first off thanks to all who post valuable info for all of us first timers to read and learn from


Mar 02nd 2012

JAN 15TH 2012

JULY 8TH, 2011

MAY 23RD, 2011


(aug 8th 2009)

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment


SEE PAGES 9-12 FOR UPDATED EQUIPMENT/ FEEDING/ STATS OTHER THAN BELOW

i live in calgary, alberta, canada.
OK: -Oceanic Bc29 bought from lfs for $200 his old demo with live sand
- roughly 25lbs of cured live rock
-3 months old
-no mods
-bag of purigen on top of drip tray where water flows over from chamber 1
-all water params are correct
- 25% water changes done every 2 weeks
- evap top off roughly every 5days
-plan to change bioballs to live rock in 1 week
- 8 turbo snails, 5 blue legged hermits, 1 emerald crab added at 3 weeks
- 1 cbs, 1 clownfish both added at 4 weeks adding second in 1 week (week 13) $22 each
- unknown polyps (bottom left in left side view of tank pic) added in week 6 $30
- open brain added at 8 weeks $80
- 2 mushrooms $2 each added at week 9
- rock with 4 types of zoas added week 10 $80
- run my daylights for 7 hours and my acentics for 10 hours, acentics come on 1 hour before daylights turn on and go off 2 hours after daylights turn off

i feed the tank 2 teaspoons of live phyto daily and pellet food twice daily for the fish and cbs (caus hes crazy for it)

i use a brita water filter for all my water and of course dosed with 'PRIME' chlorine and ammonia remover, consider using RO water from safeway in future depending on advice recieved here


all posts are appreciated

get some bright color things in there!!

Move the brain to the sand bed, and get some bright colors in there. Mushrooms are great for adding color and they are really easy to keep. I would also get a frogspawn, or torch coral cause they will give you some movement. Also, get some xenia. Fast grower and really pretty coral.

the brain is actually attached to a rock kind of like a frag it was like that when i bought it should i still put it on the sand bed there 2 small feather dusters that currently live on the underside of the rock that the brain is attached too?

Put brain on sand bed and re-aquascaped everything, wasnt happy with it will post new pics tonight, also replaced half of my bioballs with live rock (took one peice from my tank and gave it a good smashing good times ) also removed the false floor in chamber one and put filter floss on top of the bioballs that are still in chamber 2, also switched to R/O water n did a 30% change & took my stock pump apart n cleaned it good (it was filthy after 3 months only)....was a busy night, thinking of doing another 30% change tonight to speed up the dilution from brita filtered water to all R/O water is this too many/much water changes in a small amount of time?

also diggman08 any tips would be awesome caus i read your thread daily because i think i got the zoa bug

rid the bioballs.. buy a bag of chemi pure. do a search theres a good thread bout that stuff. im using it in ch 1 helps clean the water.

Ditch the bioballs asap...Theyre doing nothing but hurting your tank. Also, IMO you're feeding way too much...try feeding every couple of days, and much less than what you are...2 teaspoons daily seems like quite a bit for what little life you have. And get some more flow in there! =p

Don't start dosing yet until you have done a lot of research, and never dose anything you do not test for.

You should do weekly 15-20% water changes with a good RO/DI and salt mixture.

Also, what type of salt are you using?

And Temps?

i feed about a pellet sized amount a day, if you ever see your fish with crap hanging from its body thats over feeding dont feed for the next day or so. then feed a little the next day little like booger size or less

temp is constant 79-80,
salt is Reef Crystals

i got rid of half the bioballs for now because i was worried it might remove too much benifical (as well as the bad) if i changed them all at once, plus i need to go buy more lr n smash it caus otherwise there isnt even 2lbs of lr in chamber 2,

dosing...is it dosing its just chlorine/ ammonia remover?

R/O does it need any chlorine remover or is it good to go once mixed?

also

thx for the feeding tips, stupid lfs.....any chance that would explain my light red diatom problem (its light but its noticable)

new aquascape photos & with a real camera this time lol

right side

left side


zoas

under acentics

brain (just moved to sandbed)

just got some more live rock so that it slopes from top left to middle right now n a piece at the top of the large shelf so that it dosent slope backwards to the eye, will post pics later. also the new lr i got is awesome have realsied that i started this project with garbage quality live rock which has slowed down my tanks progressions hugely. visited a new lfs today and wow wish i found this place when i started 3 months ago. gonna pick up the maxijet1200 ($55) there on friday and maybe a tunze powerhead ($80) too

GOT THE MAXIJET1200 much better flow anyone out there run the stock pump and the maxijet using one as a powerhead?....is there such a thing as too much flow?

You can have too much flow...sometimes soft corals like frogspawn or hammer coral won't extend all the way. I don't think a MJ1200 and the stock pump would be too much however. The other thing that often happens is that too much flow will create a sandstorm.

cool thx for the tip im just gonna run it with replacing the stock, once the maxi was in the stock was way to clunky to use as a powerhead and i think maybe too much flow and definitely a sandstorm, my local lfs has recomended a tunze 6025 .....any ideas anyone on tunze 6025 vs korilla 1? posting more pics right now

some acentic shots




some daylight shots with brain moved up just off sand on a new piece of LR...he didnt like the sand for some reason and stayed "shrunk" (regular night shape) within 2 hours of putting it on the LR he was looking a lot happier and expanded greatly



one of my best pics so far...still learning camera settings

daylights on how the tank looks as of today roughly 14 weeks in

a ballast broke, good customer service from oceanic, they are sending me a new one for free....but its gonna take 2 weeks becuase i live in canada .so 2 weeks without my purple acentic will this be ok?

so roughly 6 months later tank i so different and added metal halides, will post pics soon

so heres the 6 month update



now with metal halide



wow wow wow !!! what a difference lighting makes

plz add comments all any tips or any questions plz post

below are some more pics

















its a mix of pics with metal halide n just stock lighting, all the darker richer looking one are with metal halides, all are day shots enjoy

so the first pic under "the 6 later month update" is with stock lighting, the second one is 2 days later with my newly installed viper hqi 150w metal halide, just so everyone is clear n i feel its a good comparison of stock lighting to metal halide for everybody to see

That 6 month before and after is worth a thousand words. The first all the colors look drab, especially when looking at the rock and after the new light everything has more of a pop. Take the sponge, first pic it's sky blue to almost white, that close up pic has it at a much deeper blue. I would like to see pics of the light on the tank. Not a full top down shot but you know what I mean, at an angle. 10k 14k 20k on the bulb?

ill try n get that shot for you elite later tonight, in regards to the intensity its 14k

Congrats on the MH upgrade, the tank looks good.

Is that sun coral on top of the rock at the top? If it is I thought those were supposed to be in the shade away from lights.

Keep up the good work,
Chris

So as I am waiting for my pics.... my girlfriend says her usual....
"Seriously, how many times can you look at seamen?!"

But back on topic, still waiting!

ah ha, thats good shoulda answered "more importantly how many times can you?!", anyways yeah srry will try to get those pics up for ya weekend is a lil busy but will try some time today or tmrw

as for the sun coral your right from what i can tell ive had it about a week so im glad you pointed it out i asked my lfs about what i had read previously who is normally very good, when i got it he said because its non-photosynthetic is can go anywhere, which while partly true eliminates the fact that i think i have decided it must go at the bottom of my tank and will move it tonight

i think this is what you wanted tell me if not elite

heres another shot, picked up a pink birds nest today and some blasts enjoy



also moved my sun coral down, in above pic you can see

heres closer of birds nest

Definitely what I was looking for. Pics look great. The more I look at it I love your rock work. The shape of it. I was looking to do something similiar, just a few more pounds of rock when I set mine up.

thx for the compliment it took probably 5 different aquascapes across 3 months until i became happy with what i felt was somewhat natural looking. the main problem i encountered was the sheer size of the front right main peice of it whilst great for surface area to have new corals on it very much limited my options for aquascaping, the other part which i dont mind but does bug me is the size of extra rocks which corals come on, mainly the very front rock that is covered in polyps really takes up a lot of space too. so in other words pick smaller rocks when choosing your initial setup would be my advice n leave space for a couple more you may add later

what are you looking at setting up?

Yeah when I had my 7 I would only buy frags that came on plugs or loose polyps. I have no problem watching/waiting for them to grow. I always hated those large pieces cause if I love the scape then things would need to be rearranged to accomodate the new rock.

I posted up on my build, it was just the planning stages. I'll get the link for you. "BC29 in the works..." is the thread name. I picked up my tank last night. Put together the stand, drilled for my bulkhead, removed the floor in Chamber 1 and widened Chamber 1 to 2. Took pics of everything. Picking up some water and a rock or two from a club member tonight. I've got 23 pounds of "Marco Rock" sitting in the box near the stand waiting to go in as well. Then last but not least my last bag of South Down sand! Can't find that anymore! Pics will be up tonight.

Here's the link to my thread:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=149889

good job on dong lots of research prior to getting your tank

Do you know why the ballast broke?

I've been reading the forums and following tanks ever since I registered I don't even remember when. I just never really posted much. It's all been about just getting knowledge and watching peoples tank progressions.

I am very happy with the initial scape right now. It's perfect in my opinion. Just gotta wait to see how that rock fits in that I'm getting over the weekend. As long as it fits how I am hoping/thinking/picturing it will I can add in my last 4 or so pieces and let the fun begin.

