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Scoto's Equipment Room Build + 8ft Tank (1 Viewer)

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Scoto

Scoto

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Hi all, been a while since an update and here is where things are at.

Fish - Added lots of new family members, some from a few member tanks and some from local fish stores. I'm really happy with where the community is at and other than keeping an eye out for a solon wrasse I don't think we will have new fish inhabitants planned for a while now. Lots of movement, lots of fun personalities and a bio-load that I think suits me for a little while longer. Current list is = Powder Blue, Yellow Eye Kole, Long Nose Hawkfish, Midas Blenny, Magnificent Fox Face (newest member), Timor Wrasse, Eibli Angel, 4 Clowns, and a diamond goby.
PXL_20220430_160748030.jpg PXL_20220430_160730955.jpg
Coral - Is another story. I've just not found the parameters that are working for me yet. A few pics to compare to earlier in the thread. I guess the biggest sign that something isn't right is that I have not seen any coraline and we've been wet now 6-ish months.

Orange lepto is a success, he seems happy and you can see how much growth he's put on compared to earlier. I have a green lepto that's not quite as good as this guy, but putting on some measurable growth as well. (He's kind of upright because there is a goby who will cover him in sand otherwise).
PXL_20220430_160458402.jpg
Polyps are an example of the opposite, they grew off the plug onto the rocks, but the polyps have shrunk in size a lot and it never looks happy, mostly grumpy like this pic.
PXL_20220430_160657856.jpg

I also have two montis, two blastos and two birds nest that aren't dying but aren't thriving either. There's also some pavonas kicking round doing not much as well. I haven't added much else because I don't want to risk new purchases until I have my current test crop of corals worked out.

I have a few theories. First params - todays measurements are (after a water change yesterday), N = 2ppm, Phos = 0.08ppm, Alk = 8.7, Ca = 480, Mg, 1560. You may be wondering why that looks so whacky - don't use expired test kits. I started slowly correcting my Alk/Ca/Mg, knowing my kit was expired thinking "its chemicals, does it really expire?". Well, within a week I realized something was not adding up between what I was doing and what I was measuring so I got a new kit. Low and behold Ca and Mg are now high. Alk I'm still fighting to bring upwards, it matches with my pH cause I'm hovering 8.04ish and dropping under 8 overnight. Currently plan is a few water changes to bring down my mistakes and keep on working the alk up slowly. No dosing pumps yet, that'll be an investment after I've worked out the kinks manually.

Next light, I borrowed a MARSH PAR meter and on average my numbers don't look too bad to something a mixed reef-ish (100-150 by the sand, 300-400 at the top of the rocks), but I'm getting a lot of dark and bright patches (like 600+) as I took measurements around the tank. I need to buy some t-track and create a scaffold to lift my lights higher and I can probably raise them another 4-5 inches inside the canopy while still having air flow so I think I'll do that before messing with the %s and programming. I'm also running a 12hr schedule on the lights (2-3hrs ramp up ramp down, but a good 6-8hrs of full intensity). But I still feel like getting them higher is the thing to try first unless folks disagree.

Finally, I'm trying coral feeding for the first time. I had corals in my first tank but never took them seriously, it was just kind of what grew was what grew so I never paid them any special attention. Trying Red Sea red reef energy plus, literally only 20mL or so (enough to spot feed) 2 times a week. I've only started that last week so we'll see what happens.

There could be other things to try, but I'm also very aware that it will take weeks to months sometimes for a change to start showing results or otherwise, so I'm also restraining myself from doing too much till I can see the improvements (or not) of only a few things at a time (ideally it'd be one thing at a time, but I'm not that patient).
 

soymilk

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thats a big long nose hawkfish. it looks great

whats your alk now? i try to test with two different alk kits every now and then just to make sure everything tracks.
 
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thats a big long nose hawkfish. it looks great

whats your alk now? i try to test with two different alk kits every now and then just to make sure everything tracks.
Alk was consistent between the two test kits, it started off closer to 8 and it's been slowly creeping up.

The hawkfish came from someone else's tank, he's a big pig for sure!
 

BigRick

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Gottta be something weird... like something hidden rusted or something.
 
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That is a beast of a tank man.. with that much time and energy invested, I would consider doing some icp tests to verify your own testing and water parameters
You are right, I've sat on my hands too long. Ordered one just now.
 

decimal

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At least to see how close to your tested parameters you are. Or if anything unusual pops up on the icp. There was a long thread in the lounge about icp testing but the short of it is, proceed with caution with this as well since the icp tests are also not 100% and some are better than others. Either way, expect to spend $100-200 on tests during the first 2-4 months getting everything dialed in. Once it’s stable, as long as nothing changes too drastically, only needed every 6 months if at all but you probably already knew that lol. Tank looks great. Love the details and the sump kit is a great find. Can’t wait to see how it all comes out. Following.
 

soymilk

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I don’t find 8 alk particularly low, what’s the alk of your salt mix?

I keep my tank at 7.5-8dkh
 

MurseJB

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Hi all, been a while since an update and here is where things are at.

