A New Journey in Marine Reefs

[rebbot]

It's been a while since I have had a tank. My last tank was a freshwater tank but got tired of maintaining it as plants were growing like weeds and I did not have time to prune and maintain them.

I decided to reset the tank and commission a marine tank instead. I last got my feet wet in marine over a year ago and it was a good experience but the tank was only a 1 feet cube at that time which was too small to maintain so I sold it off to a fellow reefer who can take much better care of it. Cedric was one of the reefers who left a big impression on me and I hope to have a display tank like his. I am now back with my latest marine without spending too much money as I reused equipment from my previous freshwater setup. Many thanks to Victor and his team from Iwarna as well who helped with the initial setup and advice.

Equipment List:

- ADA 60P (L60cm x W30cm x H36xm)

- Custom Cabinet

- Eheim 2026 Filter

- Do!Aqua Lily Pipes

- Tunze Nano Wavebox

- Giesemann NovaII 150W (20K Bulb)

- Hailea 150A Chiller

Corals:

- Crocea Clam x 2

- Elegance

- Red Open Brain x 2

- Green Open Brain

- Blue Mushroom

- Cauliflower x 2

- Green lobo

- Golden lobo

- Red Blasto

- Jewel

- True Octopus

- Anchor Hammer x 2

- Torch

- White Bubble

- Star Polyp

Live Stock:

- Pixy Hawkfish

- Skunk Shrimps x 2

- 1 Pair of True Percula

- 1 Pair Black Ocellaris Clown

- 6 line wrasse

- Orchid Dottyback

- Yellow Head Boxing Shrimp

- Orange Spot Goby

- Cling Fish

- Snails x 2

- Chromis x 2

Final Tank Shot for 16 November 2011:

Please pardon the poor iPhone picture but will adjust the WB to better reflect the colors. Hope to learn more from the reefers her and continue this journey!

Cheers!

[Rxcp14]

Nice and sweet! we got the same tank dimension but u do it like wow!;p

[rebbot]

Thanks Ezie! I had a lot of help from experienced reefers during setup and livestock selection. I am also battling with and cleaning out algae daily the ADA way - using your eyes ad fingers to remove all algae growth where possible Lolz

[wilsontantw]

Welcome back...

Thats quite a lot of rocks there... lots of real estate...

Hope the flow is good so as not to trap detritus...

[rebbot]

Thanks Wilson. Yeah I have about 18kg of live rocks there. 1kg for each gallon since the tank is about 18 gallons in volume.

I am using the nano wavebox from Tunze and the waves generated is huge despite at low setting. So far it seems that there are no dead spots.

Cheers!

[wilsontantw]

Bro.. if u read the manual for wavebox, its meant to be used with a wavemaker... reason, wb generates left/right motion.. it doesnt create flow... u may need a assembled to create some flow...

Hth..

[TayHongSiang]

looks good to me...

[peacemaker]

ADA tank~

That's gonna be a lot of flow with a Tunze nano wave box in a 60P. You could keep SPS!

[raydiative]

nice... corals placement looking very good.. glad you are keeping the stock list low.. =]

[rebbot]

Bro.. if u read the manual for wavebox, its meant to be used with a wavemaker... reason, wb generates left/right motion.. it doesnt create flow... u may need a assembled to create some flow...

Hth..

Hmmm I always assumed the left right motion creates waves as it houses a wavemaker in the enclosure?

The left right motion at the lowest setting is moving the water around the entire tank as I have fed with the wavebox on and it helps circulate and distribute the food.

Hmmm I do have another wavemaker but I think adding it in will not make much difference since I can easy turn up the wavebox settings for more movement.

[rebbot]

Thanks to ahsiang, peacemaker and raydiative for your comments. Waiting for the tank to stabilize further before adding in more LPS and SPS. I think I am done with the fishes for now but I must say the dottyback are beautiful creatures!

[johnmariados]

Nice setup Bro, the elegance and the other corals on the right sure make it look larger than 60cm. Are you using a skimmer? I assume that round glass bulb thingy on the top left is the lily pipe, what's it for? Cheers.

