Sdoutreefer's Cube Build - Red Sea Reefer 200 G2+

[Sdoutreefer]

BUMPING for stocking ideas!

Already have a purple dottyback (she's a b****) and 2 chromis (lost the 3rd from stress).

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Here’s some photos I took tonight.

 

[Patx]

Your Purple dotty back kill my inspiration.
Bad reputation and i never have one.

40 ish gallons ?
Fire fish
Small blenny
Goby

Take a look at :

Nano Fish | Marine Fish

Ideal for small aquariums of 8 gallons or more, many of these species develop small territories within their new home. Though they do not have special feeding requirements, live rock is highly recommended as a supplemental food source and added filtration. Be sure to check compatibilities before...

liveaquaria.com

 

[Patx]

Nice pic !
Could be a little fast for sps, but not impossible.
(New cycle tank whit dry rock right ?)

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Nice pic !
Could be a little fast for sps, but not impossible.
(New cycle tank whit dry rock right ?)

I know. I’m a bit scared I might be going too fast. We will see. Somewhat newly cycled. Rock is a mix of the dry white rock and old live rock I had in a previous tank from about 13 years ago.

I don’t like the dottyback. She’s a *****. But my daughter had to have a purple fish… might end up having jumped if it keeps being a bully.

 

[Patx]

Royal gramma could do the trick instead (maybe)
Mine is +10years old now... never "bully" others fish

The old live rock was dry ? (Anyway wait and see

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Royal gramma could do the trick instead (maybe)
Mine is +10years old now... never "bully" others fish

The old live rock was dry ? (Anyway wait and see

Correct. Old live rock was definetly dead and dry. It is definetly curing out quicker than the white dry marco rock.

 

[JustinP.]

I wanted to give an update. I am just hanging out, waiting for my tank to continue cycling. I'm pretty positive I'm cycled. My Nitrates have hit >/= 5 and nitrites were super low this past Thursday (0.2pm). I Was out of town so I have not taken an additional read on my Nitrites, but plan to today.

I've been thinking of adding some live sand from an established tank, or having some shipped to my house from TBS. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around how in the heck my tank will have any sort of bio-diversity from a bottle of ammonium chloride and Nitrifying bacteria. Do ya'll who do the fishless cycle introduce any sort of live rock or sand to create that bio-diversity? Or does it develop over time?

On a side note, I got my Apex hooked up last week. Will be hooking up the trident this weekend (just waiting on a sampling tube). My LFS has a "like new" Neptune DOS for sale at 50% off retail, so I plan on picking that up and getting it set up sometime this week.

Really no new news to report, just more so reporting and recording for my own sake.

I contemplated TBS sand and rock, but I decided that I wanted to be "Sterile," meaning if I did go through that route, I would want to either do an Aquabiomix test or qt the rock to get off any unwanted critters and possible aiptasia spores.

I try to always get live rock from a sterile system or a vat at my LFS because it allows me to introduce more mature bacterial colonies. Plus, If you wanted the good stuff, get some Prodibio, that worked wonders on my 110. The cycle took longer, but as soon as it was finished, everything seemed very happy.

 

[JustinP.]

Update on the tank:

I was out of town this weekend (Thursday to Sunday) and was not able to touch my tank, or look at it. I returned home to what appears to be diatoms, and potentially other algae blooms. It is safe to say, I have entered the ugly stage. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to shorten this ugly stage? It really came out of nowhere, and I don't recall what I've done with past tanks. As I have stated in previous posts, it's been about 13 years since my last reef tank. I have never done a fishless cycle, nor have I ever used dry rock and dry sand. So my expectations are a bit skewed, since we used cured live-rock in the old days...

On a side note, a small chalice frag that I picked up is starting to bleach. It is on the sand bed, in a somewhat shaded area. Could the frag be bleaching due to nutritent drop out? I started running my skimmer about a week ago, and noticed a huge influx of algae blooms. This could just be timing of my cycle finishing up, me introducing fish, and increasing bio-load overall. I feed a small chunk of frozen mysis daily, along with 1/2 the recommended dose of reef chili, as well as Reef Blizzard. My fish prefer the coral food over the mysis...

