My Grateful Journeys Tank

[Cthulukelele]

So the area where the pump/heaters sit is built up? Just confirming for understanding. And I don’t think it’s “dirty” as clearly that’s ocean life. I’m just thinking in this social media Instagram world people feel like ultra clean is only way to go.

IMO social media/influencer accounts for fish/coral is similar to social media for people. It can be useful for general issues/discussion, but often the decisions made are for reasons associated with vanity and aesthetic vs. best practices/optimal health of our boxes of living organisms.

Beautiful start to your tank btw. Excited to see as it fills in.

 

[ESABOE]

IMO social media/influencer accounts for fish/coral is similar to social media for people. It can be useful for general issues/discussion, but often the decisions made are for reasons associated with vanity and aesthetic vs. best practices/optimal health of our boxes of living organisms.

Beautiful start to your tank btw. Excited to see as it fills in.

Thank you so much Cthulukelele! It’s a labor of love.

And agree about this “fake” expectation social media has created and it’s even found it’s way into a cabinet of a fish tank!!!!

 

[tbrown]

I vac the sump occasionally when I do a water change, so once every month or 8.

Come to think of it, I don't remember when my last water change was...

 

[fishguy242]

So the area where the pump/heaters sit is built up? Just confirming for understanding. And I don’t think it’s “dirty” as clearly that’s ocean life. I’m just thinking in this social media Instagram world people feel like ultra clean is only way to go.

built up as in raised ? no all equip on bare bottom of sump tank ,some debris ,never clean though...

 

[ESABOE]

built up as in raised ? no all equip on bare bottom of sump tank ,some debris ,never clean though...

Sorry, wrong wording on my part. Thanks Frank. I think I’ll keep everything balanced, not too extreme on either end.

Since I don’t run skimmers, carbon reactors, and such I just want to be mindful on detritus and coraline build up in the sump so it doesn’t adversely effect my water parameters.

Appreciate the feedback

 

[steveschuerger]

Sorry, wrong wording on my part. Thanks Frank. I think I’ll keep everything balanced, not too extreme on either end.

Since I don’t run skimmers, carbon reactors, and such I just want to be mindful on detritus and coraline build up in the sump so it doesn’t adversely effect my water parameters.

Appreciate the feedback

Yeah I don’t use a skimmer or reactors. My tank is an AIO that can be used for either fresh or salt. Came with a ton of bio ball that were put to good use when it was fresh. But now I have the chamber right before the return pump filled with live rock and my 2 pincushion and pencil urchin are in jail there. I’d like to get some chaeto uand use my ReefBreeders pico light to grow it in the chamber in front. And the heater is in another chamber back there. As for actual mechanical filtration I have a Fluval 407 canister that also has carbon. It’s not running right now cause I’m using chemiclean . For whatever reason coraline hasn’t started really at all in this tank even though it was growing quite well in the previous two tanks. Ok, whew, that’s the most exhaustive rundown I’ve ever given for the tank.

And by the way like how threads going. Sorry for the essay.

 

[steveschuerger]

Dang now I to spam my Gonis ….feel honored . There are Gonis here even @tbrown hasn’t gotten spammed with…

 

[ESABOE]

Yeah I don’t use a skimmer or reactors. My tank is an AIO that can be used for either fresh or salt. Came with a ton of bio ball that were put to good use when it was fresh. But now I have the chamber right before the return pump filled with live rock and my 2 pincushion and pencil urchin are in jail there. I’d like to get some chaeto uand use my ReefBreeders pico light to grow it in the chamber in front. And the heater is in another chamber back there. As for actual mechanical filtration I have a Fluval 407 canister that also has carbon. It’s not running right now cause I’m using chemiclean . For whatever reason coraline hasn’t started really at all in this tank even though it was growing quite well in the previous two tanks. Ok, whew, that’s the most exhaustive rundown I’ve ever given for the tank.

And by the way like how threads going. Sorry for the essay.

Oh I like that you gave me the details on your tank - cause all along I’m thinking Steve has all this fancy equipment and stuff and that’s why his Gonis are off the charts! Come to find out, you’re more low tech like me. Another day Jennifer learned something important and confirmed she’s on the right track.

 

[ESABOE]

Dang now I to spam my Gonis ….feel honored . There are Gonis here even @tbrown hasn’t gotten spammed with…

I do consider it an honor if Mr Brown wasn’t shown your pride and joy first! Absolutely beautiful.

Do you broadcast feed/spot feed or both on the Gonis? If so, what products? Or do you just feed the fish and let the corals get what they can?

 

[steveschuerger]

Oh I like that you gave me the details on your tank - cause all along I’m thinking Steve has all this fancy equipment and stuff and that’s why his Gonis are off the charts! Come to find out, you’re more low tech like me. Another day Jennifer learned something important and confirmed she’s on the right track.

I’ve learned the hard way early on that it’s all a balancing act and I’m now really, in my mind, just starting to “do it right” mostly. It also has helped that this much larger tank is forgiving of my occasional stupidity.

 

[steveschuerger]

I do consider it an honor if Mr Brown wasn’t shown your pride and joy first! Absolutely beautiful.

Do you broadcast feed/spot feed or both on the Gonis? If so, what products? Or do you just feed the fish and let the corals get what they can?

Pretty much the tank gets broadcast fed . I use a combination of frozen that includes plankton, mysis,a greens heavy omnivore mix, and a carnivore food. Heavy feeding to get the entire tank. Here’s all the things that I use. The powdered gets used 1 or 2 times a week, phyto every other day, the Reef Plus for aminos and vitermans ever 2nd or third day, the Snow twice a week, and vitalizer says every day but I use it every other.

By the way I was being a little bit of a smarty when I said the honored thing. I’m just glad you enjoyed the show.

 

[ESABOE]

Pretty much the tank gets broadcast fed . I use a combination of frozen that includes plankton, mysis,a greens heavy omnivore mix, and a carnivore food. Heavy feeding to get the entire tank. Here’s all the things that I use. The powdered gets used 1 or 2 times a week, phyto every other day, the Reef Plus for aminos and vitermans ever 2nd or third day, the Snow twice a week, and vitalizer says every day but I use it every other.

By the way I was being a little bit of a smarty when I said the honored thing. I’m just glad you enjoyed the show.

This is perfect- thanks Steve! Now that I’m really increasing my bioload with new fish, need to find the balance on adding stuff to “feed”; whether that be fish or coral. It’s good for me to see specifics right now.

And yes, I knew you were being funny.

 

[steveschuerger]

This is perfect- thanks Steve! Now that I’m really increasing my bioload with new fish, need to find the balance on adding stuff to “feed”; whether that be fish or coral. It’s good for me to see specifics right now.

And yes, I knew you were being funny.

Thanks. My sense of humor is at times corny, I’ve been told I do dad jokes even though I don’t have kids, and I also go for sarcasm and dark humor as well as silly cat and reef memes.

 

[ESABOE]

UPDATE:
So excited that my two dream Tangs are ready to be brought home! I had asked Elliot @Marine Collectors to source these a few months ago as part of the stocking plan we curated together.

Even though the fish were fairly standard, my ask was not. I wanted both an Orange-Shoulder Tang, AND a Chocolate Tang, that had already transitioned towards their mature colors/patterns, but still be small enough in size to fit in my tank. Again, I don’t have years to wait.

He of course found them!

I’ll update and post pictures next week when they arrive home. Nervous and elated.

 

[Calmwaters]

UPDATE:
So excited that my two dream Tangs are ready to be brought home! I had asked Elliot @Marine Collectors to source these a few months ago as part of the stocking plan we curated together.

Even though the fish were fairly standard, my ask was not. I wanted both an Orange-Shoulder Tang, AND a Chocolate Tang, that had already transitioned towards their mature colors/patterns, but still be small enough in size to fit in my tank. Again, I don’t have years to wait.

He of course found them!

I’ll update and post pictures next week when they arrive home. Nervous and elated.

Can't wait to see pictures!!!

 

[ESABOE]

5-MONTH UPDATE - Part 1

It’s the end of the day and as the sun is setting I’m feeling quite content on the maintenance that was done today on the tank as I’ve reached the 5-month mark and it was time to go a bit deeper and reassess/confirm I’m on the right track. Glad to have the LFS owner, Dylan here to do the bulk of the work and go over everything.

