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Cultivated Reef

Patrick's minireef


Patrick17

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6 minutes ago, Subsea said:

 

Bubble Tip Anemone have crashed more healthy tanks than all other other things combined.  Your tank looks great.  

Beautiful wrasses!

Thank you very much for your kind words. 

 

I think we got lucky in a way with the BTA. We are gutted to have lost a beautiful nem; but only losing a couple corals over the next couple months is a bit of an escape. Definitely onwards and upwards since then and a hard lesson learned. 

 

I'm still working on taking the perfect photo to identify the wrasse but spending hours in front of the tank is no chore... 

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Another week at work down; ready for the weekend! 

 

The wrasse have settled in well; the coris has stopped hiding and is nearly always out during the day and the walindi (?) is happy, anthropomophically speaking anyway. 

 

The chasing has died down completely, the PSW is out and about more than ever and cruising the rock which is lovely to see. 

 

Here are a couple photos that are slightly less blurry than usual 

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This evening has been full of maintenance, started with the tropical tank and then onto the reef- time flies when you're having fun! 

 

I took delivery yesterday of 2kg (4.4lbs) of real reef rubble which has been sorted through and split between the sump and display. The plan was to give wrasse food better hiding places, we'll see how it works out. 

 

Currently, the tank is annoyed with my interference; corals are closed after being glued, glass is dusty and the fish are in hiding. 

 

How do you cope with cleaning the sand if your coris wrasse hides in it somewhere as soon as you put your hands in? 

 

Photos will have to come tomorrow when I've been able to finish off what I started. 

 

In the meantime, here's a photo of Dot, one of the other members of our family. The weather improved at the weekend so it was great to get out and spend a little time with them too ? 

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Just now, DCUEVAS74 said:

Love those wrasses!  They provide great movement.  Great job on the softy setup.  

Thank you very much :wub: trying to keep this as simple as possible whilst keeping as much movement and colour as possible; feels like I'm getting there again now. 

 

Coincidentally, I was just reading through your journal; I love the scape and wish I had the space for a water station like that! My salinity had crept up over the last fortnight with a missed change but I suppose that's the joy with forgiving softies. 

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48 minutes ago, Patrick17 said:

Thank you very much :wub: trying to keep this as simple as possible whilst keeping as much movement and colour as possible; feels like I'm getting there again now. 

 

Coincidentally, I was just reading through your journal; I love the scape and wish I had the space for a water station like that! My salinity had crept up over the last fortnight with a missed change but I suppose that's the joy with forgiving softies. 

Thanks, I hope I can keep my hands out of the tank and leave the scape alone.  I always say that softies are the most rewarding... anything else?  You are just asking for punishment lol.  Can't wait to see yours fill out.  

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5 minutes ago, DCUEVAS74 said:

Thanks, I hope I can keep my hands out of the tank and leave the scape alone.  I always say that softies are the most rewarding... anything else?  You are just asking for punishment lol.  Can't wait to see yours fill out.  

I suppose another advantage of softies is being able to get larger pieces for relatively less, although it does still feel like it's going to take a while longer to fill in how I want. Its 18 months old at the moment and still just getting going :D

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The tank hasn't cleared up for a full (very amateur) photoshoot but the wrasse are out of hiding again and I can't resist them... 

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The weeks are flying by this year, our wedding day will be on us before we know it. 

 

I'm not happy with the balance of my little rescape after adding the rubble; I'm happy with each individual area on its own but together it's not quite right. Gives me something to do this weekend that won't involve emptying my wallet some more though. 

 

I'm curious to see what the tank would look like with all the rock on the left and a big open space on the right. I think if I tried I'd end up in a never ending cycle of fiddling. Curious though...

 

Here are a couple photos of the left-hand-side and our walindi wrasse. I'd still love a positive ID, I think there are possibly a few lighter spots along the back below the dorsal fin and equally spaced. I will keep an eye on their development

 

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Realised I've not posted a FTS for a while so here is my tank today

 

FTS 22.04.18

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I took a couple close ups of the left and right-hand sides of the tank as a few corals have been moved and some are growing out nicely 

 

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Here's a few photos of the fish too (hard getting the PSW in any; since he stopped chasing the new wrasse, he's gone back to being cryptic) 

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18 hours ago, Nachoman said:

Hey mate love the wrasses  Did you have any issues with your drain to the sump being overly noisy!

