My Slice of Nature (Part 3)

[SubzeroLT]

Tested my water parameters manually over the weekend as a double check against the auto testers.

Ca 400

Mg 1440

KH 8.9

Phosphate (Hanna) : 0.26ppm

Nitrate : Based on color on Salifert test kit, estimate ~ 15ppm

Potassium : Didn't test. Test kit expired.

Some recent random iphone pics with blue light & DD lens

 

Chalice (blue light & DD lens)

 

6am view of Mika's space invader pectinia

[Jimbo]

Your parameters goes against the norm to keep low phosphate (<0.1) and CA around 450. But ur tank is living proof that its not the case. Nice pictures

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

[SubzeroLT]

12 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Your parameters goes against the norm to keep low phosphate (<0.1) and CA around 450. But ur tank is living proof that its not the case. Nice pictures

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk
 

Thanks. My goal is to keep Phosphates just below 0.1ppm and Nitrates in the 5ppm range.

However, very frequent feeding (eg. Pellets & blended fish/prawn meet twice a day, iphone size amount of dried seaweed daily, And daily Reef Roids, MinS, Shellfish diet etc) kind of makes it harder. 

[simwj]

Wah bro the latistella colored up so nicely, I’m glad it went to your tank!

[SubzeroLT]

1 minute ago, simwj said:

Wah bro the latistella colored up so nicely, I’m glad it went to your tank!

Thanks. Healthy frag from you in the first place. Many more gems to get from your tank when available.

[SubzeroLT]

Some coral pics in blue light & yellow filter :

 

Was comparing corals with a fellow reefer & realized the Bali Shortcake I bought in 2021 looks very different now. Size is bigger but the structure & corallites looks so different.

 

And hence I got a new frag of Bali Shortcake from a fellow reefer. Let's see how it turns out.

Hmm...after seeing this pic, Imay have stuck this frag the wrong direction

 

Love the pinkish shade of the Red Ferrari under quite high light.

 

This frag from fellow reefer in Nov 2018

Recent pic of colony it has grown to

 

A frag of it was recently placed just under the water surface. Directly under a Hydra64. Around 700+ PAR. Hoping to get some nice colors.

 

Cautious about the candy canes creeping too close.

 

[SubzeroLT]

Someone asked me what i'm currently dosing - using Coral Essentials

For my 850L tank.

Trace A, B, C - 12 drops a day

Potassium, Boron, Bromide - 6 drops a day

Power Amino - morning 8 drops

Power Gro - Evening 8 drops

CVE+ - About 15-20ml per day

 

[SubzeroLT]

Some equipment updates. 

My skimmer skimmer stopped making bubbles on Thursday 27th April. Pump was running but no bubbles.

Found the impeller spiky section broke off probably from the years of shear & torsional stress. To be honest, absolutely no complaints on the reliability pump. Its been running non stop for 6.5yrs already. 

As always, top notch service from Reef Depot. Thanks Patrick for also checking the pump. Bushings and insides of the housing looks good. Just an impeller change needed. (Saturday 29th April)

 

In between, it was a good time to give the skimmer a thorough soak in citric acid.

 

Super clean.

 

During the 2 nights when the skimmer was not running, you can see the lowest pH drop from a regular 7.95 to about 7.75. Not sure if its related - some sensitive frags of speciosa and carduus weren't happy about this.

 

Fortunate to catch the fleece running out at the last bit. 26th April

 

Last change 26th Feb. 2 months exactly.

 

Love the feeding response of this lime green trachyllia - Reef Roids & pellets.

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

Found the easiest way to rinse rowa in a torq is NOT to place the full amount in it then pour water through to rinse - This will just cause channeling and not rise every bit.

 

Best way is to put a bit first (eg. 2 table spoon). Then pour water in to rinse/wet the rowaphos. Then pour 2 more tablespoon. Pour water in....add more etc until the desired amount of rowa is added.

Just after a few rounds, the water turns clear quickly.

[SubzeroLT]

Upgraded my 7.5yr old RODI unit with better filters recently.

For the ,  I switched over to Pentair branded ones. ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and NSF (National Sanitation Foundation Institute) certified. Significantly more expensive though.

For filter. 

Chamber 1 : Sediment Filter 5 micron sediment filter

Chamber 2 : Pentair Carbon Block EP 10 (10 micron)

Chamber 3 : Pentair ChlorPlus10. (1 micron). This is designed to reduce not only chlorine but chloromines as well. A standard carbon filter will NOT remove chloromine.