Fish - Added lots of new family members, some from a few member tanks and some from local fish stores. I'm really happy with where the community is at and other than keeping an eye out for a solon wrasse I don't think we will have new fish inhabitants planned for a while now. Lots of movement, lots of fun personalities and a bio-load that I think suits me for a little while longer. Current list is = Powder Blue, Yellow Eye Kole, Long Nose Hawkfish, Midas Blenny, Magnificent Fox Face (newest member), Timor Wrasse, Eibli Angel, 4 Clowns, and a diamond goby.
PXL_20220430_160748030.jpg PXL_20220430_160730955.jpg
Coral - Is another story. I've just not found the parameters that are working for me yet. A few pics to compare to earlier in the thread. I guess the biggest sign that something isn't right is that I have not seen any coraline and we've been wet now 6-ish months.

Orange lepto is a success, he seems happy and you can see how much growth he's put on compared to earlier. I have a green lepto that's not quite as good as this guy, but putting on some measurable growth as well. (He's kind of upright because there is a goby who will cover him in sand otherwise).
PXL_20220430_160458402.jpg
Polyps are an example of the opposite, they grew off the plug onto the rocks, but the polyps have shrunk in size a lot and it never looks happy, mostly grumpy like this pic.
PXL_20220430_160657856.jpg

I also have two montis, two blastos and two birds nest that aren't dying but aren't thriving either. There's also some pavonas kicking round doing not much as well. I haven't added much else because I don't want to risk new purchases until I have my current test crop of corals worked out.

I have a few theories. First params - todays measurements are (after a water change yesterday), N = 2ppm, Phos = 0.08ppm, Alk = 8.7, Ca = 480, Mg, 1560. You may be wondering why that looks so whacky - don't use expired test kits. I started slowly correcting my Alk/Ca/Mg, knowing my kit was expired thinking "its chemicals, does it really expire?". Well, within a week I realized something was not adding up between what I was doing and what I was measuring so I got a new kit. Low and behold Ca and Mg are now high. Alk I'm still fighting to bring upwards, it matches with my pH cause I'm hovering 8.04ish and dropping under 8 overnight. Currently plan is a few water changes to bring down my mistakes and keep on working the alk up slowly. No dosing pumps yet, that'll be an investment after I've worked out the kinks manually.

Next light, I borrowed a MARSH PAR meter and on average my numbers don't look too bad to something a mixed reef-ish (100-150 by the sand, 300-400 at the top of the rocks), but I'm getting a lot of dark and bright patches (like 600+) as I took measurements around the tank. I need to buy some t-track and create a scaffold to lift my lights higher and I can probably raise them another 4-5 inches inside the canopy while still having air flow so I think I'll do that before messing with the %s and programming. I'm also running a 12hr schedule on the lights (2-3hrs ramp up ramp down, but a good 6-8hrs of full intensity). But I still feel like getting them higher is the thing to try first unless folks disagree.

Finally, I'm trying coral feeding for the first time. I had corals in my first tank but never took them seriously, it was just kind of what grew was what grew so I never paid them any special attention. Trying Red Sea red reef energy plus, literally only 20mL or so (enough to spot feed) 2 times a week. I've only started that last week so we'll see what happens.

There could be other things to try, but I'm also very aware that it will take weeks to months sometimes for a change to start showing results or otherwise, so I'm also restraining myself from doing too much till I can see the improvements (or not) of only a few things at a time (ideally it'd be one thing at a time, but I'm not that patient).
Great tank! Been following along since you've been setting up. So your parameters don't look wacky to me, they basically mirror mine, except my alk is in the 7.8-8 range and mag in the 1400s, and my test kits show nutrients in the same range as yours. Looking at the coral pics you posted, I think the corals are either nutrient starved, or getting too much light or a combination of both. I think coral feeding would be good or feed the fish more food. I feed my fish twice a day via autofeeder, sometimes they get a 3rd feeding of frozen or ROE and at night a couple drops of oyster feast or live phyto if I remember. And yes I am crazy to feed this often lol. I think you have plenty of room to play with with the parameters you are reading from your test kits. Super stoked to see more progress from your tank, bc it is a beast and definitely envious of your set up!
 
OP
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Scoto

Scoto

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Been a while since an update. I haven't been adding much because I'm fighting a dino outbreak (like a few others, I've been silently feeling for you all as well)! A few pictures of how it looks at the moment. Things I've changes since my last check in: I dialed the lights down about 30% and things seem much happier with that. I'm still keeping it quite white because I like that as a look but it's so brown right now :D. I've also made a few changes aimed at the dinos, discussed below.

All the fish and invert inhabitants are happy - I'm trying to put a little more weight on the powder blue (I swear he doesn't look that bad in person, the light just caught on him odd) but everyone else is bordering on a little chubby weight wise), but things just still seem really weird about something not settling in right about the tank. Corals are alive, but don't seem to have much growth (probably still nutrients). The tank gets frozen food and nori daily currently. I tried adding an anemone and it melted away. Still almost no signs of coraline. Very odd. It's so funny because my first tank almost just had success without me even trying and this one I put in all the time and effort to do what I thought was 'the right way to start' and has been a weird journey. Not to say I won't stick with it, there will be a way to clear round the corner of this eventually. These pics are actually looking better to me, the mat of it got so thick on the sand you couldn't see any white at one point.

