Step-by-step account of my first reef (with lots of pics) - Page 27

Dudester · #**651** 07/25/2006, 09:05 AM

Excuse me for a minute while I try to stop myself from choking!

Bruce, thanks for the overly kind and unjustified compliments! I feel as if the colors in my tank are dull, dull, dull, especially when I compare it to Clint's and most of the other tanks we see here on RC. While I'm on the topic of Clint, he suggested that I feed DT's oyster eggs to my tank 2x/week, since he noticed a huge improvement in his SPS's colors after doing this. I'm going to give it a try.

Quote:

Originally posted by bcoons
When he gets to the "monster" tank, I envision it giving Weatherson a run for the money.

Ummmmmmm, that's a lot (nearly impossible) to live up to! I doubt I'm up to the task, especially since my CFO wouldn't allow me to have a tank room like Weatherson's. But when the time comes, I'll do my darndest not to let you down.

By the way, the xenia frag acclimated to the new flow just wonderfully, I love it. Thanks for the trade, and I hope the zoanthids thrive in your tank as well.

The new clownfish is still alive (he's past the dreaded 3-day mark in my tank). He looks great other than a small area of lymphocystis on the back of his right eye. This probably arose due to the stress of the move, and the treatment includes excellent nutrition and water quality. I did a water change 3 days ago, so that should be covered. I've started feeding him 2x/day as opposed to my usual routine of 1x/day, and hopefully this will cure the disease quickly.

alexk3954 · #**652** 07/25/2006, 03:52 PM

Dudester- I'd love to see some pictures of that leather when its looking good. I've never been able to find a green polyped toadstool. I got back from a few days at a friends house and the clam has stayed where I put him and the edge of the fleshy part is looking a LOT better. Looks like he might not die after all

. I bought some green star polyps with that clam and only half of the mat is open. All other corals look great and fully extended, so I don;t know what might be bugging half of the GSP. I was also very excited when I came home to see that all of the cyano is gone and I finally have a nice looking white sandbed. I really want to post some pictures and have been trying for a long time now, but I cannot get any decent shots. I shoot at night with a tripod with no other lights in the room, but the pictures still seem to turn out blurry. Any suggestions?

Dudester · #**653** 07/26/2006, 01:49 PM

Alex - I'm very happy to hear that your clam is thriving! I'll admit, I was worried about it. Don't worry about your GSP's - they often retract into the mat and don't extend polyps. Mine have done it for weeks at a time, but they always return to full bloom. As long as the purple mat remains attached and doesn't disintegrate away, you'll be fine. You might want to squirt some current onto them with a turkey baster occasionally to prevent detritus from building up between the polyps. Regarding your pictures, are you using auto-focus? Make sure your circulation pumps are off during photo sessions, and you may want to increase the shutter speed, especially since you're using a tripod. That should help with your focus problems. For more photography help, you can check Melev's page, or browse around the photography forum. I've just shared all I know about reef photography.

My toadstool is looking decidedly better. Last night I saw that it was shedding a skin, and the stalk was no longer limp but standing up instead. About 1/2 of the polyps (where the skin had been shed) were partially extended, and the remainder of the capitulum had a glassy appearance (representing the "skin," no doubt). I hope to go home tonight to a fully extended leather!

The juvenile clownfish looks better - less lymphocystis behind the right eye. The sixline has a cloudy eye, almost like a cataract, but hopefully this will resolve as quickly as it arose. It looks quite good otherwise.

Dudester · #**654** 07/27/2006, 01:57 PM

First an update on older news:

The juvenile clownfish has nearly cleared the lymphocystis on its eye, and the sixline wrasse no longer has a cloudy eye. The toadstool leather coral was fully upright yesterday and the polyps were extended over the entire coral.

And now for some new news:

Before everyone prepares to slam me, let me first say that I have a plan. OK, here it goes ...

(preparing for a flying knee to the head)

I got a tang.

It's a juvenile chocolate, or mimic tang (Acanthurus pyroferus), and it's one of the prettiest fish I've ever seen. It's a golden yellow color, very silky, almost like honey. It acclimated very nicely into my tank and it seems less stressed than any other fish I've added in the past. My tank has grape caulerpa growing on the LR, as well as other lettuce algae, and this should be great for it to nip upon. I intend to feed it romaine lettuce, broccoli, nori, as well as my usual food mixture that contains some veggies and macroalgae.

Now for my plan (everyone put down your weapons). I know I shouldn't have a tang in my 30g tank, but I consider this a temporary holding tank for this fish. In 7 months my 450 gallon office tank will be up and running, and I will move the fish at that time to a more appropriate home. In the meantime, it can clean up my macroalgae problem.

