reef tank

Take a break…

Sometimes it’s good to take a break. Sometimes you’re so fed up with something, that you literally have to leave it for some time. However, it’s really hard, when it comes to living animals, particularly when you spent a lot of money on them. But sometimes you feel, you really must take a break. That’s why I disappeared from social media for the last few months.

11th November is a special day for me, not only because we celebrate the Polish Independence Day, but also because my reefkeeping adventure began on 11th November 2016, so over a week ago I celebrated my fourth year in this wonderful hobby and almost 15 years in fishkeeping (excluding the short period when I had a freshwater tank as a child and when mostly my dad was taking care of it). Well, that’s a pretty long time, so it’s normal, that sometimes you may feel burned out and need to revise your hobby and life goals, because it’s almost impossible to have such an absorbing and time-consuming hobby without any influence on the rest of your everyday life.

Setting up and doing some hardscape in my first reef tank. This day the adventure began

In the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, when the lockdown started I was pretty optimistic, because I finally had much more of free time, which was enough to take care of my tank properly. I’ve made a lot of maintenance duties, which I planned for so long time, including cleaning my sump, changing the protein skimmer for the bigger one and switching the biological medium from over 5 liters of Aquaforest Life Bio Fil to Maxspect Nano-Tech Bio-Sphere, which is by the way absolutely amazing. After that I wanted to develop my little business, adding some new products to my offer, but the problems started to appear one after another. As some of you probably know, I was in the last year of my PhD studies and I was told by my tutor that I have to focus 100% on my thesis, work, publishing articles and other activities, if I want to be hired at my university after the graduation. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic I wasn’t able to finish the most significant part of my research. Additionally, after the talk with the dean of my faculty it turned out that there is absolutely no chance to hire me and to extend the course of my studies for an extra year, unless I resign from the scholarship which was the main source of my income. That’s how the little financial problems began and in conjunction with the pandemic almost killed The Coral Cafe’s business activity. I was so upset with my professional situation, that I lost my heart to almost everything, including my tank. The care was limited only to necessary maintenance activities. In the meantime I bought a new fish – Tuka Anthias, which turned out to be very problematic, because it didn’t want to eat any kind of frozen food, so I had to breed live Brine Shrimp to feed it. When the fish finally died, my phosphates hit almost 1 ppm, because of the tons of food I was trying to offer to it and caused the death of many of my corals, including Caulastrea, Lobophyllias and Euphyllias, some SPS and Acans. When I saw my corals dying, I was close to quitting the hobby. That’s mainly why I stop posting on Instagram, making YouTube videos, etc. I stopped taking care of what is going on in my tank and let it live its own life. I just started to look for the possibilities of selling my tank with all the fish, corals and equipment and maybe starting another, less stressful hobby. I got back to model making, playing some computer games (War Thunder and Kerbal Space Program), I even interested myself in model rocketry, reviving some old projects in the field of programming and electronics.

This break was an absolute necessity, because it let me discover a very important thing – no matter, what I did, I was thinking of my tank, new corals, fish and possible upgrades almost all the time. I realised that without this hobby, something is missing in my life. Something important. And that’s how, thankfully, one day the change has come… I decided to get back to reefkeeping, but first of all I wanted to simplify everything and remember the basics. I run my tank mostly on Aquaforest products, so I found the products’ guide, read it carefully and decided to make the ICP-OES test and stop dosing anything, excluding AF Balling solutions (Component 1+, 2+ and 3+). Unfortunately my corals were still dying, so I got back to dose strontium, iron and iodine, but as I found out later – it was the effect of elevated phosphates. Therefore, I stopped it immediately and I concentrated only on water changes, doing them twice a week and changing 15% of my water weekly. I also tried to stick to the Aquaforest method as close as possible.

