Silver97's Official tank chronicle

[silver97]

I went with a friend to my favorite saltwater pet store yesterday and found a bunch of very interesting things.
One of the first fish I saw was a six line wrasse, just like mine, except double the size. I was surprised to say the least that it was as big as it was! It had to have been full grown, and I knew mine could get up to 3 inches, but reading a description online and comparing a live fully grown specimen to yours are 2 different things. It was weird to me how it grew proportion wise though, it looked a bit fat to be honest. But it swam around the tank and through all the caves and stuff just as well (or better) than mine does. Very cool to see in person. This makes me think that mine is a bit younger than I thought, but he has grown a considerable amount since getting him in March, so I'm sure he'll be up to that size sooner rather than later.
Th other creature that got my attention was a bright purple and red nudibranch. It was one of the cooler and more colorful varieties that I have found at stores near me. I thought one of them was eating hair algae, as the tank they placed him in was covered in it for critters like him and he seemed to be working on a good spot. I didn't buy him, but instead I did a little research on it today and found that the species that I saw only ate sponges. At least I'm pretty sure, because even though I saw the one possibly eating hair algae, I might not have found the correct species online. I'll be heading into the store again in a couple weeks maybe, so I'll check again to see if they're still holding up. There are a LOT of different nudibranch species, so maybe this one was a good one for hair algae.
Then they converted part of their store into a showroom for different tanks and stands they had in stock, and they had some great deals on them. I was looking at some tanks that were 150 gallons, with an oak stand and canopy for only $1300 or something low like that. Well, low compared to other tanks. I figure if I do end up moving I might buy the new tank from there and move it or see what's out in the new town and buy it there. Although I did price out the different Red Sea tanks, it still might be more worth it to buy another bigger tank and do another DIY build just due to the fact that it would be cheaper. WWWWAAAAYYYY cheaper.
Nothing new has happened with my tank in the past few days, except I have seen even more and more nass snail eggs. Still no baby snails, but I do see my wrasse and clowns picking at the eggs every now and then so I'm guessing that's why. I have noticed a lot more corraline algae growing on the back wall of the tank ever since switching to the Reef crystals salt mix. The elements from that seem to be beneficially affecting everything in the tank. The hair algae is just kind of staying where it is, hasn't necessarily grown out or taken more space, so I'm thinking the new salt mix and the GFO are working good together. I'm so tired of looking at it though that I will buy the first sea cucumber or algae eating nudibranch that I can find to get rid of it.

 

[Oxylebius]

I went with a friend to my favorite saltwater pet store yesterday and found a bunch of very interesting things.
One of the first fish I saw was a six line wrasse, just like mine, except double the size. I was surprised to say the least that it was as big as it was! It had to have been full grown, and I knew mine could get up to 3 inches, but reading a description online and comparing a live fully grown specimen to yours are 2 different things.

There are two ways in which fish length is determined. Standard length and total length. Most of the time this doesn't come up. But the difference can mean an inch or more depending and the size of the fishes tail.

Standard length refers to the length of a fish measured from the tip of the snout to the base of the tail. Simply put, this measurement excludes the length of the tail fin.

Total length refers to the length of a fish measured from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail.

Therefore, when buying aquarium fish we sometimes assume that a 3 inch fish includes the tail and that the fish will be small. But a 3 inch fish could be from snout to the base of the tail not including the tail which means that the fish will be bigger then you anticipated.

It was weird to me how it grew proportion wise though, it looked a bit fat to be honest. But it swam around the tank and through all the caves and stuff just as well (or better) than mine does. Very cool to see in person. This makes me think that mine is a bit younger than I thought, but he has grown a considerable amount since getting him in March, so I'm sure he'll be up to that size sooner rather than later.

Most of the fish being sold are 'young of the year' fish. Which means that they are most likely not even a year old yet. So, they are babies and quite small.

Th other creature that got my attention was a bright purple and red nudibranch. It was one of the cooler and more colorful varieties that I have found at stores near me. I thought one of them was eating hair algae, as the tank they placed him in was covered in it for critters like him and he seemed to be working on a good spot. I didn't buy him, but instead I did a little research on it today and found that the species that I saw only ate sponges. At least I'm pretty sure, because even though I saw the one possibly eating hair algae, I might not have found the correct species online. I'll be heading into the store again in a couple weeks maybe, so I'll check again to see if they're still holding up. There are a LOT of different nudibranch species, so maybe this one was a good one for hair algae.

All nudibranchs are carnivores. It may have been some kind of slug, but not a nudibranch if it was eating algae.

I suggest looking it up online and reading what it will need to survive before you buy it. You will want to make sure you can keep it alive otherwise I'd suggest not buying it.

Nothing new has happened with my tank in the past few days, except I have seen even more and more nass snail eggs. Still no baby snails, but I do see my wrasse and clowns picking at the eggs every now and then so I'm guessing that's why.

Free food and super nutritious!

I have noticed a lot more corraline algae growing on the back wall of the tank ever since switching to the Reef crystals salt mix. The elements from that seem to be beneficially affecting everything in the tank. The hair algae is just kind of staying where it is, hasn't necessarily grown out or taken more space, so I'm thinking the new salt mix and the GFO are working good together. I'm so tired of looking at it though that I will buy the first sea cucumber or algae eating nudibranch that I can find to get rid of it.

Algae is always a pain. I'm happy to hear that you are getting it under control. Make sure if you buy something that the critter eats the algae that you have. Research is the key. Read as much as you can before purchasing anything.

I'm happy to hear your tank is doing well!

 

[silver97]

Been a while since I posted last, but I had a few things happen.
First, my laptop that I used to use to post things magically decided to crack it's own screen. Either that or my dog sat on it. So I have to go to my older laptop to post now.
Now to the tank.
Everything is looking good as far as the health of the tank is looking. Last water change I had been able to remove a large amount of hair algae, I think it was at least a softball sized amount, but there is still a bunch leftover.
That made me so frustrated so I went digging for other ideas on how to get rid of my hair algae and found a supposedly full-proof method. Hydrogen Peroxide!
Apparently it kills the area it's applied to within a few days. Still being skeptical I searched through a ton of forums and videos and found that no one has really had any negative side effects from using it to remove and kill hair algae.
I have also found that the type of hair algae that I am dealing with is derbesia.
Well one downside is the also apparent removal of corraline algae. But apparently if you rinse it really well after you apply it it kills all the algae. So this is going to be my plan of attack:
I am going to do 1 rock a week over the next few months to see how it works. I am first going to target the rock I was able to pull out and scrub off last week. That is how I got a majority of the softball sized amount in the first place. I also don't have any corals attached to it so I think it is a solid place to start. Using a toothbrush I will clean the rock of as much algae and detritus as I manually can, and then I will use a spray bottle and spray the affected areas. After seeing how it does in a week I may alter the plan to a dip if the spray isn't sufficient enough. But people say that they have drastic success within 24 hours, saying either the algae turns white and shrivels away or the clean up crew actually eats it. If this happens to me I will probably go with 2 rocks a week to speed things up. In my tank there are 10 rocks that have it that I can remove and apply this method to. The other rock is pretty big, I think around 20 pounds with water weight, and my anemone is on it, so I might have to drain the tank down to its level and apply it then. Not sure, but I will get it eventually.
For that rock with the anemone on it I might buy the sea hare, but if I am removing large amounts of algae every week I don't want to starve it. Who knows, maybe it would literally eat that whole rock clean in a day and then die.
I hope that this method along with the continual use of GFO will eliminate my problem.
Open to suggestions and opinions on this method. I will definitely be documenting the procedure in pictures and may make another thread once I am all done to help others if it does work successfully with my tank.
Everything else is doing good in the tank though, no fish fights lately, lights are still messed up but I haven't emailed about the warranty yet.

 

[silver97]

So a bunch of problems arose yesterday and I just decided to fix them all at once.
I did the water change yesterday where I was doing the dip with hydrogen peroxide on a few different things with the hair algae. I first set up the 50/50 tank water/H2o2 solution on the ground, forgot about it and knocked it over onto my carpet, luckily nothing was in the dip at the time and nothing got stained. Next I set up another dip, same ratio but on my desk so i wouldn't knock it over. That went better. I dipped a total of 7 things covered in hair algae, 3 of them being shells I planned on using for frags (and partially forgot about), the dead piece of coral (it's just a rock really, been dead for long before I got it) that I have my mushroom corals on, one of the barnacle caves for my blenny that the entrance to got covered by algae, and the big rock that I last pulled the most hair algae off of. I also dipped the one frag of zoas that had been struggling for a year due to poor placement and hair algae.
All went well with that, the dip produced a LOT of dead bristle worms and pods. After almost 24 hours I can see a noticeable difference in the color of the algae on the items I dipped. The color went from, let's say a lush forest green to a sickly vomit green. I think I might need to do a follow up dip in a few days to scrub the dead stuff off and re-apply more H2o2, but the stuff is so cheap that it really isn't a pain to do large amounts at once. And if it works I'll definitely be buying more to help eradicate this eyesore.
I plan to post pictures when i have the complete before and after of the tank.
So on to the bad stuff. My salt just didn't want to mix yesterday and I tried putting my heater into the water to help heat it up and dilute faster. Then the heater, I found out, had stopped working! I think it was working a bit because I did see it on and felt it produce heat, but it would flicker on and off frequently and didn't get the temperature much above lukewarm.
Trying to measure the salinity with the swing arm hydrometer also became a PITA, because no matter how much salt I added it kept reading it low at 1.016. So I eventually took half of the mixing water out to dilute the surplus of salt I added, and to heat the water added hot fresh water, re calculated the amount I needed to add and mixed it all together. It worked, because the hydrometer decided to work again and read 1.025 in my tank when I tested.
And then I threw it, along with my heater in the trash.
So today i just ordered a bunch of stuff on amazon to replace those and improve my tank.
I ordered an Aqueon Pro 100 watt heater, I chose this one because it had great reviews but best of all it had a lifetime warranty, so I technically can keep replacing it if it starts to fail. I don't even know the brand of the one I had before but I'm sure it wasn't in the warranty period anymore. I'm not too concerned about temperature right now anyway, the tank has been at a stable 78F-80F for the past few weeks even at night.
Then I ordered a refractometer to replace the hydrometer. Why do these pieces of equipment need to have such long names? Anyway, it had great reviews on Amazon and I figured it was good enough.
Of course I did more research on it then just reading amazon reviews and it looked good, and that goes for all of these items.
I also ordered the blade attachment for my magnet glass cleaner, there are too many green dots on my glass that the regular scraper can't get rid of.
I then went and bought the ESV B-Ionic 2 part calcium and alkalinity booster. Along with it I got the Red Sea reef foundation test kit that tests for those 2 plus magnesium. I figure I need to start taking my testing more seriously if I'm going to be dosing 2 part now, so I'm hopeful it will all skyrocket the growth of my fish and corals.
I knew I had to buy these things eventually but I just decided to get them all at once to stop any bigger problems from developing in the future. It honestly wasn't that expensive either for all of these things. Definitely more than I wanted to spend today, but I guess if it will all make my tank better than I will be happier in the end.

