And so it begins

[KafudaFish]

In 9 days of running the skimmer I got around 45 ml of weak tea skimmate.

I don't think that is too bad considering:

size of tank
no fish
just did a complete WC.

I will see how much I get as time goes by and the tank gets dirty again.

[MUCHO REEF]

In my experience, skimmate is never consistantly the same volume or colorwise. Are you looking to collect a desire amount, or were you just sharing the collection amount? Either way, I do enjoy hearing all of your details and experience, rather engaging I think.

[KafudaFish]

Just collecting and recording to be honest.

Only once have I ever had a skimmer work the same day in and day out and that was due to an issue with the tank and it taking care of the issue.

[KafudaFish]

[QUOTE=KafudaFish;17285862]

Good news everyone.

(Sorry I just like using that.)

33 days.

March 2 - April 4.

This is how long it took for my second 1 polyp frag to open up. It has been the size and shape of a mechanical pencil eraser the entire time. For the first time last night I saw the disk and skirt out. Each night I have looked at it several times to make sure there were no signs of infection and because it looked healthy I left it alone.



I had a second 1 polyp frag that opened up the next day on March 3. The only differences between them were size (age), and placement. The one that opened was in the center of the tank and on the back wall with higher flow and the other was on the side of the back and right walls with less direct flow.


This brings up an interesting question about fragging especially with all of the single and 1+1 frags that people sell.

How important is the age of the polyp in regards to survivorship?

This one polyp was out of the water a few minutes and put back into the tank and it took a month for it to open up. IF I had shipped it out would the additional stress have killed it?

Anyone who does this often I would like opinions please.

[KafudaFish]

This has been a very busy month and I am sad to report I have been ignoring the tank. I did a WC last weekend and I was hoping that the zoas would perk up but they are looking just ok.

I realized that I have not been dosing the tank and I think that the alk swing is affecting things. The CA has been receeding too so I have begun again: 80 ml kalkwater once a day.

I blame myself but believe that things should turn around quickly.

I will get my monthly count in the next few days as well.

Thanks for stopping by.

[MUCHO REEF]

Don't be so hard on yourself man, it happens. Hang tough man.

Have you ever performed a black out?

Mucho

[KafudaFish]

Thanks.

It looks like I am being hard on myself but I know things happen so I will still get some popcorn tonight.

The funny thing is they are looking better tonight than they have for the last two weeks.

Go figure.

I have done one, maybe two blackouts/storm events on the tank but nothing like you do on your tanks. I may do that this weekend.

My tank is not lit evenly during the entire photoperiod so I do see the different frags behaving according to where the light is in the tank.


Also I took my skimmer off line and may put it back on.
It pulled 50 ml of tea-colored skimmate per week.


I do think one thing I need to focus on is removing the detritus from underneath the floor. It seems that is due. I removed a fair amount from the last water change but there seemed to be even more when I poured the NSW back in.

Maybe I will hook up a spare aqua clear filter with some pillow stuffing and let it run for a few hours.

Thanks again.

[MUCHO REEF]

Hey no problem man.


BTW, have you notice a seasonal rise or fall in polyp production or via the Lunar cycle?

[KafudaFish]

Hey that is a really good question and I will give my thoughts.

I worked on the tank some last night scraping algae out of the fliter etc. and was able to do my count for the month:

3.24.12 4.26.12
Left wall 50 54
Top off 41 55
Left rock 170 212
Right rock 320 333
Lower rock 64 77
Left floor 71 71
Shell 12 12
Center floor 56 57
Right rock 112 147
Powerhead 17 20

Total 913 1038
change 112 125

Back floor was fragged previously
Right wall 10 12
Rock 36 40

Total 959 1090
Change 112 131

left lower wall 16 18
front floor 16 19
mangrove 1 2
PH curve 1 1
back wall lowest tunnel 8 17

Total 1001 1147
Change 112 146


Also here are the changes in the number of polyps (original frags not all) each month from July 2011 to April 2012:

27 37 81 77 75 94 132 218 112 125


I even have a graph showing total number of polyps and change over time.

As far as increases/decreases in polyp production I would think there should be especially in the wild. Enivronmental changes can trigger growth and reproduction.

Am I seeing this in this little tank? I don't know to be honest. You can see the increase kept climbing through March 2012 and then has slowed down. Is this a seasonal variation? It could be or it maybe it is based upon space issues. Most of my increases are due to those frags on my two rocks but those on the walls have begun to take off as well.

It would be interesting to see what happens July 2012 - 2013 though I suspect things will have slowed down by then. The strange thing is I have around 1150 polyps in the tank yet it still looks pretty bare.

