d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

hybridazn · Feb 4, 2017

d2mini said:
For my mission to get more fish in the tank, I've had these two guys under observation since Monday.

Gold Spotted Rabbitfish and Midnight Clownfish

Great future additions!

d2mini · Feb 6, 2017

Refugium Update...

The good news is the macros seem to be doing ok again, even the new cheato ball seems to be at least hanging on.
The bad news is all the HA and other junk mixed in.
Since this tank has been nothing but one big experiment, I'm trying out Fluconazol to try to kill the nuisance algae.
Reports so far is that it doesn't kill the macros. We'll see.
Cutting back the fuge light from 8 hours to 3 hours, carbon is off line and cup is off the skimmer for the next few days.
Will update if I see any change.

And then for the brown dinos snot showing up in the display, :mad:
I plan on picking up a bottle of Fauna Marin's DinoX tomorrow.

d2mini · Feb 8, 2017

ORA's new "Stellar Stylo" going in the tank.

Gonna be a beauty some day!

Love the corals... hate the $%&$!*$%*&!#$@*!&#^#@ plugs! :mad:

Preme · Feb 9, 2017

d2mini said:
ORA's new "Stellar Stylo" going in the tank.
Gonna be a beauty some day!

Love the corals... hate the $%&$!*$%*&!#$@*!&#^#@ plugs! :mad:

I think this calls for an updated FTS

d2mini · Feb 9, 2017

d2mini · Feb 12, 2017

This month I switched from Triton's Base Elementz to their new concentrated Core7 Base Elements, which are recommended to dose directly in the refugium.
Which means I had to re-run the output lines from my doser, do I decided to dress them up.

This wasn't my idea, though... I stole it from the forums from someone else.
It's red braided cable sleeve I picked up here...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ROFM7R8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01
And since the ends tend to fray when cut, I finished it off with some white shrink tubing.

NCreefguy · Feb 12, 2017

That looks clean and professional. I really need to step up my systems color coordination game.

How's the flucon treatment going?

bubbaque · Feb 12, 2017

Dennis, what is in your reactor on the right hand side in front of where you keep the algae?

d2mini · Feb 12, 2017

NCreefguy said:
That looks clean and professional. I really need to step up my systems color coordination game.

How's the flucon treatment going?

Thanks!
The treatment is going... it's only been a few days and most of what I'm trying to get rid of us in the refugium, although there is a tiny amount in the display along with the dinos.
I just rinsed out the macros again, which removed a bunch of the nasty stuff. Hoping it won't grow back.
But I also got my hands on some Fauna Marin DynoX which treats dinos along with other nuisance algae. Just started that so now I'm kinda hitting it from both ends so to speak.

bubbaque said:
Dennis, what is in your reactor on the right hand side in front of where you keep the algae?

It's the air dryer for the ozone.

Slm222 · Feb 12, 2017

Did you hardline the return or is that flexible Line? If flexible, what is it?

NCreefguy · Feb 12, 2017

d2mini said:
Thanks!
The treatment is going... it's only been a few days and most of what I'm trying to get rid of us in the refugium, although there is a tiny amount in the display along with the dinos.
I just rinsed out the macros again, which removed a bunch of the nasty stuff. Hoping it won't grow back.
But I also got my hands on some Fauna Marin DynoX which treats dinos along with other nuisance algae. Just started that so now I'm kinda hitting it from both ends so to speak.

I'll check back with you after you've used the FMDx for a while and see how it went. I'm still struggling with my brown slime/dino mess as well. I've tried Bio digest and Bioptim,Dr Tims re-fresh,yeast,Bio-Spira,Dr Tims One and Only. Nothing has touched it at all. Right now I'm using 1/2 the dosage of Algaefix Marine and honestly it's starting to look a little better. There are nowhere near the amount of strings with bubbles on them at the end of the day anymore.I'll let you know if it completely gets rid of it.

d2mini · Feb 12, 2017

Slm222 said:
Did you hardline the return or is that flexible Line? If flexible, what is it?

It's hard.

(that's what she said.)

Preme · Feb 12, 2017

Looks very nice!

ShinerMaginer · Feb 12, 2017

NCreefguy said:
I'll check back with you after you've used the FMDx for a while and see how it went. I'm still struggling with my brown slime/dino mess as well. I've tried Bio digest and Bioptim,Dr Tims re-fresh,yeast,Bio-Spira,Dr Tims One and Only. Nothing has touched it at all. Right now I'm using 1/2 the dosage of Algaefix Marine and honestly it's starting to look a little better. There are nowhere near the amount of strings with bubbles on them at the end of the day anymore.I'll let you know if it completely gets rid of it.

Have you tried Vibrant? There is a long thread going on R2R and it seems to be pretty effective against dinos and other slimy algae outbreaks. Haven't tried it myself yet.

NCreefguy · Feb 12, 2017

ShinerMaginer said:
Have you tried Vibrant? There is a long thread going on R2R and it seems to be pretty effective against dinos and other slimy algae outbreaks. Haven't tried it myself yet.

Vibrant is what caused my brown slime. I started using it last year trying to kill some bryopsis and had a huge outbreak of cyano,brown slime/dinos after the second week. I continued using Vibrant hoping it would work through it but it got so bad the entire tank was one big huge slimy brown/red mess. After stopping the Vibrant it cleared up somewhat but just can't seem to get rid of it all. Chemiclean cleared my tank of cyano but nothing has cleared the brown slime. Vibrant has worked pretty well for some peoples tanks but not mine.
I'm still not sure if it was something in Vibrant that caused the initial outbreak or if it was because Vibrant dropped my no3 but not my po4 and caused a nutrient imbalance. Either way,it was bad.

d2mini · Feb 12, 2017

NCreefguy said:
I'm still not sure if it was something in Vibrant that caused the initial outbreak or if it was because Vibrant dropped my no3 but not my po4 and caused a nutrient imbalance. Either way,it was bad.

Interesting.
Because my nitrates were at zero and p04 was high when i started getting it.

NCreefguy · Feb 12, 2017

d2mini said:
Interesting.
Because my nitrates were at zero and p04 was high when i started getting it.

Yeah I was having high nutrient issues due to a 14 yr old DSB. WCs wouldn't even touch my nutrient levels anymore. I started using Vibrant and by the second week my nitrates bottomed out and I burnt the tips of most of my SPS. When this happened,my phosphates were still almost at 1. At this same time my tank exploded with the brown slime/dinos,cyano ugliness. I reduced my lighting and over fed the tank to get the nitrates back up and dosed phosphate rx to bring my po4 down but slowly. I then(during every wc) started cleaning out my DSB from my DT one small section at a time trying not to release the gasses of death and nuke the tank. Everything went well with cleaning my sand and my nutrients are now where I want them (no3 is 4 and po4 is .04) but the brown crud just won't go away.
I was hoping the brown slime would hate it's new, cleaner,lower nutrient environment and go somewhere else but it hasn't happened yet.