37L Aqua Medic Yasha

[dopey]

Hello!

Just starting my tank thread.

Tank: 37L Aqua Medic Yasha
Light: AI Prime HD
Sand: Red Sea -- Live Reef Base
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
ATO: Tunze Osmolator Nano(Not installed..yet)
Skimmer: TurboFlotor Blue 500
Flow: 1x SW-4
Rock: Carib Sea Life Rock
Cycling: Reef Mature Starter Kit(Starting tomorrow or Friday)
Test kits: Mixture of Hannah and others.
Controller: None, but started a raspberry pi monitoring DIY. Have temp going for now.. debating other probes.
Heater: I bought a Jäger but it doesn't fit Using $random I got at a local pet store that I had planned to use for water changes.. I'd like to find a cobalt I think, as those are very slim?
Other: Have some Reef-Spec Carbon in a bag.

Tank goals: 'Display tank' -- i.e. corals, some inverts and perhaps 1 fish. Likely nemo as, well, everyone loves them. Personally i'd like a goby. But want to keep the bioload in check.

Status: I filled the tank first due to timing of deliveries. I've since added the rock and done my best to do the sand. Have to wait for the dust storm to settle to see how well my coverage was.

The skimmer insta-fills with foam, im hoping this is just due to the dust storm. I've actually got it running now without the collection cup, and it seems to be helping clear up the water. I have the carbon below the outlet of the skimmer, so think it's worth running it to push water through the carbon.. which should help clear things up quicker?




Oddly enough, none of those aquascapes I took photos of were the one we settled on. Will have to wait for the dust storm to settle.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I'd like to find a cobalt I think, as those are very slim?

The cobalt's are very good for tight spaces

Might be a bit tight for a clownfish but you could definitely get a Yasha or Yellow Rose Goby. A yellow clown goby would also be a good addition

 

[dopey]

Dust storm cleared.. Need to clean glass though! Skimmer also behaves as expected now




I'm debating whether this enough rock or not. Thoughts? I had it double stacked, but then it was dang near the surface. Imagine as I add corals the 'height' will increase as well?

I need to add a couple shims to the front of the stand tomorrow. There is a slight lean forward, not enough to cause concern. But the 'sump' area tends to run at a lower volume than the display tank -- due to the power head. This coupled with the slight lean results in the power head sucking air quite easily. There is a very small margin between too much water where the front of the tank will overflow vs the sump area at a lower level where the pump sucks air.

I don't know if the original pump would of had this issue, but it's discontinued so I had to DIY.


I am debating getting https://www.drakfisken.se/returpumpar/1363-tunze-silence.html to replace the SW-4 as the return pump, and use the SW-4 in the main tank. How quickly the SW-4 will suck air bothers me. Using a return pump sitting the bottom will prevent that concern, and i'll be able to get more flow patterns in the main tank. comments welcome!

I plan to start the Reef Mature kit/routine tomorrow.

 

[dopey]

Day 3 of the kit, levels:
Ammonia: .8
Nitrate: >20
Nitrite: .2
Salinity: 1.026
PH: 8.2
Temp: 26C
Alk: 8.68 dKH

I think things are progressing well. No growth of any kind, but seems my nitrate has spiked as it should.




To be honest, I hear refractometers are amazing but I find them hard to use. When I first used it, it showed my salinity very high(nearly 40ppt), but then it also showed some calibration liquid I had nearly that high, too. I tried calibrating it both with RO water and calibration fluid, and have settled on trusting it now, which the reading of 1.026 . Last time I did the hobby the only thing was a hydrometer.. I get it's inaccurate but I was blissfully unaware

Starting to come up with the stocking list. Intention is to select a 'cleaning crew' next weekend. Beyond that, considering a watchman goby + pistol shrimp combo after the tank has fully cycled. The watchman be the sole fish in the tank.

 

[dopey]

Oh and lights. I haven't settled on a long term schedule, but for the cycle i'm just running 20% across all spectrums. 0800-1800 with a 3 hour ramp up/down.

 

[dopey]

Officially have algae! Last night saw some white string like, debated if it was algae or not. Today we have brown spots on the rocks and sand, so certainly have algae.

