A Calm Blue Ocean - IM Fusion Pro 50 Gallon AIO Lagoon

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Calm Blue Ocean

Calm Blue Ocean

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Couple of random updates.

Lost Gary the Snail. Awesome cleanup crew member. He'd had a major decline a while back and bounced back. Not so lucky this time.

A different kind of loss - My pistol shrimp seems to have lost his snapping claw. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be bothering him (although for the rest of us he's a lot quieter). His gobies are possibly feeling a bit more defensive. Doozer continues to build his empire and didn't hesitate to explore at mid day to find appropriate building materials. Research tells me his remaining claw may transform into a snapping claw now while the missing one grows back.

doozer.jpg


Another new development, one of my clowns has started biting the duncan. Well, maybe not biting. Sucking on it??? The duncan doesn't seem too annoyed by the attention, at least so far, but we'll be monitoring the situation and move it if necessary. The clowns did force the move of the gorgonian a while back after biting it enough to strip the top inch bare.

amy.jpg


Bonus blenny picture just because:

wing.jpg
 
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Couple of random updates.

Lost Gary the Snail. Awesome cleanup crew member. He'd had a major decline a while back and bounced back. Not so lucky this time.

A different kind of loss - My pistol shrimp seems to have lost his snapping claw. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be bothering him (although for the rest of us he's a lot quieter). His gobies are possibly feeling a bit more defensive. Doozer continues to build his empire and didn't hesitate to explore at mid day to find appropriate building materials. Research tells me his remaining claw may transform into a snapping claw now while the missing one grows back.

doozer.jpg


Another new development, one of my clowns has started biting the duncan. Well, maybe not biting. Sucking on it??? The duncan doesn't seem too annoyed by the attention, at least so far, but we'll be monitoring the situation and move it if necessary. The clowns did force the move of the gorgonian a while back after biting it enough to strip the top inch bare.

amy.jpg


Bonus blenny picture just because:

wing.jpg
Good to see an update. Sorry about the loss of Gary. Your clowns are weird with the biting thing. Both of mine are covered with black dots which I believe are stings from the zoa patch they live in but they don’t bite the coral. Other than me and food they’ve never bitten anything. Clowns are quirky.
 
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So my Red-Lined Wrasse jumped today while I had the lid off. Of course she launched straight down the back and not somewhere easy to reach. Went back into the tank with a big mess of dog hair. I'll worry about that later! She's maybe got a scuff or two, and is certainly stressed. I hope she's ok. Needless to say I decided to delay the water change I was going to do so she can settle down.

In other news, I got my ICP test back this morning. Mostly pretty good except I had entries under pollutants for aluminum and antimony. Now to figure out where those came from. I'll do a big water change (after my wrasse relaxes) and throw some PolyFilter in. Not sure what else to do after that. Probably do another test in a month to see if I've got it under control.
 

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Always a bummer when you get a jumper but at least you were there to make the save. My Orange Back Wrasse and one of the Zebra Dartfish have both jumped but I was right there both times. How’s the tank looking?
 
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Always a bummer when you get a jumper but at least you were there to make the save. My Orange Back Wrasse and one of the Zebra Dartfish have both jumped but I was right there both times. How’s the tank looking?

I'll sure be a lot more careful about having the lid off for any length of time. Waited for her to go into the sand for the night before starting to clear the dog hair out. Note to self, clean dog hair out from behind the tank. Darn fish, she's one of my favorites (they're all my favorites). She ate well at feeding time so hopefully that means all is ok.

Tank is looking pretty good. Still getting some aggressive algae growth on the sand. Phosphates have mysteriously skyrocketed to over 0.3 but other than the sand thing the tank doesn't seem too bothered, with just enough algae growth on the rocks to keep some snails happy.

Monti is still giving me the middle finger. A crab was sitting on it this afternoon picking algae off it. I let him carry on with his business, maybe it will help.

The cyphastrea has receded a bit which is concerning. I'm going to take some par readings (and hope a crazy wrasse stays in the tank while I'm doing it) to see if maybe I'm blasting it with a bit too much light.

The softies are all taking over the universe, growing like crazy. If this mixed reef thing fails, at least there are softies.

I've come to the conclusion that my tank is screaming for some biodiversity. I've been too conservative with additions and it needs something that doesn't come out of a bottle. We're finally out of the deep freeze here so corals incoming!
 
