A New Dawn

[madweazl]

McCosker's doesn't want to play nice for a picture but he's still a beauty!

 

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

So everything transferred over well?  What’s the tank look like now?

[madweazl]

I posted a FTS a few posts back. Only been two days so nothing has changed. Alkalinity actually dipped so that's a good sign I guess. 

 

The 75g is pretty bleak LOL. I'll be posting these in the for sale forum so I can get the tank torn down. 

[madweazl]

I've never given aminos much consideration but I'm going to give Brightwell Coral Amino a shot since the tank shows 0 nitrate/phosphates on my kits. With 17 fish in the tank, I'm pretty sure there is plenty of nutrients for the fish regardless of test results but I don't have anything to lose either I suppose. I'm just broadcasting it at 3ml a day per the instructions (too lazy to target feed anything).

 

I also ordered Tropic Marin's Balling 3 part to test out for a bit. I'll submit an ICP and N-Doc just prior to starting the 3-part and then submit another in about three months to see how things look (I'll probably skip the N-Doc for that one and wait another year to see what that looks like).

 

That BTA sure is looking good  Needs a nice little black ocellaris to set it off. 

[YHSublime]

Interested to see your results with aminos. A lot of reefers swear by them, but I'm always skeptical that they're seeing what they want to see. 

[madweazl]

1 hour ago, YHSublime said:

Interested to see your results with aminos. A lot of reefers swear by them, but I'm always skeptical that they're seeing what they want to see. 

 

Not holding my breath but we'll see. I've tried some of this crap in the past along with Reef Roids and other crap with ZERO results and I'm not expecting anything here but I'm trying to keep an open mind. 

[madweazl]

Tropic Marin Balling components came in today but the Part B (alkalinity) was a major pain in the butt. Was mostly a solid brick that I had to beat and kneed for about 15 minutes before I could use it. Took a good 40+ minutes to completely dissolve the 16 spoons in a gallon of RO/DI (had to re-heat the water four times). The Part A was a breeze and the Part C was easy as well. I'll order one more round but if it remains that difficult to dissolve, I'll be going back to BRS Pharma.

[madweazl]

Today's project was getting the dosing pumps hung, plumbed, and primed. Waiting on GHL to deliver another powerbar so I can get the other three connected and operational but they're still showing a status of processing after three days. I'll start tidying up the wiring while I await its arrival.

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by madweazl

[madweazl]

Getting back to normal. The tank has looked much better over the course of the last three weeks or so. I reverted back to Instant Ocean and once this round of Tropic Marin alkalinity and calcium supplements are exhausted, I'll be switching back to the BRS pharma I was running on the previous tank.

I just about killed the hammer coral but it has stopped dying off the past few days and may actually survive. I suspect that was from playing with the lone A360X over the tank because everything else away from that light (the rest are A360WEs) is doing well (messed around with the violet, green, and red channels). I know better and often tell other members not to do it but like many, I was curious.

 

I've lost a few fish - likely due to over stocking and limited hiding places with my aquascape - but the rest are doing well. The hippo has doubled in size and is a porker. It took control of the tank from the yellow tang early on who has mellowed out dramatically since (it used to mess with just about all the fish. The hippo is much less of a bully to the remaining inhabitants (everything seems to recognize he is boss). One of the two emerald crabs that was added to the tank has grown dramatically. When added, one was barely larger than the other but now it's at least double if not triple the size of the other. It's claws have gotten massive and I thought it was a different crab when I saw it pop out a couple weeks ago. I actually captured it just to make sure it was actually a mithrax. Everything checked out so I dropped it back in the tank. The yellow watchman and orange prawn goby have moved into the same burrow where the spend time with both pistol shrimp.

 

The anemones are doing great (all three of them...). The elegance is as beautiful as ever. I am planning to break up some extra larger dry rock pieces that I have and use it to change the look of the large flat rock on the right side of the tank. My intent is to add some hiding places for the smaller fish and to provide some artificial shaded areas for some of the corals over there to provide some flexibility in regard to lighting as I'm currently only using two of the six T5s and the Kessils are running at 25% intensity.

 

The Royal Exclusive skimmer has been pretty awesome. I was blown away by how much larger it was than my Deltec (the cup dwarfs the Deltec). Even though it's the lower end of their lineup, the fit and finish is considerably better than that of the Deltec. Everything is much more robust. It has worked exceptionally well and collects considerably more skimmate than the Deltec was. It also flows exponentially more water. I am a bit curious in regards to the pump for this body though; I have it running at 34 watts (from a max of 60) with the output roughly 50% open. I've tried to increase the flow to cycle more water through the unit but it seems to create too much turbulence in the skimmer and decreases skimmate production. Not sure if this would perform differently in another tank but it seems like a waste of about 40% of the pumps capability on this skimmer body from my experience. I suppose the lower duty factor that I run it at should increase the lifespan so I guess that is a plus (I hope...). The only real down side to this skimmer over the Deltec is ease of maintenance. You can completely disassemble the Deltec with a single thumb screw where the Bubble King has a bunch of titanium screws that need to be removed for disassembly.

 

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

That’s good!  Have you let the skimmer just run for a while even though it’s jumping around inside a lot?  I have made skimmers out of other skimmers and upgraded how I like and it normally takes a little while for the slim to start in the ones that have lots of action near the top but they work great once you let them get going. 

[madweazl]

On the mend

 

 

On 7/11/2020 at 8:40 AM, GraffitiSpotCorals said:

That’s good!  Have you let the skimmer just run for a while even though it’s jumping around inside a lot?  I have made skimmers out of other skimmers and upgraded how I like and it normally takes a little while for the slim to start in the ones that have lots of action near the top but they work great once you let them get going. 

 

Yea, that was after the "break in" of sorts. This is the same pump that is on their larger skimmer so it really isn't much of a surprise. Super impressed with it's performance but given the price, it better be impressive. 

[madweazl]

Haven't posted a pic in a while but the tank is still doing well and things are growing out.

 

20230201_145504 by Aaron Weigand, on Flickr

[YHSublime]

LoL, a while is an understatement, it’s been years!

 

looks good!