Scooter

23 hours ago, Blue Z Reef said:

Are you space limited? For the size of those tanks, they are pretty spendy. Most people do brute trash cans for an economical mixing station. Also can find food grade barrels (50 gal I believe) on marketplace or CL for pretty cheap too.

 

 

Ya.  I don't have much space. I think I can build something that takes up next to no space 

16 gallon tanks I was thinking about

https://a.co/d/8OMgt3V

15 minutes ago, islandVib3s said:

Yes I use gravity. Fresh on top of mixed. Spigot should be in lower portions of containers. https://a.co/d/dFi3dZu

Do you have the heater and pump permanently installed?  I'm thinking I'd have them permanently installed and then put them on a 12 or 24 hour spring timer.

34 minutes ago, islandVib3s said:

You can keep it simple, 2 big containers and ball valves with bulk heads and barb hose fittings to connect hoses. I just open rodi valve to fill mix water. Only float valve on rodi vat. Drop in heater and powerhead for mixing.

Not sure I follow.    How does the fresh water get in the salt tank?  Or are you saying gravity, with the fresh water being higher?

I'm thinking about buying these 16 gallon tanks.  What should I use for bulkheads to add some more bigger sized ports?

I've been tossing around the idea of a small water mixing station.  A large freshwater tank and a large salt water tank.    When I say large, I mean large for me, which would probably be tiny for most people.  Something like 10 or 20 gallons per tank.  This would NOT be plumbed to the tank/sump. Just a more convenient way to mix and store saltwater and still use buckets to get to the tank.

My question is what all would be needed for plumbing?    Freshwater seems pretty straightforward, RODI water input with a float valve and 2 outputs with ball valves. One of which connected to the salt water tank.  Then saltwater would need port to dump salt in to.  A pump and heater to mix the salt.  And then an output with a ball valve to collect the water.   Am I missing anything?

I should be there

On 3/26/2023 at 9:07 AM, Leonardomanzano said:

I’m in the market for some branching GSP here in the Hillsboro area! 
i currently have the non branching type and I would like to have some of the branching type!

What's the appeal of the branching stuff?  When I was looking for gsp, cuttlefish had some branching covering a rock. It looked super invasive to me.  Like it would grow like ivy. Or like bamboo that pops up all over your yard and you can't stop it.  I have no experience with it though.  I could be totally wrong 

I've decided I have too much green coral in my tank and I need to balance it out.   Does anyone have any florescent pink/red goni?

Location?

In other news,  the briopsys is popping up all over the tank, I decided to just bite the bullet and dumped some reef flux in.

I also picked up some coral from @Blue Z Reef for a great price.  Got some duncans that i turned in to 3 colonies, frogspawn that i turned in to 2 colonies, an anemone, some gsp, mushrooms, and some zoas/pallys.

Sump passed the leak test.  Now to add baffles

10 minutes ago, Eatfrenchfries said:

A biological solution would be sacoglassans like the elysia slugs. They are known to consume different types of algae at different points in their life. Young crispata favor fresh calciferous algae growth but they are known to be immune to the kahalalide f found in bryopsis (what renders organisms that attempt to eat it lethargic). They essentially will suck the chloroplasts out and use it to supplement their energy. There are different species of elysia that may be used, I only have expierence in keeping elysia crispata and diomeda. 

Slugs will grow over time and then lay eggs where they will slowly shrink and die. Then you'll have a bunch of little ones running around. This works because they'll eat algae they favor but won't target eradicate in the way you may be interested.

If you're interested I can give you some young crispata when mine decide to kick the bucket. Or in a couple weeks I'll possibly be able to bring in a fresh batch from fellow reefers. Just be wary of peppermint shrimps since they'll shred the frills for some reason, large wrasse, and powerheads though they're smart enough to use it to their advantage for solar power. Slugs build a natural defense based on what they eat, bryopsis makes them icky. 

 

Those reef products you are considering erode away metabolic pathways for a lot of your reef macro + micro algae excluding green turf algae. It will upset your chemistry in a way to allow for something else to fill the void. This can be avoided if you can reduce eutropohic conditions during the cycle. 

No nastiness to deal with like you would worry about a cucumber or nudibranch kicking the bucket. They won't nuke just fall apart and add a bunch of nutrients so be wary in picking them up. 

Picture is of an elysia crispata that resides in my NPS growout. This is a second generation individual I produced. 

I wasn't aware that anything ate briopsys.  Will they cure it completely?

I'm not sure I followed you on the Peppermint shrimp.  I do have two of them 

1 hour ago, obrien.david.j said:

I don't take using reef flux lightly.    I haven't used it personally, but others have with various results.  It's an algaecide, so if its used, it will take time to restabilize the tank.

Eek 😟

I noticed the briopsys in a few different spots.  It's definitely spread out throught the tank.  My only thought for holding off is maybe to wait until I get more coral.  I feel like I'm going to load up on coral and then have to do it again 

On 2/28/2023 at 9:05 PM, obrien.david.j said:

sure.  text me tomorrow and we can work out when

I probably should have taken you up on that.  I got out the mirrorless camera and tripod and took some good pictures and posted on reef2reef and they said 100%, it's definitely cyano.  I turned my lights from 40% blue and 10% white to only 40% blue.  I also started feeding my diamond watchman goby on that side of the tank.   I don't know which is responsible,  but it's completely cleared from the sand.

In other news, I noticed some small patches of briopsys.   I immediately ordered some reef flux.   I don't know why, but this threw me over the top to want to try a blackout and try to kill the green hair algae and cyano

In more positive news,  I've got the sump taking shape.   I just have to reinforce the corners and make baffles

Do you think I could bring some over to look at under the microscope?

Unless the wife has told me 87 times that "that is xxxxxx weekend", I'll be there

I definitely have something going on. I don't know if it's dino or cyano but today is the worst it's looked. It clears up over night and looks good in the morning. 

I tried taking a scoop out and poured hydrogen peroxide on it.  It reacted a lot with foam and made it float.

Not sure what I should do 

I signed up. Do I wait to be called before paying the deposit?

2 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

I'm a fan of Weld-On #16 as a thickened solvent, when I'm reinforcing my ugly cut spot.  And for basic clean corners, it's Weld-On #4 (super thin/like water), applied with effectively a syringe.

 

I've got #4 and #16 both coming.  I'm going to build it with #4 and then cut strip and reinforce the corners with #16.

That wasn't really what I meant. I can build it.    I meant the design.   I know I'm going to end up with a 10×12 box.   I don't know exactly what I want to do with that box.  I'm thinking of putting dividers in it and making 4 5"×6" chambers.  I kinda feel like I should have all of them the same water level and let the ATO control the water height. I was thinking

chamber 1:  Filter sock

Chamber 2: skimmer

Chamber 3: refugium 

Chamber 4: return pump 

I've decided I'm going to use this thread to log all of my events and keep track of everything.  Mainly because I feel like I could use advice. So, if anyone wants to tell me what I'm doing wrong, I won't take offense.

Tonight was my weekly water change. I change out about 4.5 every week.  I've also started a log to keep track of my parameters.

Tonight was 8.4 dkh, 470 calcium,  1480 mag, 0 phosphate,  and 15 nitrates.

I'm using the salifert test kit. I don't know if it just isn't accurate enough to measure the phosphates, but it always just looks like clear water and doesn't change color at all.

Since, I've only got a few coral in there.  I see lots of new growth on the GSP, candy can heads are splitting in two.  My favorite coral is my 

Grandis palythoa.   It added another polyp a few weeks ago.  It seems like the base has had a lot of changes. I'm hoping some new polyps come out.

I modeled some corners for my lid and then had a coworker 3d print them.  I'm not really digging the grey, but other than that, they turned out amazing. Now I just need to model the  front ones.  Overall. I'm pretty happy with the lid. Though,  it's going to get redone once I lose the hang on the back stuff. I'm working on building a sump.  I grabbed a couple acrylic sumps at the meet up and I cut them up on my table saw and I'm waiting for some solvent weld to bond them back together.   I'm going to build the smallest sump anyone has ever seen. I could definitely use some advice on that one.

Lights were already off and I turned them back on for the video. So, some of the corals were already starting to retract 

I'll be there today 😀

I don't suppose anyone has any cheap-ish frags they want to bring to sell?  Looking for stuff that would grow well in a small beginner tank.

I've decided I hate my rockscape.  I want to build something that I am truly proud of.  I think this means building it in the garage with a hammer, chisel, glue, epoxy and cement.     I want to get it built and then just swap everything at once.  I'm hoping that If I'm patient, I can find some rock fairly cheap.  My tank is 36 gallons, so, I'm looking for 30-40 pounds.

Thanks!

13 hours ago, Zoolander said:

I really like the contrasting colors of that tank.  It really makes it pop. 

14 hours ago, Scooter said:

That tank looks familiar!     Everything I got from you opened up right away, including all the bits of zoa

 

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I just reread that post and realized I didn't say thanks.  Thanks not only for the frags, but also for the tour!  It's all super interesting.   I really enjoy that kind of stuff.  Like when went to the zoo. My wife asked what I wanted to see. I said "what I really want to see is the behind the scenes of the penguins filtration system"🤣

Anyway. Thanks for all the frags too.  My tank feels like a real reef tank now!

I don't have a great picture of mine, but here's what it looks like right now