Introduction
"They all said I was sick in the head. They said I needed help. Well, maybe I am a bit batty. Blame it on the bats in my belfry." - The Joker

I have never done a saltwater tank before. I have been keeping freshwater since I was a child (with a several year hiatus), and Tropheus and other Tanganyikan cichlids since the start of this year. This will be my very first saltwater tank, and it's going to be a reef. Nothing like jumping right into the ocean to see if you can swim!

The concept for this tank is to feature only purple and green corals. It will be an exercise in color choice of livestock, as well as texture and placement. Too many eye-blinding corals will make the tank unpleasant to look at. Not enough, and it'll be boring. I could have started simply, but oh no, I had to go for High Concept Art.

Livestock will be chosen to contrast the corals. Some livestock will be chosen for function, such as a cleaner shrimp. Those just don't come in different colors.

Tank
Standard glass 10g tank

Lighting
20" 1x40w Current USA Satellite PC

Filtration and Circulation
AquaClear 50 HOB filter (200 gph)
AquaClear 30 Powerhead (175 gph)

Heating
Visi-Therm Stealth 50w heater

Miscellaneous
15 lbs cured live rock
Tahitian Moon Sand
Water from LFS
Obsessive worrying

Entry Photo


November
November 9, 2006


Somewhere in the Nov. 20 region, 2006


November 30, 2006

saw your idea for this tank in your other thread..... and ill be sure to be following along.. too bad you dont have any corals to trade, cause I have the PERFECT echino coral for you that would fit perfectly in this purple and green tank

Awesome idea! This will be a thread that I WILL be following along. There are a lot of corals these colors. I have a neon green/pink tipped frogspawn (check my avatar). So there are plenty options!


GL in the contest
texx

Alas, I am frag poor. Would you like a cichlid?

I am really looking forward to this. I spent most of my day today researching, looking at pictures, making notes, and generally obsessing. My husband is playing counterpoint to my ideas, as he has a good artist's eye, so we're discussing how things should go. We're currently discussing the choice of black substrate vs. white substrate. The end decision on this will probably rest on if I can get the black and white clowns I want for a price that isn't more than my monthly rent...

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day! I have to call four LFS to see what's available, I have to go to PetSmart to pick up a new 10g (my old ones are all icky, and I'm hoping they have the nice "optical clear" glass on 10gs), I have to get my entry picture done, then get the substrate washed and in, and the filtration up. Friday, the moment the paycheck clears the bank, I go and get the live rock, and put in a rush shipped light.

Then I start making a coral budget. Oh, won't that be depressing.

Thank you all for tagging along! I'm hoping this'll be something worth seeing (if only to point at it and laugh!)

Uhm... what a creative name for your tank, the "Joker" tank. I wonder where you got the idea to name it that?

Heh! Asin, that name was the bomb. You had me combing my shelves for my copies of "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Mad Love" yesterday. What you don't know about, of course, is the extent to which the joke has gone over here since.

I told my husband about it, and he first wanted to paint a giant joker face on the back of the tank. Then he wanted to swap out the molding for purple and green. Then we started talking about livestock.

Our current ideas are:

One pair of black and white clownfish. Why? Not only for their colors, which I consider perfect, but they are clown fish. They are the Clown Fish of Crime.

One green clown goby, one purple firefish, one tailspot blenny. Clown goby is a clown name, of course, goes with the green and purple theme, the firefish looks kind of like the Joker and is purple to go with the theme, and the tailspot is just adorable and eats algae. I'd ponder a court jester goby instead of the tailspot, but I know they can be hard to keep alive.

One green clown goby, one black cap basslet, one tailspot blenny. In this case, the black cap not only matches the color theme, but he has a cape, like Batman.

Yeah. We were up really late last night, and the theme totally got out of hand.

Freakin' sweet!

Sounds like a fun tank.

I think you'll need a Clown Anemone Shrimp.
http://www.marinecenter.com/inverts/shrimps/anemoneshrimp/

Holy cow, you're right, I do need one of those shrimp. That shrimp is a must have. I wonder if I can find one...

