MrX's Build (Started 03/01/2020)

New fish are doing well. Convict Tang isn't being harassed too much by the Yellow or Tomini. I haven't seen it find a cave to sleep in yet -- looks like the Yellow chases it away any time in tries to go into any of them.

Today I hooked up the BRS mini-reactor I bought during the "sale" week. It's not running anything yet, but it is ready to go.

I'm wondering where I should direct the outlet tube...

Main drain from the DT goes to the right-most chamber of the sump, the overflow drain goes to the middle chamber. The left-most chamber is the return pump section.

The inlet feed comes from my return line manifold then into the reactor. Right now I have the outlet tube just draining back into the return pump chamber. I'm thinking of moving/pointing it back over to the middle or right-most chamber.

The thought being that the water would "mix" more before going into the return pump again and possibly back into the mini-reactor.

I know overall it probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

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lmao!

Just went to do my second feeding of the day. Lifted the screen about 5-6 inches to stick my arm and the syringe in. Heard a splash, usually the Carpenter's Wrasse, looked over and saw him swimming.

Started to stick my arm in with the cup of food and heard another splash, and then something flew by my face. Heard a wet "splat" on the floor. The dang Wrasse jumped through the opening and landed on the hardwood floor (about a 5' drop).

I was able to grab him pretty quickly and put him back in, no worse for wear.

I've been hearing it "flash"/"splash" more often lately... guess I need to start being more careful when lifting or removing the screen cover.
 
lmao!

Just went to do my second feeding of the day. Lifted the screen about 5-6 inches to stick my arm and the syringe in. Heard a splash, usually the Carpenter's Wrasse, looked over and saw him swimming.

Started to stick my arm in with the cup of food and heard another splash, and then something flew by my face. Heard a wet "splat" on the floor. The dang Wrasse jumped through the opening and landed on the hardwood floor (about a 5' drop).

I was able to grab him pretty quickly and put him back in, no worse for wear.

I've been hearing it "flash"/"splash" more often lately... guess I need to start being more careful when lifting or removing the screen cover.
Wow close one
 
The X-Family has grown!

No silly... no more kids! Geesh, that would be nuts.

One of our anemones from @rock-n-reef split! (not sure which type it is)

It didn't split just once, but twice, apparently overnight.

Since we acquired it the "base" had grown quite large. Just now I went to feed the tank and noticed it wasn't in its usual space. Looking closer I see it's gone from 1 to 3 nems.

Hoping this is good news and not some survival instinct because something is wrong.

Of the three nems we have, two from @rock-n-reef , this one was always the most bubbly.


You can see one on the tower rock (back of picture), one lower in the middle, and one in the front (basically the original spot I put it in the tank).

The long tentacle in the extreme foreground is the other nem.

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cool!!!

It would be good to find out what conditions cause the nems to lose their bubbles and go long tentacles. its a puzzle.

The one that split was usually bubbled up pretty good most of the time.

Do you know which one this might be? I bought two from you, a NY Funburst and a Speckled BTA.

In my original post/picture at this post you can see them pre-split (post #197, two pictures at the bottom of that post):


I'm thinking the one that split was the Speckled one; in the original pictures I posted you can see little dots (speckles).

Thoughts @rock-n-reef ?
 
In the original post I see the top one with the speckles. the split pics, it isn't clear. Hopefully once they settle down and get back the bubbles, you will be able to see them.
 
Thought we'd lost our Shark Nose Goby, haven't seen it in like a week or more. SonX found it yesterday swimming around with the other inhabitants. Was out again today. Still freaks me out when smaller fish disappear for a while.

Our Yellow Coris Wrasse is also a strange one. It seems to be on a different schedule than everyone else. It doesn't come out until the lights are about full on, and then disappears soon after they start to ramp down. Still haven't noticed where in the sand/rocks it goes to hide.

The three Tangs are getting along for the most part. I still put in algae every other day or so, but now I put some on each of the tank now. I figure with the three Tangs and the Foxface two clips and more algae might reduce aggression.

I moved the Aptasia (and Duncan) Eating Filefish back into the DT since the Duncan didn't make it.

All the other fish seem to be doing well.
 
Crazy two days of tank maintenance/cleaning... glad it's over.

Started prepping for this a couple weeks ago. I was ordering parts and preparing to build this sand bed vacuum cleaner:



It doesn't really help that he doesn't list all the parts, or know their names, but I made it work. Well, I built it. Whether or not it really works is a little questionable.

So I got it done yesterday, I'll post pictures some other time, don't feel like going downstairs to get it all.

First step was to clean the sand bed. The tank has been up since 03/2020 and I haven't done much with cleaning the sand. Figured snails/etc. would take care of most of it. Took a while to get the siphon working right, even with the Sicce 1.0 pump on it.

Holy crap was it dirty! The 50 micron filter clogged in a matter of 10-15 minutes, if that long. So much nastiness floating around the tank.

I gave up on the canister/filter and just hooked it up so that the vacuum went right to the Sicce and I sat that over my filter sock holder. Much better throughput/suction.

Ended up going through 5 (!!!!) filter socks and the skimmer was going nuttty.

Doing all this was in preparation of using Flatworm Exit today before my water change. Cleaning the sand bed and rocks (turkey baster) dislodged and sucked up a lot of them.

Today I sucked out as many as I could see (in larger groups, skipped the onesie/twosies), blew out the rocks again, and then set up the mini-reactor with some carbon.

Ended up dosing about 1/2 the Flatworm Exit bottle. Did two capfuls and then about 45 minutes later a half capful. It started working within minutes of the first capful going in.

After about 20-25 minutes I ended up draining 5-6 gallons of water and replacing it with fresh-mixed saltwater. Figured I'd suck out a bunch of floaters and junk out.

Boy are they ever right about what you see is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, it wasn't like my water went totally dark or anything... I was just surprised how many it turned into "swimmers" (term in the directions).

I think this whole Flatworm Exit process took just under 2 hours and then I decided to do my water change. Normally I do 20 gallons. Today I did the 5 in the middle of the treatment, and then another 30 (total water volume is about 150G between the DT and the sump).

As far as I can tell I haven't lost any livestock; fish, corals, inverts, nems, etc. are all still accounted for.

Some of the corals are PO'd and the fish aren't swimming out-and-about as they usually do, but I think it's mostly because I've been messing around in their home for 5+ hours today.

I've emptied the skimmer cup 2-3 times already. Will probably have to do it again before I go to bed. I'll let the carbon run until tomorrow and then I'll change it out and probably run it for another day or two.

What I've learned from all this???

1. I need to clean the sand more often.

2. I need to clean the rocks more often.

3. I need to feed less; I feed twice a day. 5ml of my defrosted frozen mix and a little bit of dry pellet mixture. Let it soak for a minute or two and dump it into the tank. Nori in clips every other day.

4. I need to go back to more flow (Jebao Gyres were put back in during the Flatworm Exit treatment); now I have the two Gyres and the two SLW-30s in there. One of each on each side of the tank. Gyre towards the back on one side, and the front on the other side.

5. I need to get better at dipping corals before introducing them to my tank.

6. I really don't like these marathon maintenance days. :(
 
Crazy two days of tank maintenance/cleaning... glad it's over.

Started prepping for this a couple weeks ago. I was ordering parts and preparing to build this sand bed vacuum cleaner:



It doesn't really help that he doesn't list all the parts, or know their names, but I made it work. Well, I built it. Whether or not it really works is a little questionable.

So I got it done yesterday, I'll post pictures some other time, don't feel like going downstairs to get it all.

First step was to clean the sand bed. The tank has been up since 03/2020 and I haven't done much with cleaning the sand. Figured snails/etc. would take care of most of it. Took a while to get the siphon working right, even with the Sicce 1.0 pump on it.

