Tamberav's Red Sea Reefer Nano - macroalgae and mandarins

[Tamberav]

Big thank you to @WV Reefer for fulfilling one of my wish list corals (for years now I have been keeping an eye out for it). Branching GSP!

 

I stuck it to the back wall to see what it does. It's very VERY bright green 🙂

 

A small chunk is hanging out bottom right too until I can find a spot for it.

 

I got a free green mushroom from a local reefer down there as well. I think I would like a mushroom garden.

 

Started dosing phosphates as they are near zero! I got nitrates though. 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

5 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Big thank you to @WV Reefer for fulfilling one of my wish list corals (for years now I have been keeping an eye out for it). Branching GSP!

 

I stuck it to the back wall to see what it does. It's very VERY bright green 🙂

 

A small chunk is hanging out bottom right too until I can find a spot for it.

 

I got a free green mushroom from a local reefer down there as well. I think I would like a mushroom garden.

 

Started dosing phosphates as they are near zero! I got nitrates though. 

 

 

 

You are very welcome!! 😃 

....... its soooo neon it looks electric! 

[Tamberav]

4 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

 

You are very welcome!! 😃 

....... its soooo neon it looks electric! 

I need some shades 😎

[Tamberav]

So the power went out right in the middle of a water change... literally after I stirred up tons of crud. I feel like that is really bad and going to mess up oxygen. I do have a battery air pump thanks to @teenyreef so I added that but I have only one and 4 tanks (I guess I should get more!) 

 

Will manually stir the others I guess and hope they find the problem. 5k people without power.

[Tamberav]

Luckily power is back! Was only out about an hour. Hubby reminded me his computer has a UPS so I was about to hook that up to another bubbler when it came back.

 

 

Time to finish my damn water change.

[A.m.P]

I don't know how I missed this but I love all the softies, such a cool asthetic! What do you plan to do with the MP10s and the rest of the equipment and what on earth was the original owner keeping which needed that much flow lol?

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, Amphrites said:

I don't know how I missed this but I love all the softies, such a cool asthetic! What do you plan to do with the MP10s and the rest of the equipment and what on earth was the original owner keeping which needed that much flow lol?

Thank you!

 

I sold most of the extras and made the majority of my money back. Kept the Apex...tank ..skimmer..light... 

 

Nothing really needed it but he wanted a sweet set up I am guessing. He sold it so he could travel more.

[Chris's Fishes]

Love the tank!

 

Still trying to figure out macros over here, and I'm far from it, but I've had pretty good results with Codium in particular by just adding potassium nitrate. I buffed my nitrates up to around 20 PPM (from the 5 PPM they hovered at), and found that the hair algae nearly immediately died off the Codium and it doubled in size in about three months. Maybe not crazy growth for some, but a step in the right direction for me.

 

Dragon's breath however... *sigh*

[Tamberav]

Sadly my bundoon blenny is missing  He was acting 'odd' and skiddish after the power outage and he was going bed early. I wonder if the stress from the event was too much or if he harmed himself when he got spooked when the entire house when pitch black (no ambient light since it happened at night and the street lights were out too!). I do have another bundoon in my 25g upstairs, hope he does okay as they are one of my fav's. 

 

I thought the firefish would have been the one to die, he got spooked and nose dived head first into the BTA. He has a small mark but is otherwise eating and acting normal and the mark appears to be improving.

 

All other fish are accounted for.

 

On 6/9/2019 at 10:04 PM, Fisker said:

Love the tank!

 

Still trying to figure out macros over here, and I'm far from it, but I've had pretty good results with Codium in particular by just adding potassium nitrate. I buffed my nitrates up to around 20 PPM (from the 5 PPM they hovered at), and found that the hair algae nearly immediately died off the Codium and it doubled in size in about three months. Maybe not crazy growth for some, but a step in the right direction for me.

