[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Did my half yearly 'major' tank maintenance over the weekend. Broke up the branching hammer colony on the left & spaced them out a little more. Did a major water change of about 140L and removed most of the corals on the sand bed to thoroughly vacuum the sand. Goal is to mitigate risk of old tank syndrome & to keep nitrates in the 2.5-5ppm range long term. 

 

Siphoned out water from the tank into several buckets.

 

Torches in the bucket. Good time to scrape off the vermatid snails.

 

With half of the sandbed clear, the sand is siphoned. And corals  from the other half is moved around.

Finally put everything back. 3hr water change

 

 

 

A friend highlighted this interesting looking fish that Iwarna advertised. Looks so interesting.

 

In reality, they are about 2cm at Iwarna (will grow to 7cm). Got them at the same time as the Springeri Damsels on 21st January. 

Scientific name : Priolepis cincta

Common name : Banded Reef Goby

Behavior : Reer safe. Very very shy. Perch on cave walls in upside down position.

 

Next seen on 7th Feb. Well, glad to know its alive

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Some coral pics :

 

Bali shortcake (from Coral Fanatics). Pic with yellow filter. Now getting ~ 350 PAR

 

Divaricata. Now getting ~ 330 PAR

 

Not sure of the name of this. Got it from a fellow reefer as a 1.5" frag around 2018. Pic with yellow filter.  Now getting ~390 PAR

 

Bali slimer in whitish light. Now getting ~ 378-420 PAR

 

Clam on raised rock ~ 300 PAR.

 

Prata corner in whitish light. Now ~160 PAR. Very worried they will get bleaced if its too bright.

 

Torch garden (with yellow filter). Now getting ~ 275-300 PAR

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Went to a reefer's place to help him measure PAR this afternoon. Decided to measure my tank as well.

 

 

Switched over to David Saxby's profile to try it out. Comparing to my old template, his template has slightly lower PAR / more bluish + but longer hours + has the zigzag patter to simulate cloud cover (supposedly to give corals some relief from the bright light)

 

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Full tank shot from this morning.

I blocked out light from the calcium reactor temporarily until the middle door is re-installed. Want to prevent unsighly algae growth in the reactor.

 

Prata corner. Got this from The Reefer (Thanks Asri)

 

Hammer corner

 

8 out of 10 Springeri Damsels seen here. They could only swallow minced fish/prawn meat the past weeks and starting to be big enough to take Vitalis pellets

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

On 2/4/2022 at 10:41 PM, reefercoral said:

 
Other pics :
'Harvesting' pods & rotifers to feed the tank after lights off. Add together with about 1 cup of assorted phyto culture.

 



Sorry to dig up an old thread, just researching on how to harvest pods and came across ur thread… can I find out how u do it? It seemed to have a gd yield from the pic

Siphon out the culture water through a fine filter (recall using ~ 30 micron). Then replace with new salt water in the culture to keep things 'fresh'. Culture is fed with live phyto every day. Water always kept green. 

 

[Acropolis]

Looking good. The feeding regime is definitely working.

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

6 minutes ago, Sherilyn91 said:

The backup battery may need to do some testing / checking if the battery is still holding the charge on a yearly basic too.. else when disaster happens and battery is faulty, there goes everything..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Fully agree. Actually I test for connectivity & power level every month or so by switching off the main plug for a couple of minutes.

Have 2 batteries hooked up. And replace them every 3 years or so. (Ecotech mentioned the battery lasting 3-5yrs)

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Phosphate levels dropped from around 0.2ppm on 23rd January to 0.02ppm on 1st February. The fluidization on the Torq reactor is fantastically good. I was not able to get this level of phosphate reduction with a regular reactor.

Parameters measured yesterday :

Salinity : 35ppm  / 1.0264SG

Ca : 380ppm -> Manually dose to 400ppm

Mg : 1400ppm

KH : 8.2

Potassium : 380ppm -> To manually dose to 400ppm

Phosphate : 0.02ppm

Nitrate : 5 ppm

 

Some pics from this weekend :

Closeup of the Bugatti Chalice

 

Sticking  a frag of blue dragon to the rock

 

Clownfish fav hangout

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Received several queries about the Clarisea Gen 3 and whether its a worthwhile equipment. 