[TayHongSiang]

Thanks to ahsiang, peacemaker and raydiative for your comments. Waiting for the tank to stabilize further before adding in more LPS and SPS. I think I am done with the fishes for now but I must say the dottyback are beautiful creatures!

dottyback very pai si one...i mean aggressive...royal gramma looks even better...CF has a few

and also u can try those dwarf angels like venentus, golden, multicolour, lemonpeel...they will live yr tank..coz a lot of rocks for them to hide

[Terryz_]

dottyback very pai si one...i mean aggressive...royal gramma looks even better...CF has a few

and also u can try those dwarf angels like venentus, golden, multicolour, lemonpeel...they will live yr tank..coz a lot of rocks for them to hide

I wouldnt recommend the four above centropyge, they are one of the few difficult ones... Coral beauty, flame are better choices...

[rebbot]

Nice setup Bro, the elegance and the other corals on the right sure make it look larger than 60cm. Are you using a skimmer? I assume that round glass bulb thingy on the top left is the lily pipe, what's it for? Cheers.

Thanks! Actually I just bought a skimmer yesterday from reef depot. Its currently in the tank breaking in now. You are right that the round glass bulb thingy is the lily pipe. It is the outlet pipe from my filter back into the tank. It also serves as a surface skimmer since it keeps the water surface agitated so scum does not form. It was decommissioned from my last freshwater tank so I just used it but does not do anything in special in this case.

[rebbot]

dottyback very pai si one...i mean aggressive...royal gramma looks even better...CF has a few

and also u can try those dwarf angels like venentus, golden, multicolour, lemonpeel...they will live yr tank..coz a lot of rocks for them to hide

I also thought dottyback is very territorial but the one I have seems to be shy and does not really bother other fishes even when they come near. I think I am done with the fishes for now. I want to concentrate on inserting more corals into the mixed reef slowly as I venture further.

Thanks!

[rebbot]

I wouldnt recommend the four above centropyge, they are one of the few difficult ones... Coral beauty, flame are better choices...

Advice noted, my fried.

[raydiative]

a couple of angels will be nice.. FA would be a good choice.. Have always like FA but to each his own! if possible avoid tangs.. mainly for 2 reasons.. Ich and Poop!

[rebbot]

a couple of angels will be nice.. FA would be a good choice.. Have always like FA but to each his own! if possible avoid tangs.. mainly for 2 reasons.. Ich and Poop!

Sorry mate but what is FA? I am still quite new if you do not mind. Thanks!

[peacemaker]

I believe he meant Flame Angel.

[jackywongto]

Hey bro

Good job and welcome back to marine.

your tank is still pretty small.... 2x1x1 ft.

go easy on stocking and choose nano fishes

cheers & happy reefing

[rebbot]

I believe he meant Flame Angel.

Thanks peacemaker! Hmmm, I thought angels would require a much better tank as they grow bigger, isn,t it?

[rebbot]

Hey bro

Good job and welcome back to marine.

your tank is still pretty small.... 2x1x1 ft.

go easy on stocking and choose nano fishes

cheers & happy reefing

Thanks jacky! Your tanks have always been my inspiration! Hope to meet you some day~ Cheers.

[rebbot]

I need some advise from the reefers here. I just added some SPS colonies, blue staghorn and bi-color mille to tank last Friday. As such, I have been checking the water parameters since Monday as follows:

28 Nov 2011

===========

Calcium 360-370ppm

KH 7-7.2dKH

MG 930ppm

P04 0.1mg/l

NO3 0mg/l

29 Nov 2011

===========

Calcium 360-370ppm

KH 7.3-7.7dKH

MG 960ppm

P04 0.1mg/l

NO3 0mg/l

PH 7.8 - 7.83

30 Nov 2011

===========

Calcium 350-360ppm

KH 7.7-8dKH

MG 900ppm

P04 0.1mg/l

NO3 0mg/l

PH 8.0 - 8.3

I have been adding MG concentrate daily since Monday as well to raise MG by 20ppm daily given the low MG levels. However my top-up from Iwarna is RO/DI water with CA, ALK and MG additives. As such, it is snowing in my tank now due to the calcium carbonate precipitation.

My questions are:

1) Why has MG dropped so drastically from yesterday? This is given that I am dosing MG concentrate daily.

2) Should I just top up with RO/DI water without the additives first?

3) The PH is also swinging due to the in-balance in parameters. Any adverse effects that I should take care of?

Thank you!

[sherman]

You KH and MG is low.

You need to bring up your KH but slowly.

No drastic changes