Small clams under 3” really need phytoplankton They struggle
Thomas' CADE Reef 1500 S2
- Thread starter Darkxerox
- Start date
These all started 1-2", never fed phyto. Just light and fish food/poop particles.
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
How large are they now?
The clam holders are 3.25" long. Largest Maxima is just slightly smaller. The crocea on the left was added later and started about 1.5", now maybe 2.25".
So bit of a setback. As they always tell you, don't change things when before you on vacation. I stupidly changed out a heater with a new one. Turns out it was in the stuck on position and it was unseasonably warm in the house while we were out. Temp went from 78 to 83F at peak and I tried to control it with the AC. Lost my big space invader chalice and another one immediately. Haven't lost a chalice in years.
Later my big hellfire torch went from this:
To this a couple weeks later:
I managed to save two polyps I hope.
I did add some nice things from WWC however. This real nice green speckled cynarina along with the WWC Wow and Jell-O shot cookie acropora:
The "bounce chalice" is the WWC cosmic candy
Mine vs. the mother colonies. It's just starting to show the green.
Realized also that my MP40s weren't synced by side so I finally have left and right going at the right intervals.
Frag swap items have been mixed. One ultra acropora RTNed on me. @Yippee however was super kind and passed along a frag of POTO Cofefe that's doing well so far.
Challenges as always even at the one year mark passes since I put rocks in!
Later my big hellfire torch went from this:
To this a couple weeks later:
I managed to save two polyps I hope.
I did add some nice things from WWC however. This real nice green speckled cynarina along with the WWC Wow and Jell-O shot cookie acropora:
The "bounce chalice" is the WWC cosmic candy
Mine vs. the mother colonies. It's just starting to show the green.
Realized also that my MP40s weren't synced by side so I finally have left and right going at the right intervals.
Frag swap items have been mixed. One ultra acropora RTNed on me. @Yippee however was super kind and passed along a frag of POTO Cofefe that's doing well so far.
Challenges as always even at the one year mark passes since I put rocks in!
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
Sorry, how exactly did the incident with the heater happen? I know you have the king of heater controllers, aka. aqualogic/ranco, so there should be no issue with a heater in an on position (although it looks like your ambient temp was warm too).
Yeah it was my extra third heater that I have now as present for when we're away. Last time when the temps dropped from the usual 70ish to the 50s in the house, the existing two heaters (550w total) weren't enough so I had another 250w one ready. Unfortunately it must have been faulty and stayed on despite the other two being off (and since it was the third, I just had it on a manual outlet). Didn't think a 250w heater alone would be able to increase the temp that much, but high humidity in a closed up house plus hot temps did it.
I'm getting an HRV installed like @iani has for his system, so at least the humidity and CO2 will be controlled well. I'll have to get another aqualogic controller or XP8 for the third heater.
Third Jager heater failed in two months (this time the heater lights up, no heat vs. the last two that just stayed on). Pretty mad given they're all just outside their warranty and I haven't had this level of issues with them before.
I just don't understand why there isn't a premium heater out there designed to last years when this is such a major point of failure for tanks. Aqualogic has a new inline titanium heater, but I'm asking Todd Krunkel about that since he's a dealer.
Did a water change last night and noticed the bad heater after swapping the "failed on" unit to the mixing trash can.
Picked up a python gravel vac from @robert4025 and got some nice "mud" from my sand:
I just don't understand why there isn't a premium heater out there designed to last years when this is such a major point of failure for tanks. Aqualogic has a new inline titanium heater, but I'm asking Todd Krunkel about that since he's a dealer.
Did a water change last night and noticed the bad heater after swapping the "failed on" unit to the mixing trash can.
Picked up a python gravel vac from @robert4025 and got some nice "mud" from my sand:
B the Nano Reefer
Supporting Member
I’ve had Eheim replace heaters well outside of warranty. Took some sweet talk and convincing but it’s possible.
Have you looked into the Helio?
Have you looked into the Helio?
Thọ Key
Supporting Member
Do you have suggestions on clam i’m planning’s to get one for the 30 Long
I put together a thread before that has good info. I'd probably wait a bit until you're more experienced in the hobby, but check it out.
Update for December. A few changes:
The blue throat fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus cyanogularis) was being a jerk so I caught him with the club Nyos trap fairly quickly:
He now lives in @Srt4eric 's thunderdome. I added a tiny Halicoheres chrysus from Kenny to replace it:
The tank is so much calmer now with zero chasing.
I also gave up and hit the tank with Chemiclean to beat the cyano and it was incredibly effective.
Before:
After:
Babysitting tons of corals from @Ayman . Also one of the anthias stopped eating a month ago yet still is alive somehow hiding in a cave. Hoped that getting rid of the wrasse would help but it hasn't.
Most everything has been doing well however post treatment, and in fact better than before. More polyp extension, way more tentacles out at night.
Some LPS close ups:
Also the Walt Disney is back despite being on death's door in September:
The blue throat fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus cyanogularis) was being a jerk so I caught him with the club Nyos trap fairly quickly:
He now lives in @Srt4eric 's thunderdome. I added a tiny Halicoheres chrysus from Kenny to replace it:
The tank is so much calmer now with zero chasing.
I also gave up and hit the tank with Chemiclean to beat the cyano and it was incredibly effective.
