DarkReefer's CADE Reef S2 1800

[DarkReefer]

Any updates? Hows the GHA going?

Had a little bit going on recently.
The last couple months has been nuts with work so not really had much time or energy to spend on the tank.

GHA seems mostly gone from the back wall for now, even noticing some coraline algae coming in. Not sure if it's the tomini helping keep it trimmed down or if it's just settling down a little.
Still HEAPS of it on the rocks so I need to work at that still... just such a pain LOL

Unfortunately one of my sand sifting gobies (the largest one) took a pretty severe hit the other day. Not sure if it was caused by grazing a rock or if the tomini tang did it... jerk of a fish has been chasing the gobies here and there. Got back from being in WA for a week or so and they seemed fine, but on Saturday I saw it staying in the one spot and breathing heavy. Then I saw a bit of a bruise on it's side. Made sure it got some food and left it alone. Then later that afternoon/evening it seemed to be getting bullied a bit (it had moved to near where the tangs hang out more) and so I scooped it out and put it in the sump for the night to give it some space to hopefully recover. Unfortunately by morning it was dead. At least it got some peace in the end.
Feel bad for it's little buddy it left behind, missus was asking about adding another one for it but I said you can't just add one in for them to pair up, plus the tang will still be a jerk.

Went to one of the LFS to grab some more salt on the weekend and saw they had a little blonde naso tang.
Watched it for a bit and seemed to be fairly boisterous and pecking at things. Then I got them to feed it and it had a really healthy apetite so I thought I'd give it another go.

Put in a separation box for 3 days and last night let it out after the other fish didn't seem to notice it in the box, as soon as it was let out though, purple tang showing it's dominance and the tomini also... Lights went off within an hour or so and I think things settled down. Checked this morning and seemed to be okay.
Told the missus to keep an eye on things throughout the day and if it looks like they're being too frisky with the new guy to see if she's able to scoop up the purple and/or the tomini and chuck em in the sump.

Will see how that goes! Apparently it's doing okay so far today though.

Also, anyone else running MP40's/60s or 10s? Anyone else think they're over priced crap ?
Might look to see if there's threads about it.
They move a lot of water and have a good app/functions sure... but the grills over the fans are trash and just seem to come off all by themselves all the time unless I apply some glue to them or algae grows and sticks them together. Absolutely painful.

 

[JonoH]

Had a little bit going on recently.
The last couple months has been nuts with work so not really had much time or energy to spend on the tank.

GHA seems mostly gone from the back wall for now, even noticing some coraline algae coming in. Not sure if it's the tomini helping keep it trimmed down or if it's just settling down a little.
Still HEAPS of it on the rocks so I need to work at that still... just such a pain LOL

Unfortunately one of my sand sifting gobies (the largest one) took a pretty severe hit the other day. Not sure if it was caused by grazing a rock or if the tomini tang did it... jerk of a fish has been chasing the gobies here and there. Got back from being in WA for a week or so and they seemed fine, but on Saturday I saw it staying in the one spot and breathing heavy. Then I saw a bit of a bruise on it's side. Made sure it got some food and left it alone. Then later that afternoon/evening it seemed to be getting bullied a bit (it had moved to near where the tangs hang out more) and so I scooped it out and put it in the sump for the night to give it some space to hopefully recover. Unfortunately by morning it was dead. At least it got some peace in the end.
Feel bad for it's little buddy it left behind, missus was asking about adding another one for it but I said you can't just add one in for them to pair up, plus the tang will still be a jerk.

Went to one of the LFS to grab some more salt on the weekend and saw they had a little blonde naso tang.
Watched it for a bit and seemed to be fairly boisterous and pecking at things. Then I got them to feed it and it had a really healthy apetite so I thought I'd give it another go.

Put in a separation box for 3 days and last night let it out after the other fish didn't seem to notice it in the box, as soon as it was let out though, purple tang showing it's dominance and the tomini also... Lights went off within an hour or so and I think things settled down. Checked this morning and seemed to be okay.
Told the missus to keep an eye on things throughout the day and if it looks like they're being too frisky with the new guy to see if she's able to scoop up the purple and/or the tomini and chuck em in the sump.

Will see how that goes! Apparently it's doing okay so far today though.

Also, anyone else running MP40's/60s or 10s? Anyone else think they're over priced crap ?
Might look to see if there's threads about it.
They move a lot of water and have a good app/functions sure... but the grills over the fans are trash and just seem to come off all by themselves all the time unless I apply some glue to them or algae grows and sticks them together. Absolutely painful.

