Richie's Reefer 170

[richiev]

This is both my intro post and my tank journal post. I'm setting up a reefer 170 that I bought off of @Eugene, who also introduced me to the club. I've been out of the hobby for about 12 years now, previously getting pretty deep into it with a 100 gallon long reef tank when I lived in Chicago suburbs. For awhile I ran ReefLines (.com) which actually was very similar to what DBTC is. That focus was aquaculture lineages, tracking pictures of frags/fish over time, across frags/tanks, and gathering info on success/failures in doing so. Ideally helping push towards aquaculture, so people could see how far from wild capture certain lineages were, and swap. If anyone here has been around long enough, it was featured on Glass Box Design, which in sad isn't a site anymore. Maybe someday I can help @svreef on DBTC.

Back in the day I got out of the hobby after a moving incident in which I lost it all, and took that as a sign to get out of the hobby. My car broke down while doing the final move of fish, corals, and rock to a new apartment and ... death. I can still see Mani my Mandarin dragonette, whom I had trained to eat selcon covered mysis, floating around at the top of the water in power head current in a Rubbermaid.

I can't say what really got me back into it recently, but I decided to jump back in and here I am with another tank journal.

As previously mentioned this is a Reefer 170. The stand currently has a layer of stick on wallpaper on the front to break up the whiteness (wife contribution). That'll likely stay but probably with a shelf attached (maybe driftwood attached with magnets). I'm not sure exactly which direction I'll go with it, and still might change up the scape a bit.

I'll likely have the front rock be a rico island. It just so happened the powerhead blew the sand out from there, and I'm thinking of intentionally leaving it that way and having the island with ricos fronted by some GSP taking over the bottom glass (maybe with a hidden slab of acrylic for easier removal later).

The rear island I may do a standing LPS, like a torch. Again with the GSP possibility on the back wall behind it. Alternatively I'll do something low light and put a plating monti stuck to the rear wall above and against the overflow, but that might mess up the visual angles.

The center piece is pretty TBD. Maybe an acro near the top. Hopefully some encrusting Montis (sunset monti being my fav from before). Hopefully work in a plating one.

Livestock wise, I'm trying to generally avoid going for rate versus focusing on simpler and nice. That includes the corals, eg I love a nice orange plating monti, but moreso for the fish, but that's hard to say due to the small tank size limiting options.

My current plan is:
* a pair of clowns (maybe the Mocha Gladiators). I'm extremely bummed that the pair of snowflakes at Neptune that looked like puzzle pieces got bought before I could get them. My tank just wasn't cycled enough for me to buy them Monday, and they wouldn't let me pay and hold them :'(, but understandable ... @robert4025 if you get another set of these please let me know. Check out this guy:

* purple firefish -- I currently have this one that I picked this up from Neptune Thursday and have it in an isolation/semi-QR tank (which I'll discuss later)

* Probably a lawnmower blenny or similar algae eater
* TBDs (maybe a sixline for bug prevention)
* Some day, if I get a fuge running strongly and a big pod population, I'd like to add another Mandarin. I feel the tank is a bit small though, and the sixline might screw that up too.
* A Clown Trigger (j/k, just checking if anyone reads this far)
* Clean up crew, probably including a peppermint shrimp

Anyway, that's the intro. Feel free to critique any of it, including the scape. I look forward to chatting!

 

[richiev]

Oh, and since a video is worth a thousand images, here's a quick video showing the scape better:

 

[Rcruz392]

Tank looks great so far, welcome back to the hobby!

 

[richiev]

February update, I've got a handful of coral in here transferred from isolation, and now a handful of fish. So far things are going pretty well, except for the unfortunate loss of one of my Davinci Grade B clowns who jumped and I didn't find him earlier. I hate this ugly diy cover I made, but I haven't decided which acrylic one to buy yet, and I really want to just build one.

The tank itself everything is growing healthy in. The fish are a lot bigger than when I got them, all the corals are encrusting and growing out, and I just have a bit of cyano on the rocks at the moment.

Current stock list:
* CUC made up of snails and a tiger conch
* Biota Radial Filefish
* Biota Court Jester Goby
* Gooby the Purple Firefish (after a successful fluke treatment)
* One Davinci Grade B Clown (I prefer the B's striping)

Going forward I'm planning on getting another clown, either another B or a snowflake if I can find another puzzle piece looking one. I also had planned on a wrasse of some sort, possibly a pink striped or possum, unless I decide to roll my luck on a 6-line (I previously have had them successfully).

I also have had an eventual plan to get a captive bred Mandarin, which I'll get into in more detail in a separate post/update involving the feeder I acquired and my fuge plans. They've been my favorite for awhile.

Angle shots

Shroom Island

Some of the sps

Acan Island

 

[richiev]

A couple more pics. There's a bunch of corals in here that came from the generosity of @H2OPlayar, along with shrooms from @phc567 and @Meshmez.

I had much of this in my little frag tank, but slowly moved it over, and then quickly moved it all over about 2 weeks ago. I had an oops with an accidental big Ca dose in that frag tank which caused some lightening (not quite bleaching), so I moved it all over. I was using an old, empty, bulk Kh jug as a RODI reservoir for my diy ATO. Well, one day I refilled the reservoir and put it back. Guess which of these bottles I used:

A couple days later I was wondering why the coral weren't looking great. I kept doing water changes thinking maybe a snail died or something. Then I was cleaning up my water station and thought, that's weird, why isn't there another jug of dosing stuff here. Then I had an "oh shit" moment. I'd dosed probably half that Ca jug into the 10 gallon frag tank as ATO water. I did some water changes, but eventually just pulled almost everything out and put it in the display. I lost two monti caps, but everything else just got some bleaching.

 

[richiev]

Future add will be this mocha davinci clown that is currently in isolation after buying him last weekend. He's a replacement for the other half of my Davinci pair which unfortunately went carpet surfing. This guy has a thing going on with his mouth which I'm treating with Rally. I think it might just be from him having gotten some damage attacking the glass while being dripped, and similarly when getting a freshwater + methylene blue dip before going in. However I'm treating it as a bacterial issue just in case (I have a humble fish thread on the topic).

Here's the diy mesh lid. These are a fucking nightmare to put together, because of the rear overflow. The lid is inset into the aquarium through some edge pieces I 3d printed in clear plastic with a lip. I need to replace the mesh because I ripped it in a fit of anger, but I'm pretty happy with it now.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Only the healthiest seem to make that life altering choice!
Nice top...it was worth the effort

 

[richiev]

I'm pretty happy with the current state of my tank. I've had some ups and downs recently with it, but currently it's in up mode. Some recent light bleaching (I'm blaming Reef Roids), but things are healthy now and growing out well.

Video version:

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Nice Escher!
Tank looks good too

 

[richiev]

Current fish stock:
* Clown pair (captive bred): mochavinci & davinci grade B (mocha should become the female)
* Purple Firefish (wild): Gooby's story (had flukes when I got him)
* Radial Filefish (Biota, captive)
* Court Jester (Biota)
* Coral Beauty angel (from a rehoming): just added from isolation today

I'm probably considering the tank full in terms of fish.

The beauty and firefish are full grown, but the other fish are all small still. When I got them they were all very small. Especially the Biota ones which I ordered direct from Biota. The filefish and the jester were too small to even eat mysis. I fed the jester a ton of pods and had it eating a bit of Calanus, however he doesn't really eat anything from me anymore and instead self feeds from pods. I was nervous for awhile but he's always got a full belly, is growing, and occasionally eats mysis so I'm happy now.

The filefish was very difficult initially, because it was too small to eat even mysis, and wasn't interested in calanus type offerings. The only thing I could get was crushed up pellets (even the smallest pellets were way too big). Eventually I got lucky and found he'd eat Mastick stuck to the side of the tank. That was such a happy moment. Now he's grown enough he eats mysis and can eat some partially crushed pellets.

The beauty I probably wouldn't have gotten, both because of the tank size and the risk of coral eating, but someone was looking to re-home as part of a teardown it and I figured I'd take a chance. If it goes awry I'll rehome, but I also have plans to get a bigger tank so that's plan B.