Which seems to be something I say repeatedly this week. "If only I could find a..." In most cases, though, I have. Now I'm just going to have to pony up for some shipping from Sharky's, because they have a coral I absolutely positively must have for my tank. Please don't sell it before I can afford it, Mister Sharky, oh please oh please oh please...

hahahaha, this is definitly getting out of hand...... and i love it! keep up the good brainstorming, as this right now could be a front runner for this contest!

oh, and what do you think about this echino...

Sandlot, you make Tightrope cry. Are you sure you don't want a cichlid? How about two? If that's for trade...would you trade pretty green bills?

Nothing Ever Goes As Planned in Tightrope's Circus
Or, "You want me to buy what? I bought what??"

In this hobby, only bad things happen quickly, and things can go bad very quickly. My very well-laid plans and careful research all hopped into the handbasket for a ride to Hades today. After all the scrambling, though, I'm reasonably happy with how it all came out.

It's a long and sordid story, and I won't trifle you. But I will put in a priceless quote:

"That rock would fit in your tank." "It has aiptasia all over it." "That one there doesn't." "Not that we can see, no..."

I'd planned to buy cured live rock and premixed salt water. Obviously, the live rock from the first store was, shall we say, unacceptable, so I made plans to buy from a second store that has mostly cured rock but is run by a friend of mine. I didn't figure I could go wrong with premixed salt water, though. I had some all ready, warm and happy, for when I brought the live rock home.

Um. Well, yes, folks, you can. Boy howdy, can you. May I note for all newbies that you should test the premixed saltwater you buy? Thank goodness I did. I didn't find out there might be a problem til I had my live rock picked out, boxed, and was walking out the door of the second LFS.

This is where you need to cue the circus music. I now know how to mix saltwater, and how to calibrate and use my refractometer. It was a pretty quick tutorial.

From here on out, I'll be mixing my own saltwater. I'll be going down to get some more RODI water tomorrow from a third LFS (tonight's came from a store that fortunately sells RODI water in gallon jugs) so that it can properly sit and cure. I'm reasonably certain my live rock will be fine with freshly mixed stuff.

The tank is now set up on my desk. My desk is as solid as bedrock, level like the sea, and may well be fused with the floor. Weight won't be a problem. Mess was. This was the desk before:



Tonight, it holds my very first, honest to goodness saltwater tank:



With the flash:



The real light gets here Monday. That's an ancient 15w NO light that I put up there for photographic and flow testing purposes.

I just can't decide if I'm exhausted or hyper.

I imagine both! Glad you got that all worked out.

Tested my tank this morning, and had a teeny parameter spike. SG was still at 1.025, pH still at 8.2, ammonia was at .25 and nitrite at about .10. This was pretty much as expected. When I tested it about 15 hours later, both the ammonia and nitrites were at 0. Go live rock! It's your birthday!

I'll monitor the parameters daily. I'll also give the tank a wee bit of food, to help the bacteria start building themselves up. I'm so used to cycling my freshwater tanks with pure ammonia, and having massive colonies built up. This is a change for me, but I'm enjoying it.

I went down to the LFS to buy some RO/DI water today, and to show my husband some examples of what fish we could get. I was particularly fond of the falco hawkfish, which I wanted to get one of to name Commissar. (If you understand this joke, you're old, too!) My husband seemed ambivalent, so we kept looking around.

Loved the midas blenny. I'll have to get one someday. Anthias are pretty, but too skittish, and too big for this tank. The chalk bass wasn't the right color, but I liked him. And then...both the husband and I fell in love.

It was a little bitty clownfish. They said he was a saddleback, with a yellow face and yellow fin tips. He was hysterical. He was hovering over a mushroom, which was apparently his host, and he would swim right up to us, bold as you please, and shake his tail. He was either telling us off for being too close to his coral, or was asking for food. I suspect the former. I loved him immediately, and my husband was grinning like a loon.

So I looked him over, and he looked very good. Bright eyes, nice fins, no lesions or signs of ich. No other fish in the tank with him. There was, however, another saddleback in another tank, and he, too, looked very healthy. I opted to buy them, and ask the fish store to hold them while my cycle finishes. They'll put them together for me, and get them used to each other there. I also asked them to keep them in a tank by themselves, so that they can be observed for signs of brook or ich or yuck or whatnot.

