan is to build two side "towers". One side for the ro/di and associated plumbing. It would also be a place for the plumbing to drain water from the tank without hauling 5 gallon buckets. The other tower would be for food and chemicals. I have some wood to work with already so that would help things. I'll likely start it soon. Possibly tomorrow. We are going to have a warm day tomorrow so hopefully I can make my cuts. Tuesday morning will be warm and dry also in case I can't get it done tomorrow. It looks like we are going to get a pretty good snowstorm here Tuesday night through Thursday so I hope to be working on the new stand while the snow is falling.

 

[Fishy888]

Between my last post and when the lights went out for the night my GSP had 8 polyps come out. About 3 hours ago there were 9 out. 1 of the polyps is now its own colony. I think it's a case of polyp bailout but it is only 2 to 3 inches from the opposite corner of the mat from it so it could not have traveled far. Either way it survived and it looks a little larger than it was last night.

My other corals are all about the same. My animals are also doing well including the snail which has plenty of algae on the glass.

With everything going on with what may be a historic winter storm here I won't get to start on the stand for a while. Once the weather is more amenable however I will start on it.

 

[Fishy888]

My last mexican turbo snail died unfortunately. I am keeping the shell though as it will hopefully seed the rocks with coralline. The coralline has grown quite a bit which amazes me considering the high nutrient level.

I knew nutrient levels were crazy high. I bought a bucket of reef crystals Monday night. I did a 66% water change. Before I did that I cleaned all the sand on the left side of the tank this time. I took out the ol' gravel vac and got the rest of the cyano and other junk out of the sand bed. I thought for sure I would lose a good portion of my worms doing all that but thankfully it looks like I didn't. The tank looks like new. I cleaned and rearranged the rocks while I was at it. I did leave the rocks with the GSP and xenia where they were more or less. I placed the rock with the cabbage leather corals on top of two other rocks both to make a cave and to get the cabbage leathers up higher and to give them better flow.

The cabbage leathers look better today. The hermits are all over other rocks today. I have not seen even one messing with the cabbage leathers. The GSP opened up much faster today than they had been opening in quite a while. The xenia seem a bit frazzled today but they are still doing well. I would say that considering the big water change and the even bigger removal of nutrients all my corals are doing well.

I don't like making huge changes so fast. Considering that I lost all 3 snails not to mention the cyano everywhere I didn't have much of a choice.

Yesterday I got two peppermint shrimp. They are indeed true peppermint shrimp and not camel shrimp. They were placed in a huge bag of water from the LFS. After I did the water change I gave the shrimp a 3 hour acclimation like I normally do with inverts and they immediately started looking for food. When the lights came on they were both in the cave.

I have attached pictures of all the corals, the fish, and of course the shrimp.

I just have to share this. The LFS I get all my inverts from is awesome. It is exceedingly rare to see dead fish or inverts. The customer service is great as well. Well yesterday there was a shrimp that had eggs that I wanted. The owner is evidently creeped out by shrimp. She took two huge nets to try to catch the shrimp I wanted. She is particularly scared of them jumping. Well she had the shrimp but kept losing it. I ended up getting a different one. She caught the first one easily. The good news is that she finally got it and I left there with two beautiful shrimp. The owner was doing her best and I am appreciative of it. I wanted to share this because I thought it was somewhat humorous. That said she did her best and I am appreciative of that. If I were to have a complaint it would be that they're too freshwater heavy. They need more saltwater fish and inverts. They also need to carry at least some coral. Here's to hoping.