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bleachandvomit

Elos update; frags galore, fish success, species profiles

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by
bleachandvomit
, 11-18-2010 at 09:53 PM (9164 Views)
Hello all! It's been a while since I updated, I've been very excited with my tank this week so here are some tidbits!
  • My first helfrichi died after three days. How sad and discouraging It was replaced under warranty and the new one has been going strong for two weeks! The new one isnt as buddy buddy with the other fish as the last one, but this one is a lot more active and eats a broader variety of foods.
  • Visited PHISHY BUSINESS in columbus and snagged a beautiful purple/green/blue chalice for 20 dollars. It is about the size of the palm of my hand and is coloring up by the day.
  • The GBTA is EXCELLENT! It hasnt moved since the first day which was my biggest concern (whew!). It was 3 inches when I first got him and now he is about 4 inches when fully inflated and coloring up under my Phoenix bulb.
  • Transferred the frogspawn to my 17 gallon upstairs (softie tank) but did not do very well. It's tissue was receding so I moved it back to the Elos in hopes that it will recover. If it perishes I might try an elegance coral in it's place.
  • The hammer coral is doing spectacular. Today I noticed a baby head forming where the skeleton meets the soft tissue. It is so cute! It has little baby tentacles and everything. This is a good sign.
  • More zoanthids added. I believe they will fill in nicely in their designated area.
  • Visited a local reefer and bought some ORA sps frags for 25 dollars each. They are generously sized frags and have stunning colors. A few have some bleach spots from stings but lets hope for the best. The frags include Pink/blue Milli, Strawberry shortcake acro, VIVID cherry milli, Joe the coral, Tri-color, Lokani, green Milli, Oregon Blue tort, and he gave me a hydnophora for free (As some of you may know, Hydnophora are EXTREMELY aggressive!!!).

As you can see, I've been super busy. Now I just have to find spots that the acro's do well and dial in my two part regiment.

My Calcium has been bouncing from 400 to 440, all these additions messed me up
Alk has been steady at 8 to 9 dKh
Magnesium took a huge dip today at 1050. Added BRS supplement today to fix it.
Doing every other day 5 gallon changes to help with the fluctuations.

For those of you that have read to this point, I plan on writing a few species profiles on Hydnophora and Blotched Anthias. I think these two organisms are widely misunderstood and overlooked - some little factoids could go a long way for hobbyists.

Pictures at the bottom! Please excuse the knocked over frag and the little diatom (should of bought Melev's RODI).
As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Pictures at the bottom!

Justin

















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Updated 11-18-2010 at 10:08 PM by bleachandvomit

Categories
‎ New Additions , ‎ Tank - Full Summary , ‎ Water Chemistry , ‎ Propagation - fish & corals

Comments

  1. bleachandvomit's Avatar
    Just tested my water again and my params are bonkers. I also think my Elos mag test kit is bad, and I'll tell you why.

    CAL - 400 (was 420, dosed earlier today to compensate)
    ALK - 7 (was 8, have not dosed yet)
    MAG - 1100 (was 1050, dosed earlier today to compensate)

    So I scratched my head and decided to test MAG in the Reef crystal water I mixed up yesterday.

    It read 1100.

    Either I got a bad batch of salt or I need a new test kit. The joys of reefing
  2. Hat39406's Avatar
    Hey Justin, ya tank is looking good! That's some nice frags you got. I really like that Purple chalice. ;-)
  3. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    I've never used reef crystals, but Instant Ocean used to be low in Mg. So it wouldn't surprize me if your test kit was accurate.
  4. bleachandvomit's Avatar
    - Thanks Hat, I appreciate it

    - Yeah Phil, I was doing some research and IO salts arent the best or even consistent. When I get payed I plan on buying the new formula of RED SEA Coral Pro salt. It claims 430 CAL, 8 ALK, and 1300 MAG which is exactly what I want to shoot for.

    My dosing is so out of wack that I did a water change and plan on pausing the dosing so I can retest the water over the course of the week. I might just go off of 3 days testing because as ALK levels go down, so does ALK consumption.

    Haha, Im just trying to figure things out like the rest of us.
  5. melev's Avatar
    It takes a lot of magnesium to bring it up, and you are way low. Mg should be 3x the calcium level. 1300 to 1400ppm is what I aim for myself. Your water changes will bring it back down if the new salt mix doesn't have enough Mg in the first place.

    Congrats on the new corals. That chalice was a deal in today's economy.
  6. Stevo4535's Avatar
    I really enjoy your aquascaping, it looks very planned out and clean. I look forward to see new pictures as the tank ages...