Mistakes, errors and general changesThis is my blob page, where I will discuss the errors and difficulties I have had.
1. First major concern has been the appearance of little green nudibranchs eating my zoas. Did some research and asking around to find out what was going on. Need to get them out quickly. Took zoas out and gave them a dip where possible. Got a lot out. Needed to check the aquarium regularly but seemed to get them all after a couple of weeks. 2. Pipe came off return pump and managed to throw water all over the power supply for my TMC tiles, thought I had placed them safely, obviously not. 3. Bought a pincushion urchin. Did research first and thought it would be interesting and safe. It is actually both of these but seems to want to rescape my reef regularly. Often find things knocked over and have to replace them. Also decorates himself with zoas and even small hermits and snails. Eats coralline algae. Have decided he is worth it! 4. Biggest mistake to date is buying my Lemon Peel angel. Beautiful fish and looked wonderful in my reef. Research suggested their might be some risk with eating coral polyps but decided to risk it. Mistake!! First couple of months, no problem. Then I started to see corals suffering, not opening and looking a bit poorly. Checked water parameters, all OK. Saw angel pecking at corals and decided he was the culprit. Spent a couple of frustrating months trying to trap and catch him. Impossible. Had to strip the reef to get him out. Thought I would catch a rogue crab that had caused some problems. Took rocks out poked into the holes and crevices, found nothing. Set up reef and two days later the crab was waving at me!!! 5. Have lost another coral to nudibranchs! Much larger this time. White and pink, quite attractive but once again destructive. Picked out a couple of dozen over the space of a week. 6. Not sure if this is a mistake but I'd rather it wasn't there! A big hitchhiker crab. There since setup and can't get him out. Not sure if he has caused damage or not. He is a bit of a monster but has got character. Would rather he was in the sump! Tried hard to trap him. Catch everything else but!! At last he came out and I got him. Now resident in the sump. 7. Tried to introduce a second yellow goby but didn't realise just how territorial they were. Second goby eventually disappeared without trace. Sad. 8. Whilst cleaning the skimmer and filter sock I knocked the down pipes and loosened it from the bulkhead fitting. A while later I heard dripping and had flooded the base of my cabinet. Fortunately I found it before too much damage done. Pleased I painted the inside of the cabinet with yacht varnish on setup. 9. As the reef has developed I have realised the aquascaping doesn't always lend itself to the best placement of corals. If I was starting again I would relook at the way I did the aquascaping to create more small shelves on which to place corals. 10. Would have looked at putting the sump onto a layer of sponge as this might cut out some of the noise caused by the return pump. It is not bad but I am aware it is there. 11. Would have put taps onto both the return pump and the downpipe into the sump. This would have helped when turning off the pumps for maintenance and also when needing to clean the sump. 12. Have added a Bubble Magus protein skimmer. Much better. Removes a lot more unwanted rubbish and is very easy to clean and maintain. A big improvement. 13 .As you can see on the left I have found employing a small person to check that the sump and the skimmer are working properly is a real help. Saves on bending down! 14. After well over 5 years I have developed a hair algae bloom. I think this is down to a minor maintenance issues as well as a lack of knowledge about the slow and gradual build up of unseen detritus in the tank. Some refer to this as Old tank Syndrome. Back to Starting my reef
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