got ethical husbandry?

Ray's 125G Softie Tank

Short-term:
  • Remove some of the brown leather corals on top left (anyone want some? it grows like a weed in my tank)
  • Cut the gorgonian in a couple of pieces and add to the left side
  • I found two mushrooms from the old larger ones that I removed that like low light. I expect them to grow in the shade.
  • Reorganize under the tank (move the RO/DI back into the garage)
  • Fix the leaks (maybe? mainly just salt creep, but it is creaping more than it used to)
  • Add a new skimmer with a drain setup on the collection cup (maybe) [I hate my skimmer it goes from no skim to liquid skim too easily, hard to adjust)
  • Add a Neptune controller (tank is currently controllerless since my Digital Aquatics died in a power outage)
  • Add some Marine One blocks in the sump. I think I need more rock to help get the Nitrates lower than 40ppm.
Long-term:

Thinking about upgrading to a 160G along the window. This tank goes into the garage as a just-for-fun projects tank.
 
My Cheato, which used to grow prolifically, no longer seems to be growing, at least I have not had to export any in the last 4 months. I am thinking there is some limiting factor. Maybe iron? I am going to try dosing some Brightwells Iron + Manganese. I used to dose this when I had seahorses and a lot of macro algae and the stuff grew well.

Any other ideas?
 
Nice looking tank already; I look forward to following your changes. In December I started considering starting up a small softie tank this spring because of tanks like yours. What sort of lighting do you have?
 
MolaMola said:
Nice looking tank already; I look forward to following your changes. In December I started considering starting up a small softie tank this spring because of tanks like yours. What sort of lighting do you have?
Click to expand...
I have two RapidLED Corona's but they are set to 25%, so they are overkill for my tank.
 
Fragged and moved the gorgonian. Cleaned up the sump. Removed the broken Digital Aquatics stuff and mounted the power cords outside the tank. Sump area is much cleaner. Next step is to upgrade to an Apex and upgrade the sump light to a Kessil H380 Halo II.

Tank2019-01-06.jpg
Sump2019-01-06.jpg
Tank-power.jpg
 
Made some changes to this tank. I am still trying to figure out why my polyp extension is not what it used to be.

I replaced my skimmer with a Reef Octopus 200INT Elite. It is much quieter and I get better control.

I added a Skimz BR87 biopellet reactor and finally got my Nitrates down to 0 from 40.

I removed the cabbage coral and redid the aquascape. I did not like the cabbage coral but I still kept a frag in the weir.

I added a Tunze 6105 for additional flow.

I also sent a sample to Triton to see if a trace element is off.

Otherwise:

Salinity 1.025 sg
Alk 8.1 dkh
Calcium 450ppm
Nitrates 0ppm
Phosphate 0.05ppm
pH 8.1
Temp 77
Magnesium 1300ppm

d922ff1798a5af5b6350fc7ca7de66bd.jpg
 
Soft tanks are the best, while SPS tanks have some zen bonsai garden feel to them, soft tanks are just sitting back and watching the forest level of relaxation.
 
Got my Trinton Report. Not too bad considering I change the water about once every 6 weeks or so and this tank has been up continuously since the end of 2012 (~6.5 years)

These are the ones Triton said to worry about:
  • Magnesium is a bit low. I have not dosed it in a while.
  • Lithium is high, not sure why.
  • Iron is high because I dosed it. Looks like I did not need to.
  • Phosphates are high because I overfeed.
  • Potassium is a bit low.
  • Boron is smidgen low.
Triton Test 2019-04-06.jpg
 
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