Tamale’s Red Sea Max Nano

[Tamale]

Yeah I’ll definitely dive deeper into this! I honestly looked at shrimp like any other invert when it came to post cycle! 

[Tamale]

26 minutes ago, banasophia said:

For nitrate, 10-20 is okay to hold off on the water change if you want until you do your first regular water change with fish. If it was over 20 I would do a water change, personally. 
 

I’d say do a little research on the shrimp question and see what you can find. 

Did some more in-depth research on the topic and spoke with Dr. Reef over at Dr. Reefs Quarantined  Fish and definitely think you’re right! Fire Shrimp has been removed and will be added in a month or so! Thanks again @banasophia for the advice! 

[banasophia]

20 minutes ago, Tamale said:

Did some more in-depth research on the topic and spoke with Dr. Reef over at Dr. Reefs Quarantined  Fish and definitely think you’re right! Fire Shrimp has been removed and will be added in a month or so! Thanks again @banasophia for the advice! 

Sure, yes, that was what I was thinking too, usually good to wait another month after cycle is done… glad you could postpone. 😅

[Tamale]

9 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Sure, yes, that was what I was thinking too, usually good to wait another month after cycle is done… glad you could postpone. 😅

Was definitely more focused on the fish and coral than the inverts which was a mistake! Definitely relying on the long time reefers to set me straight sometimes haha. Dr. Reef was really awesome about it, would highly recommend his shop so far! 

[DevilDuck]

The new setup is looking great! Can’t wait to see this evolve!
 

Your lucky, Dr. Reef became a victim of his own success and put a hold on all new orders recently so he can catch up. Hopefully, he’ll be back once he’s figured out how to handle his company’s growth. 

 

My fire shrimp has tougher through my new tank fluctuations back when he was in the Fluval and dosing with Dino X in the current tank. He is pretty but hides most of the time. I’ve heard that the scarlet skunk cleaners are more outgoing. Give time you can train either to eat from your hand or from tongs.

Keep an eye on those phosphate levels too. I wish dinoflagellates blooms on no one.

 

[Tamale]

Thank you! Looking forward to this week for sure. 
 

I honestly just gave him a call and inquired about a black ice pair and he had them haha definitely lucky. I think if you’re ordering ones he already has you’re good. But if he doesn’t you’re in for a wait! 
 

Good to know! I’ve looked at the skunks but I liked the idea of a cleaner shrimp that also scavenges on the sand bed. I’ve definitely got some time to figure it out tho. 
 

will definitely look out for that too!

[Tamale]

Got the adaptive reef controller board in today! Super easy set up and fit very nicely into the cabinet. Keeps all the cords nice and hidden and able to keep the drip drop! 

[Tamale]

Fish arrived today. Sadly the smaller of the two clowns was DOA 😢😢 Dr. Reef was very nice and hopefully will have a replacement clown enroute today or tomorrow. Female is temp acclimating now! 
 

Edit: Female is in the tank after following Dr. Reef acclimation. She looks to be swimming and breathing normally. Very interested in her reflection! She’s starting to explore the tank a bit already which is promising. Hope to have a new friend for her soon. Feel bad for her 😕

[Tamale]

Attempted a very light feeding with a few pellets and the clown ate them! Took her a second but as soon as the two pellets started sinking she went right for them. 

[Tamale]

Tank is doing great! Parameters have been stable the past 2 weeks. Komi the clown is doing swimmingly as well! 
 

Nitrate- 7.7 per Hanna checker

Phosphate- 0.0 per Hanna checker

Mag, Alk, Cal are all within standard parameters

 

I plan to start feeding once a day now vice every other day to possibly increase phos. I would rather not dose any yet but willing to hear votes for doing so! 
 

Will be doing a 10% water change beginning of this week as well.
 

Komi’s new partner comes next week and a few easy softies and LPS will be added as well on Friday. 

[DevilDuck]

Tank is looking fantastic!
 

Personally I’ll have phosphate on hand to make small adjustments to keep it above 0. Food takes a while to break down and it’s hard to predict how much it will contribute to phosphate and nitrates. In the first few months, it will be hard to keep nutrients stable as different types of algae and bacteria goes through boom and bust cycles as the tank matures.

[Tamale]

1 hour ago, DevilDuck said:

Tank is looking fantastic!
 

