Cali Kid Corals

Solana 34g "Kids-Older-Now-Let's-Give-It-Another-Go" Reef

goonie0

goonie0

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Used FritzZyme Turbo Start 900 + XPort Biocubes method + AragAlive special grade sand instead of full live rock cycle.

12/5: First fish in!
12/12: Added 3 hermit crabs
12/18: Got ORA ocellaris clown, cleaner shrimp, and frag of zoas.

Very proud of myself today after plugging in pump + Tunze protein skimmer to Kasa WIFI outlet so that I can easily turn off pump+skimmer using Alexa when doing feedings. Am thinking this will also be handy if I'm ever traveling so can do things remotely/using timers.

Next Up: Getting my Tunze ATO set up!

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Vey nice. I worry about having a voice control on main pump. Is it possible to set up only a time delay so you don't risk forgetting to turn it back on? I am picturing someone outside yelling at their dog "Alexa" to get "off" your neighbor and turning your tank off while you are out.
 
H2OPlayar said:
Vey nice. I worry about having a voice control on main pump. Is it possible to set up only a time delay so you don't risk forgetting to turn it back on? I am picturing someone outside yelling at their dog "Alexa" to get "off" your neighbor and turning your tank off while you are out.
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That's a good point, Michael. It'd be convenient if the pumps would go back on after ~15min post-feeding. I think I can set it up that way, will look into it!
 
Today water in tank looks a bit cloudy.

Didn't do anything that different yesterday as we were out most of the day. Did one feeding instead of two (skipped the evening feed).

I'll test my water params today to see if anything is off.

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Water is cloudier than the latest pic past few days. It's definitely greenish in hue, so my guess is it's a diatom bloom which should go away after some time.

Put in Chemipure Elite after I posted last time and also tested water params; everything looked OK I think for a new tank (using AQI test kit so not as detailed as could be):

Ammonia: ~0
Nitrite: ~0.5
Nitrate: ~40
Phosphate (tested separately 2 days later): ~0
 
Man, this diatom phase is lasting forever - definitely testing my patience! Started on ~12/20 and it's still going... have tested the water params and everything seems to be good, particularly phosphate looks to be near 0.

Since last update:
  • Added another ocellaris clown. Hoping the two clowns will pair up. New guy is super active - afraid he'll jump out of the tank with his vertical sprints!
  • Added more cleanup crew: 5 astrea snails, 1 turbo snail, 1 emerald crab. Making a good dent to diatoms on rocks and tank walls.
  • Replaced Vortech MP10 wet side. I made a huge mistake years ago... wetside was encrusted in nuisance algae I couldn't scrape off, so genius me decided to boil off the algae. That took care of the algae, but it permanently warped the grill. Ever since then the pump has been overly noisy, the wet and dry side wouldn't magnetically attach to each other properly, and water movement was off. Wow, what a difference a new wet side makes! Smoooooth.
  • Did two ~15% water changes

One thing I'm noticing, the dwarf beauty angel I have craps... like a lot. Is this normal? Parts of the sand bed constantly has a layer of her droppings. I've never seen so much poop coming from (mostly) one fish. Is this normal and do I need to worry about it? Have sucked it out during water changes and thinking it's going to be an annoying ongoing process.

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It happened last night, new clown jumped out of the tank

Went downstairs to grab some water around 11:45pm and saw something on the floor by the tank. Turned on the lights and saw it was the new guy, partially dried up. I immediately picked him up and was encouraged seeing him flop slightly. Put him back in the tank and he was blown around by the MP10 for a few minutes, but then saw him start to wiggle around a bit. Decided to scoop him up with a net and loosely attached it to the side of the tank so he could recover overnight.

Was happy to see this morning that he looks to be fully recovered! If I didn't go downstairs last night would've lost him to the Roomba...!

Any advice for keeping fish in the water when you have an open top tank?
 
Eurobracing can help somewhat with keeping fish in. Would really recommend a screen top though - you can make one yourself super cheaply, or buy a nice one from cut acrylic online if aesthetics are the issue. Gotta keep those fish happy!
 
Sad... clown apparently jumped out again last night and this time I wasn't able to save it. Interesting thing is, I can't find his body anywhere... no evidence whatsoever - just up and disappeared. Looked all over our floors, inside the Roomba, nothing. Did a water change today and cleaned the sandbed too and didn't see him anywhere. Am at a loss for where he went...

DYKWTI (Do you know what this is?): Cleaning the sandbed today and saw this guy... looks like a sea spider. Decided to remove him.

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goonie0 said:
Sad... clown apparently jumped out again last night and this time I wasn't able to save it. Interesting thing is, I can't find his body anywhere... no evidence whatsoever - just up and disappeared. Looked all over our floors, inside the Roomba, nothing. Did a water change today and cleaned the sandbed too and didn't see him anywhere. Am at a loss for where he went...
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Check inside the filter chamber of your tank...might have jumped in there. My brother thought his 6 line bit the dust. 6 months later while cleaning out the aio chamber, he found his wrasse healthier than ever.
 
goonie0 said:
Sad... clown apparently jumped out again last night and this time I wasn't able to save it. Interesting thing is, I can't find his body anywhere... no evidence whatsoever - just up and disappeared. Looked all over our floors, inside the Roomba, nothing. Did a water change today and cleaned the sandbed too and didn't see him anywhere. Am at a loss for where he went...

DYKWTI (Do you know what this is?): Cleaning the sandbed today and saw this guy... looks like a sea spider. Decided to remove him.

View attachment 34738

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Looks like a Zoa Spider

coralrx.com

Zoanthid Eating Spiders - Coral Rx Don't Risk It Dip It!

Sea Spiders are not spiders in the traditional sense. They are not members of the arachnid family, but are, instead, marine arthropods known as pycnogonids.
coralrx.com coralrx.com
 
nanoguy said:
Check inside the filter chamber of your tank...might have jumped in there. My brother thought his 6 line bit the dust. 6 months later while cleaning out the aio chamber, he found his wrasse healthier than ever.
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nanoguy said:
Check inside the filter chamber of your tank...might have jumped in there. My brother thought his 6 line bit the dust. 6 months later while cleaning out the aio chamber, he found his wrasse healthier than ever.
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Yup, I checked and double checked, but alas, no luck.

Really at a loss for where he went. We had a poinsettia at the base of the tank so though maybe he fell there, but can't find anything. A mystery for sure.
 
Put in some extra carbon last week (in addition to the Chemipure Elite I've had in the second chamber for awhile now), and I think the combo of the extra filtration and perhaps the cycling finally leveling off, and my water clarity is much better now.

Over the weekend I added a few more things to the tank:
  • Fighting conch to turn over sandbed and eat some algae. Never had one before, this guy is pretty interesting!
  • Sandsifting starfish to also help with sandbed. Also my first time having one. Pretty neat seeing this guy come out at night and move all around.
  • Nassarius snails
  • Green/Pink Ricordea mushroom
  • Green Duncan coral
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Other clown died this morning =(

Was fine around 11am when I checked in on the camera, but when I went downstairs for lunch around ~1pm saw him on the grill of the Vortech MP10. Looks like he got stuck and died between 11am-12pm.

Here's a photo of him from the camera at around 12:06pm

Is it possible/normal for MP10 to suck up fish like this? I did have the pump on around 80%-90% flow...

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In my experience, fish often succumb to something else first, then get sucked onto the powerhead. If you're concerned about this though, you may want to put an anemone guard on the MP10 which will prevent small fish from getting sucked in.
 
Bolicks said:
In my experience, fish often succumb to something else first, then get sucked onto the powerhead. If you're concerned about this though, you may want to put an anemone guard on the MP10 which will prevent small fish from getting sucked in.
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I Agree. The clown seemed well yesterday and even this morning when I checked. I usually can tell if something is out-of-the-ordinary, but must've missed something.
 
goonie0 said:
I Agree. The clown seemed well yesterday and even this morning when I checked. I usually can tell if something is out-of-the-ordinary, but must've missed something.
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Definitely a bummer :( How confident are you that the tank is fully cycled? Early on I lost a clown suddenly as well, and suspect it was due to incomplete cycling.
 
Bolicks said:
Definitely a bummer :( How confident are you that the tank is fully cycled? Early on I lost a clown suddenly as well, and suspect it was due to incomplete cycling.
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It's a possibility! I was thinking it was fully cycled
  • Started on 12/5
  • Water param have consistently been good (0 ammonia, nearly 0 nitrites and low nitrates). Had diatom bloom 12/20-1/21 that's since cleared up.
  • Been doing 5g/~15% water changes weekly.
  • This clown has been in the tank since 12/17.
  • So far (fingers crossed) other tankmates seems to be doing well and behaving normally.
Will test params again tonight too.
 
goonie0 said:
It's a possibility! I was thinking it was fully cycled
  • Started on 12/5
  • Water param have consistently been good (0 ammonia, nearly 0 nitrites and low nitrates). Had diatom bloom 12/20-1/21 that's since cleared up.
  • Been doing 5g/~15% water changes weekly.
  • This clown has been in the tank since 12/17.
  • So far (fingers crossed) other tankmates seems to be doing well and behaving normally.
Will test params again tonight too.
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Yep, mine were testing similarly when I lost mine unfortunately. It also took ~2 weeks to die.
 
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