Achilles, Acro, and a Decade of Dreaming

[Frosty Latte]

Popped off at Detroit reef club again today.

5 sea urchans
1 sea hare
6 snail things to eat algae
2 anthias
1 cleaner wrasse
3 cleaner shrimp

I currently have a massive hair algae problem. At first I let it grow to feed the tangs, and now it’s out of control and starting to block the light from my tiny acros. Hopefully this clean up crew will take care of the mess I’ve made.

Water quality is still pristine. I sent away an ICP today so looking forward to what they say.

I’ve noticed my calc/mag doesn’t move, but my dkh seems to trend downward now that I stopped adding kalkwasser. I stopped because as I was cleaning hair algae, the ATO would go crazy and dump 5 gallons in causing a swing. Now it’ll do that, but with almost 400 gallons the salinity doesn’t really budge.

My favorite food is starting to be the V2O brand for frozen, and the Nyos pellets. Going to keep trying stuff and see what my fish are into.

Also, found some wild things at DRC that he was sent by accident. I’ll post pics cus they are stunning.

The ozone makes the tank incredibly clear btw, and I can’t recommend enough.

 

[Weaverjay101]

Can't wait to buy a monster tank like that. Going to be following this build

 

[Frosty Latte]

Swapped out the resin on my RODI system.

Found what might by why my Reefbot isn’t working.

Cleaned a ton of algae out of my tank.

Turned off the ozone as the basement was smelling weird from excess gas being on all the time.

Now my basement/house smells horrible from the protein skimmer and roller mat collecting all that algae I removed. Contemplating selling them both as I’m not about to have my house smell like that.

Trying to figure out a better way to clean out the collection cup cus that thing smells terrrrrrrible.

Fish are doing wonderful. Multiple feeding zones with lots of places to hide and chill and my tank has 0 aggression. Very happy and shocked this is working.

Couldn't be happier with the urchins and their cleaning power.

Corals all look great and are noticeably larger.

Received my first ICP test back. Most things look good, with a few things I’m going to try and work on.

I changed my light schedule from a ramp up/down style to my personal brand of AB+/WWC/ReefBuilders for the amount, color, and time. Immediately the corals looked more colorful and improved.

I talked to my guy at DRC and we are now going to be on the lookout for the Achilles. I’m thinking 5-7 of them should be the right amount based on size. I really want a large group of small ones, but we will see what Poseidon has on the menu in the future for me.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Cleaned the front and side panels fully, and all 4 gyres. The tank is truly stunning even though everything is so small.

Still can’t get the reefbot 1 to work… just keeps spitting out white images for every single one taken.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Ever look up and a whole month has gone by??

So I almost was able to buy 7 Achilles tangs for my tank, and then our built in fridge died and we needed a new one… there went the budget for now.

Reefbot still won’t work. Sadness.

I turned my lights up to 100% (over a 60 day ramp period) and the corals seem to be doing great. Guessing I’m over 90% on the XR30s at this point. I also upped the flow a lot too. I think that had an immediate impact and the corals liked it. They are growing more dense now as that changed happed 3 weeks ago.

Fish are all doing great.

Went to another frag swap again today. Bought 4 more corals. 2 acro and 2 goniaporoa. All beautiful.

I’ve got a heavy drip on my calcium reactor, so I turned the ph higher to account for this flow. Seems to be okay for the last week.

I turned off the protein skimmer. Hate the smell. Tank is doing fine without it. What’s wild is also the ORP is naturally higher by 100-150 with it off. (Sits are 285-390).

My filter sock washing machine is working great. Still don’t change it often enough.

I need to figure out the names of all the things I bought over the last few months.

I am now a HUGEEEEE fan of urchins. Can’t say enough good things about them. Only down side is their occasional party hat that they steal and then I gotta take the acro off of them and glue it back down. Honestly makes me laugh everytime I see it.

Enjoy a couple close up photos just an IPhone and the orange glasses no editing.

Was done this weekend but figured I’d throw up a pic from the Neptune to showcase my brother-in-laws fish keeping skills. He didn’t kill anything over a 48 hour span. What a guy