Hex's Hong Kong Hijinks (advice appreciated)

[Hexabonal]

Latest pic:



First post:
Hi all, I'm new to reefing and would love some advice for my tank which is about 3 months old.

I live in Hong Kong so reefing is rather unique: I have no idea what I'm buying most of the time because nobody speaks English, but most things are absurdly cheap.

I've kept planted tanks for years. My friend moved away and convinced me to get into saltwater tanks and gave me his live rock and a handful of corals. The rock was always live rock and comes with a load of good stuff (stomatella, bristle worms, mix of pods, pineapple sponges, fan worms, all kinds of other stuff) as well as some bad stuff (vermetid snails but they seem to have mostly disappeared..., Aiptasia which is a pain). Peppermint shrimp destroy the aiptasia but never seem to last long in my tank - cherry shrimp also do not do well in my freshwater tanks, despite me keeping some more delicate species of fish, so I wonder if there is something in my water supply they dislike.

The tank stablised quickly as there was lots of mature live rock. Despite this there have always been somewhat elevated nitrate levels, perhaps from rock die off from the move and because I over-fed... They sell big bags of live brine shrimp here really cheap and I didn't want them to go to waste. I bought some macroalgae which grew like CRAZY. Then I bought a big slug thing (we think it's an abalone) which demolished any form of algae in sight. Now I have cheato growing in the back of my AIO on top of a load of ceramic bio filter rings, but I think it's too small a quantity to clean the tank up thus far. No skimmer fits in the back of my AIO tank so I've gone without and stuck with 25% water changes once a week and hoped the macroalgae was enough. The light is from 'zetlife' and made for reefing but I wonder if it is strong enough. I have loads of flow from two powerheads and the pump in the back.

Here in HK people do not, apparently, use RODI as the water is supposedly fairly clean. I'm dubious about this but RODI units are not readily available - there are some expensive RO units. I did a cheap tap water quality test and it didn't have ammonia/nitrate and had no problems apart from showing up a positive for 'lead or fertilisers' (always lovely in drinking water...). I may try and buy a tiny one when I go back to England to do the water changes with.

I have 2 clowns named blobfishe and pez-globo by my students, 3 chromis, a firefish, a lawnmower blenny, a couple hermit crabs, a few mixed snails, the abalone and the urchin who is wearing a zoanthid hat in the photo.

Corals are dirt cheap and sometimes people even give me free ones. I have about 7 or 8 types of montipora, one acro (which was given to me for free as an 'experiment' but somehow seems to be surviving). I have 6 palys/zoas, a sun coral, frogspawn, a 'japanese christmas tree' (whatever that is), a couple of ricordea yuma mushrooms, some clove polyps, an acan, a thing like a giant acan, what I think is a single-headed short-polyped elegance coral and even a weird encursting hitchhiker coral. The longest established monti, the orange one at the top in the middle, was absolutely tiny when I bought it and has grown brilliantly. The bird's nest coral has grown well. The yuma reproduced like crazy when it was in an awkward position on the sand but now I glued it to the rock has stopped that. The brain coral has grown slowly but I think that's normal. The acan has never been very happy. I've had the candy cane since the start and I don't think it has grown so much as a milimeter!

A chromi disappeared last night, he's probably dead under some rock somewhere. Ammonia is 0.25ppm but nitrates are high at somewhere between 2.0mg/l and 4.0mg/l. The pH is 8.2.

Obviously, there are many factors here which are not ideal. Which should be a priority? Any other tips much appreciated.

Abigail the Abalone.

These have all been rather happy:


These have not, I think:


Many more photos to follow if there is any interest!

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Hi, your tank looks nice but that ammonia probably is caused by the dead fish. If you can find the fish and removed will be the best. Other option will be water change, maybe a 10 or 20% to lower the ammonia.

 

[lion king]

I would test for ca, alk, and mg; and get all of these parameters in check.

Chaeto in the back chamber of the Aio usuly dont do that great, but you could run an algae reactor. Easy to drop a pump in a back chamber to feed it. A good running algae reactor would do away for your need for a protein skimmer. A hang on the back protein skimmer is also another thought.

