Snid's 55 Gallon Chunk O' Ocean Reef

[Roy Page]

Snid,

Sounds like you are moving along ok, with a few hills now behind you.
Just waiting for the photos to appear.

My tank generally is doing great , but I am struggling with corals.
The Mushroom Leather has been closed up for a week now and the new Blushing Leather looks really sick and a part of it seems to be melting into a white gooey mess.
Salinity & Temp are stable. Doing a 25% water change every Sunday and my Nitrates are only 1 ppm at most, Ammonia & Nitrite at 0.
So no clue what I am doing wrong !

Roy

 

[Snid]

Roy,

Thanks, Matey! I'll respond to your coral issues over in your chronicle so you'll have it right where you need it.

 

[Woodstock]

Following along~
Great work so far Snid!

 

[Snid]

Captain's Log: July 28th, 2014

Ahoy, Maties! Time for some serious updating...

The Chunk O' Ocean is nearly 4 months old now, and it is doing very well. We have had our first casualty (some of you may have seen me post this elsewhere), one of the Emerald Crabs decided to start losing all of his limbs and eventually died despite me relocating him to the Refugium in an effort to save him thinking that maybe one of the fish were doing it. That was not the case, however, as the limbs continued to fall off even after being relocated.

The Peppermint Shrimp has been doing a great job with his tasks, as there are no signs of Aiptasia anywhere.

All three fish are doing exceedingly well and always put on a good show, especially during feeding times.

All the snails are still alive and well, not a single loss there. Well, maybe some of the baby Ceriths that hitchhiked in as I've barely seen any of them. I suspect they were so small that they turned into good snacks.

Even the Zoas are doing fine and I'm pretty sure there are a couple new stalks in one of the colonies. They still have yet to be glued down anywhere and are sitting comfortably on the sand bed for now.

Now for the real fun... It's picture time!!!

Here's the latest addition, the Chalk Bass... He has quite a bit of spunk and is very, very observant. He generally hides in caves, but is always watching every move you make in hopes that anytime you are near you'll drop food in. Once and a while he will swim out into the open. He never stays in the same cave long, so he isn't really territorial. More of a gypsy. Yes, if he were a person, he'd be a gypsy.

Just to show you how well the Longspined Sea Urchin is doing, here's a before photo...

And here's what he looks like now!

Pineapple Sponges like growing on this plant for some reason...

The Zoas I had gotten for free.. They generally stay open all day. Notice that little speckled rock looking thing on the right colony. That's one of my Bumblebee Snails with so many tiny Featherdusters growing on his shell that you can no longer see his stripes.

More to come shortly!!!

 

[Snid]

Captain's Log: July 28th, 2014 (Continuation)

Argh! Back again with more photos... I decided to break up the posts to not have too long of one.

The Cleaner Shrimp, like so many shrimp, spends a large portion of his day upside down under a rock. But after feeding time, he will flip upright and run around looking for goodies that fall to the bottom, and sometimes snag some from the water column himself. Here you can see him, a Nassarius Snail, and a Bumblebee Snail all dining on somthing that made its way down.

General tank shot. Notice the GHA that I keep talking about in many of my posts. I keep it from getting too long, and it has been gradually reducing in quantity over time without me having to do much else other than some manual removal during water changes. I almost have my DIY Media Reactor done that I will be filling with Phosban, which will probably help reduce it even more. More on that later...

Another general tank shot... I have two of those plants that I mentioned earlier with the Pineapple Sponges on them. You can see the top of one here in the bottom of the picture. The white specks are a combination of new growth, and where the Longspined Sea Urchin sometimes mows down a little bit from time to time.

Still more to come...

 

[Snid]

Captain's Log: July 28th, 2014 (Continuation of a Continuation)

So I decided to rearrange all my Live Rock into a new configuration last week. Here is an overall shot of the tank before I adjusted anything.

Here is the after shot, a few hours later... Rearranging your rocks when you have a Longspined Sea Urchin isn't easy. Sometimes he would start to wander where I was working. I'd take a small rock and gently tap his spines, which he would then respond by heading back the other direction.

Left side close up...

Right side close up...

I wanted to move everything for a few reasons. I felt like the flow could be improved for the whole tank, and so far the new setup does seem to have some improved water flow. I also had a couple of problems spots when it came to cleaning. As you know, there isn't much room in a 55 gallon tank, but with this new setup I can get my hand and any cleaning tools on every corner of every side of glass now. The new setup also helps hide the heaters a little more. The new aquascaping created more caves as well, which the Chalk Bass was happy about since he never stays in one for too long. It also will enable me to do more things with corals when I really start introducing them into my Chunk O' Ocean.

Even still more to come...

(Whoa! Snid's going berserk!!!)

Aye, Matey! That I am!

 

[Snid]

Captain's Log: July 28th, 2014 (Continuation of a Continuation of a Continuation)

Ahoy, again!!!

So here is what I have so far for my DIY Media Reactor...

Here you can see the elements, with crew member Alfonzo helping me with the showcase.

What you are seeing... On the left is the top of the unit, where water will be pumped in and flow out. I still need to get the plumbing for it. It threads on to the clear plastic casing. Inside, the long tube will be inserted directly in the center, which I drilled holes in the bottom of it. Water will flow in to the chamber outside the tube, down through the media, into the holes of the tube, and out of the whole system. So next to the tube is some plastic mesh cut to size, a small ring of phosphate filter, and a black sponge filter. They will all slip onto the tube in a way that holds the media in place and prevents it from escaping the system.

