Turtle's Deep Blue Sea

[SashimiTurtle]

Last check nitrates were under 4ppm. I'll test again in a minute. I just ordered some chemiclean, and I've got my reactor back online with GFO and carbon.

 

[sfin52]

 

[SashimiTurtle]

NO3 2ppm
PO4 0ppm

Finally got rid of the nutrients, had to use the old cyano method but it worked. ;Woot;Woot;Woot;Woot

Chemiclean gets in Thursday by Amazon prime... love that 2 day shipping. I'll be sure and use a half dose so I dont spike my nutrients back up.

 

[Brew12]

NO3 2ppm
PO4 0ppm

Finally got rid of the nutrients, had to use the old cyano method but it worked. ;Woot;Woot;Woot;Woot

Chemiclean gets in Thursday by Amazon prime... love that 2 day shipping. I'll be sure and use a half dose so I dont spike my nutrients back up.

lol!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

On a good note, my trumpet is recovering nicely. Almost back out over the entire skeleton. I'm telling you, toughest coral ever. This thing has been thru hell and it keeps hanging in there.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Brainstorming at work about my 90g dream build... sloooooow night shift.

I'm thinking about getting a brute trash can for the garage and buying a few pieces of ocean rock from a LFS to get all that good biologicalness... Yep made that word up. I'll then throw in the types of rock I want to build my scape with in the 90. Let them sit there and cook for a while, more like a year. That way when I start that tank up, my live rock will be super live rock and not super dead rock. Brute can, cheap return pump and some PVC, plastic to seal the top and a heater... I think I might have all that but the brute and a heater big enough.

Also, for a 36"x24" tank, the Kessil AP700 is a perfect fit. I've got the 3 A160WEs I can use over but... SHINY AP700. I might splurge and get the expensive light. I've got time to save up...

Also, I think I'm gonna take a step back on the Deep Blue Sea, and focus on simple easy corals. Not those ugly soft corals... Some squishy bouncy LPS. SPS has been giving me a swift kick in the rear... I'll probably end up getting some hardy pieces here and there, maybe a bird of paradise and some stylophora... I like those, but I'm not going out of my way to try and keep acros. It's just not going to happen in this tank in the time frame it'll be up. Dry rock takes way too long to support the hard to keep SPS corals. They did so well in my nano before I switched focus to the Deep Blue turned it into the Moray Menagerie.

I've got Chemipure Blue coming Thursday from Amazon also. I need some filtration over there in the Menagerie other than filter pads. The water is getting cloudy and while the GHA is a good food source for the urchin, it's out of hand. Poor water quality could also be why Maui has refused to eat. I'm going to do a large water change on Thursday and add the Chemipure then.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Brainstorming at work about my 90g dream build... sloooooow night shift.

I'm thinking about getting a brute trash can for the garage and buying a few pieces of ocean rock from a LFS to get all that good biologicalness... Yep made that word up. I'll then throw in the types of rock I want to build my scape with in the 90. Let them sit there and cook for a while, more like a year. That way when I start that tank up, my live rock will be super live rock and not super dead rock. Brute can, cheap return pump and some PVC, plastic to seal the top and a heater... I think I might have all that but the brute and a heater big enough.

Also, for a 36"x24" tank, the Kessil AP700 is a perfect fit. I've got the 3 A160WEs I can use over but... SHINY AP700. I might splurge and get the expensive light. I've got time to save up...

Also, I think I'm gonna take a step back on the Deep Blue Sea, and focus on simple easy corals. Not those ugly soft corals... Some squishy bouncy LPS. SPS has been giving me a swift kick in the rear... I'll probably end up getting some hardy pieces here and there, maybe a bird of paradise and some stylophora... I like those, but I'm not going out of my way to try and keep acros. It's just not going to happen in this tank in the time frame it'll be up. Dry rock takes way too long to support the hard to keep SPS corals. They did so well in my nano before I switched focus to the Deep Blue turned it into the Moray Menagerie.

I've got Chemipure Blue coming Thursday from Amazon also. I need some filtration over there in the Menagerie other than filter pads. The water is getting cloudy and while the GHA is a good food source for the urchin, it's out of hand. Poor water quality could also be why Maui has refused to eat. I'm going to do a large water change on Thursday and add the Chemipure then.

Certainly doable. A bit of blue light may sustain more life on the rock and promote coralline growth as well. Just a thought.

 

[Zack K]

I prefer live rock over the “cures dry rock in my setups. I’m not talking some tank LR. I’m talking Tampa Bay Saltwater Live rock. Rock with sponges, corals, shrimp, worms, pods, pollution, disease. All the goodies.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

@Zack Klabunde, I also prefer all the "bad juju" ocean rock has the the painfully long time it takes tank rock(rock that has been cured and matured in home and never exposed to the ocean or a rock from the ocean since drying out) to really be considered mature. I still don't think it can EVER be considered as mature as a living rock that came out the ocean.

