Good day fellow reefers,
Well my dream had finally come true, to own my very own tank setup, after years of procrastinating!!! Requirements, must be a small tank initially, just to make sure I can actually do this before hitting the big time, and then to be very neat and tidy, as it had to be part of the "furniture" so guests can admire it hopefully as much as I do.. So the suitable answer for me, was the amazing RSM 130D, what a beaut!!! Love this tank.
Anyway so let my journey begin ....
The tank was bought in about May this year 2014, and has certainly seen some great times and bad times... I am doing my best, but I travel a lot, so there is much catching up to do when I get back home each time giving everything a good clean..
I am taking it real slow, as there is so much to learn and I am trying to avoid the "learning the hard way story" although I have learned that already!!! Will explain later on
It was LOVE at first site!! .. That's right, just had to have it.. Could picture where it would go already!!!
Yes, just where I wanted!!! The perfect fit!!
Time for some aqua scapping... No idea what I'm doing at this point in time, but man, got to say, was one of my most favourite things at attempting to do... hehehe
Right lets see the results, of how it looks in the tank!!! Hmmmmm me likes!
My first "babies" in their new home...
Time for the first "corals" .. what a bonus!!! Scored a bubble tip in the center Mr. Venter hehehe PS... This is where the learning curve starting to kick in OVERDRIVE :auto:
Zoas opening up after a little while... Yeah they must be happy days in their new home
So story time AKA Learning curve!! , never heard of having to coral dip before inserting these babies into your new tank.. So I find some interesting lovely looking Nudi's !!!! Damn, did I learn quickly to get rid of those bad boys!! So had to move the bubble tip to do an urgent fresh water dip of the ZOAS....
So the bubble tip was placed there and ended up "walking" , cliffing hanging his way to the top... Picture to follow
The BTA, in his new location... Seems quite happy there
Woah!!! Hold the bus!!! Story time ... This little amazing coloured "beast" what a machine/terror... dammit he was a nightmare on my chromis... The whole tank dynamic changed just because of him... Was such a relaxed tank, and then could "feel" that things were kind of on "edge" after he was in place... So much so he took out my beautiful Royal Gamma.... Lesson learned... NO MORE Yellow/Blue Tail Damsels!!! In fact NO MORE DAMSELS EVER!!!
My first DIY mod to my tank... Didn't think the standard 4 led blue moonlights were bright enough, especially on the ZOAS... I could see some fluorescent on them at night with the standard setup, but I wanted them to pop more! without having to fork out huge dolleros for proper LED setup. So I did my own sortie to see if it made any difference whatsoever ... Excuse the camera pics of the before and after.. Night shots on the cellphone cameras are kuk to say the least, but hopefully you get an idea
So the mod... 2 strips of LED's to do some night time work..
The standard blue moon lights switched on that come in the lid of the RSM 130D
After with my DIY setup switched on as well.
Standard lighting of the blue moon LED's on in the tank...
The after with my LED strip lights on as well...In person, they came out amazing!!! The fluorescent just pops so amazingly well.. Even now I see fluorescent tips on the Bubble tip anemone !!! WOW!!! Great result!!
Well had my first crash about 2 weeks ago!!! So devastating... Went out and came home 5 hrs later.... Just about lost everything ... All my fish and beautiful cleaner shrimp, loved that guy!!! He had grown twice the size since I had him, and was in such good shape!!! Took me ages to figure out what went wrong and caused all my fish to die and cleaner shrimp.... Only survivers were, 2 hermit crabs, 2 turbo snails, my Zoas and BTA... It was heart wrenching having to scoop up the "babies"
Did water test on everything!!! The water was never better!!! So much frustration... all the hard work and effort.. Figured it had to be the temperature of the water, when Jozi experienced those 3 hot days in a row a couple weeks back... The temperature of the water was high and I think rose to quickly for the poor guys... So next on the list is a chiller!!! Need to find a descent one... But damn so expensive!!!
So the journey on fish will start over!! for now, have added some Pulsating Xenia, from a very nice and friendly follow forum member!!
Am going to think a little more carefully about which fish to stock going forward... Will try to keep this up to date as we go...
