Build and Progress of my RSM Nano Tank

[Rue]

Dungeons and Dragons? Cool! My 2 sons (ages 12 and 17) do a bit of gaming...not sure what all they've got now...lost track...my daughter plays a bit as well...

I like straightforward games (i.e. Bejewelled and stuff like that)...someone needs to address the 'middle-aged' woman market...there are more of us out there than you'd think...a lot of the games out there that I might play are too frustrating for various reasons so I don't bother...

[Reefmack]

Laurent - I can't remember if you said - are you a game developer? Rue - I'm like you - the straightforward games. I used to spend a lot of time with game software of a lot of types, but haven't done much recently. No free time with the reef tank, a small 12g FW tank, 2 cats & a parrot. Seems like I'm constantly maintaining or cleaning up after something!

[Rue]

No kidding...we have 4 dogs at the moment, ...2 seniors and 2 young dogs...2 house cats, a small herd of horses, my madagascar hissing cockroaches...and I have parrots and finches as well. And a snake.

What kind of parrot do you have? I have an amazon and a pionus. I must say, the parrots are my favourite...I just don't tell my dogs that...and the cats are too conceited to care what I think...

However, we're maxed out with critters...animal numbers will be decreasing over the next little while so by the time my kids are totally grown up it will be easily managable again.

[Reefmack]

Geesh Rue - you have a farm to care for! My parrot is a small mini macaw - a Hahn's Macaw. Good talker & singer, but he has periods when he just screeches over & over till I feel like wringing his little neck- just wants attention I guess. He must be about 10 now.

[LaurentSeattle]

Week 8 - Day 53 - Sunday August 19th - Around 6pm

- Tested the water

Nitrites: Zero
Nitrates: Almost zero!
Ph: 8.3

- Removed (by hand!) a lot a filamentous green, slimy and brownish algae.

- Clean a bit the rocks from snail poop.

- Gently Turkey Bast'ed my zoas to remove filamentous algae

- Cleant mechanical filters and skimmer.

- Mini water change (2 gallons) to replace water "lost" at shiphoning detritus.

- Spotted a peppermint eating one of my smallest nassarius snails I can't believe the shrimp attacked the snail. It must have died first because of some bad conditions but things seem to improve... I don't understand.

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Rue: Thanks for posting the 200th message!

ReefMack: Yes, Game Dev: I led the programming effort on the D&D virtual gaming table and the D&D character visualizer. I just switched to another "top secret" project.

As a "pet project", I also started a virtual aquarium water simulator. So far, no good... My maths are broken, the simulation diverge and I am always getting a tank full of nitrates - and no more water - after a few days of simulated time. Maybe this will end up someday in a full blown true aquarium simulation, with 3D fishes, etc...

[Reefmack]

That's great on almost 0 nitrates - I always wondered if it was really possible. I can't remember - do you have any fish yet? Maybe that's the secret - to not overload the tank with a lot of fish.

I wouldn't get too concerned about the snail, since everything is in order, and the peppermint seems to be doing fine.

That's cool on the job. Good luck with virtual aquarium simulator. Maybe there are just too many factors to make it easy to program. Hey - they can't even do a good job of predicting weather after years & years of trying simulators!

[Rue]

...now I feel guilty posting the 200th post off-topic...

I'd luv to see the aquarium 'game'...hurry up and fix the math...

BTW...a Hans was on my short list...but then we ended up with the other two...I love them, noise and all...the Amazon is about 13y and the Pionus is 2 1/2.

[LaurentSeattle]

Almost zero nitrates, yes... but pest algae and diatoms are still there... What do they "eat"? Phosphates? I don't have a test for PO4. Do I need one? I thought phosphates were evolving the same way as Nitrates.

At this time, I only have two shrimps, about twenty snails, two rocks of zoanthids, and three very little frags of zoanthids... No fish. Never fed anyone so far.

[michaelaz]

As far as the game goes, award LFS dollars for x many days of keeping the tank good, save up for the lights and grow more corals=more frags = more LFS money or spend it on livestock or equipment. Each item will have a risk reward.

Just a idea.

I actually did pacman on a commodore 8032 for my high school senior project. Good ole peek,pokes and asc values LOL.

[Reefmack]

I can't remember what feeds the diatom - phosphate or silicate? My recent bloom is getting better though - since rinsing the frozen mysis I feed - to get rid of the extra nutrients in the water the shrimp are frozen with. The extra nutrients in that water are probably beneficial to the corals, but not to my substrate! Phosphate & silicate come in with the water used I believe.

[Rue]

I bought a bottle of phytoplankton for the tank to make sure everyone has 'their' food available...

Then I read no one eats the bottle phyto....

Now I need to do more research to find out whether it's useful or not...

I'm pretty sure the copepods and other 'pods utilize it...

[lpsluver]

Originally posted by Reefmack
I can't remember what feeds the diatom - phosphate or silicate?

Silicate. Usually, as Mack stated, a problem with source water. Not a problem with RO/DI, unless the filters need to be changed.

