Courtney's Red Sea Reefer 350

[Courtney]

Had a really bad day as come down to check my tank after putting the medicine in and have seen that my bicolour blenny has somehow been sucked into one of my tunze pumps and died which has made me really upset as loved him loads was such a funny character.

Then if that wasn't bad enough losing him I couldn't find my yellow eye tang looked everywhere I could think of then I notice that one of my bubble tip anemone's has a tail hanging out of its mouth so don't know how it got a hold of it or why as this has never happened to me before.

So overall an absolute terrible way to start my day. Going to keep dosing the medicine as I think my coral green goby still has spots on him and just try to care for the fish I have left the best I can. Bit bummed out right now with all of this.

 

[Pat24601]

Man, you are having a tough run of luck recently. This hobby can definitely be trying at times.

 

[Courtney]

Yeah well they say things happen in 3's so hopefully that is the last of it.

So now just going to concentrate on keeping things stable in the tank and once everything settles down and in the new year get some new fish. As I know next week hopefully I will be getting the replacement coral so that is something to look forward to.
[emoji4]

 

[Nobbygas]

Keep your pecker up Courtney. If this hobby was easy it would not be as rewarding.

 

[Courtney]

Yeah that is true it's just frustrating to not have a reason as to why it happened as apart from the white spot they was healthy and eating but there we go the mysteries of the Reef tank

 

[Pat24601]

Yeah that is true it's just frustrating to not have a reason as to why it happened as apart from the white spot they was healthy and eating but there we go the mysteries of the Reef tank

I’m not that long in this hobby. About 4 years. But, in my experience, unless you are someone with just a tons of experience in the hobby, I think most of the rest of us are taking our best guess as to what happened when something goes wrong and calling it truth. When, really, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

 

[Courtney]

Just put 2 new Red Sea 225 micron filter bags in didn't rinse them and now my skimmer has been going nuts and constantly foaming and overflowing even on the lowest setting. Has anyone ever had this problem and if you have do you know how long before it stops as this has been going on for nearly 24 hours.

 

[Pat24601]

Just put 2 new Red Sea 225 micron filter bags in didn't rinse them and now my skimmer has been going nuts and constantly foaming and overflowing even on the lowest setting. Has anyone ever had this problem and if you have do you know how long before it stops as this has been going on for nearly 24 hours.

I’ve defintely had the problem. The way I usually solve it is to let me skimmer run on full until it calms down, which means I’m emptying it non-stop into a bucket the entire time. I’ve never had it not calm down after an hour or two, though. Which, even that is annoying.

So,I’m not sure if that will work for you.

 

[Courtney]

Might give that a go and see how it goes as it is driving me crazy. Will wash them next time before putting them in haha

Also what is the best way to clean your old dirty socks as I have seen people use bleach but I'm not sure about that.

 

[SPR]

Just put 2 new Red Sea 225 micron filter bags in didn't rinse them and now my skimmer has been going nuts and constantly foaming and overflowing even on the lowest setting. Has anyone ever had this problem and if you have do you know how long before it stops as this has been going on for nearly 24 hours.

It’s probably just your NYOS going through the run in stage and not the filter socks. I’ve never washed mine when new before using them. Only because I never thought I needed to.. because they weren’t dirty...

My NYOS freaked out about 3 times during the first 2 months or so. I would just turn it all back down, screw tight etc., like we said in previous posts, let it calm down, and then turn it slowly back up again. Just be patient with it because once it’s run in they are excellent and I hardly every touch mine now.

If that doesn’t work them maybe just let it empty itself back into your sump until it calms down.

I’ve asked the question myself about bleach to clean mesh filter socks, and basically I was told to make a bleach solution and just soak them. I believe when you rinse and take them out, the chlorine I think just evaporates but I haven’t done it yet as it doesn’t seem quite right. However my socks are getting ‘ready’ so I might do it and then just give them a good rinse. Or just buy some more and bin them..........

I can’t believe that you can’t buy disposable filter socks somewhere because if I could get some at a reasonable cost it would make life so much easier to just throw them away. I can’t find any for sale anyway.

 

[Courtney]

Well I emptied a couple of full cups of water from the skimmer cup at it appears to have died down a bit just I'm just keeping an eye on it and making fine adjustments. Bleach to me sounds dangerous in any quantity but then again a lot of people say they use it but I'm not really sure.

 

[Courtney]

Well my skimmer is working fine now which is good. So an update on my livestock. So I'm not sure if I have lost my coral green goby or not as I knew he had white spot and was always keeping him well fed but I haven't seen him in a few days although he is tiny so he is hard to see.

As for the corals that were damaged during shipping the ones that survived with images are below. Been feeding the corals with Nyos Absolute Aminos, Coral Necter and Phytomaxx which seems to doing all my corals good.

Also on day 11 of dosing the Polyp Lab Medic which seems to have helped. Not sure if I should go to the max dosage period of 20 days.

Gorgonian

Alveopora

Clavularia sp

Cyphastrea sp

Zoanthids

 

[NickF]

What do you think of the DD UV unit? I’m thinking of getting the same one, did you get the tubing with it or did you buy it separately? I’d like to put it somewhere in the sump area if I can, I’d be a bit nervous about having it in the other side in case there was a leak.

 

[Courtney]

Yeah it is a good unit as it has a Red and green status and alarm if there is a fault with it which I think is a good idea. I had to buy the tubing separately but 2 meters was enough for how I had it setup.

I tried to think of a way to mount it in the sump area but didn't want to drill holes or put Velcro in there as wasn't sure how much it would weigh when filled with water and if it would be stable anywhere without falling in the sump water.

As for mounting it on the other side of the sump area I don't see any issues as long as the unit is tightened correctly and I cable tied the pipes to the outlets as well so no issues.

 

[NickF]

Cheers, yeah I don’t want to be drilling any holes in the cabinet. I’ll get it first then have a think. I’m going to get that Kamoer dosing pump so I’ll have to find somewhere to put that as well.
I got an 8 plug adapter from Argos the other day, think I might need another one at this rate.

 

[Courtney]

That's alright and yeah I'm going to get the Kamoer x4 dosing unit as well as an apex unit once I save up haha

I will end up building some rack to fit in the right hand side of the cabinet to house the dosing unit and apex and any other equipment I buy.

Ive got two 10 socket surge protected towers one on each side of my tank so 20 sockets for all my equipment only problem is there not individually switched only one main on/off but other than that there really good.

 

[SPR]

What do you think of the DD UV unit? I’m thinking of getting the same one, did you get the tubing with it or did you buy it separately? I’d like to put it somewhere in the sump area if I can, I’d be a bit nervous about having it in the other side in case there was a leak.

I’ve just ordered the DD 20w UVC version as my JBL packed up just after i finally sorted the return hose were I wanted it! It may have been just the bulb but it wasn’t working so it’s now in the bin.

I think you can partially submerge the DD in the sump as it’s a sealed unit at one end. I assume the 10w will be the same.

You have to buy the tubing separately (and pump).

 

[Courtney]

Well started my new job at my local LFS which is awesome although only been there 2 days and I ended up buying 2 new fish a piece of coral and some snails hahaha it's going to be tough [emoji23]

Here are some pictures not the best but you get the idea. So I got a Midas Blenny, Orange Spot Blenny Blueberry Sea Fan, 4 Turbo Snails and 2 Strawberry Conch snails.

The orange spot blenny has settled in fine but the Midas blenny is nervous as he keeps changing colour and going blotchy I know he is eating as I fed him at the store yesterday and I have fed him a bit of food today but hopefully he settles down in a couple of days.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Congrats on the new job at the LFS (I know it's in UK, but tell us the name, maybe some UK member will visit) bet it will be hard to not spend your paycheck there !

Well started my new job at my local LFS which is awesome although only been there 2 days and I ended up buying 2 new fish a piece of coral and some snails hahaha it's going to be tough

 

[Courtney]

Thanks Glenn it's really cool and learning so much as well. Haha yeah that would be cool it is called Maidenhead Aquatics.