If I continue to average 100 new polyps per month for the next 14 months I think I would be pretty close to full. The rocks and walls should be covered and most of the floor though much of that is in the dark so I probably won't have too many polyps there.

Finally at some point I will probably have to increase my lights to a second bulb or maybe a DIY kit and go from 7 to 14 LEDs and that will skew things as well.

What are your thoughts?

[Beaun]

Seems like there are far to many variables to try and say if a lunar cycle has any noticeable changes on growth. Space to grow, number of polyps available to split (aka incrased surface area), and water quality/condition would be very large issues to have to deal with first in order to try and draw any conclusions.

[KafudaFish]

After giving the tank a look over I realized my tank has been suffering from peanut butter jar syndrome. You may have not heard of PBJS before but I know that you have experienced it or something similar.

You have gone to the store, bought groceries, came home to put them away including a new jar of peanut butter and later on you go back to make yourself a peanut butter nutter fluffer and bacon sandwitch only you cannot find the jar. You move everything around looking, take stuff out but nope not there so you have to settle for pimento cheese instead.

Later on you go back again, open the door and whammo!, the jar is right there the entire time in the very front yet you were so focused on finding it you couldn’t see it for anything.

I realized that my aqua clear had slowed to just a trickle. How long I don’t know but I suspect this was the cause of my polyps looking poorly. After a few days of normal flow things are looking normal again.

[KafudaFish]

Here is this month's count:
4.26.12 5.28.12
Left wall 54 56
Top off 55 103
Left rock 212 330
Right rock 333 515
Lower rock 77 90
Left floor 71 75
Shell 12 20
Center floor 57 60
Right rock 147 220
Powerhead 20 32

totals 1038 1501

change 125 463


Right wall 12 18
Rock 40 60

Total 1090 1579
Change 131 489

left lower wall 18 18
front floor 19 22
mangrove 2 2
PH curve 1 1
back, lowest tunnel 17 24

Total 1147 1646
Change 146 499

As you can see I had my best growth this month. My top off frag has started to take off and I am pleased with it. I have been surprised it has taken this long because it is at the water's surface and gets good water movement from the filter. The left rock and right rock frags have pretty much joined together and I have to keep track of the division between them. Next month I may have to just combine it into a single one. My right rock had good growth as well even though it is at the bottom of my tank.
Areas of interest:
I have had large amount of algae even on the glass. This is the first time I have had to clean my it on a regular basis.
My new polyps are very small especially on my largest frag. They are healthy etc. just smaller than usual.
I wonder if I have higher levels of nutrients than normal. I do know that it is time to remove the floor and clean underneath it. I have blasted the corners with the MJ1200 and it looks like a snow storm.

Last Thursday I lost my African flameback angel in my FOWLR tank. I went to one of the LFS and as I was leaving found another tailspot blenny on Friday. The last one swam up into the aqua clear and was beheaded. To "solve" this I had removed the extension tube and just above the slots is a line. I cut the slotted end off, inverted it, and stuck it into the upper tube. It stayed in place with the filter running and the lip sat on top of one of the tunnels.
On Sunday I removed the tube to clean it and I pulled my blenny out of a 1/8 inch opening at the bottom (inverted so actually the top) of the slotted section . It had gotten its head and pectoral fins passed and then got stuck.

I lost $100 worth of fish in 4 days and that bothers me. It isn't just the money mind you rather one fish died for unknown reasons and the other died in the only one of two possible mechanical issues in the tank. The other would have to be the fish would swim up into the powerhead box and swim into the intake of the MJ.
I can keep cheapo fw tetras in my daughter's tank for years but give me a marine fish and my wife will ask me how long before this one does something stupid and gets killed.
One time I had a yellow tang swim into a powerhead and get one eye pulled to the other side.

I realize that this is a part of the hobby so to speak but it just irritates me when something like that happens.
I was going to ramble on about a few other things but maybe another day.


Take care everyone.

Finally thank you to everyone who has ever served our country. We will be in your debt forever.

[KafudaFish]

How clean is your tank?
When I mean clean I don't mean the chemical parameters we test rather how much detritus build up is there somewhere in your tank?
Is it on/in your rocks?
In your sand?
Your sump?
Your water column?

You put food in your tank right?
Your fish eat that food right?
Your fish expel waste right?
You have a clean up crew that takes care of it all right?
Who cleans up after the clean up crew?
Bacteria?

Think about it for a moment before you answer.

At some point what you put in will be consumed, utilized, broken down and discarded.

What then?

Most who do water changes will tell you the reasons why they do them are:

1. Reduce those chemical parameters we test.
2. Replace the trace elements that are used by the reef building community.
3. Make the water look cleaner.
4. Makes us feel in charge of a small world and we know what we are doing.
5. Remove that waste before it has a chance of impacting #1 - 3.