With a mixed reef in a small tank, lighting can be a concern Post your lighting to get help with coral placement and feasibility. Some of the corals you mentioned does seem to need higher light. Those would go higher up, it looks like you have some lips corals as well, which can vary in requirements, usually more moderate.

How's the flow, some of the corals you mentioned does require higher flow.

 

[Super Fly]

Hey how r things in HK these days, my wife and I lived/worked there in the 90's!

tank looks pretty good for 3 months, I would ensure tank is stable for at least another month before slowly adding more livestock... but since ur tank doesn't appear large, I would caution against adding too much livestock. Peppermint shrimp don't live long unless it has continued food supply (same thing w the lawnmower blenny which needs continued supply of algae), if u like shrimp I'd recommend skunk cleaner shrimp as they're fun to watch n will even clean ur hand.

Chromis will eventually kill off each other until there's only 1 left. Hopefully u have good CUC (clean up crew) who are handling dead fish. I agree w Lion King, all that coral needs good lighting.

AS far as HK water, since u have no RODI I'd be very diligent with tank husbandry (water testing, changes etc) and keep an eye out for nuisance alage and cyano. If they start forming, should consider getting a GFO reactor (don't leave on 24/7, use only when needed) and algae scrubber (these take place of chaeto in refugium). The smaller the tank, the less room for error, esp the SPS and LPS corals. These corals do not take kindly to water parameter changes, they need stability to survive.

GL

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi all, I'm new to reefing and would love some advice for my tank which is about 3 months old.

I live in Hong Kong so reefing is rather unique: I have no idea what I'm buying most of the time because nobody speaks English, but most things are absurdly cheap.

I've kept planted tanks for years. My friend moved away and convinced me to get into saltwater tanks and gave me his live rock and a handful of corals. The rock was always live rock and comes with a load of good stuff (stomatella, bristle worms, mix of pods, pineapple sponges, fan worms, all kinds of other stuff) as well as some bad stuff (vermetid snails but they seem to have mostly disappeared..., Aiptasia which is a pain). Peppermint shrimp destroy the aiptasia but never seem to last long in my tank - cherry shrimp also do not do well in my freshwater tanks, despite me keeping some more delicate species of fish, so I wonder if there is something in my water supply they dislike.

The tank stablised quickly as there was lots of mature live rock. Despite this there have always been somewhat elevated nitrate levels, perhaps from rock die off from the move and because I over-fed... They sell big bags of live brine shrimp here really cheap and I didn't want them to go to waste. I bought some macroalgae which grew like CRAZY. Then I bought a big slug thing (we think it's an abalone) which demolished any form of algae in sight. Now I have cheato growing in the back of my AIO on top of a load of ceramic bio filter rings, but I think it's too small a quantity to clean the tank up thus far. No skimmer fits in the back of my AIO tank so I've gone without and stuck with 25% water changes once a week and hoped the macroalgae was enough. The light is from 'zetlife' and made for reefing but I wonder if it is strong enough. I have loads of flow from two powerheads and the pump in the back.

Here in HK people do not, apparently, use RODI as the water is supposedly fairly clean. I'm dubious about this but RODI units are not readily available - there are some expensive RO units. I did a cheap tap water quality test and it didn't have ammonia/nitrate and had no problems apart from showing up a positive for 'lead or fertilisers' (always lovely in drinking water...). I may try and buy a tiny one when I go back to England to do the water changes with.

I have 2 clowns named blobfishe and pez-globo by my students, 3 chromis, a firefish, a lawnmower blenny, a couple hermit crabs, a few mixed snails, the abalone and the urchin who is wearing a zoanthid hat in the photo.

