Salty Fingers

Eric R.

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I just got what was available through reef cleaners with my most recent CUC order. Some point I'll order from gulf coast ecosystems or another dedicated macro collector.
 
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courtneykeeps

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Probably have a bit of an edge on availability being in the states, since I can order from folks that harvest in the gulf and keys. Kudos for doing a macro tank in London!
Yeah I can't lie, I'm very envious of the selection you have in the states! But I won't give up, I'm sure some new species still become available at sommmme point.

For now, I'll make the best of what I've got!
 
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courtneykeeps

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Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

IMG_4936_jpg.jpeg


I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

IMG_4939.jpeg


Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.

IMG_2286.jpeg


I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!
 

rmorris_14

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Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

IMG_4936_jpg.jpeg


I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

IMG_4939.jpeg


Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.



I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!
Those could be dinos. Without a proper ID, its hard to recommend a course of action. What are you Po4 and No3 levels? I suspect with all that macro algae absorbing nutrients, they could have bottomed out.
 

Daniel@R2R

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Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

IMG_4936_jpg.jpeg


I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

IMG_4939.jpeg


Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.

IMG_2286.jpeg


I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!
The tank looks beautiful IMO! I don't have any good suggestions for additions.

Love the mandarin! Crazy that you got one that actually prefers frozen OVER live foods!
 

Gumbies R Us

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Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

IMG_4936_jpg.jpeg


I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

IMG_4939.jpeg


Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.

IMG_2286.jpeg


I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!
That is one great looking mandarin!
 

Mschmidt

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Tank looks good. there are yellow, orange, and blue sponges out there that would give you interesting color and texture variety.
 
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courtneykeeps

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Those could be dinos. Without a proper ID, its hard to recommend a course of action. What are you Po4 and No3 levels? I suspect with all that macro algae absorbing nutrients, they could have bottomed out.
Oh yeah, I don't know why I never considered that too.

Unfortunately I don't have any super accurate tests, only the Salifert ones. But I'll do a test of the nitrate and phosphate and see.
The tank looks beautiful IMO! I don't have any good suggestions for additions.

Love the mandarin! Crazy that you got one that actually prefers frozen OVER live foods!
Thank you!

Yeah he's very strange and I'm very lucky
Tank looks good. there are yellow, orange, and blue sponges out there that would give you interesting color and texture variety.
Thanks! That would nice! Can you just buy them from shops?
 

Mschmidt

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Thanks! That would nice! Can you just buy them from shops?
This side of the pond, they aren't everywhere, but I've seen them around.
@i cant think and @Nman may have ideas for finding them.

gorgonians too may be worth looking into. Iff they're there.
 
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courtneykeeps

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Looks like it could possibly be dinos.

The algae is brown, slimy and wavey and is mostly attached to macroalgae but is also on some parts of my gorgonian.

I tested my nitrate and phosphate. The phosphate was low but present (I suspect from the frozen foods I feed?), but the nitrates were basically non existent.

IMG_4949.jpeg

IMG_4951.jpeg


Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase nitrates to a good level? My nitrates used to be way too high (50+) so I'm surprised that it's now rock bottom.

I used to dose Tropica Premium which is NPK + Trace but I'm pretty sure the nitrates are very low in that anyway.
 

rmorris_14

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Looks like it could possibly be dinos.

The algae is brown, slimy and wavey and is mostly attached to macroalgae but is also on some parts of my gorgonian.

I tested my nitrate and phosphate. The phosphate was low but present (I suspect from the frozen foods I feed?), but the nitrates were basically non existent.

IMG_4949.jpeg

IMG_4951.jpeg


Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase nitrates to a good level? My nitrates used to be way too high (50+) so I'm surprised that it's now rock bottom.

I used to dose Tropica Premium which is NPK + Trace but I'm pretty sure the nitrates are very low in that anyway.
you can always throw a piece raw cocktail shrimp in your sump and monitor your nitrate levels. they should start to increase. Remove when they get where you want.
 
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courtneykeeps

courtneykeeps

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It's been a minute!

I had to break this tank down in January because I moved to Toronto! At least I'm on the same time zone as a lot of you now lol. I gave my fish/macroalgae/coral away to friends. I just checked in with the mandarin and he's still happy in my friend's bigger macroalgae tank :)

Fast forward to now, I've been keeping a very low maintenance blackwater tank but now I'm setting up a pico reef in my apartment. I'm back home for the holidays but when I return in January I'll update my journal here.

The plan is to go macroalgae and soft coral again but utilising the knowledge and experience I gained from the 2 years of keeping this tank. I don't think it'll be better, but it'll be different and different is good.
 
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courtneykeeps

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Mini Peninsula

Fast forward to January and I decided to end the experiment of having a tiny reef in a DOOA Shizuku early. Not that it wasn't working, but the desire to have more substantial marine creatures is just far too great. The experiment wasn't a failure though. I discovered that the Shizuku can in fact hold water without exploding and can support a tiny marine ecosystem. You should also always cross check your refractometer with another hobbyist or an aquarium shop. Turns out the one I bought was buggered and gave me very inaccurate readings, even after calibration. My salinity was sitting at 1.040!

IMG_0749.jpeg


As for the new tank, my rules were that it had to be big enough to allow me to keep some more interesting creatures but not so big that it became a burden. I wasn't interested in buying a new stand, light or filter so whatever option I went with had to work with the equipment I already had.

DSC_0373-compressed.jpeg


I didn't intend for this tank to be a peninsula but after seeing it and asking a few people the decision was unanimous.

IMG_0765.jpeg


Once again I intend for this tank to be macroalgae dominated, with a few easy corals. I'm hoping the last two years of reefing will help me swerve some of the beginner mistakes and make for a smoother ride this time. Some of the mitigation I took;
- Used cultured rock and live sand instead of dry rock and dry sand. I think this is crucial to having an easier start. You can obviously still have problems but they may not be as severe.
- I started the 'festering' period in October and without any lighting. This was to allow bacterial populations to grow and the cycle to get going without nuisance algae.
- I seeded it with additional rock from well-established and healthy existing tanks.
- I added live Tigger pods to the system and will let them fester some more before adding fish.

IMG_0774.jpeg


There is still going to be an adjustment period whilst I figure out how much light I need and how to balance it with the natural light coming from the window. That's all part of the ride!
 
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courtneykeeps

courtneykeeps

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New Neighbours!

Just a little update to say I added some new inhabitants to the aquarium. Mostly coral, but also a Blue Banded Coral Shrimp. The blue (purple) ones are actually a different species to the more commonly seen yellow ones and stay much smaller and are more peaceful.

IMG_1215.jpeg
IMG_1204.jpeg

(Two side profiles of aquarium)

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Long tentacle toadstool - not fully open yet

IMG_1207.jpeg

Leptastrea - can't remember which type...

IMG_1212.jpeg

King Midas Zoanthid

I'm hoping the Zoas and Leptastrea colonise sections of the rock and create a little garden. I'll be looking out for other Zoas to dot around the rock.

I've noticed really good recovery and growth on the Caulerpa racemosa and some of the red species seem to be attaching to the rock. The Palm Caulerpa is looking worse for ware and I'm worried it might just melt away...
 

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