Sf05's Slow And Steady

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks SH

My LFS sells Red, Blue + Scarlet hermit crabs so i'll take a couple of scarlets then

I'll leave room for the frags and small corals with LR so hopefully i won't need to buy anymore
I can visualise where most of my corals will be (Well the softies anyway )

Water params today where the same as yesterdays, tommorow i'll add a couple more hours of lights to the system which will give me 6hours a day.

Thanks
Dan

 

[Clownfish11790]

The secound layout is much better. I can't wait to see what it looks like when its complete. _CF

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks

Wen't away this weekend down to Torquay. Went in this mini-sealife centre and saw some great marine tanks, wish i had took the camera
I saw lots of yellow clown gobies...They look a lot nicer in real-life but do they just hoaver in the same spot for ages? The ones there would just stay in one place all day and i want something that swims around alot.
Lights are on 6hours today and i'll test water tomorow.
Losing a fair bit of water a day from evapouration

Dan

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

params from Mon + Tues:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10

Although it's faster than i expected it looks like the cycle is completed already...
The LR had been cured at the LFS and was out of water about 20 odd minutes so i guess i had little die-off

I've just done a 20% water change and tommorow i'm going to double check the params and if they're still fine i'll pick up the Cleaner Crew

Heres what i'm going to get: (Forgive spellings)
4 Nassairuis
4 Astrae
4 Cerith
1 turbo
2 Scarlet hermits + Shells
1 Cleaner Shrimp (Get him tommorow?)
Will probably order my moonlights tommorow and then wait a week or two until getting a true perc
Add any comments or help you have
Thanks
Dan

 

[Clownfish11790]

Wait to get the cleaner shrimp...They are too expensive to put in this early. Also If there are no nitrates of ammonia, wait until some algae starts to grow before you buy the cleaner crew or else they will starve. I no it is tempting to go out an buy everything. Also If you really want to buy some just go and buy a couple of cleaners, then get the rest later. _CF

 

[steelhealr]

I agree with clownfish. Give the water a bit of time to settle out before putting a cleaner in, which, by the way, is a great choice. You should be able to get your nitrates down pretty close to 0 initially and that might be the time to put the cleaner in. SH

 

[Chac]

Hi mate

Give Coral Farm a try for clean up crew & shrimps, I have found them to be one of the cheapest around

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks for your replies

I'll leave it a while until i add the cleaner then.
Wen't down to the LFS today and they had nothing in apart from turbo's, said they should have a big delivery friday but that's just astrae and turbo so i'll go in on the weekend and pick up some things.
Thanks for the link D i'll probably have to get most of my stuff from there
£53.50 for everything on the list (Not the shrimp) including delivery
Dan

 

[Clownfish11790]

If you get some corals. I think you should get some mushroom coral. They are sooo cool and they come in many different shapes, colors, pattens, and forms. Good luck!

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks, will diffently be getting me a few mushies

Well, Came back home last night and it's changed a fair bit
My diatom bloom has come and my crushed arog is a bit browny. I have lots of grassy looking things on my glass and some on my LR. I tried to get it off the glass with my pad but no look so i'll get a blade tommorow and see how that goes.
Hopefully clean-up crew should be here thursday if i order them tommorow.

My LR is looking great! It's now covered in purple, red, pink, white and orange and looks the Dogs!!

I did pick up a turbo snail and two red leg hermits today though to try and hold back the algae until everyone else arrives. Can someone tell me why all my LFS's only sell Turbo snails? Why not the different variety we need?
Surprised to find my phosphates have risen to 0.25? Is that possible?

Just want to get the tank looking clean and finally go and pick up a true perc at last!
It's going to be a good 2-3 weeks yet though so i'll have to make do with my snails......

Thanks
Dan

 

[Chac]

Patience padawan

If I remember my initial algea bloom lasted weeks & weeks but eventually went

As for the question on Turbos - I dont even think an LFS within in 60miles of me even has a box of salt never mind any decent marine livestock, Personally I would either try James @ Coral Farm or Ian @ UDA (better phoning UDA) they usually have a decent variation of cleaners, just got me self some more conch's, Ceriths, turbos, etc at the weekend

My redundency payment is taking a bashing thats for sure

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

I guess i'd better stop moaning

I've ordered my clean-up crew from james last night so hopefully he can get them ready for tommorow
I bet your money has took a bash, I know mine has

I'm already getting fed up of this RO Unit.... It's so boring sitting 2-3hours + Just to get enough to do a weeks top up and then another 3 for a waterchange Even then i have to save my bathroom from getting flooded again

They say 40 PSI is the minimum, my unit can barely handle 55 before it shoots water back up the hosepipe.

I'll update when i get my first fish

Dan

 

[Clownfish11790]

If you run your water for about 10mins on the highest setting, it might get the copper out of you water.

 

[steelhealr]

Some phosphates can come from food and some can initially leach out from rocks. If the RO unit isn't working well, it maybe from the filter. You'd have to get a TDS meter to see if the filter is truly working well. SH

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Clownfish - Do you mean switch over to tap water? I suppose it would get rid of the copper but i'd still be left with my 5.0+ phosphates and 5< Nitrates

SH - I've tested the water straight out from my RO Unit and phosphates are still at 0 so i guess it must have leached out the rocks. I have got a TDS Meter but like a fool i forgot to add the calibration solution and im strapped for cash atm so that will have to wait. All my leves like nitrates & phosphates are perfect so i'd say it's a good guess to say my TDS should be okay but you never knew so i'll get it sorted asap.

The hermits and turbo are doing a good job of fighting back this algae. They've cleared a whole rock in one day

Thanks
Dan

Edit: Wow! im 5 fishes now! Damn i'm a super fish expert now i don't need your help no more! Jk
Can i change that 'Fish Addict' to something not so fishy now?