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.
If you have your child or teach children, this is fun to make. I had empty reptile aquarium that my beard dragon was using when she was baby. it’s a 20 gal tank and has light kit as well. I cleaned inside, and switch the light bulb to regular light from UVB and heater bulbs.
I had beard dragon skin that she shedded, cherry shrimp and Amano shrimp skin from fresh water aquarium, and dried live rock and sand, some shells from salt water aquarium. Children have been having fun to watch and talk to tank friends. Some older children enjoy reading when I place who they are and what they do.
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.
Aquarium Days 