jcolliii's IM25 Lagoon journey - MASTERTRONIC up and running!

[TheWB]

Well thanks for the comments. It does suck - but I think mostly only other aquarists understand a sense of loss for a fish.

Anyhow, my two LFS look like they are both cleaned out for the forseable future, so I am taking a chance and doing a fish order online through Bluezoo. Never ordered fish online before, so am a bit nervous, but I ordered a yellow finned flasher...

... and a Stark's damsel, along with a few more snails.

I paid too much for the damsel, and it must have been their last one in stock, but the yellowfin flasher was on sale and I got free shipping, so that made it a little less painful. For anyone interested, I have it on pretty good authority that there will be a starki going up on Diver's Den tomorrow at 5pm central.

Fish should be arriving Friday morning. Have watched videos of both of these species and they both appear to be quite active swimmers - should fit in well with my blenny and couple of cardinals.

EDIT: I was thinking seriously about a Madagascar Corazon's damsel - someone (I forget who now...) has them in stock for $40 each. Really beautiful fish and unusual color. But they are in the genus Pomacentrus - and those fish are scary.

That’s a nice looking wrasse and it should do nicely in your tank. I’ll be interested in seeing how the Stark Damsel does. It does have that angel look about it so it’s intriguing. That damsel is very cool but I can’t imagine it’s not super mean and territorial. a few of them would look really good in a very large tank though, I’d do that if I had enough space.

 

[jcolliii]

I am pretty excited about both fish - got one of those fancy star astrea snails coming too.

That white damsel is a really neat color - you don't see too many white fish in this hobby that are still things you would want to put in a tank. I hear that some of the pomacentrid damsels are very mild-mannered and more like some of the chrysipterids. Makes me wonder if the taxonomy on some of those fish might be wrong. Anyhow, there is just too little known about Corazon's damsel - I think it was only just named a year or two ago, and I don't want to be the guinea human.

 

[jcolliii]

Brain before lights went on eating some pellets. Super cool little Trachy.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Well thanks for the comments. It does suck - but I think mostly only other aquarists understand a sense of loss for a fish.

Anyhow, my two LFS look like they are both cleaned out for the forseable future, so I am taking a chance and doing a fish order online through Bluezoo. Never ordered fish online before, so am a bit nervous, but I ordered a yellow finned flasher...

... and a Stark's damsel, along with a few more snails.

I paid too much for the damsel, and it must have been their last one in stock, but the yellowfin flasher was on sale and I got free shipping, so that made it a little less painful. For anyone interested, I have it on pretty good authority that there will be a starki going up on Diver's Den tomorrow at 5pm central.

Fish should be arriving Friday morning. Have watched videos of both of these species and they both appear to be quite active swimmers - should fit in well with my blenny and couple of cardinals.

EDIT: I was thinking seriously about a Madagascar Corazon's damsel - someone (I forget who now...) has them in stock for $40 each. Really beautiful fish and unusual color. But they are in the genus Pomacentrus - and those fish are scary.

That Madagascar Corazon is an amazing looking fish. Why is it that the really cool ones so often come with a big BEWARE? lol

Looking forward to hearing your experience with BlueZoo. I've browsed their site many times but never ordered anything.

 

[jcolliii]

Well, my first impression is not so great. I have emailed them twice today asking for a confirmation that my order will ship today for delivery tomorrow, and thus far have received no reply. Not like it was only a few minutes ago either - first email went out 4 and a half hours ago. On a more positive note, no tax on the purchase.

 

[jcolliii]

Well, Bluezoo did respond to my email maybe an hour after I posted this - so not an awful response time - I have had folks not email back within the same 24 hour period, and I don't know how many folks they have working there in these weird, weird times.

The box arrived on time and in great shape this morning via Fedex - as always, Fedex does a great job with their express deliveries - same cannot be said for United Package Smashers. Box was well packaged and the fish were double bagged in nice thick bags with an outer dark bag to minimize stress I suppose, but inside of the box it must have been pitch black anyways. They included a sample of fish food, a drip acclimation line, and some sort of anti-stress additive. The snails arrived perfectly - and I only ordered one of the star Astreas to see how they worked out, but they sent me three, so that was nice.

Bluezoo coppers their fish system, so I will not be quarantining these fish. Fish both look super healthy, were swimming around in the bags. I have them in a 2 quart container that I use for acclimation and they're dripping now. I'll give them about another 30 minutes then check the salinity and temp. Great packaging job and awesome looking fish from Bluezoo. Super excited!

 

[jcolliii]

Salinity and temp approaching my tank water. They are on their last round of drip acclimation!

