Highland reef

So i have bought Rowaphos as i was suffering from green hair algae , but by the time the rowa arrived, the algae had stopped growing and was turning brown.

I was told the GHA has died and it is brown due to Diatoma growing on it. , there has been no more growth of algae . so what algae is in the tank i will be scrubbing it off while in the tank , chucking filter floss in the HOB fuge to collect any trash i failed to get by removing with tube and sucking it out. i will then do a 10 L water change or maybe a bit more , i have to be careful because of where my RBTA is . i dont want that coming out of the water.

I took delivery today of 2 Mini Maxi nems , no fancy highly colourful ones . ones purple and green and the other is more or less the same but supposedly has blue in it , or it did in the pictures the seller had of them lol. but i know my lighting will be making it look diff. and tomorrow ( Thursday ) i will be getting a delivery of an Orange Fungia and Rainbow Acan.
then that will be all the corals i get for now , as i want to pay off a bill early lol.
then it will be on the hunt for 3 or 4 more mini maxi nems but going after the more highly colourful ones.
i lost my frogspawn but i believe this was down to my fault for not acclimating it properly , i just attached it straight to the rock work fairly close to the surface so it looks like it was down to light , and not good enough flow where it was.

so i will get an other frogspawn and acclimate it more slowly but starting it off on the sand bed for a few days then moving it.

i have a tall area of rock work i am considering putting Branching and plating Montiporia corals on , it has a good flow and is fairly close to the light ( the highest point of the tank )
 
new update , FTS and pics of the new additions ive added over the past 2 days. and by tank cloned RBTA , not her best side as she was having a poo lol.

i was getting worried about my new Acan frag , as ever since i added it to my tank it has had its polyps out all the time. so a quick google and it seems a lot of peoples Acans do this as well .

so firstly my RBTA... sorry she was having a dump lol. ( these are quick snaps so lighting is not spot on )


My new Fungia


my new Mini Maxi nems


Acan frag , but because it is open you cant see the colours to well.
it has some green , red . with white stripes.



and finally a FTS , winning the fight against GHA...
 
my new bright orange Fungia was exactly the same price as my Pinwheel Fungia lol.
just the guy i buy corals from does not really give sizes . and all his pics tend to be under blue lighting and close up . so your not always able to get a sense of size against the egg crate shelves.
i can see me getting 1 more Fungia though lol. i have a soft spot for Fungias . but i will wait as i want a pink or purple .
and i will be adding one or two more Acans next to the Acan frag so i might move my Lobo out the way lol.
 
no real updates as such , the nem went walk about for a few days . refused to eat a bit of squid ring i offered it . so i was starting to get a bit worried lol.

the lance fish finally arrived , chopped it up into 2 bits and offered her the biggest bit . she took it and ate it , i was so happy ( stupid i know lol ) , but then noticed 8 hours later she had regurgitated , so i done a quick google and sounds like i offered her a bit of fish to big but she had eaten what she wanted . she had eaten the eyes , bit of the body and all the insides .
and when i picked up the remains my tank filled with scales lol.

i started to use the Rowaphos as that arrived as well and my PO 4 were at 0.08 and 24 hours later they dropped to 0.02.

there will be a delay in more additions , as i have a bill i want paid off :(. but as soon as thats paid off i will be saving up and getting in a nice coral order.

thinking about trying Plating and branching Montiporia as i have a fairly high flow area that is right under one of the bulbs and is ontop of a high point in the tank .

My cat coral frag is looking great , amazed at how much growth it has put on.
 
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pictures are above . not taken any more pics since as nothing really changed.

apart from more algae problems , this time brown stuff and GHA on the sand after i removed it from rock lol.
so i will be buying a gravel / sand cleaner and cleaning the sand with it . and sucking it out as i scrape it off from rock , as most of the rock is nice and clean algae free , its only the rock in the really strong flow that has the algae on it.
so no pics until its looking all nice and clean again , will also be buying an other media stuff thats proving popular here in the UK chemi pure as it states it helps clear un wanted algae.
 
no pics , just a bit of an update .

Over on the UK forum ( joined an other one ) as i was banned from the one i was a member off * long long story * .

anyways i was in the chat room ( on the UK forum ) . and i got talking to the guy about my current problems and tank set up.
and i get a very generous offer of his old Refugium for free ... when he showed me which one it was and the link to the site it was over $200 worth.
he admitted to changing it slightly and i would need to get a pump.

but its big enough to put a 5" deep sand bed in , add cheato and enough room to fit a light in .

its 500 MM long ( 19 " ) , 80mm wide ( 3" ) and 250 mm tall ( 9 " ) .
so i am thinking in running 5" DSB , cheato and a small LED light and reverse light it
 
little update for my self really i guess.

