Blog Comments

That plate is schweeeet!

Dang, you found me. Time to move on. hehe

So this is where melev has been hanging out these days.

lol, grats, and as always great looking tanks/corals

In the past with different media, I've run pH as low as 6.2 running 3 bubbles per second. The effluent flowed out non-stop in a steady stream, and this kept up with a full-blown reef. Starting a new system with twigs is a whole other ballgame.

Well, that's great news and I'm happy I saw it. I saw something that looked like that pulsating tail tonight just going back into the bushy macro algae and I was halfway tempted to rip out everything to find another worm, but didn't go for it.

I'm weeks late into the game, but I can't resist a worm post. I must be a handful of freaks who's fascinated by these guys.

As you probably may have guessed, the moving red line is its dorsal blood vessel. All segmented worms (bristle worms, fan worms, earth worms, leeches) have two large blood vessels, one on the top and the other bottom. Sometimes it's possible to see the blood flow through it as in your video.

I'm more curious as to why the rear of the worm has such a distinctly different color, and I wonder whether the worm is developing an epitoke. An epitoke is a reproductive stage found in some segmented worms, where their rear segments will start to develop differently, literally break off and swim near the surface to meet up with other epitokes to release their sperm and egg. The rest of the worm that stays at the bottom will regrow the lost segments. I've seen a few epitokes swim around in my tank one night a few months ago. If it is true then you caught the worm just in the nick of time.

Appreciate it. I'm currently making some changes to my fish room and refuge is off line, hence, no light cycle at night. Imagine if you did not have opposite lighting per fuge, your ph could swing even more. I've been running a Calcium Reactor for years and never really "dialed it in". I'm getting the picture and think my confusion was I thought I absolutely had to have the effluent ph in 65 - 68 range? I had super high Ca over 480. I now see that I can play with the PH on effluent like you have and testing to fine tune. Thanks for the feedback.

Here's a graph from the past 7 days for pH:



Regarding the calcium reactor, the output was barely dripping out, so the tank wasn't getting quite enough alkalinity. By upping the output to a steady trickle, it will bring that number up. The goal is to find the matching flow rate. The reactor's pH controller is set to 7.4, with a bubble rate of 1 bubble per second.

This media must have some magnesium as well since my level stays solid and doesn't seem to need replenishing.

Hi Marc,

Few questions on chemistry;

What is a normal ph swing in your tanks history in a 24 hour period? What type of swing is a concern in 24hr period, i.e 8.3 in day 7.9 at night? Is that a concern?

When you say, up the output of reactor, what does that mean? Effluent ph lower, ie. 69 to 67 and more drips on output?
Does that upping of output, also change Ca and Mg theoretically?

I have a large water volume, I've not filled the tank up with a ton of fish, and I don't feed massive amounts. I do put food in two or three times a day, but smaller portions.

I think the NP pellets are doing that magic currently. That's my hope anyway. I run the skimmer, have a healthy refugium that I cull macro out of every few weeks, and that's about it. The tank has been up 3.5 months and I've only done 250g total in water changes.

Wow... nice Marc! My son's tank is far from what I would consider "mature" ( at nearly six months old) and he is still seeing some blips in nitrates and phosphates. If you were to attribute your amazing success to one or two practices in this regard, what would it be? Fuge... treatments... water changes... ???
Jim

LOL burdens always come with a smile and alittle guilt

And I said yes with love!!

LMAO. Nice work.

Too bad, they are beautiful fish.

No, it's not a molt. If it was, I'd still have a shrimp running around my rockwork. I think the shrimp got too darn close to the clownfish eggs, and the parents reacted. They are a little too hostile for my liking, and may not stay in my tank much longer. I don't like aggressive fish.

The Vortechs are in Reefcrest mode and are running at 50-60% power.

Wow thats a nice redundant and multidirectional flow.
what mode do you have the Vortechs on?

Midnight brings up a good point. My Trachyphyllia used to eat my cleaner's molts. Not so much since the LPS died.

Love the movement.

Marc, are you sure this is not just a molt? I have seen my in the anemone lots of time including stealing food. I was not aware shrimps could be stung. Of course those BTA tentacles are scary long, how did that happen?