Its been 1 month since the last new roll of fleece change. Below is the current state. I'd expect the roll to last approximately 2.5 months. This reason alone is enough to justify installing it - no need to mess around with dirty wool every few days. The additional rollers on the Gen3 seems to reduce the strain on the motors - so far its pulling effortlessly & no bunching observed.

 

Ideally the Clarisea be located towards the front of the sump with easy access to the dirty fleece roll.

 

Someone also asked how the circuit breaker in my tank cabinet. Its good to have but not critical.

I have 6 power exension chords. Each is linked to a circuit breaker. In this way, if one item trips, there is a chance that it won't trip the rest of the breakers/equipment. For example, there are 2 return pumps in the tank. They are connected to different extension chords/breaker.

 

However, a backup battery for the wavemeker is considered essential. Very critical to keep the wavemaker going in the display tank if it trips even if its for a couple of hours. In the meantime, the Apex heartbeat function would notify if power in the house is out. It coule be 1 - 2 hours before you reach home. With the wavemaker still running, there is peace of mind there won't be serious issues during that time.

The Coralbox battery is quite OK. The Ecotech one works best with the Vortech wavemakers & have a larger capcity as well.

 

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

No. No carbon dosing anymore.

Using sulfur reactor to handle nitrates.

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Some damage to the cynarina found this morning. Must have been stung by the sweepers from the chalice. Neighbours for the past year. I'd expect it to recover.

 

Some daylight pics. No yellow filter.

Pink birdsnest.

 

Royal Blue Milli

 

I think they call this Ultra Walt Disney tenuis.

 

Overgrown bali slimer colony

 

 

Its been a month since using the Torq2 body. I must say that Nyos got it right with the 2nd iteration of the Torq.

The lids are very secure now. Coupled with the ease of removal for cleaning. And ease of rinsing media just by pouring fresh water down. I'm going to retire my old/regular media reactor and stick with the Torq2.

 

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Some fish pics taken today.

 

Springeri Damsel

 

 

 

The 3 clownfish have made the torches its home after all the bubble tip anemone were removed a couple of years back

 

One of my fav fish. But they are very fragile.

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Got inspired to do some retrofit for a 'smart home' after seeing Alston's setup. With his insights on equipment & some consultation (Thanks!!), I finally got it set up in December. With the zigbee hub in place, I did a little hack on the Sonoff door sensor to make it a wireless leak sensor.

 
Added a rain sensor PCB commonly used in arduino/raspberry pi projects

 
All cased up.
 
The nice thing is that its wireless. 
Costs about $10 (excluding the zigbee hub)

 
 
Finally see the serpent star. My last purchase from Coral Farm on 23rd October. (i.e put in tank on 23rd Oct 21. Next seen 15th Jan 22). Good to know its alive.

 
Some of the equipment on the left side of the tank.
I moved the ATO to the table recently. Quite ugly & plan to relocate it again.
Its very conveneint to have a tabletop space near the tank. Mine is a DIY 2020 aluminum profile stand with wooden panels straddling over the compressor. Its bolted to the tank cabinet for stability. 
Aside from the Alkatronic, Mastertronic and CO2 scrubber, there are 2x backup batteries for the wavemakers located under the table. 
 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Water change today before the start of the new work year. 

DD H2Ocean has a new packaging. Classic Formula -> same as the previous Pro forumula.

 

Some pics taken tonight taken with DD lens & iphone.

Hammer garden.

 

Sand bed is too messy.

 

This lobo is placed in super low light in the back corner of the tank behind the rocks.

 

Pic from Sept 2020. Traded with fellow reefer from Punggol.

 

The right frag was from a fellow reefer. 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Time to move some colonies to make space for the growing clam.

 

Early morning torchlight pics. 

A fellow reefer's pectinia.

 

Percelain crab

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

A quick review on the Clarisea Gen 3 Fleece Filter.

Looking back, my old Clarisea Gen 2 (SK5000) has been running since April 2018. A longer fleece roll was introduced around June 2019. Increased from 25 meter to 40 meter (Same spec @ 20 microns. And for the same price). 

 

The Clarisea has been a game changer on my tank husbandry the past 3.5 years. Previously, I had to change the sump filter wool every 3 days to mitigate rising nitrate levels. With the Clarisea, the filter fleece is replaced just once every 2 months or so.  A common question I’ve been asked is whether the Clarisea is worth getting. I will probably never ever run a tank without the convenience of it.

 

I got hold of the Clarisea Gen 3 recently to replace my 3.5yr old Gen 2.

