Durleo's 6ft Reef

Hi Duran, welcome to MASA - glad you joined us!
Your tank looks great - nice size.

I'm with the guys on the bio-balls issue, also make sure your DSB is about 15cm deep.

When you post a lot of pictures again, press "enter x 2" after each paste, then your pics will all be nicely below each other with a space inbetween ;)

Good luck and keep us updated :wave2:
 
Welcome to MASA If you are wanting second hand seios you might as well go for the sun sun powerheads....Its a relatively new brand but is super cheap for the amount flow;)
 
Welcome. Most guys reckon those backgrounds are cheesy, have a look at other setups. If you really like it keep it, else get rid of it.
 
Tank Update

Hi there just an update on my tank -
I have taken out the T8 lights and put in 4x 54w T5 Reeftec Actinic and
4 x 54w T5 12000 k White
2 x 6000 lt/h Double Head pumps at the Bottom Corners behind the Rocks
1 x 15000 lt/h Resun Wavemaker

I have added livestock everyweek after cycle was complete :
Week 1 : 2 x Common Clowns & Lawnmower Blenny
Week 2 : Copperband Butterfly & Moony ( Caught in a rockpool in umhloti)
Week 3 : 2 x Juvenile Regal Tangs
Week 4 : Cleaner Wrasse
Week 5 : Gonoporia Coral - Hammerhead Coral - Frogspawn Coral - Star Polyps Brown
Star Polyps - Green Tip
Week 6 : Powder Blue Tang &
Pyjama Tang
2 x Cleaner Shrimp
1 x Radianthus Anenome
I will not add any new livestock for a while!

My Lawnmower Blenny - Quite a shy Guy!
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My Copperband Aptasia Killer:thumbup: Def my favourite fish
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Been Taken to the cleaners !!!!:)
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hello there:) i missed you thread to start and never had a chance to welcome you to masa. its great to hear that you are converting over to marines and that really is a lovely tank you have there:)


i see that you got your tank 4 weeks ago and have 18kg of Lr in it with lots of dead coral heads. Hopefully after a couple of months these will form some biological filtration for you, but for a 750l tank i would personally look at getting around 80-100kg of quality LR. I would add that and let it cycle, which normally takes around 6-8 weeks before the swings in parameters are stable(ish) and for the benificial bacteria INSIDE the LR to have established enough to handle increased bio load.

then wround week 9 a few fish and CUC crew can go in..............

Hi there just an update on my tank -
I have taken out the T8 lights and put in 4x 54w T5 Reeftec Actinic and
4 x 54w T5 12000 k White Much better upgrades, do u still ahve the MH and have u looked at getting new bulbs)
2 x 6000 lt/h Double Head pumps at the Bottom Corners behind the Rocks
1 x 15000 lt/h Resun Wavemaker
Overall i think that internal flow is still a little low, I'll chat about the nennie below... when budget allows u may want to icrease the flow a little more. remeber randon chaotic flow around and through the LR is best, you want to get the detritus into the water collum and down the over flow to be handled by your skimmer.

I have added livestock everyweek after cycle was complete (when was the cycle complete. by my maths you still half way through. how do u detirmine the end point? how much LR is in. Actual lr not the stuff from the other reefer?:
Week 1 : 2 x Common Clowns & Lawnmower Blenny
Week 2 : Copperband Butterfly & Moony ( Caught in a rockpool in umhloti)
Week 3 : 2 x Juvenile Regal Tangs
Week 4 : Cleaner Wrasse
Week 5 : Gonoporia Coral - Hammerhead Coral - Frogspawn Coral - Star Polyps Brown
Star Polyps - Green Tip
Week 6 : Powder Blue Tang &
Pyjama Tang
2 x Cleaner Shrimp
1 x Radianthus Anenome
I will not add any new livestock for a while!:)
all the above in red are seen to be creatchures needing advanced care. thats years of experience to be able to keep them on the long term.

its late in norway and i am not gonna have a go about that nennie. just ask others when you should add your first nennie and see the responce. RESEACH B4 you buy anything. Ok hang on...Research B4 you ADD anything, that includes things you catch.

that tank has great potencial, but you are limiting it in your own haste (iMHO) slow down or you will crash, <speed kills!
 
Gonoporia - Opening up quiet nicely
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Actinics Only !!!
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My Anenome Deflated after a couple of hours of introduction.
It re-inflated a little later and is looking pretty good - jus hope he doesnt
move around. I put him quite high up with moderate flow and good light
exposure.
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My Radianthus Anenome - With a Coupler Clowns:)
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Hi Durleo! Awesome lifestock mate! Really beautiful!

BUT - HUGE BUT - As Crispin already pointed out - you have chosen some of the MOST DIFFICULT of fish to keep. As well as corals/anemone's....

I really hope that (for your sake, and the sake of the lifestock), they survive.

Good luck with the copperband butterfly. As your tank does not seem to be mature enough to have enough pods in, to keep the CBB alive for long, I REALLY REALLY hope that that CBB eats frozen! Good luck with that fish.

Also - PLEASE PLEASE hope that your nemmie never decide to walk.

What size is your tank again? It looks like a 2 meter? Correct?

If so - then the amount of water flow you have in your tank is not NEAR ENOUGH to keep that nemmie happy - they want much much more water flow, and very random/turbulent and chaotic water flow. Cross streams are what they love best.

I know - I have now had my "radianthus" (H. magnifica) (actually it is a heteractis magnifica that you have, not a radianthus) now for the past 3.5 years....

Good luck mate.
 
Hi Durleo, thats a great looking setup. Congrats and welcome to reefkeeping. Whilst things have gone a little quickly, the best thing is to try and make the most of it and ensure that all occupants are happy and stay that way.
Try and take water parameters daily to check for spikes and also try and get some copepods etc into the tank. Maybe some fellow reefers with good DSB's will be keen to help out. This might help you copper feed until a population is established. I mistakenly had a gonipora and he died after 8 months. Try get as much info on them to keep him happy and alive - but they are very difficult to keep. Target feeding is a must and a funnel/coke bottle with a pipe covering the gonipora is a great way to target feed them.
As for your nennie, try put some protective mesh around your powerheads to avoid him getting sucked in. They like to walk and quickly when you're not watching.

Good luck and be sure to ask, as there are plenty of ppl with tons of knowledge.
Cheers
 
Hi Durleo Welcome to MASA. Very nice setup and live stock, just one work of advise take it slow, your tank is still very young and probably still cycling (one of the reasones you have hair algae) Like the other members mentioned, please read up on life stock before you buy them, trust me I have learned the hard way LFS will sell you anything even if you can not possibly keep it alive.

Give you tank some time at least 2 week in between adding livestock, otherwise it will crash.
 
Hey Durleo. Stunning tank that!!! I am however not sure what your experience is with Marines, but it is NOT fresh water. As Crispin said (and you are VERY lucky you he was tired :p) that those species you have are some species that even the best of experts struggle to keep, and shiver just at the thought of keeping.

Just a quick breakdown on the cycle process:

You add water, rock and something to make ammonia i.e. a piece of hake, shrimp etc... This piece of dead matter will create ammonia. Then bacteria forms to consume the ammonia. They waste product of this bacteria is Nitrites. Then other bacteria forms to eat Nitrites. The waste from this bacteria is Nitrates. Then againn other bacteria forms to consume this, which then puts that into notrigen gas, which is absorbed by various plants and coral, evaporates etc. etc. And the cycle goes on.

Within this cycle perdiod, nothing is stable at all, and the water quality is SO unstable and for this reason fish / coral can not be intoduced. Unstable water params causes fish to stress, which breaks down their immune system, and ultimately leads to disease, and the fish dies. This desease in your case can not be treated by copper medication, as coper is lethal to coral.