Corals are dirt cheap and sometimes people even give me free ones. I have about 7 or 8 types of montipora, one acro (which was given to me for free as an 'experiment' but somehow seems to be surviving). I have 6 palys/zoas, a sun coral, frogspawn, a 'japanese christmas tree' (whatever that is), a couple of ricordea yuma mushrooms, some clove polyps, an acan, a thing like a giant acan, what I think is a single-headed short-polyped elegance coral and even a weird encursting hitchhiker coral. The longest established monti, the orange one at the top in the middle, was absolutely tiny when I bought it and has grown brilliantly. The bird's nest coral has grown well. The yuma reproduced like crazy when it was in an awkward position on the sand but now I glued it to the rock has stopped that. The brain coral has grown slowly but I think that's normal. The acan has never been very happy. I've had the candy cane since the start and I don't think it has grown so much as a milimeter!

A chromi disappeared last night, he's probably dead under some rock somewhere. Ammonia is 0.25ppm but nitrates are high at somewhere between 2.0mg/l and 4.0mg/l. The pH is 8.2.

Obviously, there are many factors here which are not ideal. Which should be a priority? Any other tips much appreciated.

Abigail the Abalone.

These have all been rather happy:


These have not, I think:


Many more photos to follow if there is any interest!

I like it. I'll take 1 to go.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Sounds like HK is the place to be for a reefer!

I am surprised you cannot pick up an RODI on ebay given a lot of them are produced in the region. I think much of your problems with shrimp lie with the lead tested. Your NO3 is likely high due to the fertilizer in your source water. Fertilizer is nitrogen and can come in many forms, most of the time NO3.

I would put your focus on RODI for sure. That lead is the most harmful and there are likely more that the basic water test didn't test for.

Overall, tank looks awesome!

 

[Hexabonal]

Hi, your tank looks nice but that ammonia probably is caused by the dead fish. If you can find the fish and removed will be the best. Other option will be water change, maybe a 10 or 20% to lower the ammonia.

Thanks! Yes, I did a WC

I would test for ca, alk, and mg; and get all of these parameters in check.

Chaeto in the back chamber of the Aio usuly dont do that great, but you could run an algae reactor. Easy to drop a pump in a back chamber to feed it. A good running algae reactor would do away for your need for a protein skimmer. A hang on the back protein skimmer is also another thought.

With a mixed reef in a small tank, lighting can be a concern Post your lighting to get help with coral placement and feasibility. Some of the corals you mentioned does seem to need higher light. Those would go higher up, it looks like you have some lips corals as well, which can vary in requirements, usually more moderate.

How's the flow, some of the corals you mentioned does require higher flow.

Do you have any recommendations for hang on back skimmers or algae reactors? The diy algae reactors look a bit intimidating to build - how is water returned to the tank after it is pumped in?

I think the light is a "zetlight aquarium lighting marine universal LED light" - it was given to me by a friend, no idea what wattage, looks like 28-42 judging by amazon.

I do have very high flow from two big powerheads in such a small tank.

Hey how r things in HK these days, my wife and I lived/worked there in the 90's!

tank looks pretty good for 3 months, I would ensure tank is stable for at least another month before slowly adding more livestock... but since ur tank doesn't appear large, I would caution against adding too much livestock. Peppermint shrimp don't live long unless it has continued food supply (same thing w the lawnmower blenny which needs continued supply of algae), if u like shrimp I'd recommend skunk cleaner shrimp as they're fun to watch n will even clean ur hand.

Chromis will eventually kill off each other until there's only 1 left. Hopefully u have good CUC (clean up crew) who are handling dead fish. I agree w Lion King, all that coral needs good lighting.

AS far as HK water, since u have no RODI I'd be very diligent with tank husbandry (water testing, changes etc) and keep an eye out for nuisance alage and cyano. If they start forming, should consider getting a GFO reactor (don't leave on 24/7, use only when needed) and algae scrubber (these take place of chaeto in refugium). The smaller the tank, the less room for error, esp the SPS and LPS corals. These corals do not take kindly to water parameter changes, they need stability to survive.

GL

Thanks! HK is great! Do you recommend a particular algae scrubber? I read GFO can be a bit aggressive, BRS recommended not using it, but maybe it is a good idea without a skimmer or rodi.

I like it. I'll take 1 to go.

Thanks! I love it but it's still very messy and not grown in.

Sounds like HK is the place to be for a reefer!

