My Foray Into Reefing In The Mountains

TheShrimpNibbler · Aug 17, 2020

I would definitely pick up your clean up crew, you never what might still be alive. If your dkh is falling, then something is making it fall, and you should try to keep it stable to help whatever is making it fall grow. You may have already said this, but what is your alkalinity level?

Ippyroy · Aug 17, 2020

TheShrimpNibbler said:
I would definitely pick up your clean up crew, you never what might still be alive. If your dkh is falling, then something is making it fall, and you should try to keep it stable to help whatever is making it fall grow. You may have already said this, but what is your alkalinity level?

I’m trying for 8.5 right now.
I got the CUC. I puked twice from the smell. All crabs and the turban and Trochus snail all dead. Those were the snails I need the most. I have more tomorrow coming in thankfully. About half of the other snails seem dead. I will probably put them in my 20aio that has cycled. I will easily be able to find and remove the live ones and the dead ones will help cycle I guess.

Pistondog · Aug 17, 2020

Ippyroy said:
I’m trying for 8.5 right now.
I got the CUC. I puked twice from the smell. All crabs and the turban and Trochus snail all dead. Those were the snails I need the most. I have more tomorrow coming in thankfully. About half of the other snails seem dead. I will probably put them in my 20aio that has cycled. I will easily be able to find and remove the live ones and the dead ones will help cycle I guess.

Let us know how the new crew looks.
Urchins, and tailspot blenny are other good grazers.
When you start the bigger tank a rabbitfish will keep it spotless.
I found that if there is coralline on the rocks, no other algae will grow.
Arc sells spores in a bottle for $22, a good head start, maybe others.
Sorry about the disappointing shipments, thats no fun.

Ippyroy · Aug 17, 2020

Pistondog said:
Let us know how the new crew looks.
Urchins, and tailspot blenny are other good grazers.
When you start the bigger tank a rabbitfish will keep it spotless.
I found that if there is coralline on the rocks, no other algae will grow.
Arc sells spores in a bottle for $22, a good head start, maybe others.
Sorry about the disappointing shipments, thats no fun.

Shipment was 5 days late and box was crushed where there was a big orange sticker saying fragile. The workers must hate italians. On the bright side I got my little $30 washing machine in from China 2 weeks early. I will be washing socks this weekend and leaving a review on here.

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Ippyroy · Aug 18, 2020

Here are some pictures of the algae I am fighting. Don’t know what it is. Maybe Ulva? Any help would be good. The CUC from reefcleaners was mostly DOA, over 95%. Just got a CUC from LA, bags are floating in sump, will let them out when I get home.

Pistondog · Aug 18, 2020

Glad some cuc finally made the overland journey ok.

TheShrimpNibbler · Aug 18, 2020

The pictures aren’t super clear on my phone, but my best guess is green hair algae. Hopefully your cuc takes care of it. If you can get some more up close, clear photos, that might help with the I.D.

Ippyroy · Aug 18, 2020

TheShrimpNibbler said:
The pictures aren’t super clear on my phone, but my best guess is green hair algae. Hopefully your cuc takes care of it. If you can get some more up close, clear photos, that might help with the I.D.

Not GHA. It is in little sheets.

TheShrimpNibbler · Aug 18, 2020

Perhaps it’s some type of macro algae then? Could it be green cyano? Those are all I can think of at the moment if it’s not gha.

Ippyroy · Aug 18, 2020

TheShrimpNibbler said:
Perhaps it’s some type of macro algae then? Could it be green cyano? Those are all I can think of at the moment if it’s not gha.

I think it's Ulva, sea lettuce. Just not positive.

Ippyroy · Aug 20, 2020

The new CUC seems to be helping. My NO3 has gone down to 3. I have upped my feeding to compensate. I will see how that goes. I have also noticed that there are new heads on all of my zoas so that is good. I am scheduled to receive my order from IPSF today. This should help up my biodiversity quiet a bit. I will be adding the majority of it to the fuge. Need to get some gloves soon since I ordered some bristle worms.
I moved my heater probe for the BRS controller to right after the heater instead of before. Seems to be holding a tighter swing. I need to move the APEX probe now. just need to figure out where.
I am going though about .2 to .3 DKH daily. I am thinking about setting up the DOS. I am also seeing a few white spots on my rocks which is a good sign, the hard green algae is dying. Hopefully coralline starts soon.

