Greetings traveller

[jmaxlea]

Hi everybody. Im new to reef keeping. I came from a tropical background for 3 years but have recently just purchased an established reef tank from a friend who had to let it go....

Hope to see you out on the reef !

Joe

 

[vlangel]

Greetings jmaxlea and welcome to RF. Looks like a nice tank, how big is it? We get excited about what sort of filtration and such if you'd like to share all that. There are a lot of very knowledgeable folks on this forum if you have any questions.

 

[user 26995]

Hey Welcome Joe
Tell us a little more.
How big is the tank? What do you have for animals in it?
Enjoy the hobby.
Looking forward to hearing more about your tank.

 

[jmaxlea]

Hello again!

I've just documented some things about my tank and set-up (which was all done by the previous owner) so here goes:

Its a custom built tank and cabinet and the tank dimensions are w36" x d15" x h16", which I guess would make it around 140 litres.

It has an Eheim Ecco Pro 2036 filter, a 100w heater and twin power heads (can't see the make/model). It also has an air pump and air stone for the look I guess.

The lighting is on timers as follows: An ATI Coral+ 25w T5 and an ATI Blue+ coming on daily at 1pm until 8pm, an ATI Coral+ 25w T5 coming on daily at 4:30pm until 11pm and an Interpet Moonlight Reflector 15w coming on Mon-Fri at 12:15pm until 2pm and 8pm until 1:30am then on Sat/Sun 8pm until 2:45am.

The level checks I can do at the moment are (I checked them today) PH (8.2), Salinity (1.025) and NO2 0.02 mg/l / NO3 (< 1 mg/l)

I've been told I need a calcium test next and then to start supplementing the calcium should it need it.

I plan on doing bi-weekly water changes of approx 50 litres of salted water bought from my local fish shop.

The water temp is 26c

As for the animals in the tank:

1 x Blue Damsel
1 x Black Sea Urchin
1 x Fire Shrimp
Several Turbo Snails
1 x Hermit Crab
1 x Red Starfish
Another crab of which typem I have no clue because I just see it popping its claws out of the rocks its been hiding in since I got it.
Orange and Green Zoanthid
A Finger Coral ( that isnt looking as majestic as when I first got the tank, its gone from a proud goldish colour to a shrivelled up half green half red colour, I can post pics if anyone is interested, i'm worried to be honest)
Some sort of orange cauliflower looking coral that has moved since I got the tank (could also use some help identifying this one)
And various other corals that I would love to know the species of.

Thanks for reading

 

[user 26995]

Well when you can post pictures or at least links to pictures, we will do our best to help identify corals and help with anything else you may need. If you are not keeping SPS (small polyp stony) corals, you really dont need to worry about calcium and alkalinty. Your water changes will keep those levels good. The soft coral you mentioned you have wont use up much if any calcium or alkalinity between water changes.
However if any of those "various other corals" you mention are SPS, you will want to get the kits and look into a product to dose for those elements.

 

[jmaxlea]

Thanks a lot. Where is the best place to post the pics to help identify the corals?

I'm only going to be wanting to look after soft corals until I can afford more gear, is the set up I have okay for the soft corals and that bi weekly water change?

 

[user 26995]

You can store pics on what ever media sharing site you wish. You can then post a link to them or post the "image code" in the quick reply box and the image should post here.

In my opinion, you should be just fine for the soft coral, with the equipment you have and that water change schedule. I am using the bare minimum of equipment and dont do water changes but maybe every 6 weeks. I'm bad. Dont do it my way!

 

[vlangel]

Yes, when I had a softie tank with a few LPS I never tested or dosed calcium and my corals were beautiful. I kind of miss those simpler days!

 

[TJL]

Hey Joe! Another BIG WELCOME to Reef Frontiers from across the pond.

Cheers, Todd

 

[user 26995]

Ahha! I couldnt see the picture at work. I can see it on my laptop. So dont worry too much about the finger coral. Set it were it gets some indirect flow. It will extend itself again. My soft corals do that periodically too.

