GS's evolving nano reef

[Lula_Mae]

On 1/6/2019 at 5:50 PM, Gourami Swami said:

Update: got a fish! Tanaka's pygmy wrasse. Had been looking for one for a little while after talking to @Cannedfish about them on instagram. Ended up having to buy one in NJ and take it with me on a bus to DC, but all went well and the wrasse has settled in nicely. He doesn't pause for pictures much, will have to get some good pics of him soon.

For now, here is a full tank video where you can see him zooming around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzF0B_-1Y34

 

is there a way to embed the video into this post?

He's so cute!  Possum wrasses are pretty similar to pink streaked wrasses.  I think you'll enjoy him!  IIRC you should be able to copy + paste the link into the text box and it should embed?  I haven't done it in a while.  Tank's looking great!

[Clown79]

Your tank looks great and the corals really pop under the light. 

 

Great job!

[Gourami Swami]

21 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

He's so cute!  Possum wrasses are pretty similar to pink streaked wrasses.  I think you'll enjoy him!  IIRC you should be able to copy + paste the link into the text box and it should embed?  I haven't done it in a while.  Tank's looking great!

 

21 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Your tank looks great and the corals really pop under the light. 

 

Great job!

Thanks guys

Lula, your PSW gave me the idea for the tiny wrasse in the first place! And I couldn't be happier. I think I do want to get another small fish in this tank pretty soon, something friendly to swim in the front & make the wrasse feel a little more comfortable. I am thinking about a clown goby or bimaculatus blenny. But want to set up a quarantine tank first, not risking ich with this wrasse.

[alpinestar]

Awesome video! P.S. do you live near the subway? 🙂

[Lula_Mae]

2 hours ago, Gourami Swami said:

 

Thanks guys

Lula, your PSW gave me the idea for the tiny wrasse in the first place! And I couldn't be happier. I think I do want to get another small fish in this tank pretty soon, something friendly to swim in the front & make the wrasse feel a little more comfortable. I am thinking about a clown goby or bimaculatus blenny. But want to set up a quarantine tank first, not risking ich with this wrasse.

I had a bimaculatus blenny in my contest jar, he was soooooooooo cute and I loved him!  I also recommend a green banded goby as they are awesome.  I've never had a clown goby but know they are well loved, so I think you can't go wrong with any of them.  I'm glad talking about Merlin gave you the idea, I love my little guy so much!

[Gourami Swami]

17 hours ago, alpinestar said:

Awesome video! P.S. do you live near the subway? 🙂

I live on a busy street (14th st in DC) and am on the 3rd floor of my building, so I get a lot of road noise. I am used to it, I barely notice It anymore, but I noticed that in the video as well haha

[Firefish15]

On 1/8/2019 at 6:36 PM, Lula_Mae said:

I've never had a clown goby but know they are well loved, so I think you can't go wrong with any of them. 

+1 to the YCG! I really like mine. 

[andrewmedic08]

How many clicks blue vs white do you have? I started a portrait Pico with the same light. Btw the tank looks amazing I hope for mine to look that good. Did you have to dose or wc once a week  work? Do you have a lid on?

[Gourami Swami]

9 hours ago, andrewmedic08 said:

How many clicks blue vs white do you have? I started a portrait Pico with the same light. Btw the tank looks amazing I hope for mine to look that good. Did you have to dose or wc once a week  work? Do you have a lid on?

Thank you. I have been running the light normally at 80% both white and blue, though whenever I get a new coral or fish I drop it down for a couple days to let them adjust. I plan to try bringing that up to 100%. I do have a glass lid on the tank because I don't want my fish to jump out.

So far, I have not been dosing, just doing about 30% WC either once or (more recently) twice a week. I just got some hanna checkers to test my levels, and it looks like my alkalinity is pretty stable but on the low side, so I'm looking to move towards dosing soon. Trying to source an auto-doser, don't love the idea of doing it manually daily, incase I need to travel. 

[andrewmedic08]

10 minutes ago, Gourami Swami said:

Thank you. I have been running the light normally at 80% both white and blue, though whenever I get a new coral or fish I drop it down for a couple days to let them adjust. I plan to try bringing that up to 100%. I do have a glass lid on the tank because I don't want my fish to jump out.

So far, I have not been dosing, just doing about 30% WC either once or (more recently) twice a week. I just got some hanna checkers to test my levels, and it looks like my alkalinity is pretty stable but on the low side, so I'm looking to move towards dosing soon. Trying to source an auto-doser, don't love the idea of doing it manually daily, incase I need to travel. 

Yea my alk is on the low end as well with doing once a week wc 

[Gourami Swami]

Update:

Switched to Fritz salt, did WC yesterday with 1/2 IO and 1/2 Fritz RPM. Next time will do 2/3 Fritz, then full Fritz. After the WC, I could tell my hammers were opened up more than they had ever been. Seems the corals like the new salt better.

