Gigs RSM Tank Journal

[gigs]

Reefmack: I have my lights turning off at about 10pm, I will move the schedule back an hour or 2. The Duncans are out all the time in their full glory during the daylight period and close after the lights go off. So they are easy to feed. The blastomussa I have never feed, just phytoplex and zooplex additives. Thanks for the tip on the Sea Squirt I will have a look.

reefsr4me: Great advice! You have saved me much research. So are you saying that you can train the sun coral to come out at a certain time? Good idea about the airline tube, I will try it tonight. Do you have a pic of your sun coral fully open? I would love to see it.

[LaurentSeattle]

Hi Gigs...

Great Corals and Great Price! Congratulations!

It seems like you have avoided so far the dreaded massive algae blooms afflicting many newly started tanks.

But still... If I were you, I would remove the green ones growing on the back wall just before the next water change. In newly setup tanks, algae grows in waves, the dying one feeding the next. Furthermore, that would provide room for some coralline..

That said, everything looks very clean in your RSM compared to mine after 3 or 4 weeks...

[gigs]

Laurent: I have got my fingers crossed about the algae bloom. I saw some of the pain that you went through in your thread and I think with your advice and everyone else here I may be spared from the dreaded outbreak.
That is a very good point you make about the algae on the back of my tank. So far I have not bothered to clean it off, but will be doing it this weekend - on top of my list. Thanks again for the advice.
The PurpleUp that I ordered from your country will be here this week (currently clearing customs) so I have extra incentive to get rid of the pest hair algae.

[gigs]

reefsr4me: I just tried your trick with the syringe and feed the Duncans - it worked a treat. Cheers.

[racksteris]

Kool tank.

[reefsr4me]

I actually feed everything with the syringe and tube, my candycanes(don't feed too well), sun coral, BTA, long tentacle plate coral, I just turn all of the pumps off for a minute, feed them, and then wait about 5 minutes for them to pull all of the shrimp in, then I turn them on and my fish gobble up the flying brine shrimp the corals don't eat. I usually put 2 cubes in, and then don't specifically feed the fish on those nights, they just get the leftovers!

[scottydo]

It looks like it is off to a good start.

[reefsr4me]

Here is a pic open

[gigs]

racksteris and scottydo: thanks guys, do you have a tank journal up maybe I could visit and have a look?

reefsr4me: WOW that is stunning! I feed mine last night at about 11pm and it came out a little bit after it smelt / tasted the brine shrimp. So I feed it again when the polyps were open a bit. I hope it starts to come out a bit more over the next few days. Hopefully one day like yours...

[reefsr4me]

How has that sun coral been for you?

[gigs]

Hi everyone,

Day 34

Sorry I have been slack and have not posted for a while here. I have made heaps of changes since the last post. Have performed several mods on the skimmer, changed air valve, drilled air inlet pipe into the skimmer cup. This has made for a much quieter skimmer and about 20% less MB. Thanks to everyone that posted their mods for us to copy.

- Have finished the install of 5 stage RO unit
- added 1 x banded shrimp
- added 1 x frag of zebra mushroom
- added 2 x black and white occy clowns (paired)
- added 1 x bubble tip anenome (hosted the clowns)
- added 2 x brain coral frags (dont know the correct terms maybe you guys could help ID them the LFS has no idea?)

I have received my order of addetives for the coral. I have been adding about 5ml of each per week at 10% water change. They are all Kent Marine:

- Phytoplex
- Zooplex
- Coral Accel
- Liquid Reactor
- Strontium & Molybdenum
- Essential Elements
- Purpleup

reefsr4me - the sun coral is doing well starting to come out more and display its beauty. I have been feeding it at about 11pm every second night, trying to get it back to about 10pm. I have not got a good shot yet as my night photography sux and it is not coming out totaly yet...

Here is the latest shots:

FTS


The new clowns


The "brain" coral, please help me ID them


5 Stage RO unit


The mushrooms are going mad at least 5 new 'shrooms so far...


Thanks for looking and have a wonderful christmas break

[stephensturman]

brak the rock into smaller pieces and arange them differently it will give u so much more room! but looks great.