I did, it sounded like a washing machine at first. Had to make a few changes on the return pipe to make it more like a Duro standpipe, but 18 months later its much quieter. 

 

I drilled a hole in the black cap on top of the drain pipe large enough to put a short piece of air hose in. Originally, I planned to put a valve in the air hose but never did. 

 

I also changed the drain plumbing below the bulkhead. Instead of a single pipe, I instead have a ball valve followed by a strainer which sits below the surface of the water. I can slip my filter sock over this now. There is a trickling water sound still but far better than a washing machine. 

 

To get all that to fit, I had to remove the baffle between the first two sections for the drain and heater. 

 

Not massive changes but effective enough. I have more issues with the vibration noise so have swapped the return pump for a DC one and sit my skimmer on a sponge so that the skimmer air intake is the noisiest part of the tank. 

 

I'll try and take some photos when I get home later

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Thanks for the reply mate, would be awesome if you can take some pics of all that when you get a chance.  

 

I've already order a DC pump to replace the stock one, ive drilled the hole and put the tubing in but still getting bulk bubbles from the return pipe.  Wondering if they have started making the return pipe too long as it is a good 3-4 inches below the water line. 

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9 hours ago, Nachoman said:

Thanks for the reply mate, would be awesome if you can take some pics of all that when you get a chance.  

 

I've already order a DC pump to replace the stock one, ive drilled the hole and put the tubing in but still getting bulk bubbles from the return pipe.  Wondering if they have started making the return pipe too long as it is a good 3-4 inches below the water line. 

I was a little wary of doing any real DIY; after paying for a tank my partner and I feel like it should be fit for purpose (within reason, anyway) 

 

This is the hole in the top of the drain pipe, it's not big but seems big enough to get air in

 

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The strainer on the end of the drain pipe below is about 6" long under the water line. It seems to do a great job of breaking up the bubbles coming down the pipe and with the ball valve and DC pump I have enough control to be able to make any noise manageable. 

 

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I hope those photos help! 

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This weekend, all three wrasse have finally taken to eating flake food. The little fairy wrasse is out-competed by everyone else, but still took a decent amount. Hopefully this will allow me to fatten it up a bit. 

 

Note the pig of a coris wrasse in the background... 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Wrasse really do rock.

 

I've let my tank get really dirty over the last month in an effort to boost the pod population. The coris wrasse has really appreciated it, as have some of the corals. Unfortunately, our male clown jumped through the tiniest of gaps a couple of weeks ago and the little red wrasse is currently MIA, last seen looking underweight. 

 

I'm planning on adding some macroalgae in the next few weeks as a treat to myself for a nice promotion at work, possibly some emerald crabs too - fed up of bubble algae! Reading back through my journal, macros and bringing an end to bubble algae has been a plan for quite a while... 

 

 

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This is our tank as of this afternoon 

 

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And a photo of the only two fish out and about this evening (the PSW has been out for food but has reverted to type recently and come over all shy) 

 

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If you stand square on to photograph the tank it can look out of proportion, with the top 2/3 seeming empty. A more realistic representation the tank is this

 

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When you sit in the office chair, your eye level is lower so that you look upwards towards the surface rather than down towards the sand bed. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/20/2018 at 5:11 PM, Subsea said:

Tank looks great.  Wrasses rock.

 

PS. I have some new sponges.

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I finally took the plunge over the weekend and got in some macroalgae, how does this selection look to you? 

 

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They are all 2-3" in size, hoping they will fill out in the near future. The seller was excellent and put a beginner's pack of (hopefully) easy, hardy, interesting and non-invasive macros. 

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I've had a good weekend keeping out of my partner's way as she gets towards the end of her study - means I've spent two days doing a tour of Yorkshire's LFS. 

 

Managed to pick up a couple £5 frags and a new little fishy. The possum wrasse that was impossible to catch for the last few months was freed by a rearranging of the LFS tanks, although it still took a good 15 minutes and three people to catch from its new tank. 

 

FTS 01.07.18

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