illumnae's 2013 newbie office setup

[illumnae]

The old office set up crashed and got overrun with hair algae. I suspect it has to do with lack of skimming (the Dymax iQ skimmer stopped working after awhile) and fish dying over the weekend. The ammonia/phosphate spike probably triggered the algae, and thereafter it was really hard to get rid of.

Since the new year was approaching, I decided to just bring the tank home and bleach bomb it, and to upgrade the office tank 1 size up to the Ocean Free 34L instead (previous setup was OF 24L). I decided not to go with a budget setup this time but spend a bit more on quality equipment so that the tank can be low maintenance but still look nice (otherwise colleagues see the tank so ugly very malu!)

Here's the details of the current set up:

Tank: Ocean Free 34 litres AIO

Filtration: 4kg live rock + Bubble Magus e3 skimmer

Lighting: Beamworks 6x 3W (2 blue 4 white) Clip-on LED

Substrate: Carib-Sea Ocean Direct Aragonite sand (10lb)

Water: D-D Instant Ocean mix

Pumps: Stock 480L/hr return pump + Hydor Koralia Nano 900L/hr

Additives: Prodibio Nano Reef Kit

Current Livestock:

Swalesi basslet - 1 pair

Tectus fenestratus snail - 2

Nassarius sp snail - 3

Rose Bubble Tip Anemone - 1

Super sun coral - ~10 heads

Ricordea california - 3

Ricordea yuma - 4

Bispira sp. feather duster worm - 4

Future Livestock:

Mandarin goby (pellet trained) - 1

Helfrechi firefish - 1

Percula clownfish - 1 or 1 pair

More corals!

Here's a picture of the current haphazard and ugly setup:

Hopefully I'll be able to rescape it nicely soon!

[Marine_fanaticz]

Nice.. Where did you get your bubble magus..? Can pm the price . thx:)

[illumnae]

Bought from forum sponsor DE Lightings. Best to contact them for price

[Slayer213]

Budget and helfrichi? haha... bro, very ex leh helfrichi.... Btw bubblemagnus skimmers are awesome! i have one that gives me a big cup of kopi-o every week! nice setup!

[Admiraltian]

Nice setup.

[illumnae]

Budget and helfrichi? haha... bro, very ex leh helfrichi.... Btw bubblemagnus skimmers are awesome! i have one that gives me a big cup of kopi-o every week! nice setup!

Haha I said that I decided not to go with a budget system this time round....that's why decided to go with helfrechi

I'm using a Bubble Magus Curve 7 in my 3ft tank. Used to give me a big cup of kopi-o, but after a few months liike not much skimmate leh. Dunno is it because my bioload is low (only 4 fish in a 322) or something is wrong.

Nice setup.

Thanks Still trying to get the scaping right and deciding what corals to put in

[azlindaza]

nice scape..

[illumnae]

Shifted one of my rocks a little so that the anemone can be facing abit more to the front...overall I think it actually improves the scape. The tank now has a more "open" feel and from the side, it's actually a large arch created for fish to swim through and around. I think I like this scape better. Not sure whether to add another rock on the right side, or leave it open.

[David5077]

Nice anemone. .. Must be very ex

[Flavs]

Looking great bro! Not interested in zoas?

[illumnae]

At the moment crazy over ricordeas After I set up my ricordea garten in the lower right front, I may try and find spots for some zoas too. I just get a little uneasy thinking about fragging zoas due to their palytoxin. I also intend for at least an open brain and a Euphyllia sp. LPS somewhere near the back right corner

[Admiraltian]

U r using your office air con to chill your tank?

[illumnae]

Yup that's what I'm doing.

[Anthony]

Hi Bro,

Your tank is OF 34L. Where u hang/store your Bubble Magus skimmer?

Is your model Bubble Magus NAC QQ?

[jythong]

Yah I am also wondering where you site your skimmer. The compartments behind are rather tight.

[Anthony]

Yah I am also wondering where you site your skimmer. The compartments behind are rather tight.

I just got my Bubble Magus e3 skimmer. u can hang this skimmer on the compartments .

Bro Illumnae, how u managed to control the Micro bubble? Even with the black sponges at the outlet I still get mirco bubble in my tank.. care to share

[illumnae]

I don't get any micro bubbles in my tank leh

[Anthony]

I don't get any micro bubbles in my tank leh

Hmm... Your skimmer outlet goes into the Return pump compartment right?

