Here we go! TinCanHero's First SW build - 93 gal 30" x 30" x 24" (LxWxH) Cube :)

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Back for another one.
My ICP results came in today. Not as bad as I was expecting but there are a few issues.
AL was slightly high but the true offender in the metal category was Zinc apparently.

Here is a link to my results.

Triton Applied Reef Bioscience are the world leaders in professional sea water analysis.

Empowering aquarists around the world since 2008. Click to view shared sea water analysis.

www.triton-lab.de

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for an update.

Weird how things can turn around pretty quickly. Since my last WC, the first since adding the frag tank and fully plumbing it in the tanks been looking much better. It certainly looked worse as the week went on but that seems to be KH related as I'm seeing a drop.

The frag tank is up and running, I've just ordered the light and it will be here Tuesday, so soon I can move everything over from the frag racks. I've also turned the UV on a few days ago and I'm pretty sure the tank is looking more clear, not sure if that's UV related or just better tank health.

Old filter socks are gone, running without any right now. I've also slightly tuned my skimmer to run a little more wet as its always a lot of sludge in the neck and just sludge in the cup. although it seems from recent testing my No3 is around 10-15 ppm and the po4 is low from the icp test (0.0130815 mg/l) I do wonder if sitting in a vial for a week would affect that reading (bacteria etc) but it wouldn't surprise me if it were correct due to how clean my tank is and the fact I have seen red cyano creeping back in recently and if I remember correctly (and I may not) its caused by an imbalance in nuts, I think low po4? Anyway, everything looks good, I'm pretty happy with those levels especially since the tank has been left to it recently but the NO3 is still a little high.

I've been testing KH every day and I plan to continue this. here are my results for the week, I added some new KH solution to my dosing container because I was almost out, I did see a bump in KH the next day, I wonder if the old solution lost its potency over time?

16/6 @ 20:30 8.9 DKH
17/6 @ 20:10 8.8 DKH
18/6 @ 20:05 8.7 DKH
19/6 @ 21:45 8.6 DKH - Added new KH solution just before bed (after testing)
20/6 @ 21:30 8.7 DKH
21/6 @ 19:39 8.4 - Before WC

All in all the results were pretty clear until I added more solution, I think for now I won't adjust dosing for the next few days until I have a clear picture again. I'll also start testing calcium this week, I think I'm out of regents on my Hannah checker and I forgot to order some the same time as my light so ill have to use my salifert kit. hopefully by the end of next week ill have both cal and KH dosing correctly and stable!

Next up my new ATO container came, finally! I washed it out in the bath well and let it dry off before drilling a hole in the side of it at the top for my tubing and cables. I much, much prefer the hole being in the side and not the lid, one huge issue I had with my old Red sea salt bucket was the constant twisting of the pipe and cables when screwing the lid on and also the fact that I had to remove the pump and float switch every time I opened the lid, this meant putting my hand and arm into the water to stick it back to the bottom or it would float on its side and stop working due to the float switch not being orientated correctly. All in all I'm happy with the new container, didn't quite fit where I wanted it to (behind the sump) but that's okay!

Next up is tank health and pests.
All in all the tank is looking much, much better compared to a month or so ago. I plan on blowing out my rocks in the next WC or two. I quickly did it with a turkey baster the other day and there is some loose detritus and a little cyano in places to remove, id expect my rocks to be full also in the cracks etc. I usually deal with this every few months by using my new water being pumped in during a WC like a fire hose to clean up the tank, only downside to this is I'm doing it after a WC so it's only being moved and not removed, this can be seen in my sump with a layer in my fuge section that needs cleaning up. a better way I feel would be to make a closed-loop in the tank with a small pump maybe in the overflow and do it before the WC so I remove a large portion of the stuff suspended in the column, then use filter socks for 24h to hopefully catch the stuff I missed.

