Ryujin (210gal) and Wee Wetboy (15gal) builds

[ScottF]

Liveaquaria didn't have any cleanup crew packs in stock. I ordered some inverts from Saltwaterfish.com instead. I got their smallest "Reef Cleaner Pack".

25 x assorted hermits
25 x assorted snails (margarita or turbo)
5 x Nassarius

I also added:
4 x Peppermint Shrimp (possible wrasse food?)
2 x Emerald Crab
10 x Cerith Snails

 

[ScottF]

My Neptune Autofeeders arrived today. I will probably eventually get a third. One for tiny/small pellets, one for medium/large pellets and one for Seaweed Extreme. I'd feel a whole lot better going on vacation if my tank could feed itself instead of relying on someone to come over and feed it while I'm gone.

 

[ScottF]

I spent the past several hours trying to make the chaeto in my fuge spin by drilling holes in PVC board and wedging it into the sump. I was trying to replicate what I saw in a reefbuilders video.

It didn't go very well. My tank came with a frag tank connected to the sump that I am using as the refugium. The way it is plumbed, the water overflows a wall in the main sump into the skimmer chamber if you restrict flow too much in the frag tank. Probably a good idea to keep things from flooding if one of the pipes clogged.

Because of this, I couldn't get enough flow going through the frag tank to spin my chaeto. Even with both of my return pumps cranked up to 100%. I tried putting holes up on one side and down on the other. Holes on the bottom on both sides. Holes on the tops on both sides. Didn't matter.

I guess I'll need to put something like a small gyre in there if I really want to make the chaeto spin.

It was also snake oil day. I decided to add some Miracle Mud to the refugium along with some Carab Sea Ocean Direct sand. I poured them both in the fuge and mixed them together. Doesn't look the best, but hopefully the sand will help to increase my biodiversity.

 

[ScottF]

Ryujin got it's first fish today. Was a bit of a surprise though. My "Yellow Watchman Goby" arrived with twin spots on it's dorsal fins. I texted Jeff from Fishotel and he is going to make it right. He said this is the first time in 5 years that he mixed up an order.

I will definitely be doing business with them again. Good experience over all even though I ended up with a fish that I wasn't looking to get. Five stars.

Now I just need to make sure I can keep him alive. I remember Twin Spots as being moderately difficult.


Edit:
In the picture, the sand is super coarse. Most of the tank is special grade. I put some coarser stuff in an area along the front glass where my MP40s were blowing the special grade around.

 

[ScottF]

I put a little Hikari frozen brine shrimp in there an he is gobbling it up. I think he will be just fine.

 

[ScottF]

The shipment of snails/crabs from Salwaterfish.com arrived and went into Wee Wetboy for QT. I don't think I'm ever going to order from there again. One of the emerald crabs was DOA. Everything seemed poorly packed. The smell that emerged when I opened the bags was horrid. Seems like half of the hermits aren't moving and most of the margaritas.

 

[ScottF]

The Yellow Watchman Goby arrived from Fishotel. He is currently playing with his reflection in the side glass. Again, I am extremely happy with Fishotel. It was well packed and the fish seam healthy and happy.

I also got my order from Reef Cleaners. Not as happy with that, but will see how it all plays out. My Porcelain Anemone Crab was DoA and my Randal's Pistol Shrimp (the main reason for my order) was missing.

I sent them an email and used their contact form as well to let them know about the crab and the shrimp.

What did arrive alive from Reef Cleaners was:
30gal cleaner pack
- 28 dwarf Ceriths
- 10 Nassarius
- 10 Florida Ceriths
- 8 Nerites
- 6 Assorted Hermits
Pom Pom Crab (Is tiny. Couldn't tell if he still had his anemones. Very very small)
Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp

I saw the Pom Pom a couple of times, but it disappeared before I could get a picture. The Cleaner Shrimp is hiding behind the rocks. Can just see his whiskers sticking out.

I did back down my flow a little after seeing a hermit tumbling across the bottom.

 

[ScottF]

Reef Cleaners is issuing a refund for the dead crab and already issued a refund because the shrimp was out of stock. I guess I can't be too mad because UPS can't seem to read "Live Fish" on the sides of boxes.

I did decide to give Inverted Reef a try. I ordered the Pistol Shrimp that I wanted from them along with another Pom Pom Crab. Porcelain Anemone crabs were out of stock.

 

[ScottF]

I think that I am officially entering the ugly phase in Ryujin. I've been trying to get some nutrients into the water for my Chaeto. I was feeding an empty tank just for the chaeto. Now my tank has some animal life in it as well to feed.

My TridentNP is still reading 0 NO3 and 0.01 PO4, but I'm starting to get something that looks brown with the lights off and pink with the blues on growing on my rock and sand. Though the rock where I dropped most of my snails today is nice and white.

Whatever it is, it's photosynthesizing. My pH has been steadily climbing since the lights ramped up this morning. Now if I could just get my Chaeto to do the same. I backed off the light in the fuge because the chaeto was starting to look a little whitish.

 

[ScottF]

I added a Poseidon 200 Ozone Generator today. My main goal is to make the room that I spend most my time in not smell like a fish store.

The interesting thing to me is that when I force all of the air to go through the ozone generator, the skimmer starts skimming wetter. Slowly overflowing. Though it does seem to be slowing down some. I'm not sure if it is the ozone or if it is the reduction in air flow from stepping down from 3/8 inch tubing to 1/4 inch tubing. I would have thought less air flow would make the water level go down in the skimmer.

The other interesting thing is my ORP seems to be going down slightly instead of up. It's only been running for an hour or so. We'll see if this trend continues.

I have the electric ball valve switching between the CO2 scrubber and the ozone generator. So if my ozone generator turns on, it switches the skimmer intake from the CO2 scrubber to the O3 generator. I'm probably only going to run the O3 for a couple of hours per night.

The other thing that I did the other day was to add a small gyre powerhead to my refugium. My ball of chaeto is now spinning like a champ.

 

[ScottF]

Got some orders in today. From Inverted Reef I got a pistol shrimp, a pom pom crab and misc snails. Great people at Inverted Reef. Five Stars.

I also got a big order in from Tidal Gardens.

For the Wee Wetboy I got a Nexus Joker Bubble Tip Anemone, a Neon Green Tip Toadstool Leather and some Red Sea Pulsing Xenia.

For Ryujin I got the MEGA Mystery Box 25 pack which contained:
Vino Montipora
Contraband Grafted Montipora digitata
Supernova Hammer
Ultra Micromussa lord
Dreamsicle Chalice
Avatar Chalice
City Lights Psammocora
Sun Eater Zoanthids
Pixie Dust Zoanthids
Hell Rider Favia
Aquaman Monitipora
Flame Boi Favia
Jingle Bells Cyphastrea
Burning Banana Stylocoeniella
Blue Pavona
Sunburst Micro Goniopora
24K Leptoseris
Pink Flamingo Leptoseris
Sand Dollar Porites
Darth Maul Porites
Superman Stylocoeniella
Red People Eaters
Solar Flare Zoanthids
Fire Drake Favia
Artic Ice Cyphastrea

 

[ScottF]

My Gold-rimmed Tang came in from Fishotel today. It's nice to have a fish in the tank that isn't a bottom dweller.

 

[ScottF]

I really need more fish in Ryujin. So far it's just the Gold-rimmed Tang, Yellow Watchman Goby and Two Spot Goby. Plus snails, crabs, a cleaner shrimp and coral.

I can't keep nitrates in the tank. I feel like I need to knock on wood or something after saying that, but right now I am vastly overfeeding and dosing 30ml of NeoNitro daily. Every morning my TridentNP reads 0 NO3. Verified with a Hanna Nitrate Checker.

Maybe I need to turn the lights down some on the chaeto too.

 

[ScottF]

I still don't have any readable Nitrates at 5am when my TridentNP does it's test, but I have had an explosion of what I think is bryopsis, but could be hair algae. I've stopped dosing NeoNitro for now. I guess when I dose it in the afternoon, the algae spends all day consuming it and then my chaeto finishes it off over night.

I worry about the corals with 0 nitrates, but I also don't want bryopsis growing all over them.

 

[ScottF]

Whatever this algae is, it's growth is pretty insane. It seems like it is photosynthesizing so hard that little bubbles have been bubbling up from it to the surface.

On the plus side, I've been scrubbing the rocks with a toothbrush and after the first time I brushed all of the rocks, my tank seems to have stopped consuming Alk for no reason. I've been dosing 200ml per day of soda ash solution to maintain 9 dkH. Now it is barely consuming any.

 

[ScottF]

The downside of not pumping 200ml/day of "part 2" into my tank is my pH took a hit. This inspired me to change the media in my CO2 scrubber from BRS to Jorvet and start working on adding some re-circulation from the skimmer.

After adding the barb to the CO2 scrubber intake, I noticed that air was leaking somewhere in the skimmer because it wasn't sucking from the barb. It turns out that I needed to lube my o-rings because air was leaking around the canisters.

I haven't finished setting up the re-circulation yet. I am still working through the details in my head of how I want to do it.

Also, I ordered some more corals from Tidal Gardens. Mostly Acros and Montys. They should get here tomorrow.

Sunburst Montipora
Slow Burn Montipora
4 pack mystery Montipora
Bali Green Slimer Acro
Forest Green Acro
Kermit The Frog Acro
Miyagi Acropora tortusa
Sato Toguchi Acro tort

Also also, I ordered more inverts from Inverted Reef including a Tuxedo Urchin. Hopefully he enjoys eating whatever this crap is that is growing in my tank. Most of my snails want nothing to do with it.

Tuxedo Urchin - Blue
Anemone Crab (for Wee Wetboy tank)
Some blue legs
Some Nerites

 

[danreef55]

Scott
try hooking the CO2 scrubber to the intake of the ozone unit.

 

[ScottF]

Scott
try hooking the CO2 scrubber to the intake of the ozone unit.

I currently have them setup on an electric ball valve that switches between them. I figured it would be best to keep them separated since the CO2 scrubber likes wet air and the ozone generator likes dry air.

One branch of the ball valve goes through the ozone generator and then through the Ozotech air dryer. The other branch goes through the CO2 scrubber and as of today through the RDAD. If the pH exceeds 8.35, the ball valve switches from the scrubber to the O3 generator hose. Though the generator itself is off most of the time.

From 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM the ball valve switches to the ozone generator and turns the generator on.

The RDAD is something that I cooked up today. The Re-circulation Disaster Avoidance Doohickey. Right now it is just acting as a humidifier for the air going into the scrubber. I plan on drilling a hole in my skimmer lid and attaching the input hose of the RDAD to the skimmer lid.

The RDAD is just a jug with two hoses attached and an optical sensor mounted on the side. The idea is that if for some reason my skimmer goes nuts and somehow manages to start pumping water into the hose to my scrubber, the water will collect in the jug before reaching the scrubber. Once the water level reaches the optical sensor, my Apex will shut off the skimmer and send me a notification.

I don't plan on sealing it tightly. I just want the scrubber to get most of it's air from the skimmer. I want to also get a little fresh air for O2 as well.

I give you the RDAD: (though not hooked up to the skimmer yet and half filled with rodi water to humidify the scrubber)

 

[danreef55]

I currently have them setup on an electric ball valve that switches between them. I figured it would be best to keep them separated since the CO2 scrubber likes wet air and the ozone generator likes dry air.

One branch of the ball valve goes through the ozone generator and then through the Ozotech air dryer. The other branch goes through the CO2 scrubber and as of today through the RDAD. If the pH exceeds 8.35, the ball valve switches from the scrubber to the O3 generator hose. Though the generator itself is off most of the time.

From 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM the ball valve switches to the ozone generator and turns the generator on.

The RDAD is something that I cooked up today. The Re-circulation Disaster Avoidance Doohickey. Right now it is just acting as a humidifier for the air going into the scrubber. I plan on drilling a hole in my skimmer lid and attaching the input hose of the RDAD to the skimmer lid.

The RDAD is just a jug with two hoses attached and an optical sensor mounted on the side. The idea is that if for some reason my skimmer goes nuts and somehow manages to start pumping water into the hose to my scrubber, the water will collect in the jug before reaching the scrubber. Once the water level reaches the optical sensor, my Apex will shut off the skimmer and send me a notification.

I don't plan on sealing it tightly. I just want the scrubber to get most of it's air from the skimmer. I want to also get a little fresh air for O2 as well.

I give you the RDAD: (though not hooked up to the skimmer yet and half filled with rodi water to humidify the scrubber)

I didn't realize you had THAT air dryer = nice
Love the doohickey line. You have an awesome set up

 

[ScottF]

I didn't realize you had THAT air dryer = nice
Love the doohickey line. You have an awesome set up

Thanks! My first adventure in reefing in 2008 was all cobbled together pieces that picked up as I could afford them. This time around I am sparing no expense and trying to leverage technology to do some of the work for me and keep everything as stable as possible.

Though I do have to say that the relentlessness of this algae bloom has me feeling a little down. I was totally expecting "The Ugly Phase". I just wasn't expecting it to come on so hard.

Starting a tank with dry rock is a new experience for me. I didn't have anything this severe back in the "live rock" days of my original tank. I had also planned on having more utilitarian fish in the tank by now. I was hoping my order from Marine Collectors would be closer to the two weeks than the six weeks in their two to six week window.

It is probably for the best though. My custom lids from Toplids are also taking longer than I had expected since they switched to a new process for the UV reactive strip and I am one of the first customers getting the new process.

I have a Midas Blenny and a Melanurus Wrasse in that order that would probably be on the floor by now if they had arrived two weeks after I ordered them.