 

[StirCrayzy]

How's it going now, implementation of the new equipment went well I assume?

Algae staying under control?

 

[silver97]

@StirCrayzy, everything is going great, thanks for asking!
So yes, I got all the new equipment except for the algae scraper blade attachment. Amazon said it couldn't complete my order on that item for some reason, but I'll end up re-ordering it soon because I'm noticing the little green spots more and more. Because of this I went to my favorite LFS today to look for it, but they still didn't have it. Oddly enough they have just about every other size of the magnet scraper brand that I own (I also bought mine there) and they have the blade attachments for the large ones, but not for the small or medium ones. Oh well.
While there I saw in a tank that they had a sea hare listed as one of the inhabitants, and I don't know if it was sold or not because I couldn't see it, but it was only $35, so if I get to that point with my hair algae I at least know I can find them there. More on the hair algae battle later on.
The heater came, and I didn't try it out yet because it is still pretty hot here and the tank is self regulating itself pretty well even at night. Staying at at least 77-78.
The 2 part was pretty cool to use, glad that I have something to dose now that I can measure.
The Red Sea test kit also came and it was a lot easier to test than I originally thought it was going to be. I think it's really a cool process and definitely accurate. Using it I found out some of my levels were a little high actually. The past few months I have been dosing the Kent Marine Tech M Magnesium (I think that's right) and the Kent Marine calcium at a weekly interval, just dosing a random amount. I fully realize how stupid that was but I figured it would be better to be dosing something on a regular basis rather than nothing. I saw that my magnesium levels were at 1600, which is a recommended level used to kill hair algae, and I hope it's working. I plan to keep it up around there just to help keep it at bay.
Calcium was at 600 (I know, I know...)... so for the next few weeks I'm not going to dose any calcium supplements just so I can get them down to around 440 or so.
Alkalinity was at 8.7 kh, and while I understand that is not a bad level, I want to get it higher up so the ph will go up and so the calcium will in turn go down faster. I dosed just the part 1 alkalinity this week and am going to test it tomorrow after my water change (or maybe before and after) to see what the deal with it is and adjust accordingly.
The refractometer was my favorite part so far, so much easier to use than the swing arm. I found that the salinity was at 1.024, and I am so glad it works so fast.
Now onto the algae.
I has gotten drastically better with the aid of hydrogen peroxide. I got a spray bottle and gave the rocks I did the first time a second bath and picked 2 more objects to clean. I picked the rock with the GSP on it and the barnacles that my blenny loves to chill in. I was honestly able to remove a whole bunch of algae off with my hands before even applying the H2O2. When I did apply it to the GSP rock there were a few spots in the middle of the GSP that had it and I sprayed it directly. Within a day the GSP opened back up and it is doing good now. The zoa frag I tried to dip hasn't fully recovered yet, I think I might have left it in for a minute too long, but the algae is gone off the frag! The mushrooms didn't take it well, one is still closed up and another moved itself completely off the rock after spraying it. Luckily I caught it and found it a new home on another rock.
It has all whited out dramatically where I have applied hydrogen peroxide to any of the rocks. On 2 of them it looks like there might be a little bit of growth coming out, but it is brown and not healthy looking, so I think it might be either the algae's last attempt to grow back or the white hair algae that hasn't come off the rock yet is growing diatoms on it. Either way I will do a third spray of the areas tomorrow and see how it goes. I plan on also taking out the last 4 rocks I can grab out of the tank and treating them. I think the high magnesium is the reason it's so easy to rip it off the rocks, it's usually much harder to. If I can get a majority off that way and only have to treat the rocks a few times to kill the hair algae then that's alright with me.
I am going to make a separate thread on how I used it specifically and all that happened once I am done with the next dose, I will probably get it going next week depending on how my schedule works out.
All fish and corals are doing well and getting bigger. Anemone has improved a lot and actually waves with the current now. Glad that it's better.

