Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

I got a little more glass and rock cleaning done so far today. My system isn’t exactly TOTM material but there’s definite progress.

Sadly I’m not so certain that my reverse Superman monti is going to make it. It’s definitely bleaching up top despite my moving it back down several days ago when I noticed it fading somewhat quickly. My digis are hanging in there. My green monti actually looks good although it’s brown. I made some stupid rookie mistakes with my newest corals but lesson learned.

Once things are stable and dialed in I’ll try SPS again. Even though I started this system a couple of months ago; I figured the rocks were aged enough in the old system to mature my new system. Obviously that didn’t quite work the way I was hoping it would.

The good news is that I’ll have some new to me equipment to aid in the quest to find stability. That and another 6 months or so should get me where I need to be.

Rule #1, never toss a Monti (unless it has hitchhiker pests). I've had multiple Montis come back from 1 polyp.

 

[Fishy888]

Rule #1, never toss a Monti (unless it has hitchhiker pests). I've had multiple Montis come back from 1 polyp.

I’ll keep them in there. I read that people have even had them come back from just skeleton. Thank you my man.

 

[Fishy888]

Today I scrubbed another couple of bulkheads and pulled a little more algae out of places where it’s been thick. The cyano is trying to grow elsewhere now which is fine especially if it does so where I can easily pull it out.

Soon enough it’ll get relegated to the sump. Once there I hope to have enough nitrates to encourage hair algae to grow in the sump. Because pods. Copepods, amphipods, isopods, heck even pea pods at this point if that’s what it takes. If it helps water quality and/or serves as nutritious food then I’m all for it.

Of course the ultimate algae as we all know is coralline algae so I’d like to keep nuisance algae out of the display tank. I could cycle rocks into and out of the sump so the herbivorous fish I want to get eventually will have something to eat, as well as snails if and when I get some.

What might be just nuisance algae in the DT may well be a rockstar in the sump however. GHA for instance may well be a more efficient nitrate stripper, and possibly even a more efficient phosphate stripper than chaeto. I’m going to try to keep both chaeto and GHA but I also have xenia which can strip nitrates all on its lonesome.

As it is the xenia is trying to take over and since Dory has just ravaged the chaeto ball I have currently I believe the xenia is the main nitrate consumer in the system right now. One of my nems is starting to get covered by the Xenia so I’ll have to pull the rock and attempt to pull some of the xenia off the rock. It’s a few stalks on the left hand side that when fully open nearly cover the area where the bigger nem is.

At any rate I fed my xenia about an hour ago. It’s quite happy. Last night I glued it to a rock because I found it on its side on the sand bed. It’s too top heavy to just stick thyfrag plug in the sand. There are probably ten new polyps coming in. There are at least 30 polyps counting the juvenile polyps. The skeleton grew from hardly perceptible to golf ball sized in 1 year and 2 months. I don’t even feed them that often, maybe once a month on average. I might up that slightly however.

A fed duncan proto colony is a happy Duncan proto colony.

 

[Fishy888]

I now have the plumbing here and ready to go with the exception of four more 1 inch bulkheads. Those have been ordered today and will arrive Saturday. My overflow box has been ordered as well and will be here 1 to 2 weeks from now.

I bought my J.B. Water Weld today for attaching the overflow to the back glass once it arrives. The J. B. Water Weld is a two part putty like epoxy. It’ll truly bond the plastic (ABS) to the glass unlike silicone which won’t bond to plastics of any kind.

 

[Fishy888]

I managed to forget I had used an extra bulkhead when I installed the first half of the closed loop plumbing. I thought I still had two extras because the closed loop has four bulkheads on the drain and four on the return.

The ninth bulkhead is in a hole that is currently unused for any equipment currently. It’s currently attached to a pipe that’s slightly taller than the rim of the DT. I might plumb it into the closed loop drain line but I digress…

Thankfully I have a different bulkhead which is also 1 inch like all the others. Unlike the others it doesn’t exactly match all the others but once the overflow box goes on no one will notice, unless they’re looking for it.

I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to start cutting the pipe and cementing everything since today was a bit busier than I expected. It’ll happen tomorrow though. I’m excited to get the sump up and running finally.

 

[Fishy888]

Progress!

Ok not the prettiest looking cement job but it’s definitely progress. Tomorrow night the plumbing will be cured.

I’ll start filling the sump with RODI in the meantime and add salt to the mix, a heater and a circulation pump. My RODI unit is a 75 GPD unit so it’ll be a while until I get the sump filled. I need to mix enough water to fill the DT as well.

