Mini reef tank fit for a mad scientist

[MadScientist]

mandarin fish feeding?

Yup, I have some pods on the rocks. It is feeding cyclo-eeze. It feeds slowly. It ignores the floating cyclo-eeze, slowly picking off those landed onto corals. Corals appeared to have no reaction to the peaking from the mandarin fish. It doesn't seem to eat a lot, gets full easily though. I will upload photos of it tonight if possible to snap them. If it is not feeding, I will pass it to a huge, mature tank owner (the size is describing the tank, not the owner).

If you refer to post #9, you can see the tummy is not exactly indented. I think it was starving in the lfs as it literally peaked at the rocks within 5 minutes of introduction into tank.

[MadScientist]

attached most corals to ceramic disk with epoxy and superglue. fish all suddenly died after 2 hours. nitrate remains at 0.1ppm

[spkentchai]

attached most corals to ceramic disk with epoxy and superglue. fish all suddenly died after 2 hours. nitrate remains at 0.1ppm

I really feel sad for your corals & fishes

[poomoon]

attached most corals to ceramic disk with epoxy and superglue. fish all suddenly died after 2 hours. nitrate remains at 0.1ppm

... sometimes things may not be as they seem .....

[MadScientist]

I really feel sad for your corals & fishes

Why so?

Added carbon without replacing old ones. Old ones will be removed in 1 week.

Epoxy, superglue and tank water will be sent for microtox test.

[MadScientist]

... sometimes things may not be as they seem .....

what do you suspect? it was peaking around the rocks and the tank before I started using the glue? I am not saying it's the glue fault. Most probably it's my hindsight. Most people can safely place the glue almost immediately into the tank as they have buffer from the huge volume of water. I should have rinsed the glued pieces a few times before introducing back into the tank.

[MadScientist]

ammonia <0.25ppm according to salifert and <0.02ppm according to seachem ammonia alert. nitrate at 0.2ppm.

[RushAct]

so lucky to actually keep a mandrian fish in such a small fish tank.. any fish tank for that matter.

anyway if run out of pods can go fish farm and buy live pods

good luck!

[MadScientist]

so lucky to actually keep a mandrian fish in such a small fish tank.. any fish tank for that matter.

anyway if run out of pods can go fish farm and buy live pods

good luck!

thanks. which farm carries that? currently using dead pods. what are the cost for live pods?

[poomoon]

what do you suspect? it was peaking around the rocks and the tank before I started using the glue? I am not saying it's the glue fault. Most probably it's my hindsight. Most people can safely place the glue almost immediately into the tank as they have buffer from the huge volume of water. I should have rinsed the glued pieces a few times before introducing back into the tank.

that's my take. since the water volume is very low, even slight changes / add-ons may have a huge impact. such swings cannot be tolerated by certain LS. will be good if after rinsing, you also have a staging pail with tank water and just leave it there 10mins or so before adding to your tank.

[poomoon]

thanks. which farm carries that? currently using dead pods. what are the cost for live pods?

i only know live tigger pods, check with junkai. be best if you can pellet train

[MarcoVan]

Sorry for your loss. But from my exp, doubt it can be the superglue.. what brand is it?

[MadScientist]

Sorry for your loss. But from my exp, doubt it can be the superglue.. what brand is it?

preis and bsi

[MadScientist]

Salifert PO4 Profi Test Exp: 10-2014

D-D H20cean Mg, Ca & KH Exp 0114

Martin Instruments pH56 (calibrated with 7.00 and 10.00 pinpoint calibration fluids)

pH - 7.52 @ 31.4 degree celcius; holding time 45 seconds till stable reading

Alkalinity - 3.00; dKH - 8.4

Ca - 490ppm

Mg - 1800ppm

Phosphate - 0.1ppm (10ml sample)

[MadScientist]

that's my take. since the water volume is very low, even slight changes / add-ons may have a huge impact. such swings cannot be tolerated by certain LS. will be good if after rinsing, you also have a staging pail with tank water and just leave it there 10mins or so before adding to your tank.

that's a great idea. I am still wondering what chemical(s) is/are added by the glue. Maybe acetic acid from the curing of superglue? the pH doesn't seem high.

[MadScientist]

performed a 50% water change as corals are still not reacting happily. waiting for parameters to stabilise before testing (>12 hours). no feeding or dosing today.

[reckless]

hi bro, may i just suggest that mandarin goby needs a much bigger tank to survive... had my fair share when i first started out. didnt do research....went LFS and was told it was easy to care for.... then after 6mths of trying to feed it and adding of copepods...it starved and died. now i stop at 3 small fishes in my LPS dominated RSM 130 Tank.

since u're going in the direction of very small tanks... y not use an IQ3 or IQ5 tank since your water parameters are at +-0ppm nitrate? a pump, a good LED light, a cooling fan, very strict routine daily water change/top up and u're good to go. just a thought...

neways, too much liverock in a small tank will contribute to bad water circulation = algae.

lastly, with the corals u have, water changes are sufficient. as for supplement, coral food once a week is fine. other than that, nothing else is needed.

best not to disturb the corals and water all the time.

