Josh's SuperReef 65

[Basile]

You did return the dark side's R2D2 ?
My Living room is the last room in the house that needs to be re carpeted, so "if" there were to be a major disaster, I could sell it to the wife as "upgrade" time. Maybe.

That new water shop-vac can actually do both water and dry, so you could do that room with a nice floor like mine and for something like $70 you get that shop-vac that can take care of water messes and clean and empty sump after you've done a WC. Thats where i empty my water and suck all the detritus , but with that shop-vac i'll just wait at the end when only and inch of water is left in the sump and vaccumm it out with all the gunk and wipe it clean.


Even rince my rubbles in clean salt water and flush it , put it back and refil everything. rince and dry my vac really good and keep it top shape. Its a good investment. No water mess can hurt the floor anymore and you can deal with water messes with that shop vac and , help with your water change. Plus really its actually cheaper than some carpet and easier to maintain , sweep, or vaccumm and mop it, dahhhh .


Plus no humidity smell from the carpet no more. , just a thought. That's why i change my floor in the first place anyway, the smell of damp water in my carpet and salt creep on it.

 

[cracker]

A shop vac would work well for sure however I'm not using my nice one for salt crust etc.the salt would eat it up. Now if the one Ya'll are disscussing is salt resistant,

 

[StirCrayzy]

Ya the one he's talking about is salt resistant.
I just use a "Bucket head " from home depot. It's cheap an easy, and I keep it rinsed clean where I can reach.

 

[StirCrayzy]

1st time I've had a chance to test in a couple months.
PO4 test from 5 yrs ago doesn't work anymore, have to get a new kit tomorrow. Surprised it lasted this long really.
Last WC was a week ago, gettin ready for another tomorrow, and thought I'd log the before #s.

Nitrate = 0'ish
PH = 8.1
KH = 7
Ca= 390
Mg = 1300

I also plan to swap in some fresh PhosGuard and carbon into the reactor, anyone dry and reuse their PhosGuard? I read on the label that it's reusable...

 

[StirCrayzy]

Well... no new advancements in my algae battle. some neglect over the last couple weeks, and a week long trip to celebrate my 10th anniversary I'm getting ready to do some heavy manual removal and I have some Kent Tech M magnesium and GFO on the way.
I'm gonna knock this crap out one way or another.
On the bright side the corals are growing and healthy.
Haven't seen the firefish in a week. He's been getting out competed for food, and I m pretty sure he tucked into his rock and died. I could be wrong but I doubt it. He's disappeared for a week before, but last time I saw him before we left, he was looking a bit thin, and is the only fish I have that refuses to forage for its own food when I don't feed.

Here's a video I took while snorkeling in cozumel . Ran out of battery before I got to the good stuff.

 

[Pat24601]

Awesome vid.

 

[StirCrayzy]

Thx Pat, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to main tain a steady hand while battling the waves and surges.

The salifert Phosphate test I just got before vacation has read non detectable, every test of course...
I watched a vid from MACNA posted by BRS about how high phosphate isn't always terrible, and I'm surprised the guy has the same basic "set it and forget it " tank maintenance philosophy I do. As long as the corals and animals are healthy and thriving, why chase #s and put yourself through extra work because of some unfounded standard of success.
Granted, we can measure the ocean and obviously that is an impossible target to reach, but we continue to strive for those ideal params.
The ocean system is so fundamentally different from our little tanks, and we have a lot of tools to help us compensate for those differences. Or so we believe, but that is a part of the joy of this hobby for many folks . It shows in the amount of success so many of us have with such wide differences in approach, equipment, and stocking. I guess I brought out the soapbox inadvertently, so I'll step down with this.
I appreciate those unconventional minds who carefully break the mold of common thought and succeed uniquely in what was previously thought to be impossible.

 

[StirCrayzy]

Started Tech M dosing on Saturday, after a 25% WC and heavy manual removal of Algae.
Test results when I started ...
Mag 1300,
Alk 9,
Ca 400
PH 8.2
Tested one day after 1st dose which should've brought mag up to 1400.
Mag 1320
Alk = 8
Ca=400
PH 8.2

After 2nd dose...
Mag= 1300??
Alk = 7.5 (dosed Kent pro dkh buffer to increase)
Ca = 350
PH 8.2
So now I'm seeing a Calcium drop which I kind of expect because the levels are out of balance. But the weird thing is the Mag should be testing at/near 1500 based on the amount I've been adding. Now I suspect my kit maybe out of date, but there is no sticker or expiration shown on the box (Salifert bought in mid 2013 I think). I did multiple tests last night with the same result.
So I'm off to the LFS this afternoon to get a second opinion on my results, but I added the 3rd dose anyway last nite to maintain the dosing schedule.
This is a pretty cool tool to have around ---> http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[StirCrayzy]

LFS confirmed my 1300 ish results yesterday. I just dumped dose #4, at 7: 30 tested at 8:30 and I get 1590. At least I can be pretty sure my kit still works. Tomorrow pm ill see what it reads before dose #5. If it's the same drop to 1300, I'm gonna be confused.

 

[Pat24601]

I feel like I missed something. Why the tech M. Bryopsis?

 

[StirCrayzy]

Yes, on rocks I couldn't reach, or remove. Among other invasive macroalgaes.
Peroxide worked good on the frags and rocks I could actually remove.

 

[StirCrayzy]

Forgot to Pre check before Forgot dose#5 but 2 hours after, test reads 1650, so it's taken more TechM than the bottle's estimate of 18ppm increase using 1ml/gal . Alk is down to 7 and acans and Goni are looking pretty deflated, I have noticed a couple dead hermits and don't see many snails. With this treatment that's to be expected, ammonia still reads zero. moving forward, Glad I picked up a gallon jug of Tech M instead of just a half .

 

[Pat24601]

Hope it goes well.

 

[StirCrayzy]

The tank goes on... Good, bad or ugly, it's mine, and I love it.

I don't sweat these issues, I'm just happy that my natural perspective is to enjoy the ride. Life is generally beyond our control, even though we think otherwise. I'm sad there has to be some casualties using this method, but the algae was preventing some corals from opening, and irritating SPS polyps it was rubbing against. This was a last resort after battling for the last 6 months using other less invasive methods. See prior pages to see what didnnt work.

I'll post a video shortly of the "before" , which is not the worst, but in a high nutrient setup like mine you tend to get more greenery than most are willing to deal with.

 

[StirCrayzy]

Well, after 2 weeks at 1850 ish Mag, I can see it's had an effect on the bryopsis, but the other macros could care less. They love the Tech M and are growing like crazy still.
Also I think some of the corals look brighter than they used to, and the only casualty is my teal tenius, which RTN'd and I'm not sure it can recover. Unfortunately when I went to snip pieces off, the RTN was all the way up the back side of the 3 tall spires, so I didn't cut it it, and will just pray for the best.

So 25% water change tonight and yesterday I refilled my reactor half Carbon, half Phosban GFO.

I noticed while rinsing the Phosban in the bag that came with it, that it just kept releasing particles and I got tired of rinsing after 5minutes and just put the bag in the reactor.
Anyone else have that issue with Phosban?
Was the water force just breaking it apart?
Never used it before but instructions did say not to tumble, which is why I packed it in with the carbon.

 

[Pat24601]

I guess it's good news on the bryopsis front, at least. I think you have a great attitude on these issues with this comment : "I don't sweat these issues, I'm just happy that my natural perspective is to enjoy the ride. Life is generally beyond our control, even though we think otherwise. "

That sounds about right to me.

 

[StirCrayzy]

So my tank is free of bryopsis, but that apparently gave a strong advantage to the leafy green strands of algae I'm now battling. Really starting to regret using the old sand and rock.....
but I digress, I am not dis heartened, and will continue the fight, since I'm kinda all in.
I really don't want to remove all the rock and nuke it. After a couple week at high mag, and then a few WC to bring levels back down, I'm on about a month of GFO. The first 2 weeks, I went with half cup of phosban sitting on my carbon in the reactor, last week added another half cup.
I'll give this another week or two and see if anything improves. So far I am not seeing recession, or browning, or any improvements yet. this rock must just be loaded with crap from last past 12 years... Ah well, I have some Dr Tim's NP Biopellets on hand for the next wave of attack.
fingers crossed !
well, here's a video of the leafy stuff, and an inside perspective on my tank. It's only embarrassing if I think about it for too long.
[VIDEO]

 

[StirCrayzy]

White striped Pygmy Possum wrasse. 2yrs in tank.

 

[whip]

That is a great looking fish (and will be my next purchase).

How is its behavior? Do you get to see him much, does it hide in the rocks, does it hang in the bottom/middle/top of the rank, etc?

 

[StirCrayzy]

Personality is very mellow, shy when startled, but recovers quick, never been bullied, nor been a bully, in fact I'd say he could care less if he ever saw another fish in his life. Honestly it's a never ending acrobatic hunt for food.
Activity level: He's all over the bottom of the tank, usually in/around rocks during the day, constantly moving though.
in the morning and evening he's all over up and down the corners of the glass and around the overflow box too. It's not usually out in the open water swimming, but there's never a question that he's in there.