Significantly more expensive than what i've been using previously. The Pentair EP10 is about $20. The Pentair Chlor10 is about $36.

For the RO membrane. Changed to a 3012-400gpd membrane. Rated 95-97% rejection rate. A larger housing was required though. 

 

Did a quick check and incoming tap water is 106TDS (hmmm. it is quite high. The typical number is about 70 TDS).

Knowing that the RO rejection rate is 95-97%, that means it'll allow 3-5% of measured TDS through. This means the expected TDS after the RO membrane is about 3 to 6 TDS 

 

Not using a fixed flow restrictor for the RO output anymore. Now I've switched to using a needle valve instead to tune to flow to optimize/minimize the rejected water. In the pic below, the needle valve on the left is to adjust the reject flow restriction. The john guest valve on the right is to allow RO membrane purge when opened.

Tuned the needle valve till i'm able to get about 5 TDS after the RO membrane.

 

This then passes through the DI filter to get a final clean water of 0 TDS.

Damn fast to collect water now.

 

[SubzeroLT]

Had to cut out a branch of the Bali Slimer as it was shading some other corals & touching the wavemaker.

[SubzeroLT]

Used to have lots of bubble tip anemones in the tank but they tended to split quite often. The need to reach the babies  and peel them off was too much of a hassle. In any case, this is an old photo from many many years ago.

 

Saw many nice anemones being sold recently - red/purple/green haddoni carpets. And others with fancyy names such as black widow, sunburst, acid rain etc. Hesitated for a while as there was a need to move a lot of corals around to create enough space for an anemone. And also the risk and fear of it not liking the intended location.

 

Finally added a haddoni carpet a few weeks ago.

 

So far it has stayed put in the rock structure I put together from a couple of spare rocks lying around.

 

Expoxied a small fist sized structure for the foot to sit in.

 

This porcelein crab moved house from its original rock flower anemone (75cm away) to the carpet anemone one night. Big home upgrade indeed.

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

Waiting a long time for this since it was announced.

 

 

Back view

 

Installation was easy. Firstly, update your Apex OS.

 

• On Mobius, Create a new Tank (in my case, i call it MXM).
• Add MXM device to this tank.
• Unassociate devices from other tanks in Mobius. Then add to this "MXM" tank.

 

 

Then go back to Apex to adjust the device. Absolutely loving the control.

Next is to integrate the other wavemakers/pumps with feeding events and buttons to trigger feed mode.

 

[Harlequinmania]

Is it able to control the new AI blade as well?

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

[SubzeroLT]

On 6/28/2023 at 9:23 AM, he said:

Is it able to control the new AI blade as well?

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

The MXM is able to control the blade now. There was a firmware update in early July if i'm not mistaken. Finally everything is integrated now

[SubzeroLT]

More time should have been spent on tank husbandary the past month. Fortunately things are holding up OK in general.

Phosphates crept up to 0.32PPM. Time to change rowaphos.

 

Was exploring how the MXM can help improve the feeding experience. Did a programming to enable this :

• When feed button triggered, slow down the wavemaker to 1% for 10min. This ensures the vortech are still turning (and not allow any fish to enter to rest). 
• Slow down the Vectra M2 return pump to 3%. Characterized this to be just enough water to 'hold' the water in the return pipe. For 20min.
• After 10min, the wavemakers turn back on to full power. But Return pump remains in 'feed mode'. During this 10min, the excess food (minced fish/prawn meat or Reef Roids gets a chance to circulate without going over the overflow).
• After 20min, the return pump turns back on. 

Some tank pics :

Moved up all the torches to the upper rock to receive ~ 500 PAR of light. Trimmed back the bali slimer colony

 

Left side of the tank

 

Right side of the tank. Pic taken in white light. The right side of the clam's mantle looks to be irritated by the slime web of several vermatid snails near that area - that's my layman guess. Seems to be improving over the past weeks after the snails were removed. If anyone else has insights on the root cause of the mantle issue, let me know.

So far the anemone are staying in place.

[SubzeroLT]

Not much changes to the tank itself - just 'maintenance mode' for now. And relaxing & enjoying the ease of reefing that some of the automation previously set up (i.e. from control & notification that Apex is providing).

