Ordered some more Livestock

I just placed a new order for some new livestock yesterday at LiveAquaria. I have saved the pictures from the WYSIWYG coral I bought so I could have a compare photo of what I actually get since a previous coral I purchased from LiveAquaria doesn't look anything like the one in their picture. 

The WYSIWYG coral is from the Diver's Den section in LiveAquaria though so it should match.

Here's the livestock I ordered:

• Pom Pom Crab
• Super Tongan Nassarius Snail
• Peppermint Shrimp
• Aussie Short Tentacle Plate Coral (Diver's Den) (WYSIWYG photo)
• Sarlace Lepastrea Coral (Diver's Den) (WYSIWYG Photo)
• Combo Colony Zoanthus (Diver's Den) (WYSIWYG Photo) - This guy has 3 different colonies of Zoas:
• Radioactive Dragon Eye
• Wham'n Watermelon
• Green Bay Packer

I hope to have the critters by Tuesday. It's being shipped directly to my office.

Video of Spiny Star Astraea Snail having a snack!

Check out the little guy having a bite to eat and be sure to watch it in HD!

Water parameters stabilized and Duncan head splitting

I checked my water parameters yesterday and they all are back to normal except the Nitrates; they are still a little high but the tank seems to be thriving. Still have good copepod activity and the snails are quite active. They hang out on the glass a bunch though and I wish they'd clean up some of the algae on the rocks. I think I'll grab a Nassarius snail here soon so I get get some aeration and movement within the sand bed.

As I was looking into my tank today I noticed that my Duncan coral has a splitting head! Neat! Soon that head should be 2 heads. I'm taking this as a good sign that the tank is at least somewhat healthy to cause growth.

Coral head splitting.

I am currently looking into getting some more coral for the tank but there are so many choices and decisions to be made when doing so! Hopefully I can get some more stock in soon...

Updated Aquascape!

Got some decent images of my updated aquascape layout. I'm pretty happy with is so far. The bacteria bloom has definitely begun to subside and you can see the algae bloom that has come as a result. It has a little bit more to go to fully settle down but at least the tank has cleared up significantly. Oh well, the snails will have plenty of morsels to munch on...

Aquascape update

"Floating" rock is hosting a snail party. Can you find the 4 snails?

Floating rock (side view)

I plan on feeding the corals today as they've been getting repeatedly disturbed the last week or so. I'll see if I can take a video of the feeding.

Aquascaping and Live Streaming!

I put some more rock into the tank to help with natural filtration and moved the hammer coral a little and placed him on his own rock. The coral are not happy at the moment but should open up again in a couple hours (I hope!). We'll see if the hammer likes his new placement.

I built the bring using multiple rock fragments and it turned out pretty well. I'm pretty sure there won't be any coral that would like to be on top of the bridge due to the intense light but that's ok as it'll give fish area to swim.

The rock in the far back left is attached to a suction cap and stuck to the glass. It is definitely my favorite addition so I hope I can find a coral that would work well there!

I'll take some pictures and upload them later; the sand got kicked up a bit when adding the new rock so the tank is kind of dusty. Also the algae bloom is still in place but seems to be subsiding.

I was able to get LiveStreaming working from my webcam so I can view my tank when I am away. It's pretty neat! The quality is only 720p and 30fps but it's good enough for now. I'll have to come up with a way of notification so people can know when a Stream is Live.

Check out the Live Stream!

Caused a mini cycle - whoops.

Couple flub-ups: 

1. While replacing the sponge filter and adding the Matric stones, one of the stones got into the impeller of the filter. In order to remove the stone, I had to remove the impeller assembly which required me to get the water out of the filter. In the process, I accidentally got a bunch of the gunk from the filter into the tank. Yuck.
2. I may have replaced the media too quickly after each item: my water is a bit cloudy but the livestock seem to be fine. Looks like I may have caused a bacteria bloom which, hopefully, will subside quickly and with no ill affects.
3. I believe I did not do a great job with my last water change. I was unaware that you needed to have the salt mixed and aerated well before changing the water in your tank. I thought you could just mix up some salt, test the salinity and add it to the tank once it was good. Upon adding the new water to the tank, the corals got pretty unhappy and closed up. The snails got super active after about 15 minutes though. Maybe they were happy to have fewer nitrates in their water...
4. I hadn't done a test of my water parameters in awhile; just salinity tests with the refractometer. My filter media has been in place for a few days now so I figured the tank may have stablilzed a bit to have an accurate reading of the water parameters. What I found was not good...
1. pH: 7.2
2. Ammonia: .5
3. Nitrite: 1ppm
4. Nitrate 160ppm

Fortunately, I had some saltwater mixed up so I could perform a water change.