Fuge i was promised by a member on a UK forum , has still not sent it.
he tells me hes away from home at work at the moment and if he was home early enough the other week he would send it , failing that would send it Saturday .
Well this is now Tuesday and still nothing so i guess he has not sent it , or i am not getting it.

i tried Blue Life to remove phosphate and other possible problems i had . but i can say Blue Life is nothing more than a waste of money it has done nothing.

it has not reduced the film algae on the glass , i still have to clean the glass 2 - 3 days same as before. nor had it really done anything else . so that was a waste.

My lobo has been removed from the tank as its skeleton was starting to show , this was a mistake i caused . as algae had started to grow on it so i removed it done a fresh water drip and tried cleaning the algae off with a stiff tooth brush . and i have obviously damaged the brain :(.

so i am now back to using Rowaphos to reduce PO4. it was up to 0.08 the other night but i stuck in 6 table spoons of rowa and the next day it was down to 0.02. and the algae seems to be less keen to grow.
will give it an other day or so to see if it reduces any further , and if not i will add an other 2 or 3 of spoons of rowa.

flatworm population is finally going , well they have eaten all pod life so i should of course they will be dying now lol. but during water change i just suck em out .
i have to be careful though as i have noticed a nice healthy population of Stomentella snails appearing of all sizes on the glass.

I will have to look else where for stores to get what fish i want , as my local store is being extremely difficult and almost like they are refusing to keep a customer by ordering in fish . they give me the exscuse of "" never heard of that fish , your making it up "" . oh i am sorry never heard of that fish you sure our supplier can get it , i dont think so .
oh thats a fish we have never sold before so not sure what kind of price it would be , do you know how much it costs a store to order in a fish for a customer that we dont normally stock , we dont want stuck with a fish we cant sell incase the customer dont show.

fine then i will pay the full price now , oh i am sorry it is against store policy.

fine then i wont be spending money with you for anything , thats several hundred pounds you will have lost out on.
 
Scots_art said:
so i am now back to using Rowaphos to reduce PO4. it was up to 0.08 the other night but i stuck in 6 table spoons of rowa and the next day it was down to 0.02. and the algae seems to be less keen to grow.
will give it an other day or so to see if it reduces any further , and if not i will add an other 2 or 3 of spoons of rowa.

flatworm population is finally going , well they have eaten all pod life so i should of course they will be dying now lol. but during water change i just suck em out .
i have to be careful though as i have noticed a nice healthy population of Stomentella snails appearing of all sizes on the glass.

.
Click to expand...

I didn't read your whole thread but Rowaphos should really be used in a reactor (or in a bag in a high flow). Its been reported to react adversely (in a major way) with some SPS corals if added directly to the water column. If you are using small quantities like tsps - try Phosguard (seachem).

don't sweat film algae on glass - everyone gets it - its hair algae on the rockwork that should worry you.

Flatworms will start on your corals so you need to be careful. If they are isolated on a particular coral/rock - take it out and use flatworm exit - works like a charm.

Nice tank btw.
 
my Rowa is not in the tank , it is added to a filter bag in a high flow area in my HOB filter .

flatworm exit is not allowed to be sold in the UK because of one of the chemicals , Salifert has informed everyone of that , all though there is a way of individuals and some companies to getting it in the country.
i do not have any SPS corals , but as i say i have not added rowa to the water.

the flatworms will not turn to the corals as i have looked into which species i have and spoken to several UK members who have had brown flatworms for several years with no effect on coral stock .
my corals are all fine , its my pods , amphipods that were hammered to almost zero by the flatworms . as there numbers increased the pods , amphipods vanished within a few days.
Flatworm exit is also extremely poor at removing some species of worms and again talking with many people who have used it , have reported absolutely no effect unless used in much stronger amounts than the stated amount on the box.
 
hmmm ,,,,, what to do ?

I have 1 bubble tip in my tank at the moment which is red. and eventually i want to introduce a mandarin to my tank.
BUT i am now deciding if that would be such a good idea , as i have now got a soft spot for bubble tips , and i am considering in buying a 2nd bubble tip.
but dont know if 2 bubble tips and a mandarin would be to much of a risk lol.


I got a Stonogobiops nematodes and a pistol shrimp pair. came in sep bags . after nearly 2 hours off acclimation i added the pistol to the tank and he went straight into the little LR rubble pile i had put in the tank for him . and he started making his new home straight away.

I then added the goby and it went no where near its shrimp partner :(. i have all lighting off apart from blue moon lighting. and i have noticed the goby is now on the same side of the tank as the shrimp , but is on the other side of the rock as the shrimp :(. i so hope they find one an other and pair back up.
 
