Coral reefer
Past President
Somebody needs a frag tank!
40g ADA move and upgrade
- Thread starter Chromis
- Start date
Chromis
Supporting Member
Crab attack! Down to 3 emerald crabs due to sudden deaths and bad behavior (crab-on-coral violence resulting in removal). One of my, luckily lower-value, palys got its skirt plucked bald by one particularly frenzied crab. Moved all my frag racks a little higher off the substrate. Forgot to mention during the bubble algae eradication overhaul the anemone moved out. Now I just have to worry about the crabs messing up corals.
xcaret
Guest
I liked the shimmer your tank has with the Kessil, brought back memories of the shimmer halides have over a water box; I can see there has been a lot of improvement on LED lighting, I recall seeing some of the earlier units casting an odd looking light, don't know how to explain it but I'm almost sold on the LED thing, almost...
I think you will love acros more and more and there's plenty of color variation in the club.
I think you will love acros more and more and there's plenty of color variation in the club.
Chromis
Supporting Member
@Ibn A month later, the corals you gave me are still looking good. One of the Spainbows is starting to encrust, and the Sunset is coloring up.
Still not seeing a return of bubble (or any other new) algae. Switched to Fritz Salt to get higher starting Mg numbers in the Salt mix,, and used a Milwaukee meter to find out my salinity has been at only 1.021. I'll slowly start bringing the salinity up and keep an eye on things - I figure a higher salinity would make more trace elements available and maybe I can stop chasing iron and potassium levels.
Still not seeing a return of bubble (or any other new) algae. Switched to Fritz Salt to get higher starting Mg numbers in the Salt mix,, and used a Milwaukee meter to find out my salinity has been at only 1.021. I'll slowly start bringing the salinity up and keep an eye on things - I figure a higher salinity would make more trace elements available and maybe I can stop chasing iron and potassium levels.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Looks good, often algae issues are taken care off from a chemical standpoint (i.e. water parameters get back into check) but the evidence persists, I mean very often there's no reason why algae should just die, sure something else might outcompete it but the algae itself can still live (it has light, it has nutrients). So usually it takes the addition of a few "predators" to remove the last remnants and your problem is "solved"
Keep doing what you're doing it looks great!
Keep doing what you're doing it looks great!
Chromis
Supporting Member
Since switching to Fritz Salt I've let my alk back down from ~9-9.5dKh to 8.4 since that's what the mix measures, and a few members seem to have had success with lower alk numbers (especially in smaller tanks). I'm getting more convinced that water changes are the single most important thing I can do, so having a better alk match with my Salt mix will be important. Another change, since replacing my hydrometer with a Milwaukee meter, I've realized my salinity was lower than I thought, so I've allowed salinity to slowly drift up from 1.021 (hydrometer read 1.0245) to 1.023 so far. Corals seem happy.
On the livestock front, I still have 5 crabs (I must have removed some molted shells before?)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
On the livestock front, I still have 5 crabs (I must have removed some molted shells before?)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Chromis
Supporting Member
Pink tip birdsnest from the Feb frag swap, from Eric @OnTheReef . I broke this frag a bunch of times before it finally stuck at the top of the reef - it's so delicate that the tips would break when I pushed it into the epoxy putty. It's just starting to recover and look like it has actual pink tips despite all my bumbling!
Chromis
Supporting Member
Over the 4th I installed a Tunze water top-off. We were dosing Ca and alk from pretty diluted mixes and that made up most of the evaporation, but we still needed to add 1-2g a week manually. I couldn't find an off-the-shelf water container that fit my sump and held enough water so I turned back to tap plastics, where I originally bought the materials for my acrylic sump. When I made my sump, I was super cautious and even sealed it with silicone. This time, I was pretty cavalier with the acrylic glue but the box holds water fine. I really recommend trying this.
The OTS box is on the left, custom box on the right:
My sump with the reservoir crammed in the front right - there is literally not an unused inch of space now:
At Tap plastics Mountain View there was a nice assortment of flex tubing and "clownfish slides" for those who've seen that Melev's Reef video:
The OTS box is on the left, custom box on the right:
My sump with the reservoir crammed in the front right - there is literally not an unused inch of space now:
At Tap plastics Mountain View there was a nice assortment of flex tubing and "clownfish slides" for those who've seen that Melev's Reef video:
Wlachnit
Past President
It does smell good...doesn't it though.... [emoji14]
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Chromis
Supporting Member
Three months and no nuisance algae has grown back. Seems the stronger refugium light plus emerald crabs and lots of trochus snails were the key to keeping the rocks clean in this tank. I've been emboldened to start feeding corals in an effort to boost growth, something I never would have tried when bubble algae was everywhere.
Coral reefer
Past President
Nice work. Way to beat it.
