Cole.mormon
Valuable Member
neon dottyback would whip the cleaner shrimps A**
WarEagle's CADE 1500 S2
- Large Build
- Thread starter WarEaglesReef
- Start date
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WarEaglesReef
Active Member
Well...after several trips to Home Depot on Friday, complete with totally confusing the head of the plumbing department with my leak crisis, I managed to come up with my own solution and have been officially up and running leak free all weekend. I emailed AlgaeBarn for assistance on Friday morning with a replacement part or ideas for solving the problem and still have not received a reply. So, less than thrilled with their customer service on that front.
But everything is dried out now, and I'm back in business. The Fritz Turbo Start and AlgaeBarn's Nitrocycle did an amazingly impressive job cycling the tank. Officially no signs of ammonia or nitrite and I'm down to just trying to get my nitrates down to a reasonable level before adding some livestock. I got the GHL Profilux all hooked up and monitoring the new tank and controlling my heaters, and I'm working on getting it set up to put the skimmer on a delay in case of a power outage so it doesn't overflow while the sump is mega full. I saw a YouTube video a while back showing how to add a float switch to your skimmer and have it shut off your skimmer and send you an alert when the cup is full, and I'd love to add that functionality as well. But I need some extra parts to make that work, so that will be a later addition. I need to do some research on all of the cool things I can do with it, as I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of what it's capable of currently. Next step is getting the dosing pump set up.
Wrangled my cables together in a somewhat acceptable fashion. (Omg so many power bricks to deal with) At some point maybe I will get super fancy with it, but for now I'm glad there's not just a spaghetti tangle of cables everywhere and I can finally close all the doors on the bottom cabinet.
Also, I had these little Spongebob and Squidward houses that I threw in there as a joke, but I actually dig how they look chillin' in between all the live rock. So, it may become a Bikini Bottom reef tank
Who knows if they'll be permanent fixtures, but for now I'm having fun with them.
I also took advantage of the Container Store's Elfa sale and built myself the little storage cart on the left side of that pic. It fits perfectly between the wall and the edge of the tank, and I threw some wheels on it to be able to roll it out if I ever need to access that side of the sump, or the overflow. It's SO nice to finally have a place to put all of the dosing chemicals, test kits, food, and miscellaneous other fishy goodness and get rid of all the boxes I had sitting around. I have my living space back and things are moving along nicely!
But everything is dried out now, and I'm back in business. The Fritz Turbo Start and AlgaeBarn's Nitrocycle did an amazingly impressive job cycling the tank. Officially no signs of ammonia or nitrite and I'm down to just trying to get my nitrates down to a reasonable level before adding some livestock. I got the GHL Profilux all hooked up and monitoring the new tank and controlling my heaters, and I'm working on getting it set up to put the skimmer on a delay in case of a power outage so it doesn't overflow while the sump is mega full. I saw a YouTube video a while back showing how to add a float switch to your skimmer and have it shut off your skimmer and send you an alert when the cup is full, and I'd love to add that functionality as well. But I need some extra parts to make that work, so that will be a later addition. I need to do some research on all of the cool things I can do with it, as I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of what it's capable of currently. Next step is getting the dosing pump set up.
Wrangled my cables together in a somewhat acceptable fashion. (Omg so many power bricks to deal with) At some point maybe I will get super fancy with it, but for now I'm glad there's not just a spaghetti tangle of cables everywhere and I can finally close all the doors on the bottom cabinet.
Also, I had these little Spongebob and Squidward houses that I threw in there as a joke, but I actually dig how they look chillin' in between all the live rock. So, it may become a Bikini Bottom reef tank
Who knows if they'll be permanent fixtures, but for now I'm having fun with them.I also took advantage of the Container Store's Elfa sale and built myself the little storage cart on the left side of that pic. It fits perfectly between the wall and the edge of the tank, and I threw some wheels on it to be able to roll it out if I ever need to access that side of the sump, or the overflow. It's SO nice to finally have a place to put all of the dosing chemicals, test kits, food, and miscellaneous other fishy goodness and get rid of all the boxes I had sitting around. I have my living space back and things are moving along nicely!
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WarEaglesReef
Active Member
Bikini Bottom Reef continues to be developing nicely. Got my nitrates back down under 10 after the cycle and headed over to Neptune's and picked up a Midas blenny and a Helfrichi firefish to add to the tank.
Midas blennies have always been on my list to have at some point. They always seem to have such fun personalities. This little one was very shy for the first few days, but is now out swimming in the high flow from the MP40s and hanging out with my pair of clownfish all day.
Aside from hiding the first few hours, the firefish has been up front between Squidward and Spongebob's houses.
