My Slice of Nature (Part 3)

[Guest]

Good investment on apex making me to research about it now haha


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[SubzeroLT]

13 hours ago, chercm said:

i added peppermint to the over flow box and seems to help in keeping the aiptasia in check 

How long has the peppermint shrimp been in there? Must be enjoying the buffet.

 

 

12 hours ago, Willy Guccivera Yap said:

Good investment on apex making me to research about it now haha


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Any kind of feedback control is good. Can be Apex or any brand or or even DIY Reef Pi.

The other useful equipment is the Alkatronic which serves as a close loop feedback on the calcium reactor/KH consumption performance.

[SubzeroLT]

Been busy clearing some overgrown corals the past 2 weeks. Want to make space for new corals. Must support the LFS.

Some simple iphone pics. Starting a gonio garden.

 

Closeup of the gonio from Madpetz. Has blue tips.

 

Facing some difficulties in 2 areas :

1) I leave the electrical cabinet door open to keep the area cool. But one of my cats recently found it a nice warm place to sleep. So i had to put up a grill.

 

2) Getting some bald patches on the stylo colony

 

Bcos the torch tentacles are getting longer & stinging the stylo. Still figuring out what to do about it. Probably need to move the stylo away

[Kumar 1981]

Very nice looking tank u have and healthy life stocks as well


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[SubzeroLT]

Quarterly maintenance of light fixture. Particularly important in a household with cats & dogs.

 

And also a quick wipe down with a damp cloth to get rid of salt spray on the lenses.

 

2 weeks of hair algae growth in the refugium box

 

 

The corals have been growing taller & the wavemakers are now blowing at the stems directly causing tissue damage on the side facing the wavemaker.

Had to raise the wavemker closer to the water surface to 'clear' the corals. For the Vortech wavemakers, I make it a point to secure the cables with a hook so the wet side does not drop when the dry side is removed (eg for cleaning). The larger wavemaker is secured with an additional wire cable just in case.

 

Watched a ReefDudes video recently where a guest reefer claimed tank ORP is improved with the lid removed. This seems like some anecdotal findings but i'm keep to explore this or whether the tank does better. Printed some clips to lift the lid up to allow more air exchange where the bubbles forms.

 

Some corals pics :

Growing even more beyond the surface.

 

Some candy cane frags for sale.

 

Red Stag

 

 

 

[smartyjones18]

Very impressed with your tank setup and those beautiful and healthy corals and fishes, seriously thinking of coming back to this painstaking once more. Time flies it's almost 5 years since I decom 2015.

2 thumbs up

Quarterly maintenance of light fixture. Particularly important in a household with cats & dogs.

 
And also a quick wipe down with a damp cloth to get rid of salt spray on the lenses.

 
2 weeks of hair algae growth in the refugium box

 

 
The corals have been growing taller & the wavemakers are now blowing at the stems directly causing tissue damage on the side facing the wavemaker.
Had to raise the wavemker closer to the water surface to 'clear' the corals. For the Vortech wavemakers, I make it a point to secure the cables with a hook so the wet side does not drop when the dry side is removed (eg for cleaning). The larger wavemaker is secured with an additional wire cable just in case.

 
Watched a ReefDudes video recently where a guest reefer claimed tank ORP is improved with the lid removed. This seems like some anecdotal findings but i'm keep to explore this or whether the tank does better. Printed some clips to lift the lid up to allow more air exchange where the bubbles forms.

 
Some corals pics :
Growing even more beyond the surface.

 
Some candy cane frags for sale.

 
Red Stag

 
 
 

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[vikneshrajoo]

Quarterly maintenance of light fixture. Particularly important in a household with cats & dogs.

 
And also a quick wipe down with a damp cloth to get rid of salt spray on the lenses.

 
2 weeks of hair algae growth in the refugium box

 

 
The corals have been growing taller & the wavemakers are now blowing at the stems directly causing tissue damage on the side facing the wavemaker.
Had to raise the wavemker closer to the water surface to 'clear' the corals. For the Vortech wavemakers, I make it a point to secure the cables with a hook so the wet side does not drop when the dry side is removed (eg for cleaning). The larger wavemaker is secured with an additional wire cable just in case.

 
Watched a ReefDudes video recently where a guest reefer claimed tank ORP is improved with the lid removed. This seems like some anecdotal findings but i'm keep to explore this or whether the tank does better. Printed some clips to lift the lid up to allow more air exchange where the bubbles forms.

 
Some corals pics :
Growing even more beyond the surface.

 
Some candy cane frags for sale.

 
Red Stag

 
 
 

I recalled u had a skimmer neck cleaner? What happen to it?

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[SubzeroLT]

On 9/3/2020 at 3:23 AM, vikneshrajoo said:

I recalled u had a skimmer neck cleaner? What happen to it?
 

Still  around. Just didn't get to installing it back on.

[SubzeroLT]

Finally went ahead to change the Alkatronic pump tubes after 2.5yrs of use. The original tubes are running fine but decided to do some preventive maintenance just in case. Hate to have a situation of a cracked tube and get salt water or reagent leaking all over the place.

 

As many know, I avoid to put my hands in the water. Main reason is sensitive skin and the other is to avoid getting oils into the water. Did a small mod to the acrylic cover to help slow eating scolymia finish their meal.

 

 

Some coral pics. Taken with DD Corals Lens (Gen2)

 

New addition to the torch garden

 

Existing torch corals. (iphone + DD lens)

 

Bugatti Chalice

 

Lobo coral

 

Scolymia & Cynarina 

 

Goniopora

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

Spot feeding gonio with Reef Roids

 

Bugatti Chalice

 

(Not so) Pink Stylo

 

Bali Slimer

 

Blue Dragon

 

Another recent addition - Sunset Millie

 

Halloween Crab hanging around the candy cane

 

Another new addition - Trachyphyllia 

 

Valida. The new growth continues to have bright coloration

 

SSC

 

[Evolutionz]

That chalice omg!

[Darren Sim]

Beautiful photos! Especially the torches and Charlies!


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[SubzeroLT]

On 9/14/2020 at 10:45 PM, Evolutionz said:

That chalice omg!

 

15 hours ago, Darren Sim said:

Beautiful photos! Especially the torches and Charlies!
 

Thanks

 

Tested my water parameters yesterday

• Ca : 390. Will top up Ca flakes to 400
• Mg : 1380. Will top up Mg powder to 1400
• KH : 8.3
• NO3 : 5ppm
• PO4 : 0.24ppm. Time to change rowaphos
• K : 410ppm
• Salinity : 35PPT / 1.026SG

 

Think the last Rowaphos change was on 11th May. That's 4 months ago. Rowaphos is good because also binds aluminum which is a common contaminant in our reef tanks (not sure where the aluminum is coming from though)

I'd typically put in 250g of rowaphos (half bottle) into a phosban reactor. 

From the Hanna checker, 77ppb phosphorous is approximately 0.24ppm phosphate.

 

I lifted the skimmer lid up a few weeks back to get more exposure to fresh air. Still skimming well. This is an hour after heaving feeding of fish meat & reef roids.

 

Nitrates running ~ 5ppm. Good enough

[MarCal]

 

• Ca : 390. Will top up Ca flakes to 400
• Mg : 1380. Will top up Mg powder to 1400
• KH : 8.3                                                                                                                                                                                    May I ask what supplements are you using? 

[SubzeroLT]

On 9/16/2020 at 3:39 PM, MarCal said:

 

• Ca : 390. Will top up Ca flakes to 400
• Mg : 1380. Will top up Mg powder to 1400
• KH : 8.3                                                                                                                                                                                    May I ask what supplements are you using? 

Using Nyos powder for Ca & Alkalinity.

 

For Mg, i'm using the the generic Magnesium Chloride powder as the usage is quite high. To raise 100ppm Mg requires ~700g for my tank size. 

[SubzeroLT]

Was doing some trimming and a large rock with a grown SPS got detached from a main rock. The extension was glued on about 3yrs ago. With a growing SPS at the end, its 5.5" long now & quite heavy. Tried half a tube of superglue & it barely held the extension rock. Not strong at all.

Got hold of some epoxy. Some folks said this was new & quite good.

 

Cut out 2 parts from each pack.

 

Mix it well

 

With the extension barely holding on with superglue, I added the epoxy under water...like sticking chewing gum under the table

 

Filled in the gaps. And the extension is super rigid now.

I got the gray colored epoxy. They also have the purple version.

Its not sticky like superglue but it'll provide a lot of structure as it fits into the empty gaps. Think its best used outside the tank when doing the initial rock scape. But quite handy to have on hand to provide structural strength to any rocks joints.

 

[SubzeroLT]

Added some gonios recently & wanted to make sure the sand bed area was not too bright. Think this is ok but on the end of the range. Read that about 150-200+ should be about right.

