my fellow reefers I am back with a major tank update on my waterbox 220 gallon reef tank there
has been a big mystery going on with my tank the past few weeks and it's been driving me absolutely
crazy trying to solve it hopefully you guys can help me figure it out and solve whatever the heck
is wrong but before we get into all of it I have some exciting news to share we got new fishies in
the observation tank yes that's right finally have some new fish you know my tank is quite empty in
that regard I have a whole whopping 220 gallons to work with and not nearly as many fish as I'd like
I currently have two clown fish a cardinal fish a yellow watchman goby who is actually not even
yellow anymore because it turned into a female but hey a tomini tang an itty bitty little file fish
a royal gramma one foxface and a powder blue tang you know it sounds like a lot when I list it all
out like that but this tank could really use some more I mean keeping up nutrients in this tank has
been quite hard I have to feed multiple times a day to even get close to normal levels and even
doing that has been really difficult I even tossed up dosing just straight nitrate for a while to get
my nutrients up you know it's it was that bad so it's been really rough and I just really really
want a self-containing bioload you know I mean is that too much to ask for the perfect amount
of fish poop to just balance everything out I mean yeah yeah that that would be really really nice so
adding more fish to the the tank has definitely been one of my top priorities recently I have
several fish that I have been thinking about adding but for me the top of my list is adding a
group of anthias I love anthias because first off they're just absolutely gorgeous you know they're
bright coloration really adds a big pop of color into the tank and I love how they're just like
full of energy and swim all over your tank I mean they're really just nice fish I really wanted to
add lyretail anthias in particular so when I saw these two at my local fish store I just had to
take the plunge y'all I mean I plan to get more lyretails though because I want a harem of them
which is just one male anthia and multiple females because you know anytime you add a group of female
anthias together one will turn into a male so they will go from looking like these guys which are
currently females to to like this bright purple fish with a big extending spike on their dorsal
fin it was actually quite beautiful honestly but aside from just wanting a male lyretail in
general making a harem is better because the male will turn brighter and more colorful the the more
females that are in the tank with him you know so he can show off and you know be impressive
to them it's it's it's yeah so it seems like this guy here is showing some signs of starting to turn
into a male actually well like the very very very beginning stages of the transformation but it is
starting she or he I guess I should say has been more aggressive and just generally more dominant
over the other one also it stays out more in the open than the other one and beginning to
be more hyper you know and male anthias tend to be quite hyper so it's beginning y'all it's actually
beginning so over the next few weeks what's going gonna happen is the front spine of his dorsal fin
will become slightly you know more elongated and then finally after that his coloration will begin
to turn from this orange to like a red so I'm really excited to witness the stages and see
how this little guy evolves because I've only ever bought males in the past so it will be pretty neat
to see these changes as they happen but yeah I obviously want to add more lyretails to form a
proper harem I'm planning on adding three or more liar tails with these guys to create like a large
group of them you know they'll be really beautiful because they'll swim together for the most part
and with all those colors ah it will be amazing in terms of other future fish other than lyretails
that I would like to add I am not really sure yet it's kind of difficult um because I decided on a
whim to add you know a massive powder blue tang and it's aggression particular literally to other
tangs and fish that look similar to him makes it kind of difficult to add new additions into the
tank I'll have to look at getting like really young small fish in order to get past that but
I don't know let me know in the comments what you think I should get fish wise and what tips y'all
have for introducing new fishies with the monster of a powder blue that I currently have because I
really wouldn't mind adding like a little baby blue tang honestly but I don't know if I'm just
pushing it or what I don't know y'all let me know anyway you might be asking you might be asking why
I'm not quarantining my fish and I'm just placing them in an observation tank well first I really
took a look at these guys in the store before I bought them you know I wouldn't ever buy a fish
that I suspected of having an illness or if any of the other fish in the same system that my desired
fish was in was sick plus I personally feel like I don't want to put my fish under any unnecessary
stress you know if the fish chose signs of disease or illness when it's in the observation tank okay
no problem you know I can treat that so keeping them under observation seems like the best fit
for me honestly plus I just don't really want to go through that like rigorous quarantine process
if that's like not necessary you know what I mean but for the most part these anthias have
been swimming and eating well however I they've been having a bit of a little bit of stringy poos
a little bit of stringy poos so yeah I'm gonna have to start treating for that stringy poos are a
possible sign of inter or the intestinal parasites unfortunately so using Seachem Metroplex and Focus
and just mixing it all in with the food should fix that all up they're both products that help with
like pesky internal infections so it should help them get better but I won't be adding these guys
in the tank until the issue is resolved obviously but hopefully should clear up fairly quickly I'm
really happy about these new additions though I've wanted new fish for forever so these are
very exciting times very exciting times I must say and in other somewhat related news I've been
doing a darn good job feeding four times a day I must say my nutrients that were struggling to be
kept up to level are finally up to speed so up to speed in fact that my nitrate has been up to
11 and my phosphate at .04 big improvement I know so I've been thinking I've been thinking that it's
finally time to set up a refugium again you know if you guys are old timers to this channel you
may remember that I had my refugium prematurely set up in the past I don't know why I set it
up then when I didn't need it but alas I use my old Kessil 360x light I had laying around in the
garage and a little gooseneck attachment I bought for it so if I were to set up a refugium up again
I would just replicate this however however there is no earthly way that this can be done right now
without sadly removing my beloved cryptic refugium section that's currently occupying the same space
it's now become home to my beloved sponges and you can't have sponges in the same spot as macro algae
like a macroalgae refugium because sponges need ambient low to no light versus macroalgae which
need really high light so I have no idea what to do because I have no more compartments in my sump
you know I would put them in the filter sock area just because I hate my filter socks and I
don't use them but I would have to find a way to wall it off somehow because if any of the micro
bubbles coming down from the return you know they could become trapped in the sponge and then the
sponge will die which obviously is not wanted and there's no room in the return pump section because
that's where my bio bricks are so I don't have any earthly idea about what to do in terms of setting
up a refugium my sump is really hard to modify because it's glass so that kind of sucks not sure
what to do because I guess if I had to pick one I would pick having the macro algae the benefits of
the sponges constantly filtering and clarifying the water for me I mean that's kind of hard to
give up too you know I don't know I don't know what do you all think how can I modify my sump
or which one should I pick macro algae or cryptic I don't know let me know what you think now moving
on to one of the mysteries that has been going on with my tank bacteria blooms yep I have been
getting back to back bacteria blooms no idea why either bacteria blooms are based basically an over
excess of carbon or carbohydrates in the water it makes your tank water really really cloudy
and makes your corals very very angry the first time this happened I made the rookie mistake of
spraying some air freshener in the adjoining room thinking that it would be too far away
to affect the tank well I was wrong clearly cause boom bacteria bloom quickly fixed the
mistake by reconnecting my UV sterilizer so cool okay problem solved wrong despite not spraying
anything or lighting any candles nada nothing I kept getting back to back bacteria blooms and
it's driving me nuts it must be something that's spraying in the air or some kind of I don't even
know I have no idea what so it still remains a big mystery why this keeps happening honestly thinking
just to attach the UV sterilizer on this tank permanently because I am sick of these freaking
bacteria blooms y'all I don't know bacteria blooms just suck so now that I've taken off
the UV sterilizer again hopefully this is the last time this happens because I cannot think of what
could be causing this we shall see I will have to report back on that one and yet another one of the
mysteries that has been going on with my tank what in the world has happened to my Duncan coral it
hasn't opened in a week now and I'm not really sure why there's no brown jelly or any kind of
infection on it which is good but it's definitely mad about something there is another mega colony
of duncan behind this aquascape that's open and happy and chilling so the chalice is stinging
it this chalice is stinging it with its sweeper tentacles and you know if that's the case lord
only knows where I'm gonna put this thing because I have no Duncan appropriate spots left honestly
and duncans are not my favorite corals of corals so it might just end up you know at the back of
the aquascape hidden from sight with the other duncan but another possibility about why the
duncan is closed possibly lies in the water I make for my water changes which has been giving
me a world of problems recently and a whole extra mystery that I've been worrying about currently
basically I have a sneaky suspicion that the water plant in my area may have flushed the system water
plants do this every so often to you know clear out the junk from the pipes the build up and I
wish my city would warn us before they do this but unfortunately here in Texas they don't care so I
found out when I was overdue for a water change my TDS meter on my RODI unit still read at zero
so I thought oh okay all is good let's do it you know let's get to it this is a standard water
change thought nothing of it so I did a 25 water change and the corals were not looking so good I
mean you know how after you do a water change everything in your tank just gets really happy
you know like polyps are all out and everything's fluffy and everything's just happy you know I mean
that's why we do the water changes to begin with right well after this water change everything just
looked worse so I could only assume that I was having problems with my source water I will spark
a new fear unto you today fellow reefers in case you didn't already know unfortunately RODI units
cannot pick up whether your water plant flushes the system your TDS meter will still read at zero
and all will appear good but the water in fact is not good it's not good that's because RODI
units don't detect chlorine or chloramide that water plants use when they're flushing the system
RODI units only detect solids like sodium that dissolve in water yep yep new fear unlocked in you
my friend basically I just dumped a whole bunch of chlorine in my tank yay yay this is wonderful so
my corals have not been uh overall feeling their best however I have since changed my RODI filter
which is really annoying because I just changed them hopefully we can get things back on track
quickly at least hopefully that's one mystery solved right so yeah that's what's been going
on with my tank guys aside from the lovely new anthias in the quarantine tank nothing
but mysteries and problems hopefully I can resolve these issues soon and get the tank back on track
and thriving again let me know in the comments if you have any advice or solutions those are always
appreciated y'all think of things that I never thought to think about and I love it make sure to
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