Tank Journal Archive

[Adam_w]

So bit late on the whole Journal side of things as it's already done... but hey maybe I can keep track of changes from here and will post a bit about the overall journey of the tank

Started out as an old freshwater system when we moved into the house - i built myself a DIY overflow off I saw on youtube, built a sump too although its tiny it has a few bits and pieces recently put the siporax in there has one of the small boxes of miracle mud and some extra live rock

The DIY overflow was overall a pretty dumb idea as i was getting really slow flow out of it and it kept seizing, lucky i had it all planned out for a failure so no water on the floor but still was annoying

Upgraded and searched around for someone to build a tank for me, now have a built in overflow with a weir

In the break down between this tank and the old one i scrubbed the rocks of all the algae and it's been better since the build up is really slow but there is still a bit building up now and it's starting to take hold so i need to figure out what im doing wrong.

Most likely my feeding - feeding pellets 2x per day just a small pinch so its maybe like 10 pellets or so?? each time

lifestock is:
2x clown fish (one is tiny and is refusing to grow) the other decent sized and had her for a couple of years now
1x purple head wrasse not sure on species thats what it was sold to me as but hes pretty cool and my most active
1x pajama cardinal (ugly thing)
1x coral banded shrimp
4x trochus snail
tiny turbo snails no idea how many.

Corals:
Hammer
Torch
Duncan's (now on the mend)
Elegance
Orange acans
Pulsing Xenia
Few green mushroom polylps
Small Birdsnest frag (front and centre)
Purple Club Coral

There's also a BTA in there whose hiding out the back bought it very tiny but its now doubled or tripled in size

Then the big chunk of i think its Dragon's Breath algae on the left?

A pretty decent sized write up but I'm a bit late to the party (sorry for potato photo I'm new at this)



Here's it today

 

[Sam Parker]

Welcome! Never too late to start a journal, best things ever for looking back on over time.

Looks like you have a great tank, keep up the great work

 

[ezza]

Ooooohhhh, aaaahhhh!!! Your scape is cool!! Very nice lumpy rocks. Don't worry too much about the algae on the rocks, it takes a while for the algae and bacteria to stabilize, work toward stable KH/Alk, calc, mag, phos/ nitrates etc... I have battled various algaes since the start and for me at least, it has taken a few years to turn virgin dry rock into live rock. Get lots of snails, stars, hermits etc and let them go crazy.

@Wrangy was writing about buying a similar looking Wrasse recently. He bought a Cirrhilabrus Rhomboidalis (Golden Rhomboid Wrasse). I reckon yours may be the same @Adam_w

 

[Adam_w]

Just googled that fish don't think it's one of them, doesn't have all the markings is a pretty solid orange into a solid purple with no markings on it at all really. He's my most active fish now at the start when my tank wasn't so good he'd sleep under the sand so much would be up in the mornings when i fed the tank then when I got home from work was already back asleep under the sand

Now he's active till like 10-11 at night so I get to see him much more

Forgot to mention above I have about 4 or 5 nassirius snails in there too and 4 small hermits then one of the red starfish to help eat up some of the algae

I'm a bit worried about overstock at the moment but i realllly want a midas blenny or flame angel as well do you think that would be too much?

 

[MagicJ]

@Adam_w - welcome to The Reefuge :)

Nutrients in the water are a function of two things - what goes into the water and what is taken out. What is your tank filtration like - skimmer etc. And what water changes do you do?

 

[Adam_w]

Hey thanks for the interest! sorry ive been away since last week

my water changes i try to keep at 15l every 2 weeks so its about 10% every 2 weeks if i go off total water volume (I think I dont actually know how much is in there with all the rocks and stuff now)

Filtration I have a reef octopus hang on skimmer i think its the bh 1000 model. I used to use the aqua one g220 but it was actually pretty terrible looking back i had so many overflows when i couldnt keep my water level stable in the tank...

Thats about it for filtration aside from the live rock and siporax that i recently added just one box of 290g

There's a tiny little refugium too where I try to keep some pods and stuff alive more just for something else than filtration but theres a little bit of calurpa growing in there too

How much would you feed my 4 fish in pellets and how many times per day?? Its so hard to judge how much to feed the little buggers.. pretty sure im overfeeding but mainly cause I cant seem to find any recommendations