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Awesome tank! I believe they were 'sucking' it to build a tolerance to their tentacles so they can host it. They do this with nems sometimes

Thanks! That's really neat. Looks like the Duncan is ok with it, thankfully! It's an absolutely huge variety so I can see why the clowns might get confused lol.
 
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I am not having luck with corals! Doesn't stop me from wanting to buy more.

Battle: Dino really did a number on my monti cap. Killed the whole center which is now an algae garden. The edges still have open polyps but I'm getting ready to remove it from the rocks and relegate it to the frag rack so it's not taking up valuable real-estate while it decides to live or die.

My cyphastrea had put on a really good growth spurt recently. And then suddenly decided to growth spurt in reverse. No idea what's going on there. Opens up huge every day and looks super happy. Just getting smaller all of a sudden.

A few weeks back...more maybe...I was given a few corals. I was excited to start filling in the blanks in the tank and dip my toes further into SPS land. Well, it was exciting until the box arrived cold and leaking. The corals were free but still. I fragged what looked somewhat alive and had to toss the rest of the mess of bare skeletons out. One of the fragged corals is making a bit of an effort as of yesterday, not much change in another one, and the third is growing some good algae. I could pretend it's polyps.

On Tuesday I picked up a Seriatopora frag. Really neat frag, opened right away. And then my female peppermint shrimp ate it. Good citizen for nearly a year and turns out she has a taste for birds nests. Moved what remained of the frag to my 10g. Still trying to decide if I'm going to swap and put the peppermints into the nano instead.

Not much mystery what happened to the birds nest (other than asking, why that one, Big Mama???) but for the others I decided to send off an ICP test and pick up a par meter (Seneye). As mentioned in a previous post, the ICP came back with lots of green check marks but did show elevated Aluminum (although apparently not in a danger range since it still had a green check) and Antimony under pollutants. The par meter. Well, those things are harder to use then you'd think (and has become trickier now that I have a jumper). I'm getting a stick mount 3d printed so my hand isn't in the way all the time.

We shall get to the bottom of this! Patience, right?

I've made a couple of other equipment changes recently and went on a big shopping spree during the big spring sales this past week. I'll do a separate post for that. New toys arriving Monday and Tuesday.
 

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I am not having luck with corals! Doesn't stop me from wanting to buy more.

Battle: Dino really did a number on my monti cap. Killed the whole center which is now an algae garden. The edges still have open polyps but I'm getting ready to remove it from the rocks and relegate it to the frag rack so it's not taking up valuable real-estate while it decides to live or die.

My cyphastrea had put on a really good growth spurt recently. And then suddenly decided to growth spurt in reverse. No idea what's going on there. Opens up huge every day and looks super happy. Just getting smaller all of a sudden.

A few weeks back...more maybe...I was given a few corals. I was excited to start filling in the blanks in the tank and dip my toes further into SPS land. Well, it was exciting until the box arrived cold and leaking. The corals were free but still. I fragged what looked somewhat alive and had to toss the rest of the mess of bare skeletons out. One of the fragged corals is making a bit of an effort as of yesterday, not much change in another one, and the third is growing some good algae. I could pretend it's polyps.

On Tuesday I picked up a Seriatopora frag. Really neat frag, opened right away. And then my female peppermint shrimp ate it. Good citizen for nearly a year and turns out she has a taste for birds nests. Moved what remained of the frag to my 10g. Still trying to decide if I'm going to swap and put the peppermints into the nano instead.

Not much mystery what happened to the birds nest (other than asking, why that one, Big Mama???) but for the others I decided to send off an ICP test and pick up a par meter (Seneye). As mentioned in a previous post, the ICP came back with lots of green check marks but did show elevated Aluminum (although apparently not in a danger range since it still had a green check) and Antimony under pollutants. The par meter. Well, those things are harder to use then you'd think (and has become trickier now that I have a jumper). I'm getting a stick mount 3d printed so my hand isn't in the way all the time.

We shall get to the bottom of this! Patience, right?

I've made a couple of other equipment changes recently and went on a big shopping spree during the big spring sales this past week. I'll do a separate post for that. New toys arriving Monday and Tuesday.
Sorry for the loss of the corals. Can’t really account for a peppermint shrimp going rogue after that much time. Looking forward to seeing the new toys.
 
