jabberwock
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There ARE bubbles in the ocean... 
Mid-century 25g IM lagoon. Appx 14 months old
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Townes_Van_Camp
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I know. But they tick off euphyllia.There ARE bubbles in the ocean...
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OP
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Townes_Van_Camp
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Some bumps in the road.
1. I tried to use a 5 year old ATO that has been super reliable. The sensor went out last night. Have a new one on the way. I'll be hand filling 2-3 times a day for the next 4 days.
2. The uglies. They are a commin'.
3. Found a whelk in my TBS sand, he ded.
4. Found a nassarius snail and a handful of ceriths. My Halloween hermit ate the ceriths pretty fast.
5. Smoked a test piece of acro. Not sure why. But I should have inspected it closer at the LFS. When I got it home there was some RTN in one of the coaralites that quickly spread. Within, 24 hours it was 90% stripped of flesh. I tossed it.
Some smooth sailing also.
1. Firefish and chalk bass are both in and looking great Drip acclimated in the dark. Both are that night. Both are rejecting pellets but mostly I feed a mix of brine, calnis and mysis occasionally with rotifers.
2. Moved my pom pom crab. I love that little dude. He's all over the place and I hope he gets settled in before the hawkfish arrives Friday.
3. All of the coral looks good getting great polyp extension on Monti's, one acro, and 3 different lps. Only exception are some green zoas with a rusty brown fringe. When I picked them up to move them I accidentally touched the face of some polyps. The green turned the same rusty brown as the fringe and those polyps haven't opened yet.
1. I tried to use a 5 year old ATO that has been super reliable. The sensor went out last night. Have a new one on the way. I'll be hand filling 2-3 times a day for the next 4 days.
2. The uglies. They are a commin'.
3. Found a whelk in my TBS sand, he ded.
4. Found a nassarius snail and a handful of ceriths. My Halloween hermit ate the ceriths pretty fast.
5. Smoked a test piece of acro. Not sure why. But I should have inspected it closer at the LFS. When I got it home there was some RTN in one of the coaralites that quickly spread. Within, 24 hours it was 90% stripped of flesh. I tossed it.
Some smooth sailing also.
1. Firefish and chalk bass are both in and looking great Drip acclimated in the dark. Both are that night. Both are rejecting pellets but mostly I feed a mix of brine, calnis and mysis occasionally with rotifers.
2. Moved my pom pom crab. I love that little dude. He's all over the place and I hope he gets settled in before the hawkfish arrives Friday.
3. All of the coral looks good getting great polyp extension on Monti's, one acro, and 3 different lps. Only exception are some green zoas with a rusty brown fringe. When I picked them up to move them I accidentally touched the face of some polyps. The green turned the same rusty brown as the fringe and those polyps haven't opened yet.
Northern Flicker
Valuable Member
So I am going through something similar with my IM 15 and Bubble Magus, what I've done while it breaks in is I've pointed my return up and against the glass. My tank has insane flow without the return, so not sure if that's feasible for you. No more microbubbles (or very few) now. It was driving me and my corals mad for a few days.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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I'm blasting the water around mine as well. I've settled on running the skimmer in two hours segments. I hope to get it broke in soon, without ticking off my hammer. I'm also trying.l to get some green going on an upflow algea scrubber.
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Townes_Van_Camp
Valuable Member
Moved the clown over. She's probably mad. Some totalitarian commie that runs the place condemned her last tank and forced her to trade 12 heads of cristata for 3 heads fragged off of her old cristata.
She found the frag immediately and settled in on it happily. I hope it made her move less stressful because it's the only reason I decided to put some frags off of my old lps in here.
My pistol shrimp hit the sand and started building. I can see him, barely. Friday he's getting a pet goby to run security.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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Here is a little better picture of the tank and clown. She is 6 and has been in that 14 gallon for the bulk of that 6 years. Transfering her was the most stressful part of this build to me. For about 15 seconds it looked like she didn't want to eat. And I fed her favorite on purpose, calnis, mysis, and brine mixed together 25/50/25. After those 15 seconds she went hog like my cousin Sara at a Gatlinburg pancake joint.
In 2 years I've never captured a good photo or video of the shrimp. Maybe one day.
In 2 years I've never captured a good photo or video of the shrimp. Maybe one day.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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The little tanks are fun. I used to do bigger stuff back in the early 2000's. I miss some of the fish. I love dwarf angels, no way I can have one of those in a nano. Solandri puffers? Pushing it on space, but I fear that in such close quarters you can guarantee they will nip coral.
But after you get past the limited fish options, they are a lot of fun. Things like how this one is lit, I couldn't afford to lay light down on a 300 gallon tank like I am on this one. Instead of going cheap on a stand I get to go way over the top on my cabinet build. Having the option of getting every detail exactly how I want versus making concessions on one thing or another.
