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Journal One Zero Three
- Thread starter Geoffrey Rea
- Start date
Conch is such a strange and wonderful creature. When the kids have their mates round they tend to overlook it at first. Then come the comments, “look at its eyes on the end”, “it has a trunk like an elephant” and the personal favourite, “oh my god he has a knife!!!” 😂
Welearn
Member
Hi Geoff, couple of questions: Have you dialled in your skimmer to give a thicker skim ? Compared to Looking back at the previous photo of your skimmer .
Do you feed the rotifer granules after lights out? Which is what I do with a turkey baster .
Also I have a spare Red Sea Refractometer if you ever need one you can have.
Just calibrate with R/O water first .
Looking great after six months
big up for you
What would look nice would be a toadstall leather soft coral can be situated on the Bottom/middle /Top .
Do you feed the rotifer granules after lights out? Which is what I do with a turkey baster .
Also I have a spare Red Sea Refractometer if you ever need one you can have.
Just calibrate with R/O water first .
Looking great after six months
big up for youWhat would look nice would be a toadstall leather soft coral can be situated on the Bottom/middle /Top .
Last edited:
Hi @Welearn .
Yes, running a thicker skim now. It was freshly setup before, took a while to run efficiently and develop a film. It’s only a little Bubble Magus QQ2 which isn’t technically tuneable, but there are ways of rigging it to skim differently if you play with it. Solids are removed daily via a small sheet of floss so skimmer only has to pick up a small amount of dissolved organics, making its size appropriately matched. It’s mainly on to provide additional aeration.
Not granules no, but feed a decent amount of frozen food day and night so the bottom of the food chain is fed by this excess and daily phytoplankton. Target feed the Duncan, Leptastrea, Trumpet, Acan and Scoly three times per week at night in particular. The War Coral and Favites get some if they’ve got their act together by the time feeding takes place an hour or so after lights out. If those guys are ready to feed it’s likely the Cephastrea will be up for some grub too. The rest of the corals fend for themselves.
There are plenty of critters that come out at night to pinch a bite to eat during this time. However, there is effort going into ensuring the majority of food stuffs end up in mouths and not randomly about the tank. Despite this minimal excess, the rocks are alive with activity at night so not looking to deliberately feed anything other than fish and corals. The pod population along with rotifers etc seem to be in tune with this balance without any particular regard for their feeding.
Thank you @Welearn that’s very kind of you 🙏🏽 Do have a refractometer but appreciate the thought 😊
Looking great after six months
What would look nice would be a toadstall leather soft coral can be situated on the Bottom/middle /Top .
Think it’s coming along, learning something new daily which makes it a joy too. A lot of the coral stock that’s gone in has been cheap as they were failing in the stores where they were purchased; tissue recession, complete loss of colour, significant die back. Bit of an oddball customer. Would be nice to actually put something in that’s healthy from the get go 😂
Courtneybst
Member
Do they at least give you a discount? 😅
What's been the most interesting thing you've discovered since setting this scape up?
How quickly naive empiricism will fall short as a means of investigation in marine systems at the hobby level. The situation is complex and dynamic, your doubt is not doubtful enough.
Upgrade:
Got reasonably far in the first 6 months just using the ONF Flat One’s with the blue channel, but it was never ideal.
New phase with the Kessil A500X. Mounted a foot up with the 55 degree reflector:
Response has been good without any drama. Acan is particularly puffed up nicely today:
With orange filter to colour correct to how it should look:
Hitting SPS numbers in the first six inches dependably now so can shift some colonies lower, use the shadowed areas for LPS. Running at 50% intensity.
The Seriatopora seems happy enough since the switch which is reassuring. Wasn’t sure how the switch from the ONF’s would go but no problems so far:
The shimmer you get off this Kessil model is like a metal halide. It doesn’t show up on these pics but the beams of light moving through the water are really something:
Will be keeping the peepers open for some nice Acros in the coming months. Use the top shelf of the tank directly under the Kessil for something high flow and light loving.
Got reasonably far in the first 6 months just using the ONF Flat One’s with the blue channel, but it was never ideal.
New phase with the Kessil A500X. Mounted a foot up with the 55 degree reflector:
Response has been good without any drama. Acan is particularly puffed up nicely today:
With orange filter to colour correct to how it should look:
Hitting SPS numbers in the first six inches dependably now so can shift some colonies lower, use the shadowed areas for LPS. Running at 50% intensity.
The Seriatopora seems happy enough since the switch which is reassuring. Wasn’t sure how the switch from the ONF’s would go but no problems so far:
The shimmer you get off this Kessil model is like a metal halide. It doesn’t show up on these pics but the beams of light moving through the water are really something:
Will be keeping the peepers open for some nice Acros in the coming months. Use the top shelf of the tank directly under the Kessil for something high flow and light loving.
Took your advice @Welearn
Twospined Angel gone in too:
Bit of a risk with the corals, but so far she’s done nothing more than clean the backs of the snails. See what happens when she transitions into a male. Feeding well and good diversity so hopefully won’t develop a taste for polyps.
The goby has been shifted to a friends 5 foot FOWLR tank with copious sand. Was becoming increasingly convinced there wasn’t enough room for him given his rate of growth. Seems content in the larger setup.
The flip side of the goby moving is it removes all territory issues at the substrate level. Royal Gramma has plenty of caves to call home and will only hit 3 inches as an adult. Good suggestion @Welearn 🙏🏽
Twospined Angel gone in too:
Bit of a risk with the corals, but so far she’s done nothing more than clean the backs of the snails. See what happens when she transitions into a male. Feeding well and good diversity so hopefully won’t develop a taste for polyps.
The goby has been shifted to a friends 5 foot FOWLR tank with copious sand. Was becoming increasingly convinced there wasn’t enough room for him given his rate of growth. Seems content in the larger setup.
The flip side of the goby moving is it removes all territory issues at the substrate level. Royal Gramma has plenty of caves to call home and will only hit 3 inches as an adult. Good suggestion @Welearn 🙏🏽
Been a while since the last update. If you’re the kind of person who secretly likes smirking at monumental cock ups, then this post is for you 😂
Had drama after coming back from a two week trip in April. Left strict instructions: ONLY three cubes of frozen food, one per meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner). That was it, nothing else to do, everything is autodosed, ATO was connected to a large barrel to last the two week duration.
So… the family in their infinite and loving wisdom decided that the ‘marine tank looked low on water’…. 🤦🏻♂️
There’s a 10l jerry can behind the 1200 that is a concentrated top up mix for the 1200 and 45f to mix with RO. In it goes into the marine and get a text, ‘Marine tank looked low, poured the container with the red cap in to fill it up’.
Now… You have to consider the situation. You’re miles away, you know it’s bad, really bad, you’re not home to deal with anything and quite frankly, it’s potentially a very expensive and completely unnecessary mistake. This is the closest to that Larry David scene we’ve ever been regarding tank cock ups:
Upon returning there wasn’t a single parameter that wasn’t FUBAR. Salt precipitation had gone over the back of the tank and down the rear glass in sheets of salt.
Best guess, the introduction of a copious amount of magnesium sulphate upset the ratios of ion pairs with sulphate and everything else; MgHCO3+, MgCO3, MgF+, MgB(OH)4+ and MgOH+. This in turn had quite dramatic effects on the rest of the chemistry within the tank, most noticeably runaway precipitation. In all this chaos dinoflagellates took hold of the substrate as well. Fun…
Good news first, all the fish and snails survived. However, one third of the coral in the tank kicked the bucket. Determined to make this hiccup the closest to a tank wipeout that will ever happen. It took over a month, a ton of salt and water changes, but things eventually balanced out again.
Unwilling to go back to SPS corals due to the shear expense of them. It’s mortifying to see colonies that grow so slowly meet a sudden demise.
Instead, gone down the LPS route now, lowered the light, lowered the flow and restocked the tank:
Glad to finally see plating corals have started spreading again after stalling, coralline appearing in patches once again as well:
Looking forward to the latest species growing in, but can’t say it’s not absolutely gutting to be mostly starting over from scratch.
Had drama after coming back from a two week trip in April. Left strict instructions: ONLY three cubes of frozen food, one per meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner). That was it, nothing else to do, everything is autodosed, ATO was connected to a large barrel to last the two week duration.
So… the family in their infinite and loving wisdom decided that the ‘marine tank looked low on water’…. 🤦🏻♂️
There’s a 10l jerry can behind the 1200 that is a concentrated top up mix for the 1200 and 45f to mix with RO. In it goes into the marine and get a text, ‘Marine tank looked low, poured the container with the red cap in to fill it up’.
Now… You have to consider the situation. You’re miles away, you know it’s bad, really bad, you’re not home to deal with anything and quite frankly, it’s potentially a very expensive and completely unnecessary mistake. This is the closest to that Larry David scene we’ve ever been regarding tank cock ups:
Upon returning there wasn’t a single parameter that wasn’t FUBAR. Salt precipitation had gone over the back of the tank and down the rear glass in sheets of salt.
Best guess, the introduction of a copious amount of magnesium sulphate upset the ratios of ion pairs with sulphate and everything else; MgHCO3+, MgCO3, MgF+, MgB(OH)4+ and MgOH+. This in turn had quite dramatic effects on the rest of the chemistry within the tank, most noticeably runaway precipitation. In all this chaos dinoflagellates took hold of the substrate as well. Fun…
Good news first, all the fish and snails survived. However, one third of the coral in the tank kicked the bucket. Determined to make this hiccup the closest to a tank wipeout that will ever happen. It took over a month, a ton of salt and water changes, but things eventually balanced out again.
Unwilling to go back to SPS corals due to the shear expense of them. It’s mortifying to see colonies that grow so slowly meet a sudden demise.
