1000 gallon tank for a beginner!

[SlowAndStupid]

Found one of my missing grammas in one of my filter socks. Put it back in and it promptly swam to the top and put itself in precarious position. Now I can't find it again! Will have to keep an eye on the filter socks.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

My best guess is probably a limpet with aiptasia growing on it, but the 4th picture suggests not.
@ISpeakForTheSeas
If you're worried about introducing aiptasia my advice would be to introduce a few Lysmata wurdemanni (type of peppermint shrimp) to the tank the rocks are in.

Definitely an anemone of some kind, and probably not a keeper - I can't tell beyond with the pics provided (sorry OP).

 

[Should I]

dang this is sick love it should get my dream fish that i will never have a tank for the french angel

 

[SlowAndStupid]

I removed the aiptasia. I'm away for the week but monitoring the tank via web cam. All I can see is long stands of gha driving me crazy plus the fish swimming around!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I removed the aiptasia. I'm away for the week but monitoring the tank via web cam. All I can see is long stands of gha driving me crazy plus the fish swimming around!

That's the worst! The times I go on vacation and I see something I want to fix in my tank drives me crazy, haha.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Made it back from our 10-day spring break trip. The GHA I could see growing like wildfire on my web cam looked even worse in person! All over the rocks and wall rockscape!

I had a lot of catching up to do. My ATO reservoir was nearing empty so I refilled that. I changed out my completely mucked up filter socks. I emptied my full protein skimmer and cleaned off all the junk from the front acrylic.

With that complete I hopped into the tank and began pulling algae. It was actually much easier once it was overgrown compared to when I was keeping it at bay. But once I got the huge swaths out it was much harder to clear out the smaller patches. I tried brushing it but there's a lot of GHA that I can't physically grab and won't brush off. I'd love some tips on how to clear it back further. I found one of my royal grammas trapped in a hunk of GHA at the top of the tank and rescued him. It was a long travel day and after being up for a total of 25 hours I climbed out and went to bed. Here's the tank this morning:

Much better but still a lot of GHA if you were to look closer.

I have my first shipment of quarantined fish coming from Dr. Reef later this week so I need to get my quarantine tanks ready for observation and acclimation. More CUC are coming in this order as well though what I have put in the tank already haven't touched the GHA so far.

 

[Reefer Brent]

I can't recall. Did you add pods yet?

 

[SlowAndStupid]

I can't recall. Did you add pods yet?

Yes, I'm growing phyto and both tisbe and tigre pods and harvest this weekly into the display tank.

 

[friendlyguy]

respect! i find it fascinating how you got into that hobby and how well you are doing things right from the beginning. i didnt finish reading through that 17 pages yet but...
I ran a lifereef skimmer for 2 years and absolutely loved everything about it. Jeff is such a nice person as well :)
i also find your dedication enormous!
Keep at it, you are doing absolutely great. persistence, patience and doing things properly from the beginning... love it!

 

[SlowAndStupid]

respect! i find it fascinating how you got into that hobby and how well you are doing things right from the beginning. i didnt finish reading through that 17 pages yet but...
I ran a lifereef skimmer for 2 years and absolutely loved everything about it. Jeff is such a nice person as well :)
i also find your dedication enormous!
Keep at it, you are doing absolutely great. persistence, patience and doing things properly from the beginning... love it!

Appreciate the kind words. Currently, I continue to battle gha. None of my CUC touches it so I climb in and pull out the large strands. It is too well embedded to brush it out of the rocks.

My order of quarantined fish came in from Dr. Reef. Everything looks healthy and active with the exception of the McCosker's wrasse which died within 24 hours. Thankfully I was shipped an extra (I presume they are known to ship poorly) and it is doing just fine.

I ordered a leopard wrasse which was my biggest shipping concern and he is doing great. I'm planning to put them into the main tank soon.

 

[twentyleagues]

Appreciate the kind words. Currently, I continue to battle gha. None of my CUC touches it so I climb in and pull out the large strands. It is too well embedded to brush it out of the rocks.

My order of quarantined fish came in from Dr. Reef. Everything looks healthy and active with the exception of the McCosker's wrasse which died within 24 hours. Thankfully I was shipped an extra (I presume they are known to ship poorly) and it is doing just fine.

I ordered a leopard wrasse which was my biggest shipping concern and he is doing great. I'm planning to put them into the main tank soon.

Yes unfortunately wrasses dont ship well. Its good to hear the leopard is doing well, one of my favorite saltwater fish.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

The new fish went into the display tank on Wednesday. This included:
6 more Banggai cardinalfish
2 clownfish
7 lyretail anthias females
1 lyretail anthias male
1 McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
1 Leopard Wrasse
2 Yellow watchmen gobies (both are grey!)

I also had ordered a handful of snails to continue building up my clean up crew. In addition, I ordered 2 cleaner shrimp and 1 fire shrimp. All 3 shrimp have molted which I take as a good sign they are eating well.

Here's the new group joining the other fish:





Everyone seems to be settling in well and appear to be eating. I wanted them in earlier this week but the leopard wrasse kept diving into his sand and going to be early messing up my plans. Finally on Wednesday I removed his sand at the evening feeding so that I could wrangle them. I wanted them to have a few days to acclimate because today I climbed in and did what is becoming my weekly manual pruning of the green hair algae. A ton of these strands are over a foot long. I put in my order of tangs today to Dr. Reef and am really hoping they can help keep this algae in check once they arrive.

 

[keithw283]

I’ve loved following this so far. I check almost every day to see if you updated lol. Have you considered turning the lights off for a few days to help combat the algae?

 

[SlowAndStupid]

I’ve loved following this so far. I check almost every day to see if you updated lol. Have you considered turning the lights off for a few days to help combat the algae?

I have but I'm assuming it will return once I turn the lights back on? I have some fluconazole that I've read may work but haven't dosed it either.

 

[kureef]

If you’re somehow close to what your name tag is, I am retarded then

 

[SlowAndStupid]

If you’re somehow close to what your name tag is, I am retarded then

Better to be self-deprecating and do a good job than come out cocky and mess up. Also when you abbreviate it out comes out as "sands" which is fitting for a reef tank.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

This weekend's project consisted of installing a battery backup system.

I have a 280 Ah LiTime battery connected to a Kisae inverter/charger. One of my 2 return pumps is in turn connected to it. It is currently on and charging up the battery. Based on my energy uses if the power went out it could run a single return pump for at least 24 hours. I have a battery powered air pump as well though I don't think I really need it. There is lots of water turnover and churning as the water falls down the overflows in the tank itself and again from my small sump down to the larger one.

 

[keithw283]

I have but I'm assuming it will return once I turn the lights back on? I have some fluconazole that I've read may work but haven't dosed it either.

It could come back but right now everything is trying to compete for resources. Right now there is nothing in your tank that needs light other than that algae. You started from 100% dry rock, correct? Give the good stuff time to build up at the start and the bad stuff won’t be able to take hold as easily later.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

How’s the algae control coming along? I got a single tuxedo urchin for my 50g and after a month I already have to supplement—he cleared me out!

 

[keithw283]

how’s the tank going? Tangs show up?