Susan's RSM 250

[Susan Edwards]

Have a new coral. Not sure what it is. A mushroom I believe. I meant to have the lfs write it down for me and forgot. And no one beat me up but I added a damsel to the refugium so there'd be some food for the good bacteria and something in there for me until I get pods. I need to see if this macro algae grows so pods have something besides rock so I'll wait on those for the algae to grow. Yes, I know a refugium is a refuge... But it's also a display so it's a combo refuge and second tank.... Besides, my rock work has all these cool caves and crevices that are perfect for a small fish... Can ya tell i'm hooked...
I should probably add a nassarius snail to clean up food the fish doesn't eat? Not sure if a hermit will attack the plants. There's not really any algae yet. Diatoms went away.

The mushroom polyps are already coming out. Should be very cool.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Got some no3-po4 x from red sea to try to get things back balanced out. Using less than half the dose as I don't want to get rid of all nitrate. I'm at the point where I'm going to have to redose chemi clean to keep the cyano from getting as bad as before. So will try this and keep an eye on the numbers. Also have some really bad hair algae. Going to be a few more weeks before the display refugium is hooked up. Put 3 frags of garciela in the main tank to see if that might help but they are pretty small (in a basket)

 

[Susan Edwards]

So I hit my 4 month birthday! 1 mo on the display refugium. All in all, not bad. Damsel didn't make it in the refugium. My ball of chaeto was in front of the spot it was hiding. not sure if it couldn't get out or not. I moved it to see if the fish was there and it was. Short while later, floating... Never really came out to explore the tank. Not sure why. Maybe too long in the bag to get home--2 hrs? Bummed. LIke damsels.

Main tank still battling high no3. Will do a complete test of everything tomorrow to see if I need to dose kent 2 part. Pretty sure I will as the alk drops fast. Ordered some mag as that is always low and have some separate alk as that is always low. Also started the nopox. No difference in 2 days. New coral above. Seems happy as it is extended and waving/fluttering in flow. Must like it or it'd retract. here is an update shot of the tank.

Main Tank RMS c250
Kole Tang (a fav)
gold head sleeper goby (fav)
scooter blenny (big fav esp when he flashes me),
bicolor blenny (nice personality)
2 osc. clowns
2 blue/green chromis
2 peppermints, assorted snails, 4 emeralds, and bunch of hermits.
8 head duncan (fav)
2 colts (fav)
xenia
green star polyp
zoa frag/polyp frag combo
2 acros
new gonipora (fav)
torch (Fav)
poor excuse for a gbta which you can see... Most of my fav. fish are hiding in cavern behind the scooter. Duncan is just coming back out. Went into hiding. Think my scooter blenny climbs on it...

Display Refugium --redid rocks, added a bunch more. Really like it now. Lots of macroalgae. Waiting to get plumbing done. Ordered a canister filter as it will be several weeks yet. Want to be sure the cycle is complete, and get nitrates in other tank down a bit. So new filter will help with refugium. HOB is pretty poor filtration...

 

[Susan Edwards]

Update: Ordered a canister filter for the refugium as the hob that came with the tank is not very effective (being polite here) and I'm weeks away still from getting tanks plumbed together.

Hooked it up and already my tank is clear and has really nice water flow and ariation on the surface which it didn't have before. We'll see if it helps with the cyano as the refugium is going thru that stage.

Came with a spray bar which spreads the flow. when I get my tanks connected, may keep the canister and just take out anything that can trap pods like the filter floss and sponge. Am also wondering if I couldn't hook the chiller, when I get one, to it. Out flow of filter to inlet of chilller. Would make that so much easier if feasible.

I put rubble in the bottom basket, bio balls/ceramic ring mix next, carbon and purigen in the next up, the carbon and floss it came iwth next, and the sponge and floss on top.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Tank update. Main tank not much change. Still very high nitrates but this afternoon, down to maybe 20 instead of 40-50. Using Nopox for 2 weeks and still high. Had some trace phos but today it's back to 0. Doing weekly water changes from twice a week. Didn't notice any difference in nitrates from dong more often. No nitrites so that part of the mini and unexpected cycle is done. Didn't test ammonia, figured if nitrites 0 it'd be prob. 0 as well.