Personally I’ll have phosphate on hand to make small adjustments to keep it above 0. Food takes a while to break down and it’s hard to predict how much it will contribute to phosphate and nitrates. In the first few months, it will be hard to keep nutrients stable as different types of algae and bacteria goes through boom and bust cycles as the tank matures.

Yeah I’m thinking that’s the right call. I don’t mind a bit of algae but I definitely want to avoid the really nasty stuff like cyano and dinos. I’m keeping nitrates in a good spot but agree I need to bump up phos a bit. I’m hoping between that and corals I can keep a decent balance of the two and dodge the super uglies haha

[Tamale]

First corals added from Tidal Gardens this morning! Acclimated, dipped, and placed on the sand bed. They all started opening within about 2 hours of being in the tank and the zoas started to fully open once the light came on. 
 

LPS:
Micro Lord (seem fine)
Duncan (starting to open now)

Soft/Leather:
Toadstool (polyps are extending)
2x Zoas Magician and cotton candy (starting to open a bit but still shy)

 

Plan to keep them there for a while and after some time start raising the leather and Duncan higher up on the rockwork. Zoas and lord will be on the rocks at the bottom left and right of the tank. 

 

Lighting is set to acclimation mode at this time. 
 

If anyone has any advice, tips or otherwise please comment! 

[Tamale]

Not an update to this tank but this morning I found out I won R2R’s RedSea Reefer 250 giveaway! Saltwater aquarium was nice enough to hold on to the tank for the foreseeable future until I can move into a new house haha. 
 

Looks like I’ll have to upgrade here in the next year! 
 

 

[joshthebox]

49 minutes ago, Tamale said:

Not an update to this tank but this morning I found out I won R2R’s RedSea Reefer 250 giveaway! Saltwater aquarium was nice enough to hold on to the tank for the foreseeable future until I can move into a new house haha. 
 

Looks like I’ll have to upgrade here in the next year! 
 

 

Wow, congratulations! That's a great tank 😁

[Tamale]

9 minutes ago, joshthebox said:

Wow, congratulations! That's a great tank 😁

Thanks!! Looking forward to having the space to set it up! Pretty stunned haha

[DevilDuck]

Wow congrats on the big win!

[Tamale]

2 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

Wow congrats on the big win!

Thank you! Was definitely a welcome surprise!
 

Just have to figure out what I want to do with it once I have space to set it up!

[Tamale]

Komi the Clown has her (hopefully) mate! Introducing Tadano! He’s been in the main area now for two days and they’ve been swimming and sleeping together. Komi has given him the business once or twice but no damage. 
 

 

[Tamale]

The ugly stages have begun! Might pick up some snails to combat the diatoms. Though I might just let them die off as they are the only algae I have and don’t want the snails to starve once the diatoms have eaten all the silicate. 
 

comments/suggestions? 

[A.m.P]

Just don't overdo it on snails and you should be fine.

[Tamale]

13 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

Just don't overdo it on snails and you should be fine.

Ok thanks. Was just thinking 5 cerith snails and 5 trochus (can’t buy individual numbers sadly) 

[Tamale]

Been super busy so haven’t had time to update this in a while! We’re about 8-9 months in and through the uglies I believe! 
 

We had an outbreak of cyano that took out my lord and and the candy zoas. But beat it and everything is starting to really take off!

 

Original coral:

Lord

Duncan

magician zoas

candy cane zoas 

Toadstool

Corals lost:

Acan 

candy cane zoa

 

Corals Added:

GSP

2x Utter chaos (trying to grow large colony)

1x magician zoa (slightly different look)

1x wwc Hungry eyes zoa 

1x blondies zoa

1x hammer

1x Nepthea 

1x trumpet coral

 

So all together, not counting my two duplicate corals, we’re at 10 corals in the system! Going to let them grow out and just take over all the space they can from here. 
 

Fish remain alive and well! The female clown has gotten super big and her partner is definitely growing too, just at a slower pace. 
I have a yasha goby and Randall’s pistol being QT’d and hope to have them in the tank in a few weeks. 
 

Inverts added (besides cuc) are a rainbow BTA that is super new and an ultra flower nem that has been in for almost 2 months. 
 

Finally I have some dragons breath micro algae that is just chilling (not really a nitrate destroyer but looks pretty!). 
 

That’s it for the update. The tank is really starting to grow and has just been looking so good for the last 2 odd months. I think it’s in a groove and am just doing the routine maintenance and light dosing that I’ve been doing. Here’s hoping the success continues!