Do I cut back my photo-period? Currently running 12 hours per day, with peak being about 7-8 hours per day.

Or do I just let my tank figure it out and stay up on water changes? I haven't had time to run any tests but plan to after work this evening, as well as another water change.

I'll get some photos posted when I can. Stay tuned.

The ugly stage haha!! Always the fun part lol.....

I've seen the best growth and health of my older tanks when I didn't tinker or touch them. I just let them do their thing naturally.

You can't really "circumvent" or "shorten" the ugly phase. I would suggest shortening your photo-period (turn down the lights a bit maybe do 8 hours at a lower intensity). I also add pods before or around this time. They are the unsung heros of the CUC. Plus you can never have too many pods.

As for the Chalice, they don't thrive or enjoy new tanks. That isn't to say that you can't have success with them early on. I used to keep mine in low light and low flow, spot feed, and try to keep my hands out of the tank. Stick to water changes, and ensure your parameters are stable.

Since it is new, it takes time as you know for the system to stabilize, but it's fun getting to do it all over again!

 

[JustinP.]

Update on the tank over the weekend…

Tank is stable, for the most part. I took a reading on my sg, in the tank it came back as 1.022. Very low to what I was originally at. I did a 5 gal WC with a bath of sg at 1.028 to slowly try and raise it up. I’ll be doing another 5gal WC with another batch of 1.028.

Other than my salinity being low, everything is looking good. Introduced a handful of montipora and acropora. Currently have 2 unknown millepora, as well as a no name acro (very similar to an Oregon Tort), an orange montipora digi (almost has a blue skeleton, pretty cool), and a poker star montipora. All have decent polyp extension.

Still monitoring any potential bleaching.

Hoping to take some pictures soon, as I got the Orphek lens kit over the weekend. I don’t have any pictures worth sharing yet… still trying to figure out this lense.

On a side note, I’m going to Mexico in a week and have awful anxiety. I’m hoping I’ll have my dosing pump up and running (plan to dose all for reef and have been manually dosing for the past week). My next big concern is the tank getting enough nutrients while I’m out. Thankfully my tank sitter has done this before, but still full of anxiety lol. Hopefully I’ll have some growth while I’m away.

While doing the WC last night, I took out the sponge that is in the last baffle, right before the return pump. Is there some sort of media I should replace that sponge with? Or leave that baffle section empty?

I also need some stocking ideas. Currently, I have a purple dottyback and 2 green chromis. I will most likely add a pair of "designer" clowns but am wanting a "show" fish. What would you all reccomend be my "show" fish? I would like a tang, but I'm worried they will outgrow my tank very quickly. I also plan on a mandarin goby, but that is a ways down the road, once my pod population has stabalized.

I know alot of reefers go againsts tangs or wrasses being in smaller tanks. But I think that if you are able to buy them small enough, and pay attention to how quickly they grow and swap them out, they should be okay. Now, if you leave them in there too long and they're pretty big, then their growth would be stunted (not too good). I've seen people take small tomini's or blue hippos, and they're fine for a year, then they just swap them out after the year is over.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

I know alot of reefers go againsts tangs or wrasses being in smaller tanks. But I think that if you are able to buy them small enough, and pay attention to how quickly they grow and swap them out, they should be okay. Now, if you leave them in there too long and they're pretty big, then their growth would be stunted (not too good). I've seen people take small tomini's or blue hippos, and they're fine for a year, then they just swap them out after the year is over.

I’ve been considering a tang. Just worried about the shame I’ll get from the community lol.

The big issue might be getting out the dottyback. Good thing most of my rock is all glued/mortared together. Also my daughter is definetly not going to like her dottyback gone… she’s only 4. Maybe she’ll let me trade him out for some clowns.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

In other news, I was looking at my tank yesterday and my very hard, very green algae is starting to turn to coralline in some spots!!! Which is unreal being my tank is only 2 months old. Let me know if this is indeed coralline!

