Up and running for 8 weeks

It's been a while coming this update. So what has happened:

Firstly and most drastically was the rescape that we did on Saturday. The old scape was fundamentally good, but we struggled to see the fish and inverts alot of the time. In addition, we were running out of space to place corals as well as allowing them place to grow. So a major rethink was in order (it is also a dry run for when we move house). We removed two pieces of live rock that formed the base of the structure, and tried to create a few more overhangs. This is to help with swimming space as well as it gives us more coral placing space, surprisingly so. One of the rocks was moved to the first filtration chamber, while the bio balls that were there have been placed between the combs of the 3rd chamber. I did this so as to not change the bio filtration to much. The hope is to replace the large rock with live rock rubble and then replace the bio balls with some form of mechanical filtration. One of the sad events from the rescape seems to be the loss of one of the gobies. We are not sure if he is a fatality of the rescape or a casualty before hand as we had not seen both simultaneously 2 days before hand. The positive though, the surviving goby has housed himself under a rock that is more visible. If he survives the move, we may pair him up with a shrimp. All seems well so far. The leather is sulking big time, but I am hoping its just a prelude to shedding.

A new addition: we have made our first venture into LPS corals. On Saturday, we purchased a hammer coral. It is considered a moderately difficult coral to keep, but it will be manageable in our tank. They have been known to be surrogate anemones for clowns, and we are really hoping that happens.

The phosphate scare: after battling with algae, I finally decided to test the phosphates and see how bad it is (all other parameters were in the norm). What I saw was shocking - the phosphates were off the charts. So in with phosphate remover. I did it in 2 stages as i didn't want to shock the tank. I am happy to report that a week and a bit later, the phosphates are a little more respectable, but still some way off. But it's moving in the right direction at least.

Bye bye Aiptasia: after 3 weeks, the peppermint shrimp didn't even nibble on the Aiptasia. Also, I failed in my attempts to cover the hole with putty. So I resorted to chemical means (Aipex) and blasted them. It seems to have worked, but I will need to wait a while to confirm a good kill.

Mystery Solved

For anyone that has been following my blog, you would have read that we had a scare regarding Herbie (our reg legged hermit crab). I am happy to state that he was indeed moulting. While showing a mate the tank at night, we saw a little red glow on the rocks. I quickly put on the lights and there he was, happily grazing on the rocks. I haven't seen much of him since then, so who knows what will yet happen with the recluse Herbie. I wonder if he and Hitch(the mithrax crab that came with the live rock) have found a cosy spot in the tank and spend their days swapping crab stories where no prying eyes can find them...

Day 5: The Hitchhiker

Hello little fellow, where did you come from?

Welcome to England. I am afraid that it may be drier in the tank than outside!

Apparently this little guy really enjoys the taste of live rock and corals. Not good news if I want to make this a reef coral tank. Also, the aquascaped rocks aren't the most stable around, so he may cause a rockslide. I think we will need to figure out what to do with him very shortly.

Crab for dinner?

Day 4: Sand

Before starting on this new venture, I didn't think this would be the first issue I encountered. I thought water quality would have been the usual chestnut, but all 3 days of testing has resulted in positive results. The questions that have been raised range from live vs inert sand to substrate thickness. Let me explain my issues and what I have tried doing for each of them? Unfortunately most of theses issues came up after the facts and once I'd done the necessary research.

Live vs inert?
For my tank, the manufacturers recommend about a 3 inch covering of substrate. My local shop recommended that I use live sand, but it was ridiculously expensive. I was informed that it has live cultures that will benefit my tank and help with the breaking in of the tank. Having previously kept a tank that used an under gravel filter, I could well believe the benefits. However I couldn't justify the cost. So I ended up buying half and half, hoping to get a good balance between cost vs benefit. This got me thinking and then researching.
This is an interesting one that seems to have many people divided. Some people on the net believe by it while others say that its a money making scam. They state that cultures surely cannot survive if its been bagged for a length of time, which makes sense.
My personal thoughts are now, if you going to use live rock, then I don't think you need the live sand as the rock should have cultures that will benefit your tank. If you not going the live rock route, it may be beneficial to bring in some organisms using the live sand.

When should I put my sand in?
When I left the shop, we left with the water, tank and sand. But no rocks. We were instructed to use this and then get live rock in a couple of days. BIG MISTAKE. If you are going to aqua scape after having your sand in, you are going to need a soft touch and a lot of patience. This is because of the sand being disturbed and turning the water murky to the point of no visual. Having researched on the net, nearly everyone says that you should put the rocks in and then sand. The benefits are:
Better aquascaping as you can do it without muddying the water
Once you are happy with your aquascape, you can suck up any detris to prevent it from decaying off the bottom of the tank.
The sand will help anchor the rocks into place
By having no sand under the rocks, there is less likely hood of any gases building up under the rock that will get trapped and later released causing a severe deteriation of water quality (current concerns for deep substrate beds)

How thick should my substrate/sand be?
This had me and my wife puzzled and going back and forth. Most books, forums and shops recommend between 1.5 - 2 inches whilst my shop and manufacturer recommend 3 inches. Looking at the tank, 3 inches looked very deep. What's the difference. Deep beds substrates are a new thing, apparently and have huge benefits. I.e. organisms that grow in the sand can grow better and thus breakdown tank wastes for you. The bad news is that this gets broken into gases that can get trapped in the sand. When the bubble finally bursts, it can cause a severe deteriation of the tank water quality. What we decided to do, was take out some of the sand and go for a 2 inch thick bed as I am really not wanting to go down that route and rather rely on my filters to do the job. This was a huge operation as we already had rock and water in.

Day 3: aquascaping part 1

This is the plan, but its not going so well in the tank. Once I have figured something out, I will post the pics and tell you about the experience and difficulties encountered.

Work in Progress

The Dream...

It has always been a dream of mine to start up a tropical marine reef tank but there has always been 100 reasons why it wasn't the right time.   so we decide to stop making excuses and just do it.   This past weekend, I finally got my tank... an Aquael Reef Max 105l.

Getting it setup was a touch tricky but it didn't take too long. So far so good.  Learnt a few lesson's already, like how much sand NOT to use! Also placing rock before the sand is in would have be so much easier.  Oh well, guess its all part of learning... and probably the reason one has to wait a week before adding any fish!

I have to wait for the tank to mature before adding any fish.  This at least gives me plenty of time to read up about the kind of tank I want to create.  So much to think about with corals and anemone's.

I'll be updating my blog with the tanks progress and hopefully won't have to blog about too many mistakes!