Miss Wiggle And Big Ian's First Marine Tank!

[SeahorseWhisperer]

Palythoa. Some consider them a nuisance coral. They can cause serious reactions to human skin and our respiratory tracts, so be very careful when you clean your tank.

I think sponge is one of the best indicators of a healthy system. It filters not only NO3, PO4, it also helps reduce bacteria.

Cures some cancers, too.

It is important it never touches air. It will expire quickly. Dying necrotic sponge is what cause live rock to be "uncured". If you move it, try to get a bowl large enough to keep the rock completely submerged.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good stuff, we got the sponge for free just told our friendly lfs man we liked it when we were spending a bit of money so he threw it in for us. yay i love freebies

 

[SeahorseWhisperer]

Are we thinking that last pic sponge?


BTW, that algae is gorgeous! I can't ID it for you, but I love it!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that's the impression I got from the posts above, i may well be wrong though, i usually am

yeah it's cool isn't it. The bloke at the lfs say's he think's it'll be some wierd thing that's endemic to 1 sq mile of the sea or something like that. Never seen anything like it but it's very cool.

 

[Mr Miagi]

The bloke at the lfs say's he think's it'll be some wierd thing that's endemic to 1 sq mile of the sea or something like that.

I mean, he could well be right, but this bloke just cracks me up! Hilarious! Next he will be sellling you the only Mushrooms to come from the wild!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The bloke at the lfs say's he think's it'll be some wierd thing that's endemic to 1 sq mile of the sea or something like that.

I mean, he could well be right, but this bloke just cracks me up! Hilarious! Next he will be sellling you the only Mushrooms to come from the wild!

ere mush don't be rude about our mate!!

I don't think he meant it would specifically be from 1 sq mile of the world, just the sort of thing that will only occur in specific water parameters and circumstances so you wouldn't get it all over the place, just confined to oen area. Think I've explained that right!

Also he didn't sell us that, it came with the tank we just asked him what he thought it was, so he wasn't making stuff up to sell it to us.

Duncan's really cool, he knows his stuff and gives us loads of freebies so we're not gonna complain. With the nitrate issues we told him about he asked if maybe the membrane in the RO needed replacing, said we could have free salt RO until we got it replaced. If we say we like a plant or something that he's just one of left we get them for nowt, got our snails for free too. Think the rest of the staff have cottoned on too, I think we're getting secret discount. Last 2 times I've bougth dry goods I've got to the till and they said 'I think this is reduced from the price on it' and knoced some off. can't complain...... although I do think we need to spend slightly less time in there

 

[pipatic]

can i ask what and how much food you are feeding ,

 

[Miss Wiggle]

we've 3 different sorts of food, some purple seaweed stuff which, something just called 'marine fish food' which is a mix of flake and bits of freeze dried shrimps etc, and some hikari marine pellets.

the seaweed we had for the tang while he was with us, we've not used any since but kept it as we haven't fully decided on our stocking, someone may like it!

the fish food were just using the flakes, we know the things like krill and shrimps can contribute to the nitrates

and the pellets are too big for one of the clowns so not used them that much either.

we're being very careful with feeding, obviously putting more waste into the tank is the last thing it needs, so we're just putting a teeny bit of the flake in and giving the tank 'starve day's' something like every 3/4 days.

 

[pipatic]

so no frozen then,

another area to look at
"the tank has a hang on the back sump that houses the skimmer so i can`t get rid of it,

it also houses lots of bio balls,"
bio balls
alot of reef keepers would recommend taking them out,
i did ages ago ,deffo helped,

but they seem to work very well in trickle tower on fish only systerms,

from now on imho i'd only do w/c weekly or bi weekly as you dont have many fish causing waste
and let the l.r do its job of filtering,converting the waste
and do weeky tests

oh and by the way congrates on doing a great job looking after your tank,bringing it back slowly !
i think this will be a stunning tank ,

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no we've not given them any frozen or live food as yet, just a little concerned about contamination, got enough issues without adding to them just yet!!

oh yeah, forgot to post, we took out the bio balls yesterday now it's just got the skimmer sat in it and the water goes through that, through some empty compartments and back into the tank. We're gonna put cured LR rubble into the HOB as soon as we get a chance, should be this week. Ian's just trying to work out how he can turn it into a refugium so he can (eventually) get his mandarin goby.

we're doing every other day for changes and the nitrate seems to be steadily dropping and the fish, coral's and inverts are all looking healthy so I think we'll stick to it as we are for now. we'll be doing bi weekly 20% changes when the levels settle. But for now with nitrate still registering about 60ppm I'm not gonna reduce the number of changes. We're keeping a very very close eye on all livestock though and if anyoen shows the slightest signs of being poorly then we'll reconsider.

and thankyou, we hope so. I want to keep this thread going as a sort of diary thing. I can't wait to look back on it in a year and see what a difference we've made.

Thanks for all your help and input

 

[pipatic]

ok no probs ,good luck

 

[BigIan]

the BIO balls have gone and i have the hob running diffrently so its increased the ammount of water in whe whole system, soon its going to be filled with small LR Its going to be too awkward to turn into a fuge so its just going to house loads more LR and just help to filter the tank,

I`m quite fond of the sponge and alge. but i would love a nice brain coral in there at some point (in 3 or 4 years when the nitrates have dropped)

why aren`t they dropping we must have changed over the entire tank water twice now in 2 weeks whats going on?

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, I'm gonna re-visit three things that I'm not sure if you guys have answered yet, apologize if you allready have, this is a long thread .

First, have you ever had the TDS (Total Dissolved Solutes) of your pure RO water (no salt added) measured? And if so, what is its reading? If not, get that done

Have you tested your saltwater thats been mixed for 24 hours for nitrates (the stuff you water change with)? If so what was the value?

Finally, have you recently (since you observed a minor decline) verified with your LFS that your readings agree?

 

[BigIan]

nope nope and nope...

we`ve tested the mixed salt water a few hours after mixing it, and the reading was 0

Will the LFS be able to test the TDS?

and havent been to the LFS since we noted the decline so havent tested that yet.


thanks for all the help SKI, you`ve been a star

 

[BigIan]

and i don`t know idf this is of any help to any one but i think out alge is pearling.....


after the lights have been on for an hour or two the green alge thats built up over various surfaces is coverd in tiny bubbles