Welp, I reckin' it's time for an update.
First things first I've added a pair of clowns from Cultivated Reef. They're "MochaVinci's". The smaller of the two had tougher time coming around after shipping but they've both recovered nicely and are buddies.
I've had several pairs of clownfish and these two are easily the most social. After a few weeks, the larger one will come right up to the surface to greet me. It's pretty cool.
After that everything calmed down and I was going to let things sit about before gluing my corals down and building my Zoa garden...Then the algae came.
I know this is part of the whole process but I've never gotten it this bad before during a cycle. At this time, for a CuC I only had maybe two hermits, and two Astrea snails along with maybe 10 small ceriths. I think this crew wasn't able to keep up with the algae so I added a few more hermits, a Mexican turbo snail...and the big guns:
I've always wanted an Urchin and my LFS had a Pencil Urchin that was a little bit smaller than a goofball. We'll see how he does.
Lastly, I purchased a Nano Skimmer. This is the IceCap K1 Nano Skimmer. It came highly recommended and I was very excited to get it.
So this is by no means a comprehensive review but I wanted to share my experience after 48hrs. I received my Icecap K1 Nano Skimmer on Friday. Assembled and installed it Friday late afternoon. Upon plugging it in discovered that it’s handily the noisiest thing in my house. You can hear this thing two rooms over (see video). After doing some research I learned that the pump should break-in in a few weeks. (This is entirely subjective and I hope my current noise levels are within the scope of other people’s experiences.) I’ve contacted Icecap to see if this is normal and to see if perhaps I can replace the silencer and/or the pump. I’ll keep everyone posted on what happens with that.
Now the silver lining here is....as seen in the picture above after running ~36 hours. This thing is a BEAST at skimming. I’ve got it hooked up to a WiFi-enabled plug currently set up to run at night while I’m asleep, as well as when I’m not sitting in that room. I’m really hoping it “breaks in” to a point I can leave it on 24/7.
Does anyone else have experience with these??
Anyway, that's where I'm at now. Looking forward to getting this algae under control so I can start placing my corals. Let me know what you all think!
First things first I've added a pair of clowns from Cultivated Reef. They're "MochaVinci's". The smaller of the two had tougher time coming around after shipping but they've both recovered nicely and are buddies.
I've had several pairs of clownfish and these two are easily the most social. After a few weeks, the larger one will come right up to the surface to greet me. It's pretty cool.
After that everything calmed down and I was going to let things sit about before gluing my corals down and building my Zoa garden...Then the algae came.
I know this is part of the whole process but I've never gotten it this bad before during a cycle. At this time, for a CuC I only had maybe two hermits, and two Astrea snails along with maybe 10 small ceriths. I think this crew wasn't able to keep up with the algae so I added a few more hermits, a Mexican turbo snail...and the big guns:
I've always wanted an Urchin and my LFS had a Pencil Urchin that was a little bit smaller than a goofball. We'll see how he does.
Lastly, I purchased a Nano Skimmer. This is the IceCap K1 Nano Skimmer. It came highly recommended and I was very excited to get it.
So this is by no means a comprehensive review but I wanted to share my experience after 48hrs. I received my Icecap K1 Nano Skimmer on Friday. Assembled and installed it Friday late afternoon. Upon plugging it in discovered that it’s handily the noisiest thing in my house. You can hear this thing two rooms over (see video). After doing some research I learned that the pump should break-in in a few weeks. (This is entirely subjective and I hope my current noise levels are within the scope of other people’s experiences.) I’ve contacted Icecap to see if this is normal and to see if perhaps I can replace the silencer and/or the pump. I’ll keep everyone posted on what happens with that.
Now the silver lining here is....as seen in the picture above after running ~36 hours. This thing is a BEAST at skimming. I’ve got it hooked up to a WiFi-enabled plug currently set up to run at night while I’m asleep, as well as when I’m not sitting in that room. I’m really hoping it “breaks in” to a point I can leave it on 24/7.
Does anyone else have experience with these??
Anyway, that's where I'm at now. Looking forward to getting this algae under control so I can start placing my corals. Let me know what you all think!