Today I removed all of my rock out of the tank including the floor and I drained all of the water and sucked all of the mulm off the bottom. I knew I had a large amount because any time I moved my powerhead around it looked like a snow storm in there. I will have to go back in this thread to see the last time I did this but I bet it has been a few months but here is the amount I pulled out of my tank earlier today. It is in a 7 gallon salt bucket and there is a nickel on the left side to show the amount. It is probably about a 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch deep as well. Some of it is probably sand from the rock I made but a majority of it is just detritus that was either on the rock work or underneath the cement floor.




These next pictures show the growth pattern of my frags. They have not opened yet but I wanted you to look at the mats. If you look in the first picture, the polyps look like a Christmas light string and they follow one another. I have several frags that demonstrate this growth pattern. In the second and third pictures if you look at the outer edge, the newest polyps, you will see that they are very tight and compact like a phalanx. These get the most light and the most flow so that could have an impact. However if you look at the older polyps they spread out like in picture #1 which happens to be at the water's surface and when these are exposed to the air I know it is time to top off.







Thanks for stopping by and please enjoy your tank.

[KafudaFish]

It is hard to believe that this thread is two years old now. I just hope that my tank doesn't enter the terrible twos phase.
I will get counts later.

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy your tank.

[KafudaFish]

Here is this month's count:
5.28.12 6.24.12
Left wall 56 58
Top off 103 115
Left rock 330
Right rock 515 892*
Lower rock 90 120
Left floor 75 77
Shell 20 21
Center floor 60 60
Right rock 220 240
Powerhead 32 32

totals 1501 1615

change 463 114


Right wall 18 19
Rock 60 60

Total 1579 1694
Change 489 115

left lower wall 18 18
front floor 22 28
mangrove 2 4
PH curve 1 1
back, lowest tunnel 24 24

Total 1646 1769
Change 499 123


*I had to combine the left rock and right rock polyps into one value because I can no longer tell the division. If the growth rate continues I could have a 1,000 polyp colony in August. I don’t think it will get much bigger though because the available surface area is almost gone.

From June, 2011 – June, 2012 my original polyp count of 60 has increased to 1,615 for the original 10 frags and an overall increase to 1,769 (+1,709) for the entire tank. You would think that having that many polyps in a small tank would mean that the tank was covered but it still seems bare to me.

At some point I am going to have to frag some of the rocks with 60 polyps and attach the new frags throughout the rockwork. (Must buy superglue gel) Depending on the mat layout this maybe the last time I frag. I would like to have 10 decent sized frags because my smaller frags are just now slowly taking off such as the mangrove frag.

I treated the gha with hydrogen peroxide again so I am hoping that I can avoid that issue that many tanks have at the 18 month – 24 month period. It seems that people report massive gha issues around now regardless of their husbandary.

At the end of last month I put a small 4 x 2 inch needlework screen in the flow of my AC and it is beginning to grow algae so hopefully this small ATS can compete with the display algae. I may add a larger one if this one continues to work.

Because several of my frags are located on the edges I am beginning to think that I may have to add another light to the tank. My other option is to increase the photoperiod but move the light as I have been from one side of the tank to the other. I was thinking 8 hours left of center and then 8 hours right of center. This would provide that pulse of “afternoon” sun plus keep that shadow look I like on the tank.




I guess that is all for now. Thank you for stopping by and enjoy your tank.

[MUCHO REEF]

I'm speechless, one of the best threads here. I am gonna read it a few more times then reply.

What would you say is your ultimate goal in the project?


Keep up the good work man


MUCHO REEF
TOTM - August 2003

[thebanker]

Nice work Mike. You always were a counter. I'm curious to see how the mini ATS performs for you.

[KafudaFish]

Thank you for the encouragement. It is always good to hear and read that what you are doing is considered a good thing.

Mucho:

Glad you are back on the forums again. As always I enjoy your thoughts and view point on the hobby.

As far as an ultimate goal that is pretty hard to answer because I believe that I have several goals with this system. Some I have completed, others I am in the process, and others have not started yet. There is much to ponder on that subject and I would like to think more before I try and answer it. I know that one of the smaller goals is to keep fish alive longer than I have with this system I just seem to have a bad time with them and I hate when that happens. It would be really cool someday to get a mated pair of something and they breed in the tank. Someday ......

Mike:

I have had this mini ATS in my tank for probably a year now. It sat on top of the MJ in the powerhead box and would get some algae from time to time but nothing worth noting.

Since I moved it to the aqua clear I have cleaned it each of the last 4 Sundays. I consider this a proactive approach to handling algae and the H2O2 as a reactive one.

