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Riding the Wave with Reef Casa: My Studio 12 Saltwater Build 🌊


banasophia

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Yes, keeping my fingers crossed. 🤞
 

Someone from saltwaterfish.com just returned my call and said yes, they are two different types, one with the orange and blue body and one with the brown… she said brown are much more common and if you order from them they can’t guarantee which you will get it will most likely be the brown variety. 

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Oh man… I took a pic of the tank tonight and totally doodled out my stocking plan but when I was happy with it I accidentally hit “revert” instead of “done” and deleted the whole thing! 😩😩😩 I guess that plan wasn’t meant to be!

 

Hank’s doing well in the new tank, and I’m loving it so far. I’m a bit worried about how the white rock is going to look during the ugly phase since I’ve always used Caribsea Liferock on my tanks which really masks the initial tank uglies. But I really like how this scape looks and it gives me lots of good areas for mounting corals, so I’m really happy with it so far.
 

Still waiting for the corals to perk up. The tank’s pretty small, so I’ll really have to stock it wisely to squeeze in as many of my favorites as I can. I was thinking tonight about nano-reefing vs large tank reefing and how I don’t really want my corals to grow too fast in my tanks. A couple of the corals I’m leaning toward will probably require pretty frequent fragging if they are happy. 


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The cycling parameters look good, alk is low. 

 

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Well my day took an unexpected turn…

 

I started a meetup group a month or so ago for local YouTubers since such a group apparently doesn’t exist yet in this area… had a meetup with them this afternoon and in the middle of running the meetup I got a message from my buddy at my LFS that they got the fish in that I had told him I was planning to keep in this tank - a yellow banded possum wrasse - they got two in, in fact! 
 

Of course I had to wrap up my meetup to head to the LFS asap to get there before closing. The two fish they had gotten in were tiny! One looked like a fairly standard yellow banded possum wrasse with the two yellow stripes and the other one had the two yellow stripes plus white bands in between. Here are pics of yellow banded vs white banded from Live Aquaria:

 

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I wasn’t planning to get the wrasse this soon, especially since I already ordered the tailspot blenny, but I never see these little guys at my LFSs so I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. And they were only asking $40 instead of the $90 - 125 I was seeing them going for online! I decided on the white and yellow one cuz he/she was so different and cute. 
 

The fish is really itty bitty… smaller than Hank I think… must be a baby. But I’m not sure how healthy it is. I thought it had died when I got it home, it was so still in the bag and floating in a weird position, but it was still alive and perked up a bit after floating the bag to bring the water temp up. Hank was so curious about what was going on!

 

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I decided I’d better figure out how to quarantine him because I didn’t want to risk exposing Hank to a fish disease. Luckily I had the quarantine tank stored away from when Finnick got popeye last year, so I was able to set the fish up in it.
 

I put a black plastic bristleworm trap in the tank (without the lid on the trap) since I didn’t have any pvc pipe and the lil fish swam right into it as soon as I put him in the tank. I need to figure out the medications and process and run to the LFS for additional supplies tomorrow, if the fish makes it through the night. 🤞💛💛💛
 

Of course since I had “saved” so much on the fish I totally rationalized getting some corals and a rock flower too. 😬🫣😁 I‘ll have to tell you about the corals tomorrow. And I’ll need help identifying the acans… I thought they were lords when I chose them, but now I’m not so sure.

 

 

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1 hour ago, banasophia said:

Of course since I had “saved” so much on the fish I totally rationalized getting some corals and a rock flower too. 😬🫣😁 I‘ll have to tell you about the corals tomorrow.

This makes perfect sense to me. Can't wait to see them.

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Oh no, I’m so sad… looks like the little tailspot blenny was an orange and blue one, but the company I bought it from shipped it by FedEx overnight on Thursday and it just arrived now… the water was so cold and I’m fairly certain the little guy is dead, though I’m floating it and hoping maybe it’s still alive. 😢 Poor little guy. 

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Well the guy I spoke with (I think it was Pete) was really sad about the fish too… he said he will replace it… he’s not sure if the other one they have in stock is a blue and orange one, apparently those come from Jakarta… he said he will try to source one for me.

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The lil wrasse seems to be doing good! Cruising around in his quarantine tank! He wakes up early before I get up, was just swimming around in the dark when I went in to see him, and he goes to bed really early.
 

He has the white stringy poop so he needs to be treated for internal parasites and I’ll probably be using API General Cure and Seachem Focus (I think it was called) once it arrives from Amazon. 

 

Hopefully he’s getting enough food. The tiny pellets I have are too big so I’m crushing them like I did with Finnick when he was itty bitty. Also trying to feed Coral Gumbo. Since I’m not sure how much he’s eating, wondering if treating the system rather than the food may be better. Open to suggestions. 
 

I got some additional equipment for the quarantine tank from Amazon yesterday: my first HOB filter which is an AquaClear 30, an extra siphon, heater, and net. More supplies on their way.
 

Still trying to decide if I’m going to treat with copper, but I saw some reference to wrasses being sensitive in quarantine so I may just do the Prazipro or General Cure treatment and then observe for signs of diseases that would warrant the copper treatment. 
 

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11 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I may just do the Prazipro or General Cure treatment and then observe for signs of diseases that would warrant the copper treatment. 

This seems very logical.

It's only been a couple days, but I am glad to hear he is alive and swimming around. 

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I'm sad to hear about the TSB ! 

 

I remember wanting one of those wrasses for the longest, I don't think I've seen that wrasse ever available locally, very cool you were able to snatch one up! Hoping it finishes passing quarantine and acclimates well for you,

 

 

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Ooh, what great fish choices. I absolutely LOVE my little yellow-banded possum wrasse and my TSB. Both are always out and about around the tank, making eyes at me.

 

Fingers crossed that your replacement TSB is the more colorful version! I never knew there was anything other than the brown and orange ones.

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2 minutes ago, chipz said:

Ooh, what great fish choices. I absolutely LOVE my little yellow-banded possum wrasse and my TSB. Both are always out and about around the tank, making eyes at me.

 

Fingers crossed that your replacement TSB is the more colorful version! I never knew there was anything other than the brown and orange ones.

Ah thanks! I need to see pics of your fishes!! 🙏😁🤗

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54 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Ah thanks! I need to see pics of your fishes!! 🙏😁🤗

Mine are not so photogenic as Hank (or they don't have as competent a photographer) but here are a couple of my best attempts. 

 

Cheeky TSB photo bomber (and best buddy the yasha):

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The teeny hover craft:

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1 hour ago, chipz said:

Mine are not so photogenic as Hank (or they don't have as competent a photographer) but here are a couple of my best attempts. 

 

Cheeky TSB photo bomber (and best buddy the yasha):

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The teeny hover craft:

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Omg your fish are AWESOME! I love them!! Does your possum wrasse get pale sometimes? It seems that mine gets very pale and I’m not sure if it’s normal. 

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7 hours ago, banasophia said:

Omg your fish are AWESOME! I love them!! Does your possum wrasse get pale sometimes? It seems that mine gets very pale and I’m not sure if it’s normal. 

Thanks! And yes, the possum gets pale but mostly when the lights go out. Maybe it is a sleep/stress thing like with blennies? Mine was pretty easily intimidated in the early days, but now it is just always busy moving around and out in the open. It helps that the other fish are all small and peaceful, I guess.

 

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3 minutes ago, chipz said:

Thanks! And yes, the possum gets pale but mostly when the lights go out. Maybe it is a sleep/stress thing like with blennies? Mine was pretty easily intimidated in the early days, but now it is just always busy moving around and out in the open. It helps that the other fish are all small and peaceful, I guess.

 

that's good to know about the possums, my TSB was like that at night, getting the white markings that would be gone once lights are on again

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey guys, Merry Christmas! I hope you are having a joy filled holiday, if you celebrate!!

 

We had our big family get together at my place today. It was only 10 people and very nice, but so much work… glad to be able to relax.

 

I thought I’d take a moment to post an update. I have been so busy I haven’t had a chance to post or try to do any videos. You’ll see I’ve added quite a few corals. Some were from my LFS, and some from a local refer that has an incredible 450 gallon setup. 
 

Sadly, the possum wrasse made it through the first 2 weeks of quarantine and seemed to be doing fine, but then I got home from Christmas shopping last Sunday and he had taken a bad turn. It was the day after a water change and I don’t know for sure what happened… it could have been an illness or could have been related to the quarantine process or something I did wrong.
 

Humblefish and others on his forum responded quickly and were really helpful when I discovered the fish was doing poorly and made a HELP post. Just a reminder they are there and have lots of experience with fish illness if you ever need assistance with your fish. 
 

So I reached out to my buddy at my LFS that I had bought the sweet little fish from to let him know what happened and he said they still had the second one (they had come in together 2 days before I got my first one) and it seemed to be healthy, active, and doing well. I went and picked it up on Thursday, along with 2 new rock flower anemones. I decided to add this new little fish right to the tank. He is so awesome, I hope he does okay. A couple guys on the Humblefish forum said possum wrasses can be pretty fragile fish.
 

