si_sphinx

Some of my zoas

If you use Dalton's aquatic mix then you definitely need a good 4-5cm layer of sand over top. 1. it leaches nutrients into the water easily, 2. fish can disturb it easily, 3. if you ever disturb it accidentally. Dalton's aquatic mix is a muddy substrate when wet and will cloud your tank badly if exposed. Perfect for growing root plants, not required for the fern, anubias and mosses you want. Liquid ferts and co2 is all you need for them. So maybe a coarser dirt looking gravel substrate is what you need if its the look you are after.

Yea have a go at rebuilding it, Only one way to learn. Just make sure u leak test it outside for a week before you use it :oops: And yes the Coralbox led units work good. I have pretty good coral growth in my frag tank. I have been using the coral box for a few months now and it works good. Only thing I would maybe caution it on is if used over a 600 wide tank (front to back), it might not achieve good light cover at the edges. I have my unit 200mm from the water and LED intensities @ 70% max. I tried upping the intensity slowly over a few weeks and a few corals didn't react well so I'm keeping it at 70%. 200mm also gives a good amount of room to work in the tank. Here is when I first added the Coralbox LEDs.

Still looks like you are skimming a bit wet. If you have raised the skimmer and the bubbles don't make it then it's working good. When they build up enough it will over flow. It takes a while.

You should stagger the white and blue LEDs so you get a more even spread. Swap every 2nd white led with every 2nd blue led

Get a WP40 wave maker. They work well for the low price. Stay away from the cheap sunsun wave makers. They are really noisy.

Me too!

Sounds good to me :gpo2:

I have two small frag rocks of it but it has popped up heads 5-6 other places in the tank. Only on the glass bottom but it is only thriving where it gets light.

I swap with people, buy online or closest shops to me is christchurch where I also buy from when I am down that way. A few photos taken tonight. This one has the best colour recently and the white tips are the growth over the past few weeks Green millipora Bali slimmer Hydnophora I'm trying to get this anthellia waving hand coral growing along the bottom of the tank. It is spreading fast Zoas New acan Not sure what this one will colour up like yet. And last one of the tang cleaning the zoas for me

They get a bit stressed from shipping and there isn't any lights over them. They have some colouring up to do.

New frag delivery acclimated today

Those yellow star polyps will spread much faster and cover most of that rock before the other zoas a and palys can double in size. Looking good tho

I have seen people buy newly imported rock that has been dried in big ovens at over 300degsC as required, and when they put it in their tank, all sorts of bugs were still alive in it and come out and macro algaes even growing from them within a few weeks. Easiest way to get live rock is buy some dry coral rock and cycle it and slowly introduce life over a few months to bring the rock to life.

Mulford Plastics sell egg crate/light diffuser. Not as strong as the stuff made for the aquarium trade but half the price.

The season settings are just different light intensities and length of running time to simulate the natural seasons. I have written them all down so I can see what I want to use and when. I just use the custom feature and set my own light hours and intensities. mine ramp up to 70% for 4 hours then down again to moon lighting.

Give Mulford plastics in christchurch a call. They have 1200x600 sheets of egg crate for $22ea. And they can post it to you.

That coral sand looks about right to me. You don't want too fine of a sand or it will get stirred up too easily by the flow in the tank. And fine sand would also create dead spots under it. What aquaworld sent you is the right stuff to use.

The coral box LEDs seem to work ok. I still prefer the key LED units for usability though. I have added a few more corals over the weekend. It is probably 85% full now. I can still add another rack at the bottom and I have a spare rack that can be stuck to the front glass by magnets also. And I bought a small purple tang for algae control.

:gpo2:

Some Top down photos

I use a baking soda paste. I turn off all the pumps and making sure the aiptasia is open, I squirt it above it so it drops down onto its mouth.

If it looks like a mini glass anemone then yes, kill it as soon as you see them. I just attacked three in my tank this afternoon.

I think your skimmer is running way to wet. looks more like lemonade :sml2: I get this color from my skimmer... Other than that your tank is coming alone nicely. very clean. You could run into problems when your shrimp gets bigger in such a small tank. It will most likely have a go at your fish so make sure you keep it fed.