sidneysix Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Hi Guys! My name is Kassie and Im from London, United Kingdom. I decided to dip my toes into this saltwater adventure and decided to do a thread to track and share my progress as my tank grows. Not quite a Nano but still on the smaller side for marine tanks. I decided to invest in the Clearseal reefspace 700, it was big enough to get the fish, corals and inverts I want to stock, without being too big or too small. I have seen some lovely tanks on here and on another forum all which has given me some great inspiration to where I want to take my reef. Equipment: Clearseal ReefSpace 700 // oceanlife overflow TMC IlumunAir 600 display tank lighting BM c3.5 skimmer TMC v2 4000 return pump x2 Hydor korilia nano - one to be replaced with a Jabeo rw4 Aqua medic titanium 200w heater w/ stc1000 thermostat D-D 20w UV steriliser w/ Eheim pump Wavepoint 6500K DAYLIGHT CLAMP LAMP 6" 8W Sump light D-D h2ocean fluidised reactor running Rowaphos Rock/Sand: 15kg* of mixed live rock, real reef branches and ceramic rock. *May be more I have not completely weighed it all. 10 kg of Red sea ocean white dry aragonite sand Miscellaneous Filtration: Macro Algae - Dragons breath, Red grape & Cheato in the sump. x3 Red Mangroves (Mainly for decoration) currently growing well in the sump Current Livestock: Clownfish x2 Pom Pom crabs x2 Peppermint Shrimp x2 Hermit Crabs x2 Snails x6 Potential Livestock i want to add: x1 Royal Gramma x1 Orange striped prawn goby (Amblyeleotris randalli) x5 yellow striped cardinals x1 firefish (currently in quarantine) x1 Peacock wrasse - female (Tank at 6 months mark) x1 mandarin (Tank around 8-12 months mark) x1 conch snail (added 2/2/2016) x1 cleaner shrimp(added 2/2/2016) x1 pistol shrimp to pair w/ goby x1 Maxima Clam x1 bubbletip anemone x3 sexy shrimp In regards to corals I have a rough idea of what I would like to keep, starting with soft corals to begin with and then slowly advancing.Soft Corals: Pink kenya tree coral (added 23/1/16) Toadstool leather coral (added 30/1/16) Assorted mushrooms Assorted zoas Lps Corals: Hammer coral Torch coral Frogspawn Coral Duncan coral Sps Corals: Birdsnest coral Branching acropora coral The Initial idea was to have 3 islands of rock, 1 with mangroves attached and then another two to be filled with corals. In the end the scape become one long centre structure with lots of hiding holes and caves. However I am still planning on attaching the 3 mangroves I am growing when the roots have grown long enough to the main display.Progress on this tank in regards to adding content will be slow, each month I plan to add a few bits when money allows Im making one 25L water change a week, testing water parameters weekly and checking salinity, temp and topping up evaporation daily. I added Live filter bacteria on the swap over which happened fairly quickly and everything has settled in fine, so here it is 3 months in. Link to comment
sidneysix Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Just a small update on the red mangroves, this is 10 days growth under the new lighting. Im super chuffed. ​ Link to comment
LeCharlesMuhDickens Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 How large do those mangroves get? Link to comment
sidneysix Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Mangroves get very large! they are trees in the wild, but it takes ages. Im going to treat them like a bonsai, so keeping on top of growth. They should make a stunning display eventually. This is my first reef tank, and first time growing mangroves. I like fish keeping and plant keeping and so i'm combining the two in my scape design. Link to comment
sidneysix Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 Latest new additions to my qt tank. These guys are eating well, and being treated with seachums paraguard just to be extra safe. 4 weeks and then I will add them to the main display. Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Nice pickups love cardinals Link to comment
sidneysix Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 ***Just a small update*** I have been treating the qt tank for white spot, as I believe my yellow stripe were showing white spots a few days after settling in to the tank. This leaves me to keep the fish into the qt now until the end of April to be certain the white spot is taken care off. Other than this they all look happy and healthy - I haven't had any losses. In the main tank I am dealing with slightly high nitrates, they are staying between 10 - 25ppm. I have upped water changes and cut down on feeding which i believe to be the cause. Im now monitoring daily and doing more frequent water changes. I lost my orange lipped conch, he passed away on Wednesday - Im not sure why, maybe I lowered nitrate levels too quickly? although I did water change every other day.. I'm looking into upgrading to another rw4 powerhead to help my water get better flow and to replace the tiny 900lph nano one i have currently on the right side of the tank. Some good news; I won a coral lotto recently and won a nice selection of zoa frags. I took collection for them on tues 1st march, they arrived very well packaged and are now settling in my tank. All seem to be growing well and the kenya tree and toadstool have grown. ​ ​ Link to comment
sidneysix Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 **Some overdue updates** I lost the majority of the cardinals, I had them replaced and 2 yellow stripes and a bangaii cardinal remain. They have been in the main tank for around 2 months now I think? Doing well. The tank is now 4 months old, today I have taken a risk and added a stunning potters angel to my reef. So my fish stock has changed some what since when I was first looking at stocking this tank. I would still like to add a randall's goby and the peacock wrasse when the tank matures. But i would say that would max me out. I have gone off the idea of adding the mandarin and the royal gramma. Overall the tank seems to be ticking over nicely. I will slowly add more corals over the next few months with the hope of also adding the randall goby / pistol shrimp combo. Plans will be made to add the peacock wrasse at a later date when more signs of copepods are present in the tank. Here are some updated images. ​ Link to comment
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