Maroun 150g Build Thread

[maroun.c]

My latest fish additions 3 days earlier just one day before I travelled to Turkey for 5 days. So far they are doing fine as per the wife's daily input.

The new ones are a bit lighter in colour and smaller than my older 2 in the tank (these are the ones that remained from 5 I initially put in, weirdly each one is alsways at a different end of the tnak for some reason?)

Also got 4 Lyretail anthias hoping these will creat some more activity in the tank.

These two went straight in rockwork and I couldn't take any pics of them in the tank,

I've been looking for shrimps (cleaners and blood shrimps) for some time but couldn't find any. so this time the LFS had only one cleaner in stock that was really tiny so I just picked it up. Did not notice this lump on it's side till I put it in the tank so I'm hopoing its nothing serious.

 

[melev]

That is a weird lump. Let us know if it goes away.

 

[maroun.c]

some cyano is restarting to appear on the sand bed after it was clear white last week. Don't know if that was caused by my hyppo and tigger cowrie shell dying in the tank. I already did a 30 G water change and carbon is running. Guess it's also time to renew the Phosphate remover media.
This alga is a bit more read then the brownish cyano that I used to get on the sand bed.

 

[will16]

Just went through your entire thread! Great read. You are so right about the ups and downs of this hobby. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Love the finish on the stand and canopy.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks will.
I'm just hoping it'll be just ups from now on as I've had enough with downs

 

[maroun.c]

Came back from a 5 days trip to Turkey 1 week ago to find the algae that was showing up covering most of the sand. nothing on the rocks. it was very consistent and thick and it was easy to remove as you would be able to wrap sheets ot if. So basically I took out the upper layer from the sand and took most of the alga out. following day some of the alga appearaed immediately after turning on the lights.


This is how the tank looked

[/QUOTE]

Still don't know if the tank is passing through those cycles or if they were cause by my tigger cowrie shell and Hyppo tang dying in the tank

 

[maroun.c]

Any info on what type of Alga this is. 4 days ago just before I traveled out the alga looke a bit less than in those pictures so it might have started to receede a bit. I already changed my carbon and did a water change to try to keep the parameters stable.
Thanks

 

[lowendmelody]

you should vacuum it out to help keep it under control and to help keep it out of the tank and keep the tank looking much much better than it is now.... just my opinion.... if it's cyano, as far as I know it may just go away on it's own in time... just my opinion... I do like your setup though... good luck

 

[melev]

It is a cyano bacteria bloom. There are chemical treatments, or you can simply shut off the lights for three days instead:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1078532&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Since you have better water now than you did before, this bloom seems unexpected. Any change in feeding habits while you were away?

 

[chrismunn]

do you have any current pictures of your sump we could see?

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for the replies.
Didn't really need to vacuum it up as it peeled just like a thick matt when I manually removed it the whole thing was removed in less than 2 min. Still it very quickly reappeared te second day shortly after lights on. Took it out again and unfortunately traveled on the same day. Should be back to check it again on thursday. No changes on Feeding while I was away as I prepare the feedings in cups labeled with when they should be fed. but I had a huge tiger cowrie shell and my Hyppo tang die in the tank earlier and the tang was not found to be removed. Also when I took the Tiger cowrie out it had already decayed. Hoping to see this resolved when I come back. weirdly there was nothing on the rocks. just on the sand. I also adjusted the skimmer to skim very wet before leaving.
Chrismun will take sump pictures and post when back on Thursday.

 

[maroun.c]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13854913#post13854913 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrismunn
do you have any current pictures of your sump we could see?

Here are some pics of the sump from the earliest tank days... which reminds me that I need to clear up the mess it became.

Full sump shot.

The small tank on the right is supposed to be my frag tank but I still have to work out the ligthing for it so for now it only houses few soft corals and a maroon clown that my female refused to pair up with.


Drain and skimmers partition:

Return and Refugium (skimmer in this partition gets water from the skimmer partition and it's output is there also but it jsut sits in this parition as it did not fit between the sump and frag tank.


Phosphate remover

still have to add one for Carbon as I'm running the carbon in that glass box where I have the Bioballs for the Q tank.


Refugium with Caulerpa:

This caulerpa has been living and growing very slowly for the last 5-6 months never pruned it yet and it does not seem to grow as fast as others describe even before the addition of phosphate remover.

 

[maroun.c]

BAck to the tank. Came back on Thursday to find that the Cyano outbreak has nearly resolved on its own. skimmer has been pulling out a lot of very light colour skimmate so since then I set it a bit mroe dry.
I still had some patches of cyano between my clams and cloe to the clams and the garpet anemone. which I can't see this morning.

