Zach's 75G Build

Found myself a gorilla crab in my tank today. Must have hitchhiked in on something. He showed up out of nowhere as I was feeding my tank. I quickly grabbed a stainless steel steak knife and rinsed it in some extra saltwater. I was pretty quick and he was out in the open on a rock. As the knife point approached him he did start to dart away into a hole... but I definitely made contact. As he entered the hole I stabbed, and a leg fell to the sand. I continued to stab into the hole. While I see no body, I do feel confident that he sustained major damage, and most likely is dead, as I did feel a crunch.

Creepy crab. No expensive fish buffet for him. And I definitely don't want him to TP my reef.

 

Ewwwwwww! Especially the "crunch" part! I wouldn't want him in my tank either.

 

Tank has been under the weather the last week or so, but finally seems to be recovering. All SPS died. I just have no luck with SPS, even easy caps. Really a bummer. Even with all parameters where they should be. All the LPS seems to be doing well again. I found my temp has been running a bit too high - 82 at times. Not sure why, I keep my place cold, so fans are my next immediate addition - getting those ordered online so they kick in when the MH turn on. Temp may have been a contributing factor, but 82 isn't terrible.

I also started using Microbacter7 by Brightwells, and re-started vodka dosing - noticed a nice improvement once I re-started this. Also re-arranged my sump a bit. Added a rubbermaid basket and plopped a big 'ol chunk of chaeto in there courtesy of a very nice local reefer. That should help keep pH stabilized with the reverse photo cycle.

Had a change of heart on the controller, going with the Neptune systems Apex instead. Once I get this going this should really assist with troubleshooting and help keep things where they should be.

Tinkered with the Bullet some more. I may have finally hit a sweet spot, it's really dialed in and wet skimming where I would like it to be. I have nasty coffee colored skimmate in the waste container. Vodka dosing charges up the skimmer, but it's really working overtime. Pleasant surprise of the week

Also added a cool brain coral. I'm going to pick up some raw table shrimp tomorrow - treat time for the corals

 

Shame about your SPS. I only have my caps so it isn't like I'm a SPS pro. Just when I think things are good, intermittent alk pump dosing throws things off. Controllers are nice. You will be very happy with one. Especially with all the bells and whistles the Apex has.

 

Your caps are looking great!! I'm stoked about the controller. I would have had it sooner, but by the end of this week I'll have put around a grand into my car. Ate into the controller budget a bit.

I really miss my birdsnest :-[

 

Although, I do think I have an idea as to what messed with my tank to start with. I normally mix my saltwater in the living room next to the tank. That way it's ready and I just pump it in and move the trash can to the laundry room.

Well, this time I mixed water in the laundry room. I keep my cat's litter box in the laundry room. I let the water mix for about 4 days. After talking to a couple local reefers I suspect that ammonia from the box may have leeched into the mixing water - and perhaps I did a water change with water with ammonia in it. May have been enough to give ammonia burns to more sensitive corals - such as my SPS and some LPS.

Anyone hear of something like this?

 

I've heard of burning corals and such, but you have quite a large volume of water and for ammonia from your cat litter to the tank in a large enough quantity? Doesn't seem very sound to me.

 

Ordered my Apex controller this morning. Can't wait for it to get here!!

:trampolin

 

next is your xp

 

Either that, or an I-Tech. Some sort of cone.

Get your Apex up and running yet?