Red Sea reefer 250 - Mixed reef!

[Chrille26]

Water changes really have saved my tank. I have been changing atleast 8 gallons twice a week and the results are now in:
Sg: 1.026
KH: 7,7
NO3: 10
PO4: 0,1
Mag: 1200
Ca: 420

I am very happy with the params and the progress of the tank right now!

 

[Daniel92481]

Awesome! Looks great!

 

[Chrille26]

Awesome! Looks great!

Thank you! I has been a struggle to get to this point.

 

[Chrille26]

Got a new Urchin today, a short spine variety, called Halloween Urchin.
Wont mention what I feel about UPS as a delivery service but 24 hour delivery turned into 36 hours so hope the poor guy pulls through. He is moving in the bag so there is hope.

Going to let him temp acclimate for a while in the sump before dropping in.

 

[Chrille26]

The Urchin went to town straight away, chomping away as he clears a patch on the LR, leaving it bare.

Something else can be said about this lazy guy. Who rather chill in my toadstool then to work on my algae issues.

 

[Chrille26]

My hair algae is getting a bit out of hand. Luckily my LFS got a big shipment in yesterday. Bought 2 Mexican turbo snails to help battle the algae.
One of them are huge, the size of a golfball.
Hope they can help keep my algae down!

My new golfball:

A smaller one, still big for a snail though!

 

[Chrille26]

My purple Euphyllia is a fighter! At one point it was counted out as dead, and today, its still going strong!

Before crash:

When crash happened, this was 23 august:

Struggling but showing signs of life:

Colour slowly coming back:

And today, almost 4 months later, one head back to bright purple! What a fighter:

 

[Chrille26]

Got myself a early Christmas gift, a new RO unit! Time to get those TDS down, I have been battling algae for a while and I measured my TDS yesterday, I was around 60 ppm, and my tap is 125 ppm so this might be the culprit.

I will add a DI filter further down the road.

 

[JW3500]

Finally going to get decent shots, once I figure this thing out!
Was given this Nikon D3100 from my father. Now I have alot of reading to do in the photography forum so I can really show of some nice shots of the tank. Here are the first shots taken, I know they arent great but I have yet to figure out all the settings on this thing!

Melanurus Wrasse looking really suspicious:

Picasso Clown trying to escape the frame:

Red firefin Goby hanging in the back:

Sorry Im not making this camera justice at this point, will work on my photo skills the coming days!

Did you figure out the d3100? I have one and want to start learning how to take better photos of my reef with it.

 

[Chrille26]

Did you figure out the d3100? I have one and want to start learning how to take better photos of my reef with it.

Honestly no, I never really gave it a chance, I havent charged the battery since I got it. Just because you reminded me of it now I will charge it up and give it another shot!

 

[JW3500]

Honestly no, I never really gave it a chance, I havent charged the battery since I got it. Just because you reminded me of it now I will charge it up and give it another shot!

Lol! I have the polyplab filters for my phone but I see some folks taking some really nice pictures with dslr cameras. Like everything else it will take some drive and patience. Hopefully I am able to dedicate some time to this.

 

[Chrille26]

Some quick shots from today during daylight.

Some issues with GHA remains.

 

[X-37B]

Nice tank!
I have better luck with astrea snails for algae control than turbos.
You need at least 1 per 2 gallons.
I have 60+ in my 120 with no algae.
Around 20+ in my 45 frag system.

 

[Chrille26]

Nice tank!
I have better luck with astrea snails for algae control than turbos.
You need at least 1 per 2 gallons.
I have 60+ in my 120 with no algae.
Around 20+ in my 45 frag system.

Thank you!
And thanks for the tip! Neither the Mexican turbos or the Urchin was a magic fix for hair algae, they mostly stay on the glass or the back wall.
I have been on the lookout for Astreas but they seem to be hard to come by here in Sweden, might have to place a special order at the store to bring them in.

 

[Chrille26]

Short spine Urchins are great at eating algae, ALL of it! Positive is it cleans the rock and glass of green algae, the negative is it scrapes the rock clean down to the bare stone, leaving a trail of white shiny rock behind it!

Funny to look at though, quite fast moving around the tank.

 

[Chrille26]

Three months of hard work!

After crash:

Today:

 

[Chrille26]

Okey, now the circle is complete. I officially have the most invasive corals in my reef. GSP, shrooms and now, pulsing Xenia.
It is isolated on a rock in the sand, I know the risks and dont mind it, I love the look of a mixed reef.

 

[Chrille26]

My next line of defence against hair algae, two dalmation mollies slowly acclimated to full saltwater. Hopefully they survive the acclimation so that they can help combat the algae thst my Urchin and snails wont touch right now.

 

[Chrille26]

Both Mollies survived the 4 hour acclimation and one even went to town on the hair algae right away!
Unfortunatly my black Ocellaris decided to give them both a hard welcome by chasing them around the tank.
Time will tell how well they adapt to their new home and tank mates.

 

[Chrille26]

Got this really cool blue Kenya tree today, it has a really nice blue glow when fully extended!
In the pics it is still really ticked off from the dip.
Also sorry about all the hair algae, I am going to attack with a more aggressive approach real soon!