While we wait...

[Duffer]

...for our custom 55 cube to be completed, we got a lil antsy and picked up this cheap 25 hex.



The pic got kinda squished. It's a tall hex. Thought I did a pretty good job of arranging the pre-cured live rock, but one of the snails decided he didn't like it that tall! Bulldozer!
The starter water and my first change water is all from the LFS. Kent Reef. After the change I hit it with half a cap of Purple-Up and let it circulate for a couple hours. Skimmer is now (just today) an Eshopps plus one of those nano-circulator thingys stuck to the inside. LED lighting is on its way.

Here's my test results:

Temp = 80F
NH4 = zero
NO3 = 3ppm-ish
Sal = 1.0208
Alk = 3.9 or 10.9 (what units are most common?)
Ca = 525 (I presume high due to the Purple-Up dose that I stupidly did before testing)
pH = 7.9

We've had some break-in guys since last week too. Patience is not my wife's strong suit!
A couple different types of snails, including "Bulldozer". He's big and stubborn.
A fist-full of feather dusters.
A rock with 4 small purple mushrooms
A rock with a decent patch of Zoa - which is definitely NOT happy!
"Digger" the Blenny that the LFS called a 'sand-sifter' but I'm sure he is a Lawnmower.
A little PJ Cardinal who was getting picked on at the LFS so we saved "Chris" from those mean ole bullys! She eats like a piggy now!

and finally another LFS favor. A small, unidentified guy we call "Bond, James Bond!" Man of mystery! He is very secretive so it's hard for me to even get a decent look or pic of him. When we got him, he was entirely clear in his solitary confinement quarrantine tank. Now he has reddened up quite a lot. His shape is like a wrasse. Looking at pics, he is something like a Lubbocks/Secretive/Redfin/Yellowfin Fairy? I think the Y.F description talks about the color changing ability?

Looks like I'd better member up here so I have some space for more pics!!! :typing:

 

[IPisces]

Nice looking hex. Great rock work. I dont have much patients either. Haha!!!

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[janky]

Cool! I'm interested in how this turns out
I have an awkward hex that I'm learning on so I'll following along in this thread and take note!

 

[jmp21677]

Who's building your cube?

 

[Duffer]

Who's building your cube?

Wil at Reefkeeper in Arlington is building the system. I've always been a DIY guy but my wife & I are so busy that it was nice to just walk in and support a local. Pick some options and say, "Let us know when it's done!" To be honest, it's only been in the last few years that I could financially even consider that!

 

[Duffer]

On another note: This weekend sucked! :drama:

I've been having doubts about my cheapo salinity meter reading low. I calibrated it and it got a little worse. Just didn't seem possible to be 1.021-ish when the water is straight from Reefkeepers. ( forgot to test that water before doing the tank change) Saturday I noticed that if the probe was in the tank and I moved the meter around that the reading would change.... a lot! Unshielded Chinese electronics I guess! So I got out my beer brewing hydrometer and with temp correction it reads 1.024. Seems more reasonable but not the tool for the job. My continued concern is that the fish seem happy but the purple shrooms.... I don't know. Sometimes they look good. Sometimes they look pissed. This thing is stressing ME OUT! :bowl: NH4=0 and NO3 was 3, now 0.5 but Ca (525) and Alk are high. Cu=zero btw. Temp about 79. Every other sign says salinity is too high, not too low. Eshopp looks like its running awesome but barely any skimmate in the catch tube and none has made it up that tube and into the cup yet. Everything looks clean!

So Saturday day we headed to Reefkeepers to check out Wil's new stock (and get some more water) and Arlington is doing a car show! We hafta park way out! My wife picked out a pair of 'Nemos and a tiny Dori' plus a nice orange sponge and I picked up a couple zoo frags and some DTs. Packing 14gals of water back to the car made my arms a few inches longer! Got them aclimated and in. Everybody looks happy! So far so good and that's all for population I tell my wife. "Your tank is full"

Still got some afternoon left (and sad we couldn't make the BBQ) we headed to the LFS for some other salinity tool and other food options. Left with some frozen cubes, some flakes, the largest of those plastic hydrometer thingys that everyone hates.... and a really cheap, happy little white anenome with a little crab passenger. So much for, "Your tank is full!" :wink:

Got them acclimated and in and they look great! Anenome stuck where I put him is a strong current. I figure he will move if he wants. So I commence testing the newest salinity meter.... and IT reads 1.026 and some change! Well, that at least coincides with the high Ca and Alk. We fed everybody (bit of frozen omni-cube and I fogged the inverts with DTs) and let them settle a while. The clowns are so busy it's freaking out the P.J. a bit.

