Show me your aquarium

[budgie smuggler]

Sway said:

Especially when all the tests were saying I shouldn't have cyano!

Well, just bear in mind all those test can tell you is (roughly) how much phosphate and nitrate are in the water at a point in time. But those levels do fluctuate a lot (try testing 20 mins after feeding), and the algae takes it out of the water column anyway so you won't often get a 'true' reading.

The truth is, most tanks will go through periods of cyano, dinos, hair algae etc for the first 5 or so years especially. Likewise losing SPS, clams etc is not unusual. It could just be that they got stressed several months ago in transit or the shop's holding tanks.

[vaguelyfamiliar]

Sorry to see that Sway, hopefully, it will sort itself out

I've just returned to the hobby after a good few years away, having kept a 90l tropical tank for many years but after a major crash, I gave all my kit away.

Over the spring and summer last year, my 1-year-old granddaughter became obsessed with the goldfish in the pond, so as autumn approached I thought about getting a small cold water tank for a goldfish or two.

We headed over to our local Maidenhead Aquatics to pick out a tank, unfortunately, I have zero impulse control and came home with a 60l Nano Reef setup - much to my wife's dismay

We're now 5 months in and I'm (as is my wife although she will never admit it) loving every minute of it - despite the massive learning curve, the drama and the cost.

Current stock is

2 x Common clowns (Bubble & Squeak)
1 Yellow Coral Goby (Gerald)
1 Royal Gramma (Bruce - or Bruce the bd to give him his full title, given his propensity to headbutt crabs and snails)

CuC
2 Hermits,
1 Conch
2 Ceriths
1 Trochus
1 Nerita
3 Narissus
1 Cleaner shrimp (originally called cocktail but after discovering my Granddaughter struggled with the second syllable and was randomly shouting cock at the tank, he was renamed to Sheldon )

Corals
Green mushroom - came with 2 heads and now up to 6
Orange mushroom
Various Zoas
Hammerhead
Duncan - started with 4 heads and is now up to 7
Green Xenia
Candy Cane - which is currently unhappy, but just moved to a lower light/flow to try and cheer him up

Losses - Fortunately minimal
Frogspawn - lovely 2 head, lost I think due to Zoas releasing toxin when I was moving them as it went from healthy to dead within 3 days
1 Hermit, 1 Trochus
Kenya tree - although I am not 100% convinced it's dead - it got blown off the rockscape so it could well be surviving in a crevasse somewhere

I've upgraded a few of the stock bits
Upgraded return pump
Upgraded lights to AI prime
Added a Nero3 wavemaker

Future plans?
Pretty much nothing for this tank other than to enjoy it - I may fix some of the dodgy scaping and putty and add a few more soft corals in there and the xenia will probably be removed. The bigger plan when Son, DiL and Granddaughter move out is a much bigger tank


And an earlier pic showing Bruce demonstrating how he got his nick name

[Sway]

budgie smuggler said:

Sway said:

Especially when all the tests were saying I shouldn't have cyano!

Well, just bear in mind all those test can tell you is (roughly) how much phosphate and nitrate are in the water at a point in time. But those levels do fluctuate a lot (try testing 20 mins after feeding), and the algae takes it out of the water column anyway so you won't often get a 'true' reading.

The truth is, most tanks will go through periods of cyano, dinos, hair algae etc for the first 5 or so years especially. Likewise losing SPS, clams etc is not unusual. It could just be that they got stressed several months ago in transit or the shop's holding tanks.

I get that, although I'd suggest things like phosphate don't really fluctuate that quickly (nitrate yes, although as I've got massive sump turnover and an oversized skimmer and roller filter it 'should' be more stable) - key bit is though that I really should be seeing a proper imbalance between the two, or bottoming out, but I've seen neither. RZ advanced ICPs don't give any indication either.

As said, I think it's dissolved organics from pollen fuelling it, or at least kickstarting it.

All very valid points though chap!

The SPS are purely down to direct damage from cyano. The clam I was naive about - large clam, so 'should' be pretty much fully photosynthetic, placed in a spot designed for one in terms of PAR/flow, etc. To watch it slowly start to 'gape' then recede was brutal to watch.

