High Tide Aquatics

kinetic Reefer 170

I've been waiting and waiting to find a H. Magnifica anemone, but nothing turned up yet. I'm going to work on getting a flat top rock as a pedestal for the magnifica. I'll try to figure out how to work it into the rockwork to make it look nice. Probably will be 6"x10", which is going to be pretty big compared to the minimal rock I have.



In the meantime, my rainbow BTA is finally coming out a bit more and bubbling during the day. I think he finally ate some mysis yesterday, hard to tell though.

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I have 1ppb phosphates, and less than 10ppm of nitrates. I'm trying to feed a whole lot more to get these poopy parameters up. Decided to get a small geometric pygmy hawkfish. I guess they're technically anthias, but they act just like hawks. He's been eating at least 3 - 4 big mysis a day:

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I thought he would just disappear into the rockwork, but he perches out on a rock most days. The only other live creatures is the hiding anemone and 4 nassarius snails, so I think he feels pretty comfortable. Eventually when I get the h. mag into the display and settled down, I'll add the small harem of clownfish...
 
So all of us with iPhones should be able to say exactly how noisy our equipment is with that app. I am thinking to start a thread "just how noisy is it"

Your rocks and substrate are super white, if it's true that fresh aragonite surfaces can precipitate alkalinity you might want to measure your alk?
 
The challenge will be that...unless everyone is using the same phone, there will be quite a bit of variability due to differences not the microphone, model, etc.


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The standards for distance of measurement of dB is either the typical distance of a human in the situation, or 1 meter if not otherwise specified. I think 1 m would apply for reef equipment. Distance obviously matters greatly due to the inverse square law of sound intensity.


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perchlets are cool little fish, very cryptic. I had a fat one in my nano for years till it died of old age. Stayed in caves/behind rockwork unless feeding time. will try to eat small shrimp like candy pistols and sexy shrimp
 
So all of us with iPhones should be able to say exactly how noisy our equipment is with that app. I am thinking to start a thread "just how noisy is it"

That would be really good. I have gathered some others' skimmer decibels measured in a similar way as me. Same app, same phone, same distance and position.

The challenge will be that...unless everyone is using the same phone, there will be quite a bit of variability due to differences not the microphone, model, etc.

Yeah I think the variability will be tough. A nice database with enough people will yield a good idea though. If we all had the same phone and app, but a different pump (for example), that would be nice.

The standards for distance of measurement of dB is either the typical distance of a human in the situation, or 1 meter if not otherwise specified. I think 1 m would apply for reef equipment. Distance obviously matters greatly due to the inverse square law of sound intensity.

I don't know much about sound intensity. Are you saying we should measure all decibels at 1m away?

Your rocks and substrate are super white, if it's true that fresh aragonite surfaces can precipitate alkalinity you might want to measure your alk?

They are super white. I aesthetically really like it that way. My last tank stayed super white for almost 2 years. Finally got some coralline by accident, and purpled up fast. Eventually I got everything white again with an aggressive pincushion urchin ;) I have no idea if they precipitate alk. I have the Red Sea Alk/Mg/Ca kit. I'll do a measurement this weekend to see what it's at when I do a water change. I'll measure my newly mixed water first (AquaForest Reef Salt) to do a comparison. In the past I used the same kind of rock with no high Alk issues (dosed a TON of it actually).

perchlets are cool little fish, very cryptic. I had a fat one in my nano for years till it died of old age. Stayed in caves/behind rockwork unless feeding time. will try to eat small shrimp like candy pistols and sexy shrimp

That's good to know Kremis! So far this guy is in the tank with few critters, so seems to be bold enough to dash out and eat a mysis floating nearby. But unless I spot feed in his area, he won't come very far out. I hope he'll be hungry enough to jump out once there's more critters in the tank. I'm not planning on having any shrimp (anything with claws really, I've had them and they're usually pretty terrible other than looking cool).

I know this one is also technically in the anthias family, with hawkfish behavior. I'm probably going to try multiple feedings in a day to see if that would help.
 
Lots of brown spots all over my tank today. Did a quick test, ammonia/nitrites 0 (red sea and salifert kits), nitrates a bit higher now at 25ppm, and phosphates went from 1ppb to 18ppb (Hanna ULR checker)! Finally, some nutrients happening.

Probably due to:
1. going from 10mL of live phytoplankton to 20mL each day, in the last few days
2. feeding whole cubes of PE Mysis everyday (geo hawk only eats 2 - 3 shrimp, the rest just floats around and get stuck in my gyre mesh)
3. I stopped dosing NoPo4-X 8 days ago

Eager to see the ugly stage come (and go).
 
Lots of brown spots all over my tank today. Did a quick test, ammonia/nitrites 0 (red sea and salifert kits), nitrates a bit higher now at 25ppm, and phosphates went from 1ppb to 18ppb (Hanna ULR checker)! Finally, some nutrients happening.

Probably due to:
1. going from 10mL of live phytoplankton to 20mL each day, in the last few days
2. feeding whole cubes of PE Mysis everyday (geo hawk only eats 2 - 3 shrimp, the rest just floats around and get stuck in my gyre mesh)
3. I stopped dosing NoPo4-X 8 days ago

Eager to see the ugly stage come (and go).
We used to dose live phyto. The problem was that once it started to grow in the tank, it was everywhere. We were dosing Phyto Feast live which has a brown color and it didnt take long to have a brown film all over everything. we now use RG Complete which has ChlorAmX in it.
 
Better start your nutrient export now. 18ppb phosphorus = 0.05 ppm phosphate which is pretty high, coupled with 25 ppm nitrate, the algae is gonna start fast.


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Better start your nutrient export now. 18ppb phosphorus = 0.05 ppm phosphate which is pretty high, coupled with 25 ppm nitrate, the algae is gonna start fast.

Yeah my nitrates have been around 15-25ppm, but my phosphates were low until this last test.

Chaeto is growing pretty well. Skimmer isn’t doing anything. I’ll probably let things ride out a bit then add a CUC.

Think I should start up NoPo4-X again?
 
Agree.
So everyone please go out and buy the new iPhone X.
:)

Actually, I will be getting one. Though it won't be a personal phone, just for work (because of what we do, we have every Apple device, kind of cool). My personal phone is still the awesome iPhone SE (in rose gold no less).
 
We used to dose live phyto. The problem was that once it started to grow in the tank, it was everywhere. We were dosing Phyto Feast live which has a brown color and it didnt take long to have a brown film all over everything. we now use RG Complete which has ChlorAmX in it.

Was the brown film specifically from Phyto Feast? I got brown film even before dosing anything into the tank (in this one and previously too).

Also, I'm not sure if I'm finding the right RG Complete on google. I only found this:
https://planktovie.biz/product/rg-complete-1l/

I got a bunch of pods from Algae Barn, and it came with a bottle of their own live phyto. It's green and seems to work fine. I've just been dosing that to try to keep the pod population up and growing since the tank started totally dry/dead. But after this bottle is done, thinking of continuing it maybe. If RG Complete is better, might be cool to go that direction!
 
Was the brown film specifically from Phyto Feast? I got brown film even before dosing anything into the tank (in this one and previously too).

Also, I'm not sure if I'm finding the right RG Complete on google. I only found this:
https://planktovie.biz/product/rg-complete-1l/

I got a bunch of pods from Algae Barn, and it came with a bottle of their own live phyto. It's green and seems to work fine. I've just been dosing that to try to keep the pod population up and growing since the tank started totally dry/dead. But after this bottle is done, thinking of continuing it maybe. If RG Complete is better, might be cool to go that direction!
I presume it was the phyto. It was nasty! This is what I am using in my tanks now. I dose my 80g D/T system 5ml twice daily, the 29g 1.5ml twice a day, and the 55g pod culture is getting 10ml twice a day. The downside is shipping cost, so I get 2 quarts at a time.
http://apbreed.com/product_rgcomplete.php
 
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