10 Week Update - Looks Like It Does Pay To Wait
Well quite a lot has been happening since the last update.
* updating the previous update - 1) algae bloom came and largely went. Left with one rock covered in brown hair algae and a few minor patches on 2-3 other rocks. Only have 5 snails and no algae eating fish - snails are working hard all the time, but can't quite keep up; 2) sump continues to explode with baby snails "crawling" upside down on the surface of the water; 3) seeing good growth in the macro algae now; 4) moved two of my corals around a little and they are definitely happier.
* testing every couple of days. Most recent parameters using Salifert kits are: 24.8 degrees, nitrates 0.5-1.0ppm, phosphates between 0-0.03.
* now, onto the big changes...
As we all do, I have spent lots of time researching various fish and looking at other people's tank. I had come up with the following fish list for the new tank, in no particular order:
- citron goby & yellow assessor, plus CBS (current fish)
- purple dottyback (would love a royal gramma, but outside my budget)
- tomini tang (chosen for suitability for my size tank, would love a Kole tang, but outside my budget)
- coral beaty
- pair of occellaris clowns, hopefully with a nem willing to host them (likely a BTA or RBTA)
- a blenny. likely a sailfin, but possibly a bicolour depending on the colouration of other fish in the list
- yellow tang (undecided due to tank size, but would love one)
So, late last week I was checking a reefing forum and came across an ad for, wait for it, a Yellow Tang, a Kole Tang, a Royal Gramma and a Coral Beauty! Now I know that common advice would be add one fish max per week to a newish tank and let the tank chemistry catch up before adding another. But, with so many fish from my fish list in this one ad I couldn't resist. The fact that all four fish were long term co-inhabitants of the seller's tank and showed no aggression to each other sealed the deal. Contacted the seller, got some pics, figured out a good price and a short road trip later they were on their way home with me along with a small trochus snail, a medium blue linksia star fish and two pieces of really cool live rock.
Was going to set them up in a temporary quarantine tank, and again know that this is good practise, but they were each long term inhabitants of the previous reefers tank, all looked fat and healthy and I am smashed with work at the moment, so didn't really want to be running two tanks for 6+ weeks. So, decision made to add them to the main DT. Only minor issue during the acclimation/transfer was the Kole Tang's bag slipped into the water about 10minutes before I was planning to release him and he "escaped" into the DT.
They have settled into their new home really well. Took 1.5-2 days for them explore the tank and find their favourite spots to hang during the day and night. On the other hand, my goby and assessor not quite as happy now that they no longer have complete run of the tank. So much colour and movement now - loving it.
I also no longer have any visible algae on my rockwork. Woohoo. The tangs, in particular the Kole, are amazingly efficient at cleaning the rocks. They weren't that interested in the algae initially, but on the second night went to sleep with the algae described in the first paragraph above and woke up to find 95% of the algae gone from the rocks. Kole Tang has moved onto cleaning the substrate of any algae over the last two days. Should have that sorted in the next 48 hours. Happy days.
More pics and a maybe even a video to come tomorrow.
* updating the previous update - 1) algae bloom came and largely went. Left with one rock covered in brown hair algae and a few minor patches on 2-3 other rocks. Only have 5 snails and no algae eating fish - snails are working hard all the time, but can't quite keep up; 2) sump continues to explode with baby snails "crawling" upside down on the surface of the water; 3) seeing good growth in the macro algae now; 4) moved two of my corals around a little and they are definitely happier.
* testing every couple of days. Most recent parameters using Salifert kits are: 24.8 degrees, nitrates 0.5-1.0ppm, phosphates between 0-0.03.
* now, onto the big changes...
As we all do, I have spent lots of time researching various fish and looking at other people's tank. I had come up with the following fish list for the new tank, in no particular order:
- citron goby & yellow assessor, plus CBS (current fish)
- purple dottyback (would love a royal gramma, but outside my budget)
- tomini tang (chosen for suitability for my size tank, would love a Kole tang, but outside my budget)
- coral beaty
- pair of occellaris clowns, hopefully with a nem willing to host them (likely a BTA or RBTA)
- a blenny. likely a sailfin, but possibly a bicolour depending on the colouration of other fish in the list
- yellow tang (undecided due to tank size, but would love one)
So, late last week I was checking a reefing forum and came across an ad for, wait for it, a Yellow Tang, a Kole Tang, a Royal Gramma and a Coral Beauty! Now I know that common advice would be add one fish max per week to a newish tank and let the tank chemistry catch up before adding another. But, with so many fish from my fish list in this one ad I couldn't resist. The fact that all four fish were long term co-inhabitants of the seller's tank and showed no aggression to each other sealed the deal. Contacted the seller, got some pics, figured out a good price and a short road trip later they were on their way home with me along with a small trochus snail, a medium blue linksia star fish and two pieces of really cool live rock.
Was going to set them up in a temporary quarantine tank, and again know that this is good practise, but they were each long term inhabitants of the previous reefers tank, all looked fat and healthy and I am smashed with work at the moment, so didn't really want to be running two tanks for 6+ weeks. So, decision made to add them to the main DT. Only minor issue during the acclimation/transfer was the Kole Tang's bag slipped into the water about 10minutes before I was planning to release him and he "escaped" into the DT.
They have settled into their new home really well. Took 1.5-2 days for them explore the tank and find their favourite spots to hang during the day and night. On the other hand, my goby and assessor not quite as happy now that they no longer have complete run of the tank. So much colour and movement now - loving it.
I also no longer have any visible algae on my rockwork. Woohoo. The tangs, in particular the Kole, are amazingly efficient at cleaning the rocks. They weren't that interested in the algae initially, but on the second night went to sleep with the algae described in the first paragraph above and woke up to find 95% of the algae gone from the rocks. Kole Tang has moved onto cleaning the substrate of any algae over the last two days. Should have that sorted in the next 48 hours. Happy days.
More pics and a maybe even a video to come tomorrow.
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