 

[StirCrayzy]

I take exception to , and wholeheartedly and respectfully disagree with your logic ,
" better to be dosing something than nothing."
The opposite mentality is actually preferred or you end up riding the parameter rollercoaster like you are now. Constantly chasing something up or down.
Don't sweat it, and don't panic, just worry about Water changes to maintain your #'s.
If you're still dropping Ca or alk, then start dosing.

Also Kent Tech M isn't known to control anything other than bryopsis, but no doubt you've found plenty of threads of folks' trials on Hair algae of many sorts. Most of those fail at fixing anything other than bryopsis, ( including my own trial)

 

[silver97]

Lol no need to be so apologetic when you are disagreeing! I am open to any criticism because I want to learn other people's opinions on things. And I do see your point about dosing, so I am going to just stop for a while.
On the Kent tech M I was also aware about it being able to control only bryopsis. As I stated before I was able to identify my problem algae as Derbesia. However I have also had little patches of bryopsis pop up here and there and I didn't want to be dealing with 2 different types of nuisance algae so that is why I also dosed that. I have seen that it weakened the derbesia too, in the weeks following the beginning of dosing it I noticed it was 90% easier to pull off than before I started to dose. So it might have helped out more than i thought it would!

The tank is still doing great so far. The rocks that took the first round of the hydrogen peroxide dip have started to grow a noticeable amount of coraline algae back over where the hair algae was, so that is a great sign. Even the rocks I sprayed 2 weeks ago have shown significant growth, although that may be because I didn't completely dip them and they had coraline algae already bordering the patch of derbesia. Either way a great improvement. The rocks I sprayed last weekend are taking a bit longer to turn completely white but i would say there was at least an 80% die off of the stuff on each of the 2 rocks.
The 2 rocks were also connected and I found a weird growth like thing growing in between them, kind of attaching them. I was not sure what it was, it looked like a pale yellow sponge somewhat but wasn't sure. I sprayed it with the H2O2 and it foamed up instantly and I was able to brush it off completely on both rocks before I put them back in. Maybe it was a sponge or something like a sponge that was harmless but I didn't want to take any chances. I wasn't able to get a pic of it because my hands were drenched, but I will try if it shows up on any more rocks.

I might head out to the pet store this weekend and see if they have a sea hare that could eat the rest of this stuff. Sure it is easy to take the rocks out and spray them but it is becoming a bit of a pain to do it every week. And I know there may have been spots I missed on the other rocks, plus I'm not able to take some of them out to clean them, so it might be the best option.
Other than that the tank is doing great, corals are nice and open, fish are healthy and fun to watch as always. If I get the sea hare and it eat's all the algae, on the trip back to the pet store to return him I am going to get that big flat rock I wanted so I can maybe throw some LPS corals on it.

Also, any thoughts on the macro algae halimeda and adding it to my tank? I know I am trying to get rid of green right now but I figure it might be good to add it to help lower calcium levels a bit. And I know it isn't the best at nutrient consumption algae but I think it would look beautiful in this one spot on my tank once the nuisance algae is gone.

 

[Oxylebius]

IMHO, If what you are doing to get rid of algae is working, then I would skip picking up the sea hare.

I'd also not pick up halimeda. Allow what you are doing to rid algae time to take affect. Doing many things at once can lead to other unplanned issues. If you are having issues with Ca levels being too high, then do water changes (either increase the % of water you are changing or increase the amounts of water changes you are doing each week). These will slowly bring your Ca to levels where they need to be.

If you are set on getting halimeda, then research as much as you can on it. Make sure you know what you are buying before you buy it. You don't want to pick something up that will end up causing issues for you down the line.

 

[silver97]

Crazy month last month, didn't have much time to do maintenance on the tank let alone update this thread, but the tank is back in order now so here's an update.
So as I said I didn't have much time to do maintenance on the tank due to me having a lot of personal stuff I was dealing with. I neglected to do a water change for about 3 weeks and when I did one finally the tank looked 100% better. I'm going back to my once a week schedule now so It doesn't get like that ever again. Really was just super busy and had no free time to do anything.
So literally a day or 2 before you replied Oxylebius, I went and got a sea hare. They had a really good deal at the LFS I love and figured why not try it. Brought him home and he acclimated very well and was alert and eating some different things. So cool to watch, everyone in my family loved it. A few days pass and I realize he hasn't made much of an impact, this is where I started getting nervous. Then he died exactly a week after I got him. Frustrated was an understatement. But I learned my lesson and I will never buy another one ever again. He never inked at all which was good, but he died anyway.

Treated the last 2 rocks with the H2O2 and they are losing the hair algae pretty rapidly. So right now in my tank there is very little hair algae. But then I noticed on the first rock I had treated that little hair algae sprouts were coming back up again. Obviously I am annoyed that the treatment isn't working to it's fullest potential. So looking back to my posts on when I started, I'd say it worked for about a little over a month before anything grew back. Still a success by my terms, albeit a short lived success. I would still recommend this treatment to anyone who needs to get rid of a large lot of it like me quickly. But now I have to rethink my strategy on this again, which leads me to my next topic.

I think I want to partially transform my tank into a planted saltwater aquarium. Looking at different forums online I see a lot of people doing this with major success at keeping thriving and healthy algae filled tanks alongside their corals. When I did my last water change my flame algae decided to prune itself and shed both of it's big bushes, effectively leaving it to be similar to what it looked like when I first got it, a little strand and another very small patch. In review I probably should have been pruning it regularly and will plan on doing that from now on. But then I started looking at other display macro algaes available online and found a whole host of beautiful things I want to add in my tank.
Now I know to do this I would have to implement some sort of secondary light source so I could balance the ph at night and not cause anything to stress and go sexual. I'm thinking of doing this, granted it is a very rough plan but it is at least something.
These are the algae I would like to potentially add to the tank:
Blue hypnea: Very beautiful purple/blue algae that seems so cool to me. On a website I read they said it was moderately efficient for nutrient consumption, although this one is more for display then nutrient consumption right now.
Halimeda: Listed this in an earlier post, this one would also be more for display. Not very good at nutrient consumption but would be more of an indicator of when I would need to check my levels such as Ca, Mg and alkalinity as I hear it is very sensitive to those. I am on the edge with this one, meaning if I don't have room for it and can't get it I wont care much
Mangroves- I think these would be awesome when they start to grow their roots. Not too good at nutrient consumption on their own but together are viable. I found one website (I think it sponsors here, can't remember the name though) that sells them for a very good price compared to other sites I've checked
Graciliara- This one is supposed to be like blue hypnea in terms of nutrient consumption but don't feel too partial to it, so wouldn't mind if I couldn't get it just like the halimeda
Chaeto- I know if anyone is going to respond they will say something along the lines of 'throw out all those other options and just get chaeto!' But I have a plan for this I will explain in a minute.
Caulerpa Prolifera-Conversely I know if anyone will respond to this they will say "you're trading one nuisance for a time bomb!" But again I have a plan
Now I still need to do a large amount of research for these individually as well as together, but here is a ball park idea of what I would like to do
I have a separate 10 gallon tank I used to use for freshwater that I recently cleaned and checked for leaks, it is all good. I am thinking I can set it right next to the tank as a separate mini refugium. In this refugium I would set up most of the mangroves and the chaeto. I hear they occur together in nature anyway so figure that's a good place to start. I would also start the caulerpa in there surrounding the aree around the other algae so as to not block light. Then I am thinking of 2 things for lighting. Either get another lighting fixture entirely and fix up some kind of curtain to block the light (this tank is in my room, so might not be able to sleep with it on) Or rely on the sun from my window to get the mangroves and set up some waterproof high intensity led's that would line the whole tank to light up as much as I could. I am thinking the second option due to the fact it seems easier to accomplish. I'd leave the led's on 24/7 and maybe spray paint the outside of the tank black or cover it with something to keep the light hidden at night.
Inside my main tank I would spread the other algae around and also have 1 to 3 mangroves in there to grow down into the tank. In the separate fuge I would maybe do a mud and sand bed for them to grow in and plant them directly. I would prune everything back to it's area I keep it in just to prevent any overgrowing conditions and to reduce it's footprint. If the caulerpa does well in the fuge I would also like to move it into the main tank and keep it strictly on the sand bed. I know this is where most people would say to stop, but I really like the look of it and read that if you prune it back regularly and control where it can grow it will have less chance of going sexual ( along with keeping stable parameters).

So this is my very rough plan to choke out the hair algae and will probably take a month or so to plan out and refine. I am hoping I would be able to do this soon so I can prevent the problem from coming back again. Still going to do tons of research on different things and methods to control this stuff but I am very optimistic this will turn out well if I research everything carefully.

 

[silver97]

