Tank Journal Archive

[holly]

After a 30% water change over two days and some vitamins and marine mix all inhabitants are doing well. The duncans seem to be happy as larry. Will have to get some frag plugs to get them back into the tank.

I'm also going to start making some DIY live rock. I'm buying some crushed oyster shell sunday week from Belgrave for $2 a kg (he sells it in bulk for $100/100kgs). I live right near the beach so will just grab sand and give it a good wash before making up the rocks. I'm eventually planning on upgrading to a better tank (max 4 ft I think) so once I actually make enough rock and leech the alkalinity from the cement I should be good to go! The pieces of live rock that I have right now are all very big and heavy - not good for keeping them off the tank bottom or creating lots of open air spaces and coral shelves/tuck in spaces.

 

[MTG]

:welcome

tank was pumping when it was full of macro !!

 

[holly]

Thanks @MTG , I'll be slowly buying more live rock to hopefully re-establish some macro. I do miss the natural look of it. Any hot tips on macro to buy?

 

[MTG]

Thanks @MTG , I'll be slowly buying more live rock to hopefully re-establish some macro. I do miss the natural look of it. Any hot tips on macro to buy?

im not to familiar with all the macro types!!! what plans do you have for it?

 

[holly]

im not to familiar with all the macro types!!! what plans do you have for it?

Plans are to stick to softies (zoas, hammers, etc) and some easier hard corals. Wanting to expand the colours in the tank as I've got too much pink in there.

I want to increase the critter count so more crabs and snails. The elegance and the golden torch and hammer I have are already getting too big to put too much more in there. So, I'd like to have some more green growth in there; I also have a space in my sump I'm going to pop some miracle mud into so wanted to establish some macro in there as well.

I really want to find a Longhorn cowfish. Looks like a floating yellow box, really adorkable:

Next week i'm going to start making some DIY rock. Planning on placing it on acrylic rods so they are lifted off the sand somewhat.

 

[holly]

Just realised these guys grow to 20" long. Perhaps not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn_cowfish

 

[holly]

added 2 x Clibanarius taeniatus from @Reeflections Aquarium

The shop is intense on a saturday!

 

[Miller]

I was in there today wonder if we bumped into each other and didn't realize lol
Great shop isn't it :) should see it on Thursday nights

 

[chimaera]

adorkable:

What an awesome word! But yes, cowfish are one of those that look cute in the LFS until they grow to adult size ... same with boxfish.

 

[holly]

I was in there today wonder if we bumped into each other and didn't realize lol
Great shop isn't it :) should see it on Thursday nights

You never know. There was a giant red/orange 4x4 there when I was. I don't have the willpower and budget to be there on a thursday

@chimaera yes, they have no ability to swim against strong currents. Hilarity ensues!

 

[holly]

Some new shots of the inhabitants with some consistent water changes this week :rofl

Surprise torch (mushrooms have learned to stay away)

Hammer:

Golden torch:

FTS:

Side shot from right:

 

[aussieant32]

that gold torch is massive!!! We pay about $50 for one a tenth of that size here!

 

[holly]

that gold torch is massive!!! We pay about $50 for one a tenth of that size here!

@aussieant32 The thing is seriously taking over. Did another 10% water change today... bending around the nice little cavern under it (the tomato clowns are pissed off now) and filling all the spaces next to it.... I'm going to need to upgrade to 4ft or very carefully rescape soon!

Tank update:

I picked up some corals today from @Reeflections Aquarium that I reserved from their weekend sale (montipora or porites, I've tried to ID but had trouble distinguishing them @Dr. Schell ?). They'd seen my song entry for their CADE competition (enter if you've not yet!) and gratuitously donated it to me, along with some acropora (!) to get me back into the game. Really feeling the love! I should sing terribly more often :eek:eek:eek. it's really nice to feel the support of the reefing community, you are all a great bunch :rofl

I'm a bit scared of killing the poor things but have placed them in high flow areas very close to the surface and lighting. One isn't getting quite the amount of flow of the other so I'll try to re-arrange it somewhere else this week. The little polyps have already come out from one so I've made it past the first hurdle.

The montipora/porites and acro #1:

Saved duncan frags, now superglued and back in the main tank! Quick excited about my first experience hacking up corals :)

Acro #2 (lower flow area)

Great photo of the elegance while feeding the tank (pumps off):

Pumps on:

Zoo frag, I think this will look awesome once it's covered. I plan on getting some different zoos at the crawl this weekend and adding to the ball. Eventually a zoo disco ball :p

Some acro that snapped off the main pieces in transit (:eek). i glued them onto some coral pieces and popped them in the sump. Will need to figure out a better spot.

NOM NOM NOM

All the new additions:

 

[holly]

Tank parameters as of today:
temp: 26c
pH 8.1- 8.2
calcium 525ppm
phosphate 0 - .25
nitrate 0- 2.5 ppm
alkalinity 2.3 meq/L / 6.4 dkh
salinity 1.24

So, I'm clearly still having issues keeping the carbonate balance in my tank, the phosphate and nitrate have been reducing along with the calcium. Not really sure where to go. Will do some google-izing!

 

[holly]

Link to the new journal:

http://www.thereefuge.com.au/social-forums/hollys-long-suffering-budget-3-footer.24/

 

[Salty]

Coral id, Pavona :)

 

[holly]

Coral i.d, Pavona :)

Thanks so much @Salty :rofl:rofl