Ale's tax return tank (Red Sea 250)

[Alenya]

Little update:

Algae keeps back and forthing between dino and green so adding phosphate is doing the job I see the effect over a couple days. Only adding 1mm of Flourish phosphate every time I see the Dino starting to take over the green algae.

Nitrates are still high and I need to do another change. Ongoing nitrate control is going to be an issue. Trying to decide between reducing feedings, more water changes, carbon dosing... or just see how it goes.

My new gold torch is doing well! Fish have settled in together. Just bought a female leopard wrasse to ship to here finally. Still need another flasher wrasse and a blenny! And the Marine Betta if one ever appears

 

[Alenya]

Did a 45L water change to help empty the drum before the new water arrives!

Have decided to skip the Marine Betta.
Instead, we will add another flasher wrasse and a blenny, those plus the leopard wrasse will be 'tank complete'.

The final composition:

2 x Percula clowns
1 x Yellow watchman goby
1 x Valentini puffer
1 x Exquisite wrasse
1 x Leopard wrasse
1 x Flasher wrasse hybrid (Yellowfin x Filamented)
1 x ??? Flasher wrasse, probably McCoskers
1 x Banggai Cardinalfish
1 x Blenny - thinking Ember Blenny perhaps

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Nice list! I need to add a few ore fish myself!

 

[Alenya]

Nice list! I need to add a few ore fish myself!

You guys are a bad influence! Now I have so many fish and I want more, and I am going to need a bigger tank! It's only been TWO MONTHS!

 

[Alenya]

After doing some reading, I have decided to build and use Donovan’s Nitrate destroyer

 

[Alenya]

Little update:

Lots of algae growing everywhere - obviously a result of feeding lots of fish

Most corals doing well- smaller elegance still dodgy, acan frag struggling. Everything else booming!

Today I dosed 5ml vinegar and 1ml phosphate. I still need to make the DND but I will put the bioballs in the sump to start populating bacteria in the meantime.

New NSW will be diluted to 1.025 and heated tomorrow for WC; just picked up the RODI to do so.

Both my LFS suffering transport issues with stock. No date in sight or definites on an exchangeable flasher wrasse. My leopard wrasse ships to me next week. Ember Blennies sold out before I could secure one.

 

[Alenya]

The fish every morning

 

[Alenya]

Little update:

Tank got a bit of a clean; removed algae on sand and shuffled around some coral.

Ammonia 0.10
Nitrite 0
pH 8.0
Salinity 1.024
Nitrate 40ppm
Phosphate 0

Dosed another 1ml of phosphate
Daily dose of 5ml vinegar

Algae has taken up some of the nitrate.
Currently feeding 1 1/2 cubes a day.
Resuming dosing phyto

Added 6ml more phosphate, test keeps reading 0

 

[Alenya]

Phosphate still 0, another 3ml dosed. Will check this arvo and dose again.

In other news, my partner has now sulked more than once when I fed the fish before he could

I also have received lectures about topping up the RO reservoir, replacing the filter roll and Skippy’s ******* behaviour in the tank with the resident crustaceans.

We had family over and they got HAMMERED with invitations to see the tank the fish feed the fish check out the crabs look at the sump

It’s very cute

 

[Alenya]

My female leopard wrasse arrived for airport pickup this morning

Shipped in 1.030 water so lucky I had some NSW out the back - QT had a partial change to 1.027 and in she went.

Spent a minute or two getting her bearings then yep... into the sand

She’s a beauty

 

[Alenya]

Our new leopard wrasse has surfaced a couple times, not too excited by marine mix!

So I went shopping and picked up some live black worms, brine shrimp eggs, frozen Mysis and frozen Artemia. Hopefully one of these gets her interest! The brine shrimp are in the hatchery

 

[Alenya]

The leopard wrasse is now in the DT, mainly because she looks good and the DT will give her a less stressful experience with plenty of pods.

With everything bar the blenny now in the tank, I have started worming treatment with prazi.

As it’s a new tank I know I don’t have a worm population so the risk of an ammonia spike is low. Everything went through a couple weeks close observation before going in the tank - the focus has been on plenty of good food and a quiet environment.

Everyone is fat and in good shape - so in with the wormer

The skimmer cup is off and I also moved my Clarisea off the return pipe to help ensure nothing leaves the tank. And carbon out of course!

 

[Alenya]

Little update:

Temp 25.5 C
Salinity 1.024
Ammonia 0.10
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30ppm
Phosphate 0.5

Finally seeing a result on phosphate is good news Water change tonight should get it down a little. Great to see nitrate going down from dosing vinegar as well. There is some algae in the tank taking it up but I expect once a blenny finally comes in we will be good.

 

[Alenya]

We had a scheduled power outage today but the UPS we setup didn’t work :O Fortunately I was home because paranoid - a quick trip to snag a generator and all good. Tank down for an hour but looks okay.

 

[Alenya]

My pod pack arrived today - 3 days in transit! Amazing things were still alive!

But that’s not the best thing today...

I have coralline algae!

 

[Alenya]

Big update (pics coming):

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 25.5 C
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 40ppm
Phosphate 0.5

Current dosage plan:
2 cubes food twice daily
Live phyto 30ml daily
Vinegar 5ml daily
Reef roids 1/2tsp 2x weekly

Water change this weekend
Added some new leathers to the tank and a bunch of frags currently being dipped to go in as well.

Leopard wrasse had a decent go at breakfast, frozen mysis. Very promising

Noon: frags have gone in. Taking a break then getting water ready for a big change that should put us in a good place.

I’ve pretty much emptied my pockets buying frags so nothing now for another month while everything settles in

New items:

Toadstool leather
Finger leather
Gorg fan
War coral
Chalice copper ( I think)
Rainbow acan
Yellow trumpet coral
Green heliofungia baby
Purple frogspawn
Gold/green stem cream cap hammer
And a yellow tip elegance

 

[Alenya]

Photos! Finally

 

[Alenya]

Exciting news! I finally secured an ember blenny - the final addition to the tank Coming next week!

Today my clownfish also showed interest in the elegance corals. I hope they set up home there

I impulse bought a mandarin that looked hungry and he is chomping pods and looking much better.

The leopard wrasse has a fat little tummy and is eating frozen with gusto.

Dino has appeared again. Testing phosphates later today. Last check it was 0.5.

 

[Alenya]

Today’s tests:

Salinity: 1.025
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0.1
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 30ppm
Phosphate: 0.25

Phosphate is stable as is nitrate. Water change this weekend should pull it into my preferred numbers.

Manually removing algae from the sand next and expect the blenny will help continue to clear the remainder. Some of the algae left looks like dino but not sure about why it’s there since I have phosphates.

 

[ramona]

Great pictures!

May I ask what test kits do you use?