Salty_Taste650: Innovative Marine 14Gal Peninsula

[salty_taste]

Watching my pair of mandarin swim up together to spawn is definitely one of my highlights as a hobbiest.

Not too long ago, I was researching as much as I could in how to even keep 2 alive within a smaller ecosystem and now I'm over here researching if anyone has breed them and raised the babies! 2 Wild mandarin, spawning within 2 months of ownership, eating anything I throw in (pellets included, flake it picks at it but no luck)

The next part is being able to capture it! Every time it happens, I bring out my phone but scare them off...

 

[salty_taste]

Quick phytoplankton update!

Been attempting to culture phytoplankton over the past month and wanted to share my experience in the case anyone was ever interested in diy!

-Truthfully my first culture crashed… used gallon plastic bottles and maybe dosed too much f2 fertilizer initially.
-follow up was to substitute plastic for glass along with further research on correct amounts to dose
-3 cultures later I think we are making good progress! Corals love it and the pods are everywhere

PSA: I did say this is a diy set up. The goal was make it as simple as possible and use materials around the house aka GHETTO LOL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATED: 4 cultures of phytoplankton in! Changed set up from culturing every 5 days to each week (7 days) because it’s easier for scheduling. About 1 month into my journey culturing phyto and only contamination was my first culture which I used plastic and maybe doses too much f2 initially.

Truthfully, I thought 2 cultures at 1 gallon each would be enough to handle 4 tanks total (14gal, 150 gal, 180 gal, 35 gal). On this last culture, I have so much excess lol I’m still trying to use up from my second week and here we are almost on the 4th week. I’m over here using any bottle I can find including this nacho cheese glass bottle haha…

My takeaway was that on the 3rd culture the color has seriously darken and I’m starting to get a hand of it. In terms of cleaning… well I filter the phyto out each time completely but cleaning the bottles and tubes could be better. I am kinda half butt as all I really do for the bottle is Rinse with hot water 3 times and uhm yea that’s it…

my next plan is to start my copepod culture

If I can do it, you can too

Ended up starting my culture up again! Almost ran out and only had enough for 1 gal bottle but we back to usual! 2nd harvest should be tomorrow 09/23.

Started up my white worm culture as well also!

 

[salty_taste]

Glad to meet some new faces at CFM today! Found a grail piece I've been eyeing but just wasn't my time.

New Additions: Thick Gorgonian, Dragons Breath (YES, THE DRAGON'S BREATH)

 

[salty_taste]

New toy !

Been learning to frag using a dremmel. Excited to try out my new saw! Looking forward to improving technique

 

[Arvin R]

New toy !

Been learning to frag using a dremmel. Excited to try out my new saw! Looking forward to improving technique

Nice toy! I've been on the fence about this or a gryphon. All my research shows that the gryphon is the better saw but I was wondering since my use will be very light if this would perform just fine. I also believe Neptune uses an inland?

 

[Darkxerox]

Nice toy! I've been on the fence about this or a gryphon. All my research shows that the gryphon is the better saw but I was wondering since my use will be very light if this would perform just fine. I also believe Neptune uses an inland?

The club has one you can borrow!

 

[Arvin R]

The club has one you can borrow!

Yea I'll be doing that for now but do eventually want to have one of my own at home since I have a frag tank and do some selling on the side.

 

[salty_taste]

Nice toy! I've been on the fence about this or a gryphon. All my research shows that the gryphon is the better saw but I was wondering since my use will be very light if this would perform just fine. I also believe Neptune uses an inland?

I have no clue of the differences between the two, luckily it’s a hand me down

 

[salty_taste]

Re-arranged my rock work earlier this morning!
Goal:
- Remove Rock
- Create caves and islands throughout aqua scape
- Create more open space for macro growth

In the process, I might have shocked one of the mollies too much.
Started to bang against the glass a few times, at 10pm today, I found it floating in one of the caves.. May it Swim in Peace

I still have 2 more lyre tail but the coloration doesn't really go with my theme so debating to throw it in my tank.
Down to 2 Mollies in the 14IM

 

[salty_taste]

Phytoplankton culture picking up, green is slowly getting there! Excited to use Reef Nutritions new goodies

 

[salty_taste]

Welcome home… OG Weeping Willow Toadstool
(Yes, the one with the tentacles down with flow off)

Opportunity came up and I had to bite the bullet. My favorite brown coral of all time.

Been on the lookout for probably 2.5 years for this
I get a booger frag of this.. LOL

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

Welcome home… OG Weeping Willow Toadstool
(Yes, the one with the tentacles down with flow off)

Opportunity came up and I had to bite the bullet. My favorite brown coral of all time.

Been on the lookout for probably 2.5 years for this

Bro, put me 1st in line for your first frag!!! Have been looking for a real lineage Weeping Willow forever!

 

[Arvin R]

Welcome home… OG Weeping Willow Toadstool
(Yes, the one with the tentacles down with flow off)

Opportunity came up and I had to bite the bullet. My favorite brown coral of all time.

Been on the lookout for probably 2.5 years for this
I get a booger frag of this.. LOL

2nd dibs! Lol

 

[MolaMola]

Beautiful - I've never see that!

 

[salty_taste]

*CRISIS AVERTED*
Has anyone ever ran into this?

Tank had sufficient amount of water but ATO turned on and went past the sensor. Next thing you know, my ATO emptied out and tank was about to overfill onto the carpet…. Immediately turned ATO off, took water out and had to test salinity.

From 35 to 27.3ppt! Thankfully I was home and caught it just in time, did an immediate water change using the newly added water and was able to bring the salinity up.

Why did water continued to overfill even with the sensor being under water? I even drilled a small hole in the return as a fail safe in case the sensors were to act up. Super scary situation but glad I was ready to act. Hopefully corals aren’t affected too much and will adjust fine.

 

[Darkxerox]

*CRISIS AVERTED*
Has anyone ever ran into this?

Tank had sufficient amount of water but ATO turned on and went past the sensor. Next thing you know, my ATO emptied out and tank was about to overfill onto the carpet…. Immediately turned ATO off, took water out and had to test salinity.

From 35 to 27.3ppt! Thankfully I was home and caught it just in time, did an immediate water change using the newly added water and was able to bring the salinity up.

Why did water continued to overfill even with the sensor being under water? I even drilled a small hole in the return as a fail safe in case the sensors were to act up. Super scary situation but glad I was ready to act. Hopefully corals aren’t affected too much and will adjust fine.

ATOs are a pretty common point of failure. It's why a lot of folks have some sort of failsafe that has it shut off after too much continuous operation by the pump. E.g. you take out a bunch of water for frags, a sensor fails, skimmer w/drain overflows. The Tunze Osmolator is pretty reliable and has this kind of pump shutoff, audible alarm, and backup float switch. All sensors will fail at some point.

 

[richiev]

*CRISIS AVERTED*
Has anyone ever ran into this?

Tank had sufficient amount of water but ATO turned on and went past the sensor. Next thing you know, my ATO emptied out and tank was about to overfill onto the carpet…. Immediately turned ATO off, took water out and had to test salinity.

From 35 to 27.3ppt! Thankfully I was home and caught it just in time, did an immediate water change using the newly added water and was able to bring the salinity up.

Why did water continued to overfill even with the sensor being under water? I even drilled a small hole in the return as a fail safe in case the sensors were to act up. Super scary situation but glad I was ready to act. Hopefully corals aren’t affected too much and will adjust fine.

What kind of sensor? If it's the optical one, those need to be cleaned periodically because if they get gunked up they can't detect water. If it's a mechanical one, the mechanical thing can break down. If it's the no-touch one, I'm not sure why those are janky honestly but I've not had much luck.

I think the only safe option is to have it auto fill with a max duration. Either just running the ATO for some number of minutes every hour on a timer (eg run it 5 minutes every hour, so worst case it dumps for 5 minutes an hour), or hooked up to a controller that auto turns it off if it runs for more than a certain period of time (and sends you an alert).

My personal solution is I have a red sea reefer that has a mechanical float and a gravity fed ATO. I have an electronic (optical) ATO connected to a secondary reservoir that gets 20 minutes every morning to refill (set on a timer). If it runs for > ~10 minutes it triggers an alert.

Secondary reservoir ---optical sensor ATO---> main ATO reservoir ----mechanical float---> tank

Worst case if the mechanical float breaks, it'd dump a couple gallons of fresh water into my tank. The electronic ATO can barely fill the main reservoir in the amount of time it has. So it should never be able to do anything too crazy.

 

[salty_taste]

What kind of sensor? If it's the optical one, those need to be cleaned periodically because if they get gunked up they can't detect water. If it's a mechanical one, the mechanical thing can break down. If it's the no-touch one, I'm not sure why those are janky honestly but I've not had much luck.

I think the only safe option is to have it auto fill with a max duration. Either just running the ATO for some number of minutes every hour on a timer (eg run it 5 minutes every hour, so worst case it dumps for 5 minutes an hour), or hooked up to a controller that auto turns it off if it runs for more than a certain period of time (and sends you an alert).

My personal solution is I have a red sea reefer that has a mechanical float and a gravity fed ATO. I have an electronic (optical) ATO connected to a secondary reservoir that gets 20 minutes every morning to refill (set on a timer). If it runs for > ~10 minutes it triggers an alert.

Secondary reservoir ---optical sensor ATO---> main ATO reservoir ----mechanical float---> tank

Worst case if the mechanical float breaks, it'd dump a couple gallons of fresh water into my tank. The electronic ATO can barely fill the main reservoir in the amount of time it has. So it should never be able to do anything too crazy.

I thought potentially it could’ve been dirty and needed a cleaning. But I’ve only used this for 4 months

 

[salty_taste]

ATOs are a pretty common point of failure. It's why a lot of folks have some sort of failsafe that has it shut off after too much continuous operation by the pump. E.g. you take out a bunch of water for frags, a sensor fails, skimmer w/drain overflows. The Tunze Osmolator is pretty reliable and has this kind of pump shutoff, audible alarm, and backup float switch. All sensors will fail at some point.

Bummer, I knew it was bound to happen eventually just not this soon. Hopefully just needed a clean and double check to make sure everything is right

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

I thought potentially it could’ve been dirty and needed a cleaning. But I’ve only used this for 4 months

IM Hydrofill ATO is known to fail due to salt creep on the prongs. I’d highly recommend switching to the Tunze 3155 which has an optical sensor, float switch and pump timeout fail safes. I have them on all 3 of my tanks and only have needed to replace the pump every few years but they are inexpensive.