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The Obsession, The Masterpiece


pschom

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So I finally got some time to start a personal Tank thread. Firts let me say THANK YOU to everyone on this site who has given me any advice, or said anything about anything that I could Google and read coherrently! Without you people I would have NEVER continued this hobby and became obsessed with it like I am today. I truly would have given up on the 3 Gallon JBJ Picotope that a crappy LFS sold me; along with bad advice and outrageous prices (more on them later). So again, here's my thread. I will try and place specific terms and names of stuff in here so anyone looking for advice on what...and what not...to do can search for them. Also, anyone looking, I welcome your thoughts on what I am still doing wrong, or how I can improve my current state of things. Thanks Again!

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This is how it all began. 3 gallon JBJ Picotope with 9 watt PC light. I got this from an LFS who sold it to me for (gasp) $160 including sand and rocks. I could probably put a 3 gallon together for like $30 +/- with better lighting. Anyway it was cool to give as a present to my wife. Of course I ended up attempting to maintain it. BTW failing miserably on controlling parameters due to the following: newbiness, too much livestock, overfeeding, poor filtration, and most importantly not enough water for all that crap. I put one hairy mushroom in there and the poor thing turned brown in a couple weeks and looked like death. But the fish were cool so I kept asking questions.

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After about 5 months of buying this and that to try and get the nutrient levels down, testing everyweek for Nitrates only to be amaized that they were still around 120, and trying to cram more livestock in there only to watch it die...my wife and I decided to drop nearly $1000 on a Biocube 29 (BC29) HQI (Halide). Let me say this again: Without this website I would have packed up and ran long before that. So thanks. Ok, so I spent about a month researching reviews and looking at pricing. We finally found one on Craig's List. The guy wanted $750 for the following: BC 29 HQI w stand, Fully stocked with Fiji rocks and Black 'Volcanic sand' (more on that later), several LPS and shrooms (ricordia) and one SPS, three blennys, a Watchman Goby and mated Pistol Shrimp, and a Yellow Goby. All of which I knew nothing about but what the hell... Also came with RO/DI filter and kit, suppliments and all that, two other tanks for possible Refugium (whatever that meant ;) and pumps, hoses and alll kinds of stuff I knew nothing about. But I did know how much all of that cost so I bought it for $750. STEAL!!! Anyway, my first experiance with a real tank came in the form of breaking the whole thing down, cramming it into buckets and into the back of a loaned station wagon and hauling it from VA to MD...then setting it all back up that same night. I'm glad I don't keep bullets in the house. First pic is of the tank before I moved it from the sellers location. Bad pic but there was so much bad algae ( 'from my roommate overfeeding' ) that I didn't know what I was in for.

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A word on filtration and substrate. First, when I picked this up the seller was using natural, or biological filtration with Mangroves, Chaeto, live rock rubble and so on. All of this was placed in the rear, middle, chamber of the Biocube HQI 29. And while it looked and sounded really cool...it was not. I will say it was great for pods and the like, but there was little to no filtration. I really think for a true refugium to work it needs to be in a seperate tank and more than three gallons with significantly more lighting...IMO. There was also this black almost pebble type of substrate which I was told was from one big 'volcanic' rock which he blended in an actual blender to create what you see in the pic. My thoughts: it looked cool at the time because I had never seen black substrate. However, since the addition of Tahitian Moon Black Sand substrate the old sub looked like crap. I believe it also had trace elements of bad metals that crippled several SPS frags. More about the skimmer next. Some pics.

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So I purchased an Aquaticlife Mini Skimmer 115. I placed it in the first chamber. This did not work at first. I recommend the following: Place it in tank, run it for about a week and adjust the knob during that time until you get a steady flow of bubbles, after a week take it out and take it apart, wipe down everything and rinse it off, replace in chamber 1, do not fully submerge (you must place bottom bracket on the skimmer under the water inside the chamber), Run for another week adjusting the flow until you get a slow bubble accumulation and start to see 'chunks.' Hope that helps some one. I believe that after a month or even more, this thing does help water quality and overall tank happiness. Some pics.

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During my first few months with the BC 29 HQI, I had some set backs, and down right NEWB ideas that did not work.

 

#1. The Water: Quality sucked and this was mainly due to inherited issues from the seller. More on that later

#2. The Jawfish: He was cool and also inherited. But like all other Jawfish (which I learned the hard way) he liked to jump and explore. He was MIA forever and Nitrates were high of course so naturally I thought he was dead and decomposing under a rock somewhere. I would later find him in the back chambers real thin with half a tail. Lesson learned about the fish and the fact that its easy as hell for a fish to jump over there.

#3. The Monti: So, as obvious as it is to some...I learned that Montipora cannot survive in crappy water with 50+ Nitrates etc.... Took about a week for it to start bleaching. Pic is right after I placed it so looked good.

#4. Everyone wants an Anemone: Bad part is THEY DON'T BELONG IN A SMALL REEF TANK. If you can, then good for you. Mine just went all over the place stinging everything and eventually ended up in the most inopportune place. I took him back. Took a week or more for the tank to fully recover.

#5. Fragging: My first attempt at fragging explained why people invest $10 in frag racks. It looked dumb as hell and I lost nearly everything i attempted to glue onto LR rubble. See pic of rocks in front of tank.

And Finally #6. Biocube HQI gets HOT AS SH!T. Period. You will need a chiller. You will also need to know how to plumb it correctly, or risk all the water winding up on your carpet and staining it and ####### your wife off and frustrating you at 3 AM to the point of jumping out a window........ Trust me about the chiller. There were many problems with things dying and all kinds of algae and poor everything because it was like 90+ degrees for nearly 4 days straight. True story about the flood. Some pics.

 

What Didn't Work Continued:

 

With the addition of new coral frags I was told to dip...of course I did not dip. This was an obvious mistake. I was soon overtaken by green and red Flatworms. I mean there were thousands of them all over everything. Some of the LR was so covered that you couldn't even see it. Disgusting. I eventually used Salifert Flatworm Exit which worked amaizingly great and never had another issue. More on that later.

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So moving on to things that DID in fact work out well in the first few months of the HQI.

 

#1. Addition of the Chiller. Picked one up for like $100, again on Craigs List. I use 1/10 HP Arctica Chiller. I plumed it with flexible hose. I am plannning to plumb the right way using PVC, but I know nothing about plumbing so its taking longer than it should. This addition is a shear investment and will make any system maintain stability. I wouuld have never known that a 2 degree tempurature change would make the tank act different.

#2. Shrooms, Ricordia, and War Coral: These three proved resilliant to any temp issues, Nitrates, or anything else that came their way. While they did not propogate under adverse conditions, they stayed nice and grew...most importantly they didn't die.

#3. Porceline (spelling) Crabs: They are so great looking, so active, so diverse and colorful and add something to any tank. And they are also resiliant to adverse conditions. I have lost several crabs, snails and shrimps. These crabs are always out doin their thing and never show signs of stress.

#4. I'm puting this because it is one hardy SPS! While it did loose some color, this pink (now slightly pink orange) stood up to nitrates above 50 and temps upwards of 92 degrees. Always with great polyp extension. Again, it didn't grow, but its still alive and I have even fragged it a little since. pic shows polyps in as I had just placed it in the tank from the LFS.

 

Almost forgot. This Anemone Shrimp has been with me from the start of this HQI and has never ever looked bad, stressed or died... The other one did so maybe they are not all hardy, but this guy is great and looks so cool in there.

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So after all of these issues, ENDLESS RESEARCH online and on this forum, we moved into a new place closer to the city (lol sounds so country). So I guess it was a good thing I had to move the tank when I bought it cause it would have really sucked. But thanks to none other than Stevie T (Your tha man dude, whoever you are ;) and his thread on moving a tank

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...205722&st=0

 

I was able to do it in less than 7 hours and had prep sheets and checklists and a staged process and blah blah... Anyway it was almost painless and kind of fun. PLUS, I took the opportunity to fix so many issues including:

 

Flatworms: For anyone suffering from these things I recommend this. Take out all rocks and place into buckets from Home Depot. Fill buckets with water from tank to cover rocks. Place pump or power head in bucket to circulate. No need for heater cause your basically going to kill everything on the rocks. Be sure to NOT place any fish, or inverts you want to keep into buckets. Drop a doble dose of Salifert's recommended amount of Flatworm Exit into each bucket (double dose per 5 gallons). Let circulate for around 1 hour. During that time remove all substrate and discard. Using new substrate replace in tank. Take out all water and place into bucket with no FWE. Leave a little on the bottom and dose with FWE. After like 30 minutes discard remaining water from tank. You should have about 50% water remaining (not from buckets with LR). Clean tank and rear chambers. Place new substrate. Replace 50% or a little less of the tank water not from buckets with LR. Shake the rocks around in their buckets to remove all excess dead stuff and place into tank. Discard all water from those buckets. Fill tank with new water and thats it. You can dose like half the recommended amount in the new tank just to be sure, but I wouldn't dose more than that.

 

Biocube 29 HQI Filtration: This is the best piece of advice I can give... Use inTank's Media Basket with filter floss, Purigen, then Chemi Pure. This alone has solved like all the problems and makes the water chrystal clear. Again, use the media basket. I also got the fuge basket for chaeto only because I tried a mandarin goby project that didn't involve me raising live food for the goby. Instead I tried seeding the fuge, but that is proving to not be enough. Anyway, thanks again Stevie T!

 

Lastly, Aquascape and Coral Placement: This is more important than I thought. One needs to take so much into consideration for all the different corals and their individual requirments; such as flow rate (you don't want to blast a coral in the face that requires no flow at all to thrive), lighting needs (I always thought that corals need all this light...well turns out some do better with little light even shade), finally spacing (a torch coral next to a zoa colony isn't necessarily the best thing, likewise a frogspawn directly under the light under heavy water flow isn't good either). And at the end of the day you want it to look good for all your hard work so that's a factor too. Some pics of setup.

