The Digi Forest

[Electrobes]

I also placed an order via BRS and Fostersmith for:

- 1 x ATI Coral Plus Bulb
- 1 x ATI Blue Plus Bulb
- 10 x Mesh Filter Socks
- 1 x 175G Bucket of Red Sea Salt (Not Pro)

I am contemplating replacing the Actinic Bulb and the Aqua Blue Special with a Blue Plus and a Coral Plus. I liked this arrangement before, and the corals liked it before. I feel like the Actinic isn't doing much and the ABS might be doing too much, lol.

I am also trying out a new salt. While I like I.O. mostly fine, I wanted to try a salt closer to the parameters I'm aiming for. I find my batches of I.O. generally has too much Alk off the bat, and too much Magnesium to boot. We'll see how this goes.

I should be making an order to TBS soon for my additional display live rock. Normally, I would have already done it, but I am off to the Keys for the weekend, and I doubt my dogs would willing to stick the live rock in! :lol:

 

[Electrobes]

So far so good this morning. Though the pictures do not show it well, the tank seems to be doing better. Things of note:

- The Pink Digi frags are still receding, albeit slowly. I hold no hope for it, but won't toss out the frags just yet as its been a week of recession, but hasn't died get.. So a comeback, while unlikely, is possible.

- I've up the vinegar dosage to a more casual 60mL per day, as opposed to the 48mL I had before.

- Probably related to the above, but the skimmer has pulled out a significant amount of funk, much more and faster than before.

- Calcium uptake by the tank is being very odd. When I tested two times ago.. It showed about 15ppm uptake in twenty four hours, but I do it again, two days later, and it only took 5ppm? (It was at 470 at its highest, and dropped to 455 in one day, but only 5 two days after.. All while Calcium has not been added). Who knows?

Some bad pics:

 

[Paul87]

I started dosing vodka a while back in my tank to help out. Have you ever tried it? I would assume vinegar is safer, but I wonder what other differences as a carbon source there are between the two.

 

[Electrobes]

I started dosing vodka a while back in my tank to help out. Have you ever tried it? I would assume vinegar is safer, but I wonder what other differences as a carbon source there are between the two.

Hey Paul,

If memory serves me well I believe Vodka is about eight times more potent than Vinegar, their main difference. I chose vinegar as it is cheaper and less prone to disaster should over dosing occur. I admit, I have never tried Vodka, only vinegar.

The back draw to Vinegar (Again, if memory serves me well) is that you'd need to those eight times the amount versus Vodka to achieve the same amount of carbon dosing.

 

[Paul87]

Hey Paul,

If memory serves me well I believe Vodka is about eight times more potent than Vinegar, their main difference. I chose vinegar as it is cheaper and less prone to disaster should over dosing occur. I admit, I have never tried Vodka, only vinegar.

The back draw to Vinegar (Again, if memory serves me well) is that you'd need to those eight times the amount versus Vodka to achieve the same amount of carbon dosing.

Makes sense. I only does about 1 ml a day (0.5 ml AM/ 0.5 ml PM) as of right now. My tank is a 40 gal. I dose manually though and have a check sheet, so no worries of overdosing. Just didn't know if there was any other differences. I have used vinegar to dip frag plugs in to get rid of pesky algae with good success though. I got the cheap 40% (80 proof), not sure which is actually gonna be cheaper with the amount needed to uses daily. Better safe than sorry though.

 

[Electrobes]

So I am happy to report some good news for a change.

- After removing dead frags (About half a gallon's worth) The rest of the corals look okay, polyps extended well.

- I finally decided my intended flow pattern (after a year of trying) sucked. Despite the horse power behind the plan, it was just not good enough. After several hours, I have a completely new water flow running, and new programming to boot. I was shocked to see that within an hour the tank looking happier (especially the coral) clams are a little peeved. I still have some issues to work out with the programming.

- I ordered my TBS rock for the empty right side of the tank. Richard was super fast in response and I am really looking forward to putting it into the tank.

- I got my new bulbs and now the fixture has a very boring half blue plus and half coral plus. This worked well for me before, and so I'll continue it.

- I also got mesh filter socks. While it doesn't catch as much as the cloth filter socks, I seriously won't have to worry about overfills for about a week, versus two days!

- I am waiting for my new salt to arrive, Red Sea (Original, not pro). I've been meaning to do this for a while, and given the weird parameters I've been getting with IO lately, I feel a change is warranted.

 

[Electrobes]

 

[Electrobes]

Today was a really good day, overall, for the tank. I'll share tomorrow, with pics, but the tank looks great with the new rock.. and speaking of new rock, I came across a treasure chest of rock for the sump. More on that tomorrow too! Corals are looking better.

