I bought some new zoos today during Tranquil Scape's one day sale. They are really pretty, and I didn't want to put them in the main tank since my livestock tends to enjoy checking things a little too, ah... thoroughly. I even got a blue polyp or two. ;)

So I set up my Fry Tank, the one I've been hoping to keep baby clownfish in one day. Since I can't get the hatchlings, I decided to put it to use for now. I might even get the Clown Goby out of my tank and put it in this little pico tank.







I have a tiny heater in the tank to maintain temperature, and a PC 50/50 bulb over the frags. The light fixture is too large, and it is tempting to just use a 5100K refugium bulb instead. I've not made up my mind yet.

Here is the pump, a Sen mini pump that moves 90gph. I decided to make a small adaptation to the outlet to control the flow in a way that should work okay.




















I have one snail in the tank to keep the rock tidy. Water changes will be the only filtration, and I don't plan to feed the tank. I'll just use water from the reef tank. It holds roughly 2g of water.

The cube is 8 x 8 x 8. One blue moonlight is mounted over the tank, which I may leave on. I'll decide tonight.

I tested my water a couple of times over the past few days to see if Phosphates are rising again. The Pura-Pads were removed as they looked "full" to me, and the Tunze Silphos system was returned to the vendor that lent it to me to try out.

PO4 was close to 1.0 ppm, so I redosed the tank again with 300ml of Phosbuster Pro late when the fish are at rest. Looking at the reef tank, there aren't any real negatives from using this product, as far as I can tell. I've watched the SPS that have been declining for weeks, and they continue to do worse each day, while other corals seem completely unaffected. With the chemistry swings I'm causing, I'm not all that surprised. My goal is to get the water where it needs to be, and then focus on replacing the losses with new corals that should be do well in healthier waters.

I may try running ozone in the near future to help reduce the organics in the water. This has been a topic I've been doing a little research upon for the past few weeks.

Today, a new product arrived called PhosBuster Pro, by CaribSea. After following the directions closely and preparing the tank for the dosage, I added it and hoped for the best.

Six hours later, I tested the PO4 level and it had dropped from 1.5ppm to .25ppm or less. I'm very happy to finally see the phosphate level brought down significantly, and hope that I can set up my system to keep it that low from now on. I'll be sure to update this log with any changes.

Rotifers

A couple of days ago, I tried to take a few pictures of rotifers. Rotifers are needed when you want to feed newly born fry (baby fish), and some reef keepers pour rotifers in their tank to feed their corals. I'll go more into what rotifers are in the future, but for now, here are the pictures. While not as good as I'd hoped, it is better than nothing at all, in case you just wanted to see what they are. A microscope might be better, in the future.

I took a small amount and rinsed them off the screen into a petri dish. I added a little tank water, and covered it. Then I put a magnifying glass on top and took a few pictures through that. I also took a few more with the lens of my camera within 1 cm of the rotifers. Let's just say, I tried quite a few times. Macro video would be nicer. ;)

First, here is how I set it up. I put the edge of the dish on a white background.


In this picture, you can see a hair that fell in the dish apparently. Look for the honey-golden dots near the hair, all along the edge of the dish. The rotifers continued to gather along the edges for some reason.


Another view. The arrows are pointing in the general direction of where the rotifers are, but actually they are scattered throughout the dish if you look closely. The majority are in gathered along the upper edge of the dish.


The green stuff is probably consumed phytoplankton. I've been keeping this culture alive for about two weeks using my home-made phyto (the miracle grow version). Rotifers must be fed phyto every day to keep them alive. I'm still working out the 'recipe', but I have talked with a couple of people about their methods and think I'm on the right track.


These images were taken without magnification, just holding the Fuji S602Z very very close to the subject. Even at a mere 1cm, it is tough to focus on these little guys. I think the camera focused on the base of the dish, and since the distance was so close between the base and the rotifers, I figured it was good enough. Maybe I should have used manual focus and tried to get them a little more crisp.


As you can see, counting them would be tough. I guess it would be interesting to know how many I collected just for this photo session. It came from about 1 liter of rotifer culture.


In this image, I let Photoshop adjust the levels with "auto levels" just to give you one more way of seeing these little guys.


Phosphates

The battle continues with phosphates in my tank. I have a feeling that because I let it get out of hand for so many months, it is going to take a long time to suck it back out of my rocks and sand. Last saturday, I picked up some Pura-Pads (similar to Poly Filters) and inserted them in the baffles of the sump for a few days. They are designed to absorb and remove PO4, as well as other stuff. After a few days, I tested my PO4 with high expectations, but alas, they were still close to 3.0. ARGH! I replaced the pads with a new set last night.

A new product call PhosBUSTER Pro is coming in on Friday, and I'm going to try it out. I talked with the vendor about this product, and it was emphasized that I need to buffer up the water (alkalinity) 10 minutes before dosing, because this product will lower it quickly. The way it is supposed to work is to bind up the phosphate into a tiny granule, which can be exported via the protein skimmer.

I still have one last batch of Tunze Silphos to use as well.

Newest Coral

Last weekend, our club has a Frag Swap. I came home with 14 tiny frags, which I scattered throughout the tank. The next day, I could only find 9 of them. The livestock tends to move stuff around in one way or another. Due to the fact the PO4 is so high in my tank, I'm not holding my breath.

Still, I did get a beautiful new coral that I couldn't take my eyes off of. I have affectionately dubbed it with the name Nipples.



Here is one more shot of it before it was bagged up to come home with me.

A new webpage has been created to help those that want to make their own acrylic sump. This page explains how to create the top flange.

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/diy/flange.html

Water tests were done again. Parameters page

It turns out, my Salifert Magnesium test kit had the wrong size spoon in it. It had the little white one like the Nitrate test kit, so my readings never went up all this time. When I opened my new kit today to do the Mg test, I saw the larger blue spoon in the box. And the better reading is the result. I've been dosing Magnesium Chloride daily trying to bring it up, and it is nice to know it is working.

Phosphates continue to rise. Argh! I changed out the Tunze Silphos product, and this time decided to not rinse the media first. Tunze states to remove PO4 quickly, don't rinse. My tank turned red.



The livestock seems unaffected, and I hope by morning the water will be clear again. And the PO4 should be lower, I hope!!!!!!

Here is the new clownfish fry tank. It is only good for the first couple of weeks, to raise the babies while very tiny.

I built this in anticipation for the eggs that the clowns produced 7 days ago, but while I was working on this project, they hatched. I'll have to wait for the next clutch of eggs.

First, with the moonlight.



Now, under normal lighting.











This is a light with three blue LEDs. Our club did a Group Buy.


This is the light bracket. I wanted it to be fully removable when I need to wash the tank. It slides right up and out. Plus, it helps hold some wires in place.


This is the heater bracket. Again, removable. Also visible is the probe from the thermometer.


From another angle.


It was built to be 9.5" cube shaped, with the sides and back wall in black acrylic. The front and base are clear. All parts are removable, and all I need are some babies. :D

It holds about 2.5 gallons.

I tested my water today, and still have wild numbers. It really is discouraging, as I was hoping for things to level out. Phosphates don't seem to be coming down whatsoever, but my refugium is very empty currently. I need to quit sharing macros until that section is dense with plants again.

I made the time to vacuum the sump of detritus. I know this question comes up often enough on RC about how to clean your sump out, since it is level with the floor. What I did was use what I had handy:

1 filter sock
vinyl tubing
1 MaxiJet 600

I created a vacuum cleaner by inserting a piece of 1" vinyl tubing on the intake section of the Maxijet. I ran 3/8" tubing from the output of the maxijet into a big filter sock, and stuck that in the middle of the sump so I wouldn't have to move it.

Working my way across the sump section by section, I sucked up all detritus (and water) and collected all the sediment in the sock. No water is wasted, and the majority of the garbage is removed. The skimmer should remove anything else that is water borne, right?

The only negative was when something clogged up the intake of the MaxiJet. Cutting out some of the protective grid inside of the intake would help, or simply using a larger pump perhaps. Thus, I had to pull apart the intake side a few times to remove any bits of stuff that acted as a blockage.

This is what I ended up with. I believe the sump has been running for 2 weeks, perhaps a bit longer. Hopefully the removal of this detritus will help in the lowering of phosphates.