Salty Fingers

courtneykeeps · Jan 6, 2023

Euphrate said:
Hey. I love your instagram account btw! And your tanks are stunning.
Best Regards

Thanks so much! I appreciate you saying that.

Eric R. · Jan 6, 2023

courtneykeeps said:
You have some species that I would love to get! It's nice to see variety.

Probably have a bit of an edge on availability being in the states, since I can order from folks that harvest in the gulf and keys. Kudos for doing a macro tank in London!

Eric R. · Jan 6, 2023

I just got what was available through reef cleaners with my most recent CUC order. Some point I'll order from gulf coast ecosystems or another dedicated macro collector.

courtneykeeps · Jan 6, 2023

ereccer said:
Probably have a bit of an edge on availability being in the states, since I can order from folks that harvest in the gulf and keys. Kudos for doing a macro tank in London!

Yeah I can't lie, I'm very envious of the selection you have in the states! But I won't give up, I'm sure some new species still become available at sommmme point.

For now, I'll make the best of what I've got!

Daniel@R2R · Jul 28, 2023

Hey @courtneykeeps how is this tank doing? Would love to see an update!

courtneykeeps · Aug 2, 2023

I had completely abandoned by journal after being away for so long! But once it's cleaned up and thinned out, I'll post an update.

Thanks for the interest!

courtneykeeps · Aug 9, 2023

Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.

I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!

rmorris_14 · Aug 9, 2023

courtneykeeps said:
Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.

I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!

Those could be dinos. Without a proper ID, its hard to recommend a course of action. What are you Po4 and No3 levels? I suspect with all that macro algae absorbing nutrients, they could have bottomed out.

Daniel@R2R · Aug 9, 2023

courtneykeeps said:
Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.

I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!

The tank looks beautiful IMO! I don't have any good suggestions for additions.

Love the mandarin! Crazy that you got one that actually prefers frozen OVER live foods!

Gumbies R Us · Aug 9, 2023

courtneykeeps said:
Hiatus

I was busy arranging an aquatic life event at the start of summer which was immediately followed by a lot of holiday and me feeling quite down! Needless to say, the saltwater aquarium got neglected hard.

I've managed to clean up the tank and get it back to a respectable level. It's looking quite scraggly at the moment since I removed most of the Cryptonemia crenulata (literally a bucket full). I feel like it needs colour balancing? There's lots of red/green/pink and nothing else. Need some orange and yellow to bring it back - any recommendations??

Back in March, I decided to get a Mandarin dragonet to help tackle the flatworm issue. The shop manager told me it's 50:50 whether it would do anything, but to my delight it has cleared the tank of any flatworms and I've not seen one since! I also got a beautiful Mandarin as a result. Weirdly, it shows no interest in live copepods that I add but is a keen eater of frozen mysis, frozen lobster eggs, live tubifex and live whiteworms which is a relief. He's been living in the tank for 5 months now, so far so good.

I'm also battling a brown algae problem which I think it's hair algae? Maybe diatoms? I'm assuming it's because of water quality but I'm not sure. If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat it, I'd welcome it!

That is one great looking mandarin!

Mschmidt · Aug 9, 2023

Tank looks good. there are yellow, orange, and blue sponges out there that would give you interesting color and texture variety.

courtneykeeps · Aug 10, 2023

rmorris_14 said:
Those could be dinos. Without a proper ID, its hard to recommend a course of action. What are you Po4 and No3 levels? I suspect with all that macro algae absorbing nutrients, they could have bottomed out.

Oh yeah, I don't know why I never considered that too.

Unfortunately I don't have any super accurate tests, only the Salifert ones. But I'll do a test of the nitrate and phosphate and see.

Daniel@R2R said:
The tank looks beautiful IMO! I don't have any good suggestions for additions.

Love the mandarin! Crazy that you got one that actually prefers frozen OVER live foods!

Thank you!

Yeah he's very strange and I'm very lucky

Mschmidt said:
Tank looks good. there are yellow, orange, and blue sponges out there that would give you interesting color and texture variety.

Thanks! That would nice! Can you just buy them from shops?

Mschmidt · Aug 10, 2023

courtneykeeps said:
Thanks! That would nice! Can you just buy them from shops?

This side of the pond, they aren't everywhere, but I've seen them around.
@i cant think and @Nman may have ideas for finding them.

gorgonians too may be worth looking into. Iff they're there.

courtneykeeps · Aug 12, 2023

Looks like it could possibly be dinos.

The algae is brown, slimy and wavey and is mostly attached to macroalgae but is also on some parts of my gorgonian.

I tested my nitrate and phosphate. The phosphate was low but present (I suspect from the frozen foods I feed?), but the nitrates were basically non existent.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase nitrates to a good level? My nitrates used to be way too high (50+) so I'm surprised that it's now rock bottom.

I used to dose Tropica Premium which is NPK + Trace but I'm pretty sure the nitrates are very low in that anyway.

Mschmidt · Aug 12, 2023

Neonitro isn't unpopular, but low n is not a pi problem I have.

rmorris_14 · Aug 14, 2023

courtneykeeps said:
Looks like it could possibly be dinos.

The algae is brown, slimy and wavey and is mostly attached to macroalgae but is also on some parts of my gorgonian.

I tested my nitrate and phosphate. The phosphate was low but present (I suspect from the frozen foods I feed?), but the nitrates were basically non existent.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase nitrates to a good level? My nitrates used to be way too high (50+) so I'm surprised that it's now rock bottom.

I used to dose Tropica Premium which is NPK + Trace but I'm pretty sure the nitrates are very low in that anyway.

you can always throw a piece raw cocktail shrimp in your sump and monitor your nitrate levels. they should start to increase. Remove when they get where you want.