Adam The Aussie - 70 gallon build
- Thread starter Adam007
- Start date
0600: "Honey, your fishtank is making a noise" 
Quickest way to get me out of bed thats for sure.
Seems that the float switch has failed in the on position, not very happy considering its all of about 3 days old !!
This ended in about 2ltrs of freshwater entering the system, thankfully no floods happened and there was only a very small change in salinity (dropped to SG 1.023 from 1.024 - all ok ! )
Am waiting from the guy I bought the tank off to get back in town (away currently) and will be purchasing a better float switch from him - one that mounts vertically, even thought the Jaycar unit is fully sealed I think because it was submerged this is why it may have become faulty.
The tank is now going through an algae stage, firstly the wonderful brown slimy algae:
However, Getting some nice skimmate out of the skimmer !
This is from about 10hrs of work:
Quickest way to get me out of bed thats for sure.
Seems that the float switch has failed in the on position, not very happy considering its all of about 3 days old !!
This ended in about 2ltrs of freshwater entering the system, thankfully no floods happened and there was only a very small change in salinity (dropped to SG 1.023 from 1.024 - all ok ! )
Am waiting from the guy I bought the tank off to get back in town (away currently) and will be purchasing a better float switch from him - one that mounts vertically, even thought the Jaycar unit is fully sealed I think because it was submerged this is why it may have become faulty.
The tank is now going through an algae stage, firstly the wonderful brown slimy algae:
However, Getting some nice skimmate out of the skimmer !
This is from about 10hrs of work:
I decided to "just pop into" the LFS 
Picked up a small torch coral:
What was sold to me as "Chocolate Goby" - Amblygobius Phalaena
Starting to get some green hair algae now aswell:
Also picked up a Blenny, he is very small though so its hard to tell what he is, also he doesn't seem to have settled very well as he hides whenever I come near the tank, if I sit back on the lounge however he is fine scooting around the tank and chomping away at algae.
Lugged home some NSW aswell, will do a water change in the upcoming days as everything settles down.
Picked up a small torch coral:
What was sold to me as "Chocolate Goby" - Amblygobius Phalaena
Starting to get some green hair algae now aswell:
Also picked up a Blenny, he is very small though so its hard to tell what he is, also he doesn't seem to have settled very well as he hides whenever I come near the tank, if I sit back on the lounge however he is fine scooting around the tank and chomping away at algae.
Lugged home some NSW aswell, will do a water change in the upcoming days as everything settles down.
I have identified my Blenny, he is what I believe to be an Ecsenius namiyei aka Black comb-tooth blenny :
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=7664
The tank is doing well, continuing to monitor water parameters every second day as I really haven't seen a cycle yet and don't think I will.. but want to make sure my inhabitants are safe incase one kicks off !
The snails and hermits are doing well, except they are very clumsy and like to fall over onto their backs and require rescuing every so often, otherwise they spend some time with their legs up in the air
Im still battling green hair algae, and think I will for quite some time. The hermits and snails don't seem to touch it. I have seen my Amblygobius Phalaena nipping at the hair algae though ! Currently I find the best way of removal is to just manually scrub it from the glass / lightly scrub the rock that is covered in it. I think I will continue to have algae problems until I can get my DSB up and running, im still waiting on some live sand
In other news picked up two small black & white clownfish on the weekend, was looking for corals however there was nothing exciting anywhere in town. One LFS had about 10x Heliofungia in brown colour, so their tanks looked very bland...
They seem to love swimming along side the glass edge of the tank, I think they can see their reflection and believe they are still at the LFS where there was about 25 of them in the tank at once.
New photos !
Goby:
Clowns:
Blenny & Hermit:
Blenny:
Hermit:
Algae :
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=7664
The tank is doing well, continuing to monitor water parameters every second day as I really haven't seen a cycle yet and don't think I will.. but want to make sure my inhabitants are safe incase one kicks off !
The snails and hermits are doing well, except they are very clumsy and like to fall over onto their backs and require rescuing every so often, otherwise they spend some time with their legs up in the air
Im still battling green hair algae, and think I will for quite some time. The hermits and snails don't seem to touch it. I have seen my Amblygobius Phalaena nipping at the hair algae though ! Currently I find the best way of removal is to just manually scrub it from the glass / lightly scrub the rock that is covered in it. I think I will continue to have algae problems until I can get my DSB up and running, im still waiting on some live sand
In other news picked up two small black & white clownfish on the weekend, was looking for corals however there was nothing exciting anywhere in town. One LFS had about 10x Heliofungia in brown colour, so their tanks looked very bland...
They seem to love swimming along side the glass edge of the tank, I think they can see their reflection and believe they are still at the LFS where there was about 25 of them in the tank at once.
New photos !
Goby:
Clowns:
Blenny & Hermit:
Blenny:
Hermit:
Algae
:
Why would you say this? of couse the live rock is live.
chenzo1099
In Memoriam
Nice setup
Thanks for the comments guys !
Got some live sand in my sump now in the DSB section, just waiting on some macro algae to grow from it.
Tank has just passed 1mth in age, hopefully once the macro algae is established things will be looking better !
We are going away for holidays in two weeks so I have been putting off spending cash until after we get back, once that happens I can start stocking
I cleaned the tank this arvo big time so its looking clean now
Coraline growth on the powerheads has started, I must be doing something right
Got some live sand in my sump now in the DSB section, just waiting on some macro algae to grow from it.