As I had mentioned in previous posts, had a GHA outbreak 45 days ago, first real uglies to pop up other then diatoms which I never worried about and considered a healthy part of a new tank’s maturing.

After figuring out the multiple causes on GHA, did a 14-day Flux RX treatment and manually removed longer pieces of algae. Ran the rollermatt quite a few feet more on a daily basis to catch and remove junk out of sump water. I gotta say, Flux worked better than I expected. Today is day 16 and there is nothing left of GHA! Tank looks great again.

Looked at flow and made decision to remove nem guards as they were restricting flow way too much. My anemones have been happy in their spots for months so while cautious am taking a chance on them. If I start to see them splitting though I’ll pop covers back on for a bit. Any splits will go to LFS anyway as 4 anemone is all my DT can handle.

Added more sand to accommodate the housing needs of the new Goby and Wrasse. Looks like the reefing version of Pottery Barn bedding,; layers and layers off cuddliness. Not to mention I had been removing sand as I took out the algae clumps from the sand these last few weeks so def needed replenishing.

As Dylan and I took a well deserved In-N-Out Burger break, we reconfigured the Feed Mode on the Red Sea App so equipment turns on/off and is timed based on how I feed the tank. Also, adjusted features on Maintenance Mode. I knew the app had lots of good stuff, just needed a young person to whip through it and set it - LOL.

As a side note, but part of the 5-month mark, I’ve also been doing the following manual dosing and have seen a huge response in corals overall:

1) Brightwell Coral Amino (Daily) at lowest recommended dose

2) Tropic Marin All-For-Reef - weekly initially, but bumping to twice a week. I continue to do lowest recommended dosage and test all parameters weekly so I can adjust as needed.

3) Live Phyto (Daily). Had been using Algae Barns Ocean Magik and was extremely satisfied with product. Kept my copepod population growing and really kept the true uglies at bay. 2 weeks ago I switched to Reef Nutrition’s Live Phyto. Why? First, I wanted to cut costs like shipping on a product I knew I would use on a regular basis. And since Algae Barn is based in Colorado, shipping at the USPS depot there had not been consistent and the product is too perishable for delays. RN is based in California where I am; and my LFS carries the entire line of products. They know I can order directly from RN, who offers very nice incentives for subscriptions, so they always give me a discount. I would have gotten from them anyway as I want to support this new small business in my community. RN Phyto is SUPER concentrated and I had read glowing reviews. I was a bit gob-smacked the first few days I used it. It happened to coincide with my roller mat about to run out and I was trying to stretch out like 4 more days until today when it got replenished. Add to that, I had added two new fish; was knowingly over-feeding, (nervous Greek Mom Syndrome); and the glass was filthy by the end of each day. So I dosed the RN Phyto when lights turn out; wakeup next morning, glass completely clean and GHA is disappearing (the Flux was killing it but not actually removing it so I knew it was the Phyto). I thought, hmmm, are you sure? Repeat next 3 days and GHA is not in tank! So, long story long - I made the right decision switching brands based on my reef keeping choices.

I intend on doing a big photo update on everything next week- DT, coral closeups, fish posing, shots of sandbed so all can see what I’m just writing about.

 

[ESABOE]

I’m sure anyone who follows my thread or even stops by to take a peak, has noticed my “Updates” are extremely long.

That is with intention. My goal in this build thread is two-fold;

1) To document my journey for myself so that I can go back and visit all the milestones, disasters, successes, funny and sad moments, and even those quiet moments when it just IS.

2) To hopefully help really new reefers like myself who took on a much larger lvl reef goal knowing they didn’t have the experience to do so; yet gladly learned along they way throughout the “journey”.

 

[tbrown]

5-MONTH UPDATE:

It’s the end of the day and as the sun is setting I’m feeling quite content on the maintenance that was done today on the tank as I’ve reached the 5-month mark and it was time to go a bit deeper and reassess/confirm I’m on the right track. Glad to have the LFS owner, Dylan here to do the bulk of the work and go over everything.

As I had mentioned in previous posts, had a GHA outbreak 45 days ago, first real uglies to pop up other then diatoms which I never worried about and considered a healthy part of a new tank’s maturing.

