The Scleractinia Shallows

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looks nice!

 

[Wrangy]

The tank is a little bit of a softie mess at the moment as I don't really have any room to organise the frags and sort them out properly lol. Once I have my schmexy new sump under the tank I can sort it all out, change the scape up a little and get ready to stuff the amazing tank full of candy coloured goodness :D


Annd some pics:





I did my first water change on the tank yesterday and the first series of tests too and things turned out pretty nicely :) Alk is way low but that's because I'm not dosing at the moment as I'm lazy lol but everything else was way better than I was expecting!
Alk: 4.5dKh
pH: 8
Nitrates: 0-5ppm, test was too hard to determine so it's somewhere in there lol
Phos: 0.009ppm, test with the Hanna low range Phosphorous kit.

The phos reading surprised me a little as I get glass growth fairly soon so it may be a little higher but then again I only just recently added some captivphos to sort out any silicates that might be coming out of the rocks :) No signs of hair algae or anything just some great diatoms and glass growth :) lol

All the corals are doing well and growing so I'm really happy with that front of the tank but there is some bad news at the same rate. Some really bad news :( I've had some fish loses. It seems that my beautiful bellus and kole never really quite settled into the tank and each other. They were constantly squabbling and going after each other and it seems that that had taken it's toll in the end... both of them fell ill and have sadly died :( massively upset about the loss of these guys and especially my bellus. It seems that it's purely down to their interactions with each other as both my wrasse's (earmuff and possum) are completely healthy with no signs of sickness what-so-ever.

It means I've also been giving my stocklist a really long hard think over the last couple of days and what I want from the tank. It seems like I'm heading in a bit more of a wrasse direction and smaller fish with just a couple of 'big' fish. It's going to be a pretty (read expensive) tank lol:
- A pair of captive bred royal grammas
- Lennardi wrasse
- A pair of flasher wrasse, haven't decided on species yet.
- Anything liopropoma that comes through Dave! Anything lol
- A new pair of genicanthus :(
- Tinkers butterfly (still lol)

It's a bit of a sad update but the tank is still progressing as I'd hoped which I guess is the silver lining in all this.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Very nice!

 

[Slack Tide Reef]

4.5 dkh [emoji33] Those clams really suck up that alk. I had a big Squammie in an old tank so I know how that goes! When are the acros being brought back?

 

[Wrangy]

4.5 dkh [emoji33] Those clams really suck up that alk. I had a big Squammie in an old tank so I know how that goes! When are the acros being brought back?

Haha yep, I knew it was going to be low but whoops!! Everyone looks fine though and the clams are happy :)
Once the sump is in, so hopefully two weeks away :D I'm getting a few extra goodies too so exciting times!

 

[Wrangy]

Happy as a... lol

 

[Wrangy]

Spent a few hours at Deer Park today just chilling and chatting with Mark and Dave, didn't buy anything but I had nothing better to do so it was the best way to blow 4 hours :p haha poor buggers!
That being said I did get to check out the kick butt range of Aquaforest products now in the store and given how amazingly priced they are, I'll be moving to AF for my big 3 dosing and some trace as well I think. Might give some of the other crazy products a go down the line too! :)

The real highlight of the trip was getting to see my sump in a near finished state :D D holy crap it's going to be soooo amazing to have a play with!! :D Dave has done a marvelous job with it and I was certainly not wrong entrusting the sump to him! I cannot wait to have this bad boy running! Everything looks fantastic and it's going to be a breeze to work with as well :) There's so much room lol frag tank/acclimatisation tank is going to come in a great deal of handiness with all new additions too! Anyway I took a couple of snaps of my sexy new sump!






I do feel a little bad for the tank builder :P (not really ) haha

 

[Wrangy]

Crappy video

 

[Caseyoidae]

Great build! SO much room for activities!! lol

 

[Wrangy]

Great build! SO much room for activities!! lol

Thanks mate, been a bit neglecting on the updates so here's a couple just for you :)

Starting with the the sump lol


The first chamber houses my heater (300w titanium) and the skimmer, my trusty RLSS R6-i skimmer!


Then sitting in front and underneath most of the sump is the ato section (which I adore!)


After the skimmer section is the other processing powerhouse of the sump! This sections runs three things:
- 10L of Matrix, stirred every few days.
- 125ml of coconut flake carbon (potent stuff! lol) changed monthly.
- 250ml of AF PhosMinus, changed bi-weekly.
I also add my three drops of Pro Bio S and NP Prop into this section. The matrix is really kicking nutrient butt at the moment too :)


After that, the super fresh water hits the frag tank :) I haven't pictured that though because it's just a frag tank lol. The final sections are a sock rack (empty as the holder hasn't been added lol) and the return, the kick-butt M1

And also dosing Component 1, 2 and 3 :)


Current exact Aquaforest dosing:
- 3 drops of Pro Bio S
- 3 drops of NP Pro
- 2 drops AF Build
- 50ml Component 1, 2 and 3

Once things have settled and the acro's have cheered up again I want to play with some Vitality from AF to see what happens, boy do I love tinkering! lol
Sounds like we're on the way to a proper sps display again haha! So how about some pictures for everyone :)
Lets start with some more detail! Right side is zoa city with some of my prettiest pieces!


The middle is light city and the centre of attention, my maxima :)


And finally the left side is just acro town :)






And finally, we'll finish with a lovely FTS :)

 

[Ljaus]

Looks great! Thanks for the detailed system show off

 

[Biggles]

Nice update Dom, have you spent your voucher yet matey :)

 

[Zero Nitrates]

All the acros look great! The frag rack in the sump is very cool.

 

[Caseyoidae]

Putting a frag system in the sump is an amazing idea! My girlfriend tells me the eggcrate in my display are ugly and I have to agree. May have to do this soon! Great sump, took me a sec to figure out. Looks good!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Just another pretty reef!!!

 

[Wrangy]

Looks great! Thanks for the detailed system show off

Thanks mate :) Happy to share the info about the system, it's pretty simple!

Nice update Dom, have you spent your voucher yet matey :)

I'm laying in wait, ready to pounce! :p

All the acros look great! The frag rack in the sump is very cool.

Cheers :) It's very handy, although it's starting to be planned into a second display haha

Putting a frag system in the sump is an amazing idea! My girlfriend tells me the eggcrate in my display are ugly and I have to agree. May have to do this soon! Great sump, took me a sec to figure out. Looks good!

Definitely makes life soooo much easier! Especially if I turn it into another tank lol

Just another pretty reef!!!

Thanks mate :) Pretty happy with progress I've made.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Looking great!! Thanks for sharing it with us!