Turtle's Sushi Dream

[SashimiTurtle]

Lesson for the day, just because youre all smart and mechanical... doesn't mean you dont need to read dirrections.

So, I've been having issues keeping the mat tracking properly in the Reefmat. It would work fine for a day and then it would shift and expose the grate allowing water to bypass. No matter how many times I adjusted it, it would bind and alarm, or shift and not filter. So I did what NOBODY wants to do and read the directions. Turns out the bottom piece cones apart and you're supposed to put the mat THRU it and not under it. Huh, works great now...

I'll let you guess what day I fixed the mat...

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Not much happening with the tank. Been doing a large water change first weekend of every month. Approx 20% water volume. Scraped the glass in all the hard to get spots today... back wall, down in the sand line, over flow box, ect. and really stirred up the sand on the right side of the tank. A whole bunch of nasty stuff came out and I turned the tank all cloudy. The Reefmat cleared it up pretty quickly at the expense of a few feet of roll. That is what I got it for tho, constant water filtration.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Off your butt, on your feet...

Ive been getting myself motivated to get the Sushi Dream back on track. So today I cleaned the tank. Took a toothbrush and went after all the rocks. All the algae brushed right off without too much effort. It had been dying back slowly since the addition of the Reefmat. Cleaning the rocks amd stirring some of the samd clouded up the tank a little bit, and my filter roll is done. I ordered one of those today, hopefully it comes in soon.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Water cleared up today.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Tank update, I got goodies!!!

As I posted earlier, the Reefmat used up all the toilet paper roll. My LFS is closed on the weekends, so I ended up ordering one. All week the tracking information with USPS told me a label was created but the package wasnt picked up or even entered into the system yet. So I decided to run up to my LFS today and get a new TP roll. Sadly, they were out and expecting a shipment from Red Sea that hadn't arrived when planned. Bummer.

They DID have some nice looking corals and have recently redone the front room. So I looked around at the new fish system, and of course I had to look at all the corals they had for sale.

There was a huge selection of Euphillia, but I JUST killed 2 of them so I decided to pass on them. There were some goniopora and alveopora, but those have been pretty sensitive in my experience and we need to get the tank a little cleaner and more stable. I decided on a pretty favia, a chunky trumpet and a bright zoa. I didnt ask names, I dont really care about those anymore. If its a pretty coral its a pretty coral... but I'm pretty sure the zoas are mandarins oranges.

(Excuse the nails, I'm a heavy equipment mechanic, they are pretty much permanently discolored/mashed)

When I got home, my Reefmat TP roll was in my mailbox. Checked the tracking for giggles and poops and it magically said delivered, when they didn't even know it existed this morning.

I floated the corals while I got the TP roll installed. Taking the old roll off, is a chore. Wow. I could not with all my strength (again, equipment mechanic) pull the center pieces out, and eventually opted to unroll the entire thing into the trash.

I installed the new roll the RIGHT way this time... and got the frag rack from the kitchen drying rack where I had cleaned it this past weekend. I did a quick dip and rinse and placed my new corals on the rack. Cleaned the glass up and was actually kinda proud of how the tank looked so I grabbed a FTS. It isn't perfect, there are some small spots of algae still, the sand needs a really good siphoning, and I need another light to completely cover the tank... but it is worlds better than last week.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Feeders mean happy, healthy corals, right?

 

[Nate Chalk]

Looking good. Thanks for the reminder to blow out the rocks

 

[SashimiTurtle]

First weekend of the month means tank maintenance.

Today, the wife helped me and we did a water change with the new siphon @Magellan forcibly sent and demanded I use, lol. Thanks again bro. Got a ton of nasty gunk out of the sand, and tried to suck up my urchin. Its unharmed, altho its been telling everyone about an "alien abduction" and getting "beamed up to the mothership." Crazy, I know.

A white carpet like fuzz almost instantly sprouted from the rocks I JUST cleaned. A bunch of fine sand particles came up with the detritus. I don't know if its some kind of diatom algae or what. They went from mostly clean to COVERED in short white fuzz.

Made 3 zoa frags from where my star gazers were growing off of their little rock. I'll probably end up giving them away, they are practically worthless on trade-ins.

My new trumpets have been looking a bit under the weather. They have always been sort of a "canary in the coal mine" for me as a judge of water quality. They seem to be perking up a bit after today's water change. That was until I cleaned some floating gunk off them... I'm going to clean up the mixing barrel and try and get another one done in the next few days. Just a simple water exchange this time.

