My First Reef Build Journal - Follow along for the ride wave your hands and scream if I am driving off a cliff :)

[cryptics]

1guyDude,
Yeah that is it. Thank you. Just read up on it though and they severly restrict your flow so not going with that.
BTLDreef,
Any night this week would be good. I can't meet till around 9:30-10:00pm but I will meet you half way. If you are around Westbury during the day I can give you my address and you can leave it on the back porch (stray cats will guard it )
The issue i am having with the return is the tank is drilled and the overflow is pretty much directly in the middle of the tank so i can't aim it fully across. I may split it if I can't get a good spot.
The Duncan colony was sold ohh well. Now I want them so I will have to find them at some point.
I am having issues with the heater and the reefkeeper. I am missing something. I have to play with it tonight.
I hooked up the two 54w T5's last night and wired the second MH. I will take pictures tonight with just the Blue + bulbs on

 

[gemmy]

Don't get a duncan colony, just get a head or two. They grew really quick and I think it is neat to see them grow into a large colony.

 

[cryptics]

That is what i will end up doing Gemmy. The only reason why I was getting the colony was a local guy was breaking down his tank and was selling 35+ heads for $70 Of course everyone jumped on it so it was long gone

 

[cryptics]

Ok here are the pictures with the 2 54w t5's on. They are running ATI Blue +

I am really bad with pictures and this camera sucks but something is growing out of this rock. It looks like 4-5 sticks.

Here are the Zoas that BTLDreef gave me with an Aptasia that has joined the colony

 

[btldreef]

Is the rick that has stuff growing on it one of the ones from my tank?
I can't really tell from the picture, but I'm also on my phone.
I gave you palys not zoas. They're similar, but palys are larger.

 

[cryptics]

Lol ohh still have a lot to learn. Yes it was the big rock from the top of your tank. Looks like black sticks about 1/2 long. I can see about 6 of them. They ave very thin and coming out of little holes in the rock

 

[btldreef]

They're not colonial hydroids, so don't panic. I actually think they're old tubes from tiny feather dusters that my Coral BeaUty ate. There was also a peanut worm or two in that area, so it's possible that it's that as well.
Check out this site:
http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml
It is written by Saxman and Cranberry on this site. It's definitely my (and many others) "go to" guide when it comes to identifying hitchhikers.

 

[cryptics]

I added a Duncan last night. It opened up today which i hope is a good sign.


I took advice and went and got a 50w grow bulb for my refuguim light tonight. It was 75 and I believe that is why I was having heat issues. 50w was the lowest i could find.
I have a question about my lighting schedule. Currently I have the t5 ATI blue +'s running 12 hours a day. 250w MH 10 hours a day. The refuguim light is on for the oposite 12 hours that the other lights are on. Am I running the MH & T5's too long?
I just got my CuC order today and added
10 Dwarf Cerith
7 Dwarf Planaxis
10 Florida Cerith
5 Nassarius Vibex
8 Nerite Snails (Large)
10 Virgin Nerites
I also added chaeto, red mangroves and ulva to my refuguim.

 

[cryptics]

Ok I had an issue last night One of my powerheads disconnected from the magnetic back and fell straight down and blew all the sand below it everywhere. The problem is sand got all over the Duncan. Can this hurt it? I blew it off gently with with a turkey baster.

 

[btldreef]

Lighting schedule is a little long, IMO. I would do 10 hours blue, 8 hours MH's max. You don't have that much in there right now, so there's no reason to bake everything. You also just added the second halide, so things will need to adjust, especially since it's a new tank. You might even want to do 6 hours of the halides. The blues won't have much effect on the heat or too much on health of corals, but the whites will and you could cook stuff.
As for the sand on the duncans, they should be okay if the sand wasn't left there long term.

 

[cryptics]

Ok I will adjust the lights. I was thinking it may be a little two long. Should I stagger down to 8 hours first then down to 6?
I am glad the sand won't hurt them. They just had a light dusting on them

 

[btldreef]

I would stagger down, just so you can observe an adverse effects it may have on the few corals you have as well as notice your temperature fluctuation.

 

[cryptics]

OK time for an update.
I staggered down the MH time to 6hrs 8hrs on the T5 blues. It has become apparent to me that I am going to need a chiller. The tank sits around 79 degrees normal but gets up to 83 when the lights are on. I don't think the 250's are too powerful it is just the canopy. Even with the fans it gets hot in there. Going to look for a used drop in.
I was having problems with PH which I blame on the Seachem marine salt I was using. I did a 18gal water change last night using Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt instead (didn't have time to run and get the Aquavitro Salinity this weekend so figured this was good) PH is up in the 8.0-8.2 range but my Nitrites are at .5 now and Nitrates are between 20-40 ppm. Ammonia is at between 0-.1 ppm. My alk is better but still low at 6.5 dkh. My levels were at 0 but I guess it is going up a little bit because I added like 50 snails 4 peppermint shrimp and started feeding the Duncan. I mixed up another 15g of saltwater. When do you recommend I do the next change?
When i fed the Duncan the other night I turned off all the power heads. When I turned them back on one fell apart. When I put it back together (guessed mainly) it made a bad noise. I replaced it with a Koralina 8 OMG this is a monster. I definitely have good flow now I will get a diagram and fix the other one for the quarantine tank
Thinks that's it. Any advice?