To start with anyway I’m going to run the sump about halfway full. I have to patch the holes in the sump’s back glass and I’ll need another bucket of salt to fill it the rest of the way.

Eventually I’m going to add some base rock to the sump. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some more live rock to add to the mix, although I can’t go too crazy since I new room in there for the skimmer.

 

[DonTavo27]

Can you post pictures of all the pluming you’ve done on this tank you’re setting up?

 

[Fishy888]

I’ve finally gotten all the sump’s plumbing glued up and in place. Today my RODI production will start ramping up. Tonight into Saturday I’ll start mixing up some saltwater and during the day Saturday I’ll start filling the DT the rest of the way and of course the sump.

In a few more weeks I’ll be getting my skimmer. I’m also going to get one of my emperor 400s in the sump running either straight carbon like the Marineland carbon which I understand is a quality carbon, or maybe a carbon/GFO mix. Once I get the skimmer and emperor 400 running, the sump setup project will be complete. Of course I’ll have a fuge section in there too.

I seem to have an issue keeping snails alive despite giving them 3 hour acclimation periods. I can keep any other invertebrates but snails. It was suggested to me that I might have copper in the system. I’m going to get a copper test kit, probably Salifert for now. If I have detectable levels I’m going to run cuprisorb or purigen. I’ll research them from now so I know which one to get.

I got five more hermits yesterday. Counting the Halloween hermit I now have nine or ten altogether. I’m thinking of getting another ten or fifteen hermits. I have at least thirteen asterina stars, about fifty brittle stars, more than a few bristle worms (a couple that are bigguns) and pods of all kinds. Because I have all these cleaners and I’m looking to add more diversity to the CUC I don’t want to go crazy on hermit crabs.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I seem to have an issue keeping snails alive despite giving them 3 hour acclimation periods.

Fwiw, I temp acclimate and just toss them in. I wonder if there's something happening during the 3 hour acclimation?

 

[Fishy888]

Can you post pictures of all the pluming you’ve done on this tank you’re setting up?

I’ll have to post them tomorrow. The DT is 210 gallons and was pre drilled when I got it. There are four holes for the overflow on the left hand side. There are two holes on the right hand side for the returns. The holes are drilled somewhat close together. They’re for 1 inch bulkheads.

Although it doesn’t look super pretty the joints are solid. It’s just taken a while to get everything done because it’s been a busy week but I’m going to get the saltwater made today and tomorrow I get to fill the sump.

 

[Fishy888]

Fwiw, I temp acclimate and just toss them in. I wonder if there's something happening during the 3 hour acclimation?

I’ve been reading about reefers who just toss them in but I’ve always read that snails tend to die within 2 weeks from osmotic shock unless acclimated for 3 hours minimum. Most likely this has been debunked but it still scares me. I’ll try it though. It will be awesome if it works in my system.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I’m also going to get one of my emperor 400s in the sump

Is this just until you have everything running? I've never seen a hob on a sump... but if you just basically need to keep a second tank healthy until you plumb them together then that would make sense

 

[Fishy888]

Is this just until you have everything running? I've never seen a hob on a sump... but if you just basically need to keep a second tank healthy until you plumb them together then that would make sense

I was thinking of using it more like a poor man’s carbon reactor.

 

[fishguy242]

I just take hand full of snails and temperate freshwater dip/swish and add them rt to tanks

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I’ve been reading about reefers who just toss them in but I’ve always read that snails tend to die within 2 weeks from osmotic shock. Most likely this has been debunked but it still scares me. I’ll try it though. It will be awesome if it works in my system.

Osmotic shock happens when there's a big salinity difference. Most snails are shipped in wet paper towels and so aren't really immersed in a high/low salinity solution... And many types of snails are accustomed to changing water conditions in the wild, especially ones that spend some of the time out of the water (like nerites). It's good to be cautious with any animal of course, but it's possible the long acclimation period is doing more harm than good. (I've never dripped anything for 3 hours...)

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I was thinking of using it more like a poor man’s carbon reactor.

I don't think it works that way

 

[Fishy888]

I just take hand full of snails and temperate freshwater dip/swish and add them rt to tanks

I’m definitely going to try it. That might have a lot to do with the issues I’m having with them.

 

[Fishy888]

I don't think it works that way

I’ll mix that idea then. No use taking up the space and wasting carbon and electricity if it’s not going to work.

 

[Fishy888]

BTW Thank you Frank and Erin. I appreciate all your help more than you know.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I’ll mix that idea then. No use taking up the space and wasting carbon and electricity if it’s not going to work.

I am not sure you need a carbon reactor of any kind... what problem are you trying to fix?