I am surprised you cannot pick up an RODI on ebay given a lot of them are produced in the region. I think much of your problems with shrimp lie with the lead tested. Your NO3 is likely high due to the fertilizer in your source water. Fertilizer is nitrogen and can come in many forms, most of the time NO3.

I would put your focus on RODI for sure. That lead is the most harmful and there are likely more that the basic water test didn't test for.

Overall, tank looks awesome!

Thanks for the insight on fertiliser - seems rather obvious now I think that fertiliser is normally 'NPK'.

Surprisingly it's actually very, very difficult to get your hands on decent technology here at a good price - it's all exported! I think I may have to somehow navigate some dodgy website all in Chinese and survive a precarious delivery service in order to get one.

 

[Super Fly]

Thanks! HK is great! Do you recommend a particular algae scrubber? I read GFO can be a bit aggressive, BRS recommended not using it, but maybe it is a good idea without a skimmer or rodi.

I'm partial to Santa Monica scrubbers but they can be pricey so waiting till I can find a deal and there are others out there, even DIY. Aquamaxx reactor seems like pretty good, but I hear some find algae reactors hassle to clean. https://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMaxx_Algae_Reactor_Package_-AquaMaxx-UJ5355-FIFRAS-vi.html

Surprisingly it's actually very, very difficult to get your hands on decent technology here at a good price - it's all exported! I think I may have to somehow navigate some dodgy website all in Chinese and survive a precarious delivery service in order to get one.

you can always order equipment from the US and get a voltage converter to use in HK. I recall using a dual voltage converter on my American TV set while I was living there (can switch between 220 to 120 and vice versa).

 

[Hexabonal]

Tank update:

I bought an awesome Zetlight QMAVEN 6500 II light which I love (rather than the clunky little LED I was using before). The colour on the corals is amazing by comparison. Hopefully once they get used to it then I will get a lot more light. There are a whole range of different blues and purples so they should really like the spectrum. The app in particular is absolutely fantastic.

As you can probably tell there has been a lot of rearranging in the tank. My urchins love moving the zoas around (you can see one carting one around now. The zoas seem to actually enjoy this). I also bought a torch coral (mid right, a little hidden) and some gigantic chunks of montipora (more on that in a second).

I bought a matted filefish (only $8 usd) and it has done an incredible job of eating the aiptasia. I was going to give it away to a friend once it had purged the aiptasia and if it started munching on the SPS but so far it has shown no interest in them. As everyone predicted, the chromis slowly picked each other off one by one until there was just one left. It's frustrating that so many websites recommend beginners buy them and keep them in schools.

I got this massive slab of monti for $13 USD. I love how that acro has gone a beautiful bright green - I have no idea how it has stayed alive in my filthy overfed skimmer-less sump-less tank.

Here's a close up. There's a new red monti in the center (bought it from $3 usd from a fellow reefer).

 

[ylreefer]

Hi Hex. Great looking tank for such a short time frame, amazing actually. I'm also reefing from HK and agree it can be difficult to find the things we need. I would encourage you to purchase that Rodi ASAP though. I bought mine from a shop in Reclamation Street in mong kok. It cost about $1400 HKD but is only a 5 stage R.O unit. I didn't fancy the filters it came with so I purchased replacements from amazon with a new membrane for a decent price. I also added the D.I filter and now run the unit as RO for drinking and RODI for the tanks. HK local won't drink tap water directly so would not want to put that in my tank. Where I live my TDS is about 78. Not bad compared to my 900 in UK. But with the Di its now Zero TDS which is what we really like to see.

As for your Zetlight i also use a Zetlight 24" unit on my 30" deep tank when it was running as a reef with pretty good overall coral colours and growth. So I guess it depends on your model, but I do like Zetlight units and the controllability.

I have a couple of posts on here regarding my old tank which I'm now setting up. Again and my new nano reef which I've just set up, as for your skimmer situation there really are some tiny skimmers out there. What size is your chamber in the AIO. Im. Using the coralbox SQ50. Not great but it works. I may upgrade this for the hydor slim skim as I've heard good things about this one. Not sure if the dimensions but I have seen it in the shop and it's very small, could be worth a look.