I facing Micro bubbles issue here. Can share your trick

[illumnae]

Sigh...like i said, I don't face any micro bubbles issue. I just assemble the skimmer, hang it there and switch it on. No trick. Keep asking the same question, answer will be the same.

[illumnae]

After 2 weeks in the tank, the Swalesi basslets are finally losing their shyness and coming out into the open. In the first week, I could barely see them...in the second week they only came out briefly to feed whenever I threw pellets/mysis into the tank. Now they're out in the open a lot more, and I see them protecting their territory against the more active blackfoot clowns I added last week.

Here's an updated picture of the tank. Forgive the ricordeas lying all over the place. I need to find a cutter strong enough to cut away the base of the frag plugs I glued them on so that I can stick them to the designated "Ricordea corner" in the front of the scape. For now, they are mostly lying around on the sand waiting to be placed.

I intend to add an open brain coral where the currently bleached looking yuma is sitting (to the right of the super sun) as well as a green/purple hammer towards the right back on the ground.

Livestock wise, I'm hoping to add a helfrechi goby and a mandarin once I manage to source a pellet trained one. If I can't manage to get my helfrechi, do guys think a small flameback angel would do ok in this tank? My only concern is that it would harass the swalesi basslets and keep them in hiding all the time.

[MarcoVan]

34L put 2 basslets? won't that hike the po4 up?

[Admiraltian]

After 2 weeks in the tank, the Swalesi basslets are finally losing their shyness and coming out into the open. In the first week, I could barely see them...in the second week they only came out briefly to feed whenever I threw pellets/mysis into the tank. Now they're out in the open a lot more, and I see them protecting their territory against the more active blackfoot clowns I added last week.

Here's an updated picture of the tank. Forgive the ricordeas lying all over the place. I need to find a cutter strong enough to cut away the base of the frag plugs I glued them on so that I can stick them to the designated "Ricordea corner" in the front of the scape. For now, they are mostly lying around on the sand waiting to be placed.

I intend to add an open brain coral where the currently bleached looking yuma is sitting (to the right of the super sun) as well as a green/purple hammer towards the right back on the ground.

Livestock wise, I'm hoping to add a helfrechi goby and a mandarin once I manage to source a pellet trained one. If I can't manage to get my helfrechi, do guys think a small flameback angel would do ok in this tank? My only concern is that it would harass the swalesi basslets and keep them in hiding all the time.

Not a good idea, since most dwarf angels need at least 30 gallons of water and there's a chance that it might nip at some of your lps. Juz my 2 cents.

[illumnae]

34L put 2 basslets? won't that hike the po4 up?

I am massively overskimming the tank (using a Bubble Magus e3 rated for 100-300L) and dosing the Prodibio Biodigest system to keep nutrients low.

Not a good idea, since most dwarf angels need at least 30 gallons of water and there's a chance that it might nip at some of your lps. Juz my 2 cents.

That's a good point! I'll just stick to the original plan for a helfrechi then and hope that stock will come in soon. The tank is a lot more exciting now that the basslets come out. I was getting a little tired of having a tank that looked "fishless"

[illumnae]

The basslets didn't make it They were doing so well, then one Monday I came into office to find one of them stuck at the wavemaker and the other hiding... one day later the other one disappeared. The blackfoot clowns look perfectly fine though (I wish they would learn to start hosting @ the anemone!)

Still hunting high and low for helfrechi. Any other suggestions for other tankmates?

P.S. Would it be ok for me to add a small clam to this tank, or is the tank too small to support a clam?

[illumnae]

Experienced a tank crash over CNY I did a massive rescape just before the CNY holidays and finally created my "ricordea garden" by using bsi-ic gel and TLF AquaStik putty to stick all my ricordeas (total of 7 pcs of florida and yuma) to a single rock space. However, I think the total amount of glue and putty used was too much for my small volume tank, and I ended up losing all my fish as well as 1 snail. The other invertebrates showed signs of stress too (sun coral closed up, anemone shrank up). Skimmer went crazy too and had to be switched off.

After a 15% followed by a 30% wc over 2 days, the tank seems to have stablized. The anemone has opened up again and the skimmer is no longer crazy. The peppermint shrimp and maxima clam I added over CNY (after the 2 huge water changes) seem to be doing fine too. Only the sun coral hasn't reopened yet.

Very sad that all my fish is lost Will probably do another large water change on schedule next week before restocking the tank again.

In the meantime, I'm getting an sps starter pack from cedricang over the weekend. Do you think my 6x 3W is sufficient for sps? If not, I will switch to 2x lightsets instead of the single one I'm using.