Tank Journal Archive

[daveH]

I'm really happy with the slight changes I made to the scape. @somethingfishy76 gave me some good suggestions that gave it a bit more structure on the right hand side than before, it was a bit of 'just stuff scattered around' look.
Everything is growing like mad.
I guess I'll keep the Crispa nem, it's definitely decided to settle and take up the back corner, and with the change in scape it can be seen more now from the front of the tank.

 

[leodb89]

love that natural sunlight on it....is it aginst a window or far from it? do you get any algae issues? my gf has a tank in the kitchen near a window and wondering if the sunlight is causing it

 

[daveH]

yeah im not saying it is that, and i guess precipitation wouldnt be sludgy as such but might help to see....also, you could dose it right in the way of your return nozzle to disperse it out.

do you run a filter sock or filter wool? might help to see if its just detritus building up?

having thrown all thes guesses out there...why dont we ask @MTG if he experienced the same when he ran it? he used zeo too

I'd say your right. It probably is just detritus build up. Yes I did manage to squeeze in a wool filter (there's not much room in the back) which collects most of it.

 

[daveH]

love that natural sunlight on it....is it aginst a window or far from it? do you get any algae issues? my gf has a tank in the kitchen near a window and wondering if the sunlight is causing it

It's just next to a window and catches the angle of the winter sun for about 3 hours in the morning.
It looks great in the tank and it hasn't seemed to increase the algae at all.

 

[leodb89]

It's just next to a window and catches the angle of the winter sun for about 3 hours in the morning.
It looks great in the tank and it hasn't seemed to increase the algae at all.

that's pretty cool...where my new tank will be is next to a window but the blinds always stay shut cos of my tank but i may from time to time open them and see what it's like...should the tank arrive in this lifetime lol

 

[daveH]

Shut down the chiller yesterday. (finally)
Cleaned all the crap out of the pump and the chiller tank and replaced all the hoses. I'll give it a full flush and check the connections and it'll be ready for next summer. :)
I'm working on making a filtered pickup to go in the tank to stop having any crap go through the chiller system. I have an external pump that draws from the tank and goes to the chiller. I need to make an end for the intake that actually sits in the DT that is filtered but can be easily/quickly removed and cleaned. The intake was in the back compartment but picked up too much crap, plus there's hardly any room in there.

 

[daveH]

Well, over the past 2 weeks I've put the Zeo dosing on hold and I'm now dosing @somethingfishy76 's mixture of 50/50 Seachem Trace and Seachem Plus.
The Zeo had the tank looking good and there was some improvement in some corals but the mix has made a much more noticeable improvement. Everything across the board has had a boost, the hard corals have shown growth I've never had.
I'll keep posting results as the dosing continues. Pretty amazing so far though.

 

[Wrangy]

Grouse to hear you've had such awesome results!! :) :poidh though

 

[leodb89]

Well, over the past 2 weeks I've put the Zeo dosing on hold and I'm now dosing @somethingfishy76 's mixture of 50/50 Seachem Trace and Seachem Plus.
The Zeo had the tank looking good and there was some improvement in some corals but the mix has made a much more noticeable improvement. Everything across the board has had a boost, the hard corals have shown growth I've never had.
I'll keep posting results as the dosing continues. Pretty amazing so far though.

So what's the maintenance routine now? And what was it :)

 

[daveH]

General maintenance hasn't changed at all - still doing 15L NSW water changes once a week.
Just stopped the Zeo which was Coral Snow, Amino Acid Concentrate and Coral Vitalizer.
Have dosed Reef Complete, Reef Carbonate and NoPox since I set the Cade up.
And now also dosing the Trace and Plus @ 2ml of each per day.
That's about it.

 

[MTG]

yeah im not saying it is that, and i guess precipitation wouldnt be sludgy as such but might help to see....also, you could dose it right in the way of your return nozzle to disperse it out.

do you run a filter sock or filter wool? might help to see if its just detritus building up?

having thrown all thes guesses out there...why dont we ask @MTG if he experienced the same when he ran it? he used zeo too

i had no issues like that when i wasnt dosing. but i found under decent dosing of alk and calc i did get a buildup in low flow sections!

 

[daveH]

Just got a bonus
Last week I picked up a nice BTA from Reef Savers for my Yasha. The clowns in there have been hosting a torch for quite a while, but the poor old torch is now a bit worse for wear.
So the clowns loved the BTA and were in there within an hour. And now today the BTA has split and looking really healthy.
2 for the price of 1.

 

[daveH]

Just got my ubeaut pH moniter, calibrated it and installed it - no more guessing. :)
I was actually surprised that my guesses were on the money.
Going to take @somethingfishy76 s advice and hook it up to a 6v cube battery so I don't have to keep buying hearing aid batteries.

 

[Bdear22]

Where from Dave?

 

[daveH]

Where from Dave?

Ebay
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Digital-...um-/271272688384?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:AU:1120

 

[daveH]

Latest FTS - everything looking great!!!

 

[leodb89]

that is one happy tank!

 

[daveH]

that is one happy tank!

Thanks, I can't believe how everything in the tank is in great condition. (Fingers crossed).
I must be doing something right!!!

 

[leodb89]

dont cross fingers just keep up the good work :)

 

[daveH]

Received my Hanna Phosphorous Checker Egg yesterday. Interesting to say the least.
Did a couple of tests with it to see if there was any variation in results (none, although I made the mistake on the initial test of shaking the vial too much to dissolve the reagent creating microbubbles and giving me a high reading.)
I have previously been using the Phosphate Checker Egg but read that the Phosphorus Checker gives a more accurate reading of the phosphate using the calculation table.
The results form both the test kits were quite close and within the +/- range. :)