[EmilA]

Sway said:

Looks like Salvinia natans, a common floating plant.

Floaters are great for helping with nutrients, but also algae prevention - and yeah, essentially you can routinely 'harvest' a whole bunch of it and then let it grow out again.

Nice tank!

Thank you for the info. I've been binning about half of it and it grows back within 7 days. I do think my tank is quite healthy, the fish swim around happily and the shrimps are thriving. I started off with 8 shrimps, last time I counted 48 and that's after giving my parents a few of them to add to their tank.

[budgie smuggler]

Sway said:

I get that, although I'd suggest things like phosphate don't really fluctuate that quickly (nitrate yes, although as I've got massive sump turnover and an oversized skimmer and roller filter it 'should' be more stable)

Probably varies a lot from tank to tank - but phosphate fluctuated massively in my tank. Like from 0.01 to 0.3 after feeding then back down over a couple of hours. I did have a lot of colonies and fed heavily however. Ammonia also fluctuates a lot (well from undetectable to detectable). Nitrate I never really noticed TBH, but personally I never obsessed about nitrate, as long as there was some and it didn't constantly rise, it was okay.

Anyway the point is, a bit of cyano is normal on occasion. If it keeps coming back or chemiclean etc doesn't knock it back then it's worth further investigation. Otherwise keep on trucking.

Edited by budgie smuggler on Monday 6th January 15:48

[Sway]

budgie smuggler said:

Sway said:

I get that, although I'd suggest things like phosphate don't really fluctuate that quickly (nitrate yes, although as I've got massive sump turnover and an oversized skimmer and roller filter it 'should' be more stable)

Probably varies a lot from tank to tank - but phosphate fluctuated massively in my tank. Like from 0.01 to 0.3 after feeding then back down over a couple of hours. I did have a lot of colonies and fed heavily however. Ammonia also fluctuates a lot (well from undetectable to detectable). Nitrate I never really noticed TBH, but personally I never obsessed about nitrate, as long as there was some and it didn't constantly rise, it was okay.

Anyway the point is, a bit of cyano is normal on occasion. If it keeps coming back or chemiclean etc doesn't knock it back then it's worth further investigation. Otherwise keep on trucking.

Edited by budgie smuggler on Monday 6th January 15:48

Yeah, not fussed by a bit of cyano in the recesses, same as I'm not too fussed with the few aiptasia that are now popping up - although I take great delight in the use of home made 'death juice' to obliterate them.

I had to add some warnings to the chemical containers just in case...



It was the sheer scale and resilience to my usual practices for control that really threw me with this one - hence the last resort of chemiclean.

Really interesting on the phosphate spikes you note, never heard of that before. The other 'interesting' thing is I'm now hearing of people actively dosing ammonia as it appears to be coral's preferred source of nutrition!

It still twists my melon that every now and then I dose nitrate, after spending decades only ever having to think about how to remove it. Now, people are actively dosing things like ammonia, nitrate, phosphate and even copper into reef tanks!

[dxbtiger]

Sorry to hear about the issues Sway, hope you get it sorted quickly

[EmilA]

My son noticed these white spots on our of our neon tetras. I’ve started a melafix course (5ml for 7days then water change). But this doesn’t look like fin rot so what else could it be? All the other fish are unaffected.

[Sway]

Could be neon disease. I'm colourblind, so awful at diagnosis!

[Caddyshack]

Sway said:

Could be neon disease. I'm colourblind, so awful at diagnosis!

I would agree that it probably is. Not sure on cure but if in doubt I would add aquarium salt.

[Sy1441]

EmilA said:

My son noticed these white spots on our of our neon tetras. I’ve started a melafix course (5ml for 7days then water change). But this doesn’t look like fin rot so what else could it be? All the other fish are unaffected.

Those are cardinal tetras and not neons, I prefer them. Doesn't look like white spot, more like fungus from the photos so your treatment should work. Did you do a water change? If not I'd do a fairly substantial one before the next dose of treatment.

