Neptune Aquatics

kinetic Reefer 170

This tank is 3-ish years old now, and it looks basically the same (unfortunately). There's almost no growth on any corals, though they're looking healthy. My magnifica, thank goodness, has not grown either.

Nothing has really died, other than one Varios-4 pump that I had a spare to replace with.

I'm measuring Alk/Ca/Mg weekly, and doing water changes weekly or sometimes every other week. My Skimmer hasn't worked in few months but nitrate/phosphate levels haven't changed either, so I just feel like the skimmer's just been a bit of snake oil while it was "working"

I've never had great success with skimmers anyway, and this NYOS one did seem to consistently pull out gunk, but still not sure if it matters so much.

My tank was doing poorly for awhile when I was using Aquaforest 1+2+3+, but after I switched to the regular B-ionic Alk/CA 2-part, everything was better after a few big water changes. I'm guessing all those trace minerals etc. were building up and not being used.

I'd post a photo, but it looks pretty much like my earlier ones, except the sand is very brown.

That being said, I'm trying to find a tiger tail cucumber to help get my sand white again. I wanted to get one from Liveaquaria, but without a guaranteed size, I'm worried it'll be way too big. Also, long-term, I don't know if it would survive in such a small tank. I'll probably give it away once it's done its' job, and hope I can borrow it back when i need it again ;)

Anyone have a tiger tail they're willing to lend out or let me buy that's fairly small?
 
This tank is 3-ish years old now, and it looks basically the same (unfortunately). There's almost no growth on any corals, though they're looking healthy. My magnifica, thank goodness, has not grown either.

Nothing has really died, other than one Varios-4 pump that I had a spare to replace with.

I'm measuring Alk/Ca/Mg weekly, and doing water changes weekly or sometimes every other week. My Skimmer hasn't worked in few months but nitrate/phosphate levels haven't changed either, so I just feel like the skimmer's just been a bit of snake oil while it was "working"

I've never had great success with skimmers anyway, and this NYOS one did seem to consistently pull out gunk, but still not sure if it matters so much.

My tank was doing poorly for awhile when I was using Aquaforest 1+2+3+, but after I switched to the regular B-ionic Alk/CA 2-part, everything was better after a few big water changes. I'm guessing all those trace minerals etc. were building up and not being used.

I'd post a photo, but it looks pretty much like my earlier ones, except the sand is very brown.

That being said, I'm trying to find a tiger tail cucumber to help get my sand white again. I wanted to get one from Liveaquaria, but without a guaranteed size, I'm worried it'll be way too big. Also, long-term, I don't know if it would survive in such a small tank. I'll probably give it away once it's done its' job, and hope I can borrow it back when i need it again ;)

Anyone have a tiger tail they're willing to lend out or let me buy that's fairly small?
@ofzakaria had some that were multiplying and he was generously sharing, not sure if he still has extra. I got one from him and it has grown Huge but not split yet I don’t think.
 
Kinetic, thanks for all the inspiration. I set up my nem tank after seeing yours and other than the poisonous black sand incident, I enjoy it everyday.
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I just did some major maintenance on the tank, and was thinking of upgrading a little to a 3 foot tank. Waterbox Peninsula.
I’ll setup a 40G breeder temporarily and do the move. I’m pretty sure I can use all the same equipment, especially since my equipment is already a bit overkill for the current tank.
For the 40g breeder I’ll probably just run a HOB filter, my current gyre and my current light. I’ll probably figure out a new wave making solution for the new tank. Maybe another gyre or some vortechs.
 

I'm starting the planning, we'll see if I go ahead with it. I just pulled my 40G breeder out, but I am just starting to remember that I think I used copper in there at some point to help treat some fish. I can't remember, as it's been so long.

I'm thinking of just getting a nice small waterbox peninsula mini, maybe the 10 or 20, and use that as a temporary tank. I might even keep it running afterwards?
 
mine died, after being away for too long last year :/ and it took down other nem with it. :( glad yours still alive, it's still a magnificent beast.
 
I might be remodeling or moving in the next couple of years, so I've decided to NOT upgrade the actual tank.

I got a new light (Reefi Uno), started up the algae reactor again (thanks @Da_Neefer for the chaeto), starting dosing Brightwell Chaetogro, and will be adding two Nero 3 powerheads to vary up the flow once it gets here next week.

I've added two mini colonies and a frag today too, so hoping those do well. I'll have to keep testing Alk/CA to make sure my DOS are keeping up. Any suggestions how often I should check? Maybe every other day? My Alk/Ca consumption has been the same for years now. But with the added coral, I'm assuming I'll need to increase.

Lastly, I'm considering getting a small 11G Fiji Cube tank with the external overflow, and plumbing it into my algae reactor/chiller line. I'm going to try to do a macro garden and potentially get a group of masked gobies in there. Only thing is, if I have fish in there, I'll need another auto feeder (which can be big and bulky). I'm getting an Avast Plank feeder whenever they ship it to me, so wonder if there's enough food that would drift through the system.
 
mine died, after being away for too long last year :/ and it took down other nem with it. :( glad yours still alive, it's still a magnificent beast.

oh damn, sorry to hear! This mag seems to be indestructable for me. I haven't had any big crashes or issues though, but it's survived this whole time. I doubt it'll ever split, but if it does, I'll send one over your way.

When I start up my new tank, I'm going to try to find an extremely nicely colored magnifica. Red foot for sure. I'm just going to start saving up my money now for that thing. Maybe sell some GME shares for it ;)
 
Pictures!

Yeah for sure! I'll bust out the camera after work today. Maybe you guys can also help me out with my sand algae identification. Now that I think about it, maybe it's just really subdued dinoflagellates (that I was plagued with years ago), and I'll have to bust out a microscope to tell for sure, but hopefully, it's just regular algae on the sand.

In the meantime, here's a recent photo of my dog in February when we were up in Oregon (Bend) for a month:
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How did you like the Reefi Uno?

It's good so far. It suits this tank size much better than the Hydra, and there's no glare coming from the fixture which is surprisingly nice. The AI app was really slick, but the Reefi one is functional, so it's all good.

I have to spray paint the case white this weekend, and then it'll look great over the tank!
 
Latest FTS. I forgot how to take good environmental shots, this looks like it has so many hot spots.

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Painted the Reefi Uno light casing white! So much better:

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I could have been more careful with the edges, but you can only see it uneven from the bottom:

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The hanging kit was for my Hydra 52HD, they're lined up perfectly, but these "eyelet" loops on the Reefi are all weird so it sits at an angle. I need to figure out a way to fix this.

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Shades of Fall. This light is really blue...

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Well, last week dinoflagellates came back full steam. My shades of fall fully RTN'd and is totally dead. Sad.

I have zero PE on any corals, and my anemones are completely folded in.

I've been doing a lot of water changes to pull out as much of the dinos as I can.

So basically what changed was:
1. I started tinkering.

I need to do come up with a game plan...
 
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