Excuse the dirty corners but when I'm on travel my wife does not go with the magnetic cleaner over the silicone as this is what I presume cause my older tank silicon to be damaged. so I just clean it up manually from the inside with a special sponge. she also avoids cleaning near the sand as she might pick up sand and scratch the glass. So yes I have 2 weeks result of alga on the corners to clean.
Now for the worst news I came back to find the most beautifull of my clams decaying. Weirdly i had seen it 4-5 days before and it looked fine however I have seen it turn on its side 3-4 times in the two days I was here between travels. This is really sad for me as it's really hard to find blue maximas here. and I thought this one had already kicked off as it was doing good and even showed some white clcific growth on the edge of hte shell against the mantle which I believe is the way they grow.

I see no clear reason fo r this clam to die and the three other ones just next to it to be alive except that is was very small (less than 2 inches) compared tot he others and I presume it have starved although I frequently added liquid Phytoplancton.
Do you think this indicates that I should move the clams a bit higher?

 

[melev]

I don't know. Sometimes clams die for no reason at all. Smaller ones need lots of light, so perhaps if you find another one, it could be put up higher in the tank in the beginning, and as it grows in size, you could move it lower.

 

[maroun.c]

Merry Christmas everyone
Sorry a bit late due to a heavy case of Flu and a hectic end of year.

 

[melev]

I'm just glad you didn't decorate an aiptasia. :lol:

 

[maroun.c]

Time to catchup on what's happening in the tank.

My latest addition, got him from a trip to Abu Dhabi did fine since introduction despite a very difficult shipping time.
looked really goodin Q tank for 3 weeks so did not wait for 6 weeks before taking him to the DT. Introduction went smoothly just a few tail swings from and to my Kole tang and they disregarded each other after 15 min.

Although he was fine he spent 3 hours the following day at the mini cleaner shrimp that hides near the RBTAs and he was the first fish that ever came close to the BTAs to be cleaned by the shrimp. don't know if the other fish never noticed it or if it was the aroon clown terror. After that the kole tang joined in.
he did have some fuzzy growth on his mouth and tail (a bit visible on the mouth in the pics and the cleaner took care of it.

Notice the lump on the shrimp, it looked like this since I got it few weeks ago and seems to be fine. Don't know if it'll go away when he molts....

Other than that I have had some electrical problems with the backup generator which seems to affect one of my pumps that starts to shatter really hard when electricity goes off and the backup generator kicks in. It also affects all the dimmers which start to fluctuate really hard. and that cost me one Seio the large one and a 80 W T5 ballast and a maxijet. the maxijet ( supplying hte PO4 Remover) broke the propellor which I glued and it worked. I also glued the Propellor of the Seio and it did not work.
the big problem is the ballast of my T5 as the 80 W ballast replacement is not available. And it seems I'll have to buy a complete one (cover and Ballast) and as arcadia are not available locally having them ship me one will be very expensive so it looks like I will be shelling out 175 usd for a new one.

 

[will16]

Great shot!

Question... how do you transport the fish on your trips? Do you carry with you or ship? Customs? Just curious.

Hope you get your electrical problems sorted out soon.

- Will

 

[maroun.c]

Other than that I escaped a disaster in the tank, I have this drian line in the bottom of the tank meant to be the input of a mechanical filter or a chiller... which I use for draining the tank while doing water changes. So last week I noticed it was dripping a bit because of sand particles stuck in maybe. so I just opened it to the max to flush it and reclose it and to my surprise a big blob fell down from it directly to the skimmers partition in the sump. By the time I turned the light of the frag tank (next to the sump) on part of the blub was being sucked by the pump supplying the frag tank which was getting really cloudy really fast. so I shut down all circulation immediately to avoid having any of that go up the the tank and I could see that the blob was something nasty so I got my clamp to take this one out. this is one of three that were cluttered against each other and the two others were half mashed by the powerhead.

Any idea what this worm is?
So to give you and idea of how bad it was. this is how the frag tank looked.
my skimmers were overflowing in a matter of minutes. this sequence of shots was taken in less than 2 min.

to make it worse I had no water mixed for a water change and had to wait till the skimmers did their job and not to much overflow to eb able to turn water circulation to the display on, Luckily none of the tank inhabitants was affected.

 

[maroun.c]

Great shot!
Question... how do you transport the fish on your trips? Do you carry with you or ship? Customs? Just curious

thanks.
Well in some countries I wouldn't even try to take fish not to mention corals out. In others like UAE (Dubai Abu Dhabi) it's very easy as they have an office clsoe tot he airport and I have to take the livestock with me to that office to get a halth certificate which serves as a clearance in case any questions are asked on cheking my baggage. I also attach that permit on the container in case my bag is checked after I check it and I'm not there to explain things. I also write down my name and "Light and Temperature sensitive Please close back if opened on the container... " Works well so far. I took corals back from Holland Germany... Even hard corals which are usually not avaialble here and never had any problems.. Make sure to have a copy of the bill and a copy of CITES from the LFS in case your taking corals especially hard corals with you. Over all it is a mess and if you have what you need around you then I wouldn't suggest doing it but in my case it's the only way to stock my tank with decent stuff. The down part is I had my clothes soaked in stinking saltwater on a couple of occasions. but after that I learned how to pack stuff in a really good way and have a dedicated bag and cooler for fish and corals so now it works.