My first tank: Red Sea Reefer 170!

[Lowlandreef]

I'm going to try to keep the update streak going, since I have the time for it now.
A little while ago I spotted a few (what seem to be) spawns of my green torch coral. They are very tiny, so it's hard to take good pictures. Here are my attempts of taking a photo of the spawns:

My clownfish also started hosting my white torch coral, very excited about it!
Looks very cool IMO, since they're white as well.

 

[jk_s124]

Yeah I'm very happy how things are going! Your Dutch is impressive, bedankt voor het compliment
Nice addition on the green caulastrea, can't wait to see it develop like your other caulastrea colony!

Google helps with the Dutch! Ik ben niets anders dan een dwaze bedrieger.

 

[Lowlandreef]

Today I had a little adventure to say so. I've seen a lot of people with backup batteries for their tanks. I never invested in one, since I haven't experienced a power outage in over 10 years. Most of the power outages are fixed in under 2 hours over here, so I didn't really worry about it. However I was planning on getting a battery air pump just in case. I always thought when a power outage happened, I would just go to the store to get one.

So today was the day I had a power outage. One small problem, I just got diagnosed with COVID-19... Luckily I'm only experiencing mild symptoms, but I'm not allowed to leave my house until I'm recovered. So I was not able to go to the store and get a battery air pump. Fortunately the power outage was fixed in 40 minutes, so everything in the tank is fine. Will order an air pump asap though!

 

[jk_s124]

Always seems like a power outage happens at the worst time. Although I suppose most times are the worst times to loose power. Sorry to hear about your diagnosis though! I hope you have a quick recovery!

 

[Lowlandreef]

Always seems like a power outage happens at the worst time. Although I suppose most times are the worst times to loose power. Sorry to hear about your diagnosis though! I hope you have a quick recovery!

There probably isn't a "good" time for a power outage, but this was definitely one of the worst timings. I'm glad it was fixed really quick, so nothing bad happened.

Thanks a lot! Past few days I had a fever, but today I'm already doing a lot better. If my symptoms are gone, I can get out of quarantine on Tuesday. Will definitely get some fish and corals when this is all over

 

[Lowlandreef]

Update June 8th 2021:
I keep forgetting updates, but to be honest not a lot has changed. Very busy with college, so the tank is mostly running on auto mode. Haven't bought corals and fish lately, only fed the tank and cleaned the filters once in a while. Here's a FTS from today:

Since I stopped doing water changes (back in september I think), some algae started to grow. It was just some GHA, so nothing to worry about. Back in December I bought a small Tomini tang to keep the GHA under control. I know my tank is too small to keep an adult Tomini tang, but I have a friend with a large tank where the tang can go to when he's bigger. My tank will probably be upgraded before that happens though.
Here are some photo's of my current fish:

 

[Lowlandreef]

I just realized my previous message is an update which partially happened earlier than my last update. So chronologically speaking this thread is all over the place. Guess who has ADD

Thanks a lot! Past few days I had a fever, but today I'm already doing a lot better. If my symptoms are gone, I can get out of quarantine on Tuesday. Will definitely get some fish and corals when this is all over

Haven't addressed this either lol. Luckily I have fully recovered from COVID-19. Only had a fever for a few days, nothing to serious other than that. I did lose my sense of smell and taste, but it's slowly coming back.

I promised myself to get some new fish and corals when this was all over, but I haven't had the time yet. My vacation starts in a few weeks, so I will go to my LFS around that time. I'm planning on getting a yellowhead jawfish to sift my sand.

 

[revhtree]

Looking very nice!

 

[Lowlandreef]

Looking very nice!

Thanks Rev!

 

[Lowlandreef]

It has been a little over a month since my last update. I finished my college year with really good grades and I got an internship where I will be working on removing marine plastic waste. I'm really looking forward to it and it's another step in making a career in the marine field. But first I have vacation for a few weeks!

As for my tank, nothing much changed since the last update. Everything is still stable, I only see some bubble algae is popping up. Pretty happy about it actually, since I used to have an almost sterile tank. I'm now focussing on making the tank more professional and cleaning it where needed. My sump was a total mess so I wanted to get a vacuum cleaner to fix it. Most vacuum cleaners have a lot of negative reviews, so I just bought a small canister filter. Works really well and is easy to use, I would definitely recommend it to you guys!

