Scott’s Infinia Frag 125.4 build Shallow Reef

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Tiger conch is amazing. A great addition and constantly grazing. Added a torch marketed as NY knicks. Got a spin test at the LFS and results are very different than my Hanna checkers. Most concerning was alk of 9.7 which is higher than I’m reading. Very nice of LFS to send Hanna control dKH solution home for me to borrow and I checked within range so I’ll not worry about it and just trust the Hanna. They did give me the comment that they don’t check any of their systems with the spin test so there ya go. I was just hoping for something to compare to and confirm against.
They did check my salinity with their digital refractometer and it was spot on compared to where I want to be at. Anywho. Here’s my numbers from today. Won’t include the spin test results here as I don’t think it provides much useful information as it seems to be overall inaccurate.

Salinity: 35ppt
Ca: 440ppm
Alk: 7.9 dKH
Phosphate: 0.07ppm
Nitrate: 1.3 ppm

My LFS's spin test was also slightly different (4.9 dKH) than my at home results (5.6 dKH), but close enough to see the trend that my Alk was dangerously low. So I use my at home to watch trends and use the spin tests at the LFS just to double check I am in the right ball park.

 

[frydaddy]

Thank you, I’m really liking it and enjoying it! I got to see the stand setup with tank on it in the shop before purchase. I don’t find the stand to be worrisome, but they do offer a stabilizing kit to people who ask for it.

Who offers the stabilizing kit? Waterbox or your local fish store? Did you get the kit? And if so what’s included?

 

[skey44]

Who offers the stabilizing kit? Waterbox or your local fish store? Did you get the kit? And if so what’s included?

My understanding is it’s from waterbox customer service. I don’t feel the need for it at this time.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

My understanding is it’s from waterbox customer service. I don’t feel the need for it at this time.

My next tank will be a Waterbox! I love the 20 cube for a softie nano!

 

[skey44]

Some good and bad updates. Display tank seems to have stabilized with nutrients and dosing so I started AFR yesterday. Went a little higher on initial dosing bc I’m losing about .5 dKH a day and the initial dose is only .3dKH. Not going crazy at 18ml a day for now and will test until I get it dialed.

Unfortunately a mini disaster with the new fish. The great looking Royal Gramma never ate and developed an unknown parasitic disease. Got copper power dosed but too late and it died Tuesday. Now my little tomini tang is struggling with blotchy patches, due to sudden onset I believe it too is parasitic… I added general cure to my copper. It looks rough and I don’t expect it to be alive when I get home I’m just hopeful I can bring the Blenny and wrasse through this at this point. Of note my LFS system the tang and gramma were in seems to be almost wiped out of fish, this is why I am quarantining. Next time I’ll wait until the fish have been in a little longer before purchasing. I’m frustrated and sad about these fish, but at least it’s not in my main display. I’d be so upset.

Appreciate the people commenting and following along! Now I don’t feel like I’m just talking to myself! On another note, I got a camera filter, so tonight when I’m not going to petsmart at 8:30 for general cure maybe I’ll take some decent pics. Here’s a little teaser I took really quick before all the QT tank focus.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Fish and corals dying is the worst part of this hobby! Hopefully the others will pull through for you!

Which filter did you go with?

 

[skey44]

Fish and corals dying is the worst part of this hobby! Hopefully the others will pull through for you!

Which filter did you go with?

My LFS got it in for me, it is apparently a new one for iPhone specifically. Only thing I don’t like about it is I have to take my case off.
It is by PolypLab, functions well besides needing case removal. I tried to look it up and I don’t even see it on any websites. It uses magnets in the lens and tiny metal strips on the phone to attach. Luckily the metal strips are able to fit under my phone case. Excited to try to get some better shots of my tank and to start documenting its progress.

 

[skey44]

Little tomini is looking better, tried to eat a little. Day by day.

 

[skey44]

Tomini still hanging on, Not doing great, blenny and wrasse happy in QT.

In other news I’m battling a bit of red slime algae. It’s been there but with my attempts to balance/increase nutrients it’s reared its head.
I have two options I’m thinking of.
1. Try with no WC this week. See if that helps the tank get stable and balance the nutrients, bacteria.
2. just keep trucking with my 10 pct weekly water change like a religion and manually remove as much as I can.

I just started tropic Marin afr and it’s so far keeping my chem stable and corals look good. I also added an Eheim auto feeder I’m trying to tune. I now have it feeding the smallest setting of TDO small pellets 4x a day, 2 turns per feed. Im also adding small quantities of frozen when I’m home before and after work. My nitrates will drop 3-5 ppm per day right now unless I feed like crazy so I’m trying to find a solution. I’m going out of town for 3 nights soon so I’d like to auto feed the fish while I’m away too.

My feeling right now is keep water changing on schedule and manually removing the red slime until the tank finds its balance. Try to keep nutrients up with less flux. Keep balancing chem with AFR.

 

[skey44]

Much better with new filter.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Tomini still hanging on, Not doing great, blenny and wrasse happy in QT.

In other news I’m battling a bit of red slime algae. It’s been there but with my attempts to balance/increase nutrients it’s reared its head.
I have two options I’m thinking of.
1. Try with no WC this week. See if that helps the tank get stable and balance the nutrients, bacteria.
2. just keep trucking with my 10 pct weekly water change like a religion and manually remove as much as I can.

I just started tropic Marin afr and it’s so far keeping my chem stable and corals look good. I also added an Eheim auto feeder I’m trying to tune. I now have it feeding the smallest setting of TDO small pellets 4x a day, 2 turns per feed. Im also adding small quantities of frozen when I’m home before and after work. My nitrates will drop 3-5 ppm per day right now unless I feed like crazy so I’m trying to find a solution. I’m going out of town for 3 nights soon so I’d like to auto feed the fish while I’m away too.

My feeling right now is keep water changing on schedule and manually removing the red slime until the tank finds its balance. Try to keep nutrients up with less flux. Keep balancing chem with AFR.

I need to get my doser set up with AFR. How much are you adding a day?

 

[skey44]

17.5 think I will up to 20ml pretty soon though. Seeing a slight alkalinity drop

 

[skey44]

Tank survived the first vacation. Not without some drama. Skimmer overflowed and luckily I had an experienced reef keeper checking the tank and we were able to trouble shoot over the phone.
Unfortunately tomini tang in QT died after putting up a good fight.
Been having some slime algae, I’m fighting it. Did a 15g WC today with a turkey baster. Trying prodibio for first time today. Ordered calcium carbonate to make a diy coral snow. Increased my flow rate turning up
my Vortechs.
Nutrients and elements pretty stable. Calcium mag and alk all decreasing with 17.5ml/day of AFR. Bumped up to 20 ml today. Good sign of growth!
Have a little hairy algae too. Planning to add a tuxedo urchin and try to get a tang through QT next go around.
Itching to try some acros and goniopora soon with everything stabilizing. Ordered the bayer dip to add to my coral dipping process.
I do think some real ocean live rock will improve my success and still plan to buy some and cure in my garage before adding a few pieces. Hopefully this will add some micro fauna and round out my bacteria biome.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Tank survived the first vacation. Not without some drama. Skimmer overflowed and luckily I had an experienced reef keeper checking the tank and we were able to trouble shoot over the phone.
Unfortunately tomini tang in QT died after putting up a good fight.
Been having some slime algae, I’m fighting it. Did a 15g WC today with a turkey baster. Trying prodibio for first time today. Ordered calcium carbonate to make a diy coral snow. Increased my flow rate turning up
my Vortechs.
Nutrients and elements pretty stable. Calcium mag and alk all decreasing with 17.5ml/day of AFR. Bumped up to 20 ml today. Good sign of growth!
Have a little hairy algae too. Planning to add a tuxedo urchin and try to get a tang through QT next go around.
Itching to try some acros and goniopora soon with everything stabilizing. Ordered the bayer dip to add to my coral dipping process.
I do think some real ocean live rock will improve my success and still plan to buy some and cure in my garage before adding a few pieces. Hopefully this will add some micro fauna and round out my bacteria biome.

Glad the tank faired well through the vacation!

 

[skey44]

Prayers to all affected. This storm has been a doozie. I was trapped in my neighborhood and just made it to work around noon. My wife is a critical health care employee (technically I am too but I’m salaried) and my dad took her to work, but then he didn’t get back home until noon. Power is out. Have my little Honda inverter running the fish tank and fridge… you know priorities. And yeti power supply on the QT.

Just found out now we have a tree hanging over the driveway. Also see where my LFS couldn’t get out of his neighborhood this am. Things are bad here in Greenville and we are hundreds of miles inland and not in direct path!

Cars are now in road.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Prayers to all affected. This storm has been a doozie. I was trapped in my neighborhood and just made it to work around noon. My wife is a critical health care employee (technically I am too but I’m salaried) and my dad took her to work, but then he didn’t get back home until noon. Power is out. Have my little Honda inverter running the fish tank and fridge… you know priorities. And yeti power supply on the QT.

Just found out now we have a tree hanging over the driveway. Also see where my LFS couldn’t get out of his neighborhood this am. Things are bad here in Greenville and we are hundreds of miles inland and not in direct path!

Cars are now in road.

Stay safe!

 

[skey44]

Thanks, starting to realize we will be probably a week without power. In my commute today I saw no signs of cleanup starting. Lines down everywhere. Also apparently a lot of our transmission stations are down, which is theoretically where they need to start the work. I have about 10 gallons of gas for the generator. Should theoretically get me through 2-3 days before needing to reup on gas (I only found one station in town with running pumps!) Not sure how the corals will fare and if we go into T/W next week looks like we could have some high temp problems. I only have a small generator so currently just running one vortech and return pump. May need to figure out a way to get some lighting in intermittently to try and keep my corals.

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Maybe alternate the vortech and lights? For a few hours a day.

 

[skey44]

Much better with new filter.

So corals have declined since this point. Think I’m having some instability in the tank that started when I went in vacation and is being exacerbated by power outage. Also think I turned flow too high. My torches have been very unhappy the last couple of weeks and it’s bothering the heck out of me. Red Algae has also gotten worse despite attempting to combat it.
Power still out. Hopefully i can keep the tank holding on until we get power back. Supposed to be 83 degrees F today… sure that’s not gonna help either! Ugh
Fish even seem stressed. Saw my blenny flash on a rock yesterday despite QT of all fish. I also don’t see hardly any of my hermit crabs either. I think I counted two last night. Hopefully I can hold this together with minimal losses.
On the bright side my two turbo snails are knocking out the hairy algae and new tomini tang is doing well in QT.
I didn’t know this would be this bad of a disaster. I’m so over it. Also have two big trees I need to remove and so much yardwork ahead of me. I did get the tree off the fence in the picture above myself.
I recognize I am blessed that no one in my family or friend group was harmed. But I sure am spoiled by modern conveniences, and those conveniences such as electricity are 100 pct necessary to run a reef tank!

 

[08TRDOFFROAD]

Hopefully the tank will keep holding on! Any eta on when you might have your power restored?