Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef
- Thread starter wpeterson
- Start date
wpeterson
Guest
I'm sorry to hear that. Keep it simple and stick to the fundamentals. If your water filter has been giving you trouble, it might not be terrible to use tapwater with a conditioner and switch to filtered water when you have your system up and running. Excess nutrients and additives are more of a problem in topoff water or dosing than in main tank water or water change water.
Good luck and thanks for the kind words.
Enderturtle
Guest
wpeterson
Guest
Thanks! Those guys are some of my favorite corals in this tank. The smaller acan was nursed back from a bad place, but has recovered completely and is growing well. Other than being smaller than my original colony, you wouldn't know the difference. I hope it can find a home in @Corallus new tank once it's all cycled and settled, maybe in a month or two.
wpeterson
Guest
We have kept two small starfish in our tank for 6-7 months now but both have disappeared in the last week. I believe they have died :-/
I had hoped we had enough algae and biofilms to feed them, but it's difficult to know. I fear they did not get enough to eat and may have faded away, but both disappeared around the same time. Either that, or one of the fish or inverts found a way to eat them. I'm doubtful of predation, I suspect they were not getting enough to eat.
I had hoped we had enough algae and biofilms to feed them, but it's difficult to know. I fear they did not get enough to eat and may have faded away, but both disappeared around the same time. Either that, or one of the fish or inverts found a way to eat them. I'm doubtful of predation, I suspect they were not getting enough to eat.
MolaMola
Supporting Member
Bummer. Those were cool starfish. I suspect you are right about food. We have a serpent and brittle star and they eat little chunks of fish meat. They can move surprisingly fast to compete with crabs and peppermint shrimp for food. Maybe some stars eat biofilm, though.
jonmos75
Supporting Member
I have had it where I have not found my conch for over two weeks....so they still could show up, but if they don't .....they don't...no worries on my starfish, yes it is a bummer but I know it had nothing to do with the care you were giving them!!!!
Enderturtle
Guest
Awesome glad to hear they replaced your vortech.
i wonder what kind of response i would get from Jebao if I tried getting Jebao to replace my mp-10.
i wonder what kind of response i would get from Jebao if I tried getting Jebao to replace my mp-10.
wpeterson
Guest
We run some cheap LED moonlight, 3x strips of three actinic TrueLumen LEDs mounted externally on each of our Kessil A350 lights. They've been a good value for how cheap they are, but I've had to replace some.
This weekend I replaced the central set of moonlights, which were flickering on and off for the last week or so. I verified the wiring and tried to cool the existing unit off without any impact, but the new unit worked perfectly once I replaced it. This is the second time the LED strip in this location has failed, about every 6 months or so.
The central A350 is the oldest unit, which was having cooling problems over the last week until I blasted out the cooling fan with compressed air. I think that perhaps the extra heat from the Kessil was enough to cook the LED moonlights on the exterior.
This weekend I replaced the central set of moonlights, which were flickering on and off for the last week or so. I verified the wiring and tried to cool the existing unit off without any impact, but the new unit worked perfectly once I replaced it. This is the second time the LED strip in this location has failed, about every 6 months or so.
The central A350 is the oldest unit, which was having cooling problems over the last week until I blasted out the cooling fan with compressed air. I think that perhaps the extra heat from the Kessil was enough to cook the LED moonlights on the exterior.
MolaMola
Supporting Member
Little update - the Hollywood Stunner and birdsnest from your tank are looking great in the classroom tank! Students still question whether they are alive and animals. Just today reef club students started drafting their Backup Reef welcome letter, which you will be receiving in the coming weeks.
I sure enjoyed seeing your tank (and cutie daughter). Can't believe how quiet your system is!
I sure enjoyed seeing your tank (and cutie daughter). Can't believe how quiet your system is!
wpeterson
Guest
Thanks! I'm glad to hear the coral are doing well. Having the tank in our living room is a good motivator to solve noise problems
Vhuang168
Guest
Make sure to give that stunner room. Just saw sweepers from the frag @wpeterson gave me that were at least 6" long!