It was also time to properly clean my wave maker, but I'm a little sceptic to vinegar. I've read so many stories of magnets starting to rust because of the vinegar. Luckily I found the perfect solution in my LFS today. Aqua Medic Variocare is especially made for tank equipment. It's a red liquid and you add some water to it and just put your tank equipment in it. The coraline on my wave maker came off in like 15 minutes. I haven't seen it with my own eyes yet, but the variocare changes from red to yellow when the solution is exhausted. Until that happens you can use it over and over if you want. Just don't leave the equipment in longer than 24 hours. This post is starting to become a review haha, but I would definitely recommend variocare!
I also got some other stuff today, but I think I will update again next week.

 

[jk_s124]

It has been a little over a month since my last update. I finished my college year with really good grades and I got an internship where I will be working on removing marine plastic waste. I'm really looking forward to it and it's another step in making a career in the marine field. But first I have vacation for a few weeks!

As for my tank, nothing much changed since the last update. Everything is still stable, I only see some bubble algae is popping up. Pretty happy about it actually, since I used to have an almost sterile tank. I'm now focussing on making the tank more professional and cleaning it where needed. My sump was a total mess so I wanted to get a vacuum cleaner to fix it. Most vacuum cleaners have a lot of negative reviews, so I just bought a small canister filter. Works really well and is easy to use, I would definitely recommend it to you guys!

It was also time to properly clean my wave maker, but I'm a little sceptic to vinegar. I've read so many stories of magnets starting to rust because of the vinegar. Luckily I found the perfect solution in my LFS today. Aqua Medic Variocare is especially made for tank equipment. It's a red liquid and you add some water to it and just put your tank equipment in it. The coraline on my wave maker came off in like 15 minutes. I haven't seen it with my own eyes yet, but the variocare changes from red to yellow when the solution is exhausted. Until that happens you can use it over and over if you want. Just don't leave the equipment in longer than 24 hours. This post is starting to become a review haha, but I would definitely recommend variocare!
I also got some other stuff today, but I think I will update again next week.

Thanks for the tips on the variocare are and canister filter for sump cleaning use. Clever! Have a wonderful well deserved vacation, and congrats on the internship and successful college year!

 

[Lowlandreef]

I also got some other stuff today, but I think I will update again next week.

Next week became 2 months later, oops haha. Anyway I got an Aqua Medic temperature controller. I got it just before I went on vacation, so I wouldn't have to worry about heatwaves while I was gone. Since having it I also found out the temperature of my tank was way higher then I thought it was. I want it to be around 78 F, but it actually was around 80.5 F. Good thing the controller is doing its thing now, so the tank isn't as hot anymore. Also I found out I have a lot less evaporation now, so my ATO lasts a lot longer

 

[Lowlandreef]

Unfortunately I also have an update with some bad news. My clownfish grew quite a bit over the past 2 years and became pretty aggressive. It started with nipping on my hands, but it got to pushing corals over and attacking other fish. In the last year I've seen multiple fish with ripped fins and I actually lost 2 fish because of it. I'm not the person to just buy fish and return them to the LFS when I get bored of them, but it has gotten out of hand. So with pain in my heart I brought my 2 clownfish back to the LFS 3 weeks ago
Here's the last picture I took of them. This was in the bucket when going to my LFS. They truly are gorgeous fish. I hope they have a nice new home where they can grow old and be nice to other fish.

My LFS gave me store credit for them, so I tried to make this sad event a little less sad and I bought a pistol shrimp with a yellow watchman goby & a lubbock's fairy wrasse. The goby and the shrimp found each other really quick and made a nice burrow together. The goby was also eating really well, so I was very happy about the new addition. The wrasse was shy but ate alright the first few days. After that he disappeared and I didn't really see him too much.
Fast forwarding to this week my yellow watchman goby disappeared all of a sudden. This was weird to me, since he wasn't in his burrow. Next day I was working on my desk and smelled something weird. You can probably guess it already, but I found him dried up on my desk. Somehow he jumped out of the tank, even though I have a lid on my tank. This is the first time (in 2,5 years) that this happened to me, but I feel really bad about it. The poor fish died in a horrible way. RIP little guy...

Next day I finally saw the lubbock's fairy wrasse again. But this wasn't too good either, because his eyes were swollen and cloudy. I put him in an acclimation box to hopefully save him. He didn't wanna eat and looked really bad. He hadn't eaten in around 2 weeks, so he was really skinny. From what I could tell he had eye flukes, so I gave him a freshwater dip to try to make it a little better. Unfortunately it didn't help much and he died the next day. I feel very unlucky because my LFS quarantines all their fish and I never had a sick one. For some reason this one slipped through. I also feel guilty that I didn't have a QT tank to treat him in. I plan on buying a QT tank just to observe the fish and possibly treating them when needed. For now I just hope my other fish don't get flukes as well, because that would make this horrible experience only worse. As soon as I have money, I will buy a QT tank. Let's hope everything stays good until then.
RIP Lubbock's wrasse, sorry I wasn't able to take good care of you...

