seahorsejl Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 So I have decided to jump on the bandwagon of posting my tank information. I have been keeping saltwater (and freshwater) fish tanks on and off for over 15 years. They have ranged from a 5 gallon saltwater tank to a 46 gallon which was freshwater initially then I switched it to saltwater, with lots of 29 gallons tanks in-between. The 46 gallon had a major livestock crash a few years ago, and I dropped out of the hobby. Well, 5 months ago, I got back in with a 24 gallon Aquapod with stock PC lighting. As far as the tank is concerned at 5 months old, I have only done a few modifications. I replaced the stock lighting fans with two stealth fans. I replaced the stock pump with a MaxiJet 900 to help with temperatures, which this helped a lot. This pump has a Hydor deflector on it. And finally, I decided I needed more flow in the tank. So I added a second MaxiJet 900 with a LocLine circular spray bar (I am still trying to get all the nossles pointed in directions I like). This involved drilling a new outlet hole in the false wall. The tank has about 30lbs of live rock in it (24lbs were from Dr. F&S, 6lbs from a LFS). I will post seperate messages detailing the fish, inverts, and corals in the tank. You will have to excuse some of the photographs... I can do great landscape photos, still working on the close-ups. Here is what the tank looked like soon after it was set up: Pretty boring landscaping And here is a semi-recent FTS: I can truely say I have been inspired by a lot of the beautiful tanks on this site, and hope one day mine will look like theirs Thanks for looking! -James Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 Meet the fish: Here is the first first that was added, a Gold Stripe Maroon Clownfish (him and the Green Bubble Tip Anemone were added together and he started hosting the second day): He has grown quite bit since that photo, will post a more recent picture later. The second fish added was a Yellow Clown Goby: He adds a nice splash of color to the tank. Next up is a pair of Yellow Headed Jawfish: I got them from SeaLife Florida. They dug out a cave within hours of being released. They have lost a lot of their shyness and come out a lot looking for food. My wife wanted something that was more active, so we now have a Six Line Wrasse: He is hard to get a good picture of since he is so active And the most recent fish is a Tangaroa Shrimp Goby: He was added to replace a Hi-Fin Red Banded goby that went missing. I figured my pistol shrimp needed a new companion. Problem is, the Tangaroa has moved in with the Jawfish pair! Poor pistol shrimp..... Like I mentioned above, I have only lost one fish, and that was a Hi-Fin Red Banded goby that shared a cave with a pistol shrimp. He just went missing a few weeks ago, not really sure what happened That's it for the fish. Next up Inverts. Link to comment
FryedFish Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Really Love the anemone Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 Meet the Inverts (non-corals): After the cleaning crew, the first inverts that got added were a Green Bubble Tip Anemone (for the clowfish) and 2 peppermint shrimp to help control some Astipa anemones on the live rock. About a month after adding them, the anemone split! Here is a post-split picture: The clownfish actually swims and plays in both of them. I have a cool light green feather duster that I got from a LFS: Here is a picture of the pistol shrimp (along side the now-deceased goby): I hear him snapping almost every evening. I also have a small cleaner shrimp, but he is pretty shy and I just got pictures of him last night that I need to post. Also have an assortment of snails and hermit crabs for my clean-up crew. I did have an emerald crab, but he went belly up a few days ago... not sure why. In the hitchhiker department, I got a few things. One night I walked by the tank and saw this 18 inch worm in the tank! After invetigation on here, it looks like it is a euncid worm So far it has only taken some snails and helped the clean up crew as shown: I got a small little sand sifting cucumber that hitched with a coral from a LSF: Haven't seen him since And lastly coming up... Corals! Really Love the anemone Thanks! I have always loved the symbolic relationships in the saltwater world. Thus the reason for having a clownfish/anemone and pistol shrimp/goby in the tank. Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 Lastly, meet the Corals: The first coral I added to the tank was a small $10 frag of Candycane I got from a LFS: This picture is a few months old, need to get a more recent one. My second coral was (unfortunately) an Avelepora... which was an impulse buy before I read up on it. Like most peoples, it wasted away over a few months. Here are some Zoa's I got from Aquatic Island: Both have grown a lot since getting them. Xenia (which hasn't spread too much surprisingly): Here is a cool close-up: Favite (got a good deal on it at a LFS): Yellow polyps: $5 Red mushroom from a LFS: $5 Toadstool from a LFS: This has more than tripled it's size... need to get a recent picture of it. Blue Zoanthids from SeaLife Florida: These are some of my favorites. I took this picture with a 10X magnifying lense on my camera. I also have some blue-green mushrooms that I got from SeaLife Florida. Last few pictures in next post.... Link to comment
