Lost in the Wrasses! Rollercoaster of a Reef Build

[Petcrazyson]

I think this is the nicest the tank looks since I first set it up. The water is about 80% ish clear. Wish the camera actually picked up how clear the water is. Unfortunately I moved some rocks and have disturbed the sand bed so my water clearness progress left me. And yea Ik Ik pls don’t kill me I need to clean the power heads. Also my BT Urchin says hello!

 

[Petcrazyson]

So I’ve dosed some carbon and the water is as of right now 90% ish clear. Hopefully heading to the lfs on Thursday for the new protein skimmer, and possibly a new fish ?!

 

[Petcrazyson]

Fishy spam!

I wanted to talk a bit more about his diet. I feed him nori twice a day, in the morning and late afternoon, and then a mixture of the San Francisco bay brand foods. Is there something else that you guys think I should feed him?

 

[i cant think]

Fishy spam!

I wanted to talk a bit more about his diet. I feed him nori twice a day, in the morning and late afternoon, and then a mixture of the San Francisco bay brand foods. Is there something else that you guys think I should feed him?

I feed all my fish this;
- Mysis
- Brine
- Algae of different sorts
- Muscle
- Cockel
- a mixed mash of other foods
- Pellets/Flakes to give as much of their natural nutrients as I can

I will rotate every month or so between the Muscle and Cockel and instead change it to something different.
Recently this has really been paying off as all my fish are getting as many nutrients as I can possibly give them so their colours are much more vibrant than other fish that don’t get the nutrients.

 

[Petcrazyson]

So I’ve got the protein skimmer finally. It’s a Reef Octopus Classic 152s. I got it yesterday but I forgot to post about it here yesterday. I also got the PVC pipes for the Jawfish cave. I’ll update you guys with pictures and maybe a quick video of me setting up the skimmer tomorrow. I’ve been watching a lot of BRS on how to tune the skimmer so hopefully it’ll come out the way I hope.

 

[Petcrazyson]

The skimmer is installed! So I was finally able to open the box and put it together. Opened it up 4 days later but better late then never. Here’s a picture regarding the note TSA puts on their boxes.

The reason the price I got it for is lower than what is normally sold is because I was able to have the shop beat the price for the skimmer it had on amazon.com. Always happy to save a few pennies. The installation was really easy and quick, and it came out nicely (pls excuse the mess)

That was last night. Fast forward to today and I’m currently fidgeting with the adjustments, but it looks like it’s working. I’ll get a picture of it when I’ve tuned it well enough. I’m also almost done with the Jawfish cave system, so I’ll be posting about that soon as well. If there is anything regarding the skimmer operations you guys think I should know about pls let me know. TIA!

 

[Slocke]

Following! Can’t wait to see how all those fish do!

 

[Petcrazyson]

Following! Can’t wait to see how all those fish do!

Nice to see you poking your head around here. And I see your prof pic has changed . Tysm for followin!

 

[Petcrazyson]

It’s been one week and the skimmer seems to be calming down. Not sure if I’ve broken it completely but the foam/bubbles/gunk production and water leveling is much better than a few days ago. Also I changed the scape a little again and I’m hoping to get some FTS tomorrow afternoon. I have some family coming over tomorrow, so I want to impress them a little with what I have I made a water change, cleaned the sand a little, the glass is scraped front and back, and I’m putting a gun to my urchins and told them to work over time They seem to be listening lol. Also, I‘m removing one of my want fish from the list slots so yk what that means ! Slot filler may be this lucky guy:

@SunnyX has a pair of these in his tank. Wondering how he would interact with my soon to be found female G. Bellus. I just love Genicanthus angels!

 

[Slocke]

Nice to see you poking your head around here. And I see your prof pic has changed . Tysm for followin!

Touche with the photo haha! Had to change mine once I finally got a good shot of the mandarin.

Also, I‘m removing one of my want fish from the list slots so yk what that means ! Slot filler may be this lucky guy:

WOW! That is a magnificent fish!! That would be such a beautiful addition if possible. See something new everyday in this hobby.

 

[i cant think]

Genicanthus melanospilos is a beautiful fish, mine originally looked very close to that photo however now he has kind of gone into a half way point of colour loss but not reverting.

with a bellus already established, your best bet is to get a female. This may cause the established bellus to transition but the Melanospilos may transition instead. It’s really 50/50 with these guys unless you get a male already (And you know it’s a definite male).

 

[Petcrazyson]

Genicanthus melanospilos is a beautiful fish, mine originally looked very close to that photo however now he has kind of gone into a half way point of colour loss but not reverting.

with a bellus already established, your best bet is to get a female. This may cause the established bellus to transition but the Melanospilos may transition instead. It’s really 50/50 with these guys unless you get a male already (And you know it’s a definite male).

Your’s looks very pretty, even with the “sub-male” coloring. I have a feeling I will find the melanospilos before the bellus, but why do you think I should get him as a female? Would it help with transitioning, like making sure it has more chance of being male and staying that way? You think maybe add them at the same time? Would the bellus really transition even though it’s not another male or female bellus? Would they fight, even as male and female, or two females, Ik they are different G. species but would it work cohabitation wise? Or even as a weird pair idk sorry for the questions xD

 

[i cant think]

Your’s looks very pretty, even with the “sub-male” coloring. I have a feeling I will find the melanospilos before the bellus, but why do you think I should get him as a female? Would it help with transitioning, like making sure it has more chance of being male and staying that way? You think maybe add them at the same time? Would the bellus really transition even though it’s not another male or female bellus? Would they fight, even as male and female, or two females, Ik they are different G. species but would it work cohabitation wise? Or even as a weird pair idk sorry for the questions xD

They should work together, you can add a male melanospilos. I misunderstood and thought you meant that you already had the bellus. Usually the already established Genicanthus transitions first when adding another female Genicanthus species.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Touche with the photo haha! Had to change mine once I finally got a good shot of the mandarin.

WOW! That is a magnificent fish!! That would be such a beautiful addition if possible. See something new everyday in this hobby.

Yea I wanted a different photo, more fish related yk? And the Conspic just wasn’t doing for me. And since this is one of my favorite reef tanks I’ve seen I figured why shouldn’t I put it as my prof lol.

Genicanthus melansopilos. I can see you like him lol. I’m hoping he will be a “sooner” fish, maybe not THE next one to add but who knows. My LFS has them every little bit, so hopefully I’ll go to the LFS at the right day and find em.

 

[Petcrazyson]

They should work together, you can add a male melanospilos. I misunderstood and thought you meant that you already had the bellus. Usually the already established Genicanthus transitions first when adding another female Genicanthus species.

No worries. Now that you say that, should I add the female melanospilos and then the female bellus to ensure the melanospilos transition? I can’t force them to do transition but I can at least try to hint at their changes.

 

[Petcrazyson]

They should work together, you can add a male melanospilos. I misunderstood and thought you meant that you already had the bellus. Usually the already established Genicanthus transitions first when adding another female Genicanthus species.

And if I did have the bellus, you’d be the first to know

 

[Petcrazyson]

Little update I have changed the flow a little bit. Now I have more flow in the middle areas where I plan to have coral, and the little pit where I had some detritus build up, gone! I’ll be posting a fts in a little bit, and telling about some news.

 

[Petcrazyson]

So I have been struggling with this for days now:

I think it may be Dinos or Cyano, as I have seen two Cyano spots on my rocks. I also seem to be battling with brown hair algae. I have strings of them on my powerheads and sand bed. Any other ideas of what this might be? Ways to deal with it? I’ll try to get a whiter pic.

 

[Slocke]

So I have been struggling with this for days now:
I think it may be Dinos or Cyano, as I have seen two Cyano spots on my rocks. I also seem to be battling with brown hair algae. I have strings of them on my powerheads and sand bed. Any other ideas of what this might be? Ways to deal with it? I’ll try to get a whiter pic.

I had cyano recently and did a few things one of which may have worked (or it was just time).

1. added copepods and phytoplankton
2. increased flow dramatically with a wave maker
3. added a sand sifting star
4. replaced my macroalgae

It was weird. During the outbreak I noticed that one of my expensive new powerheads had died and so had all my macroalgae in the refugium. Once I replaced those and did the other things it suddenly dissapeared and so did all other the nuisance algae. Nutrients were still as high as always though.

 

[Petcrazyson]

I had cyano recently and did a few things one of which may have worked (or it was just time).

1. added copepods and phytoplankton
2. increased flow dramatically with a wave maker
3. added a sand sifting star
4. replaced my macroalgae

It was weird. During the outbreak I noticed that one of my expensive new powerheads had died and so had all my macroalgae in the refugium. Once I replaced those and did the other things it suddenly dissapeared and so did all other the nuisance algae. Nutrients were still as high as always though.

Does having a lot of amphipods help? I’ll be heading to the LFS in a bit so I’ll be looking to buy some cops and phytoplankton. Last night I increased the flow, now there is much more flow above the sand bed than there was two days ago. I’m looking to buy one of those starfish, but haven’t found one. I don’t have a refugium set up, but I could add some macro and turn of my fuge light. Hoping to see these things help in my tank. Do you like having a lot of nutrients? In my previous setups I’ve struggled with low nutrients, as I am now, so thankfully high nutrients have never been a problem for me. But since my nutrients are low, that gives me a green light for MOAR fish