copepods

I think you can see the little white copepods on the tank glass

something new every day (copepods)

Taking some up to date photos of the tank and down amongst the substrate and along the bottom of the tank - hundreds of copepods and other inverts

photos to follow soon

The RSM system 5

The outlets which provide a really good flow around the tank

The RSM System 4

The heater compartment where the water comes after moving through the protein skimmer (you can see the bubbles to the right)

The RSM system 3

The top of the protein skimmer (you can see it is working really well)

A clean is needed

The RSM system 2

The fine filter (you can see it needs replacing)

The Red Sea Max System

I thought I should show how the system is faring with the set up and actually how the treatment centre actually works

Photo 1 the inlet

The tank is getting alot cleaner

The clean up crew have done a fantastic job clearing away the algae blooms which have taken over the whole tank.....

My clean up crew currently

Bought from lFS

5 blue legged hermits

5 red legged hermits

12 turbo snails

20 nassarius snails

Freebies (from the live rock)

1 lettuce sea slug

3 crab (unknown species)

1 snail (unknown species)

The parameters of the tank are relatively stable after my break away over the weekend

RSM is fine....

According to Louise, tonight I have to stay over in Essex at my Parents after traveling from Coventry. The RSM is fine with real problems to report - last I saw the tank on Friday (photo posted soon) which was becoming cleaner thanks to the clean up crew and possible die off of the diatom bloom, I thnk that over algae are taking hold - bubble algae etc which is green on the glass etc

Noticed a small crab during the day - a shed exoskeleton was found on the rock (again photo to be posted soon) so this indicates that this crab is growing in the tank

When i get back I will be testing the phosphate levels, other parameters and topping up the evaporation which may have occurred over the three days I was gone

I plan to pop into the LFS in Rayleigh, Essex where I may pick up a mushroom anemone - depends on whether the manager feels I could put these in my tank.....

I know that I am around 1 to 2 weeks away from housing my first few fish (clowns)

more to come soon

Its a wee bit late

Finally I have managed to get hall free of the clutter - RO, salt water containers, buckets, etc

It was all needed for setting up the tank -

I will be away for the weekend and I wonder how Louise will fair looking after the RSM?

Links

One of the many websites I have found really useful
www.reefsuk.org

My thread
http://www.reefsuk.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11282

Other websites will be listed here soon

recording the growth of these polyps in my tank

I was luckily enough to have some stowaways on the last addition of live rock a nice mature piece which was just under 1kg in weight





I plan to record the growth and numbers of these corals



There are 20 polyps on the live rock and the larger discs are growing nicely - I just have to figure out how to show this on camera

This photo was taken by my Olympus SP-500uz which is a great camera - 5 times the megapixels of my camera phone

Readings (25th Jan 2007)

Readings

pH 8.4
Salinity 1.023
Ammonia - 0.25 ppm
Nitrite - 0 - 0.05 ppm
Nitrate - 5 ppm
Calcium - 400 - 450 ppm

D'oh forgot the temperature readings - which would be around 24.9 (digital) to 25C-26C (red sea digital)

Finally managed to get back into my blog

Something must be wrong with my computer settings - still I am here now

I have some welcome news, my blog is being watched by none other than the deputy director of marketing at Red Sea!!!

It makes you feel a little worried that you may be doing the wrong things with regards to setting up the red sea max or something but I am glad that my experiences may help you guys to come up with further ideas to combat some of the 'problems' that Red Sea Max owners (myself included) are finding out setting up this tank.

The one thing I have to say is that Louise is more comfortable with the apparent neatness of the Red Sea Max - Louise saw the alternatives in the LFS the last time we visited together....it is often just me annoying the fish shops sales people..... but some of the other tanks with their externally mounted skimmers etc were not for her

Though she did reacte quite severely when she first came home to the red sea max

I am sure that when my first fish go into the tank things will be much more different

I think that a couple of percula clowns would do the trick - (captive bred of course)

the use of super glue!

The polyps were not stable enough on the live rock so I have managed to get some super glue and I have stuck the polyp rocks to a larger rock - Hopefully they will pull through.....

New polyp added today

Just couldnt resist a few polyps for my tank and at only 50p what a bargain!

10 p each - I have three in this photo and another two elsewhere in the tank

Daytime sighting of sea slug

Amazing what you get from your live rock -

this is a beauty of a sea slug

New crab species

Seen last night - nice looking crab

readings

24.7 to 26.3C

Salinity - 1.022 - 1.023 (1.025)

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrite - 0.1 ppm

Nitrate - 5 ppm

pH - 8.2 to 8.4

5% water change

5 ml of phyto added

photos show the difference in temperature according to thermometer!

new nudibranch

Have no idea what species this is

though you have to be careful

you end up with super charged bubbles!

Surface skimming

The RSM has a neat little trick to collect up surface scum

Argh Its me!

Sorry for the horrid photo

Moi and RSM!

Soft coral @ LFS

(LFS = Local Fish Shop)

Leather coral - Mushroom/toadstool

Corals at the LFS

Mushroom anemone frag (bottom)

Polyp - Zoanthids (? top)

Test results (09.40am)

Here are the parameters for this morning

pH - 8.4
Salinity 1.024 to 1.025 - other reading 1.023
Ammonia - 0.25 ppm
Nitrite - 0 to 0.05 ppm
Nitrate - 5 to 10 ppm

I have noticed that the new thermometer may be a little inaccurate - according to another digital thermometer it is around 2 degrees out - so when it reads 25C it may actually be more like 26.5 to 27C

These readings were taken the morning after the clean up crew went in (initial introduction)

Next tank shot

The tank is looking a little better

A few extras

I also fancied some blue legged hermits and so 5 of these little guys went in with the replacement red legged and turbo snail

This is one of the blue legged hermits -

d'oh empty shells

I found that not all the hermits were in the bag, and one of the mud snails was also an empty shell - so back to the shop to get my red legged hermit -

and I traded the mud snail for a turbo

Clean up crew arrive (20th January)

The parameters of the tank were reading zero ammonia & nitrite and around 5 ppm for nitrate so it was about time for some 'clean up crew' - herbivores which will take up some of the diatom blooms in the tank

So yesterday I got hold of 4 red legged hermit crabs, 20 mud snails (cant remember the name) and 10 turbo snails....

