Aussie RS Reefer 525XL

[AidanMary]

A couple of snaps for the those who love all things blue

 

[Simonsen]

Realy nice setup you got there! Nice lines on the RedSea tanks. Your scape is perfect too!

How is it to live in Australia? Easy to get som awsome pices of stics? (Acros)

Realy jealous on the coral/fish selection you may can get over there.

 

[AidanMary]

Yeah there is a good selection of coral and sps is relatively cheap compared to the US with most nice small colony sized acros costing the equivalent of US$30-40 however as we have a no import policy on coral we don’t have certain species along with none of the real stunners that come from indonesia ect.
This also means the cost of some coral is astronomical compared to the US with an example being rose bubble tips costing anywhere from US$ 400-500

 

[Simonsen]

Yeah there is a good selection of coral and sps is relatively cheap compared to the US with most nice small colony sized acros costing the equivalent of US$30-40 however as we have a no import policy on coral we don’t have certain species along with none of the real stunners that come from indonesia ect.
This also means the cost of some coral is astronomical compared to the US with an example being rose bubble tips costing anywhere from US$ 400-500

I see!

I live in Norway so "Aussie" SPS is kinda gold for us. We pay around 300-500 us$ for Echinata Ice Fire from Australia, so i see the prices is a little bit lower!

So picking some frags in the reefs is not an possibility?

 

[AidanMary]

No you must have a collectors license to collect coral from the great barrier reef which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars however i believe you are aloud to collect coral from some parts of australia such as the norther territory but i mar be mistaken.

 

[Simonsen]

No you must have a collectors license to collect coral from the great barrier reef which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars however i believe you are aloud to collect coral from some parts of australia such as the norther territory but i mar be mistaken.

I see!

But you gote some nice diving experiences i guess!

 

[AidanMary]

I see!

But you gote some nice diving experiences i guess!

I’ve only been up to the reef twice as i live in melbourne which is about 2000km away.
I went diving in cairns last year and it’s was good but our reef is going through a tuff time at the moment with the last few summers being excessively hot with water tempretures up to 29-30 celsius which is causing a lot of bleaching but fingers crossed the reef can bounce back and repair its self as i would love to go back many more times to dive.

 

[AidanMary]

Some new frags in the tank tonight. Hopefully they do well as there are already encrusted on the plugs.
Also shut down our pico tank and have a yellow assessor in an acclimation box from the tank and bought a second one to go along with it so will add both fish once they have been in the box for a while.

 

[AidanMary]

Small update, removed the frag rack as it is generally empty and makes that corner of the tank hard to clean so out it goes.
Also have started to remove considerable amounts of sand as i only seem to grow cyano on it so will eventually convert to bare bottom and try to increase the flow.
Also moved the fileing cabinet that used to be next to the tank as we upgraded the kitchen so now have an awesome view of the tank from the dinner table.

 

[Synodontis]

Looking good guys!
Just remember your removing bacteria when you remove the sand. Any plans on adding Siporax or something similar to the sump to help with that?

 

[AidanMary]

Im only removing a small amount at a time so as to not shock the system.
I already have a few liters of seachem matrix in the sump so that plus the live rock should be ok however i need to try something to reduce nitrate. for some reason i have no issue with phosphate and it always tests low however my nitrates are up around 15-20ppm. i’ve been saying i want to setup a fuge for ages but i’m always too lazy to do it.
Carbon dosing hasn’t been that great for me in the past either.

 

[AidanMary]

So picked up a few new pieces of acro at the this months Masov meet but yet to take any pictures, i also sent off my first triton test for the tank so hopefully will get some feedback on anything that is lacking or negativly effecting the tank and hopefully work on getting the colors looking better.

 

[novahobbies]

Wow, looks beautiful! I love the progression photos

 

[AidanMary]

So i got the results of my first triton icp test today and the results are both good and a bit confusing. i have green lights for everything except for an elevated level of lithium which i dont know what the cause is and a lack of iodine which i’m not troubled by. my worry comes from the fact that the tank and it’s colors are looking so drab and nothing is vibrant. surely trace element dosing isn’t necessary if i’m not missing any of the major trace elements and surely my nitrate level which is around 15-20ppm which i know is high isn’t high enough to be causing the tank that much stress. what else could i be missing ?

 

[AidanMary]

Ok so today i made up a baffle for my sump to allow for a fuge to grow some cheato, i used a piece of 6mm acrylic which i cut to size and drilled 200 holes into which was a massive chore. Im using an led light that i previously used on a nano tank i have since shut down and now just need to find some cheato. On another note the tank isn’t doing so well. im having a quite a few pieces of coral start to die off and i’m not sure why, water tests don’t show anything to be out of the ordinary so i’m scratching my head as tonshag it might be.
I was also appointed president of our local club the Marine Aquarium Society of Victoria and will be helping to run the societies activities for the next 12 months which should be fun and challenging.
Hoping to get some more memberships encourage local reefers to come to our meetings and socialize with other reefers along with promoting local brick and mortar stores around melbourne.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Hi @AidanMary! Any update on your reef? Following along!

 

[AidanMary]

Hi @mdbannister, no real good updates on the tank at the moment unfortunately.
The tank is looking a bit worse for wear as i am battleing cyano at the moment along with something that is killing off a lot of coral (mainly sps) Can’t quote put my finger on what it is though.
Doing my best to keep on top of general maintenance but hoping to just ride out the storm before adding anything new into the tank. Fuge has been up and running for a while now and the cheato seems to be growing but not seeing any noticeable drop in nutrients and i have to say the added cleaning due to algae growth in the sump is headache but don’t really have the funds for a macro algae reactor so it will have to do.
The family is going on an overseas trip next month so hoping to get some motivation to get the tank back in shape once we get back.