Martin's CADE S2 1500

martin.a · Aug 24, 2026

shadyraro said:
Great looking setup and it's good to see another aussie reefer on here.!

Cheers Mate! Maybe I could ask you for advise on a good fish shop in Sydney. Ones which would properly quarantine the fish and be happy to work with the client?

shadyraro · Aug 25, 2026

martin.a said:
Cheers Mate! Maybe I could ask you for advise on a good fish shop in Sydney. Ones which would properly quarantine the fish and be happy to work with the client?

Eastwood aquarium is really good, their fish and corals are always looking good and Sunni (she's the owner) is always happy to help out customers.

martin.a · Aug 31, 2026

I did not post anything for a while, but not much is happening. Cyanobacteria had their 5 minutes, but shortening of photoperiod, plus some water jetting and brushing took care of them for now. Rocks are covered in green microalgae, sand is practically spotless. Not bad for the ugly phase.

Coraline algae finally started making more visible progress:

I continue feeding the tank daily with 1 cube of frozen mysis and a cup of phyto. A dash or two of pellets from time to time. All inhabitants seem fine, still waiting for fishes.
Amphipods population exploded. If I had a wrass it would go amok. I only hope they are good citizens and they are grazers and detritivores, not copepod devourers.

martin.a · Sep 2, 2026

Nutrients hit the bottom. Nitrates are 1.3ppm, phosphates are 0 ppm. Not funny, I don't have anything at home to dose. Being down with flu I can't go to LFS to buy. For now, I put in a few cubes of fresh tuna and a good scoop of fish food. Peppermints went amok. Otherwise the tank looks good - no sign of dinos, touchwood. Even with those low nutrients green film re-formed on glass within few hours after cleaning.

martin.a · Sunday at 11:03 PM

The tank got a new inhabitant. A large green wild-collected BTA.

Anemones are infamous for their wanderlust. This one did not like its dedicated location. After it slid from the rock, I helped it out to a similar location at the other end of the tank. It stayed there for a few days, looked happy and bold, had a very good attachment, but was still not feeling home-sweet-home, and so it went around. After visiting a few locations, this is where it is now:

Seems, I got a cave anemone.

. Jokes aside, I know this is not good. For now, the nem looks fine. It's inflated, mouth closed, body column and the foot look fine. It moves actively reaching out with the foot. (I actually had no idea that nems can extend/contract the foot so much.) I tried, unsuccessfully to persuade it into some other 'perfect locations'. I will leave it in that cave, unless it start showing signs of deterioration.

Also, I got a decora goby. The goby is in observation tank for now. It was quarantined by the LFS, looks very healthy, eats a lot. What a facial expression! Bits my daughter when told to clean up. More about decora once its in the display.

Water params are fine except bottomed phosphates. I keep dosing, and feeding to keep them a hair above 0. Nitrates are ~5ppm. Coraline growing fast. Supporting with A4R. Feeding with frozen mysis and dosing quite a lot with phyto (Nanno, Tetra and Chaetoceros). Tank is full of amhipods and copepods. Sycon sponges started growing a few weeks ago. There are a lot of them now in the sump. One even grows on an astrea snail in the display...