SubzeroLT

A short clip of the sea cucumber feeding as it moves along. Not much updates this week. But did get a squamosa clam from Iwarna over the weekend.

Wow... Keep the updates coming

Only the Zoa tank is without chiller. The main display tank (with the SPS) is chilled. Running it at ~ 27degC. Thanks. Well, the usual sea cucumber we see in LFS are the whole black, Tiger Tail or black/pink types. 1st time coming across this one (Thanks Simon ) . Did more reading up on this species. - This breed supposedly does not expel its cuvierian tubules (the toxic thing expelled when threatened), unlike the black ones (Holothuria leucospilota) which are more common locally - Feeds on detritus both day & night. - Prefers hard surfaces. Does not burrow. - Shits a lot though. There was about 1 tablespoon worth of shit in the plastic bag when i brought it home Sea cucumbers generally work so slowly but they are a nice addition to any tank.

Some updates : Got this sea cucumber from a fellow reefer (thanks for it). Never seen it in LFS before. Did some searching - its a 'Pearsonothuria graeffei'. Other pics : Valida losing its deep purple color. Only the tips are purple. Not the full stem. Why ah? SSC frag. Was totally brown 4 weeks ago. Some signs of color coming back. Another frag of SSC under high light. Sunset milli from fellow reefer who decommissioned.

My Algae Turf Scrubber lights started to fail recently. Some LEDs didn't light up. The original LEDs were warm white. They worked very well, but apparently red/blue LEDs are supposed to be more effective for algae growth. Bought some acrylic from Dama to replicate the cover - just in case I messed up in the LED build & wanted to be sure I had the original intact. Added some silicon to minimize chances of shorts. Let's see if this works better.

As requested, side view of the zoa tank Back to the main tank. The ATO pump (Tom's Aqua Lifter) gave way after only 3 months of use. The pump still runs but just does not have the pressure to push water at all through the tubes like before. Time to look for a more reliable ATO system. In the meantime, a temporary workaround was put in place. Pulled out the float valve from the RODI collection tub & hooked it to the sump.

As requested, FTS of the 10g zoa tank taken with mobile phone last night. Nothing much though. Still trying to find nice Zoa to fill it up. Last measured, they get about 150-200 PAR light, so i'd say this is equivalent to typical light levels at sandbed levels. Lighting hours from 6pm to 11.30pm (5.5hrs) Maxpect Razor setting (A:25%, B:75% for 5hrs, A:0%, B:50% for last 30min) The 2 clown fishes can be seen on the bottom left corner of the picture.

Mg flakes (Mg Chloride + Mg Sulphate) for 'bringing it to the correct Mg levels'. Then the CR takes over to 'maintain'. With the increased amount of Mg chip in CR, it appears to be able to hold the levels steady already. But i still have the flakes on standby in case the CR clogs and Mg drop out of specs.

Some pics of the Zoa tank in the study room. Disclaimer : No photoshop. But pics were taken with a yellow filter lens placed in front of the camera. Hence the colors may look more intense than normal.

Continue to learn the characteristics of this tank. Quite pleased that water parameters are under control & stable the past month+. Ca : 400ppm Mg : 1410ppm KH : Hovering around 8.3 Potassium : 400ppm PO4 : 0.03ppm (10 ppb phosphorous) NO3 : ~ 0.2 - 0.5ppm Some things done : Magnesium used to be consistently low in the past. I added about 2 inches of Grotech Mg chips into the CR. With this, its able to maintain the Mg better. KH - I try to keep the bubble count & Calcium Reactor effluent rate consistent. Not adjust it to increase/reduce KH. To adjust KH, the CO2 timing is adjusted instead. Potassium : Characterized that the tank consumes about 20ppm per week. So I pour in 10ppm Potassium each time. Twice per week P04 : About 2" of Rowaphos is placed in a TLF phosban 150 reactor. The flow rate is adjusted so as not to over reduce PO4 too quickly. Algae Turf Scrubber : When the lights were on 24hrs, nitrates was undetectable & corals were too pale. Hence the lights is tuned down to run 18hrs per day.Off from 12pm - 6pm. Video showing Rowaphos rector flow rate & CR drip rate (blue tube) Next is to better understand the light settings.

Good tips given by fellow reefers above. Just to share : I have a desktop tank in the study room. About 10 gallons (40L) IOS tank. - 600L/hr Eheim 600 return pump - MP10 wavemaker - Mainly Zoas & GSP which is colorful & easy to keep. Very encouraging for new reefers. - LED lights - No chiller but i'd recommend one for better chance of a successful tank - and this enables more coral options that require cooler water. - A few small fishes like Starry Blenny (to eat algae), Clown fishes..... - No skimmer. With the bio load & available space for 'desktop' setup, weekly water change is sufficient. Set up looks something like this This picture is taken with a yellow lens filter in front of the camera, so colors may appear more intense.

Nice setup. Look forward to more progress pics. I won't be overly worried about soaking stuff in tap water.

Someone whatsapp me asking what I feed my corals Aside from the daily broadcast Mysis shrimp for fishes which will likely be taken by some LPS as well, I target feed Polyp Booster then Reef Roids separately, around 3-4 times a week. Either at night after lights off or early morning when the lights just turn on. The super suns & anemones get some bits of prawn meat every 2 weeks just before water change.

Apparently Apex Fusion has enabled a new feature recently called "HeartBeat". Basically, it'll send a notification if the cloud detects the Apex is disconnection for 'a period of time'. I tested it and it send me a mobile phone & email notification after 35 minutes. Its a slight delay but at least its better than no notification at all. HeatBeat is turned off by default. Need to enable it.

Come April 2017, the telcos in Singapore will be turning off the 2G network. This means that the older generation of iSocket GSM wont wok anymore. In fact, from Nov 2016, M1 stopped 2G support for newly activated pre-paid SIM cards. Any has workaround suggestions? Else, its time to give the iSocket GSM to our Malaysia reefing buddies.

Very nice pics!! What camera / lens are you using?

Yeah... should be a spathulata.

Thanks. Tank is still new.... hopefully they do well.

Very nice. More pics please

Changed my Hydra light setting to run around the 18.5k color temperature setting. Seen some positive results. Colony from fellow reefer. Purple tips starting to show Hopefully this Badabing continues to color up This was originally deep green. Turning yellow. This piece from Reefing Reality Indo shipment Some pieces from Reefing Reality.

For the sake of discussion, I understand that berghia and zoa eating nidibranch look similar. But zoa eating ones have some coloration from eating spas. The berghia ones are whitish. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like foe. Zoa eating nudibranch.

Congrats on the win. Look forward to more pics! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Baby clowns hosting the anemone. Adult clowns prefer the torches instead. Finally fed the Super Sun. 3 weeks since the last feeding.

Got a notification on my phone this morning that the calcium reactor PH level is still high (>8pH) when its supposed to be low enough to be melting the coral chip. Went back during lunch time to take a look. Turned out that the CO2 tank was empty. With this notification, at least the reaction time to is quicker. I mixed about 0.5dKH worth of baking soda & let it drip during the day as I went back to work. Hooked up the new CO2 tank tonight. Got a standby intense regulator washer just in case there are issues in future. I've heard stories of crushed washers leading to CO2 leaks. $4 from Aquatic Avenue. Anyone knows why the media in the CR is covered with brown slime? Someone mentioned diatoms/algae. But the door is closed most of the day & I don't have a refugium light nearby. Media level dropped about 2" in 2 months. Time to top up.