 

[Magellan]

First weekend of the month means tank maintenance.

Today, the wife helped me and we did a water change with the new siphon @Magellan forcibly sent and demanded I use, lol. Thanks again bro. Got a ton of nasty gunk out of the sand, and tried to suck up my urchin. Its unharmed, altho its been telling everyone about an "alien abduction" and getting "beamed up to the mothership." Crazy, I know.

A white carpet like fuzz almost instantly sprouted from the rocks I JUST cleaned. A bunch of fine sand particles came up with the detritus. I don't know if its some kind of diatom algae or what. They went from mostly clean to COVERED in short white fuzz.

Made 3 zoa frags from where my star gazers were growing off of their little rock. I'll probably end up giving them away, they are practically worthless on trade-ins.

My new trumpets have been looking a bit under the weather. They have always been sort of a "canary in the coal mine" for me as a judge of water quality. They seem to be perking up a bit after today's water change. That was until I cleaned some floating gunk off them... I'm going to clean up the mixing barrel and try and get another one done in the next few days. Just a simple water exchange this time.

I am wildly disappointed that there is no picture of an urchin inside the siphon tube

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Thursday saw another water change. This time I pumped out the sump and sucked up the little bit of detritus that was on the bottom. Friday I went and grabbed a few more corals. Red and purple blasto and zoas of similar color, also a single polyp of some type of clove polyps that was growing off the bottom of the tank. It got throw in as a freebie.

I've come to the conclusion I have some water contamination getting past my RODI. My new Trumpet has been closed since the morning after I brought it home. I thought I might have a nipper, so I placed the coral in an acclimation box. That hasnt fixed the issue, so I'm lead to believe its water. Trumpets have always told me when my water is off. My RODI unit is WAY past due for filters, so I ordered a 7 stage filter kit plus a new membrane and a replacement TDS meter. I also am planning on moving the location of the supply for the RO unit. Right now it comes off the cold water inlet to my water heater, and I'm wondering if some kind of scale or metals aren't backing up into the line from the tank.¹

In the meantime, before that gets here, I'll be taking my 275g IBC tote to a friends tomorrow to fill so I can mix up a VERY large water change, and have enough for some top off until my filters arrive.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, now I dont know... I think the trumpet is starting to come back out.

Last night after lights off, but how it looked all day.

Today, lights on for two hours fourty five minutes.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Been putting off posting an update... bad Turtle.

@Magellan Came down weekend before last... fuel pump in his car needed replaced. Of course he paid in coral. He gave me technically four nice frags of a green anacropora, a forest fire digi, a wildfire rhodactis(that accidentally got ripped in half trying to remove the plug) and some type of purple gorgonian that does not wish to stay in place.

I've also determined the problem with my trumpet is 100% nipping by fish. Over the course of a few days it nearly fuly recovered, but wasnt getting enough flow to remove waste from the coral. I moved it back to the frag rack and its closed up as tight as it can get.

This weekend past, another friend @Saltysav96 brought a fish trap over. I haven't tried to use it yet. Was pretty busy all weekend and didn't have time for the tank. I also have not been able to determine which fish is the issue. I have a hunch it's the eibli angel.

My RODI order did come in. BRS 7 stage filter kit, new 75gpd membrane, and a new tripple TDS meter.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, I have lots to update y'all on. I came down with pneumonia right after my last post. Had to go to the urgent care for antibiotics, and had absolutely no energy to spend on the tank. Thankfully, the antibiotics pretty much Uno Reverse carded the pneumonia and I was feeling better in a few days. Sadly that few days was over the Thanksgiving holiday, so I had no appetite and missed out on all the great food.

Once feeling better, it was on. I caught the majestic angel very quickly. Placed the trap in the tank with some frozen food inside and it was only a matter of time before it was trying to figure out how to get inside. Once the fish was in I triggered the trap and placed it in the sump. Next was the ebili. It was 100% uninterested in the trap, regardless of where it was placed, or how much food was in it. This meant only one thing, I had to tear the tank apart. I removed the entire right side rock structure and after chasing the angel around the tank for about an hour with my wife helping... we caught it. It also went in the sump and I managed to get the rocks mostly back in the same place.