Alkalinity should be around 9-12dkh. Most fresh salt mix will have around 12dkh.

pH should be around 8.2 to 8.4 at 26 degrees celsius.

dun worry about calcium and magnesium for now. water changes will replenish all these.

hope ur tank will recover and come out to be one of the best bro

[stevenchia]

Salifert PO4 Profi Test Exp: 10-2014

D-D H20cean Mg, Ca &amp; KH Exp 0114

Martin Instruments pH56 (calibrated with 7.00 and 10.00 pinpoint calibration fluids)

pH - 7.52 @ 31.4 degree celcius; holding time 45 seconds till stable reading

Alkalinity - 3.00; dKH - 8.4

Ca - 490ppm

Mg - 1800ppm

Phosphate - 0.1ppm (10ml sample)

See all this numbers makes me headache... For my tank i dont wana know... just salinity good enough for me to know.

[reckless]

See all this numbers makes me headache... For my tank i dont wana know... just salinity good enough for me to know.

haha yeah sometimes me too... as long i never do any changes to the tank and do my regular water change... happy liao.

[MadScientist]

haha yeah sometimes me too... as long i never do any changes to the tank and do my regular water change... happy liao.

See all this numbers makes me headache... For my tank i dont wana know... just salinity good enough for me to know.

yup, testing took me more than 15 minutes, haha.

hi bro, may i just suggest that mandarin goby needs a much bigger tank to survive... had my fair share when i first started out. didnt do research....went LFS and was told it was easy to care for.... then after 6mths of trying to feed it and adding of copepods...it starved and died. now i stop at 3 small fishes in my LPS dominated RSM 130 Tank. since u're going in the direction of very small tanks... y not use an IQ3 or IQ5 tank since your water parameters are at +-0ppm nitrate? a pump, a good LED light, a cooling fan, very strict routine daily water change/top up and u're good to go. just a thought... neways, too much liverock in a small tank will contribute to bad water circulation = algae. lastly, with the corals u have, water changes are sufficient. as for supplement, coral food once a week is fine. other than that, nothing else is needed. best not to disturb the corals and water all the time. Alkalinity should be around 9-12dkh. Most fresh salt mix will have around 12dkh. pH should be around 8.2 to 8.4 at 26 degrees celsius. dun worry about calcium and magnesium for now. water changes will replenish all these. hope ur tank will recover and come out to be one of the best bro

thanks bro for the sound advice. wouldn't 12 dKH be burning some SPS? My tank is actually recovering, surprisingly. However, there's a lot of brown film on the walls which I am not sure if it is just brown biofilm, diatoms or dinos. I am not aiming for the best tank, I am aiming for a tiny tank where I can keep just about anything I can place in. Going for LNS, and with this size, I am threading on thin lines, hence the numerous numbers. My Mg and Ca seems a little too high. Water change did nothing much to lower the values, guess I just have to wait for it to drop while keeping dKH and pH in check.

The green mushrooms and anemone seems to be quite fine, with a small mushroom actually growing rapidly in size. Clam is recovering well, with reducing white patches size, colour seems to be a little brighter (that is maybe my illusion I am slowly placing the light nearer to the tank), have not check the shell edge as it responds too rapidly (closing fast and opening fast as well) for me to handle it with minimal stress (to me and the clam). Hammer and frog seems to be shrinking and expanding regularly.

I have been dosing bacteria, carbon source and seachem reef buffer to slowly push the pH and dKH up. As of yesterday, pH was 7.89. Upgraded my DIY skimmer to IQ5 skimmer with sander size2 limewood. Performance seems good. I can really see foams that just would'nt break up, even after I switched off the skimmer. Feeding resumed with Reef nutrition's oyster feast, roti feast, phyto feast and live tigger feast.

[MadScientist]

Salifert I2 Profi Test Exp: 09-2013

Tested twice on 3 September and 6 September.

I2 - 0.00ppm iodide and iodate

Dosing 6 drops of Seachem Reef Iodide daily. 3rd September was performed 24 hours after iodide addition. 6th September was performed 10 minutes after iodide addition. Positive control was performed on 6th September with 2ml tank water dosed with 20 drops of Reef Iodide. Test solution was full of dark blue precipitate.

[dominik]

Hi, i have been trying to contact you. Do you still want the chiller?

[MadScientist]

Hi, i have been trying to contact you. Do you still want the chiller?

Hi, sorry. please refer to pm. thanks

[MadScientist]

NO3 - 0ppm

PO4 - 0ppm (higher sensitivity)

Iodide - 0.03ppm

Ca - 490ppm

Mg - 1320ppm

dKH - 10.5

tests conducted 1 hour after feeding and adding additives. it appears that the tank uses up iodide at a rapid rate.

[MadScientist]

6 September - Day 1