Instead, gone down the LPS route now, lowered the light, lowered the flow and restocked the tank:
Glad to finally see plating corals have started spreading again after stalling, coralline appearing in patches once again as well:
Looking forward to the latest species growing in, but can’t say it’s not absolutely gutting to be mostly starting over from scratch.
seedoubleyou
Member
You can’t beat LPS anyway IMO. Sticks are great but I think they only ever look good as frags anyway.
X3NiTH
Member
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2014
- Messages
- 1,647
That sucks but what’s apparent is the family want involvement to a degree and it would be best to train them up at least in the use of a Refractometer so they can at least test for this if there is any doubt as to the salinity of either the tank or any large volume replacement solutions like your concentrate. At least they can inform and then you give advice if needed remotely.
For our myriad of Marine tanks I have divested enough knowledge to my other half about their upkeep and essentially measuring parameters, making RO for top ups and salt addition for water changes thus we can divide the responsibilities for maintenance (I’m still king of the Sump) and can take appropriate action when needed independent on me being around.
At least being able to inform each other about things means we can advise on the most appropriate course of action.
The other half still wants nothing to do with my planted tank though it’s still ‘meh!’.
Courtneybst
Member
Holy cow, it's obviously bad but also amazing that you didn't lose more!
I would be fuming 😅
I would be fuming 😅
26 hours to remedy, £800 out and still climbing @Courtneybst
The big orange Acan suffered polyp bailout since those last photos. It seemed to have pulled through once parameters were back in check, but then…
Went from this:
To this:
Too much change. Luckily one polyp stayed put, may startup the whole colony again:
Some of the jettisoned polyps settled at the back into the rock work. They have no skeleton but if they can stay put and calicify to the rock, they may establish another colony at the back:
It sucks so hard but what ya gonna do…
Eldest son has been eager and does the weekly testing with me, it’s fun and he has a mountain of questions.
As for training and instruction for the other half, there has been plenty available but it clearly isn’t sticking 😂
She was trying to help, heart was in the right place ❤️
Back on track, getting some growth going again:
You’ll have to excuse the blurple, couldn’t find the orange filter.
Added a clam dead centre under the Kessil and seems to be going well:
Still nuts for Goniopora’s:
Getting full but still some room for reds and orange specimens further down the line:
All in all, just glad this tank is still in the game and is back showing some growth.
Will be great once the rocks have full coralline coverage. The coralline took a big hit during the mini crash but it is back spreading day by day now.
You’ll have to excuse the blurple, couldn’t find the orange filter.
Added a clam dead centre under the Kessil and seems to be going well:
Still nuts for Goniopora’s:
Getting full but still some room for reds and orange specimens further down the line:
All in all, just glad this tank is still in the game and is back showing some growth.
Will be great once the rocks have full coralline coverage. The coralline took a big hit during the mini crash but it is back spreading day by day now.
Courtneybst
Member
The Gonioporas look great!
Damn, hard luck mate, marines are expensive when they go wrong, and this was totally avoidable, what a pain
Nice recovery though and good luck with the tank, good thing you didnt chuck it in either!!
Nice recovery though and good luck with the tank, good thing you didnt chuck it in either!!
Quick update…
Tank seems to have gone back to growing mode after the last incident.
Torch has split both its heads to a total of four:
Trumpet and Duncan both pumping out new heads but not so much skeletal growth since the last update:
Goniopora’s are happy and waving about:
Elegance coral has got noticeably larger in the last month:
May need moving soon to keep the peace.
Attempting to save some of the worst affected corals. The Acan that had a single tiny polyp left on the skeleton survived:
Dearly hoping it makes it back to glory. Looks promising so far.
The Leptastrea took such a beating but not giving up on it:
Still grabs at mysis shrimp with the remaining polyps. Hoping it can find its way back as well, although purple and red coralline is taking hold.
Scoly is finally round and gets quite large at certain times in the day:
Reacts pretty quickly to mysis shrimp in the water so by the time it thaws in the feeder it’s ready to catch them. Saves on direct feeding.
Clam keeps on trucking:
There’s daily phyto going in so clam is covered and the pod population is especially healthy too.
Can’t grumble all in all. It’s going in the right direction once again.
Tank seems to have gone back to growing mode after the last incident.
Torch has split both its heads to a total of four:
Trumpet and Duncan both pumping out new heads but not so much skeletal growth since the last update:
Goniopora’s are happy and waving about:
Elegance coral has got noticeably larger in the last month:
May need moving soon to keep the peace.
Attempting to save some of the worst affected corals. The Acan that had a single tiny polyp left on the skeleton survived:
Dearly hoping it makes it back to glory. Looks promising so far.
The Leptastrea took such a beating but not giving up on it:
Still grabs at mysis shrimp with the remaining polyps. Hoping it can find its way back as well, although purple and red coralline is taking hold.
Scoly is finally round and gets quite large at certain times in the day:
Reacts pretty quickly to mysis shrimp in the water so by the time it thaws in the feeder it’s ready to catch them. Saves on direct feeding.
Clam keeps on trucking:
There’s daily phyto going in so clam is covered and the pod population is especially healthy too.
Can’t grumble all in all. It’s going in the right direction once again.