Before:
After:
Babysitting tons of corals from @Ayman . Also one of the anthias stopped eating a month ago yet still is alive somehow hiding in a cave. Hoped that getting rid of the wrasse would help but it hasn't.
Most everything has been doing well however post treatment, and in fact better than before. More polyp extension, way more tentacles out at night.
Some LPS close ups:
Also the Walt Disney is back despite being on death's door in September:
FinalPhaze987
Supporting Member
Nice! Did you notice any adverse effects to your corals after the chemiclean treatment?
None that I could see, most looked way better after.
End of year updates:
Lost one anthias that just wasn't eating anymore. Tried live food, other types of small particle items, nothing. Euthanized it as it started to go downhill the past few weeks.
Finally mounted and installed the X10 and XP8 that I picked up on massive Black Friday sale at Coralvue's outlet (@Alexander1312 hopefully got his installed too ). Couldn't even tell the items were refurbished as they came with brand new accessories despite saying in the description controller only.
Switching controllers was not difficult from a controller perspective, you just turn everything off then move each input over to the new controllers one by one. Took maybe an hour. Mounting everything however was difficult since I had to untangle my rats nest and move fast while power was off. Added and hid screws behind my MP40 drivers:
Mounted the X10 and the wave engine to this. Then XP8 to the left side:
Quickly realized that the whole point was to use the pumps on the X10 (in the future I might get an IV for testing salinity and alk) so cleaned things up with the color coded tubing which is nice
Got an Avid Aqua tube holder on the sump side too.
So once I trim things up it should be a lot neater. But the biggest thing is that compared to the Hydros standalone pumps, these are almost silent. As people that have seen my tank in person notice, it's already almost dead quiet, so this was one of the last noisy things.
Heaters are all now on the XP8 and I split the heavy load onto one Cade switch bar with the smaller load items on the other. Biggest thing is that there's no more electronics on the bottom of the cabinet.
Also added the juvenile yellow tang from my 29g that interestingly has two caudal scalpels on its right side:
The Tomini surprisingly was giving it a few tail swipes on day 1 but by day 2 the yellow tang was following it around and eating algae like a true tang gang.
Lastly got a bunch of Hydros cables, plus LRS reef frenzy and fish frenzy from @robert4025 . I had been on the search for "fresher" food and was convinced after seeing the video tours SWA did of their facility. But wow, the fish go absolutely insane! The copperband especially will attack the bits of clam and crunch it up with its beak noisily.
Lost one anthias that just wasn't eating anymore. Tried live food, other types of small particle items, nothing. Euthanized it as it started to go downhill the past few weeks.
Finally mounted and installed the X10 and XP8 that I picked up on massive Black Friday sale at Coralvue's outlet (@Alexander1312 hopefully got his installed too ). Couldn't even tell the items were refurbished as they came with brand new accessories despite saying in the description controller only.
Switching controllers was not difficult from a controller perspective, you just turn everything off then move each input over to the new controllers one by one. Took maybe an hour. Mounting everything however was difficult since I had to untangle my rats nest and move fast while power was off. Added and hid screws behind my MP40 drivers:
Mounted the X10 and the wave engine to this. Then XP8 to the left side:
Quickly realized that the whole point was to use the pumps on the X10 (in the future I might get an IV for testing salinity and alk) so cleaned things up with the color coded tubing which is nice
Got an Avid Aqua tube holder on the sump side too.
So once I trim things up it should be a lot neater. But the biggest thing is that compared to the Hydros standalone pumps, these are almost silent. As people that have seen my tank in person notice, it's already almost dead quiet, so this was one of the last noisy things.
Heaters are all now on the XP8 and I split the heavy load onto one Cade switch bar with the smaller load items on the other. Biggest thing is that there's no more electronics on the bottom of the cabinet.
Also added the juvenile yellow tang from my 29g that interestingly has two caudal scalpels on its right side:
The Tomini surprisingly was giving it a few tail swipes on day 1 but by day 2 the yellow tang was following it around and eating algae like a true tang gang.
Lastly got a bunch of Hydros cables, plus LRS reef frenzy and fish frenzy from @robert4025 . I had been on the search for "fresher" food and was convinced after seeing the video tours SWA did of their facility. But wow, the fish go absolutely insane! The copperband especially will attack the bits of clam and crunch it up with its beak noisily.
Subtle Abyzz flex!
Only issue with having heaters on the XP8 is those relays like to fail - my XP8 only has 6/8 functional. I think you have an aqualogic also inline though right? I set my temp thresholds so that the ranco is the one doing most of the switching, and the xp8 relay just acts as a backup. I trust the ranco far more than the xp8 (as a happy Hydros fan in general).
Only issue with having heaters on the XP8 is those relays like to fail - my XP8 only has 6/8 functional. I think you have an aqualogic also inline though right? I set my temp thresholds so that the ranco is the one doing most of the switching, and the xp8 relay just acts as a backup. I trust the ranco far more than the xp8 (as a happy Hydros fan in general).
Yeah true. I have pretty wide ranges on the heaters to limit on off cycles. They stagger from the main one always on 77-78F (pretty much always on), second 76.5F to 77.5F, third is 75F to 76F. I'll probably move things around once I move my launch to the budget tank once that year is up.