I know that saddles will eventually get too big for a 10g, and that's okay. They're small enough to stay there for now, and by the time they've outgrown the 10g, my 60g will be up and running and ready. (I have all the equipment now, I'm just waiting for the drill bit to arrive.) As I don't see them outgrowing the tank before the contest is over, it should work out just fine.

Thus do I have my fish for my tank. They're just chillin' at the LFS, waiting for the happy bacteria to set up a big enough welcoming party. I'm thrilled.

The new light arrived today!

The box, with our lovely model Gunney:


On the tank:


I really need to wipe off the glass.

wahoo!!!! great work so far! now just make sure you are completly ready for the fish before you add them, cause you want them to stay healthy! lets see some green and purple!

Algae
Diatoms have just invaded me
Now there's brown as far as I can see.
Oh why must I
Get algae?

Nasty rust
Wouldn't leave no matter how I cussed
Pitched in inverts, hope they won't be a bust
Come on, crabs and snails, eat the
Nasty rust.

Why'd it
Have to bloom? Get a broom
Clean it away.
It's all
Brown and green, not so clean
As yesterday...

It's all brown.
No hosting corals for my little clown.
Shakes his tail, I can see him frown.
I need corals for my
Little clown.

Parameters
Testing stable, glad I'm able
To test all the time.
Tiny
Ammonia blast, too much too fast
So get the Prime.

Payday,
It's just a week and a half away.
I'll order corals on that fateful day.
Purple and green
Two weeks from yesterday.

- to the tune of the Beatles' "Yesterday"

Ma'am, I applaud you. That was beautiful.

My clean up crew is doing great. I could use some nassarius snails to grab detritus, but I've got four astraeas, two scarlet hermits, and an emerald crab in there, and my algae's pretty much under control.

I added one fish early last week, and the other today. I added the clean up crew in the middle. My parameters have been rock solid, but for one teeny tiny ammonia twitch that was barely detectable on my tests. I Primed anyway, but no one in there seemed to care.

The clowns are doing the usual "getting to know you" dance. We twitch, we shimmy, we lip lock. It's all old hat for someone that keeps Tropheus and Petrochromis. I'm keeping an eye on them, though, to make sure I don't need to separate them. So far, it's not too bad at all.

This week, I get a coral budget. Payday's Friday. I'm stressing over coral choices and places to order from. I can't seem to find any PPEs or Joker palys just yet, but I have a couple locals on it. I also have my favorite LFS manager trying to find a green hammer, a grape or purple tipped frogspawn, and a green bubble coral. (On another note, all my LFS are sick to death of the words "green and purple".)

I'm debating the addition of a small brain coral, or a plate coral. I'd like to get representation of LPS, mushrooms, polyps, "wavey" LPS (like frogspawn and hammers), and sand sitters. Why do 10g tanks seem so huge and so tiny, all at once?

I've chosen to skip a torch coral, because I don't feel it's a good idea in such a small space. Frogspawn and hammers play nicely together, so I think they're a better choice. I really, really, really want a brain. (If I only had a brain...) I need to toss some polyps in there, too.

Thank goodness for research. If I hadn't known any better, I would have bought a green BTA this week on impulse.

I also managed my very first water change. Not too shabby.

Anyone know anything about Aquatic Bliss?

Looks good tightrope.

"They're finny and funny, and oh so delish! They're joyful and jolly, Joker Fish!" - Harley Quinn

Ahh, aggressive fish. How I love them.

The first clown I added didn't really care for me adding a second one. I'd hoped it wouldn't happen, but soon enough, the new addition was hanging out in the upper corners and hiding behind the rocks. That just wouldn't do. So, I got a new breeder box, and I herded the aggressor in there.

He is Not Amused. The newer fish immediately came out and started swimming around, and Mister Grumpyfins is fit to be tied that someone is in his territory. I'm heartbroken. Really. (Not.) Mister Grumpyfins can hang out there for a day or two, until he's feeling less antisocial.

