Wonder's 30 gallon (reboot)

1Der9_3hy · Aug 16, 2012

Hello everyone, been awhile since i bothered logging this tank. Its technically 5 years old, i used to keep a log on the **** site but you know...after you fill the tank up with fish, corals, equipment...there is not much to show besides growth. Well the tank filled up, the corals grew, the fish grew, and i got bored. So i emptied it, sold/traded most of the corals, built a new piece of rock, added new sand, kept the fish and started over. Right now, ive only got a handful of corals.

Fish:
mated pair or occy's
yellow tail damsel
small blue hippo (temp, friends fish im holding onto for awhile)

Motile Inverts:
20-astraea snails
???-asterina starfish

Corals:
Hammer
shrooms
rics
1 color of Z's and 1 color of P's

Equipment:
27 gallon dutch aquarium/stand
eshopps PSK 75 hang on
1-k evo 750 (will add another 750 or 1050 soon)
200 watt Ti heater
wave point 4 bulb T5 retro (using wave point bulbs till the tanks done growing algae 2-10K, and 2-Actinic)
No sump

The plan? There is no plan

The last time the tank was filled with leathers and about 100 of those blue shrooms you see. The rics took off, but i traded most of them in for store credit (to be used later). Im thinking LPS this time. Im not much of a fan of SPS (fun to grow, but require a lot of work from me). Im also thinking of diving head first into the Z&P addiction!

I currently dose vodka daily, and i add 1 tsp of Eco-Labs special blend every 3-4 days. I will try MB7 when this bottle runs out. I change 5 gallons a week, and top off every 2-3 days with straight RO/DI. The fish are fed blood worms, PE mysis, NLS pellet and occasionally mosquito larvae when i feel like dipping them out.

At any rate, its been setup like you see here for about 6 weeks (rock was cured prior to going in the tank). Had a cyano, then a diatom bloom...both of those are dieing off. GHA seems to be slowing down, or maybe receding in spots. Once I have bare rock and i see more coraline growing in, ill start collecting again.

dskyers · Aug 16, 2012

Nice sand and start

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

1Der9_3hy · Aug 16, 2012

Thanks, i was a little let down. I wanted Caribseas Hawaii'n Black (pure black) but could only find this from another company. At the rate ive been siphoning it out, i will probably be able to replace it with the caribsea stuff should i run across it!

1Der9_3hy · Aug 20, 2012

After posting that pic i decided it was time to razor the glass and back wall of the tank....looks 1000X better now

My cyano/diatom problem is almost all gone, vodka is up to 1.4 ml's day and ive changed out 200% of the tanks water volume in the past 10 days. Hopefully it will be enough to keep things in check, im leaving for 10 days this Thursday. My house sitter is up to speed on the tanks requirements, she has handled this before and has a tank of her own so i trust that wont be a problem.

If it looks good when i get back, maybe ill splurge on a MP10...or cheap out and get another K evo and start getting some P's and Z's.

1Der9_3hy · Aug 21, 2012

Turns out these smartphone cameras aint so bad afterall...nothing special here, just seeing what i could get the phone to do free hand.

Nitrates = 0, po4 = 0

The HA is dieing off quickly, i didnt realize it until i looked at the pic i posted above. Its only been a few days, but the difference is big.

1Der9_3hy · Oct 31, 2012

Nothing new, just a quick pic after cleaning the back wall again and changing some water. The hair algae is 80% gone, cyano is all gone...no nuisance algae anywhere. Im up to 4.2 ml/day of vodka.

Im working on getting a MP pump here soon, a store i traded some stuff into is waiting to get a shipment of MP10's. Once thats in, i feel a little more comfortable adding some stuff.

There is still some debris floating around from the scraping/cleaning, excuse the mess...

revhtree · Oct 31, 2012

I like that simple open look.

Fishinizer · Oct 31, 2012

Nice a lot of potential get rid of those aphasia though with tweezers or some peppermint shrimp they did wonders for me .

1Der9_3hy · Oct 31, 2012

revhtree said:
I like that simple open look.

Thanks. It looks much better in person, its hard to show that in a cell camera. I toss around the idea of adding a small arch of rock that would go up 6" to add some more space for coral.

Fishinizer said:
Nice a lot of potential get rid of those aphasia though with tweezers or some peppermint shrimp they did wonders for me .

