Buddy's Cade Reef From Downunder

[Wrangy]

Haha thanks! I was just looking to move on my male Leopard wrasse. I have had him for a long time so I am not to keen just letting him go to some facebook random.

Understandable haha maybe send young Andrew a message? He might be interested :)

 

[buddy.]

Already did, he is running his tank bare bottom so not suitable for the Wrasse. Ill just keep the Wrasse if I need to :)

 

[buddy.]

So I will be moving the tank in the next few weeks. It is about a 4 hour drive so I will have my spare tank already running at the other house so the fish don't have to be in a bucket for longer than they have to.
I am not sure if I will put the tank on the new cabinet yet or just keep it on the standard Cade cabinet for now. I need to order an overflow and some other bits and pieces so I can drill the tank later this year... I am think I will set it on the new cabinet after that is done.
So I will be in that house for around 18 months and then I should have a permanent house after that finally!

 

[Wrangy]

Glad to hear things are coming along man :) Sounds like you've got your plan of attack all laid out though!

 

[buddy.]

The tank is still just cruising along with not a great deal to update! At this stage I think I will be moving the tank in the second half of January so the tank will be pretty much looking the same until then.
I am going to the states in a month from now and I will bring a new overflow and couple of other things back with me to improve the tank. Should be able to free up a lot of room by removing the corner weir and having the new cabinet will make things easier too :)

 

[buddy.]

So since I am not living at Dads anymore, but still unable to move the tank until I find a more permanent place in January, this is how the tank looks.
I have made it pretty much bare bones to make it as easy as possible to look after for Dad. No rocks or sand. My filtration is a heap of Seachem Matrix in the sump.
All that dad needs to do is top up the ATO, empty the skimmer cup and feed the fish. Every few weeks I can drop in and do a checkup and a water change.

Corals are a little closed up as my metal halide timer got stuck on for about 2 and a half days before dad told me a few days ago. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage!

 

[buddy.]

I had a chance to do a little work to the cabinet today. I am going to give it some reinforcing just to be safe.
First part done was directly under where the tank will sit. I will do similar below the floor where the sump will sit, there is plenty of room above the draw for some braces.
The other things I am planning on doing is putting 1" square tube steel in each corner from the underside of the top of the cabinet, all the way to the floor with a square plate on each end of the tube to take the load. Also an X brace on the back of the cabinet made from flat steel which will just stop any flexing.
After its all done the entire inside will get all the seems filled with silicone and then a coat of white paint.

But so far here is what I have done. Before and after in the top of the cabinet.

 

[Wrangy]

It only needs to be as simple as possible if you're not there with the tank :) Can't wait to see the finished product of the stand man!

 

[buddy.]

I came to dad's for the weekend and was greeted to this lovely algae filled mess! ;Clown Quite a big change from my last full tank shot about 2 weeks ago.
I will do some tests this weekend to see if phosphate or nitrate are up for some reason.
On the plus side, my corals are looking bloody great! My anemone is nice and plump too :D

 

[buddy.]

Here is a close up shot of the new algae.
Any ideas?

 

[NY_Caveman]

I added more Trochus snails and Turbo snails recently and my hair algae and other nuisance algae were nearly gone in a week or so. Mind you, it is a new build and it may have just been a phase it was going through. I liked trying something more natural before considering chemicals.

 

[buddy.]

Just ran some tests...

Phosphate - 0.04ppm, Hanna
Nitrate - Undetectable, Red Sea Pro
Alk - 7dkh, Salifert
Calc - 410ppm, Salifert
Mag - 1200ppm, Salifert

So nothing really out of the ordinary there. I will do a water change and a good clean out tomorrow and monitor it.
I won't bother with a Triton test for now as I will move the tank in January...

 

[buddy.]

Here is the tank after a good cleanout.
I removed the rest of the sand and as much algae as I could.
It looks like that bryopsis is isolated to that one zoa frag so I might just nuke it with some peroxide.

It's not much to look at for now. I'm really dying to turn in back in to a real reef tank as soon as I can!

 

[Wrangy]

Looking good man! Just wait till you get the chance to get it really cranking!! Especially how good the big one was :D

 

[Diamond1]

I really like the look your going for with the stand. Are you planning on running the tank bare bottom after your move?

 

[buddy.]

Cheers :D I am pretty sure that when I set it up I will go with bare bottom. I am not 100% sure if I will keep it that way though. I am planning on getting some SPS and I think I will be able to crank up the flow without worrying about the sand blowing everywhere.

I just noticed my thread ticked over 1000 views! Thanks to everyone that is following along ;Happy I promise it will get more interesting!!!

 

[Diamond1]

By the way I love the color of your leather!

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Wonderful tank it looks so simple yet elegant at the same time. Look forward to seeing the updates following along.

 

[buddy.]

By the way I love the color of your leather!

Thanks! If you check out my very first post in this thread you will see the same leather about the size of a small hand from 2013, one of my first corals!
It is going to be a challenge to fit a rock scape around it... I can't bring myself to frag it smaller either!

 

[buddy.]

Wonderful tank it looks so simple yet elegant at the same time. Look forward to seeing the updates following along.

Thanks for the kind words and checking out my journal!