PXL_20220823_145030282.jpg
PXL_20220823_145042537.jpg
PXL_20220823_145051886.jpg

I sent off some water for ICP testing, everything was about as normal as it could get (attached for the curious) and sending another batch soon just to see what has happened the last few months. My nitrates and phosphates are basically undetectable, probably the dinos. I've stopped running a skimmer and media reactor to get nutrients up and I'm upping my feeding (plus have some plans for more livestock) before I begin just outright dosing nutrients. Over about 3 weeks with these methods I've gone from undetectable to maybe there is a slight color change on the test kit. It's funny but a lesson I think i'm learning was that I had such a hard time controlling nutrients towards the end of my previous tank's life, and I swung too hard on this one and I think over controlled from the start.

For the dinos, I'm trying out peroxide dosing after lights out and honestly I don't think it's doing anything. I have found that when I add the peroxide and a bacterial supplement like microbacter 7 at night I think there is a difference, but most of those bacterial products don't recommend dosing them daily, so I'm doing that every third day or so and it's not making much ground that way. I also scrub it all off the rocks with a toothbrush and stir up the sand and try to catch if up with filter material as well on weekends when I have a bit more time. We'll see.
 

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Stickboy97

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Sorry you've got the dynos, sucks & makes the rock so ugly. I don't really have any advice, when I get them they seem to clear on their own.
Any humidity issues in your fish room? Do you have an exhaust fan? Did you paint the walls with anything special for the moisture?
 
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Scoto

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Sorry you've got the dynos, sucks & makes the rock so ugly. I don't really have any advice, when I get them they seem to clear on their own.
Any humidity issues in your fish room? Do you have an exhaust fan? Did you paint the walls with anything special for the moisture?
Not yet, I didn't do anything special but it's also a pretty generous sized fish room. I do leave the door open during the day when the weather is hot cause the air con can't cool in there either and it seems to affect tank temps watching my apex, but I don't have kids or pets to worry about as well (well I have cats, but they steer clear of water). I think if I had to keep the door shut I'd definitely need at least a vent on the door. It's relatively close to an air con intake so I think that keeps the air moving whenever the fan is running and the door open. Without that I'd also reckon I'd need something to push the air around as well.
 
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Scoto

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Hi All, another update on my very slow to do anything tank!

So we beat the dinos! It took a few months and I lost every coral on the way so that was fun (maybe there is a pavona that can't decide if it's dying and a monti that might also make it) . I'm basically starting the corals from scratch in the new year.

For those who want to know what worked and what didn't, I tried peroxide, I don't reckon it did anything. Tried Vibrant and Microbacter Clean, you'd see results in the 24hrs after dosing and then everything would come back again. Tried a lot of cleaning and scrubbing to do manual removal and all sorts of games about when you trade out filter socks etc. All nothing. I also upped feeding pellets 3 times per day ( and they were still getting frozen and seaweed) and those nutrient levels did not budge. Turned the skimmer off as well.

Finally, as I was watching my chaeto begin to fade away in the sump, I bought a couple of dosing pumps and started dosing initially nitrates - which got rid of 70% of it, then I added phosphates and they got us all the way there. It's been dino free about a month now. I've turned the skimmer back on for the oxygen but I run it really dry still. I could tell I started passing into a new phase of the ecosystem when I started seeing green algae growth again! My phosphates are still reading zero despite dosing so I'm inching up the amount I dose daily every week till I can just get a non 0 reading consistently. Nitrates I'm holding steady around 4ppm now.

This has been such a wildly different journey for me compared to my previous tank where I fought nutrients the entire time. Apparently I went ULN without even meaning to this time. Pics below with full tank, side and both sides of the tank.

Fish wise, everyone is loving life - we added a few new additions with an Lyretail Harem (thanks @Seaworthy Aquatics!) and a tribal blenny who was a great rare find. We also lost the fat long nose hawkfish - he was looking listless for a few days, but still eager to feed and I wasn't sure what was going on but just figured maybe the powder blue had been bullying him and he was keeping a low profile, then I found him stuck to the side of the powerhead one day. He was alive and I rescued him but damage was done and he passed later in the day.
PXL_20221217_162336254.jpg
PXL_20221217_162349393.jpg
PXL_20221217_162359267.jpg
PXL_20221217_162426926.jpg

Please enjoy the holiday party for me, I'm anti social but I want to try and get more involved in the club next year I think - I'll feel better when I have a nice impressive tank to show off so fingers crossed for the new year.
 

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Scoto

Scoto

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Also here is a bonus cute picture of the foxface. He's a real looker, this was part way through the dino battle if you want to compare the color of the rocks and sand in the background. PXL_20221011_142111918.MP.jpg
 
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