Here you can see my other cat, Maka Nani, also wanting to help with the demonstration.

And here you can see it assembled.

Hopefully I'll have this thing up and running with a couple of weeks.

And here you can see a random picture of Daft Punk, Tron style, Yo!

That be all fer now, Maties!

 

[goma]

Are your rock stacks stable? I'd hate for them to fall.

 

[Snid]

Are your rock stacks stable? I'd hate for them to fall.

Aye, Matey. Very much so. Part of the reason why I spent hours making the adjustments was because I wanted to be certain that nothing would knock them over. I'd like to say I gave them the tap test, where you tap them with your finger to see if they move, but I gave them more of a thud test, where I banged them with several fingers. I've seen the amount of strength those Mexican Turbo Snails have, always trying to push their way through anything and everything. In many places, the rocks fit together as though they were like Lego pieces. Which reminds me...

Everything is awesome!!! Everything is cool when you're part of a team!

Whoa... Sorry 'bout that.

The very base rocks are all submerged under the sand bed, almost to bottom glass contact. Going up, each rock has at least 3 points of contact (some more) or sits fairly flush so they there isn't even a remote chance of wiggle.

 

[Roy Page]

Your getting there Snid and I see you got the camera out as well

Roy

 

[Snid]

Your getting there Snid and I see you got the camera out as well

Roy

Yeah... Real happy with the progress. Very glad that I have taken it slow and been patient because health with everything has been great, except for that slightly odd spontaneous crab death. And not being too aggressive with the GHA has allowed my pod population to really boom. I have so many pods now, I can quickly find a bunch of them without a magnifying glass at any time of the day. Getting out the magnifying glass reveals many, many more. I'm happy for this as I'm hoping to get a Mandarin Dragonet one day after the tank has matured a lot more.

I also forgot to mention that as I was rearranging the rocks, the spoon worm that I took pictures of when I was first introducing the Live Rock to the system revealed himself again. Of course, he is well hidden again, but it was fun to see him once more and good to know that the system has been healthy enough for him to stick around.

I also have a couple patches of yellow sponge that I didn't know was there which is cool. So I think I have some small orange sponges, yellow sponges, and those funny little pineapple sponges as far as sponges are concerned.

 

[Snid]

Captain's Log: July 29th, 2014

What a good day it is today, Maties! One of our crew members has something they's like to share...

The Peppermint Shrimp, whom I have praised a few times for his ability to remove Aiptasia, was feeling left out when it came to picture day yesterday. Here he is on the hunt. He spends most of his time upside down, in a cave, rocking back and forth usually, so this is a special moment where he is posing just for you.

 

[Snid]

Crewmember Alfonzo's Log: July 30th, 2014

Meow...

So my Captain, Snid, has been tinkerin' with this thing he calls a Chunk O' Ocean for several months now. He keeps tellin' us how awesome it will be. That there will be FISH!

Okay... That's cool. We all seem to tolerate his ramblin's and constant nautical jibber jabber even though we live hundreds of miles from an ocean. Water is highly over rated if you ask me. But it does have FISH!

Anymeow...

What I want to know is, what good is having all those FISH! if I'm not allowed to put my paws on them? I mean seriously... *sigh* I am perturbed.

 

[Roy Page]

Your a scream Snid :snshne:

Roy

 

[Snid]

Your a scream Snid

LOL! Thanks. I like to have a little fun from time to time. Sometimes we all get a little too serious on here. Not that serious isn't a good thing!!! Most of us are here because we came looking for serious input and liked what we saw.

 

[Choff]

You are tough to keep up with! I'm going to type fast so there are not 4 more posts by the time I'm done. Lol

Love the new scape. Great flow and lots of swim throughs.

Great canister filter. Looks a lot like the ones bulk reef supply sells that I use.

I'm happy to see that neither Alfonso or Maka Nani are wearing red collars.

 

[Creekview]

Snid,
I have somehow missed your tank chronicle. Would you consider an algae scrubber in your sump? You would likely migrate most of the GHA to the scrubber. Your pod population would follow, and have a safe place to breed like rabbits, only faster. I've been asked by a couple of folks on the board to do a sump algae scrubber how to. I've ordered a couple different LED set ups from eBay. Once they get here I'll do the how-to. I hope you're still at this a half century from now like some of us diehards.

 

[Snid]

You are tough to keep up with!

Zoom... Zoom... Zoom...
Thanks for the compliments as well.

Great canister filter. Looks a lot like the ones bulk reef supply sells that I use.

I was about to consider purchasing one when I noticed I probably could get my hands on all the materials I needed to make one for free or dirt cheap. So I went with a DIY, as it cuts costs and exercises my brain.

Would you consider an algae scrubber in your sump?

Another DIY project I have been wanting to tackle. I already purchased some of that gridded stitching plastic to serve as a mesh for the Algae to grow on. I was getting some smaller pieces for the above mentioned Canister and realized I might as well prepare for an Algae Scrubber as well. Would love to see the How-Tos.

 

[Choff]

Heck Ya diy is a lot more fun! I hope I didn't come across implying you should have bought it. It was meant more of a compliment that your design choice matched the style I use and love.

...stupid auto correct

 

[Snid]

I hope I didn't come across implying you should have bought it.

Not at all, Matey!