Alex’s IM 150 EXT

[iani]

I am a bit worried about this becoming an invasive sponge. It was on the plug of a nicer zoa from a frag swap, then attached to the red dragon plug while it was in the frag tank, and when I moved it to the main tank, continued to grow there.

Now, I had increased silicates for a while, which has come down now. So maybe it will slow the growth.

View attachment 79960View attachment 79961

Has the growth on this sponge stalled? I have the same type of sponge that has taken over the bottom of my large rock structure in my tank.

 

[Alexander1312]

Has the growth on this sponge stalled? I have the same type of sponge that has taken over the bottom of my large rock structure in my tank.

It is relatively easy to remove manually, which I did to some extent but not all.

Also, I am trying to lower my silicates significantly which were elevated from some exhausted DI resins a couple of months ago, driving up sponge growth.

In my frag tank, where it originated from (from a frag I got from somewhere), it took over a large part of the frag rack, killed the only zoa I had. I removed all the frag racks since then.

So, the answer is yes, but it needs intervention.

 

[iani]

It is relatively easy to remove manually, which I did to some extent but not all.

Also, I am trying to lower my silicates significantly which were elevated from some exhausted DI resins a couple of months ago, driving up sponge growth.

In my frag tank, where it originated from (from a frag I got from somewhere), it took over a large part of the frag rack, killed the only zoa I had. I removed all the frag racks since then.

So, the answer is yes, but it needs intervention.

Good to know. Unfortunately for me manual removal just isn't all that possible.

 

[Alexander1312]

Good to know. Unfortunately for me manual removal just isn't all that possible.

Starving the tank of silicate might be the better path then. I am currently doing this to get rid of flatworms, but seems to take a while until silicates are no longer detectable (which I had in the past).

 

[Alexander1312]

Until recently, alkalinity remained relatively consistent/stable, but in the past few days has been going up notably, which I do not like.

I decided before I left on vacation to not install dosing pumps which can be remotely controlled, so I am not able to adjust alk dosing amounts.

I thought about what could cause consumption to go down suddenly, since my main concern was for alk levels to drop, not to go up, with us not being in the house.

I also thought that nutrients would most likely be going up which corals should enjoy, possibly utilizing more alk.

Clearly, something is not ideal in the tank.

Looking at my ICP results, it could be that potassium levels dropped too much (from the zeolite), and I believe this can have a bigger impact.

Or, the AquaWiz fell a bit out of calibration, which would be the simplest answer.

5 more days until I am home - hopefully alk levels do NOT go higher than 9 dkh.

 

[rygh]

Alk rising could be many things. Since it is not extreme, quick thoughts are low Calcium or high Phosphate.
But your mention of using zeolites makes me wonder if it could be that becoming saturated.

Seems low risk though. Honestly that dip down near 7 is a lot scarier. Running 8.5 is great, and change from 8 to 8.5 over 2 weeks is stable in my mind.

 

[Alexander1312]

Alk rising could be many things. Since it is not extreme, quick thoughts are low Calcium or high Phosphate.
But your mention of using zeolites makes me wonder if it could be that becoming saturated.

Seems low risk though. Honestly that dip down near 7 is a lot scarier. Running 8.5 is great, and change from 8 to 8.5 over 2 weeks is stable in my mind.

Thank you. Dropping CA and increase in PO4 is a very likely scenario (without testing). The reference to Zeolite is interesting, and something I have not looked at. I have replaced 50% of this before going on vacation so I do not think it should be exhausted at this point.

I had apparently very low PO4 based on recent ICP (vs Hanna), so I prefer to run alk lower, and my preferred range is 7.5 to 8 dkh. The drop in the chart was from a calibration at that time, good catch.

 

[Alexander1312]

Came back from a 20 day vacation on Thursday, and all went well.

Fish did not lose any weight, instead some of them look much bigger now, and this time no single coral loss but some of the additional growth exacerbated the issue with corals stinging each other. Also, torches continue to not like it in this tank, and I need to do something about it - most likely due to too much light and flatworms bothering them.

Nutrients went up as expected - skimmer water level was set intentionally lower - with Nitrates at 25 mg/L and Phosphates 0.24 mg/L.

Cleaned the skimmer and glass immediately when I arrived (after a 20 hour trip), checked salinity, fed the fish. Next day water change and some deeper cleaning of the glass.

This is how the tank looks today (with its new inhabitant, see below). All back to normal.

 

[spuri87]

Came back from a 20 day vacation on Thursday, and all went well.

Fish did not lose any weight, instead some of them look much bigger now, and this time no single coral loss but some of the additional growth exacerbated the issue with corals stinging each other. Also, torches continue to not like it in this tank, and I need to do something about it - most likely due to too much light and flatworms bothering them.

Nutrients went up as expected - skimmer water level was set intentionally lower - with Nitrates at 25 mg/L and Phosphates 0.24 mg/L.

Cleaned the skimmer and glass immediately when I arrived (after a 20 hour trip), checked salinity, fed the fish. Next day water change and some deeper cleaning of the glass.

This is how the tank looks today (with its new inhabitant, see below). All back to normal.

so glad to know that the vacation was drama less.. Tank looks lovely! Great job.. was that Yellow Coris in the box the whole time you were out?

