Hi guys
as mentioned in my first post, complete noob to the reef game but here we go :
So my B-in-law is moving house and decided to get a larger custom tank at the new house and as a result his Boyu 128L was up for grabs.
Despite knowing absolute ziltch about fish-keeping i decided to bite the bullet after he convinced me it was fairly easy and relatively cheap to run / maintain. (punk)
So we emptied out his tank and I stored all the LR in a container which I topped up with water from the tank (to be transported up to JNB)
The fish were then dropped off at his LFS in fairly good condition – apart from a Stunning Royal Gamma that looked a lil stressed when we arrived at the FS (I was back at the store a few days later and discovered he unfortunately did not make it)
So back in JNB, I set up the tank the day after arriving home:
The very next day I visited The VIP Petstore in Northgate as it was the very first one that came to mind. I got myself a bag of Caribsea Bahamas Oolite Live sand – the guy recommended it as it also had aragonite in it – and I was told aragonite is a good thing.
Not sure if my next step was a mistake but I then washed out the new sand in a bucket, basically from almost completely white water to a cloudy water effect.
Rinsed and washed a few times between every hour or so then left the sand to sit overnight in the bucket, the next day I drained out the excess water and the sand was then placed at the base of the tank.
For my water I used a bucket of Seachem Reefsalt mixed in with tap water (I also added some water conditioner for safe measure) after a whole lotta mixing the water was ready to be added so I took the base rock straight outta the container I transported it in and stuck it into the tank before slowly adding the salt water to it.
At this point I noticed that there were some critters that actually survived the journey and being out of tank for a few days – much to my surpise. I was a bit worried because I knew the ammonia levels would soon climb and these poor buggers might peg…. But I had no choice so onward we went.
Some of the critters were nassarius snails who has been doing just fine since day one, many of them are teeny weeny but there is one that has a shell about 2cm in size.
Tank all set up
Heres a close up of the two of the mushrooms that survived
Brown Mushroom Polyp
Pink / Peach Mushroom Polyp
So as it stands, the tank has been cycling since the beginning of May 2015 and things are “looking” ok – looking because I have not actually tested the water as yet. My salt levels were low but I can gladly say they are now perfect (1.025)
I also added two salt water Molies about a week and a half ago – another FS advised that just two of these could help speed up the cycle and their waste would also provide some food for the mushrooms so I did it – not sure if this was a mistake but they are both fine and still alive.
This weekend I introduced a blue legged hermit crab who immediately proceeded to grab the other Scarlet Reef crab and bully him, I put them on either side of the tank.
Blue legged is doing fine, climbs about as though its his tank, scarlet on the other hand has made itself fairly comfortable underneath some of the rock and refuses to come out.
So there you have it. My noob cube :fish:
Would appreciate any feedback or recommendations so feel free to let me have it if I have done something wrong.
as mentioned in my first post, complete noob to the reef game but here we go :
So my B-in-law is moving house and decided to get a larger custom tank at the new house and as a result his Boyu 128L was up for grabs.
Despite knowing absolute ziltch about fish-keeping i decided to bite the bullet after he convinced me it was fairly easy and relatively cheap to run / maintain. (punk)
So we emptied out his tank and I stored all the LR in a container which I topped up with water from the tank (to be transported up to JNB)
The fish were then dropped off at his LFS in fairly good condition – apart from a Stunning Royal Gamma that looked a lil stressed when we arrived at the FS (I was back at the store a few days later and discovered he unfortunately did not make it)
So back in JNB, I set up the tank the day after arriving home:
The very next day I visited The VIP Petstore in Northgate as it was the very first one that came to mind. I got myself a bag of Caribsea Bahamas Oolite Live sand – the guy recommended it as it also had aragonite in it – and I was told aragonite is a good thing.
Not sure if my next step was a mistake but I then washed out the new sand in a bucket, basically from almost completely white water to a cloudy water effect.
Rinsed and washed a few times between every hour or so then left the sand to sit overnight in the bucket, the next day I drained out the excess water and the sand was then placed at the base of the tank.
For my water I used a bucket of Seachem Reefsalt mixed in with tap water (I also added some water conditioner for safe measure) after a whole lotta mixing the water was ready to be added so I took the base rock straight outta the container I transported it in and stuck it into the tank before slowly adding the salt water to it.
At this point I noticed that there were some critters that actually survived the journey and being out of tank for a few days – much to my surpise. I was a bit worried because I knew the ammonia levels would soon climb and these poor buggers might peg…. But I had no choice so onward we went.
Some of the critters were nassarius snails who has been doing just fine since day one, many of them are teeny weeny but there is one that has a shell about 2cm in size.
Tank all set up
Heres a close up of the two of the mushrooms that survived
Brown Mushroom Polyp
Pink / Peach Mushroom Polyp
So as it stands, the tank has been cycling since the beginning of May 2015 and things are “looking” ok – looking because I have not actually tested the water as yet. My salt levels were low but I can gladly say they are now perfect (1.025)
I also added two salt water Molies about a week and a half ago – another FS advised that just two of these could help speed up the cycle and their waste would also provide some food for the mushrooms so I did it – not sure if this was a mistake but they are both fine and still alive.
This weekend I introduced a blue legged hermit crab who immediately proceeded to grab the other Scarlet Reef crab and bully him, I put them on either side of the tank.
Blue legged is doing fine, climbs about as though its his tank, scarlet on the other hand has made itself fairly comfortable underneath some of the rock and refuses to come out.
So there you have it. My noob cube :fish:
Would appreciate any feedback or recommendations so feel free to let me have it if I have done something wrong.
