maxc

It's been about a couple of months and here's a quick update. I added a Smart ATO and a fan to keep temperatures between 26-27 degrees. Did some rescape on the left in hopes of creating a Zoa garden. Corals so far: • A few different Zoas. (Rasta's, fire and ice, la lakers etc, not sure about the other IDs.) • mushrooms • pulsing Xenia • frogspawn • octopus coral (not sure what's the correct name) CUC: • 1 x hermit crab • 1 x Nassarius • 1 x turbo 3 x sexy shrimps Here are some shots taken today, sorry for the lousy pictures. Feel free to comment on how I can improve stuffs. Thanks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Speaking of a diatom bloom, I just got back and surprised to see brown diatom appearing mostly on the right side of my the tank. Some algae like stuff growing on the LR And also spotted a lot more feather duster worms (not sure if I ID it correctly). They will retract into the LR when spooked. front tank shot thus far. I happen to find some leftover seachem matrix and added them to one of the chambers in the filter, hopefully will help with the high nitrate levels. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the advice! I did a 50% water change last night, and tested for ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte. Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: ~80ppm Should I continue with my water changes until the nitrate level comes down? I will also get a PO4 test kit over the weekend as you mentioned. My lights has been on since the tank is setup for 6 hours daily. Is it enough? Or should I increase it to 8? So I should only start adding the CUC after the diatoms appear? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for your kind words! Still a newbie in reef tank and still learning. Anyway, a quick update of the tank. Day 11: Since setup, I have added a dymax fan to keep the temp between 26-29. And also added a ATO with distilled water from Ntuc. (Btw, the evaporation rate is quite high) Starting to see some life form on the rocks, spotted a couple of tiny feather duster worms. Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrate: 80-160ppm @@ I have no idea why are my nitrates so high. Read on other forums that it could be from the dosing of Bacterlife last week. (I had a bottle for my freshwater tank, and my itchy hands decided to dose some for my pico hoping to kickstart the cycling) So the plan is to do a 50% water change tonight, add a small piece of dead prawn and monitor the water in the coming weeks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the info. Yes, i read about astrea snail and wanted to avoid them as they can't flip back up when they fall. Anyway, if I can't find trochus, I might end up getting the astera. I wanted to have hermit crabs too, but as you mentioned, I'm worried that they will attack the corals in the tank or stress them. I'm also toying with the idea of sexy shrimps, too cute to resist. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Will start looking for some of these in the buy sell section once the tank is cycled. Googled and love the colors of the Rasta zoas! By the way, where can I get CUCs? Thinking of a few as follow: nassarius snail - to keep the sand clean Trochus and Nerite snail - to keep rock and glass clean Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the encouraging words! I just added a fan to keep the temperature down. The temp range so far is between 26-29 degrees. It's been almost a week, ammonia level tested last night is around 0.25ppm. Shall keep up with the tests. Any CUC and beginner corals to recommend? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Been considering for a long time to try my hands at a marine tank and I finally took the dive. Reused some equipments from my freshwater setups and gotten the rest of the equipments that fits within my budget. Here's my list of equipment: Tank: 1 feet tank. Roughly 20 liters Filter: Totto mini type ss Filter media: filter wool and some live sand from LFS Substrate: live sand and live rocks Wavemaker: Jebao SW-4 Lighting: Nemo led light Here's my FTS. Please feel free to comment, and forgive me if I made any noobie mistakes. Next steps: to research and see what are the types of corals, clean up crews I should add in when the tank is cycled. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk