I could finally find Peppermint Shrimp to my fish tank, crossing finger this Peppermint Shrimp will eat Aiptasia! Peppermint Shrimp is one of peaceful live in the saltwater tank. Peppermint Shrimps are very social and do well with many other fish and corals in the fish tank. Peppermint Shrimp are also known as they eat Aiptasia. While some Peppermint Shrimp eat Aiptasia, some others have no interest. Hope this guy is interested in Aiptasia in the tank!
Acclimation
Acclimation is important when we add new lives into the fish tank. We adjust temperature and water. You don’t need anything special to acclimate, just hang the bag into the fish tank to adjust temperature, and drop some water from fish tank, so the new live will adjust the water slowly. After acclimated, use a net to transfer the new live. Never dump the water from bag into the fish tank! The reason is, we don’t know what’s in the water in the bag, the water from the store and water you make are different. Good or not! Store also carries many new fish in their tank, new fish comes in and leave, then other new fish comes in. We never know if any sickness left in the water. Water Parameters are also different every single fish tank, adding water from other tank may mess your water parameters.
The new Red Sea Reefer has turned on and the cycle has started! Using dry rock and live sand, adding Bacteria (MicroBacter7). The Bacteria was added in the sump area for the first day, and adding daily into the main tank from the third day of cycle.
What’s important during the cycle week 1
The tank is new at this stage, it just got everything in and set. Tank needs some time to adjust salinity and temperature. After couple days, salt and water are mixed well in the tank and you can start adjusting the salinity. Light water change after the third day might help if the salinity is too strong.
Tank is also raising the temperature during the first week. Heater just got turned on and it takes time to warm the water in the whole tank. The length of the time is depends on the size of the tank, it takes longer for the larger aquarium.
It is important to be patient during the cycle, taking time worth for the future succeed your hobby.
What you need to do during the cycle week 1
It is important to be patient during the cycle, however there are things you can do. The first thing is testing the water. Monitoring the water parameter is very important during the cycle, and it will help you to understand where the stage is. I have been checking Ammonia, Alkalinity, pH, Nitrite, Calcium, Salinity, Temperature, and Nitrate. Testing the water is also fun. It is better to prepare proper test kit for the cycle. Especially the Ammonia, it is very toxic for the fish and corals in the fish tank. Ammonia could kill the fish and corals. I tested Ammonia daily, you can add first fish when the Ammonia is Zero for 5-7 days.
Why Bacteria?
Why do we need Bacteria in the saltwater aquarium? Once we have fish and corals in the water, Ammonia will come into the water from their waste or left over food. The tank must have enough bacteria to break down the Ammonia. We take time for the cycle to grow the bacteria, and add fish or coral into the new tank slowly.
My cycle week1
My cycle week1 was testing the water and learning about new tank. My previews tank was Fluval Evo 13.5, Reefer 170 is a lot different especially under the main tank! I’ve learned how to take care of each equipment and how to solve the issue there.
For more detail about Reefer 170 cycle week 1, please watch this video!
Finally my 3rd aquarium Red Sea REEFER 170 is here! It is 34 gal, 3 times bigger than my current aquarium. For the 1st day, the aquarium arrived and it was built, sand and rocks went in! The RODI water system will be installed to my sink tomorrow, and the water will go in.
History of live rock
I had set up with live rock for my previews aquarium, however it will be with dry rock this time. Compared live rock, the dry rocks are beautifully WHITE!! It matches with white sand and white aquarium stand. This rock seems just like ‘brand new’. However, each rocks have history. I can’t even guess the age of these rocks. Before these rocks are cured and dried, they were in the other aquarium or ocean. Rocks have been seeing many fish and held corals. One day they were picked and cleaned, and now they are about to meet new fish in the new aquarium, new journey.
Red Sea REEFER 170Under the AquariumRODI water system, ready to install
My first salt water aquarium was Fluval Spec V, 5 gal tank. It’s small but it was good to start the salt water tank. It was small as it is only 5 gal tank, but I could have 2 small clown fish with anemone, and 1 cleaner shrimp. If you are about to start Reef tank with Fluval Spec V, I would recommend to pick small rock as much as you can. I had some small but one big rock, it was always touching to the glass and hard to keep the glass. When you make layout, you don’t want the rock is touching to the glass. Preferably, there is enough space that magnet cleaner can go through between glass and rock.
Large vs Small Aquarium
Which would be better Large Aquarium or Small Aquarium? Large Aquarium is more stable and less water change. Small aquarium is easy to get build up clutter in the water and tank, so there need more water change and cleaning up often. Large Aquarium can hold more fish and corals, but small aquarium can hold only couple or few. It sounds larger aquarium is fun….
