Alex’s IM 150 EXT

[ashburn2k]

If your other aquarium is doing fine. Leave it for now. Grow your foundation in your 150 first. If you move over sensitive corals or fish. The foundation isn’t set yet. They will suffer or die. If you want to move corals. Move hardy ones. Like mushrooms and stuff like that. Slow and steady. The pros say. When you can grow coralline algae. Then you can start to grow corals.
Oh if you’re doing weekly water changes. You should be good on trace elements. Unless you keep something that requires the elements needed that goes away quickly ie: gonis. lol.

in my 30 years of reef keeping.. i can never manage to grow coralline.... but my corals grows fine ..

 

[Turkeysammich]

in my 30 years of reef keeping.. i can never manage to grow coralline.... but my corals grows fine ..

So you’re telling me in 30 years. You never had a speck of coralline algae. That’s hard to believe. Because in my 23 years of reef keeping it will come and go. It’s just an indicator.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Purple coralline algae:
Just shows up in my reef systems ...

Even without using the “purple up”

 

[richiev]

My frag tank is overrun with coraline algae. If anyone wants a stocking of coraline they can use to seed their tank, LMK. I'm happy to scrape some and bottle it up ala the purple helix stuff.

 

[Alexander1312]

Continue to work on the tank setup, recent changes:

- Moved additional corals from my 26 gallon tank
- Moved all fish from my 26 gallon tank
- Started working on increasing my alkalinity (last measure 5.9!) / added alkalinity from 2 part solution and switched now to dose 1l kalkwasser daily (Captiv8)
- Added a second aquascape (made by my son), based on real reef rock, marco sand, and gluemasters thin glue. Given this was 'our' very first aquascape, it turned out better than expected.
- Added a ton of inverts from 26 gallon tank (this tank has about 70-100 snails or so, nassarius, trochus (additional tank breeds, and fighting conch).

Next steps:
- Will add a Whitetail Bristletooth tang on the weekend from Kenny.

 

[Coral reefer]

Looking sexy. Enjoy!

 

[Alexander1312]

Started dosing trace elements now. This will be dosed for 10 days, while continuously checking nitrate (will do every other day), as this will apparently also reduce nitrates.

This is the product: Reef BluePrint Isol8:MT - Minor & Trace Elements (60 mL) - Captiv8 Aquaculture

I am estimating that the tank volume is approx 170 gallon in total (DT + sump), possibly less water. It requires one drop per 25 gallon daily, so I will be dosing 6 drops of this daily for the next 10 days.

If nitrates fall, then the dose will need to be reduced afterwards, while adding nitrates manually for the 10 days, otherwise, it can stay at this level.

After 30 days, they recommend to do an ICP which I am planning to do anyway to set a baseline.

I have used Triton in the past 12 months for ICP, but will be switching to Fauna Marin ICP going forward.

 

[Alexander1312]

Added a couple of fish last week and today.

The first one is a Whitetail Bristletooth Tang (Ctenochaetus flavicauda), added about a week ago, bought from @under_water_ninja. Since starting this hobby in September last year only, I have been more interested in corals than fish. However, I very much like this one, super active, eats a ton, and simply great looking.

 

[Alexander1312]

The second one is a Hawaiin Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma flavescens), added today, bought from Biota. Seems like he managed his journey from Florida quite well, and is very active in his acclimation box (although he seems quite eager to get out). Will probably keep him in there for the next 7 days to decrease the likelihood of issues with the other tang.

 

[B the Nano Reefer]

Tank looks great!

 

[Darkxerox]

That biota tang is so tiny! I'd say for sure keep that piece of tube or something the other tang can't fit into after you release it just in case.

Tank is looking great so far and the transfer of items from your smaller tank should make it look a lot more active.

 

[Alexander1312]

That biota tang is so tiny! I'd say for sure keep that piece of tube or something the other tang can't fit into after you release it just in case.

Tank is looking great so far and the transfer of items from your smaller tank should make it look a lot more active.

Yes, and this was the ‘small’ version. They did not have the medium size available, but I have read that integrating a ‘small’ might be even easier as they will be seen as less of a competition than similar size tangs. Good idea with the tube, I just do not like these artifcial items in the tank, but might build him a small cave where he can hide. Hiding spaces are a bit sparse in this tank.

Thank you. And no ugly phase, not even a small outbreak, which surprised me, but Kenny mentioned that this would not come if I did what I did. Still have a few gonies and some other corals in the nano tank that I did not want to move as they have been doing very well where they are. Still, I want to shut down this tank shortly for simplicity purposes (although it is a shame as this tank's biome is probably very good, and it does not have any issues).

 

[Alexander1312]

I also sent out an Aquabiomics sample today. I recognize that it seems odd to look at this so early, but I wanted to do this early to have a baseline and develop the tank from there further. Also, they still have a 20% off sale until Jan 1.

 

[Alexander1312]

Added two of these today (each 450g), into the sump (Microbiomics Live Sand). It comes with a long report for each of the two boxes whats inside, similar to their reports when testing the water etc.

It took about two months or so to get this as it is typically only in stock for a day or two and then sold out again for a long time, plus shipping time etc.

Cannot run skimmer or any mechanical filtration for the next 48 hours. I did the same in my nano (after battling Dinos two times in six months), and never had any Dino issues since, and never had any Cyano issues in the 18 months I had this tank.

Hopefully it does its magic here too, knowing that my live rock had potentially a lot of this already in there.

 

[Alexander1312]

The newest member of our fish family Blue Throat Triggerfish, Male (Xanthichthys auromarginatus), picked up from @under_water_ninja today. Also, not too happy that he has to stay in the acclimation box for a while:

 

[Turkeysammich]

I have its twin. Lol. It’s a very cool fish. Very underrated. I think mine is stunted growth. Dunno. Same size for super long. First fish that I’ve had that never bothers anything. All he cares about is food.

 

[Alexander1312]

I have its twin. Lol. It’s a very cool fish. Very underrated. I think mine is stunted growth. Dunno. Same size for super long. First fish that I’ve had that never bothers anything. All he cares about is food.

Fully agree. My son (12, fish addict ..) researched and then wanted him so we waited until Kenny got one and put him through quarantine. Definitely not underrated by us. I love variety in the tank and he certainly looks different and is still beautiful.

 

[Turkeysammich]

Fully agree. My son (12, fish addict ..) researched and then wanted him so we waited until Kenny got one and put him through quarantine. Definitely not underrated by us. I love variety in the tank and he certainly looks different and is still beautiful.

Definitely unique in the way they swim. They way the fins waves. Super cool. Looks like you got a good one. Usually the yellow is dull on the back fins these days.

 

[Alexander1312]

Blue Throat Trigger was added yesterday. The Whitetail Bristletooth has been very aggressive again, hopefully this will calm down. Added a large mirror yesterday and today, but the Whitetail gets very aggressive towards the mirror, but stopped this evening.

The yellow tang seems to be now friends with him after getting harrassed initially. They always swim together. Very interesting.

I have also added a few more gonies who have been almost instantly doing well, to my surprise (as this was my main concern). Still more corals to move (I continue to struggle with gluing corals, looking forward to the frag workshop, need a refresh).

Still thinking about adding a few more fish - Does anyone have any recommendations on what could work with this setup?

Some current pictures from this evening with low lights.

 

[Turkeysammich]

It’s a hierarchy. It’s going to happen every time you add a new fish. That’s why you’re supposed to add least aggressive to aggressive.
I like the bellus angel. Or a fish in that genus.