Been a while since my last post, not much has changed really.
I am still refining the plan for the 10 gallon sump. I haven't moved anywhere with it, but it still seems to be my best plan. I am just biding my time until I have an idea of what's going to happen in the next few months. Also have not bought any of the algae I had previously mentioned. Too many things going on to do anything outside of the regular maintenance for the tank.
A bit of the hair algae is still growing back on a few rocks, but most of them are still clean. Nothing as bad as before the H2O2 treatment, but it could very easily get to that again. I may be re-stocking my clean up crew soon. The cerith baby's are all getting to be a good size now and have possibly been helping in keeping the algae down. The nass snails have taken a hit in their population size. What used to number above 200 (or around it) has plummeted to around 20. I think this is a good indicator to show that I have been feeding way less than I used to. A cruel indicator, but an indicator nonetheless.
In terms of what I would want to restock, I'm thinking a few more hermits, an emerald crab (I think the reason mine died before was due to my high nitrate problem) some bigger snails, maybe a brittle star if I can find one, and some kind of cleaner shrimp.
Speaking of the levels mine have finally balanced out to what most people consider perfect. Salinity 1.025, Ph is always hovering around 7.9-8, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates around 10, Mg 1200, kH is a little lower than 9, and calcium finally balanced out to 500. I havent tested or dosed since September, so yesterday when I tested I was extremely happy they were all at good levels. I've decided to make it a point to test monthly now to make sure everything is still good.
I bought a timer for my lights so they were finally back on some sort of schedule. I am still very mad the warranty ran out but at this point I don't care much cause the lights still work fine and now I don't have to keep remembering to turn them on and off manually.
Corals are all goring well. The xenia hasn't split in a while, it is still holding strong at 3 main stalks. I would say the original 2 splits are the size of the frag I bought originally, and the third is still on the small side but steadily growing. Zoas have spread well over their respective areas. Mushrooms have multiplied a little bit, I think I have 6 now but the newer ones are still small. Gorgonian is growing beautifully, has a 4th branch now and just keeps getting taller! May actually have to frag it soon to spread it around to another rock. GSP is spreading over its rock really well too. I've noticed my blenny ripping little bits of it off now and then, but nothing big enough to kill it completely. I may frag a little of it off and try to get it to start growing on the back wall of the tank----love the look of it from other tanks I've seen that did that.
Anemone has been growing well too. It expands a lot now in order to catch as much light as it can, so I'm glad to know its zooxenthellae (think i spelled that right) have come back completely.
As far as fish go they are all happy and healthy. They can all come up to the glass when I'm there and follow me around now without being afraid.

 

[silver97]

Now it has been a long while since my last post and a few things have changed. for the better.
As far as my battle with hair algae goes it has had its ups and downs, I'd say this is an area in the middle right now. The majority of the rocks that were treated with the H2O2 have remained clear completely and no further hair algae growth has come back. One of them still has a good section growing and it is spotty on some other areas of the tank, but all is in the range of being controlled.
Yesterday I picked up 10 red hermit crabs in hopes they would help mow down some of the excess hair algae. I still need to find an emerald crab to work on the bubble algae, which has sort of been a bit more apparent as of late. I think it's really just due to me looking harder and missing a few accidentally when removing.
With 2 of the rocks being cleared of the hair algae, my tank looked a bit bare and I decided to get some more coral to try and cover the bare spots up. I figured that since I had an accurate way to now test my calcium levels and such, why not try some LPS corals? So I bought 2 cheap frags, one being a nice orange/pink/yellow acan and the other being a really nice bright green and red chalice frag. I say cheap because I was a little apprehensive about my lights. I am still not sure how much intensity they put out necessarily but I know my soft corals grow fine from it. I know they are definitely on the weaker side but I figured since acans and chalices are not high light corals anyways I would try 2 cheap frags and see how they do. After having them for a day they have both already opened up completely and look beautiful under both the white/blue day mix of LED's and the straight blue at night. The chalice especially looks good at night with the green popping dramatically.
Prior to placing them in my tank I finally bought and used a coral dip. I got Two little fishes Coral ReVive. After reading some negative reviews on random forums and websites after already having bought it, I did not see any problem directly caused by it when dipping the corals. The tanks the frags had been in were kind of disgusting. The major holding tanks with the bigger expensive corals had an aiptasia outbreak, and the smaller frag tank where I got my frags was a completely separate system with no aiptasia but with hair and bubble algae. I scraped off all the algae and then dipped them, which didn't reveal any pests. I did inspect them thoroughly and did not see any signs of damage or pests. I also picked these 2 due to the fact that they looked healthiest among all the other frags.
I currently have them placed on the sandbed for light acclimation and I think after my next water change in a few days might move them up a bit, closer to where I want them, if they look healthy enough. I really think these can take off well in my tank, so please cross your fingers that they grow well.
As for the sump plans I still have the tank sitting in my room but haven't moved forward with anything. I have it mostly planned, I just need to get more money to buy everything. And the thought of moving is still up in the air. So no progress there.
Fish are all great. All are getting along nicely.
I will have pics of the new corals in the next post.

 

[silver97]

This is the acan, it has 2 polyps right now but will hopefully grow out when I move it. I want it on a rock so it covers more area, not a fan of when people just give it a ceramic disc to grow into a ball shape. I was originally going to upload photos from my phone but the resolution was too high. Not the best pic, but easier to load up from my iPad.

This is the chalice. Again, not the best picture from my iPad but it really looks great in real life. I would say that it covers a little more than a 1"x 1" area. I think I counted 6 or 7 mouths on it. I am not going to attempt to feed either of them directly until I see definite stability in them, so only time will tell.
I was going to upload pictures of what they look like with just the blue led's on but the iPad camera really sucks with those pictures. maybe after I buy the stuff for my sump I'll save up for a nice camera...
I'm sure many of you can look in your own tanks and imagine something similar though.
I hate technology sometimes.