As for pests, there are two I can currently see (tank health-wise) one is bubble algae, I can see a large colony on my overflow pipe, i removed this less than a month ago but its grown back really fast. I can always use hydrogen peroxide on the pipe so I'm not to worried about that but I can see a little in the tank in place that will need to be removed. it really isn't much and ive had it in the tank since really early on and its never been a huge problem so ill continue to remove it when i see it trying not to pop it.
Next of all the one that does concern me is the Aiptasia. there certainly is some in the tank, again in the past I've been really careful about it, removing it when i see it using red sea apX but i think ive been to lapsy daisy about it. currently, there is 8 in the tank from what i can see + some on a frag, and some are not babies anymore. they came in on that plug of zoas months ago i think, I've known they have been on that plug but i did nothing at the time, the zoas on that plug arnt looking great so im tempted to just remove and bin them tbh. As for the rest, they are either on the rockwork or on the sand. the ones on the sand are the large ones, thankfully! they are easy to remove when doing a WC and that gives them little to no room to reproduce as your pulling them and a chunk of sand around them out. as for the rockwork, i think i need to get serious about them there. I think this time around ill use APx to get them to retract into there hole, ill then hit that with a KW sludge (maybe) and finally plug it in with some epoxy or superglue. hopefully, if i hit all of these now and pay close attention for new ones and hit those early i can stop a HUGE problem later on. I feel a little stupid letting these do their thing for so long tbh.

Ive been paying closer attention to the coral recently also, as I said before things are not great but are moving in the right direction. at first, it was a little hard to look at the tank just because of the losses, lack of progress and damage, but im putting that out of my mind, and I'm trying to just look to the future instead.
Id likes to give a in-depth update just so we can all see where i stand right now and we can then look back to compare later on.

So where to start, i guess ill start with the large right rack.

I have 4 monti caps on there, they have bounced from almost looking dead to back looking good so many times, currently there looking good and growing bar one that has been dead for a long time due to one of the others growing over it. they have some dead spots due to sand landing on them (id love to know whats putting it there, it aint flow..) also there is some coral warfare with them, the back one has killed a SPS frag it grew over and is currently fighting a stylo frag i made, and loosing, its got a dead patch where they are touching. the other two are growing out well without touching other coral, apart from the other cap it grew over and killed.
there are 3 sylo frags that are still alive, two are looking good with 1 of those touching the back monti cap, the last one is almost dead apart from a few polyps at the top.
there is also a bunch of bird nest frags i made that are mostly dead, one or two are alive with some polyps at the tips, just. there is one that must have fallen off the plug and landed on the edge, that has grown reall well out into the tank recently. doubling in size almost every time i look, in the last few weeks its gone from a tiny one or two polp bump to a branching frag. the downside is its attached to the rack but its growing and is my best specimen.
there is also a duncan on the rack, it was looking amazing when i first had it and grew loads and started to put heads out of the base, all but one of those heads are gone and that little head looks like a closed zoa all of the time. the main head has shrunk by at least half and is never fully open, mostly closed in fact but has been looking slightly better recently.
there are a few green monti didgi frags that never moved since i had them and look just as bad really, (they came bleached but recovered)
there are 4 interesting frags on the rack. 3 are acros that have been doing well and growing and coloring back up (came brown) last of all is a acro frag i got a while ago. the large one is brown and partly dead, also its been grown over and killed by one of the other green ones. that green one is also growing into the other acro frag and they are fighting. i tried to move the large one back but its attached to the large one so i need to cut it out, hopefully, today.
last of all there is two SPS frags that i have no idea what they are (came again in that crap lot), they look alive and have grown but don't look good.

next up is the small LAD rack at the top front middle.

This rack holds my newest coral (the Zoas) and pally along with two cyphastera.
the zoas are doing okey, some are now multi heads but all are drawn out to the light, two have also walked off there plugs and have attached to the rack. one being the really toxic pally grandis...
the cyphastera are doing okey, one is just sitting there with slightly muted colors but is looking good. the other im not sure is even a cyphastera but its grown well and has encrusted a portion of the rack.

next is the other LAD rack at the top left.
I have one of my candycanes here, my newest one. its still 3 heads but always looks puffed and happy so that's okay, it needs to be re glued to the rocks when i move everything.
my large dead monti is still here, its been dead for months and months, just rock for the sump at this point that i haven't moved yet.
my gorgonian is still alive, looks smaller to me and has been on its side for months, i need to pick it up and re-glue it to a plug.
there is a stylo there that ive grown from a tiny frag, its not grown in ages and slightly died on one part but its looking good bar that.
there is also a small mushroom frag that almost died a few months ago, its back and grown to the size of a 1p coin.

