howaboutme July 24, 2022 Author July 24, 2022 It's been a while so just a quick FTS and 1 close up. Tank is still chugging along. I can definitively confirm that keeping parameters in check for a small tank is hard. I've had some alk swings that really weren't attributed to a specific event. I had to baby the tank a bit during those times, many tests, adjusting doser, etc. I think I'm back to stability now. All this and I'm only dosing alk! All of my stringy stuff are now gone but still have some cyano on the sand bed at times. Nothing on the rocks and that's really all that matters to me. I've lost a few frags here and there while others are either growing like weeds (pocci) or just maintaining. I still think colorization could be better. I will likely experiment with the Luxdium upgrades at some point. I just don't want to be one of the firsts. I have room for more corals but want to take it slow. Perhaps a Dr. Mac's clam is needed in the center. That's what it's for anyways! Next big maintenance task is cleaning the sump! Dreading it so I keep pushing it off.... Tonight's shot while the lights are blue: A close up of the BSA Beast Monti mentioned a while ago. I moved it lower and it seems to like it. The color is coming back and I see growth. Hopefully it continues to color up to be closer to what it's supposed to be.
YHSublime July 24, 2022 July 24, 2022 Looking great! Def harder to keep parameters in a smaller tank!
howaboutme July 24, 2022 Author July 24, 2022 1 hour ago, YHSublime said: Looking great! Def harder to keep parameters in a smaller tank! Thanks! Yep, I share your pain too. Part of my issue, I think is that the BRS doser always has air gaps in the line. Some gaps are huge and so I may not get the same consistency in # of drips. Not sure if that is the case for other dosers but I assume so.
howaboutme July 29, 2022 Author July 29, 2022 Shrek meet WAMAS. WAMAS meet Shrek: Anyone know what is growing on my snails shell? It looks super cool. I did pick at one of the sticks and the green part popped off. Soon after it grew back. This doesn't show up anywhere else.
nburg July 30, 2022 July 30, 2022 I had that years ago in a tank and it grew in a little patch but didn’t really expand too much. Must Be some kind of algae that only grows these weird stalks. Not invasive in my experience.
howaboutme July 30, 2022 Author July 30, 2022 6 hours ago, nburg said: I had that years ago in a tank and it grew in a little patch but didn’t really expand too much. Must Be some kind of algae that only grows these weird stalks. Not invasive in my experience. Good to know. Thanks buddy!
Schg August 1, 2022 August 1, 2022 That is awesome, I love it! I had a hermit crab back in the day that had a red mushroom on its shell.
howaboutme October 23, 2022 Author October 23, 2022 Wow, it's been a few months! Not much is going on, really. Some growth, some no growth. Some colorful, some not colorful. No deaths though. Alk has been a PITA to control. At one point, I realized I didn't need to dose. Now I'm back to dosing. Tomorrow? Who knows! I finally have some detectable NO3 (2ppm). But then again, besides testing it 2 days ago, I can't remember the last time I even tested that. But seriously, I tested it thinking my tank is a bit too clean. Either way, I still don't have a concrete pathway other than sit and wait since nothing bad is going on. Coraline is going crazy in the spots I allow, which is not the glass. Oh! My rainbow 'nem did split about a week ago. I was planning to try and get it and sell it but it is now in a good spot (lower left) that I'm willing to see if the clowns will host it. (Remember that the sexy shrimp has taken over the initial (now other) one.) I do need a clam in that center spot... I only remembered to take a picture when the tank was already very blue so harder to depict.
