Sam's Oceanic 120 - DIY solutions

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Came from the Wi facility so their fish was probably only in the bag since yesterday. Only one bag, water just under the label. Bag was plump though; Easily a 2 pints of water.

I spoke with the Petco folks; they said they'd keep the fish in the bags if I special order through them and pickup on drop-off day. Or, like today, If I show-up on delivery day there is a few hour window where I can get them as they're being float.
 
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2022-08-12 10:47 PMAlkalinity8.3
2022-08-12 10:52 PMCalcium450
2022-08-12 11:10 PMMagnesium1365
2022-08-12 11:17 PMNitrate5
2022-08-12 11:18 PMPhosphate0.25
Changed out the 10yr old GFO I had that came with the tank; Thanks Brian! Just filled a bag with just delivered BRS GFO and tossed it in.

Just designed and printed a holder for my bladed algae scraper added a little holder for the extra blades because I always loose stuff like that. This scraper is awesome for those tough to get-off bits.
HoToolMeHolder v6.jpg
 
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Did you say 10-year-old GFO?!? :oops:
I guess I took a little poetic justice there. probably just from when he took down his 10 yr-old tank ;)
 
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2022-08-13 10:05 PMAlkalinity8
2022-08-13 10:09 PMCalcium435
2022-08-13 10:13 PMMagnesium1350
2022-08-13 10:19 PMNitrate10
2022-08-13 10:19 PMPhosphate0.25
upping my kalk dosing and added a little alk.
Changed out my 7 year old carbon ;)
 

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2022-08-13 10:05 PMAlkalinity8
2022-08-13 10:09 PMCalcium435
2022-08-13 10:13 PMMagnesium1350
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2022-08-13 10:19 PMPhosphate0.25
upping my kalk dosing and added a little alk.
Changed out my 7 year old carbon ;)
Need pictures of tank please!
 
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So, not the prettiest at the moment; but things are looking up I suppose. Coralline has finally started coming in...
I think I have Bryopsis bad in the exile tank; some in the DT. The DIY coral snow with MB7 seems to make it easy to lift off the rocks in sheets. I keep meaning to design and print a syphon-scraper for the back walls too... just need to do it.
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So, not the prettiest at the moment; but things are looking up I suppose. Coralline has finally started coming in...
I think I have Bryopsis bad in the exile tank; some in the DT. The DIY coral snow with MB7 seems to make it easy to lift off the rocks in sheets. I keep meaning to design and print a syphon-scraper for the back walls too... just need to do it.
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Oh my! Sam,

That looks SO good! I like how that rock scape looks! And the fish selection is OUTSTANDING!!!!

I can’t believe I’ve been following this thread but never knew what your tank looked like!
 
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2022-08-14 10:07 PMAlkalinity7.5
2022-08-14 10:18 PMCalcium410
2022-08-14 10:29 PMMagnesium1275
2022-08-14 10:39 PMNitrate10
2022-08-14 10:39 PMPhosphate0.25
And that was after upping my Kalk to 90ml/hr last night and dosing 10ml BRS alk. I just upped it to 100ml/hr... I need to get a kalk stirrer; mixing up the gallon jugs is getting old. I usually only use about 1/2 before switching jugs because I'm nervous about missing a dose...
Dosed my BRS two part... all three parts... hope it'll get me back in-line.
I was pretty happy to find one of my algae blennies in the overflow the other day so I moved it over to the exile tank todo some cleanup.
Did another round of my DIY coral snow with Brightwell MicroBacter7, Restör, and Coral Amino. Have started manually dosing Phyto now that I'm all setup to grow it.
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Baxter:
IMG_1295.JPEG
 

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2022-08-14 10:07 PMAlkalinity7.5
2022-08-14 10:18 PMCalcium410
2022-08-14 10:29 PMMagnesium1275
2022-08-14 10:39 PMNitrate10
2022-08-14 10:39 PMPhosphate0.25
And that was after upping my Kalk to 90ml/hr last night and dosing 10ml BRS alk. I just upped it to 100ml/hr... I need to get a kalk stirrer; mixing up the gallon jugs is getting old. I usually only use about 1/2 before switching jugs because I'm nervous about missing a dose...
Dosed my BRS two part... all three parts... hope it'll get me back in-line.
I was pretty happy to find one of my algae blennies in the overflow the other day so I moved it over to the exile tank todo some cleanup.
Did another round of my DIY coral snow with Brightwell MicroBacter7, Restör, and Coral Amino. Have started manually dosing Phyto now that I'm all setup to grow it.
View attachment 2787762View attachment 2787763
Baxter:
View attachment 2787761
I LOVE your closet… I feel like that’s only something you could say on a forum like this and it not be weird. ;)
 
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I built and will be using my second screen tank lid from here on out...
I went down to feed the fish in the 120 and found an unexpected visitor in the exile tank...
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I couldn't really believe it so I had to take a few photos. No way in hell I could have caught him out of the DT. was hard enough getting him out of the exile tank.
Talk about threading the needle - there is not much more then a foot between the light and the tank rim; from underwater two feet away.... Do you think the Damsel was taunting him so he decided to go teach it a lesson?

Got some salt! Petsmart super sale... $25/ea. I usually mix them 1:2 IO:RC.
IMG_1532.JPEG
 
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2022-08-15 10:20 PMAlkalinity8.3
2022-08-15 10:28 PMCalcium415
2022-08-15 10:32 PMMagnesium1350
2022-08-15 10:42 PMNitrate10
2022-08-15 10:42 PMPhosphate0.25
I raised the alk in two doses over 24 hrs.
 
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Devastated...
Checked on my tank today and didn't see any anthias... Looked a bit longer and found one in the rocks. I grabbed its tail with my grabber and it came loose in rigor. Looked for the others. I eventually found them all dead. Also found one Cleaner shrimp being eaten by Timmy and bits of the other already having been consumed.
I don't know what happened... I thought the male Anthias went on a killing spree because I found all the females first but with him dead I don't know. Over the past week I've slowly changed about 60 gallons of water so I doubt its tank chemistry. The Canary Blenny and Striped Blenny are running scared it looks like; and earlier the canary blenny was acting all terrified. He had his fangs out at one point.
I don't know what's up... I'm down over $300 in livestock in 24hours. Everyone else seems fine if not totally agro. Everyone is scared.

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