last frag rack on the top level is the large one on the left.
I have 4 pavona frags on here, 3 green and one brown. they have grown really well. growing over and killing stuff along with each other. they are also getting stung by the mushroom and have dead parts.
The large mushroom i grew from a tiny baby is a monster when fully open and happy. its killed and claimed the whole middle of the rack and has atleest one baby.
my challace frag stopped growing when my zoas decided to take it over, its still alive but needs help, i did try the other day but i only managed to remove a few zoas from one side for now, i need to cut thr rest off.
Zoas.. there are loads, mostly one veriety has exploaded on my rack, it just grows like a weed in my tank, i must have 50+ polyps. the others are still there mostly in various stages grown into each other.
last off all there is some GSP at the back, some has grown over the rack, some is bleeched but its still alive.

last rack is the bottom one with my cyphastera.
this rack is mostly a wipeout. the Flav is dead, almong with pretty much all of the cyphastera, some have popped back and coloured there polyps back up recenly but there as good as dead really apart from one that has started to colour its flesh back up.

With the rack out of the way I guess ill talk about the coral in the tank.
The nems are looking much better, i have 7 now unfortunately, they are all staying put apart from one that went for a walk yesterday down the rock and then back up to where it was.
The GSP on the back of the glass is still growing slowly, i need to rip the original frag off and maybe even cut in in half and reattach them over to the left more and down lower to help carpet the back faster.
My fungia is still alive and in the same place, its pretty close to the leather atm thou, its not been looking great but its alive.
my green finger corals are going well, always extended, especially the one i moved from the top of the tank to the sand bed because of the nems last week.
my goni has been growing well, much, much bigger and always open and happy.
my hammers are a mixed bunch, one is closed all the time and small. one was doing really well until i ripped half a head off while doing a WC :/ its recovered well on that head but its other head that wasn't damaged has been closed recently. the two green ones are doing okey, the green and purple one was doing amazing and growing fast until a few months ago. One issue i do have and i need to work on is flat worms, it seems my hammers have them. i think my wrasse easts them but they are still there and need to be dealt with.
my green stylo is doing well even know its being battered by one of them nems.
my green encrusting monti was doing well, grew pretty fast until recently, its starting to look more coloured thou.
my candycanes have been a mixed bag, the large blue indo one has grown like crazy up again until recently, its lower heads almost died but have split into smaller heads and look to be on the mend. the same with the toxic green one, almost died but has split into 4-5 small heads. both have been closed and looking bad until recently where there puffing up more each day.
my kenya tree was looking awful and has shrunk to 1/3 of its old size but its been looking much better recently again.
last of all my poor first coral, my red Didgi. This poor guy has been knocked over so many timed, its spent months on its back in the sand but refuses to give up, its looking really bad and is in the sand again, ill move it to a rack today and hopefully give it time to recover.

And there we are, that's the full update on the coral. As you can see things are not good but for the most part salvageable. alot of work to do to cutout the coral on the frag racks but im looking forward to the stress.. lol

With all of that out of the way im not sure there is anything else to update. I still haven't got another temp controller sorted so i can send my APEX power brick off to support, i must get that done this week.. ive also ordered a new camera lens with my local repair shop so i can hopefully take decent photos again. one last thing to not, i went to my local joiners to price up a net cover. they explained that wood wouldn't be a great choice even if coated in epoxy or something and suggested acrylic.

ive decided against photos today, my camera is just aweful right now and getting anything half decent is hard. ill hopefully have it fixed this week, just in time for photos before i frag and move everything over to the new frag tank.

one last thing to note, i seem to have a problem with some sort of tube worms / encrustation. ive seen plenty around the tank since ive has it but now they are everywhere and they seem to be producing a lot of stringly stuff coming from them, this cannot be a good thing and at the least looks ugly! seems like vermetid snails.

--Just a quick note, I removed all of the Aiptasia in the sand with tonights WC, I also Nuked the guys on the rocks with redsea APx to start and then a good blob of epoxy putty to seal them in for good. hopefully, nothing escapes! The ones on the racks are small but I have not forgotten about them, I plan to frag them out (if I can) when I move all my stuff over, not sure what else I can do bar nuke them with APx and risk a spread.

Kind regards,
TinCanHero