Nic's CadLight 45 Gallon Shallow Reef - New Pictures!

[acrab78]

Yeah thats awesome.... would love some pics when you can....

 

How big is the new dwarf? And what is the size expectancy?

 

What did it cost?

 

Thanks!

[Nic]

The Golden Angel was $130 at LiveAquaria and was deemed a "Medium." I'd say he's about 3" and can get up to 4. He's a good deal larger than my adult Pygmy Angel. Diver's Den seems to get them periodically, maybe one ever few months and I wouldn't trust purchasing them anywhere else. They are a very shy, deep water species living on the reef slopes so a lot of them are captured using dubious methods (cyanide, etc.) and have a very high mortality rate in those instances.

[Nic]

Forgot to mention, Ken from Reefcorner.com let me know he's sending two par38 bulbs and a kit to mount both bulbs for free. I got the UPS notification last night. Even shipping for free. I can't reiterate how great his packaging was and how awesome the corals were when they arrived. I opened the box and found the Strawberry Shortcake Acro had full PE in the bag, sitting in darkness and both the SS and Hoeksmeai colored up within hours of being in the tank. I told him I'm eventually getting around to setting up a DoAqua! 60F in my office and those par38 bulbs would be perfect for setting it up initially. Awesome customer service and all around great guy!

 

I'm trying to decide how long to keep the tang in the sump. I feel bad keeping him in the equivalent of a 10 gallon tank. I've moved the live rock around in the DT a bit also. How long do you think I should keep him there before reintroducing him?

[Nic]

Time for some pictures

 

Dwarf Golden Angelfish (So hard to get a good picture)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water Parameters:

 

PH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Calcium: 450

Alkalinity: 11.3

Magnesium: 1520

 

Im gonna start backing off the water changes a bit and see if the parameters slowly deplete through feelings and natural processes for a while. It seems I've reached a bit of a plateau and nothing is really budging at this point despite the water changes.

 

The tang is back in the tank and has run into the angel several times with no ill consequences. The angel has made a home moving within the caves of the rock work and rarely comes out while the tang is happy to stay out front moving around in the water column. Hopefully there's no trouble in paradise...

[4x5]

Rad Angel and some really nice sticks. Good luck with bringing those parameters down.

[Nic]

Rad Angel and some really nice sticks. Good luck with bringing those parameters down.

 

Thanks man. As I suspected, the IO Salt Mix mixes at or about the levels I am currently at. Did a little research and found that Brightwell Aquatics Neomarine salt mixes at an alkalinity of 7.5. I'm gonna call around to the LFSs in the area and see if any have a bucket or bag and I will continue the 5 gallon water changes from there, if I can't find that, the standard Red Sea Salt also mixes at a low alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium levels. IO served its purpose initially, but I think its time to change to something made more specifically for a ULNS.

[D Z]

You really should check out Red Sea Blue bucket salt. It is a favorite among KZ and ULNS reefers and I believe it is cheaper than Neomarine salt.

[Nic]

Haha yeah I edited that post to include the Red Sea Blue Bucket salt. I know my lfs has that. I'm gonna graqb a bucket at lunch today and that should break this plateau I'm experiencing.

[acrab78]

Pic of the new angel is sweet... awesome fish...

[Nic]

Pic of the new angel is sweet... awesome fish...

 

Thanks man. He's rarely out in the open like that. If you look hard enough you can see random glints of orange/gold scales weaving in and out of the caves in the rock. Hopefully he'll be less nervous as time goes by.

[Nic]

Got the blue buckets though I did like that the NeoMarine had NSW levels at 1.025 whereas you have to go with 1.023 SG for the Red Sea to get exactly NSW. It'll do though. The NeoMarine was a full $10 more per 55 gallon bucket, however. So they can keep it.

[Nic]

Hi Nic,

 

In an ultra low nutrient tank, the above parameters will eventually STN corals and precipitation is more likely. I really suggest the following parameters:

 

Calcium: 410ppm

Alkalinity: 7-7.5dKH

Magnesium: 1300ppm

 

 

 

Christine and Alex,

 

I purchased two blue buckets of Red Sea Salt and did a 10 gallon water change tonight. My parameters are finally on the way down to NSW.

 

Alk: 10.4

Cal: 420

Mag: 1400

 

I'll do another water change tomorrow and then one on Sunday and hopefully I'll be at NSW. From there I'll maintain a few days to insure its stable and then I hope to start the ZEOvit reactor.

 

 

[Nic]

Parameters still steadily going down:

 

Alk: 9.8

Calc: 405

Mag: 1360

 

Almost there. Since I've been doing ten gallon water changes as opposed to five, I'll hold off doing a water change tomorrow and then do another on Sunday.got a new blue tipped stag from unique corals and a maricultured Bali Blue acro as well. Will post up pics later. Unfortunately, both my wife and I have the flu :/

[Alex B]

Good to see the levels coming down. I would just let the tank balance out now and stop doing water changes. Let the tank stabalize and the levels will come down with it. Give the tank a week or 2 after that before starting zeo. It's a lot of changes right now for the tank. New paramters, new salt mix. Just take it slow with the zeo, and follow the routine. Your going to have to pay very close attention to the corals in the startup period. If you strip the water too fast, you will have nothing but problems.

 

Make sure you measure the flow through the reactor. It's very important. Also make sure you have the correct amount of stones. I would start rinsing the stones in rodi already. When you start, your only going to use zeostart3, sponge power, and Zeobak. If you see tissue necrosis, or loose PE during start up, it's prob from stripping the water too fast. I have heard if that happens, it helps to put the reactor on a timer and run it on a cycle.

 

Hope it goes well.

[Nic]

Sounds like a good plan, Alex. I already purchased a timer as per Christine's instructions and intend to run the reactor 3 hours on, 3 hours off for, I believe, the entire initial 14 day period.

[Nic]

I apologize for the crappy photo, I'll eventually invest in a good camera but for now it's the iPad.

 

FTS 09/29/14

 

 

The shadowing isn't nearly as pronounced as the camera makes it appear, though there is some. I envision placing some NPS on the right side along the rock face that is dramatically shadowed in the photo. Maybe a sun coral or two.

 

The Golden Dwarf Angelfish remains elusive. Occasionally, he'll come out and hang out at the front of the tank, usually when no one is within four feet of it and he can be seen flitting in and out of the caves and picking on the live rock. He's fat as a pig so that's good. I still haven't been able to catch him eating at feeding time, in fact, I've only seen glimpses of his fins whenever I feed mysis or other frozen prepared foods. If he's like any of the others I've read about in various posts, it'll be a good year before I glimpse him eating prepared foods unless he was already weaned onto them at LiveAquaria, which I doubt.

[Nic]

Quick update FTS shots. Added a wild Acropora Kimbeensis colony, Acropora Echinatas colony, Bleeding Apple Scolymia, and an Electric Green Open Brain Coral.



Parameters:

Alk: 9.0 dkh
Calcium: 420
Magnesium: 1310

Things are settling down quite nicely. Noticing some growth and further encrusting of frag plugs and epoxy. Started dosing 2 drops of Biomate mixed with 2 ml of Coral Snow. Still holding off on starting the reactor and will likely do so for another couple to few weeks from now.