Firstly, the regular water changes helped me to stabilise my parameters. Secondly, Maxspect Nano-Tech Bio-Sphere medium, which replaced the majority of Aquaforest Life Bio Fil, definitely stabilised the biological processes and saved some space in my sump (one of the chambers was fully loaded with Life Bio Fil, while now only 300 ml of this medium is left – the rest was replaced by 1.5 kg of miraculous Maxspect balls). Now I’m very close to stabilising my tank, corals started to grow again (including the huge Seriatopora hystrix, which I accidentally broke during one of the water changes, which forced me to cut it, leaving only a few branches – so depressing!) and I fall in love with my little piece of the ocean again. The only thing I’m still struggling with is the level of nitrates, which for now is too low, so I’m trying to raise it, testing one of my new products.

In the meantime I’ve read a couple of great books about start-ups and people who really succeed in their lives, which taught me that the most important thing in life is to follow your dreams – they know the way. Immediately, I remembered all the joy from posting on Instagram, blog, developing my products and sharing them with other hobbyists, making YouTube videos and just observing my tank. Maybe I said it before, but once again I want to get back to all of this and maybe even to make reefkeeping the way of my life. This time with no hurry, just to share my passion with others.

So… I’m back!

Greetings,
Adam

By TheCoralCafe, ago

What exactly happened to me and my tank?

Well, the Reefkeeper’s life is a sine wave… Once your tank thrives, exploding with colors, making you proud of it and once it looks like a decaying matter, the corals are dying and you cannot find out why. This post will be about the last two months of my reefkeeping adventure and why I promised to make some videos and podcast and they are still not issued.

My tank after a series of crashes and death of some corals

At the end of May my tank looked really amazing and I was so proud that after a few months of stagnation the corals started to color and grow like crazy. Unfortunately a few weeks later everything crashed and I really can’t find the reason. Some of my corals simply started to die one day. The first thing I did was buying an ICP test to check, if everything was ok with the water. When the results were ready I’ve analysed them carefully, but almost everything was perfect, maybe except of the shortage of some trace elements (cobalt, molybdenum, etc.), relatively low level of iodine and pretty high phosphates (0.616 ppm). I’ve corrected the levels gradually, but with no effect to my corals. In the meantime I added a new fish – Tuka Anthias, which still does not eat the frozen food, so I have to breed my own live plankton (brine shrimp nauplii), which is the only food this fish eats. In the beginning I fed it heavily with different types of frozen food, what probably resulted is an immediate increase of phosphates. My test kit was showing 0.03 ppm, so I decided to buy Hanna Instrument Checker. The first test has shown 0.63 ppm, so extremely high and that was probably the main reason of my corals death.

  • One of the most painful loses – my Caulastrea furcata
  • Luckily these spotted mushrooms grow pretty good
  • Definitely the biggest SPS coral in my tank

I lost over 50 polyps of green Caulastrea, some of my Acans and Lobophyllias and the rest of my corals are in pretty bad condition. I’m still struggling and trying to improve the water quality by more frequent water changes (20 l two times a week, which is a bit over 10% of my system’s volume; in a typical maintenance schedule I made one 20 l water change, which was probably too less to remove all the nutrients). I also adjusted and cleaned my protein skimmer, add 1 kg of Maxspect Nano-Tech Bio-Spheres and improve the spectrum of my lights by adding 2 T5 bulbs (ATI True Actinic and ATI Blue Plus). Now I’m acclimating my system and gradually increase the lighting time and reducing the power of white LEDs in my lamp. Hopefully all of these changes and improvements will help. My corals look a little bit better now, but there’s still a lot to do. And basically that’s the main reason, why I stop to post photos on Instagram and Facebook, making YouTube videos, blog posts and other social media stuff. When your tank is going bad, you simply spend every single moment of your free time to help it and make it better – I’ve watched tons of YouTube videos on how to deal with these problems (BRS TV was particularly useful) and spend hours on reading forums and articles in the Internet. Now, when the things are getting better I hope to get back, so stay tuned and see you soon on my social media channels!

Greetings,
Adam

By TheCoralCafe, ago

How to make a DIY aquarium lid from a mosquito net?

Today’s post is going to be pretty short, but it will be stocked with photos and it’s actually the first DIY post in my life. I could do a video, but to be honest, making a 10-minute movie about cutting some aluminium profiles into pieces and joining them with pieces of plastic seems to be pretty boring and senseless to me, so finally I decided to make some photos and share them on my blog in a form of a DIY instruction.

Some of you probably know, that in the beginning of this week I bought a new goby and another fish (let it be a surprise, which I show you soon on my YouTube channel). Unfortunately both of them are very vigorous fish and may jump out of the tank, while my piece of the ocean is an open-top tank with no cover or lid. In the past I used to cover my previous tank with a piece of net, which I bought in the Internet. It was actually a dense mesh, so I covered both the tank and my lamp, to let the light go straight into my nanoreef, without any obstacles like a piece of fabric between them. When I brought my new fish home I realised, that I need to cover my tank somehow and then I remembered about the old mosquito net, which I got some time ago from my parents in-law. They bought it to cover the window, but it turned out to be to small for it, so they didn’t know, what to do with it, so I, as an enthusiast of DIY decided to take it and use it in my tank.

There are many high-end and very aesthetically looking covers and lids available on the market or even these awesome acrylic lids made on demand exactly for your tank, but why don’t to use the old mosquito net, which I got for free? Here’s how I turned it into really nice looking aquarium lid.

To make a lid from an old mosquito net I needed:

  • an old mosquito net (which was too small for my parents in-law window);
  • some aluminum profiles and other stuff to make a frame (provided with the mosquito net – to fit it to the window);
  • pencil, measure and ruler;
  • a couple of various clamps;
  • hand saw, file and Dremel-type rotary tool with cutting wheels and 2 mm drill;
  • sharp knife or scalpel;
  • a solid mug of coffee 😁

The concept was pretty simple – to make a frame from the elements included in the set and span the mosquito net on it. The set contained 4 aluminium profiles (2 x 100 cm and 2 x 120 cm), 4 corner joints, a piece of felt strap, 4 pieces of plastic to clip the spanned net and some elements to mount the whole mosquito net to the window, which in this case are useless (photos 1 and 2).

  • Mosquito net, which will be turned into the aquarium lid
  • Elements from the set

My aquarium is 100 cm long and 50 cm wide, so the first step was cutting the profiles to the desired length (photo 3). Here it is important to take into account the length of corner joints, particularly when we want to fit the lid inside the top wooden frame. Therefore, I put one of the joints into the profile and the second one on the top of it to mark the cut line (photos 4-6). Then I cut the profile with a simple hand saw, smoothed the edges with file, put the second joint into its place and checked, if the lenght of this part of the frame was correct (photos 7 and 8). I did the same with the other profiles, cutting them to the desired length.

  • The profiles were too long, so it was necessary to cut them
  • One of the corner joints on its place during fitting the profile to the wooden frame
  • The second joint, placed on the top of the profile to mark the cut line
  • Cut line marked
  • Profile after cutting
  • The front part of the frame – ready and fitting

After cutting all the profiles I disassembled the long parts of the frame and assembled the short ones, because I realised, that I have to cut out pieces of profiles from the middle of both side parts to make place for the mounts of my lamp and make the lid easy to open (photos 9-11). Before cutting out the pieces I drilled the holes with 2 mm drill to round the corners and then I used my rotary tool with cutting wheel to cut the profiles (photos 12 and 13). When everything fitted perfectly I assembled the frame into a whole (photo 14).

