High Tide Aquatics

Mozby's Noob Nano Reef (Nuvo 20)

Episode 2 - First tank inhabitants 2/11/18
  • Installed spin stream on one of the return nozzles. It had an annoying clicking sound in the beginning but also broke-in and has quietened down significantly.

make sure you keep an eye on it, mines randomly stopped spinning until i took it apart and cleaned it.
 
2/19/18 - First rookie mistake and good lesson on mushrooms

Bought a blue discosoma mushroom and made a really dumb mistake. I was trying to be extra cautious about not letting hitchhikers into my tank, so I typically try to remove coral from any rock they came attached to and glue it onto my own rock. Oops, didn't know I couldn't do that with a mushroom. In the following days the mushroom kept flying off the new rock even though I superglued it (now I know you just can't do that with mushrooms). On top of that, it was all shriveled up and mucusing. Pretty sure this was gonna be my first killed coral. So I called the LFS, told them what happened and they told me to put it in a basket with little rocks and give it time to attach itself to one. I used a little basket that you get from buying strawberries at the farmer's market and my wife sewed on cheese cloth around it (lol). Then I used a clip to attach it to the side of the tank with the least flow. Hope it lives!

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2/19/18 - First rookie mistake and good lesson on mushrooms

Bought a blue discosoma mushroom and made a really dumb mistake. I was trying to be extra cautious about not letting hitchhikers into my tank, so I typically try to remove coral from any rock they came attached to and glue it onto my own rock. Oops, didn't know I couldn't do that with a mushroom. In the following days the mushroom kept flying off the new rock even though I superglued it (now I know you just can't do that with mushrooms). On top of that, it was all shriveled up and mucusing. Pretty sure this was gonna be my first killed coral. So I called the LFS, told them what happened and they told me to put it in a basket with little rocks and give it time to attach itself to one. I used a little basket that you get from buying strawberries at the farmer's market and my wife sewed on cheese cloth around it (lol). Then I used a clip to attach it to the side of the tank with the least flow. Hope it lives!

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I made that same mistake :( except mine never reattached while in a cup


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Except for my tank... and yumas and rhodactises. :(

Discosoma shrooms are extremely indistructable

Rhodactises are typically indestructible except for when they get into a flow dead spot or get pressed by a rock or plug (same effect)... they'll turn goo overnight and melt in a hurry.

And yumas are just bad. Sensitive to strong light and changes... and toxic like no other... my dead nem is a good example...just from contact
 
2/23/18 - Diatoms, Phosphates in water

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Brown dust has invaded my sand. Diatoms? Nitrates were reading <2ppm.

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My Hanna ULR Phosphorus Checker finally arrived, so I began testing for PO4. To my surprise, phosphates were 0.086ppm. At this point I had only the corals mentioned above and no fish yet. I was ghost feeding a few pellets as well but we're talking about 3 pellets a day. Also, at this point I was getting both pre-mixed saltwater and RO/DI from LFS. Decided to test those out and discovered the saltwater read 0.028ppm and RO/DI read 0.015. Not sure why the PO4 is this high from the source, but figured this was a good a reason as any to start looking into getting my own RO/DI system.

Meanwhile, I ran a half dose of GFO in the reactor to try to bring it down.
 
I swear the first one is not a BTA...


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Haha yeah I’ve noticed it looks “non-traditional”. It exhibits classic nem traits though i.e moving around on its foot and occasionally anchoring into a nook on the rock. Maybe @capescuba could shed some light on this particular breed of BTA.


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The reading on the new water are likely within the margin of error for that meter...pretty low.
I got the ULR phosphorus checker because it was more accurate on low readings than the phosphate checker. Is there a better instrument on the market?
 
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Look at the accuracy of it

It's ±5 ppb ±5% of Phosphorus reading.

Which would put saltwater mix phosphates from lfs between 0.012 and 0.043. And RO/DI is would range from 0 to 0.028. There really shouldn't be any phosphates in RO/DI (and I'd argue saltwater mix too) otherwise topping off with that stuff just keeps putting more and more PO4 in. Sure it's not that high, but it's cumulative and then you're forced to export it somehow.
 
3/6/18 - First Fish + Updates

First Fish
Picked up a tailspot blenny! Put him in QT and he was hella stressed out. Hopefully the methylene blue dip wasn't too much for him. Guess I gotta name him eventually...
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Side note: I picked a blenny because of its personality and that it eats algae off rock, but also because I saw that it had great coloration. However, I haven't seen this coloration in person yet. Do they eventually develop those colors, or is it a specific breed, or was it photoshopped?? Here is a pic with those great colors...
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Temp Controller
Installed an Inkbird as a fail-safe against the heater. No chiller yet though. Do I need one for a 20g tank?
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Blue Disco Mushroom Update (rookie strikes again!)
The good news - the mushroom anchored itself on a piece of rubble rock!
The bad news - after I mounted the rock, I messed with it some more (trimming the rock and attempting to remove the superglue oozing out) and it got dislodged again!!
Man, it was not a happy camper. I really didn't feel like putting it in the basket again, so I just placed it on an upward facing nook in the main rock where it wouldn't get blown away by the flow. To save everyone from suspense (lol), fast forward to a couple weeks later and the mushroom is doing great! Just not an ideal location but oh well...
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Phosphates Update
PO4 dropped down to 0.018ppm. I removed the GFO for the time being. Does anyone run GFO constantly?
 
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