im horrible at keeping this updated....since my last update I've got some things done and ran into some challenges
-got my refugium up and running, i got about a basketball size of chaeto from a local reefer. i dipped it in coral rx and QT'd if for 16 days, dipped again then tossed it in the fuge. i have a kessil h160 light over it on a reverse lighting schedule and its set at about 70% intensity. the chaeto doesn't seem to be growing but it is really green and healthy looking.
-got my auto water change setup using a DOS pump, right now its set to about 1.5 gallons a day and im saving that water for water changes on my fish QT system. 2 birds one stone
-i tried to setup my ATO (tunze3155) im using my water mixing station in the garage as an ATO reservoir but the problem is the reservoir is higher than my sump so once the ato kicks on it creates a syphon and wont stop when the pump stops. I haven't came up with a solid remedy that i trust wont flood my living room yet. i may just get a neptune eye, solenoid and pmup and make my own ATO but id also need a FMM module as well and after that's all said and done id be another $200ish in the hole. id really like to use the tunze i already have. I could just take the mixing station off of its stand and set it on the ground which should do the trick but im not trying to do that just yet.
-i ended up buying a kamoer pump to pull water through my Calcium reactor rather than pushing water through it from a manifold on my return pump.
-last weekend i got the ca reactor all setup and found a leak in-between the lid and main chamber when pushing water thru it, so then i hooked up the kamoer but i think its sucking air thru the leak cause the reactor circulation pump is surging and a ton of bubbles are going thru the reactor media. i gotta make a video for vertex so they can send me some new parts.
-more fish and snails....as of now my stock list is around 20 cerith snails, 20 trochus snails, 20 nessarius snails, fire shrimp, 2 clowns, yellow tang, tail spot blenny, royal gamma, yellow candy hog fish and the 2 latest additions are a naso tang and square tooth bristle tang. at first the yellow tang wasn't too happy with the 2 new tangs and chased em around a bit but after a day or so he's good with em now. He still chases them around every now and again and gives em a tail swat when they get all up in his space but its nothing serious at all. the yellow tang has always been super chill. sometime next week ill buy some more fish and start another round of QT. im kinda torn 0n this, i may get 10 blue green chromis and hope that 7 of them make it through QT i think a school of them would look so cool BUT i think it would be smarter to get more herbivore fish at this point to help with the new tank uglies and algae. ill most likely end up getting a fox face, female spot breast angel, and another tang but im not sure which tang i should get. my very last 2 additions will for sure be a purple tang and and powder blue tang and both will qt and be added at the same time. i may just get a convict or desjardini...i dunno, if i get the desjardini that would be 3 zebrasoma.
-i know the tank it waaaay to new for corals but a local guy was desperately needing to trim his tank back so he made me a heck of a deal on some acros and stylos. 13 in total i think which is a lot of tester corals for such a new tank lol but even if they all die im not out hardly any money at all. once i got home with the corals i did the whole dip thing blah blah and put them all on my middle rock structure and put a hydra 26 i had laying around over them and tried to setup my ca reactor but yea we know how that went. so far only 1 of them are died, 4 are bleached out and the rest are doing really well which is surprising cause my cal, alk and mag are lower than ideal.
-i got a brand Neptune LSM module and a strip of 3 moon leds from a local dude. he wanted to sell it but we made a deal, he'd give me the LSM and id QT a round of fish for him sometime in the future.....win win for both of us.!
-now the ugly lol...i have this algae bloom going on and from the research i did im pretty sure its Chrysophytes or Licmophora sp some things ive read said its because of silicates, others say lack of nutrients, others say to much nutrients, others say new tank uglies lol...who knows, at this point im just sticking with my normal maintenance and keep an eye on it for a couple more weeks before i dig any deeper and try to figure out a cure. maybe once get my dang ca reactor fixed and get the ca up it will go away, maybe its new tank uglies and will go away but for now im just gonna add more snails and pay attention to it. ill post some pics in a little bit from my phone
Can't wait to see it in a couple months. I know your username is Noob Reefer, you seem to know what your doing but remember patience is the key. I'm at 9 months and I am still a noob and still learning. I just added some coral after 9 months. Most of my fish were added after 6 months. But you are in the right place if you need help!
