My Conversion for the Day

So I have caught the reef bug. Attached is a pic of my aquarium this morning and another as a few minutes ago.

I am just learning so take it easy on me.

46-gallon bow front, two month old salt-water tank. Four T5s, 2 AquaBlue, 1 Actinic+ and 1 Actinic Pure.

So I took out the live rock as I had brown algae (I believe diatom, not hairy) everywhere, took that to the bathtub and brushed off the algae. I let that sit and cure a little in salt water in a bucket. I then laid out all the live rock I had and started to stack up some ideas. I then learned how much the epoxy can be a pain in the butt using it to join rock. I cleared out the floor of the aquarium and started stacking. What a frustrating headache that was getting the pieces to stick together the way I wanted. Hearing the glass scratch at the base every once and a while was like nails to a chalk board for me. Made me wish I had a black plastic egg rack piece.

Oh, I bought a little purple lobster a month ago and two weeks ago I thought he had died. I knew they molted but the molt looked exactly like him and dead. The little legs spread out next to it convinced me. Seeing my cleaner shrimp molt I didn't think it could be the lobsters molt. So my first casualty so I thought... and bam! He was hiding in a rock the whole time and it was just a molt! It was like finding money I thought I had lost, which I guess it was in a sense. I had to jump on YouTube just to watch how they molted as with cleaner shrimp they just rocket out of their old body.

While I was arranging the rock I attached my H.O.T. Magnum and threw in a new filter cover and placed a 50/50 mixture of Seachem carbon and phosguard. My rational for this is to dramatically slow down the rate of the diatom and polish the water a bit so to say. The tahitian moon sand substrate I have is not helping that either with its' silicon but I like the uniqueness of the black sand and how it makes everything else pop out more. I know lighting wont be good but I am not too worried about that.

When I was at the LFS today I also got a great piece of live rock that was in one of the display tanks as it is loooaded with coralline algae, some small pieces of liverock also in there and a regular Fiji live rock piece in the usual water bin. I added those to the reef. With the small pieces with coralline I placed those evenly throughout attaching them to regular rock to help spread it a bit. I know the process of a coralline outbreak can take a month + but I figured it can't hurt to aid it right?

To promote coralline growth I also added Aqua Vitro calcification and some hydroxide balancer.

I then added the Koralia 3 jets onto the sides creating a torrent in the center. I feel like these are almost too strong for this tank and the fish are pretty scared of the current they produce at the moment.

While looking at the new arrangement I noticed I totally scored with the big live rock. Not only did it have some spider webby slug on the top, but I found little baby feather dusters on it at the top. How cool is that?

Looking at the substrate it looks like I have some friends in there too which I never noticed before.

So needless to say I am excited so far!

 

Looking good!

 

interesting write up David

tank is coming on nicely

Steve

 

Thank you guys!

 

Did you brush the brown diatoms off before or after the cycle? Your lights aren't bad either and the two K3s may be too strong, you might want to consider 1 K3 and 1 K2. Also, don't worry about coraline, everybody seems to desire it so badly when they start and they buy supplements and such. Just let the tank take its course. If your levels are good, then it will grow. It will become a nuisance in the not too far off future. Also, you should test your water before you add anything.

 

Well done!

PS. This thread has been moved to the Show Off Your Fishtank forum.

 

It may have not completed its cycle as I did not see any green algae take over. I did not see any spikes in water testing. If it props up again I will let it naturally take its course. I have left it on the walls for the snails.

I already have some fish in there. Three damsils, clownfish, neon goby and a bicolor blenny. I have not added any new as I want things to settle down and take its course.

My concern at the moment is my bicolor blenny. Everyone else seems to be doing great but he is breathing a bit faster than usual. The water is still cloudy at the moment.

My levels:

Salinity: 1.027
Alkalinity: 9-10 KH
High PH: 8.2
Nitrite: 0PPM
Ammonia: 0PPM
Nitrate: 0PPM
Temperature: 78F