New reefer with a Red Sea nano

[armronstrong]

first post to document my progression with this tank. I guess we will see how it goes.

aquascape




end of the ugly (as soon as the CUC catches up)





Ill add some more details in a bit
R

 

[Midrats]

Welcome to the REEFER Nano club!

 

[armronstrong]

I was in the middle of the ugly phase, and a LFS announced they were closing out their saltwater section, which meant cheep frags. So I picked up a few even though it was way early to do so. I hope they do ok but I figured it would be good practice exploring placement etc. I am not even sure 100% what some of them are.






Hammer: right now it if mostly just purple. One polyp had some neon green on the tip, but it looks like it may be spreading. I hope that continues.







? not sure I could guess but I don't know. velvety green polyps over a brownish base. looks like it encrusted over its plug. Appears very happy where it is, up high, but it was also looking happy down in the sand when I first got it in the tank.

 

[armronstrong]

So last week I had an issue with my ATO. The water level had dropped to the point that the return pump sucked in a bunch of air and blew it through the tank for quite some time. This cause the salinity to spike and alk to crash. The system is all back to near regular levels now (alk is still a little low but not crazy low). I lost all of my trochus snails (interestingly the nassarius is fine) and likely the other coral (I had not pictured above yet) will die.

Sad but at least I did have fish yet.

 

[armronstrong]

Things are going ok I think.. I still have a bit of an algae problem, but the ugly algae is going away slowly. I am getting a new algae more of an encrusting type Green, but I wonder of it is a coralline type.

I have added Fish.. Gomez and Morticia are eating good and starting to explore more.

and corals are mostly ok. I lost most of the SPS type with the crash I had earlier, but maybe some of that will Pull through and I will be able to frag them and restart.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking good!

 

[armronstrong]

Here is a better picture of the "encrusting" green algae. there is a small patch on my return spout, it appears to be rather tough... I guess we will see what it becomes.

 

[armronstrong]

Happy Hammer

 

[armronstrong]

not actually sure what this one is..
it looks greener in person, the color shifts between the brown and Kermit green depending on the angle you look at it in relation to the light.



and my torch

 

[armronstrong]

zoas... not sure where to place them yet.. they appear happy here, but I may make an island for them.

 

[armronstrong]

Full shots



Side



Front

 

[armronstrong]

So an update is Way overdue.

I am still in the hobby...

shortly after my last update:

My tank had a major crash, i am nt sure what triggered it , but in short order most all of my corals died and then got an ugly bloom of something. (

My Zoas survived, and my clown fish Gomez and Mortisha survived fine.

I went pretty extreme to get things back on track. I cleaned/ did some big water changes to clean things up.I blacked out the tank for a while, and re-added some started bacteria to knock back back the ugly and give things a new start.

Things started looking good then I got hid hard by an algae bloom. I do not know what is was I know it wasn't GHA but i was not able to find any picture of anything else that looked similar to it. it was short 1-1.5 cm max and most peculiarly would grow in little tufts around a piece of aragonite like a little tumble weed. as I was having issues with bubble algae on my zoa plug as well, I got a green crab to see if it would help.

between manual removal and the crab the algae was still growing great.

on top of it I had to move.

The move went well, and I was hoping the cleaning would help control the algae. Algae was perfectly happy.
I used a heavy dose of Reef Flux fluconazole, and continued to aggressively manually remove algae, and it appears to be gone, or at least under control.

That was 6-9 months ago.

Since then I have also added some new corals. one if i remember is some sort of encrusting monti. and a frogspawn. Ill add pictures later.

Everything is happy at the moment. The zoas are opening nicely, the Monti has grown far off its plug.
I do have some sort of surface algae but is is restricted to the glas so it is not too much of an issue yet.

I am trying to get a refugium going in my sump. hopefully it will help with the algae and keep things stable. amphipods appear to be surviving ok which the clown fish like. I have not seen any copopods so they may need reseeding.

 

[armronstrong]

 

[armronstrong]

 

[armronstrong]

 

[armronstrong]

 

[armronstrong]

I had a significant cyano outbreak. oddly is was mostly limited to the top of my rock work. I blasted it off the rock, did water changes.. reduced my white lite in my primes spectrum a little... It appears to be under control for now.

I have also added a tiger gobi to work the sand better. he is ding a good job except for trying to bury my monti on the sand bed. I wish he was out more, but the sand looks good and it is funny watching him when I can.

R

 

[champtain]

I had a significant cyano outbreak. oddly is was mostly limited to the top of my rock work. I blasted it off the rock, did water changes.. reduced my white lite in my primes spectrum a little... It appears to be under control for now.

I have also added a tiger gobi to work the sand better. he is ding a good job except for trying to bury my monti on the sand bed. I wish he was out more, but the sand looks good and it is funny watching him when I can.

R

Awesome looking tank, I also have a RSMN! I need to get a goby for my sand bed, it's not pretty. Looks like you're off to a great start.

Have you upgraded any equipment? What all are you using?

 

[armronstrong]

Awesome looking tank, I also have a RSMN! I need to get a goby for my sand bed, it's not pretty. Looks like you're off to a great start.

Have you upgraded any equipment? What all are you using?

Thank you.

I am using simple stuff with the red sea reefer nano.

AI prime for light

sicce return pump. and a hydor in the tank for extra flow.

I have replaced the reefer's auto top off with a autoaqua AWC so i can have more room in the cabinet and a larger reservoir.

and i am using the autoauqa smart temp unit as a back up for the heater.

I have some marine pure block in my sump for extra bio filtration. Also in the sump is some chaeto but it doesn't grow well, I believe because there isn't much in the way of phosphate or nitrate despite no skimmer.

R

 

[CasaReefer]

Great Job... Just stick with it.. Everything will work out and it will get easier. Most reefers bail when the going gets tough. But the ride will be worth it in the end.