The kitchen tank: 40 g clown breeder

[Pedal Dangit]

I have not noticed any pressure changes, but since it is about the one year mark:

pressure was a little better after changing but wasn't significant. maybe 40 before, 38 after

my pressure fluctuates normally: tap 30-40 psi, booster pump 90-100

 

[Pedal Dangit]

I need to do some housekeeping. It has been months since last water change, also need to thin out some of the mess. Anyone local want some GSP or Kenya tree? its getting messy.

 

[Pedal Dangit]

Slowest tank drilling... EVER!. whew. So this would be SUMP left side, REFUGIUM right side.

Any refugium ideas? This is as far as I got today after taking foreverrrre to drill it. I should build a screen / divider for drain area keep algae from clogging drain. Deep sand bed? ...or bio blocks? or just rubble? I am looking for pods and nutrient export.

this is a maxijet 1200... probably around 250 gph? I may use this or maybe even something smaller?

 

[Jon Fishman]

This is really nice. Good work

 

[Pedal Dangit]

trying to get a pic of Mr. blue fish

 

[Pedal Dangit]

photo update:

Anyone else score the amazon subscription discount for IO reef crystals? I just received my mine and was charged $21.72 FOR TWO BUCKETS!!! ;Wideyed;Woot;Happy

I have algae growing on my algae. pics for water change motivation. no excuses now that I have so much salt

 

[Pedal Dangit]

So... 1 year old Somatic skimmer wires are jacked. :mad: No help from Vertex at all. I hope no one else out there electrocutes themselves or their fish. Seems like a bad design: the wires come out at the base and basically do a 90 deg upright turn if skimmer is placed against the wall of sump. I assume vibration caused chaffing of brittle wire casing. They didn't even give me a response with a quote for replacement and I was quite polite about it. BRS was very helpful getting them to respond initially, but there response was a joke.

Thread here :

Is this dangerous? wires exposed on skimmer

This is a Somatic 90 abut a year of use. I have not pulled it out of the sump all that often (maybe 8-10 times?) I only clean it completely every few months I just noticed this area where the wire comes out, the casing has crumbled and exposing the wires inside: I was thinking of just...

www.reef2reef.com

On the upside, the tank is doing well. got some new ricordea that I like:

 

[Pedal Dangit]

progress on my refugium / top off water stand : got the welder fired up I have not used in many years. fun to melt some metal again.

 

[Pedal Dangit]

looking down shot... tank looking much better. most of the algae on the sand is going away

 

[Pedal Dangit]

got some new stuff this weekend. Flameback pygmy angel, neon green leather, and a few orange rhodactis

all in one pic:

 

[Pedal Dangit]

Refugium / top-off station update. just added powerhead to stir things up in there. running lights reverse schedule of display. Have not noticed any huge change in PH , the swing is less and a bit higher overall. 8.0-8.2

made a decent removable top and a nice front panel with magnets. side panel still a work in progress

found I have a poly zoa came in with some red shrooms :-( didn't want that

 

[Pedal Dangit]

also recently picked up this little purple pseudochromis. I think he may be my new favorite. There is no fear in him, and is not aggressive to the other fish. He swims right in the front and has got the attention of some of the other fish to come out of the rockwork. Except I never see the blue damsel any more, that one hides in the back rock all day long ever since I got the flameback angel. but I have not witnessed any aggression with them. its like fight club, they must do it in secret when I'm not looking

 

[Junglejim]

Tank is looking pretty full, whats the new year goal?

 

[Pedal Dangit]

Tank is looking pretty full, whats the new year goal?

Well... not exactly. some parts are "full" meaning yes I can't put more corals in some areas in the tank. However, there are still trouble spots. There are a lot of corals that I would like to see growing better. Having some trouble with the neon green leathers looking good. They retract the polyps more than they are out. And then there are some orange rhodactis mushrooms that I really like but they are staying so tiny.

New years goals? didn't really think of any. The tank is doing pretty much what I wanted. I can go on a week long vacation without worries. that was my original goal. Someday, if things go my way, a 120 gal or larger in the family room will happen. But for now, this is it. The tank is established, and will not be getting much more added to it. Just watching things mature now I guess. The clowns lay eggs every few weeks in the same spot. They are on their 4th patch of them now?

oh... I found the blue damsel one day, he was looking horrible at the surface and I realized for sure he has been getting thrashed by the flameback angelfish. He now is in refugium. lucky guy. there wasn't supposed to be any fish in there but I'm glad I was able to save him.

This tank was an experiment to see how "low maintenance" I could go and still have corals. I think it is working well. I can go weeks, sometimes a month without doing more than adding water to the top off reservoir and cleaning the glass now and then. water changes happen when I get around to it. I don't test for anything. the time I would take to test the water, I just do a water change instead.

 

[Pedal Dangit]

About time I update my tank. Overdue for two year mark now.

Replace clunky Somatic with a "real" skimmer. Reef Octo regal 150 INT
WOW! what a difference. Completely Silent, easy to adjust, consistent performance. love it

I still never do any testing at all, but I'm going to work on that. I just do minimum 20 gal water change with IC RC once a month. Occasionally, I will double or triple the water changes up over the course of a week if things don't look as good as normally. No dosing. Once, the refugium got quite overgrown and I did a major disruptive cleaning. The result was a massive detritus and algae parts storm that shouldn't have been allowed to flow into the main tank. Sadly it appears something toxic killed my dwarf angle. It happened immediately after the disruptive cleaning

photo update: Still working on getting better pics, all I have is a Moto G7 power. maybe I will buy a real camera.

 

[Pedal Dangit]

anyone know what these are? amphipods? I have been told mysis, but I'm not sure about that. they never get any bigger or have the large, dark eyes that mysis usually have


created a thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/amphipods-mysis.764222/#post-8042734

 

[Pedal Dangit]

SO I should update: I finally started testing for CA and ALK in my tank and of course it was way out of wack. My CA was off the chart and my ALK was around 5 dkH

I had noticed the coralline algae was not growing like it used to, my rocks showing a lot of white. The Monti growing like crazy though. I guess it sucked it all up?

SOOOOO... I guess my water changes not keeping up with demand. We are now starting a kalkwasser dosing routine at night. I have the APEX set up to run a cheap BRS dosing pump after lights off, dosing full strength (2 tsp in one gallon)

In the meantime I brought the ALK back up to about 9dkH with a couple doses of baking soda and a couple water changes. I can already see an increase in coralline growth. We shall see if I can keep it up.

ALSO: added a cheapie 36" T5 bulb at an angle to light up the shadows under the monti. my mushrooms appreciate it when it works. you get what you pay for though, it keeps turning off on it's own. the end plugs loose connection and I have to go mess with it to get it to turn back on. point of sale

a few pics just for fun:

 

[Pedal Dangit]

it's that time again:

 

[Pedal Dangit]

ALK is staying about 7.5-8.0 with kalkwasser. have not tested Cal yet

I think I will start using a 5 gallon bucket for kalkwasser. I go through these 1 gallon glass jars every 3 days.

Wish my leather corals looked better. constantly retracting polyps. not sure why

 

[Pedal Dangit]