Lots of new water… time for new salt.
How did a few weeks go by without an update?
I have done a number of water changes. Last week I did two mid-week, and did another last night. I’m down towards the bottom of the bucket of Tropic Marin ProReef salt, probably have enough for two water changes left. It’s a bit clumped up, must have gotten some moisture in there somehow. I’m debating which salt to use next – I have a bucket of Brightwells, and another bucket of Tropic Marin. Any thoughts from my readers?
My alkalinity and calcium levels are holding pretty steady. I’ve been dosing 200 ml daily of the recipe 2 mix (comes out to 2DKH alkalinity a day). My alkalinity seems to be slowly dropping at that dosing rate (0.5 DKH over a week) so the corals must be starting to grow again. They hit a plateau for a few weeks+, I think caused by phosphate or nitrate, but I’m not really sure. Maybe it was reduced feedings of the fish? Maybe pH – I need to measure that again to see if it’s still holding around 8. Anyway, I am hoping things are going to start growing again.
I don’t think there are any other updates to speak of. No changes to equipment, no changes in livestock. Some minor rearrangement of corals. (Did I already post about swapping the purple torch and yellow/gold torch? If not – the purple likes lower light and the yellow/gold likes higher light, and for the past year+ I’ve had that backwards!! Both look much happier now!) Still pulling algae out where I can. The new DI resin must be helping with the phosphate levels in the tank – the caulerpa I remove doesn’t grow back as quickly as it had in the past. Still have nuisance algae and some turf algae I’m dealing with, but patience is key. In the past week the red cotton algae appears to have disappeared from its foothold in the hammer coral branches – another indication that things are on the right track!
Water Change, Algae Plucking, Snail Egg Update
Did a 5-gallon water change last night. Siphoned a lot of red cotton algae and detritus out of the live rock, and also a small patch of bubble algae I saw growing. I still like this method of target-siphoning, although I may go back to the method I tried a few weeks ago – following it up with blowing out the live rock with a power head and siphoning out whatever I can.
Tonight I saw that the rainbow acan had fallen out of the live rock, so after gluing it in place with superglue I started to pluck some algae off the live rock with tweezers. This stuff is like what I have seen described as turf algae. Using the edges of the tweezers to scrape the rock as I close them, it comes off pretty cleanly. It would be a really time-consuming task to try to do the whole tank by hand like that, so I’ll let this act as a starter for the clean up crew and phosban reactor.
Seeing some changes in the snail eggs, finally. With any luck I’ll snap a clear photo sometime this week. They are starting to change color, or more accurately – from what I can tell with the x10 loupe they are developing dark brown or black spots, one per egg. They are till tiny.
The new coral unruly bought is scheduled to be shipped Thursday. Can’t wait!
Nothing good happens fast, part II
End-of-week update – not much happened this week! I neglected to do a water change. I did pull some remaining caulerpa and a couple big tufts of that red cotton algae out. Did not clean the sump (more on that below), did not change the phosphate media, did not do much of anything.
The male dwarf angel is still soaring in display for the female. I’ll have to clean the tank walls to get a photo or video of it. Really cool, his sides turn almost white, he turns sideways, arches his body, and surfs in the flow.
So I was going to clean the sump, and realized I do not have an efficient layout. I have a recirculating skimmer in my sump which could be located outside the sump if I had the space. Because the skimmer is in there I have a long narrow refugium area, maybe a footprint of 1/2 square foot. What a waste. I have rock rubble in there that is simply trapping detritus, which probably is not helping my algae problem in any way at all. When I was setting up this system I had a 20 gallon tank sitting there unused, and it fit perfectly into the stand, so I designed around that. But now… I feel it’s time for a change.
Broke out AutoCAD, laid out the stand, and realized I can perfectly squeeze my skimmer (external) and a 15-gallon high tank into it. Even though this is a 5-gallon smaller tank, since my skimmer will not be inside it I will really open up a lot more refugium area. So I spent some time this week laying out the equipment, doublechecking dimensions, revising how the plumbing and power distribution will look, and acquiring the miscellaneous parts needed. Turns out the most difficult thing to find is a standard AGA 15-gallon high tank. I wound up buying 5 pieces of 1/4″ flat glass from a local glass manufacturer (Torstenson Glass) for a reasonable amount. This weekend – we’re gonna build us a tank! I think this will really clean up the stand too. Pulling all the equipment out also gives me an opportunity to line the stand with a shower-liner, which will help contain any minor leaks. Maybe I’ll incorporate a float switch for an alarm or shutoff down the road.
So the to-do list:
- Build the 15-gallon high and install a baffle (only one, not a full-fledged bubble trap)
- Pull out the skimmer, 20-gallon sump, cooling fan, ‘fuge light
- Sanitize the skimmer with bleach, rinse, and clean with vinegar
- Sanitize the rock rubble to kill the red cotton algae and caulerpa growing on it
- Clean out the stand and line it
- Remount the temperature controller, lighting timers, Vortech controller
- Drill the skimmer for a new feed connection
- Drop in the new sump and skimmer
- Repipe the return piping and drain piping
- Remount the cooling fan, level controls, fuge light
- Relocate the kalk reactor
Not a short list, but small steps. I was going to set up the RODI storage tank and revise that plumbing at the same time, but I am hestitant to do so since we’re leaving on vacation for 6 days in another week. I don’t know exactly what my evaporation rate is, and I’d rather continue making up water directly off the RODI unit than risk running out of top-off while we’re away. I don’t think we’re evaporating a gallon a day, but I really don’t know!
Cyanobacteria Photos After Dosing VSV
OK, yet another non-reef night. This time I was hard at work getting a report done for the guy who signs my paychecks… that felt important.
Since I didn’t have time to finish my thoughts on VSV/Bacteria/Algae (and quite frankly want to reread a bunch of resource materials so I don’t say anything foolish) I’ll just present some interesting photos. Will I include any commentary? I don’t know yet… but we’ll both have figured that out by the end of this post.
I have a few areas of my tank with cyanobacteria growth. It isn’t always present, and even over the course of the same day I have seen it spread and disappear. It does seem to reoccur in the same locations in the tank. Recently I noticed in particular that the cyano recedes considerably after dosing my normal amount of VSV in the evenings. Yesterday I decided to take some photos of it, which follow. Interestingly, tonight when I glanced at the tank I didn’t see any cyano at all… although it’s been present the previous 3 or 4 nights. Huh. Guess I took my photos at the right time.
The first photo is taken right before dosing VSV, and the remaining were taken every 30 minutes. In this first photo check out that thick mat of cyano covering everything in the photo frame.
Cyano at 0 Minutes
Cyano at 30 Minutes
Cyano at 60 Minutes
Cyano at 90 Minutes
Cyano at 120 Minutes
Cyano at 150 Minutes
Cyano at 180 Minutes
In the last photo, you are not seeing cyano – you are seeing the red cotton algae that was on the live rock under the cyanobacteria. The cyano is pretty much completely gone. To give you an idea of how much cyano receded, try to find the caulerpa in the first photo (not just the one exposed leaf). My halides shut off after this last photo and I wasn’t able to take any more photographs, but I could see the cyano further recede in the following hour. Most of the recession is captured in these photos.
I’ve read that different concentrations of the VSV components can contribute to growth of cyano. To me, these photos are further empirical proof that different bacteria do in fact thrive on different carbon sources. Obviously there is a bacteria present in my tank (presumably from the Prodibio BioDigest) that was able to outcompete the cyano… or is that not so obvious? Is there something in the VSV that would have killed the cyanobacteria? I find that less likely.
I think I can also conclude that VSV does not necessarily cause cyanobacteria, although in a different concentration than I am using cyano may thrive on it as a carbon source. Now does Prodibio BioDigest introduce cyano? … maybe. I have no idea. I have had cyano outbreaks in other tanks that weren’t dosed with Prodibio products. Frankly, I think it is always present (although not always visible to the naked eye) and any excess nutrients can cause it to rear its ugly head (am I crazy for not finding it too ugly? I guess it’s all relative when my choices are cyano or red cotton algae). Again, it’s one of the most prevalent strains of bacteria out there, so who knows when or how it got introduced.
Now my question to myself is… will cyano outcompete the red cotton algae for nutrients? If so I may try to find a way to encourage cyano to grow. I find it a lot easier to get rid of than the red cotton algae…
Hey what do you know, I provided some commentary.
Saturday Maintenance
Did some work on this blog, and also on the tank. It was a good day. I’ll stick to the work on the tank for this post.
Did a 10-gallon water change this afternoon. That’s twice the volume I usually change. I have noticed a big dent in algae this week, and this afternoon before the water change I stirred up a lot of detritus with a powerhead. Figured, a little extra nutrient export probably isn’t a bad thing. I also added a vial of Prodibio BioDigest and cleaned the skimmer.
I’ve also been noticing a lot more cyano on rocks. It seems to be replacing the algae, so I’m leaving it be for now. I may have added a little too much sugar to the VSV on this batch, so I might “Dilute” it with some extra vodka. I don’t know yet. I figure the cyano will be easier to combat than hair or fuzzy cotton algae, so I’m not concerned yet.
First Post!! and Lazy Sunday
Welcome to the first post of our new reef blog. I would like to add entries to this blog from our paper-based journal, but haven’t figured out a way to backdate entries yet. Sooo…
Today was a lazy day. Fed the fish some Rod’s Food and frozen baby brine shrimp. Trying to get Alvy fattened up and developed. He’s not as aggressive as Annie, and now that the starry blenny and pajama cardinals have worked up the courage to enter the clown fish’s territory during feeding, he has to work all that much harder to get a full belly.
Pajama cardinal is still carrying eggs. I believe this is day 6 or 7, so he should be spitting soon. Looks about ready, the eggs are nice and pink.
Still battling nuisance algae of all different types. Caulerpa, red cotton algae, green hair algae. Yesterday and today did some pruning of the feather caulerpa.
Cleaned the skimmer collection cup and neck today.
Montipora’s are not looking so hot right now. I had done a dip in a potassium permanganate solution to kill off some montipora nudibranches, and am afraid I did more damage than good. All of the corals are browned out, and the Idaho Grape is looking pretty bad in particular. Really sliming up. I’m afraid the frags may not make it, even though I followed recommendations as best as I could. I will keep my eye on the pieces remaining in the tank – Idaho Grape (2″x3″), rainbow encrusting, orange plating – and hopefully no nudibranches are spotted. I’ll just resort to the “pluck” method if I see them.
