DarkReefer's Waterbox 70.2 (My First Marine Tank!)

[DarkReefer]

Can I ask your light settings?

Sure
I run a single Hydra 32HD - I grabbed an AI blueprint from Waterbox's website called 'Mixed Reef'.
Here's the direct link
Mixed Reef- AI Blueprint

I haven't really adjusted anything except maybe the time frame I think. Mine basically runs for 12 hrs a day and I think standard map is maybe 10, so I just dragged out the ramp up/down for memory.

 

[araziza]

Thanks!

 

[Sumo Reef]

So this week has been interesting.
The last 2 nems that were in the corner have both gone walkies.

One walked across the sand over night and jumped onto the main rockwork, hung out upside down for a day, then climbed up further before moving (looked like it was falling upside down at one stage), and then found a spot in a cave, for now...

The other went up and to the overflow on one side before moving across to the other side a day or 2 later and I woke up this morning to it attached to the elegance coral.
REALLY hoping it doesn't hurt the elegance as it's probably one of, if not my favourite coral in the tank.

I thought about trying to remove the nem myself but the Elegance has a strong sting also, so could be an interesting fight.
As the Elegance was waking up this morning it didn't seem too shy about opening up. The nem however looked like it was trying to move on and looked a little less happy than normal, so fingers crossed the Elegance has told it who's boss and the nem is moving house again.

Also my Firework clove polyps appear to be VERY slowly coming out after nearly 2 weeks. Starting to see a little colour here and there now. Have to keep an eye on it's location though, the very first nem made a home close to it and when it's spread out it comes very close to touchy touchy.

Okay, now I'm just wanting to see daily pics of their movement. It's like a little soap opera

 

[DarkReefer]

Okay, now I'm just wanting to see daily pics of their movement. It's like a little soap opera

Well we'll start off with how it looks right now shall we

Elegance appears to be more or less untouched... Nem has called for back up from the cave nem it appears.

Lookin a bit squishy there nem! Hope your bags are packed!

 

[Sumo Reef]

 

[DarkReefer]

LOL It's exactly like that, love it!
Well the nem didn't move last night, still there this morning.
Not sure if I should try and pull the nem off of it or just let them sort it out.
If they got along okay and just stayed that way I don't mind, but I doubt it.

 

[DarkReefer]

Some updated pics from this morning. Looks like one of the zombie snails is laying eggs !
Wonder if any will survive ??

Corals are still waking up (lights came on 20 mins ago).

Hid this guy under some rockwork, been looking like it was bleaching for some reason!

Still no idea what this thing actually is.

This one seems to be expanding (same with the Mushrooms in the background)

Blastos are getting bigger, might have to put em on some rockwork perhaps.

This guy hasn't come out fully for a week or two now. Not sure if the foxface has been picking at it and upsetting it or if its been doing some growing or maybe just doesn't like the lighting for some reason Will give it a bit more time if I don't see it improve I'll shift it lower in the tank.. The skeleton is looking good though, when I first got it about 18 months ago, it was a nice fluro green skeleton, but not long after being in my tank it went dark and it's finally coming back.

The firework clove polyps are very slowly making a come back after being closed up and annoyed after being dipped initially 2 weeks ago. Gotta watch it though, the nem next to it really likes to puff up and envelope the area around it.

And here they are again... still at it.

 

[Sumo Reef]

Wow! Those egg-laying patterns are really cool!

I have no experience with nems but they both look happy to me. Maybe the nem is looking to the elegance for protection.

 

[DarkReefer]

Wow! Those egg-laying patterns are really cool!

I have no experience with nems but they both look happy to me. Maybe the nem is looking to the elegance for protection.

They didn't last very long, the foxface saw to that (more on that soon).
The nem is usually about 2-3 times the size it is in that picture and has very big ballooned bubbles when it's loving life, so it might be 'ok' but I think it's certainly not at its best (got 3 around the same size in the tank).


Soooo a few more updates.

We'll start off with the fun stuff.
The nem has been running around the tank again. It finally moved away from the Elegance on Friday or Saturday, and spent a couple days up on the glass near by. Then it decided it would move back toward the Elegance and made it to the corner behind it... then stayed there for a couple more days, completely being hidden from the light by the elegance.
I was going to attempt to move it today if it didn't move itself because it didn't look too happy.

Last night it started to climb back up the back wall, and then tumbled back down. I managed to get to it before it reattached to anything and I moved it back over the other side of the tank to the rock it came in on and placed it down.

The 2nd nem had also made its way over the Elegance side but was making camp up behind the return nozzle on the overflow. So last night whilst I was messing with the other one, I thought I'd attempt to move it back over the other side also to avoid it messing with the Elegance further. This worked out okay, however I woke up last night around midnight (thanks doggos), and had a quick look using my blue torch to see how they were going.

Nem #1 was attached to the glass near where I left it, but Nem #2... back up on the other return nozzle (the closer one to where I placed them) and was flapping around in the current. Was literally hanging onto the nozzle by a small thread, so I grabbed grabbed it again and moved it back down to it's spot.

Woke up this morning and Nem #1 is now attached to the main rockwork, nearby to Nem #3's home. (Nem #1 tried this before but moved on after a few days LOL). Nem #2, back up the back wall, this time attached to the glass cleaner which resides just under the Nero 3... really hoping it doesn't want to try and get to the powerhead (there is a guard on it on the back though, so fingers crossed it doesn't get suicidal).
If they keep moving around like this I might have to try and flog them off to the LFS. They were trying to sell this tiny one for like $300, so be interested to see what they would give me for mine... it's easily 5 times the size or more lol.

In other news, over the weekend went to the LFS for some RODI water and saw they had a Bicolor Blenny & also this tiny baby sized yellow Coral Goby and decided I wanted them both

After I got home and whilst they were acclimating I was watching the other fish and noticed my foxface had a bunch of white spots on it that looked kinda like air bubbles. Missus thought they might've been eggs from the snail from when it was eating them. Thought okay... as it was pretty much the only fish that had it...
Then I did some searching online and worked out that it was in fact looking like ich! I was pretty devastated, felt completely defeated and lost. Didn't know how it got there (was a month since I added a new fish, maybe the starfish, maybe the zombie snails???). Noticed my little Dory had some very faint spots but not the air bubble looking things. Had a bit of a mental shut down that day, was just so angry and was stressing thinking I'm gonna have to spend all this money setting up a QT tank (something we don't REALLY have much space for, especially not permanently), I'd need to tear the tank apart to try and catch the fish etc etc.

Anyway, thankfully missus called the LFS I had been to earlier in the day and asked about it and they recommended Polyp Lab Medic and that they'd used it on a few different tanks in the past with results (one of which was a DT they have in shop and looked amazing).
I didn't believe it'd work as every thing I was reading about Ich was 'QT Tank and copper dosing' etc, but hey... thought I'd give it a shot and see. Did my first dose Saturday night once lights were out (LFS instructed to do when lights off, or turn them off for an hour when I dose), Sunday morning, all the bubble looking spots were gone from the Foxface. There was still faint spots of lighter colour on it and also on Dory, but that was it.
Gotta dose it for about 21 days, but so far.... seems okay.
Fingers crossed it works and it stays gone. If it comes back worse then I know it hasn't worked, or I did something wrong and I might try again... if it does it a 3rd time I'll look to completely QT and copper dose.

All the fish and even corals still look happy and normal so I'm praying it all goes well and we come out of the other side together and happy.


TLDR - Nems moving around a lot, Bought 2 new small fish and experiencing Ich & a treatment for the very first time.

 

[Sumo Reef]

I did try a nem like 15 years ago and it too moved all the time until I returned it to my LFS

Sorry to hear about the Ich and I know how you feel. I don't quarantine my fish either. Now, if I had $1000+ tangs and stuff then sure QT it is.

 

[DarkReefer]

I did try a nem like 15 years ago and it too moved all the time until I returned it to my LFS

Sorry to hear about the Ich and I know how you feel. I don't quarantine my fish either. Now, if I had $1000+ tangs and stuff then sure QT it is.

Well I started with 1 smallish one, now have 3 bigger ones after it split a couple times LOL


Thanks, I'm the same.
My most expensive fish is my Flame Hawkfish. I mean all up there's probably a little shy of 500 bux worth of fish, but still.. they're your pets as well so you don't want them getting sick and dying off on you.
I'm just surprised because I don't know where it's come from. Assume some frag I've recently purchased or perhaps the snail or starfish carried it in... I shouldn't be surprised because I don't QT, but still... not nice.

 

[Sumo Reef]

lol could be any of those... or ALL of them! Something as small as a drop of water from another tank can introduce many unknown things to your tank.

 

[DarkReefer]

Well.... Woke up this morning and Nem #2 blended itself last night. Looks like it must've climbed over the rear guard and onto the powerhead face and then crawled into the fan (honestly, how dumb are these things?!)
The fan was stopped this morning and there was a chunk of nem in there that was about the size of a marble or less (not bad considering it usually had a foot about 1.5" I think).

A bit disappointed there. Would be nice if the powerhead would sense an obstruction a bit earlier and cut out but...it is what it is. The little chunk left went into the bin. The water looked clear so must've happened early in the night.
Reading up it looks like everyone does a water change or at least runs carbon to clear things up.

Going to see if I can get away without either... Mainly because I'm dosing for that Ich still. Could always run the media reactor for a day I guess (run both carbon and rowaphos in it), but it would push the Ich schedule back and restart the clock I'm assuming. Things didn't look too unusual so we'll see what happens when I get home.

 

[DarkReefer]

Quick Update.

After the nem deciding to suicide I've kept a close watch on things in hope I can refrain from doing a WC and so far so good I think.
Most things look happy for the most part, however I have noticed a spike in my phosphates (could be that I was overfeeding over the weekend as I was doing it 3 times a day whilst I was home). Have eased off of those and will continue to monitor. Will test again this coming weekend and if they've gone up again I'll start the media reactor up again with just some rowaphos for now. Turned it off due to dosing Polyp Labs Medic for the Ich/Velvet and the reactor also had carbon in it.

Still batling with this Ich (or possibly Velvet?). Noticed my bluetang had a pretty bad case of it over the weekend and to me it looked more like Velvet than Ich (harder to see the individual spots etc). Seems to be eating okay though and swimming normally. Fingers are crossed this medication will help it out.

I've started seeing a little of what appears to be dinoflagellates in the tank too over the last day or so.
Need to keep an eye on this also.

Parameters;
Temp - 24.7
pH - 8.1
Nitrate - 3.5
Phosphate - 0.138 (jumped 0.049 in about 5 days)
Salinity - 1.025
Alk - 10.8 (Still adjusting my dosing down, climbed .3 in 5 days)
Calcium - 455 (Higher than I want, but stable, have adjusted dosing to allow it to hopefully start dropping).
Mag - 1455 (Much higher than I want, climbed 45 in 5 days, have been adjusting the dosing for some time but have dropped it off even more to try get this to drop).

 

[DarkReefer]

Started to notice some of my corals look unhappy over the past week. Testing over the weekend saw yet more increases in my nutrients and my phosphates are through the roof!

Parameters;
Temp - 24.5
pH - 7.6
Nitrate - 5
Phosphate - 0.285
Salinity - 1.025
Alk - 11.6
Calcium - 460
Mag - 1470

- The pH I think will sort itself out once the other levels sort themselves out, had the house quite open over the weekend as it was nice weather for once so plenty of fresh air through the place.
- I also got my media reactor going again with some fresh rowaphos after cleaning out the carbon and rowaphos I had in there previously. (Had it turned off the last couple of weeks due to dosing the Polyplabs Medic to avoid the carbon sucking things up).
- I've completely shut off my dosing for the moment until they drop back into to acceptable ranges.

With regard to dosing the medic for the Ich/Velvet, not sure how effective this is actually being.
It's like the fish go through phases (only the blue tang & foxface rabbitfish appear to be affected). The foxface seems to clear up completely, then wakes up one day completely covered again. The Bluetang went through a rough looking patch for a while there but seemed to start improving. Wasn't really able to get a good eye on it this morning through as it just seemed to be hanging out in one spot next to some rockwork.

@vetteguy53081 Sorry to drag you in here, but I think I remember reading of you using and being successful with medic, how did it go for you? Were you noticing stages of it going and then coming back during the 20-21 day treatment course? I've got 1 week left and being that I've seen it reappearing I'm not sure how successful it's going to be. Did you WC throughout the process?

 

[DarkReefer]

Tested last night and slowly starting to get back into the good areas for the nutrients.

Parameters;
Temp - 24.8
pH - 8.2.
Nitrate - 10
Phosphate - 0.110
Salinity - 1.024
Alk - 10.2
Calcium - 430
Mag - 1410

Still have a number of corals that aren't looking too happy so I'll probably add more rowaphos or change out the stuff that's in the media reactor over the weekend to see if I can get it to drop further. Will also look to rearrange some in hopes it'll make things a bit happier.

My little coral goby hasn't been seen for a month or so now. However I've thought I saw a little shadow dash away behind some rocks when I walked upto the tank a week or so back. Gf also thought she saw something yellow dash away recently also, so it's possible it's still around and hiding somewhere but I didn't think my aquascape had much in the way of complete hiding spots.

Thankfully the velvet/ich that was infecting the tank seems to have subsided after the Polyp Lab Medic treatment over 21 days. All the fish seem to healthy/acting normal so fingers crossed it continues this way.


