Thank you!
I filled the tank in mid April, 2023, so a little over 2 years. I haven't had any seam issues (I get chills just typing that phrase) but I have read the posts and watched the videos on this forum. As a result I think I might sleep a little less sound that I did before setting up the tank.
Anytime! This was the best time period for beautiful music in my opinion. I figured, going by your R2R name, you'd agree. :)
Most definitely agree. And that's funny, probably not a lot of R2R users get that about the name.
Ha and the first thing I thought was, "Kindred spirit"!
And, wow, looks like you have quite a growing collection of some of the most sought after acros!
Love the fish. I was not so lucky with my Lyretails The male I think killed or chased the 2 females out of the tank in 2 days even though I had a cover . I actually hate chemical treatment and strive to block, and place light to stop algae. If interested will send pictures and explain. Very nice results for your efforts. Not lost on me for sureMy display tank is a Red Sea Reefer S 850 G2. Here it is today, so obviously this is an “already built” build thread.
Equipment—ReefMat 1200, Red Sea skimmer, Vectra M2 return pump, 4-head dosing pump, Tunze ATO with an IM 15 gallon ATO reservoir, and four MP40 pumps. My opinion on most aquarium equipment is that if you look at it too long it stops working, usually the night before you’re leaving on vacation, so I don’t intend to add anything unless I absolutely have to.
The lights you see in the pic are 3 Radion XR 15 G6 blues and 2 Radion XR 30 G6 blues.
There is a refugium that holds reef rubble—no macroalgae. I started out growing chaeto there but after the third time I had to pull out the skimmer and take it apart to clean chaeto out of the pump, I drained the sump and got rid of the chaeto. That stuff is like pieces of a Brillo pad getting sucked into your pumps. Right now I’m trying to get a population of pods going in the refugium.
I don’t have many photos between when I filled the tank in April 2023 and now. None that I care to post anyway because the tank went through every nuisance algae blight known to man (or woman) for almost two years. At one point I had dinos growing on top of gha. Nice.
I won’t go into my algae battles here. Lots of good information on this site on that subject. I will say during the past two+ years Reef2Reef quickly became the second most visited site on my laptop, surpassed only by Amazon. I’ve always taken the approach of letting the tank reach a balance rather than experimenting with any algae reducing additives, even though at times that approach took more patience than I knew I had.
If someone starting a reef tank were to ask me for just one piece of advice it would be do not start a tank with 100% dry rock. Based on my experiences and the experiences others have posted on this forum, dry rock soaks up and in turn releases the nutrients algae love and use oh so efficiently for a very long time. I’m still battling this crazy situation of no detectable phosphates or nitrates…so dose aforementioned…get algae…get rid of algae…get dinos…get algae and dinos--and so on and so forth.
I also believe that while starting with dry rock and bacteria in a bottle allows us to add fish to our tanks quickly, it neglects other biological processes we may not fully understand but need.
A few months ago, I removed some of the Marco rock I started with and added about 60 pounds of live rock to the display and some live rock rubble to the refugium. The results weren’t miraculous, but I think I’m gaining ground in the algae battle. And the tank is maturing so I have that in my corner. The current challenge is maintaining levels of phosphates and nitrates that work for my tank.
Enough of the narrative. The “mostly pictures” I mentioned appear below. I’ve hit pause on adding any more fish or coral for now, focusing instead on stability. Currently I have 16 fish--
--7 Lyretail Anthias
--Yellow Tang
--Potters Angel
--Swissguard Basslet
--Fridmani Dottyback
--Leopard Wrasse
--Yellow Wrasse
--2 Marine Bettas (very camera shy)
--Goldheaded Goby (a mistake and the reason I keep a turkey baster next to the tank)
That’s it, for now anyway. Ask me any questions about the tank or its inhabitants. And, yes, I maintain it myself.
Happy Reefing!
I couldn't agree more about cycling with dry rock and bottled bacteria. I know many have had success that way, but paying those dues early in the cycling process, does seem to be beneficial in the long run.My display tank is a Red Sea Reefer S 850 G2. Here it is today, so obviously this is an “already built” build thread.
Equipment—ReefMat 1200, Red Sea skimmer, Vectra M2 return pump, 4-head dosing pump, Tunze ATO with an IM 15 gallon ATO reservoir, and four MP40 pumps. My opinion on most aquarium equipment is that if you look at it too long it stops working, usually the night before you’re leaving on vacation, so I don’t intend to add anything unless I absolutely have to.
The lights you see in the pic are 3 Radion XR 15 G6 blues and 2 Radion XR 30 G6 blues.
There is a refugium that holds reef rubble—no macroalgae. I started out growing chaeto there but after the third time I had to pull out the skimmer and take it apart to clean chaeto out of the pump, I drained the sump and got rid of the chaeto. That stuff is like pieces of a Brillo pad getting sucked into your pumps. Right now I’m trying to get a population of pods going in the refugium.
I don’t have many photos between when I filled the tank in April 2023 and now. None that I care to post anyway because the tank went through every nuisance algae blight known to man (or woman) for almost two years. At one point I had dinos growing on top of gha. Nice.
I won’t go into my algae battles here. Lots of good information on this site on that subject. I will say during the past two+ years Reef2Reef quickly became the second most visited site on my laptop, surpassed only by Amazon. I’ve always taken the approach of letting the tank reach a balance rather than experimenting with any algae reducing additives, even though at times that approach took more patience than I knew I had.
If someone starting a reef tank were to ask me for just one piece of advice it would be do not start a tank with 100% dry rock. Based on my experiences and the experiences others have posted on this forum, dry rock soaks up and in turn releases the nutrients algae love and use oh so efficiently for a very long time. I’m still battling this crazy situation of no detectable phosphates or nitrates…so dose aforementioned…get algae…get rid of algae…get dinos…get algae and dinos--and so on and so forth.
I also believe that while starting with dry rock and bacteria in a bottle allows us to add fish to our tanks quickly, it neglects other biological processes we may not fully understand but need.
A few months ago, I removed some of the Marco rock I started with and added about 60 pounds of live rock to the display and some live rock rubble to the refugium. The results weren’t miraculous, but I think I’m gaining ground in the algae battle. And the tank is maturing so I have that in my corner. The current challenge is maintaining levels of phosphates and nitrates that work for my tank.
Enough of the narrative. The “mostly pictures” I mentioned appear below. I’ve hit pause on adding any more fish or coral for now, focusing instead on stability. Currently I have 16 fish--
--7 Lyretail Anthias
--Yellow Tang
--Potters Angel
--Swissguard Basslet
--Fridmani Dottyback
--Leopard Wrasse
--Yellow Wrasse
--2 Marine Bettas (very camera shy)
--Goldheaded Goby (a mistake and the reason I keep a turkey baster next to the tank)
That’s it, for now anyway. Ask me any questions about the tank or its inhabitants. And, yes, I maintain it myself.
Happy Reefing!
Thank you!
Thanks?
Sorry about your Lyretails. I've been lucky with mine. They seem to have settled into their family group. Just reminders from male to larger females, larger females to smaller ones, and so on where their places are. They're fun to watch and such a beautiful constant flash of color in the tank.
I can honestly say if I had it to do over I would start with 100% live rock. Costly, yes. Hitchhikers, absolutely. But I believe in my heart that there are biological processes live rock brings in that we cannot duplicate with dry rock and bacteria in a bottle.
Wow! I'll be looking for the pics!
Speaking of... I believe we were promised more of them? :)
It sounds and looks like you made the best decision. I was lucky enough to be able to source live rock locally. Youre right, I had hitchikers and all that good stuff, but I believe the benefits outweigh it all.
I feed a variety of foods to the tank--frozen mysis, LRS nano, Rod's Original Blend--on different days. These foods I thaw and pour into the tank. I don't turn off the flow so it gets widely dispersed. I also feed small amounts of pellets mixed with reef jerky dispensed by an auto feeder, unless nutrient levels indicate I need to cut that back. As you know the bettas don't rush out into the open at feeding time like most of their tank mates so I can't be certain which foods they are eating, but they're eating something because they're fat and healthy and have grown to about 5". Mine are captive bred Biota fish so when I got them they were used to eating pellets. They hang out in the rocks near the bottom of the tank and the flow doesn't seem to bother them.
