Anse Chastanet reef - in the Fluval Evo 52l

lukefish

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Hey!

Newbie to salt water tanks but 3 weeks in, I’m loving it.

I live in the UK but my family are from the Caribbean island of St Lucia so the tank is named in honour of the reef i did my first scuba dive at. It was what made me fall in love with the ocean. What better way to appreciate the sea than to have a tiny portion of it in your home . Please welcome Anse Chastanet reef to REEF2REEF

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I’ve been documenting my build on a separate thread as I didn’t realise this was the best place to do it. Once I’ve written this, I’ll link to the thread so you guys can see the problems I was having when I started. The tank has come along since that picture was taken. So far this is what I have going on in the Anse Chastanet Fluval Evo reef

Stock lights
stock pump
stock media in chamber 2 minus the coal

Jebao Aquarium Wavemaker, Black, OW-10​

6kg of live rock
4kg live sand
1 emerald crab (although I haven’t seen him for days now)
2 hermit crabs
1 cowrie snail
1 turbo snail
1 Nassarius Snail
2 ‘’common snails’’. - sorry not sure what these ones are called

unfortunately one of my turbo snails didn’t make it. I had real problems cycling the tank at first. I think the die-off from the live rock spiked my ammonia.

There are no fish or corals in the tank yet. I was planning to get my first coral or fish today but I wanted to plan the aquascape of Anse Chastanet reef first.

You‘ll see from the picture there is a nice arched piece of live rock in the tank. I’m not sure which way to position it so I can get the most out of viewing the action that eventually goes on in the tank. It’s currently resting on one side so the arch faces the front of the tank. I’d like to prop it up so it makes the arch wider. I’ll give it a go and see what it looks like. But at the moment most of the CUC are getting on with life on the side of the tank where I can’t see them!! Sneaky. Apart from one very playful hermit crab that loves one top corner of the tank where the water enters chamber 1. He keeps climbing up there. I’ve taken him down twice but he keeps going back up. I’m not bothering to take him down now. It’s obviously where he needs to be in life so im not going to stand in his way.

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This is where the tank is located In my house. Doesn’t get direct sunlight and not near any radiators.


image.jpg

Anse Chastanet looks beautiful at night with the house lights off and the tank lights on. Having said that, I’ve had the lights off on the reef as I read that’s the best thing to do for the first few months.

Today I’m going to test the waters on the reef and hopefully get a frag...perhaps a Zoas. Any recommendations as to what I should get? I’m still working out this ‘flow’ business. Not sure I’m getting it right.

The ultimate goal for the reef is to have the following:

2 clowns
1 blenny
1 pistol shrimp
loads of beautiful corals as per this pic from my LFS

AF6D37B3-757B-4980-9615-77AAA427EE31.jpeg

Here’s a pic (below) of the reef at Anse Chastanet today. Any aquascaping suggestions welcome. Any advice welcome. Any thumbs ups or down welcome.

image.jpg


Thanks in advance!


Also, I’m based in London, England. If anyone knows of any people in the hobby that are nearby and eventually want to start swapping frags etc. Please hit me up.
 
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lukefish

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Today I checked all my parameters and went to the LFS.

Picked up 2 beautiful clowns (one smaller than the other)

Also a piece of GSP and a zoas.

I started the acclimation process by floating the corals and dripping the clowns
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Then added them to the tank only to find that I am the proud owner of a MUSCLE!! It hitchhiked on the piece of rock the zoas was on!!! Extra filtration!!!

Here’s the set up so far.
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And also if this works, a time lapse pic of the GPS coming out
 

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lukefish

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For those of you wondering, I used Microbe-Special Blend to cycle the tank. It absolutely stinks but did the trick. For some reason, I also used Dr Tims one and only. Apparently you can’t overdose on any of these so I did the following:

20ml of Special blend everyday starting from when the water went in, pump on, heater on, power head on.

Then on day 5 I added a full 60ml bottle of Dr Tim’s. Not sure if it helped or hindered but it seemed to work eventually. I did have to do 2 50% water changes. Each of them about 2 days apart. My nitrates spiked to about 80ppt at the height of my cycle.
I started the cycle with my CUC in the tank which was recommended by the LFS but in hindsight I wouldn’t put CUC in until there is something for them to clean!! Common sense now. I’m kinda sad as I had a really nice emerald crab in there but I’m not sure where he is. Haven’t seen him for days now. I hope he’s not dead. There are lots of hiding spaces in the tank so maybe he’s in there ... somewhere...

Anyway today I checked my water parameters again.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5

I plan to feed the coral and clowns, snails and inverts today. Expecting a slight spike in parameters but I’ll keep an eye out.
Also, not sure if this is something to worry about but just noticed a little white spot on the larger clowns fin.

8CD5261B-967D-4B97-89F0-2E048708FB44.jpeg


I’ll see if I can get a better pic but I’ll keep an eye on it.
 

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Welcome to R2R. You caught my attention with your title as Anse Chastanet has been one of my all time favorite dive destinations.;Snaphappy If you can get your tank to look even half as good it will be an absolutely killer tank. As far as the spot on the clown, I think it could just be a bit of Lymphocystis. Wishing you the best of luck.:)
 
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lukefish

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Welcome to R2R. You caught my attention with your title as Anse Chastanet has been one of my all time favorite dive destinations.;Snaphappy If you can get your tank to look even half as good it will be an absolutely killer tank. As far as the spot on the clown, I think it could just be a bit of Lymphocystis. Wishing you the best of luck.:)
Thanks!!

I was lucky enough to visit and dive there. I hear they now have a serious problem with lion fish. It’s become an invasive species in the area. Apparently there are staff of the hotel who are asked to go out and catch them to try to keep the population down. Then they feed the lion fish to guests is the hotel . Great business model unless you’re the lion fish.
Thanks for the advice on the small white patch on the clown. I’ll keep monitoring him.

It’s nice to have a reply on here. I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be talking to myself for the foreseeable
 
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Update for today.
I just defrosted a cube of frozen brine shrimp using the tank water. Then used a pipette to feed the clowns. They are hungry!!!
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Then I tried to target-feed the zoa and the GSP but not sure if it worked. Do they even eat brine shrimp??

image.jpg


if not, what can I feed them with?
 

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So I just went back and read in detail about your journey so far. I take it this is your first saltwater tank. I certainly don't want to discourage you so I'll just recommend that you slow down just a bit. Some of your additions are fine but critters like the cowrie snail would have been better off if the tank had more time to mature. You may need to feed him some supplemental Nori until there is enough algae to sustain him in the tank.
Um, just looking at your tank pictures, are you planning on going sumpless? Do you have a protein skimmer?
Yeah, like I said, I certainly don't want to discourage you, but rather, help you to succeed. I would strongly recommend watching the video series on BRS (Bulk Reef Supply) to help you to that end, especially the 52 weeks of reefing. There's a lot of details in there that will determine your chances of success. Do keep at it though. After all, we've all been at this starting point.;)
 
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So I just went back and read in detail about your journey so far. I take it this is your first saltwater tank. I certainly don't want to discourage you so I'll just recommend that you slow down just a bit. Some of your additions are fine but critters like the cowrie snail would have been better off if the tank had more time to mature. You may need to feed him some supplemental Nori until there is enough algae to sustain him in the tank.
Um, just looking at your tank pictures, are you planning on going sumpless? Do you have a protein skimmer?
Yeah, like I said, I certainly don't want to discourage you, but rather, help you to succeed. I would strongly recommend watching the video series on BRS (Bulk Reef Supply) to help you to that end, especially the 52 weeks of reefing. There's a lot of details in there that will determine your chances of success. Do keep at it though. After all, we've all been at this starting point.;)
Thank you so much for going through my journey so far. Very kind of you.

This is my first reef tank.

My main goal for this journey is to do it properly and be patient. There SO much information out there so I’m kind of using a combination of detailed research, asking questions and common sense.
Regarding the cowrie, he was part of the CUC that my LFS provided with the tank and live rock. I thought it was a bit much for a tank with nothing to clean so I fed them some algae pellets every so often. I’ll look into Nori.

I have bought a protein skimmer but I haven’t set it up yet. I’ll need to do a bit more research into how to use it properly.

Now that I have the clowns and the few pieces of coral, that’s it for me for a while. I want the tank to establish and keep it as stable as possible for as long as possible before I add anything else.
I’ll check out the video series. I presume it’s a YouTube series ?

thanks again!!
 

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Good for you in your efforts so far. Yes, patience is the key ingredient in this game. You can find the videos on You tube and on the BRS website.
 
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Good for you in your efforts so far. Yes, patience is the key ingredient in this game. You can find the videos on You tube and on the BRS website.
Is Nori the same stuff they wrap sushi in?! If I buy some, does it need to be for fish consumption or can I buy the sushi version? The latter Seems a lot cheaper!!
 

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Yep, that's the stuff. Be sure that what you get is just straight Nori with no added flavors or other stuff. This is what I use;
 
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Update on the Anse Chastanet reef

Current water parameters are as follows:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
pH 8.2

Ive been enjoying target feeding the clowns, corals and inverts with the brine shrimp. I’m not sure if the corals are eating but I’ve been sure to use the pipette to blow some of the brine shrimp water around them.
The hermit crab has been up by the overflow for days now and hasn’t come down at all. I’ve given up on taking him down as he just ends up there again.

I’ve been watching BRS and found them recommending Reef Brite Reef Enhance. Got some of that on the way to help my corals out!

here’s a pic of Anse Chastanet on 5 April 2021

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I also found this thing in the tank. No idea what it is

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