Its similar to the Gen 2 but with some nice improvements from assembly & usability point of view. I understand that there is no change to the fleece, motor & controller. Did some sump work today & its a good time to take some pics & provide actual usage update. As a quick recap during unboxing, the main panels came assembled out of the box. Just need to fasten a few more pieces after installing the filter fleece.

 

Gen 3 has a stiff roller to guide the fleece.

 

This will prevent the fleece from bunching up like this seen in early Gen2 batches. The root cause is the white plate bends under the force of the taut fleece. And the curved shape of the plate causes the fleece to bunch up. I recall seeing current Gen2.5 version with this stiffener roller implemented already.

 

Underside view : 

 

I typically allow about 30% of the water to pass through. The bypass adjustment is now more accessible and located under the inlet pipe.

 

I leave mine slightly open like this 

 

Though some people may want to close it entirely for max filtration efficiency.

 

 Fleece removal tool. This is a convenient accessory to have. No more manual unwinding or cutting the dirty fleece with a blade. Just place the tool under the fleece & push down.

 

Then push down (with 2 hands)

 

The clear acrylic panels are removable without any tools. It simplified the initial assembly process & makes it easier to take things apart when its time to give the unit a thorough wash.

 

Looking at the picture, I just realised that I had assembled the used filter fleece incorrectly. You can see one end lifted off the acrylic. This happens when the motor wire is orientated to the bottom.

 

The correct orientation should be this. 
I previously had a bad experience of the motor wire cut by the sharp acrylic edge. Got it serviced at Reef Depot (btw, good after service & warranty support). You can see from the picture below that Gen3 has a feature to prevent the the motor wire from being damaged by the acrylic edge. 
 

 

The fresh roll of fleece is supported by this simple acrylic holder. This design positions the fleece perfectly perpendicular and has less friction compared to Gen 2 holder (where the cardboard core is held by 2 sponge inserts). Less friction probably means the motor won’t need to work so hard.

 

The fleece extension kit is now sold as a separate accessory. This is for folks with limited space & need to move the fresh fleece upwards. This is a pic from my old setup.

 

Nice to see design principles deployed at the float switch to eliminate use of fasteners.

 

The float switch shaft needs to be cleaned occasionally. Simply slide it off without the need to mess around with screws & nuts in that tight space.

 

Tops down view showing the clean side & dirty side.

 

To sum it all up: The Clarisea eliminates the mundane task of changing filter wool every few days. The latest Gen 3 performs similar to the previous Gen2.5 but has nice design & usability improvements.

 

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

More pics :

 

Branching golden hammer has a more yellowish tint now. 

 

Overgrown zoanthid on a frag rack.

 

Space Invader Pectinia. Goal is for it to reach open palm size.

 

 

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Some pics taken today 

 

Love the daytime polyp extension.

 

 

Growth of this pink birdsnest seems to have accelerated the past few weeks. 

 

 

 

About 2 months ago, I switched over to Coral Essentials line of additives after reading very good reviews about it. Its an Australian product & hence may not be so commonly mentioned in USA forums. Bought a set from Coral Fanatics. Note these are self purchased & wanted to use it for some time before sharing this update.

 

I've been advocate of having optimal levels of trace elements. From personal experience, when trace elements are out of spec (verified through ICP tests), corals tend to be less forgiving and tend to have problems (less PE, SPS tend to STN from the bottom, less vibrant colors, higher occurence of brown jelly). I suppose biological processes are inhibited (eg. poor nutrient transport to other parts of the colony that are not exposed to sufficient light).

 

 

One good thing is that all the ingredients are declared in the product page. Full disclosure provided in the msds document. 

CoralPower Trace A - Strontium & Barium. 

CoralPower Trace B - Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Chromium, Cobalt and Nickel

CoralPower Trace C - Potassium Iodide and Sodium Fluoride

CoralPower Potassium, Bromide & Boron - To enhance coloration + exoskeleton growth & cellular processes

 

CoralPower Amino - A blend of amino acids. For enzyme production, build protein for tissue growth & skeleton formation

CoralPower Gro - A blend of vitamins + L-Lysine (an amino acid). Liquid food source for growth & coloration. Improves polyp extension -> leads to more effective feeding

 

And finally the famous Black Label. From reviews, it to improve coloration, vibrancy and improve feeding response. On my end,  LPS are observed to be more puffy. Better polyp extension. Similarly, ingredients are fully declared in the MSDS. These are not cheap but decided to give it a try. 

Chroma+ : organic coenzymes to aid catabolism of sugars & amono acids

Vibrance + : aid rapid cell division & growth. 

Energy+ : For improved feeding & aid uptake of calcium, amino acids & vitamins -> improves growth

 

Dose is 1 drop per 100L  for Black Label, Amino, Gro, Potassium, Bromide & Boron.

And 2 drops per 100L for the Trace A, B, C.  

 

Everything looks good to date. An ICP test was done in September to get a baseline. The plan is to send for another round of ICP soon - to validate the dosing regime. 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

On 12/17/2021 at 9:39 PM, Ws_zaraki said:

Just wanna ask, do u find copepods in ur ATS?

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

Yes. Can see plenty of amphipods & copepods  whenever the hair algae is harvested.

 

[3D print & reefing]

4 hours ago, Daviansoh said:

Looks like a good fix for many things . But will the abs degrade overtime or being consumed by algae encrustment ?

ABS is considered a stable material for this purpose. Its even resistant to ozone for long periods of time (years).

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

1 hour ago, Otaku Reefer said:

 

Hi bro, do you know how will this affect current AI app users? Means all will need to swap to mobius? I am so used to current AI app, simple and neat.


Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

 

I think the native AI app will still be around.

But have the option to move to Mobius - its a better platform. Even simpler & neater.

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Partial tank shot 

 

If you recall, I made an overflow style secondary chamber filled with calcium reactor media. This was one way to receive low pH water from 2 sources (calcium reactor + sulfur reactor) with a single chamber (to save space). Made some modifications to raise the height of the funnel to gain more water pressure margin.

 

Also raised the height of the drain adapter.

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Exciting news that AI Hydra lights will soon be Mobius platform (similar to the rest of Ecotech). I got roped in to help with beta testing. Very nice interface and includes templates & additional features compared to the native AI app.

Will share more at a later time. Here is a screen shot :

 

 

 

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

I'm currently running rowaphos in a typical tall reactor but found 2 issues with it :

1) After a while the rowaphos tends to stop churning/fluidizing. And water that goes in the reactor starts to 'channel'. That is, water flows through small paths of least resistance and do not have effective contact with all the media in the reactor

2) Not so much an issue but an inconvenience to have to disconnect the tubes to the reactor then lift the full reactor out of the sump. My sump is quite packed & need to carefully navigate the reactor through tubes & wires.

 

The sump clean up effort was also to make space for the Nyos Torq G2 to solve the above issues.

Below is the new Torq G2 1.0 body (right side). Compare that with the old Gen1 - 2.0 sized body (on the left). 

The 1.0 sized body is smaller but good enough for me - only running rowaphos.

The 2.0 body has plenty of volume. Its actually a good size for running bio pellets.

 

Now has a fine mesh. Seems to do a good job keeping small media like rowaphos above the mesh.

 

Also comes with a larger mesh. Good for less restricted flow or for larger media.

 

The top sponge has a slit at the top. This is an exit path for water to prevent internal pressure from building up in case the sponge gets clogged. 

 

One thing I found was that its now very convenient to rinse the rowaphos. Its really as simple as just pouring clean water from the top & let the dirty water flow through the bottom mesh. After a few liters, its all clean.

Effortless!

 

Both the top & bottom have a locking mechanism. This finally solves the big issue of the older generation where the lids can slip off.

 

I put this amount for my 850L tank. That's about 1/3 bottle of Rowaphos.

 

Woot! Fluidizing very nicely in the chamber. And easy to adjust the flow. Clockwise to reduce the flow. Anti clockwise to increase flow....just like running a tap.

 

[My Slice of Nature (Part 3)]

Finally did some clean up. Over the weekend & past few nights.

Prime Fuge  has done a fantastic job with the refugium. Instead of the regular cheato, i'm growing hair algae on a mesh screen inside the refugium box. Something like an ATS, but with more water volume for the pods to reproduce. 

 

What it looks like in white light

 

 

Gave the bio media a quick rinse with wank water. Have about 8 bags of bio media in that section.  A mix of bacteria king media, Maxpect biospere & Siporax. That shell on top of the bio media is the resident Halloween Crab living in the sump.

 

Last cleaned about 3 years ago. Surprisingly they weren't dirty at all.