Perseverance Reef

[Mschmidt]

It looks like my RBTA is really a rainbow BTA.

I’m stoked! It’s also getting more pink by the day it seems. You can see some of the pink/rose color in spots but it’s more pink than the pics show.

I also made another discovery of sorts.

I guess the mag float has become the new pod palace. I’m not complaining though. I need my pod count high.

Sooooo how’s it hangin’ @Goaway, @Fish Styx, @OrchidMiss, and whoever else happens to stumble across this post?

Off today, so pondering first nap or first breakfast soon. Stomach says breakfast, heart says nap.

It's hangin'. Love nems too, but not when they keep splitting so much. I'm thinking about pulling the rbta out and getting a long tentacle.

If it needs a home, let me know.

 

[Fishy888]

So I just checked my phosphorus levels and I got 4 ppb phosphorus, or 0.012 ppm phosphates. I want to get that up a tad so I’ll drop some extra pellets in tonight. Hopefully I’ll get to the LFS to get my other parameters checked. I expect they’ll be about 10 ppm give or take.

I intend to get some test gear for the parameters I’m missing but until we finish paying off the front axles (likely June) I’ll have to wait on that.

My Xenia have become a richer brown color so I’m sure they’re sucking up a lot of my phosphates and nitrates. So’s the algae of course.

Speaking of algae (well, cyano…) my diatoms ( well, animals…) are completely smothering the lyngbya. So much so that the lyngbya may finally die off. Over the weekend I’ll attempt to remove as much lyngbya as I can from the DT. If I feel up to it I’ll harvest some from the sump and try to salvage my cyano covered chaeto. Thankfully if it’s gone (which I doubt but we’ll see…) I can get more fairly easily.

Now I have confirmation from another friend of mine who got one of the other siblings to my anemone; that we (anyone who got an anemone clone) indeed have rainbow anemones. My anemone was one of the smaller ones so I don’t know if that affects coloration much but until now I’ve never been this successful at keeping anemones. I’ve certainly never had a browned out anemone color back up like this.

Honestly I credit all of you, who have given great advice from the beginning, with how well this anemone is doing as much and maybe more than myself. I also credit @Lost in the Sauce in the same way because he gave me the RO/DI system which has a direct effect on the anemone’s success. He’s also given me loads of good advice. Last but not least, thank you @sfin52 for the nem. I don’t mean to make it sound like the Oscars or something. I’m just excited to see things coming along as well as they are.

 

[tbrown]

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

So I just checked my phosphorus levels and I got 4 ppb phosphorus, or 0.012 ppm phosphates. I want to get that up a tad so I’ll drop some extra pellets in tonight. Hopefully I’ll get to the LFS to get my other parameters checked. I expect they’ll be about 10 ppm give or take.

I intend to get some test gear for the parameters I’m missing but until we finish paying off the front axles (likely June) I’ll have to wait on that.

My Xenia have become a richer brown color so I’m sure they’re sucking up a lot of my phosphates and nitrates. So’s the algae of course.

Speaking of algae (well, cyano…) my diatoms ( well, animals…) are completely smothering the lyngbya. So much so that the lyngbya may finally die off. Over the weekend I’ll attempt to remove as much lyngbya as I can from the DT. If I feel up to it I’ll harvest some from the sump and try to salvage my cyano covered chaeto. Thankfully if it’s gone (which I doubt but we’ll see…) I can get more fairly easily.

Now I have confirmation from another friend of mine who got one of the other siblings to my anemone; that we (anyone who got an anemone clone) indeed have rainbow anemones. My anemone was one of the smaller ones so I don’t know if that affects coloration much but until now I’ve never been this successful at keeping anemones. I’ve certainly never had a browned out anemone color back up like this.

Honestly I credit all of you, who have given great advice from the beginning, with how well this anemone is doing as much and maybe more than myself. I also credit @Lost in the Sauce in the same way because he gave me the RO/DI system which has a direct effect on the anemone’s success. He’s also given me loads of good advice. Last but not least, thank you @sfin52 for the nem. I don’t mean to make it sound like the Oscars or something. I’m just excited to see things coming along as well as they are.

I didn't know your nem came from @sfin52

Stefan, is it the same line that I got from @Erin O that came from you? Bright white silver striations around the mouth?

 

[Fishy888]

I didn't know your nem came from @sfin52

Stefan, is it the same line that I got from @Erin O that came from you? Bright white silver striations around the mouth?

Yeah Stefan lives about 40 miles from me and has seen my system in person. You guys are people I look up to in reefing, and that list is a pretty short list.

 

[Erin O]

I didn't know your nem came from @sfin52

Stefan, is it the same line that I got from @Erin O that came from you? Bright white silver striations around the mouth?

Daphne came from Crabby

 

[fishguy242]

@sfin52 was the first to call it the R2R express... just sayin"...

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Daphne came from Crabby

That's right!

 

[Fishy888]

I have been thinking about what to do to get some blue in the mix. I thought I’d have to build my own LED lights. I found a 54w (30w actual consumption) LED light bar that would do the job. I’ll need two ultimately but for now I think getting getting one would suffice. Most of my not-so-colorful colorful corals are clustered together. At least, enough that one bar should suffice until I can get a second.

The bars will be easy enough to install. They’re 24” wide so there’ll be a 3” gap on each side. The corals will mainly stay on the current rock structure even when I add more rock. As a result the gap shouldn’t be a bad thing.

Ok it’s time for me to try to sleep. I’ve about had it for one night and this cold isn’t helping.

 

[crusso1993]

I have been thinking about what to do to get some blue in the mix. I thought I’d have to build my own LED lights. I found a 54w (30w actual consumption) LED light bar that would do the job. I’ll need two ultimately but for now I think getting getting one would suffice. Most of my not-so-colorful colorful corals are clustered together. At least, enough that one bar should suffice until I can get a second.

The bars will be easy enough to install. They’re 24” wide so there’ll be a 3” gap on each side. The corals will mainly stay on the current rock structure even when I add more rock. As a result the gap shouldn’t be a bad thing.

Ok it’s time for me to try to sleep. I’ve about had it for one night and this cold isn’t helping.

Which light bars?

 

[fishguy242]

Recommend Reefbrite Lumilite 24" bar or two ? I think @vetteguy53081 may have a couple for sale ??
if not PM me ,can get at discount ...

 

[Fishy888]

Which light bars?

They’re an eBay special

470nm Led Aquarium Bar Light 54w/81w/108w Blue Spectrum Strip Light for Tank | eBay

Spectrum: All Blue color 470nm Wavelength. PopularGrow LED Aquarium Lamp. Led with CE/UL/RoHS Certification. No Risky Led Light. What You Get With PopularGrow LED. What You Don’t Get With PopularGrow LED.

www.ebay.com

 

[Fishy888]

Recommend Reefbrite Lumilite 24" bar or two ? I think @vetteguy53081 may have a couple for sale ??
if not PM me ,can get at discount ...

I’ll check them out. Thank you Frank for letting me know. It’s appreciated.

 

[Fishy888]

It looks like I’m going to battle against nuclear green cyano now. It’s not bad though. Overall cyano is dwindling, especially the lyngbya. There’s still a ways to go but I’m finally making headway.

As much as I’ve been posting about adding blues to my decidedly white halide lately, Kathy, my wife, was saying she wished I had blue lights too. I agree of course. I’m hoping there’s enough money in the budget for me to be able to buy at least one light bar.

The lights I posted about are 3 watt LEDs. That means they’ll be powered at 1.5 watts each which of course significantly lengthens the lifetime of the LEDs themselves.

Once I get both light bars I might be able to cut back on the time the halide runs. I’d like to get it down to 8 hours if not 6. It honestly depends on whether 54 watts worth of 20000k LED light is enough to sustain the photosynthetic (desirable) life in the system. That is, will it be enough with the halide on for 6 to 8 hours each day? They’re on 12 hours now. In my opinion I’d think it would work perfectly.

There’s a bright pink coralline that’s starting to dominate on the rocks where the metal halide shines directly on it. It’s not quite a hot pink but it is bright.

As for nuisance algae I’ve been fortunate so far. I haven’t had tons of hair algae and the like. I’d much rather have diatoms than GHA, at least in the DT. I’d rather have GHA than cyano or dinos. Anyway my CUC is doing a great job so far, especially since I don’t have snails. I want to make sure I have enough for a snail to eat before trying them again.

 

[Fishy888]

As much as I’ve been feeding the system I’m surprised how little algae there is. Oh I have cyano, no doubt about it, but I feed 3 to 4 cubes worth of frozen food and a cube worth of pellets each day. I’m not complaining though. If anything I’m happy. Even though other forms of cyano have taken over lyngbya is about done. It’s growing much slower now in the few places it’s still growing. Diatoms have been choking it out. I’ll take it.

I have an old light bar that I used on a freshwater tank a long time ago. It’s not super strong but it puts out enough “moonlight” to let me see the reef in color at night, at least before everything closes up. It’s a tease though. The anemone shows off a color somewhere between copper and salmon. The green color can also be seen though not super intensely.

All creatures great and small are looking good overall. I’ll take that also.

 

[Fishy888]

Finally a light at the end of the tunnel in regard to my cold. This is good because there’s plenty I need to catch up on. Tank maintenance is on the list.

I have done the basics while I’ve been sick, like cleaning the glass, feeding the reef, and harvesting some of the floating cyano bits in the sump. I have removed a bunch of it from the sump over the last few weeks. I’m doing it a little at a time to avoid destabilizing the system.

Once I regain my strength I’m going to do another water change. I might also glue my duncans to a rock, plug and all. That would help as fast as they’re growing. I’ll also harvest more cyano from the display and the sump.

I’m thinking of getting four tuna blue 23 watt lamps. If I go that route I’ll cut the amount of time the halide is on to between six and eight hours. I’ll start gradually decreasing the halide by an hour a week. I want the anemone, corals, and coralline algae to keep thriving.

Hopefully my pink coralline sticks around once the metal halide time decreases. I also hope I get my purple and green coralline colors back too.

I have an area of shells and rubble that’s starting to get a good bit of coralline. Most of the rubble rock and shells had none. I took a snail shell that had a ton of coralline to seed (spore?) the pile a couple months ago. It’s definitely working.

The pink coralline seems more “aggressive” than the other coralline colors. It is the dominant coralline color in my system. It loves the light too.

I’m happy with things at the moment. Feeding heavily is paying off handsomely. The display is looking better by the day, and it’s full of life, great and small. There’s a little less cyano in the display with each passing day. Things are looking up!

 

[crusso1993]

Finally a light at the end of the tunnel in regard to my cold. This is good because there’s plenty I need to catch up on. Tank maintenance is on the list.

I have done the basics while I’ve been sick, like cleaning the glass, feeding the reef, and harvesting some of the floating cyano bits in the sump. I have removed a bunch of it from the sump over the last few weeks. I’m doing it a little at a time to avoid destabilizing the system.

Once I regain my strength I’m going to do another water change. I might also glue my duncans to a rock, plug and all. That would help as fast as they’re growing. I’ll also harvest more cyano from the display and the sump.

I’m thinking of getting four tuna blue 23 watt lamps. If I go that route I’ll cut the amount of time the halide is on to between six and eight hours. I’ll start gradually decreasing the halide by an hour a week. I want the anemone, corals, and coralline algae to keep thriving.

Hopefully my pink coralline sticks around once the metal halide time decreases. I also hope I get my purple and green coralline colors back too.

I have an area of shells and rubble that’s starting to get a good bit of coralline. Most of the rubble rock and shells had none. I took a snail shell that had a ton of coralline to seed (spore?) the pile a couple months ago. It’s definitely working.

The pink coralline seems more “aggressive” than the other coralline colors. It is the dominant coralline color in my system. It loves the light too.

I’m happy with things at the moment. Feeding heavily is paying off handsomely. The display is looking better by the day, and it’s full of life, great and small. There’s a little less cyano in the display with each passing day. Things are looking up!

Didn’t know you were sick. There seems to be a lot of people coming down with some strain of a nasty cold. My wife also has it right now. Happy you’re feeling better!

Something else I wasn’t aware of is that you’re running MH. What ballast and bulb do you use? Can you get a FTS with the fixture? I cannot say that I am very familiar with the 23w tuna blue bulbs. Perhaps I’ll run a search here and see what comes up about them.

Great to hear things are looking up!

 

[Fishy888]

You know the luminaires like they used (and some still use) in gyms and warehouses? I got one for 15 bucks, and I took it apart, built the framework for the canopy, and I rewired it to keep the transformer remote. That keeps the weight of it off the tank and it keeps the heat away from the water. For the lamp I got an iPower “6000k” halide. (it’s likely a 6500k at least). They have a lot of blue for a 6000k lamp.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the ballast is an M59 400w ballast. The guy who has the luminaires lowered the price to 10 bucks a piece from 15. He’s here in Decatur. His ad is on Facebook marketplace. I’ll see if he still has them. If he does I’ll re-edit this post.

 

[Fishy888]

I’m finally getting my big time pod explosion. I’ve been waiting for this! I was going to clean the glass and I saw “furrows”, for lack of a better way to put it.

It’s hard to get a better picture but there are pods of all shapes and sizes. It seems my fish aren’t eating them, at least not the isopods. I assume mandarins can eat isopods. I know they eat amphipods, which I have a ton of as well. I’m going to leave the glass alone tonight and see how things look tomorrow. I’ll take the pods though. I just have to keep the boom going.

I’ve got a “rock” made of cement I assume because it feels sharp and rough but it looks like a piece of live rock. I don’t think it was ever in a tank. It came with the three tanks I got from a friend about a month ago. This “rock” is an aquarium ornament, probably from Petco. I would think that since it was made for aquariums and it has many nooks and crannies that I can put it in the sump for a month or so. Once pods colonize it I can transfer the “rock” to one of my 10 gallon tanks. The more the merrier.

 

[tbrown]

I’m finally getting my big time pod explosion. I’ve been waiting for this! I was going to clean the glass and I saw “furrows”, for lack of a better way to put it.

It’s hard to get a better picture but there are pods of all shapes and sizes. It seems my fish aren’t eating them, at least not the isopods. I assume mandarins can eat isopods. I know they eat amphipods, which I have a ton of as well. I’m going to leave the glass alone tonight and see how things look tomorrow. I’ll take the pods though. I just have to keep the boom going.

I’ve got a “rock” made of cement I assume because it feels sharp and rough but it looks like a piece of live rock. I don’t think it was ever in a tank. It came with the three tanks I got from a friend about a month ago. This “rock” is an aquarium ornament, probably from Petco. I would think that since it was made for aquariums and it has many nooks and crannies that I can put it in the sump for a month or so. Once pods colonize it I can transfer the “rock” to one of my 10 gallon tanks. The more the merrier.

I would soak the suspected concrete rock in freshwater for a couple of days. Check pH before you add the rock and then check it in 24 hours. If the pH rose, drain the bucket and refill. Soak in freshwater until the pH stops rising above 8 ish. If not, you're risking a huge pH spike and alkalinity spike.