 

[silver97]

Quick update on the tank
Everything is going mostly well. I've been really busy the last few months and haven't had as much time to keep up with water changes as much as I'd like to. I finally got a new job so I will hopefully have the funds to implement the mini sump I was planning in the near future. With the summer coming up and school being out of the way i hope to be able to go back to a weekly schedule.
On another fish related note, I am most likely going to be digging a goldfish pond in my backyard this spring! Been pushing for this since before I wanted the reef tank, so this will be fun.
Back to the tank, all is living well for the most part. I have not seen the new corals grow or expand at all. I might have to move them farther up to give them a better chance at more light. The chalice is kind of fading away a bit, the acan is still the same size, but I think right now it has to do with my lights still not being strong enough. These were 'test' frags anyway, and I know I shouldn't really treat them as less than what their worth, but I am glad I bought these 2 cheap frags instead of blowing hundreds on intricate designer frags.
All the fish are doing well, no fighting or anything which is great!
Had an event a few weeks ago when some of the new hermit crabs I got started to snack on my zoas... They stopped eventually but I was annoyed, the zoas were closed up for a good week and a half before they opened up fully over the weekend. My favorite ones too. But I think they are going to pull through.
That's all for now.

 

[silver97]

The time has finally come. I bought all of the stuff needed for the sump!
(except the piping, but that's coming soon)
I am doing the 10 gallon plan that I have mentioned before. I am only going to run chaeto in the refugium, and plan on having a grow bulb on it at all times (unless I see a reason to do a cycle).
I don't have any drawn out schematics or such as I see many people do online when they are designing these, but I will try to describe it in as much detail as I can.
Just so I can get this out of the way, here is the reason this suddenly happened. Last weekend while I was doing a water change, I was getting the canister filter filled back up and primed when the one of the latches on it ( which I always make sure is secure) just undid itself and spilled about 3-4 gallons of new saltwater onto my floor. It took me a minute to realize what happened before I reacted and I had a mess on my hands. After a few hours of calming down and cleaning everything up, I went and bought everything online that I needed and it is just starting to come in now.
So here is how this will work. I got the Marine Depot OF-300 overflow box. This actually came in the mail today and is constructed very nicely. I picked this one due to its simplicity, good reviews and price. This will obviously act as the pathway for the water to access my 10 gallon tank that will be the main body of my sump. I am still figuring out the plumbing aspect with the PVC piping, but my dad is good with that kind of stuff and will help me figure it out. I think I will set up some kind of stand utilizing the media baskets from my current canister filter in order to hold the filter fiber.
Then I will have one simple baffle in order to set a height on the water level.
The next section will be a refugium, lit by a grow light I found on Amazon. This one is made specifically to grow plants, only gives off the red and blue light spectrum, and was not that expensive, so if it doesn't work out I can try something else and not have lost much money. I will only be growing chaeto because I figure since I have a smaller space than recommended anyway, I better pack it with the most efficient ( and safe) macro algae. I mean safe in the terms that it won't explode and go sexual like caulerpa is known to. The light bulb should work really well in my opinion, and I base that off the fact that if people just pick up regular high output fluorescent bulbs from home depot and have a good refugium, I should be able to buy one off of Amazon and achieve similar or better results.
One of the things I hate about my canister filter right now is the ceramic media. I don't necessarily think it is as efficient as it can be, so I also ordered the MarinePure Ceramic bioblock plate. This stuff has some of the best reviews I've seen for ceramic media, and a lot of people report great reduction of contaminates with it. It is an 8"x 8"x 1" plate, and that should fit easily in between 2 baffles.
After that I am going to find a place to put a bag of carbon, and then the return pump. I got the Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5, and again, great reviews and not too hard on the wallet. Then the water will flow back up into the tank and out the new return pipe. I got one of those water flow accelerators, the brand is Accel Aquatics, and I think it will greatly improve my overall water conditions. It says on the package that it can potentially increase flow by up to 400%, so I am hoping this will be a great addition.
So that is the basic skeleton of my idea. If you want any specific details, or want me to leave links to what I bought, just comment and I can make them available. If you are more experienced then me and see a flaw please point it out, I am pretty sure I covered everything but may have left something out.
I will take pictures when I am assembling all the stuff. I am busy this weekend, so I might not get a chance to do it all this weekend, but I'll give an update when it is all done.

 

[silver97]

Ok, so everything has come in that I ordered online. I have been adjusting to working again and dealing with school at the same time, so I haven't had any time to really play with all the stuff , but I think I have a general layout ready for the sump body itself. Also I still have to buy the pvc, but I am free this weekend so I am thinking there is a good chance I will buy it and have it all done by Monday.
Maybe.
I still need to take a trip to my LFS and see if they even sell chaeto, which I'm sure they do but I haven't seen it advertised there before.
So i think for the main sump layout I am going to go with a simple 2 chamber sump. Having limited space in an already limited 10 gallon tank, I figure it's better to try and maximize what area i have than to squeeze it all together.
First chamber will be the refugium with the chaeto and MarinePure bio plate. Then it will flow down a baffle that has a space of 2 inches, and I will set up that egg crate stuff to act as a media rack in between it and the second baffle. I will place carbon here. The second baffle will be a bit smaller, and then I will have the rest of the tank be a dedicated return pump area.
I know that having no pictures right now it all seems a bit confusing, but I will take pics as I am working on it and post them when it is done.
Heights on the baffles I have not necessarily pinned down, but I think I am going to go with 9" for the refugium, and 8" for the return pump area. Aesthetically I think this looks like a safe height to set them at for when the pumps are off in terms of water flowing back into the sump. Again, please correct me if I am making a mistake!
I know the concept seems simple but I am still having trouble wrapping my mind around how this will not flood my floor....But I am going through with it anyway. Hopefully this project can start tomorrow.