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kevgib67
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Great thread! I’m looking forward to seeing the transition to the sps dominant tank.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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You and me both. I have some easy to please monti digi, setosa, and a seasons greetings as well as a small piece of a rather plain acro of some sort. They are all doing alright in there but they are small pieces. Once I start to get some growth on those guys and get things stable I'll put that order in at battle corals or one of the other dealers that support the fine folks here.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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Big post
I'll never cycle a tank another way. 3 weeks, bare bottom, with dry life rock, microbacter7 and ghost feeding. At three weeks (0 ammonia, 3ish nitrate) added 1 lbs/g of TBS live sand. The diatom bloom lasted 5 days. That's it, it's over. I am sure there is a jinx in this though. I'm claiming victory way to early. I'm gonna get spontaneous dinos and red cyano as a punishment.
I installed a new ATO last night. A reef breeders prism, the last was as well. They have updated their product since the last one I purchased, for the better. It's now switched (you can also leave the switch out) for those of you who don't run through a switched power supply. It felt sturdier with exception of the power supply but that is splitting hairs.
Speaking of ATO's thanks to @jabberwock I was made aware of trigger systems blemished ATO's. So I have a blue trigger systems 5 gallon reservoir about to replace my Tupperware. Im not sure how I feel about this. Kinda like I wasted money. But it will look better inside the cabinet. It's the only part of this build I had cheaped out on. I still am. I bought a blemished ATO.
I added my last two fish today. A small orange stripe prawn goby and a flame hawkfish. From this moment forward he will be referred to as Ethan. I don't name fish, but hawkfish are always Ethan. Always.
Lights out for the next 24 hrs then will get back to feeding. I found silicone ice cube trays 3/8" x 3/8" on Amazon. I mix mysis 50% / brine 25% / calnis & rotifer blend 25% and freeze. Once it's frozen each cube is a days worth of food. These are the trays, perfect size for small tank folks
I will be adjusting my lights tonight as well. I'm at about 35% of full par. I wanted to increase them to 50% sooner but I dropped a red bull on my laptop and destroyed it so I couldn't use my Apogee 420. Anyway, I over-bought a laptop (MSI katana 4050, no I don't play games. Nerds just have the best computers.) I can turn my lights up now and know what I'm putting down. I want about 175-200 on the tips of my rocks and 75-90 close to the sand in front.
I'll add all of the CUC some time in the next week or so. There is a Mexican turbo, a big Halloween hermit, a small blue leg hermit, a couple of astrea snails, and a bumble bee snail. They are not all in this tank right now. I don't have the algae or detritus to support that crew. I think a fire shrimp is also in order. But that's it. Now we maintain and wait for growth so that I can give @Battlecorals some of my money when it's time to pack this thing with acro.
I'll never cycle a tank another way. 3 weeks, bare bottom, with dry life rock, microbacter7 and ghost feeding. At three weeks (0 ammonia, 3ish nitrate) added 1 lbs/g of TBS live sand. The diatom bloom lasted 5 days. That's it, it's over. I am sure there is a jinx in this though. I'm claiming victory way to early. I'm gonna get spontaneous dinos and red cyano as a punishment.
I installed a new ATO last night. A reef breeders prism, the last was as well. They have updated their product since the last one I purchased, for the better. It's now switched (you can also leave the switch out) for those of you who don't run through a switched power supply. It felt sturdier with exception of the power supply but that is splitting hairs.
Speaking of ATO's thanks to @jabberwock I was made aware of trigger systems blemished ATO's. So I have a blue trigger systems 5 gallon reservoir about to replace my Tupperware. Im not sure how I feel about this. Kinda like I wasted money. But it will look better inside the cabinet. It's the only part of this build I had cheaped out on. I still am. I bought a blemished ATO.
I added my last two fish today. A small orange stripe prawn goby and a flame hawkfish. From this moment forward he will be referred to as Ethan. I don't name fish, but hawkfish are always Ethan. Always.
Lights out for the next 24 hrs then will get back to feeding. I found silicone ice cube trays 3/8" x 3/8" on Amazon. I mix mysis 50% / brine 25% / calnis & rotifer blend 25% and freeze. Once it's frozen each cube is a days worth of food. These are the trays, perfect size for small tank folks
I will be adjusting my lights tonight as well. I'm at about 35% of full par. I wanted to increase them to 50% sooner but I dropped a red bull on my laptop and destroyed it so I couldn't use my Apogee 420. Anyway, I over-bought a laptop (MSI katana 4050, no I don't play games. Nerds just have the best computers.) I can turn my lights up now and know what I'm putting down. I want about 175-200 on the tips of my rocks and 75-90 close to the sand in front.
I'll add all of the CUC some time in the next week or so. There is a Mexican turbo, a big Halloween hermit, a small blue leg hermit, a couple of astrea snails, and a bumble bee snail. They are not all in this tank right now. I don't have the algae or detritus to support that crew. I think a fire shrimp is also in order. But that's it. Now we maintain and wait for growth so that I can give @Battlecorals some of my money when it's time to pack this thing with acro.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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No pictures tonight. I'm at work. Wawa doesn't give me long enough breaks to go home and photograph my reef.
But I am now on day 2 with a fully stocked tank, - 1 fire shrimp.
1. Mean old clown fish
2. Flame hawk
3. Purple firefish
4. Chalk Bass
5. Very young Orange Stripe Prawn Goby (he's tagging along with the shrimp. Not sure if it's a match yet?
6. Candy cane pistol shrimp, maybe a Randall's. I can't remember because I don't ever see him.
7. Pom pom crab
8. Small CUC w/ astrellas, a cerith (TBS hitch hiker), Mexican turbo, a couple hermits.
9. A fire shrimp when I find one locally.
It has only been 3 days since I ordered and my Trigger Systems ATO reservoir (5 gallon Saphire, blemished) is already here? It's also nice. It's still just a bucket. But a really nice bucket. The only blemish looks to be some solvent that ran and didn't get buffed out for whatever reason.I'll go ahead and put a polishing bonnet on my buffer and clean it up.
I am shocked that this reservoir did not meet quality standards for a full priced sale. I'll throw up some weekly
I will throw up some weekly growth pictures and track parameters here, loosely. I will also update when I buy more corals. But we are at the part where I won't really have updates hopefully just slow steady growth and some good colors as I crank the sun up on this tank.
But I am now on day 2 with a fully stocked tank, - 1 fire shrimp.
1. Mean old clown fish
2. Flame hawk
3. Purple firefish
4. Chalk Bass
5. Very young Orange Stripe Prawn Goby (he's tagging along with the shrimp. Not sure if it's a match yet?
6. Candy cane pistol shrimp, maybe a Randall's. I can't remember because I don't ever see him.
7. Pom pom crab
8. Small CUC w/ astrellas, a cerith (TBS hitch hiker), Mexican turbo, a couple hermits.
9. A fire shrimp when I find one locally.
It has only been 3 days since I ordered and my Trigger Systems ATO reservoir (5 gallon Saphire, blemished) is already here? It's also nice. It's still just a bucket. But a really nice bucket. The only blemish looks to be some solvent that ran and didn't get buffed out for whatever reason.I'll go ahead and put a polishing bonnet on my buffer and clean it up.
I am shocked that this reservoir did not meet quality standards for a full priced sale. I'll throw up some weekly
I will throw up some weekly growth pictures and track parameters here, loosely. I will also update when I buy more corals. But we are at the part where I won't really have updates hopefully just slow steady growth and some good colors as I crank the sun up on this tank.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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Here is an update I didn't want to have to make. It looks like the clown has beat the snot out of my hawkfish already. This is the third tank mate she has either killed or forced out of a tank. No clowns ever again. Except in large tanks. Its why I kept her alone forever. But even in the 25 she is the devil.
It pains me to do this. I'm going to give the old girl up.
Right now dude won't eat or move. Even after I relocated him. This has me pretty torqed off. But I may as well Throw some good news out there.
My Orange stripe prawn goby and pistol have made pals. One day I hope to catch it on video. The current cave location is near impossible to video.
It pains me to do this. I'm going to give the old girl up.
Right now dude won't eat or move. Even after I relocated him. This has me pretty torqed off. But I may as well Throw some good news out there.
My Orange stripe prawn goby and pistol have made pals. One day I hope to catch it on video. The current cave location is near impossible to video.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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And, he ded. I don't feel like this was bullying. I can't imagine a clown would bully a hawkfish to death In less than 24 hours?
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Thank you! I just ordered a 5 and 10 gallon. 5 is for a reefer 170 that I have been using one gallon jugs and the 10 for a newer redsea 300 g2 that I want to convert to a traditional ato rather than the gravity fed stock unit that sits right on top of the socks.
Nice system buy the way. Sorry about the hawkish. Looks like a maroon clown? I had one for 5 years or so and had to rehome her. She took over 1/2 of a 6ft 150 gallon tank. She would even rip coral off "her" rocks and toss them to the sand.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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Yeah, I love hawkfish. One of my favorites. I hate clowns. Always have. This was my wife's addition to the system I was running 6 years ago. Right off she was so mean she lived in the sump for about 4 months while I set up her 14 gallon. I put a diamond goby in a month before her and a fire fish. Both fell victim and she has lived alone for 4 years.