YHSublime October 24, 2022 October 24, 2022 Tank's looking nice! What I admire most about it though is your patience. I can't remember if it was 1 or 2 years ago for black Friday, Dr Mac did some really nice clam deals. My Maxima came from there, looks gold from the side and silver from the top, I thought it was very unique. Anyways, keep your eyes peeled in a few weeks!
howaboutme October 24, 2022 Author October 24, 2022 7 hours ago, YHSublime said: Tank's looking nice! What I admire most about it though is your patience. I can't remember if it was 1 or 2 years ago for black Friday, Dr Mac did some really nice clam deals. My Maxima came from there, looks gold from the side and silver from the top, I thought it was very unique. Anyways, keep your eyes peeled in a few weeks! Thanks and thanks for the heads up about Dr. Mac! Funny because yesterday I went to their website and boy was I shocked at the current prices of their clams. I know they culture the best but that was a bit of sticker shock. I then went to AlgaeBarn and their prices looked way better and had some different options. I prefer an easier clam than Maxima's too. It is close to BF so I will keep eyes peeled.
nburg October 25, 2022 October 25, 2022 What type of clam? A huge derasa would do well on the sand bed right there in the middle. probably easier to find than a maxima as well (less likely to die as well)
howaboutme October 25, 2022 Author October 25, 2022 1 hour ago, nburg said: What type of clam? A huge derasa would do well on the sand bed right there in the middle. probably easier to find than a maxima as well (less likely to die as well) I think either a derasa or squamosa. I agree that those tend to be easier. Nothing is worse than spending $200 for a maxima and having it wither away. BF almost here!
howaboutme February 2, 2023 Author February 2, 2023 Wow, been a while since I posted here. Anyways, finally took advantage of the free ICP test we got at our last meeting. Some results: Can you say low nutrients? Yes, that is 0.003ppm PO4. Is that even possible to be this low? The RODI tests confirm 0 chlorines so where is all of this chlorine coming from? My reef crystals? I thought these tests include the main numbers like Alk and NO3 but I guess not? Do any of the ICP tests do this to confirm our home tests? Kind of disappointed. Who the heck needs all of the full 55 tests? Glad this was free!
WheresTheReef February 3, 2023 February 3, 2023 My phosphate read much lower in my icp results than my hanna checker. I didn't worry about that much. The chlorine reading should be from the chloride in the salt. I believe that number is elevated, if I reminder correctly, but you can confirm. You might check your salinity against a calibrated refractometer. Of course, refractometer calibration solution can also vary. Maybe check against a reefing buddy or LFS.
howaboutme February 3, 2023 Author February 3, 2023 18 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: My phosphate read much lower in my icp results than my hanna checker. I didn't worry about that much. The chlorine reading should be from the chloride in the salt. I believe that number is elevated, if I reminder correctly, but you can confirm. You might check your salinity against a calibrated refractometer. Of course, refractometer calibration solution can also vary. Maybe check against a reefing buddy or LFS. Thanks! How low was your icp compared to your test kit? Am I able to get no3 or alk? Incidentally, you can get the other numbers if you download the results. They don't blur those numbers. However those numbers are also gibberish as i wouldn't even know how to chase them if i wanted to.. ?
WheresTheReef February 3, 2023 February 3, 2023 Yea I agree, I can’t make out most of those results either. Maybe for the best since we shouldn’t chase numbers based off a single snapshot in time. I do an icp test maybe once per year. More for trends and to check against a sample when things seem off. Just looked back at the phosphate reading from last month and my Hanna url phosphorus checker gave a 0.1ppm reading and the icp result was 0ppm. So more than a little lower. I don’t think it’s possible to measure alk and NO3 with an icp test. Fauna Marin does sell a test kit that includes them, but I haven’t used it. https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/reef-icp-test-total-90-water-parameters-fauna-marin/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA2-2eBhClARIsAGLQ2RnZpN1_2Rkd3OpxFyTzvWB1T5H0SmGDWrjVqn3ZZ7F4H0LqbdY_6zYaAhk9EALw_wcB
howaboutme February 3, 2023 Author February 3, 2023 35 minutes ago, WheresTheReef said: Yea I agree, I can’t make out most of those results either. Maybe for the best since we shouldn’t chase numbers based off a single snapshot in time. I do an icp test maybe once per year. More for trends and to check against a sample when things seem off. Just looked back at the phosphate reading from last month and my Hanna url phosphorus checker gave a 0.1ppm reading and the icp result was 0ppm. So more than a little lower. I don’t think it’s possible to measure alk and NO3 with an icp test. Fauna Marin does sell a test kit that includes them, but I haven’t used it. https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/reef-icp-test-total-90-water-parameters-fauna-marin/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA2-2eBhClARIsAGLQ2RnZpN1_2Rkd3OpxFyTzvWB1T5H0SmGDWrjVqn3ZZ7F4H0LqbdY_6zYaAhk9EALw_wcB Thanks for the context. I never paid attention to these tests and never realized they tested all of the fluff but very little of the stuff we care about day to day.
