Reef nutrition

glee's tank journal

glee

glee

Supporting Member
BARcard
There are many reasons why reefers get out of the hobby. Some get burnt out; some can no longer afford the luxury. If you have time and money, you like me, are still maintaining a reef. But there must be some other centrifugal force that is driving our reefing addiction. My brother-in-law buys a new BMW every 2-3 years. I see the parallelism between his love for new cars and a reefers’ love to upgrade. I myself have been along this path beginning in 2006 and moving from a 55 gallon FOWLR Jebo tank (which leaked) to a five foot long 100 gallon FOWLR Jebo tank (which fortunately didn’t leak) plus a 20 gallon softie tank in my first year with saltwater. The 20 gallon became a 30 gallon softie tank and upgrades continued as I purchased power heads, a protein skimmer, ATO, t5s, etc to replace older models. My latest upgrade was a 100 gallon 4x2x2’ reef ready Oceanic system that replaced my previous 100 gallon and 30 gallon set ups. Besides upgrading equipment, reefers must also feed our addiction for bold colored corals. The entrepreneurial spirit of ORA, Tyree, ATL, and other coral farmers perpetuate a reefer’s diet for more LE or branded coral.

My wallet will disagree, but I enjoy upgrading equipment, having color corals, and bartering for new corals. I think these are the commonalities we reefers share and the major reasons why we are still in the hobby. What other reasons do you have for continuing your reef? I’ll start. One of my favorite things about reefing, no matter how often I have seen it, is watching my two skunk cleaner shrimps release their larvae into the water column. It is happening tonight and I am fortunate to be awake and to watch it unfold….One shrimp is perched on the left corner near a ledge flapping its pleopods to release its young. The other shrimp sits under my central rock work seemingly synchronizing its movement with pauses to allow only a few larvae to release from its abdomen every 10-15 seconds. My fish are usually sleeping in their cave or nook, but tonight, they are flashing here and there having a midnight snack of fresh plankton.

What is one of your favorite things about keeping a reef?

I will list the vital statistics and pictures of my 100 gallon reef later.
 
Hi glee,

Still waiting for your pictures. :)

I also love watching the shrimps release larvae. Very early one morning, we saw a cloud of peppermint shrimp larvae in my little 28 gal. There are no fish in this tank right now, so I was hoping the LPS got a nice treat. My husband wanted to move the larvae, but after reading up on shrimp rearing, decided against it. Perhaps one day it will become easier as technology and foods continues to improve.

I love watching the coral eat, especially the pulsing Xenia and Sinularia. They seem to go into high gear. :)

It never stops amazing me that we can keep little bits of ocean in boxes, and have them not only live, but grow and reproduce. The hobby has come a long way since my first disastrous SW fish only attempt many, many years ago. :D
 
About getting in or out of this hobby, my view is:

1. People see running tanks, either from business display, LFS or from friends, which are obviously eyes catching tanks and start to build up an idea of having the tank on their own.
2. They start to do more research and start to like it more because they discover lots of new stuff, their idea of having their own tank gets wilder...
3. They thrivingly set up their own tank
4. They discover that it is much harder than they thought, lots of effort with lots of $$ spend and their tank still doesn't look like what they had in mind.
5. Many of them tend to quit soon after, probably even before they realize setting up a new tank is much harder than maintaining when it becomes stable.
6. Other with more knowledge (seeing longer in future of their tanks) or have strong mentally support from friends or don't want to trash a big invested $$ or whatever reason (still have $$ to burn..) will survive and keep their tanks.
7. Getting bored, when it gets to a stable stage there won't be much can be done, won't be much to add to the tank, and they see the same thing everyday.
8. Get out or upgrade is likely the idea in their mind.
9. Get smarter, they don't let their tank(mainly corals) to be too matured, they train (ugly word is fool) their mind with rare corals, LE, rare fish so that they have a mission to accomplish and this mission will last longer and keep them enjoy longer...
10. As long as you feel you get the best tank and you totally satisfy with your tank and don't think you want anything to your tank then you are done with your hobby.

So if you are in this hobby don't get to 10 above.
 
hi lyn, thanks for the reminder!

i should have updated this a long time ago, lol. in june 2008, i bought a used 100 gallon oceanic tank, stand, canopy, aga sump, euroreef skimmer, and other miscellaneous parts from a fellow reefer in pacifica. for lighting, i purchased 2 sets of used 250w hqi pendants/ballasts and used my 4 x 54w t5s from my previous set up. since i was going for an sps dominated tank, i purchased a used koralin 1502 cal reactor. i bought from lucky ocean an eheim return pump to replace the mag7 that came with the original set up. my total cost was about 1500.

i spent about a week putting together the tank. i had to sand down the stand and canopy because i didnt like the brown color. i also had to repair areas on the stand and canopy with wood putty. i put 3 coats of cherry stain and 2 coats of low gloss polyurethane (sanding in between) which required 24hrs in between to cure. sorry no pics on the shape and condition....i was sweating and covered with dust, lol.