MolaMola
Supporting Member
What?! Do the sweepers come out at night? I had no idea. Tank is at school so no one is there to see. : ( However, yesterday we set up a webcam so once we get it dialed in I can spy on the chalice. I need to search and find out what people do to see at night. I could always turn on the lights suddenly via Apex Fusion. heh heh Thanks for the heads-up about the sweepers. I definitely have it too close to a torch. Where do those sweepers come from, the green mouths? That thing is not at all fleshy.
wpeterson
Guest
Chalices as a whole can be very aggressive. This stunner is no exception, each of the fluorescent green "eyes" (polyps) will release 1-3" sweepers an hour or two after dark and can damage surrounding corals if they're in reach.
Like most marine aggression, it's generally the most intense against con-specifics - so chalices are the most aggressive against other chalices of a slightly different species.
wpeterson
Guest
I noticed the chaeto in my refugium grew so much that 1/2" of dead chaeto had risen above the surface (it'd grown down to the bottom and was pushing up out of the water). I culled about 1-1.5 cubic feet of chaeto today, so now the fuge is back to being half full. It seems my experiment running higher phosphate has contributed to much faster chaeto growth. I also moved some trochus snails down to the sump because I'm worried there hasn't been enough nuisance algae for them to eat in the display. This is all well and good except when one manages to get sucked into and block the inlet to the skimmer (the inlet is almost the same size as their shell).
I finally got my MP40wES back from ecotech service with a new MP40wQD wetside and set it up today. I was horrified to see the wetside immediately fly off the glass when powered up 2-3 times. Upon inspection, the propeller was totally seized with some kind of thick white grease that has congealed around the propeller shaft. I gave it a vinegar bath and used a little vegetable glycerine to lube it up and it's working fine now. Perhaps the intense cold caused freshly applied lube to solidify during shipping?
I'm glad to have both powerheads working again and running in anti-sync mode to provide more flow and a proper random flow around the tank. Hopefully this will lead to happier SPS. I've had less PE and color since dropping back to a single powerhead over the last month.
I finally got my MP40wES back from ecotech service with a new MP40wQD wetside and set it up today. I was horrified to see the wetside immediately fly off the glass when powered up 2-3 times. Upon inspection, the propeller was totally seized with some kind of thick white grease that has congealed around the propeller shaft. I gave it a vinegar bath and used a little vegetable glycerine to lube it up and it's working fine now. Perhaps the intense cold caused freshly applied lube to solidify during shipping?
I'm glad to have both powerheads working again and running in anti-sync mode to provide more flow and a proper random flow around the tank. Hopefully this will lead to happier SPS. I've had less PE and color since dropping back to a single powerhead over the last month.
wpeterson
Guest
I've been struggling to raise our phosphate. Even after cutting back on the amount of GFO media and frequency of water changes, phosphate was < 0.01 ppm (6 ppb ULR) when I measured last night. Our refugium grows chaeto out of control on our 10 hour reverse light cycle (midnight to 10am). I think the refugium may just be too effective at nutrient export so I've cut the light cycle down to 8 hours as a test.
I've been growing about a cubic foot of chaeto every 3-4 weeks now. Tossing most of it, but let me know if you want any.
I made a DIY silencer for our protein skimmer which did a lot to reduce the bubbling air noise, but restricted air flow too much. I think this made the skimmer less effective. I broke down and bought a Reef Octopus silencer unit and it's way better - dead silent but still flows complete air flow. Best $25 I've spent on the tank recently.
I've been growing about a cubic foot of chaeto every 3-4 weeks now. Tossing most of it, but let me know if you want any.
I made a DIY silencer for our protein skimmer which did a lot to reduce the bubbling air noise, but restricted air flow too much. I think this made the skimmer less effective. I broke down and bought a Reef Octopus silencer unit and it's way better - dead silent but still flows complete air flow. Best $25 I've spent on the tank recently.