Now that both angels were confined to the sump, my two new zoa frags started to open back up and made a full recovery. The three frags I made from my single colony of stargazers were eaten as well as the single clove polyp frag. The trumpet is still alive, but too far gone. I'm certain it isn't going to make it. The favia and blasto are also fine. I'm 100% certain the eibli angel was the culprit, as I witnessed it attacking several corals including the anacropora and blastos on the rocks. I never saw the majestic touch anything, and the LFS I took them to doubts it was an issue either... but after all the damage, I decided not to risk it and removed both of them.

With the fish caught, it was time to sort out the RODI. I was still unsure if metal contaminants from the water heater were getting thru and the sediment filter looked horribly nasty. The TDS meter was still showing 0tds after the membrane even before the DI, as well as after the DI was 0. My source water usually hangs in the 70-90tds range. First order was getting a stand built for my RODI/saltwater mixing station. I've had 2, 55g storage tanks for a few years that I just never set up. I bought them with the intentions of making a mixing station, but the 44g Brute, AC pump and 50' hose just worked too well for water changes. I want to eventually automate water changes on this tank, so a mixing station was a necessity. I built the stand 6' wide by 2' deep, and tall enough to comfortably store salt buckets and 5g totes underneath, which ended up being 17" to the underside. I have the tanks, and RODI set up with all new filters, membrane and DI resin. I placed a temporary valve and 90

I received results for the ICP test Tuesday, and they told me next to nothing as far as why I have been having problems with GHA. My suspected iron getting past the RO was false, even tho the sediment filter was RED with some solid red particles in the bottom of the filter. Everything in the RODI sample was nonexistent except for silica, which isn't going to cause GHA. In the tank, Ca was 472ppm, Alkalinity 8.0DKH, Mg 1327ppm and all other major elements were spot on. Trace elements were mostly in line, with Iodine and Barium showing very low. All of the toxic metals tested zero. Oddly enough, silicon was in the normal range in the tank.

Nutrients, however, were bottomed out. I'm thinking this could be a threefold issue; One, I've removed the timer(GHL controlled powerbar) from my refugium lights. Since I've had the GHA issues, I've left the refugium lighting on 24/7. Two, I have GHA feeding on whatever nutrients are available. Three, the Reefmat is so efficient at cleaning the water, uneaten food, and all over waste, that makes it to the overflow doesn't have a chance to break down and add nutrients to the tank. For now, I've unplugged the lights from the refugium. I also added some powdered coral food to the auto feeder. It is scheduled to spin once at 10am and once at 12pm. I've also been feeding frozen more often in the evenings.

Yesterday, I finally made it over to the FLS to trade in my angels and got replacement fish. I picked up a moon wrasse Thalassoma lunare, and a biota dragon goby Amblygobius phalaena. The wrasse has been swimming around actively since I added it and ate at feeding time tonight. It's very pretty but almost impossible for me to get a good picture of. Every picture I take turns out blurry because it doesn't stop moving. The goby hung around the bottom for a little while, and then went into hiding. I haven't seen it since, hopefully it comes out soon.(While editing in photos, I walked by the tank after the lights had gone off and saw the goby next to the entrance to a cave. When I tried to get a picture, it darted back in.) I also added a second urchin, a purple colored pin cushion. It has been climbing around with some super long feeler feet things. It seems pretty happy with the abundance of GHA.

I forgot to pick up a new roller for the Reefmat, as I've almost exhausted another roll. I've been averaging almost 30" a day, which seems pretty excessive. It might just be how my tank operates, or maybe it's the GHA... anyway I'm at almost 109' of my second 115' roll. So, I went up to the closer LFS this afternoon to pick up a new roll. Luckily, I got the last one they had in stock that wasn't already purchased online. While I was there, they twisted my arm, beat me up and forced me to come home with three new button scolys. I swear, that is exactly how it went... . The first one is red with orange and yellow stripes, the second one has a green center with an orange edge, and the last one is sorta dark purple with green and bluish stripes.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Shhh, be vewwy vewwy quiet...

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Well, I have lots to update y'all on. I came down with pneumonia right after my last post. Had to go to the urgent care for antibiotics, and had absolutely no energy to spend on the tank. Thankfully, the antibiotics pretty much Uno Reverse carded the pneumonia and I was feeling better in a few days. Sadly that few days was over the Thanksgiving holiday, so I had no appetite and missed out on all the great food.

Once feeling better, it was on. I caught the majestic angel very quickly. Placed the trap in the tank with some frozen food inside and it was only a matter of time before it was trying to figure out how to get inside. Once the fish was in I triggered the trap and placed it in the sump. Next was the ebili. It was 100% uninterested in the trap, regardless of where it was placed, or how much food was in it. This meant only one thing, I had to tear the tank apart. I removed the entire right side rock structure and after chasing the angel around the tank for about an hour with my wife helping... we caught it. It also went in the sump and I managed to get the rocks mostly back in the same place.

