Kye's Reef

 At the start of this my idea and commitment was to keep a weekly log of some sort.  I havent. Not in the slightest to detail as I'd like.  My biggest push for logs was to keep an eye of parameters. My most recent test from a few days ago is: PH 8.4 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0  Nitrate NA Phosphate NA Calcium 500 Alkalinity 7.0 Magnesium 1400 Salinity 1.026 Some recent notables are, bought 2 trochas snails. One only made it 24 hours before it became a snack for the 2 blue leg hermits. A week prior, 4 nassarius snails were also added. 2 spaghetti worms have been identified, one at the top of the rock and front side of the rock as currently positioned. The rock was repositioned a week before and all the coral moved to under the flow. Rock absorbs most of the flow. I also seemingly have some kind of phosphate issue. I bought a phosphate digital test which should be here in a few days. Ill start testing certain parameters myself with additional shop test to find accuracy.  ...

 Oh it has been awhile since I have written in this blog. Its main intent was record keeping for this aquarium salt hobby. And, its going well, the hobby itself.  Top of mind, lets get back on track The past month we bought a handful of ricordea, we nearly have lost track of what we currently have. A list to come, it has doubled since last writing.  Today will be a 40% or so water change. I am also going to rearrange the rock to the far wall to absorb most of the flow as this Aquatop 5Gallon filter pump does not have variable flow speed. I think it is a bit much for the ricordea florida that I have on that far side wall.  Tomorrow I will be checking the newest ricordea to see if its foot attached itself to a rock.  Decided to keep growing green algae on the back wall.  A bunch of media to be uploaded. 

 It's been 2 weeks and had been wondering where my parameters were. After some research, I am still overwhelmed by the new knowledge to be understood and kits to buy fir testing. I took a small drinking sized bottle sample to the local aquarium shop. The testing process took about 10 minutes. During this time I checked out their corals. They said I'm on track with a handwritten note of my current parameters with a little high in ammonia and salinity  Here is a list of parameters measured for salt water Aquariums. Source: Test price range Cheap = shop visits Mid = paper strip kits Expensive = high tech gear test per parameter.

Stream AI prompting for designs and Reef research.

 2nd water test Beginner meets inexperienced salesman on water test 1. As indicated on test 1 of high salinity, he offered no rememedy even after lerrijf them know I have no experience and questioning if waiting was the best solution. Infact, waiting was not the solution but adding to the problem. When cycling and running a tank water will naturally evaporate but not salt...overtime changing your ratio. After another result of high salinity, a solution of adding RO (reverse osmosis) water. Done.

 PH 8.4 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.25 Nitrate 0 Phosphate 0 Calcium 350 Alkalinity 3.0/8.4 Magnesium 1400 Salinity 1.024 Now, I will try and describe the current setup 5 Gallon Bullet Shaped rimless aquarium with black fine sand as substrate. A 5 pound live was added on the first month to start cycling processes, its roughly the size of a number 3 soccer ball with a small hole punched through the middle. Within the live rock seemed to be some sort of worm and a few tiny translucent feather dusters. Additionally in this tank are 2 Kodama figurines and a large mushroom costumed figurine.  The Ricordea Florida, description based on my words. The tentacles making up the outer edge, I call this the skirt tentacles, are often 1 color. When fanned, you can see rows of differentiating colors in an alternating pattern, sometimes up to 4 different colors. The center is a mouth, usually this outside color will represent the skirt tentacles. The inside of the mouth will usually be a different co...

 PH = 8.4 Ammonia 1.2.  Should be 0 Nitrate 0 ... 10ppm Nitrite = 0 Phosphate = 0 should be .05 Calcium = 300 Alkalinity = 3.0/8.4 Magnesium = 1200 Salinity = 1.020

Passing 3 months on this tank. We've got many things to talk about here. Really, its been nearly 6 months into this salt life journey.  topics the tank history up to 6 months heater choosing corals reasonings we're noobs and our ntrient levels PH - 7.9 Ammonia 0  Nitrate 0  Nitrite Phosphate Calcium 350 Alkalinity 2.1 / 5.6  Magnesium 1160 Salinity 1.024 crabs outlook - future

 Little to a lot. Another tank arrangement has happened.  Have started dosing on Fridays 2ml of ammino acids. Hope this will help improve growth for some of the smaller corals. And another new small ricordea has been put into the tank. He was a challenge, not footed to any rocks. So, I helped him with that by isolating him to a cup full of rocks. 

Slow and low is how I decided to uptake this hobby. Hearing that salt water aquairums had many challenges for upkeep I remind myself patience is needed here. Often people get into this hobby and start with a massive tank filled with different types of life requiring many parameters. By all means, if you can handle such information and manage your time for the required upkeep then you have what it takes to maintain some of lifes' beauty.  10 gallons, reasonable size aquairum I thought to myself. And true it is, but really, here everything is about perspective. Mostly it is about the species you choose to keep in your tank. So, in theory you could have a really large 200 gallon tank and only keep a few species of corals, fish, crabs or whatever other chosen life... and hitchikers may come.  So, 10 gallons, I choose to stick with mushroom corals, specifically ricordeas. Two types of riccordea: ricordea florida and ricordea yuma. I also decided to go with a theme and promptly call...

 During the setup of this aqaurium, I set a towel down as the base. During my nightly check, I 

 I did mention I got 2 blue legged hermit crabs now? One was named Rodney, he seems to be most active. One morning I saw him on top of the rock eating but in a spot that seemed like it could be some kind of challenge. This same day, I returned home from work to find a molted crab carcass. I got worried as I did not know this at the time. I had only assumed the worst - that he got stuck and abandoned the shell then died. I did nothing at first, posted a pic onto a local reefing group and was met with a few responses that he most likely molted and will be back to normal in a few days.  While waiting for the response noted above I moved the shell back to the sand from the rock and I moved the lifeless carcass nearby my biggest ricordea. And also to my surprise the ricordea grabbed it. Within 4 hours the whole molted body was ingulfed. Big meal.  And yes, since the hours have past, the hermit crab started crawling again.

 So, tht algage scare from last blog turns out to be a good thing. And, not exactly algae, but diatoms.  We got a water test which tested high in salinity as expected. I was there for RO water, reverse osmosis. 

Perhaps it was my novice decision to keep a light on 12 hours a day. I've changed my timer to 6 hours on and 18 hours off. 

 Did you know? At least for, Ricordea Florida, the mouth also serves as a whole to release a stringlike waste biproduct.  Not a biologist, but one of my Ricordea poops roughly once every few weeks, and I will assume that is a healthy rate of pooping.