 

[Electrobes]

So yesterday was a good follow up day to all these repairs going on with the tank. I completed a ten gallon water change after testing the tank's water.

- Alkalinity: 8.1
- Calcium: 445ppm
- Magnesium: Untested (Recently tested at 1400ppm)
-Salinity: 35ppt

So far all the modifications are proving beneficial:

- One of my LFS has this amazing rock (Prior live rock, but now dried out) for sale. It was honestly the best rock I've seen for sale in about eight years. While it would have just been astounding as live rock, I still bought some (16lbs, way more than I needed for the sump). I cleaned the rock out with a RODI dunk and a lite brushing, before placing it in the sump. I kept the rest in storage.

- The new flow for the tank seems to be doing the job and keeping all inhabitants happy. I am trying to mimic a wave on both sides of the tank... So I have the two controllable Tunzes on anti-sync shooting flow acroos the surface towards the front opposite corners of the tank. I have it 100% during the day and about 70% during the night.

Remaining Issues:

- The Green Digi is still on the ropes and not looking like it wants to win. I see random STN on 2/3 of the frags. I will most likely have to remove the affected frags and replace it them with healthy ones

- While I like the Mesh filter socks not needing replacement often, I feel like they aren't catching anything from the display. I am considering adding a baffle to the sump, where the new rock was placed, to help contain the funk in one spot for easy removal, during water changes.

 

[Electrobes]

 

[Electrobes]

I forgot to mention, while I was planning on trying out regular Red Sea salt, UPS absolutely destroyed the salt bucket!

Being a bit time crunched, I bought a bucket of my current salt: Instant Ocean.

 

[Mark426]

Hey...very nice. I am doing the same thing. All digits. Not ready to show mine yet as its only 2 months old and still in the very beginning stages of stocking. Mind telling me where you got your purples? All the ones I have found so far are more brown than purple.

 

[Electrobes]

Hey...very nice. I am doing the same thing. All digits. Not ready to show mine yet as its only 2 months old and still in the very beginning stages of stocking. Mind telling me where you got your purples? All the ones I have found so far are more brown than purple.

Mark, I got lucky on those and found them at my LFS. They looked pretty back, but Digis are pretty quick to bounce back. My best way to get Digis is through hobbyists online. You'll not only get the typical ones, but you'll get some not so common ones at great deals.

 

[Aleks]

Hi! A rare form of the tank, it's interesting.
I think the failure of the digitata due to the fact that there is no system of nutrient removal of the tank.
We must put Chaetomorpha compartment with a flashlight.
Or to put GFO reactor it will give control of the substances.
Good luck.

 

[Electrobes]

Huh? Not sure if you are talking to me, but I have plenty of filtration.. I'm pretty sure the digitata recession is related to the substrate change out for the faux bed.

My filtration and maintenance:

- Skimmer rated for twice my tank (Actual not estimated)
- 10G water change weekly
- Carbon dosing in conjunction with major skimming

 

[Paul87]

I forgot to mention, while I was planning on trying out regular Red Sea salt, UPS absolutely destroyed the salt bucket!

Being a bit time crunched, I bought a bucket of my current salt: Instant Ocean.

Man thats some bull. They must have slammed and crushed it pretty good to bust the bucket open. They will be replacing this yes?

 

[Paul87]

Hi! A rare form of the tank, it's interesting.
I think the failure of the digitata due to the fact that there is no system of nutrient removal of the tank.
We must put Chaetomorpha compartment with a flashlight.
Or to put GFO reactor it will give control of the substances.
Good luck.

I would hate to buy batteries for that flashlight! LOL

 

[Electrobes]

Man thats some bull. They must have slammed and crushed it pretty good to bust the bucket open. They will be replacing this yes?

I opted for the refund instead. Considering all I have going on with the tank, I may try a new salt later down the road. [emoji4]

 

[Electrobes]

So far so good, some changes have been made, albeit minor:

- I took out the rock from the sump, and left the area empty. It was too cumbersome when I needed access to the sump. The PAR 38 bulb has also been removed, but I left the socket as is just in case.

- I added a ton of tiny snails and hermit crabs. Some of the snails have crawled out of the tank, but so far so good!

- I tested my tank and a few surprises: Alk - 8.2, Cal - 440, Mag - 1440 all normal. Nitrate and Phosphate tested undetectable.. I expected something from those two.

- I like the bulb combo I have now: 4 X Coral Plus and 4 X Blue Plus.

- I found a new canister filter I forgot I bought. I cleaned it up and will use this to vacuum the tank and sump.

And the photo bomber:

 

[Electrobes]

A pic for the morning: