Tofu's 4ft Reef tank

[Bunster]

Interesting cardinal behaviour... Are they immune to the elegance's sting?

[redsuns]

Love that hammer! Very nice setup as well!

[tofubox]

Hi guys, since I haven't covered a clean up crew for the tank thread. Heres a list that I made up which i hope will help u out in choosing the right crew to keep ur tank speck n span. Hope you find this useful, especially those starting a new tank.

These are pretty much readily found or brought in by our LFS. I try not to add those oddballs in the group. If u find anything missing from the list, let me know. Happy shopping for ur little critters!

Snails

Turbo snails - feeds on algae, including hair algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms. It will devour algae types shunned by many other algae-eaters. Will remove algae from various surfaces, including live rock, corals and aquarium glass. Large and knocks over stuff, cant handle small crevices.

Cerith Snails - consume diatoms, cyano, film algae (some) , detritus, hair algae (some) and uneaten food in the substrate as well as on rocks and to some extent the glass in your aquarium. Small and can fit through crevices. Hardy snails

Fighting Couch/ strombus (Gong Gong) - Excellent sand sifting abilities to clean and aerate the substrate, Consumes brown algae, diatoms, detritus, unable to climb up tank walls.

Asterea snails - Good snails for getting rid of brown and green algae from the walls of your tank, from your live rock, and from your substrate (they will not eat longer hair algae). , however, when they are flipped over as they cannot get back to their correct orientation and will die (notice the base of the shell to differentiate between asterea and trochus)

Trochus snails - Trochus eat a variety of algae from filamentous to film, and has been reported to have a special adoration for diatoms. They can be found cleaning any surface of your tank, but will be frequently seen on the glass. (notice the base of the shell to differentiate between asterea and trochus)

Nerite snails - Is very good at eating algae off the tank walls. Nerite Snail eats phytoplankton, especially algae, Cyanobacteria, Diatoms, Film Algae and vegetable bits. These snails are excellent for cleaning the rocks and glass of your aquarium

Nassarius snails - Excellent for sandbeds, scavengers on meaty food, dropped food, dead/dying

Magarita snails - Though they are excellent algae eaters, the Margarita Snail lives a short life in most reef aquaria, due to temperature requirements. Will stay mostly on rock and hard surfaces eating diatom and micro-algae. Not recommended due to its short mortality rate in a captive tank

Bubblebee snail - They are predatory on other snails and worms. They will clean your sand of beneficial critters. If you see them moving up the glass they are not grazing on the nasty algae…. they are looking for snails and worms. Not recommended to keep with other cuc

Crabs

Red-legged Hermit Crab - – These crabs do an excellent job of scavenging and keeping algae under control (they will even eat hair algae which most snails avoid). They will also eat fish food.

Blue-legged Hermit Crab - Will relentlessly eat just about anything in your aquarium (algae, scraps of food, etc.) Have been known to be aggressive towards snails

Sally Lightfoot Crab - Will scavenge around the tank looking for bits of food or detritus and pick at algae constantly. They are generally considered reef safe although the larger ones have been reported to eat injured or dead fish if they cannot find other food sources. They also will crawl around on the corals a great deal, but this does not generally lead to problems

Emerald Green Crab - Well known for its ability to eat bubble algae, detritus, uneaten food

Shrimps

Cleaner Shrimps - These shrimps do an excellent job of scavenging for leftover food, but they also pick parasites off of fish and are used to control saltwater ich.

Coral Banded Shrimp - Excellent job of scavenging for leftover food

Peppermint Shrimp - These shrimp are excellent scavengers and are one of the best methods for controlling Aiptasia.

Starfish

Sand Sifting Starfish - For sand bed, uneaten food and detritus. This is a nocturnal animal and basically feeds on detritus and any uneaten food that makes its way to sand bed. Recommanded for tanks with sandbeds only.

Brittle Sea star - Brittle stars feed on plankton but also on detritus, coral-shed mucus, bottom detritus, mollusks and worms They are great scavengers and mainly feed on decaying matter and plankton.

Others

Sea Hare - Natures voracious eaters of green algae – in particular hair algae. Considered an ultimate hair algae eating machine and cleans every bit of algae mess in your home aquarium.

Abalone - Considered personally as one of the best clean up crew member. Feeds on most algae both on rocks, glass and substrate.

Sea cucumber - It feeds on algae, bacteria, and meaty items that are present in the sand and anything on which it can scavenge.

Lettuce Nudibranch - Certain lettuce slug species are known to feed on Bryopsis. It helps tackling the unnecessary growth of algae. The Lettuce Nudibranch is photosynthetic in nature, and gets benefits from the chloroplast in their tissue from the algae they eat. It sucks in the chlorophyll contents of algae, and then incorporates that chlorophyll into their own tissues. Eliminates the growth of algae by foraging on live rocks and aquarium glass

Sea urchin - These guys are powerful when comes to the job, known to eat most algae, some may eat hair algae. Also if u have caroline algae, they will feed on it too. Excellent algae eater and controls the excessive growth of the same in the aquarium

[surreal1228]

very comprehensive info.

all new setup should refer this post.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

[tofubox]

Found this excellent explanation on browning of corals to share with everyone

Quoted from zeovit forum, user kolognekoral

"A general word about browning of corals. The colour brown is created via the zooxanthellae algae. This is their natural colour. Contrary to popular belief, they are not the colourant of the corals, rather they mask the pigments of the corals. Whether this is a sunscrean or simply a reaction to available nutrients on the part of the coral is unclear. On a reef, the corals are able to control their zooxanthellate populations via nutrient limitation, thus controling their general metabolism and their colour. In an aquarium, corals are generally exposed to too many available nutrients disolved in the water. As the zooxanthellae can simply absorb these disolved nutrients straight from the water column, instead of the coral controlling the process, they have a population explosion. This is what we see as browning-out of a coral. An overpopulation of zooxanthellae in the coral's tissues.

Essentially, if we are able to keep the basic nutrients, such as PO4 and NO3, as a close to NSW level, the corals are able to once again take control of their metabolism and the zooxanthellate population is limited by the coral. What we often forget is that there are other nutrients that the algae can use and we are dosing these nutrients in a perfect form to brown-out the corals. Amino acids, vitamin complexes, marine snow, etc. are all nutrients that will brown corals, if they are present in too high a quantity.

When faced with browning corals, one needs to assess the complete picture and understand from where these nutrients are coming. Low PO4 and NO3 levels are fine, but bring little, if we over supplement with other nutrient-rich products. A case of less is more.

Therefore, if your corals are turning brown, and your PO4 is 0.02 and the NO3 <2ppm, then there is another nutrient source in play. Cut your dosing of AAs, etc. in half and give it a few weeks to see how the corals react. You certainly won't starve them, but you may start to starve out the zooxanthellae and thus see the corals true colours."

[chercm]

This might hold true in certain situation i believe but i have read that those who are using LEDs , that might cause browning and feeding more will improve the situation.

Found this excellent explanation on browning of corals to share with everyone

Quoted from zeovit forum, user kolognekoral

"A general word about browning of corals. The colour brown is created via the zooxanthellae algae. This is their natural colour. Contrary to popular belief, they are not the colourant of the corals, rather they mask the pigments of the corals. Whether this is a sunscrean or simply a reaction to available nutrients on the part of the coral is unclear. On a reef, the corals are able to control their zooxanthellate populations via nutrient limitation, thus controling their general metabolism and their colour. In an aquarium, corals are generally exposed to too many available nutrients disolved in the water. As the zooxanthellae can simply absorb these disolved nutrients straight from the water column, instead of the coral controlling the process, they have a population explosion. This is what we see as browning-out of a coral. An overpopulation of zooxanthellae in the coral's tissues.

Essentially, if we are able to keep the basic nutrients, such as PO4 and NO3, as a close to NSW level, the corals are able to once again take control of their metabolism and the zooxanthellate population is limited by the coral. What we often forget is that there are other nutrients that the algae can use and we are dosing these nutrients in a perfect form to brown-out the corals. Amino acids, vitamin complexes, marine snow, etc. are all nutrients that will brown corals, if they are present in too high a quantity.

When faced with browning corals, one needs to assess the complete picture and understand from where these nutrients are coming. Low PO4 and NO3 levels are fine, but bring little, if we over supplement with other nutrient-rich products. A case of less is more.

Therefore, if your corals are turning brown, and your PO4 is 0.02 and the NO3 <2ppm, then there is another nutrient source in play. Cut your dosing of AAs, etc. in half and give it a few weeks to see how the corals react. You certainly won't starve them, but you may start to starve out the zooxanthellae and thus see the corals true colours."

[tofubox]

This might hold true in certain situation i believe but i have read that those who are using LEDs , that might cause browning and feeding more will improve the situation.

Hi chercm, this is written in relation to just nutrients alone. Lighting is a whole new topic not covered.

[noboni85]

know some new info from here.. thanks for the info

[sherman]

Anyone see lettuce nudibranch in local LFS?

[james72]

Anyone see lettuce nudibranch in local LFS?

Saw a few at cf

Cheers,

James

[sherman]

Thank bro

[Bunster]

Great article of cuc... Should be stickied as a guide somewhere

[tofubox]

Aiyo. Haha maybe mod can create a topic and sticky it? I don't mind, as long as it's useful for everyone.

[tofubox]

Hey guys, Im gonna be posting a 30sec clip of my tank every month with my fav song of that mth, haha. Nothing fancy with no close up shots, just a frontal shot....its actually more for me to keep track of my progress. I'll share a link of the video here. Im actually curious to know how my staghorns will grow and at what rate.

Taken with s3.

[boyington]

That's cool, with 3 fingers waving behind..

[tofubox]

That's cool, with 3 fingers waving behind..

haha, the 3 fingers are actually my purple gorgonian. I use them (for top) and my elegance(for bottom) to gauge my flow.

[tofubox]

dbl post

[youdontnowm]

Awesome!!!!!!

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

[tofubox]

Some coral updates

Coral from pinnacle. No id, colour lost and coming back

Bali green slimer, new growth, cant wait for this to grow huge

Red stag from bro kaiju, love the colour

Current centerpiece, Cream birdnest, growing too big, might need to trim soon.

[alfredwong575]

Love your setup

[A. Quarium]

Can do full tank shot? Seems that you have quite a variety of corals, would like to see the whole tank as it is now.

[tofubox]

Can do full tank shot? Seems that you have quite a variety of corals, would like to see the whole tank as it is now.

Took a quick shot in the morning. Heres how the tank looks as of today.

Also managed to get 2 more bags of sand, which is now soaking in rodi, finally can complete the sandbed. Will also be moving corals around, most of the frags will be transfer to a different tank to give space for larger colonies to grow. Will post another pic when i get around doing that.

Also will be upgrading the whole lightset soon. I really cant wait for this actually. Will make alot of difference to the colouration. I feel my current light set has its limitations.

Day 83. Shots with my s3 camera phone. I really wished i had a DSLR

Heres my current dosing schedule, that i follow diligently each day. Can be quite a pain, but since i spend alot of time in front of the tank, gives me something to do.

[boyington]

Nice, your Christmas Tree blooming..

[tofubox]

Rescaped my left island to provide more space for growth. Also got a new piece of stag from AM.

Currently got 8 types of stags!

Cheers!

[asg]

Took a quick shot in the morning. Heres how the tank looks as of today.

Also managed to get 2 more bags of sand, which is now soaking in rodi, finally can complete the sandbed. Will also be moving corals around, most of the frags will be transfer to a different tank to give space for larger colonies to grow. Will post another pic when i get around doing that.

Also will be upgrading the whole lightset soon. I really cant wait for this actually. Will make alot of difference to the colouration. I feel my current light set has its limitations.

Day 83. Shots with my s3 camera phone. I really wished i had a DSLR

20141105_144534.jpg

20141105_144609.jpg

Heres my current dosing schedule, that i follow diligently each day. Can be quite a pain, but since i spend alot of time in front of the tank, gives me something to do.

Untitled.png

if you dont mind Q-ing, the electronic fair at expo has some good deals on great point and shoot/ entry level DSLR.