DarkReefer's CADE Reef S2 1800

[DarkReefer]

So after testing last Tuesday, I bumped up my dosing a bit and checked again on Saturday to see how it was all looking.

pH - 8.0
Nitrate - 2.0
Phosphate - 0.043
Salinity - 1.027
Alkalinity - 7.1
Calcium - 395
Magnesium - 1185

I don't know how but my Mag dropped despite increasing dosage, so I've pumped it up some more and will have to test again.
Calcium also dropped a bit so I've bumped that.
Was good to see the Alk on the increase, so I'm maintaining that one as is until it gets to around 8.

Also noticed my foxface is picking at my duncan coral, so that's been slowly dying off. Yay.
I think the fox and possibly purple tang have been going at the helios too as that has been in awkward shape for the last half a week and I spied over the last couple days both of them looking like they were picking at something on it.

I attacked the aptaisia that was near my zoas and so far seem to have gotten them it seems, we'll see. Zoas haven't been overly happy since but I'm hopeful they'll bounce back.

Also forgot to mention I ended up having a huge drama trying to replace my filter roll about a month back.
Was losing my cool with it. I didn't have a stapler so was trying to run the stuff through with sticky tape and it just wouldn't hold. Had to pull the whole thing out and run the stuff right through. Did my head in.
I've since bought a stapler, so if the next one doesn't go as smoothly as the Reef Dudes make it look then I've got a mind to get rid of it and try the reef mat instead.

 

[DarkReefer]

Update time!

Went to a lfs yesterday to get some more mag supplement and noticed they had several anthias that looked nice and were eating alright. Left the shop without them but chatting with my gf we decided to go back today and pick them up.
We got all 5 left and put them in. Since doing that we can only find 4... no idea where the last one is hiding.
Checked around the tank, checked bags etc buy nowhere to be seen. Hopefully it comes out later..

I've really got to try and do something with the lights, it's very blue and I feel like some of the colours of the fish aren't being shown off properly as a result. I've messed around previously with ab+ template and whilst that seems to be an alright colour, it grows algae on the sand like nothing else.. which I assume comes from the white, red and green spectrums. If anyone has any nice templates or suggestions for the xr15 that works for them, would love to see/hear...


On the topic of lights, for the last few weeks I'd cut some cardboard and stuck on with tape onto the lights to limit light spill and seeing the led whilst sitting on the couch. We started looking into the 3d printed spill shades and whilst they look fairly nice they're just so pricey. My gf suggested we try some corflute so we went to bunnings and bought a sheet of the white corflute and used some cable ties to attach it to the lights.
Whilst it may not be the prettiest, I think it looks pretty decent especially for $35 and some cable ties and seems to work a charm (more so for led glare than the spill), would have gotten a piece long enough to do the whole length in one if it would have fit in the car but the overlap doesn't look terrible considering the cost.

Update; 5th Anthia came out of hiding once I threw some mysis in... phew !

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update time!

Went to a lfs yesterday to get some more mag supplement and noticed they had several anthias that looked nice and were eating alright. Left the shop without them but chatting with my gf we decided to go back today and pick them up.
We got all 5 left and put them in. Since doing that we can only find 4... no idea where the last one is hiding.
Checked around the tank, checked bags etc buy nowhere to be seen. Hopefully it comes out later..

I've really got to try and do something with the lights, it's very blue and I feel like some of the colours of the fish aren't being shown off properly as a result. I've messed around previously with ab+ template and whilst that seems to be an alright colour, it grows algae on the sand like nothing else.. which I assume comes from the white, red and green spectrums. If anyone has any nice templates or suggestions for the xr15 that works for them, would love to see/hear...


On the topic of lights, for the last few weeks I'd cut some cardboard and stuck on with tape onto the lights to limit light spill and seeing the led whilst sitting on the couch. We started looking into the 3d printed spill shades and whilst they look fairly nice they're just so pricey. My gf suggested we try some corflute so we went to bunnings and bought a sheet of the white corflute and used some cable ties to attach it to the lights.
Whilst it may not be the prettiest, I think it looks pretty decent especially for $35 and some cable ties and seems to work a charm (more so for led glare than the spill), would have gotten a piece long enough to do the whole length in one if it would have fit in the car but the overlap doesn't look terrible considering the cost.

Update; 5th Anthia came out of hiding once I threw some mysis in... phew !

The lights look great on your tank!

 

[DarkReefer]

The lights look great on your tank!

Thanks!
It's a very basic and cheap fix for the time being but does the job enough so that we're no longer being blasted in the face from the LED's directly. I'm sure the proper 3D printed shades would be much more appealing but for the moment, this will do fine!

 

[DarkReefer]

One of the new anthias were found dead on Monday morning. Not sure if it was a result of stress or something with the water change completed late Sunday afternoon, fished it out of the tank and seemed to still be in tact.

Had a suspicion my fish were about to start breaking out with ich late Sunday (maybe it was Monday night I can't remember) after I noticed the purple tang looking a little odd, other fish seemed ok. There weren't spots but you could see the scales/coating to be a little 'off'.

Anyway, checked last night and sure enough the Blue and Purple are covered in spots so now I've started dosing Medic to try and sort it out. Have had success twice before with it in the smaller tank so fingers crossed it goes well again...