Nathan's Shallow Reef

[brad908]

Didn't watch the video, but your waterline looks equal to or even lower than mine and mine is 100% silent. The only thing I can think of is your return pump. I had to turn mine way down.

[Nstocks]

Which pump and setting do you have it on?

[brad908]

Which pump and setting do you have it on?

 

I have a hydor l40, and I used a valve to control the flow. I feel like the valve has to be around 75% closed.

[Nstocks]

I'm running the JECOD 4000 (1,050GPH) and have it on number 4 (out of 10)

 

I'll turn it to number 2 and see if that helps.

 

Do you have the overflow comb at the highest point, or lowest point and move the first u-bend down/up to control the water level?

[brad908]

I'm running the JECOD 4000 (1,050GPH) and have it on number 4 (out of 10)

 

I'll turn it to number 2 and see if that helps.

 

Do you have the overflow comb at the highest point, or lowest point and move the first u-bend down/up to control the water level?

 

I've never touched the ubend. I have the overflow comb at the highest point

[Nstocks]

I've put the return pump on the lowest setting and it is now silent. I'll raise the water level tomorrow and make sure the siphon can still start at low flow.

[Nstocks]

Argh, the diatoms are back . I have rowaphos (50ml) that I change weekly but I know it's a a waiting game.

[Nstocks]

There's a few patches of green hair algae growing in the crevices of some rock.... All nutrients ar undetectable which is understandable.

 

I'm looking at the idea of removing the LR from my sump so I have space for a up flow algae turf scrubber. OR, perhaps more frequent, larger water changes?

[4x5]

Just be patient as far as diatoms and a little algae growth. The system will stabilise and sort itself out over time. Took me about 6 months and then I never saw cyano or diatoms again unless I fed a massive amount.

[Nstocks]

It's so tempting to try and remove it before it 'takes over'

 

Feeding is heavy which doesn't help matters. Mandarin lost lot of weight and so small frequents feeds of frozen food (3 times per day) is my way of keeping him at a stable weight. There' must be something good in the water - I can literally see my birds nest frag grow every day so this is the one SPS I will probably buy more of.

 

Thanks for the wisdom

[Nstocks]

I'm done with SPS (except birdsnest which is doing incredibly well).

 

All parameters are close to RSCP salt too, so it could be low flow? Nobody really knows why SPS strip so I'm just going to take it as a sign that this tank isn't for SPS.

 

On the other hand, I will have a lot of LPS including euphyllia for movement

 

[4x5]

Your tank will be ready for SPS but it can take months to get there. Acros don't like fresh tanks.

[Nstocks]

Indeed, I left it around 3 months I think and thought frequent water changes should be sufficient... There's probably other 'stuff' that make them grow that I didn't have/

 

I no longer feel they are worth it anymore - I'm going with better rock structuring and LPS instead, leaving plenty of room for growth etc.

 

How's your tank coming along?

[1MP3R1AL]

Once your tank is stable, and has gone through all the ugly stages you should try sps again.

Beautiful tank btw!

[Nstocks]

Mandarin jumped out

 

I was at work, but my parents were at home, but unfortunately it was too late, I'm so upset.

 

I feel like selling the f****** tank because it's one thing after another and I'm still not happy with it and don't have the £100's it's going to take to get it how I want it - more rock, coral and of course, fish. I don't think I can even go through replacing him but he was such a great fish.

 

Horrible ending to a terrible day at work. He was my friend!!!!

 

WHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(because I didn't cover it)

[East1]

Generally stripping bottom-up on SPS is a sign of incorrect phosphate levels, the fixes to this are usually dosing po4, feeding coral food that they can consume or adding more fish, or in the even that the po4 is too high, removal via biopellets or something. It could also be down to fluctuating kH levels, though I'd expect to see tip stripping instead of going basal up. What do you do to supplement kH? acropora will usually show signs of stress if your kH moves more than 0.5dkh a day, or your calcium moves more than 10ppm a day.

 

Sorry about the mandarin, your tank looks amazing and I wouldn't throw in the towel, I had my absolute favourite fish - a geometric hawkfish - jump and it almost caused me to shut down. I'm glad I didn't.

[iPhone]

nice clean looking setup, love the open scape.

[Nstocks]

Generally stripping bottom-up on SPS is a sign of incorrect phosphate levels, the fixes to this are usually dosing po4, feeding coral food that they can consume or adding more fish, or in the even that the po4 is too high, removal via biopellets or something. It could also be down to fluctuating kH levels, though I'd expect to see tip stripping instead of going basal up. What do you do to supplement kH? acropora will usually show signs of stress if your kH moves more than 0.5dkh a day, or your calcium moves more than 10ppm a day.

 

Sorry about the mandarin, your tank looks amazing and I wouldn't throw in the towel, I had my absolute favourite fish - a geometric hawkfish - jump and it almost caused me to shut down. I'm glad I didn't.

 

Phosphate was delectable for the first 2 months or so (no skimming, very low bio load) and are now undetectable. No coral food was added at any point, but I had a lot more rock that one would normally have in a small system. kH levels were a issue from the beginning, within 2 weeks (or less) it dropped from 11 to 8, and has been between 8 and 9.5. I haven't tested in in weeks though.