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Sorry for the loss of the corals. Can’t really account for a peppermint shrimp going rogue after that much time. Looking forward to seeing the new toys.

Hopefully an isolated incident and something weirdly specific to this coral. It was a brand new frag of a type I've never kept before, and she went after it almost right away. Apparently peppermints live about two years so could be I just can't have a birds next for another year or so lol. The frag hasn't shown any further deterioration since moving it to my nano, I just hope I can get enough light on it if it's going to stay there.
 

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I just read your whole build thread from start to the last post.

Very nice reef even with the challenges.
Keep up the good work. If I can help you in any way, just ask. I will do my best to answer if I know the answer.
If I don't, I will let you know that I don't know instead of giving random hearsay advice.

I'm following.
 
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I just read your whole build thread from start to the last post.

Very nice reef even with the challenges.
Keep up the good work. If I can help you in any way, just ask. I will do my best to answer if I know the answer.
If I don't, I will let you know that I don't know instead of giving random hearsay advice.

I'm following.

Welcome aboard! Always happy to have more eyes on the project. Not the most exciting or impressive slice of the ocean, but it is a slice!
 
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Tons of updates because I'm bad at doing updates.

Wall of text incoming!

In the last couple months I've added and changed a lot of equipment. I admit it, I'm the type of person that thinks I can learn to sing by getting a better microphone (fyi, didn't work), so keep this in mind.

Let's see, where to start.

I dropped the InkBird controller and BRS heater. Nothing against the BRS heater. I actually like that the length is short for it's power making it a nice fit for an AIO. The InkBird controller on the other hand... I was getting as much as a 5F temperature fluctuation at times. I tried the temperature probes all over the tank and it different configurations (together, apart) with no improvement. I contacted InkBird support and got someone who really didn't understand my issue (gave me some answers to issues I didn't have, though). I think that's where I hit my frustration limit and decided to just call it and move on.

What did I change to? I decided to jump in with both feet and go with the Innovative Marine Helio heater and controller. Lots of $$$ so high expectations. And so far so good (knock on wood). It's really small and gives an average 0.5F fluctuation in temperature, which is exactly what I wanted. There are definitely some things to know about this heater, though, if you are considering switching. It's picky about where you put it. The thing wants some flow. No flow or not enough flow and you've got alarms going off. Second, in spite of it's compact size, the magnetic mount is not so compact. After talking to IM support on the phone they advised that I put the temperature probe in the second chamber where I have my reactor and put the heater in the return chamber (not in the space under the chambers, though). Due to the sensors in the heater it should not only shut off if the water in the return drops for some reason but it will also sound an alarm letting me know about the issue. Make sure you turn it off when you do water changes or you'll get the "no flow" alarms. But overall, thumbs up! I just hope it lasts.

Second thing I invested in was a Seneye. Mixed feelings on this one. Most of all I wanted a par meter. I got that in the Seneye. One note here, definitely invest in some sort of a mount/stick for holding and positioning while taking readings (lots of people 3D printing them). It's way too easy to end up with a hand or arm in the way. I got yet another device to monitor temperature in the Seneye. Nothing wrong with that. I'm paranoid about heater malfunctions. What did I not get? First, reliable notifications. It looks like the Seneye will only notify you of an issue once every 24 hours. Oh, and you'll only get notifications if you have it connected to their very expensive web server or to a computer. I used an inexpensive mini pc and connected to it through remote desktop. As for pH (which requires a slide changed out once a month), completely unreliable. I recalibrated it two and three times a month. And it was often off by a lot, getting worse as the month went on. Then it's final function, ammonia monitoring. I saw nothing to make me think that was working either. It never ever read anything other than 0.001. And I had a Mexican Turbo die in there. It probably needed to be calibrated too but with what? An API test kit??? The Seneye no longer lives in the tank. I might try it again if I'm ever cycling a new tank but for now it's just a par meter.

I got a 3D printed stand for my Tunze ATO pump with suction cups to hold it to the bottom of the reservoir. Really helped with vibration noise, keeps it secure, has a spot for a float switch to protect against running dry...highly recommended.