Not a great deal to update really ,

I have a couple of fish in the tank now , and a tiger pistol shrimp ... he has killed 4 corals in total now , by adding them to his cave lol.

my BTA squeezed a bit of her foot through a heater guard and gave her self a bit of a burn to the side and on her foot. sulked for a week or 2 behind a rock. but slowly came back to her usual self thankfully.
and is now back to full health , eating again and has went for a little walk as she has got a little bit bigger so has moved home lol.

Got my self a Citrinis Goby who was in a pretty rough state when i bought him . but his fins have fully recovered now and colour has improved as well.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/animal_artist/DSCF3473.jpg

and the goby that lives with the Tiger pistol is the Hi fin red banded goby.

Also a new addition to the tank , Yellow feather duster and a Red tuxedo urchin.
i did have 3 zoa frags even though i am allergic to zoas lol , but the pistol killed one of the frags.
I finally got the acrylic needed to repair the refugium i was given for free , and i have the proper stuff for the acrylic, i have a small pump already , i just need to buy the hose to connect the pump and some 40mm hose / pipe for the return. and then get a small LED light for the cheato. and i will finally have that up and running.

Hope to get some more corals ordered up before the cold weather comes in at night , i know companies use heat packs .... but most heat packs are stone cold as they have not been used properly. and i personally dont like chancing corals etc if its to cold at night.

Also a little upgrade is on the cards , at the moment i run 2 x PAR38 36 watt led lighting bulbs , which gives me a total of 72 watts , i contacted my electric supplier to see if they can help me out work out what it would cost to run 108 watts of lighting for 8 hours a day. and it just so happened the guy i was talking to has fresh water tropical aquariums and was thinking about upgrading to marines lol.
so after a 45 min conversation ( thankfully the call was free ) he said for you to run 108 watts of lighting 8 hours a day it will cost 15p wich is 0.242792 USD lol.
so i am going to be upgrading / increasing the main lighting from 72 - 108 watts.
 
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I know i originally said i would not have any zoas in this tank , as i suffer an allergic reaction to them.
well after having spoken to a few others who also reacted to zoas , and talking to my Dr i decided to go ahead and buy zoas.

What i do now is i have a bowl of hot water with some vinegar sitting to the side , and once i have finished handling the zoas i wash my hand and arm in the bowl and i have no effects from the zoas.

So i ordered 4 zoa frags from a local company and a Dendro.

Here are the zoas , quick pics taken a moment ago under Blue / UV led lighting.

Red Oriental Fire zoas
DSCF3528.jpg



Red fire & Turquoise mix along with the Purple star frag to the right , they are still sulking lol.
DSCF3527.jpg



and lastly ( for the zoas ) Mix of the Orient frag .. 2 x 3 kinds on this one . not the best of pictures i am afraid.
DSCF3524.jpg



And no picture of the Dendrophyllia , as its not open as yet , though it is slowly thinking about opening. been told it can take a week or so to fully settle before opening.
and in the last zoa pic you can make out the RBTA in the background ( to the left ) thats her tucked up fast asleep in bed lol.
 
cheers , just wish the other zoa frags would open lol.
only the red oriental and the mix rock are open , the 2 in the middle pic are closed up.
used my red critter led torch and discovered my Dendro is out , all 4 heads. not fully extended i dont think. but on their way .
 
Scots_art said:
cheers , just wish the other zoa frags would open lol.
only the red oriental and the mix rock are open , the 2 in the middle pic are closed up.
used my red critter led torch and discovered my Dendro is out , all 4 heads. not fully extended i dont think. but on their way .
Click to expand...
Maybe they just need a little more time to open up. :)
 
ah well , done a water test last night for the first time in months ,,, ooops lol.

but i need not have worried as all the readings were fine.

Temp 25c
SG 35ppt
PH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 3
dKH 11

dont have a calcium kit so cant test that lol.

All my zoas have opened up apart from the purple star , though the Tux got to them before the Milliput set properly and has knocked them off so i am going to have to find some where else for them.

The Dendro has settled in nicely , and is fully open moving with the current , going to offer it some mysis shrimp later on ....after ive taken some pictures of it.

It seems Aquaroche and other brands of ceramic rock dont seem all that popular here in the UK , as i see more and more posts popping up people complaining it never becomes live . never colours up etc etc.
I can safely say mine is colouring nicely , not of coralline algae though , but just general ageing . and the tank is only 8 months old.

even sat and cleaned the outside of the tank last night lol , amazing looking through clean glass PMSL....
 

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