 

I was so upset last night about loss of Mandarin, I just want to keep going with this tank. One idea I've had is to create extreme depths in the sand levels, so that some rock work is placed very high up. The problems I've realised are 1) how to support the rocks work without burring it in the sand and 2) Deep sand beds could be an issue. 3) More diatoms from adding 2-3 more bags of sand.

[East1]

Phosphate has to be a pretty stable value when SPS are concerned, at least within about 0.5 ppm in my experience, any shifts or lack of po4 can cause basal stripping.

 

kH and subsequently calcium are two parameters you need to be very diligent about testing and maintaining. I dilute both my cal and kh solutions and have my doser set to space doses out over 24 hours. I test roughly every two days when things are going well but after a water change or a change in the dosage I usually up it to around twice to three times a day. I consider a dosing pump essential to keeping SPS, and you can pick one up from ebay for less than £100 or so. For context, here's a graph of my cal and kh values, with the jump in kh and calcium being enough to cause two corals to lose some tissue.

 

 

I really do know the feeling about fish loss, I lots a catshark I'd had for a few years when I lived in Dubai, I had built an amazing tank for her and I was distraught, I quit the hobby for a few years after that. I really like deep sandbeds, they're an ecosystem much like the interior core of live rock and I think it's an important aspect for reefkeeping, they ensure a lot of biodiversity. I think your tank would look amazing with a sloped scape, I'm planning a more pronounced slope in my next one. This one I just used rocks to create a retainer but in the next iteration, I plan to mimic what planted tank enthusiasts do and use strips of corrugated plastic, as in the picture below. Diatoms will subside when the sandbed becomes live and microorganisms start to consume them, so I wouldn't worry much about that. I think the most natural look involves rockwork partially submersed in teh sandbed, placing rocks on top of the bed doesn't look right in my mind at all.

 

[Nstocks]

I think for the foreseeable future, I will be keeping LPS for the most part. My birdsnest is doing well, although it has little to no coloration (it was slightly green when I purchased it, so perhaps lighting or feeding is not optimal for that particular frag). I really don't have the energy to keep testing more than nitrates and phosphates either so Euphyllia have become my favourite coral to keep, again they are all growing like crazy and their movement adds more interest to the tank.

 

Planted tanks are a very good reference for the deeper sand beds and I know the substrate is very involved. I have a image in my mind of having the sand wave-swept (like how powerbeads move small grain sand into mounds) and have rocks placed on the pitch/top of those sand piles, but as you say, partially covered rock looks far more natural.

 

I wonder if I could create or buy a small plastic box to but the rocks on, without worrying about them sinking into deep (1-4") sandbeds? The only problem there is being able to cover it completely... None of my rocks (real reef) are particularly tall and I've given up looking for the perfect rock. That's where using the valleys created by sand come into play. - similar to the first image on your 'Little Mangrove Forest' thread, however I'd want to keep the sand pristine and not use it for biological filtration since my sump contains an extra 15KG in addition to 10KG in the display.

 

A mangrove with branching real reef rock and fish only is quite very interesting, but it would mean removing all the (expensive) real reef rock and replacing it with bones which I cannot and do not want to do.

[Nstocks]

Thinking of adding a mangrove (or 3) trees (twigs) to my reef tank... The aquascaping I'm working with might look really cool with a tree at the top, as the rocks look like roots.

 

I need to research it more, but what is the general consensus with mangrove trees with fish, coral, inverts etc.?

[Nstocks]

I've just performed a full set of test and dKH continues to be a problem. According to another forum, RSCP advertises a high alkalinity (11) and it gives around 9 in the tank, so it's been suggested to change salts and since I'm not keeping LPS, I probably don't need a high mineral salt.

 

TMC Marine Pro, ATM hot salt and aquavirto salinity have all been suggested. Can anyone add to this list?

[D Z]

I've just performed a full set of test and dKH continues to be a problem. According to another forum, RSCP advertises a high alkalinity (11) and it gives around 9 in the tank, so it's been suggested to change salts and since I'm not keeping LPS, I probably don't need a high mineral salt.

 

TMC Marine Pro, ATM hot salt and aquavirto salinity have all been suggested. Can anyone add to this list?

Good old Reef Crystals.....I went through this for a while using RSCP, then blue bucket, contemplated all kinds of other salts like the ones you mentioned....ended up trying reef crystals and I have noticed my tank is happier and so is my wallet. There are A LOT of people that would say the same thing.

[Nstocks]

Pregnant!

 

For the past 4-5 months, once per month at night I've noticed hundreds of tiny particles in the water column. At first it was though the conch shrimp were reproducing, but after taking another look at all my inhabitants it's the Cleaner shrimp! She's quite larger than the male (now I know why)!

 

I've read that the chances of survival are almost impossible, partly because they eat their own fry.

 

​If anyone has had luck with raising shrimp fry, please let me know ASAP as I think she will be spawning again tonight.

 

[4x5]

Cleaner Shrimp are hermaphroditic, so they are both the male and female. Mine usually had eggs at the same time. Raising them is seriously hard work from what I've read - so just enjoy the free food.