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illumnae's 2ft cube reef tank


illumnae
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And..... it's not a goby! Here's the current star of the show (last picture waving hi at everyone)... a Feminus Wrasse from CF's Tuesday night shipment!

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Here's the cover I made for the tank last night since wrasses are notorious jumpers. Used mosquito screening for windows available from HomeFix as the frame, and ordered in 1/4 inch transparent mesh (the type sold by BRS) for the netting.

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As you may be able to notice from the wrasse pictures, diatoms appeared suddenly yesterday. I hope that the algae phase of the cycle goes by quickly! I stopped dosing prodibio and am now simply doing the Fauna Marin basic 4. Just agitated my zeolites today :)

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Nice..!!

Sorry ah bro, where you ordered the mesh? Homefix also?

Wah bro, that is a nice Feminus Wrasse you got. :thumbsup:

Nice setup and wrasse u have bro!

Thanks bros!

The mesh I ordered from an online US store called Aquarium Overload. I actually made the mosquito mesh screen as a cover for my office tank, but the mesh provided in the box was too fine and black in colour, so it blocked out alot of light. Got the idea to use this mesh from bro PowderTang's tank journal as he ordered the mesh from Aquarium Overload first and used it with eggcrate for his cover :)

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The wrasse is doing very well! Still jetlagged from its trip from Australia I think, it wakes up early before sunrise and goes to sleep at about 3+pm. Hoping that it will adjust to tank light timing soon!

Diatoms have cleared and now I'm getting clear/green algae on the glass - I think that's a sign of Ultramin S overdose so I will need to cut back on dosing for that.

I've started to add some corals and other invertebrates since Day 14 has passed and my parameters are ok (Nitrates 0.2, Phosphate 0.03, Calcium 380, kH 7, Magnesium 1380). Will be adding FM Balling salts via autodoser soon. Need to decide on which autodoser to use. Any recommendations for a reliable doser that won't malfunction and dump my liquids into my tank all at once? I've heard many horror stories about some brands!

Here's the corals I've added so far - bought some frags from Fantasy Corals and got 2 lovely frags donated by a friend (you know who you are, thank you bro!):

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Metallic Digi

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Fiji Pink Birdsnest

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Sunset Millie

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Forest Fire Digi

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Strawberry Shortcake (testing water, hope I'm able to keep it alive!)

Some other invertebrates:

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Blueberry Sea Fan (bought on a whim - so far it's doing ok, hope that I can keep this difficult gorgonian alive!)

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Teardrop Maxima with Tuxedo Urchin

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Hardworking Emerald Crab - I have 5 in the tank

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Green algae bloom on glass still hasn't gone away, hope it's just part of the cycling process.

I've added a pair of helfrechi firefish and an onyx picasso percula - bought 2 from lck but one keeps attacking the other so I think I may have 2 females :( Feminus wrasse is slowly overcoming jet lag! Stayed up till 525pm today, from its initial 330pm bedtime.

Here's an updated fts with some new colonies from AC:

PSX_20150613_225303_zpsy5piwibw.jpg

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Green algae bloom on glass still hasn't gone away, hope it's just part of the cycling process.

I've added a pair of helfrechi firefish and an onyx picasso percula - bought 2 from lck but one keeps attacking the other so I think I may have 2 females :( Feminus wrasse is slowly overcoming jet lag! Stayed up till 525pm today, from its initial 330pm bedtime.

Here's an updated fts with some new colonies from AC:

PSX_20150613_225303_zpsy5piwibw.jpg

Looking good ! You managed to pair the helfrichi? Do share their progress !!
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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...
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So it's been awhile, sorry for the lack of updates!  It just didn't seem there was much interest in my tank so I didn't follow up :unsure:

Stuff happened, and I've so far dealt with a white spot outbreak, disaster in my QT tank, cyano and hair algae outbreaks and an accidental alk spike to 13+ dkh!  I've also upgraded the lighting with a 2nd Hydra 52 as I didn't like the shading that the single LED and my scape was giving.

Here's a recent fts:

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As you can see, there's still some hair algae on the Gyre.  No idea why my phosphates are going up while nitrates remain undetectable when all I'm feeding is NLS pellets.  The only other things going into the tank are the FM additives.  Very strange.

I also need to rehome all the colonies currently on the sand bed, and also reduce some of the pink/purple corals and replace them with more green/yellow and blue colonies to achieve a better colour contrast.

