Finally put my tank together...

[KoNP]

Ok so I took my girlfriend for a trip to Underwater World at Mooloolaba (136kms north of here) today, and took the opportunity to not only take a ton of awesome photos (will upload to an album later and link) but also collected 20L of seawater from one of the points. Surprisingly the salinity came in at 1.021 which I thought was a little low for seawater but oh well. A cursory test for things came up negative (surprise surprise ). Picked up some Purigen and Cuprisorb (filters out copper and heavy metals) today to take care of anything dodgy in the tapwater, and just to keep the tank running nicely.

As you can see things are coming along very nicely.:

 

[funkngroovy]

Looking good.

Wouldn't have gone for another anemone but hey,

Keep an eye on that lobo. They are extremly hardy but I can see that it has receeded a little, probably from a long stint in the LFS.

remember, corals, especially LPS need to be fed. So, you need to turn the lights out early a couple of times a week, wait for the tenticles to come out, and give them some meaty food.

You can feed your elegance and torch during the day. They will be happy to take whatever you are feeding the clowns.

You can remove the refractometer if you want. I have the same type and use is as a measuring tool like all tests.

BTW the new rimless tank looks awesome!

 

[KoNP]

Looking good.

Wouldn't have gone for another anemone but hey,

We got him for free, lol. Plus he was significantly healthier than the other one we obtained. He moves around a lot though, but seems to have settled on the backside of the middle rock, close to where one of the filter intake sits; the grille stops him getting sucked in so it's safe. Other than that he's fine. I am aware that they rarely take to tanks though so I'm keeping a close eye on him.

Keep an eye on that lobo. They are extremly hardy but I can see that it has receeded a little, probably from a long stint in the LFS.

He reinflated after about a day, he's fine now from the looks of things.

remember, corals, especially LPS need to be fed. So, you need to turn the lights out early a couple of times a week, wait for the tenticles to come out, and give them some meaty food.

Yup. I feed the clowns frozen mysis/brine shrimp and it's mixed with some other mush - comes in small flat square things. I know the torch and the jardinei love it. I also feed the tank phytoplankton every few days - it's in a small red bottle and it cost me 24 bucks but it's got all sorts of micro-fauna for the corals to filterfeed on.

You can remove the refractometer if you want. I have the same type and use is as a measuring tool like all tests.

BTW the new rimless tank looks awesome!

You mean the hydrometer (right-hand side of tank)? I like having it there, I've got it set up to take continuous readings (pulled the small plug out of it ) so that if the salinity swings then I can get on top of it.

 

[TimSchmidt]

Good to see the algae gone! Reefman is the photographer (well him and Edgray, but I haven't seen Ed in awhile!)

 

[KoNP]

Good to see the algae gone! Reefman is the photographer (well him and Edgray, but I haven't seen Ed in awhile!)

It's extremely slowly returning - I need to get some kind of hermit crab or something that will take care of it. Also, I've upgraded my camera from a IXUS40 to an IXUS90is. One thing it does that my old one doesn't is give me excellent depth of field on closeups.

 

[andy.wise]

by the looks of it , you set up 1st january? and you have a anemone and corals 16 days later?
i know its hard to resist buying them early, but really is best to let your tank settle down just with live rock for a while before anything.
have you tested you KH and calcium yet?
if you want to keep your ph stable, you have to keep you KH stable first.
once the kh is stable too, it keeps your calcium buffed

 

[funkngroovy]

Uh Oh, here we go again.


Don't bite back KoNP

 

[TimSchmidt]

Let's keep it nice from all sides His previous posts have discussed timing already.

 

[KoNP]

by the looks of it , you set up 1st january? and you have a anemone and corals 16 days later?

A few days prior to that - that was just the first time I posted with the completed build.

i know its hard to resist buying them early, but really is best to let your tank settle down just with live rock for a while before anything.

I did. I left it "settled" for about a week before adding even a cleanup crew.

have you tested you KH and calcium yet?

Yes. I believe I posted stats earlier in the thread...

if you want to keep your ph stable, you have to keep you KH stable first.

Did I mention I was having problems with the pH? I don't believe I did but for the record, I'm not and they're both nice and stable.

once the kh is stable too, it keeps your calcium buffed

Thus increasing the calcium availability to the corals and coralaceous algae, who will consume it and use it to build their skeleton and leave pretty colours on my rock, respectively. I'm aware of the theory.

Let's keep it nice from all sides His previous posts have discussed timing already.

Indeed they have. Is there any way to make the applicable previous posts 50-point, bright red, bold and flashing at roughly 2 hertz? Seeing as they're obviously fading into the background. ( :razz: )

Onto other matters - I hit a few aiptasia on my zoanthid frag with some Joe's Juice last night; I couldn't help but drop a bit on the Zoas who got rather angry and disappeared. I got it off them before it could do any MAJOR damage, but they stayed closed for a few hours. This afternoon they are open again, bright and happy like they were before the treatment. And the aiptasia are nowhere in sight.

The BTA is still slowly making his way around the tank, trying to find a good spot. He appears to have settled around the middle, sortof underneath a frogspawn's shadow. He's still doing well, and getting bigger also. Flash and Namor (ocellaris) are doing fine, as is the Lobophylia - funkn, I took your advice and switched stuff off early last night but he didn't stick tentacles out before I went to bed. However at 4 o'clock this morning he had opened his edges up and lots of little tentacles were sticking it - i fed him some meaty chunk things, he seemed to like them.

Andy - I appreciate that you want to point stuff out/teach a newbie a few things but please try and read the whole thread before posting, it'll give you a better idea of what's been transpiring. For the record, the tank has been "up" for about 48 days, so almost 7 weeks. I will admit it cycled surprisingly fast, but every test I did indicated it HAD cycled completely, and this was corroborated by several different sources.

 

[KoNP]

Here are a few pics from my new camera, I'm still mucking about with the settings. Trying to get a decent close-up of either of my clowns is practically impossible lol.

 

[TimSchmidt]

I like the rock work. It's a bit early yet, but keep an eye on that lower right corner of the lobo. I think that's the spot funkngroovy was commenting on.

Nah, no super bold text. Remember KoNP everyone is just trying to help out. :cool1:

 

[KoNP]

I like the rock work. It's a bit early yet, but keep an eye on that lower right corner of the lobo. I think that's the spot funkngroovy was commenting on.

He's actually expanded to cover that area a little bit and it improves every day. I've checked him out and there's no tissue death or anything like that around that area - personally I think it looks worse than it is. I will however keep a close eye on it just in case.

 

[KoNP]

Few new photos. As you've noticed I love taking them heh.

Here's a lawnmower blenny I picked up to take care of the algae problem. At first he was very shy and bashful and stayed right up the back in the corner peeking over the rocks, but tonight he came out and started mowing down the algae on the rock like it was going out of fashion. In a minute or two he'd cleared a patch a few cms square easily. He's going to do a very good job of keeping the algae controlled, methinks.

 

[tmd77]

looking good mate,

only suggestion i would have is to either make a open top hood for the tank, or drop the water level in the tank an inch or so. reason being is that LM blennies have a tendency to carpet surf.

looks like we have the same lighting system... if you were wanting to keep sps i would recommend getting another one as well...

 

[TimSchmidt]

I'd wait for the tank to mature before going that route though. :cool1: NICE add! Every LM blenny I've seen has a TON of personality. How's the water quality going?

P.S. You can NEVER have too many photos. Thanks for posting them.

 

[KoNP]

I'd wait for the tank to mature before going that route though. :cool1: NICE add! Every LM blenny I've seen has a TON of personality. How's the water quality going?

P.S. You can NEVER have too many photos. Thanks for posting them.

Haha don't say that otherwise I'll post a ton of photos and the thread won't work for anyone on dialup lol.

Water quality is fine. I managed to score 20L of rainwater due to it being sopping wet here for the past half a week, did a water change with that and everyone seems happy. Bought a big f***-off box of salt too, enough for 600L - the store didn't have any 4kg/120L bags and I wasn't paying $20 bucks for 2 kilos when I could pay $86 for 20 kilos.

Had to move the frogspawn though - he'd almost completely retracted inside his skeleton sitting in the middle of the tank there. Shifted him over the the right up on the rock ledge and he came out overnight. Thanks to the cooler weather the tank has been hovering around 26, 27°C most days too.

Mr Blenny (name pending) is having a great time. He'll sometimes sit up on a rock and watch you, he also has no qualms eating bits of frozen food. He's done magic overnight and the algae is significantly reduced.

-EDIT-

Final addition to be made to the tank for a while was made today. Picked up an absolutely GORGEOUS ricordea from Neilsen's - with 2 bits of coralaceous algae encrusted rock, with zoas on it and a purple sponge, and some kind of coral we're currently unable to identify. Cost me $110 all up, but I bought it for my missus as a valentines day gift.

A few of the corals were looking a little stressed - I tested the parameters and there was really nothing out of the ordinary - no phosphate or ammonia, decent pH, low Nitrite, low Nitrate (not as low as nitrite but close). Figured that the water was a little cold (it's been around 24, 25 degrees C for a couple days) so I cannibalised a 100watt heater from another of my tanks and set it as close to 80°F as I could get it.

 

[CarsonF]

amazing lookin ricordea :shock:

:mrgreen:

 

[KoNP]

looks like we have the same lighting system... if you were wanting to keep sps i would recommend getting another one as well...

I've been thinking more about this - right now I'm running 2x T5-HO tubes, one 24w 10,000K and one 24w "marine glo" actinic blue. Given what I have in my tank right now, would another fitting precisely the same (but with 2x 10,000K tubes) be a pointless investment or would it be worth it?

Anyone who knows feel free to respond, it's somewhat of an open question.

 

[TimSchmidt]

For T5s you don't have to over do it with the 10,000k bulbs. I would do two "daylight" bulbs and two "actinics". One of the other reefers posted up some great results with 20,000k bulbs for GREST SPS coloration!

 

[KoNP]

For T5s you don't have to over do it with the 10,000k bulbs. I would do two "daylight" bulbs and two "actinics". One of the other reefers posted up some great results with 20,000k bulbs for GREST SPS coloration!

I think the 10K ones were "daylight" ones, the others were way too warm and would send the algae out of control.

So you think another fitting with the same combo as now (1x 10000K and 1x actinic) would be good? That'd bring it up to 2x 10000K and 2x actinic for the whole tank. I don't want to burn the corals but at the same time I don't want to starve them of light either.