Cali Kid Corals

In the beginning...

So I finally got around to testing my water to see where it was at from being gone for 3 weeks.

Alk 10.1 - a bit higher than the 8 that I normally keep it at. I’m not sure why but it might have to do with the clam dying.
Ca 593 - again a bit high. I usually shoot for between 450 and 500.
Mg 1500
No3 2.0
Po4 .06

I was surprised the nitrate and phosphate was so low since I had a bunch of gha that I came back to. I think I figured out why there was so much though. Remember my apex had been giving me these really high temp readings and I realized that my sump light has a line in the code to turn it off if the temp gets above 80 degrees. So it turns out it only came on a few times for short periods of time while I was gone. At least it was enough that it didn’t die off.
 
I noticed this morning an orange patch on my back glass. I thought it looked strange for coraline so I looked closer. They are clown fish eggs. Then I was watching my firefish and they darted into their cave and I noticed they had laid eggs too.
572D2F5C-4EB9-4F68-9FC5-F516C4FC08DF.jpeg

They may be hard to make out but they’re pretty much right in the middle. I saw another batch previously and thought I had some bubble algae but then they disappeared and now they’re back.
 
Flagg37 said:
I noticed this morning an orange patch on my back glass. I thought it looked strange for coraline so I looked closer. They are clown fish eggs. Then I was watching my firefish and they darted into their cave and I noticed they had laid eggs too.
View attachment 8770
They may be hard to make out but they’re pretty much right in the middle. I saw another batch previously and thought I had some bubble algae but then they disappeared and now they’re back.
Click to expand...

Cool. Congrats!


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I had a closed loop once. Used too much power, so switched back to powerheads.

Also, bulkheads in the bottom of a tank are high risk.
If things move a bit, they can shift and leak. And you have to completely empty the tank to fix them right.


You can put a small float switch in the top of display tank.
Have that control an electronic valve, so it closes automatically as water level drops.
It can fail also, but at least extra redundancy.

But my main suggestion:
Have the overflow area be fully top to bottom.
You can then run all pipes through bottom of overflow area.
Run return up above surface level, then back down, and out to tank part.
 
rygh said:
I had a closed loop once. Used too much power, so switched back to powerheads.

Also, bulkheads in the bottom of a tank are high risk.
If things move a bit, they can shift and leak. And you have to completely empty the tank to fix them right.


You can put a small float switch in the top of display tank.
Have that control an electronic valve, so it closes automatically as water level drops.
It can fail also, but at least extra redundancy.

But my main suggestion:
Have the overflow area be fully top to bottom.
You can then run all pipes through bottom of overflow area.
Run return up above surface level, then back down, and out to tank part.
Click to expand...
That’s a great idea. There would still need to be a siphon break where the return was plumbing was at its highest point but I can face it down ward and have the spray go directly into the overflow. I had a similar idea but I had made it super complicated. This is way better.
 
So here’s something nice and a bit in expected. My skimmer hasn’t been skimming a whole lot since nutrients are pretty low but I’ve been keeping it on for the gas exchange. I recently tried having it come on only when my sump light is off. My thinking was that that way I’d have some nutrient export going on all the time just from two sources.

My sump light is on from 6:00pm through the night until 10:00am (16 hrs.). My skimmer is then on during the day from 10:00am to 6:00pm (8 hrs.). Nutrient export seems to be just fine so far but it’s only been a couple days, but check it my ph.
47F112AB-7757-4341-9D9F-BB91E97F995D.png


Who would have thought?
 
Flagg37 said:
So here’s something nice and a bit in expected. My skimmer hasn’t been skimming a whole lot since nutrients are pretty low but I’ve been keeping it on for the gas exchange. I recently tried having it come on only when my sump light is off. My thinking was that that way I’d have some nutrient export going on all the time just from two sources.

My sump light is on from 6:00pm through the night until 10:00am (16 hrs.). My skimmer is then on during the day from 10:00am to 6:00pm (8 hrs.). Nutrient export seems to be just fine so far but it’s only been a couple days, but check it my ph.
View attachment 8848

Who would have thought?
Click to expand...

Is your sump area will ventilated? Could there be a build up of co2 at night that is limiting good gas exchange at night? Maybe try running the skimmer with the door open for a few nights and see if it improves pH.
 
PH makes no sense to me.
Other thought: With less nutrient export, the algae may be growing better, and that means less CO2, more O2.

Otherwise perhaps measurement issues.
Micro bubbles or stray voltage from skimmer are messing with PH probe?
 
RandyC said:
Is your sump area will ventilated? Could there be a build up of co2 at night that is limiting good gas exchange at night? Maybe try running the skimmer with the door open for a few nights and see if it improves pH.
Click to expand...
I’m not trying to improve it. It already increased dramatically from what it was.

You can see it averaging about 7.95 the days before when the skimmer still ran 24 hours a day. Then when I switched to only running it when my fuge light was off it increased it to about 8.2+.

rygh said:
PH makes no sense to me.
Other thought: With less nutrient export, the algae may be growing better, and that means less CO2, more O2.

Otherwise perhaps measurement issues.
Micro bubbles or stray voltage from skimmer are messing with PH probe?
Click to expand...
My ph probe is ahead of my skimmer and my stray voltage is only 0.002.
 
Flagg37 said:
I’m not trying to improve it. It already increased dramatically from what it was.

You can see it averaging about 7.95 the days before when the skimmer still ran 24 hours a day. Then when I switched to only running it when my fuge light was off it increased it to about 8.2+.


My ph probe is ahead of my skimmer and my stray voltage is only 0.002.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm trying to explain what's happening, because the pH changing that dramatically is weird. I don't think cheato alone could make it swing to that degree. I'm throwing a random idea out that maybe a CO2 build in sump area was actually dumping more co2 into water at night than oxygenating it if co2 was building up because the cabinet is well sealed?

Far fetched, but like I said, you pH change looks weird. I was suggesting running skimmer with door open to see if pH goes from that 7.95 you used to see to the 8.2+ you're seeing now.
 
It’s been a while since my last post and there have been some changes in preparation for the tank being broken down.

I’ve been trying to catch fish with my massive rock structure still in the tank and it hasn’t been working. So I decided to remove it to make it easier. I removed the remaining corals, disconnected my lights and flipped my mount up so that I could remove it.

Here’s what I still need to sell...
Coral beauty $60
Ocellarus clown fish $20
Starry blenny $20
Long spine urchin $30
2x turbo snail $5
Purple sponge colony $60

I also have my rock work that was made by jester six that I’m selling ($300), and my zebra moray eel ($150), and his cave ($100).

Lastly, is my marine pure block (8x8x4) $40
 
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