TheShrimpNibbler · Aug 20, 2020

Ippyroy said:
The new CUC seems to be helping. My NO3 has gone down to 3. I have upped my feeding to compensate. I will see how that goes. I have also noticed that there are new heads on all of my zoas so that is good. I am scheduled to receive my order from IPSF today. This should help up my biodiversity quiet a bit. I will be adding the majority of it to the fuge. Need to get some gloves soon since I ordered some bristle worms.
I moved my heater probe for the BRS controller to right after the heater instead of before. Seems to be holding a tighter swing. I need to move the APEX probe now. just need to figure out where.
I am going though about .2 to .3 DKH daily. I am thinking about setting up the DOS. I am also seeing a few white spots on my rocks which is a good sign, the hard green algae is dying. Hopefully coralline starts soon.

Did you get any of the mini brittle stars ipsf? If so, let me know what you think about them. I’m glad to hear your new cuc is getting the job done.

Ippyroy · Aug 20, 2020

TheShrimpNibbler said:
Did you get any of the mini brittle stars ipsf? If so, let me know what you think about them. I’m glad to hear your new cuc is getting the job done.

I didn't order any stars this time. I will be ordering the same thing basically for my 20 AIO and will order some of the stars for that one. I am planning on doing that next month. Macro algae in almost every bag and the pods are huge. I'm stoked. It all looks great.

Ippyroy · Aug 20, 2020

The order from ipsf is pretty awesome. Everything was alive and started moving around. I put most everything in my fuge and about 50/50 with th snails and hermits. Lots of worms. I hope I don't regret the bristle worms. Currently they are only in the fuge. None are in the DT. Lots of new micrAlgaes and a free coral. I have no idea what it is. I will take a pic after the water clears up and post it on here to get an ID. I should be much better now on biodiversity. I hve snails everywhere no. I definitely like it. Skimmer is off for a few days. I also put the live sand in DT.

Ippyroy · Aug 23, 2020

The free coral was a Torch. It is really nice, I put it in the tank without dipping or anything. I am a little nervous, but I really had no choice. time will tell if that was wise or not.
My PO4 is rising due to my skimmer being turned off. I will turn it back on tonight. It has been 3 days. I hope that is long enough for everything to have settled down. The weather turns in a week. Highs only in the 60s. I will be closing my windows and will be able to get an idea of what will happen to my PH levels which are currently around 8.3. The chaeto is growing nicely and helps with keeping PH stable. I have 2 days off in a row again so I will be redoing my Apex programming. I need to fix the Kessil light. The dragging of dots doesn't work very well for me so I will be writing the program that I found online. I also need to have the fuge light sync up a little better with the DT light so the PH will be a bit more stable. 8.2 is the lowest 8.35 is the highest.
I have been dosing 14ml of soda ash every morning. Tank is using .4 Dkh daily. I need to set up my DOS this weekend as well to spread it out better.
The new CUC makes me pick up corals off the sand bed daily. I will be gluing them all down this weekend as well. I will possibly redo my scape a bit. The rocks have lots of white spots now. The hard green algae is finally going away. This might be contributing to the increase in PO4. I need to test NO3 tonight when I get home. Maybe tomorrow.

TheShrimpNibbler · Aug 23, 2020

Can you post a pic of the free coral? It sounds like everything is starting to go in the right direction!

Ippyroy · Aug 23, 2020

It's a bad one, but it's the first one, right under the clown.

TheShrimpNibbler said:
Can you post a pic of the free coral? It sounds like everything is starting to go in the right direction!

Ippyroy · Aug 30, 2020

Just ordered some new corals from AquaSD. They should arrive next week on Wednesday. i got some Digitadas and Birdnests as well as a few Montis. I am really happy about the Blasto. I am slightly nervous about a couple of Stylos, but everything was cheap, under 20 bucks for each, many under 10. I will do a large water change this weekend. My alk and calcium are leveled out pretty well. I will tryt o set up the DOS this weekend to get the stability I need. I also need to vacuum my sump. The other plan for this weekend is redo my scape. It is pretty bad, all I did was throw rocks in real quick with the plan of redoing it all. I will do that on Tuesday, with the plans of adding some SPS with more room to grow.