After letting them settle in for a few days I moved over the three smaller fish from my other tank, the pair of clownfish, and my starry blenny. The clowns spent the first day in a nice big cave up front, but have since decided that they like the back of the tank better, which I'm kind of bummed about, but they still come up front on occasion.
Benny was NOT happy about being caught. I had to get him when he swam up into my little auto feeder tube so he couldn't see me because he's way too fast and smart to catch otherwise, and he tried to jump out the top of it to escape the net. He's settled in nicely and continues to show off his best, "get off my lawn" faces from the windows of the houses. Lol.
Last Friday my clean-up crew from Reef Cleaners arrived. Two red and two green mithrax crabs, a bunch of hermits, and a mix of cerith, dwarf cerith, nassarius, and astrea snails. The cleaner shrimp seem to have made quick work of the astrea snails and are either flipping them over themselves and eating them, or pouncing so quick they get to them before I have a chance to spot them. Only a few of those left...don't think I'll be replacing those with the same kind.
Came home from dinner that evening and found that the big red mithrax crab had found the Krusty Krab. So he has now been appropriately named Mr. Krabs.
Still need to figure out what I'm going to do with my sump/refugium. I'm thinking about going with an algae reactor to prevent the sump from getting nasty from the light spill, as I don't think there's really a great way to prevent that in this sump and I'd like to keep things tidy if possible. I got my biopellet reactor plumbed into one of the two reactor valves to help keep my nitrates in check while I figure out what I want to do refugium wise. Still working on programming the doser and learning more about what the Profilux is capable of doing. So far it's managing my temp really well, and monitoring the probe readings but that's it. So I need to give it some more jobs. Lol
Midas blennies have always been on my list to have at some point. They always seem to have such fun personalities. This little one was very shy for the first few days, but is now out swimming in the high flow from the MP40s and hanging out with my pair of clownfish all day.
Aside from hiding the first few hours, the firefish has been up front between Squidward and Spongebob's houses.
After letting them settle in for a few days I moved over the three smaller fish from my other tank, the pair of clownfish, and my starry blenny. The clowns spent the first day in a nice big cave up front, but have since decided that they like the back of the tank better, which I'm kind of bummed about, but they still come up front on occasion.
Benny was NOT happy about being caught. I had to get him when he swam up into my little auto feeder tube so he couldn't see me because he's way too fast and smart to catch otherwise, and he tried to jump out the top of it to escape the net. He's settled in nicely and continues to show off his best, "get off my lawn" faces from the windows of the houses. Lol.
Last Friday my clean-up crew from Reef Cleaners arrived. Two red and two green mithrax crabs, a bunch of hermits, and a mix of cerith, dwarf cerith, nassarius, and astrea snails. The cleaner shrimp seem to have made quick work of the astrea snails and are either flipping them over themselves and eating them, or pouncing so quick they get to them before I have a chance to spot them. Only a few of those left...don't think I'll be replacing those with the same kind.
Came home from dinner that evening and found that the big red mithrax crab had found the Krusty Krab. So he has now been appropriately named Mr. Krabs.
Still need to figure out what I'm going to do with my sump/refugium. I'm thinking about going with an algae reactor to prevent the sump from getting nasty from the light spill, as I don't think there's really a great way to prevent that in this sump and I'd like to keep things tidy if possible. I got my biopellet reactor plumbed into one of the two reactor valves to help keep my nitrates in check while I figure out what I want to do refugium wise. Still working on programming the doser and learning more about what the Profilux is capable of doing. So far it's managing my temp really well, and monitoring the probe readings but that's it. So I need to give it some more jobs. Lol
danieyella
unfriendly local swamp witch
Just caught up, I'm currently in a mental debate between the 1500 or the 1800 as an upgrade for my 90g. Leaning towards 1500 so I can have a small storage section to the side and still be able to move and access that door. Looking good!
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WarEaglesReef
Active Member
I debated as well, and am glad I went with the 1500 for that same reason. It fits perfectly in the space I have while still allowing me to open the side doors. Would've been a real struggle for the 1800. I'll look forward to following your build thread if you make one! Always cool to see what others do with the same tank as you.
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WarEaglesReef
Active Member
Had a gorgeous new little baby arrive in the mail yesterday! I've wanted one of Biota's captive bread coral beauty angels for a while now, and I figured this big new tank would be the perfect opportunity for that. They sent me an absolutely stunning itty bitty baby that I have instantly fallen in love with. I was expecting a 2-3" fish and she's baaaarely an inch if that. So. Friggin. CUTE. Her coloring is beautiful and she was immediately out and about exploring her new home as soon as I added her to the tank. She's found a few caves she really likes (much to Benny's chagrin, she can fit into smaller spaces than him and he hasn't been able to evict her from her current favorite spot that he also happens to like. LOL) Excited to get to watch her grow into an adult! And I'm very happy to have the opportunity to give my business to @Biota_Marine again after their little Indie-Go-Go 13.5 gallon Evo tank packages and step by step education are what convinced me to make the jump and try saltwater several years ago.
Can't seem to get a video upload or an embed to work here, so if you wanna see her out and about swimming (and see much more frequent updates and fish nerdery via photo/video) come find me on Instagram at WarEaglesReef
Jury's still out on a name for the new arrival (still no name for the firefish yet either) but we've decided on naming the Midas blenny Foxxy Cleopatra after Beyoncé's character in Goldmember. She needed a fun gold themed name and that seemed to fit her fun personality well. Haha.
Got a few euphyllia frags from the sale @Corals Anonymous was having this week as well. Got two little mini torches, a frogspawn, and a hammer, but I've yet to get pics of those. I'd never ordered from them before and was super pleased with my experience. They let you pick a specific delivery date that works best for you so you can receive them as soon as they land on your doorstep, and everything I ordered came well packaged and was very healthy and pest free. Got those all dipped and acclimated and they're doing well! I'll have to get some pics for my next update here. I will definitely be shopping with them again in the future. Great selection of corals.
I've also officially hit that oh-so-lovely diatom phase. Yesterday afternoon they bloomed like crazy and my rockscape went from stark white to that familiar dusting of rust brown. The crabs and snails from Reef Cleaners are having a field day though, and I'm happy they all have jobs to do and a new food source now. Haha.
I've started to play with the scheduling of my MP40's trying out some of their different settings to see which ones make my corals the happiest. Definitely needed to turn them down a bit after adding the euphyllias on Tuesday. I had them running on the reef crest setting with a peak of 75% but that was just way too much flow in this tank for those corals. So I've got it dialed back to 50% max now and am trying out the tidal swell setting for most of the afternoon which the corals seem a bit happier with. There's a lot of customizability with these pumps and I'd love to get the most out of them.
We're officially two weeks away from receiving the fish I ordered from TSM Aquatics that are wrapping up their quarantine. I'm super excited to get them here and finally be able to move the two tangs over from the 75 gallon so everybody can get introduced at the same time and they can finally experience this big new tank I got for them!
Can't seem to get a video upload or an embed to work here, so if you wanna see her out and about swimming (and see much more frequent updates and fish nerdery via photo/video) come find me on Instagram at WarEaglesReef
Jury's still out on a name for the new arrival (still no name for the firefish yet either) but we've decided on naming the Midas blenny Foxxy Cleopatra after Beyoncé's character in Goldmember. She needed a fun gold themed name and that seemed to fit her fun personality well. Haha.
Got a few euphyllia frags from the sale @Corals Anonymous was having this week as well. Got two little mini torches, a frogspawn, and a hammer, but I've yet to get pics of those. I'd never ordered from them before and was super pleased with my experience. They let you pick a specific delivery date that works best for you so you can receive them as soon as they land on your doorstep, and everything I ordered came well packaged and was very healthy and pest free. Got those all dipped and acclimated and they're doing well! I'll have to get some pics for my next update here. I will definitely be shopping with them again in the future. Great selection of corals.
I've also officially hit that oh-so-lovely diatom phase. Yesterday afternoon they bloomed like crazy and my rockscape went from stark white to that familiar dusting of rust brown. The crabs and snails from Reef Cleaners are having a field day though, and I'm happy they all have jobs to do and a new food source now. Haha.
I've started to play with the scheduling of my MP40's trying out some of their different settings to see which ones make my corals the happiest. Definitely needed to turn them down a bit after adding the euphyllias on Tuesday. I had them running on the reef crest setting with a peak of 75% but that was just way too much flow in this tank for those corals. So I've got it dialed back to 50% max now and am trying out the tidal swell setting for most of the afternoon which the corals seem a bit happier with. There's a lot of customizability with these pumps and I'd love to get the most out of them.
We're officially two weeks away from receiving the fish I ordered from TSM Aquatics that are wrapping up their quarantine. I'm super excited to get them here and finally be able to move the two tangs over from the 75 gallon so everybody can get introduced at the same time and they can finally experience this big new tank I got for them!
