First reef tank

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InterventionalReefiology

InterventionalReefiology

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I had been checking nitrite and nitrate with a test strip, and had 0 but also had ammonia below false positives threshold before I added the fish so I thought I was good, but my last test strip came back with nitrite. Ammonia is maybe 0.5 but all the fish are doing well so hopefully my fishless cycle just became a longer fish-in cycle and it'll be complete soon. The scooter blenny/dragonet actually seems to be eating some of the food in putting in, even though I added a jar of copepods last week. I'm taking as a good sign that overall he'll get enough food, but I'm still going to restock the copepods occasionally. And for fun, here's a picture of him spilling the tea to one of the snails.
 

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InterventionalReefiology

InterventionalReefiology

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2 weeks later...

Was on vacation for a week so I had someone just feeding. Apparently at one point the ripples from the return head breached the top of the glass, so some water leaked. Fortunately it seems it was caught early enough that there were no issues with the water level going too low. I think the lid on the biocube32 saves a lot of evaporation as there was minimal evaporation loss over that week.

The scooter blenny died yesterday. It was pretty lazy for a day or two before that, but no other unusual behavior (eg no scratching, no heavy breathing), so I'm assuming the copepods didn't take enough to keep him fed despite supplementing with other foods it seemed to eat. Hopefully it wasn't something more serious that will makes its way through the other fish.

I added chaeto to the refugium, another jar of copepods, and a pincushion urchin as there is now some hair algae as well as more green algae. I'm hoping to get some corals soon, too.
 
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InterventionalReefiology

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Long overdue update...

Added coral (see one of my other posts) from a friend. Since then have added some more from my LFS. Also have added some more fish and inverts. Had a six line wrasse that died within a week of unknown causes. I think I had some dinos, turned the lights off a few days and decreased filtration to bump nitrate from 0, it's now between 10 and 20. If like it a little lower but finding a balance is difficult. Also have vermatid snails (just a few) and spirobid (sp?) snails.

Current stock list:
2 clowns
Royal Gramma
Yellowtail damsel
Firefish
Longnose hawk fish
Canary wrasse

3 nassarius snails
2 bumblebee snails (bought 3 from LFS but one was DOA and now serves as an urchin hat)
2 turbo snails (the true workhorse snails)
Pincushion urchin
Emerald crab

Frogspawn
Random SPS from initial coral batch, the larger piece only has one chunk still alive
2 frags of the same favites?
Plate
Red chalice
Zoas (initial piece that also has a devils hand and a second piece, total at least 5 color morphs)
Platygyria
Space invader pectinia
Trachyphylia (LFS sold it as a mushroom at a low price, but I think they just have their label wrong still)

The pectinia seems to be growing slowly, the others not as much which is a little disappointing, I'm not sure if I'm too impatient or something is a little off.
 

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