Also starting to ponder whether I look into adding a sandsifting goby. My sand it looks horrendous, I don't want to vac it and would prefer if I can get it sorted a natural way. Not sure how it would go with the bi-color blenny or the other fish but I THINK it should be okay. Last time I had an Allen's sandsifter. My 2 spot bristletooth tang kept trying to attack it but that fish died when the LFS was holding my fish when I was moving so maybe it'll be okay.
Just a little worried about adding anything new as I don't want to battle the ich/velvet again!

 

[ReefRusty]

Hey mate

Looks like you're having a few hurdles at the moment.

Hows it going othwise? Ich ect is hard to get out of tank just make sure you feed your fish different varieties of food and generally when there happy and settled ich doesn't appear as much, well for me anyways. Touch wood.

Slowly reduce phosphates replace Rowaphos and test 2 days after and don't feed during that time and see what it's dropped down too.

It's a fun hobby isn't it lots of ups and lots of downs that we all learn from, thankfully this forum is so helpful with so much information.

Hope your settled in to your new town also mate. Your missing the wet weather over here haha

 

[DarkReefer]

Hey mate

Looks like you're having a few hurdles at the moment.

Hows it going othwise? Ich ect is hard to get out of tank just make sure you feed your fish different varieties of food and generally when there happy and settled ich doesn't appear as much, well for me anyways. Touch wood.

Slowly reduce phosphates replace Rowaphos and test 2 days after and don't feed during that time and see what it's dropped down too.

It's a fun hobby isn't it lots of ups and lots of downs that we all learn from, thankfully this forum is so helpful with so much information.

Hope your settled in to your new town also mate. Your missing the wet weather over here haha

Yeah it's always a bit of a battle with these tanks it seems. I'm sure one day everything will just 'click' and be good to go!
Usually try feed them some seaweed on a clip a few times a week, use soft pellets and occasionally frozen brine or mysis (I do try do this one or twice a week but usually get a little lazy with it). I think for the most part the fish seem happy though, especially lately.
Dory has been growing a little, I keep loosely watching gumtree/FB marketplace for a potential cheap tank upgrade. Just gotta get the missus onboard with it haha.

It's more the corals at the moment, some of them look quite unhappy but I think largely it was due to the big phosphate spike I went through whilst dosing the Medic (as I'd shut down the media reactor at the time).

I added 2 table spoons of rowaphos to the existing last night (rowaphos calculator I found via google suggested 3 with current levels but went 2 just in case). Will test again over the weekend to see how it's looking.

Agree, this forum has been great with finding out information whether it's out of interest, necessity due to issues or for fun. Definitely looking forward to stabilising the tank some more though.
This time around I haven't been doing water changes after the initial cycle, trying a different approach to what I was doing previously. For the most part I think it's been doing okay. Still gotta iron some things out but it'll come with time.

Yeah going great over here. We had some seriously terrible weather/floods going on for ages when I first got here, but the last month or two have been pretty good! Thanks for checking in!

 

[DarkReefer]

Did my first water change in months (approx. 60ish liters) last night as things appeared to be unhappy in the tank despite levels looking to be within acceptable ranges for the most part. I think some of the unhappiness stems from the nems roaming around the tank and stinging everything (or most recently they were sitting on top of my alveopora, duncan and a zoa frag, so I moved all of them over the other side of the tank on the sand bed for now (need to buy more glue).

Will do some testing again tonight probably. Possibly still have high phosphates so perhaps that's the culprit also.
If it is phosphates still being high, I'll dump whatever is in the reactor and use some fresh stuff. I didn't think it was that old, maybe a few weeks so we'll see.

Could have also been a mix of when the nem blended and also dosing of the medic. Water changes had not been done after those events and I probably should have but I wanted to see if I could get away without water changes as some people have on here and been very successful.

I also very much need to get some trochus snails in the tank asap, the amount of algae etc growing on the sand is a bit much and although I tried to suck it up last night when I did the water change, because I'm using such a large tube it doesn't have the pressure in it to draw the larger particles up.

 

[DarkReefer]

Ran some chemiclean over the weekend and also got myself a gold headed goby & finally some trochus snails (x6).
The goby has done some great work turning over the sand in the tank. I'm unsure how successful the chemiclean was as I didn't notice too much difference within the first day. The sandsifter goby had however turned over nearly all the sand in the tank within the first 24-36 hours. Sand looks great again!

I've ramped up the flow by another 10% too, so should be plenty of flow within the tank. Some of the corals still look quite unhappy though so I need to work out what's going on there. Last test everything came back looking great so I'm not too sure what the go is at the moment.

Eventually I need to add some more corals too but the nems still continue to move around a bit on the rockwork so nothing is safe LOL
May potentially look to see if the LFS will buy one off me. Be easier to handle just the one.