Love the Blonde Naso Tangs - want to add one in, but my Yellow Tang would kill it pretty sure.

You could try adding a mirror on the side of the tank for a bit, this helped last time i had some aggression issues.

I have the same issue with the fronts coming off the MP40's slowly, only seems to happen on certain one's though, so not sure if they are just a little looser than others. I actually have more problems with turbo snails constantly dropping into them and then rattling around!
Def over priced though for what they are - but love being able to take the heads off without disconnecting cables.

 

[DarkReefer]

Love the Blonde Naso Tangs - want to add one in, but my Yellow Tang would kill it pretty sure.

You could try adding a mirror on the side of the tank for a bit, this helped last time i had some aggression issues.

I have the same issue with the fronts coming off the MP40's slowly, only seems to happen on certain one's though, so not sure if they are just a little looser than others. I actually have more problems with turbo snails constantly dropping into them and then rattling around!
Def over priced though for what they are - but love being able to take the heads off without disconnecting cables.

Yeah little worried about it. It's about half the size to a third of the size of the purple and blue tangs, so I'm hoping after the initial hazing it'll calm and they'll be like 'its just a baby' and leave it alone. We put up a mirror already as soon as it was released which helped a little with the purple.
If not... they can go on vacation. (I keep threatening the tomini that I'll sell it if it keeps acting up LOL)

Yeah admittedly it's nice not having to worry about cables when cleaning. Definitely hate fishing for the grills though. Haven't had the snail issue with them rattling around but don't have any turbos either !
For the money you'd expect they'd have a better mechanism for clamping on though. Definitely not my favourite purchase with my set up. Maybe once the GHA settles down I can go back to adding a spot of glue to them after they've been cleaned.

Edit; Been thinking about maybe looking into crabs to help with the GHA at some point... now that my shrimp is MIA. Not sure yet though.

 

[JonoH]

Yeah little worried about it. It's about half the size to a third of the size of the purple and blue tangs, so I'm hoping after the initial hazing it'll calm and they'll be like 'its just a baby' and leave it alone. We put up a mirror already as soon as it was released which helped a little with the purple.
If not... they can go on vacation. (I keep threatening the tomini that I'll sell it if it keeps acting up LOL)

Yeah admittedly it's nice not having to worry about cables when cleaning. Definitely hate fishing for the grills though. Haven't had the snail issue with them rattling around but don't have any turbos either !
For the money you'd expect they'd have a better mechanism for clamping on though. Definitely not my favourite purchase with my set up. Maybe once the GHA settles down I can go back to adding a spot of glue to them after they've been cleaned.

Edit; Been thinking about maybe looking into crabs to help with the GHA at some point... now that my shrimp is MIA. Not sure yet though.

Have you tried an Urchin with the GHA also?

I added in Asterina Snails when I had GHA so they may have helped, had a decorator urchin that probably ate more Corraline than anything else, but he was pretty large, some of the smaller ones would probably have helped more.

 

[DarkReefer]

Have you tried an Urchin with the GHA also?

I added in Asterina Snails when I had GHA so they may have helped, had a decorator urchin that probably ate more Corraline than anything else, but he was pretty large, some of the smaller ones would probably have helped more.

I have before.
had a large spiny urchin and also a tuxedo at one stage. Both since died. There may still be a small/baby spiny urchin in there (I remember seeing it previously but I can't recall if it died or if it's just gone mia for a while).

Could also go the chemical route to kill it off but would generally prefer to do it more naturally if I can.

 

[DarkReefer]

Unfortunately it seems the last sand sifter has been killed.
Couldn't see it swimming around where it usually was, found it's body half chewed up entwined in the xenia.

Pretty sure the Tomini would've done it. It was the most aggressive toward those two.
Gonna miss the pristine sand.. might have to rethink the tomini and whether I want to keep it long term if it's going to do that. Need those fish for the sandbed, nothing else keeps it that clean... (at least that I've found/tried so far).

 

[JonoH]

Unfortunately it seems the last sand sifter has been killed.
Couldn't see it swimming around where it usually was, found it's body half chewed up entwined in the xenia.

Pretty sure the Tomini would've done it. It was the most aggressive toward those two.
Gonna miss the pristine sand.. might have to rethink the tomini and whether I want to keep it long term if it's going to do that. Need those fish for the sandbed, nothing else keeps it that clean... (at least that I've found/tried so far).

Might need to sump him for a bit and see - are you sure its him that is aggressive?

My bristletooth is pretty friendly for the most part, but I do notice its territorial to one part of the tank.

 

[DarkReefer]

Might need to sump him for a bit and see - are you sure its him that is aggressive?

My bristletooth is pretty friendly for the most part, but I do notice its territorial to one part of the tank.

Yeah I think I'll probably try and do it over the weekend perhaps. Or wait until next time I add some gobies (or something else to clean the sand).
Definitely the tomini. I've seen it really swoop in on the gobies several times, always with a bunch of speed etc. so I've no doubt.
I've had a 2 spot bristletooth before that also chased gobies and actually starved one or two out.

In other news - the purple tang seems to be rounding up the tomini a bit lately too so pay back perhaps...The purple is also feasting on a xenia it seems. Honestly, why do all my fish want to eat the corals! LOL They get fed so much, like 4 cubes of frozen every 2-3 days and 4-5 mini sheets of seaweed most days plus pellets twice a day.
Purple is getting pretty thicc and large though!

The lipstick tang seems pretty happy though. Seems the hippo tang or purple occasionally size it up but for the most part seems to be left alone which is good to see.

 

[DarkReefer]

Lost my copperband yesterday :(
Pretty annoyed with that, as it was such a cool fish and had a really inquisitive nature about it & would always come upto anything, hands in tank, moving the glass cleaning magnet etc. to see what was going on.

We noticed what looked to be an abrasion near the rear of it and thought it'd grazed a rock or something. Was still eating fine and everything on Saturday and swimming around okay. Didn't seem to be breathing any different. Come Sunday morning I go to test salinity so I can mix my water properly for a water change and notice it laying there at the bottom of the tank.

Going to do some tests when I get home today. Not real sure what caused it.

 

[JonoH]

Ahh that hurts!
Copperbands are beautiful fish, but its the one I never had any luck with also (Lost mine as it got bullied by my Yellow Tang).

Reckon it was the Bristletooth?

 

[DarkReefer]

Ahh that hurts!
Copperbands are beautiful fish, but its the one I never had any luck with also (Lost mine as it got bullied by my Yellow Tang).

Reckon it was the Bristletooth?

Yeah really sucks... Missus loved it too and has already said she wants another.
Not too sure to be honest.
I've seen the purple chase it on the odd occasion but never the tomini.

Maybe it's something else like a disease possibly?
I might have to dose some prazipro just to be safe...

 

[JonoH]

Yeah really sucks... Missus loved it too and has already said she wants another.
Not too sure to be honest.
I've seen the purple chase it on the odd occasion but never the tomini.

Maybe it's something else like a disease possibly?
I might have to dose some prazipro just to be safe...

Could always try something like this...
https://reeflabs.com.au/
Not cheap though! But could give you some piece of mind that it's not disease?

 

[DarkReefer]

Could always try something like this...
https://reeflabs.com.au/
Not cheap though! But could give you some piece of mind that it's not disease?

Cheers mate.
Will give it a look if things continue south.

Noticed the foxface seems to be shedding it's slime coat or something. Did my testing (turns out it's been nearly 2 months since I last checked).
Nitrates at 38.2 & Phosphate at 0.6+ (reader couldn't even read high enough!).
I had a fresh tub of rowaphos that I'd been lazy to put in previously due to the amount of travelling I was doing for work, so I used the online calculator tool and threw in nearly the whole tub.
Will test again tonight to see if it's had much effect but I hope it brings it down. Really need to work out a way to keep that down it's been high for a while and seem to struggle to put a dent in it and I don't like the idea of having to run something like rowaphos indefinitely.
Everything else seemed to be within normal levels.

Also dosed prazipro last night.
Left the skimmer off since dosing but will crank that up again tonight and just take the cup off (needs a clean anyway). I think I might also need to adjust my skimmer. I seem to get decent bubbles but I just feel like it's not pulling out as much muck. (It's been a month or two since I last cleaned out the cup). Maybe that'll help with the nitrates.

 

[JonoH]

How are you running the Rowaphos?
In a reactor or just a bag?
I have a bag i throw in the sump if my levels start climbing, but havent used it in a while - would like to put a proper reactor on one day.

 

[DarkReefer]

How are you running the Rowaphos?
In a reactor or just a bag?
I have a bag i throw in the sump if my levels start climbing, but havent used it in a while - would like to put a proper reactor on one day.

