Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

I got the chance to go to Sailfin in Champaign yesterday. I was hoping to come away with either a diamond or bullet goby as I could use a sand sifter (or 8 ). I did come home with an echinoderm or 3 though.

I got a tuxedo urchin that’s probably halfway to full size. He’s been on the rock, hitting it hard. I also got two Nardoa starfish yesterday too. They too have been doing well so far. Of course time will tell how well the starfish do but I like my chances. From the little info I find on the Marble Starfish (N. novaecaledonia and Nardoa stars in general) it seems they relish asterinas and the occasional bit of fish or mussel though they’re mainly herbivorous/detrivorous. That also jives with what the owner told me too.

The owner has been running the LFS for over 40 years. He is a genuine hobbyist as much as a businessman. He really cares about the hobbyist and the animals he sells more than the money. He’s probably the only LFS owner whose advice I’d actually listen to.

At any rate, I also got a male CBS but he went into hiding during the night. He was released on the side opposite of where the larger female hangs out. When I look into Gitana’s hiding place now I could almost swear I see two sets of antennae side by side. I hope they pair up. I also hope they’ll stop hiding all the time.

I’ll take some images of the stars and urchin later. Speaking of the urchin, true to urchin form he’s wearing half of the small seashells that are on the bottom.

 

[Fishy888]

Here’s a quick video of the “moon” and the “stars”. I couldn’t resist.

 

[Fishy888]

Yesterday I went to check ALK which was at 6dKh! CAL was over 500 and MAG was 1275. Salinity was at 35 ppt. I’ve brought ALK up to 7 dKh over the last 24 hours. I’m not going to bring it up more than 1 dKh per day.

I still have some dinos unfortunately. I spoke with the owner of the LFS I got the starfish from. He advised me that 3 weeks of ALK at 15 dKh would kill off the dinos. I’ve read that high ALK will kill dinos before, and his tanks are immaculate. I have yet to see dead or dirty tanks in his store. Again, this is the only LFS owner I’d take advice from. I’m not exactly a trusting soul so that’s really saying something.

By next Friday I should be at 15 DKH. 3 weeks will bring me to April. That’s the earliest we’ll get to move. It’s much more likely that it will be May or June before we can move. It depends on how soon the current occupant gives their notice to vacate. As a result I should be able to lower ALK back to about 8 dKh with time to spare.

Hopefully this will kill off the dinos and the system will be able to recoup a bit before the next big change. We’ve decided that once we make this move we’re never EVER moving again! I hope to never have to make that big of a change again.

 

[Aquaddictorbj4]

Love your youtube channel and also subscribe it
By the way, for ATO, I am using autoaqua. It works really great for over 2 years and hoping it can last forever

 

[Aquaddictorbj4]

Love your youtube channel and also subscribe it
By the way, for ATO, I am using autoaqua. It works really great for over 2 years and hoping it can last forever

 

[Aquaddictorbj4]

Love your youtube channel and also subscribe it
By the way, for ATO, I am using autoaqua. It works really great for over 2 years and hoping it can last forever

 

[Fishy888]

Love your youtube channel and also subscribe it
By the way, for ATO, I am using autoaqua. It works really great for over 2 years and hoping it can last forever

Thank you! I’m leaning towards autoaqua at this point. It seems many here use it and it’s not ridiculously expensive.

I appreciate the subscription and the compliment. I really want to help reefers who aren’t monetarily well endowed exactly to have systems that rival rich people’s reefs in beauty.

I also want to thank the #Cronies for helping me through some tough times, and for teaching me a lot of what I know about reefing. They’re awesome people! I wouldn’t be where I am without them. Not that I’m that great but I’m getting better and they are a large part of that.

 

[Nate Chalk]

Yesterday I went to check ALK which was at 6dKh! CAL was over 500 and MAG was 1275. Salinity was at 35 ppt. I’ve brought ALK up to 7 dKh over the last 24 hours. I’m not going to bring it up more than 1 dKh per day.