proraptor2 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 You better get rid of that eunicid worm...My buddy lost hundreds of dollars in ricordia's from one of those guys... Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 You better get rid of that eunicid worm...My buddy lost hundreds of dollars in ricordia's from one of those guys... Yeah, we are planning on moving houses soon, so when I break down the tank to move it I will try to get it out. Link to comment
ezcompany Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 great set up! i'm taking the blueberry didn't make it? :( becareful of the maroon, it can be a nasty little thing. and good luck with the worm removal! 18 inch is too much! Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 great set up!i'm taking the blueberry didn't make it? :( becareful of the maroon, it can be a nasty little thing. and good luck with the worm removal! 18 inch is too much! Unfortunately the blueberry gorgonian did not make it, just a barren skeleton now... my wife was sad about that too, since she liked how it looked like a tree. I think the shipping stress was just too much. I guess I should have filed an insurance claim, oh well, you live you learn. Might try another gorgonian down the road. As far as the maroon, the clown goby actually bosses the clownfish around! All fish seem to hold their own. The only time the clown got agressive was when I put some corals near his territory. He literaly picked them up and moved them. Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted September 1, 2006 Author Share Posted September 1, 2006 Well, found my second jawfish in the back sump again.... was a pain to fish the thing out. I need to put some weather stripping on the top edge of the false wall to keep the fish in the proper sections of the tank. During my weekly water change last night, repositioned the spray outputs of the spray bar... one of the anemones was being blasted and the poor clownfish had trouble staying inside the anemone Few more pictures. More zoa's from ebin: Jawfish looking at its reflection: My little cleaner shrimp who hides until it is feeding time: Closeup of my toadstool: This is about 3-4" in diameter when fully expanded. Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted September 8, 2006 Author Share Posted September 8, 2006 R.I.P to one of the jawfish... I think the stress of popping back and forth to the back sump area finally did it in. All I found was (stinky) bits of it. The other jawfish is very content staying in it's cave. Link to comment
ezcompany Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 R.I.P to one of the jawfish... I think the stress of popping back and forth to the back sump area finally did it in. All I found was (stinky) bits of it. The other jawfish is very content staying in it's cave. that sucks...might want to check your ammonia.. Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted September 8, 2006 Author Share Posted September 8, 2006 that sucks...might want to check your ammonia.. Yeah, a bit bummed about it. All is good in the tank though now. Did my weekly water change and all are happy. Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted September 11, 2006 Author Share Posted September 11, 2006 New tenants added this weekend from a LFS! Orange Plate: White with black edges feather duster: Not pictured is another $5 single mushroom (blue/green) and a pom-pom crab. The crab seems to like to hide during the day and only come out at night And a new full tank shot: Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted October 23, 2006 Author Share Posted October 23, 2006 Quick update. I traded in my two bubble tip anemones to a LFS this weekend. They were getting way to large and starting to sting and kill some of my other corals. They killed my candy canes, and had stung some zoas and my red mushroom. But those look to be recovering. I kept the clownfish, though he was not a happy camper when he realized the anemones were gone. I also lost my latest blue/green mushroom for no particular reason about a month ago. Also, my green feather duster discharged it's feathers last week, but I saw some new ones comign back last night. Everything else is doing great. Ebin's zoa's continue to grow great! Ever since I mounted some of the frags onto bigger pieces of coral, they are growing fast (especially the fire and ice). I think they are happy to no longer being dragged arround by hermit crabs. That's it... no new additions until I get the tank moved in a few weeks. Link to comment
