Acer's build thread ( 3RMAS area)

[acer]

Updates on my new Copperbanded Butterfly are now posted on the open public 3 Rivers Marine Aquarium Society Facebook page , with a pic of him in the "keeper", floating in the display tank before I released him. Testing my Alk has proven I am not using that much = so I backed down to adding the Kalkwasser ( 25mg) to every other refill of my ATO 5 gallon container. That seems to be the sweet spot = Alk ranging from 6.8-7.3 over the last week, Ca+ still good at 450- 475.

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[acer]

I updated that copperbanded thread on Facebook and you can see the copperbanded eat from a homemade "butterfly feeder".

 

[acer]

It has been a while, so I figured I would do an short update. Since I started calibrating my refractometer on each water change and also slowing down the frequency of my water changes I have been having mild success- not losing hardly any corals and no fish loss at all. The Copperbanded is doing well and starting to eat from the water column and not just from his homemade feeder. The 2-3 coral I have lost has been to fish picking up the frag and dropping them behind my rocks ( I have drilled holes in my rock for frags plugs to fit into - apparently not tight enough though) - nice of them to decide which corals they want in their home - NOT. I have been dozing by using 25Mg of Kalk in my auto top off- to keep my calcium and ALk in good ranges for the past 2 -3 months. Each time I have tested ( 2-3 timtes per week) its fine ( ALk 8.2-8.6, Ca 420-430). My Corals are growing - not at super fast rate, but growing and looking good with decent color and PE. My PO4 is running .06-.09, and my No3 is between 5 and 10.

Have been reading that some people have had issue with some salt from Fritz - specifically the Alk levels. So today I was ready to do a 20 gallon water change and I tested by tanks Alk= 8.4 DKL, then tested my new water mixed a few days ago and that is heated to 78 degrees F, it was 5.1 DKL. So ya - I understand why people are saying what they are saying. So in my 30 gallon mixing station I added 60 ML of Soda Ash liquid mix to raise the Alk to 8.0 - per the BRS calculator. I will retest that water tomorrow before I do the water change.

I hope everyone is doing well as they come out of the Covid19 pandemic situation.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

We need an update Ted!

 

[acer]

LOL- well - things are going well - so I forgot to write much - no tragedies or major trouble. I have been "dosing " with 4 tablespoons of Kalkwasser powder in my 5 gallon auto top off - mixing it then letting it settle. Purchase that micro pump from Sicci which is working OK ( both of my Tom's Aqualifter pumps have failed and I cannot find parts to rehab them) but it failed to pull water up out of the bucket as shown on the videos - so I had to put the pump in the bucket a few inches from the bottom instead. I will post pics tonight of tank. Have only lost one SPS in 2 months now- growth is OK - not great, with most of the corals in my tank - except the green Paly's which I tried killing off by both Hydrogen peroxide and manual scraping, but they came right back - darn them. PH is running 8.1 -8.2 during the day and 7.9-8.0 at night. Ca 420 -430, PO4 = .09, Alk= 7.6-7.9 haven't been testing anything else. The only bad thing is my sand is getting a small amount of a red/purple cyano on it in places. So I will be doing a "sand cleaning" in those areas on my next water change - this weekend. By the way, if anybody wants some "Cheto" for free I am harvesting some this weekend - please let me know.

 

[acer]

Pic#1

 

[acer]

Pic#2

 

[acer]

Pic #3

 

[vlangel]

Pic #3

Hi Ted, I had not been on R2R much lately but Its nice to see how well your tank is doing. It looks great!

The rainbow nem I got from you is doing great! It divided when I first got it, (probably was shocked a bit from tank move) but both nems now seem settled and happy up high near the overflow. I feed very heavy with the pumps on so they are well fed. I like them there as they are isolated away from any coral and they don't hurt the macro algae they are nestled among. Anyway, thanks again for them. I really enjoy them.