ReefGrammie's 90-Gallon Reboot

[ReefGrammie]

Another box-o-water will be arriving the week after next. At least I'm getting really picky during the live sales. One of my favorite vendors, @TopShelfAquatics, decided to torment me yesterday. I was looking for a red blasto, and bam, there is was! Well, that led to a few more zoas, including frozen apples and butt kisser (what a name ;Hilarious ). I really wanted butt kisser, but I wasn't willing to pay butt kisser prices until I found one polyp that was reasonable. I'll put those in the cube and let them grow out before adding them to zoanthid world. Oh, and there were two more acans I had to have. I'm a complete sucker for acans and have room for 2 more. I also got a teal candy cane that will go in the cube. What am I going to do when I run out of room in the cube?! I guess I'll have to add another tank.....NO, don't even think about it!!!!! ;Shamefullyembarrased

 

[ReefGrammie]

I've been a little MIA. Lots of life events going on. I have a close cousin who has had a very difficult time with a particular virus going around. It looks like she will be ok, but it could take months before she feels close to normal again. Our Thanksgiving plans have been completely scrapped because of a particular virus going around. One of our daughter-in-laws works as an ICU nurse in a unit 100% dedicated to that particular virus going around and is working overtime and exhausted. Anyway, all of this to say life is tough right now, but we're managing, one day at a time. I guess I'm feeling particularly down this morning because my sister and her family were supposed to stop through here tonight on their way from Texas to Florida, but had to cancel their plans for obvious reasons....including the fact that one of their daughters is in quarantine (again) from possible exposure at school. I'm pretty much over the year 2020!

On a good note, the tanks are doing well. I did take some time yesterday to glue a few acan frags to the rock in the 90 and glue a few new zoa frags to my zoanthid rock in the BioCube. I'll have lots of time next week for tank maintenance and maybe some pictures. I also need to visit tank threads!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I need to get back on here and shake off this year. A new year is coming! The tanks are doing well. I think I'm done coral shopping since I've run out of room in both tanks. No, I'm not adding a 3rd tank (yet)! I still have room for the one tang in my 90, probably one of the littler guys...Kole yellow eye or maybe a bristletooth. I still haven't added fish to the BioCube. I'll probably do 2 little nano fish of some sort. I haven't decided there either. I did take advantage of a few Black Friday sales and ordered new filters for the RO/DI unit and an ATO for the BioCube. I also ordered a dosing pump to dose calcium. I've been experimenting with using my ATO pump/reservoir to dose alk and I'm very pleased with that so far. I'm trying maintain alk in the upper 6's, and it seems like 8 grams of alk added to 3 gallons of RO/DI water just about holds it. I'm down to fine tuning by the gram, so I'm really close. Of course, by upping my alk and maintaining it steady, my calcium has dropped some. I'm raising it slowly and once I have it stable, I'll start dosing and hopefully keep both of them stable. Magnesium has stayed steady, maybe holding via water changes. I just check it periodically.
I need to catch up on some tanks!

 

[Mike from TN]

 

[ReefGrammie]

In that case, I'd probably need an even bigger attorney!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I got a new toy this week, a Flipper magnifying/viewing glass. It mounts to the outside of the tank via a magnet inside the tank and you can slide it around and look at corals. The fish don't like it much except for the clown goby. Maybe it magnifies him and he thinks he's a big fishie?

Acans with babies:

More acans with the blue mushrooms in the background (the only thing that survived the tank apocalypse before my reboot):

Clown goby behind Electric Daisy stylo:

I don't even know what this is...some kind of porites maybe or stylo? It just looks like Christmas!

 

[Mike from TN]

Beautiful!!!!!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Beautiful pics @ReefGrammie!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I worked like a dog today! Water changes on both tanks, making enough RO/DI water to fill the ATO reservoir, checking parameters, moving frags around, messing with the zoanthids in the BioCube....good times! ;Joyful

The 90 is looking much better than a year ago! I'm still fine tuning alk, and calcium is a little low. I've been manually dosing, but I have a new dosing pump. I want to manually bump the calcium up little higher before I start playing with the pump. I'm paranoid I'm going to mess it up and it will dump the entire container of calcium into my tank!

