Rift-Reef's 12g NC DX

[Rift-Reef]

I just like to say hello to everyone here and give thanks for this site and all the the great info/mebers that are here.

 

Yesterday I drove down to Premium Aquatics in Indianapolis and purchased a 12g NC DX and a lot of the goodies that I would need to get me up and running.

 

I set the tank up last night (2/11/2006) using RO water from the LPS and Tropic Marin salt.

I used a piece of eggcrate on the bottom of the tank as a base for my LR.

I'm using Carib-sea Fiji Pink aragalive sand.

And 12lbs of mixed Nano LR from Premium Aqautics.

I have one pice of teh factory filter foam in the first chamber, factory carbon temporarily in chamber 2 (Soon to be a refugium) and the stock pump and a 50W Finnex Titanium heater in chamber 3.

 

Here is a shot of the tank as of this afternoon.

 

Some sort of Tube Worm that was attached to one of the pieces of rock.

The little black spots are actually heart shaped.

And here's a pic ofwhat I believe to be an Anemone that was a hitchhiker on my rock.

Can anyone positively identfy this one? I'm worried that it's an Aiptasia.

This is my first saltwater tank and I look forward to the challenge and adventure of it all while sharing and learning in what seems to be a great community!

[Rift-Reef]

Week 1 is in the books. So far so good, except for some suspect Isopods and a couple Aiptasia anemonies. I did buy a wild caught Peppermint Shrimp yesterday and he went all "Edward Scissorhands" on the Aiptasia's within about 20 minutes of being put in the tank. He's also been cleaning crud out of all my LR constantly.

 

Water params as of tonight are as follows.

Temp - ~78F

PH -8.2-8.3

Ammonia - 0

Nitrates - 5.0ppm

Nitrites - 0

Alk - Normal range

SG - 1.026

 

Ammonia spiked between .20-.25 for days 3 - 5 and has been 0 for the past two days. I mesured a small nitrite spike on day 4 of .05. On day 5 nitrates spiked at 8.0 and have been stable at 5.0 for the past 2 days.

 

I've seen something new every day. From a brittle star, a couple different snails, the aformentioned anemonies and Isopods, varios small worms, tons of pods, and dozens of small tubeworms (featherduster-like) are popping up all over the tank.

Here are a few new pics.

 

Bubble Algae?

 

Green Plant that is growing like mad!

 

Snail with excellent camo...

 

Little feather duster...

 

My Peppermint shrimp, Edward Scissorhands....

 

And a side tank shot from a few days ago.

[reefernanoman]

yes your first pic is from the malignant bubble algea. It is a pest. Get rid of it. It will kill other corals later on. Just be carefull when you remove it. If you birst it, it will send frags all over your tank. Just remove the piece of LR that it is in to avoid this.

 

i mean burst!

[Rift-Reef]

Just past the two month mark and figured I waas overdue on updating this.

 

All tank params are excellent.

I've been doing weekly water changes of about 1.5gal.

 

I just added a MJ900 pump and Hydor Flo today.

I'm running Purigen in Chamber one until my Chaeto gets here this coming week.

I've removed the Carbon after the first week and I'm only using sponges when I get lots of small debris in the water column. I plan on switching to filter floss soon.

 

My cleanup crew now consists of

3 Astreas

4 Ceriths

5 Nassarius

2 Margaritas (I might get rid of these)

And one red tipped hermit that Premium Aquatics included with my Nassarius order.

 

I bought a fish that was sold to me as a Red Tiger Goby. It wasn't one that was on my list of researched fish. But I trusted the LFS and got it anyway. Come to find out after some internet research and posting for an ID on it here. I found out it was a Sand Perch. The potential size of this fish was more than a 12 gallon cube could handle. And I didn't want to cramp the fish for space. So back he went to the store.

I also discovered a blue green striped pistol shrimp that came as a hitchhiker in my live rock. I took a chance a bought a Randalls Shrimp Goby from another LFS

and picked up a False Perc clown. The clown died after less than a week. I suspect it was ill when I got it. I just replaced the clown with another today as everything has been thriving in the tank. This one is already eating food which the first one never did. Earlier last week I removed the pistol shrimp from his rock cave high up in the tank in hopes that it would pair up with the goby. I haven't seen it since a few hours after I put it back into the tank. And the Goby has since barricaded himself under a chunk of live rock blocking up the entrances with sand piles. He's an extremely shy fish and always hides the rare times that I approach the tank we he is out in the open. He doesn't seem to want ot accept any of the foods that I have (frozen mysis, brine, formula one and a couple diff pellets) but he doesn't seem to be getting thinner, so he must be eating something. I have a plethora of Isopods, the algae eating kind, in my tank of all different sizes and colors.

