Reef Tank DIY - For Dummies

[Skimmer Juice]

very cool starfish you got , cant enjoy those as I have a harlequin shrimp . Scape looks good and congrats on a successful tank swap

[DKoKoMan]

Your AquaScape is very nice! Reminds me of a diving trip in St. Lucia at the Pytons. Large mountains in the ocean

Looking forward to more photos.

[Dash]

Thanks Skimmer Juice,
And I can’t have harlequins cuz I have two puffers who love the shrimp cocktail

DKoKoMan,
Thanks -that is a great compliment. Mountains were my inspiration - the classic Chinese landscape. My dream is to go diving but as I am a poor swimmer I have to live vicariously through my little box of water. I did once snorkel off a very remote island near Bali. Amazing!

[Dash]

So I haven't put in an ATO yet. A bit more evaporation than my other tank but so far I don't find it a huge chore. I would need a fair size container to make it worthwhile but then that would mean the risk of water on the floor. Any thoughts on this?

I thought I'd show the guys that my tanks have been set up for: my green spotted puffers. They are way cool. Smart as anything.
(You can see my modest start at a zoa rock)

[Dash]

Two weeks since tank transfer & everything is going swimmingly

There were a few patches of cyano on rocks in the old tank which I scrubbed off before transferring, and so far nothing has showed up in the new tank. My sand hasn't looked this good in ages. It seems fish are still "stretching their legs" as it were in all the new space but they look happy enough.

I emptied out my skimmer cup for the first time. Couldn't have been easier. No drips, no mess. I wiped off the neck section - it was a thick gelatinous paste. Did I mention I like my skimmer

[Dash]

I ordered some copepods from AlgaeBarn & added them to the tank, along with their “Ocean Magik” phytoplankton. Yes, magik in my tank - gotta be good! It’s the 5280 mix of tigriopus, tisbe & apocyclops. Lots of tiny things swimming in the bag, so hope they result in a booming population as I hope to buy a girlfriend for my mandarin one day.

The glass on sump has always been crawling with tiny copepods but I don’t see too many on the DT glass. I tried shaking my chaeto ball in the DT. Any other things I can try? Or assume they’re just all hiding in rocks? My mandarin has been getting thinner though - that’s why I decided to boost the population.

[Frogger]

Did you have them shipped direct or did you have them shipped to Blaine?

If you had them shipped direct how much was shipping?

I want to get some stuff from them as they have a good clean product.

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by Dash

I ordered some copepods from AlgaeBarn & added them to the tank, along with their “Ocean Magik” phytoplankton. Yes, magik in my tank - gotta be good!

Let us know how adding phytoplankton directly to your tank affects your phosphate levels.

They say it will use nitrates and phosphates but my concern is the phytoplankton is packaged in a high nitrate/phosphate solution.

Years ago a was growing phytoplankton but found when I added it to my tank I had uncontrolled hair algae growth afterwards. So I stopped adding it to the tank and filtered the rotifers before adding them to the tank.

[Dash]

I thought I'd try out my husband's work camera (Canon EOS M3) so I put it on all auto settings & tried it out. Big improvement but of course I have to now read the manual so I can use it semi-correctly. Still looks very purple I think but at least it's not all a blur





And of course it helps that my dog is very photogenic. Meet Dash!

[DKoKoMan]

These pictures are stunning! Also who doesn’t like a puppy dog eyes photo.