Duncan closes up on me here and there, esp. after lights come on. My scooter blenny prob. irritates it as well. gonipora looking very nice and my two colts seem to be doing well. Green star polyps closed for the day. Notice they do that at times. Acro doing nice, the small one not so nice. Rest are suviving. Anemone still handing in there. Not sure how. No tentacles.

Fish all seem happy. Feeding just once a day. Tank and gold head sleeper goby rule the tank pretty much. Occassionally the bicolor blenny defends it's rock. Kole tang dug out a larger opening beneath a small cave. He decided it was a place for him to zip back and forth! First time I say him under there I thought it was stuck, and maybe it was but I blew out some sand. It used to go through on its side. Now it is nice and deep...

Display refugium clear of cyano. I used chemi clean. Will do water change today. Macro algae seems to be doing okay. Have lots of debris on them. Haven't glued any of the rubble rock to the rockwork yet so can put direct flow on them. Added a powerhead above so they sway and added a canister filter that is doing a great job (esp compared to that awful hob bio wheel) until I can hook two tanks together. Might keep it going after using rubble rock inside once I add pods (take out floss so they don't get trapped)

Happy with my set up. Can't wait to have a pristine and clean tank and no icky algae. Seems to be getting brown and dryer looking, same with the patches of cyano

. sand is so dirty looking...
Excuse the reflection from the window across... And the netting

 

[Susan Edwards]

Forgot the pic of the display refugium. Took out the air stones after the water change. it's nice and clear.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Started dosing nopox and vibrant to deal with high nitrates and horrid algae. My good acro showing signs of not being as happy.

Also, very strange, my colt frag, the one that fell off the piece I bought which had been doing so great start since I refragged it started receeding at the base--like 4 inches of dead stuff with a bit of pink and shriveled branches. Went today to cut off the bad and found it had really gotten worse overnight. I now have a piece with less than an inch of good stem. Glued it to a frag. Wasn't looking so happy where it once was so I moved it a bit higher toward the light and more flow. Branches extended so it is happier. Hope it makes it as it is a fav.

Overall, most of the corals are not as happy today. gsp all closed up last few days, duncan opens and closes and the other colt looking okay but not as tall or spread out. Even the goni took a long time to open up today

Dosing kent and or alk as needed as alk always falls to 7 or even 6. Was 9 today. Cal 380. And that is a day after a water change. Mg is 1000. dosing a bit every day to get that up but not as much as it says--want to take it slow.

Did notice nitrates came down from yesterday but didn't test again tonight to confirm

Refugium getting algae. Using vibrant there to head it off. Am going to try to go the recommended dose and time. If the main tank doesn't show results in 2 weeks, I'll go to once a week but keeping an eye on my nitrates. If they start dropping, i'll stop the nopox when they hit 5 or use it a few times a week between the vibrant.

Need to get my super glue out and start gluing down the macro algae I glued to rubble rock and just set on the rocks. Have to watch flow or the rocks fall so time to glue them down.

Spotted some purple hard stuff on one of my return outlets. Pleased to see coraline coming but not on my outlets....

All fish and such behaving normally.

looking forward to getting a nice clean tank eventually!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool! Following along.

 

[Susan Edwards]

@mdbannister thanks!

 

[Susan Edwards]

My almost 5 month update. Been a crazy ride but am hooked and loving every moment! Well, maybe not the algae or the cyano or the high nitrates....

What's happening:
-Dosing nopox. Nitrates went down to 10 and back up. Might have been the bottom end of the test kit. Ordered a new one and numbers back in the 20-40 range. Water change tomorrow. Skipped last weekend because nitrates tested down to 5 and I didn't want them to zero out. Ordered a new phos test to get better numbers.

-Using vibrant. A bit less than full amt but doing weekly. 2 doses so far. Seeing some die off, esp on back of tank and dried up cyano. Brushed rocks, turkey basted rocks and sand bed to stir things up on Wed. Might be why nitrates are higher today (thur).

