Birmingham UK cryptic TMC reef habitat 60

[Lerequin]

Fluval Evo 52 litre AIO, no mechanical filtration and no water changes, I like your plan. :)

Oh wow this is a small water volume without water changes. How do you balance the ecosystem?

 

[Lerequin]

Following. Intrested in how you are going to turn sterile live rock into a cryptic refugium tank

Hi there. Good question. I'll get as much live rock as possible in the sump and maybe in the display. I got pieces covered with yellow and white encrusting sponges from my LFS. I will add more specimens as I find them.

 

[najer]

Oh wow this is a small water volume without water changes. How do you balance the ecosystem?

There is a small bio load and I feed mostly for the corals, fast growing corals and macro algae.
Good flow is a must due to the water volume and I also have about 4 different sponges.
If it looks "off" I will do a water change but that is maybe once a year or so.

 

[Lerequin]

Sponge update
Life is spreading in the sump.
The sponges are seeding the live rocks after 2 months in the cryptic compartment.
The yellow sponge is encrusting on the glass and you can see a critter's tentacles sticking out.
When moving the skimmer I spotted a transparent shrimp and plenty of isopods.

Current population
- 2 Percula clowns
- 1 "lawnmower" blenny
- 2 Lyretail Anthias
- 1 Holothuria Edulis
- 1 Tectus snail
- 4 Trochus snails
- 2 Astrea snails
- 5 pigmy blue hermit crabs
- 4 various hermit crabs
- 1 Fighting conch
- 1 Emerald crab

Gosh the list is getting longer fast!

Water
Salinity 1024
pH 8.2
kH 8
Nitrite and ammonia 0
Nitrate 1
Phosphate 0.1

I added Ulva lactuca in addition to Chaetomorpha in the refugium and kept it lit 24/7
It soaked 30ppm of nitrates from the cycling in a couple of weeks!

Now I'm chasing phosphates and started using GFO.

I can't wait for the water to get stable enough to introduce an anemone and corals!

 

[Lerequin]

Anemone splitting
It's been a while I haven't posted. The biggest change is the introduction of cnidaria to the tank and in particular an anemone, before I added the corals.
I'm a bit worried about my nem.

All day long it is magnificent:

Then around 6-7pm it starts showing its mouth:

Then it deflates completely until the light comes back:

Water:
Salinity: quite stable between 1.0245 and 1.025
No3: 5ppm
Po4: 0.08ppm
Kh: 9
Ph: 8.3
Ca: 370
Lighting: not measured but it could be stronger. The elegance coral is not fully opening.

In the sump: charcoal and gfo in a small reactor, macro-algae refugium, sponges refugium.

Is it common for anemones to deflate every evening before dawn when they are splitting?

Are your BTAs deflated at night or are they all bubbly round the clock?