Kari's Return To The Salty Side

[karigupi]

Piccies tomorrow, promise. I've added the sand now & it looks like a murky snowstorm lol.

I popped back to LFS for one more piece of rock which they held for me & its gorgeous covered in feather dusters, some other little polyp type things & I counted 2 small green mithrax crabs in there, plus a clam of some sort

Cant wait for the sand to clear so I can sit back tonight with the vino & watch my rocks

 

[seffieuk]

Enjoy, that first night is specials

Seffie x

 

[karigupi]

A quick progress piccie from this evening:

Please ignore the crappy lighting, T5s are coming this week. More rock also coming Wednesday hopefully.

A couple of the bits of rock:

 

[karigupi]

Just done my first tests & am confused by the results:

PH 8.3
Ammonia <0.25
Nitrite 0.1
Nitrate 50!

Why would my nitrate be so high already? Is this safe for the critters in the liverock or do I need to do a water change? As long as all is ok, I will continue to monitor the results over the next couple of weeks & see what happens.

I have more liverock coming tomorrow, so the results will probably change again then.

 

[Reesy1989]

Great start Kari, the tank is looking good.

Not sure how the nitrate is so high already? a water change would help however?

 

[karigupi]

Thank you Reecy, its been bugging me, so just checked it again & its come out at 10 this time, phew!

I must admit to not washing the little pot before I used it, so can only assume there must have been something left in there from when I used it last time

 

[karigupi]

The rest of my rock is here been playing for a good hour & I think I have it how I like it, just waiting on the milliput to stick it in place.

Lights are coming later, woohoo! Its really coming together. Loving how it looks, some nice life on the new rock, a few little polyps, will wait & see what appears over the next few days

Having a mare trying to figure out how to use this refractometer though, the instructions are in japanese!

Edited, as my first set of lights are here, good grief they are bright The other set are being picked up by my long suffering hubs later.

Have just done todays tests:
ph: 8.3
ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0.25
nitrate: 10
Piccies tonight

 

[karigupi]

Last two days of results are the same:
Ammonia-nil
nitrite-nil
nitrate-20
PH 8.3
temp 25
salinity 1.025

Looks like my mini cycle is done, the live rock was transported in water, so all looks good . Will do a water change today, & continue to test for a few more days, then I think i'm ready for a few CUC, although already have two snails & a limpet in there from the rock.

One is very pretty white with bright pink markings, the other is brown/red, we've named them Charlie & Lola lol

 

[karigupi]

Sorry for being so quiet, the tank cycled very fast, since I last posted, stats have stayed stable at:
PH 8.3
Salinity 1.025
temp 26
ammonia nil
nitrite nil
nitrate 5

Next on the shopping list is test for phosphate.

I'm running a filter at the moment as I dont have a sump, it has filter floss which I rinse after 3 days & gets replaced every week on water change day, I also have a bag of activated carbon in there & a bag of phosphate remover.

I have started to add some life over the last week, first in were the beginnings of my cleanup crew, 4 snails & 4 hermits, I will need I think at least another 6 snails. I probably wont add any more hermits as I have some lovely & very busy hitch hiker crabs, including a funny little porcelain. I will be on the lookout for a conch though, that will be my CUC done I think.

A few small coral frags which I have had donated or brought, 3 little zoa's a tiny toadstool who has doubled in size since I got him some little green star polyps which again are growing at amazing speed, oh & my mystery donation who appears to be a little maze coral

I also have fish! They are called Grace & Sam One is yellow & the other is green will keep you guessing until I take pictures later.

Pictures will follow later today or maybe tomorrow, its water change & clean up day, so pics when all nicely de-algae-ed lol

Have been having a think about final stocking, we would love a pair of clowns in a few weeks, a flasher wrasse if we can find one local later & eventually a mandarin, maybe even a pair of mandarin if the tank is big enough (lots more research to do here) I am starting to culture copepods & rotifers this weekend as I would like to have a constant supply if I get a mandy, so I dont need to worry about them going hungry.

Will be keeping mainly soft corals & a few LPS. Zoas are a favorite, as are acans & ricordia, also really like the star polyps I have. Am keeping a little, shady spot for a sun coral one day when I feel confident enough to look after it.

SO thats all for now, I will get piccies as soon as I can

 

[seffieuk]

Hurry up with those pictures we are all waiting

Seffie x

 

[karigupi]

Wow, has it really been a month since I updated this last?? And I forgot to come back with pictures baaaaaaad Kari!

I will try to rememdy this over the next few days.

To be honest, I havent been up to much, I do have new fish, I have a beautiful & very playful pair of clowns & a black rock goby, along with my yellow watchman goby called Sam & My Bristletailed Filefish called Grace.

I have lots more CUC, turbo snails, I think I am upto 12, plus 3 blue legged hermits, 1 little sexy shrimp & a lovely Saron Shrimp, oh & a pretty bristlestar.

Corals are the same as before, 3 Zoa frags, 2 baby mushies, neon green star polyps, timmy the toadstool who seems to grow a bit more every day & a green maze coral who seems to be growing too.

Here are a few older pics:
Purple Zoas

Timmy when I first got him, he had some trouble standing up lol

Unknown little hitchhikers, they put out small feeder tentacles at times during the day

this is my bristlestar off for a night time stroll, you can see my maze coral in the left, can anyone advise me with this please, it seems to have grown quite alot, the green part seemed to stretch & patches appeared, these have now grown back over & it appears healthy again, is this how they grow or did it have a problem?

I've had a bit of a problem with hair algae, which I hope I finally have under control, i'm just about to do a bit water change & rescape & scrape the last few bits off, then I will try to get some nice piccies of the fish & the all important full tank shot.

 

[simonas]

Great tank Kari

Loving the corals, any pics of the fish!! lol

I;d love a starfish but no chance in my little tank boo hoo I must get a bigger one!!

 

[karigupi]

Thanks Simonas, piccies of fish on the way, they are having a major sulk at the moment as I've just done their water change,but i'm sure they will soon be back out for supper

 

[karigupi]

Full tank shot this morning:

my fave zoas

this is Sam our watchman goby, he was a poorly fella when I got him, the LFS (not my usual one) hadnt put tape on the corners of the bag & he got himself wedged & squished in one corner so lost all his colour around his head, but its coming back now & he's a very active happy little guy.

I will try to get pictures of the other fish, the clowns are impossible though, they dont stay still at all.

I made a little video this morning after realising I had a video function, the camera is 2 yrs old lol but I dont know how to post one on here, is there anywhere online I can put a video? I use flickr for photos.

 

[karigupi]

ahem, figured out I can use Flickr for hosting videos too its not great, first time trying, so will need practice. I also need to figure out how to remove the audio, as the kids were watching Pokemon & getting ready for school, not the nice relaxing noise you want when watching a reef

you can see the clowns playing & Grace our bristletail (aiptasia eating) filefish having a munch on some pods. The water is full of pods at the moment as you can see in the film.

So much so that i'm considering buying my mandy or a scooter blennie soon, my pod culture is now mature & could easily feed a hungry mandy once the pods in the tank have dwindled.

I cant get a video to show, the link is here:
http/www.flickr.com/photos/28098143@N04/4426983470/