[Reefmack]

gigs - looking good! I'm not sure one the corals - the left one may be a Favia type, and the right a type of blastomussa? Total guesses and I'm probably wrong.

[LaurentSeattle]

Hi Gigs,

You have Caulerpa growing on your rocks. It can be good because this algae grows very fast and regularly removing is an efficient nutrient export method. However the stolons can grow through the corals and this can be very bad.

Laurent

[Rue]

Very nice...

Funny though...your Duncans don't look like my Duncans - wonder if there are different subspecies?

Your sun coral looks much nicer than mine...mine still hasn't recovered from neglect...it needs to grow back the covering over the skeleton, if that's at all possible...in the meantime, I need to get the algae off of it...

Are you sure you should be getting so many coral without first knowing what they are?

[reefsr4me]

What type of RO system, and where did you get it? Those filters don't look fun to change in the location.

Nice new fish too!

[gigs]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your feedback:

stephensturman - I’m not sure what to do about the LR. 1) I don’t want to change too much atm because I'm worried about a nitrate spike, but will do in another few weeks. 2) there is just too much LR in the tank I put in 2 boxes (about 40KG) by recommendation of LFS.

Reefmack - thanks again, I really need to get my head around the new terms and names. It doesn’t help much when my LFS has No Idea, this forum is the best resource I have as there are no clubs etc where I live (island state south of Australia). I have researched Favia and you are spot on.

LaurentSeattle - I think have really scored with my LR, so far I have identified three types of micro algae:

Caulerpa peltata
Caulerpa racemosa and
Cladophoropsis sp

You are right I have to regularly trim the peltata (am very happy about this). I will keep a close eye on them and the coral placement so that I don’t have the issues you mentioned. Cheers.

Rue - Um I’m not sure about the Duncan’s, I will get a better shot and post here, maybe you could let me know. The sun coral has taken its time to settle in. I am still feeding it at about 11pm and slowly it is coming out more and more, just stunning when it does. The only problem I have is the clowns have taken a liking to it and snuggle up to it quite a bit causing to not come out properly.

Good luck with your sun coral Rue, I have found a good way to get it to extend it polyps is to feed a little bit near by and in about 2 or 3 mins it comes right out and I can then give it a good feed.

As for buying coral without full knowledge of species etc you are spot on, I will make a greater effort to try and ID them correctly and research before impulse buying!

reefr4me - this is the RO system that I bought:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....MEWA:IT&ih=007

I already had 1 stage installed so I added the 4 stage. The picture is deceptive, there is plenty of space in the cupboard to change the filters. the top two filters clip off and are easy to access.

Thanks for the complements and criticism. Taken on board guys!

The clowns are just awesome, they spend their whole day watching anyone that walks in the room and you can see them get excited when you go close to the tank and swim up and down the glass as close as the can to where you are standing. They are sooooo cute, When I feed the sun coral they just wont leave me or the coral alone. I think if I left my hand in the tank long enough they would take to me as their host.

[gigs]

I did a full batch of water readings, here are the readings for Day 39.

Day 39 Temp = 26deg

Day 39 Salinity = 1.023

Day 39 pH = 8.2

Day 39 Alkalinity = "Normal" 1.7 - 2.8

Day 39 Calcium = 410

Day 39 Ammonia = 0

Day 39 Nitrite = 0

Day 39 Nitrate = 5

Day 39 Phosphate = 0.02

Day 39 Magnesium = 1200

Reef Central recomends these Parameters critical to control in reef aquaria. So it seems I am doing OK so far. I was very happy to have Phosphate below 0.03 I will have to try and bring up the Magnesium a bit though.

Calcium 380-450 ppm
Alkalinity 2.5-4 meq/L
Salinity sg = 1.026
Temperature 25-28°
pH 8.1-8.3
Magnesium 1250-1350
Phosphate < 0.03 ppm
Ammonia <0.1 ppm

[LaurentSeattle]

Gigs:

Are you using the Red Sea test for ALK? If you have figured out the units they are using, please let us know...

Also: You should target zero for NO3 and PO4 but your numbers are not bad at all for a newly started tank.