After figuring out the multiple causes on GHA, did a 14-day Flux RX treatment and manually removed longer pieces of algae. Ran the rollermatt quite a few feet more on a daily basis to catch and remove junk out of sump water. I gotta say, Flux worked better than I expected. Today is day 16 and there is nothing left of GHA! Tank looks great again.

Looked at flow and made decision to remove nem guards as they were restricting flow way too much. My anemones have been happy in their spots for months so while cautious am taking a chance on them. If I start to see them splitting though I’ll pop covers back on for a bit. Any splits will go to LFS anyway as 4 anemone is all my DT can handle.

Added more sand to accommodate the housing needs of the new Goby and Wrasse. Looks like the reefing version of Pottery Barn bedding,; layers and layers off cuddliness. Not to mention I had been removing sand as I took out the algae clumps from the sand these last few weeks so def needed replenishing.

As Dylan and I took a well deserved In-N-Out Burger break, we reconfigured the Feed Mode on the Red Sea App so equipment turns on/off and is timed based on how I feed the tank. Also, adjusted features on Maintenance Mode. I knew the app had lots of good stuff, just needed a young person to whip through it and set it - LOL.

As a side note, but part of the 5-month mark, I’ve also been doing the following manual dosing and have seen a huge response in corals overall:

1) Brightwell Coral Amino (Daily) at lowest recommended dose

2) Tropic Marin All-For-Reef - weekly initially, but bumping to twice a week. I continue to do lowest recommended dosage and test all parameters weekly so I can adjust as needed.

3) Live Phyto (Daily). Had been using Algae Barns Ocean Magik and was extremely satisfied with product. Kept my copepod population growing and really kept the true uglies at bay. 2 weeks ago I switched to Reef Nutrition’s Live Phyto. Why? First, I wanted to cut costs like shipping on a product I knew I would use on a regular basis. And since they are based in Colorado, shipping at the USPS depot has not been consistent and the product is too perishable for delays. RN is based here in California where I am; and my LFS carries the entire line of products. They know I can order directly from RN who offers very nice incentives for subscriptions, so they always give me a discount. I would have gotten from them anyway as I want to support this new small business in my community. This phtyo is SUPER concentrated and had read glowing reviews. I was a bit gob-smacked the first few days I used it. It happened to coincide with my roller mat about to run out and I was trying to stretch out like 4 more days until today when it got replenished. Add to that I had added two new fish, was knowingly over-feeding (nervous Greek Mom Syndrome) and the glass was filthy by the end of each day. So I dose the RN when lights turn out; wake up next morning glass completely clean and GHA is disappearing (the Flux was killing it but not actually removing it so I knew it was the Phyto). I thought, hmmm, are you sure? Repeat next 3 days and GHA is not in tank! So, long story long - I made the right decision switching brands based on my reef keeping choices.

I intend on doing a big photo update on everything next week- DT, coral closeups, fish posing, shots of sandbed so all can see what I’m just writing about.

First, why did you use white font? I had to highlight it to see the text. I legit sat there for 5 minutes waiting for pictures to load and they never did.

Second, using the Coral Amino - I LOVE the stuff. Suggestion: when using it, drop a few drops in the tank, then feed 5 minutes later when the corals have their best PE ever! Coral Amino always made a great feeding response from my corals.

 

[fishguy242]

First, why did you use white font? I had to highlight it to see the text. I legit sat there for 5 minutes waiting for pictures to load and they never did.

Second, using the Coral Amino - I LOVE the stuff. Suggestion: when using it, drop a few drops in the tank, then feed 5 minutes later when the corals have their best PE ever! Coral Amino always made a great feeding response from my corals.

you are using light screen mode? ...

 

[ESABOE]

First, why did you use white font? I had to highlight it to see the text. I legit sat there for 5 minutes waiting for pictures to load and they never did.

Second, using the Coral Amino - I LOVE the stuff. Suggestion: when using it, drop a few drops in the tank, then feed 5 minutes later when the corals have their best PE ever! Coral Amino always made a great feeding response from my corals.

Omg - I accidentally highlighted the whole dam post green, tried to correct- ugh. Will fix thanks for noticing.

Ok, water will be clear by morning from sand addition, so just for you Mr Brown I will take photos.

Great suggestion on Coral Amino, I will implement. Excellent product!