Water parameters are still solid. All the inverts are looking happy. My algae is nearly gone, but for a few spots on one rock. I need to get some nassarius snails to eat detritus, if I can find some. And...I think I have to have an urchin.

Picking a place to order coral from is hard. I keep finding places that have things that I want, but not the things I want to start with, or places that have one thing that I want, which makes shipping too pricey. If Sharky's keeps up with their current specials, I'll likely put in an order from them. If not, it'll likely be Marine Depot Live.

I'll put up my next FTS when I have coral to show. Right now, it looks a lot like it did before.

Uh ya, except now you have fish in the tank! I wanna see the tank with fish in it!

For my greatest fan:





These are not what I'd call the greatest pictures, but my camera kind of stinks. For some of my contest shots, I'm going to try with my film camera. I have a tripod, and a professional SLR, so we'll see if I can't get something really nice. But as you requested, the fish!

A day in the penalty box seems to have adjusted Mr. Grumpyfins' attitude some. As you can see, they're both in the same area now, not fighting and not bothering each other. In fact, they'll both take prepared food now, and in each other's presence. This is a Very Good Thing.

Good job! I'm a HUGE fan of the penalty box for fish who decide not to take their "Act Right Juice"

First coral order is put in. I was this close to ordering from Fraggle Reef. In fact, I'd already convinced myself to get a green and purple mini anemone. I may still, if he still has them when my budget rebounds. But then...

Dr. Mac put up new corals, including a nuclear green bubble coral. Which was exactly what I wanted. So I have an order in for my "main" pieces of coral, including the green bubble, a green galaxia (going to have to get the flow right to keep his tentacles to himself), a purple tipped frogspawn, and a green hammer, as well as a couple cerith snails and nassarius snails.

Not sure when they're getting delivered yet, but I hope for this week. Now, I've got to find some purple. I'm way green heavy.

I'd try for some purple sea whips. They have a nice deep purple color and the height makes for a nice contrast IMO. Plus they're usually not too hard on the wallet.

Coral's here! Coral's here! It's as torqued off about the flight as you can imagine, but it looks fine other than being withdrawn. The snails all look fine and snaily.

I'll put up pictures when everything gets into the tank.

wahoo!!! those pics look exactly like my first pics of my clowns, haha! cant wait to see pics of the corals!

Ahh, there's nothing quite like waking up to the dog barking at the UPS man. It's nice to wake up knowing you have corals!

I murdilated the tape to get into the box and slowly unwrapped the excellent packing. These are, after all, my very first corals ever. I wanted to enjoy them, in all their stubby, angry, withdrawn glory. And, lo and behold, a bunch of plastic bags, which got tossed in to float:



I love floating things in a tiny tank.

So we floated and dripped and acclimated. Then I had to get up the guts to take them out of the bag. The stalks of LPS coral look amazingly gross and squishy. I was sure I was going to hurt something. But you know what? They're called "stony" corals for a reason. Those squishy looking stalks are actually hard as rocks.

I found a perfect little rock niche for the hammer. The frogspawn is laying on the rock in a bit of a groove. The bubble is on the sand. The galaxia is in exile on the other side of the tank, where its sweeper tentacles won't hurt anyone else. There was a perfect chasm in the rock over there for it, though, and I hope it'll fill in that hole.



Everything started expanding right away. First the bubble was all nubby, then it expanded fully so I could see some of the flesh connecting the bubbles. Then it drew in a bit so that the bubbles were closer together, but everything's inflated and gorgeous.

The frogspawn is a gorgeous green with its purple tips still needing a bit of color. The hammer is a lovely green, and the galaxia is coming out and is a terrific shade of green. The first thing it did was send out a several inch sweeper tentacle, which a clownfish promptly bit the tip off of. That'll show it.

Very nice. I want to see some macro shots of your frags!

True macro shots will have to wait til I buy some 800 speed film and set up my tripod for my real film camera (a film camera, gasp!), but here are some better shots closer up with my really cruddy digital:

Bubble with flash:


Bubble without flash:


Frogspawn:


And frogspawn again, pay no mind to the algae on the glass:


Hammer:


Galaxia with flash:


Galaxia without flash:


Three corals, one snail:

Very nice!