  • All profiles cutted down to the desired length
  • Frame with short parts assembled
  • Short part of the frame placed under the lamp mount
  • Cutting out a piece of profile to enable the opening of the lid
  • Short part of the frame ready
  • Assembled frame

When the frame was ready it was time to span the net, but first of all I added a felt strap on the outer edges of the frame (photo 15). Then I spanned the net, cliped it using clamps and pushed the plastic pieces into the grooves in the frame to finally attach the net, spanning it a little bit more before pushing the clip and removing clamps one after another (photo 16). The final step was cutting the excessive net off using the sharp knife or scalpel (photo 17). You can see the final effect in the last photo.

  • Frame with felt strap
  • Spanning the net
  • Almost ready lid with spanned net
  • The final effect – ready lid after cutting off the excessive net

Finally the lid was mounted over my tank and I have to say, that I’m satisfied with the effect. It do not stop too much light and is dense enough to prevent even the smallest fish from jumping out of the tank.

I hope you enjoyed this first DIY post on my blog and if you have any questions or ideas for the future DIY posts, just let me know in the comments.

Yours,
Adam

By TheCoralCafe, ago

On how I became an aquarist

It seems, that the greatest problem of having a hobby is to find enough time for it. And honestly, there’s never enough time for things you just like to do.

However, finally I found some time to stop being anonymous and to write this post. I’ve said, that reefkeeping and aquaristic is one of the greatest hobbies of my life a countless number of times, but I’ve never said how it all began, so today I want to share the story about me getting into fishkeeping!  Everything began when I was something about five or six years old and when I got my first tank from my father and godfather, but actually this story starts much earlier – from my great-grandfather Józef, who was literally obsessed with animals. He had a lot of them, starting from birds (yeah, particularly pigeons, because keeping pigeons was a very popular hobby in Silesia, Poland then and there are still people, who keep pigeons nowadays, take part in pigeon races like my great-grandfather and so on) and ending on fish. When I said my great-grandfather was obsessed with animals I mean… really obsessed – when he kept pigeons, he had a small house for them, when he had birds – there were a lot of birdcages in his flat, when he was into fishkeeping – he had many tanks (a three-level cupboard full of aquariums). The biggest of them, as my grandmother (his daughter) said, needed 25 buckets of water to be fully filled, so I guess it had to be like 250 liters. And obviously they were all not the “typical aquariums”, which you could met these times. My great-grandfather kept and bred neon tetras, angelfish, guppies and black mollies, what wasn’t popular and easy in those days. And being into something meant for him really INTO – tons of books, meetings with other hobbyists, hundreds of fails and trials. My grandma used to tell me, that I act exactly like him – when I get interested in something I do it with all passion and commitment, trying to keep everything as high-end as possible, spending a lot of time and… money. How irritating this could be, only my wife, parents and brother can tell.

But getting back to the main plot of this story – in my first 12-liter tank I kept some easy fish, like guppies, black mollies and green swordtails. I even bred some of them successfully (mainly guppies), which was a great adventure. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photo of my fish and my first tank and I don’t know any Polish child from 1990s, who took photos of fish just for fun. And honestly, mainly my dad was the person, who took care of this tank. I was a child, so I was still learning and getting bored almost as fast, as I got interested in something. After a few years I quitted fishkeeping just because many of my friends had hamsters and so I wanted to have one. That’s why my fish were replaced with a hamster for almost 3 years, followed by a few years break, when I had no animal.

But getting back to the main plot of this story – in my first 12-liter tank I kept some easy fish, like guppies, black mollies and green swordtails. I even bred some of them successfully (mainly guppies), which was a great adventure. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photo of my fish and my first tank and I don’t know any Polish child from 1990s, who took photos of fish just for fun. And honestly, mainly my dad was the person, who took care of this tank. I was a child, so I was still learning and getting bored almost as fast, as I got interested in something. After a few years I quitted fishkeeping just because many of my friends had hamsters and so I wanted to have one. That’s why my fish were replaced with a hamster for almost 3 years, followed by a few years break, when I had no animal.

