RaymondNoodles first tank - mixed reef 20g cube

[RaymondNoodles]

Thank you @less than bread. Alex the emerald crab and I appreciate the 💚 😂 For pictures I use my iPhone XS with the Orphek clip on lens. I use both the yellow and orange lenses together which make the best color for my lighting. I usually take pics right before feeding while the pumps are off so the water is still.
https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/2020-version-smartphone-coral-lens-kit-4-lens-w-storage-box-orphek/

[RaymondNoodles]

Nemo the new clownfish has been getting comfortable in his new home and has been enjoying massages/cleanings from Larry David the cleaner shrimp.

 

 

[RaymondNoodles]

It's been a while since the last update. Two or three weeks ago I started seeing signs of dinoflagellates. A week later I lost a small colony of 6 acan heads...the first coral I've ever lost. I can't believe how fast that happened. I had the acans for 7 months. The favia is suffering. I would say those were my two weakest corals, so that part makes sense. Thankfully the other inhabitants are doing ok. The BTA went from bubbly to long stringy tentacles over the last couple weeks. It hasn't been easy. The nutrients definitely got too low but I didn't think they were that low. Nitrates hovered between 2-4 for a few weeks at the lowest. Phosphates .03-.05.

 

3 weeks ago the sandbed started getting nasty looking, so I thought I was feeding too much and the tank was too dirty. Nitrates were 20-30, phosphates .2-.3. I deep cleaned the sandbed in sections over the course of two weeks and nutrients started dropping . This was the deepest I've cleaned the sandbed since starting the tank 10 months ago. The sandbed is 3/4". A month ago I deep cleaned the rear chambers which had a ton of detritus and junk. Perhaps I did too much cleaning in a short period. 

 

I've been feeding heavier and dosing phyto every day as opposed to every 2-3 days. I've also been removing the dinos where ever possible. They're mainly on the sandbed. The majority of the rock surface is covered in coralline, luckily, as those areas haven't suffered any dinos. Raising the nutrients has been helping. Nitrates are up around 10 and phosphates are really high at .25. But honestly that seems to be good levels for this tank. I remember thinking that a few months ago when nutrients were high. Every tank is different. 

 

On the bright side, Nemo has been enjoying the BTA. I went skiing in Colorado for a few days and when I came back my wife told me Nemo has been in the anenome. YAY! The BTA was a lot prettier the last couple months but none the less it's been great seeing him flutter about the anenome and enjoying life. The porcelain crab doesn't seem to mind that he has a new roomate. It's been really fun to watch.

[less than bread]

On 4/13/2022 at 2:45 PM, RaymondNoodles said:

Nemo the new clownfish has been getting comfortable in his new home and has been enjoying massages/cleanings from Larry David the cleaner shrimp.

 

 

[RaymondNoodles]

The chalice coral has been showing good growth. The feeding tentacles are 2-3 inches long and have been out more often.

 

 

[less than bread]

6 minutes ago, RaymondNoodles said:

The chalice coral has been showing good growth. The feeding tentacles are 2-3 inches long and have been out more often.

 

 

I just added a Hollywood Stunner. Still debating on where I should put it. Love that it’s a plating chalice

[RaymondNoodles]

3 minutes ago, less than bread said:

I just added a Hollywood Stunner. Still debating on where I should put it. Love that it’s a plating chalice

They are very interesting corals. It's hard to believe those long tentacles can recede back into the coral considering they don't have a lot of meat/flesh. Regarding placement, it will obviously sting corals nearby and shade corals beneath. I have mine in high light and medium-high flow area. I started with it in the sandbed, low light medium flow and it wasn't growing, so I moved it up and found a perfect little edge of a rock to stick it on. It took a few months to take off and really start thriving. Good luck with yours!

[RaymondNoodles]

Feeding has been increased for a month or so. Nutrients are up and dinoflagellates and cyano bacteria are dissipating. Nemo is getting plump. The reef is looking good, and it feels great to have figured out and corrected this problem relatively quickly. I lost one coral - a small acan colony of 5 heads. The Favia is still struggling but now I believe it’s mostly a light issue as the anenome is massive and shading everything below it and I am running out of open space for corals. Really need to get the 57g up and running but I’m still working on the stand situation. 

[RaymondNoodles]

The 20g reef has been humming along nicely. Pretty steady at No3 20, Po4 .20, alk 8.3. Have been dosing alkalinity daily but nothing else. pH has been low-ish around 7.8-8. Chalice coral is on another level tonight. Grabbed the BTA from 4 inches away. Haven't tested magnesium or calcium lately. Should probably get on that. Haven't vacuumed or touched the sandbed since adding Earl the diamond goby about 2 months ago. Early has fattened up nicely. He was pretty skinny when I first got him. Have been hiding pellets and flakes in the sandbed for him....that is if I can get them there before he sucks them directly out of the syringe like a hungry baby sucking on it's mom's tit 😂 I experimented with carbon for a while starting around the time the dinos and cyano were taking control. One day after changing the carbon bag all the micro brittle starfish came out of the rocks, about 50 of them all started releasing a milky white substance, standing tall on their legs and "spooging" in attempt to reproduce I am assume. I removed the carbon and they went back to normal and put their daddles away. Haven't run carbon since. Weird. Got some macro algea growing on the zoa/paly rock pissing off the red zoa's along with kenya tree creeping back months after I scraped it vigorously with an exacto knife.