Now that both angels were confined to the sump, my two new zoa frags started to open back up and made a full recovery. The three frags I made from my single colony of stargazers were eaten as well as the single clove polyp frag. The trumpet is still alive, but too far gone. I'm certain it isn't going to make it. The favia and blasto are also fine. I'm 100% certain the eibli angel was the culprit, as I witnessed it attacking several corals including the anacropora and blastos on the rocks. I never saw the majestic touch anything, and the LFS I took them to doubts it was an issue either... but after all the damage, I decided not to risk it and removed both of them.

With the fish caught, it was time to sort out the RODI. I was still unsure if metal contaminants from the water heater were getting thru and the sediment filter looked horribly nasty. The TDS meter was still showing 0tds after the membrane even before the DI, as well as after the DI was 0. My source water usually hangs in the 70-90tds range. First order was getting a stand built for my RODI/saltwater mixing station. I've had 2, 55g storage tanks for a few years that I just never set up. I bought them with the intentions of making a mixing station, but the 44g Brute, AC pump and 50' hose just worked too well for water changes. I want to eventually automate water changes on this tank, so a mixing station was a necessity. I built the stand 6' wide by 2' deep, and tall enough to comfortably store salt buckets and 5g totes underneath, which ended up being 17" to the underside. I have the tanks, and RODI set up with all new filters, membrane and DI resin. I placed a temporary valve and 90

I received results for the ICP test Tuesday, and they told me next to nothing as far as why I have been having problems with GHA. My suspected iron getting past the RO was false, even tho the sediment filter was RED with some solid red particles in the bottom of the filter. Everything in the RODI sample was nonexistent except for silica, which isn't going to cause GHA. In the tank, Ca was 472ppm, Alkalinity 8.0DKH, Mg 1327ppm and all other major elements were spot on. Trace elements were mostly in line, with Iodine and Barium showing very low. All of the toxic metals tested zero. Oddly enough, silicon was in the normal range in the tank.

Nutrients, however, were bottomed out. I'm thinking this could be a threefold issue; One, I've removed the timer(GHL controlled powerbar) from my refugium lights. Since I've had the GHA issues, I've left the refugium lighting on 24/7. Two, I have GHA feeding on whatever nutrients are available. Three, the Reefmat is so efficient at cleaning the water, uneaten food, and all over waste, that makes it to the overflow doesn't have a chance to break down and add nutrients to the tank. For now, I've unplugged the lights from the refugium. I also added some powdered coral food to the auto feeder. It is scheduled to spin once at 10am and once at 12pm. I've also been feeding frozen more often in the evenings.

Yesterday, I finally made it over to the FLS to trade in my angels and got replacement fish. I picked up a moon wrasse Thalassoma lunare, and a biota dragon goby Amblygobius phalaena. The wrasse has been swimming around actively since I added it and ate at feeding time tonight. It's very pretty but almost impossible for me to get a good picture of. Every picture I take turns out blurry because it doesn't stop moving. The goby hung around the bottom for a little while, and then went into hiding. I haven't seen it since, hopefully it comes out soon.(While editing in photos, I walked by the tank after the lights had gone off and saw the goby next to the entrance to a cave. When I tried to get a picture, it darted back in.) I also added a second urchin, a purple colored pin cushion. It has been climbing around with some super long feeler feet things. It seems pretty happy with the abundance of GHA.

I forgot to pick up a new roller for the Reefmat, as I've almost exhausted another roll. I've been averaging almost 30" a day, which seems pretty excessive. It might just be how my tank operates, or maybe it's the GHA... anyway I'm at almost 109' of my second 115' roll. So, I went up to the closer LFS this afternoon to pick up a new roll. Luckily, I got the last one they had in stock that wasn't already purchased online. While I was there, they twisted my arm, beat me up and forced me to come home with three new button scolys. I swear, that is exactly how it went... . The first one is red with orange and yellow stripes, the second one has a green center with an orange edge, and the last one is sorta dark purple with green and bluish stripes.

Love the new frags!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Mmmm tasty sushi

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Update time. Last Sunday and earlier today, I did a 10g water change. Just simple water change, just mix up water in my 5g totes I have, then empty 10g of water and full back up. I've decided that will be an every Sunday tank chore until I get the mixing station automated to take care of it for me.

