CADlight's 45g Shallow

[Tamberav]

They have been on Diver's Den recently so just keep checking. They will pop up. Nice start btw and love your kitty 🙂 

[ReefGoat]

6 hours ago, Tamberav said:

They have been on Diver's Den recently so just keep checking. They will pop up. Nice start btw and love your kitty 🙂 

Thanks @Tamberav I really appreciate that! I hope this tank comes out really nice. My kitties name is Rapunzel (ironic a cat with no hair being called Rapunzel LOL) she's pretty much the sweetest cat I've ever had in my life. She needs constant attention!!! I've been checking divers den daily as well and I also signed up to be emailed when one comes in on the regular part of the site. So i'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

[ReefGoat]

So I got exciting news in the great wrasse hunt of 2018/2019. While I still wasn't able to find a mystery wrasse I was able to get the LFS in Lafayette to order me a Hoevens wrasse also known as the Melenarus wrasse. It should be in later on the week a little before or after Thanksgiving depending on when their shipment comes in. 

[ReefGoat]

Well since the last update the tank officially turned 2 months old! Still running along very well. Doing the usual 10% weekly water changes, one drop of Microbacter7 daily, filter floss twice a week and daily glass cleanings. I did also adjust the lighting schedule and intensities a small bit to suit my viewing times better. The holiday threw off my fish delivery at the LFS so I finally got to go pick it up yesterday. After temperature acclimation he poked around for a little while and then POOF into the sand bed he went and I haven't been able to lay eyes on him since. There won't be a pictures here just yet. I figure he will probably come out and poke around every now and then until he gets use to his surroundings. So I won't worry just yet. I'm thinking a little before or after the Christmas holiday I'll probably be throwing in the first corals. 

 

 

Now onto the concerns I have. Not really problems just a few things I've been wondering about. First thing is that my skimmer just won't make a good foam head. It's accumulating nice dark brown nastiness in the neck of the cup. But it's not making skim and will not foam like I see other peoples skimmers on the forum. I've checked everything. The water level is good. It's all clean and it should be "broken in" as it's been in the sump since start up. The second thing is that my rocks don't seem to be changing much from the pearly white they were when I first put them in. I mean don't get me wrong I'm glad they aren't infested with algae. But, I kinda want them to start doing something...............I guess I'll just continue being patient. I'm really ready for those first corals though!!!!! That's all for now. 

 

[Tamberav]

Nice wrasse! The mystery wrasses are mean as hell so might be for the best you got this one instead. 

 

Sounds to me like you just don't have enough to skim out and may need to skim wetter to actually get it in the cup. I turned my skimmer off for a long time and still do at times, just not much to pull out.

 

Dry rock sometimes takes forever. I would say 1 year to truly look like live rock infested with little dusters and sponges and coralline. However you need to add stuff for it to spread. I did dry and added some live covered in coralline and sponge/dusters. Then found some brittle stars, asterna stars, spegatti worms, stomellas, pods, ect. Slowly collecting stuff as I could. Asking to have it out of the LFS tanks whenever I saw a hitchhiker I wanted. 

 

If you want it to pink/purple up, get some scrapeings of coralline and then wait and wait and wait! then wait some more. lol My Im 25 lagoon was much faster with the coralline than my 22g... the 25g runs dirtier is the main difference. 

 

 

[ReefGoat]

3 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Nice wrasse! The mystery wrasses are mean as hell so might be for the best you got this one instead. 

 

Sounds to me like you just don't have enough to skim out and may need to skim wetter to actually get it in the cup. I turned my skimmer off for a long time and still do at times, just not much to pull out.

 

Dry rock sometimes takes forever. I would say 1 year to truly look like live rock infested with little dusters and sponges and coralline. However you need to add stuff for it to spread. I did dry and added some live covered in coralline and sponge/dusters. Then found some brittle stars, asterna stars, spegatti worms, stomellas, pods, ect. Slowly collecting stuff as I could. Asking to have it out of the LFS tanks whenever I saw a hitchhiker I wanted. 

 

If you want it to pink/purple up, get some scrapeings of coralline and then wait and wait and wait! then wait some more. lol My Im 25 lagoon was much faster with the coralline than my 22g... the 25g runs dirtier is the main difference. 

 

 

I didn't realize that Mystery Wrasse's were mean. Interesting! Yea I'm happy with the Melenarus wrasse. It's actually a pretty stunning fish! It'll probably be a better tank mate with the other wrasses for my collection. Pink Streaked Wrasse, Tanaka Pygmy wrasse and a Yellow banded Possum Wrasse.  I probably don't have enough to skim out. You're likely 100% correct and I may just have to make the LONG drive to New Orleans and pick up some premium live rock to jump start my dry rock. If I can keep it submerged from the LFS to my house it shouldn't have virtually any die off. But ill probably still cure and monitor it for a week or so before putting it in the tank just to make sure there isn't an ammonia spike disaster. 