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jmaxlea]

Thanks for the welcomes guys)

I've made a little album (i apologise for the quality of the pics, I took them off my phone) of the corals I am having trouble identifying....

Photo Album - Imgur

Thanks in advance or any help you can give.

 

[jmaxlea]

Am I okay to just pick it up and move it? (you can see how sorry looking it is in the picture; Coral ID A )

I've just got a new book The Reef Aquarium Volume 2, hopefully i'll get a chance to read and absorb it

 

[vlangel]

I checked out your pics Joe and I can help with some of the corals. In the 1st pic coral E3 is green star polyp. In the 2nd pic coral A3 and A1 are aptasia, (which most consider a nuisance coral because of its ability to multiply and sting everything around it. In 3 rd pic B2 is more green star polyp (gsp) and in the last pic D1 is Xenia. Have you noticed the Xenia pulsing? Green star polyp and Xenia both have the ability to spread easily so its good to be mindful of their placement so they don't take real estate from other corals.

 

[jmaxlea]

I checked out your pics Joe and I can help with some of the corals. In the 1st pic coral E3 is green star polyp. In the 2nd pic coral A3 and A1 are aptasia, (which most consider a nuisance coral because of its ability to multiply and sting everything around it. In 3 rd pic B2 is more green star polyp (gsp) and in the last pic D1 is Xenia. Have you noticed the Xenia pulsing? Green star polyp and Xenia both have the ability to spread easily so its good to be mindful of their placement so they don't take real estate from other corals.

Thanks vlangel !

Should i remove the aptasia from the tank ?

 

[vlangel]

Before you remove the aptasia, let's make sure other folks on the forum agree with me that it is aptasia. I'd hate for you to remove if I'm wrong and there are people much more knowledgeable than me. They probably have some ideas how to eradicate it as well. I have used a thick solution of super buffer and shoot it down the aptasia's mouth with a bulb syringe but there might be more effective methods.

 

[user 26995]

I agree A1 & A3 are aiptasia. I too have used kalkwasser paste in a syringe and inject it into its mouth.
A2 is a leather coral. It will polyp with either white or beige polyps probably. It is more likely what is commonly known as a devils hand leather.
C1 looks like a sinularia of some type. Will be easier to tell when it extends itself.
The xenia is in a good spot. They tend to climb upwards, so being where it is it can not migrate from there. It will probably drop pieces off and you can just take them out.

 

[vlangel]

Yes, A2 does look like a devil's hand that hasn't extended its polyps yet. My sinularia is green and branching so it must be a different variety. I know there are many many varieties. A good book on coral identification, care and where they come from is " Aquarium Corals, selection, husbandry and natural history by Eric Borneman. Its easy to understand with lots of photos and practical info. I still use it as a reference when I'm selecting a new coral.

 

[jmaxlea]

Yes, A2 does look like a devil's hand that hasn't extended its polyps yet. My sinularia is green and branching so it must be a different variety. I know there are many many varieties. A good book on coral identification, care and where they come from is " Aquarium Corals, selection, husbandry and natural history by Eric Borneman. Its easy to understand with lots of photos and practical info. I still use it as a reference when I'm selecting a new coral.

Thanks again I'll look into acquiring that book . I've had the tank less than a week it was drained and moved from my friends house about 2 miles away it took us about 3 hours to move it and set it up again. Would the tank be similar now to a brand new tank ? We used the same water.

 

[vlangel]

Using the same water and rock will be very helpful. It will probably go through a mini cycle but should be much faster than a brand new tank. I did a similar thing this past December and my tank fully cycled in about 2 and a half weeks. You should start noticing some ammonia now when you test, hopefully not more than .2. Then your nitrites will spike but they will drop fairly fast. Lastly you will notice nitrates which is not as harmful to fish as ammonia and nitrites, but are harmful to corals, (although soft corals tolerate it better than LPS and SPS. Even when your tank is fully cycled, proceed slowly with additions of fish and corals to give it a chance to settle and stabilize. Its best to prevent problems rather than fix them!