I also set up my Coralbox wifi doser I've had in storage from I think 3 tanks ago. After much research into the how to remove nutrients when tests show no nutrients, I've landed on carbon dosing. Carbon dosing moves the nutrients from raw form into bacteria. From what I've read, algae are very efficient at pulling raw nutrients from the water. So efficient that they can out compete corals and take over a tank. Carbon dosing feeds the bacteria, or allows bacteria to more easily consume raw nutrients and out compete the algae. Corals, have a hard time consuming raw nutrients, but can readily fed on bacteria and micro plankton that are boosted from carbon dosing. What the corals do not eat, the skimmer can take care of.

So for now, I've decided on vinegar as a carbon source. I eventually am going to order a product from Tropic Marin calld NP-Bacto Balance. It's got carbon, nitrate and phosphate in it in a perfectly balanced ratio.

Livestock! I thought I lost this guy, as a saw a shed that looked pretty much like a hermit ripped out of its shell. But he was crawling around tonight so all good. I'm not sure what type of hermit he is, but I've had him for a while and he's in a very large astrea shell right now.

The dragon goby is 100% nocturnal. He comes out at night and digs around in the sand. I might have to start stashing treats buried by his little burrows. He ran away from the camera tonight but i got pictures of his little holes.

 

[Fudsey]

This is a NOPOX reciepe I got from someone and used it for a while
@jsker maybe???

 

[SashimiTurtle]

It's been too long without some Sushi...

New Year resolution, make the Sushi Dream back into a dream and not a nightmare. In January I ordered a bunch of CUC, 50 astraea snails, 50 assorted hermits, 50 florida cerith snails, 25 nassarius snails(these ended up being the tiny kind, I'll order the bigger ones next time), 5 emerald crabs, 3 fighting conchs, and a halloween hermit crab. That's a good start, but all the CUC came in fairly small(but healthy), except for the conchs, so I'll most likely double the snails with a future order.

I've been fighting and fighting algae issues for so long, I decided it was time for a "soft reset." So, this past weekend, I emptied the tank.

No, I didn't get rid of anything. I essentially "washed" everything.

The first thing I did was pull all the clean rock that was in the sump, and placed it in my 40g Brute can with my livestock and a heater.

I then used two smaller cans to hold all my rock so it would stay wet. Once I had all three cans full of old tank water, I drained the remaining water out to the back yard. The next step was to remove ALL the sand. I used a BRAND NEW, CLEAN kitty litter scoop to sift thru the sand for large empty shells, CUC, broken coral pieces... ect. I pulled essentially my entire CUC I started the tank with in the form of empty shells. At least 30 very large 2" astraea shells were buried in the sand, along with a lot of other smaller shells. I'm not sure why I had the large die-off, but it's getting replaced, and will be maintained.

With the sand removed, it was time to start cleaning. I moved the large tote full of sand to the back porch, and grabbed the water hose and a bucket. I filled the bucket up about a fourth of the way with sand, and washed and washed and washed until the water was clear when I poured it out. All the detritus, all the dust, everything. I can fluff up the sand as much as I want, and it won't cloud the water, it just settles back down.

The green tote is cleaned sand, and the clear tote is nasty gunky sand.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

With all the sand clean, it was time to tackle the tank.

I used my shop vac to get the sand that I couldn't scoop out anymore, and the rest of the water that wouldn't siphon. With a spray bottle full of vinegar, a scraper blade and a magic eraser, I cleaned every inch of glass. It wasn't too terribly dirty, there were a few spots of algae buildup that needed some scraping, but most of the film wiped right off with the magic eraser.

Sand is clean. Tank is clean... We just need clean rocks now. Before I started I went to the local Horror Fright place where they sell really cheaply made tools, and picked up several of those robot tooth brushes... you know the ones with the metal bristles. I scrubbed the crap out of all the rocks. I was careful to make sure no metal bristles were left behind, but I really got into those rocks and scrubbed.

Clean sand... clean tank... clean rock... now we just need clean water. Well, it's probably a good thing I had this huge tote full of water in my garage.

I decided to switch salt to Tropic Marin Pro Reef. I'll also be going with their balling method later, but I shouldn't need to dose for a little while. It took one and about a half buckets to bring the salinity up to 1.026. Temperature was an issue, being in my garage, and not having a heater big enough for 250 gallons of water, 68F was about as hot as I could get it. Even being that cool, I had no issue getting the salt to mix.