[ReefGoat]

Good news gang. When I got home and pressed the feed button to shut everything down and dumped in some fresh frozen food POOF as fast as the Melenarus wrasse disappeared he reappeared and ate like a pig. He was darting around the tank feasting. I wasn't able to get a good shot of him though. I'll have to wait until he calms down and settles in. But I sure am glad he's going to sleep with a full belly. 

[ReefGoat]

Plot twist!!!!!! First corals being delivered tomorrow. I bought some Bayer dip and trusted Cultivated Reef. I went with some classics Idaho Grape and Red Montipora cap. I figure those should be some pretty hardy corals to slowly start off this stoney tank. I have been testing the tank once a week and other than the Alk being at 7 I am very happy with everything. Nitrates are around 10, phosphates are around 32 ppb (0.09). Calcium is around 460, Magnesium is around 1350. Salinity 1.026......I am not going to worry about the Alk for now as long as it stays at 7 and doesn't fluctuate. As the months pass on and I get more stoney corals. I'll watch and if I start to see it plane down off from 7 through the week after water change. That's when I'll start to do something about it. First thing I will likely do is start doing water changes with Red Sea Coral Pro instead of Blue bucket. To slowly raise it to the level that I want and then maintain that level by either continuing to use RSCP or alternate blue bucket and RSCP as needed. Mid January will be time for the next fish! I have a couple choices. Pink Streaked Wrasse, Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse, Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse or Yellow Wrasse. HELP ME CHOOSE! Still rocking algae free so i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Tamberav]

Tanaka or yellow coris are my favs...do both! 😛

[ReefGoat]

Those are both for sure going in the tank. But I'm not going to add them at the same time. I was just wondering which one to go with next. I'll probably do Tanaka next. 

[ReefGoat]

[SeaFurn]

On 12/3/2018 at 10:10 AM, ReefGoat said:

Those are both for sure going in the tank. But I'm not going to add them at the same time. I was just wondering which one to go with next. I'll probably do Tanaka next. 

Tanaka gets my vote!

Congrats on getting the first corals in the tank. I have the same tank and know you’ve got a lot of space to fill!

[ReefGoat]

20 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Tanaka gets my vote!

Congrats on getting the first corals in the tank. I have the same tank and know you’ve got a lot of space to fill!

Yeah I'm leaning towards Tanaka as well. I am pretty excited to get the first corals in. Lets see how they fare........... 

The next additions will probably be some variant of birdsnest and a bali green slimer. After that possibly a battle box of encrusting montis

[ReefGoat]

I just ordered a Jedi Mind Trick montipora from cultivated reef for 2.99. I wasn't planning on buying anymore coral this month but that's just ridiculous and too cheap to pass up. I figured what's there to lose. I feel like I stole something lol 

 

[ReefGoat]

Obligatory cat picture to break up the monotony. 

[ReefGoat]

I've pretty much decided 100 percent that I'm switching over to two Nanobox duos after the first of the year. I really like the light that I have but I just am not satisfied with the way the actual light itself looks. The mounting legs in particular. Somethings just not right about it and it's starting to bother me. The tank is the focal point in my living room and I just think that the two duos will set this thing off. My dream light is the hybrid nanobox but I just can't figure out a way to mount it that would look good. I can't hang it from the ceiling because the ceiling is like 20 foot above the tank and I don't want to build anything. So I've decided. TWO DUOS for the win and I'll put the Reef Breeders light in the closet for a future project that isn't smack in the middle of my living room. 

[ReefGoat]

Finally got them mounted. All I need now is the leng sy cap and kryptonite cap. That will complete the cap collection and I'll start on the entrusting monti collection. 

[ReefGoat]

Welp just saw that CR has bali slimer on doorbuster sale now. I can't pass that up either. 

[ReefGoat]

I'm loving the color the Idaho grape is keeping right now. I am not too unhappy with the jedi mind tricks green either. But for some reason I can't get the blue rim to be as pronounced as others. I guess as my tank matures it'll color up. EDIT: For the record I also am hopelessly horrible at photographing my reef. 

[ReefGoat]

Gee golly the skimmers finally producing! I guess it's time for a monthly update. I'll muster up one on the 26th which is the official 3 month mark.

[ReefGoat]

Night time on the reef

[ReefGoat]

Breakfast for the fishes photo shoot.