But if you have no experience of salt water tank, you don’t know how the things are going to. And if anything go wrong, you loose less with smaller aquarium but loose a lot with larger aquarium. For example, if one of the fish caught ick and spread to all other fish to die. If your aquarium is small and had only 2 clownfish, you loose only $100 to $150. But if you have 20 fish and the ick spread to all fish in the tank to die, you loose $1000-$1500.
Salt water aquarium is alive
For the fresh water aquarium, you can use decorations to make better look. However salt water aquarium must hold only organic in the tank. To keep marine fish and corals healthy, the tank must be same environment as actual ocean. Tank needs waves, same level or temp and salinity, should not have clutter that tap water has, so the water quality is important. The live rock has little creatures to keep the rock alive and clean. When the tank is new, you need to wait for the cycle, however it is fun to watch the little creatures comes in and out from the rock until you can add fish and corals.
I got new addition to my fluval Evo today, Alien Eye Chalice and Miyagi Tort. I found them from local Facebook group and just added them to the tank! It is fun to add colour to the aquarium, little bit at each time.
Alien Eye Chalice
Alien Eye Chalice is soft coral that is easy to care and grow. Placement is around medium to low in the aquarium, can live with many kind of light. However Alien Eye Chalice may loose colour when it’s placed too close to the light, so it’s better to avoid strong or direct light. Alien Eye Chalice could sting other corals, so make sure there are space around it.
For the feeding, Alien Eye Chalice eats small pieces of meaty marine foods. You can feed pellets or baby brine shrimp. If you feed frozen cube of shrimp to your fish, you can put them in a small container or cup, add some water. Pick the meaty water with eye dropper and spray around the coral.
Miyagi Tort
Miyagi Tort is SPS coral. Since Miyagi Tort is sensitive to environment change, so it is crutial to maintain stable water quality. Keep the stable temperature and avoid sudden change with chemical. It could lead them to stress or death. Miyagi Tort likes to be placed middle in the aquarium, but can be placed low. Feeding 1-2 times a week would be ideal, you can feed brine shrimp and amino acids.
I’ve been having a clown fish for last 3 years and I noticed that salt water fish are very mindful. If I put new Hermit crabs or snail in the aquarium, she come to see them and stop right in front of them, staring at them but looks like greeting, or communicating each other, asking ‘who are you?’. If I come close to the tank, she come to me and dance, asking for FOOD! As the feeding work comes every day, I also learned when she is full. She starts making less effort to get the food when she is full, and that is the sign that I stop feeding each time. She eats shrimps from frozen int he morning, and eat pellets afternoon.
Different behavior after water change
One day, when I finished regular water change. I looked at the tank as I usually do after the water change, and saw her hiding between wall and rock. I’d never seen that behavior, and scared me if she isn’t feeling well. She was hiding and trying to not move, her top fin was down. Good thing my daughter was taking video of the water change, so we could look at back what caused her the behaving. It was the new powerhead, she jumped into there to hide as soon as I plugged in. So I unplugged it right away and waited, and then she came out from there. I thought now it’s all good and I turned on the powerhead again, and she hides again. So I turned it off again. On that day, I eventually left the powerhead off for half day.
Here is the video of the water change and clown fish.
I’ve been using the wave maker for 2 years, the one that is built in Fluval Evo 13.5. It makes gentle flow, however the flow isn’t enough. It eventually created build up algae. Red slime algae every where, green algae grew up on the wall, yellow and brown stuff staying on the sand, Corals are catching green or red algae, helter-skelter mess! I removed red slime algae with Red Slime Algae Remover, I changed cleaning up routine, decluttered the aquarium. It seemed clean right after the water change, however it didn’t take for so long till I get yellow stuff back on the sand. It was all yellow around within 24 hours after the water change.
I figured out that the aquarium doesn’t have enough flow. So I decided to add wave maker. At first, I ordered one on Amazon.
It was great price and it was delivered in 2 days! However I totally missed to check the size. It was way too big, so I ran to the pet store to find smaller one. I should probably had done this first.
Anyways, I bought AQUATOP Max Flow MCP-1.
Difference after installed Wave Maker
It’s totally different after adding wave maker! It was worth money and work to do it. Compared built in powerhead, it seemed a little too strong for my tank. However, my clown fish seems happy, corals are cleaner, dust on the live rocks are going away. The biggest difference was the next morning. I didn’t see the yellow and brown stuff on the sand any more, because the water is constantly moving! I’m very happy for this addition.