[SubzeroLT]

Algae growth in refugium box. Its probably helping elevate the pH levels at night. And tons of pods in the box as well.

 

 

Christmas Tree worms

 

 

Blue dragon

 

 

Fragged the chalice several weeks. Recovering well.

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

Got some corals recently. Dip dip dip.

Apparently not all dips are equal - some seem to use proprietary mixture smelling like pine based disinfectants (CoralRX, TLF Revive), some use potassium salts (Reef Primer), some use insecticide & neurotoxins (Bayer Complete).

 

Reef Primer (potassium salts) is my preferred choice. From past experience, its extremely effective for flatworms for both SPS & LPS. The active ingredient (potassium salts) is reef safe, so its OK to get it into the reef tank. Particularly good for fleshy LPS because some will get inside the body & is quite impossible to rinse everything off.

Downside is that its relatively more expensive. 

 

US forums often mention Bayer Complete insecticide. Its effective but the major downside is that the active ingredient is NOT reef safe. I've used it in the past and noticed that inverts do not do well for many months after that. Even with 4-5 rinses, its probably not possible to rinse off every single bit of insecticide as there will be some remnant amount of inside the flesh in both SPS & LPS.

 

I noticed that abalone & sea cucumber start shrinking over many months & some died. Suspicion is the pods population is partially affected as well.

Did some reading up on active ingredient :

• Beta-cyfluthrin (0.36%): A common pyrethroid insecticide that’s quite toxic to fish and invertebrates, but only toxic to humans in large doses.
• Imidacloprid (0.72%): A systemic insecticide that will interfere with the insects’ central nervous system.

Recommendation is not to use Bayer Complete at all.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mdsalman]

Do you just dip the corals and put them to the tank?

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[SubzeroLT]

On 10/12/2020 at 10:48 AM, Mdsalman said:

Do you just dip the corals and put them to the tank?

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Dip the corals in a small container of water (with the dip). Then rinse a few rounds in several containers of fresh tank water. Then it goes into the tank.

 

[SubzeroLT]

Feeding the goniopora.

Mix some reef roids in a small amount of water till its quite thick. Slightly more diluted than a paste consistency.

Turn off all pumps & wavemakers the dose the thick mix with a long pipette onto the gonio.

 

 

Can see the gonio polyps retract to eat the particulate food

 

 

Feeding response seen on the millepora as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SubzeroLT]

Finally changed the UV sterilizer bulb after procrastinating it for some time. It was not difficult. Sharing some photos of the process.

This bulb is rated for 10,000hrs average life. That works out to about 13.7 months if based on 24hr usage. Longer if used for shorter hours.

My UV unit is mounted vertically behind the CO2 tank. Ideally it be oriented horizontally (least or no air pocket) but iI don't have space for that. The next preferred orientation is vertically with the inlet at the bottom. In this orientation, it will have a small air pocket above the outlet pipe which is acceptable.

 

To remove the bulb, open the grommet (1), then open the cap (2)

 

Pull the bulb out from the quartz sleeve. Disconnect the power connector. Must remember to hold the bulb as its disconnected else the bulb will drop into the quartz sleeve (big risk of cracking the sleeve $$$)

 

 

To remove the quartz sleeve for cleaning, open the big cap

 

Generally the sleeve is quite clean. The part with the air pocket has dried salt encrusted on it. Does not affect performance.

 

Replacement bulb. Just reverse the order to assemble.

 

Used the bucket method to calculate the flow rate, just to be sure its within the recommended range.

 

Will revisit this process in about 1.5yrs.

[SubzeroLT]

Quick tank update

Will be saying goodbye to this stylo colony this coming weekend in an effort to clear space for new corals. Grew from a frag of 2 knobs about 4 years ago. Trading it with a fellow reefer for a trachyphyllia geoffroy (Open brain)

 

 

Close up of the stylo. Teal polyps with lime green/yellow base

 

Other things going on. Hoping the gonio garden will do well. 

 

Added a female mandarin dragonet to the tank (with existing male). Placed it in an isolation box with a DIY 'pod hotel' and a bunch of hair algae. Fed it with fresh baby brine shrimps 4 times a day for several days in an effort to strengthen it a little before releasing it.  All pumps off to stop water flow while baby brine shrimps are squirted into the hair algae during each feeding. 

 

 

 

[Maipian80]

OMG, your stylo is like plucked from the ocean! So big!! It is crazy haha....may i know how often do u feed your tank and with what huh?

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