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Mike and Ashley's 150g reef tank (our first)

I'll take a few trochus please.

Did a 100g water change this weekend and then added 3 cerith, 3 trochus, 3 astrea, and 2 cleaner shrimp with a 4 hour drip acclimation. I now actually have something to watch! The ceriths buried themselves almost immediately. Cleaner shrimp are scurrying about the small rock structure, mostly upside down under the overhangs. Woke up this morning to find 2 ceriths feasting on one of the other snails - the one snail that never moved from where I put it, so it might have been dead when I put it in the tank. Sadly I can't tell the astreas from the trochus now that they are out and about so I don't know which it was.

It looks like I may have burned up or killed some of my chaeto (a section directly under the light was grey and slimy, so I removed it). Green algae is quickly growing only in the refugium - like half the surface of the marine blocks covered in a surface layer of green in just 24 hours. Out of curiosity, I put one of the astrea/trochus(?) in the refugium and in about 3 hours it made a clean patch about 2" in diameter. Hungry little guy. Anyone have any good advice on how to distinguish astrea from trochus other than putting them on their back and seeing if they right themselves - seems mean and I'd have to pull them off the rocks/glass to do so and just don't think that is best for the guys? Internet search had lots of conflicting info.

Ran to Neptune today as my Milwaukee refractomoter was giving me weird readouts and had them test my water. 1.025 on theirs. They also tested ammonia with their Salifert and said I had a trace amount of ammonia <.25. Hmmmm, so much for my API kit reading zero for many days in a row. Nitrate was at 1 mg/L. I hope I don't hurt the critters and that ammonia cycles out ASAP (maybe the dead snail?). I'd feel bad it I thought the cycle was finished and it really wasn't just due to test accuracy and I threw critters in there.

Thanks,
Mike
 
API kits are not that great. I would of just pur another bottle of bottled bacteria and be done with it.
 
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I dumped in some bacteria last night and will continue to add a bit every day for a few days (per instructions on the bottle).

Look what arrived! Seeing the algae bloom that is going on in my refugium, I think I'll start with something like a 1-hour photo period and then start ramping it up over the next several weeks in preparation for fish/corals. Now to figure out how to program them :)

Mitras 1.jpg
 
I think the factory got the win. Even with the discount they gave me, they were still expensive.

Do you have a project for the Mitras that you like? I am thinking of downloading one from the factory site and starting there. 14k, 17k, other?
 
WCKDVPR said:
I think the factory got the win. Even with the discount they gave me, they were still expensive.

Do you have a project for the Mitras that you like? I am thinking of downloading one from the factory site and starting there. 14k, 17k, other?
Click to expand...


I run my own settings. Never really bother with using others.
 
Will do, thanks Vincent! You are probably a better judge of that than I am. Water parameters are oh so close. I think I should pick up a salifert ammonia test kit as the API just doesn't read well at really low levels.

Added a CO2 scrubber with a Tee valve so I can regulate how much air goes through the scrubber and how much straight room air is pulled in (dial-a-pH is the plan), should put this on a solenoid triggered off pH levels from the Apex. Since last night, I saw a bump of about 0.5 on the pH over the normal with a mix of room and scrubbed air. Hovering right about 8.0. All other water parameters are in good shape. Nitrate <1. Ca, Mg, Phos, Alk, salinity all in the desired range.

Regarding the Mitras program, I was just looking for something to get me started. I am reading the manual now.
 
You shouldn't be seeing much change without bioload in there. Nothing putting co2 into the tank except what's in the air in your house.


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I wouldn't worry about the pH until you have lifestock (corals) in there. 8 is perfectly fine. As you get more corals, they will photosynthesis and help bring your pH up during the day and down during the night. Which is why many run reverse cycle on the refugeium.
 
Mines been running 7.85-7.95. Never gets above 7.95, so I was hoping to bump it up to closer to 8.1 with the CO2. I just turned it on to full CO2 to see where it goes. I have a reverse cycle in the refugium, but it is only an H80 light.

I'll worry about something else for now - like keeping the green algae outbreak contained in the refugium when the big lights go on.
 
Threw in a bottle of Dr. Tim's yesterday to try and get over the trace ammonia hump so I can call Vincent and get a coral in my tank. pH was up to 8.1 last night, but I turned off the skimmer when I added the Dr. Tim's and it is back down to 7.95 now.

Green hair algae still contained in the sump with what looks like just a thread or two on one of my powerheads. I have one trochus snail in the refugium and it is doing some damage, but losing ground. Going to pull the marine blocks this weekend and scrub them and also clean the algae off the refugium walls. Maybe buy and then dump a few more snails in the refugium. I'll test all the water parameters tomorrow and see if anything is out of normal range. Trying to avoid an outbreak in the DT.

Chaeto seems to have stopped growing..........not sure why.

Ordered a Stenner 170DMP5 dual head pump with 1/4" tubing to get my automated water changes going. $307 from Locke Well and Pump in FL. 170 gpd flow rate (both heads combined). Planning to run 1.5 hours each Monday, Wednesday, Friday which gives me a 30% water change monthly taking into account dilution (cool calculator here: https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php ). I'll put it in the garage, but still hoping it isn't too loud. I'll report back on the noise level / performance when I get it.
 
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