Holy crap was it dirty! The 50 micron filter clogged in a matter of 10-15 minutes, if that long. So much nastiness floating around the tank.

I gave up on the canister/filter and just hooked it up so that the vacuum went right to the Sicce and I sat that over my filter sock holder. Much better throughput/suction.

Ended up going through 5 (!!!!) filter socks and the skimmer was going nuttty.

Doing all this was in preparation of using Flatworm Exit today before my water change. Cleaning the sand bed and rocks (turkey baster) dislodged and sucked up a lot of them.

Today I sucked out as many as I could see (in larger groups, skipped the onesie/twosies), blew out the rocks again, and then set up the mini-reactor with some carbon.

Ended up dosing about 1/2 the Flatworm Exit bottle. Did two capfuls and then about 45 minutes later a half capful. It started working within minutes of the first capful going in.

After about 20-25 minutes I ended up draining 5-6 gallons of water and replacing it with fresh-mixed saltwater. Figured I'd suck out a bunch of floaters and junk out.

Boy are they ever right about what you see is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, it wasn't like my water went totally dark or anything... I was just surprised how many it turned into "swimmers" (term in the directions).

I think this whole Flatworm Exit process took just under 2 hours and then I decided to do my water change. Normally I do 20 gallons. Today I did the 5 in the middle of the treatment, and then another 30 (total water volume is about 150G between the DT and the sump).

As far as I can tell I haven't lost any livestock; fish, corals, inverts, nems, etc. are all still accounted for.

Some of the corals are PO'd and the fish aren't swimming out-and-about as they usually do, but I think it's mostly because I've been messing around in their home for 5+ hours today.

I've emptied the skimmer cup 2-3 times already. Will probably have to do it again before I go to bed. I'll let the carbon run until tomorrow and then I'll change it out and probably run it for another day or two.

What I've learned from all this???

1. I need to clean the sand more often.

2. I need to clean the rocks more often.

3. I need to feed less; I feed twice a day. 5ml of my defrosted frozen mix and a little bit of dry pellet mixture. Let it soak for a minute or two and dump it into the tank. Nori in clips every other day.

4. I need to go back to more flow (Jebao Gyres were put back in during the Flatworm Exit treatment); now I have the two Gyres and the two SLW-30s in there. One of each on each side of the tank. Gyre towards the back on one side, and the front on the other side.

5. I need to get better at dipping corals before introducing them to my tank.

6. I really don't like these marathon maintenance days. :(

I also hate doing long maintenance, just was removing algae for an hour plus and doing a water change.
 
1. I need to clean the sand more often.

It's overrated. I cleaned my sandbed when I swap out tanks lol...

2. I need to clean the rocks more often.

See above ;)

3. I need to feed less; I feed twice a day. 5ml of my defrosted frozen mix and a little bit of dry pellet mixture. Let it soak for a minute or two and dump it into the tank. Nori in clips every other day.

Where's the fun in that? I love over feeding my tank!!!
 
It's overrated. I cleaned my sandbed when I swap out tanks lol...

See above ;)

Where's the fun in that? I love over feeding my tank!!!

Well, until I get rid of the flatworms I think not cleaning is helping them multiply. At least what I've read is they scavenge the leftover food. *shrug*

I won't be making a habit of doing this if I don't have to. Too much work. :)
 
Think I posted too soon.

Looks like the Convict Tang may be a casualty of dosing the tank with FWE. Not sure if it was the chemical itself, or maybe it got too much toxin from the dying flatworms.

It may have just been the final straw that broke the Convicts back. It had one cloudy eye before this (I thought it was from the initial acclimation/in-fighting among the Tangs). There were also two horizontal likes down its body (one on each side), from head to tail. I didn't think anything of it as the fish was eating/swimming/etc.

Since my last post it was just basically being blown around by the current; at one point it got stuck on one of the SLW-30 powerhead intake screens.

I was about to scoop it out when it disappeared behind the rocks. Now I have no idea where it went. :(

I threw some more carbon in the output sock of the skimmer just to see if it pulls out anything else.

