Turtle's Fairy Tale

[SashimiTurtle]

So, umm... who knows of any good(read cheap as dirt, minus drugs and prostitutes) hotels up there? Flier for swap?

 

[dantimdad]

So, umm... who knows of any good(read cheap as dirt, minus drugs and prostitutes) hotels up there? Flier for swap?

I don't. I am driving up in the morning and back right after.

 

[Katrina71]

So, umm... who knows of any good(read cheap as dirt, minus drugs and prostitutes) hotels up there? Flier for swap?

Why not stay there? It's at the Holiday Inn on Cedar Bluff.

 

[Katrina71]

Or tell me what you are looking to spend. I'll find you something.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Saturday tank testing time...

Alk 8.7
SG 1.025
NO3 0.25
PO4 0.12

Alk is high because we raised our Salinity back up. I moved the dosing pump to 4ml, which should allow ot to slowly drop back down. So much for keeping it stable ‍.

As you can see from the phosphates and the FTS below, we have been feeding a little too heavily. Need to find a balance there as well. Got some algae growth on the sand and a little bit trying to grow in a few spots on the rocks.

We got rid of the skimmer. If it doesnt work out, I'll put it back in... but if it continually overflows like it has been for a month I'll just chunk it again. I'm currently running a filter sock, chaeto in the main section, about 10lbs of branch rock where the chaeto used to be, and the carbon reactor is in the return chamber.

 

[Scurvy]

If you go back to a skimmer I still have my Nyos120 I haven't gotten around to listing yet. You know where to find me if you’re interested.

I think you had a BM skimmer. I had struggles off/on with the two BM’s Ive owned. One DC, One AC. Could just never get a consistent skim with either no matter what I did.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

If you go back to a skimmer I still have my Nyos120 I haven't gotten around to listing yet. You know where to find me if you’re interested.

I think you had a BM skimmer. I had struggles off/on with the two BM’s Ive owned. One DC, One AC. Could just never get a consistent skim with either no matter what I did.

Yep... and yep. It's a BM Curve 5. I'm gonna clean it and put it in storage. It had been doing great until the fuge took over, and then it was just an air pump really... pulled very light skin and took forever to fill, until recently. It's just been overflowing like crazy. The BM 3.5 on the Reefer 250 has been doing great.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Took a few pictures of the SPS... and two LPS.

Green Slimer, just glued last night polyps back out

Purple polyp birds nest

Purple stylo, starting to encrust

Monti cap multi colony, being a monti cap

Fascination favia, friend been hounding me to break the frag off the rock so she can get a piece.

Friend's trachy, dead spot still dead... but its healthy and squishy.

 

[Scurvy]

Cant say I blame her, I want a frag of the fascination favia myself!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Booyah baby! Newest SPS are doing well. Just over two weeks and visible growth. The green slimmer looks to me like it is encrusting, but I can't get it to show in a side by side comparison. Too much shadow in the shot. The flower petal monti is also starting to plate horizontally.

9/2 on the left, 9/18 on the right

Green slimmer

Tyree Flower Petal

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Did a few tests today, and cleaned a MASSIVE clump of GHA and cyano from the sand bed.

Ca 415 or 425 (titration test might have turned a drop early. It was close so didn't bother with retest)
Alk 8.4, down from 8.7
PO4 0.06, down from 0.12 (yay GHA for sucking up nutrients)
SG 1.024 or 1.025, somewhere in there.

I SLOWLY added a little salt into the filter sock. I've done this before but you have to go slow and make sure it has plenty of time to dissolve before making it to the display. Raw salt can burn fish and corals, and you don't want to spike your salinity. I'll test tomorrow and see if we're back up to 1.026.

We're still skimmerless, and I haven't really seen a difference. The combo of the filter sock and carbon keeps the water clear, and the chaeto is growing to fill up the larger space available now. As far as the tank, everything looks healthy. My SPS still look fine, my trachy is starting to reinflate since salinity is back up and my friend's trachy is very squishy.

We had a spike in phosphates around the time the skimmer went 3rd grade science fair volcano on us, and that was the same time I was trying to increase nutrients as we had none... too much in both directions, nutrient input and export. Phosphates are down tho, I do still have some GHA, but I removed the stuff growing on the sand. That should have removed a bunch of locked up nutrients.

I need to purchase some more CUC for the rocks. My melanarus has decimated my snails, the hermits are long gone and I doubt it's the wrasse's fault but my emerald crabs are gone or slacking on the job.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Checked salinity today. Dead on 1.026SG. Alkalinity bumped back up to 8.7dKH in the process, but it shouldn't hurt anything going up 0.3dKH in one day. I'll let it slowly fall back down then lock in a dose to maintain 8.0.

 

[cdrewferd]

I just picked up one of these tanks last weekend and have already gone through your whole thread! I am hoping to enjoy some fish before I go too deep into corals. Hope mine looks as good as yours some day.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I just picked up one of these tanks last weekend and have already gone through your whole thread! I am hoping to enjoy some fish before I go too deep into corals. Hope mine looks as good as yours some day.

The whole thing? How long did that take? Haha

Welcome aboard. As you read, it all wasn't without some trials and setbacks. It's a constant battle actually. I need to get my nutrients back in order now actually. Good luck with your tank, got a link to your build thread?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, we made it to Tennessee! Only took about 5ish hours with stops and traffic. Tested alk this morning and got 8.5, coming down SLOWLY. Guess that's good tho. Dosing pump is still at 4ml a day.