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WarEaglesReef
Active Member
In the midst of Colorado's epic blizzard (we ended up with just shy of 30" at my house), this weekend was dedicated to Operation "Convince baby coral beauty angel to eat." She enjoys picking the diatoms off the rockwork, but I hadn't seen her take any of the prepared food the handful of days she'd been in the tank, so I went over to Tropical Pet Oasis here in Parker before the storm and picked up a few new kinds of frozen food to try out. We got some LRS Reef Frenzy (first time I'd tried that one and everybody else LOVES it) and some PE frozen mysis which has always been a hit with all my fish. But she wasn't interested in either of those. The winner ended up being this V2O Spirulina brine/mysis shrimp mix that the LFS recommended. It's definitely a much smaller particle size, and she went to town on that once she figured out it was delicious. So thankfully I'm no longer as worried about her not getting enough to eat, and I'm glad it's something that's regularly stocked at the LFS right down the street from me, as they feed it to all of their tanks in the store.
Overall the new baby is doing so well with all of the bigger fish in the tank! Grumpy Benny gives her a hard time occasionally and chases her off so he can steal her spot (as he does everyone *eyeroll*) but she remains unafraid and determined to cheerfully cruise around the tank exploring. She's finally exploring the mid levels of the tank today instead of just the bottom where she can hide super quickly. It's cool to see her become more comfortable as she gets used to her new home. I think she will end up being one of my favorite fish in the tank...she's such a joy to watch swimming around. I hope she keeps the same personality and progress once the tangs have all moved in.
Since we finally got that nice new stimmy check in the works and I got a decent tax return this year, I decided to splurge a little and get a PaxBellum macroalgae reactor from BRS to run in my sump rather than deal with light spill and mess from a traditional refugium. That's on its way here this week, and hopefully I'll be able to find a LFS nearby that's got some chaeto for me to get it up and running with as AlgaeBarn's been sold out for weeks now.
AlgaeBarn! Where's all the macroalgae??
I am getting my regular semi-monthly order of pods and phyto from them later this week though, and this will be the first time seeding the new tank with pods. (aside from whatever came in on the ceramic biomedia I'd been seeding with bacteria from my other tank) Haven't seen many pods in the new tank, so I'll be glad to get that population kick started and provide some extra food for the little baby angel to snack on.
My last round of water testing gave me some strange results. My calcium was at 537 which seems unusually high (first time I've tested calcium levels on the tank), and I'm not quite sure why it would be that high without any calcium being dosed since adding the initial salt mix. I used Fritz RPM to get the tank up and running, and I don't believe their mix usually runs calcium that high, but I need to do some research. Overall the corals in the tank seem pretty happy (although one of the frags I got from Corals Anonymous is struggle bussing juuuuust a tiny bit), so I'm not too concerned about it. My alkalinity was a smidge low at 7.4 dKH, so I'm hoping that my dosing to raise that a little bit will have an inverse effect on the calcium and bring that number back into the 400's. Nitrates are less than 5ppm and phosphate is sitting at .01ppm which are both great and I'm glad everything is pretty smooth sailing for the time being *knocks on wood*.
I had planned on doing a full Triton ICP test here soon to get a baseline to start the Triton method after the macroalgae reactor is up and running, so I'll be interested to see what those results say. I've heard the black sand I chose has the potential to carry some heavy metals, so I'm curious if I will need to dose to remove those or not. I want to have all that info before I start adding any SPS to the tank, as I know they can be much less forgiving of the presence of trace amounts of metals and other things.
I've also run into a new unforeseen issue here in Colorado...humidity. Having this giant rimless tank as well as the 75 gallon that's also open top, and the little 10 gallon QT tank up and running, humidity levels in my condo are frequently rising above 60% and causing condensation on all my windows and in the peephole of my front door. When the weather has been nice, I've just been opening my patio door and letting the humidity equalize with the much lower levels outside, but with the blizzard and cold weather I've just had to deal with the higher moisture inside and it's a little bit of a problem. So I think I'll have to do the unheard of here in CO and get a dehumidifier to keep the humidity levels in check. I'm hoping once the 75 gallon is taken down after I move the last two fish over that I'll have less of an issue. But I'd much rather nip this in the bud and keep it under control than risk any kind of mold issues.
Also, excuse the lovely rusty diatom bloom gorgeousness, but I managed to snag a photo the other night that has all 6 fish and Mr. Krabs the red mithrax crab in the frame (and a super difficult to find Mrs. Krabs the emerald crab if you wanna play on expert mode), so I had fun with a little bit of Reef Tank I Spy on social media. Can you spot them all? (two clowns, one midas blenny, one starry blenny, a purple firefish, and an itty bitty coral beauty angelfish) Will post the answer key later if y'all want me to. Lol
And in totally unrelated to fish/tank news, I had this gorgeous red-tailed hawk come to visit during the storm.
Overall the new baby is doing so well with all of the bigger fish in the tank! Grumpy Benny gives her a hard time occasionally and chases her off so he can steal her spot (as he does everyone *eyeroll*) but she remains unafraid and determined to cheerfully cruise around the tank exploring. She's finally exploring the mid levels of the tank today instead of just the bottom where she can hide super quickly. It's cool to see her become more comfortable as she gets used to her new home. I think she will end up being one of my favorite fish in the tank...she's such a joy to watch swimming around. I hope she keeps the same personality and progress once the tangs have all moved in.
Since we finally got that nice new stimmy check in the works and I got a decent tax return this year, I decided to splurge a little and get a PaxBellum macroalgae reactor from BRS to run in my sump rather than deal with light spill and mess from a traditional refugium. That's on its way here this week, and hopefully I'll be able to find a LFS nearby that's got some chaeto for me to get it up and running with as AlgaeBarn's been sold out for weeks now.
AlgaeBarn! Where's all the macroalgae??
I am getting my regular semi-monthly order of pods and phyto from them later this week though, and this will be the first time seeding the new tank with pods. (aside from whatever came in on the ceramic biomedia I'd been seeding with bacteria from my other tank) Haven't seen many pods in the new tank, so I'll be glad to get that population kick started and provide some extra food for the little baby angel to snack on.
My last round of water testing gave me some strange results. My calcium was at 537 which seems unusually high (first time I've tested calcium levels on the tank), and I'm not quite sure why it would be that high without any calcium being dosed since adding the initial salt mix. I used Fritz RPM to get the tank up and running, and I don't believe their mix usually runs calcium that high, but I need to do some research. Overall the corals in the tank seem pretty happy (although one of the frags I got from Corals Anonymous is struggle bussing juuuuust a tiny bit), so I'm not too concerned about it. My alkalinity was a smidge low at 7.4 dKH, so I'm hoping that my dosing to raise that a little bit will have an inverse effect on the calcium and bring that number back into the 400's. Nitrates are less than 5ppm and phosphate is sitting at .01ppm which are both great and I'm glad everything is pretty smooth sailing for the time being *knocks on wood*.
I had planned on doing a full Triton ICP test here soon to get a baseline to start the Triton method after the macroalgae reactor is up and running, so I'll be interested to see what those results say. I've heard the black sand I chose has the potential to carry some heavy metals, so I'm curious if I will need to dose to remove those or not. I want to have all that info before I start adding any SPS to the tank, as I know they can be much less forgiving of the presence of trace amounts of metals and other things.
I've also run into a new unforeseen issue here in Colorado...humidity. Having this giant rimless tank as well as the 75 gallon that's also open top, and the little 10 gallon QT tank up and running, humidity levels in my condo are frequently rising above 60% and causing condensation on all my windows and in the peephole of my front door. When the weather has been nice, I've just been opening my patio door and letting the humidity equalize with the much lower levels outside, but with the blizzard and cold weather I've just had to deal with the higher moisture inside and it's a little bit of a problem. So I think I'll have to do the unheard of here in CO and get a dehumidifier to keep the humidity levels in check. I'm hoping once the 75 gallon is taken down after I move the last two fish over that I'll have less of an issue. But I'd much rather nip this in the bud and keep it under control than risk any kind of mold issues.
Also, excuse the lovely rusty diatom bloom gorgeousness, but I managed to snag a photo the other night that has all 6 fish and Mr. Krabs the red mithrax crab in the frame (and a super difficult to find Mrs. Krabs the emerald crab if you wanna play on expert mode), so I had fun with a little bit of Reef Tank I Spy on social media. Can you spot them all? (two clowns, one midas blenny, one starry blenny, a purple firefish, and an itty bitty coral beauty angelfish) Will post the answer key later if y'all want me to. Lol
And in totally unrelated to fish/tank news, I had this gorgeous red-tailed hawk come to visit during the storm.
danieyella
unfriendly local swamp witch
Glad to hear everything is smooth sailing! Check gulf-coast for chaeto, they had some recently. I also know for a fact podyourreef has it in stock, I just bought pods from them the other day and saw the listing.
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WarEaglesReef
Active Member
Got the PaxBellum ARID reactor installed in my sump this weekend, and programmed my Profilux to run it on a reverse light schedule that comes on an hour before my display turns off and turns off an hour after it comes back on. Managed to snag the last little handful of chaeto from my LFS, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to get it started.
Slowly starting to enjoy the capabilities of the Profilux controller as I get everything dialed in. I checked on my pH probe readings this morning after the ARID reactor has been up and running for a couple of days and it's really cool to be able to see how it is already stabilizing my pH levels even with the small amount of chaeto inside it. Here's a graph of the last week where you can see the swing every 24 hours. Still a little bit of a swing, but much less dramatic.
It will be really cool to get to watch that chart as it collects some more data and the chaeto inside the reactor grows to actually have the amount it's supposed to inside it. I've started dosing PaxBellum's Iron & Manganese that they provided to give the macro algae what it needs to thrive, and I need to get some updated nitrate and phosphate readings this afternoon to figure out how much of their Nitrogen & Molybdenum supplement I need to be adding to get the right ratio of nitrates to phosphates in the tank.
The new tank diatoms got pretty gnarly towards the end of last week, and since the two tangs from my old tank will be moving over in the next few days after the fish from TSM get here, I went ahead and moved the UV filter I had running on their tank over to this one and within 24 hours they were much better.
Picked up 4 new frags when I went out in search of chaeto, two different frogspawns, a purple stylophora, and a forest fire digitata.
Benny the starry blenny has become significantly more territorial in this tank. He bit me several times while I was putting the new corals in the tank. Thankfully he's not too terrible to his tank mates and they pretty much know to just give him his space. Lol
Here are a few pics from around the tank just 'cause.
Grumpy Benny.
New baby angel...she is proving rather difficult to photograph.
Mrs. Krabs and a little dwarf cerith snail on the glass.
Marsha and Harvey have become good friends with Foxxy. The three of them swim together in the current every night. Hope that continues after the tangs join the tank.
My lone scarlet hermit. Those little eyeballs though. Lol.
Played with the actinic/deep blue lights the other night. Not usually a fan of the nuclear blue look and don't currently have a period of just the blues in my lighting schedule, but I do like what it does to the corals. The new digitata and the two new frogspawns are up top, and the bottom echinata and ricordeas came from the old tank.
Spoke with TSM aquatics about my fish in QT today, as they were supposed to wrap up today. Very pleased with my customer service from them. They wanted to keep the tiny gem tang an extra week because the copper levels dropped a little low their first week in QT, but the rep I spoke to was also concerned about how small they are compared to the sailfin I also ordered and the two tangs I already have. The tiny ones they have are just barely an inch long at this point and he didn't want me risking the safety of the expensive little baby gem trying to hang with the bigger ones. After talking to him about the size of my current two tangs and and the size of the tank he told me they had another gem that was a bit larger at around 3" (very similar in size to the two I have, and the new sailfin) that was ready to go, that he thought would fit in much better with my current crew and stand much less chance of getting bullied, so I agreed the larger one was a much better choice. Really happy to see how much they care about the welfare of the livestock they're shipping out, and happy to take a fish that stands a better chance of being happy in my tank. They are getting them all ready to go, and they'll ship out to me tomorrow to arrive Thursday morning!
Slowly starting to enjoy the capabilities of the Profilux controller as I get everything dialed in. I checked on my pH probe readings this morning after the ARID reactor has been up and running for a couple of days and it's really cool to be able to see how it is already stabilizing my pH levels even with the small amount of chaeto inside it. Here's a graph of the last week where you can see the swing every 24 hours. Still a little bit of a swing, but much less dramatic.
It will be really cool to get to watch that chart as it collects some more data and the chaeto inside the reactor grows to actually have the amount it's supposed to inside it. I've started dosing PaxBellum's Iron & Manganese that they provided to give the macro algae what it needs to thrive, and I need to get some updated nitrate and phosphate readings this afternoon to figure out how much of their Nitrogen & Molybdenum supplement I need to be adding to get the right ratio of nitrates to phosphates in the tank.
The new tank diatoms got pretty gnarly towards the end of last week, and since the two tangs from my old tank will be moving over in the next few days after the fish from TSM get here, I went ahead and moved the UV filter I had running on their tank over to this one and within 24 hours they were much better.
Picked up 4 new frags when I went out in search of chaeto, two different frogspawns, a purple stylophora, and a forest fire digitata.
Benny the starry blenny has become significantly more territorial in this tank. He bit me several times while I was putting the new corals in the tank.
Thankfully he's not too terrible to his tank mates and they pretty much know to just give him his space. LolHere are a few pics from around the tank just 'cause.
Grumpy Benny.
New baby angel...she is proving rather difficult to photograph.
Mrs. Krabs and a little dwarf cerith snail on the glass.
Marsha and Harvey have become good friends with Foxxy. The three of them swim together in the current every night. Hope that continues after the tangs join the tank.
My lone scarlet hermit. Those little eyeballs though. Lol.
Played with the actinic/deep blue lights the other night. Not usually a fan of the nuclear blue look and don't currently have a period of just the blues in my lighting schedule, but I do like what it does to the corals. The new digitata and the two new frogspawns are up top, and the bottom echinata and ricordeas came from the old tank.
Spoke with TSM aquatics about my fish in QT today, as they were supposed to wrap up today. Very pleased with my customer service from them. They wanted to keep the tiny gem tang an extra week because the copper levels dropped a little low their first week in QT, but the rep I spoke to was also concerned about how small they are compared to the sailfin I also ordered and the two tangs I already have. The tiny ones they have are just barely an inch long at this point and he didn't want me risking the safety of the expensive little baby gem trying to hang with the bigger ones. After talking to him about the size of my current two tangs and and the size of the tank he told me they had another gem that was a bit larger at around 3" (very similar in size to the two I have, and the new sailfin) that was ready to go, that he thought would fit in much better with my current crew and stand much less chance of getting bullied, so I agreed the larger one was a much better choice. Really happy to see how much they care about the welfare of the livestock they're shipping out, and happy to take a fish that stands a better chance of being happy in my tank. They are getting them all ready to go, and they'll ship out to me tomorrow to arrive Thursday morning!
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WarEaglesReef
Active Member
Y'all. I am so in love with this tank. The shipment arrived from TSM early this morning and the fish were all extremely well packaged and in great condition. Each fish was triple bagged and they were very securely packaged with the big packing bubble bags to make sure they were secure and stationary inside the cooler. I got them all acclimated and added to the tank and moved over the two tangs from my old tank so they could all be introduced at the same time. Everyone is getting along great and they're all eating like pigs. Nori, pellets, frozen...all of it, no questions asked.
The red velvet fairy wrasse went in first. This is my first experience with owning a wrasse, and she is much more outgoing than I expected. I'd heard so much about wrasse hiding for the first few days after being introduced, I expected her to dive into the sand immediately. But she's been out and about all day, even taking some grief from Benny, who is very displeased that he is no longer the big fish in charge in the tank, without even batting an eye. What a beautiful fish that brings great movement to the tank. I think she will quickly become one of my favorite residents. My good friend has suggested I name her Wanda after the Scarlet Witch, which I said would work well because I can just change her name to Vision if she transitions to male.
The Red Sea desjardini tang went in next. This one is officially the smallest of the tang residents, but holding his own really well. I look forward to seeing how his pattern evolves as he matures.
The gem tang came in a significantly larger bag than the two smaller fish, so while he was taking extra time to salinity match, I moved over the blue and yellow tangs from the old tank. And last of all, the gem went in. He had an interesting white pattern on his sides from being in the dark, but that quickly faded after being out of the box. Overall a beautiful, fat and healthy fish. Very glad I went with TSM's recommendation to take the bigger gem tang over the baby. He is pretty much exactly the same size as my yellow tang, and as expected she has been the most dominant/testy of the bunch so far, so I'm glad everybody is fairly evenly matched size wise.
So far none of the tangs have shown any problematic signs of aggression (knock on wood) outside of the occasional display of fins and harmless gentle tail flashing.
I've got a couple videos of everybody up over on Instagram at WarEaglesReef. Having all the tangs in the tank along with the new wrasse brings a lot of dynamic movement and activity that was definitely missing without them. Even the clowns are much more active instead of just hiding in the back most of the day. Hard to do anything other than stare at the tank today. Haha.
The firefish has been hiding all day since adding the tangs, which is mildly concerning. I'm hoping that he comes out to explore and realizes that the tangs want nothing to do with him. The midas blenny hid for a couple of hours, but is now back to swimming out in the open completely ignored by the tangs. Can't say I blame the firefish though...four new big fish in the tank has got to be a bit intimidating. Gonna keep an eye out as the lights dim this evening to see if he makes an appearance. If he doesn't get comfortable in a couple of days I will probably look into rehoming him somewhere thats a little less intimidating, or setting him up in my old 13.5 gallon EVO tank so he doesn't have to be stressed.
That's all for now. Exciting day in Bikini Bottom Reef!
The red velvet fairy wrasse went in first. This is my first experience with owning a wrasse, and she is much more outgoing than I expected. I'd heard so much about wrasse hiding for the first few days after being introduced, I expected her to dive into the sand immediately. But she's been out and about all day, even taking some grief from Benny, who is very displeased that he is no longer the big fish in charge in the tank, without even batting an eye. What a beautiful fish that brings great movement to the tank. I think she will quickly become one of my favorite residents. My good friend has suggested I name her Wanda after the Scarlet Witch, which I said would work well because I can just change her name to Vision if she transitions to male.
The Red Sea desjardini tang went in next. This one is officially the smallest of the tang residents, but holding his own really well. I look forward to seeing how his pattern evolves as he matures.
