Howdy from the Taunus Hills

IMG_5340.jpeg
 
Hi
This build started on Aug 25th. Put life in the tank 3 days later. I have only dosed some mg .sending ICP tests every 2 weeks. live artemia and mysis (for the Aldabras and the shrimp and crab)and min s for the coral 2x a week. Started with ATI seawater and live sand, then to weeks later some live rocks. At first, I had about 20kg of sand - 19.5 of which removed just a few days ago. Went through a 3 days of diatoms and a few days of bac bloom. a single 20% water change 3 days ago. I have not started on design of the riff yet. just getting the water going and getting used to corals. first time with these life forms.
IMG_0184.jpeg
 
Howdy - here we are a few days before a move into a D-D 900 Tank 4 months after establishing the one below.

In the 4 months I went through the diatom, algae, cyano, slime situations, removed a live sand bed which was the cause of almost all the problems, replaced all rock with live rock, added a skimmer, removed the wave maker and went overboard on lights and flow.

Only 1 alveopora lost to brown slime, and a few Zoas went bye-bye.

Made the mistake of adding two Aldabras as first fish, then traded them away to add a Blenny, Lareto, Mandarin, and a fire fish. Lost a few snails and one crab.

Fighting with two hitchhiker gorilla crabs which are eating the rock and not corals. But they are not a tragedy. Amazingly only a week of aptasia, which went bye-bye with some peppermint shrimp, that went bye-bye shortly thereafter.

Moving the below into a 225L show tank (+65L sump), a DD Reef Pro 900 .


My thoughts on the Fluval (32g/123L):

1. the curved front sucks - the bottom half of the bent front builds up with detritus and algae daily. Maybe a bent front is better for freshwater tanks.
2. getting the right flow for more than one coral is impossible.
3. before setting up, I silicon sealed the internal Sump. The Sump worked rather well for me, but is impossible to clean without getting aggravated, no amount of good wine has helped this process.
4. I sent the tank up too low. We are all tall in the house.
5. Thin glass makes hanging lights unrealistic. I mcgyvered a light stand.


IMG_4817.JPG
 

TOP 10 Trending Threads

WHICH SUPPOSEDLY EASY CORAL HAS GIVEN YOU THE MOST TROUBLE?

  • Zoanthids or palythoas

    Votes: 20 18.9%
  • Mushrooms or Ricordea

    Votes: 20 18.9%
  • Green star polyps

    Votes: 15 14.2%
  • Xenia

    Votes: 10 9.4%
  • Leather corals

    Votes: 10 9.4%
  • Duncan or candy cane corals

    Votes: 23 21.7%
  • Birdsnest or Montipora digitata

    Votes: 29 27.4%
  • None—mine have lived up to the reputation

    Votes: 5 4.7%
  • Other (tell us which one)

    Votes: 3 2.8%
Back
Top
Home
Post thread…
Market
What's new