On a happy note, I have a ton of Copepods swimming around in my tank! I was worried that the Hammer Coral I had gotten brought in a parasite or something but apparently they are super beneficial and a good sign of a healthy tank!

I would also like to come up with a way to take interval photos of the tank for when I get more coral to see if they attack each other at night so I know if I need to move them. It'd also be neat to be able to have a live stream of the tank so I can check on it at home during the weekend.

Beginning Nano Reef

10/17/2015

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My Nirates have been testing a little high lately so I've been doing small water changes here and there to help reduce them. The tank seems to be doing ok and the Coral are opening up well but I want to bring those Nitrates down. I did a bunch of research as to what could be causing the Nitrates as I only have the snails and the coral so I shouldn't be having much of a bioload that my filter can't handle. I've only been feeding the coral twice a week.

The recommendations were to cut back on the coral feedings for now. I also decided to remove the sponge filter and the ceramic filter stones from the filter itself and get better media. Apparently, Sponge Filters are Nitrate factories in marine aquariums and the ceramic stones aren't the best. I'm going to be replacing the sponge with some Seachem Matrix and the ceramic stones with some Seachem Purigen filter media. I also picked up some Algone Water Clarifier & Nitrate Remover to help drive the Nitrate levels down. I've also ordered some more Pukami Live rock as the Lvie rock aids in natural filtration. 

I'll be replacing the media over the course of a week to reduce the impact on the systems.

10/15/2015

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Picked up a nice lil Hammer Coral from my LFS today. It was the best looking one they had and am looking forward to seeing him in the tank. I'll have to keep him away from any other coral I'll be placing in the tank because his tentacles produce a powerful sting that can hurt anything nearby!

Hammer Coral

10/07/2015

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My tank is continually testing with 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrates and 0 Nitrates. I believe the Aquarium Additive, Nano Reef Buffer and Purple Tech really stepped up the cycle time.

I ordered some Coral Food (Reef Roids and Reef Chili) as well as a tool to help target feed the coral and man does the Duncan love it; it has already shown significant growth! I also picked up a Reef Master Test Kit so I can test for Phosphates, Calcium and Carbonate Hardness to make sure the coral stays happy.

I also ordered some live stock from LiveAquaria.

Live Stock:

1. Ducanopsammia Coral
2. Nerite Snail
3. Banded Trochus Snail
4. Spiny Star Astraea
5. Astraea Turbo Snail

Livestock added.

10/02/2015

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I decided to get some Instant Ocean Bio-Spira Start Up Nitrifying Bacteria Aquarium Additive to give my tank cycle a little jump start. I'm not quite sure how beneficial it will be but we'll see. I've also picked up some Kent Marine Nano Reef Buffer and Kent Marine Purple Tech to begin dousing my tank with. I've also grabbed the Saltwater Master Test kit to begin testing my water parameters so I can monitor my tanks cycle stage. I've developed a Google Spreadsheet with an attached form so I can easily input my readings and track them over time. Complete with nerd graphs XD.

I've also received the custom lighting unit in the mail and I'm quite happy. This is with the default setting the controller provides. It's really cool that it can emulate a day and night cycle by fading the lights in an out.

New Marine LEDs installed.

9/26/2015

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One can spend days researching the pros and cons of every little detail about building a saltwater tank and it can get overwhelming very quick. I've decided to cycle my tank with the live rock in the aquarium at the beginning of the process. Here is my tank at it's initial setup:

Starting up a cycle!

9/25/2015

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I've always had a desire to do a saltwater tank but have always talked myself out of it due to it being an intimidating endeavor. I've decided to take a plunge (and hope for the best!) in creating a nano reef in my office at work.

Materials

• Tank: Fluval Edge 6g.
• Filter: Stock Filter.
• Lights: Custom Marine Light for Fluval Edge. These guys were great and built me a custom lighting unit that replaces the stock hood of the Fluval edge. It is seamless and keeps to the clean, sleek look of the tank. They would be happy to assit you with any further questions or custom setups. Contact Info.
• 36W CREE LED system
• System automation with Dimmer
• Water Circulation: Hydor Koralia Nano Circulation Pump - 240gph
• Heater: Aqueon Submersible Heater - 50W
• Mini Algae Cleaning Aquarium Magnet
• Aquarium Thermometer
• Refractometer

Stock

• 10lbs of Live Sand
• ~3lbs of Pukami Live Rock from BulkReefSupply
• 50g of InstantOcean ocean salt
• 6g of RO/DI water