[michaelaz]

heres a quick story, wife filled up water with RO, I had a small bloom thereafter , when asked she filled it at the Walgreens/CVS instead of the regular water and ice store which proves the filters at the small kiosks may not be that dependable. Now we always fill at the Water and Ice ,no issues whatso ever.

I try to do a 4 gal water change and I always premix and airate(sp) 5 gals to be sure at least 1 day ahead.

[LaurentSeattle]

Week 8 - Day 54 - Monday August 20th - Around 5pm

I went to visit the LFS earlier this afternoon to get six Nassarius snails to reenforce the cleanup crew after one poor guy died eaten by a peppermint shrimp. Also found another empty shell of Nassarius near the shrimp burrow...

I could not resist to also grab a nice mushroom rock that was on sale:



All polyps have now extended nicely.

I also cleant up my mechanical filters and replaced half of a gallon of tank water used in the dripping acclimation process.

Pest algae is giving us a break and diatoms are receding. Good!

More coming tomorrow from LiveAquaria!

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LpsLuver: My Ro/Di unit is only two months old: I should not need to replace any filter or membrane. Right?

Rue: According to what I have read recently, phytoplankton is recommended once a week for tank hosting zoanthids, mushrooms, some corals (not all) and feather dusters. I will try it sometimes this week. My tank inhabitants have not received any kind of food at all so far...

[ziggaboo]

nice grab!

[LaurentSeattle]

A better picture:

[Rue]

Nice coral!

I found more conflicting phytoplankton info...but it does confirm that the 'pods benefit...

[Reefmack]

Nice purchase - ricordea yumas I believe? They look like my yumas, but a different color. As with Rue I sometimes read that the phytoplankton supports pods, and I too see conflicting information on whether phyto or zoo plankton is best for the actual corals. I have both, but don't add either very often for fear of introducing too much nutrient for algae growth.

[LaurentSeattle]

Confirmed as Ricordea Yuma by the experts from the Corallimorpharians forum.

[Reefmack]

I was 99.99999% sure they were yumas, but there was always the chance I was wrong! One of my yumas came on a small piece of rubble that was in 2 pieces and it was attached to both pieces. I noticed last week that only the upper part was successfully glued to my rock, and the lower piece had come loose & was tugging at the rest of the yuma by a thin thread of tissue. I cut off that piece of rubble with a piece of flesh still attached & left it in the tank. It appears a new yuma is now growing on that little piece of rubble I cut off! Very tiny but I see a bright green mouth has formed. If I'm lucky it will continue to grown into a full sized yuma. That was an expensive orange yuma so that would be great!

[lpsluver]

Originally posted by LaurentSeattle
LpsLuver: My RO/Di unit is only two months old: I should not need to replace any filter or membrane. Right?

Correct. Replace the DI and other filters about every 6 months and the RO membrane about once per year. The best way to tell if they need to be replaced is with a TDS meter (not very expensive). You should be less than 10 and ideally zero if your system is operating correctly. The frequency of filter replacement ultimately depends on how bad the supply water is. Mine runs about 170-180ppm and right now (as of last night) it is at zero. I replaced all of my filters (except the RO) last night after 9 months and was probably a month late. HTH

[Reefmack]

lps - I'm not questioning what you say at all, but I often wonder about the value of knowing TDS. It's a kind of mystery reading to me, as Total Dissolved Solids gives no clue as to what the chemical nature of those dissolved solids are? I know it most likely represents things you don't want in the tank (phosphates, silicates, whatever), but we are making an assumption with nothing to really tell the whole story without other tests. Like I said - I'm not criticizing what you're saying - I just have a problem with a test that doesn't tell the whole story. To me it's a meaningful, but meaningless, measurement. I guess I'm just nitpicking.

[lpsluver]

Originally posted by Reefmack
lps - I'm not questioning what you say at all, but I often wonder about the value of knowing TDS. It's a kind of mystery reading to me, as Total Dissolved Solids gives no clue as to what the chemical nature of those dissolved solids are? I know it most likely represents things you don't want in the tank (phosphates, silicates, whatever), but we are making an assumption with nothing to really tell the whole story without other tests. Like I said - I'm not criticizing what you're saying - I just have a problem with a test that doesn't tell the whole story. To me it's a meaningful, but meaningless, measurement. I guess I'm just nitpicking.

I understand your issue. I am not a water expert (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ). As far as I am aware the TDS measurement determines when your RO membrane is failing. An RO membrane is a super-filter. It filters down to 0.005 microns. So if your TDS goes up then your membrane is failing. The other components get replaced on a set periodic basis, unless you have a conductivity meter. A conductivity meter would tell you when your DI cartridge needs to be replaced. This is as I understand it. HTH

[Reefmack]

Hey - thanks lps. The importance of TDS has now become more meaningful! It's not so much a measure of bad things as it is an indicator of the RO membrane performance, Thanks for "learning me".

[lpsluver]

Any time!