Hi everyone. Damian, commonly known as Damo, decided a few weeks ago to dip my toe in the salty stuff after years of various freshwater set ups 
Kept them since a kid. Best set up I did was 2008 had a 350 litre discus tank, fully planted, co2 etc, and managed plenty of spawns but sadly never had much luck raising fry, think I worked too much and couldn't give the time needed. Epilepsy came along 2009 and put an end to any tanks after crashing through a mirror, the voice of logic from the wife forced the sale of that relatively new set up. So, 2013 got back into fish when controlled but Juwel Rio 190 has never been ideal though looked great when fully planted again. To be honest I lost interest in it as the step back from discus meant it just never demanded the attention, pretty much ticked along great with fortnightly changes.
Thought long and hard about what to do, new room layout based around the corner tank with matching furniture means no way, for now lol, is her indoors gonna change it!! So, decided to give a small reef tank a go to gain experience before spending on a dedicated set up with sump etc. I'll win her over to a change in the summer, as she loves the couple of fish introduced so far.
Now, fully aware of the tank not being ideal, but I believe I've made the best of it. 35kg live rock, wavemaker with 2 pumps 2 led T5 white marine and a blue actinic. Pro 350 takes care of the filtration and as I have no room for a skimmer for now I have a small surface skimmer.
All is going well 6 weeks in, a couple Banggai cardinals common clown a narky little azure damsel. Problem I'm having is there doesn't seem to be hard and fast rules and lots of conflicting advice.
Lighting times is one. I've read about the dreaded algae blooms that can happen and really there's no great need for light as fish only at the moment. However, isn't it best to have a reasonable photo period now, go through this algae problem, which I'm not seeing, rather than increasing it when I introduce the soft corals and suffer it then? Water changes are another. What I've read varies from 10-50% weekly. 50% is a ridiculous figure unless in an emergency situation. My planned regime is 15% every sunday and twice as much testing whilst this tank is building, certainly for the next 3-4 months anyway.
One last point I'll raise for now is the Red Sea Coral Pro salt I'm using. It says to mix vigorously, which makes sense, but says not to mix for more than 4 hours? I mix mine in a 25 litre bucket then drop in a heater and small power head and leave over night to come up to temperature, Does that constitute mixing?? Asked the retailer who told me I had read the instructions wrong. The baffled look on his face and shoulder shrug was priceless when he read it....DOH lol.
thanks for looking in, no doubt I'll be drawing on all your knowledge so watch out. Hysterical
Kept them since a kid. Best set up I did was 2008 had a 350 litre discus tank, fully planted, co2 etc, and managed plenty of spawns but sadly never had much luck raising fry, think I worked too much and couldn't give the time needed. Epilepsy came along 2009 and put an end to any tanks after crashing through a mirror, the voice of logic from the wife forced the sale of that relatively new set up. So, 2013 got back into fish when controlled but Juwel Rio 190 has never been ideal though looked great when fully planted again. To be honest I lost interest in it as the step back from discus meant it just never demanded the attention, pretty much ticked along great with fortnightly changes.
Thought long and hard about what to do, new room layout based around the corner tank with matching furniture means no way, for now lol, is her indoors gonna change it!! So, decided to give a small reef tank a go to gain experience before spending on a dedicated set up with sump etc. I'll win her over to a change in the summer, as she loves the couple of fish introduced so far.
Now, fully aware of the tank not being ideal, but I believe I've made the best of it. 35kg live rock, wavemaker with 2 pumps 2 led T5 white marine and a blue actinic. Pro 350 takes care of the filtration and as I have no room for a skimmer for now I have a small surface skimmer.
All is going well 6 weeks in, a couple Banggai cardinals common clown a narky little azure damsel. Problem I'm having is there doesn't seem to be hard and fast rules and lots of conflicting advice.
Lighting times is one. I've read about the dreaded algae blooms that can happen and really there's no great need for light as fish only at the moment. However, isn't it best to have a reasonable photo period now, go through this algae problem, which I'm not seeing, rather than increasing it when I introduce the soft corals and suffer it then? Water changes are another. What I've read varies from 10-50% weekly. 50% is a ridiculous figure unless in an emergency situation. My planned regime is 15% every sunday and twice as much testing whilst this tank is building, certainly for the next 3-4 months anyway.
One last point I'll raise for now is the Red Sea Coral Pro salt I'm using. It says to mix vigorously, which makes sense, but says not to mix for more than 4 hours? I mix mine in a 25 litre bucket then drop in a heater and small power head and leave over night to come up to temperature, Does that constitute mixing?? Asked the retailer who told me I had read the instructions wrong. The baffled look on his face and shoulder shrug was priceless when he read it....DOH lol.
thanks for looking in, no doubt I'll be drawing on all your knowledge so watch out. Hysterical
