The Life of Blue Spots Tank 1800L

[Blue spot]

Hi martini. I'm keeping temp @77deg. Yes I think the blue spot could use this as an entrance to its burrow , but if you can get one of the aquacroch jawfish homes they are perfect, they look good and don't cost a lot. Location wise I think is a number of things but they like it as open as possible above them so they can get out and back in the burrow and keep a look out for intruders, with a nice steady current bringing food past the entrance for them (this is important). Also deepen the sandbed around where you want them to go and sprinkle some crushed coral around by them for building (just wait to see where it's going to settle) I've put some little shells and things around to , they will decorate with them. Good luck martini, they are a great fish fish lots of personality if you can keep it. Love mine, any questions I can help with feel free and I'll try and answer them if it's happened to me.

[Martini5788]

I can't find anything on aquacroch jawfish home, do you have a link?

[Blue spot]

Lol . Sorry martini. Auto correct but God only knows why it picked that, it's not even a word. It's actually called aquaroche. Look on the bottom of the link below

http://aquaroche.fr/en/catalog/

[Blue spot]

Hi martini. Just realised I've not been a great help, so here's my shot if I was starting from scratch knowing what I know now. I would set up a spot 1/3rd of the way in the tank and try to build a back wall so your jawfish only has to guard one direction ( if you keep it to open they seem unsettled) . Middle of tank to busy and I don't know why but they don't settle on the ends of the tank ( but this may be down to flow). Put a soft fine sand base down put your intended house on top then put your crushed coral around the outside. If you use the jawfish home you don't need a massively deep sandbed it will live inside this and my jawfish home now sits on the bottom of the tank. Lower temp to 77 but you need to keep it stable if you go this high. Mine never drifts more than 0.4 deg now I have it nailed, if you get variation you need to go a little lower. Put the jawfish in before you put any boisterous fish in and let it settle and feed for a good month. Try and get it on flake, mine only eats tropic marine colour pro , nothing else flake wise and this is actually a tropical fish food. Get the top covered , if your fish gets spooked it will go straight for the surface. Now sit and watch, if your jawfish is moving around a lot at first don't worry to much, if after a few days it's still wondering and looking in any way stressed do not be scared to coax the fish into the home you have made for it. Sometimes you do know what's best. At first Bert wouldn't go in, I netted him and literally put the net over the hole so he had no choice but to go in. Loves it in there know.

[Martini5788]

Thank you so much. I don't mean to bother you, I just can't really find anyone else who keeps them.

[Blue spot]

No bother and hope it works out. P.s when you buy your fish make sure it is In Pristine condition, you don't want to see any patches or scratches on the body of the fish. The move is going to be stressful for the fish so you want it as healthy as possible before you start. This is more key than the colour of the fish, I've mentioned before Bert was a Drab brown colour and the only one to survive , as he's got older he's coloured up lovely.

[Blue spot]

Hi folks , strange question but I was hoping someone might know. Does calcium additive go off / become less potent the longer it sits in the doser ? Reason for the question is my calcium seams to flatline at 380 no matter what I seam to be doseing. I am a relatively new doser so I may be doing something wrong but can't figure out what.

[Martini5788]

Is it precipitating? What test kit are you using?

[Bliss]

nice tank

[Blue spot]

Cheers bliss, I think it's starting to get their now, but still got a way to go yet. Thanks martini, I'm using Nyos and a Red Sea to double check. I'm always reading between 360 and 380 no matter what I'm dosing. I keep popping a little calk in to try and top it up.

[Martini5788]

Have you checked your salt mix when it's freshly made?

[Blue spot]

Right on the calcium front I think I am sorted. I did a water change the weekend and calcium is back up, checking now to see if it climbs as I have doubled the dosage over the last week. Something must have been out of whack but again not sure what, Paramus are now c 420 m 1350 a little high, alk 11 high I know but normal for my tank ph 8.1 phos 0.07 n 5 . Anyone spot anything apart from alk . Alk is always a mystery to me I dose c and m daily and a ph buffer which reads that it only stabilises alk not raises it

[Blue spot]

I have decided to try something new, well new for me anyway. I want to get my alk down. I think this is going high because I do keep adding calk to top my ph up. My ph has dropped because it's winter here in the uk the house is well sealed and the women of the house like the temperature approaching that of Tahiti in summer. Sooo I'm going to try a co2 scrubber on my skimmers inlet, got the idea from reading on reef central . If anyone has had any personal experience with this it would be good to chat.

[dave.m]

A fresh air inlet, a simple hose to outside, feeding your skimmer would be much simpler and probably less expensive.

Dave.M

[Blue spot]

Thanks Dave , I have tried this before on my first tank, a Red Sea max, but I never got great results in hindsight , but that was a different tank so maybe I will give this a go again. I am sure it is something to do with the house being sealed as I never have a problem in the summer.

[Blue spot]

After much debate about drilling a hole in the wall for a pipe to feed my skimmer with fresh air....... The co2 scrubber won out. Agree with Dave though the hole in the wall would have been a cheaper option. So it has been set up for around 8 hours and I have already witnessed a rise of 0.1 on the normal high point of the day. So far looking posative so much so that I halved my ph buffer to see what happens in the morning. I'll keep you informed. One more little question with the removal of this co2 in the system will their still be enough in the tank for the things that need co2 ?

[Blue spot]

Today I have a fish tank dilemma ... It is a happy dilemma..... But a dilemma non the less. The co2 scrubber has worked brilliantly on my tank. Every little niggle has been put right by this simple addition. I have 8.17 stable ph , no dosing buffer. And my night time ph swing has gone aswell (I have always run a reverse cycle on my sump but never realy had any benefit ). As a result my kh has lowered so I can now keep this stable. My refugium has also kicked in , producing a significant increase in algae . Lastly this has eigther reduced my nitrates or my bio pellets have started working......... Now the dilemma. The co2 media is expensive and has only lasted a week before it has all started to change colour I've looked online for a supply in the uk and can find nothing.. Aaarrggghhh !! I'm going to investigate some more as originally I just wanted to try it . Now it's working I want to keep it.
Other things to report . One death . A snakey pipefish has gone missing (assumed dead) it was one of a mated pair I have had for around 2 years , not sure if it's a natural death as I don't know how long pipefish live for. Corals are all doing well growing , colourful , got a couple of scars on some from falling corals but I am making a big effort to cement them in place now as this keeps happening, especially at night , every morning I have to pick up corals. Fish wise everything fat and healthy looking, had a small fight between to engineer gobies, I thought they were mating, if they were , they like it rough as one is missing a fin now. The one then went in to hiding and picked my white cap and pistol shrimp home, so this is now awol. Very small fish so could be anywhere. I'm keeping a look out. Bert (blue spot) also decided to get spooked out of his home, but I have learned that if this happens, it's not worth messing about, I lift his house (to check nothing is in their ) re-burry it , Net Bert, and put him back in . So all in a pretty good couple of weeks, miracles do happen.

[Blue spot]

Aussie week this week, had some nice corals so will try to post pics tomorrow. A
So added 3 garden eels but they are a little shy so far .

[Blue spot]

[Blue spot]

[Blue spot]

[Blue spot]

[Blue spot]

[Blue spot]

[dave.m]

Wow! The tank is really starting to fill in.

Dave.M