Week 16 Update
Week 16 Update
* Summary - params all good (in particular, nitrates - undetectable, phos - less than 0.03), macro in sump growing like crazy, just a few small, but stubborn, diatom patches on the substrate
* Maintenance routine is basically - 1-2 times per week:
- stir up detritus in weir and drain (loving decision to use one of my drilled return holes for this purpose)
- siphon out settling chamber (the second chamber of my sump, the one after the skimmer chamber, captures most of the detritus in my no-filter sock setup)
- approx 20L of room temp NSW into sump chamber
* jury is still out on my cryptic zone. Full of small sponges and various "worms". Visually seems like a detritus trap and is hard to clean, but web info seems to suggest that all the critters in there are removing all the organics from the detritus and what I am seeing is just the harmless leftovers. 4 months in it is probably too early to make any educated judgements. Think I will wait another 3 months or so before deciding whether to continue with that experiment.
* My friend, Corraline, finally decided to make an appearance in the tank after 3.5 months. Starting to gain traction on the rocks.
* Went away for a week and a friend stopped by each evening to feed the tank. Came back to a healthy tank and still virtually no algae on the glass, which my friend never cleaned. Tasks left for friend were just to check and top up my ATO reservoir, check all equipment still running and water temp, then feed.
* Feeding regime - a quarter sheet of nori once every 1-2 days, 3 small pieces of my homemade frozen food once per day (early evening)
* My linksia starfish has become a mover and shaker. The first few weeks he would stay in the one place (high up near one of the corners of the tank) and only move at night once or twice a week. The last fortnight he moves all over the tank at all times of the day. Very cool to watch.
* Having second thoughts about adding other fish to the tank now (previously had been thinking over time I would love to add a pair of clowns with nem, plus a wrasse of some sort). The 4 "newbies" have settled in nicely and, as reported by the previous owner, all get along really well. All 6 fish have their favourite spots in the tank and resting places for nighttime. Fat, healthy, colourful and very active - the tank is full of movement which looks great. No longer sure that adding extra fish and dealing with potential aggression/incompatibility issues is worth the risk. Tank is full of hiding places and removing any unwanted fish would be an major pain without deconstructing at least some of the scape, which I am really happy with at the moment.
* Initially painted the back of one rear pane blue because I wanted to experiment with a non-black background and I had some blue paint handy. I like it, but am still wondering whether things would pop more by going to black.
* Need to take some better pics, but here is one of my royal gramma, head to tail approx 7-8cm. :p
Jart's 3ft Shallow "Cube" Adventure
* Summary - params all good (in particular, nitrates - undetectable, phos - less than 0.03), macro in sump growing like crazy, just a few small, but stubborn, diatom patches on the substrate
* Maintenance routine is basically - 1-2 times per week:
- stir up detritus in weir and drain (loving decision to use one of my drilled return holes for this purpose)
- siphon out settling chamber (the second chamber of my sump, the one after the skimmer chamber, captures most of the detritus in my no-filter sock setup)
- approx 20L of room temp NSW into sump chamber
* jury is still out on my cryptic zone. Full of small sponges and various "worms". Visually seems like a detritus trap and is hard to clean, but web info seems to suggest that all the critters in there are removing all the organics from the detritus and what I am seeing is just the harmless leftovers. 4 months in it is probably too early to make any educated judgements. Think I will wait another 3 months or so before deciding whether to continue with that experiment.
* My friend, Corraline, finally decided to make an appearance in the tank after 3.5 months. Starting to gain traction on the rocks.
* Went away for a week and a friend stopped by each evening to feed the tank. Came back to a healthy tank and still virtually no algae on the glass, which my friend never cleaned. Tasks left for friend were just to check and top up my ATO reservoir, check all equipment still running and water temp, then feed.
* Feeding regime - a quarter sheet of nori once every 1-2 days, 3 small pieces of my homemade frozen food once per day (early evening)
* My linksia starfish has become a mover and shaker. The first few weeks he would stay in the one place (high up near one of the corners of the tank) and only move at night once or twice a week. The last fortnight he moves all over the tank at all times of the day. Very cool to watch.
* Having second thoughts about adding other fish to the tank now (previously had been thinking over time I would love to add a pair of clowns with nem, plus a wrasse of some sort). The 4 "newbies" have settled in nicely and, as reported by the previous owner, all get along really well. All 6 fish have their favourite spots in the tank and resting places for nighttime. Fat, healthy, colourful and very active - the tank is full of movement which looks great. No longer sure that adding extra fish and dealing with potential aggression/incompatibility issues is worth the risk. Tank is full of hiding places and removing any unwanted fish would be an major pain without deconstructing at least some of the scape, which I am really happy with at the moment.
* Initially painted the back of one rear pane blue because I wanted to experiment with a non-black background and I had some blue paint handy. I like it, but am still wondering whether things would pop more by going to black.
* Need to take some better pics, but here is one of my royal gramma, head to tail approx 7-8cm. :p
Jart's 3ft Shallow "Cube" Adventure
