ReefCap Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 Started a new display tank after turning the IM 14 into a frag/coral QT tank. The goal of this tank is to only keep captive bred everything even the snails. It hasn’t been to hard to do, the biggest struggle was getting the first set of inverts from a friends tank that spawned. After that just lurking around my LFS for the CB fish till I found some that I loved. I’ll need to add my 3rd and final fish soon before the Dotty back gets to big and aggressive to new tank mates, or I’ll get a CB damsel which will hold its own against the dotty. 3/29/2019: Tank got wet! Equipment: Innovative Marine 20 gallon panorama drop off Upgraded the return pump to a Maxi Jet 1200 2 spin streams (not as loud as everyone claims they are which is nice!) 1 IM media basket with Filter floss on top, Chemipure blue, and Marine Pure Gems 1 IM UV sterilizer 1 AI Nero 5 Johnlenn 300w heater Hydra 26 (16” off the water) Nano ATO with kalk +2 (1/2 tablespoon per 5g) Apex Junior (heater, UV, lights, and return pump are run through the 4 outlets, mostly used for temp control on the heater and a fail safe if things get to hot this summer by turning off equipment that produces heat 1 by 1 if the temp gets above 79F) Rock: Blue Iquatic’s aragonite rock. This rock is super cool! The shapes are far more unique than Real Reef’s rock and just as porous as real live rock without the worry of pests and hitchhikers. It has an epoxy/resin coraline look to it which makes it look mature right away. I was lucky enough to know the guy bringing it in to the states and was one of the first to get to use it! LIVE STOCK: Acropora: ORA Green Humilis, Pink Milli, 2 no name Tenius acros (maybe need to get a better ID on them) Montipora: WWC OG Grafted Cap, Purple Digi Fish: Biota Rainfords Goby, ORA Splendid Dottyback Inverts: 3 captive bred trocus snails, 4 captive bred nassarius snails TANK CARE ROUTINE: Daily: Feed fish once a day with TDO pellets, clean the glass, replace filter floss when dirty, dose ME amino acids every other day, and observe the over health of the coral and fish Weekly: Feed Benepets Reef food twice a week, feed fish LRS Nano Reef Frenzy, test alk calc and salinity, check ATO container, scrub algae off of rocks if needed Biweekly: 5 gallon water change with Red Sea blue bucket, test NO3 and PO4, clean UV bulb Monthly: Scrub back chambers, replace chemipure, soak return pump ATO pump and power head in vinegar to clean off the calcification from the Kalk +2 4 Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted June 13, 2019 Author Share Posted June 13, 2019 Here’s the Rainfords and Splendid. The Splendid Dotty back is really quick and hard to get a photo of sadly. Also please excuse the GHA and crap photos still a new tank and going through the uglies. 3 Quote Link to comment
ef4life Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 I really like that overhanging rock over the drop off. 1 Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted June 14, 2019 Author Share Posted June 14, 2019 Thanks! I love the way it looks as well but the shadowing underneath is really bad... maybe suncoral or dendros down there if I’m feeling brave enough! 1 Quote Link to comment
colinadam Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 Great looking tank, that shelf is awesome. How is the Rainfords doing? I always heard they were picky eaters and tough to care for. I wonder if now the captive bred ones dont have that issue. 1 Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted June 14, 2019 Author Share Posted June 14, 2019 No issues from him at all. He would eat pellets all day if I would let him 1 Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 Well I did a thing... Bought my self a Nero 5 pump today!!! Luckily I got a good deal on so it wasn’t as expensive as retail value. Holy crap does this thing move water! I’ve been having issues with getting enough flow to the lower section of the tank where a lot of detritus was building up but now it’s all up and in the filter floss. Love how easy it is to make a programmable schedule with different flow rates and patterns through out the day! I also did bough another fish against my better judgement... I always say that I will never do clown fish again but this little bad ass stole my heart. The orange storm is doing great and gets along with the splendid as long as he doesn’t go near it’s rock. Was worried for a bit when the dotty was sizing him up for a few hours but I think the clown told him to back off. Will post pictures once the water clears up from the new pump! Happy reefing everyone!!! Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 Here’s my current schedule I made for the pump 1 Quote Link to comment
Daniel91 Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Really dude? Such an update without pictures.... unbelievable! Lol Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 Here’s the pictures sorry for the wait! 5 Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 Good news! I Finally won against the hair algae! Did a 3 week treatment with Reef Flux fluconozal. Worked great, did a water change and added chemipure blue back into the media basket. I also added a second media basket and removed the UV. The bad news is I lost my ORA Green Hummilis to RTN. Happened so quickly. Last night I was watching my tank, everything looked great, did some house work and when I came back there was a small chunk of flesh missing from the Acro. It was about the size of a fish mouth so I thought maybe one of this fish accidentally took a nip at it. No less than 10 minutes later the missing flesh doubled in size. Immediately I knew it was RTN. So I clipped of the dying part, well below healthy flesh, but it was no use and it keep shedding off flesh. After 20 minutes of it dying I finally pulled it out and tossed it to prevent it from causing any issues. luckily this morning everything else looked great so I guess I’ll have to chalk it up as a random loss and move forward. It’s a real shame because it was starting to grow quickly and colored up to a 2 tone green rather than brown with green polyps. ive heard witch haze oil can be used to stop RTN, has anyone tried this? Or has another method of trying to treat RTN? Quote Link to comment
Jr3volution Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 On 6/27/2019 at 9:49 PM, ReefCap said: Here’s the pictures sorry for the wait! How’s your Nero 5 doing? I just bought one and haven’t had time to set it up yet Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted August 4, 2019 Author Share Posted August 4, 2019 On 7/30/2019 at 9:51 PM, Jr3volution said: How’s your Nero 5 doing? I just bought one and haven’t had time to set it up yet Absolutely one of the best purchase I have made for my tanks. Making a more complex schedule for the pump takes some time. Right now I’m pushing over 2,000 GPH in a 20g tank with no sand storms. Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 So for the last month I have been battling this nasty hair algae that just won’t go away. Tried manual removal, more frequent water changes, sea slug, but nothing will knock it out. So last resort I’m doing a 3x dose of reef flux so fingers crossed it’ll knock it out for good. If this doesn’t work I’ll move all my corals over to the frag tank and the fish and do either a massive black out or start bleaching things I guess. Very frustrated with this damn algae! Quote Link to comment
Wonderboy Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 There's lotsa stuff that eats hair algae. Sounds like you need to beef up your CUC - I would grab up to 20 blue leg hermits and stop pulling it - might be helping it reproduce Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 10 minutes ago, Wonderboy said: There's lotsa stuff that eats hair algae. Sounds like you need to beef up your CUC - I would grab up to 20 blue leg hermits and stop pulling it - might be helping it reproduce Unfortunately the tank is captive breed only animals so it makes it tough, and I hate all crabs to many times have they gone rouge. There’s 10 trochus snails and some nassarius. When I pull it I’m doing the water change so the risk of is spreading is minimized. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 You could take out the rocks, scrub 'em in a bucket of tank water, rinse them with more tank water, and put them back once the algae is off. The corals won't enjoy it much, but they'll hate it less than being smothered. As far as algae eaters, what about mollies? You'd be hard-put to find a molly that ISN'T captive-bred, and they can be easily acclimated to saltwater. They love algae of all kinds. I love your clown, and the tank is really cool. 1 Quote Link to comment
ReefCap Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 21 hours ago, Tired said: You could take out the rocks, scrub 'em in a bucket of tank water, rinse them with more tank water, and put them back once the algae is off. The corals won't enjoy it much, but they'll hate it less than being smothered. As far as algae eaters, what about mollies? You'd be hard-put to find a molly that ISN'T captive-bred, and they can be easily acclimated to saltwater. They love algae of all kinds. I love your clown, and the tank is really cool. Oh dang I forgot about mollies that’s a great idea! Quote Link to comment
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