Softie reef on a student budget

[Murphs_Reef]

To keep the Nass happy you'll need to get some food into the tank, not much but want to make sure it's got stuff to eat. Trochus should be grand as there is a bit of algae to go at 👍🏼 

I would start with one each until you hit the ugly stage before you get a few Cerith in there...

Defo add a bag of pods (those clear 100ml bags if you can see them) Good that your going at it slow...

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

There's already pods on the glass, do I need to add more? 

Is frozen mysis ok for the nassarius' food? I was gonna just put a cube in for it to scavenge

[seabass]

9 minutes ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

There's already pods on the glass, do I need to add more? 

Is frozen mysis ok for the nassarius' food? I was gonna just put a cube in for it to scavenge

Sure a nassarius will eat mysis shrimp.  But don't add a whole cube.  It'll eat a few.  You can just shave off a little from the cube - like every other day.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

I may have just bought ~ s t u f f ~ for the tank

 

Not telling what though....It's a surprise  👀😋

 

Also first corals tomorrow. Thinking bigger colony of gsp and some smaller zoa frags

 

Interesting to note i tested again just now (putting my insomnia to good use I guess) WITHOUT rinsing in tank water beforehand and got a reading closer to 0.25 than 0 again.

The API ammonia test is obviously just really, really sensitive I guess. 

I need to stop spamming this journal buuuuttttt I still can't believe I've finally got my own saltwater tank 😂

[Murphs_Reef]

Oh dear online shopping during the night! If you have just bought a lipstick tang I'm out 🤣🤣

[gena]

This is exciting!  Can't wait to see some coral in there :).

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

One of the zoas fell off its frag plug 😭😭😭😭😭😭 

But I did a water change this morning..... And just now added corals and two snails

 

It looks messy AF but whatever.... This journal is gonna be the good, the bad, the ugly, and the very very ugly! 

I hope I haven't killed anything 😬 how long do the corals normally stay retracted for....? I did acclimate but not for as long as I would do for fish....

[debbeach13]

Every coral is different. It may be hours or a week. 

[Murphs_Reef]

Haha love this! What zoa's did you get? Really resilient zoa's can be open in an hour of dropping in the tank, fussy guys will be up to a week as @debbeach13 said.  The frag close to the from corner looks like it's opening up a little.. get some flow across these so you don't get new algae bushes 👍🏼

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Pump been lowered to give more flow across the top frags. There is what I think was an aiptasia hitch hiker on the gsp though 🥲 but the Mushroom and one of the zoas coming out already 🙂 the zoa that is still retracted is the one that fell off its plug though. I don't actually know what type they are - they were just being sold as 'mixed zooanthid polyps on rock' 😂

[Ratvan]

That does indeed look like an aiptasia, i like the mixed no name Zoa colonies i always find those really interesting. An LFS in Leeds has a load of rock infested with Zoas in their sumps that I like to pick up and add to my tanks just to see what they come out as 

[Murphs_Reef]

The aiptasia can be easily managed out. There are a bunch of home made or commercial products or you can go peppermint shrimp but that comes with potential issues of its own. 

 

Like the GSP, mushroom and zoa mix mix. Greta kick off!!

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Leaning towards peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia, just not sure a 7cm shrimp won't pose a risk to  3.5cm nano goby. Thoughts? I prefer the idea of the shrimp to a chemical treatment. Obviously adding more bioload this quickly isn't ideal though.

😕

[Ratvan]

13 minutes ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Leaning towards peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia, just not sure a 7cm shrimp won't pose a risk to a 3.5cm nano goby. Thoughts? I prefer the idea of the shrimp to a chemical treatment. Obviously adding more bioload this quickly isn't ideal though. 😕

superglue over the aiptasia works well, lemon juice, boiling water all good options before nuking with joes juice or aiptasia x. 

I tried a peppermint shrimp once, never touched the aiptasia and nibbled corals but you may have better luck 

[Murphs_Reef]

I have a peppermint and some aiptasia only inside the weir. It's a great shrimp for that BUT it can nip at coral as well. As these corals have been newly added and removing wont cause that much distribution I would go with on of @Ratvan suggestions like glue or lemon juice for example. 

 

It's a good lesson early to examine coral in a bowl (filled with water from the bag) for pests. 👍🏼 Welcome to the world of being pissed off as much as you are delighted 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Ok.... Nasty little f#cker has been super glued over. Luckily it was on the rim of the frag plug so the coral should be ok although it's probably going to be even slower to come out now (GSP which I did read can be quite temperamental?) 

 

Mushroom and zoas seem happy enough so far though 🤞 the one that fell off the plug has started to come out a teeny bit 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

Looks good. 

Yeah GSP can close down for a while. I find I always have one colony closed at any time for up to a week at a time. This is then usually followed by aggressive growth. But while it's closed it gives you time to review where it's growing and to trim it back if it's getting to close to other coral. 

[Murphs_Reef]

What light do you have H?

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Not powerful enough ones; the white LEDs that are an integral part of the tank and some (very) cheap dark blue LEDs off Amazon. Tank LEDs are 6300k, can't remember what the blue ones were off the top of my head tbh.

 

An upgrade is on the cards but it's going to have to wait until my first rent installment is paid. Looking at a fluval nano marine/fluval sea halo but I need something that can be fitted into the lid relatively easily.

 

Full disclosure that cheap Chinese stuff off Amazon is good for your bank balance in the short term, but bad for the planet and in the long run also bad for your tank. (Although it's brighter than these photos make it look - my pixel keeps auto adjusting the brightness.)

