Mike's Red Sea Reefer 170

[Simsung]

2x Banggai Cardinals removed - They were dominated and were always hiding. I could not watch it anymore, returned them to LFS.

Approx 4kg of live rock added to the tank
Removed approx 2kg of live sand
Removed macroalgae - I think they nutrient starved the tank, Dinos were kicking in slowly and most corals stopped showing any signs of growth.

Decided to do water changes twice a week (2x10L instead of 1x 15L)

Fingers crossed everything will go well!

Crazy how a clean glass and lighting changes the appearance of the tank...

 

[Simsung]

Dipping my toes into dosing alkalinity. It was dangerously low.
2 days in, stuff is looking a lot better!

older photo

 

[Simsung]

Some progress pics, no particular order

One of the last mushrooms I've got. They do not like my tank, i lost three already

I only realised I have two species when taking this photo

Coming back to life! (Acclimatisation didn't go well, it bleached completely)

This Ogan pipe coral tripled in size!

And made baby frags!

Zoa garden in the making. I need to move the apple smiths and rastas.

Zoa Garden in the making 2

Zoa garden in the making 3

Zoas

Full tank shot in the evening

 

[Simsung]

Tried to post a gif but I can't embed it

Thought its pretty cool

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gph.is

 

[Simsung]

Sadly the clam got murdered by the electric hermit crab 24 hours after adding it to the tank.
I will get another but only after I catch and return the crab

Full tank shot (forgot to move the thermometer )

 

[Lemon]

what type, and how is the macroalgae doing?

 

[Simsung]

what type, and how is the macroalgae doing?

It was Gracilaria Curtissae, which is doing phenomenal. At some point I thought it was nutrient starving my tank so I got rid of it but it regrows from the tiny bits that were left. I now have a 3 by 3 inch bush that grew out of a rice grain sized piece.

 

[Simsung]

I need to start a new thread

Tank upgrade!

I was absolutely sick of the Kent Marine Tank. It was ugly, small, the back filter was terrible, I had issues with the filtration going out of sync, resulting in mini leaks from the tank as it was overflowing.

As I wanted a mandrin fish, I decided to get a tank with a sump on budget.

Facebook alert and 2 months later... a 6 months old Reefer 170 with cabinet and sump popped up on the marketplace.
I jumped the gun and we picked it up the very same day.

What have I gotten myself into!

Ouch. Luckily I had absolutely no reaction, no pain whatsoever.

Some Velcro and Cable ties later

A little more space, nearly double the water volume.

Firefish are finally confident enough to leave their burrow couple times a day! and are not scared ****less of me

I realised my light is not nearly enough for this tank now.... ehh... So I added another one

And a dosing pump with it, planning to use it for KH

 

[GoReefin]

Looks like a great start to the new tank! Sorry for your clam loss. The hermit crab may have not killed it. They usually close up tightly to prevent hermits from getting to them.

 

[Simsung]

Looks like a great start to the new tank! Sorry for your clam loss. The hermit crab may have not killed it. They usually close up tightly to prevent hermits from getting to them.

I caught the crab "red handed" ripping the clam out through the foot hole. It stayed closed for a couple of days after that and died 2-3 days later so I believe its downfall began with the foot picking by the crab

 

[GoReefin]

I caught the crab "red handed" ripping the clam out through the foot hole. It stayed closed for a couple of days after that and died 2-3 days later so I believe its downfall began with the foot picking by the crab

Oh no yeah that crab would go straight into the sump!

 

[Simsung]

Will this ever end? Hope not (I bought some and some were given to me for free by the LFS. They had lights failure)

GSP finally started to encrust

Zoas growing well

One of the free frags already coming back to life (it was completely brown)

Candy cane nearly a full ball already!

Tubipora Musica is the size of my palm now. Have a frag approx half the size

Tropical thunder monti. I think I'm bleaching it tho!

Fungia becomes triangular when well fed

I need to start hunting these down, they're getting way too big

Some top down

Banggai never gets any attention

GF got me this nem, I like it but just to have one less headache I will be returning it to the LFS

This rock is filling in nicely!

Red People eaters finally becoming a colony. Raised it from a single frag!

Digging this (spot the 4 clams)

Monti hirsuta lime. Grows extremely quickly

New Goniopora :3

This gonia is unhappy. I moved it to a shaded area, lets see what happens
I tried reef roids, phyto, dosing trace elements. nothing seems to be helping

Daylight Tubipora and my Leopard Wrasse <3

 

[Simsung]

Gf got me a nem I was super anxious and thought to return it but it seems to be chilling out where it is now so I'll leave it be for now.