 

[JustinP.]

I’ve been considering a tang. Just worried about the shame I’ll get from the community lol.

The big issue might be getting out the dottyback. Good thing most of my rock is all glued/mortared together. Also my daughter is definetly not going to like her dottyback gone… she’s only 4. Maybe she’ll let me trade him out for some clowns.

Ah yeah I understand, my lfs has really small ones from time to time. You can always get a fish trap and trap it and then put it in an acclimation box until you add the rest of the fish in.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Ah yeah I understand, my lfs has really small ones from time to time. You can always get a fish trap and trap it and then put it in an acclimation box until you add the rest of the fish in.

My LFS has some pretty small ones, usually blue tangs which I don’t really want. Maybe I can order in a small one I want. Really wish I had room for a dresdarjini sailfin.

 

[JustinP.]

My LFS has some pretty small ones, usually blue tangs which I don’t really want. Maybe I can order in a small one I want. Really wish I had room for a dresdarjini sailfin.

With the Zebrasomas I'd be more mindful since they grow fairly quickly. I know you can find small scopas. But most people would go with really small tominis.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

With the Zebrasomas I'd be more mindful since they grow fairly quickly. I know you can find small scopas. But most people would go with really small tominis.

Tomini tang, that’s the other one I was thinking about. Had one in my 40 breeder. I’m just worried I won’t have the swimming room for really any tang.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

An update on the tank before I leave to Mexico for a week…

Everything is happy. My SPS are growing, coralline is still sprouting up and merging with other ‘colonies’. I do have some very thin algae popping up all over my rock work, which I expected. My hermit crabs just got back from vacation (they were molting, went missing for like a week!) and have decided they really want to work today. Hopefully they’ll clean the house while I’m gone!!

I am slowly raising my salinity. It was 1.021 about a week ago. Since I’ve done several water changes at 1.028 and everything is leveling out again.

Dosing 11ml/day of All-For-Reef for maintenance dose, 4tbsp of ESV-Magnesium (trying to get it a little higher to help combat the algae population), and 9ml of Carbo-Calcium (until my dkh is sitting around 8.4-8.6).

Currently dkh is at 8.2. Dosed some carbo-calcium and will test tonight.

Im a bit anxious to see what I come home to next week. Last time I left the tank was for only 4 days and a massive algae bloom (diatom) hit the tank. Boy was it stinky. The water I pulled out smelt really off.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Happy Reefing!

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Back from Mexico, and came home to an algae covered rock scape. My in-laws fed the tank, and obviously over fed. My sand and rock were totally covered in algae. I’ll share some pictures of the algae but I do believe it is just GHA.

I went to my LFS and talked with the homey. He is incredibly knowledgeable and was in the commercial aquarium industry for 15ish years. Sooo he suggested a white footed trochus to help combat the GHA. Good lord, that thing is an animal. It’s like a bulldozer to the algae. I’ve never had something in previous systems like it!!

My coralline population also really took off. There are some nice looking colonies on majority of my rock work. My SPS coral also really colored up, specifically my pokerstar monti. The green polyps are really popping and instead of the washed out purple, it is a very vibrant yellow/orange. I’m currently daily dosing AFR in the morning, pre-photoperiod. Before I left on my trip, my dkh was around 8.6. I tested it tonight and it dropped to 7.9. I will be upping my AFR dosing asap (from 11ish ml to 13 ml). Also dosing magnesium; trying to get that to 1500 to help defeat this algae.

Nothing new to report, as I’ll be taking it very slow until I get out of this stage of algae. Here’s some pictures from earlier today. Mostly just some closeups of my algae.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Was cleaning my tank a couple nights ago and my coral were wanting to show off. Here's some shots of how stuff is looking so far! Currently battling algae and the other stuff that comes with an immature tank.

 

[JustinP.]

So far so good! Those Trochus are monsters, plus they easily reproduce in captivity. Maybe you'll get another generation to grow up in your tank.