Hopefully no more bad news in the morning.
 
Well, until I get rid of the flatworms I think not cleaning is helping them multiply. At least what I've read is they scavenge the leftover food. *shrug*

I won't be making a habit of doing this if I don't have to. Too much work. :)

Well that is true I suppose... Fingers crossed for the tang!
 
No sign of the Convict Tang -- I assume it's snail/crab food now.

Also came down this morning to find one of the clowns stuck to a powerhead. It couldn't have been there too long because when I got it off it was still twitching. :(

I think all the other inhabitants are accounted for; a couple look like they have skin irritations. ETA: Haven't seen the Longnose Hawkfish all day either... not a good sign.

I changed out the carbon in the reactor, emptied the skimmer again, changed the filter sock, and have some more fresh water mixing for another water change.

I'm thinking I should have just left the flatworms alone.
 
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Bought 3 new clowns to keep our sole surviving clown company. They all seem to get along great and love to play in the flow.

We now have two orange/white and two black/white. All their swimming around seems to have brought out the other fish a little more. Nice to see so much activity in the tank.

I added two Sicce XStream SDC pumps to the tank and took out the Jebao Crossflow Gyres. A little smaller than I thought, but everything looks happy. The combination of these two pumps in the back corners and the Jebao SLW-30s in the front I think is just enough.

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Received my corals from the R2R Zoanthids.com WinterFest Live Sale today (was on 12/12/2020).

FedEx was supposed to be here by noon. As of 7:30PM they still weren't here so I gave up.

Well, surprise surprise! FedEx showed up at 8:37PM. Amazing!

Corals were really cold so I tossed the one bag and all the containers into my sump to acclimate/warmup while I setup my "new" dipping station. After my flatworm troubles I'm not taking chances any more.

Once I got set up SonX (12) came in to help me.

He was in charge of getting the corals from the sump, opening them for me, and arranging the containers so we could keep track of which was which.

I took each coral from him and went from Bayer -> CoralRX -> Iodine Rinse -> Clean Rinse #1 -> Clean Rinse #2 -> Frag Rank in tank. SonX transitioned things from Iodine to the final clean rinse. That way my gloved hands with the chemicals weren't anywhere near the rinse stations.

Corals Include:
- UC Ultimate Darkness Torch
- Klepto Lepto
- Electric Green Fuzzy
- Reverse Space Monster
- Sonic the Hedgehog Galaxia
- Black Bella
- VW Bloodshot
- Goblins Fire
- Oxide
- Murder Hornet
- Daisy Cutter
- Rainbow Troll

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Read a tip/suggestion from a member on R2R about giving your pistol shrimp some extra rubble rock to build with, so I tried it out last night.

Surprised I've never seen anyone else say it, or honestly that I didn't think of it before. Makes perfect sense that the Pistol Shrimp would love having additional building materials handy.

I added 8 small pieces of rubble out in front of their lair and within a couple hours 3 of them had been incorporated into the lair's entrance. I think it's used 5 pieces total so far.

In the first picture you can see the rubble rocks to the right of the goby. The entrance hole was bigger, but the Pistol shrimp built this supporting wall and buttressed it with sand.

In the second picture you can see the other pieces of rubble. I don't think the shrimp has ventured far enough to find them yet.

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Shrimp are much more clever than we give them credit for. Great little builder you have.

Sounds like your coral acclimation/dip process is becoming a well oiled machine.
 
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Shrimp are much more clever than we give them credit for. Great little builder you have.

Sounds like your coral acclimation/dip process is becoming a well oiled machine.

Yeah, it's awesome watching it work.

With my old tank(s) I used to dip with just the Iodine. I was lazy with this tank, and trusted my sources. Unfortunately that bit me in the behind. Then the flatworm exit fiasco.

No corals will be going in my tank without dipping.

Now I have to figure out a fish QT setup. Maybe.
 
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