Reefing Journal - Learning Journey

[Halif]

Hello everyone,

I'm relatively new to reefing with only around one year of experience. In this hobby, I have come to realise that everyone walks a different path and faces different challenges. With that I decided that it is a good time for me to document this tank journey. I am still learning in this hobby so I am open to any constructive advice since that is the only way for us to grow and get better!

Roughly a month ago, I upgraded to a Waterbox Reef 120 which is roughly around 500L from Aqtelier. The tank have a solid built at a reasonable price and I had very good advice from Lorenzo on getting this set up properly. I have always wanted a clean quality set up and I am happy to report that they delivered. Really happy with this tank.

Took a few hours to fill it up and get it running. Despite reusing old medias, I read that "mini cycles" do happen. To avoid future problems, I decided to dose ammonia into the tank.

Around the 3rd day, Ammonia went down to zero. I redosed the same amount again on the 3rd day and within 24 hours, it reads zero. Nitrites was never present throughout the whole cycling process. I believe there are enough bacteria on the established media to convert NO2 to NO3. Nitrates were at all time high by the end of the 4th day and i did several series of water changes after. Everything was up by the 6th day.

A few days later, diatoms took over my tank. This is probably because I was using entirely new dry rock. Since I understood that this is just a phase that every new tank go through, I added a couple of astrea snails from my previous tank. Within a few days, I can see the diatoms on the rocks started disappearing. Right now, most of the diatoms are at the base of the tank but I will let nature takes its course and let the snails munch on them over the next few weeks. Once the diatoms on the rocks cleared up, it was time for me to add back the corals that I had from the previous tank. I had temporarily held them in a plastic container with a chiller running and Mi Led Study Table Light. Obviously the light was not strong enough to mantain the colours of the corals but happy to report that there were no casualty. These corals had to sit in the plastic tub for roughly two weeks from the time the old tank went out to the time the new tank is cycled.

When I first added the corals to the new tank, I notice that all the SPS were browned out and LPS were losing colours and retracting. I fear for a while that I was going to lose them. Thankfully, fast forward 1 month later, all of the colours came back and they were opening up again!

Here's the current view of my tank, pardon me for not cleaning the detritus before taking this photo :

I am in no way rushing so I plan to slowly stock and quarantine fishes. Also taking my time to source for the corals to add colours to this tank.

For this tank, the current inhabitants are 2 chromis, 1 springeri damsel, 2 Banggai Cardinal and 1 orange storm clownfish. All of these fishes were previously treated with Prazipro + Coppersafe. Currently, the quarantine tank is only holding 1 flame angel. When I first bought it, it wasn't eating so I had to slowly train it. Took about 3 days before flame angel starts eating and today he is feeding on mysis and pallets. I am still trying to get it to eat nori but it is completely ignoring it, anyone have any tips? Once it was happily feeding, I started prazi for 7 days and slowly ramp up coppersafe over 7 days. Today is the 15th day it is sitting in the therapeutic level of coppersafe. 15 more days and he gets transferred to the display tank (hopefully all goes well). It is just personal preference that I prefer to quarantine one type of fish at a time. Since my flame angel is exiting the quarantine tank, my next plan is to either (1) Get 1-2 tangs or foxface for algae control or (2) a school of lyretail anthias which will add awesome movements in the tank. For tangs, the plan is to quarantine them with Cupramine instead of Coppersafe. Due to how fragile anthias is, I am still researching on the best way to quarantine anthias. Let me know if you have a successful way, definitely would want to hear your methods.

Also, It amazed me how within just one month, my tank started developing specks of coralline algae on the rocks. I suspect this is coming from the frag plugs and snails that previously already had their shell covered in coralline. A step in the right direction I guess.

Because this is a new tank, I am testing the water perimeters almost everyday and manually dose when needed. Once the dosing for Ca, Alk and Mg stabilise on a day to day basis, I will start to rely on the automatic dosing. But for now, I'll manually dose to make sure that the perimeters are on point.

That's all the update for now. Will come back in a week or two for further updates.

 

[SubzeroLT]

Good choice of equipment & Waterbox tank! 

For quarantine, my personal preference is not to medicate with copper. One safe method is to use tank transfer method  for ich irradication (stay ahead of the ich life cycle) + incorporate with Prazi (dewormer) towards the end of the tank transfer cycle. The process can be found on the regular US forums.

[Halif]

Good choice of equipment & Waterbox tank! 
For quarantine, my personal preference is not to medicate with copper. One safe method is to use tank transfer method  for ich irradication (stay ahead of the ich life cycle) + incorporate with Prazi (dewormer) towards the end of the tank transfer cycle. The process can be found on the regular US forums.

Thanks! Will definitely read into tank transfer + prazi method you mention that for sure. Your tank looks amazing btw! I notice that you’ve had success with anthias, just wondering with tank transfer method, does it stress anthias out to the point that they stop eating? I was told they get stress very quickly compared to other fishes.


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[SubzeroLT]

8 hours ago, Halif said:

 

Thanks! Will definitely read into tank transfer + prazi method you mention that for sure. Your tank looks amazing btw! I notice that you’ve had success with anthias, just wondering with tank transfer method, does it stress anthias out to the point that they stop eating? I was told they get stress very quickly compared to other fishes.


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Thanks. I think tank transfer method is the least stressful for the fish. No harsh chemicals like copper is used  (which suppresses appetite). Prazi will suppress appetite but its not administered all the time when incorporated with tank transfer method. You just need to make sure the temperature/salinity of the new water is the same as the old water. The only 'stress' is when you catch them out.

Anthias are finicky eaters but they should take to mysis shrimp quite quickly. 

[Halif]

Thanks. I think tank transfer method is the least stressful for the fish. No harsh chemicals like copper is used  (which suppresses appetite). Prazi will suppress appetite but its not administered all the time when incorporated with tank transfer method. You just need to make sure the temperature/salinity of the new water is the same as the old water. The only 'stress' is when you catch them out.
Anthias are finicky eaters but they should take to mysis shrimp quite quickly. 

Thanks! Will definitely give this suggestion a try!


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[mhcraft]

Very nice scape..camping for more!

[Steveyee]

Nice and follow


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[Halif]

Very nice scape..camping for more!

Thanks Bro! Can’t wait to see your upgrade too!


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[Halif]

Nice and follow


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Thanks bro!


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[Halif]

Just a little update on the tank after roughly 2 weeks.

This is how the tank is looking right now. No where near what I envision yet but I am all for taking it slow to achieve stability. Everything is going well so far.

Finally collected back my bigger SPS colonies that I've kept for a while in my previous Reefer 250. Had to park it with a friend during the move. The SPS are now back in the tank for about 2 weeks and have started to colour up nicely again. No coral loss for this entire tank move.

Also manage to get a few SPS from a reefer who recently decom. All stable and healthy SPS. 

Our Hawaiian resident is also released to the display tank today after 2 months in quarantine tank.

It is now a rare piece because of the Hawaii restriction. Got him at a good price because he have stopped eating and suffering from multiple infections both parasite and bacteria. He was looking lifeless so I decided to take a chance on him and got him either way knowing that I have a cycled quarantine tank.

Started him on prazi and cupramine together because I knew that any delay of treatment will do more harm than good for this guy. My first priority was to get him eating. Decided to mix different food together to get him eating: TDO small pallets, crushed spirulina, brine, mysis and selcon. In about 2-3 days, he started eating the pallets. This gave me hope and I knew he now has a good fighting chance.

It took 2 months of treatments and observations before he graduated today to the  display tank. He is now a happy resident and is super active.

Yellow tang is taking the place of the flame angel in the quarantine. Since it is looking super healthy, I have decided to take the observation route instead of medicating for this guy. Let's hope it is indeed a healthy piece.

Will do another update in another 1-2 weeks time.

[reefdan]

Hows your waterbox aquarium so far?