 

Dragon's breath however... *sigh*

Dragons breath is very frustrating macro. It is not doing great for me tbh either, I had it years ago and it grew amazing. I am dosing PO4 atm. It seems to be doing better in my pico than in this tank. Some macros are more frustrating than acros, I tell ya! My blue hypnea is gone too but something ate it. 

 

I do remember the tank where macros did so well for me was directly in front of a window. 

 

I did order a few more 'easy' green macros from reef-cleaners as I needed some green ones 🙂

[vlangel]

Yep, macros can be funny.  Like you, I had wonderful success with dragon's breath years ago but have not been able to keep it now.  That's a bummer because I love the stuff.

 

Macros flourish the best when carbon, nitrates and phosphates are in the correct ratio.  I forget what the carbon needs to be but nitrates to phosphates is 30:1.  I will try to find the carbon number-I remember that it is really high and some serious macro algae fans dose CO2 or use stump remover.  I think flourish makes carbon source products too.

[vlangel]

3 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Yep, macros can be funny.  Like you, I had wonderful success with dragon's breath years ago but have not been able to keep it now.  That's a bummer because I love the stuff.

 

Macros flourish the best when carbon, nitrates and phosphates are in the correct ratio.  I forget what the carbon needs to be but nitrates to phosphates is 30:1.  I will try to find the carbon number-I remember that it is really high and some serious macro algae fans dose CO2 or use stump remover.  I think flourish makes carbon source products too.

Correction!  Its known as Redfield's Ratio and it is C:N:P - 106:16:1.  Its named after an oceanogragher who discovered it in the 1930s.  Now that I know this, I better get my nitrates down, LOL.

[Tamberav]

3 hours ago, vlangel said:

Correction!  Its known as Redfield's Ratio and it is C:N:P - 106:16:1.  Its named after an oceanogragher who discovered it in the 1930s.  Now that I know this, I better get my nitrates down, LOL.

When you say carbon, like bio-pellets, vodka? ect? My previous macro tank that did so well, I dosed vodka (later moved to biopellets) and fed copious amounts of food so still have 10 nitrate and don't think I could test po4 at the time but it must have been fine. 

 

My old photos but you can see the algae flourishing.

 

My only worry is encouraging cyano as some came with this tank... hmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

When you say carbon, like bio-pellets, vodka? ect? My previous macro tank that did so well, I dosed vodka (later moved to biopellets) and fed copious amounts of food so still have 10 nitrate and don't think I could test po4 at the time but it must have been fine. 

 

My old photos but you can see the algae flourishing.

 

My only worry is encouraging cyano as some came with this tank... hmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually when macro algaes are flourishing, both cyano, and dinos get out competed.

 

TBH I don't really understand the carbon source except that I have read that without dosing stump remover or using CO2, it is the limiting factor.  

Google 'Redfield's Ratio' and I think you will find out what is the best way to increase carbon.

[Tamberav]

On 6/18/2019 at 8:09 PM, vlangel said:

Actually when macro algaes are flourishing, both cyano, and dinos get out competed.

 

TBH I don't really understand the carbon source except that I have read that without dosing stump remover or using CO2, it is the limiting factor.  

Google 'Redfield's Ratio' and I think you will find out what is the best way to increase carbon.

I am not there yet but making good progress.

 

I bought a tank that was neglected so it's hard work! but no regrets!! I clean and work on this tank twice a week. So much debris that has been stuck in the rock since I bought it... like where it is all coming from? I think I have all the aptasia gone but we know how that goes... you don't see any and two weeks later one just pops up to say hello 

 

The good news is I now have coralline taking off across the bottom replacing the poopy algae. Another milestone crossed!

 

 

 

 

Sand will be added when the tank is STABLE and ready...poor coralline will die 😞

[Chris's Fishes]

On 6/18/2019 at 9:09 PM, vlangel said:

Actually when macro algaes are flourishing, both cyano, and dinos get out competed.

 

TBH I don't really understand the carbon source except that I have read that without dosing stump remover or using CO2, it is the limiting factor.  

