Reef Tank: Updates

I wanted to provide a quick update on my reef aquarium. For the most part things are doing well, and I feel like the tank has established a good rhythm. Water quality has been great, the firefish has been quite healthy, and a plethora of small invertebrates has been emerging from the live rock.



Coral Growth
Of the ten coral specimens I've introduced to date, eight are doing great and showing good signs of growth. The Acropora millepora and tabling Acropora in particular have shown exceptional encrusting growth lately. The pink birds nest, Stylophora pistillata, has also been growing very fast.

Two species not doing well. The Pavona maldivensis has been pale and showing no sign of growth since within a few weeks of being introduced. I keep hoping it will come back, but it is seeming less likely with each passing week. More concerning is the recent demise of the Pocillopora damicornis. For the first month, this was my healthiest looking coral. Great color and polyp extension, and very obvious growth. One day it just started going down hill for no apparent reason, showing bleaching around the base which has since spread up into the branches. Some of the polyps still look healthy and extend to feed, but I fear there isn't much time left for this colony.

Flow Adjustments
I decided that running two Koralia 3 pumps, 850 gallons per house each, was too much for this tank. Corals demonstrated stressed behavior in the powerful current. I have since cut back to running just one, with a Koralia Nano on the opposite side to keep detritus off the bottom of the aquarium. This seems to be working out well so far.

Zeovit
Possibly suckered in by the great marketing photos on Zeovit USA, I've started to implement their system on my tank. Zeovit is a mineral that has been commonly used for filtration in commercial aquatic systems prior to becoming a trendy brand in the reef hobby. The pore density of zeovit makes it exceptionally good at filtering out ammonia, preempting the nitrogen cycle before it can occur. By removing the ammonia early in the cycle, bacteria never get a chance to convert it into nitrite, which eventually becomes nitrate.

Because of the sheer effectiveness of its ammonia removal, it is suggested that the reef keeper dose colonies of bacteria and bacteria food to keep the tank in a natural state. Conveniently, the provider of zeovit also makes these products. You can read more from the source in this PDF guide to the Zeovit filtration system.

To start, I've begun with ZEOBak bacteria solution, and the ZEOFood7 bacteria and coral food. I will slowly introduce the zeovite filtration material this coming week. There are a number of other supplements and foods in this product line that I have read good things about. Although too early to make any sort of useful evaluation, I've noticed the tank water appearing quite a bit clearer since the dosing start. Algae formation on the glass also appears to have been reduced quite noticeably. I like to pretend that the corals are beginning to color up and appear healthier as well, but that could just as easily be attributed to their finally becoming acclimated to the tank.

Reef Tank: More Firefish Pictures

When I came home from work tonight the firefish was out front and center, and he's been at the glass begging food and attention ever since. I managed to get some decent pictures of him (her?) and the new coral:

Reef Aquarium: First Fish

Today we took a trip over to Skipton's and looked for a good first fish for the reef tank. As a person with a history of past impulse purchases, I wanted to make sure I limited my selection to species I had read about and knew would be good fits for my tank. I made up an email with common names, photographs and scientific names of the six fish I was interested in and mailed this to my iPhone. This turned out to be really helpful when staring down the tanks full of gorgeous saltwater fish.

We ended up deciding on a Purple Firefish, Nemateleotris decora. Here is a shot from when he was drip acclimating.



Quite the looker, and the colors are even more vibrant under the metal halide lighting. Its been hiding under a rock on the side of our tank for the majority of the time so far. I saw it eat a few marine food flakes that I dropped in experimentally, so hopefully all is well and its just being shy/angry about the new tank. I also picked up some frozen food while at the store, mysis shrimp and a marine blend. Once I see this guy show himself around the tank I will try out a little of that.

I also couldn't resist getting this Zoanthus colony. I've really wanted some polyps for the tank, and they were too nice to pass up. The polyps are most closed up in this photo, I will take a better one tonight showing its placement in the tank.

Reef Tank: More Frags

With the new metal halide lighting in place, I wanted to have someone take the compact fluorescent fixture off my hands. A one bedroom apartment is not the sort of place that you tend to keep unused equipment sitting around in. I posted listings on the aquarium forums I use, and on Craigslist. One interesting note came in from a Boston area reefer who offered up some coral frags in trade for the light, in lieu of the price I had been asking for.

Throughout the entire history of this project I have tried to plan and move slowly with each aspect. Impulse purchases and stock acquisitions can be a real problem with keeping aquariums. The prudent move would be to watch the corals I introduced on Friday carefully for two weeks, and then proceed with further stocking. Furthermore, the corals being offered in trade are some of the more difficult of the stony corals to keep. I decided to get them anyway.

Here are some photos, along with trade names and my best guesses at scientific names.

Acropora rosaria:



Acropora sp., "purple slimmer":



Acropora sp., supposedly a tabling formation:



Acropora millepora:



I acclimated these with the same slow drip procedure used for my previous coral acquisitions. So far everything seems at home, with decent polyp extension. I think I'm close to my limit on coral species and space in regards to the room they will need to expand into over the course of the year. Now the long wait while they slowly fill in.

Reef Tank: First Corals

Here are the first corals to hit my tank. All are aquacultured fragments of larger colonies that have been thriving in captive conditions. This makes them more likely to survive in a new aquarium system compared to wild caught specimens, or so I'm told. In the future I will hopefully be able to write up in more detail the particulars of each species, and hopefully figure out how to take some better photos. I'm afraid that last part might involve some expensive camera equipment.

Seriatopora stellata:



Porites cylindrica:



Pocillopora damicornis:



Stylophora pistillata:



Pavona maldivensis:

Reef Tank: Coral En Route

This morning I placed an order at Live Aquaria for a stony coral frag pack. While stony corals can be more difficult to keep because of their increased need for light, calcium, and water current, I find them some of the more interesting species and was what I always envisioned keeping in my tank. The package I ordered is for five frags (small fragments from a larger colony) of aquacultured coral colonies. Aquacultured specimens, as opposed to wild card, are purportedly more tolerant of aquarium conditions and less likely to be severely traumatized by the introduction to a new tank.

My new metal halide fixture arrives tonight as well, so I hope to be able to get that setup and post pictures of the tank. This should represent the last piece of equipment that was part of my original tank plan, although I've already thought of several things I'd like to change and upgrade in light of the decision to keep stony corals primarily.

Parameters from Last Night:
Temp: 80F
SG: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20ppm
dKH: 9
Calcium: 400ppm
Phosphate: 0