Coral issues I'll cover in another update, but I've had some issues which I'm not sure what exactly to blame on. Possibly phosphate issues from Reef Roids or Phyto dosing, possible phosphate:nitrate imbalance from adding a fuge, possibly some undefined water contaminant, possibly my tank not liking All For Reef, who knows but things are on the upswing.

 

[Chromis]

Coral beauties are one of my fav fish. Hope it works out!

Hmm another Masstick success story. Kind of motivates me to get mine off the shelf and try it again.

 

[richiev]

Coral beauties are one of my fav fish. Hope it works out!

Hmm another Masstick success story. Kind of motivates me to get mine off the shelf and try it again.

I've found it to be great for fish that have difficult eating patterns. The filefish couldn't chase down much food, and had such a small mouth it wasn't able to pull much in. The Masstick smells strongly so it was immediately found, and by sticking there it could peck away for awhile. Similarly I was using it to help feed the clown goby I was rehabilitating from a different rehoming (I'm not sure how I became a rescuer), who can only eat small things and isn't a chaser. It's so compelling a smell that a problem initially was my nassarius snails coming out immediately and climbing the glass 20in up to eat it. I've never seen something like that before.

It does have downsides though. Particularly you need to put enough on that it can get a good stick to the side of the tank, but that's then putting a lot of food in the tank. Eventually it'll come loose and go floating and now you've got a big wad of uneaten food in there, which by design won't come loose until much later when you're not at the tank to get it out. Additionally make a small batch. Once it ages and dries in the fridge it doesn't stick well anymore. Frozen then unfrozen works pretty well though.

 

[richiev]

In the interests of recording the negatives as much as the positives, this is a negative post. I had a partial tank crash last week. To make a long story short, early two weeks ago my dad's health declined to a point I felt I needed to travel back to Chicago spontaneously, and he passed away 8 days ago on Saturday morning.

Because I hadn't planned going out there, my tank was not at all in a state where I was ready to leave it and I didn't have time to prepare it. However, my wife was here and I only thought I'd be there 2 or 3 days, so I figured it'd be fine.

However however, my plans got switched, and I stayed long, and she came to Chicago as well, so I had to remote train my neighbor what to do. This all being exacerbated by:

• I just had switched from AFR to 2 part and hadn't yet calibrated dosing
• I was in the midst of fighting a dino outbreak, making it hard to see if it was in a bad state or good
• My power cut out last Thursday, and I didn't have backups in place yet, which was stupid
• My Frag Tank (which had a lesser crash) started having major ATO issues of some sort, as if there's a leak, which I had to help them debug distracting from my main tank
• I hadn't setup remote access of my reef pi controllers to try and do remote debugging
• Generally I didn't have enough remote monitoring in place to see that things were going south, so I didn't think I needed to call in favors from the folks that offered help. I thought it actually was good, outside of the power outage.

After siphoning out all the dinos, manual cleaning, and installing my icecap UV which arrived while I was gone (temporary setup running directly in the display), here's the current state:

The acans are mostly ok, but not happy. The chalice I'd grown out from a little H2O frag is almost all skeleton. The pectina that seemed bulletproof has skeleton on the tips and looks deflated so it's certainly gone. The Montis (digi, encrusting) are bleached, and the stylos are partially (though I'm hoping those recover). Shrooms seem fine.

Also my rose anemone split. Both sides are still alive though.

I also haven't seen my firefish.

I'm not really sure what caused this, but I think it was the power outage + my salinity was way too high when I got home. From my nest cam recordings, I believe my anemone split the day the power went out (overnight). My firefish I see on the day I got back, or the day before.

The power outage they'd tossed in a battery powered air stone for me that I had ready, but should've had in the tank. They were working with me on plugging my entire tank into my recently acquired electric car with Vehicle 2 Load charging, which would've worked amazingly, but the power came back on during it. My power only was out for a couple hours, but it was hot out.

I don't understand the salinity part. When I got home I measured it at 40ppt, which is really high (I usually run 35ppt). My reservoir was empty, which is probably the issue, but I think my neighbor had filled it recently and the water level wasn't shockingly low or anything. I didn't try and debug though, I just fixed it by a combination of slowly dumping in RODI and pulling water out.