 

[NewSaltWaterGuy]

This thread is to good for me, I must leave....
I cant...
The thread is to good...
I am staying!

 

[silver97]

So last time I said I was hoping to start that week on getting everything assembled....hahahaha
Like usual, stuff came up and I was packed with loads of last minute school stuff along with a kind of hectic work schedule, leaving me little time to do much with the tank. At least school is over now. I did finally get a chance to go and buy the PVC pipe though, which I was happy about. I have started to form a basic skeleton of the pipe layout. I have a free week this week, so I am hopeful that I will ACTUALLY make some real progress with the build. I also got the glass panels, my grandfather cut the glass himself, and it looks great. A little rough around the edges so I'll need to sand them down before the silicone adhesion, but all in all it is looking great.
I need to get this done quick though. My tank is starting to go through a hair algae grow phase again, and I am hoping I can get the refugium up and running soon before anything really takes hold.
I also think I figured out my next project after I get this figured out. I might look at getting new lights. The ones I have right now I am just not happy with. The warranty is already out on them and I am thinking of throwing them out and getting a new set. It is too annoying to have to remember to manually turn the lights from night to morning and vice versa in the cycle I have set. Hopefully I can get something that has good output so I can get some better corals but isn't too expensive.
If I get some progress done this week on the refugium build I will get some pictures up here...eventually

 

[yungreefer2410]

To fix the issue of manually turning the lights on/off, simply get a programmable timer and plug them into that. Like DaveK said initially, a nicer stronger fixture will definitely help you out in the coral department. Let's get some updated pics up! Of the sump build too please.

Not sure if you ever got the reef octopus online.. Those are my favorite skimmers, I'm sure it will help you out in the hair algae department as well.

 

[silver97]

I do have a programmable timer on the lights, the problem is the timer that is already built into the light is the thing that switches the lights off or to the night time setting when its not supposed to.

So since my last update I have been way busier than expected, but I did complete the sump build! Overall I am happy with it, better than the canister filter by a longshot. This honestly looks like the most DIY on a budget tank ever now.... but the fish are happy, and so am I!
Just for a final tally of what I did and what parts I used:
1"PVC pipe was all of the pipework. Probably should have gone smaller but it still works really well. On the return pump I have a little bit of flexible tubing that then connects back to PVC. The return outlet looks ghetto as heck but I left it uncemented so that I can change it out if I decide to.
The return pump is a Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5 (why do these product names need to be so long?). Honestly if I listen not so hard enough I can hear the hum, so not completely silent but the flow works well for the 1" PVC. Probably would be a little greater flow again if the pipes were smaller.
Marine Depot OF 300 overflow box. This certainly does the job it is supposed to, but there was an unbearable amount of gurgling coming from the drain. Had to make a silencer pipe to allow the water to quiet down enough, and even after that it still makes noise. But it isn't unbearable now.
Chaeto in the fuge with a LED grow bulb on it. For $15 on amazon, this bulb works amazing! I ordered some chaeto and pods from Reef Cleaners (great site btw, check them out if you haven't already) and got about a fist sized chunk. After a month it had spread into a thick mat that I just trimmed back this week. I also have a Marine Pure bio-plate in the bottom of the sump for the bacteria to grow in. It is there as my source of biological filtration and I have not had a spike in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate so far, so I think it is doing it's job well. I was a bit nervous that one of those levels would spike due to all the new stuff being added but I really think it works well. Nitrate levels are actually very low since adding this in, so I am quite happy with that.
Now to the problems I am facing:
I know that when the power goes out my tank will most likely flood my floor a little bit. I know this is a huge problem. I don't know how to fix it really. Just have to hope the power doesn't go out, or if it does, at least hope it happens when I am at home and can shut the ball valves quick enough. Actively looking at ways I can fix this, think I might drill the hole in the return outlet to break the siphon and that should do the trick.
Among other things this is the biggest problem, but I may have a solution in the near future.
I know I have been saying it for a while now but I may be able to get a new tank really soon. My parents are going to be remodeling one room of our house and they suggested I could place a new tank in a good spot. It would be in my living room, which more importantly means out of my bedroom. If this does happen it would be relatively soon, within the next 2 months or so. I have enough money saved so that I could buy a good sized Red Sea tank and still have some leftover for other things. I say Red Sea because I want it to be a great all in one tank so I don't necessarily have to go and buy any other equipment. I know that some of you were reading this and cringing at some of the stuff I did, but really I went into this upgrade with the idea that I would get a new tank some time after. So hopefully that all works out in the next few months. I will be throwing pictures up in a little bit.