However, if you soaked your hands in aquarium once, this hobby gets back to you all the time. And so it was in my case – on the first year of my middle school I decided to get back to fishkeeping, having no idea how much have changed in this hobby, since I was a child. Everything started again from getting some fish from my friends for Birthday. I knew, that I would got them, so I have my tank prepared, but I didn’t expect what I would get. They gave me some simple filter, heater and 2 shark catfish. I kept them for a few weeks in my old 12-liter tank having literally no idea how big these fish can grow and how much space they need…

Well, a very bad idea of a young, excited, but poorly educated aquarist. They were so stressed that they passed away soon and then I made a lot of similar mistakes again, experimenting with some cichlids. Finally I ended up frustrated, so I bought a couple of guppies and I was so happy, that I was able to breed these simple and colorful fish. For almost 2 years I had a little hatchery of this species, running 2 tanks (12l and 3l) and a number of small 1l containers for the smallest fry. I event sold some of them to different local fish stores, earning some extra money. In the meantime I kept also 3 betta fish, but on the third year of my middle school the time for something bigger has finally came.

My first “bigger” tank – 96l, which I got for Christmas

I got a 96-liter tank for Christmas and that was the true beginning of my real fascination with fish and underwater life. I got back to keeping some cichlids, neon tetras, I’ve even bred some green swordfish. I’ve started to test my water and learn all this stuff about different species, biotopes, hardware… I even took part in a national aquaristc knowledge competition, getting to the finals. But there was always something missing. Once I’ve started to google out, if is it possible to keep clownfish at home. I was surprised, that there are people, who have these amazing nanoreefs in their houses, with corals, all these colorful fish, snails, shrimps and so on. But my dreams burned down after the first visit in a specialised reef store and estimation of the costs of turning my 96l tank into a piece of the reef. That was why I decided to stay freshwater and after death of my cichlids I bought a new fish – shark catfish. This time it had more space, but over 5 years it grew so big – it was about 30 cm long, that there was not enough space for it again. I’ve made probably the first responsible decision in my fishkeeping career – I decided to give my shark catfish to other fishkeeper, who had a lot of experience with this species and own a 1200l tank, where it definitely would have enough space forever.

And here comes the climax – after giving my shark catfish to the better place I decided to change my tank into a planted tank with the biotope of Asian river – lots of dragon stone and plants. I found a cool shop in the Internet – they had almost everything I needed, so I decided to check, where they are located, just for fun. And guess what! It turned out, that the shop is situated no more than 500 m from my home! I went for a short walk, to check if they really are there, I entered it for the first time and I just couldn’t believe my eyes! What I saw totally amazed me – a 3000l display tank, full of corals and marine fish. I was so surprised, that I started to talk with the staff and it was the beginning of kinda friendship with those people. That visit changed my life and my plans for the future – I went in planning to buy some rocks, plants and freshwater fish and went out with head full of plans for my first nanoreef. A few months later I changed my old tank to the bigger one (162l with filtration panel), spent a lot of money on hardware, live rock, corals, fish and that’s how my reefkeeping adventure has started.

My first nanoreef – 162l tank with filtration panel, right after filling it with water

I wrote the weekly updates, take photos of my tank and upload them to one of the biggest Polish reefkeeping forums (link to my diary with photostory). Then I bought a DSLR to make better photos, I started to create YouTube videos and to post my photos on Instagram. After 1,5 year of gaining experience and learning from more advanced reefkeepers I got married and moved my tank to my own flat, using this opportunity to change it to the bigger one (my present 250l tank with 100l sump). But it was still not enough. I felt, that I learned a lot and I just have to share this knowledge and my passion with others. I also started a little company, producing my own supplements for reef tanks.
And here I am – writing the first post on my blog, with head full of ideas and tank filling up with corals and other marine life! I hope to stay here longer and share the greatest hobby of my life with you. Let’s take part in this adventure together!

Yours,
Adam

My first nanoreef with corals a few days before moving all the life to my present tank (I just realised, that I have no full tank photo of my 250l nanoreef :P)
By TheCoralCafe, ago