My only guess is my neighbor might've accidently refilled the reservoir with saltwater, but I didn't want to ask questions because she/they went above and beyond in helping. As far as they know everything is fine.

That's all somewhat disappointing though, because my other params seemed great. Phosphate=0.01, nitrate=3.5, alk=7.5. I'd been fighting zeroed out nitrate/phosphate for awhile so that was good to see.

The only other thing it could've been was the heat. I do not yet have a fan on that tank, and I have no temp monitoring. I have no idea if it spiked during the heat wave, but it could've. My house usually doesn't get that hot in the living room, but who knows.

Anyway, lots of lessons learned.

The moral of this story is don't wait. We all have so much less time then we think, and I've had all sorts of things hammering in the message that there's no time to dawdle. Life's short, but so is time for preparation.

I have a full list of potential action items to remediate this for next time, but I'm not sure what my full strategy will be. Automation and redundancy will be central, but I might also just abandon some of this. I'm going to need to travel more to deal with some follow ups in Chicagoland, and we want to do a family vacation, so maybe this is just a sign to let it be for 2022 and keep it easy.

Or alternatively I'll buy a bunch of stuff like @Da_Neefer 's ap9x and @H2OPlayar 's stuff and more corals from @dandemeyere and and and and

I'll figure that out next week.

 

[Qwiv]

Sorry to hear about your Dad. I just lost mine as well. Painful and life changing, still hard to deal with it. Tank not so important.
Had a good lesson with the tank and better to learn a lot of lessons now when the tank is new vs fully stocked with years of love and work behind it. Would say the tamp and the ATO were the main failures outside power loss that your family mitigated for you. It was really hot here certainly made the anemone split. Lot of stuff went wrong at once, but look at home much survived and how resilient the tank was in general. All of it can be replaced and restarted. Got that Digi frag here for yah to start that again. It is just encrusting.

Sorry for your loss and the tank. We can all help you with the tank.

 

[Da_Neefer]

My condolences for your loss. From personal experience t's a hard thing to go through. 11 yrs on I still find myself having a surprise memory or moment of my pops that catches me off guard.

 

[richiev]

As positive news, the icecap sterilizer is doing a great job on my dinos. Tank is looking good in that regards. I'm on day 3 of it, so I'll keep it running for awhile, but I finally don't have to turkey baster everything multiple times a day.

I also haven't seen this much polyp extension from my acans during the day in a long time. I'm not sure if that's an artifact of dinos not eating nutrients, toxic dinos being gone, more light hitting the bottom due to incredibly clear water, or flow differences from the setup I have going, but it's nice to see.

Generally most of the coral look to be recovering. It's probably going to take a long time before they have proper color again, and the RTN areas heal, but it's trending well.

The chalice and pectina are slowly finishing their death. I'm debating pulling them and fragging the sections that still look healthy, but I don't actually know how to frag those and I'm unclear on if that'd be helpful versus hoping they heal over there skeleton. I'm pretty sure with the right tools I could cut a frag or two with multiple mouths. Any thoughts on if I should try to save them by fragging them?

I am pretty confident Gooby the Purple Firefish Goby died though. Likely is buried somewhere in the rock. I haven't seen him since I returned.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Good luck with the recovery
It is slow...but it can happen

 

[Srt4eric]

That pectina is no where near dead. Just keep the water good and it will recover.

 

[Srt4eric]

I say just leave them both where they are.

 

[richiev]

The pectina I was saying is dying based on my previous understanding that those react very poorly to getting hurt. It's soft tissue is very  tight and the tips are getting noticeably worse every day. I'll leave it as is though. Hopefully it recovers. It's a nice piece and I like that it's always been happy in slight shadow.

The chalice is mega receding daily, but at least I'll have a cool skeleton to give my children.

In good news, Gooby the Goby came out of hiding during end of day feeding time
I have no idea what is up with that firefish. It's done this a couple times where it completely disappears for a day or two, and then pops out of nowhere unexpectedly. Weirdest fish I own. Some day I'll move the camera around until I can see where it crawls into the rock work.