Have had the tank up and running since Feb 15th and have been pushing it (by not my choice). Its a reefer 170 (34 g display, 43g system). We haven't had any spikes in ammonia or nitrites, nitrates hold between 10-20 ppm which is of course not ideal. We have 2 small clowns, a lawnmower blenny, a tobacco basslet, 6 hermits, 6 margarita snails, 2 emerald crabs, a pom pom, a bubble tip nem. On the coral side a pulsing xenia, trumpet, zoas, a duncan and what I think is a frogspawn. So far the hardest part is getting the g/f to slow the hell down. She hasn't done much research and wants me to do it, but won't listen to anything I say. So... how can I get her under control? :|
Actually I think I got her to stop for a while. Everything seems happy enough so far. Crabs molt like crazy, fish beg for food constantly. So...
We have a diatom bloom. Not bad. I killed the lights for 3 days and it went mostly away, then once the lights were on over the weekend started coming back. Run a protein skimmer that rarely skims (bubble level fluctuates throughout the day) and a bag of carbon. How far back can I cut lighting before corals complain?
Lighting intensity. JBJ Orion LT-120. 120 watt LED. Can adjust blue and white. They slowly ramp up and get up to maybe around 55% blue, 40% white. I see lots of opinions on how much white or blue and intensities. Would things do better with more or less light?
Cleanup we don't have anything that does much in sand. Should we change what we have exchange/add shrimp or a sand dweller?
Most people talk about lots of life coming out after lights out. We don't have that. lol. We have one (what I assume is a) tiny bristle worm and one TINY (almost not visible) feather duster both in leftover shells. I see people talking about the benefits of worms, dusters or whatnot. Should I look into adding biodiversity so its not so sterile at night?
and lastly feeding. The basslet constantly wants food. Everything said coral safe with caution because they eat small critters (we have nothing small for him) but leaves corals alone. He took a chunk of trumpet a few weeks back when not fed for a few days. We are gone many weekends. Should I look at live shrimp to dump in on weekends for him to hunt? Otherwise we feed a tiny pinch of flakes or pellets for most critters and frozen shrimp for the basslet daily. Some people talk about feeding every 2 or 3 days is near starving a tank, others say fine. What say you?
Actually I think I got her to stop for a while. Everything seems happy enough so far. Crabs molt like crazy, fish beg for food constantly. So...
We have a diatom bloom. Not bad. I killed the lights for 3 days and it went mostly away, then once the lights were on over the weekend started coming back. Run a protein skimmer that rarely skims (bubble level fluctuates throughout the day) and a bag of carbon. How far back can I cut lighting before corals complain?
Lighting intensity. JBJ Orion LT-120. 120 watt LED. Can adjust blue and white. They slowly ramp up and get up to maybe around 55% blue, 40% white. I see lots of opinions on how much white or blue and intensities. Would things do better with more or less light?
Cleanup we don't have anything that does much in sand. Should we change what we have exchange/add shrimp or a sand dweller?
Most people talk about lots of life coming out after lights out. We don't have that. lol. We have one (what I assume is a) tiny bristle worm and one TINY (almost not visible) feather duster both in leftover shells. I see people talking about the benefits of worms, dusters or whatnot. Should I look into adding biodiversity so its not so sterile at night?
and lastly feeding. The basslet constantly wants food. Everything said coral safe with caution because they eat small critters (we have nothing small for him) but leaves corals alone. He took a chunk of trumpet a few weeks back when not fed for a few days. We are gone many weekends. Should I look at live shrimp to dump in on weekends for him to hunt? Otherwise we feed a tiny pinch of flakes or pellets for most critters and frozen shrimp for the basslet daily. Some people talk about feeding every 2 or 3 days is near starving a tank, others say fine. What say you?