 

[Lowlandreef]

I was already planning this for a longer time, but I finally bought a QT. I got the fluval flex 15 gallon. It's an all-in-one tank with a light build in the lid. I chose this tank, because it has everything I need and it looks better than just a bare tank with a basic filter IMO. I have it in my room, so looks are important too. I also bought a submarine ornament for the fish to hide. I know most people in this hobby hate ornaments, but I think it looks funny haha! It has a little face on the front, in case anyone was wondering.

I also got 5 mangroves, which I put in my refugium. I just got them, so for now I will try to grow them out for a bit. I plan on making a small mangrove tank in the future. Credits to @inland_reef for inspiring me to get mangroves. I also got obsessed by them when I learnt about them last year in college in the Natural Coastal Protection classes. It's amazing how effective these plants are in preventing subsidence and absorbing waves. Hopefully I can learn more about these plants when taking care of them.

 

[inland_reef]

Mangroves are the best!

 

[Lowlandreef]

First fish in my observation tank were a success! I was planning it to be a QT, but it turned into an observation tank since I buy my fish quarantined. So I will only treat them when they are sick.
I dropped biological media in the sump of my main tank for a few weeks and then transferred it to the observation tank. Then I got the fish and I monitored the ammonia. Luckily no spikes, so it was all fine.
Fish were healthy and eating well, before I transferred them to the main tank.
Here are pics of my yasha goby and lubbock's fairy wrasse!

The top fin of the yasha goby was gone when I bought it, but as you can see it's already growing back. He is still a little bit picky in eating, but he eats flakes and frozen so I'm happy. When I got him he only ate live baby brine shrimp, so it's great progress! The lubbock is just an absolute pig. He eats everything and isn't shy at all. Very glad I made the choice to buy a separate tank for my new fish. I'm pretty sure the yasha goby wouldn't have made it other wise. He was just too skinny and shy when I got him. He probably would've went into hiding and not come to eat.

 

[jk_s124]

Adriaen! Sorry I missed your posts before. Been busy and haven’t been on this forum much in the past 5 months or so. Hope everything is still going well. Love the Yasha goby and Lubbocks wrasse. I got a yasha and pistol shrimp too! Your QT tank is nicer than most display tanks!

 

[Lowlandreef]

Adriaen! Sorry I missed your posts before. Been busy and haven’t been on this forum much in the past 5 months or so. Hope everything is still going well. Love the Yasha goby and Lubbocks wrasse. I got a yasha and pistol shrimp too! Your QT tank is nicer than most display tanks!

No worries, I've been absent on here for a few months too. Unfortunately my yasha goby jumped out of the tank a week ago... I have a tight fitting net on my tank, so it's a mystery for me how he jumped out.
Other than that everything is going well in the tank. I'll post an update in the thread asap

 

[Lowlandreef]

Unfortunately I had to deal with some fish loss in December. I was on vacation to Madrid for a week, and when I came back my bicolor blenny and green chromis were gone. Both were doing fine before I left, so I don't know what happened. My parents fed the tank, and they didn't know what happened either. My other fish were fine and my water parameters were normal too. My parents took care of my tank multiple times and I always leave very clear instructions. So I don't really think they did something wrong.

A few weeks back I also lost my cleaner shrimp after 3 years. I think 3 years is a pretty normal age, so that's probably just a natural death. My yasha goby jumped out of the tank a week ago, even though I have a tight fitting net on my tank. For so far all the negative updates.

 

[Lowlandreef]

Luckily there are also positive updates!
The tomini tang, yellow wrasse and lubbocks wrasse are doing great. I got a forktail blenny since my other blenny died. He is very small, but eating well. It's a very tame fish that eats out of my hand. I had a lot of struggle getting him to eat flake food though. In my observation tank he first only ate baby brine shrimp. After a few weeks he also ate frozen food. After a month I decided to put him in the DT, since there was no progress in eating flake food. I hoped he would start eating flakes, when he saw the other fish eating it. Luckily it worked and now he's eating very well.

That tiny fish holds his own very well against those other big fish. Everyone is very peaceful, so I'm glad I decided to get rid of my clowns. I do miss my clown fish a bit though, they are very active and pretty fish. If anyone knows a peaceful kind of clown fish, please let me know!
Over 1.5 year ago my green branching montipora almost bleached during a heatwave. I kept it in my tank, hoping it would recover. Luckily it actually did! I even fragged two pieces.