Well my dream had finally come true, to own my very own tank setup, after years of procrastinating!!! Requirements, must be a small tank initially, just to make sure I can actually do this before hitting the big time, and then to be very neat and tidy, as it had to be part of the "furniture" so guests can admire it hopefully as much as I do.. So the suitable answer for me, was the amazing RSM 130D, what a beaut!!! Love this tank.
Anyway so let my journey begin ....
The tank was bought in about May this year 2014, and has certainly seen some great times and bad times... I am doing my best, but I travel a lot, so there is much catching up to do when I get back home each time giving everything a good clean..
I am taking it real slow, as there is so much to learn and I am trying to avoid the "learning the hard way story" although I have learned that already!!! Will explain later on
It was LOVE at first site!! .. That's right, just had to have it.. Could picture where it would go already!!!
Yes, just where I wanted!!! The perfect fit!!
Time for some aqua scapping... No idea what I'm doing at this point in time, but man, got to say, was one of my most favourite things at attempting to do... hehehe
Right lets see the results, of how it looks in the tank!!! Hmmmmm me likes!
My first "babies" in their new home...
Time for the first "corals" .. what a bonus!!! Scored a bubble tip in the center Mr. Venter hehehe PS... This is where the learning curve starting to kick in OVERDRIVE :auto:
Zoas opening up after a little while... Yeah they must be happy days in their new home
So story time AKA Learning curve!! , never heard of having to coral dip before inserting these babies into your new tank.. So I find some interesting lovely looking Nudi's !!!! Damn, did I learn quickly to get rid of those bad boys!! So had to move the bubble tip to do an urgent fresh water dip of the ZOAS....
So the bubble tip was placed there and ended up "walking" , cliffing hanging his way to the top... Picture to follow
The BTA, in his new location... Seems quite happy there
Woah!!! Hold the bus!!! Story time ... This little amazing coloured "beast" what a machine/terror... dammit he was a nightmare on my chromis... The whole tank dynamic changed just because of him... Was such a relaxed tank, and then could "feel" that things were kind of on "edge" after he was in place... So much so he took out my beautiful Royal Gamma.... Lesson learned... NO MORE Yellow/Blue Tail Damsels!!! In fact NO MORE DAMSELS EVER!!!
My first DIY mod to my tank... Didn't think the standard 4 led blue moonlights were bright enough, especially on the ZOAS... I could see some fluorescent on them at night with the standard setup, but I wanted them to pop more! without having to fork out huge dolleros for proper LED setup. So I did my own sortie to see if it made any difference whatsoever ... Excuse the camera pics of the before and after.. Night shots on the cellphone cameras are kuk to say the least, but hopefully you get an idea
So the mod... 2 strips of LED's to do some night time work..
The standard blue moon lights switched on that come in the lid of the RSM 130D
After with my DIY setup switched on as well.
Standard lighting of the blue moon LED's on in the tank...
The after with my LED strip lights on as well...In person, they came out amazing!!! The fluorescent just pops so amazingly well.. Even now I see fluorescent tips on the Bubble tip anemone !!! WOW!!! Great result!!
Well had my first crash about 2 weeks ago!!! So devastating... Went out and came home 5 hrs later.... Just about lost everything ... All my fish and beautiful cleaner shrimp, loved that guy!!! He had grown twice the size since I had him, and was in such good shape!!! Took me ages to figure out what went wrong and caused all my fish to die and cleaner shrimp.... Only survivers were, 2 hermit crabs, 2 turbo snails, my Zoas and BTA... It was heart wrenching having to scoop up the "babies"
Did water test on everything!!! The water was never better!!! So much frustration... all the hard work and effort.. Figured it had to be the temperature of the water, when Jozi experienced those 3 hot days in a row a couple weeks back... The temperature of the water was high and I think rose to quickly for the poor guys... So next on the list is a chiller!!! Need to find a descent one... But damn so expensive!!!
So the journey on fish will start over!! for now, have added some Pulsating Xenia, from a very nice and friendly follow forum member!!
Am going to think a little more carefully about which fish to stock going forward... Will try to keep this up to date as we go...
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