When I get my rocks the LFS turns the lights on in the building (tank light is usually all there is in there, with that many tanks and coral growing lights it's bright enough to see, yet has a nice, relaxed dark room vibe) so you can see the actual color of the rock and inspect it for any pests. This is real Florida live rock, so you may find some uglies... But in my opinion those are far outweighed by the "good juju" in those rocks. I can pick off an aptasia or two and vermetids are no match for stainless steel toe nail cutters. The ones that look like diagonal pliers, not the ones in your wife's mani/pedi kit... the kind you have to use on them fungused up crusty toe nails like Granddaddy had. ;Yuck

I used to have a ton of life in the nano. I'd see little bristle worms and copepods all over the place after the lights went off. Im pretty sure the evil coral shrimp took care of the bristle worms and the copepods I think died off.

My thought is if I provide an environment in which ocean rock and whatever other rock I add can mingle for a sufficient amount of time, my whatever rock will be as full of life as the ocean rock. The ocean rock might still make its way to the sump of the 90.

@NY_Caveman, good idea on the light... I might stick a cheap low par reef light in there to get some coralline growth... not until all the excess nutrients are gone tho. We're not going to try and grow any nuisance algae in there.

 

[NY_Caveman]

@Zack Klabunde, I also prefer all the "bad juju" ocean rock has the the painfully long time it takes tank rock(rock that has been cured and matured in home and never exposed to the ocean or a rock from the ocean since drying out) to really be considered mature. I still don't think it can EVER be considered as mature as a living rock that came out the ocean.

When I get my rocks the LFS turns the lights on in the building (tank light is usually all there is in there, with that many tanks and coral growing lights it's bright enough to see, yet has a nice, relaxed dark room vibe) so you can see the actual color of the rock and inspect it for any pests. This is real Florida live rock, so you may find some uglies... But in my opinion those are far outweighed by the "good juju" in those rocks. I can pick off an aptasia or two and vermetids are no match for stainless steel toe nail cutters. The ones that look like diagonal pliers, not the ones in your wife's mani/pedi kit... the kind you have to use on them fungused up crusty toe nails like Granddaddy had. ;Yuck

I used to have a ton of life in the nano. I'd see little bristle worms and copepods all over the place after the lights went off. Im pretty sure the evil coral shrimp took care of the bristle worms and the copepods I think died off.

My thought is if I provide an environment in which ocean rock and whatever other rock I add can mingle for a sufficient amount of time, my whatever rock will be as full of life as the ocean rock. The ocean rock might still make its way to the sump of the 90.

@NY_Caveman, good idea on the light... I might stick a cheap low par reef light in there to get some coralline growth... not until all the excess nutrients are gone tho. We're not going to try and grow any nuisance algae in there.

Right! The nice thing about your plan is you may be able to deal with some pests in the vat before they get to your display.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

It's so squishy and bouncy and... pretty. Must resist spending money.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

........

I need to attend meetings or something. Hi, my name is Turtle, and I'm addicted to squishy bouncy LPS and fuzzy fluffy SPS.

We have a coral coming Friday. What kind of par do lobophyllia like?

 

[Zack K]

Sandbed to mid range par

I’m Zack, I have a thing for Fluffy Euphyillia and Fuzzy Anemones....

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Yea, I planned on sand bed. Did some quick research and seems like they have about the same requirements as acans and all those other squishy bouncy LPS corals.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I did read it can put out some sweeper tentacles to keep other corals out of its territory. I think I have the perfect spot for it. I may have to rework my rocks tomorrow before it gets here on Friday so the tank can settle. Right now the majority of my surface area is vertical for some interesting SPS mounting, but that doesn't work well for LPS. We'll see what can be done without disturbing too much. I also want to make a trip to that LFS all the way on the other side of Columbia to pick out a few rocks. Some for the brute can curing station, and I think I'm going to put some in the Deep Blue Sea.

 

[sfin52]

Hello my name is stefan and i have a thing for leather corals.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Hello my name is stefan and i have a thing for leather corals.

Sexy swinging leathers? ... ok we're getting out of the PG13 zone here. Sexy, swaying leathers, how about that?

 

[sfin52]

We’ll stick to swaying leathers

 

[najer]

Up with my acros!?

DSC_0001 by sshipuk, on Flickr

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Up with my acros!?

DSC_0001 by sshipuk, on Flickr

Pretty piece @najer. I read they can tolerate a very wide range of lighting from medium to high. Also I flipped thru your Flickr, the fish is cute. The close up, a few slides over from that lobo pic.