Lister's Paradise

[Zante]

New video coming up soon, I am having some problems with the microphone.
 
In the meantime yesterday I have upgraded the lights by adding two Radion pro to the two Radions I already had.
 
Today I have switched on the dosing pump for the triton method and switched off the calcium reactor.
So, here goes the first measurement of many:
Salinity: 1.026
Kh: 10
 
Kh is higher than the minimum recommended for the method. Now I just have to sit and wait, keeping salinity and kh under control, adjusting the exported water and imported minerals to maintain the necessary levels.

 

[Zante]

I have received my first triton test. I was frankly expecting worse. There is quite a bit of red though.
 
Tin and copper are quite high, but I think that comes from the tap water I used at some point. They should go down by themselves.
 
Lithium, nickel and molybdenum are also high, but those are most probably left overs from the tropic marin elements I was dosing before.
 
Iodine is even a bit high!
 
I have a bit of chromium, cobalt and iron, but not enough to go in the red, and, again, it's most probably left-overs from the elements I was dosing before.
 
Quite high on the phosphorous and the phosphate, but that is quite understandable, I've been leaving pieces of shellfish in a trap to catch a crab, and they will have affected the water quality.
 
All in all not bad, as I said I was expecting the parameters to be all over the place.
Now I have to keep the salinity and kh under control and at the end of May I'll send off the next test. Then I will be able to see what my tank is using and what steps to take.

 

[Zante]

I almost forgot:
 
Salinity: 1.026
Kh: 9
 
Hmm... kh is already going down, but to be honest I was expecting it, and according to the triton site the sweet spot should be 8 and that is where it should stay. I'll keep measuring and see what happens. If it drops past 8 I'll increase the dosage of the triton stuff.

 

[Zante]

Today's readings:
Salinity: 1.026
Kh: 8
 
Hmm... going definitely down, I'll have to increase the dosage. Going from 60ml/day to 70ml/day

 

[Zante]

Kh is down to 7, increasing dosage to 80ml/day.
 
If it still isn't enough and tomorrow the kh is down again I'll do a full range of tests, add what's needed (carbonates, calcium and/or magnesium) and raise the dose again.

As an aside, I've found out that one of the members of my reef club works in the TMC fish house. At our last meet he said that blue velvet angels don't come in often, but they do come in on a fairly regular basis. I just need to be patient and wait a bit for them to be flown in.
 
While I try and see (and possibly catch) what is killing the fish in my tank I won't be adding anything else, but it's nice to know it's not too difficult to get these lovely fish.
 
On hindsight it makes sense. It was only described as a separate species two years ago, and it would take some time for the information to spread and the collectors to be informed and trained.
 
Anyway, any new additions are postponed until I catch this pest.
(By the way, I haven't seen the mandarin in the last few days...)

 

[Zante]

Kh is 7
 
It is stable for the moment. If it stays stable there tomorrow I'll increase to 90ml/day.

 

[Donya]

Ok, now I know there's something in my tank killing fish.
I have only one mandarin left, all the chromis are gone, the pyjama wrasse and the female coral beauty haven't shown up in days and the male coral beauty is dead, all of the cucumbers are dead and so are two of the cleaner shrimps.
 
First of all I must avoid replacing the dead fish.
In the meantime I need to keep an eye on the tank and see if there's a predator in there.

 
Only just noticed that you mentioned cucumbers in the list of things that died. Are you sure it's not that a cucumber went first and caused things to snowball after that? I did a quick search in the thread and saw you listed them as pink cucumbers; did you have a species ID?

 

[Zante]

I pulled out the corpses of the cucumbers and they were still quite intact with the <I can't remember the name of the toxic organs> still inside so I think that it's unlikely that it is due to the cucumbers.
 
I have considered the possibility, mind you, but after two large water changes and a couple of months of running carbon that is unlikely to be still an issue at this point, and the latest loss was a goatfish last night.
 
In any case the pink cucumber was a Holothuria edulis and the black one a Holothuria lencospilota

 

[Zante]

Kh is at 7.5 (approximately) today.

A full set of test is needed here, so here goes:

Ph: 8.6 - all good here.

Ca: 415 - a bit lowish, but still ok

Mg: 1250 - barely acceptable, definitely lower than I'd want it.

I'll raise the dosage to 85ml/day, in the meantime I'll top up the magnesium.

 

[Zante]

Had a bit of an accident today with an overflow, and lots of saltwater went on the floor. That in turn means that about 15 litres of RO water went into the tank from the auto top up, with consequent dilution of everything. 
 
Hopefully it shouldn't make too much of a difference to 600 litres, but let's see what the kh says today:
 
Kh: 6.5 
 
Yep, definitely down, even if the dosing pump has been running at 90ml/day, and I did top up the buffer yesterday.
 
I'll stay at 90ml/day and top up the buffer again, to compensate for the dilution due to the accident, and see if it really was the accident or if the corals are really stripping the water of all those minerals.
 
If it is the corals though, the three litre bottles I prepared for the solutions might not be enough, I might start considering pulling directly from the 10 litre mixing containers.
 
In the meantime here is a video on my plankton setup
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQOskbXb2DY

 

[Zante]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_1crAE2E8

 

[T.I.A]

Lovely tank

 

[Zante]

Thank you, it's getting there...

 

[Zante]

Two flame angels have joined the family. 
 
They are now hiding in the rocks, and I will be gone for the whole weekend, so if they're not out and about tomorrow morning I'll be seeing them on sunday evening, or even monday morning.
 
I'll do a video update as soon as possible.

 

[Brilly91]

Two flame angels have joined the family. 
 
They are now hiding in the rocks, and I will be gone for the whole weekend, so if they're not out and about tomorrow morning I'll be seeing them on sunday evening, or even monday morning.
 
I'll do a video update as soon as possible.

 
Love flame angels got a plan if they start nipping at any corals? Ive been wanting to add one to my tank but keep putting it off as im worried theyll eat stuff they shouldnt.