Turtle's 14g SPS Nano Build.

SashimiTurtle · Sep 30, 2017

Good news tho, since I put the clowns in there my birds nest has colored up some... so I may be on the right track with my NO3. It's my canary coral, it fades and colors up in a matter of days so I know where my tank is at by looking at it. Picture is blue washed, tried to filter it out

Katrina71 · Sep 30, 2017

About your dinos...I'm new. Be kind. Could you drop some macro in and just out compete it? Maybe ramp up your phytoplankton too? I'm trying to better understand this because it seems to be a pain to deal with.

SashimiTurtle · Sep 30, 2017

Um, I'm a noob too, I'm still learning too... about dinos, from what I've read they thrive in low nutrient environments, and when NO3 and PO4 get pity of balance. As of the last test I did, I had 2ppm NO3 and 0.08ppm PO4, I don't have enough NO3 of I have too much PO4. I'm too tired to break out the titrations tonight. Maybe tomorrow. I only got 2 hours of sleep last night. I'm about to go make love to my pillow, and by make love I mean snore and drool all over.

I'm gonna do more reading on carbon and GFO balancing and see how much of what I need to use. I got the ROX and GFO from BRS yesterday.

Katrina71 · Sep 30, 2017

Just let me feed your tanks for a week. I'll have your nitrates up

SashimiTurtle · Sep 30, 2017

Hahaha, well... I've been trying to keep nutrients up on a fallow tank for going on 3 months now. Now that my clowns are in there, that should help the nutrient problem.

SashimiTurtle · Oct 1, 2017

Alright I think I have a plan of attack for the mighty t-rex dinos... Tonight when I get home from work I'm going to unplug my Kessil, cover the tank in a black plastic trash bag for 72 hours and dose 1ml H2O2(3%) a day while the tank is covered. There's some kind of hair algae trying to take hold on the bottom of one rock, and the dinos are getting a better hold of the tank with every day. My clowns are already mad at me(no longer eat out of my hand) they might disown me after Wednesday night, but something has to be done.

Popped the light on the morning and everything looks better, but it'll be covered when I get home tonight.

Second Shot · Oct 1, 2017

Well that stinks. Why the heck is everyone getting “dinosaurs” (that was pretty funny btw) these days.

SashimiTurtle · Oct 1, 2017

Second Shot said:
Well that stinks. Why the heck is everyone getting “dinosaurs” (that was pretty funny btw) these days.

Flu season? The last extinction event 65 million years ago wasn't as effective as was originally thought? Zombies? Zombie dinosaurs? Oh, let me call Spielberg, I just got an awesome movie idea.

I'm going to attack it aggressively at the start... if I lose some frags I lose some frags. I want this stuff gone, because if I do nothing, I'll lose all my frags.

SashimiTurtle · Oct 1, 2017

Ok, here we go...

This is how the tank looked at 7:30 when I got home. Sand bed and frags covered in brown stringy nasty.

So I fed my clowns until they were full, removed my carbon from the media basket and added a fresh filter pad, unplugged the Kessil, dosed 1ml of 3% H2O2 into the back chamber and covered the tank.

I guess I should turn off that dosing pump since the corals won't be growing for the next three days. Id rather have my alk sag a little than spike up really high. I think my clowns finally adjusted to their new home, as the female ate from my hand. She was still rather reluctant, but it's a good feeling after her not doing that since she went into QT almost 3 months ago.

So my 72 hour blackout started at 2000 EST 10-1-17. Monday and Tuesday at 8:00pm I'll dose another 1ml of H2O2. Wednesday at 8:00 I'll pull the plastic off and see what everything looks like.

Amoo · Oct 1, 2017

Holy crap can air get in there?

SashimiTurtle · Oct 1, 2017

As for the macro tank....

Urchins are algae eating machines. I completely expected him to demolish the red algae. After all I bought it with the intentions of keeping him alive, but he's eating faster than expected.

Seriously, if you have an algae problem, get a pin coushion. It'll eat every bit of algae in your tank, and carry everything not welded, bolted, glued, epoxyed... across the tank. Actually, forget the glue, they are strong enough to break cyanoacrylic glue.

Y'all I wish I would have filmed it for you. I fed Maui again today. In front of the power head like last time. Of course he smelled it as soon as I put the squid in the tank. He was already out looking at me(or the blurry thing that sticks it's hand in the tank) asking where dinner was. He came all the way out of the rock, following the scent, wrapped around the powerhead and attacked the squid with enthusiasm. I actually got to see him tie himself into a pretzel using his body to push the squid further into his mouth. Was the coolest thing yet.

Owning an eel is so much fun, even if the hang out in a cave 90% of the day.

Amoo · Oct 1, 2017

Wait what the heck when did I get an excellence award banner what the heck?

SashimiTurtle · Oct 1, 2017

Amoo said:
Holy crap can air get in there?

Yes, it's cut open all the way down one side of the trash bag... on the back facing the wall. The bag wouldn't fit over the rim of the tank, but I was going to cut a slit for air even if it did.

SashimiTurtle · Oct 1, 2017

Amoo said:
Wait what the heck when did I get an excellence award banner what the heck?

That was not there earlier today...

najer · Oct 2, 2017

Very expensive urchin food, you have no coraline or gha, that lot won't last long ime.

SashimiTurtle · Oct 2, 2017

najer said:
Very expensive urchin food, you have no coraline or gha, that lot won't last long ime.

New tank, my 75g he was in has a slow drip under it so I took it down, and if I put it in the 14g with the corals so tight in there he would break some sticks I'm sure. This is the best option for it currently. If you have some GHA I'll take it from you. I'm all out.

SashimiTurtle · Oct 4, 2017

Plastic is off... doesn't look like I killed anything but the brown algae. The GHA is still there. Everything is really blue, because I just got home from the bar and phone camera = complicated...

Susan Edwards · Oct 7, 2017

make sure that algae isn't bryopsis. If it is, fluconazle is the only thing to kill it. Took my tank 2 doses as it was so bad. Still ahe a couple patches under the rocks. I can't tell from the pics if it is bryopsis or not. I wasn't brave enough to dry the black out method as I was afraid the fish or corals would suffer.

SashimiTurtle · Oct 7, 2017

My clowns are fine. SPS is pale, still. I've been feeding like crazy and haven't done a water change in two weeks. Not sure why they're still pale. I'm fixing to head home from night shift, once I wake up I'll test water and do a water change.