Google 'Redfield's Ratio' and I think you will find out what is the best way to increase carbon.

I actually thought that stump remover was potassium nitrate - I've used it to raise my nitrates before, and have a full bottle. Been looking at it wondering if I should start dosing some again...

 

I'm having some hair algae and epiphytes grow, so I may have to try it!

[Tamberav]

Dirty glass but finally snuck up on the yasha for a pic

 

 

 

 

My puffer is a fish where they see you holding a camera and they get super suspicious like you are holding a bomb! 💣

 

The puffer would only give me dirty looks around the corner when I had the cam aimed at the tank. I had to zooom way in lol 😛

 

 

[vlangel]

On 6/21/2019 at 12:34 AM, Fisker said:

I actually thought that stump remover was potassium nitrate - I've used it to raise my nitrates before, and have a full bottle. Been looking at it wondering if I should start dosing some again...

 

I'm having some hair algae and epiphytes grow, so I may have to try it!

You need macro algaes to out compete the HA and other nuisance algae, otherwise you are just dosing and feeding the nuisance algae that you don't want.

[vlangel]

The bigger puffers like porkypines actually come and pose when they see a camera.

[Snow_Phoenix]

32 minutes ago, vlangel said:

...porkypines...

I'm sorry - I laughed harder than I should have. 

 

But honestly, porkypines! It sounds like a fantasy-creature. Thank you for giving me an idea of what to write about today.  

 

 

[Chris's Fishes]

15 hours ago, vlangel said:

You need macro algaes to out compete the HA and other nuisance algae, otherwise you are just dosing and feeding the nuisance algae that you don't want.

I was talking about dosing my macro tank - I've had a bit of hair algae pop up on the rocks and glass, and some of my slower growing algae are being covered in epiphytes.

 

With a hungry clown and puffer going into my tank, I doubt I'll need to dose nitrates unless I get the tank really rolling.

[Tamberav]

Welp things seem to be going in the right direction. The majority of the brown pest algae that was trying to smother my macro is gone and all the pest algae on the bottom glass is gone. 

 

A little cyano left and a hint of dino left.

 

Dosing phosphate as it is always going to 0 which probably explains the dino. Nitrate hanging around 5. Hoping if I get the PO4 up the rest of the nuisance algae will dissipate. I continue to feed heavily but that doesn't seem to help the PO4. 

 

Sand is in the near future... that may help get my PO4 up if I let it get a bit dirty.... and I need it for planting some macros. 

 

I am planing to upgrade to a nano-box with sunblaster t5's. I also am waiting on my bengal proof lid to be finished. They keep tearing this one apart... brats!

 

Then I need to get a fuge going for a safe space for pods. 

 

The tank is coming together... patience wins 🙂

[Tamberav]

16 hours ago, vlangel said:

The bigger puffers like porkypines actually come and pose when they see a camera.

Ya he is a shy little guy, cute big eyes though! Maybe in time he will come around and let me take some pics. 

[Pjanssen]

I'm late to the party as usual, but nice pick up on this tank. Looks like it is really coming along. Which Red Sea Reefer is it? I'm currently looking into the 250 but debating between the rear sump or going all out with the full sump (leaning towards the latter but like the simplicity of the all in one)

[Tamberav]

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

I'm late to the party as usual, but nice pick up on this tank. Looks like it is really coming along. Which Red Sea Reefer is it? I'm currently looking into the 250 but debating between the rear sump or going all out with the full sump (leaning towards the latter but like the simplicity of the all in one)

It is the nano reefer so 21g with a sump. Don't do the AIO.... I feel like I read to many complaints about them....janky built in skimmer and such. 

[A.m.P]

Most micro skimmers are pretty janky from what I've read lol, seems like if you want something small you're usually better off just cutting the bottom out of a small glass (or plastic) soda bottle and running your own airstone and drain through it.

 

Can't wait to see the mandarins, the tank is looking gorgeous.