I know, ive been slacking in that regard. How hard are pep shrimp to corral up once they have finished off the apptasia?

Also the hippo tang that im still sitting on is eating the euphyllia

So fleshy LPS are out until i can get it back home where it belongs.

Anyone know what "a lot" of vodka is in a system this size? Seems like im getting near that point with 4.2 ml daily.

Fishinizer · Oct 31, 2012

Well I kept mine but probably not hard for you since you don't have alotpf rock work or hiding place? They are good to have around and aren't really ugly you would only need one or two

wysiwyg · Oct 31, 2012

very clean looking tank

revsgirl · Nov 1, 2012

Looks great!!

coder35 · Nov 1, 2012

I like how you did your rocks

1Der9_3hy · Dec 4, 2012

New toy finally showed up!

Ill have to get a pic or two tonight. The tank is now BB as well. Ive been so busy with work, baby and the holidays that i have not expanded the invert selection in my tank. Just added a few more snails, but thats it. The **** hippo is still here...

Isoprene · Dec 4, 2012

im jealous, and mp10 is on my list

1Der9_3hy · Dec 6, 2012

I was a little let down by the MP10 the first night i had it. It was surprisingly loud, but after looking around online it seems thats common and they need time to break in and settle down. I gave it the night and by the time i got home from work it was quieter, but not quiet. Still a bit let down on how loud it is above 70%, below that its louder than i expected but i can manage since the other side of the coin is pretty nice.

The flip side is with the tank being BB, its never looked better. I have it running on the nutrient transport mode (except for at night i put it into night mode), and the bottom of the tank is spotless all the time. Im having a small bit of a cyano outbreak again. Im starting over on the carbon dosing, this time with Reef BioFuel and MB7 instead of just straight vodka.

With the vodka i seemed to hit a wall, i could not push past 4.6 ML's a day without causing a bloom and having to wait a few days to dose again. Im hoping with BioFuel and MB7 i wont have that problem.

1Der9_3hy · Dec 19, 2012

Dinner time mess...the kid loves the tank. We eat, and if he starts fussing we just point him towards the tank....no problemo.

So far my experience with Bio Fuel has not been a good one. Its too hard to dose unless you use a syringe. Im going back to vodka. Im using a half capful of MB7 daily and workign back up from .2 ml of vodka.

I change about 15 gallons a week, so near 50%. No nuisance algae, but i have flare ups of cyano and lately a few diatom patches...what the heck!? Still a work in progress. After the holidays ill be looking for some bigger pieces to put in now that the tank seems to be happy with flow/light and parameters. Coraline is starting to grow quicker...so its looking good in that respect.

Almost out of the boring stage!

1Der9_3hy · Dec 20, 2012

I received my aptasia X yesterday (cant beat amazon prime for $12.50 delivered in 2 days). I went to town and hit every one i could find, but still missed a few. I think a few treatments and i should have it under control. I forgot how affective aptasia X is...really good stuff.

Ive also been fighting this urge to add some more rock to the tank. I dont want to take this rock out and start over, but at the same time i cant really see a way to add a few pieces here or there and make it look like it belongs.

1Der9_3hy · Dec 26, 2012

The tank has been bare bottom for awhile now, and im really enjoying it since cleaning is so much easier...and its not as ugle as i thought

But im wondering if a BB tank needs more of a CuC than a sand bottom tank? I ask because the snails are always cleaning the bare bottom and the side/front glass, i almost never see them on the rocks where the detrius accumulates. Maybe i need to add some variety? Or just more snails? I have about 15 astrea and 2-3 odd snails (i dont know there names, they look like a snail but with a truncated shell that is almost flat...and they are pigs, love the fish poop!).

Also, my algae problem is almost completely gone. The rocks are getting bare, except a few spots where i have a translucent/green short fuzzy hair like algae. It doesn't grow longer like hair algae, but only grows about 1/4" tall & seems to be spreading even though it looks like dieing hair algae (IE the translucent shade)...any idea how to stop this stuff?

Short term review on the MP 10. I like it, i got use to the noise but it still bugs me at times. I think 30 gallons is the upper limit for being adequate. I almost wish i had another.

Ive got some stuff for sale/trade locally if anyone in SE michigan is reading this...let me know, ive got some goodies and im looking to start stocking the tank.