Anemone's... I am quite tired of discussing Anemone's, and I would suggest you must go to the Anemone forum and just a little bit of reading. Do you know that they require feeding etc?

Gonoporia, go read the poll on it - they should rather be kept in the ocean...

I truelly am sorry for being the bearer of bad news, but you will really have to keep a VERY close eye on this tank, as a crash is a very big possibility. Even if it does not crash, I guarantee you will start seeing algae outbreaks, cyano bacteria etc etc. You will win in the end, but the effort towards that is so hectic!!!

As mentioned, your tank has PLENTY of potential, and I love it, but you need to take care now, go do more research than anything else, on all current and future species you plan on keeping.

Good luck, and please dont hesitate to ask any questions regarding things that will be happening in the tank - we will help you through it all!!!!
 
Your system looks awesome and the guys have given you the best advice...so please take it slow and do not stock on impulse...
 
The goniopora should be placed on the gravel it an area of flow and feed it with food like Coral Frenzy or other forms of zooplancton. Jacques is right with your flow, you need to increase it. for some strange reason the anemone seems to be happy and I would suggest supplementing your bio filter with bacteria like Seachem Stability or Prodibio as you have a lot of live stock in a young system
 
Hi Thanks for the reply guys -

I have taken note of the - maturity of the tank. How often is an anenome supposed to deflate and re-inflate. When i initially put him in he did that , but seems happy now.
I fed him some mussel meat yesterday with a turkey baster and he took it.
My only dismay was that he burped a skeleton that looked like my Lawnmower Blenny:(
and I still cant find him, he is quiet a magician and still might reappear.

My copperband is eating frozen food but i want to get some brine shrimp for him aswell. I got some nice live rock with alot of copepods on it , so it keeps him busy.
The rock came with alot of aptasia which he has annilated.

The Pyjama tang seems happy , he is eating algae ( I dont think he knows norri is food yet - he keeps swimming around the veggie clip:) - Almost all my algae is gone between the Regal , Pyjama and Powder Blue.

The regals and eating norri, nutrafin pellets and frozen

The only fish I am worried about is the Powder Blue - He is quiet shy and only nibbling food. I know he is one of the hardest to keep, but "nothing ventured nothing learned"

I am glad that I have experienced guys on the forum to learn from.

I am using purigen and carbon in my system and the only hassle is keeping the calcium levels up. I think the corraline is using up alot.
I am using NSW for water changes and do 100lt at a time every 2 weeks
I am dosing Iodine - 7.5ml a day
In my 20lt -top-up reservoir - I have Kalkwasser , Aragmight, Replica ++

Thanks for the constructive critiscism guys - it helps me to learn
I have have been getting advice from good LFS aswell and it has been invaluable.

Regards
Duran
 
No Worries Guys - found my Lawnmower blenny - alive and kicking - it must have been a skeleton of something he ate in transit.:thumbup:

Any ideas on how to increase the calcium level to between 400 - 430 ppm

I am not clear on the Calcium Chloride and Calcium Hydroxide

My Sera calcium test kit is giving me a reading of 300ppm
 
-firstly you dont have alot of sps and you do 100liters every two weeks,while this isnt alot it should keep your ca above 360ppm so i'd say change your salt brand what are you using right now?use red sea or tropic marine or seachem but the pro reef versions as they have higher calcuim levels.

-then for additional dosing simply go to your local pharmacy and buy some "slaked lime" or "gebluste kalk" add two teaspoons into a 2lt bottle of r.o water and add this to your tank daily until your ca levels reach 420-440ppm then simply add as needed to maintain these levels.and one more thing hows your alk levels? if its also low then dont add the white precipitate at the bottom of the mixed kalk 2lt bottle.if you alk is right then add the white stuff at the bottom also,this is mainly ca.

-if you prefer a simpler method yet more effective as it keeps all other elements topped-up also then simply add tropic marin bio-calcuim to your tank for ca and alk and magnesuim,follow dosing instructions on the tin.
 
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