Tropical Paradise on the Frozen Tundra; a little snowman that wanted to swim in the reef

AKLiving · Apr 3, 2023

At work: I'll work on that when I get home.
At home: I'm tired. Maybe I'll just enjoy a little relaxation time first.
After relaxing: I don't have enough time tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Hooray, I mean bummer, it snowed. There's no way I'm going to put on my boots, coat, and gloves then wade through the snow, go out the shop, clear an area for the table saw to be set up, and make something for organizing the electronics. It's bound to be warmer next week.

And so goes much of winter. Who am I kidding? Summer has different excuses, like... that can wait until winter when I don't have anything to do.

This is why the contrast of frozen tundra and tropical paradise.
Yesterday :

So, the RSR350 is up and running now. I realized I didn't post any picutres of my QT. It's just a simple Fluval 13.5 but has made it so I don't have to do much other than water frequent water changes at first and now only once a week. My wife only had one request, Bangaii Cardinals. So, they went into quarantine. Cute little buggers that are obviously tank raised. Whenever you go into the room they come right up to the glass looking for food. In fact I have to walk away after feeding so that they stop looking at me and eat. Also, a watchman gobie - probably a poor choice for a new, clean tank. He's pretty good at coming out during feeing and swimming up a ways to get food. I'll keep a close eye on him but after a few weeks he's still looking robust.

I got an Avast Plank Feeder installed directly over the return pump and finally figured out how to program the Apex for it to feed automatically. Ooops, too many attempts. I guess that's why my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate started climbing again.
On that topic, I decided to try the Red Sea Reef Mature kit. I had already soaked my rock in shrimp swill. Much less smelly than when we used fish emulsion. That probably was not what Red Sea had in mind but oh, well. I have only had 2 very mild bacterial blooms that cleared in less than a day. There is a lot of stringy bacteria if you look really closely and the glass has had to be scraped of it a couple of times. I'm tempted to back off on the NOPOX but really want to see if following the directions will work. My parameters were coming down pretty well after each nitro bacteria feed stuff so something is working. I've barely had any phosphates and at day 12 now not even a hint of algae even with lights on. Normal level lights on has been a tough one for me to accept this early but - muuust follllow directions. And, quit testing the plank feeder with food in it.

I was very excited to add a small clean up crew. Unfortunately the cardinals now act as if I've abandoned them. They look at me like the yellow lab does when he feels he wasn't given enough food for the day (every day, all day).

QT tank. Done my way. I don't ever plan to use chemicals or drugs. That's when it becomes an isolation tank. Observation only for healthy looking critters. Yep, I know the risks. Do we all know the long term risks of indiscriminate use of antimicrobials. The medical community sure didn't at first.
That is why there is sand and rock. It's barely any so if I have to I can chuck it in the garbage when I get a sick fish and actually need to treat. OK, enough soap box time. Annnnd speaking of soap boxes. I'm sure they were made with less fasteners than my stand made with scraps laying around.

Sump setup.

Plank feeder
Youtube vid of it running. Avast Plank Feeder in Sump

And now the tank . duh duh duuuuuhhhhh

The critters added per Reef Mature directions. Next up will be the fish this week.

AKLiving · Apr 10, 2023

I'm posting a little out of order but I promised I would show even mistakes. That way when I forget in a year or so ('cause that's where my memory is these days) maybe I won't try to do the same thing again.

When I was working on my aquascape I missed a huge thing, literally huge in terms of the tank size, and that was the overflow. How could I have not thought of that? In my mock up I didn't have that in the back. Thankfully I already decided I wasn't going to put the center piece in. It was just too much. But it meant I had to rotate the scape and not display it as intended. It still looked good, I think. Since I origninally was going to have 3 structures just having 2 left it looking either bare in the middle or on the side. So, I went traditional and stacked rock in the middle forming a small cave. I know none of it will look the same once it is fully grown out but I like it for now and so does my family.
Some other R2R members helped me realize it was too tall as well with not enough room for coral growth. Off came the bases and I shortened them all. At this point I was really liking superglue because I could change anything quickly and keep moving without having to hold rocks in place for several minutes and hope it was well bonded.

The other mistake was even using the mortar. I only applied a little before realizing I wanted some changes. When I went to break it apart, I realized the superglue/rock powder joints were far stronger than even the rock itself. That means I know have a bunch of mortar I will probably never use. I mistake turned out good in this case.

Here is a video compilation of my Negative Space Aquascape experience. I'll get some updates hopefully soon on how the tank is going (I'm pleased so far).

MarcoRock Traditional and NSA

AKLiving · Apr 10, 2023

Some details on my RODI holding tank:

With one of the goals (family's requirement) of being able to leave for a week or so without needing a reef expert sitter (are there any in Fairbanks?) I made a 75 liter / 20 gallon RODI reservoir. This was my first time making anything from acrylic in decades. I forgot how much I don't like working with black or non-transparent acrylic. One area didn't get bonded well enough and after about 24 hours in the garage the leak test failed. I saw the tiny separation however I had low confidence so applied ATI silicone before leak testing. The silicone held very well. I applied more Weld-On then clamped it anyway.

Plumbed for a Neptune ATK and monitored using the Neptune LLS. Height is 26" and the LLS is only 24" so I set the alarm just above the 0" mark so I have time to refill before it runs dry. Right now I'm using about 2.9L or 0.77g per day. That gives me over 3 weeks before needing to fill up again.

AKLiving · Apr 10, 2023

Cylcing a tank. There are tons of posts so this is not to say I am doing it the right way or anyone should follow me.

I started at least a month before my tank came in because, well, it took more than a month for my tank to arrive. I placed rock in tubs and a shrimp to decompose. See previous posts.

I decided to patronize Red Sea since I got their tank, ReefMat, used ReefWave 45, ATK, and LLS. So, why not try their Reef Mature. It's nothing really special if you look at it. Just fancy packaging for some bacteria in a bottle, Nitro Start (potassium nitrate); Coraline Gro (sodium carbinate and potassium carbonate); and NOPOX (alcohol). If I had taken more time looking at the actual ingredients of the system I probably would have just gone DIY.

I started after doing my leak tests and getting the rock in I started the Reef Mature on 3/24. I am using Tropic Marin Pro salt.
I have only needed to use the Coraline Gro one time at the initial setup and not since as my dKH has been steady at about 8.6.
I had a couple of brief, less than a day, cloudy bacterial blooms. There was starting to get a pretty significant growth of surface bacterial as well. I tried my hardest to stick with the plan but my instincts to get on top of issues kept me from following it exactly. I was running full lights as directed but last week when dino or diatoms started to appear (brown all at once) I couldn't stand the thought of a full blown takeover. I shut the lights off for a couple of days and everthing was gone. Lights back on for a couple days and brown started again everywhere all at once. Lights back off yesterday and this morning was much better. I'll keep trying to get lights back on but I'm struggling with following that direction from Red Sea. I still don't see anything that looks like actual algae.

Day 10 I added a small CUC of hermits and snails.
Day 14 two Bangaii Cardinals and one Diamond gobie. I know the gobie with perfectly clean sand was probably a bad idea. What can I say, I had a moment of weakness for the cute little guy. He does a great job coming up for food though and never looked like he was losing weight in quarantine.
Day 14 I also had pods and chaeto show up so added them with a Tunze refugium light as well as some bioblocks.

I have also strayed from strict directions in that when I saw how much and how fast I was getting bacterial growth on the walls and rocks I started to back off on the NOPOX missing a day or so and 1/2 doses. The slime is disappearing now and the glass doesn't need scraping as much.

Overall thoughts so far: Loving it!!

I love the Red Sea setup. Waaaayyyy easier than building everything from scratch like I use to. Cleanear looking too.
I don't think I would do the Red Sea Reef Mature again. Not because it's bad but because I don't strickly follow it anyway and not all the product is getting used. I think mostly that I am not ready to try and push through super ugly in less than a month. I'd rather go slower.
I have too many mouthbreathers in the house. My dKH is staying 8.6 but my pH is never above 8.0 (Apex and Hanna) with low of 7.6. I shut off my skimmer for a day, oh I love the BubbleMagus curve and how well it worked from the start, and my pH is now 7.9 to 8.2 with a flatter curve. Turning on the skimmer again so I don't know if more time would have raised it more. I have a canister for CO2 absorption feeding the skimmer on the way.
I'm glad I made the ATO tank. I have to satisfy my DIY side and now I don't refill often.
I don't particularly like the Radion XR15's. The tank is in the front room near our couch and I love sitting by the tank just to look at it. The lights are 8.5" above the water and I bought some expensive (relatively) covers that don't work. Only my shanty corrugated board with duct tape blocks the light. I'll figure something out.
Now that I'm finally understanding Apex Fusion some I'm starting to like it. Much muttering when I first started. It would be nice to have an easier, dummy interface with ability to program through an advanced menu.
The ReefWave45/Echotec MP40 combo works really well. It doesn't look like anything stays on the sand bed and I can feel good movement when I stick my hand in various places. We'll see when I add more stuff.
Avast Plank Feeder. This will be my most under-appreciated appliance. I don't see it but it works great mounted directly over my return pump. It works great and I hesitated because of the price but the reviews were not exaggerating. This works very well.

I'll add some photos from my phone next.

AKLiving · Apr 10, 2023

We are about to be set FREEEEEEEEEE from QT jail.

Holy guacamole. I thought these were stylish shades from the 90s. But can you believe how well they work on the color? Now if anyone knows of a filter lens that is BIG ENOUGH for the iPhone 14max I would appreciate it. The ones I tried everyone gets but it won't cover all the phone lenses at once so the camera becomes schizophrenic.

Before:

After:

I couldn't tell what this was so took it out and scraped it off before putting it back in the QT a couple weeks ago.

I thought I had Aptasia after keeping them in QT and not seeing anything. Then these came out once in the DT. Good thing I put on my reading glasses to look at it more closely. It appears to be coming from a cacified tube so probably a feather duster or similar. Unless someone says otherwise it is staying.
Cute video - click to view: Feather Duster?

Refugium with extra bioblocks for when I start up another tank or if the QT ever needs to be stripped down and cleaned due to disease.

AKLiving · Apr 10, 2023

This is the bacteria when I was following the RM directions. Just cutting it in half and skipping a day or 2 it now gone and my phos is still 0 and nitrates a little high but declining.
Slimer

I had difficulty with figuring out where air was coming from when I installed the ReefMat. It was actually more frustrating to hear canned responses when people 1. didn’t read the post 2. Didn’t look at pics or vids 3. Wanted to sound smart so regurgitated what they heard others say 3. Had no clue what they were talking about.
I like to trouble shoot things. I look at it like a puzzle. Trying to avoid disconnecting things I thought maybe others already had been through this. It felt like when you call IT and go though everything you’ve done, ie. rebooted, turned it off for 30 seconds and restarted, updated all software, updated all drivers and the help desk proceeds to ask, “Did you reboot, restart,” etc.
Anyway, I figured out that my sealing job was inadequate. Just wrapped plastic wrap around the joint and air intrusion stopped. Now that the problem was know it was permanently solved with a thick layer of silicone grease after disassembling then put back together.
posting videos for reference.
Red Sea ReefMat drain air leak

AKLiving · Apr 26, 2023

Me: "I know everyone likes their oxygen but if you do inhale some I need you all to stop exhaling. If you aren't able to do that then I'm going to ask that you stop breathing."
Family: "But that's going to be really hard to do. We need to breath and it's our house too."
Me: "Ok, just go breath in your own rooms. No breathing in the living room."

Can you guess when I added the CO2 scrubber?

I added some fish and inverts from Dr. Reef's. I assume the shipping was great because everything arrived alive and well even being sent to Alaska. This was my first live shipment other than copepods and chaeto so my experience was limited. Thank you Dr. Reef's (I would tag but it doesn't seem to come up).
The fish were tank raised which is what I was looking for. The clowns were much bigger than anticipated and I didn't buy them as a pair but they immediately got along and are inseparable. So far my favorite fish. The hermits and snails were tiny, much smaller than I would have guessed but the site doesn't list sizes. Only 2 or 3 empty shells and the only way I could have counted to verify my purchase would have been to spread them out on a white background which I didn't want to do. It appeared to be about right which was good enough for me.
Planning on my next purchase and it will definitely from Dr. Reef's again if they have what I want. It is really nice to have them quarantined already.

Drip Acclimation. They arrived in 30ppm salinity. My tank is 35ppm. After floating for 20min to equalize the temp I put them in the bucket for the drip. Doubled the volume then discarded 1/2 and did this 2 more times over about 90 minutes. I wanted to go slow since it was such quite a significant difference in salinity. Maybe next time I'll set my quarantine tank to 30ppm and increase it to 35 over a week before transferring them into the DT. Either way they did great withing a short time in the DT. Only one clown sat on the sand for an hour or so before perking right up.

Phantom Clowns - I love that one has a small spot of dusky orange on its face and the other is all black and white. They get along great. Since they are tank raised and nearly the same size I'm guessing they may have even been raised in the same group.

First shrimp. Very friendly. He didn't want to let go of my hand and go to the rock when I put it in the tank. I'm sure my hand was much more appealing than a somewhat sterile appearing rock.
Son: "Daddy, why is the shrimp losing antenna? Is it sick or dying?"
Me: sprinting across the room at mach 2.0 worried that the new shrimp was a gonner. Phew, he just molted since adding.

Added to the clean up crew. Algae has taken off right after I took these photos. Probably because I stopped the Red Sea Reef Mature NOPOX since my phos was staying undetectable the entire time. It's come up since then and I'll recheck this weekend. The crew is keeping the algae down to surface only (except for one snail with a forest on his back).