How to choose Wave Maker
When you search waver maker, there are many kind of wave maker or powerhead. The most important thing is to watch is the Flow Rate. If you choose too big GPH, the wave is going to be too strong in the aquarium. It might cause sand storm, and you don’t want to blow your fish. The best way to check the right size is to see the box or labels. If you can not find it, you can calculate as 15 x your aquarium size. For example, if your aquarium is 50gal,
My Fluval Evo 13.5 is about 2.5 years now, and there were build up mess. Red slime algae, green algae, green hair algae grew up on the live rock, wall, and even on the sand. Green Star Polyps grew up 3 times bigger in 2 years, and clown fish grew up bigger than anemone! When I upgraded my aquarium from Fluval Spec V (5 gal) to my current Fluval Evo 13.5, there were lots of space. I had cleaner shrimp and one clown fish at that time and they had enough swim area. However they grow and I had to declutter my Fluval Evo.
New Fluval Evo Set Up
Current issue of Fluval Evo
Red Slime Algae
Green Algae
Green Hair Algae
Aiptasia
Not enough swim space
Too much dust in the sand and on the rocks
Odd smell when I vacuum sand
Red Slime Algae
I worked on the Red Slime Algae first. It was making looks bad in the aquarium and not healthy for fish and corals there. I was sucking them up manually with dropper, however I acknowledged that it can not catch up! So I decided to use Red Slime Algae Remover. I was concerned what if it affect fish and coral… however it was all fine and all Red Slime Algae was gone in 2 weeks!
Clean Up Crew
Now I know Clean Up Crew is crucial to keep the aquarium clean. The store I got all my salt water aquarium and fish didn’t have any snail or crabs, so I didn’t get them when I started. The store closed down after and I didn’t know anywhere to buy anything about salt water aquarium until a few months ago. One day I found a store that has Snail and Hermit Crabs for salt water aquarium and I could finally add them! It worked like magic, the green algae was gone by snails and sand and rocks got cleaner by Hermit Crabs. Hermit Crabs even eat left over from fish, so the water quality can stay cleaner as well. Currently I have 5 Hermit Crabs, 2 Turbo snails, and 1 bamboo bee snail in my Fluval Evo 13.5 gal aquarium.
Hermit crab cleaning up Snail’s shell
Remove a live rock and deep clean up
It was hard to decide but I decided to remove one of big rock from aquarium. It was the biggest and I had it since my fist aquarium, but it had most green algae and clatter on it. So I decided to take off. In the same time, I removed all rock once and rinsed them in the fresh water quickly, and then deep clean the sand. The aquarium was like dust storm while cleaning up. However it seems a lot better after, there are more space to swim. Now I see the wave is too weak, I’m ordering new wavemaker to increase the flow.
soaking in Peroxide.
Aiptasia
Aiptasia started one day, it was only one when I noticed, however I didn’t know what that is at that time. I thought it’s pretty, I had no idea that was later spread whole my aquarium! I started seeing it stanging my clownfish, so I decided to get rid of them. I used Aiptasia Rx, it works instant and kills the aiptasia. However I could not use some of them that was too close to anemone. So now I’m ordering peppermint shrimp to eat them! Now it’s time to be patient….
Review my cleaning up routine
Beside all the work, I’m reviewing my cleaning up routine. It has been 5 gal water change every week, however it build up this mess. So now I increased the water change to twice/week, and will do the deep clean up the sand monthly. Hope it decrease all the issue. I will update later.
If you see something red/purple covering the live rock, sand, and corals, that is the Red Slime Algae. It expand in the aquarium and it could damage the corals as well. Red Slime Algae is type of bacteria called “Cyanobacteria”. Cyanobacteria grows in the aquarium when waste levels include both phosphate and nitrate are elevated, and fills up int the tank. If your aquariums is leading the Red Slime Algae, you want to review the water circulation, light bulb as well.
How to get rid of Red Slime Algae
You can suck them up with dropper if it comes off from surface, however you probably won’t be able to catch up. If Red Slime Algae are filling up your tank, you need to consider to use a helper. I decided to use Red Slime Stain Remover to get rid of Red Slime Algae in my aquarium.
I mixed it in a small cup with water, and then drop it into the tank where the flow is. It’s yellow and I can see the yellow thing spread into the aquarium water. I was worried if it might harm fish or coral, but they all were fine. I didn’t see much change first 3 days. About one week after, I started to see some rooms between Red Slime Algae and rocks. Some were getting loose from the surface and I could suck them up easily. However there were still Red left around. So I decided to add the second batch after one week. It worked as visible! Some left over Red on the Rock, which was not thick enough to come off or suck them up, I could see the “Red” just started to fade out! It took about 2-3 days to be completely disappear but it was all gone after.
Red Slime Stain Remover also worked brown colour algae.
Aquarium Days 