I thought I would try her in a 25. Didn't work.
Either she has to go or she moves to her old tank. I really don't want to run two tanks.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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So I'm getting cranky. I have planned this tank for 2 years. Yesterday's clown violence, I think was secondary to existing issues...
The hawkfish was pasty white out of the bag and had a small abrasion on his head. I should have contacted the dealer right then. After all, I paid for a quarantined and healthy fish. But instead I thought I'd nurse him back. Lizzy Borden the clown had other ideas and would let his sickly self anywhere near her.
I watched the tank from a many cam all night from work. Clown didn't mess with anyone.
However, I accept partial blame for that. For this I do not; I spent $70 on an Randall's orange stripe prawn goby. I was sent a microscopic orange dot goby. A fish I could have picked up at the LFS for 25 bucks. $200 total on two over priced fish. One completely wrong and one who was clearly not healthy when he left quarantine and shipped.
I didn't want a dang orange dot. I'm stuck with a orange dot. I'll never catch him. He already paired.up with my shrimp and moved into a his own personal cave system.
He is so small that you have to zoom in to see the dots.
Oh, my algae scrubber has started producing.
The hawkfish was pasty white out of the bag and had a small abrasion on his head. I should have contacted the dealer right then. After all, I paid for a quarantined and healthy fish. But instead I thought I'd nurse him back. Lizzy Borden the clown had other ideas and would let his sickly self anywhere near her.
I watched the tank from a many cam all night from work. Clown didn't mess with anyone.
However, I accept partial blame for that. For this I do not; I spent $70 on an Randall's orange stripe prawn goby. I was sent a microscopic orange dot goby. A fish I could have picked up at the LFS for 25 bucks. $200 total on two over priced fish. One completely wrong and one who was clearly not healthy when he left quarantine and shipped.
I didn't want a dang orange dot. I'm stuck with a orange dot. I'll never catch him. He already paired.up with my shrimp and moved into a his own personal cave system.
He is so small that you have to zoom in to see the dots.
Oh, my algae scrubber has started producing.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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Got a good picture of my tiny not a orange stripe goby
Dealer got in touch with me.
Dealer is sending a healthy flame hawk and I'm gonna go ahead and keep the goby. I've asked him to make up the difference with a fighting conch and a pom pom crab. Before I'm told the pom pom is flame hawk bait, they may never see each other in this tank.
No speculation here, accidents happen. Dealer made it right, or rather, is in the process of doing it.
Dealer got in touch with me.
Dealer is sending a healthy flame hawk and I'm gonna go ahead and keep the goby. I've asked him to make up the difference with a fighting conch and a pom pom crab. Before I'm told the pom pom is flame hawk bait, they may never see each other in this tank.
No speculation here, accidents happen. Dealer made it right, or rather, is in the process of doing it.
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Townes_Van_Camp
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I had a new hitchhiker show up. A nice big cerith. Quite a nice looking one actually. That circle is a quarter for scale.
Gobediah is comfy now. He seems to have left the shrimp already. Clearly I was wrong when I said that they have paired. They just hung out a few hours
I got my trigger systems ATO reservoir the other night. The old reservoir was finally empty so I switched them out. 5 gallons instead of 2.5. I was already going just over a week, this will be nice. I may put a low level sensor in it through a relay that way I can light up a red led in the end of the 2020 t-slot I used to build the light hanger. Shout out to Dr Holmes-farley for making cal and alk accessible to the lazy like me.
Last but not least. I always throw away the cute stickers vendors send. Well, I found a use for them. When I drilled my door for handles I got lazy and didn't drill from both sides so it ripped out part of the veneer. Quite a lot actually. I'm putting all of those stickers inside my door. This is my shameless plug to vendors who may or may not wander in here. Gimme stickers
Gobediah is comfy now. He seems to have left the shrimp already. Clearly I was wrong when I said that they have paired. They just hung out a few hours
I got my trigger systems ATO reservoir the other night. The old reservoir was finally empty so I switched them out. 5 gallons instead of 2.5. I was already going just over a week, this will be nice. I may put a low level sensor in it through a relay that way I can light up a red led in the end of the 2020 t-slot I used to build the light hanger. Shout out to Dr Holmes-farley for making cal and alk accessible to the lazy like me.
Last but not least. I always throw away the cute stickers vendors send. Well, I found a use for them. When I drilled my door for handles I got lazy and didn't drill from both sides so it ripped out part of the veneer. Quite a lot actually. I'm putting all of those stickers inside my door. This is my shameless plug to vendors who may or may not wander in here. Gimme stickers
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