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

So in a rather frustrating turn of events..... 

 

I ordered fish for this tank on Monday. (My 'surprise'.). £80.00 all told and meant to arrive yesterday (my birthday ☹️☹️☹️).

Messaged seller Wednesday as I was expecting to receive a confirmation of delivery date/time but hadn't heard anything, but they didn't reply. Waited in all day Thursday despite this just in case the fish were delivered, but didn't get anything. Emailed x2 and messaged x2 and eventually got a rather curt response to email #2 saying they didn't actually have the fish in stock. 

Obviously I requested an immediate refund but yeah. Not a great experience. 

However, 3/4 corals seem to be happy. The zoa that fell off its plug isn't really coming out at all, so I think it may be a goner. And the other zoa is only partially coming out now, despite coming out fully on days 1&2, so I think is due to fluctuating temp./not enough light. 

Mushroom and gsp loving life, snails are a DELIGHT and I need more lol cos I love them!!!! And I'm surprised how pretty the mushroom is, I mostly got it because my mum liked it. But it looks absolutely fantastic on top of its rock, even though there's a fair bit of algae on the glass now.

 

 

I'm moving to uni in 9 days so the plan is to leave the tank as it is for now stocking wise, then when we're settled in first get more cuc (probably trochus/cerith snails - or both maybe, idk, I really love snails though - I keep terrestrial ones as well) and more mushroom corals. And last of all fish. 

I'm going to upgrade lighting and pump sometime in October. 

Leaning towards 2x gobiodon histrio for that, but regardless any future livestock I will purchase in person from a shop and NOT online....

Quite sad I can't have my fairygobies though. ☹️

 

 

Rambling cos ✨ alcohol ✨

[Murphs_Reef]

Well hope you got the refund? 

What you doing with the tank? Taking into uni or leaving it at home? 

Snails are ace.. I got around 60, just about every type. Im stocked at 100 I think but it gives me an excuse to go to the LFS every week lol. In your tank you'll have 10/15 no problem..

 

The zoas, don't worry about them right now. They are fussy, could be a snail moving across them, they have just eaten, not happy about the move or just because they don't feel like showing colours today... If they stay shut for a week then there 'could be' something wrong.. keep an eye on phosphate (0.02 lowest to around 0.10 max) and nitrate (5 lowest and 10 max)👍🏼 GSP exactly the same but they will close just before or after massive growth... GSP can be shut down for over a week easy then reopen better than ever... 

 

Fish... Much better to see them eye to eye.. watch them swim and check their body for any issues.... Also cheaper !! 

 

Best of luck 

 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Tank coming with me 210%! 

 

No way am I leaving this at home, it's my baby lol.

 

I was gonna max out at 5-6 snails for now. I want cerith and trochus (2x each) then see about fish. 

[Ratvan]

12 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

So in a rather frustrating turn of events..... 

 

I ordered fish for this tank on Monday. (My 'surprise'.). £80.00 all told and meant to arrive yesterday (my birthday ☹️☹️☹️).

Messaged seller Wednesday as I was expecting to receive a confirmation of delivery date/time but hadn't heard anything, but they didn't reply. Waited in all day Thursday despite this just in case the fish were delivered, but didn't get anything. Emailed x2 and messaged x2 and eventually got a rather curt response to email #2 saying they didn't actually have the fish in stock. 

Obviously I requested an immediate refund but yeah. Not a great experience. 

However, 3/4 corals seem to be happy. The zoa that fell off its plug isn't really coming out at all, so I think it may be a goner. And the other zoa is only partially coming out now, despite coming out fully on days 1&2, so I think is due to fluctuating temp./not enough light. 

Mushroom and gsp loving life, snails are a DELIGHT and I need more lol cos I love them!!!! And I'm surprised how pretty the mushroom is, I mostly got it because my mum liked it. But it looks absolutely fantastic on top of its rock, even though there's a fair bit of algae on the glass now.

 

 

I'm moving to uni in 9 days so the plan is to leave the tank as it is for now stocking wise, then when we're settled in first get more cuc (probably trochus/cerith snails - or both maybe, idk, I really love snails though - I keep terrestrial ones as well) and more mushroom corals. And last of all fish. 

I'm going to upgrade lighting and pump sometime in October. 

Leaning towards 2x gobiodon histrio for that, but regardless any future livestock I will purchase in person from a shop and NOT online....

Quite sad I can't have my fairygobies though. ☹️

 

 

Rambling cos ✨ alcohol ✨

Happy belated Birthday. Did you order from MarineWorld? As you might know by now you have to subscribe to a stocklist so you can see what is in stock and what are seasonal fishies. It can be a right ballache. 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

I got an email through saying they had the fairygobies in stock.  🤷 maybe I should've phoned/emailed to ask first, their response said they had them on backorder with their suppliers. But I wasn't particularly comfortable with them having the money and no indication of when is I'd receive the fish. 

(It's nano goby - blue eye)

 

But then, there's no reason I can't go in to the shop in person if I'm ever in the area. I do understand covid/Brexit has messed up imports. (Not being able to get the fish I wanted for my brackish paludarium is the whole reason I've got the reef now!) 

 

It's a bit annoying but not the end of the world. In all honesty I think I feel more comfortable choosing and purchasing livestock in person than online anyway.

[Murphs_Reef]

4 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Tank coming with me 210%! 

 

No way am I leaving this at home, it's my baby lol.

 

I was gonna max out at 5-6 snails for now. I want cerith and trochus (2x each) then see about fish. 

Nice one