John (thedude) made some good points. By commiting to this fish for my large office tank, I probably won't be able to have a sohal tang, powder brown tang, or powder blue tang (this is probably my favorite fish of all time), but that's OK with me. I'll still be able to have yellow tangs, purple tangs, and others that don't share the chocolate's body shape or coloration.

I was supposed to take some pics last night, but I got busy watching my new fish. Hopefully by tonight the euphoria will have eroded and I'll be able to see straight.

Dudester · #**655** 07/27/2006, 02:04 PM

Oh, almost forgot. I finally ran iodine and magnesium tests with the kits I just got. Here are the results:

Mg 1200
iodide >0.1
iodate undetectable

Should I supplement some magnesium?

I'm not sure what to do about the iodide and iodate levels, either. The paperwork indicates that these should both be between 0.3-0.6. I should probably stop adding the Lugol's solution (contains free iodine and potassium iodide) or add less, or possibly supplement with something else, I'm not sure. I've asked the question in the Salifert forum, and I'll update this thread with answers.

fishypets · #**656** 07/27/2006, 02:10 PM

Mike,

I would start dosing Mg and try to stay around 1300. I like the ESV brand.

melev · #**657** 07/28/2006, 03:57 AM

I'm glad that leather looks good again. Overall, it sounds like everything is going well, other than that crazy fish addition.

I just tossed out a tang, and you got one.

Dudester · #**658** 07/28/2006, 09:48 AM

fishypets - Yeah, I figured I'd need to do some Mg supplementation. Just curious, why do you like the ESV brand, have you tried others?

Melev - That "crazy fish" is my new pride and joy. Happily it hasn't looked stressed at all, there's no sign of ich, and it loves the frozen food concoction that I feed to the tank. I've put Romaine lettuce on a clip twice now, but it's shown no interest. I also haven't seen it graze on the rocks at all despite the abundance of caulerpa available to it. All in good time, I suppose. By the way, what's going on with your tank thread, I haven't seen any updates in a long time?

I mentioned that I was planning on a photography session last night, but once again this was thwarted by a maintenance issue. The closed loop was only returning via 1 side from the SCWD. I suspected that there may have been a snail or something in the SCWD to prevent it from switching outputs, so I removed it. While it was off I cleaned it out with muriatic acid, but it still wouldn't switch. I had to put a screwdriver into the device and manually turn the 'doohickie' that spins around and redirects the flow from left --> right --> left, etc. I didn't see any snail inside or other foreign body, so I plumbed it back up. It's working just fine, although every time it puts water out of the previously obstructed limb, there's a violent vibration that occurs. I cranked the flow from the CL pump down to 50% but this didn't help matters. I don't think there's a snail rattling around inside the PVC that's causing the vibration because I reversed the orientation of the SCWD when I reinstalled it, and the PVC/locline conduit that was previously wide open is the one that's vibrating. This leads me to believe that the problem is coming from the SCWD itself. I'll contact the manufacturer and see what they say about it.

Regarding the iodine test, Habib responded and, in summary, he felt that everything was OK and I should just keep on keeping on, no intervention necessary. I'm not really sure what the effects of an elevated iodide level are - I'll have to research that unless someone out there knows?

bubblethumper · #**659** 07/28/2006, 10:57 AM

Oops, disregard this post. (sorry!)

Divetime · #**660** 07/28/2006, 12:22 PM

Dudester, all I can say is Wow

I finally made it through all of the pages. Beautiful looking system you have.

After I finally finished reading your thread, I wanted to ask how you liked your Closed Loop & what you would do differently if you had to do it all over again. I get up this morning and read your having problemd with it. Sorry to hear about them. Would you leave out the SCWD & just let both sides flow? Maybe use ball valves so you could switch the flow? How do you like the MAG pump externally & if you were going to change it what would you use.

Maybe Melev would like to chime in since he is the "King" of the external CL system from what I have read here on RC

Thanks for all the help......Now back to more reading for me

melev · #**661** 07/28/2006, 02:12 PM

Here's the link to my thread, as of a few days ago. I have a feeling you're unsubscribed for whatever reason. You can get caught up and enjoy a video in the process.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...17#post7797717

Divetime - if you have the funds, you might choose to go with the Oceans Motions device to alternate the return flow. That would be nice and varies the water movement in your tank. The SCWD worked great for me, and I never had a problem. Rumors of a 1" model were out for a long time, but I never saw a real one. The 1" model would have made our lives so much easier.

There is no reason you can't just have a closed loop that just pushes water out both outlets at once. It would provide flow in the tank, and you could attach locline to alter its direction each week if you really wanted to.