Edited by Sy1441 on Tuesday 7th January 22:32

[EmilA]

Apologies yes they are cardinal tetras. I did a water change on Saturday, about a 40% change and also replaced the small filter. I'll continue with the melafix treatment and do another water change. Thanks for the insights.

[budgie smuggler]

EmilA said:

Apologies yes they are cardinal tetras. I did a water change on Saturday, about a 40% change and also replaced the small filter. I'll continue with the melafix treatment and do another water change. Thanks for the insights.

I'm not massively convinced Melafix does anything personally. I used this stuff with success:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NT-Labs-Anti-White-Spot-F...

It's basically malachite green + formaldehyde. In theory you can use it in-tank, but I set up a small quarantine in a plastic container I had knocking about and some old spare fish tank bits I had in the shed.

[dxbtiger]

Started stocking the new tank, changed my mind on using the Monstera, used a Parlour Palm instead.

Currently has

4 x Rummy Nose tetra
6 x Lemon Terra
6 x Panda Cory
10 x Ruby Crystal Shrimp

I expected a massive algae bloom given it was a new setup and gets full sunlight from sunrise until midday.

Pleased to report zero, it is being filtered at 15x per hour which may help.

Need to find a way to shoehorn it into the new lounge somehow..

[Sway]

That's bloody lovely.

What's the palm in? Looks like a holey bottomed pot?

[dxbtiger]

Sway said:

That's bloody lovely.

What's the palm in? Looks like a holey bottomed pot?

Temu special, one of these.

I've got two more but would be overkill Scape wise

[Sway]

Oh that's cool.

I'm seriously considering breaking down the 'reef' and converting into a planted discus tank - and the tank is big enough for a couple of decent sized emersed plants...

Tank is recovering well from the recent issues, but an honest reflection on what's going on in wider life in the short to medium term means I might be better off being pragmatic. I'd sell most of the marine kit, so it should be net cost positive. Only thing I wouldn't sell are the lights. They can go into storage until I do another reef!

[dxbtiger]

Sway said:

Oh that's cool.

I'm seriously considering breaking down the 'reef' and converting into a planted discus tank - and the tank is big enough for a couple of decent sized emersed plants...

Tank is recovering well from the recent issues, but an honest reflection on what's going on in wider life in the short to medium term means I might be better off being pragmatic. I'd sell most of the marine kit, so it should be net cost positive. Only thing I wouldn't sell are the lights. They can go into storage until I do another reef!

Sorry to hear that but even Discus which require more care than I could be arsed with at the moment would be a whole lot less complicated than SW I'd guess, temperature, food and water changes, job done.

I honestly think I enjoy the scaping side the most, I'm sat on the sofa now looking at the 12 litre cube think it needs completely tearing apart and starting again!

I also need to add some detail stone to the foreground of the bigger one postes just above.

Job for tomorrow morning after the kids swimming lessons perhaps, I have a lump of Seiryu I can attack with a hammer

[Sway]

Ah, I'm seeing it as a positive - giving me some headspace and time (oh, and cash!) to focus on more important things.

I love scaping, already have a loose idea of a 'fallen tree' coming in from the top rear corner, with a small section of stones/crpyts on the opposing corner floor.

Something a little like this in theme:



Half a dozen discus, 50-60 cardinals, perhaps 20 lemon tetra and a big group of Venezuelan orange Corys. Heavy on the bucephalandra up top, anubias below, and a small amount of crypts.

[dxbtiger]

Sway said:

Ah, I'm seeing it as a positive - giving me some headspace and time (oh, and cash!) to focus on more important things.

I love scaping, already have a loose idea of a 'fallen tree' coming in from the top rear corner, with a small section of stones/crpyts on the opposing corner floor.

Something a little like this in theme:



Half a dozen discus, 50-60 cardinals, perhaps 20 lemon tetra and a big group of Venezuelan orange Corys. Heavy on the bucephalandra up top, anubias below, and a small amount of crypts.

Sounds good to me!

It's all about the hardscape, that's why I've gone so light on the plants on the new one, check out Jack Fryer on the 'socials' he did a recent epic wood heavy scape

The Green Aqua YouTube channel is brilliant as well, shop in Hungary.