 

[cryptics]

Ohh and got a pretty bad hair algae outbreak there for awhile. It is still bad but the snails are doing their jobs getting fat. Is there something I should add for the hair algae or will the snails eventually get it?

 

[1guydude]

u say ur trates and trites are up....how long did it cycle and sit empty with rock, sand, and water. You may not have enough beneficial bacteria to hold up with your bio-load. You say you just did a water change? Than i would do another about 3 dayz later. Make sure to test inbetween those changes sometime! Can you just leave ur hood open, till u get the chiller? Youd dkh will go up as ur tank becomes more stable and older! I personally use oceanic salt...comes in a blue jug thing

 

[cryptics]

It cycled for a little over 2 weeks but I was helped along BTLDreef set me up with 20gal of her water change water and a fair amount of rock. I also had about 15 lbs of rock and a large bag of seachem Matrix media from my old setup that I had kept in water with a power head and heater that I used to help with the cycle. Finally I used 20lbs of the live sand from saltwaterfish.com
My guess is the fact I added the whole CuC at once was a little more than the tank was ready for but it is handling it. None of the CuC is dying off and the Duncan is doing well. I know it was way to early to add the coral but a local guy was breaking down his tank and I got it for $6 a head which was too good a deal not to give it a try. I have some paly's that BTLDreef that were doing really well for awhile but a little closed up now. That though I believe was because a very large Aptasia took up residence in the middle of the colony. I finally killed it and everything is starting to come back now.
Good news about the Alk. I admit I really need to know more about the water chemistry. I know where the levels should be and that good salt and regular water changes are my best friends in keeping things happy. What I don't know is the relationships and how to maintain the balance. The ying and yang of the water. Does anyone know of a good book for this?

 

[cryptics]

Would I be able to add an Urchin? I have read they mow through algea and lets face it they look cool The only things i have heard to watch for is they will pick up snails and stuff and carry them around. That actually sounds fun to watch also Is there anything detrimental to having them? I have a fair amount of snails but most (85%) are dwarfs so less than a quarter of an inch.
I saw two interesting things in the tank yesterday. One of my peppermint shrimp went all WWE on an Asterina Star. He kept picking it up and slamming it on the rock for like 5 minutes then eventually ate it. It was rather violent. Second was when I fed the Duncans mysis all of a sudden 4 3 inch really thin tenticles come out of a rock near the Duncans. It was pretty cool they were trying to grab mysis floating by.

 

[cryptics]

Ohh and no I can't open the canopy unfortunatly. I have 9 cats that seem hell bent on going for a swim. They jump up on top. Not very brite

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by cryptics http:///forum/thread/385310/my-first-reef-build-journal-follow-along-for-the-ride-wave-your-hands-and-scream-if-i-am-driving-off-a-cliff/40#post_3384297
Would I be able to add an Urchin? I have read they mow through algea and lets face it they look cool The only things i have heard to watch for is they will pick up snails and stuff and carry them around. That actually sounds fun to watch also Is there anything detrimental to having them? I have a fair amount of snails but most (85%) are dwarfs so less than a quarter of an inch.
I saw two interesting things in the tank yesterday. One of my peppermint shrimp went all WWE on an Asterina Star. He kept picking it up and slamming it on the rock for like 5 minutes then eventually ate it. It was rather violent. Second was when I fed the Duncans mysis all of a sudden 4 3 inch really thin tenticles come out of a rock near the Duncans. It was pretty cool they were trying to grab mysis floating by.
There probably is not enough algae in your tank to support an urchin right now. I hate mine, he knocks stuff over and is currently banished to the refugium. Want him? LOL We actually tried to get him out not that long ago, and he held on to the rock so tight, we broke some of his spines and he still wouldn't come out

That's funny that the peppermint did that to the star! Looks like you've got a good little peppermint shrimp there. My darn harlequin shrimps eat the asterinas down to one leg, then let them go!
The little tentacles reaching for mysis sound like Brittle Starfish (babies)

 

[cryptics]

BTLDreef,
Actually I have a quite a bit of hair algae right now. I would take him if you don't want him anymore. I got the algae growth under control but the stuff that is there isn't receding fast. He would be a fat happy little Urchin