The gem tang came in a significantly larger bag than the two smaller fish, so while he was taking extra time to salinity match, I moved over the blue and yellow tangs from the old tank. And last of all, the gem went in. He had an interesting white pattern on his sides from being in the dark, but that quickly faded after being out of the box. Overall a beautiful, fat and healthy fish. Very glad I went with TSM's recommendation to take the bigger gem tang over the baby. He is pretty much exactly the same size as my yellow tang, and as expected she has been the most dominant/testy of the bunch so far, so I'm glad everybody is fairly evenly matched size wise.
So far none of the tangs have shown any problematic signs of aggression (knock on wood) outside of the occasional display of fins and harmless gentle tail flashing.
I've got a couple videos of everybody up over on Instagram at WarEaglesReef. Having all the tangs in the tank along with the new wrasse brings a lot of dynamic movement and activity that was definitely missing without them. Even the clowns are much more active instead of just hiding in the back most of the day. Hard to do anything other than stare at the tank today. Haha.
The firefish has been hiding all day since adding the tangs, which is mildly concerning. I'm hoping that he comes out to explore and realizes that the tangs want nothing to do with him. The midas blenny hid for a couple of hours, but is now back to swimming out in the open completely ignored by the tangs. Can't say I blame the firefish though...four new big fish in the tank has got to be a bit intimidating. Gonna keep an eye out as the lights dim this evening to see if he makes an appearance. If he doesn't get comfortable in a couple of days I will probably look into rehoming him somewhere thats a little less intimidating, or setting him up in my old 13.5 gallon EVO tank so he doesn't have to be stressed.
That's all for now. Exciting day in Bikini Bottom Reef!
afternoondelight
Community Member
How's your tank coming WarEagle? Need an update here big dawg....Y'all. I am so in love with this tank. The shipment arrived from TSM early this morning and the fish were all extremely well packaged and in great condition. Each fish was triple bagged and they were very securely packaged with the big packing bubble bags to make sure they were secure and stationary inside the cooler. I got them all acclimated and added to the tank and moved over the two tangs from my old tank so they could all be introduced at the same time. Everyone is getting along great and they're all eating like pigs. Nori, pellets, frozen...all of it, no questions asked.
The red velvet fairy wrasse went in first. This is my first experience with owning a wrasse, and she is much more outgoing than I expected. I'd heard so much about wrasse hiding for the first few days after being introduced, I expected her to dive into the sand immediately. But she's been out and about all day, even taking some grief from Benny, who is very displeased that he is no longer the big fish in charge in the tank, without even batting an eye. What a beautiful fish that brings great movement to the tank. I think she will quickly become one of my favorite residents. My good friend has suggested I name her Wanda after the Scarlet Witch, which I said would work well because I can just change her name to Vision if she transitions to male.
The Red Sea desjardini tang went in next. This one is officially the smallest of the tang residents, but holding his own really well. I look forward to seeing how his pattern evolves as he matures.
The gem tang came in a significantly larger bag than the two smaller fish, so while he was taking extra time to salinity match, I moved over the blue and yellow tangs from the old tank. And last of all, the gem went in. He had an interesting white pattern on his sides from being in the dark, but that quickly faded after being out of the box. Overall a beautiful, fat and healthy fish. Very glad I went with TSM's recommendation to take the bigger gem tang over the baby. He is pretty much exactly the same size as my yellow tang, and as expected she has been the most dominant/testy of the bunch so far, so I'm glad everybody is fairly evenly matched size wise.
So far none of the tangs have shown any problematic signs of aggression (knock on wood) outside of the occasional display of fins and harmless gentle tail flashing.
I've got a couple videos of everybody up over on Instagram at WarEaglesReef. Having all the tangs in the tank along with the new wrasse brings a lot of dynamic movement and activity that was definitely missing without them. Even the clowns are much more active instead of just hiding in the back most of the day. Hard to do anything other than stare at the tank today. Haha.
The firefish has been hiding all day since adding the tangs, which is mildly concerning. I'm hoping that he comes out to explore and realizes that the tangs want nothing to do with him. The midas blenny hid for a couple of hours, but is now back to swimming out in the open completely ignored by the tangs. Can't say I blame the firefish though...four new big fish in the tank has got to be a bit intimidating. Gonna keep an eye out as the lights dim this evening to see if he makes an appearance. If he doesn't get comfortable in a couple of days I will probably look into rehoming him somewhere thats a little less intimidating, or setting him up in my old 13.5 gallon EVO tank so he doesn't have to be stressed.
That's all for now. Exciting day in Bikini Bottom Reef!
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