James' 120 Gal Reef Trials and Tribulations

Good news, my tomato clowns spawned. Looks like hatch will be tonight or tomorrow, the eggs look very deep red and dark black eyes. Wish I had the equipment to rear these little guys, I was deep into it about a year ago, but stopped with the fish breeding and moved on to corals. Anyways free live food feast tonight or tomorrow!

My coral banded shrimp are also spawning, looks like they are due to release eggs within the next 2 or 3 days also.

In my nano (12 gallon mushroom tank) I have a pair of Fire/Blood shrimp that have been spawning also, wish all this would have happened late 2007 when I was slightly prepared to raise them.

 

Wow, frustrating day...

Number one bad thing was the cleaner wrasse, I am pretty sure the coral banded shrimp got him while he was sleeping. He had a really big gash on his side, didn't look like anything a fish or a rock falling could do.

Number 2 bad thing my mandarin, I KNEW I shouldn't have put him in with this six line, and never actually saw the six line bother him. But found him floating today, his stomach was nice and full, so I think the six line probably stressed him out to cause something. I have had him over a year now and he has been eating pellets, very sad loss. Bad on me for putting him with the six line, it came with me tank during my upgrade and kind of wish I would have kept it separate with the triggers and eel that was in the tank. Lesson learned.

Third bad thing, well maybe good depends on how you look at it. I decided to recalibrate my PH probe with my aquacontroller. Before calibration it was at 8.12, after calibration 8.30. Decided to "test" the calibration with a few different brands of calibration fluid, the differences were jawdropping. 3.6 with one 4.05 with another and 4.2 with another. With the solutions I used to calibrate I got 3.6 with the one that is supposed to be 4.0 and I got 10.3 with the one that was supposed to be 10.0. I don't like the way the aquacontroller calibration works, It takes one low reading and one high reading and automatically calibrates it from those two. I like the way pinpoint works where you take the reading and keep going back and forth until it reads correctly on both.

Last bad thing is one of the new acros is bleaching/dieing at the base. The light is not penetrating through the coral to get down to the base, and there is very little reflection from the live rock. I don't know what I should do, anyone have any ideas?

I am going to check no3 no4 and po4 tomorrow, and also do a water change. I also added a filter sock and put some carbon in it, in case there is some chemical warfare that is causing stress. I have never seen an acro recede that quickly.

 

Tested parameters again today. My MAG has dropped from 1350 two weeks ago to 1275 today. I added 680ml Kent tech M.

Alk was 11.2 dkh with instant ocean 14dkh with API
Cal was 520 ppm with API

Looks like I MAY need to bump up co2 rate a bit as dkh has dropped .7 (with instant ocean) over the past 3 days. I will give it a few more days at this rate, and see if it drops any more. API is the same as it was 3 days ago, so that may be a difference in sensitivity of the test kits. But if they both drop then I will make an adjustment.

My Kenya tree coral doesn't look happy for the past 2 days, I can't think of any reason it wouldn't be. I wont worry about it for a few more days.

The acro hasn't receded anymore, I think it may be lack of light at the base of the colony. I'll be watching it closely over the next few days.

I just bought a used Octopus 300 pro to put on the tank, excited about that. It should be here next Friday.

 

Your thread is mesmerizing and the pictures are awesome. Sorry about the Powder Blue Tang. I have never had any luck with the Powder Blue Tang. The Yellow, Purple, Sailfin and Hippo are easier to keep healthy. It's funny but I'm getting ready to upgrade from my 65 gal tank to a 120 gal tank. I'm so excited but I know it's a daunting task. The biggest problem I see is the tank temperature and parameters. I'm thinking I'm just going to move my 65 gal to the other side of the room, take out half the live rock and sand and set up the 120 and make sure the water is ok and then move my fish, coral and more rocks. Look for my thread coming soon to 3reef. Here are some pics of my 65 gal peninsula tank and it's only 2 months going. The first picture is my Sun Coral after he ate some cyclopeeze.

 

This morning I woke up and put my hands in my tank to feel a tingle in my fingers... Whoops, I knew I should have put a ground probe in this thing from day 1... I found out its my ATO... How I am not really sure since the only thing in the water is the float switch, and even that wasn't in the water(the level was lower than the switch because I'm late changing out my reservoir). Either way, I unplugged it, no more tingle... I wonder how long its been going on, I only noticed because of a small cut on a finger. May be the reason the powder blue couldn't get past the ick.. I ordered a probe from ebay, hopefully it gets here by next week, I also ordered a new auto-top off. Need that soon too for now I am going to TRY to set up the aqualifter pump on a timer. I'll set it up to run 15 minutes a day at first, see how far I am off, and adjust from there.

 

Wow I just read through this thread and I have to say you have a beautiful tank.The colors are awesome.

sorry to hear about your powdertang though.

 

I just realized this may have been the cause of a few Yuma's dieing off. They all did the same thing pretty much started loosing color and dieing. I bet this little electric leak caused it... (at least that is what I am going to blame it on)

 

One more added to the "they are spawning list!" My one of my 5 ocellaris is all nice and huge, looks like she might lay tonight or tomarrow. Also the tomatoes layed again last night.

 

Very pleased today. During lunchtime I checked the post office, sure enough there sat a octopus pro 300 waiting for me! I got home to eat and was too excited to eat, so setup the skimmer. I'll make a dedicated post for the skimmer and link it on here. So far after only 4 hours of operation it is pulling some really nice foam. I am wet skimming it for right now, but it is still very dark tea colored (not quite coffee that I will eventually try to tune it to get.) Whew, be on the watch pictures are coming soon!

 

Well, extremely pleased with the octopus pro. It's actually starving my fuge, and all my cheato is dieing off. Imagine that...

I did some tests today

Cal 420 w/Salifert 440 w/API
Dkh 9.8 w/IO 11 w/API
Mag 1275-1350 (accidentally put 2 drops at the end) w/elos

This is after nearly a month without adding anything. Levels have dropped.

Approx 2dKH and 80ppm Cal. Mag may have dropped a little but more testing will have to come on that. Not bad because my levels were a bit high and I wanted to drop them anyways. Now I have to pump a bit more co2 and a bit more water through the CA RX, to maintain what I am running now, maybe even boost just a bit (11dkh and 450 calcium is my "target".)

I before my latest "work trip" I acquired a few more SPS from a friend who is making her tank into a Nem tank, and wanted to give me these SPS to save. They are all coloring up very nicely and already showing growth.

I ordered a ground probe and two 250 watt icecap ballasts along with some reeflux 12k bulbs. Everything arrived except the bulbs, after calling the company (two weeks after I put in my order) they told me they were on back order. WTF right? well good for me because I want to try those new 20k reeflux's anyways. Now it will be another week until I can upgrade my lighting though. And still awaiting my refund for the 12k's hope that comes through soon.