-Had a pump tube come off. Putting it back on, saw how icky sump water is. When I do the water change, will wash out one of the foam blocks and suck water from bottom of half of the sump to get crud as it is really icky. Might lightly rinse other foam block and suck bottom out on that side side as well. Maybe that is where the high nitrates are coming from.

-Working on getting mg/ca/alk where they need to go I get the mg up to 1250 and it drops back down to 1000. Dosing daily or even twice daily. Got cal dosing as well and alk. Kent 2 part doesn't seem to do much for the ca or mg. Ordered the red sea abc. As soon as I get numbers up, will switch from individual to that.

today's numbers:
ca 400, want 420
mg 1000 and that is dosing 20 mil. dosed 40 this am, and 30 pm
alk 8.4 Dosed kent 2 part on the 9th. On the 10th it was 11.2
no3 40

--Duncan and gonipora seem to like the dosing.
--Acros bleaching due to high nitrates
--The colts have shrunk--the base. One is basically just a head with very little stem. Moved the bigger one to more flow. Both extend and open. Hoping I can save them. Little one keeps pulling off rubble rock and I have to reglue.
-zoas/polyps/xenia doing well
-gsp opening again
-gbt still alive. Not sure how as it has no tentacles and hasn't for months. It keeps moving every so often. I can't feed it. Basically waiting for it to die.

All fish doing well

Biggest tank issues are the nitrates and algae.

Display Refugium is done cycling. It is almost 2 months old. Macro algae all seem to be doing well. Nitrates at 10 and starting to get ugly algae. Need to add a cuc. Dosing vibrant as well. It is not yet plumbed to the main tank. 2 rounds of chemiclean took care of the cyano.

Hoping for a trip to the lfs this weekend. Need to find some better epoxy or super glue. Tried glueing rubble rock to the rock (macro algae) and could not get it to stick in the water. Epoxy also not sticking all that well. Got very frustrated....

All in all, I don't think I've done all that bad a job for a newbie <g>. Yes on newbie mistakes but I'm learning.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Happy Mother's Day to me plus happy 5 months reefing (on the 15th). Will take pics tomorrow of my new water buddies.
Main Tank:
3 New Corals - Elegance, sun (over 25 heads) , and I think a favia?
3 anthias -Barletts or Carberryi
2 barnacle blennys A pair. Very small

Display Refugium
4 hermits
2 nasarius
4 trochus
1 yellow watchman goby (mine disappeared in main tank and I can't put one back with my gold head goby so now I have one again)
3 damsels
Until this tank is mature, this is it. Might convert it to a sea horse in a year or so so in the meantime, there is movement in it and waste to feed the good bacteria as it's not hooked up to main tank yet.

Found one barnacle blenny in a crevice, lord knows where the other is. The anthias are all in hiding, ywg in hiding, damsels mostly out, Sun started to open a bit and closed, elegance looks happy. I could sit and watch my tanks and do nothing else and be quite content <g> but time for my lights out....

 

[Susan Edwards]

Here are pics. With exception of adding more corals, my tank is pretty much set. Just have to get the refugium and tank plumbed together. macro algaes seem to be doing well in the display refugium. Next step after the two tanks are plumbed is to look into auto dosing. Dosing mg and ca daily along with nopox and alk when it needs. It's actually been good for the last week since last dose and the mg is finally at 1200. Ca still drops.

So very happy with my set up. Can't believe it's been 5 months already
.

not sure what this is. a favia?

barnacle blenny

barnacle blenny

nice gonipora

eight head duncan

colt that wasn't doing well. lost almost all it's base. stable n ow and doing well

3 anthias Barletts?

 

[Susan Edwards]

new inhabitants settling nicely in both tanks. Haven't seen much of the ywg in the display refugium but the 3 damsels are now leaving the rockwork and exploring. Cuc doing their thing.