In this tank I'm just running it in a bag. On the Reefmat there's a little cage you can chuck a bag in that the water flows out through so I've just got it tucked in there.

My old tank I had a small media reactor. I did find it a little bit of a pain to replace the rowaphos in there though sometimes.

I'm starting to look into a better/bigger UV too.
I think a 40W one would be ideal for my size tank but can't seem to see that many around on my usual websites. It's either the 25W which I've already got and that I'm pretty sure the bulb is basically cooked, It's probably 3 years old now LOL and because of the cost of the bulbs it's not worth just replacing I may as well get a better sized one for the tank. or a 57W which is probably a bit too big.
Then I need to get a pump big enough to give it enough flow... urgh. Goodbye money.

 

[JonoH]

In this tank I'm just running it in a bag. On the Reefmat there's a little cage you can chuck a bag in that the water flows out through so I've just got it tucked in there.

My old tank I had a small media reactor. I did find it a little bit of a pain to replace the rowaphos in there though sometimes.

I'm starting to look into a better/bigger UV too.
I think a 40W one would be ideal for my size tank but can't seem to see that many around on my usual websites. It's either the 25W which I've already got and that I'm pretty sure the bulb is basically cooked, It's probably 3 years old now LOL and because of the cost of the bulbs it's not worth just replacing I may as well get a better sized one for the tank. or a 57W which is probably a bit too big.
Then I need to get a pump big enough to give it enough flow... urgh. Goodbye money.

Hahaha I am looking at upgrading my Lights so yeah...money pit!

I never use the media basket on the Reefmat as apparently it makes the roll get used up way quicker - have you had any issues with that?

Nothing wrong with oversizing the UV - i'm running a 90 watt on mine, so way bigger than what is needed - the added bonus is you can pump the water through a lot faster as the flow rates on the bigger units are higher.

My water stays crystal clear, which I think is due to the UV size

 

[DarkReefer]

Hahaha I am looking at upgrading my Lights so yeah...money pit!

I never use the media basket on the Reefmat as apparently it makes the roll get used up way quicker - have you had any issues with that?

Nothing wrong with oversizing the UV - i'm running a 90 watt on mine, so way bigger than what is needed - the added bonus is you can pump the water through a lot faster as the flow rates on the bigger units are higher.

My water stays crystal clear, which I think is due to the UV size

Nah haven't noticed any difference from what I had in there before to be honest.

Might have to just commit. The pump I'd need to pump fast enough through it to be within the right range for a reef tank and not kill off everything (according to manufacturer's specs) would be the Mobius L2..for reference, which is bigger than I even run on the general return lol. I think I have the M2 for that one.
Crazy.

 

[DarkReefer]

So I checked last night and looks like the foxface isn't shedding anymore and all the remaining fish look 'normal' to me at least. Also cleaned the skimmer cup, took it off and just leaving the skimmer running and overflowing to help with aeration.

I tested phosphates and my reader was off the charts again, so I don't know if it just takes time to work, if it's not working well or if my results were so high that even the amount I put in hasn't brought it down enough to be measurable.

Gonna hold off chucking any more frozen foods in for a bit.

Still not seeing huge growth from the chaeto either yet. Though I'm relatively sure that it's grown at least a bit since I put it in though definitely not as quick as I'd like.

 

[shadyraro]

Sorry to hear about your fish mate, it's never nice losing one :crying-face:
You might want to look into some automation to control the tank then you don't have to worry about anything while you're away from it. It's just the intial cost of the equipment that hurts but in the end it's all worth it.

 

[DarkReefer]

Sorry to hear about your fish mate, it's never nice losing one :crying-face:
You might want to look into some automation to control the tank then you don't have to worry about anything while you're away from it. It's just the intial cost of the equipment that hurts but in the end it's all worth it.

Definitely wish I didn't lose that one, but it is what it is...
Usually, I'm not away so much but Feb/Mar were just nuts and a bit of an exception to the norm, should go back to normal now.

I've still managed to water change every 2nd week (even whilst I was travelling), but I never notice any reasonable changes with the testing usually. Even the nitrates don't seem to move a lot. Starting to think about changing salt brands to give redsea a go or something too... see if I see any improvement generally in the tank.
I should look into more automation though, will even help with when I'm feeling a bit lazy at times with testing and so on so I don't have to do it so frequently (that said, I do it maybe once a month on average usually so having something automated checking it will probably help me get on top of things or make adjustments faster).