Bumblebee Reef - 75G/30G (36Lx20Wx24H)

[mylertitchell]

Cheeky Arrival - Cheeky Update
Hats Arrived, was told he will pick things up he shudnt so give him a hat and he’ll be good.






Finally got around to the sump, boy that Eden 501 is paying for self. Sump was stinking, biomedia was rotten, my frag box was detritus trap. So cleaned all out, removed frag rack and replaced with smaller ones, used old skimmer stand as shroom box and got rid of loads of shroom rocks and empty frags too. Plan to move media to final chamber and buy decent frag racks.

Think we’re in for a treat fo sho.

 

[mylertitchell]

Happy Birthday to me!
Got to experience Seahorse Aquariums on my way home from couple nights a way in dublin. It was my 30th so I decided to treat myself to a Flame Hawkfish to mark this occasion. I wanted to make a start on my fairy wrasses, and was delighted to see an an exquisite fairy wrasse. Peaceful, beautiful and keeps my options open . Also bought a good size frag of candy canes, its the coral that has always beaten and baffled me. But couldnt walk past that size of frag at reasonable price, hopefully being alot larger than the normal one/two head frag will give this a great opportunity.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 31

Cleaned sump pumps, changed sponge in baffle to black one and moved bio media into final chamber after baffle. Hopefully stability stands strong and will start attempting manual removal of algae in display. Hopefully get cheeky opp to clean display wavemaker and reactor this week too.

Week 31 - Bumblebee Reef

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Flame Hawkfish settling in Bumblebee Reef

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[mylertitchell]

Cheeky Indeed
Got too clean wavemakers and remaining pumps, had ordered this dental care kit on amazon for £2.99 delivered (madness) arrived in two days, was told very good to remove algae you dont want to scrub. So removed a decent chunk of bubble and i believe is sea lettuce from system using the dental scaper and the nwc vac.
Got a cheeky coral order there this morn (birthday voucher), ordered some decent WYSIWYG. Monti, Gorg, Cabbage and pup of a bounce shroom heres hoping!

 

[mylertitchell]

Black Ice Snowflakes
Acclimation box arrived, will need qt I’m sure and these guys deserve to be in the big tank. Boy there tiny. Buzzing with it.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 32 - Its time to go back to nature...
Parameters are where I want them and are still maintaining. STABILITY

4 Week Schedule
New job commencing so changed fish night to wednesday and wont be able to feed lunch to fish on sun/mon/tues. CONSISTENCY

Micro Bubble Scrub
Read the article, liked it, owned everything minus a wooden airstone, local legacy reefer just randomly posted about him doing it and thought lets buy a wooden airstone and give it a go. micro-bubble-scrubbing-reef-tank-guide
Micro Bubble Scrubbing in the Reef Tank has a variety of benefits. Some of these benefits include cleaning your reef tank, better pH, and all of the advantages provided by a Protein Skimmer, directly in your aquarium. Simulating some natural waste removal that occurs in the ocean, micro bubble scrubbing may be one of the many secret weapons to maintaining a clean reef tank! Starts tomorrow.

Refugium
So have been annoyed that my fuge hasn't grown any since been in, great host but doing little to no export, was contemplating few options like changing to algae reactor (but this is actually bigger), changing it to a mangrove mud hob (need new light) and move skimmer and setup big fuge with tunze light. Really excited about up flow algae scrubbers too (santa monica stuff / diy) and thought it could be great option if skimmer doesn't work in chamber one. So then it clicked well lets add some lights to hob (30w growlights) as this will work for mangroves too and maybe this all thats missing. So hopefully see some growth.

POA
Bubble algae is the only problem now, and I hope this chaeto really kicks off now. But if doesn’t will go other routes (I want to be using natural filtration so algae, 2 types of skimming and mechanical. Bubble algae will hopefully be all good over time with manual removal, maybe another cuc order and better nutrient export.
Continue with fish quarterly and online coral ordering. So equipment all staying as is but now trying to migrate to a natural export and ideally bio pellet reactor can be made redundant (bio pellets i really like its actually the reactor i hate in fairness).
Messing around with a skimmer buddy to move skimmer maintenance to less often (may change size as may not have room if hob fuge no works not sure may sack hob and put algae scrub there). Was looking to ideally change skimmer to every 4 weeks but 2 weeks may be only viable option. (its just a container with carbon vent).
Resolve natural filtration whatever that means, scrubber, bigger fuge or as is. Ideally letting bio pellet reactor run itself empty, or removing some as nutrients drop.
On removal of reactor increase biomedia filtration.
This what I be playing with wise equipment for easy 3-6months. Then tank will be around/over year old so upgrades to heaters (titanium), wave makers (slw30) and t5 bulbs (all purple?) and of course i still want carbon replaced with ozone.

 

[mylertitchell]

Skim Buddy
Very simple design, but very happy. Owned the sock holder and stickers came with filter roller. £2.50 for elbow, £5.50 for 1.6l container and £6 for 500g pellet carbon. My skimmer holds 400ml as you just see some foam pop it’s head out. So I like to think I’ll get this dialed no bother to last my 4 week cycle . So plan to only clean skimmer head once per cycle now. Carbon should resolve skimate smell . Carbon should last a lifetime as I used very little of bag.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 33
Just gonna keep trucking, slight adjustments. Got a LFS trip planned for the 4th Dec.


Skim buddy is working.

Not sure about calcium, manual dosed, will test it next week. Just got to adjust and dial things back. Really confident fuge is kicking off with new lights.
Video of tank
Instagram Reel of Tank

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 34
Just holding off this week before make adjustments. Still bubble algae galore and some gha. Nutrients are low but and chaeto is definitely growing. Skimate working a charm and sump seems to be keeping clean.

Physically cannot believe my qt tank. It went cloudy as when took fish out and then did like 95% wc and it still went like this.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 35

manually dosed lacl3 to zero phosphate after test. Would like nitrate to rise and phosphate isn’t far off with micro dosing. I just confused as still have nuisance algae. So was keeping them very low in hope to remove all algae and then bring up. But my candy canes aren’t happy at this low nutrient.

1.5ml vibrant - cleared in 3 days.

Cheeky day out to LFS, torch, hammer, favia, acan, monti plate

Week 35 - Melanurus Wrasse just added.

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Bought a Melanurus Wrasse - spent a lot of time in sand so have rarely saw it. Juvenile/female markings so hoping will colour up more as gets more comfortable, bristletooth being cheeky so have mirror up too as believe he the reason for sand life.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 36

I believed I was in great standing but then my skimmer overflowed and dumped all the skimate into tank. Unaware of how it happened but it was due a clean, and after scrubbing it I do think she chocked self and overflowed with water sporadically. Hammer not doing well Monti digi is on deaths door. Rest corals okay tbh, anemone started to move (first time). I changed my lighting schedule too for longer ramp time and a moment of cloud with a higher peak.

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[mylertitchell]

Week 37

Out of nowhere spike, only assume it’s the skimate breakdown, upped carbon dosing to counter. Tank is looking well, but skimate disaster cost me two corals. Other than that it’s going swell. Keep on trucking, Flat to mat outside so tank only getting its fish night. Also melanurus is fully out and about. Stunning addition.

Tyler Mitchell on Instagram: "Life. Uh, finds a way..#reeftank #reefer #reef #mixedreef #reefporn #corals #aquarium #reefaquarium #saltwater #saltwatertank #saltwateraquarium #bumblebeereef #anemone"

82 likes, 0 comments - bumblebeereef on December 17, 2021: "Life. Uh, finds a way..#reeftank #reefer #reef #mixedreef #reefporn #corals #aquarium #reefaquarium #saltwater #saltwatertank #saltwatera..."

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[mylertitchell]

Week 38

Christmas week. Nuts, had to this all on sly. Hope life settles soon to enjoy it more. Tank moving back down to right direction. Plan for Q1 is rock flowers in jan. Coral order feb. Fish and coral March. Draw up a new year plan this week…

Night Time and feeding.

Tyler Mitchell on Instagram: "Merry Fishmas #reeftank #reefer #reef #mixedreef #reefporn #corals #aquarium #reefaquarium #saltwater #saltwatertank #saltwateraquarium #bumblebeereef"

10 likes, 1 comments - bumblebeereef on December 26, 2021: "Merry Fishmas #reeftank #reefer #reef #mixedreef #reefporn #corals #aquarium #reefaquarium #saltwater #saltwatertank #saltwateraquarium #..."

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[mylertitchell]

End of 2021

Not the journey I thought it was gonna be, but great journey as a whole. Copperband made it harder than it should of been, tank cable layout not as accessible as could of been. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.
POA
Jan
- Flower Nems
- Skimmer Guardian
Feb
- Titanium Heaters
- Biomedia / Sump Layout
March
- Wrasse
- Blenny
- Clowns Out
- Be Algae Free
April
- Uv bulb
- T5 bulb
- Coral Order
- Detailed Year Review
2022 Goals
- Reactor gone
- New doser
- Ozone
- New wavemakers
- Sps thriving
- Schedule mint (WC container?)
- Hanna pH checker
Ongoing
CUC, corals and remaining fish (goby/shrimp pair, dragonets)

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 39

First of the year. Let it begin. I am expecting skimmer Guardian to arrive soon and flower nems were ordered for 12th. My time management has got a bit tight and tbh I see it staying that way for majority of year. So I do plan on improving my schedule. Mainly by changing dosing concentrations so less maintenance and upgrading container (salt,kalk) sizes.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 40

Tyler Mitchell on Instagram: "Anemone Garden starting to take shape. #reeftank #reefer #reef #mixedreef #reefporn #corals #aquarium #reefaquarium #saltwater #saltwatertank #saltwateraquarium #bumblebeereef"

102 likes, 0 comments - bumblebeereef on January 12, 2022: "Anemone Garden starting to take shape. #reeftank #reefer #reef #mixedreef #reefporn #corals #aquarium #reefaquarium #saltwater #saltwater..."

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Week 40 - Bumblebee Reef (Rock Flower Anemones Added)

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Increased saltwater container size to 75l. Definitely holds 60l. So moving to 20% every 4 weeks. Effective annual water change will be 95%. Stepping stones into a more maintainable system. Rock flowers arrived and they didn’t disappoint.

 

[Bob E]

Tank is looking great. I like the setup.
Never seen the little hats before how have they been working

 

[mylertitchell]

Tank is looking great. I like the setup.
Never seen the little hats before how have they been working

Thank you. There is pains with nuisance algae but I’m confident year 2 will be a lot easier. Yes he hasn’t touched a frag dropped the hat once in two months. I just put the hat back on him and he motored on. Nice to see where he is in tank tbh. Plan to add another urchin and put different hat on them. My urchin has been model citizen is that the urchin or has hat helped. I’d recommend to try them out for sure either way.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 41

Hmm a shambles has occurred.
During week more biomedia was added. So that’s now 10kg total. GHA has gotten worse imo, I do believe my doser isn’t performing correctly.

Bubble algae is still there but I am seeing alot more just letting go of rock and stuck on weir. The shambles is my alk is off the chart! (14.9). Turned dosing elements off and did WC. Did a bit of scrub and vac to remove decent amount of algae. Like to think If math is correct that shud be us back on track during week. But may do another wc and test alk again as prob the best action.
I think doser becoming more a priority.

 

[mylertitchell]

Week 42

WCs and element dosing has stopped. All back where I need it. Should be able to dial every week. Funny story so I was not using doser correctly. Who would of thought 0 and 1. Always said the doser skipped a beat. But when tested it was 100. Well every other day. What a shambles. Anyway redial and maybe doser is 100. Plan to take nutrients to zero. GHA galore so feel like it can be zero as isn’t really.