Dudester · #**662** 07/28/2006, 03:53 PM

bubblethumper - Come on now, don't be scared

Divetime - Thanks for reading and contributing. I often think this thread is getting too long for people to start reading, since seeing more than 20 pages can be a little intimidating. Hopefully the contents are valuable enough to continue to attract new subscribers.
Overall I'm happy with my closed loop. I would change a few things. First, for the drain pipe, I'd either use the material that Melev referenced several pages back instead of the drilled PVC, or I'd cut the PVC like a spray bar instead of with all of the holes. The holes become clogged with coraline algae, and that hinders the return a bit. Cleaning them out with a pipe cleaner is a royal PITA. Secondly, I would use the 1" OceansMotions Omniflex nozzles on the returns instead of the locline. Locline is 3/4", and this not only restricts flow a little, but it also increases the complexity of the plumbing a bit. I plan on plumbing the Omniflex nozzles onto my CL eventually. I agree with Melev that the OceansMotions device is quite nice, but for the price you really can't beat a SCWD. Sure, I've had problems with mine, but I seem to be in the minority. If I can't get mine to stop rattling, I'll just get another one. Afterall, they're only about $30. I wouldn't recommend you letting both sides of a closed loop flow continuously, since this wouldn't provide any random or chaotic currents. Changing the positions of the returns every week sounds like too much work to me, and turning ball valves on a regular basis sounds like torture. Some alternating current, either via a wavemaker device (like the ReefKeeper, Tunze multicontroller, etc.) is highly desirable, but not essential. I've been very happy with the Mag12 pump plumbed externally. Others have written about problems with this setup, but fortunately I've had none. It's easy to clean, and it seems to be quite reliable. I have no experience with alternate pumps, so I can't compare it to any others.

Marc - Yep, I must have gotten unsubscribed somehow. There were actually 2 videos for me to enjoy (nice work, by the way). I had over a month of catch-up to do. From now on, if I don't get a notice about your thread for more than a day, I'm just going to look for it on the Reef forum - a month is a lot of reading on your thread!

techreef · #**663** 07/28/2006, 04:03 PM

Quote:

I wouldn't recommend you letting both sides of a closed loop flow continuously, since this wouldn't provide any random or chaotic currents.

I was reading a bunch of WetWeb threads and how-to's before I built my 9-nozzle CL, and understood that if you could direct some of the nozzles so that the flow coming out of them collided with each other, that would generate random, non-planar water flow. What do you guys think? Maybe this won't work?

Divetime · #**664** 07/28/2006, 04:18 PM

Thanks for the advise & information Dudester & Melev

Dudester · #**665** 07/28/2006, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by techreef
I was reading a bunch of WetWeb threads and how-to's before I built my 9-nozzle CL

9-nozzle CL? ... please post pics (I'm not worthy).
Sure, the setup you describe would work just fine, but it would work even better if you control it with an OceansMotions 4-way or 8-way that would direct flow to different combinations of nozzles, thus increasing the randomness, randomification, randomosity, randomtude, uh, I mean, water would just go every which way. This would complicate the plumbing a little, but it's probably worth it, and it's another project

Divetime - Don't mention it

Dudester · #**666** 08/02/2006, 09:17 AM

Just a quickie update (since I've been a slacker and haven't taken the much-overdue pics).

All of the fish are thriving! The sixline is fat and I haven't seen a flatworm in days. The chocolate tang has begun picking off of the rocks, and it's even eating bryopsis. I still haven't gotten it to eat romaine lettuce, but it loves nori off of a clip. The last fish news is that, for the first time, I saw the juvenile perc sleeping in the same frogspawn with the large female (awwww).

In other news, last night I saw a 1cm baby lettuce nudibranch. I don't know when this thing was bred, born, or whatever, since I've only had 1 mature lettuce nudi for many weeks. I'm not even sure how they breed offspring, or if they're capable of being cut like worms, creating 2 organisms from 1. At any rate, I'm excited to have seen it. If it gets washed away through the overflow it will end up in the sump and it'll never get back into the display tank unless it grows to a size large enough for me to find it and replace it. I thought this was cool, anyway. If I ever see it on the glass I'll get a picture of it - cute little bugger.

Here's a quick question for all of you tang owners: How long is it acceptable to leave nori on a clip in the tank? I understand there are phosphates in nori, so it probably shouldn't stay there indefinitely. I've left it in for about 1-2 hours and when the tang no longer shows interest, I've removed it. Does this seem OK?

divecj5 · #**667** 08/02/2006, 11:07 AM

Hey Dudester, funny that you said that you thought you got somehow unsubscribed to Melev's thread because I think that same thing happened to me. I was just thinking yesterday that I hadn't heard anything from your thread in a while and wondered what was going on so needless to say I had some catching up to do (about 2 weeks worth).

Sounds like you've made some great acquisitions and things are thriving in your tank. Glad to hear that this six-line is fairing better than the last one/two (?) and that the clown is doing great as well with his mate.

Thanks for the updates and glad to hear things are going great. I'll be waiting for more pics (maybe some of the ricordia since I've come to really like them). What is the link to your other thread?

Adam

techreef · #**668** 08/02/2006, 12:05 PM

Hey Dudester,

To have you be interested in my tank is great. My CL isn't a work of art, so don't get too excited. I don't have pics of it yet, but if you're interested, I've started a new tank thread w/ pics of my setup so far over on MR. http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/...w-arrival.html

I haven't had the time to duplicate everything over on a thread here on RC yet. Right now I'm cycling Part I of my TBS live rock and LS, freaking out about my water temp during this &$%( heat wave. (talk about terrific timing on my part to take delivery of my first living organisms right before the year's worst heat wave.

)

I'm a bit taken aback at how much work it is getting all the new doohickys dialed in and functioning correctly. It's taken me 2 days just to scoop some LS from my display and put it down in my refugium. I still need to wiggle my base rocks down into the sand bed so they touch the glass on the bottom of my tank.

Dudester · #**669** 08/02/2006, 03:50 PM

divecj5 - I'm still surprised I haven't gotten the old "this thread is worthless without pics" banner, since it has been too long. Now that I mentioned it, I can predict we'll be seeing that banner in no time. I'll definitely include pics of the ricordia when I do get to taking photos, as I am quite proud of their recovery after relocating them. They almost look as good as they did in my avatar.

As far as the other thread link, well, that's a little outdated, when I was planning on a 180-250g tank for my office. It's now drawn out at 450g, and I'll start the thread soon. You can rest assured that I'll post a link here once it's started. I'll probably put it in the large tank forum, or maybe the reef forum, not sure yet. Any votes out there?

techreef - I checked out your thread. Looks like a great local club you have there - that'll make all the difference in the world for you. I'm anxious to see your closed loop so let me know once you have the pics. You might want to consider mounting your RK2 inside one of the cabinet doors instead of having it out, since the unit and wire distracts from the nice cabinet and furnishings in your apartment.

alexk3954 · #**670** 08/02/2006, 09:17 PM

While we wait for dudester to post some more pictures, I'll show you guys my aquarium. I have been fiddling around with the manual focus which has helped a lot, but I still need some advice on using my camera.

A full tank shot

My clam (recovering well from when it jumped right next to my tube anemone)

my green star polyps are opening up after being closed for a few days.

Does anyone know what the white things are next to the mushrooms? (baby mushrooms maybe)?

Is my urchin laying eggs or pooping on my mushrooms? This urchin really picks up anything, and even has some GSP on it.

Does anyone know what type of algae this is? It grows in small patches and is a little tough, but not slimy or hairy.

A shot from the left side

My zoos have started to spread!

My percula clownfish loves to be in pictures

My dream tank

( snorkeling in Kauai)

I also have a rainsford goby who bolts under the open brain when the camera is out.

Hopefully these pictures are good enough to inspire Dudester to take some more pictures

melev · #**671** 08/03/2006, 12:43 AM

The green stuff is Valonia.
The white stuff is sponge.

alexk3954 · #**672** 08/03/2006, 01:00 AM

I thought that valonia was bubble algae, and I have a little of that so I now what it looks like. The stuff in question kind of branches out in multiple strands. Is it just another type of valonia? Is it a nuisant algae that I should remove?

Dudester · #**673** 08/03/2006, 08:29 AM

I think it's just another kind of valonia. Some are bubbly, some are more conical and clustered, and some are like yours, little patches of thick grassy matts. The "grassy" kind is quite easy to remove, although it often comes back. I've never seen my emerald crab eat the grassy form of valonia, either.

The pics are nice, so maybe tonight I'll convince my photographer (wife) to get some images of my tank and tankmates.

divecj5 · #**674** 08/03/2006, 08:32 AM

Sounds great Dudester....we will be waiting

alexk3954 · #**675** 08/04/2006, 12:45 AM

I joined a reef club and attended my first meeting tonight. I was talking with the president for a while and he mentioned he had a 55 gal acrylic tank that he was trying to get rid of and he said I could come by and see it and have it if I want. If I do take it I plan on drilling it and adding a sump/refugium. My question is will I be able to use my HOB remora skimmer in the sump. I seem to remember dudester having some sort of compartment in his sump where the water level was higher so that he could use his remora. What type of sump was this? Did you have to special order it?

My next question was the lights. I am trying to decide on a fixture w/ MH and actinic suplements or a t5 fixture. Does anyone want to push me in any direction with the lights? I want to be able to have more clams and an anemone without having to worry about wether I have enough lighting or not.