This week I started the switch from FM Ultralith to FM Zeolight system.  I've heard good stuff about Reef Vitality and Coral Balance, and as mentioned above the Ultralith probiotic system was very good in dropping nutrients initially, but then couldn't keep up with phosphate even with the use of UltraPhos.  Hoping that the Zeolight system works out better.

Still lots of work to be done!

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U mean ultralith can't handle phosphate properly even with use of ultraphos?

And in what way can zeolight with use of RV and coral balance helps in phosphate ? Even after use of RV and coral balance handle phosphate again what is going to deal with nutrient or it can handle both ?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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My phosphate seems to be rising disproportionately to the Redfield ratio, to the extent that it seems ultraphos addition can't keep up either.  I may dose nitrate instead to control phosphate if I can get a calcium nitrate order in.  Coral Balance description says that it binds phosphate, so I'm hoping it will bind up phosphate in addition to the Redfield ratio, so that's an additional source of phosphate control.  Based on Claude and Vinny's posts on other forums, I suspect Reef Vitality contains a carbon source too, so I'm not exiting carbon dosing per se.  The official message from FM is that zeolight controls nutrients by boosting coral uptake, that's why I am only switching after my coral mass is larger.  Low coral mass won't be able to handle enough nutrients in my opinion, though RV seems to contain a carbon source too.

Hope this answers your queries :)

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  • 1 month later...
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It's been awhile, doesn't seem to be much interest in my tank :(

Back reporting in nonetheless!  Things have been going relatively well in my tank.  I lost a few colonies to rtn, but other than that and some persistent cyano problems, the tank is well stocked and running well.  However, a reefer's hands are always itchy and for various reasons I am doing a massive overhaul of the tank.  Here is what the tank looks like now :blink::unsure:

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The new scape is sitting on my Mahjongg table now being finalized.  Hope to get it all done tomorrow and into the tank by the public holiday next week!

Here's also a sneak preview of the project that DE Aquatic is doing for me now.  Kudos to Razali for taking my idea and turning it into reality!  It should be ready in time for the new scape

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I need suggestions for what t5 tubes to use to accompany my Hydra52.  Do you think this will work better than a Powermodule Hybrid? B)

 

Edited by illumnae
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Wow, T5 + hydra52 hybrid!!

Display Tank : 36" x 20" x 20" Herbie overflow box design, Sump : 36" x 21" x 17", Frag Tank : 16” x 20” x 16”, custom built by Tank Culture.

Lightings : Ecotech  Radion XR15 Pro x 2 for Main Display Tank, Inled R80 x 1 for Frag Tank.

Chiller : Dalkin 1hp compressor with build-in drop coil.

Skimmer : Skimz Octa SC205i Protein Skimmer.

FR : H2Ocean FMR75 Fluidised Media Reactor with Hailea HX-2500 (Feeder Pump) running Rowaphos.

CR : Skimz Monzter E Series CM122 Calcium Reactor.

BPR: Marine Source Biopellet  Reactor with Continuum Reef Biopellet Fuel. 

Main Return Pump : SICCE Syncra ADV 9.0 & Jebao ACQ-10000 Water Pump.

Wavemaker : Jebao MOW-9 x2 for Main Display Tank & Jebao SLW-20M  Sine Wave Pump for  Frag Tank.

Water Top Up: AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite.

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How's this?

Front

Blue plus

Coral plus

Hydra52

Purple plus

Blue plus

Back

If u want it to be brighter, use aquablue special instead of coral plus.

Edited by Admiraltian

Display Tank : 36" x 20" x 20" Herbie overflow box design, Sump : 36" x 21" x 17", Frag Tank : 16” x 20” x 16”, custom built by Tank Culture.

Lightings : Ecotech  Radion XR15 Pro x 2 for Main Display Tank, Inled R80 x 1 for Frag Tank.

Chiller : Dalkin 1hp compressor with build-in drop coil.

Skimmer : Skimz Octa SC205i Protein Skimmer.

FR : H2Ocean FMR75 Fluidised Media Reactor with Hailea HX-2500 (Feeder Pump) running Rowaphos.

CR : Skimz Monzter E Series CM122 Calcium Reactor.

BPR: Marine Source Biopellet  Reactor with Continuum Reef Biopellet Fuel. 

Main Return Pump : SICCE Syncra ADV 9.0 & Jebao ACQ-10000 Water Pump.

Wavemaker : Jebao MOW-9 x2 for Main Display Tank & Jebao SLW-20M  Sine Wave Pump for  Frag Tank.

Water Top Up: AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite.

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