★ 110 Gallon (In-Wall Office Dream SPS Reef Tank) ★ PROJECT GENESIS [Total Automation, DIY & More ]★

[Rakie]

Well you saw the slurry of food I make. It's basically like a soup of everything my fish like. I feed using a 3mL pipette 3-6 times a day. Typically I'm around 4x a day. Between the big aggressive eaters, the few semi picky eaters, and my gobies that act like anglers luring in juicy mysis I have to feed a lot. It's been for the dorky gobies lately. They basically lay on the opposite side of the tank and wait for food to woft in their face. Two inches is far too much for those things to move, apparently.

 

[WallyB]

MAGMA Wrasse ( Got a Taste of MASSTICK FOOD) Good Step Forward

The Magma Wrasse is adjusting, but also acting a bit picky on food.

I just tried some MASSTICK on a Hanging stick, and he took a bite.

That's great since a better way of leaving food around to peck at, and not polluting tank with Feeding Attempts (floating food wasting away in tank)

 

[Rakie]

You can also mix MASSTICK with whatever you want your fish to eat. I mixed mine with a drop of Selcon and some mysis.

 

[NY_Caveman]

MAGMA Wrasse ( Got a Taste of MASSTICK FOOD) Good Step Forward

The Magma Wrasse is adjusting, but also acting a bit picky on food.

I just tried some MASSTICK on a Hanging stick, and he took a bite.

That's great since a better way of leaving food around to peck at, and not polluting tank with Feeding Attempts (floating food wasting away in tank)

The Wrasse’s color is so deep the chrominance may make it difficult to photograph! Beautiful specimen!

 

[WallyB]

You can also mix MASSTICK with whatever you want your fish to eat. I mixed mine with a drop of Selcon and some mysis.

Interesting idea.

But back to the Sunburst Anthias.
I'm going to get some Selcon since you seem to be impressed with the products effectiveness.

I still don't know how in the world he is getting so FAT and BIG, if I can't see him eating.

Maybe it's just a temp thing, but he is hungry and get's super excited when I feed, but then doesn't eat. ZIP, ZERO, ZILTCH.
If he was sick he wouldn't want to eat.
But he does have a lot of meat on him so he won't die from Starvation any time soon.

 

[WallyB]

The Wrasse’s color is so deep the chrominance may make it difficult to photograph! Beautiful specimen!

Agree. I am trying to get a good photo, but no luck so far. He is like a glowing RED light bulb. (Or like Hot Glowing Lava, MAGMA) I can walk into room and see him like 30 feet away.
Will keep trying, since he does stand still a lot.

 

[WallyB]

I tried again, now using a Flash.

It's interesting that he is Photo Generic. When I take photos, he comes out more.

This is the best photo I got of the Magma Wrasse so far.

Not as Focused, but shows you his white underside.

 

[Rakie]

Well the only change is the Angel. Even if the angel hasn't done anything he may be awkwardly intimidated. Even when chasing food. Fish are fickle like that in my experience. More than onces I've seen fish that were scared of other fish chase food but not eat. I never understood why...

Otherwise, your wrasse is all sparkly.

 

[WallyB]

SOME GOOD NEWS (x2) and SOME BAD NEWS (House AC Failure)

So let's start with the GOOD NEWS.

I got some Cobalt Fake (Color with Prebotics) for the SUNBURST Anthias.
All the Fish love it but FAT HEAD doesn't want it,

......but the MAGMA Wrasse likes it too. Which is Great (He eat Masstic, Frozen Brine, and now FLAKES)

BUT.....
The Sunburst Anthias started eating the Frozen Spirulina Brine Shrimp.
I guess his shyness ended, or just got hungry enough.

NOW THE BAD NEWS!!! (yet under control)

So I got a Generator for Tank Protection, but who would have thought AC would be my failure point. (I HAVE NO TANK CHILLERs)
MY House AC died last week. Compressor working but Condenser fan Seized.
I have maintenance and insurance on AC and Furnance and they came quick.
But due to a computer system their support department went down for two day, delaying part order.
Now the Part is lost somewhere.

The house has been getting hot, and slowly the Tank Temps have been rising. Just over 82 when I got concerned.
Turn down the T5's and just running Cool LED.

But still no word on PART arriving.

So going into SAVE the TANK MODE.

Dug out my Ancient AC stored under stairs and installed it into the Kitchen Sliding Door next to Kitchen tank.

1st floor temp starting to drop.

I'm running the Furnace fan to spread the cooling, and TODAY also got a Portable AC unit for Basement.

That is helping things more, but 2nd floor bedroom areas are getting very unconfortable.....
We also can't cook, run dryer, etc.

So we are sealing up house to keep things cool with the two ACs.
Going to cottage while we wait for PART. Hoping in next day or two.

The maintenance company RESOLUTION department is going to hear from me once this is over.

 

[Rakie]

The maintenance company RESOLUTION department is going to hear from me once this is over.

"WallyB's in-wall 220g Project Genesis 2: The returnining"

Cause That's like halfway how this all started

 

[WallyB]

"WallyB's in-wall 220g Project Genesis 2: The returnining"

Cause That's like halfway how this all started

Ha Ha Ha ha ha

No, I don't need an upgrade YET. Paid for or NOT.......Too early. I barely am started

Things are under control since I wasn't caught off Guard like last time.

But I will demand some kind of compensation for the significant inconvenience.
If I didn't do all this extra AC setup, things could have gone bad and that would have cost them more.

 

[WallyB]

I'm Back from Cottage (House AC Fixed, Tunze Pump Failed, Fish missing?? )

So the part for the AC FINALLY arrived, and we returned. AC has been restored.

But again.....Leaving Tank unattended didn't go without an issue or two.

1) My Tunze Osmolator Pump Failed, so the Return Pump was starting to gurgle air bubbles into Tank.

Came back in time since the Sump Return section wasn't dried out yet.
I had a SPARE Tunze pump, and replaced the broken one. BUT After replacing I found that it worked. (Appears the motor STOPPED perfectly between to Magnetic Poles. A slight nudge got it working again).

2) One of my 3 Carberryi Anthias is missing. Weird. He couldn't have jumped.
He isn't in tank, and doesn't come out to eat.
I have a hunch he died. He was extremely pale looking compared to the other two. For the longest time.
I think whatever was his problem finally caught up, and he died. Probably got eatten by the hermit crabs.
I'm not upset since he was the ODD one out. The remain pair look great and have really paired up now.

All corals look fine. Some great. Some so-so. I am a bit worried about he Ice Fire Enchinta. Showing some receeding from bottom, but it's been that was for a while.

TIME TO TURN UP LIGHTING, since I'm back and NO more trips away.
The reason is there isn't much movement on SPS growth or encrusting.
I lowered the fixture to get Bottom PARS at 200, and will start increasing photo period to roughly 8 hours at peak intensity.

 

[Rakie]

Man, sorry to hear that Wally...

I turned my lights up for a myriad of reasons. Firstly I only have a single fixture, so my spread is lacking from that. Second, at full blast 100% intensity AB+ program my radion is ONLY 128 watts.. That's not a ton of power. Although Power =/= Par, still. Additionally, I have a diffuser that saps about 15% of my output. So at 100% I'm really around 85%.

If I had a pair of radions, I'd more likely be running them at about 65% (I'd be using diffusers).

Just food for thought!

If you definitely want to bump the lighting up, make sure your alk/no3 are in line, and that your po4 isn't zero. Untestable PO4 caused me a lot of problems when I was starting back into the hobby. Our equipment is too good these days.

 

[WallyB]

Man, sorry to hear that Wally...
If you definitely want to bump the lighting up, make sure your alk/no3 are in line, and that your po4 isn't zero. Untestable PO4 caused me a lot of problems when I was starting back into the hobby. Our equipment is too good these days.

Thanks for the reminder. I haven't done a full Water test in a while being away so much.

