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This is my first reef tank and is currently around 21 months old. Late into my first year I experienced some Dino and had really slowed my coral growth. It has taken many months to get things growing again. I initially started this tank as a softy and LPS build but it has now shifted to a softy tank. 

 

MY SETUP

Tank: 

CoralLife Biocube 14

Heater: 

Cobalt Neotherm 50w

Lighting:

Stock Lighting 

- 24w Actinic

- 24w 10K

- 1x Blue LED Bar

Filtration:  

Chamber 1: Heater/ False Bottom Removed

Chamber 2: InTank Media Basket (4/29/19) 

- Top: Filter Floss

- Middle: BRS Carbon ROX0.8 (5/14/2019)

Chamber 3: Stock Pump/Temperature/

                    AutoAqua Smart ATO Micro

Circulation: 

Hydor Koralia Nano 240

Sand: 

20 lbs Caribsea AragAlive Special Grade

Rock:

BRS Reef Saver
Water:

BRS 6 Stage RODI System
Salt: 

Red Sea (Blue Bucket)

Dosing:

None

Testing:

Refractometer

Nyos Nitrate

HI736 Ultra Low Phosphorus

HI775 Alkalinity 

Salifert Calcium

Salifert Magnesium

 

Fish:

- ORA Gladiator Clownfish

   “Pennywise”

           A. ocellaris (LA 4/18/2019)

- Randalli Prawn Goby (AA 6/8/2019)

   “Timon”

 

Invertebrates:

- Blue Legged Hermit (AA 6/8/2019)

   “Jack” 

- Red Banded Pistol Shrimp (BTR 6/15/2019)

   “Pumbaa”

- 1x Nassarius Snails

- 1x Cerith Snail

- 1x Trochus Snail

- Dwarf Cerith Snails

 

Corals:

Soft

Fire and Ice Zoanthid (WWC 5/24/2019)

Green Star Polyp (WWC 5/24/2019)

Weeping Willow Toadstool (BLC 6/8/2019)

WWC AOI Zoanthid (CC 1/15/2020)

OG Pink Zipper Palythoa (CC 1/15/2020)

Orange Ricordia Yuma (MSR 1/2/2020)

LPS

WWC Blue Dragon Favities (5/24/2019)
* Recovering from Blackout


Frag Tank:

Pink/Purple Blasto (AA 6/15/2019)
WWC Red Comet Lord (5/24/2019)

Green Acan Lord 

Green Ricordia Yuma (CC 1/15/2020)

 

The Dearly Departed:

- WWC Grapevine Lord (WWC 5/24/2019)
   *Shortly After Received

- 1x Scarlet Hermit (AA 6/8/2019-6/21/2019)

   *Jack

Misbar Clownfish (BLC 6/8/2019-7/9/2019)  
   *Clownfish aggression

- Purple Monster Zoanthid (BLC 10/12/2019-

  *Single Head disappear

- Black Ice Clownfish  “Columbus” A. ocellaris (BLC 10/12/2019)

  *Disappeared, likely clown aggression 

- WWC Lavender Duncan (5/24/2019) *Blackout

- Duncan (AA 6/15/2018) *Blackout

- Purple & Pink Acan Lord (BLC 10/12/2019) *Blackout

- WWC Candy Striped Lord (5/24/2019) *Blackout

- Orange Acan Lord *Blackout

- Hot Hawaiian Palythoa (CC 1/15/2020)

- WWC Purple Monster Palythoa (CC 1/15/2020)

 

Startup 3/16/2019

BF304742-0F90-433B-B1AD-5A1FC3695001.thumb.jpeg.ca75e797e977cd59d2aba0f2ab9b364a.jpeg
 

5/21/2019

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9/25/2019

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12/04/2019

49335542-665E-41A2-8D38-ADE6C1DBFC58.thumb.jpeg.c51097eb4e4d71167a4e5921348c00de.jpeg
 

2/04/2020

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3/16/2020 One Year!

FE2239D4-7710-46B6-9BD6-EA35B5651637.thumb.jpeg.48f8423c0a752f6320f322435ed0ed10.jpeg
 

5/24/2020 Post Blackout 1

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12/9/2020

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  • Like 5
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Finally finished cycling the tank. Been dosing Dr Tim’s Ammonium Chloride for the cycle. This provided a nice clean cycle with only nitrate buildup while phosphorus remained low.  The tank has completed four cycles over the last month with the last one taking less than 48hrs to remove 2 ppm of ammonia. During this time the lights have been turned off to prevent algae outbreak.

 

I have now turned the lights on to start growing algae as I plan on adding a clownfish and snails later this week. 

 

4/14/2019 Front

AEE109D4-8F3C-422F-BC64-0C7AD2AB9436.thumb.jpeg.04df59aa2028b808d96072200a7c4e5b.jpeg

 

4/14/2019 Left

2ACDA0F0-C115-4499-B4CD-23EEB86E2658.thumb.jpeg.04a3e8c63852a5e81cbcf305c19432a7.jpeg

 

4/14/2019 Right

6CC4C999-271E-41B4-93FE-FB81CED76F88.thumb.jpeg.05669673bd75fbd17f5b23b76183a394.jpeg

 

4/14/2019 ATO/Controls

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Received my clownfish and snails today. 

- Gladiator Clownfish

- 2x Nassarius Snails

- 2x Cerith Snails

- 2x Trochus Snails

 

4/18/2019 Gladiator Clownfish in acclimation container

83A12EAB-E119-4CF9-91D0-2873B692BD38.thumb.jpeg.4dc50d663948453c9f975a1c3fd5b553.jpeg

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I realize I should have posted this before getting my fish. But here is my acclimation process that I used. Any feed back for the future would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Fish Acclimation

1) turn off tank lights, room lights and ATO 

2) wipe fish bag with wet paper towel and RODI water 

3) float bag on top of tank for 15 mins

4) open bag, pour fish into 1 gallon container drain container to 1/4 gallon line

5) add 1/2 ml of prime for ammonia detoxification due to transport

6) add 1 cup of tank water to the container wait 10 mins

7) add 1 cup of tank water wait 10 mins

8) add 1 cup of tank water wait10 mins

9) add 1 cup of tank water wait10 mins

water volume should be around 1/2 Gal (50% tank water)

10) dump container water into bucket leaving fish and 1/4 gallon in container

11) add 1 cup of tank water to the container wait 10 mins

12) add 1 cup of tank water wait 10 mins

13) add 1 cup of tank water wait10 mins

14) add 1 cup of tank water wait 10 mins

water volume should be around 1/2 Gal (75% tank water)

15) net fish and put in tank

 

Total Time: 1 hr 35 mins

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I love the view of the tank from the right and that clown fish.  I think your fish acclimation sounds fine, but there are lots of ways to do it.  Some of the more experienced reefs should chime in soon about that. You are in the right forum to get advice and help with any questions you may have.

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Thanks kimdawg. I tried to consider the view from all directions. 

 

The acclimation was determined by multiple sources. I guess the concerns are the speed of acclimation. As my process was pretty long and my have caused extra stress.  

 

Lessons learned: Have water mixed for after acclimation. As the tank level dropped significantly through this process. 

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1 hour ago, Gravity said:

Thanks kimdawg. I tried to consider the view from all directions. 

 

The acclimation was put determined by multiple sources. I guess the concerns are the speed of acclimation. As my process was pretty long and my have caused extra stress.  

 

Lessons learned: Have water mixed for after acclimation. As the tank level dropped significantly through this process. 

Your acclimation process certainly seems very thorough! The speed is the only thing I would be concerned about; I usually try to keep total acclimation time under an hour if possible. I also dislike netting fish and prefer to avoid doing so if possible. If you have the fish acclimating in a bucket you can herd them into a smaller container (I use a 32 oz. yogurt container) and then carefully pour out all but a little bit of the water, then submerge the container in your tank and allow the fish to swim out. By that point most of the water in your acclimation bucket should be tank water, so only a very small amount of shipping water will enter your system. It shouldn't make too much of a difference.

 

This is just personal preference of course; clowns and many other fish are quite tough and can be netted and moved without any ill effects. I just like to keep my livestock submerged as much as I can. 😄

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Decided to calibrate my refractometer after a few weeks and realized the calibration was way off. Check my tank and had a specific gravity of 1.018. Planning on keeping with my weekly 20% water change at 1.025 until I get back up to 1.025. Anyone disagree with this approach?

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Pretty sure the snail is a goner, it didn’t move overnight so I removed it this morning in hopes of avoiding a nutrient spike. Any ideas on what could have caused this?

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colinadam

Is there enough algae in there to keep him and the others fed? Some of those guys are voracious eaters. I added 3 Tongan Nassarius Snails after I had my diatom bloom and man, they knocked that back in no time. 

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I would think so, my rocks have all turned green. And I had to scrape some off the glass last weekend. 

D964BED0-CF08-4D1F-B8E2-613CFCB6930D.jpeg

Edited by Gravity
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billygoat

Could also be that the snail simply got flipped over and could not right itself. Any of those cone-shaped snails (astrea, turbo, etc.) lack the ability to flip themselves upright if they get turned over, so if they fall off your glass and there is no rock nearby for them to grab onto they are just out of luck. 😢

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Personally I don't keep any of those cone-shaped snails (only Nerites and Ceriths), so I am not 100% sure. But I was under the impression that all cone-shaped snails are vulnerable, Trochus included. I'm sure someone more experienced can clarify this though!

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Noticed some purple/pink spots developing. Hopefully it’s coralline algae. There are about 5 spots so far. Salinity has been slowly approaching normal with my water changes, 1.021 specific gravity. Testing on Friday 5/10/2019 indicated no nitrates or phosphates. Assuming all the algae has consumed this. 

 

5/8/2019

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banasophia

Looks like you’re off to a great start and doing tons of research - excited to follow along. Your fish is beautiful. I just flip snails over when I find them like that and usually they are fine and just needed a helping hand.

 

I think you may want to add some additional snails... check out the recommendations on ReefCleaners, I did a custom snail only cleanup crew when I started and I was very happy with it. 

 

https://www.reefcleaners.org/when-to-add-a-clean-up-crew

 

 

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