No Going Back Now.

[Jayarie]

Nice pics like the hermit lol. Im so jealous wish i was you

Jay

 

[ben1987]

fish is stunning! bet you could watch him for ages

 

[jennybugs]

Great pics! Your coral looks like I do on a Monday morning back at work

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Great comments guys, thanks alot. I will be updating tomorrow and showing some pic's of my new addition to the tank, some Evergreen starburst polyp's

Thanks
VM

 

[kj23502]

ummm tomorrow's come and gone We're watching

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Hi all

Here is the update at last, I have had to move the finger coral as it hadn’t shown any polyps for ages and was really starting to look unhappy, it had gone a dark blue and green and in some patches it even seem to be getting covered in brown algee, I have moved it higher on the rock and have given it a bit more water flow, it has now gone a pinky purple colour and is showing loads of polyps on every finger, it looks great which is a big relief as I was beginning to think it was just going to die slowly on me.

I have invested in a bigger powerhead, a SEIO M1500, which is 6000lph, it seems to be working very well but the actual unit is bigger than I would have liked but if its going to make everything more healthy I can live with it, I might even get another for the other side.

As I mentioned before i have also got my second coral, I got some evergreen starburst polyp’s which seems to be very easy to keep, the polyp’s opened up very shortly after having been placed in the tank and only go back in when the lights are out, with just the blue light on they show a really nice green colour. As I was placing it a small piece of the rock it was attached to fell off, it has about eight polyps on it so I have placed this in another part of the tank, hopefully it will grow there as well.

Here it is, allthough the picture quality does not really do it justice.



I will post again later and will tell you about the fish that nearly had me pulling the reef apart and some seriously annoying horrible looking brown algee.

Thanks
VictorMeldrew

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Cool! I love GSP but one thing to note is once it gets going it grows very quickly and will overgrow anything that is close to it so be prepared to have to keep it trimmed back.

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Hi Barney
How would i trim it back? Do you think my little accidental frag will make it, it has about eight polyps on it at the moment.

 

[BigC]

Comming along nicely Vic.
Although I see you have still got some algal issues going on, I'd concentrate on this somewhat before buying any more corals because the bloomin stuff will over-run the corals. Please dont take my input the wrong way, its just a word to the wise before you go laying out massively on corals. I'm speaking from experience here and Ski will back me up, no one had more LR die-off and algal issues on startup than me. I'd maybe up the CUC or employ some kind of sump system. I'm sure it will all come right in the end, but its just a couple of pointers to think about.
I like this tank a lot and I want to see the eventual splendour of the whole thing. It has bags of potential.
Keep up the good work
Regards
BigC

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah would agree with BigC on the algae. Probably just more CuC will make a pretty big difference (its a big tank afterall so you need enough critters to cover it all).

With regards to the GSP its really easy to frag (and the bit you accidentally fragged will most likely do fine). Basically it encrusts over rockwork so you can normally just get a razor blade to work the edge of it up and then gently pull it off. Its pretty hardy so dont worry to much about damaging it.

Once you have pulled a mat of it off use some superglue gel to stick it down to a frag plug or rock rubble. After a couple of weeks it will have attached itself to it. You will normally find bits round the edges where you can just pull it off the rock, then once it is pulled back to where you want the edge to be cut through it with a sharp knife.

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Hi all

Yeah you are right BigC and your input is always gladly recieved , i do have algea issue's in fact its probably worse then it has been so far Its not green hair algea now, that seems to have gone, its brown now, some of my LR now has a real rusty appearance, its not nice at all, from what i have seen on other posts it looks very much like diatom's but i can not be sure. It is starting to be a real pain and is looking horrible, it grows back on the glass just hours after cleaning it off and would need to be cleaned away every day at this rate, I have done a RO water change this week and have put many hours in maintaining the tank, loads of hours in fact, its really disheartening at the moment.

One good thing is despite the algea my fish and coral’s are still looking ok, although I do not intend adding any more coral at this stage. I am now looking into jacking magnesium levels like Ski suggested earlier but am not sure if I should try something else first. More CUC will be easy enough to solve, I can get more of them, no problem.

Thanks for the fragging info Barney that’s a real help

Thanks
VM

 

[garybuk]

I have invested in a bigger powerhead, a SEIO M1500, which is 6000lph, it seems to be working very well but the actual unit is bigger than I would have liked but if its going to make everything more healthy I can live with it, I might even get another for the other side.
View attachment 54189

I will post again later and will tell you about the fish that nearly had me pulling the reef apart and some seriously annoying horrible looking brown algee.

Thanks
VictorMeldrew

Have you taken the big nasty outa box off? looks way better with out it? ware you buy it from? mine are perfect even better in my new smaller tank

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Hi Gary, yeah mate that was the first thing i done, with the box attached it's about the size of a wavebox, way to big, i picked it up from my lfs, they work well don't they, mine is pretty much silent.

 

[garybuk]

Hi Gary, yeah mate that was the first thing i done, with the box attached it's about the size of a wavebox, way to big, i picked it up from my lfs, they work well don't they, mine is pretty much silent.

Yup ebay sell them for about £20 ish hope u didnt pay much more ! tho from your lfs you got garentee !!! im going try my on timers (slight wave machine) see how they handle turning off and on every few mins

 

[Benson112]

Ive spent the whole afternoon going through this thread as i am considering starting a marine tank.

Your tank, stand, basically everything looks awesome, great work. And this thread has helped me understand quite alot about this hobby.

One thing that would be interesting to know for myself and i presume other newbies too is....how much have you spent so far? Not on the tank and stand but everything else that you have had to fork out for?

Cheers mate, and keep up the good work. Ill be keeping an eye on this thread up until (and after) i have started my own journal! lol