grink dude Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 cool tank, i set up my tank yesterday, and lr and sw is going in today. I really want a yellowhead jawfish, but i don't know if my sand bed is deep enough. how deep is yours, is your jawfish doing well????? Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted October 24, 2006 Author Share Posted October 24, 2006 cool tank, i set up my tank yesterday, and lr and sw is going in today. I really want a yellowhead jawfish, but i don't know if my sand bed is deep enough. how deep is yours, is your jawfish doing well????? My sand bed is only about 1.5 inches deep. And my jawfish is doing extremely well with that depth. He dug a cave out under a piece of live rock in the back right corner of the tank. He is always poking his head out looking for food. Now I did buy the jawfish as a mated pair. But one kept on jumping into the back sump area of the tank. That one eventually died. It could have been jumping back there due to lack of sand bed depth, or (more likely) because the "mated pair" really wasn't that mated, and where fighting. Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted March 1, 2007 Author Share Posted March 1, 2007 It has been quite a while since I updated this ... lot of stuff has happened since the last update (mostly bad). So the tank move went OK. I actually didn't loose much, I think maybe only my green feather duster. Over Christmas I got two Bangaii Cardinalfish and a porcelain crab. So all was going fine and dandy until I started getting some hair algae. Then a diatom bloom happened. So I did a major water change, re-arranged the tank, and took out the carbon that was in there for a while (but didn't replace it as I didn't have any on hand). Well, the next morning I woke up to mass devastation in the tank of the major fish/inverts. I lost the cardinal fish, jawfish, clown goby, sixline wrasse, cleaner and peppermint shrimp, and some of my bigger snails. The clown and tangarao goby where breathing really hard, and my pistol shrimp was out in the open. I think for some reason I had a massive loss of oxygen loss in the tank. It was depressing. Most of the corals seem to had made it. The feather duster popped it's top a few days later. So fast forward to today (a few weeks later). I think I have the tank stabilized, though I am still battling a major hair algae and diatom bloom. I have purchased a RO-DI unit and have been doing weekly to bi-weekly water changes with that. And this is why everyone on this board says not to use tap water. I was lucky at my old house in using tap water. But this new house the tap water must be a lot worse, I think that fueled this meltdown. I have some new clean up crews from Sea Life Florida arriving today or tomorrow. I also have a AP24 Sapphire skimmer coming in the next few days. I also replaced my CF lights about a week ago, they were nearing their 6 month usage. And I added back in carbon, which I just changed last night with a water change. So hopefully I can pull the tank out of this stupid algae/diatom problem.... all of the corals are now starting to be unhappy about it. On the plus side, I saw a new crown come out on my black/white feather duster last night. Link to comment
ezcompany Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 when u get ur new ro/di unit make sure to get a tds meter so u can test ur tds. the skimmer shud aerate ur water quitewell, lemme know how it works out. Link to comment
sdwarrior Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 very nice tank! the aquascape is awesome! Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted March 1, 2007 Author Share Posted March 1, 2007 when u get ur new ro/di unit make sure to get a tds meter so u can test ur tds.the skimmer shud aerate ur water quitewell, lemme know how it works out. I have had the RO/DI unit for about 2 weeks now.... and funny you mention a TDS meter, I was kinda of looking for one today Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted March 6, 2007 Author Share Posted March 6, 2007 Sapphire AP24 skimmer arrived today. Works pretty well, still fiddling with it to get the skimmate just right. I also got a Hydor Koralia pump in the mail today too. I got the smallest one and it produces quite a bit of flow in the tank! The combination of those two really cleared up the tank today. And the new clean up crew from Sea Life Florida, things are starting to look a bit better. Edit: And yes I do have a TDS meter on the way Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted March 6, 2007 Author Share Posted March 6, 2007 Quick update. The skimmer and Hydor pump are working great. The water is the clearest I have seen in over a month. Now I think it is just up to the CUC to devour the hair algae. Oh, and my TDS meter came today. My water from the tap registered at 278 (!) ppm. The water from my RO/DI register in at a whopping 2 ppm (!!!). I would say it is working Link to comment
seahorsejl Posted March 7, 2007 Author Share Posted March 7, 2007 very nice tank! the aquascape is awesome! Thanks .. I wish my tank looked as good as it did a few months back. It got re-aquascaped after the house move, and the algae problem has made it just Ugly (with a capital U). I am slowly getting it back to presentable state. Link to comment
sdwarrior Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 that stinks with the Algea problem, but the tank still looks great I like how in your second pic your jawfish is poking out of that little cave, it was like you set that scape up perfect just for him lol Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.