I still have some dinos unfortunately. I spoke with the owner of the LFS I got the starfish from. He advised me that 3 weeks of ALK at 15 dKh would kill off the dinos. I’ve read that high ALK will kill dinos before, and his tanks are immaculate. I have yet to see dead or dirty tanks in his store. Again, this is the only LFS owner I’d take advice from. I’m not exactly a trusting soul so that’s really saying something.

By next Friday I should be at 15 DKH. 3 weeks will bring me to April. That’s the earliest we’ll get to move. It’s much more likely that it will be May or June before we can move. It depends on how soon the current occupant gives their notice to vacate. As a result I should be able to lower ALK back to about 8 dKh with time to spare.

Hopefully this will kill off the dinos and the system will be able to recoup a bit before the next big change. We’ve decided that once we make this move we’re never EVER moving again! I hope to never have to make that big of a change again.

wont this kill your coral as well?

 

[Fishy888]

wont this kill your coral as well?

I would think that as long as I’m watching Cal and ALK closely during that period it should work out. I had a tank in the past where ALK was at 15 dKh due to my ignorance at the time. It didn’t kill off my corals thankfully. Having fought dinos once before I want to nip them in the bud now before they get as bad as before. They might already have killed off my montiporas. They’re bleached as can be.

 

[Nate Chalk]

I would think that as long as I’m watching Cal and ALK closely during that period it should work out. I had a tank in the past where ALK was at 15 dKh due to my ignorance at the time. It didn’t kill off my corals thankfully. Having fought dinos once before I want to nip them in the bud now before they get as bad as before. They might already have killed off my montiporas. They’re bleached as can be.

up to you.....

LFS might want to be selling you new coral after you completely nuke everything running that ALK...

 

[Fishy888]

up to you.....

LFS might want to be selling you new coral after you completely nuke everything running that ALK...

Hmmm…. It’s a possibility. I won’t lie. It scares me too. Perhaps it’s time to pull the plug on that idea. Thank you Nate!

 

[F i s h y]

I would think that as long as I’m watching Cal and ALK closely during that period it should work out. I had a tank in the past where ALK was at 15 dKh due to my ignorance at the time. It didn’t kill off my corals thankfully. Having fought dinos once before I want to nip them in the bud now before they get as bad as before. They might already have killed off my montiporas. They’re bleached as can be.

For what it's worth I have never seen any advice saying to raise alk to such an extent to eradicate dinos. My main concern with an alk this high is ph.

Furthermore... you have had some swings again lately. Transitioning your tank up to 15 dkh and then back down to 8 or 9 is a HUGE swing..

Stability is the key in addition to perseverance. As always I am recommending that you get things stable and stay the course.

Real truth... if you don't stabilize now... when you move your tank you are looking at a catastrophic disaster. Regardless of dinos or anything else if your tank is not stable and you move it... you will have failure again.

You know me I shoot it straight always have.

 

[Fishy888]

For what it's worth I have never seen any advice saying to raise alk to such an extent to eradicate dinos. My main concern with an alk this high is ph.

Furthermore... you have had some swings again lately. Transitioning your tank up to 15 dkh and then back down to 8 or 9 is a HUGE swing..

Stability is the key in addition to perseverance. As always I am recommending that you get things stable and stay the course.

Real truth... if you don't stabilize now... when you move your tank you are looking at a catastrophic disaster. Regardless of dinos or anything else if your tank is not stable and you move it... you will have failure again.

You know me I shoot it straight always have.

I agree which is why after thinking this through, then having @Nate Chalk say what he did, I already decided to only raise it to what RC mixes to at 1.026.

Green algae is starting to outcompete the dinos. That’s yet another reason for me to abandon the idea of running anywhere near that high of an ALK. Thank you @F i s h y for confirming what I’ve been afraid of for a while.

I’ve been bringing ALK up slowly. I’m at 10.5 now. I want to get to 11. I was reading that regular IO mixes to 11 and RC to 13.

 

[Fishy888]

You might want to watch this video. I give a shoutout to my peeps as they say. Thank you all for not letting me go too far down the rabbit hole.

 

[Fishy888]

Ok so I need to say this. Although I’ll be posting the occasional video here from time to time, the main purposes of this space are to post about my build and to make friends with my fellow reefers. As a result I’m not going to flood you all with references to my channel. My avatar is the only “advertising” you’ll see. I don’t want to be known as “Rip Clean 2.0”. Plus if you enjoy my videos I know you’ll come back. Most importantly, I actually care about you guys and I value your opinions and advice and I want people to be able to come here and not be bombarded.

Thank you all for following and for the help you’ve given me and continue to give me. It’s very much appreciated!

Currently my Alk is at 9.9 dKh. I’m going to bring it up to 11 and leave it at that. I’m also happy to say that there are far fewer dino strings than there were when my Alk was at 6.

There are still dinos on my digitatas but there are definitely less than there were.

My echinoderms are still doing well. I’ve noticed an increase in Asterinas as well as sponge growth. Coralline has grown noticeably since I started raising ALK. I’ll be measuring Alk consumption closely after I get to 11 dKh.

Please let me know if you think I need to leave Alk where it is.

 

[Mschmidt]

I had an issue with my pectinia skeleton growing through the flesh when my alk was that high, but that was about it. I'm also not the one to listen to. But if I were I'd echo about stability over a particular number. I've seen great ones at 8dkh and great ones at 11. mine have been the same kind of struggle bus at the same numbers.

 

[Goaway]

@Fishy888

What lfs is it? Curious.

I would also, if by chance you get another item from their coral selection TEST THEIR WATER.

i am also currently in a battle against dinos. My nitrates are at 0 - so food source right now is critical for my bacteria. I need to get new test kits. I don't think my dinos are the super killing toxic strain. Blurrr.....

I'm mentally half functioning.. For lps/softies anything over 11 dkh is going to really make them unhappy. I know sticks mostly montipora will thrive at 12. I never had my dkh ever above 12 in my reefs.

Okay my post makes 0 sense.

Curious to when your monti began to bleach, do you know if it was before or after raising alk?

 

[Fishy888]

@Fishy888

What lfs is it? Curious.

I would also, if by chance you get another item from their coral selection TEST THEIR WATER.

i am also currently in a battle against dinos. My nitrates are at 0 - so food source right now is critical for my bacteria. I need to get new test kits. I don't think my dinos are the super killing toxic strain. Blurrr.....

I'm mentally half functioning.. For lps/softies anything over 11 dkh is going to really make them unhappy. I know sticks mostly montipora will thrive at 12. I never had my dkh ever above 12 in my reefs.

Okay my post makes 0 sense.

Curious to when your monti began to bleach, do you know if it was before or after raising alk?

The LFS was Sailfin.

It was definitely before. I had a mini crash a couple of months ago and I crashed my nitrates. I also discovered my ALK dropped to exactly 6dKh. I’m adding enough Alk to get to 11 dKh, maybe slightly above.

We just got news that the resident who was supposed to give notice isn’t going to do so now until at least mid May. The longer this takes, the less I’ll want to move. Not only is it crazy hot in the Summer, but the more my system matures the less I’ll want to disturb it.

There’s also a high likelihood that I’ll be getting my pacemaker replaced in July. It was one of the biggest reasons we wanted to move. If we haven’t moved by then I’ll be trying to convince my wife to let us just stay where we are. I have a feeling this resident won’t be moving anyway. We’ll see what happens though.

 

[Goaway]

There's a ton of words i want to say
But, you brought up dkh and stringy dinos. There might be something about the dkh dropping and causing dino take over. I was at 7.7dkh and dinos were going away. This morni.g 6 dkh and stringy dinos....

 

[Fishy888]

There's a ton of words i want to say
But, you brought up dkh and stringy dinos. There might be something about the dkh dropping and causing dino take over. I was at 7.7dkh and dinos were going away. This morni.g 6 dkh and stringy dinos....

It makes sense. I’ll bet others have experienced the same thing.