Lucas's Rimless Shallow Reef - Long overdue update!

FIFY... ;D

Thanks Nooze! Still a little hazy, but a couple of water changes with correctly mixed saltwater should do the trick. :

Hey Shin! It's hard to say if they'll behave, since theres no other fish in the tank yet. But they seem pretty docile. You have 2 blue-green chromis, correct? How big are they? Sometimes adults can get a little mean, but that seems to be an exception rather than the norm for the blue-green ones.

 

Clean up crew arrived today, currently 90% sitting on the bottom motionless. USPS was kind enought to leave a priority package in the mailbox instead of knocking on the door, and in 109 degree heat today, I'm lucky my wife found them after only an hour or so. She said the bags were pretty warm when she opened the box, so we'll see how many end up pulling through.

Enter USPS rant here, but it's been said so many times before...

 

Congrats on the cleanup crew. USPS sucks, but I think your snails and crabs will fair the weather with little casualties.

 

More are on the move, but a lot are still motionless. Continuing to monitor.

Other developments today:

- My BRS bio pellet reactor mod is clogging on the bottom, so I'm going to venture to lowes tomorrow and try something different. Thanks to Exactlyobp, he gave me the idea to try this as a DIY: AVAST Marine Works - Biopellet Mixing Nozzle - Product Details.

- I'm pretty much fed up with red sea coral pro salt. I've tried mixing 4 batches now, even after contacting support and getting the "proper" mixing instructions. I even iced my water today to get it down to the recommended 68 degrees, but still turned out a little hazy. IMO, salt should not be this complicated to mix. When customer service has to write a 15 paragrah thread in a forum on how to properly mix its salt, they ought to look at themselves as atleast part of the problem. Looks like I'll be switching to IO crystals in the near future. Never had a problem mixing IO.

- Took the wife to the lfs to inspect a certain type of fish we are looking for, but it did not pass her high standards. Looks like I'll be looking a little longer. :-/

- The three stooges are finally starting to show a solid appetite. I won't lie, I was a little worried about the smallest one, he kept spitting everything back out. They finally had a large feast of mysis today!

 

Let us know what you come up with about the BP reactor mod. If I find anything, Ill let you know as well! (I love going to Homedepot and Lowe's for brainstorming!)

Congrats on chromis taking huge bites! Its always a nervous moment till you see them eat first time!

 

Haha, I swear the lowes employee in the plumbing section thinks theres something wrong with me. He always sees me standing there with my arms crossed and staring, or trying to fit pieces together and mumbling to myself. :

 

Congrats on getting the fish to eat.

That sucks to hear you're having trouble with getting the RSCP salt to mix correctly. This isn't the first time I've heard of this particular complaint about Red sea Coral Pro, though I've not ever experienced it myself.

I don't do anything special with mine. I just mix it 1/2c per gallon of distilled water. I don't heat it up to mix (actually, I don't normally read the instructions, so it's kind of funny I was doing it correctly), but just plug in a small return pump (taam rio 200) and let it mix by itself. I use my hand to start it (mixing motion in the bucket), then let the pump do the rest. I only mix it for an hour or so normally, and have never had any issues.

It's unfortunate people seem to be experiencing problems with it. I have always gotten consistent readings on parameters, mixes well, never foggy, and I will continue to use this brand because of my experiences with it thus far.

 

I know, it really seems to be hit or miss. I've actually used the salt before on my old 90, with no problems. This, beside the problems I'm having now, leads me to believe that I have a bad batch, despite red sea's claims. So, I could either order another bucket of rscp, and risk getting another bad batch, or go with the old tried and true. I hate to rag on a company like this, but I've followed their exact instructions, and yet they still refuse to admit anything other than myself must be wrong.

You can tell even in the pic of my avatar, that the salt is leaving a haze, especially when looking through 26" of saltwater.

This is the end of my complaints, as I don't want to taint other's perceptions of the company. I do believe that, in the end, their salt is superior given you receive a good batch.

 

Sorry to hear about some of the troubles you are having Lucas. Especially with the Red Sea Coral Pro salt. Thats very weird. Ive used atleast 12 buckets of the stuff and never had any problems. Great to hear about the chromis!

 

And then I hear things like this and think it must be me. But I've had a good bucket before that mixed with no problems

Modded the bottom part of my biopellet reactor... I ended up making two rows of two slots each, offset for complete circular coverage. Just used a hand saw with a thin blade to make the cuts. Hard to explain with words, so I ended up taking the reactor apart again just to get a picture (ur welcome shin ) because this nozzle works so well, very even tumbling throughout the reactor.



And I never posted the snail shot, so here's right after shipment: