20 Long Reef w/ Sump

[GAhockey1992]

Here’s some pics of the recent pick ups. I also forgot to mention I grabbed a small 1” blue maxima(?) clam super cheap. Figured I’d give it a try.

The clam:


Strawberry shortcake:


Unknown acro, light blue with green polyps:


The maricultured Mille made a nice quick recovery following so bleaching:


I also grabbed another blue+ bulb to see how a 3 blue+ and 1 coral+ would make things look.

 

[bribo12]

Those 1” clams are a death sentence. Good luck but ime those 1.5” or less are just a waste of money. Hope it does well for you! Sounds like you got a good deal on it

 

[GAhockey1992]

Those 1” clams are a death sentence. Good luck but ime those 1.5” or less are just a waste of money. Hope it does well for you! Sounds like you got a good deal on it

Ya I’ve heard under that 1.5” mark is super tricky. I got it for right around $10 and the system it was in I don’t think it would have lasted much longer so I figured why not give it a try. In your experience did it help at all if you fed them regularly? It seems some swear by it until it’s 4” or so and then others say that’s kind of a myth as we don’t really know entirely what all the clam consumes other than phyto

 

[bribo12]

Im not sure as all the ones I’ve had under that mark lasted only about a month if that. I tried phyto and Cyclopeze but I don’t know if it did anything’s. $10 is super cheap lol. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clam that cheap

 

[GAhockey1992]

Im not sure as all the ones I’ve had under that mark lasted only about a month if that. I tried phyto and Cyclopeze but I don’t know if it did anything’s. $10 is super cheap lol. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clam that cheap

Haha ya ive never been crazy about clams but for the price I had to try one. I’m guessing it was just reduced because of how it looked in the store and then on top of it there was a livestock sale going on. I’m spot feeding phyto a couple times a week right now and is still responsive so we’ll see I guess

 

[bribo12]

Do you still have him on the sand? Maximas are rock borers so I’d definitely eventually move him to the rocks especially before he attaches byssal threads to the bottom of the tank lol.

 

[GAhockey1992]

Do you still have him on the sand? Maximas are rock borers so I’d definitely eventually move him to the rocks especially before he attaches byssal threads to the bottom of the tank lol.

Yes but nuzzled against a rock that he attached to. I’ll post a pic in a little of where he’s settled

 

[GAhockey1992]

Quick update. Everything has been doing very well so far. Clam from what I can tell is still doing ok too. Got a couple more acros and all are doing well. The strawberry shortcake I got started to die off at the tips randomly but that halted quickly and appears to be slowly coming back. Not sure what did it. Strange that the mariculture/wild pieces I have, haven’t missed a beat but then the aquacultured shortcake frag hit a rough patch. Who knows haha. Anyway I also ordered and set up my jebao dp4 dosing pump. Had some trouble calibrating one of the pump heads but switched it out for a spare they sent and it’s working great now.

Next on the agenda is setting up an auto top off system. I’ve never ran one before so pretty undecided which I should go with? If it matters, the display is a 20 long with a standard diy 10 gallon sump. Was thinking of going with the JBJ system since it seems to be the most popular choice. Any other suggestions?

 

[GAhockey1992]

So long time since the last update. Things were going smoothly for a while but over the past month pretty much all corals seem to be struggling. Most of my acros seem to be slowly losing color or bleaching. Maybe a little less polyp extension but not much. LPS as well seems to be slowly losing color and bleaching and showing significantly less polyp extension. Zoas color seems to ok be each polyp doesn’t open/ inflate as much as they used to. At this point I’m kind of at a loss for what the reason could be. I decide to order the triton test to make sure I’m getting accurate readings but also wanted to hear what people here might think.

Salinity: 1.024 (refractometer)
Alk: 7.5-8 dKH (Hanna checker)
Cal: 410 ppm (salifert)
Mag: 1410-1440 ppm (salifert)
NO3: 0-2.5 ppm (salifert)
PO4: 0.00 ppm (Hanna checker)

I’m thinking my nutrient levels may be too low at this point. PO4 is the most confusing to me. I’m using the ultra low range Hanna checker and for about a month now I’ve never gotten a reading other than 0..

 

[Sniperhank]

That is pretty hard to believe. Have you tested twice? I’ve never believed it was possible to get an actual 0 with phosphates.

 

[GAhockey1992]

That is pretty hard to believe. Have you tested twice? I’ve never believed it was possible to get an actual 0 with phosphates.

Ya. I’ve actually been testing it like 2-3x per week over the last month. I tested my “mess around” softie cube and it read 0 PO4 as well which made me think that something was up with the Hanna checker but then I tested my 40g FOWLR which I knew had to have some PO4 due to its minimal filtration and sure enough it gave a pretty high PO4 reading so I’m not really sure what to think with how accurate my hanna checker is. This triton test can’t get here soon enough

 

[Sniperhank]

Hanna checkers are usually pretty spot on. Have you checked to see if the additive is expired or if you can recalibrate the unit?

 

[GAhockey1992]

Hanna checkers are usually pretty spot on. Have you checked to see if the additive is expired or if you can recalibrate the unit?

The powder additive I just got about a month or 2 ago so it should be fine. I know the alk Hanna checker has a separate standardized solution you can buy to check it’s accuracy but I’m not sure about the PO4 checker.. I’ll have to check BRS. Gonna kick myself if so since I just placed an order a few days ago

 

[Sniperhank]

Even if you got the additive a couple months ago, still check if there is an expiration date. That happens sometimes.

 

[GAhockey1992]

Even if you got the additive a couple months ago, still check if there is an expiration date. That happens sometimes.

Checked and they don’t expire till 2021 so no problems there. BRS did have standardized solutions for the PO4 Hanna checker so that should be here Wednesday. Not sure how I missed that when I ordered the checker initially. Kinda hoping it’ll prove a faulty checker so I can atleast have somewhere to start getting things back on track

 

[Sniperhank]

Sounds good. Hopefully things get figured out. That reading simply doesn’t make sense.