kevgib67
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NickSmall
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7 months later...
The fish tank is still up and running, as of last month the tank has been restarted for a year and is looking fantastic (in my opinion). i figured i would put a little update on my tank and what worthwhile upgrades i have made throughout the year.
For the last few months i had been battling against some kind of Red Goo which was covering my rocks and sandbed, it was either dinos or cyano but i took a risk and did a chemiclean treatment and dropped my light a lot as well as having it on for an hour less a day and it cleared away whatever it was and the tank has remained goo free for a week now, fingers crossed it stays that way for a while.
i just bought my most expensive coral, it was listed as a white tipped holy grail torch but i think for the price i bought it for its probably not a true holy grail, regardless i think it looks great. I have also had the gold torch in my tank for a few months now and has grown a lot. i am also really appreciating the growth on my gold hammer coral, it has become pretty huge which is exciting for me. additionally i have an orange acan looking coral (not 100% sure what it is) growing on the left side of the tank which i think looks pretty nice. sadly the goniopora coral seems to be dying off, im not sure whats caused it although i suspect it may be low manganese or flow, i have since put it lower in the tank and am hoping it might turn things around. i had hoped to have more coral in the tank by this point but im glad i havent filled my tank with corals im not too excited about, partially its becuase my lfs has been slacking on the coral front for a few months now!
as for the fish we currently have 5 inhabitants, my clownfish zeke who has been with us for years now, our scopas tang Gerry who we have had for a year now, a regal tang (i know, i know, its going to outgrow my tank and when it does i will take him to my lfs and get something smaller), a longnose hawkfish who remains unnamed, a stripped damsel called Norbert (who is a lucky fish to still be in there as he is getting quite aggressive) and most recently i added a small midas blenny who im hoping will thrive as they are one of my all time favorite fish.
as for equipment a few bits come to mind, firstly the ATO (which is a dirt cheap one from ebay) is the goat, i cannot believe it took me years of being in the hobby to realise that i might not have to manually top the tank off with water. The heating controller is awesome, its nothing too expensive but this time of year especially im really appreciating how its keeping my tank at a reasonable 25.5 degrees celcius even during the summer. The most exciting piece of equipment for me is certainly my kalkwasser set up, im in love with it, its allowed me to finally grow coral not just sustain them, i had a blast putting it all together - i converted one of my old 10lr barrels into a dosing container using acrylic tube and some bulkheads, i top it up with kalkwasser every 2 weeks and let it work away unmanned in the background, my KH now sits around 8-9 whereas before i was struggling to hit 6.5 - as a side note to kalkwasser and i dont know if im imagining it but i recently added an air stone to my sump (it is recommended when you do chemiclean you add more oxygen to the tank) and since adding it i have noticed that my KH has risen to closer to 9 than 8, i assume this is because of the correlation between Ph and Kh but i think ill be keeping the airstone in the sump.
The fish tank is still up and running, as of last month the tank has been restarted for a year and is looking fantastic (in my opinion). i figured i would put a little update on my tank and what worthwhile upgrades i have made throughout the year.
For the last few months i had been battling against some kind of Red Goo which was covering my rocks and sandbed, it was either dinos or cyano but i took a risk and did a chemiclean treatment and dropped my light a lot as well as having it on for an hour less a day and it cleared away whatever it was and the tank has remained goo free for a week now, fingers crossed it stays that way for a while.
i just bought my most expensive coral, it was listed as a white tipped holy grail torch but i think for the price i bought it for its probably not a true holy grail, regardless i think it looks great. I have also had the gold torch in my tank for a few months now and has grown a lot. i am also really appreciating the growth on my gold hammer coral, it has become pretty huge which is exciting for me. additionally i have an orange acan looking coral (not 100% sure what it is) growing on the left side of the tank which i think looks pretty nice. sadly the goniopora coral seems to be dying off, im not sure whats caused it although i suspect it may be low manganese or flow, i have since put it lower in the tank and am hoping it might turn things around. i had hoped to have more coral in the tank by this point but im glad i havent filled my tank with corals im not too excited about, partially its becuase my lfs has been slacking on the coral front for a few months now!
as for the fish we currently have 5 inhabitants, my clownfish zeke who has been with us for years now, our scopas tang Gerry who we have had for a year now, a regal tang (i know, i know, its going to outgrow my tank and when it does i will take him to my lfs and get something smaller), a longnose hawkfish who remains unnamed, a stripped damsel called Norbert (who is a lucky fish to still be in there as he is getting quite aggressive) and most recently i added a small midas blenny who im hoping will thrive as they are one of my all time favorite fish.
as for equipment a few bits come to mind, firstly the ATO (which is a dirt cheap one from ebay) is the goat, i cannot believe it took me years of being in the hobby to realise that i might not have to manually top the tank off with water. The heating controller is awesome, its nothing too expensive but this time of year especially im really appreciating how its keeping my tank at a reasonable 25.5 degrees celcius even during the summer. The most exciting piece of equipment for me is certainly my kalkwasser set up, im in love with it, its allowed me to finally grow coral not just sustain them, i had a blast putting it all together - i converted one of my old 10lr barrels into a dosing container using acrylic tube and some bulkheads, i top it up with kalkwasser every 2 weeks and let it work away unmanned in the background, my KH now sits around 8-9 whereas before i was struggling to hit 6.5 - as a side note to kalkwasser and i dont know if im imagining it but i recently added an air stone to my sump (it is recommended when you do chemiclean you add more oxygen to the tank) and since adding it i have noticed that my KH has risen to closer to 9 than 8, i assume this is because of the correlation between Ph and Kh but i think ill be keeping the airstone in the sump.
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