ALK = 8.0 (Super Stable)
CALC=415 (Nicely Balanced with Alk)
MAG = 1240 (Just Right)

But....

NO3=30 (bit on the high side, but tanks have been running on Flake Auto Feeders). Time for a Water Change.
PO4=0.29 (bit on the high side too) Time for a Water Change too.

I assume this means with N&P not being too low, I can crank up Lighting SLOWLY after a Water change to bring down N&P a bit. Maybe a brief Carbon/PhosGuard Run.

 

[Rakie]

Honestly I don't think those numbers are bad at all.

But, at 8 alk and with that nutrient buffer they can probably handle more light no problem

 

[WallyB]

Copperband Butterfly (#2) Died (Didn't learn to Eat)

So I found the Copperband Butterfly swimming weaky (IN MY KITCHEN TANK).
This is NOT the original Copperband that I cured of ICH and Taught to eat Frozen & Masstic Food. That Coppperband in my SPS Tank is doing very well.

This is the 2nd Copperband I got from the QT Guy.

He only learned to eat Masstic, and really got into Eatting the Aptasia in my Tank. The Angel I had in there really didn't let him eat anyway.

The Copperband Polished the whole Tank Clean of Aptasia, and I guess when Aptasia Ran out, the Masstic wasn't enough.
I assume things got worse when I only had the Flake Feeder on during a whole week way. Didn't have anything to eat.

Today I did scooped him out of the Tank and setup a hospital.
No sign of any disease, just THIN.

He lay there breathing hard all day, and interestingly when he died he kind of ended up Upright.

He will be remember as a brave lad who did his duty ridding my tank of Aptasia.
I thank him for that.

 

[WallyB]

NEW LIGHTING (Programming) Higher PARS, Longer PhotoPeriod.

Taking it easy, but this will certainly give the Corals more Light.

I can tell the SPS want more Light since TOP OF TANK the Frags are showing better Color. (Purple, Blue tips, but lacking Green)

Anything below 3/4 up is so so.
Anything below 1/2 up is not to great.

 

[WallyB]

Quick Tank Reference Photo (Day 0) New Lighting Programming (and AquaBlue Special 39W)

Just a quick photo, to see if things change. Things look much better in person, but with so much blue light and NO-EDITING, the Camera can't take a good photo.

Also minor change based on Rakie's Recommendation.

I removed the ATI Actnic Bulb from the 39W Middle dimmable Position and put back the ATI AquaBlue Special.
The ABS was removed a while ago since I thought it might be causing the Brown Algae Outbreak on the CaribSea Rock Arch.

 

[Rakie]

my photoperiod is from 7am to 830pm -- Peak from 7:45am to 5pm.

 

[WallyB]

Fascinating DISCOVERY (Eating Preference )
( Sunburst FatHead Anthias BIG FROZEN Chunks )
(( Angel, Athias, Chromis, Yellow Tang) (PELLETS!!) ))

Interesting. I stumbled on this by accident.

I was watching the Sunburst Anthias to see if he was eating.
I dumped a bunch of Frozen Spirulina Brine Shrimp into Tank.

What I noticed is, he like big chunks. Just like he used to get in QT since Alone.
He gobbles up big unthawed Frozen blobs....but when frozen thaws to fine particles, he isn't interested anymore.

So I dug out my JARS and JAR of Pellets (that nobody would eat). I tried all different types and sizes (All at once).
Suburst Anthias didn't eat the Pellets.

But the Yellow Tang went nuts. He ate like 30 pellets of all Sizes, even the Largest I have which a BIG.
The Carberryi Anthias ate Small Pellets, The Angel and Chromis medium Pellet.

I never knew that any of my fish would even consider Pellets. I gave up ages ago.

That's went I noticed that the Yellow Tang has really gotten bigger. (Recently)

The Tang is now the biggest Fish in my Tank.

But the greatest discovery is that 3/4 of my Fish Eat Pellets.
This means if I pre-Feed Pellets FIRST, I can follow up with Frozen for the rest of the fish like the Suburst Anthias and the Copperband.