 

[RaymondNoodles]

I've managed to keep the alkalinity stable at 8.5dkh by dosing 3ml of Brightwell Alkalin 8.3 daily and have really noticed an increase of growth. Other than that, not much to report. The tank is humming along and is starting to fill out nicely at about the 16 month mark. Fish are getting fat lol!
Nitrates 20ppm

Phosphate .15ppm
Magnesium 1320

Haven't tested calcium in a while

[debbeach13]

Looks good. I like fat fish!

[RaymondNoodles]

Recently lost my chalice, cyphastrea and one head on one of my torches 😔 I suspect the anenome was stinging them. They were the 3 closest. The BTA split right around the same time and started going for walks. The only thing I can think of is the nitrates got a little out of control, 40-50ppm. Tank was previously at 25-30ppm nitrates. The higher than norm nitrates May have ticked off the BTA causing it to split and go for walks. Did a 35% water change. Here’s a quick video update. Tank is about 1.5 yrs old.

 

 

 

[RaymondNoodles]

The 20g is doing well. Clownfish is a fatty. Diamond goby could be chunkier but seems healthy. I try to target feed him and make sure I am getting enough food into the sandbed for him to scavenge. Nitrates have been around 50 and phosphate .6. I have been doing a 20% water change about every 3 weeks. Everything seems happy but it seems like the nitrate and phosphate keep creeping up even with the regular water changes. Seeing some patches of cyano here and there for the first time in many months. Also saw a couple dinos under the microscope. First time I have looked at this tanks water under the scope in many months. I'm not worried about the dinos at this point but I was a bit surprised to see them in a system of this age with nutrients this high.
 

Before last water change: Nitrate 50ppm, phosphate .63ppm, calcium 375ppm, magnesium 1395, alkalinity 159 ppm (8.9 dkh), SG 1.025. My goal is to slightly increase water change frequency, probably 20% every 2 weeks to help keep the calcium up and phosphate/nitrate down. Don't want to lower phosphate/nitrate too much. Shooting for nitrate 40 and phosphate .4.

 

The blasto colony is getting huge and looks super healthy. One of my favorite corals. A bunch of mushrooms are popping up near the radioactive dragon eye zoas. The mushrooms were hitchhikers on the live rock I used to start the tank. There are probably 10 of them down there. The duncan is getting crowded out by the kenya tree so I have been thinking about moving it to the 57g. Things are getting a bit crowded in here but I love this tank.

After the BTA split into 3 and started going for walks I removed it and added it to my 5 month old 57g tank. Risky for a new-ish tank but I couldn't stand seeing my other corals being stung. The 3rd day in the 57g I woke up to it stuck in the overflow. 45 mins of foot massaging and I was able to get it out. It was in pretty rough shape but has since recovered and actually looks very healthy and has stayed put for the last 3 or 4 days. Clowns haven't discovered it yet.

 

Recently re-organized the cabinet. I built a new stand out of 2x4's for the battery backup so I could store cables underneath. Mounted the power bricks up above the power strip. Need to install a float valve on the ATO reservoir, had a little overfill last time, oops. Ordered a small-ish float valve and wondering if it will fit inside the 2 gal container. If not I was thinking about moving the 5 gal reservoir from the 57g to this tank and buying a 10g reservoir for the 57g since it goes through at least a gallon/day. Welp, that's all for now. Thanks for following along! 🙂 Happy reefing

[debbeach13]

19 minutes ago, RaymondNoodles said:

The 20g is doing well. Clownfish is a fatty. Diamond goby could be chunkier but seems healthy. I try to target feed him and make sure I am getting enough food into the sandbed for him to scavenge. Nitrates have been around 50 and phosphate .6. I have been doing a 20% water change about every 3 weeks. Everything seems happy but it seems like the nitrate and phosphate keep creeping up even with the regular water changes. Seeing some patches of cyano here and there for the first time in many months. Also saw a couple dinos under the microscope. First time I have looked at this tanks water under the scope in many months. I'm not worried about the dinos at this point but I was a bit surprised to see them in a system of this age with nutrients this high.
 

Before last water change: Nitrate 50ppm, phosphate .63ppm, calcium 375ppm, magnesium 1395, alkalinity 159 ppm (8.9 dkh), SG 1.025. My goal is to slightly increase water change frequency, probably 20% every 2 weeks to help keep the calcium up and phosphate/nitrate down. Don't want to lower phosphate/nitrate too much. Shooting for nitrate 40 and phosphate .4.

Yes. I think this is perfect. Things are always changing in our tanks. Which although some intervention or slightly making changes to our maintenance routine may be needed. Not overreacting and not using chemicals. I might not have stated it correctly. Your approach IMO is a very logical and healthy.

[RaymondNoodles]

6 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Yes. I think this is perfect. Things are always changing in our tanks. Which although some intervention or slightly making changes to our maintenance routine may be needed. Not overreacting and not using chemicals. I might not have stated it correctly. Your approach IMO is a very logical and healthy.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I have to be honest I contemplated trying a small bag of chemipure to lower the nutrients a bit but decided to go the natural route. This will also help me bring up the calcium a bit. Don't want to do anything too crazy.

[TheKleinReef]

Wow this is an amazing system!! That centerpiece nem is stunning. 

[RaymondNoodles]

4 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

Wow this is an amazing system!! That centerpiece nem is stunning. 

Thank you very much! Thankfully it picked a good spot and has stayed there.