[ReefGoat]

Looks like the tank made it another month. Today officially marks 3 months! We're still moving along slowly which was the goal of this tank. Starting from top down. I am running a light schedule that I pulled off of someone running the same light and they claim it to be a 40% intensity similar to the SPS AB+ profile and it seems to be working well. My T5 bulbs are coming in on the 31st. I went with one ATI coral+ and one ATI blue+ . I am looking forward to seeing how this affects coral growth. I am still seeing very little algae but I can tell that the rocks are darkening up a little bit and there are some hair type algae growing on the rock but very very minimal. I'll probably be adding a small CUC soon. My skimmer has really started producing and that's about the only change in the sump area. 

 

Current stock: 1 Clownfish and a Melenarus wrasse (will be adding a yellow wrasse within 2-3 weeks and then finish up the wrasse collection with 1 fish a month until fully stocked).

Coral stock: Jedi Mind Trick, Orange Montipora Cap, Idaho Grape (will be adding 2-3 more Montipora soon and fully intend on finishing Montipora collection before adding any sticks. The first sticks will probably come when I go to Fraginappe in March making the tank around 6-7 months old).

Current Parameters: Calcium 460, Alk 7.5, Mag 1400, Phosphate 0.04, Nitrate 5, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Salinity is 1.026 (The Phosphate and Nitrate levels have continuously went down since the skimmer started producing so i'm sure there is a correlation. I may have to shut the skimmer down to keep from stripping the tank of nutrients).  I guess I do always have the option of stripping the tank completely of nutrients and then adding the nutrients myself to the correct levels. IDK yet that's been on my mind of late. 

 

As far maintenance right now I am just cleaning the glass daily, changing floss every 2-3 days, weekly 10% water changes and adding water to the top off container as needed. 

 

The next equipment issue to be addressed is going to be flow. I will be adding one to two more power heads to really hone in the flow. I have yet to decide on brand and model just yet. Unless something magical happens with the addition of these T5's and I start seeing positive results. I'll likely be switching my lighting as well. If all keeps going well next months update should include a new fish and 3-5 new Montipora!!  Current FTS on page 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ReefGoat]

There have been a few developments since the last update. There has started to be a rust colored brown type algae in a small amount nothing too crazy though. It has developed on some rocks and lightly on the sand in some areas. It appears to be diatoms  by the color but it is slightly hairy in some areas of the sand and especially on the rocks. It's pretty minimal to be honest so i'm just monitoring it right now and started by passively running some phosguard at the recommended amount and time frame. It's due to come out tomorrow. The only thing that has changed is that my skimmer has started producing greatly and I changed out my RODI filters........I'm not sure if i'm pulling too many nutrients out and causing an imbalance or what. This needs to be investigated. I did go ahead and place the Reef Cleaners order since it's not too horrible I didn't get a full sized package which would be about a 50 gallon. I went with the 30 long package w/ hermits. Lets see how they do! Now the bad..................I noticed creeping out from underneath my Idaho Grape what appears to be Bryopsis. I am going to waste no time and go ahead and do what teeny did to battle bryopsis. Fluco treatment. I figure if i've caught it this early and go ahead and take care of it now. I can keep it from getting out of hand. With all this said..........I am holding off any new additions to the tank coral and fish wise until these two problems are under control. I'm going to attack one at a time though. I am going to see what the CUC does along with the passive phosguard. Then later on next month hopefully that will be under control and I will start the fluco treatment. 

[jdmcbuilt]

35 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

There have been a few developments since the last update. There has started to be a rust colored brown type algae in a small amount nothing too crazy though. It has developed on some rocks and lightly on the sand in some areas. It appears to be diatoms  by the color but it is slightly hairy in some areas of the sand and especially on the rocks. It's pretty minimal to be honest so i'm just monitoring it right now and started by passively running some phosguard at the recommended amount and time frame. It's due to come out tomorrow. The only thing that has changed is that my skimmer has started producing greatly and I changed out my RODI filters........I'm not sure if i'm pulling too many nutrients out and causing an imbalance or what. This needs to be investigated. I did go ahead and place the Reef Cleaners order since it's not too horrible I didn't get a full sized package which would be about a 50 gallon. I went with the 30 long package w/ hermits. Lets see how they do! Now the bad..................I noticed creeping out from underneath my Idaho Grape what appears to be Bryopsis. I am going to waste no time and go ahead and do what teeny did to battle bryopsis. Fluco treatment. I figure if i've caught it this early and go ahead and take care of it now. I can keep it from getting out of hand. With all this said..........I am holding off any new additions to the tank coral and fish wise until these two problems are under control. I'm going to attack one at a time though. I am going to see what the CUC does along with the passive phosguard. Then later on next month hopefully that will be under control and I will start the fluco treatment. 

The fluconazole treatment may kill all the algae problems you are having. It cleared everything up that I didn't want growing in my tank. I would start it now before it gets worst.  

 

My cheato grew faster probably due to the higher nutrients from the die off of algae.