Measurements are as expected:
Ammonia: .02
Nitrite: .05
Alk: 8.68
PH: 8.2
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 24.75-26.13C with an average of 25.38C

I haven't measured Nitrate since 4th and it was > 20 then. Imagine it's still high.

I wasn't able to use the Jäger heater, unfortunately it doesn't seem cobalt is available in Europe:-/ The temp is swinging 2.4F or 1.38C over the day:


So far the reef mature program has been right on with measurements. I was a bit worried with using Carib Sea Life Rock + Red Sea Live Sand would have issues. Reading it seems Red Sea expects 'live' rock to assist, but since the Life rock has some sort of bacteria on it perhaps it's a good balance. I think the BRS 52 weeks of reefing should of noted that, since in that video they used all Life rock and never mentioned the kit recommending Live rock.

We also removed the rock and placed it on the sand. Since it's a single rock this gives more height in the tank.





For now, continue with the routine. May add some CuC this weekend if ammonia/nitrite fall to expected ranges according to the kit. Thinking first coral/fish the last week of March is likely.

 

[dopey]

The diatoms are taking over. Ammonia has dropped to 0 but nitrite sits at 0.5 still.

Will hold off on the cleanup crew until nitrites come down. I think this is expected to fall a bit behind the reef mature steps due to not using 'live' rock, but life rock instead.

Meanwhile did some work on my DIY monitor:


The temp is updated every minute via a probe.

The rest is updated via voice with my google home. 'Hey google, record ammonia measurement of 0', and it ends up showing in this dashboard. Have set some thresholds to indicate when something is out of whack, tho in practice i'll know when i take the measurement it's bad

I may end up getting probes to do some of these automatic, but for now I like the voice option when I do kits. It's practical since i'm not exactly carrying my tank with me out of the house, so the google home will always be near it

 

[dopey]

It's been a bit now.

The tank is currently stocked with following:
1x Cleaner Shrimp
1x Hermit Crab
1x Turbo Snail
1x Nassarius snail
1x Green Candycane
1x Watermelon Mushroom
1x Yuma Mushroom
1x Rasta Zoa
1x Diamond goby

Still running the grafana integration for measurements. I've been fighting high nitrates since the start, but after multiple water changes now down to 10.

I lost one hermit crab while we were on vacation, it looks like it got wedged in the rock... The shell was empty when I got back, never did find the body.

Parameters:

I had a scare for ammonia, but after retesting RO water/another kit think I was just a bit too paranoid on how yellow the red sea test kit really is... or maybe it was due to the lost crab.. If it was ammonia it was between the 0 and .2 on Red Sea.

The shrimp, smails and crab(s) have been in the tank for 3 weeks.

The candy cane, watermelon mushroom, and zoa have been in the tank one week. They all look great. The mushroom has a baby growing by the day, the rasta seems to have a 'bud' sprouting on the side(can see faint colors on it), and the candy cane seems to be opening fully each day.

For now i've kept them all down on the sand, and have shaded the candy cane a bit from direct light.

Today I added the Yuma and Goby. Some mixed reading on the hardiness of this Ricordia, to play it safe i've put it in a shaded area. Can't really get a good picture of it from there unfortunately.

We have an almost concerning tiny amount of algae in the tank We had some brown diatoms, but they have all since vanished. My girlfriend think it's actually a problem it's so little algae Not sure to tank the red sea mature pro kit, or the obsession with water quality/lighting..or both.

As for lighting this is the schedule i've settled on:

Will probably make a post elsewhere, not sure whether to use max % long term or not. For now i've used the AB+ schedule form BRS, and set acclimation to 80% for the next 6 weeks..

As for the livestock..
Full tank:


Candy + Rasta:


Candy:



Yuma(before moving it):



I think next will be xenia or hammer coral type. Like something swaying in the current, but very happy with these so far.

As for food, using reef-roids every 2-3 days.

 

[dopey]

Lost my diamond goby this morning. I'm at a bit of loss, as Ammonia is 0 and Nitrate < 5(finally). I haven't tested nitrite today yet, but without Ammonia I expect it to be 0 as well. Only recent change was a large water change on Sunday, don't see how that be related. It also ate pellets yesterday, and I thought was gaining weight compared to when I got it. I've read they can be tricky, but since it was eating I thought it was doing OK.

I've had all the initial corals in the sand until this week. I don't think the candycane has been full opening, so moved it into more light. (Was shaded in the sand). I think it's the only coral not opening up fully on most days.




Nothing is glued in place, took advantage of holes in the rocks. We still haven't visited the last local shop, hope is to find a few more corals there then come up with the final/initial locations for everything.

 

[dopey]

Update.

Some new additions. The Candy Cane took a turn for the worse last month, but at the moment I think is making a recovery. I'm hoping to safe it.

The orange Ricordia has grown, as I came to this post to give an update I realized just how much. He actually has 3 babies under him on that same piece of rock. Will see if they survive/move out at some point.



The original Zoanthids has replicated several times. Tho I think I will move them from where they are at the moment, as the Orange Ricordia is really turning into a beast.

 

[dopey]

Up to 3 babies under the yuma ricordia!


If they get anywhere near as large.. i'm just going to have a yuma tank.

 

[Subsea]

Up to 3 babies under the yuma ricordia!


If they get anywhere near as large.. i'm just going to have a yuma tank.

Nice picture. Beautiful coral.

 

[dopey]

Update..

Let's start with the failures or rather lack of discipline -- watched some BRS content and it hit with me about sharing the failures not just successes. Life/work got busy, and the tank was neglected. Primarily lack of water changes, and not regular cleaning.

I stupidly introduced a zoa from the local shop which had some algea on it. I knew better, but it was the only one with that color..and yeah, huge mistake. This algea initially took over the zoa, then the rock. I was able to find a small tiny crab(forgot the name) which supposedly would eat it. It seems it has, off the rock. But over the past 3-5 months it began growing on the back window.. and got out of hand.


*nothing* died during this neglected period. Still fed the sole fish(and shrimp). But I just didn't keep up with maintenance. If I had to guess this was probably 2 months without a water change.

To keep that trend. When I first was cycling the tank I set up some 'home automation' to keep track of my testing, as well as the Seneye probe to monitor temp/ph every hour. Here is the honest graph for last 1.5 years


Basically testing regular initially, then less and less, then not at all. To be honest, I felt my weekly 10L water changes(33% tank volume) would more/less keep me in line. Always confirming salinity at that time. I use a Spectrapure RODI setup, and ensure 0 ppm water. I didn't want to start dosing, and would accept the growth rates of the corals. Given the candy cane is the 'hardest' coral I have, I haven't bothered to try and maintain a perfect ALK.

The drops in pH indicate when i've failed to change the seneye slide. To be honest, the PH over time hasn't been super interesting. The temp is what I primarily care (and get alarms) about.

After some initial cleanup(still more to clean out) and a 10L water change. (My normal weekly size)


Overall everything has continued to grow. The GSP is just out of hand, I need to decide where I want it to grow and cut out the rest. Half of the GSP you see is just growing on the sand at this point. It's insane.

The candycane has split for the first time *ever*. Every time it would look as if it would split something happened. Last time a mushroom stung it. It has a new location far away from shrooms, and over the past few months one of the heads has split.

The Orange Yuma however has declined. It too has gone from being massive to this state over the past year. I'm not really sure what has annoyed it so much, but going to start with these water changes and see how things go. I'm not terribly concerned as it was getting insanely huge, and there is 2-3 additional babies around it..

Equipment wise, I've added a second tunze pump in the 'sump' area behind the display. Primarily to stir up the bottom as it tended to collect debris. The tunze nano skimmer I switched to broke within a month. I've not had a skimmer since.. -- Remember seeing a BRS(I think?) video that basically said skimmers on nanos are pretty pointless. I think I agree, doing a weekly water change seems more than enough. I would like some sort of surface skimmer, as the top water can collect a 'film'. But i've not seen any that would fit the tank.

I can't say im impressed with my own aquascaping, always amazed by others. We are done introducing any new corals, will let what is there continue to grow.

What next? I will proactively replace my heater(It is 1.5 years old now), and do some overdue pump cleaning. I think the last time i've cleaned the pumps was about 3-5 months ago. Otherwise, resume the weekly 10L water changes.

I *may* build a slightly larger tank (40x40x80cm) to fit in the space of the current tank. Still undecided. If I do, I will cut up this existing rock to give each of the corals their own island. As currently, this will probably turn into zoa vs mushroom on one giant rock.

So that's my tank..