1st Year Anniversary Update
Hello Everyone,
As the saying goes, "How time flies!"
My tank has had the salty splashy stuff in it for 1 year as of the 26th of May! Hooray.
As always seems to be the way with these adventures - some ups, some downs, a lot of satisfaction, lots of changed plans, budgets blown. :)
Overall current summary:
Tank is essentially a FOWLR with a couple of morphs. Low maintenance, good fish-essential params, low stocking (5 fish + CBS + small CUC), zero nuisance algae probs. Happy, fat, active fish that get along nicely together. Only real aggression is when the CBS gets into his little head that he is fast enough to catch one of them for a tasty treat.
Best Things I Did This Time Around:
* got an ATO
* nuked all my rock for weeks to do my best to get rid of all phos and nasties possible
* actually took my time and cycled my tank naturally for 3 months before adding fish
* used good quality NSW from the start
Current Issues To Address:
* one glaring thing is that I have not done a NSW change in quite a few weeks since running out and not being able to contact my previous supplier. My water is obviously testing fine for the main conditions harmful to fish, but I am sure the chemistry is way off for the keeping of corals again. Need to get some more NSW (thanks for the advice on good suppliers in a previous post of mine), wait until the tank tests stable then commence restocking with coral.
* I have run without filter socks from day 1 by personal preference (hated having to change every few days), vacuuming out the first two chambers of the sump every few weeks. My most recent sump addition - a water cooler tank redeployed as a small settlement vortex chamber. Need to see if I can optimise performance. Having said that and even though it has only been installed for 6 days, I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of detritus that is collecting in the bottom! Also, installed the settlement tank in the chamber that is supposed to be for the skimmer. Skimmer is now in the second of three overall zones. It is working fine there, still pulling the amount of crud despite the couple cm drop in water level, but need to remember to switch off skimmer before turning off return pump! If this experiment works out I will put an extra pane in the sump to create a 4th chamber for the skimmer with a water level unaffected by the return pump.
* my current light has been a trooper and I love the visual look of it. Performance was fine for my previous tanks, but the square nature of the current tank it is no longer ideal. At some point when finances allow will be looking for recommendations. First step likely the extra wide lenses from RAZR. Maybe a moon light or two to supplement? Or something entirely diff.
The Future:
* continue enjoying a low maintenance tank that I enjoy gazing into and tweaking/upgrading over time
* restock with coral, budget permitting. Would love to dip my toe into SPS at some stage, but not sure whether tank will ever have params to support it. We'll see.
* consider a few extra fish - my family would like some occy clowns again, I love looking at Wrangy and Shane's pics of their hawkfish.
Here are a couple of pics. Fish were being particularly shy tonight, so no pics are that good and neither was the short vid I took. Will retry in the next day or two and add any better ones I get.
A top down pic from the rear through my stairs
The only real non-shy guy in my tank, my citron goby. While everyone else was hiding out the back he was swimming around, posing all over the place.
My kole tang - love the overall colour and subtle pattern on his body. Almost looks like he is kissing my yellow tang!
My yellow tang - love watching him glide backwards.
My coral beauty - loves to explore all over the tank, a peaceful community member except for the one day a fortnight or so where she gets chased all over the tank by the Kole tang (no idea why)
As the saying goes, "How time flies!"
My tank has had the salty splashy stuff in it for 1 year as of the 26th of May! Hooray.
As always seems to be the way with these adventures - some ups, some downs, a lot of satisfaction, lots of changed plans, budgets blown. :)
Overall current summary:
Tank is essentially a FOWLR with a couple of morphs. Low maintenance, good fish-essential params, low stocking (5 fish + CBS + small CUC), zero nuisance algae probs. Happy, fat, active fish that get along nicely together. Only real aggression is when the CBS gets into his little head that he is fast enough to catch one of them for a tasty treat.
Best Things I Did This Time Around:
* got an ATO
* nuked all my rock for weeks to do my best to get rid of all phos and nasties possible
* actually took my time and cycled my tank naturally for 3 months before adding fish
* used good quality NSW from the start
Current Issues To Address:
* one glaring thing is that I have not done a NSW change in quite a few weeks since running out and not being able to contact my previous supplier. My water is obviously testing fine for the main conditions harmful to fish, but I am sure the chemistry is way off for the keeping of corals again. Need to get some more NSW (thanks for the advice on good suppliers in a previous post of mine), wait until the tank tests stable then commence restocking with coral.
* I have run without filter socks from day 1 by personal preference (hated having to change every few days), vacuuming out the first two chambers of the sump every few weeks. My most recent sump addition - a water cooler tank redeployed as a small settlement vortex chamber. Need to see if I can optimise performance. Having said that and even though it has only been installed for 6 days, I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of detritus that is collecting in the bottom! Also, installed the settlement tank in the chamber that is supposed to be for the skimmer. Skimmer is now in the second of three overall zones. It is working fine there, still pulling the amount of crud despite the couple cm drop in water level, but need to remember to switch off skimmer before turning off return pump! If this experiment works out I will put an extra pane in the sump to create a 4th chamber for the skimmer with a water level unaffected by the return pump.
* my current light has been a trooper and I love the visual look of it. Performance was fine for my previous tanks, but the square nature of the current tank it is no longer ideal. At some point when finances allow will be looking for recommendations. First step likely the extra wide lenses from RAZR. Maybe a moon light or two to supplement? Or something entirely diff.
The Future:
* continue enjoying a low maintenance tank that I enjoy gazing into and tweaking/upgrading over time
* restock with coral, budget permitting. Would love to dip my toe into SPS at some stage, but not sure whether tank will ever have params to support it. We'll see.
* consider a few extra fish - my family would like some occy clowns again, I love looking at Wrangy and Shane's pics of their hawkfish.
Here are a couple of pics. Fish were being particularly shy tonight, so no pics are that good and neither was the short vid I took. Will retry in the next day or two and add any better ones I get.
A top down pic from the rear through my stairs
The only real non-shy guy in my tank, my citron goby. While everyone else was hiding out the back he was swimming around, posing all over the place.
My kole tang - love the overall colour and subtle pattern on his body. Almost looks like he is kissing my yellow tang!
My yellow tang - love watching him glide backwards.
My coral beauty - loves to explore all over the tank, a peaceful community member except for the one day a fortnight or so where she gets chased all over the tank by the Kole tang (no idea why)
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