i originally wanted to cycle the tank for 6 months before putting anything in, but i was only able to resist the temptation for 3+ months.

this is a picture on sep 12, 2008. the rock work looks a bit chunky, but there are many holes in which the fish swim about. it's just hard to tell from a 1d perspective.
ftsbefore.jpg
 
here is a picture of my tank today....

fts.jpg


i lost my powder blue tang during my trip to moscow between dec 1-15, 2008. it caused an algae bloom and i have been battling it ever since. i took saltwatersig's advice about installing gfo and starting slow. so far so good. also sought advice from tuberider about my euroreef which doesnt skimmer very much for me. i love this community and how it is so easy to get advice from my fellow reefers.

current fish list:
1 x 3" lavender tang
1 x 3" fairy wrasse
1 x 2" yellow coris wrasse
2 x 1" blue neon gobies
5 x 2" green chromis
1 x 1" red headed pseudochromis
2 x 2" anthias

corals:
many different acros, montis, monti caps, encrusting montis, zoas, mushrooms, duncans

although, i know some "special" names of corals, i am in to colors and keeping my corals alive more than names. so far, i have not lost any corals...some just turn brown, lol.
 
things i want to buy next, if i ever get a full time job...

2 x vortech 40's

almost everyone from the sf tank tour had them in their tank. i can free up some space that the k4s are taking up.
 
Yeah, a picture! Wouldn't be a tank thread without it. ;D

Your tank is so clean looking. I'm thinking about doing separate islands too. Gives the fish more space, and the faster growing corals will be isolated so they don't take over the slower ones. Also more flow can get around the rocks, and there is more surface area to stick things on. :D

Oh, an update...

Wow! Looks fantastic! Everything has filled in and although in the initial pictures, the rock work looks low, there is space for the SPS to grow upwards. Great job! :D
 
Wow, I've never seen a before picture G! Looks awesome! Your tank has really come a long way, and it will only get better from here on out :)
Getting two mp40's would clear some clutter in the tank, not to mention clear up a couple outlets :D
 
fts-1-1.jpg

just an updated shot of my tank.

some notes to myself:
everything is growing well, but lacking the colors i want.
battling hair algae is a full time job.....lost a couple of fish...

1 x 3" fairy wrasse (jumped)
1 x 2" yellow coris wrasse (jumped)

current fish list:
1 x 3" yellow tang
1 x 3" lavender tang
1 x 3" scribbled rabbitfish
1 x 1" blue neon gobies
5 x 2" green chromis
1 x 1" red headed pseudochromis
1 x 2" anthias
 
hey sergio, yeah, i got the phosban reactor started after talking to you but still have this hair algae. i spend 2 hours each week during my water change to siphon this out. i need more flow and will go with 20k bulbs when i can scrounge up some cash. did you ever find a supplier for the 20k de helios?
 
Glee

make sure you change out that phos media every month (or so ) .

no , I did'nt find any helios and after looking around , some folks had issues with bulbs not being uniform in color ( side by side same bulbs but one would like bluer or more white than the other ) and I did not want to chance it. I went with xm 20ks ( still miss the helios look) and until 10 months go by .....and search for my next bulb set.

Sergio
 
i have a bunch of turbos from AC that are always active, but not sure if they are actually eating the hair algae....no emeralds for me since they always seem to find my snails.
 
still battling hair algae.....thanks to andyman for stopping by and checking my po4!

po4 measures 0.09ppm hanna test kit

things i need to do:

100 trochus snails (where to buy?)
increase amount of gfo
manual scrub
 
Dude don't buy 100 trochus, they rock as algae eaters, however start small, maybe 3-4 see if they even touch the stuff before throwing down that kind of investment.

IME, even on large tanks small amounts of snails are perfectly fine, they might not get it all quick but they'll get it all eventually, that's to say faster than it grows back.
 
forgot to mention that i added a sea hare on aug 22. many thanks to steve at lucky ocean!

on aug 26, my wife went in to labor and delivered our 2nd baby boy. tristan came a couple weeks early and has been keeping us really busy....

i managed to put in an hour on the tank yesterday. i closed the curtains in my breakfast room so that no sun light hit the tank. i turned off all lights, except led moonlights for a full day. i did a 15% water change (usually 10%), cleaned skimmer, dumped a ton of phosban into my reactor. i typically change one cup of phosban every week, but this time i filled the tlf reactor 3/4 up. i didnt siphon any hair algae like i usually do because of time constraints.

today, i resumed my typical photo period and noticed the huge rock at the center of my tank was bare of hair algae. this rock was almost completely covered the day before. i hope this dramatic loss of hair algae continues.....time to get some sleep.
 
Congratulations on the new frag!

I found the hair algae just vanished in about a month from the time it started getting thinner, after months of pulling. I hope this is where you are at in the cycle of tank.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top