A quick picture of the 90 today...cleaner shrimp in the usual position upside-down by the overflow and fire shrimp in the usual positon keeping watch over the cave. Baby clown being his usual self...celebrating 12 years in the reef last month. Happy Birthday, Baby Clown.

I would have taken a picture of the BioCube, but the zoanthids are really mad at me for bothering them and I'll have to wait until they're unmad and open back up...;Meh

 

[Mike from TN]

I know how you feel about the dosing pump paranoia. I have a two channel pump to dose Ca + Alk. I’m dosing 3ml per day, 30 minutes apart. It’s been up and running for a few weeks and the first two weeks, I was setting a timer on my phone for 2 minutes before each dose so I could watch the light come on and watch the liquid drip.
Happy Birthday Baby Clown!!!!!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I know how you feel about the dosing pump paranoia. I have a two channel pump to dose Ca + Alk. I’m dosing 3ml per day, 30 minutes apart. It’s been up and running for a few weeks and the first two weeks, I was setting a timer on my phone for 2 minutes before each dose so I could watch the light come on and watch the liquid drip.
Happy Birthday Baby Clown!!!!!

I'll tell Baby Clown you said Happy Birthday. ;Happy Good to know I'm not the only one paranoid about pumps. I spent my first 5 years of reefing being the manual ATO (as in me). After I upgraded, my first automation was the ATO, which I thought was the greatest thing ever! I still just manually dosed other chemicals here and there. I'm pretty sure not watching parameters led to the demise of my corals in the 90, and I was thinking about taking the tank down until a year ago late summer when I started the reboot. I started my little experiment with dosing alk in the ATO, which has worked pretty well so far, but I definitely noticed the calcium dropping. I'm extremely paranoid about starting up the calcium dosing pump. That's a good idea on setting a timer. The tank is in my office and I could easily do that.

 

[najer]

I have a three head Kamoer doser still in the box as it also worries me, had it for three or four years.

 

[ReefGrammie]

I have a three head Kamoer doser still in the box as it also worries me, had it for three or four years.

I also got a Kamoer. I'll be sure and post about it if I ever get up the nerve to set it up...it's also sitting in the box. I did open it, but that's as far as it went. ;Nailbiting

 

[sp1187]

I can't get in to the auto thing. it's like when I'm gardening. I want to play in the dirt.

 

[sp1187]

------> Must...stay...away...from...live...sales...<---------​

you did see my local, Cherry Corals, has one going the day after Christmas. just trying to be helpful.

 

[sfin52]

My vote is for a ytg gorgous as an adult. Dark purple/blue yellow in the tail.
Looks good. I feel your pain about running out of room.

 

[Mike from TN]

I have a three head Kamoer doser still in the box as it also worries me, had it for three or four years.

I also got a Kamoer. I'll be sure and post about it if I ever get up the nerve to set it up...it's also sitting in the box. I did open it, but that's as far as it went. ;Nailbiting

Not trying to hijack the thread but here is a little useful info if your pumps have been sitting “dry” for any length of time.
when they sit with no liquid in the lines, the hoses get stuck together at the pinch points between the rollers And they may not dose.
Remove the heads and unpinch the hoses, then reassemble the heads.
I learned that from a You Tube video for Jaebo pumps.

 

[sfin52]

Not trying to hijack the thread but here is a little useful info if your pumps have been sitting “dry” for any length of time.
when they sit with no liquid in the lines, the hoses get stuck together at the pinch points between the rollers And they may not dose.
Remove the heads and unpinch the hoses, then reassemble the heads.
I learned that from a You Tube video for Jaebo pumps.

Not hijacking thread heck of useful info.

 

[sfin52]

Clown goby behind Electric Daisy stylo:

Look @TriggerFinger isn't it cute

 

[ReefGrammie]

Not trying to hijack the thread but here is a little useful info if your pumps have been sitting “dry” for any length of time.
when they sit with no liquid in the lines, the hoses get stuck together at the pinch points between the rollers And they may not dose.
Remove the heads and unpinch the hoses, then reassemble the heads.
I learned that from a You Tube video for Jaebo pumps.

Thanks, Mike! Good to know. Setting up the doser will also be one of my holiday projects....if I get up the nerve!