The bubble looks very nice!

I am fifty miles over the moon right now.

When the lights went out, my bubble coral deflated, as I might expect. It pulled all the bubbles to the sides, stuck out a bunch of twiggy sweeper tentacles and, lo and behold, there was its mouth. I fled for the freezer and pulled out the partial mysis cube I had in there and defrosted some in tank water quick-like. ("Honey, what are you doing?" "I'm defrosting mysis shrimp!" "Of course you are. With a turkey baster?" "Yep!" "Only you, love.")

Oh so carefully, I got some in the baster. And, nearly vibrating with excitement, I squirted some down at the sweepers. They caught it, and ever so slowly passed it along. And it ate them! It put them in its mouth, and closed its mouth, and ate them! ("Hon, why are you squealing while you squirt the turkey baster at that thing?" "It's eating! It's eating!" "If I'd realized squirting dead, frozen shrimp out of kitchen utensils made you this happy, we could have saved a lot last Valentine's Day.")

Yes, this must seem like old hat to most of you. But this is my very first time feeding coral, and I am dancing with excitement. This is so awesome. Why haven't I been keeping saltwater all this time? I am a nitwit. I could have been feeding coral for years.

Squee!

Better toss in the first official FTS of the month... I've really got to buy film for the real camera.

hahahahaha, i was laughing as you described your first "feeding" experiment! I remember doing the exact same thing! I rushed to get all of my roommates, who promptly called me a geek and turned back to the TV. Sigh..... oh wells, they are just missing out on something incredibly cool! Haha

I love the bubble coral! My brother has one at home, and i must say yours is much prettier than his! (but dont tell him that) FTS is great, and i cant wait to see more pics!

PS - Im seeing a lack of PURPLE in your tank!

Oh, I know. I'm having a terrible time finding purple things that tickle my fancy. I did pick up this, though:



One purple mushroom! It was loose in the tank, so I got it on the cheap. I hope to find something purple this weekend/next week to buy and add.

Here's a terrible picture of the bubble coral, but it gives a better color representation:



I'm quite in love with it. It's gorgeous. Dr. Mac's place sent amazing stuff, no doubt about it.

Not much has happened after the addition of my first corals. I added a cleaner shrimp. I got a case of cyano, which I am giving some time before I chemically nuke it. So, my November full tank shots look much alike.

I didn't get a coral order put in mid-November, as the money needed to go elsewhere, and my local stores seem stymied by the color "purple". Friday is payday, however, and I will be putting in a nice coral order then. I hope it will feature most of the rest of what I need. I am also hoping to buy a mini-carpet anemone. We'll see what gets tossed onto the order come Friday!

Coral order set to come in on Wednesday from Fraggle Reef. I did my level best to buy Miguel out of purple and green corals! And...I bought a mini-carpet anemone. I have Miguel's solemn word that he will look for the very purply-greenest anemone in his tanks.

The clownfish have trained my husband. I was sitting here last night, doing something nerdy (playing WoW, thank you kindly), and my husband says, "Hey, hon? The one of the clownfish is trying to get your attention." Sure enough, he's sitting in the corner of the tank, staring right at me and bobbing up and down like crazy. I glanced at the clock and, lo and behold, it was dinner time.

So I chucked in a couple pellets. This morning, I get, "Hon? The clownfish wants you." What do you know, there he is in the corner, bobbing up and down. And tonight, my husband put a bag of tacos down on my desk, in front of the tank, and brightly proclaimed, "Tacos for clownfish!"

It's going to be bad when I get the big tank set up, and a puffer or trigger starts spitting at him.

your tank looks good so far! congrats on your first tank. you seem to know a decent amount about sw tanks already!

gl!

Thanks! I am an obsessive researcher, so I try to learn from what others have done.

The coral order came in beautifully. Miguel at Fraggle Reef has my hearty two thumbs up for his wonderful corals and service. And the anemone he picked is terrific! It's slowly but surely finding the place it likes, which I hope will mean slithering off the piece of plastic its still attached to.

FTS coming in the next day or so!

Today was a reasonably rough day, as it was busy, fraught with disappointment and worst of all, one of my much loved hamsters, Mushroom, died. My husband, being the amazing individual that he is, took me to the local pet store (which also happens to be the best LFS in town) for a new friend.

And while I looked at the hamsters, he went to the saltwater section, and found a beautiful purple plate coral. He had the man bag it on the sly for me, and presented it to me, quite proud of himself. I'm not sure it gets much better than that.

So we welcome Olga and Inga to the hamster family, and I have a gorgeous plate coral. I believe this just about completes my coral acquisitions, but for some GSP, and PPEs, if I ever find them for less than the cost of selling one of my kidneys. Pictures either later or tomorrow!

Im excited to see the new plate coral!!! keep up the good work........ sounds like you got a good husband there! now, if i can only find a girlfriend like that! hahaha

Sorry I havent been around to comment! Anywho, cant wait to see some pictures of the new corals and such. I want to see what you got from fraggle reef, cause i got some corals from them a few weeks back too! they did a splendid job!

Well, folks, this is the end. I'm calling it quits.

December was kind of a rough month for life and the tank. With the stress and bustle of the holidays, I continally forgot to take the requisite photos of my tank. I was going to have to post some pictures taken too closely together, and given my other reasons, I decided it was best just to remove myself from the competition.

My order from Fraggle Reef came in well, but hasn't fared well at all. While the other corals in my tank flourished (my bubble coral is insane!), the corals from Fraggle Reef seemed to die in active and aggressive fashion. On the zoo rock I bought, all the purple zoos died, while the greens did fine. The radioactive dragon eyes never opened. The leptastrea looked all right one day, and then was a grey fungal mess the next day. Now, the favites that have looked fine since day one are very suddenly going belly-up.

My clownfish decided to eat my plate coral. They nipped at it in hopes of claiming it, and it receded and finally died.

All water parameters test normal, and all other coral is perfectly fine. It's been these select pieces that haven't done well. The only exception is my mini-carpet anemone, who picked a spot and hasn't been inclined to move. My problem with cyano is going away since I decreased the photoperiod in the tank, and my algae problems are going away, too.

I've decided that these small tanks aren't my cup of tea just yet, especially under stock conditions. I'm too new at this, and the smaller ecosystem just isn't forgiving of mistakes or normal snafus. Being new, I don't catch the snafus as quickly as is necessary to create a really excellent environment under the conditions. After some thought, I came to realize that it'd be best for my stock (and my pocketbook) to set up a slightly larger system with a skimmer and sump.

Also, quite honestly, not only do I not have the money after Christmas to properly "finish" stocking this tank (no local reef stores with cheap frags here...I have to get everything shipped in, by and large), but I feel kind of like I'm spending money on a contest with no reward at the end of it. With the end of the contest just a couple months away, no prizes have been announced. I find this kind of discouraging.

So, I'm withdrawing from the contest. Hopefully this month, I'll be buying a 40 gallon breeder tank, for which I already have a light. I have a skimmer and powerheads already, as well as adequate supplies to make a sump. I'll transfer everything from the 10 gallon into that. The 10 gallon and light will either become a quarantine tank, or I'll use the light for a 30 gallon Oceanic cube FOWLR system.

Thanks to everyone who supported me. I'm not leaving the community or the hobby, just the contest. Salt has me well hooked, and as soon as the new system is up and running, I'll be posting pictures of it.

Sorry to hear about your tank. It was a great idea and a great name too! Good luck with your 40 and I'll be sure to check it out when you start a thread on it!


-Iz

This is my first time visiting this thread, and I must say, I had an absolute BLAST reading it!!!
I was sorry to hear about you withdrawing from the contest, but I also understand your reasons. I really look forward to seeing what you do with that 40 breeder.
On a side note, are you a professional writer? If not, you might want to consider it. You have a real gift for drawing people into your "story" and making them feel like they're a part of it. I'm a professional reader, so I should know! I got several chuckles out of your descriptions, greatly enjoyed your verse, and definitely identified with some of your experiences. It even sounds like we may have the same husband! Aren't they great?
Anyway, good luck with your future reef endeavors and thanks for some very enjoyable reading!