Some recent random pics :

Opening a new tub of salt.  And the usual practice of remixing them as the large particles will seperate from the smaller ones. Objective is to ensure consistency (of Ca, Mg, KH & trace elements) as I use the entire bucket of salt over time. This phenomenon is present in any brand of salt whether its evaporated or synthetic salt.

Been using this salt for many years now. Works very well. With boosted Calcium & Magnesium as these will be depleted as corals grow.

Explaination of the "Brazil Nut Effect" :

 

 

Tangs feeding on dried seaweed. Feed about 2-3 times a day. Go through a pack every 4-5 days.

 

2 months back, the right side mantle of the clam retracted severely. Thought it was going to die.

I noticed there were 2 vermatid snails attached to the shell. Figured that the slime from the vermatid irritated the clam over an extended period. In any case, it was cut out.

2 months later, good to see that the mantle is fully extended again. 

[SubzeroLT]

A quick review of Reef Factory test kits that came out recently. 

Got hold of the No3, Ca, Mg, KH.  Phosphate is also available.

 

Good first impression with customer in mind. Items are well organized in a foam holder.

 

An important factor is the ease of distinguishing the color change. Good to see here that the color change is obvious and sudden for the final color. 

For Magnesium. Pink to Blue

 

Calcium : Pink to Purple (shown here). Final color is blue

 

Alkalinity (KH) is interesting. Green to grey/brown. Final color is Purple

 

Nitrate : High quality glass vial included.

 

Easy to compare colors. Take readings after 2 minutes.

 

Overall I like the test kits. Good price (S$15-$20 depending on the test). Easy to use & results are accurate.

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

In one of my earlier posts, I shared about using a rain sensor (from Aliexpress) hooked up to the Apex ALD module to dedect leaks. They work but corrode very quickly after contact with salt water.  Bad experience recently where a hose leak in the cabinet was not triggered. Arrgh.

 

Hence, this is one sensor I'd say to just use the original leak sensor. Not worth saving a couple of bucks over such a critical trigger.

 

[Sherilyn91]

I got the orginal ALD sensor aso corode after contact with salt water.. the image of the orginal sensor looks same as your rain sensor.

I guess this is a salt water issue.


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[SubzeroLT]

On 8/24/2023 at 12:27 AM, Sherilyn91 said:

I got the orginal ALD sensor aso corode after contact with salt water.. the image of the orginal sensor looks same as your rain sensor.

I guess this is a salt water issue.


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I suppose it also depends on how long its been soaking in salt water.

I used my original one for about 5 years so far. A couple of leak incidences & wipe off dry. 

[Sherilyn91]

I suppose it also depends on how long its been soaking in salt water.
I used my original one for about 5 years so far. A couple of leak incidences & wipe off dry. 

True.. no matter what material.. as long will conduct electricity sure rust.. maybe original got a “coating” protection..


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[SubzeroLT]

Using the new Coral Essentials Calcium Reactor 1 & Calcium Reactor 2 trace element additives now. Bought from Coral Fanatics.

Calcium reactor media will primarily provide Ca, Mg, Alkalinity and some trace elements (but not necessarily at suffficient levels). The 2 new bottles are to top the trace elements to the correct ratio required.

 

Looks like everything is included in them.

"Calcium Reactor 1" -  blend of Fluoride, Iodide, Boron, Bromide and Molybdenum.

"Calcium Reactor 2" - blend of Iron, Zinc, Copper. Manganese, Chromium Cobalt, Nickel, Strontium, Potassium, Magnesium and Lithium. Dosed in equal parts as Calcium reactor 1.

So far so good. Currently manually dosing and plan to hook it up to the dosing pump for convenience.

 

[SubzeroLT]

Some recent pics 

 

Space Invader Pectinia (from Coral Fanatics)

 

Not sure of the name. Thanks Jacky for pointing this piece out. (frag previously from Hai Yang)

 

Micromussa (previously from Marcovan. Probably ~ Feb 2018. Damn slow grower)

 

Nice colors with yellow filter. Previously from reefer PCW. Placed under 600+ PAR . 

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

Got some clownfish from Asphalios (Friendly chaps. Good price)

Given they are 'high risk' fish (i.e. species is gnerally susceptible to brooklynella ), they were isolated for observation in a seperate tank for a week before putting them in the display tank. 

The plan was to isolate & observe. No medication(unless they are sick). Had some mature media from the display tank. & a small USB air pump. As they were fed both pellet & frozen food (minced fish/prawn meat), had to do water change ~20% each time twice a day 

 

A week latter, added a pair to the display tank.