Here is one of the red legged hermits during the night

night shot 2

sorry about the quality - but the tank is looking good honest

Night shots

It is amzing what creeps out of the live rock at night -

here is a small crab feeding on the diatom bloom (bottom)

and a few soft corals (top)

Parameters - 19th Jan 11.50am

pH 8.2 to 8.4
Temp 27C
Salinity - 1.023 to 1.024
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 - 0.5 ppm
Nitrate - 10 ppm (5 - 10 ppm)

Added a few more bits of live rock - which included rock with algae, snail spp, macro algae (brown), fan worms, oyster, and nudibranch (sea slug). Plus I have a few polyp corals hurray!

the little uns!

Babies - one is still surviving within the sump at my LFS in Essex (8 days old)

Future livestock

The proud parents (Bangii Cardinals).......

animals within the tank

So far I have seen the following

copepods
gammarus shrimps
bristle stars (white)
barnacle
tube worms
fan worms
sponges/sea squirts

All found by looking at the live rock - coraline algae are also growing on the live rock and filamentous algae is starting to grow around the live rock

further live rock

Prior to the tests more rock has been added, around 1.3kg total around 12kg of live rock. Plus the rocks were rearranged again to stabilise the stucture

Diatom blooms

Through the cycling the first algae bloom has arisen on the live rock which is the brown colour on the otherwise blue coloured rock

Further readings - 10.22pm

Temp 25 to 26C
Salinity 1.023/confirmed with second hydrometer - 1.023
pH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0 to 0.25 ppm
Nitrite - 0.1 ppm
Nitrate - 5 ppm
Alkalinity - High - 2.9 to 3.6
Calcium - 400 ppm

more photos

Had a slight problem with the filter - clogging produced lots of air through the water column - I have cleared the blockage within the fine filter and you can see that the water is now clear with much less air....

Readings

Today

Temperature 25 to 26C
pH 8.2 to 8.4

Ammonia 0 - 0.25 ppm
Nitrite 0.1 ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm

Further animals

Some pesky anemones and other fan worms

Further live rock and re arrangements

I have got some nice colourful live rock which needed rearranging but I am now happier with the aquascape

An hour later

The water is clearer......

first signs of life on the live rock

I have noticed pretty quickly some 'stow aways' on the new live rock

I like this small tube worm

More live rock added today

Just over 4kg of live rock was added today to help start off the tank's cycle. I have more live rock to collect tomorrow.

The total at the moment is 9kg of live rock tomorrow's total will be around 11kg

The water is nice and cloudy at the moment.......

Photos by camera phone

Sony Ericsson W810i - not bad photos

here is one of a clarkii clown tending her eggs in my LFS display aquarium.....

What I intend to keep

I was inspired by the Marine Aquarium in Plymouth last year - and so due to space constraints I have what is considered a 'non nano tank' - more of a micro tank - around 130litres in total which is larger than what is considered to be a nano tank.

I would like to keep the following livestock

Fish
A pair of percula clowns (captive tank reared)
Neon or Yellow goby (captive tank reared) x 2

Total of 4 very small fish

Clean up crew - turbo snails, hermit crabs (not captive reared), plus maybe a shrimp or two (captive tank reared)

Corals - soft
Pulsing Xenia - frags from captive stock
Mushroom Anemones
Button Polyps
Leather corals
and eventually maybe some hardy stony corals like torch corals

First readings

7.10pm

Water temp 27C
Salinity 1.020 - 1.021
pH 8.2
NH3/NH4 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
NO3 5 ppm
Calcium not tested
Alkalinity normal 1.7 - 2.8

Adding live rock

Selected 5 pieces of Indonesian cured live rock - just over 4kg.

It's looking a little sparse but will be purchasing the same amount again over the next week.

First casualty - I thought that I may had a stow away with the live rock - an unidentified crab species - unfortunately he copped it on the way home....crushed carapace d'oh!

First glitches

Water is super saturated with oxygen bubbles - seems to be some problem with either clogging in the filter or powerheads. The salinity is ok. Went into LFS (well, in Essex) for advice. Suggestion was to seed the tank with live rock.

Day 2 (12 January 2007)

Drained tank of freshwater and refilled with RO water. Then added substrate (Red Sea reef base) and just over 4kg of Red Sea Coral Pro salt.

In the afternoon added Nitro Bac bio-starter, Calcium +3 and Buff.

The Tardis! (12 January 2007)

Realise that the blue light makes the porch looks like the tardis!!

Choosing a location Part II (11 January 2007)

After much discussion including wife storming out of the house (which she'd rather I didn't mention) we've settled on a new location in the hall. Much better.

Choosing a location! (11 January 2007)

Thought it would be fine in the corner of the dining room, so set up tank after much fun with flat pack cabinet. Started to fill tank with fresh water for wet run (like a dry run only wetter). Sneaking suspicion that the other half wouldn't like where it was. I admit it dwarfs the dining room furniture a bit!

Day 1 (11 January 2007)

The Red Sea Max finally arrives!