And unfortunately, since getting the new fish, the tank has gotten some dino, but I added a little of my favorite magic potion BioSpira and started dosing some Microbacter 7 so hopefully I can get a variety of microorganisms to outcompete the dinoflagellates. So far the fish (Hank my YCG and my new possum wrasse) and the corals seem to all be doing fine.
 

Hopefully I can get the dino cleared back up again quickly… as I recall it cleared up pretty quickly in my Biocube 32 with Microbacter 7 and was only ever a very mild case in there. 
 

I have to stay on top of the filter floss changes right now. The floss is clogging up quickly with the dino and it’s pretty fine, which is probably good for catching the dino, but it does diminish the flow through the back chambers and messes up the water levels. The water starts to build up in the first chamber blocked by the clogged floss, then the water level drops in the return chamber where the ATO sensor is located. This can trigger the ATO to add more fresh water when it’s not really needed. Which is bad, of course, since it can throw off the salinity and other parameters if topoff water is added when it’s not needed.
 

Luckily, March at Reef Casa had generously sent me an additional box of filter floss when I ordered a new Flipper Float Nano and a random flow generator from his store. He also sent me his media rack for the tank to try out - I feel so lucky he picked me to try out all this stuff! I haven’t had a chance to look too closely at the media rack yet, but I’ll check it out this coming week.

 

Anyway, with the pre-cut filter floss it’s super quick and easy to change it out, so I just need to be sure to check it every couple days to see if it’s time.

 

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So sorry the first fish didn't make it. I do hope the new guy does better. You have a lot more variety in corals. Especially interested in watching how the SPS grow. They are all looking good. I don't test my water, so I pretty much stay with softies and LPS. Could you share your lighting schedule? 

Merry Christmas. 

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I'm sorry as well to hear about the first one, 😞 I had a CB court jester myself not make it through quarantine and pass just yesterday on Christmas, its always tough. 

 

Im hoping you have good luck with the new one though. hopefully the nems are happy to stay put where you have them, nice pickups!

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On 12/25/2022 at 3:55 AM, debbeach13 said:

So sorry the first fish didn't make it. I do hope the new guy does better. You have a lot more variety in corals. Especially interested in watching how the SPS grow. They are all looking good. I don't test my water, so I pretty much stay with softies and LPS. Could you share your lighting schedule? 

Merry Christmas. 

Thank you. The new lil guy is doing okay so far. I hope you had a Merry Christmas too, Deb. 🤗

 

Still working on adjusting the light schedule. One thing is that I stay up late and it seems to be an issue to have the light stay on past midnight… so I adjusted the clock so it thinks it’s one hour earlier in order to keep my lights on until 12:45 am. 
 

I’ll post more detail once I feel like my tank is doing okay, but right now I’m still tweaking it and dealing with dino, which has gotten worse. 

 

On 12/26/2022 at 10:45 AM, sapling said:

I'm sorry as well to hear about the first one, 😞 I had a CB court jester myself not make it through quarantine and pass just yesterday on Christmas, its always tough. 

 

Im hoping you have good luck with the new one though. hopefully the nems are happy to stay put where you have them, nice pickups!

Aww, thank you, so sorry about your fish too. 😢 The rock flower nems are doing okay so far. 

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So... what if the magic potion that made my starts go so smoothly in the past wasn't the Biospira at all… I always start my tanks with Caribsea Liferock, usually live sand, matrix media, Biospira, and NutriSeawater.
 

Well with the worsening dino in this tank starting to freak me out a bit I had started adding some BioSpira and Microbacter7 a few days ago, but to no avail, the Dino just kept getting worse and worse… so I thought to myself: hmmm maybe the essential component is actually the NutriSeawater… it does also have “more than 11,000,000 bacteria per gallon”…

 

I didn’t use NutriSeawater for this start because I wanted to test out the Reef Casa beneficial bacteria on its own, so I used Imagitarium seawater which does not contain any beneficial bacteria. 


So with the worsening dino, I decided I should give the NutriSeawater a shot. I had bought a little mini heater that can fit in the NutriSeawater jug, heated up the NutriSeawater to 78, and did a two gallon water change, including turkey basting the rock and corals and siphoning the sand bed. 
 

It’s been about two hours now and it seems to be looking better in there… maybe just due to the turkey basting and sand siphoning though, so we’ll see what happens. 
 

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My parameters tonight:

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Phosphate is only measured to the nearest 0.1, so there could be some in there that’s just not detectable with my AquaSpin. 
 

I picked up NeoNitro and NeoPhos from my LFS today in case I need to dose nitrate and phosphate, but I’m going to try to feed extra for now to see if that will be enough. 

 

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  • banasophia changed the title to Riding the Wave with Reef Casa: My Studio 12 Saltwater Build 🌊

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