ReefGrammie's 90-Gallon Reboot

ReefGrammie · Mar 6, 2021

Picture of a few of my recent pieces in the BioCube: Pink diamond, blue kiss, and OG butt muncher! The one to the far left is pink zippers. I can't wait until this tank grows out!

ReefGrammie · Mar 7, 2021

The clown and damsel are up....I was a little worried. I hate to harm a fish. I didn't mention that I kind of dropped the box with the damsel in it when I was pulling it out of the 90....oops. He was kind of wedged in the rocks when I first looked this morning and and thought, oh no! Like I said, I would never intentionally harm even a jerk fish. I've been known to take several back to the LFS where they can hopefully be not-jerks in somebody else's tank. Anyway, I was relieved to see him up and around. I guess he was still sleeping. I'm used to the clown kind of lying on the bottom at night, which is what he did in the 90. I never knew where the damsel spent the night in the 90...too much rock. They're getting along just fine. Two jerks in a tank. ;Hilarious I'm still deciding on what to do with them, as far as trying them back in the 90. I'll definitely give the clown another chance, maybe in about a month. He's easy to catch. Not so sure about the damsel. I probably caught a lucky break catching him!

The good news it the little Kole tang is all over the tank now, so the culprits were definitely the clown and damsel. The pygmy angel can be kind of difficult, but it just takes an occasional cheap shot and goes along its merry way. It's nice to see the Kole tang picking at the rocks instead of hiding in a corner. I'll be relieved when my tanks are no longer a soap opera! ;Joyful

najer · Mar 7, 2021

Does the clown have a fav spot in the 90 if so re scape that area before you try again.

sp1187 · Mar 7, 2021

feed your fish with a turkey baster. when they get accustomed to it being the food distributor they will come to it. makes netting problematic fish easy.

ReefGrammie · Mar 7, 2021

najer said:
Does the clown have a fav spot in the 90 if so re scape that area before you try again.

He sure does! Great idea. Maybe I can re-scape and also make room for more coral!

sp1187 said:
feed your fish with a turkey baster. when they get accustomed to it being the food distributor they will come to it. makes netting problematic fish easy.

Also a great idea! The clown has a thing for my acclimation box, for whatever weird reason. If I put in the box and open the lid, he's usually in the box within a minute. Same thing happened when I tried to add him back in Friday. Clown attacks tang, bad clown, acclimation box in tank, clown swims in box, back in BioCube.

ReefGrammie · Mar 9, 2021

I had to take a picture of this piece. It's one of my favorites, Bizarro cyphastrea. The colors have just recently started to change as it spreads over this piece of lace rock. I just love the way it's weaving over the lace rock. The green has just recently started showing. I need to take another under the actinics. This is the way it looks right now...it caught my eye as I was walking past the tank!

ReefGrammie · Mar 13, 2021

Not much going on this week. Just checked alk and calcium on the BioCube and everything is good. Made a quick trip to the LFS closest to my house and brought home frozen food, alk, and calcium. Exciting stuff.

Clown and damsel are still banished to the BioCube and doing fine. Ever since evicting the damsel, the Kole tang is exploring all over the tank now. He finally discovered the cave and seems to like cruising in and out of the cave. The pygmy angel, who was being a semi-jerk, has totally lost interest in the tang.

I may try an experiment in a few weeks and move the clown back. He's easy to catch. I'm still not sure about the damsel....not quite so easy to catch.

ReefGrammie · Mar 14, 2021

Just when things start looking up....I see a patch of cyano! I had a small outbreak of GHA recently, very small and limited to one rock. It seemed to die out on its own. I know cyano can get bad quickly, but I don't want to create a bigger mess by treating. I do have ChemiClean on hand. Ugh. What to do, what to do....

First up is reprogramming the light. I've been meaning to ramp up my max a little, but not while light acclimating corals. Since I always seem to be light acclimating something, the time was never right. Now that the time has changed, I guess it's "time."

Light is done. I just ramped up channel 3 and 4 by 1%. Don't want to ramp things up too quickly. I haven't adjusted my light settings since last July...probably because I always seem to be light acclimating something...might have to do with my live sale "problem"! ;Joyful

najer · Mar 14, 2021

I always have cyano, what are your nitrates and phos, what is the flow like in that spot?

ReefGrammie · Mar 14, 2021

Thanks, Simon! Nitrates are 0. I didn't check phos because I was too lazy to get my step stool out to get the test kit out of the cabinet. Maybe tomorrow.

Flow is not too good in that spot. It's where my ricordea mushrooms are growing and they don't like much flow. Should I target some flow over there? It might make the ricordeas mad, but I'm willing to give it a try.

najer · Mar 14, 2021

ReefGrammie said:
Thanks, Simon! Nitrates are 0. I didn't check phos because I was too lazy to get my step stool out to get the test kit out of the cabinet. Maybe tomorrow.

Flow is not too good in that spot. It's where my ricordea mushrooms are growing and they don't like much flow. Should I target some flow over there? It might make the ricordeas mad, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Get phos and nitrate tests together, zero nitrates is not good ime, don't change flow yet but cyano prefers less flow usually.

ReefGrammie · Mar 14, 2021

A few pictures. Mr. Fuzz (that's its name) is looking quite fuzzy today. I was going to stop the pump/powerheads, but decided to take the picture instead with it flapping in the breeze!

I had eyed this piece for a long time before I finally got one reasonably priced in a live sale...JF Beach Bum monti. The picture really doesn't do it justice. I finally moved it to what I hope will be its final spot....covered myself in reef putty and superglue, as usual.

ReefGrammie · Mar 14, 2021

najer said:
Get phos and nitrate tests together, zero nitrates is not good ime, don't change flow yet but cyano prefers less flow usually.

I've been reading some info about zero nitrates not necessarily being a good thing. I actually have some NO3 that I could dose, but I'm worried that will fuel the cyano. Any thoughts, @najer?

najer · Mar 14, 2021

ReefGrammie said:
I've been reading some info about zero nitrates not necessarily being a good thing. I actually have some NO3 that I could dose, but I'm worried that will fuel the cyano. Any thoughts, @najer?

Never dosed nitrates, get the two results together, it could be as simple as just feeding more, by the look of your acros don't make any rushed changes as they look great.

ReefGrammie · Mar 14, 2021

Thanks, Simon! You'd think as many years as I've been into "salt," I'd know what to do. I pretty much just dose alk and calcium. I'm hesitant about dosing other "stuff."