 

[jcolliii]

2.5 hours of drip acclimation. Salinity from Bluezoo was right around 1.020, so took a while to slowly raise it to 1.025. Bag temp came in at 72.6F, not too bad. Just added both fish 30 minutes ago, and the wrasse is front and center and has already been eating very well. Kenny the blenny (striped) has been swimming back and forth to investigate first the wrasse, and then around back to check out the damsel. Right now, the damsel is in timid hiding mode. It's found a little protected overhang in back and that is where it has been mostly staying. Every so often it ventures out briefly only to dart back. Great looking fish, both! Will try to get some pictures later when the lights go on.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Kenny the Blenny! ;Hilarious

 

[jcolliii]

This guy hid for maybe 30 minutes, then ate like a pig, and now he's checking it all out. Really pretty fish. He's a bit slower than the wrasse, and thus easier to get a picture of. Used my 105 macro and cranked the ISO up to 2000 so I could get this picture without the lights. Not possible with the wrasse. Kenny is checking out his new tankmate.

Might call him Starsky...

 

[jcolliii]

Finally got a picture of this guy. He's still quite timid yet - hangs back behind the brain coral. Suppose I have to call him Hutch.

 

[jcolliii]

Friday FTS low style.

 

[TheWB]

Awesome new additions. New fish day is always a great day. That damsel really fits the bill for a dwarf angel substitute, doesn’t it. I’ve been very reluctant to add more fish to my system but I could see one of those in my future.

 

[jcolliii]

It really does. Same shape, similar size, vibrant color, active swimmer, very inquisitive - great little fish. Can detect the damsel attitude a bit though. He doesn't nip though - more kind of a passive aggressive crowding that he'll do from time to time.

Bluezoo emailed me back about the Corazon's as well. They said that that fish is on Quality Marine's stock list, but is not currently in stock. If anyone has to have one, Bluezoo will have QM keep an eye out and snatch it up for you. $200-300 is the price for that fish though. Youch!

 

[jcolliii]

Today my daily and weekly maintenance items overlap, so I figured I would share my scheduled maintenance items which are somewhat different now to maintain the look that I like in this tank.

Taking out the sand has really necessitated some changes to scheduled maintenance. I don't have to stir my sand, vacuum it, or siphon the grunge out of it when I do a water change anymore. Likewise, now I have to keep the starboard looking spiffy. Anyhow, my maintenance schedule is below if anyone is interested in seeing what I do to maintain the look of the tank that I have. This is only maintenance stuff, not feeding, etc.

DAILY
suck out uneaten food/re-feed to corals
suck out remaining particles of sand (if needed)
suck out fish poo (if needed)
scrape glass (if needed)
change filter floss
log NO3*
dose 10 drops of a combination of K+ and A- trace elements
* = temporary item due to going bare bottom all at once.

WEEKLY
clean bottom
clean in tank flow pumps
clean ATO sensors
check for evidence of leaks
scrape rear glass (if needed)
blow off rocks good
blow grunge out of space between starboard and glass
scrub algae/cyano spots off of rocks (change floss an hour or two later)
log ALK, PO4, Ca
4 gal (20%) water change (if needed)
dose 2ml Vibrant
dose 2ml aminos

MONTHLY
change carbon
clean skimmer cup/intake
confirm inkbird is not drifting using NIST calibrated digital thermometer

YEARLY
clean out rear chambers
clean return pump
take out Seachem Prime biomedia bags and agitate good in bucket of waterchange water to remove grunge

I have found that the IM ATO works pretty much flawlessly if I clean the sensors off once every week or so. The biofilm that coats them must slightly interfere with the ability to get the voltage reading needed for the controller to turn the pump on. I can leave this for longer - I'd say by about 3 weeks after a cleaning, the pump begins to stutter (on then off then on then off...), but that sound is so annoying that I have begun to just clean them once a week. Just a quick brushing with an old toothbrush is all I do, and that seems to be good enough. It has been rock solid since I have been doing this.

Cleaning IM Titanium ATO sensors with a toothbrush.

The bare bottom is definitely less maintenance that I used to put into maintaining a white sand bed. Gone is the 20 minutes spent vacuuming, then stirring and smoothing/redistributing the sand. Now, I use a multi-tool that I picked up from Petco - it came with a blade and a scrubber attachment and a telescoping handle so it could work with quite deep tanks as well. The scrubber head is the typical blue poly sponge like stuff, but the angle of the scrubber is made for cleaning glass - it's rather straight right from the package. I heated mine up in boiling water for about 45 seconds, and then gently bent the head to a slightly stronger angle so that it could be used more easily to scrub the bottom. It works like a charm, and the length of the scrubber head allows me to get underneath all of the rock overhangs. I am generally done in less than 2 minutes. Then I have to clean out the 1/4" gap between the glass and the starboard. I use my coral feeder turkey baster-like thing to do that. Then cleaning the back glass (usually doesn't need much because the snails do such a good job) and blowing the detritus off of the rocks. I turn the pumps all up and let that stuff collect in the filter floss. I only do a water change if the ALK has dropped to around 8 by then, if not, I'll let it go a week and check the ALK a few times during the week to see if I need to adjust. That's pretty much it. All tolled, I think my Saturday weekly maintenance takes maybe 30 minutes? A bit longer if I need to do a water change, but I put a mark on my bucket where exactly 4 gallons is so I can just dump 2 cups of salt in after filling to the line with RODI and my water mixes up to 1.025 each and every time. Throw a heater and a pump in there, 2 hours later I do a 10 minute water change. I really love the look of the tank now more than ever and how my weekly maintenance has diminished.

The Petco brand multi-head tool that I use to clean the starboard bottom with.

FISH AND CORAL UPDATES

The new fish continue to settle in. The wrasse sleeps wedged between a couple of branches even though there are some nice unclaimed caves in there. Hope he finds a more comfortable place to sleep tonight. The damsel is amazingly active. Swims around all of the time looking for morsels to eat. No outright aggression noted yet, but I think the activity level of that fish all the time front and center has made Kenny (the blenny) a bit more timid. So far, everyone is getting along swimmingly!

Dervish (the smaller of the two PJ cardinals) still has his blindness problem - the antibiotic I tried last time didn't do it (Doxycycline). So I am going to look for Erythromycin if I can find it locally, if not, will have to try and find some online. I call him Dervish because he swims in circles to avoid bashing into things. I have to throw sinking pellets in front of him - he hears the splash and will usually get a couple of pellets that way. NOT ideal. Poor guy.

The new brain coral has begun to bleach a tiny bit on some of the red areas, so I have pushed it slightly underneath one of the overhangs to give it just a smidge more shade. My Lobo did that about a month ago as well. I slid it under a slight overhang a bit and now the colors are coming back very nicely. I think it just needed some time to adjust to the lighting conditions which I feel are fairly strong. In that area of the tank, using BRS PAR values that they published in a video on the exact same light and a series of calculations based on light loss and depth, I estimate that the are of the tank that the Trachy is in receives between 100 and 145 or so PAR - that should be just about right, but perhaps it was in dimmer conditions where it came from.

Everything else is doing amazingly well - with the exception of the 'scrambled eggs' zoas. I have one polyp that is more or less open all of the time and that one is throwing off a baby, but the other polyps are not opening, and one is withering. Strange how polyps on the same frag are failing to thrive while one clearly is doing well. Anyhow, I'm in no hurry for an instant colony of these guys, so even if just that one polyp makes it, I'm sure I will have some more down the road.

That's about it for now I suppose. Really loving this little tank!

 

[jcolliii]

Think I'm going to make a new set of doors. I like the cabinet quite a bit, but the raised panel look has never been my thing. I'm going to do flat ply panels with veneer. For veneer, I'm doing something exotic and vertical with the grain being continuous across the doors. I think I have narrowed it down to zebrawood or ebony. Both are paper backed reconstituted - paper backed veneers are so much easier to work with. The top and edges will be veneered to match and the back will be gloss black to match the stand. The doors will be finished gloss and buffed to a piano finish.

First option quickie photoshop job: Unstained reconstituted zebrawood.

Second option: Unstained recon ebony.

I think right now I am leaning toward the ebony, but might be a bit dark - the only other casework in the livingroom is a McCobb credenza and a set of nesting 1950's tables both in maple. The zebra might fit better?

 

[jcolliii]

I think I'm leaning toward the ebony at this point - the darker stripes are closer to the black of the cabinet, so I think it will fit better. And I've never used ebony veneer before. There is a seller on ebay that sells 48x24" sheets of paper-backed ebony for $60 shipped. Need the 48x24" size because I am doing the grain horizontal, not vertical. Anyhow...

In fish news, Liveaquaria sent me an email today that they have Melanesian Chrysiptera starki's in stock. I don't know how many, but if you're interested, they are $89 - less than I paid for my Australian example. Link here. I believe that the Melanesian examples have a bit more blue on the tail bit.

In other news...

I've struggled to get my PO4 much higher than 0.015 for quite a while. 5 fish, I feed what I feel is quite a bit, but it just won't budge. I feed corals at least 2x per week as well - reefroids and reefchili. Growth on my SPS has been stalled for a few weeks and color is just kinda okay. And now, with that awesome new Trachy starting to get a bit pale, I think it's related to low phosphate. As phosphates are almost always the limiting nutrient in most systems, and because my other parameters are fairly stable and constant (Alk 8.9-8.6dkh, Ca 415ppm, NO3 5-10ppm), I think PO4 is my limiting nutrient.

My good (as in not expiring until 2024) Salifert phosphate test kit reads the two standards that I have quite well - my only quibble with the Salifert PO4 kit is that the hue of the blue on the card is very slightly different than the indicator - but it's still not that tough to interpret. However, in my tank I can almost never detect any PO4 color change unless I use the high-resolution procedure of doubling the reagents and the water sample volume and then halving the results and looking down through the sample vial instead of through the side of the vial. Using that procedure, my PO4 is almost always 0.015; however, this morning when I measured it, PO4 was undetectable - and that is after a heavy feeding last night!

So time to act. Went to home dumpster today and picked up a small 1lb box of TSP. The stuff that HD sells is the dodecahydrate version, which is 43% less potent according to Mr. Farley. My water volume is 25 gal (approximately), and I will be making 500ml of solution, so according to the calculator at the Planted Tank (and some threads here on R2R), I need 0.94g of TSP. But, I also need to multiply by (1/0.43) - so my total TSP addition was 2.2g per 500ml RODI water. I think this is a bit short on the TSP though, because the stuff that HD sells is only 77.5% TSP by weight and a small amount of a carbonate compound that will slightly raise ALK (but only negligibly so). So I think I should have factored that in as well and multiplied by (1/0.77) which would have brought my total TSP addition to 2.9g. But, my solution is already mixed using the 2.2g., so gave that a try this afternoon.

Right away, I discovered that the addition of 1ml did not raise the PO4 by 0.01ppm (retested my baseline measurement after 5 minutes mixing in tank with all pumps running on full) - I saw no change in PO4. So I added a second 1ml dose. Same procedure - waited 5 minutes for the soln to mix in, then retested. That brought me up to somewhere between 0 and 0.015. A third 1ml dose brought me up to a more definitive pale blue and a reading of 0.015ppm PO4. So it does indeed look like my calculations that failed to account for the 22.5% of the carbonate ingredient in the TSP is probably why I needed 3, 1ml doses to register 0.015ppm on my test kit. That might be a combination of the rapid drawdown that others have documented that can occur when PO4 has been very low in a system for a long time (I have never measured a PO4 value over 0.03ppm). But - those observations were made in tanks with aragonite substrates, not bare bottom tanks. I retested at midnight, just to see where I was at, and got 0.015 again. I re-mixed my solution with the new 2.9g per 500ml RODI and will see if that gives me a 0.01ppm bump tomorrow.

I don't want to rely on heavy feedings to accomplish raising my PO4 - as even what I consider heavy has failed to elevate phosphate. I believe this is due to aggressive export (skimming and changing out filter floss daily). Besides, heavy feedings would probably elevate NO3, and that would mean more frequent water changes. If I can raise PO4 without introducing additional organics, that's a win, and if I can do it with precision and repeatability, thats a win-win. I think that my target value for PO4 is going to be 0.03ppm, which should be fairly easy to read on the Salifert kit - althout I am considering the Milwaukee low range PO4 device. No, I will never spend money on a Hanna again.

See how it goes tomorrow.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I really find the water chemistry part of this hobby interesting. It's funny how you go in at the beginning with a bunch of basic tests...ammonia, nitrite, etc. Then find out there is so much more to it!

I find your case particularly interesting since on my bowfront I was having to dose nitrates which were virtually undetectable, even on an ICP test, and yet my phosphates have been chronically through the roof (we laugh in the face of GFO).

Testing phosphates with the Hanna gives me hives even though the results matched my ICP test and my Red Sea comes out way too low. I regularly mess up the timing with the Hanna. More wasted reagents!

 

[TheWB]

I think I'm leaning toward the ebony at this point - the darker stripes are closer to the black of the cabinet, so I think it will fit better. And I've never used ebony veneer before. There is a seller on ebay that sells 48x24" sheets of paper-backed ebony for $60 shipped. Need the 48x24" size because I am doing the grain horizontal, not vertical. Anyhow...