YHSublime February 3, 2023 February 3, 2023 I guess if something is off, it could be helpful, like mentioned. I still have to use mine as well.
WheresTheReef February 3, 2023 February 3, 2023 12 hours ago, howaboutme said: Thanks for the context. I never paid attention to these tests and never realized they tested all of the fluff but very little of the stuff we care about day to day. I'm sure some use it as an integral part of their reefing, especially for trace elements. I mostly look for possible contaminates and heavy metals that get flagged which wouldn't show up in any of our test kits, but can build up and cause issues.
Origami February 3, 2023 February 3, 2023 Chloride is from you salt. Alkalinity is the ability to neutralize acids. It's not a specific ion. The alkalinity that we mostly desire is carbonate alkalinity, but we also see borate salts (or borate alkalinity) in our tanks. Alkalinity is best measured by titrating a solution with a laboratory grade acid standard. It can't be directly measured with ICP because it's not the measurement of one or even several ions or ionic complexes. Anybody that measures alkalinity from ICP would be using some sort of model which may or may not match your water's characteristics. The value of ICP analysis is not necessarily to confirm your test measurements from home test kits. (You put a lot of trust in the accuracy of those kits if you do.) Instead, it's more to highlight imbalances or the presence of ions that you may not want such as heavy metals, or deficiencies in trace elements.
howaboutme February 3, 2023 Author February 3, 2023 Thanks all! I can see the worth for yearly (at least) testing. I just never paid attention to it until we got the free sample so my expectations were totally off. So here is the rest of the test. Note that everything after PO4 is greyed out (have to pay) on the website but it shows up when you download the PDF. That said I don't know if anything after that may not be accurate, though I don't know why they would do that. I've always known that my Calc is high so that is confirmed. I never measure MG but I'm not surprised. All of this is because of the salt and I don't have much consumption. I may be switching to regular IO shortly.
howaboutme September 23, 2024 Author September 23, 2024 Last update. The tank starting overflowing from the overflow box. I was gone, but wife caught it fast so not much water left the tank before I stopped the pumps. I did not have the time nor the motivation to properly figure it out and fix the issue. I ended up running it like a sumpless set up to keep everything alive while I waited for @gastone to stop by and get all of the inhabitants. At first, I thought the pipes were clogged but in the process of breaking everything down, it doesn't seem like they were. A flashlight down them made it look all clear. Now I'm wondering if the pump (or it's controller) was messing up and running on the highest setting thereby overwhelming the overflow box's max gph capabilities. I do have 2 pumps. Given that I have very little attention span, I'm quite happy I lasted this long. If history repeats itself, I will re do the setup at a future date. Looking at the dates in my signature, it's 3 years and 1 day for this UNS tank while the predecessor WB 15 was just shy of 1 year. A good journey!
YHSublime September 23, 2024 September 23, 2024 We ebb and flow, some more than others. Catch you when you're back!
howaboutme September 23, 2024 Author September 23, 2024 36 minutes ago, YHSublime said: We ebb and flow, some more than others. Catch you when you're back! You mean some ebb between one tank over another? LOL! Hope all is well! I won't be far.
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