obrien.david.j

Welcome! Were are you moving from, and tell us about your previous aquarium experience. Hey wait, I fall into one of those catagories.

Bump. Thanks to a PM, I'm picking up a Blue Steel Stag frag this weekend. Anyone have with Red or Brown stag available? Or another interesting variety.

Phyto harvest #4 complete. All continues well. Still adding 32oz / day to the tank. (most days) Boring photo, just showing the three phyto culture jars restarted (light color on the right hand side). I tried to harvest the pods culture (left jar) on Friday, but the population is just too low. So reset with full two liters of Phyto and increased air bubble rate slightly. (darker color left jar).

Can you shoot me a pict with better colors/lighting? I've got some non-stags in the tank that are teal already. But if it's more Purple, than teal,...

Shawn! One of the bali slimers I have is from you. Went to your page, are you referring to your purple teal stag? Otherwise, I didn't see any others listed.

All, I'm looking to setup the back left corner of my tank as Stag Corner. I've got two versions of green slimer sticks there now, about 3" each. Tank is 6' long by 3' front to back, so there's space to grow. Anyone have 2-3+" stag sticks willing to sell? I'd like some color varieties, including classic brown stag. Brown Stag Red Stags Vibrant Blue, maybe a steele blue look Purple Thanks.

Hood River Rocks! Thanks for the update. (we've got friends who live there)

Phyto harvest #3 complete. All continues well. Still adding 32oz / day to the tank. If you're wondering about the one 500ml water bottle used in the middle of the basket. I'm setting aside this every week as an emergency re-starter culture, in case of a crash. Nanno should be viable for up to 30days in the fridge, so these bottles get dated with a sharpie and I'm not using them. Thus building up a small stockpile. Debate time: Add Phyto during the day, evening before tank lights to out, or in the morning before lights come on?

Heck Yes! it's beautiful out this morning.

I ordered my last batch from Salty Underground. Berghia worked wonderfully for me, for years. And this year they Didn't. I did some research, and turns out Amphipods eat the eggs. And I'd been adding 100's of amphiods per week, for about two months. (setup a regular shipment from a company) So my tank has tons of amphipods, and berghia didn't work for me. That's why I went with two dozen peppermint shrimp. (assuming you've seen my other thread) https://www.saltyunderground.com/8-berghia-nudibranch

What lighting are you running today?

https://poseidonreefsystems.com/ And it's obvious to me you don't have to buy this pre-made everything from them. But I wanted it turn key, rather than stumbling through the learning curve.

Phyto Harvest week#2 complete. Looking good. I'm adding ~32oz of phyto a day to the system. (~350 gallon total volume, 250gal display tank)

Did you add any lettuce nudibranchs, or have any reason for one to be a hitch hiker? I've never seen one just "show up." If not, I'd start by assuming Pest.

Agree on Nudibranch. Have you added Berghia to your tank before? They don't just spontaneously show up, or arrive as hitch hikers. If not, I'd start by assuming Pest.

I originally used ARM coarse, which is where I set my Effluent pH target. For the past three years, I've been using Reborn. And I haven't worried about adjusting the pH target.

Follow-up. It Alk dropped for two days, without CO2 gas. It has taken approx 3 days for Alk to recover to 9.0 once gas was restored. Interesting, but I'm glad the swings didn't happen that fast.

A picture tells a thousand words. I ran out of CO2 gas 1pm Wednesday, May 23rd. Replaced the tank Friday around 1pm. Decoder, I have my Neptune control the CO2 on my Ca Reactor. If Trident reads Alk < 9.0, turn on the gas. A pH probe is stuck in the effluent/output of the Ca Reactor. Target of Effluent pH around 6.3, with Neptune controlling the C02 solenoid. Over the two days without gas, Alk drifted from a low of 8.9 down to 8.2. In the day and a half after replacing the gas, Alk has come back up to 8.4. Seems to be rising slower than it fell. Hmm

PM sent

Thanks. I'm pretty sure you're describing the hard lesson I've learned out of this. I suspect this whole adventure started with; a. multiple events of zeroing out NO3/PO4. b. I started daily dosing AB+ (aminos) to see what happened, and KZ bottle #3 (aminos) as part of the weekly KZ 1/2/3/4 bottle system. Thus I WAS double dosing. Stopped both of these as part of my learning adventure. Mack's, Dealing With Dino's, points this out clearly. No Aminos for me since last fall. As for major element dosing - I'm doing monthly ICPs. Actually, double ICPs for three different months. ATI ICP & Oceamo ICP. It was interesting to compare the results side by side. (Generally matching) I'm 10 ICP's into this. Date & Brand 7/21/2021 - Oceamo 8/12/2021- Oceamo 10/25/2021- Oceamo 10/25/2021- ATI 11/18/2021- ATI 11/18/2021- Oceamo 12/10/2021- ATI 1/17/2022- ATI 1/17/2022- Oceamo Mass Spec 3/4/2022- ATI Thanks for your inputs! Jeff, Thanks! I'm a few weeks into Phyto. I can't say it's magic yet - BUT, visibly it looks better. Need to break out the microscope and see how things look again.

From my original post: So am now starting adding Phyto, and I'd like to add Tisbe pods Today's Update, I harvested my first batch of Phyto (Nanno) grown at home. Up to this point, I've been adding phyto daily for the 2weeks+ by purchasing it weekly. Adding about 1 cup a day, and I really want to add More. So I bit the bullet and ordered an off the shelf system to grow phyto and pods myself. Punch line, it works. Each jar yielded 2.5L of feedable phyto. (including 250ml that goes back as a re-starter culture) I'll harvest the first batch of Pods this weekend. Thursday, March 17th - setup day Friday, March 25th - 1st Harvest Day

Maintenance Mode - Escaped Aptasia #2 No takers on the game. So I'll give you the answer. btw, F-Aptasia now smothers this Aptasia. Looking from a different/awkward angle, it's more visible.

Maintenance Mode - Escaped Aptasia #2 Let's play a game. Can you find Escaped Aptasia #2? Hint: it wasn't easy to find, but it isn't small. Take the picture, draw on it with your guess. Repost.

Volume, and no extra feeding. (without any harassment) An army of hungry peppermint shrimp did a good job.

Maintenance Mode - Escaped Aptasia #1 Can you spot the Aptasia that made it back to the main display tank? 2nd photo to help Found it on Saturday. Out came my favorite Aptasia killer, F-Aptasia, when dealing with few entities on a basically horizontal surface https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/f-aiptasia-pest-anemone-treatment-frank-s-aquarium-products.html Stare Hard, can you find the Escaped Aptasia? Let's zoom in, if you give up. (scroll down)