My Slice of Nature (Part 3)

[SubzeroLT]

Both the sea cucumber & abalone occasionally wander over the wavemaker but no issues so far.




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[daveyy]

Thanks


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[SubzeroLT]

Several folks asked about my CR settings the past few days.

Pictures speak a thousand words, so here it is.

 

CO2 Bubble Count :

 

Effluent Drip rate :

 

The effluent measures at 66.1g water per minute

 

Effluent measured at 30.8dKH with salifert test kit

Tank KH maintained around the 7.7-8dKH levels.

 

CR pH levels (week view)

 

CR pH level (1 day view). CO2 on hours shown in chart.

 

 

 

 

[vincentwangz]

Very helpful info for the CR. thanks bro. Definitely helps give an idea on the CR I'm setting up soon.


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[SubzeroLT]

On 7/14/2017 at 9:31 AM, vincentwangz said:

Very helpful info for the CR. thanks bro. Definitely helps give an idea on the CR I'm setting up soon.


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Thanks. Hope it can be a useful rough guide.

[SubzeroLT]

FTS for mid July

 

[SubzeroLT]

One of the rock flower anemone moved, dug into the sand & attached itself to the glass bottom. I removed it from that spot & now it refuses to attach to a rock base. And keeps floating away for the past days. Not a good thing before I need to be away for work travel.

I was planning to do some rock rescaping soon anyway, so I got some Nyos reef cement to build a small structure to 'contain' the anemone

 

 

 

Instructions say mix 1 part water to 3 part reef cement to make a paste. The paste feels slightly warm (exothermic process) - a sign that new bonds are formed.

It really hardens in 2-3 minutes, so work fast. The rock assembly was put in the tank after 15 minutes. 

 

This was the structure made for the rock flower anemone, with a temporary acrylic top until it settles in.

Yellow arrows are the 3 pieces of rock put together. The final cement color is grayish & blends with the color of the new rocks added.

 

[SubzeroLT]

A nice frag from PCW. Thanks  

 

Pearlberry from RR

 

Derasa clam from Iwarna shipment about 2 weeks back

 

Anemone split again. Hope they won't move around too much.

[SubzeroLT]

 

 

Several baby Banggai Cardinals (~0.5cm) were spotted in the tank but think they were eaten by the larger fishes

There was no way to trap/catch the parents when the father was spotted carrying the babies in its mouth.

 

Got a long spine urchin. They are supposed to provide some cover for the baby banggai cardinals....hopefully... for the next batch.

 

 

Got the Amazon Echo devices recently. 

For reefing, the voice control is quite handy for switching on/off utility pumps (for topping up containers), setting 3 minute timers to test nitrates etc.

Alexa is also able to capture, over voice, parameter readings & automatically load it to Evernote for reference

- 

[nickseah1985]

Hi I'm New to reef. Really enjoy reading all you previous post. Many thing to learn. Very impresses of what you done to your reef tank. Your DIY SKILL IS AWESOME!


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[Reef2Max]

Thank you for sharing , very nice tank you have!

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[SubzeroLT]

 

On 8/1/2017 at 3:17 AM, nickseah1985 said:

Hi I'm New to reef. Really enjoy reading all you previous post. Many thing to learn. Very impresses of what you done to your reef tank. Your DIY SKILL IS AWESOME!


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On 8/1/2017 at 8:58 AM, Reef2Max said:

Thank you for sharing , very nice tank you have!

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Thanks

 

Some pic updates :

Candy Cane & Duncans

 

Getting quite crowded

 

Digi losing the 'battle' here.

 

Setosa frag from Jon (LCF425) from some time back..... (Thanks)

 

[SubzeroLT]

Gave the CR a good wash & switched over to Rowalith & Grotech magnesium chips.

The calcium chips are larger - so hopefully they won't turn to mush too quickly.

 

[SubzeroLT]

Finally did a net cover for the frag tank. There are 4 baby clown fishes in there now. 

 

Got hold of some some Ca, Mg, Alkalinity powder to correct my water parameters for the main tank as it drifted from target.

I also always have them on standby in case the calcium reactor does not run (eg. run out of CO2).

 

 

The instructions on the packaging label is very simple & straight forward for making a stock solution for dosing pumps.

Or as in my case, to 'dose directly' (after diluting with water)
 

The calcium mixes very well. Fully dissolved even with little water. No precipitates left behind unlike some other brands or those bulk supplements I've tried before.

 

Same for Magnesium. This is 90g of powder

 

Magnesium fully dissolved in less than a minute of stirring.

I posted in the forum before about struggling to dissolve another brand's Magnesium powder fully - that was frustrating as it meant that the effect of each dose is inconsistent. No issues here  

This is definitely a great product for those using dosing pumps as well.

 

 

 

[Harlequinmania]

Just for info, I didn't replace my kalk in my stirrier. Just top up every week

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[SubzeroLT]

14 minutes ago, he said:

Just for info, I didn't replace my kalk in my stirrier. Just top up every week

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Thanks - Good to know. 

Another thing i found was the outlet of the kalk tube clogs if exposed to air. Hence its placed just below the water surface.

[SubzeroLT]

 

Every morning, these 2 colonies have chemical warfare.

 

New addition the tank. 

 

Not sure of the ID. From Seasonal Aquarium opening day shipment.

 

Valida

 

Frag from Nigel

 

[SubzeroLT]

The Blue Spotted Jawfish moved house a couple of time the past week ...each time taking along all the small rocks to line its new tunnel (see pic).

Think its finally settled to this final spot under a rock of Zoa with relatively high linear flow.

 

The DIY LED strips for the ATS died a few weeks back. Found my old freshwater Green Element LED....might as well use it.

ATS algae growth is very good. I'm sticking with this white LED light.

 

Live phytoplankton & pod culturing area.

I've been adding about 50ml of live phyto to my display tank on alternate days recently. In theory, phyto is at bottom of the food chain & everything above it will benefit (more pods, more zooplankton -> corals benefit etc)

Phyto growth progress

 

Bought an old school Skimz skimmate collection container from a fellow reefer yesterday.

 

Resealed the leaks & did a simple mod for use as a Kalk stirrer container

 

[Xtraster]

Cool! I want to learn phyto growing from u!

[alexcyf]

Looking good dude!


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[quarantasei]

Using same green element led. Its really good for algae growth!


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[SubzeroLT]

On 8/27/2017 at 5:01 PM, Xtraster said:

Cool! I want to learn phyto growing from u!

Sure  

A couple of reefers I know of are selling off extra live phyto. I should have some occasionally as well.

 

On 8/27/2017 at 11:04 PM, alexcyf said:

Looking good dude!

 

Thanks Alex.

10 hours ago, quarantasei said:

Using same green element led. Its really good for algae growth!

 

Yeah... surprisingly effective.

 

I had some queries about how my ATO & Kalk is set up. Here is the schematic.

- Kalk is dripped in only after lights out (when pH is dropping)

- ATO stops at a lower level, hence giving the Kalk top up a chance to be dripped in

 

Current system pH 

[SubzeroLT]

Tailspot Blenny

 

Tolerating each other. 

 

[Guest]

Nice close up shot !


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[SubzeroLT]

22 hours ago, Willy Guccivera Yap said:

Nice close up shot !


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Thanks. Taken with the Olympus OMD EM5