I got myself a cleaner shrimp. I don't know why I didn't pick up this dude this long. I love those whiskers sticking out from underneath the rockwork and he seems to get out in the open so much more!

Tank seemed to be kinda dead with not much fish swimming around. Now it seems too busy, I got two clownfish!

Acan

Montipora Hirsuta Lime coming back to life and growing quick.
I shocked it horribly when transporting but it came back to life!

I declare war on the large bristleworms. I saw it crawl over my zoas today and I think it stung them, they have not opened up all day

 

[Simsung]

Update!
I bought a hanna po4 checker and a new no3 test kit and it turns out by tank is extremely low on nutrients.
Adding cheato recently has contributed to the problem, so Ive been trying to feed a lot more.
Like 5 times more than I used to!
Still super low nutrients. I now c onsider dosing them, but only if I can find something that I can add to my ato or kh solution.

All this feeding seems to make the corals a little happier and it seems that the growth is picking up again.

Zoas!

Frogspawn

Pavona

Montipora Hirsuta

Tiny bubble tip anemone, the clowns are really ticking it off

Tropical Thunder Monti stopped bleaching. Fingers crossed it will colour up now
It is growing tho

What are you looking at?

Utter Chaos (Any my Pictus <3)

Pocilopora

Zoa garden

Green Kenya & Tubipora Musica

Grumpy Arsehole & Tricolor Lobophylia

Unhappy monti

Euphylia

Purple Firefish

galaxea or Galaxia?

Tiny Fungia

Silver Goniopora

Mix of firework and regular clove polyp

My backwall decor
Some briareum, tubipora (fragged) zoas, macro algae and mussels

Jamaica zoas in the back

Too much flow mushrooms and I-forgot-its-name montipora

Leather mushroom

Duncans

Candy Canes in feeding mode

Blastomussa (Finally seeing 3 new heads!)

Trying some acro and random s[s

Blue hungry candy cane

 

[Simsung]

I dont post here often as people don't seem to be very interested.
Just an update for myself really. I was locked out from this account for a bit (or so I thought)... HOLY !"%$£ THE PROGRESS I SEE ON THE PHOTOS!

Today I added an urchin to try and combat the sea lettuce (ulva) problem. I am tired of plucking it manually and its spread everywhere. Mimic tang just ignores it. I have been trying to teach it how to eat it by putting some in a algae clip mixed with green algae but he just picks on the algae ignoring the ulva

Zero editing:

 

[Simsung]

Things are doing pretty well!

To sum up:
I am being annoyed by valonia (bubble algae), ulva (sea lettuce) and sadly I am seeing some Bryopsis here and there.
My girlfriend is going strong and plucks it every day or two, if it was not for her the tank would probably be over run.

I decided to "nuke" it again, I have started Vibrant treatment and ordered some fluconazole.

Top down view

All our tanks

Wrasse likes the camera

Zoa garden

Zoa garden2

Zoa garden in different light

This tube anemone has a baby :3

Did I say I really like zoas?

Pictus blenny sleeping in one of the leathers

I will be moving within the next two months, the plan is to buy a larger tank and set it up at the new place so I can seamlessly move the livestock there.
I am already looking at battery operated aerators and powerheads

 

[rishma]

Just read through the thread and wow, corals look great and your pictures are much better than I ever take.
I just moved and had to take down my RSR 170, worse yet I have to downsize. Sounds like you are headed in the right direction!

 

[Simsung]

Just read through the thread and wow, corals look great and your pictures are much better than I ever take.
I just moved and had to take down my RSR 170, worse yet I have to downsize. Sounds like you are headed in the right direction!

Thank you!
Photos are taken with a Huaweii P30 Pro and a cheap-o Chinese yellow filter lens. I usually only adjust the exposure.

I am moving in 2 weeks-ish as well. The plan is to upgrade, but we decided to not do it immediately as the costs are turning out to be a lot more than I anticipated.

I will end up with a bigger tank, I hope to go two or three times bigger length wise, likely a peninsula

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Simsung]

Update!

I have a second tank now, its more than double the size! Total volume its nearly three times as big.
I am in the process of quarantining the coral and life that came with it and I am curing the rocks and sand.
Also, I did not decide on its final location so I am holding off with filling it.

My Red sea reefer lived through the house move with minimal casualties. One fish got fin rot (my lovely pictus blenny ) but the good news is that its already growing back and he seems as happy as always.

The plan is to set up the big tank, seed it slowly with everything coming from my tank and then move everything over gradually. I plan to use my water change water to fill the new tank and after I clean and cure the rock and sand I will start "seeding" it with life in my sump.

Now, pictures!

 

[GoReefin]

Awesome welcome to the multiple tank club the itch doesn't stop at 2!