 

I also added a pair of Picorox from @nanorox which I really am glad I bought. They let me pack the tank with more stuff; previously the sides of the tank where the false back wall recedes, were empty space. Now I feel like I'm using all of the tank's real estate.

 

I also changed up the refugium section. Previously I had the acrylic box on top of the chambers, with gracilaria in it, and the LED gooseneck light on top of the glass top. Now, I have a Mingdak submersible light inside the far left chamber of the back, and all the gracilaria is in there with it. Running the light on a reverse cycle. Looks much cleaner this way, and more room for macro growth. Will get a pic of that soon.

 

[Reefkid88]

I'm glad to see the salt switch is going well,and I like the way you are going about doing it. I was thinking about using some as well,I think SaltwaterAquariums has it and using my $5 off worth of points. 

 

 I would love to see some closeups of your Acan's 😄

[DaveMc]

3 hours ago, Gourami Swami said:

Update:

Switched to Fritz salt, did WC yesterday with 1/2 IO and 1/2 Fritz RPM. Next time will do 2/3 Fritz, then full Fritz. After the WC, I could tell my hammers were opened up more than they had ever been. Seems the corals like the new salt better.

 

I also added a pair of Picorox from @nanorox which I really am glad I bought. They let me pack the tank with more stuff; previously the sides of the tank where the false back wall recedes, were empty space. Now I feel like I'm using all of the tank's real estate.

 

I also changed up the refugium section. Previously I had the acrylic box on top of the chambers, with gracilaria in it, and the LED gooseneck light on top of the glass top. Now, I have a Mingdak submersible light inside the far left chamber of the back, and all the gracilaria is in there with it. Running the light on a reverse cycle. Looks much cleaner this way, and more room for macro growth. Will get a pic of that soon.

 

Awesome looking tank! Hope I can gt mine to look as good lol.

[Gourami Swami]

18 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

I'm glad to see the salt switch is going well,and I like the way you are going about doing it. I was thinking about using some as well,I think SaltwaterAquariums has it and using my $5 off worth of points. 

 

 I would love to see some closeups of your Acan's 😄

Thanks! WIll have to get some good close ups of the corals soon 🙂

16 hours ago, DaveMc said:

Awesome looking tank! Hope I can gt mine to look as good lol.

Thank you! I'm sure yours will in no time!

[Gourami Swami]

Haven't updated this in a while, was kind of bummed out after losing the tanaka's wrasse to flukes. After treating the tank with prazi to get rid of any remaining flukes, I decided to re-boot the tank. I found the cube footprint kind of limiting, so switched to this 6.6g rimless bowfront. Dimensions of this one are about 16x10x10, and the "AIO" is a removable insert which is much smaller than the AIO section of the last tank. For me, this is a positive, since I was able to pack everything into this smaller space and free up more room in the display.

 

I added a Jebao OW10 for more flow and extended my rockwork as well.

Here's a FTS how it sits now. Need to get some more coral to fill all this open rock!

 

And here's the new AIO section. First water enters a refugium with submerged mingdak light growing macroalgae. Then enters the square chamber which is stuffed with floss. Goes through a hole in the bottom of that chamber to the section where the pump is. Underneath the pump is some space where I've put my chemi-pure.

 

 

[dferrari13]

Cool...looks great

[Gourami Swami]

Video update of the reef, I've added a baby misbar clown and a scarlet cleaner shrimp in the last few weeks, both are doing well. 

All the corals are doing great, except my Yuma mushroom, who popped out 5 baby shrooms in a few days time, and then shriveled up and turned half white, not sure why. The babies seem to be fine, and other corals are loving life. Hoping it bounces back.

 

 

[Reefkid88]

Man that stinks about the mushroom,is it glued down or maybe you can take it out ans dip it ?! 

 

 How are the sps doing with the AquaKnight light ? 

[Gourami Swami]

5 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

Man that stinks about the mushroom,is it glued down or maybe you can take it out ans dip it ?! 

 

 How are the sps doing with the AquaKnight light ? 

Yeah, It actually moved off it's original frag plug and it's just attached to the rock now, can't get it off or I would try a dip. And the zoanthid colony in front has grown onto the same rock and is attached, as well as all the xenia, so don't want to dip the entire rock when the other corals are doing well. 

The Montipora are doing great, the red/blue one has encrusted and spread over the whole top of that rock front and back. The newer monti frag I have is growing too. The acropora are doing okay, the one directly on top bleached a little bit, I think it got too much light. I moved the light closer to the tank with the diy legs, and I think burned it a little. But it seems to only be the top of it, most of the frag has polyps extended. I think the aquaknight/hipargero is plenty of light for sps, as long as they are front and center under the light.