I put in a new filter sock, gave the fish an algae sheet and fed them some LRS just before I left. They will be just fine not eating tomorrow, fat things... we will be back Sunday night so I'll feed them then.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Long time no post... I've been neglecting my thread, and the tank looks bad. Bad case of over feeding. The ICP test came back with no phosphates so I had it in my head I needed to feed more, and then my skimmer went on the fritz and I removed it. The tank is still doing ok without the skimmer... but I needed to mentally adjust my nutrient input to match my export. I've cut the amount I feed the fish back by a good bit. They are still getting plenty to eat, and the food is gone before it has a chance to get lost in the rocks.

Alk, well... now that we have salinity where it's supposed to be, it seems to have leveled off... but it's only one week, so we shall see. It's been 8.5 for the past week. Its within 0.5 of my target of 8.0, which is where my salt mixes. I'm more concerned with stability and within .5 of my salt mix than I am with chasing that magic number of 8.0. As long as its stable, and a water change isn't going to swing the tank, I'm happy.

The spikes in the graph are the two times we bumped the salinity up where it needed to be.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I also got two new corals in Tennessee. A red digi and a sushi acro. I cant pronounce the real name, so I just call it sushi acro. Its suharsonoi or something like that.

The girlfriend got some corals for her tank too... but it's a little neglected right now and in serious need of some TLC. I have her corals in my tank until I can help her get hers straightened out. It need a refugium set up bad.

She got some purple gorgonian, an "octospawn" that looks just like the frogspawn she already has to me, a galaxea and a cool little pink goni with short polyps. I've never seen them, and thought they all had long polyps.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well guys, it's with a bit of sadness, I'm going to be shutting down this tank. I'll still keep most of my stock(just not the devil melanarus), but the tank has gone into a state of neglect and disrepair I dont really want to come back from. Ive lost my mccoskers and pintail wrasse, as well as my copperband passed the other day. The two wrasse I 100% blame the melanarus for bullying. The mccoskers just disappeared, and the pintail had a spinal injury. The copperband, well it wasn't getting enough food. I ran put of the blood worms and brine shrimp it was eating, and the LRS wasnt in small enough pieces. I saw it a few times try and eat something and have it stolen from it by a wrasse or clown. It was still eating, but couldn't get enough. It finally gave up last week.

Everything is also covered in GHA that would make every 80s hair band jealous. My LPS are doing great in the dirtier water, but SPS are struggling. I haven't really done anything to clean the tank in a while. It's time to just focus on one reef.

I'm not getting out of the hobby tho. We still have my fiancee's Reefer 250, the Minature Menagerie, and my clowns will be going into my 35g cube which will house just the pair and couple BTAs. Just something simple and easy that I can just do a water change on and fix. I have all the equipment already, it just needs a new plywood stand. I'll use the existing MDF one as a template.

We did pick up two new fish for the Reefer today. The fiancee looked at me with the sad puppy eyes when she saw an orange butterflyfish, and I picked up a canary wrasse. Better pictures will come when they arent in hiding... yea, butterfly fish aren't reef safe. Neither are dwarf angels and we have two of them already. Puppy dog eyes, remember?

 

[crusso1993]

Well guys, it's with a bit of sadness, I'm going to be shutting down this tank. I'll still keep most of my stock(just not the devil melanarus), but the tank has gone into a state of neglect and disrepair I dont really want to come back from. Ive lost my mccoskers and pintail wrasse, as well as my copperband passed the other day. The two wrasse I 100% blame the melanarus for bullying. The mccoskers just disappeared, and the pintail had a spinal injury. The copperband, well it wasn't getting enough food. I ran put of the blood worms and brine shrimp it was eating, and the LRS wasnt in small enough pieces. I saw it a few times try and eat something and have it stolen from it by a wrasse or clown. It was still eating, but couldn't get enough. It finally gave up last week.

Everything is also covered in GHA that would make every 80s hair band jealous. My LPS are doing great in the dirtier water, but SPS are struggling. I haven't really done anything to clean the tank in a while. It's time to just focus on one reef.

I'm not getting out of the hobby tho. We still have my fiancee's Reefer 250, the Minature Menagerie, and my clowns will be going into my 35g cube which will house just the pair and couple BTAs. Just something simple and easy that I can just do a water change on and fix. I have all the equipment already, it just needs a new plywood stand. I'll use the existing MDF one as a template.

We did pick up two new fish for the Reefer today. The fiancee looked at me with the sad puppy eyes when she saw an orange butterflyfish, and I picked up a canary wrasse. Better pictures will come when they arent in hiding... yea, butterfly fish aren't reef safe. Neither are dwarf angels and we have two of them already. Puppy dog eyes, remember?

Nothing wrong with stepping it back some. Especially when one cannot find the time to do justice to their livestock. Cool you're hanging on to the 250!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Nothing wrong with stepping it back some. Especially when one cannot find the time to do justice to their livestock. Cool you're hanging on to the 250!

Yea. I needed to shut down one tank, and altho the 250 is slightly smaller(just an inch or two in each dimension) than the 90g, it's the nicer of the two, and the overflow is silent. The 90 sounds like a waterfall. I may make a few upgrades to my current equipment down the road(Noopsyche lights), but I have all the equipment I need to run it well. It's just going to be LPS and softie with whatever SPS makes it. The montis are hanging on, and should bounce back once in a tank that is taken care of.