Tank has just passed 1mth in age, hopefully once the macro algae is established things will be looking better !
We are going away for holidays in two weeks so I have been putting off spending cash until after we get back, once that happens I can start stocking
I cleaned the tank this arvo big time so its looking clean now
Coraline growth on the powerheads has started, I must be doing something right
Thanks for the replies guys, always good to hear some feedback be it good or bad :thumbsup:
Found one of my bristle stars out of hiding the other night,
And found this about 20mins ago staring me in the face, I had heard the clicks but had not been able to find it, put it down to a small pistol shrimp.
Was prepared to spend the next few weeks trying to catch the little bugger, but the rock he was in was in an easy to pull out place, slowly lifted the rock out and made sure he did not fly out of the rockwork on the way. Then poured a little bit of fresh water into his hole, out he shot like his house was on fire ! haha
Adam 1
Mantis 0
Nabbed a nice purple tip Catalaphyllia today about 10cm when closed up, will get some photos when its fully extended to show you all
Found one of my bristle stars out of hiding the other night,
And found this about 20mins ago staring me in the face, I had heard the clicks but had not been able to find it, put it down to a small pistol shrimp.
Was prepared to spend the next few weeks trying to catch the little bugger, but the rock he was in was in an easy to pull out place, slowly lifted the rock out and made sure he did not fly out of the rockwork on the way. Then poured a little bit of fresh water into his hole, out he shot like his house was on fire ! haha
Adam 1
Mantis 0
Nabbed a nice purple tip Catalaphyllia today about 10cm when closed up, will get some photos when its fully extended to show you all
Algae is still there and bad, have ordered some Macro Algae online to be delivered as I have had no luck sourcing any locally. They also had a nice sun coral which is on its way as well.
Will also be ordering a new RO-DI Unit soon as well, with the combination of this and some growing macro algae I hope to see the end of the large outbreaks in the display tank.
Will also be ordering a new RO-DI Unit soon as well, with the combination of this and some growing macro algae I hope to see the end of the large outbreaks in the display tank.
Woke up Monday morning and my tank was gurgling like a mofo, the backup syphon was being used for some reason.
After a frantic couple of minutes checking that all of my tank mates were still in the tank and were not the cause of my blocked durso, I started to get puzzled.
Turned out to be the ball valve at the end of the durso. My guess is a steady build up of crud on the inside of the ball valve had lead to block it enough that the water could not flow through. As soon as I moved the valve in the slightest the water gushed down and the gurgling stopped.
Macro algae for my Refugium and a Tubastrea are on their way, sent Monday arvo via AAE however AAE now have no clue where my parcel is..
Hopefully it will last another day before getting into the tank.
Also sent off an email to Pete from PSI Filters with some questions about an RO unit, which I hope to be purchasing shortly.
This is also another reason why I have been holding off stocking, have not been able to get any macro algae locally so I really don't have any nutrient export and I have been naughty and only using tap water for evap topoff, however this is all to be improved very shortly and I should *fingers crossed* see the end of most of my algae .
After a frantic couple of minutes checking that all of my tank mates were still in the tank and were not the cause of my blocked durso, I started to get puzzled.
Turned out to be the ball valve at the end of the durso. My guess is a steady build up of crud on the inside of the ball valve had lead to block it enough that the water could not flow through. As soon as I moved the valve in the slightest the water gushed down and the gurgling stopped.
Macro algae for my Refugium and a Tubastrea are on their way, sent Monday arvo via AAE however AAE now have no clue where my parcel is..
Hopefully it will last another day before getting into the tank.
Also sent off an email to Pete from PSI Filters with some questions about an RO unit, which I hope to be purchasing shortly.
This is also another reason why I have been holding off stocking, have not been able to get any macro algae locally so I really don't have any nutrient export and I have been naughty and only using tap water for evap topoff, however this is all to be improved very shortly and I should *fingers crossed* see the end of most of my algae .
Well my parcel is in my hands, everything looks OK too ! Sure was an adventure to get hold of the parcel before everything closed at 5pm however - AAE had Onsent it with Australia Post so I had to rush over to the Aus Post mail depot and pick it up.
New Tubastrea Coral, has not fully opened yet:
Latest full tank shot, including one of my clowns
New macro algae, I believe it to be Caulerpa taxifolia:
Took an updated sump shot, its filthy and really needs a clean :/
New Tubastrea Coral, has not fully opened yet:
Latest full tank shot, including one of my clowns
New macro algae, I believe it to be Caulerpa taxifolia:
Took an updated sump shot, its filthy and really needs a clean :/
Did a 40L waterchange today as it has been afew weeks due to bad weather or bad tide times etc. Sucked alot of algae up and gave the tank a huge clean including the two powerheads. Looked horrible for about 1hr after the water change because there was so much crap still suspended in the water.
Macro algae is going okayish, I hope it doesn't die on me !
Spotted some Flame Angel's at the LFS this morning @ $160 each Time to start saving ! Have not seen any in town since my tank has been up and running, and its one of those fish that I really want in my tank.
Bought some frozen brine shrimp and tried feeding my sun coral today but it did not appear to be interested, will try again in a couple more days.
Macro algae is going okayish, I hope it doesn't die on me !
Spotted some Flame Angel's at the LFS this morning @ $160 each Time to start saving ! Have not seen any in town since my tank has been up and running, and its one of those fish that I really want in my tank.
Bought some frozen brine shrimp and tried feeding my sun coral today but it did not appear to be interested, will try again in a couple more days.
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