In fish news, Liveaquaria sent me an email today that they have Melanesian Chrysiptera starki's in stock. I don't know how many, but if you're interested, they are $89 - less than I paid for my Australian example. Link here. I believe that the Melanesian examples have a bit more blue on the tail bit.

In other news...

I've struggled to get my PO4 much higher than 0.015 for quite a while. 5 fish, I feed what I feel is quite a bit, but it just won't budge. I feed corals at least 2x per week as well - reefroids and reefchili. Growth on my SPS has been stalled for a few weeks and color is just kinda okay. And now, with that awesome new Trachy starting to get a bit pale, I think it's related to low phosphate. As phosphates are almost always the limiting nutrient in most systems, and because my other parameters are fairly stable and constant (Alk 8.9-8.6dkh, Ca 415ppm, NO3 5-10ppm), I think PO4 is my limiting nutrient.

My good (as in not expiring until 2024) Salifert phosphate test kit reads the two standards that I have quite well - my only quibble with the Salifert PO4 kit is that the hue of the blue on the card is very slightly different than the indicator - but it's still not that tough to interpret. However, in my tank I can almost never detect any PO4 color change unless I use the high-resolution procedure of doubling the reagents and the water sample volume and then halving the results and looking down through the sample vial instead of through the side of the vial. Using that procedure, my PO4 is almost always 0.015; however, this morning when I measured it, PO4 was undetectable - and that is after a heavy feeding last night!

So time to act. Went to home dumpster today and picked up a small 1lb box of TSP. The stuff that HD sells is the dodecahydrate version, which is 43% less potent according to Mr. Farley. My water volume is 25 gal (approximately), and I will be making 500ml of solution, so according to the calculator at the Planted Tank (and some threads here on R2R), I need 0.94g of TSP. But, I also need to multiply by (1/0.43) - so my total TSP addition was 2.2g per 500ml RODI water. I think this is a bit short on the TSP though, because the stuff that HD sells is only 77.5% TSP by weight and a small amount of a carbonate compound that will slightly raise ALK (but only negligibly so). So I think I should have factored that in as well and multiplied by (1/0.77) which would have brought my total TSP addition to 2.9g. But, my solution is already mixed using the 2.2g., so gave that a try this afternoon.

Right away, I discovered that the addition of 1ml did not raise the PO4 by 0.01ppm (retested my baseline measurement after 5 minutes mixing in tank with all pumps running on full) - I saw no change in PO4. So I added a second 1ml dose. Same procedure - waited 5 minutes for the soln to mix in, then retested. That brought me up to somewhere between 0 and 0.015. A third 1ml dose brought me up to a more definitive pale blue and a reading of 0.015ppm PO4. So it does indeed look like my calculations that failed to account for the 22.5% of the carbonate ingredient in the TSP is probably why I needed 3, 1ml doses to register 0.015ppm on my test kit. That might be a combination of the rapid drawdown that others have documented that can occur when PO4 has been very low in a system for a long time (I have never measured a PO4 value over 0.03ppm). But - those observations were made in tanks with aragonite substrates, not bare bottom tanks. I retested at midnight, just to see where I was at, and got 0.015 again. I re-mixed my solution with the new 2.9g per 500ml RODI and will see if that gives me a 0.01ppm bump tomorrow.

I don't want to rely on heavy feedings to accomplish raising my PO4 - as even what I consider heavy has failed to elevate phosphate. I believe this is due to aggressive export (skimming and changing out filter floss daily). Besides, heavy feedings would probably elevate NO3, and that would mean more frequent water changes. If I can raise PO4 without introducing additional organics, that's a win, and if I can do it with precision and repeatability, thats a win-win. I think that my target value for PO4 is going to be 0.03ppm, which should be fairly easy to read on the Salifert kit - althout I am considering the Milwaukee low range PO4 device. No, I will never spend money on a Hanna again.

See how it goes tomorrow.

Maybe I missed it or just don’t remember but what’s your issue with Hanna? I use their ULR phosphate checker and so far have had no complaints. Just curious.

 

[jcolliii]

I just hated the entire procedure with the Hannas. The little packets that always retained significant reagent, the awful pipettes, cheap syringes, and droppers. The timer problem - that they still have not seemed to address - I don't know how many reagent packets I wasted. I forget which checker it was (I had 3 before selling them all), but one of them called for 1ml of sample - 1ml! So you're getting potential error from the cheap syringe, from not all of the reagent making it in to the cuvette and from potential contamination from the RODI water used. I bought a micropipetter for that one so I could reduce the error somewhat.

Anyhow, the Salifert kit works for now - just confirmed with 1ppm sample this afternoon, but I am considering the Milwaukee device.