--The anthias I just got I believe are Bimaculatus. They are all settled, swimming in all areas of tank: front back, both sides and eating like little piggies. Feeding them 3 x's a day. Rest of fish think they are a good thing as they were eating once per day...
--The two barnacle blennies each have their own little hidey hole. They are a pair but not sure how they'll find each other in that tank. One in front at bottom, the other in the back up high. They are both eating as well, darting out very fast to snag the food.
--Sun coral opened up at least enough for me to feed some heads. Dropped some pellets onto a few and they sucked those in. Put the coral in a tupperware in the tank (lid holding edge of bowl to keep it from floating). Gave it reef roids and coral frenzy as well as frozen meaty foods. Some ate. Won't be home tomorrow so won't be able to feed.
--Elegance coral expanded nicely
--Favia-one mouth ate some mysis shrimp. havcn't seen tentacles on it yet.
--Colt coral which I nearly lost (2 frags) has recovered. Put both of them back where they were, made sure they was flow there (left side of tank of rock) and both were nicely extended today
--Duncan always poofy looking now. It's very happy.
--Acros bleached due to nigh nitrates
--Gonipora and gsp and xenia doing well. Xenia spread onto my rockwork before I could move it. Spot I wanted it, lone rock, still has too much algae. Oh well.
--bta still alive. Don't ask me how. No tentacles, bleached and has been for months. Moves once in a while. that sucker has a will to live but gives me no way to feed it.

Algae seems to be slowing and even dryer looking since using vibrant. was able to pull a whole section out and it came out easy. Do have some cyano spots still. I turkey baste the sand bed to keep it stirred.
Nitrates now down to 20, using nopox
mag up to 1200. Dosing 70 mil kent mg, 50 am, 20-30 pm
alk steady between 8-9. 10 after the water change on sat. back down to 8.4 today. First time it has not dropped to 6-7 in a day or two and needed dosing.
Cal still low at 350-380. Dosing 6 mil. Added another 2 mil tonight. I get it up to 400 and it drops next day
Adding iodine once a week. No test for it but figure the shrimp and crabs can use it.

all in all, seeing some good improvements. Have the red sea abc but am trying to get mg and ca up in normal range before I start using.

Refugium now 2 months old. Got a bunch of algae. Added a cuc on sat. Need to get tanks plumbed together. Scares me a bit. Have my plan, just need to get plumbing and confidence.

Moving into months 6/3 with the tanks. Find I spend way too much time watching them both

 

[Susan Edwards]

wow, good thing my cats didn't hit the post reply button or there would have been a couple pages worth of garbage posted..... maybe they were ranting and raving at how much time I spend on the fish tanks....

Gone all day. Home in time to feed. Extended the timer just a bit as the sun coral started to open. Popped it into my rubbermaid bowl, added coral frenzy and when more opened, added shrimp and pellets. Had a lot of heads eating tonight. Some are so tiny I just squirt the powdered stuff on them. Here are a couple pics 2 hours after I fed and lights went out. I think the tentacles should be larger in size. Maybe it was starving and it will "fluff" out in time. But it's waving in the flow and looks happy. Even looks like it's pulsing.

 

[HolisticBear]

Some beautiful pictures.

Are you still struggling with Mg? My first reaction was actually a bad test kit. The Red Sea is notorious for reading way high (not your problem), it just struck me as surprising that you're measuring low after lots of dosing.

 

[Susan Edwards]

@MrMichael A def. yes on the mg. Yesterday was at 1400 and today back down to 1100. I didn't dose yesterday as it was high. Dosed 50 mil this am and will dose another 20 in the pm. Ca still at 350. Dosed 7 mil am and will dose again pm. Alk which I've always had issues with is stable between 8.4 and just over 9. Using the red sea test kit. Going to have to order more replacement. Corals looking good, best ever and fish all happy. I'd like to get the mg and ca in the normal ranges so I can start using the red sea ABC Sure don't know what's using up the mg in there!

 

[HolisticBear]

8.4 Alk is ~420 Ca
9.1 is is ~425 Ca

http://www.ultimatereef.net/info/calculators/alkcalcalc.php.

Not sure about Mg, but I thought Mg moved slowly? It seems Ca is a bit too low.

 

[Susan Edwards]

@MrMichael Cool tool. Yes, Ca is low. Working to try to bring that up.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I'm so pleased the sun coral is doing so well. I'm feeding twice a day--once in the tank after I fed fish to keep them occupied. Going to get a clear wine bottle and cut bottom off. Plastic won't stay because its not on the sand so can't bury it to hold it.