I also bought a single green mushroom a couple weeks ago. It is doing well and is amost done splitting a new one off at the base of its foot!

And now for some pics.

 

FTS -

Goby Won Kenobi -

False Perc -

Shroom -

Q-Tip Sponge -

[Rift-Reef]

I recently acquired a small frag of StanD's excellent Radioactive Green Zoa's.

They went in yesterday morning along. I'm also running Chaeto in the second chamber as of yesterday as well. I have a 15 watt 6500K flourescent bulb running opposite my main lights. Here's a pic of the Zoa's.

 

I need to get a new FTS up, because I did some shifting around of my live rock yesterday when I added the zoa's and the chaeto.

[illuminum]

Tell me more about those q-tip sponges. Do they have any benefit or do any harm to the system? I've got a bunch on my rock.

[michelle02]

very nice rock work! looks great.

[Rift-Reef]

Tell me more about those q-tip sponges. Do they have any benefit or do any harm to the system? I've got a bunch on my rock.

 

 

From what I've read online, they're just harmless filter feeders.

I'm not sure how much of a benefit they are. I noticed one of them a few weeks ago, and after that they've been poppin' up all over my tank!

 

very nice rock work! looks great.

 

Thank you Michelle.

[Rift-Reef]

New FTS. Last saturday I met a local reefer that I found on frags.org. I purchased a bunch of new stuff for my tank! I'll post pics of all of it tomorrow.

[Rift-Reef]

Frogspawn - The bottom head has grown a second mouth. Anyone know how long these things take to split?

 

Red shrooms -

 

Little blue shroom -

 

Plate -

 

Not sure if this is some type of shroom? The guy I got it from put it in with the other 9 shrooms I got from him for $10!! I got 5 of the reds, 1 green, 1 striped green, 1 blue and 1 purple.

 

One more close-up of the frogspawn -

[audiocontrol]

very nice!

[Rift-Reef]

very nice!

 

Thanks!

 

It's starting to come around now that I'm getting some coral in there.

[Rift-Reef]

While I was scouring the LFS's for corals I came across a cvery nice rock of Rics that I couldn't pass up. One small one medium and one large for $34.99. It's a very bright green with that fades to a purple color. It looks absolutely amazing under the moonlights!

 

[Rift-Reef]

And here's a FTS form yesterday. You can also see the 4 head Candy Cane frag that I got for $12.00 at the same place I got the Rics.

[hannahs]

Your tank is looking really good! I like how the rocks are set up.

[MiNiReFeRx]

i like the monti did you mod the lighting

[Rift-Reef]

Your tank is looking really good! I like how the rocks are set up.

 

Thanks!

 

i like the monti did you mod the lighting

 

It's actually a "Purple" montipora digitata. But it's turned brown under my stock Nanocube lighting. It's still growing really well though. I plan on moving it to my 20Long tank when I get it set up.

[Rift-Reef]

A little over 9 months in I figured it was time for a new FTS.

 

Not much to report. THe only thing I've lost since my last FTS was the single cinnamon polyp that I had. It just cloed up one day and never reopened.

My rock that was covered in neon green zoa's has been overtaken by something that I haven't identified yet. They are little tubes that have little hair like things sticking out of them. Growing at an alarmingly fast rate.

 

I just added a purple Paralemnalia.

 

My Randalls, comes out to feed everytime I approach the tank now. Then he gets mad if I don't put any food in!!! At least he's being more sociable now.....

[grink dude]

you say you are using the stock nano cube lighting, is your frogspawn ok in this lighting conitions, i wanto get one for my nano cube 24

[Rift-Reef]

The frogspawn has been fine under the stock DX lighting.

It's grown and both heads have started to split.

[Rift-Reef]

I've never posted a pic of these zoa's.

I purchased them from ebin.

 

I also bought an Emerald crab today. I'm tired of trying to manually remove all of the bubble algae in my tank. We'll see how he behaves!!

[Rift-Reef]

I upgraded my tank this week.

 

On Tuesday I went topless and put on a 70W Sunpod.

My temps actually dropped about 1ºF. I've added eggrate and 3 layers of fiberglass mesh for acclimation.

 

Today I installed an AutoTop Deluxe Dual Chamber top-off system from top-off.com.

 

I'm using a cheap rubbermaid container from walmart that holds around 2.5gal and a small 70gph Tunze pump I had laying around. Some 1/2"id vinyl tubing and a barbed/threaded nylon elbow and a threaded pvc elbow from Lowe's complete the system.

 

Here are the pics.

[71vwbug]

how much live rock do you have in there?

[Rift-Reef]

how much live rock do you have in there?

 

 

About 11-12lbs.

[Rift-Reef]

Here are the latest additions to my tank.

 

I got a green slimer frag, and a green and orange monticap frag that are growing together.