And now for the big equipment addition. During the March sale I decided to join the Apex club. And I still don't have it all hooked up! Last week I finally YOLO'd and at least got everything plugged into the Apex energy bars. That was full of more surprises than I expected. Outlets that were off with predefined functions by default, should have made sure it was properly on the WiFi first, and on and on. After straightening out that mess (and straightening out some of my wire monster) I've actually done very little with it. I did program the Tunze ATO to delay coming on after having the return pump off and simple things like that. Only the temperature probe is in right now and it doesn't agree with any of my other stuff so that will need to be calibrated (although it does confirm the performance of the Helio heater). I've been putting off installing the salinity and pH probes because I've heard they can be a pain to calibrate and I just don't feel like messing with it right now. I also haven't decided where I want to put the darn things. I feel like if I want solid reliable readings they should go in the second chamber but that darn reactor takes up too much space (I wonder if the the Desktop sized reactor is small enough to allow other things to fit?). What else? I realized quickly that I miss having physical switches for things so I am going to get a breakout box to at least add a maintenance switch. Overall, I get the idea that this can be a very powerful monitoring system if I finally put my programming hat on and get to it. I do feel for anyone who isn't comfortable with computers picking one of these things up (I'm a Software Engineer). Great idea or colossal waste of money? Who knows at this point.

What else is new?

The ORA Birdsnest that Big Mama ate is coming back nicely in the nano. Beautiful coral. And speaking of the nano, two Yasha gobies joined the porcelain crab and pom pom crab as residents. Now on the lookout for a pistol shrimp to complete the crew.

My unidentified acro frag of a frag is still opening nicely even though it has a bit of an algae problem. I put it down on the sand for tonight in hopes the hermits and conchs might clean it up a bit. I hope it eventually grows enough for me to get an ID on it.

We lost Cheese the YWG on Easter Sunday. No idea what happened to him. Noticed he was breathing a bit rapidly in the evening and in the morning he was out of his burrow not looking very happy, and within an hour he was gone. I'll really miss that guy. He was one of my original fish back when I set up the bowfront.

Added some more CUC, all pre-quarantined. Trochus snails and a few small fighting conchs. And when I say small, Lurch, my Tiger conch, is probably twice their size or more. The sand bed is super happy to have them join the crew. And thanks to the trochus party my back glass no longer needs intervention from me to stay respectable.

Coralline is starting to pop up again. 'Pod population is looking good in spite of the two wrasses.

The Kenya tree is already trying to put Kenya trees in other places. I'm going to regret this, aren't I?

Parameters are still out of whack. Elevated Nitrate and Phosphate. I knew I should have kept that massive Xenia colony. I've started running some GFO but it's had little impact so far.

And finally, I sent off an AquaBiomics test this morning. Hopefully I did a good job getting my samples and we'll see what comes back in a few weeks. I find the whole biome thing to be fascinating and I can't wait to share my results.

I really need to update more often. ;Hilarious
 

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Tons of updates because I'm bad at doing updates.

Wall of text incoming!

In the last couple months I've added and changed a lot of equipment. I admit it, I'm the type of person that thinks I can learn to sing by getting a better microphone (fyi, didn't work), so keep this in mind.

Let's see, where to start.

I dropped the InkBird controller and BRS heater. Nothing against the BRS heater. I actually like that the length is short for it's power making it a nice fit for an AIO. The InkBird controller on the other hand... I was getting as much as a 5F temperature fluctuation at times. I tried the temperature probes all over the tank and it different configurations (together, apart) with no improvement. I contacted InkBird support and got someone who really didn't understand my issue (gave me some answers to issues I didn't have, though). I think that's where I hit my frustration limit and decided to just call it and move on.

What did I change to? I decided to jump in with both feet and go with the Innovative Marine Helio heater and controller. Lots of $$$ so high expectations. And so far so good (knock on wood). It's really small and gives an average 0.5F fluctuation in temperature, which is exactly what I wanted. There are definitely some things to know about this heater, though, if you are considering switching. It's picky about where you put it. The thing wants some flow. No flow or not enough flow and you've got alarms going off. Second, in spite of it's compact size, the magnetic mount is not so compact. After talking to IM support on the phone they advised that I put the temperature probe in the second chamber where I have my reactor and put the heater in the return chamber (not in the space under the chambers, though). Due to the sensors in the heater it should not only shut off if the water in the return drops for some reason but it will also sound an alarm letting me know about the issue. Make sure you turn it off when you do water changes or you'll get the "no flow" alarms. But overall, thumbs up! I just hope it lasts.

Second thing I invested in was a Seneye. Mixed feelings on this one. Most of all I wanted a par meter. I got that in the Seneye. One note here, definitely invest in some sort of a mount/stick for holding and positioning while taking readings (lots of people 3D printing them). It's way too easy to end up with a hand or arm in the way. I got yet another device to monitor temperature in the Seneye. Nothing wrong with that. I'm paranoid about heater malfunctions. What did I not get? First, reliable notifications. It looks like the Seneye will only notify you of an issue once every 24 hours. Oh, and you'll only get notifications if you have it connected to their very expensive web server or to a computer. I used an inexpensive mini pc and connected to it through remote desktop. As for pH (which requires a slide changed out once a month), completely unreliable. I recalibrated it two and three times a month. And it was often off by a lot, getting worse as the month went on. Then it's final function, ammonia monitoring. I saw nothing to make me think that was working either. It never ever read anything other than 0.001. And I had a Mexican Turbo die in there. It probably needed to be calibrated too but with what? An API test kit??? The Seneye no longer lives in the tank. I might try it again if I'm ever cycling a new tank but for now it's just a par meter.

I got a 3D printed stand for my Tunze ATO pump with suction cups to hold it to the bottom of the reservoir. Really helped with vibration noise, keeps it secure, has a spot for a float switch to protect against running dry...highly recommended.

And now for the big equipment addition. During the March sale I decided to join the Apex club. And I still don't have it all hooked up! Last week I finally YOLO'd and at least got everything plugged into the Apex energy bars. That was full of more surprises than I expected. Outlets that were off with predefined functions by default, should have made sure it was properly on the WiFi first, and on and on. After straightening out that mess (and straightening out some of my wire monster) I've actually done very little with it. I did program the Tunze ATO to delay coming on after having the return pump off and simple things like that. Only the temperature probe is in right now and it doesn't agree with any of my other stuff so that will need to be calibrated (although it does confirm the performance of the Helio heater). I've been putting off installing the salinity and pH probes because I've heard they can be a pain to calibrate and I just don't feel like messing with it right now. I also haven't decided where I want to put the darn things. I feel like if I want solid reliable readings they should go in the second chamber but that darn reactor takes up too much space (I wonder if the the Desktop sized reactor is small enough to allow other things to fit?). What else? I realized quickly that I miss having physical switches for things so I am going to get a breakout box to at least add a maintenance switch. Overall, I get the idea that this can be a very powerful monitoring system if I finally put my programming hat on and get to it. I do feel for anyone who isn't comfortable with computers picking one of these things up (I'm a Software Engineer). Great idea or colossal waste of money? Who knows at this point.

What else is new?

The ORA Birdsnest that Big Mama ate is coming back nicely in the nano. Beautiful coral. And speaking of the nano, two Yasha gobies joined the porcelain crab and pom pom crab as residents. Now on the lookout for a pistol shrimp to complete the crew.

My unidentified acro frag of a frag is still opening nicely even though it has a bit of an algae problem. I put it down on the sand for tonight in hopes the hermits and conchs might clean it up a bit. I hope it eventually grows enough for me to get an ID on it.

We lost Cheese the YWG on Easter Sunday. No idea what happened to him. Noticed he was breathing a bit rapidly in the evening and in the morning he was out of his burrow not looking very happy, and within an hour he was gone. I'll really miss that guy. He was one of my original fish back when I set up the bowfront.

Added some more CUC, all pre-quarantined. Trochus snails and a few small fighting conchs. And when I say small, Lurch, my Tiger conch, is probably twice their size or more. The sand bed is super happy to have them join the crew. And thanks to the trochus party my back glass no longer needs intervention from me to stay respectable.

Coralline is starting to pop up again. 'Pod population is looking good in spite of the two wrasses.

The Kenya tree is already trying to put Kenya trees in other places. I'm going to regret this, aren't I?

Parameters are still out of whack. Elevated Nitrate and Phosphate. I knew I should have kept that massive Xenia colony. I've started running some GFO but it's had little impact so far.