Next up will hopefully be a yellow tang. I'm not sure what else yet. I can't wait until I get a 6 line but that will probably be my last to add or nearly last.

Chomping at the bit for some coral but I'd like to see my parameters stable a little while longer.

Petcrazyson · Apr 26, 2023

AKLiving said:
Me: "I know everyone likes their oxygen but if you do inhale some I need you all to stop exhaling. If you aren't able to do that then I'm going to ask that you stop breathing."
Family: "But that's going to be really hard to do. We need to breath and it's our house too."
Me: "Ok, just go breath in your own rooms. No breathing in the living room."

Can you guess when I added the CO2 scrubber?

I added some fish and inverts from Dr. Reef's. I assume the shipping was great because everything arrived alive and well even being sent to Alaska. This was my first live shipment other than copepods and chaeto so my experience was limited. Thank you Dr. Reef's (I would tag but it doesn't seem to come up).
The fish were tank raised which is what I was looking for. The clowns were much bigger than anticipated and I didn't buy them as a pair but they immediately got along and are inseparable. So far my favorite fish. The hermits and snails were tiny, much smaller than I would have guessed but the site doesn't list sizes. Only 2 or 3 empty shells and the only way I could have counted to verify my purchase would have been to spread them out on a white background which I didn't want to do. It appeared to be about right which was good enough for me.
Planning on my next purchase and it will definitely from Dr. Reef's again if they have what I want. It is really nice to have them quarantined already.

Drip Acclimation. They arrived in 30ppm salinity. My tank is 35ppm. After floating for 20min to equalize the temp I put them in the bucket for the drip. Doubled the volume then discarded 1/2 and did this 2 more times over about 90 minutes. I wanted to go slow since it was such quite a significant difference in salinity. Maybe next time I'll set my quarantine tank to 30ppm and increase it to 35 over a week before transferring them into the DT. Either way they did great withing a short time in the DT. Only one clown sat on the sand for an hour or so before perking right up.

Phantom Clowns - I love that one has a small spot of dusky orange on its face and the other is all black and white. They get along great. Since they are tank raised and nearly the same size I'm guessing they may have even been raised in the same group.

First shrimp. Very friendly. He didn't want to let go of my hand and go to the rock when I put it in the tank. I'm sure my hand was much more appealing than a somewhat sterile appearing rock.
Son: "Daddy, why is the shrimp losing antenna? Is it sick or dying?"
Me: sprinting across the room at mach 2.0 worried that the new shrimp was a gonner. Phew, he just molted since adding.

Added to the clean up crew. Algae has taken off right after I took these photos. Probably because I stopped the Red Sea Reef Mature NOPOX since my phos was staying undetectable the entire time. It's come up since then and I'll recheck this weekend. The crew is keeping the algae down to surface only (except for one snail with a forest on his back).

Next up will hopefully be a yellow tang. I'm not sure what else yet. I can't wait until I get a 6 line but that will probably be my last to add or nearly last.

Chomping at the bit for some coral but I'd like to see my parameters stable a little while longer.

Really nice clowns!

AKLiving · Apr 26, 2023

Thanks but I can't take credit since they arrived that way.
I'm very happy with them. I only have B&W fish though, so I need to start adding color!

AKLiving · May 5, 2023

Fred is the newest member. This one is a little shy but not completely reclusive. He’s in the DT now but not photoge

I’ve noticed this white crusting. It highlights under blue light. It doesn’t appear to have distinct shapes but looks and highlights like what is on shells too and the shells didn’t have it initially.

Photobomb from the shyest fish in the tank.
It figures that he would do this when I wasn’t wanting fish in the way of the pic. Oh well.

AKLiving · May 5, 2023

I have a good cleanup crew but my snail, Harry, doesn’t seem to upkeep his own house and he must not play well with others because he’s the only one like this.
Harry the hairy snail.

AKLiving · Jun 10, 2023

Summer in Alaska is too busy at times so I have not had much time to post or work on the tank. Cords are still a mess but I’ve been slowly adding livestock and other than phos still at 0 (Hanna and Fluval both read 0) my parameters are ok. Increasing feeding hasn’t changed that. Algae hasn’t been too bad. Mobly the mower blenny is now helping and has a fat belly at all times. Waiting for phos to register before adding coral. Otherwise I think the tank is about ready.

2 rounds of 4 jars each of live pods a month apart and I don’t see any. I was feeding Oceanmagik. Are my eyes too old to see them or do you think they are dying off? Added to fuge and DT.

Tried adding pink and purple coralline maybe a month ago. No visible growth but I’m still hopeful.

Shy new adds finally getting comfy.