Dawn On The Reef

[BigC]

Nothing to report tonight other than the tank is a little cloudy and the rock is rather dirty with the die-off. Maybe I should have scrubbed the liverock some more.
Anyway I will perform the second round of test tomorrow evening and post the results. No real hitchhikers as yet am I unlucky or is it just too early to tell.
Thanks to all contributers so far I am deeply indebted.
Regards
BigC

 

[@ombomb]

Don't write it off yet BigC... I've found new hitch hikers on my live rock recently (Bivalve of some sort and some polyps) 18 months after putting the last of it in the water!

 

[BigC]

I've found new hitch hikers on my live rock recently (Bivalve of some sort and some polyps) 18 months after putting the last of it in the water!

Seriously....

Anyway it's pretty boring around here at the moment, nothing much happening whilst I await the cycling process to run it's course, the only worring factor I've just noticed that the rock is starting to take on a brown algal like tinge (not the rockwall just the Liverock) should I be concerned?
Todays stats are as follows
Temp = 79.4'F
SG = 1.026
pH = 8.2
Ammonia = 7.5ppm
Nitrite = 0.05ppm
Nitrate = Not testing yet.
Something similar to Mondays readings so no change there.
As I said before I have a lot of die-off wafing around, semi attached to the Liverock should I attempt to remove this manually or leave well alone.
Also cleaned the coverglasses of low level of salt residue this evening, no noticable evaporation problems at the moment.
Should I try to clean the rock a little with a toothbrush, please advise.
Regards
BigC

 

[littleme1969]

Hi Big C..
Leave the rock to do its thing
Once you get some clean up crew in there, they will go over it like little hoovers and youll soon have nice clean rock.
Not sure where you are in the UK, but I have some soft coral frags you can have if your willing to pay postage.

Nikki

 

[BigC]

Hi LM.

Not sure where you are in the UK, but I have some soft coral frags you can have if your willing to pay postage.

I would be most interested, but I will have to wait a while for cycling to complete and cleanup crew to get this tank back in some sort of order. But yes I'm interested. I have small polystyrene boxes that I use to send out Killifish in the summer months so when the time is right I send one over to you with payment. I think I have some heatpacks left.
Incidentally what species are the coral you have
Thanks very much for such a kind offer. and thanks for replying to my query above
Regards
BigC

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow that's a LOT of dieoff BigC, no wonder you're havin algae growth. Out of curiosity, how far from the LFS do you live?

 

[littleme1969]

Hi..
I have lots of pink pom pom xenia, also lots of red sea xenia, and ther is also a few zoo frags and some bright green xenia, all will be stuck to live rock.
I have plenty of poly boxes as I breed and sell BN plecs but I'm short of heat packs.
Let me know when you are ready and I'll get it all together and take some pics.

Nikki

 

[BigC]

how far from the LFS do you live?

About 8 miles...Ski. Why do you ask.

I have lots of pink pom pom xenia, also lots of red sea xenia, and ther is also a few zoo frags and some bright green xenia, all will be stuck to live rock.
I have plenty of poly boxes as I breed and sell BN plecs but I'm short of heat packs.
Let me know when you are ready and I'll get it all together and take some pics.

Cheers Nikki very kind of you , I'll be intouch so keep hold of some for me.

Struggling with water chemistry and cycling at the moment. Diatomic algae has reared its head as previously mentioned and the water stats are exactly the same as before (Wed) except fot the Nitrite seems to have dropped everso slightly.
As this is a kind of Journal I really should be posting the downsides as well as the highlights so below is a picture of the invading Diatomic Algae (brown) It has seemed to confined itself mostly to the Liverock and the front pane of the aquarium but I'm sure that will all change drastically over the comming days/weeks.
I have cleaned the front pane of the tank with an algae magnet before I took the pic and I also cleaned the coverglasses with fresh water to keep those clean while I'm waiting.

Thanks for all the help guys
Regards
BigC

 

[littleme1969]

Pretty classic case youl find it covers the sand bed next too, always gets worse before it gets better. If you have no ammonia and the sg is stable I would think about throwing in some CUC soon. They will soon get on top of your diatoms outbreak. Then in a couple of months it will be the red slime you have to contend with..lol Oh such joy

 

[SkiFletch]

Reason I ask is tryin to figure out why you have so much dieoff and so few bacteria seemingly able to eat it all. How long were you mock-aquascaping?

 

[BigC]

Reason I ask is tryin to figure out why you have so much dieoff and so few bacteria seemingly able to eat it all. How long were you mock-aquascaping?

Well to tell you the truth I was begining to wonder about the whole thing myself regarding the Liverock.
From when I bought it, getting it home and placing it in my tank would not have taken longer that 1 hour give or take 15mins. It did not smell at all when it came out of the dealers vat. I had a sniff of it when I got it home and it was fine, not offensive just a marine salty sort of smell, they smell you get when you turn rocks on a beach. I'm beginning to wonder if it was new rock at all or maybe some aquarist had shut down their tank (which they had neglected) and passed it through the dealers. Just seems to be an awful lot of die-off for it to be normal. Maybe it's just me as it's my first real venture into salties. The dealership is pretty clued up on the Marine side of things and they told me to just place the rock into the tank and perform the tests (which I already knew form you guys). If it were me (stickler for cleanliness) I would have liked to scrub that rock first. But anyway its in now so I guess I'll just have to persevere. The reason I suspected that the rock had already experienced life in another aquarium was that there seemed to be a different colouration on some pieces like it had been on the base and was partically sunk into the gravel (gravel line discolouration) These pieces I didn't purchase. I bought bright vibrant pieces nice coraline coloured. No Hitchikers sept a few isopods (perhaps Munnid) which is another factor which led me to believe its from another tank. What do you think guys...Am I being overly concerned.
Regards
BigC

 

[Tacklebury]

OMG.

Having spent the last 30 mins reading each post i felt i had to reply.

BigC, that is one impressive setup you have there. As a tropical keeper i never knew how much extra effort it is to keep marine.

I have often wondered if marine is my next step in the fish keeping world, but to be honest i think i need a few more years in the tropical world before even thinking about going marine.

Beautiful Design and an obvious eye for detail will undoubtedly leave you with a brilliant looking tank.

As for the plugs, filter, RO-Man thing!!!!!

I'll stick with my Tropical’s for now!!!!

Simon.

 

[BigC]

Cheers Simon.
Thanks for the comments
This is my first venture into salties (bloody expensive in comparison) even to go small will cost a pretty penny.
Regards
BigC

 

[SkiFletch]

Expensive is right . Well, like you said BigC, all you can do now is hang back and wait. Ammonia still pegged today?

 

[BigC]

Well, like you said BigC, all you can do now is hang back and wait. Ammonia still pegged today?

Yeah guess so Ski.
No tests today, just did them yesterday, tommorrow I'll perform them again. but trying to stick to (Mon, Wed, Fri).
Diatoms are starting to invade the substrate, I knew they would, along with everything else but funnily enough the rockwall seems to have escaped their advancement thus far, why I dont know, maybe its too early or maybe its the material itself, only time will tell.
Regards
BigC