First feeding is the first morning feeding and the coral is still open at least somewhat from the night. I just hit the heads open still. At the 3:00 feeding for the anthias, it opens about 20 minutes later but I don't go back to feed.

At the 7pm feeding I put some coral frenzy or reef roids around it with the flow and wait. then I put it in a bowl and target feed heavy. The polyps don't even have to be all the way open. I use a pipette and just drop mysis onto each head and they gobble it up, some eating several times. This picture is 4 hours after I fed and lights out. The extra feedings seems to be getting it back in better health. Seeing more extension of the tentacles. Has a way to go but seems very happy

Everything new is doing well. Even see the ywg in the display refugium if I look in the back of the tank. Damsels coming out of rockwork more but not swimming above the rocks too much yet.

Elegance didn't expand quite as much over the last couple days. Shifted away from the head of the narrow "gully" between main rockwork and lone rock. The tang loves to swim through there. Maybe was irritating the coral. Then I knocked the gonipora off it's rock. Had to set it onto a smaller rock. In front of the gully...Sigh....

All the fish seem to get along. A few chases here or there. Tang will occasionally chase a chromis out of the cavern but they go right back in and so does he and all is well. Same iwth the anthias or the sand goby. Then the tang will follow the sand goby and be buddies.

Here is what I have now

2 clowns. A disppointment mostly as all they do is host the corner back of the aquarium or along back. Once in a while they will swim around.

2 chromis. Ditto. They like to hang in the cavern, come out, go back. With the anthias they seem to come out more.

Gold head sand sifting goby. Love this guy even if he makes a mess... And means I can't put my suns on the sand bed

2 barnacle blenny's. So darn cute and so darn tiny. I have a pair. One has a teeny rock crevice front of tank on the bottom of a rock, the other is facing the back up high in a rock crevice. Wonder if they will ever find each other...

bicolor blenny--keeps watch from the highest point

3 anthias. Love love love. Swim all over and add nice color and movement. Feed 3 x's a day. Another lusted after addition

scooter blenny love this guy who displays in front of me all the time. He's no longer coming up onto the rocks to get his food from the baster since adding the anthias I squirt food in front of him on the sand bed and he often ignores. I think maybe he's getting food after the 3 feedings and isn't as hungry as when I was feeding once a day in the evenings.

kole tang. love this guy. cavern is his. he suffers the others and shares but has to show who is boss once in a while. He comes out, go thru a swim thru, back into cavern from back. out the back, through the gully, back into cavern, back out front, through hole he created at bottom rock going from front to back. He's a busy guy even when lights are out

Gonipora has cyano starting on base an on. Maybe need to chemi clean this weekend.
Duncan fat and fluffy
2 colts back healthy and growing stems again
favia-haven't seen any polyps yet
sun--my lusted after coral. Love it
xenia and gsp doing well. gsp growing longer and zoas and polyps doing well. Zoas moving off frag onto rockwork finally
feather fan growing nicely.
Acros not so good. bleached. Might need to move to bottom? Not sure what to do with them trouble is nitrates I'm sure.

Display refugium
damsels doing well, ywg doing well as far as I know. He's shy
macroalgae doing well t hough getting covered with algae. Using vibrant. Thinking of putting my big emerald in there. Hoping to get tanks plumbed together in next 2 weeks.

still testing daily and dosing to get ca and mg up to normal range then I'll be able to figure out how much to add daily to keep. Dosing nopox and vibrant for algae in both tanks

happy reefer here. Still beginner but learning quickly

 

[Susan Edwards]

I just did a stupid newbie mistake. I was dosing peroxide 1 ml per gal a day and just read its 1 ml per 10. I dosed 30 and 40 ml for a 66 gal (53) this week for 3 days.... Noticed my anthias have some black smudges on them. Read they are caused by amonia burns but my amonia is 0. Googled peroxide as that is the only other thing I've done, and I think that is the problem. The black is scabs where the burns are healing. No more for a few days.... Feel real stupid... Everything else looks okay, even the algae....