60 shallow reef

[Miah2bzy]

60 Shallow Reef Corals:

Zoanthids:Bam Bams, Blue Berry Field, Orange Explosion, Speckeled Fire and Ice, Skittles, Utter Chaos, Blue McCaw, Orange Oxide, Blonde Blue Eyed Bonnets, Blue Rimmed Red People Eaters, Oompa Loompa, Radioactive Dragon Eyes, Eagle Eye, Hulk, God of War, Insane Rainbow, Vamps, Circus, Zippers, Ultra GOBS, Eye of Sauron, Armor of God, Blue Hornets, Red Hornets, Tubbs, Blue, Rainbows, Rasta, Pinwheels, Clementine, Pink Krakatoa, Candy Apple Red, Pink Passion Morphs, Green Goblin, Circus Morph, Scrambled Eggs.

SPS: Setosa, Red Monti Cap, Mystic Sunset, Cats Paw, Forest Fire Digi, Peach Monticap, Purple Monticap, Orange Monticap, Rainbow Monti, Starburst, Pocillapora, Yellow Scroll, Idaho Grape.

LPS: Jack-O-Lantern, Babies Breath, Rainbow Acan, Orange Wrinkle Lepto, Pink Candy Cane, Blue Candy Cane.

Others: Blue Sympodium, Bubble Coral, Rainbow BTA, Rose BTA, Green BTA.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Added the rock from my 30 that had had Zoa pox a few months back to a 5 gallon bucket im not particularly fond of. filled it with rodi water. Added 25oz of bleach to it and closed the lid. Going to let that sit for at least 24 hrs before starting the rinsing process.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Bought 30 lbs of dry tonga branch rock to start cycling today. Hoping to have it in tank by end of November, planning on using it for encrusting montis and the complex branching pieces as zoa garden for some high end zoas I've gotten.

 

[Miah2bzy]

Opinions on cycling dry rock?
Bought some tonga branch rock from BRS this week and it got here yesterday. I'm planning on putting this into a 10 gallon tank of RODI salt water with a power head, small heater, and a rock from my sump that's been there for months now. Every few days I'll add a capful of Bativ8 after doing small water changes. I'm also going to test weekly for PO4 and PO3. I'm wanting to have this in tank by December 1.

 

[bigfoot610]

hard cycle it put it all in a tank with powerheads more then 1 take a quarter of a raw shrimp and a rock from your tank and toss it in let that stew and add some of your prefered bacterial starter i use cycle for saltwater i have started tanks tossed all life in and cycled them with fish and softies/lps never lost anything works like a charm and you be done before thanksgiving

 

[bigfoot610]

on the cycle i use 3x the recommended amount

 

[Miah2bzy]

Algae issues:

I've been monitoring phosphate/nitrates/ites and all at zero. Had a large diatom bloom and have been doing 1/3 tank volume water changes every week with rodi water. I feed once a day with various things but only what gets eaten. Stopped doing reef roids as it was what caused diatoms in my last tank. Cleaned out some of the sump area this week as well.
Thoughts?

 

[timnem70]

Flow and skimming man. Get that stuff into the water column. Are you using a filter sock or floss in your sump? Pics of that area would be helpful.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

Checked your TDS on the RODI output lately?

 

[Shaunv]

I am always battling algae and trying to find the right balance but it's hard. I have 0.00 phosphates on a Hannah checker runnin GFO, Carbon, and a protein skimmer. I have a sump full of macro algaes and still get diatoms in my display along with cyano, green hair, bubble algae, etc. I am still trying to figure out how to get my phosphates to .03-.05 to keep corals happy but without growing a ton of algae. Let me know what you find out. In the mean time, test silicates.

 

[Miah2bzy]

60 shallow reef

Checked your TDS on the RODI output lately?

Just changed my di resin a few weeks ago and it's been at zero all this week again.

Flow and skimming man. Get that stuff into the water column. Are you using a filter sock or floss in your sump? Pics of that area would be helpful.

I added a second power head to the tank last month, no skimmer, I do have a filter sock on the drain pipe and keep one on the return as well, changed every 3 days when I add topoff water to my ato. I have a ton of macro in both display and sump: dragons breath, red dragon, dragons tongue, fern calerpula, grape calerpula, mangroves, etc. I added a lawnmower blenny a few months back that's been amazing! Also have 3 clowns, 3 damsels, and a bi-color angelfish.

I am always battling algae and trying to find the right balance but it's hard. I have 0.00 phosphates on a Hannah checker runnin GFO, Carbon, and a protein skimmer. I have a sump full of macro algaes and still get diatoms in my display along with cyano, green hair, bubble algae, etc. I am still trying to figure out how to get my phosphates to .03-.05 to keep corals happy but without growing a ton of algae. Let me know what you find out. In the mean time, test silicates.

do you like the Hanna checkers? Been thinking of getting one for the alk/calc. Luckily I haven't gotten any bubble algae yet in the tank, been trying really hard to keep that out by quarantine.

 

[Balz3352]

Hanna checkers are the way to go... Calcium one is extremely difficult to get a reading on for me but I love my alk ond

 

[Shaunv]

I only have it for phosphates and I think it works great. I don't know of any other way to really check your phosphates that to that low of a level without a Hannah checker. Not sure about their other tests though.

 

[Miah2bzy]

After putting a couple thousand into the tank this year, totally paid itself off today:

Wife, 4 year old, 2 year old, and 6 month old have all been sick for a few days now. This little one hasn't slept since 4am and has been crying nonstop for hours. Took her to the office and she watched the fish for a while and within minutes was asleep.

 

[FinsUp]

That's awesome!!!

 

[Haddonisreef]

After putting a couple thousand into the tank this year, totally paid itself off today:

Wife, 4 year old, 2 year old, and 6 month old have all been sick for a few days now. This little one hasn't slept since 4am and has been crying nonstop for hours. Took her to the office and she watched the fish for a while and within minutes was asleep.

Priceless

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

We've sure been there as an entire sick family once or twice. I actually look back on it fondly somehow. Rough when it's happening!

 

[flyfish]

Its pretty cool how the kids are drawn to our tanks,mine are in their 20s and I still see them staring into and at my tanks.My little nieces and nephews come over and go right to the tanks to see what the crazy uncle has put in them lately.I get a kick outta the kids and the fish

 

[Miah2bzy]

Its pretty cool how the kids are drawn to our tanks,mine are in their 20s and I still see them staring into and at my tanks.My little nieces and nephews come over and go right to the tanks to see what the crazy uncle has put in them lately.I get a kick outta the kids and the fish

They love the movement of the fish, what kills me is their favorite coral is a piece of algae. I've left it in because if I remove it I have two very upset toddlers to deal with. It sits behind all the $20+ corals.

 

[Miah2bzy]

-10 this morning, reef humidity had a thick layer of ice on all doors and windows and our bathroom vents dripping all day.