300 litre with sump

[ying yang]

New nassariuos snails liking to be near new pistol shrimp burrow so he kindly used the snail like a rock to prop up his entrance but nass snail cleverly burrowed into sand lol.
Noticed little scratch on side of tank, doubt it cause any problems. Probably from having rocks in empty tank 5 years and occasionally moving them but idk lol

And here video of torch getting ready to split hopefully anyway ^_^

 

[ying yang]

Well sausage of a urchin 1- 2 times a day picking one new frags of zoa up ( got 2 urchin and must take it in turns to wind me up lol ) so urchins don't get it then better on sandbed but if put on sandbed then conchs knock it over lol so cant win.
Epoxy comes Monday so only few more days left of put the zoa back in the hole lol

 

[ying yang]

Bonus 6: for noopshysyche light contest,added some more decor to window outside front door



New torch settling in nicely

 

[Goaway]

i hope you win, powerful lights! I love the time schedule.

 

[ying yang]

Well let glass go diety a bit and now he not shadow boxing with himself ^_^ and back to all sorts of funny upside positions looking and picking from the rocks lol

Need to find a better way than this though as one side where he fighting his reflection most is the side which is on view from 90% of the room,maybe as get more corals in tank it will die down and can keep glass clean again

 

[Goaway]

It's relaxing when they just go about their business and not fight everything. I love the cbb! So glad I got mine.

 

[ying yang]

It's relaxing when they just go about their business and not fight everything. I love the cbb! So glad I got mine.

Yeah and boy do they go in funny positions when looking at the rocks ha ha

 

[ying yang]

Well tds crept upto 1 so re- ordered sediment and carbon filters for rodi ,been maybe 3 month since changed these 2 ,the di resin still half colour so telling me only half used but will change these 2 tommorrow and if goes to tds 0 happy days,if not I change di resin as it been in long time now.
The filter on the left actually from America which I not seen in a long time,if at all if I think about it when buying anything ,maybe because UK came out eu idk but that's not my problem aslong as I can get my stuff but rang manufacturer of rodi up and they looked my water report and says high chlorine in tap water so recommended sediment / carbon I one filter then another carbon filter on its own so will see how that goes ,

So far I'm 8 months into tank and no real ugly stage as such,well not what I was expecting anyway ,light coating of brown on sand/ rocks and now light coating of reddish on rocks/ glass but sandbed quite clean but snails and pistol shrimp doing great job turning it over and all these months as sand/ rocks started to get little uglier I just bought more cuc each time and so far so good as nothing like I see others tanks or maybe I'm just more laid back who knows ^_^
My opinion is algae is free food and aslong as not smothering corals then no big deal but tank still young so who knows I maybe pulling my hair out next week with a tank full of algae lnao

 

[Goaway]

At least the ugly stages are being kind. You had a lot going on. Having to battle ugly stage is mind wrecking.

I can't add shrimp. My wrasse would love that too much. He's a big boy and isn't scared of anyone. Time to add a barracuda.

 

[ying yang]

At least the ugly stages are being kind. You had a lot going on. Having to battle ugly stage is mind wrecking.

I can't add shrimp. My wrasse would love that too much. He's a big boy and isn't scared of anyone. Time to add a barracuda.

Yeah I only 2 wrasses and one a small cleaner and other silver belly juvenile still with all 4 spots on dorsal fin about 3 inch so occasionally he will nip at snails protruding parts but not seen him any interest in shrimps yet but who knows he could been reason why pistol shrimp died as anything possible in the war zone we call our tanks as everything seems to be trying kill everything or at least defend itself lol

 

[Goaway]

I would like to grow my corals out. All risk factors will no longer be added. I am a bit tired of rehoming things and losing things. I need a mental balance as well as a balanced reef. If I can find a handful of nice wrasses, I may let my melan go. But, that also means the cbb would need a new home as she eats anything that so much acts like an aiptasia.

I got a new rock home with paly and zoas. She went right for the small palythoa that LOOKED like aiptasia. It is in hiding and the smaller ones guts were consumed. I have a bad idea if my bubble tip ever leaves buds behind, they will be food too.

 

[ying yang]

I seen another guy post about adorned wrasse and Timor wrasse,these look kind of cool so will be researching into these 2 and may get one but as wanted a yellow tang years ago when bought this tank for algae control,but as took me 5 years to be able to set tank up they sky rocketed in price so that's reasoning behind choosing foxface.
But so far so good with none my fish eating corals but guess fish can change at anytime but I only got handful of corals so far so there's that also .

 

[ying yang]

Well managed to change sediment and carbon block for sediment and carbon combined and carbon block and also noticed in di resin chamber it was over a inch from the foam / plastic insert that's meant to hold it down so as this di resin meant to be packed in tight so water doesn't channel I decided to just top it up rather than change it all.back to tds 0 anyhow and making 50 litres of rodi for water change tommorrow

 

[ying yang]

Well been doing roughly 10% wc every week without fail for 6 months now at 25 litres and probably 300 litres total in system after minus rocks etc and last 2 wc I did 50 litres so around 16% and been tracking some my parameters....
Alk staying steady at 7.3
Nitrates been 25 on api test and inbetween 25- 50 ppm on salifert .
Phosphate always been like 0.25 but just now it's 0.1 so coming down but my nitrates seem high but zoas/ palys growing new heads .thinking putting some zoas on a overhang piece of rock on main rockwork.ive read much saying put on island but really toying with idea on main rockwork .
New torch on sandned going great ,will put on rocks tommorrow hopefully .
Old torch probably 4 months old little receded but tentacles cone out nice and seems enough flow but little concerned if put new torch next to it on sort of shelf on my rockwork then new torch receded as sometimes think not enough flow but could be the high nitrates ,its about 1/ 3 up in a 24 inch to the surface water I think so about 18 inch to surface but we shall see
Really need to buy more corals to see if start using nitrate up.
Want a gsp back wall/ overflow so as tried cutting up gsp and stick on glass and failed miserable I will buy decent size frag and just lean the rock up against back overflow so it can grow upwards hopefully .
Then need to decide on corals I want and where .got a sketch somewhere of names corals and I want and placements according to how I think they grow so need find that and see if stick to plan or change it lol. Will keep up with the 50 litres wc every week also for next few wc at least as doesnt seem to make any difference to nitrate levels at all,maybe I feed to much ha ha

 

[ying yang]

Well bought 5 new corals today .
Little frag of radio active eye zoa I think they was.
Another frag of some green/ purple zoa and a pinky zoa on same rock.
A purple tentacle torch and some kind stylo sps frag and a green slimer sps frag which got 2x 2 tentacles coming out where the polyp should be and had to either put in fish qt tank which would died as lights garbage and flow or put in dt or throw frag away or in process off getting advice if can try cut 2 of the branches of the sps green slimer where these 2 worms are with hopes that the green slimer recovers and in hopes all the worm has been eradicated

 

[ying yang]

Well salifert magnesium and calcium test kits cake today also .
Magnesium 1230 I think it was
Calcium 460

So magnesium little low maybe but calcium ok.so may have to look into this a bit .
Spoon came missing in calcium kit but spoon same size as calcium apparently so will just share as no point contacting sender for a spoon short ^_^
Got salifert test kits .....
Alk
Phosphate
Nitrate
Calcium
Magnesium

And api master test kit with high range ph,nitrite,nitrate and amnonia
Did think to buy salifert ph but changed my mind as read api good enough.

Maybe in future I get some hanna checkers but they £ 70 upwards in my country which is roughly about $ 85- $90 I think so quite expensive and I'm not running low nutrients so only really need test kits that give me rough figure of its to low or to high = do something about it or its acceptable = leave alone so we shall see

 

[ying yang]

Full tank shot as of today .
Slowly getting there with stocking corals but got alot rocks to put corals on.
But slowly but surely will get there as no rush and if takes a year to get full with all corals I want and another year for corals to grow out and fill it up so looks like a full mixed reef tank then so be it ^_^

 

[ying yang]

@Mibu as promised lol I would tag you when video ready ^_^
At first I thought ummm these are aiprasia between zoa polyps but now im thinking maybe not so 50/50 on it but maybe some other kind nem also but idk of im honest

 

[Goaway]

At 00:30 looks like a feather duster there is a tube there with it, 00:38 and 1:00 aiptasia

 

[ying yang]

At 00:30 looks like a feather duster there is a tube there with it, 00:38 and 1:00 aiptasia

Ok great thanks.ysah thought as much .not sure on feather duster at 00.30 as first 30 seconds is looking at something like 00 38 and 1.00 mark but doesnt matter.ok now going need try remove rock from water and try kill these little boooogers lol as cbb probably won't see them as zoa be fully open and hiding the aiptasia but I will sort something out im sure ^_^
Thanks