Tharsis' 25 gallon - A New Hope

I just ordered my CUC from reefcleaners, woohoo, moving onto the next stage!. I also got some chaeto and mangroves for the fuge, never tried mangroves before so I am curious how they will do.

 

Congrats on the order.

How many mangroves did you get?

 

I got five...I will have to do a bit of research between now and then on how to care for them because as it is now, I have no idea haha.

 

I read somewhere you need at least 1 per gallon of water for them to be most effective. A good FW bulb 10-12 hours a day will do for lighting. Use light diffuser to hold them so the growth tip does not sink below water level. You need to find out if they came from brackish water or salt water. They may need to be acclimated to SW.

 

Things are going well with the tank.



Added the CUC a couple weeks ago, and they seem to be doing well. I had some deaths via transit which was odd, all of the ceriths and half the nerites arrived DOA. The survivors are doing great though.

You can see a pic of the nessarius climbing up the glass, and then a couple hiding under the substrate. I love how these guys just appear out of the sand when they sense food.





My sump is doing well, I seem to have stumbled into some sort of Algae scrubber which is pretty cool.



I initially had set up this little ramp to divert some of the skimmer overflow back into the fuge. I cut some light diffuser and ziptied plexiglass to the bottom and then wrapped the whole thing with polyfil and laid it on a slight angle. The result is a very slow flow of water passing over/through the contraption. At first it was collecting the brown detritus stuff, but over the last week, the green and red algae have started growing like gangbusters, no algae anywhere else either.





I am pretty happy with the results.

 

Very nice update, congrats on the algae scrubber

 

Looking good, Tharsis!! I love the supplement colors! Cool algae thingy too

 

Nice scape.

I really like the size of the tank.

Bang up job on the sump, I am impressed.

 

haha thanks. I look forward to seeing how the scrubber progresses...I will be happy if it keeps the algae there.

It is a little concerning though, my skimmer is right before my return pump, so there is still alot of nitrates in the water at the end of my filtration chain...:confused1

 

My algae has grown alot in the last week when compared to the previous pics.



enhance...


enhance...


It seems to be doing quite well...I can almost hear it sucking out the nitrates.

I am still getting some small spots of algae and diatoms on the rocks but it is nothing too serious.





I am definitely going to be adding some livestock over the next week..I have been cruising the local petshops looking for possible additions.

I am thinking a wrasse and a blenny and some shrimps.