The reefing community in hk is actually pretty big unfortunately it's mainly a local hobby so not so easy for us to find what we're looking for, if you need any help with finding anything I'll be happy to help if you send me a message anytime.

Happy reefing.

 

[ChuckGunn]

Latest pic:



First post:
Hi all, I'm new to reefing and would love some advice for my tank which is about 3 months old.

I live in Hong Kong so reefing is rather unique: I have no idea what I'm buying most of the time because nobody speaks English, but most things are absurdly cheap.

I've kept planted tanks for years. My friend moved away and convinced me to get into saltwater tanks and gave me his live rock and a handful of corals. The rock was always live rock and comes with a load of good stuff (stomatella, bristle worms, mix of pods, pineapple sponges, fan worms, all kinds of other stuff) as well as some bad stuff (vermetid snails but they seem to have mostly disappeared..., Aiptasia which is a pain). Peppermint shrimp destroy the aiptasia but never seem to last long in my tank - cherry shrimp also do not do well in my freshwater tanks, despite me keeping some more delicate species of fish, so I wonder if there is something in my water supply they dislike.

The tank stablised quickly as there was lots of mature live rock. Despite this there have always been somewhat elevated nitrate levels, perhaps from rock die off from the move and because I over-fed... They sell big bags of live brine shrimp here really cheap and I didn't want them to go to waste. I bought some macroalgae which grew like CRAZY. Then I bought a big slug thing (we think it's an abalone) which demolished any form of algae in sight. Now I have cheato growing in the back of my AIO on top of a load of ceramic bio filter rings, but I think it's too small a quantity to clean the tank up thus far. No skimmer fits in the back of my AIO tank so I've gone without and stuck with 25% water changes once a week and hoped the macroalgae was enough. The light is from 'zetlife' and made for reefing but I wonder if it is strong enough. I have loads of flow from two powerheads and the pump in the back.

Here in HK people do not, apparently, use RODI as the water is supposedly fairly clean. I'm dubious about this but RODI units are not readily available - there are some expensive RO units. I did a cheap tap water quality test and it didn't have ammonia/nitrate and had no problems apart from showing up a positive for 'lead or fertilisers' (always lovely in drinking water...). I may try and buy a tiny one when I go back to England to do the water changes with.

I have 2 clowns named blobfishe and pez-globo by my students, 3 chromis, a firefish, a lawnmower blenny, a couple hermit crabs, a few mixed snails, the abalone and the urchin who is wearing a zoanthid hat in the photo.

Corals are dirt cheap and sometimes people even give me free ones. I have about 7 or 8 types of montipora, one acro (which was given to me for free as an 'experiment' but somehow seems to be surviving). I have 6 palys/zoas, a sun coral, frogspawn, a 'japanese christmas tree' (whatever that is), a couple of ricordea yuma mushrooms, some clove polyps, an acan, a thing like a giant acan, what I think is a single-headed short-polyped elegance coral and even a weird encursting hitchhiker coral. The longest established monti, the orange one at the top in the middle, was absolutely tiny when I bought it and has grown brilliantly. The bird's nest coral has grown well. The yuma reproduced like crazy when it was in an awkward position on the sand but now I glued it to the rock has stopped that. The brain coral has grown slowly but I think that's normal. The acan has never been very happy. I've had the candy cane since the start and I don't think it has grown so much as a milimeter!

A chromi disappeared last night, he's probably dead under some rock somewhere. Ammonia is 0.25ppm but nitrates are high at somewhere between 2.0mg/l and 4.0mg/l. The pH is 8.2.

Obviously, there are many factors here which are not ideal. Which should be a priority? Any other tips much appreciated.

Abigail the Abalone.

These have all been rather happy:


These have not, I think:


Many more photos to follow if there is any interest!

Nice tank! Thanks for the good sharing. Where do you get charto algae in Hong Kong? I went to the "goldfish street" but to no avail. They only have moss it seems...