Mike's Red Sea Reefer 170

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Hello all :)

Thought I would create my own thread to show my tank and keep myself motivated to document its progress.
Only now that I have viewed the photos I had saved, I realised how much some of the stuff I've got has grown!

First tank was set up in July 2020, with no previous experience in reefing. I did have a tropical tank many years ago and I am learning the ropes as I go! :)

Please note -
Not all fish/inverts visible on the photos are in the tank at the moment. Some have gone carpet surfing and others were returned to LFS. I usually remove fish that show too much aggression.


Livestock atm:
1x Chocolate Tang / Mimic Tang
2x Longfin Anthias
1x Azure Damsel
2x Purple Firefish
1x Banggai Cardinal
1x Yellow Watchman Goby
1x Pictus Blenny
1x Leopard wrasse

2x Peppermint Shrimp
1x Cleaner Shrimp
1x Pistol Shrimp (AWOL, it may have died I haven't seen it in a while)
?x Nassarius Snail
1x Electric Blue Hermit
3x Hermit Crab (red)
8x Cerith Snail
2 Spiny Astrea Snails

?x Trochus snail - they are spawning, there are dozens

On March 2021 I upgraded to a Red Sea Reefer 170 as I always wanted a Mandarin fish, so will be building a refugium for him.

It started with some rock
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And different ideas
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Cycling the rock
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When that was done, adding live sand
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And testing... so much testing :)

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Even cats couldn't wait!
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Here's where the addiction starts
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Daily zoa inspection
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Two worlds, one cat to oversee it all
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Going through diatoms and acclimatisation
gCXLObo.jpg


Calaustrea in August
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At this point I realised I've got malawi rock, which is not suitable for a reef tank...
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New live rock from the LFS and a lot of stress if stuff is going to make it...
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Brave Chromis helped me cycle the tank again
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Freebie I got with the live rock... Any idea what it is?


Adding Coral
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Moooore coral
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Pictus Blenny
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More of Pictus Blenny
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First sighting... I did not realise how big those really are!
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This guy poses for pictures, I swear
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Impulse buy. I returned him 3 weeks later when I learned more about them. He's well and alive at LFS
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I absolutely love this guy, but also returned him. He covered all my coral with sand.
Had to take everything out of the tank to catch him
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This guy had the worst luck imaginable. He managed to jump out through the feeding hole in the lid and I think cats got to him... I had him for 20 hours
DMKLqNw.jpg


Pictus loves watching me
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These zoas had 2-4 heads when I got them!
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My girlfriends favorite
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Corynactis - came on live rock
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More Zoas!
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Preeettyyy
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Middle October...
I found my crab DEAD!
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Well, nope. Just molted. It was scary though!
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This. Guy. Poses. For. Pictures.
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Some more coral
aALdcoY.jpg

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Recently I got an algae blenny. At first he refused to it but now he's grazing on all rock and surfaces, still ignores any other kind of food though, however his belly seems to be full and he's active.
D9MDvvf.jpg


Night Time!
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Day Time!
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Every move you make, every breath you take, I'll be watchin' you
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Recent full tank shot
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Another crab
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Purple Firefish
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Caulastrea 2.5 months growth
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Aaaand just managed to catch this picture!
hPJHfcf.jpg
 
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Tank looks really nice and the pictures are great!!
 
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Thank you! :)
I've got a filter lens for my phone recently, the photos are becoming a lot better.
Still learning how to take them, the slightly curved front glass is making it a lot more difficult.

Plans for the nearest future:

New light
Sump with a refugium
 
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Light upgrade!

I have placed an order for a new Maxspect MJ-L165 Light
Its double the W power and has a lot broader spectrum than what I've got currently.
Can't wait to make the switch, my corals I'm sure, too.

Problems!

I have a built-in filtration system in the back. I packed one of the back chambers too tightly with filter media. As water evaporated, the pump was pushing it out from the back chambers into the display section and I did not notice a serious evaporation. Because of this, my salinity jumped to 1.032

Before I realised what's happened my goniopora closed up and one of the zoas did too.
I am slowly dropping the salinity back to 1.025 and I think I can see the zoas opening up already, I hope it will also be the case with the goniopora :(


24 days growth:

04.11.2020
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28.11.2020
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How does it compare to your people eaters?

Sad Goniopora:
U4al152.jpg


Love this duo
HUKdYoF.jpg
 
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Hello!

My goniopora is not opening up :(

I have a couple of ideas on why
a) Temperature spike - Accident with central heating... temp in the tank risen up to 28.5c
b) Pictus blenny was irritating it a lot, it became his favourite perching spot
c) my KH is low, around 6.5 Tomorrow I will be getting something to raise it
d) I starved it?

I moved it to a higher flow / lower light area and it did not make any difference

Full tank shot
9VSwOQZ.jpg


IMG_20201108_144717.jpg IMG_20201128_130800.jpg
 
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I have bought a second set of CA, MG and KH tests and seems like all was in check after all.
It's probably the temperature to blame

Here it is today, peeking! :)

WlIDnrj.jpg
 
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Goniopora slowly coming back to life

I am now an advocate of dosing iodine. I can see an explosion in growth and zoas appear healthier!

(It could be the new light too) :p
 

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My Algae blenny would not let the yellow goby get out of his burrow, the decision was made to return him to lfs
My scape suffered a bit I think, but well...

IT was worth it! :) Goby already peeking
zSNqhPU.jpg


Goniopora nearly back to full strength!
uBCDV0L.jpg



I was given this cutie for the blenny!
olOzk0R.jpg
 
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With the Blenny gone, Goby is getting out a lot more! :)

uO9OL52.jpg


Full shot, some changes again.
Some zoas went up onto the wall, scape got disturbed when I was catching the blenny
eNrklYO.jpg
 
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Got some nasty brown hair algae growth on areas of rock that had been recently exposed to light.
I didn't like the look of it and the fact it was disturbing the nearby corals so scraped it all off with a toothbrush and did a thorough clean of the tank.
I hope it won't spread :rolleyes:

I also started looking for the cause of it, all the water parameters that I have tests for were in check.

I grabbed a turkey baster and blasted the wavemakers.
Oh my, there was so much detritus.

I did a 20% water change and reduced the white photoperiod by 15%

Hopefully it'll do the trick!


Forgive me the poor picture quality

Goniopora growing new polyps!
nQkmoaP.jpg


Sunny D's doubled in size
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I've not killed the SPS! I want moar now!
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I hope I will not regret this, put some macroalgae in the display
I like the look of it
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This "frag" used to be ONE polyp. I accidentally snapped it off the larger colony when I got it and glued it to a snail shell. I did not expect this much growth so quickly
Ql0dgNW.jpg


DOSE IODINE. Zoas gotten their colours back and are growing like crazy :)
A6pptep.jpg
 
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I did not feed for 2 days
Fish started coming out more
Blenny got back to munching algae CHOMP CHOMP
and most importantly... brown algae is receding :)

Some pics

Lights were already in "night mode" which I set up recently some corals are closed up.

I like how they pop for such a basic coral.
Hstf4YZ.jpg


Blastomussa nearly healed. I hope it will start expanding soon!
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Fluff
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This view made me realise how much empty space I've still got ]:>
LmDcGHJ.jpg
 
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Oh completely forgot!

I am keeping an eye out for a larger, used cube tank. I do not like the rounded edges and curved front of the existing tank.
It will be 60x60 approx so possibly soon I will be moving all :)
 
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This is great :D
 

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Did a water change today and put my phone underwater for a bit :D

Soon to be a Zoa Garden. I need to figure out how to keep the populations in control and not let them overgrow each other!
6WumREN.jpg


Those next to the rastas were one of my least favorite ones. Since I started dosing and the colors pop they became one of my favorites .
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Someone is hungry!
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Fast growers
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PLS EXPAND
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Utter chaos growth explosion
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Head count doubled in a month
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When I got the organ pipe coral, I accidentally snapped off one of the polyps and glued it to a snail shell.
It went through hell, was buried under the sand, knocked over thousands of times aaaand nature finds a way!

Wfxg1nq.jpg
 
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I need your help, please

It seems like I need to start dosing my tank. Water changes are not nearly enough to keep the KH stable, It's dropped to 5 over the last week.

I will begin slowly raising it over the course of next few days, but I need to figure out a permanent solution to keep it stable.

What is the ultimate low maintenance KH dosing solution? Also, the harder it is to overdose the better.

A while ago I bought a KH buffer but decided to work on my water change regime instead. That's not feasible. I would need to do a water change every 3 days and mess with my water params, I already had some Dinos popping up here and there and had to deal with that. I do not want to starve the tank again.

Please let me know how would you start dosing this tank and what products to use

Thanks!
 
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