And finally, I sent off an AquaBiomics test this morning. Hopefully I did a good job getting my samples and we'll see what comes back in a few weeks. I find the whole biome thing to be fascinating and I can't wait to share my results.

I really need to update more often. ;Hilarious
Lots of things happening in your tank. Bummer about Cheese, sorry to hear it. I have the BRS heater and controller as well but have not installed them yet, waiting for my Cobalt Neotherm to crap out I guess. I hope I don’t have the same issues with temp drift that you had. I also just picked up that same 3d printed stand for my Tunze ato. Makes a big difference in the noise level for sure. Post up some current pics when you get a chance.
 
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Calm Blue Ocean

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Lots of things happening in your tank. Bummer about Cheese, sorry to hear it. I have the BRS heater and controller as well but have not installed them yet, waiting for my Cobalt Neotherm to crap out I guess. I hope I don’t have the same issues with temp drift that you had. I also just picked up that same 3d printed stand for my Tunze ato. Makes a big difference in the noise level for sure. Post up some current pics when you get a chance.

It was frustrating to not be able to determine whether or not the InkBird was defective or functioning as designed. The support person I was dealing with was unfortunately not helpful. I will be putting it on the Nano as a temperature monitor (but not controller). I do really like how it charts temperature and has an alarm and phone alerts if things go wrong. Hopefully you have better luck with it!
 
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I forgot about one more piece of equipment that I picked up recently.

The AutoAqua Smart Stir

Oh my goodness. Where has this been all my life? I can't believe what a quality of life device this is. Particularly when doing tests like the Red Sea Calcium or Magnesium where you are constantly shaking and dripping reagents, I can't help but to feel that the results I'm getting are more reliable and consistent.

The Smart Stir is sized perfectly for Red Sea vials but also works for smaller vials like Hanna, and in my experience the magnetic stir bar does not seem to interfere with Hanna results so no need to remove it before putting the vial in the checker.

The Smart Stir is rechargeable and seems to hold a charge well. After several weeks of water tests I've yet to recharge it.

All is not totally prefect with the Smart Stir, however. It only comes with one magnetic stir bar and as of yet I haven't found a retailer who carries replacements. The stir bar isn't much bigger than a grain of rice. Add to that well established habits of finishing a water test and immediately tossing the vial contents down the sink...I think you can see where this is going. Thank goodness it's magnetic and is stuck just before going down the drain. Yes, I almost lost my ability to stir on my second use.

I've seen various vial shakers and similar items listed at $100+ on Amazon. At $29.99 I thought this was a bargain.

Now please, someone start selling the replacement stir bars!
 
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Calm Blue Ocean

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What size are the stirrers? It’s like 6 bucks on Amazon for a 4 pack of the 10mm size.

Even smaller than that. About 1/4" so I guess that's about 6mm. It's insanely small. But I guess that's why it can work without interference in a Hanna checker. But good idea, I'm going to try digging around Amazon for something equivalent. I know I'm going to lose this thing.
 
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Warning, a little venting incoming!

Some days I think I should just go back to xenias and kenya trees.

More coral frustration!

Got a WYSISYG frag from a major vendor. Wrong frag.
Got a couple frags from a different major vendor. Bubble algae.
Got a frag from a small vendor. Flatworms (was told by the vendor to do a freshwater dip, flatworms hate that!).
Got a frag from a specialty vendor. Arrived 91F and is pretty much just skeleton this morning.
Accidentally fried a favorite coral with too much light (turns out badly spaced lights can create a hot spot like the surface of the sun).

So much $$$ and frustration!

The nano tank hasn't been much better.

Ordered a pair of Yasha Gobies, a Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp and a fighting conch. Got one fish that was DOA with a Tiger Pistol Shrimp and a crown conch. Had to rehome the shrimp and conch.
Reshipped and got 2 Yasha Gobies but they both appear to be female. No shrimp but got 4 conchs.

On the good news front, I did finally get a shrimp but had to order from someone else. It has successfully paired with one of the Yashas but the other goby has been outcast so I guess just sorta good news. Not quite what I was going for.

So yeah, first I'm going to try to get a refund on my boiled coral, then I think I'm going to spend the day on some cable management. Or maybe be safer and watch a movie.

This hobby isn't easy.
 
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