1st Reef tank 45 gal build

[cmoore1167]

Here's the frogspawn now 8/17/18 (august).

. Not really a lot of growth really. Has two new heads split but haven't branched yet. Started feeding once a week or so and growth has gotten faster it seems. Might also buy a ocean revive t247 instead of the black box. Idk if the light will help growth

 

[cmoore1167]

Second try with fish

Ok so my intended fishless wait of 6 weeks ended up being 5. I picked a very cool looking melanurus wrasse and had it in quarantine for 3 weeks. Again I was off a week and intended for 4. Bad mistake. I threw this beautiful fish into a tank of death and in 3 days, dead.

Same symptoms. On 2nd dat in take it stopped eating, third day had heavy breathing and loss of activity. By evening it was dead.

This further confirms my diagnosis of marine velvet especially since everything else is doing just fine.

Now for the long wait!

RIP

 

[Dj City]

Patience is not your strong suit huh?

GO SLOOOOOW!

You are going to burn through money and needlessly kill beautiful fish.

Get your tank in order before getting any more livestock. Kill the marine velvet and anything else (ick) you may have.

Please understand. Patience wins the race in saltwater reef keeping.

Sorry you lost another one.

Good luck.

 

[Dj City]

If it were me, I would start at day 1 fallow from here.

That was a beautiful fish.

Im sure that in time, you will have beaten the killers in your tank and will go on to have more beautiful fish and corals in your tank.

 

[Dj City]

Also, check out the fish illness threads.
Los off great advice and good people that are willing to help you out with solid solutions.

 

[cmoore1167]

Also, check out the fish illness threads.
Los off great advice and good people that are willing to help you out with solid solutions.

Thanks for all the tips. This hobby is always about sharing what we've been through and helping others along their way!

 

[cmoore1167]

Cyano bloom and new coral (April 3rd 2018)

So starting not to long before the melanurus, I purchased a devils hand, green stay polyp and rust orange zoanthids. All were placed In the tank and doing fine. Green Star was a little brown but later down the road, got it nice and green. Also picked up a Halloween urchin!

As you can see, the tank is in the cyano stage. There really hasn't been a lot of nutrients entering the tank, however, I learned I was running my lights too long. Started them out on 12 hrs of blues and whites both just because my work schedule made it hard to ever see the tank lit.

Changed the light to 8 hrs a day and got a timer to help so I didn't have to be home to turn them off. Decided to let the tank do its thing and coast through its ugly stage. Bought a refugium and threw some cheato in there to cut down its food supply, nitrate and phosphate as well as photosynthesis. I'll go into more detail later about the refugium.

 

[cmoore1167]

Aquafuge CPD large refugium

Got HOB refugium with some cheato to help with nutrient controll. Over some time my cyano problem started going away and it died off without any chemicals. Ph went up to around 8.2 according to api test kit.

I was worried my light stand would not fit between the tank and the fudge but there is over an inch of space.

 

[Dj City]

The fuge is going to help.

You should look into adding seachem Matrix to the fuge. That helps beneficial bacteria by giving you more surface area.
You should be able to grow aerobic and anaerobic bacteria for nitrate consumption.

 

[cmoore1167]

The fuge is going to help.

You should look into adding seachem Matrix to the fuge. That helps beneficial bacteria by giving you more surface area.
You should be able to grow aerobic and anaerobic bacteria for nitrate consumption.

Thanks for the tip! I ended up waiting it out and watched the cyano slowly die off until it was gone! I often blasted the rock to break it loose and get sucked down the filter.

 

[cmoore1167]

Hair algae smothering cheato

Skipping to a current time for a sec. My fuge isn't doing great with cheato. Seemed to be doing fine at first and cheato seemed healthy. After a while hair algae started growing like crazy and then on the cheato, smothering it to death.

Flow isn't very high through fuge. Light is a 6500k flood light.

Planned on buying a power head to put in there, snails, and maybe some iron dosing.

Any tips or advice on this one?

*Fuge not lit in this picture

 

[OffTopic]

Cool aquascape and nice job on the entire fish tank! Following along

 

[cmoore1167]

Cool aquascape and nice job on the entire fish tank! Following along

Thank you! bout to start posting more current pics!

 

[cmoore1167]

Waiting for fishless cycle to be over = new coral. May 18th 2018

Well if I cant buy fish I'll buy some coral! Lol got a new torch coral, elegance, and montipora cap for my first taste of spa.

 

[Dj City]

Hair algae smothering cheato

Skipping to a current time for a sec. My fuge isn't doing great with cheato. Seemed to be doing fine at first and cheato seemed healthy. After a while hair algae started growing like crazy and then on the cheato, smothering it to death.

Flow isn't very high through fuge. Light is a 6500k flood light.

Planned on buying a power head to put in there, snails, and maybe some iron dosing.

Any tips or advice on this one?

*Fuge not lit in this picture

Look into getting a LED grow light. Amazon has tons of them.

You might have to toss the algae you have and start over with fresh chaeto.

 

[cmoore1167]

Reboot on chaeto: round 2

Light: Bought a new LED grow light as DJ city recommended. I have the cycle around 8 hrs at night. Not sure if the light is too low to the water. Don't really have a good mounting option here.

Flow: Got a fluval cp1 power head (265 gph) to cause a little more flow in the refugium. I couldn't place it to flow the length of the fuge because the chaeto would float back toward the powerhead. Its pointed at the wall across from it at a slight angle.

Iron: Did some research on iron dosing which seemed to be debated if beneficial but some say it can become a limiting factor for growth and can help macro outcompete micro algae. Starting to dose 1 ml a week. Not sure if that's enough or not enough ha

Chaeto: Bought two handful balls to start it off. After a week I am seeing some growth but also seeing a light dusting of algae starting to grow in the outside of the chaeto. I scrapped the hair algae off the walls before starting to help the chaeto get a foothold and outcompete it. I'm hoping it grows larger before hair algae takes it over! DT is starting to show some algae and cyano so it better start soon ha

Any tips and recommendations would be great! Not the best at growing this stuff!

 

[Dj City]

1st tip is to raise the led a few inches. That light has some pretty good power. You don't want to fry your chaeto.
Is going to take a while for your chaeto to become accustomed to the light. You can lower it about an inch a week for a while till you have it where you want it.
If that's not an option, decrease lighting duration from 8 hours to 4 hours. Keep an eye on your chaeto. Look for signs of bleaching and act accordingly.

2nd tip is to test your water. Get an iron test. You really do not want to dose something you can't test for.

Good luck.

 

[cmoore1167]

1st tip is to raise the led a few inches. That light has some pretty good power. You don't want to fry your chaeto.
Is going to take a while for your chaeto to become accustomed to the light. You can lower it about an inch a week for a while till you have it where you want it.
If that's not an option, decrease lighting duration from 8 hours to 4 hours. Keep an eye on your chaeto. Look for signs of bleaching and act accordingly.

2nd tip is to test your water. Get an iron test. You really do not want to dose something you can't test for.

Good luck.

Thank you! I'm sure I can figure something out to raise the light a little. Yeah the iron made me a little nervous just throwing it in there. Now that I think of it my red sea trace test kit has an iron test in it.

 

[Dj City]

You have the same growstar light I have. That light is a beast!

 

[cmoore1167]

You have the same growstar light I have. That light is a beast!

Sweet hope it works out! What do you recommend I do to leave this hair algae from taking over. Idk if you can see in the picture but theres a light coating of it starting to grow on the outside of the ball. First thing to happen last time. Do you have these problems?