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On the Filtration: Again, using inTank media basket with FF, Purigen and Chemi-pure. Also, the fuge basket with some LR rubble and Chaeto. I am using the JBJ nano glo magnetic LED light for the chaeto (I'm not sold on the power of this, but others tell me its fine so that's what I have for now). Had to scrape off some of the black paint on the back of the tank to relocate the window so the light actually get to the fuge basket. This was easy as could be so don't be scared to do it. Aquaticlife Skimmer 115 is still in chamber 1 and running strong. Some pics.

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With all these additions, corrections and blood sweat and tears..........the water has never looked this good. Plus I love the new scape. It really allows for more diversity. Pics.

 

sadly this crab passed at the young age of who the f#$k knows lol

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So I tried to have a Mandarin Goby. This is an example of not doing enough research on something and still being a newb... When I was walking out the door at the LFS I said, 'So just feed him Rod's food right?' The guy said, 'Uhh, he's not going to be able to eat that...have you seen the size of his mouth?' So it turns out that you have to train them and all this mess that I don't have time for. He will go back tomorrow because the pods in the fuge arent enough and he's looking a little thin. Pic.

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On Coral Placement: I have learned that if your coral isn't looking good....try moving it (and do your research). Wet Web Media has been a great source of information on livestock. I try to immitate their natural environment as much as I can. I'm no expert. In the pic of the Frogspawn poo'ing it was on a side with more flow and wasn't fully expanding. I moved it to the other side and he doubled in sized in a day. The shrooms were all moving around and propogating and looking pissed, but I turned the rock and rested it diagonally on another. Now they are spreading onto that rock with the red shrooms. Sweet. Also, the War coral has grown over the frag plug since he has been there. Pics.

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LOL yeah that was a disaster. I had no heater in there and the clown was freezing. Fish can live through a lot... Yes Helfrichi.

 

Thanks.

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Most recent semi DIY was the addition of a stunner strip. It's a little more blue than anticipated (yes I know they are blue LEDs, but it's like flooded). I'm thinking about getting a Current LED strip with blue and white LEDs to even it out a little, or maybe just a small three white LED strip for like $10 from HD. Anyway here's the way I installed. Hopefully no probs with waterproofing... Sorry about the crappy iPhone pics.

 

Since this I have moved it to the bottom of the SOL LED module. For some reason, the firefish kept racing toward the blue stunner strip every time the Halide went off. If the glass hadn't been there it would have gone carpet surfing...

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And finally for the day, the addition of...Goldmember...he loves...gooooooolllldd. I love this fish. The angel was my favorite until him. So I'm taking the Mandarin out tomorrow. That will leave me with 5 small fish: Midas, Clown, Angel, Watchman, Helfrichi. Anyone think that's too much? I definitely wouldn't put any more. Now to go coral crazy.

 

I have since removed Goldmember much to my dissapointment. He kept nipping at the Firefish. I read afterwards that Midas Blenny's nip at Firefish. yet another example of not enough research...

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Oops, one more thing. I got some Zoas today for $16.99 from an LFS. If anyone is looking at this, can you tell me what these are? I'll post on coral forum as well. Pics.

 

These have since melted. They turned from looking real cool to brown and ugly within a couple weeks. Then they melted away. I had several issues with Zoas after that. Maybe something in the water...

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If there is any chance you can get to the LFS, battery powered airpump to at least provide some circulation. Lighting shouldnt be an issue, cover tank with blankets and the such to keep it warm, if your heating is done on gas then you should be fine.

 

The circulation is the biggest issue, Hopefully someone can be of more help with regards to that. Any access to a generator?

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Thanks. I have electric heat. I'm thinking of placing everything in a large tub and taking it to work with a heater a a couple powerheads. Waddya think?

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Well the power came back on that night so I unloaded the bucket I had brought to work an shoved two heaters in the tank (one is back chamber and one in display). Surprisingly everything came out better looking than it was before?! Now they are growing like crazy. Wierd

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, haven't been on here in a while. After the power issues some of the zoas lost their lives...lol. BUT everything else is better than before. Weird... Finally put all the equipment on timers and hooked it up the way I like it. Several new additions: One Encrusting Monti with blue polyps. Even thought its almost totally brown at this point the polyps look cool and it grows fast as sh!t; also got some GSP which are some of the best I've ever seen! Can't wait for them to grow all over everything. Can't remember if I've posted pics of the Elegance coral... Got a pretty good looking Hammer Coral (not the one we wanted, but they didn't have it any longer. Lastly, the War coral is growing off the charts! I'm feeding it like crazy though. Anyway thought I'd post some pics.

 

Not sure if I said this in past posts, but one time I was attempting to frag some corals and inadvertantly took the Anemone Crab out and it fell on the floor. I actually stepped on it, found it later, put it back in the tank, said I was sorry and left it alone. It miraculously survived and is doing great and molting! Unbelievable.

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