Ainara's reef - Work in progress
- Thread starter kainic
- Start date
kainic
Member
This is my new acquisition. Liking angelfishes but I don't wanna play the nipping roulette so I went safe and went for a Genicanthus Melanospilos. It's bigger than I'd prefer and due to its size my Ctenochaetus strigosus has enabled its battle mode. I had to use a mirror for the first 12 hours to mitigate aggression. Beautiful and voracious eater.
My current stocklist is:
2x Amphiprion ocellaris
1x Synchiropus picturatus
1x Ctenochaetus strigosus
1x Nemateleotris decora
3x Pseudanthias dispar
1x Priolepis nocturna
1x Elacatinus oceanops
1x Genicanthus melanospilos
Next step is to cover the tank and keep some flasher or fairy wrasses.
My Acropora prolifera when I got it.
and now
A more decent picture of my Acropora florida
I have to glue some corals to its final place and I'll update with a FTS (not as full as all of your tanks but certainly not as empty as it has been in the past).
My current stocklist is:
2x Amphiprion ocellaris
1x Synchiropus picturatus
1x Ctenochaetus strigosus
1x Nemateleotris decora
3x Pseudanthias dispar
1x Priolepis nocturna
1x Elacatinus oceanops
1x Genicanthus melanospilos
Next step is to cover the tank and keep some flasher or fairy wrasses.
My Acropora prolifera when I got it.
and now
A more decent picture of my Acropora florida
I have to glue some corals to its final place and I'll update with a FTS (not as full as all of your tanks but certainly not as empty as it has been in the past).
reefmutt
Active member
Mark, Bulent had sourced a shop in Europe that was willing to ship to Canada.. maybe they'll ship to the US as well.... well, at least until Trump gets into office. Then, all bets are off.
kainic
Member
Last update of the year.
Routine/dosing changes:
Dec 19th --> Increased TM Bacto Balance to 1.5ml per day. It's the recommended dose in the instructions.
Dec 8th --> Started dosing Brightwell Neophos to increase my phosphate readings to check if my aquarium was phosphate limited. I'm dosing 1ml to increase phosphates by 0.02ppm. In less than a week my nitrates dropped from 50ppm to 10-17.5ppm (more than 10 but less than 25 in Salifert test). Phosphates have been around 0.01-0.05.
Started to feed a pinch of flakes in the morning so feeding thrice per day. Flake in the morning, 1 cube of frozen food at midday and 1 cube of frozen food at noon.
These are the only changes as per my routines. We have to sum the addition of the female Genicanthus Melanospilos (Dec 5th), so we should expect a higher nitrate reading if anything.
Some corals show now a better polyp extension and a slight change in color. I'll keep this routine and check phosphate 3 times per week to avoid overdosing.
Milleporas and tenius had hard times in my tank and all except 1 died in 2 weeks since introduction. Last week I bought a tenius to test my tank, I really like tenius but was unable to keep them alive.
Not the best color and polyp extension could be better but it's alive and much more happy than any tenius has ever been in my tank.
Red planet has decided it's time to grow some branches.
2 maricultured recent additions. No idea of the species, so I'd be very pleased if you can ID them.
My tricolor is now getting some color and increasing its polyp extension.
Even my LPS are thriving now! A Red Goniopora happy as a clam!
I need to improve my photography skills, but first of all I'm trying to improve my reefing skills.
I wish you RC community a happy new year. Best wishes for you all.
Routine/dosing changes:
Dec 19th --> Increased TM Bacto Balance to 1.5ml per day. It's the recommended dose in the instructions.
Dec 8th --> Started dosing Brightwell Neophos to increase my phosphate readings to check if my aquarium was phosphate limited. I'm dosing 1ml to increase phosphates by 0.02ppm. In less than a week my nitrates dropped from 50ppm to 10-17.5ppm (more than 10 but less than 25 in Salifert test). Phosphates have been around 0.01-0.05.
Started to feed a pinch of flakes in the morning so feeding thrice per day. Flake in the morning, 1 cube of frozen food at midday and 1 cube of frozen food at noon.
These are the only changes as per my routines. We have to sum the addition of the female Genicanthus Melanospilos (Dec 5th), so we should expect a higher nitrate reading if anything.
Some corals show now a better polyp extension and a slight change in color. I'll keep this routine and check phosphate 3 times per week to avoid overdosing.
Milleporas and tenius had hard times in my tank and all except 1 died in 2 weeks since introduction. Last week I bought a tenius to test my tank, I really like tenius but was unable to keep them alive.
Not the best color and polyp extension could be better but it's alive and much more happy than any tenius has ever been in my tank.
Red planet has decided it's time to grow some branches.
2 maricultured recent additions. No idea of the species, so I'd be very pleased if you can ID them.
My tricolor is now getting some color and increasing its polyp extension.
Even my LPS are thriving now! A Red Goniopora happy as a clam!
I need to improve my photography skills, but first of all I'm trying to improve my reefing skills.
I wish you RC community a happy new year. Best wishes for you all.
kainic
Member
Yeah! Now also the SSC has improved its color, from a pale pink everywhere to a reddish pink with green base.
Phone pic of my Icefire echinata. Bought it 2 months ago and placed in a shaded area. Its polyp extension has always been good, but lately I'd say its really great. Moved to a zone with more light and more flow to see if I can get a better color.
Today my Nitrate reading was 7.5ppm, lowest in months if not a year. I'll try to keep it there for a while.
kainic
Member
Got my hands on a Tamron 90mm macro for my DSLR. I previously got a Nikkor Micro 55mm (old school macro lens) but its focal length was too short, so I replaced it with the Tamron lens (not as sharp but its focal its perfect for aquarium photography).
I followed some of the tips Reefmutt posted in his thread. I still need to shoot hundreds of pictures to get the touch, but if you compare this picture with the one in my previous post you'll see that this lens has its potential.
My Red Planet keeps morphing. Improving PE everyday and getting a deeper color. Brightwell Nephos has a lot to say in this change. Even dosing 1ml per day (should increase my phosphate by 0,016) my readings are constantly under 0.02 so I increased the dose to 1.5ml daily.
This week I'll get my so much desired Montipora setosa frag. It will have a dedicated rock, so it can grow as much as it wants. Hope it survives the cold trip and it adapts well to my aquarium. /crossfingers
My vermetid snail population is getting plague dimensions so I introduced 4 Engina mendicaria snails to reduce its population. Bumble bee snails are a natural predator for vermetid snails but also predate on snails smaller than them so I will have to watch them close. Theorically they do not reproduce in our aquariums, so its population will be under control. They are being pretty active but I have not seen them in the act of eating a vermetid snail, yet. I'll keep you informed.
Thanks for reading
I followed some of the tips Reefmutt posted in his thread. I still need to shoot hundreds of pictures to get the touch, but if you compare this picture with the one in my previous post you'll see that this lens has its potential.
My Red Planet keeps morphing. Improving PE everyday and getting a deeper color. Brightwell Nephos has a lot to say in this change. Even dosing 1ml per day (should increase my phosphate by 0,016) my readings are constantly under 0.02 so I increased the dose to 1.5ml daily.
This week I'll get my so much desired Montipora setosa frag. It will have a dedicated rock, so it can grow as much as it wants. Hope it survives the cold trip and it adapts well to my aquarium. /crossfingers
My vermetid snail population is getting plague dimensions so I introduced 4 Engina mendicaria snails to reduce its population. Bumble bee snails are a natural predator for vermetid snails but also predate on snails smaller than them so I will have to watch them close. Theorically they do not reproduce in our aquariums, so its population will be under control. They are being pretty active but I have not seen them in the act of eating a vermetid snail, yet. I'll keep you informed.
Thanks for reading
reefmutt
Active member
Got my hands on a Tamron 90mm macro for my DSLR.
Hey Sergi. This is very very pretty!
I love this shot.
Very nice detail, clarity and shallow depth of field that really accentuates the polyps. .
It's colour looks way better as well.
Do you have a top down viewing box?
kainic
Member
Thanks for the compliments. I don't have a top viewing box... yet. It's on my purchase list but when you need to populate the tank with more corals it's hard to spend on other things.
Setosa, yongei and sarmentosa incoming. I'll update with pictures later this week.
kainic
Member
I totally think they were starving.
What's the current state of the tank. Still high NO3, even higher (50ppm) and PO4 around (0.07-0.1). Some people said that they needed their PO4 to reach 0.2 to see their NO3 decrease. Ed (Big E) started a nice discussion in Matt's thread (here) about ratios. I'm far from the "ideal" ratio for the bacteria to work. Now I'm having a Marine Pure 8*4*4 block, 3l of Siporax and carbon dosing. Not sure what route should I take. I'm happy with the survival and pretty ahppy with the colour of some corals but I know that lower levels would give me the colour I'm looking for.
I did rearrange my scape because I almost had no space on the sides between rock and glass. The corals did feel the change and lost some color.
I'm now battling AEFW. Found them in my A. florida when doing my rock basting routine. When I saw them I blamed myself for not realising before. The colony showed poor polyp extension and lost some colour and I did not relate it to any pest. D*mn!
I purchased a Macropharyngodon bipartitus, 4 Chrysiptera springeri and started dosing Zeovit Flatworm Stop. I do baste my colonies every second day and dip my frags twice per week. I'll keep with this routine for 8 weeks and see if I can manage the infestation. If I see not positive results, I'll have to chisel encrusted colonies to dip every single acropora in the tank. Now I'm more for the control than for the erradication.
Thanks for visiting Sahin (please update your thread
)