I decide to tweak the salinity and I think I have a great idea! I pulled 6qts out and although I have those jugs of RODI, I decided to take a gallon of store-bought DI for refill. (revome 6, add 4 to lower level some for to make skimmer happier too) Here's my great idea: I set the gallon on top of the tank and with the cap still on punched a little hole in the bottom to let it drip (more of a small stream) into the tank. Worked great! All is well.... apparently! (to be continued)

 

[Duffer]

Sunday morn arrives too early. Choir practice, then church. Michele says, " Hey I can't find Dori and I think the anenome is dead" I'll admit, I kinda ignored her. :fear:We get back home with the plan that Michele needs to sleep (we both work da grave) so I'll head to Lowes and then back to church to fix a window. I'm toodlin round Lowes and my phone rings. "Get home now! The bathroom is flooded and the neighbor is not home and I don't know what to do!" So I'm thinkin aquarium related, right? WTH! What went wrong! I get home (with my supplies) and they have shut off the main waterline. Long story short (at least this part :biggrin1 a PEX fitting broke inside the stub wall behind the showerhead and full blast hot water was pouring into that wall and flooding everything! Luckily someone was home!!! Random fitting failure.

So that leads to ripping out the shower stall, another trip to LHS and plumbing repairs. Then while that's drying out, nephew & I went to fix church window (a completely 'nuther fiasco!) Then a little thank-you bbq with the neighbors and such. I finally turn my attention back to the hex and sure as heck.... the anenome is now sitting on the sand completely closed up and looking like toast..... and Dori has disappeared! My wife noted tho that Digger the sandsifter looks bigger every day now! Hmmmm....

Well, today I decided that the dropped water level didn't really help the skimmer's microbubble production anyway, so I jugged up another 2 qts of RODI, dripped it in and tested everything yet again! Now salinity is mid-range (using plastic hyd) Alk is toward high end of acceptable range and Ca is down to 450ppm. pH meter is coming as are better lights. pH by strip is about 8.0 (7.95 by meter at work before this weekend)

I know this hex got rushed and I know there's a steep learning curve, but killing stuff is frustrating when I can't explain it and water quality looks good afa I can tell. Maybe the salinity spike (and/or subsequent drop) wasted the anenome?

.... and just to top off a wild and woolly weekend, my wife's friend over in Colville just had an adult moose freight-train into the side of her car! Life is good, I could be that moose!

 

[IPisces]

wow, you need a vacation!

Curious, why are you dropping your salinity. I keep all my tanks between 1.025 & 1.026.
Anything below 1.023 I think would be stressful on coral and inverts. And you should really invest in a refractometer. They are well worth it.

 

[Saltwater Stu]

+1 on the refractometer! Should of been the first thing you bought

 

[Duffer]

No arguement from me. That was the purpose of the LFS trip but they only had the plastic I.O. unit. I intend on fixing this soon!

AFA why lower the salinity, I don't know what the best salinity is. I pulled range data from multiple books & web sites. I didn't trust my own measurements. I knew/know our inverts are not happy campers. I had the additional data of Ca = 525 (high) and Alk=10.9 (high for corals). My logic was also to want a mid-range salinity so as not to range too high with evaporation.

Here's my latest data: I borrowed a calibrated Lab-grade hydrometer as a referee. The plastic O.I. appears to be reading .0001 high so the hex is sitting right at 1.023 now.
Poor lil white anenome is a goner. China electronic salinity gadget is way too unstable to trust. My LED lights are 'in the mail'. Just ordered an RODI unit from Airwaterice. Wonderful folks! pH meter 'in the mail'. Pre-mixed water I'm starting with is 1.026. I'll let evap bring my salinity back up plus another water change this weekend.

It's like touching that freshly painted bench with the sign that says "Do not touch". We stocked this hex before we were ready! I contend that the system was ready, but we as operator/caretakers were not. Not enough knowledge. Poor quality test equipment.

 

[IPisces]

I would also suspect that the anemone was on its way out before you bought it. Sounds like it was pretty bleached out.
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[IPisces]

http://m.karensroseanemones.net/sit...tp://www.karensroseanemones.net/&dm_package=1

This is a great website for learning about bubble tip anemonies. It may help with others too.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Duffer]

Nice to have a smiling break-thru day! :high5: The new CREE LEDs came in this morning and the inhabitants are loving it! Stuff I thought was dead starting coming back to live within an hour.

That dude up top had been closed up for a week straight now.

Here's a full shot when first lit up. So much light is freaking out my camera-phone!

 

[IPisces]

If you can tone it down a bit, you might want to. Then turn it up a little at a time. Let the coral acclimate to the extra light. Some have had issues with coral bleaching out and dying from so much more light right away.

But on a brighter note...it looks great!

 

[Duffer]

I think we'll call this hex "Impatience"

So after everything seems happy and my refractometer shows up, wifee & I decide to replace "Dori". By Sat afternoon I am aclimating the 2 new, slightly bigger Hippos and a nice Rose tip. They rested for an hour, drip by drip. Once launched, the Hippos seemed active and ok with the existing tank population, but the Anemone was having nothing to do with the rock I parked her on and worked her way under the lowest shelf, completely out of the light. and pouted.

The next day, everyone ate well. All acounted for. The Anemone even had a bit of shrimp successfully. Wifee noticed one of the Hippos itching some but I didn't see any signs of ich..... and we went to work.

Got home Tues morn and.... no Hippos! Hmmmm. I started looking with a flashlight into every little rockery cave and, "there's one. Dead as a post" Looking some more I find the other one too. Same condition. Since I knew they will wedge themselves in and I could not get to them anyway without some work, I watched them carefully for a while for gill movement etc. Nope. Toast. BTW, Rosie is looking all closed up and even more tucked than before.

I fished the fishes out and they went for a ride down the porcelain waterslide. :smow: I did an emergency 20% water change and we crashed.
Got up in the afternoon and Rosie is looking better but still hiding. While I'm checking her out with the flashlight I notice... what's that next to her? a feather duster? Looks more like a tail. Crap! James Bond is dead! laying right next to Rosie. So I gotta find something I can bend to reach under there and get him. I'm trying not to put my hands into the tank any more than possible. I can just barely reach him.... and he's kinda wedged.. and I'm poking and pulling and scraping to get him to float out.... and he floats into Rosie and she grabs him! :suspicious: Whelp, that's a pretty big dinner for you missy, but you took it so now you gotta eat it.

I did a full set of tests again and learnt some more stuff. Continued.

 

[Duffer]

RIP Ladies

:frown:

 

[Duffer]

I did all of my tests (all that I have so far) but once again, I was concerned about a couple of them. Both my nitrate test and my phosphate test are close to max scale for the test and keep coming out exactly as last tested. Hmmmm I say once again. Then in a total Duh moment, I see on the back of the test card instructions for diluting the samples for high-level tests! So here's where we sit after the 20% water change:

Temp = 78.1
pH = 8.0
Salinity = 1.023
NH4 = zero
NO3 = 8
KH = 4.3/12.0 a really tough test to do with the stupid blue to orange color change, AFTER the solution starts to turn blue plus one drop! Not an easy color judgement!!

PO4 = 4
Ca = 475
Mg = 1200

I don't have redox or hardness

and I don't know where all of this phosphate is coming from! I've tested Wils' salt water. It's great! Is it the DTs? or the frozen food? (Formula One and Two) or is it just the live rocks & sand of a new tank that has not had an algae bloom yet? (starting to get some colors on the rocks and some brown algae in the sand)

 

[jezzeaepi]

You should slow down on your tank. I have no idea why you think hippo tangs are a good choice for a freshly set up 25g, especially two of them! Too many fish too fast, and not to mention that any tang is not a good fish for that set up, let alone a delicate hippo. Do more research and less buying. So much death for only 11 days. Ive been keeping reef fish for 7 years and I have only ever had three fish croke on me.. Three.. And you have more then that in 11 days. What you are doing is pretty cruel to the fish.

 

[Duffer]

I deserve that. Between trying to keep my wife happy and listening to the LFS folks, I screwed up. Too much confidence. Not enough research.

 

[mwminer]

lfs is just making money DO research it save alot of headaches/heartaches for you and wife