 

[Alexander1312]

Main issue continues to be the flatworms. The torches really seem to hate them, and I need to do something now.

Previously, I added a melanurus wrasse, no success, a mandarin, not sure, and a springeri damsel, pretty but useless when it comes to flatworms.

My last hope all rests now with this tiny fella, whose brothers or sisters seemed to have done amazing work at Casey’s and Gerry’s tanks.

I got him today from @under_water_ninja - and he is waiting until the melanurus wrasse goes to sleep to leave his acclimation box - @spuri87 FYI.

For the record, I have a very large acclimation box but decided to put him in the small one for the day/afternoon only, since I could not add sand to it, and since they sleep in the sand, will release him tonight already.

Hope all goes well since my fish - specifically the massive borb anthias, are not friendly, to say the least.

 

[spuri87]

Beautiful specimen.. I have one in my tank who teams up with the radiant wrasse and investigates and clean any new frags I add to the tank.. you do have enough sand (I see the base of the tank on one side, may need to adjust that wavemaker a little), I am pretty sure it will do well in your tank and hopefully take care of the flatworms as it did for @gmdcdvm

 

[gmdcdvm]

Good luck!!!! Post an update.

 

[Darkxerox]

Main issue continue to be the flatworms. The torches really seem to hate them, and I need to do something now.

Previously, I added a melanurus wrasse, no success, a mandarin, not sure, and a springeri damsel, pretty but useless when it comes to flatworms.

My last hope all rests now with this tiny fella, whose brothers or sisters seemed to have done amazing work at Casey’s and Gerry’s tanks.

I got him today from @under_water_ninja - and he is waiting until the melanurus wrasse goes to sleep to leave his acclimation box - @spuri87 FYI.

For the record, I have a very large acclimation box but decided to put him in the small one for the day/afternoon only, since I could not add sand to it, and since they sleep in the sand, will release him tonight already.

Hope all goes well since my fish - specifically the massive borb anthias, are not friendly, to say the least.

Glad the tank did well! They grow fast so curious if it stays productive as it becomes larger.

 

[Alexander1312]

In my lifelong pursuit of improving skimmer performance, I made two changes recently.

1. I stopped using ozone - for now.

2. I added an automated skimmer cup cleaner.

Not using ozone (at least temporarily) was a big step for me as I really believe using this is a beneficial and cheap method to improve water quality. However, I did not get the foam I wanted and felt the skim mate was not dark enough despite various efforts to change settings.

After not using ozone for over a week now, visual skimmer performance seems to have improved notably, and I am seeing the desired foam and skim mate coloration I was looking for. Whether this improves nitrate reduction will have to be determined in the next few weeks.

Also, while in Germany, I purchased this automated skimmer cup cleaner (custom built for the DELTEC 1000i), the only one I am aware of which is ozone safe (currently no longer needed haha). It was also cheaper (130 EUR) compared to others on the market.

I also added a custom add-on on top of the cleaner module which can hold activated carbon to remove odor or residual ozone. This is also something that, to my knowledge, does not exist on the market, i.e., the combination of an automated neck cleaner and carbon holding module.

Unfortunately, it did not work out of the box, which might be a design flaw, or intentional (waiting for a response from them), but I was able to resolve it - see YT short below.

 

[Alexander1312]

For the longest time, I had both gyres mounted on one site, and the flow set to random.

I moved now one gyre back to the other site as I started to see dead sports within torches on one end.

Also, I found out that random flow in Hydros is not recommended for Gyre use.

I played around with Gemini, considering corals and tank size, and gyre maintenance schedule (12 weeks), peak lighting, and overall light schedule, and landed on the following, for now [posted on the Hydros forum to see if others had other recommendations].

 

[Alexander1312]

Did not know it was so easy to create a standing wave with Hydros / Maxpect XF350s.

This is how setting no. 3 above looks like.

 

[Alexander1312]

I gave in and reinstalled a CO2 scrubber…

A few months ago, I saw this nicely designed scrubber from Aquaforest.

However, it cost an arm and a leg on BRS (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/af-air-scrubber-aquaforest.html), given what it does.

I specifically like the easily removable/refillable water section at the bottom, but time will tell how much this will help increase media usage.

I found the scrubber for 40 EUR while I was in Germany and only needed to fit it into my suitcase.

 

[Alexander1312]

FarmerTy Lava Lamp Goniopora from @dandemeyere added to the tank just now.

Let’s see how she likes in there.

 

[Alexander1312]

This hobby is not getting cheaper, but I was shocked how much these IM tanks increased in price over the past 2.5 years.

I was looking for replacement nozzles for this tank and saw it was on 50% sale again, as they often are. I also bought it when it was 50% off - but was ready to ship immediately at that time.

A 38% increase in price over this time period, approx. 15% annualized (2.5 years)

This is how much I paid for it on Nov 1, 2023:



This is how much it costs today, excl 400 USD tax, which needs to be added.

 

[Alexander1312]

New member of the tank.

Copperband Butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus)

A bit of a risk, but a beautiful fish I was not planning to add to my tank.

Eats frozen food already (aiptasia should not be in the tank).

Yellow tang is not too happy. Need to think of something: Keep longer in the acclimation box / mirror / add to the tank at night / other methods?

Thanks so much for this, @dandemeyere