I still see some algae on the right rock but the rock work of the box has been clean and I don't see signs of new growth.

Last Friday I made a larger ATS that is probably 3x as large as this one and it sits on top of the aqua clear and has some growth already.

I think you have read the ATS basics thread and if you read about the revision what I am doing "shouldn't" work. It is horizontal (yes that style does work), I have a 4 inch wide screen that gets ? flow, it is at the water's surface, and gets the wrong K of lighting yet it grows algae each week that I wash off every Sunday now.

Two things:

1. I don't think algae is bad, rather algae is a sign of a healthy system.
2. I have no fish and ghost feed the bristleworms etc. once or twice a week with some pellets that I mash up so to get any growth is pretty good.

I do have a photo somewhere but everytime I access photobucket I get this strange loop that makes me have to close the internetz.

If I had to I would slap one your HD bulbs for better growth.

[MUCHO REEF]

Sorry to hear about the fish man. What are you thinking the issue is? I'm sure you're not overcrowding. Do you think it's bad stock? Don't be discouraged man, I am enjoying the journey. Don't try to bite off too much at once. Put it on crusie so we can continue to enjoy it with you. A mated pair sounds great. Love to hear what you settle on.


MUCHO REEF
TOTM - AUGUST 2003

[KafudaFish]

I think the issue was fish being fish.

Both had a dozen burrows to live in and one not so much.

The first one died by swimming into the impeller. That one was my fault because I did not have a guard on the intake pipe.

I put one on and inverted it into the tube so it was not visible plus I did not have any room and the second fish swam into the tube and got stuck in the little opening at what would be the inverted top of the screen.

It isn't over crowding since one fish for the entire tank and I went with the 5.5 vs. 2.5 just so I could have one.

Not sure if I will try another single tailspot or do something like a pair of neon gobies. Barnacle blennies would be interesting too.

I am not ready yet but maybe things will change.

Thanks and enjoy your tank.

[priscacara]

I'm a noob about to start my first tank and came across your thread/journal and it is awesome mate! I've been researching till the screen blurs most nights and a lot of my reactions have been meh I've seen it before then I started reading this thread and sat up and paid attention again :-).

Good luck with it, been a great read and jumping on the train to follow along too.

[KafudaFish]

Priscacara:

Thank you for the kind words. I still find it interesting that someone half way around the world reads something I have written and feels the same way I do.

Good luck on your tank and I hope that you share the build here on RC so that we can learn and be inspired too.

[KafudaFish]

I have successfully ignored my tank (not by choice) since June and I think it needs some TLC this week so hopefully I will get a polyp count and ramble at some point in this thread again.

[KafudaFish]

Here is to the road to recovery!

I have had no time to take care of the tank other than top off and toss some food in when I thought about it. Life is more important than this hobby and that was one of the areas I thought about when I started this tank. It amazes me that so many are chained to their tanks and I have read on more than one occasion, the tank owner not going on vacation etc. in fear that the tank would be a wasteland upon returning home. Sadly, this has been the case on more than one occasion. If my tank crashed today I would be upset

Can the tank survive periods of neglect?
What would the condition of the tank be after this timeframe?

The answer to the first question is obviously a yes it can survive and the answer to the second one is it came out ok, there is additional algae in the display and my polyps have retracted (I think I have an answer to why and if things improve I will explain). I have not lost any but I would have to say they have looked better. I have not conducted a count yet but overall it looks like they are all hanging in there.

Yesterday I made new salt water, cleaned the power head, front glass and the new ATS for the first time, removed a sponge I was using, and gave everything a closer look.

I will do a full WC tonight, replace the GAC, and will address anything that I come across including the possibility of fragging again. I will have to dose H2O2 again in a few areas also but this is easy enough with a drained tank. Again I am not trying for a sterile environment rather I am trying to maintain a healthy one.

I may break out the skimmer again just to see if I can get ahead of water quality issues and for the heck of it.

Here is a picture of the ATS before cleaning. It had a very nice aromatic low tide smell to it. Again it simply sits at the water’s surface in the aqua clear and is lit by the par 38 bulb. That was a pretty good first growth effort (middle of July).




Thanks and please enjoy your tank.

[KafudaFish]

I went to the LFS today and picked up a tail spot and lined blenny for my tanks at home. I hope that the third time is the charm for the tailspot. I will have to close the hole that the last one got stuck in while this fish is acclimating.

The WC helped last week and am seeing improvements once again.
I will work on the tank again this week and see if things continue to improve.

Because I missed last month's count I have decided to move to a count every other month from now on.


Thanks and enjoy your tank