Softie reef on a student budget

[DNR88]

2 hours ago, A.m.P said:

I love Sicce, but that might be too much flow for 5 gallons.

Upgrade to a tank from 15-20 gallon and you sit perfect! 😁

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Working on the aiptasia again. ATO is here and I'll set it up today or tomorrow hopefully, also have more CUC coming for the hair algae because I've pulled off as much as I really can by hand. Tank looks kind of ugly right now, lol. Oh and a jebao wavemaker - it really is true that if ya buy cheap ya buy twice, lol. Lesson learnt there. 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Feeling faintly discouraged lmao, feel like it's been stuck in an ugly stage for ages and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Parameters are ok (nitrate 5, phos between 0.25 and 0.5, no nitrite or ammonia, pH between 7.4 and 7.8, temp 25-26, salinity 1.025, kh 11.) 

😞

 

but mostly the issue is the gha, which the cuc i've ordered ought to deal with. Then it's hopefully just a matter of frags growing in......idk, I hope so. Any words of wisdom/advice would be appreciated. Maybe I just need patience. 

[A.m.P]

Give it time, maybe drop the phosphates just a touch towards 0.1 and focus on manual removal.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah time is the only healer here. A new tank takes a good length of time to settle..  I consider a year to be the break in time. 

 

jebao pumps are very good. I have a (Jecod but same thing) SOW-8 as well as a Nero.. the jebao is the better of the 2 pumps. If your hearing noise from the jebao is likely the wire vibration..  if you can dull that.. you'll notice a massive difference.  

 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

LMAO I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL I BOUGHT MORE CORALS AND CUC TODAY 

 

"I'm just going in for RODI, nothing else" - famous last words cos that never happens

 

My lfs is great, I got a free frag with the two I bought.....they're all in QT right now. 

 

Trimmed back more GHA. I'm procrastinating about setting up the ATO 😂

 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

4 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

LMAO I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL I BOUGHT MORE CORALS AND CUC TODAY 

 

"I'm just going in for RODI, nothing else" - famous last words cos that never happens

 

My lfs is great, I got a free frag with the two I bought.....they're all in QT right now. 

 

Trimmed back more GHA. I'm procrastinating about setting up the ATO 😂

 

 

That's always how it's goes.. welcome to reefing 🤣

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

DIE GHA DIE!!!!! 

I lost my shit with the algae today and attacked it with a toothbrush then did a 60% wc to Hoover it all up  

 

 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Coral Qt lol 😂😂😂 

The Xenia frag was the free one. 

 

I was a very very bad girl and bought myself a candy cane 🤷 just because it's my 

Dream.

Fricking.

Coral. 

😍😍😍 

 

The cuc was two blue legged hermit crabs - holy shit are they cute. And tidying my rock work up already.   

Dunno why the neon green tree is drooping over now, wasn't doing that yesterday 🤔 looks like it's drunk! 

 

Now someone give me a kick up the backside to get this ATO going 😂😂😂😂

[DNR88]

Hermit crabs are really cute, but make sure your frags are tight, because they are good at knocking things over.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Big day in the Snailopolis. 

New occupants. 

Two turbo fluctosa, one astraea tecta and a peppermint shrimp, plus 4 frags added to the tank

 

3 snails DOA, in a separate container of salt water with a heater just in case (2 ceriths and another astraea). 

 

Did peroxide dips on the frags I got the other day and added them too but they look miserable as hell so hope it's not killed them 🤞

 

Slight ammonia reading this evening - <0.25ppm but did a water change anyway and it was zero afterwards. Will test again tomorrow.

 

The shrimp is adorable, I'm really glad I got one - even if he doesn't eat aiptasia he's a fun little dude to have around. 

 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

3rd pic here you can see all the invert occupants - two nassarius, two turbos, the astraea and the shrimp. 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Tests pre water change 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Tests after water change 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Random coral pics. 

The frags that got the peroxide dip look really unhappy.... It was only 5ml 3% peroxide in 500ml of RO water though, then rinsed in a bucket of saltwater and put in the tank. 

 

 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Fts 

 

Looks 🤮🤮🤮 but I've run out of money at the moment to do much else 😂 - I hate so much about how this tank looks but idk what to do about it. Water chemistry is ok, it's just grimy and scruffy and ugly.

[DNR88]

Strange question maybe, but you do have a wavemaker/pump in the tank right..?

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

4 minutes ago, DNR88 said:

Strange question maybe, but you do have a wavemaker/pump in the tank right..?

I did, 300l/hr powerhead but it died in a powercut and I haven't replaced it yet - or rather, the replacement hasn't arrived yet. But yeah. It looked better before the pump died 😞 I'm not even sure why it did. 

[A.m.P]

2 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Random coral pics. 

The frags that got the peroxide dip look really unhappy.... It was only 5ml 3% peroxide in 500ml of RO water though, then rinsed in a bucket of saltwater and put in the tank. 

That's a freshwater dip, you should avoid those for most corals.

[Murphs_Reef]

4 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Fts 

 

Looks 🤮🤮🤮 but I've run out of money at the moment to do much else 😂 - I hate so much about how this tank looks but idk what to do about it. Water chemistry is ok, it's just grimy and scruffy and ugly.

It's fine. As soon as you get some flow in there it will pick up. 

Is there any flow at all at the moment?

[seabass]

12 hours ago, A.m.P said:

That's a freshwater dip, you should avoid those for most corals.

Also, zoanthids tend to hold up pretty well to peroxide dips; however, many other corals do not.  You should consider a commercial reef dip or Bayer instead.

[M. Tournesol]

15 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

Looks 🤮🤮🤮 but I've run out of money at the moment to do much else 😂 - I hate so much about how this tank looks but idk what to do about it. Water chemistry is ok, it's just grimy and scruffy and ugly.

You could try to source cheap dead rock (~2/3 lb). More rock generally Result in a more stable aquarium down the line.

Or have a nice aquarist (not far from where you live) give you a small piece of live rock from its established reef tank (this could add pests or/and add some biodiversity).

[A.m.P]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

Also, zoanthids tend to hold up pretty well to peroxide dips; however, many other corals do not.  You should consider a commercial reef dip or Bayer instead.

To be totally honest I dilute peroxide and scrub basically every coral and I can absolutely add a +1 to it being rough on sps, but it does a fantastic job of stunning inverts and "resetting" frag plugs if you can't remove them.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

23 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

You could try to source cheap dead rock (~2/3 lb). More rock generally Result in a more stable aquarium down the line.

Or have a nice aquarist (not far from where you live) give you a small piece of live rock from its established reef tank (this could add pests or/and add some biodiversity).

Why? It was set up with mature live rock from another hobbyists tank 

[DNR88]

I think it is irresponsible to add your invertebrates and corals without a well running aquarium. The smaller the volume of water, the more careful you need to be about making changes and adding things.

 

So before you go any further, I think you should:

- Get a wavemaker/pump first and a good heater

- Get a bigger tank (at LEAST 10 gallon)

- Get the sand out and start with nothing than rocks

- Keep the tank away from direct (sun)light

- Do a (bi-)weekly waterchange of 25% percent minimum.

 

Then after at least two months you can think about animals or coral to add.

 

Good luck! 😉