EP03 - Introduction of my New Scape and Fish to my Reef Tank - Day 118

The past month was filled with too many changes and experiments on my reefing method and maintenance schedule. Its been a stressful time for the corals and fish but I've finally locked down a balance between my work, hobby, and youtube.

I'll share my learning points in this description for reading after you watch the video, so the video can be a calming immersive experience instead of having to read titles like in my last video format.

Reef Tank Diary Learning Points

00:00 Moved my tank to the opposite side of the room.
Brother moved out so I have more space.

00:12 Used NYOS test kits to understand the water chemistry.
I tested daily and found 25ppm of nitrate and 0.2ppm of phosphate while the tank was still new. After dosing 3 drops of Fauna Marin Bacto Energy (carbon dosing) every morning and night, my nutrients have stabilized at 5ppm nitrate and 0.1ppm phosphate. I then used RowaPhos in my filter compartment to lower my phosphate further down to 0.05ppm (tested with a ULR Hanna checker I borrowed from my neighbour because the NYOS test kit is hard to read below 0.08ppm). I am still experimenting with Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium dosing of 10 drops of PolypLab One and RedSea Magnesium Foundation every morning and night. I hope to switch to all Fauna Marin products eventually because I like to have the same branding on all my products hahaha.

00:17 Lots of Fauna Marin products for fish, corals, and water chemistry.
Last week, I saw a white spot on Hite, my male clownfish. I thought it was Ich but it was probably just a bruise from fighting with Pickle my Yellow Corris Wrasse. But to be safe, I am trying Fauna Marin Food Energizer to load my frozen mysis fish food with some vitamins before feeding the fish. I also dose 3 drops of Bacto Energy (carbon source for bacteria) and Amin (amino acids for corals to uptake) by Fauna Marin. For coral food, I have been trying a mix of MIN S and LPS Grow + Color by Fauna Marin, as well as PolypLab Reef Roids.

00:19 3D printed my own AI Prime 16HD diffuser design.
I hope to test this a bit more and start selling them. Drop me a message on my instagram channel @ScapingSam if you're interested.

00:50 My hammer corals have become unwilling hosts of my clownfish Cass and Hite.
So I looked for a bigger colony of cheap green hammer corals from a fellow reefer in the East. And magically, they both loved it instantly. A week after this was filmed, 2 heads of the hammer coral have died from the stress of hosting but now Hite likes the skeleton so I am leaving it there. Also to my surprise, torch corals seem even easier to keep happy than hammer corals.

01:13 Introducing all my fish again.
Cass is my dominant female clownfish and Hite is my male clownfish. Pickle is my new Yellow Corris Wrasse and Christopher is the Yellow Head Jawfish. I've had him since the beginning with Cass and Hite. Christopher has such a big personality and his cave building behaviour is fascinating to watch. I learnt from him that jawfish need small pebbles scattered around the outside of his cave so that they can bring them inside or reinforce the outside of their cave. He layers the rocks and sand together so the structure stays in place quite well. I also realised he prefers caves with really small entrances instead of a big one. Cass and Hite have chased him out of too big a cave I made with the rocks last time.

That is it for a really brief summary of the last few months(?) of no reef tank updates. I'll be trying to do a fortnightly upload of a short form video like this. The tank upgrades have not begun yet but do stay tuned for that!