Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

FTS - 8 gallon desktop tank at four months


AiredaleReef

Recommended Posts

Hi All, 

It has been a while since I posted, and wanted to share an update. Here is a full tank shot of my 8 gallon desktop tank at four months. I am starting to see loads of coralline algae on the MP10 (back left), and a few sporadic spots over the live rock. If you zoom in, the acan lord on the far right is producing babies and growing too. 

 

 

8AE6B810-9D40-4C74-95D5-D1CBDC1E9A0B.jpeg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
TheCoffeeReef

Very cool coraline progression, and congrats on acans growth. Interesting to see the scale of the mp10 in that size tank.

 

How often are you feeding and any maintenance or just water change?

Link to comment

Thank you! I am a bit surprised myself, but happy to see growth. Given the size of the tank the MP10 is kept on one of the lowest settings, and provides plenty of flow leaving minimal dead spots. 

As far as feeding, I typically spot feed mysis/brine once a week. I feed a pinch of pellets every day, and will also feed reef roids or AB+ bi weekly. This helps keep my nutrients level low which in return help with keeping my parameters in check. I usually test Nitrates and Phophates once a week. As of yesterday Nitrates were 3.3ppm, and Phosphates were 0.09ppm. 

 

Only Maintenance is weekly water changes (about 2.5 gallons) as well as changing out filter floss biweekly. 

 

So far things seem to be going well. I am noticing an increase in bubble algae...I picked up an emerald crab yesterday to see if that will help control the spread. 

Link to comment
TheCoffeeReef

Thanks for sharing, I'm so far infrequently feeding my 22ltr (4 UK gallon), just a mix of frozen and thawed krill and rotifers, and reef roids, though to put in context of the month it's been running I've done 3 feeds. Oh and one live pack of copepods. 

 

I've had one moult of my peppermint shrimp, one of Halloween Hermit, one Scarlet reef hermit, all successful. Algae growth is there but maintaining with my snail crew, but I do think I may need to feed a little more frequently for the shrimp, but keep it small. 

 

Like you, about once a week change of 2-4 ltrs. 

 

Have you experimented with times of feedings? Day or night?

Link to comment

So far, I have found consistency to be the key (weekly water changes, temperature, light schedules  etc.) I also keep a log of everything. This is more for me as I love spreadsheets, but definitely helps me track patterns and helps me determine what may have caused a particular issue. I am not chasing particular parameters, but instead prefer to keep my parameters steady as long as the tank is doing well.

 

As far as feeding is concerned, I do not track times of the day, but more so if I have fed that day or not. I have fed early in the morning, or just before the lights turn off, and havent really seen any sort of difference. I also like to feed the heavy nutrients (ab+/reef roids) before conducting a water change. This allows the corals to consume the nutrients, and prevents left over waste.

 

The skunk shrimp is always eating and happy to be fed. It molts around every 3 weeks, while the fire shrimp is more like once every six weeks or so. My scarlet has molted twice in about 3 months....The first time I thought it died, but realized it was just a molt as it came crawling in the daylight a few days later lol. 

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...