My Slice of Nature (Part 3)

[SubzeroLT]

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.

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

[dsam]

Not dosing with the magnesium flakes anymore?

[SubzeroLT]

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.

 

[kenyee]

Sibei envy ur tank bro..the colours are damn striking..can share a FTS?  

[Jairus]

Yup! Fts pls vv selective in choosing the types of zoas too. But amazing how u can 'colour' up the zoas. Do the zoas get high light?


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[SubzeroLT]

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. 

 

[Jairus]

thanks for sharing bro, is 25% light intensity the sweet spot for the zoas?

[Law88]

Super nice frag tank!


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[kenyee]

Nice top shot bro..from the sides shot?  

 

[popimac]

nice tank bro!

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[SubzeroLT]

On 2/3/2017 at 11:02 PM, kenyee said:

Nice top shot bro..from the sides shot?  

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.

 

 

 

 

 

[kenyee]

Thks bro for sharing ur FTS..look like u prefer to watch from the top yea..heez..

For ATO, use float valve will b the best..if small tank n little evaporation rate, use the reverse bottle method best

[sankar27]

Wow! Incredible collection of zoas!

[SubzeroLT]

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.

[SubzeroLT]

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.  

 

 

[kenyee]

Wow bro..nice SPS without chiller power sia

[Darren Sim]

Very nice photos as usual. Haha. That's a very special sea cucumber? Does it do its job well?

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[kenyee]

10 hours ago, kenyee said:

Wow bro..nice SPS without chiller power sia

Apologised Bro  ..this is ur another tank yea..That sea cucumber is very unique..very chio 

[SubzeroLT]

10 hours ago, kenyee said:

Wow bro..nice SPS without chiller power sia

Only the Zoa tank is without chiller.

The main display tank (with the SPS) is chilled. Running it at ~ 27degC.

 

 

8 hours ago, Darren Sim said:

Very nice photos as usual. Haha. That's a very special sea cucumber? Does it do its job well?

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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.

[SimonLSB]

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.

It must be very happy to upgrade from a studio unit to a 5 bedroom luxury condo. My Home Minister gave it a nickname, u may call him Turbo Cucumber as it work triple faster than normal sea cucumber....


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[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.

 

 

[Harlequinmania]

On 2/12/2017 at 9:58 PM, SubzeroLT said:

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.

 

Curious to know if the new led blue / red work better. Please keep us updated...

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

 

[SubzeroLT]

On 2/20/2017 at 8:19 AM, he said:

 

Curious to know if the new led blue / red work better. Please keep us updated...

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

 

Sure...monitoring it. 

For reference, the original warm white lights run ~ 13W. The DIY 4 rows of light is running at 17.3W.

 

Just harvested it to 'reset' the mesh & monitor growth. With the white lights, the cadence of cleaning was about 2-3 weeks.

Pic below shows 2.5 wks since last cleaning.

 

[pcw]

On 2/20/2017 at 10:43 PM, SubzeroLT said:

Sure...monitoring it. 

For reference, the original warm white lights run ~ 13W. The DIY 4 rows of light is running at 17.3W.

 

Just harvested it to 'reset' the mesh & monitor growth. With the white lights, the cadence of cleaning was about 2-3 weeks.

Pic below shows 2.5 wks since last cleaning.

 

Looks so lush. Dry already can make nori sheets for sushi haha