What is that white ball at the top left of the tank? It looks like a crumpled ball of paper.

I really like your designs and that bright blue sponge. Was it a hitchhiker or can you tell me more about it?

The white ball outside the tank? It looks like a rose in a water bottle...

slighty modified the aquascape, just moved the sun corals and moved the blasts down to the left it flows much better now will post new pics today or tmrw

my birds nest is a bit more brown than pink now after about 6 weeks of having it my lfs says if i lower it in my tank it should become pinker and that it may be too high up in my tank is this true? if anyone can help me that would be great

OK so it's almost 2 months with no new pics?! You're going to have to change the title to say "ongoing thread with no photo updates"

Nice looking BC29.

I love the MH upgrade really makes the colors pop. We thought about going to that MH set up also, but I don't wanna have an open top tank. Since we live in AZ it would evaporate real fast, plus I don't trust our 5yr old son. He likes to throw things in open tanks....... just ask my father-in-law.

wow long time since i posted, but Very nice now! you got nice colors!

so its been almost a year since i posted, got some new pics of about 3 months ago plus my new aquascape as of 3 days ago after deciding to remove some random rocks to give it a more open feel. im gonna go on a rant here to hopefully help anyone learn fromm my experiences with my bc29 over 2 years.

THIS HOBBY IS ADDICTING AND VERY EXPENSIVE.....BECAUSE ITS ADDICTING LOL

all my params are where they should be, i dont do any dosing, i target feed everything with cyclops-ezze cubes. i also feed directly into the water column mysis shrimp cubes, reef roids, phytoplankton, and something similar to reef roids (a powder) which has like salmon roe and squid and all kinds of goodness in it. i have 2 koralia nano powerheads, and my main return pump is a maxijet 900

i am currently adding purple up about a capful every 3 days, as i used to have a lot of pink coraline growing everywhere until one day it just all turned white and green.......hopefully it comes back its so pretty

ok so a few corals have come and gone, some zoas have been stung to much by apistasia, my brain coral eventually had its tissue receed too much and its skeleton was showing, one of my clowns decided to host it making it impossible to feed, eventually used a 2l pop bottle cut in half to put over it while i target fed it but it was too late i think. my blue sponge is about half the size it was i think again due to apistasia growing around its base, i got a red tree sponge that did well for a while until one day it randomly became covered in white stuff over the the top half, to save it i cut it with a razor about halfway down below the fungus outbreak, it seems to be ok now. my 2 ricordia are doing awesome orange and blue but i dont really know how to breed more of them apart from cutting them right down the middle which i dont really want to try.

ive tried a small copperband butterfly for the apistasia but it only lived for about 2 months, i had a six line wrasse for about 8 months whihc one day decided to jump out of the open top those are my only fish losses !!

my jawfish is endless fun, constantly building himself little forts and generally moving things where he wants to in the tank, my bi color blennie is very shy but comes out for 30 second spurts if i sit still for a good 10 mins, my clowns host a small bubble tip anenome and a small frogspawn but need something bigger. i have 2 firefish also and a random wrasse that is very shy and blue and white kinda cool. i have 6 peppermints (to battle the apistasia) but i dont know if they really ever eat it. i probably have 10 hermits and 10 snails and a sand sifting starfish. all of the above have been alive and in the tank for over a year now.

ive had a horrible apistasia outbreak like probably over 100 throughout the tank about the size of a penny max, which is under control but not ever an ended battle i feel, joes juice is the answer but you have to stay on it relentlessly many times after killing an anenome it would just regrow 3 where it originally was. the trick is to kill it, wait 5 mins then swish the melted anenome into the water column, if you just leave it there it will seem dead but it will regrow !!

i got a couple of small (plum sized) suncorals for free because they werent looking too good at my lfs.... they still arent looking good. i would only recomend these to very dedicated individuals, mine have grown a couple of new heads but also lost a couple, they require A LOT of target feeding like each head probably needs feeding at least every 2 days if u want them to do well, they also prefer dark places and mainly come out at night so be expecting to feed by moonlights or in the dark if you buy these.

i think my next step may be to turn the 2nd chamber into a fuge, its currently occupied by live rocks and 100's and 100's of apistasia.

alright heres a ton of pics for all you nano reefers, sorry the quality is only medicore, they are in order of time tho across the last 6 months ish and the last 5 are taken 2 days ago



[IMG]http://i53.photobucket.com

can anyone ID this, ive had it about 3 months and its doing really good and growing new little versions beside it











I LIKE THIS PIC !!!




jawfish up close and personal

NEW AQUASCAPE!!!

NEW AQUASCAPE!!!


side shot blurry

closer side shot


purple carpet...can anyone id these tiny purple flowers growning everywhere

Looks like colt coral, or kenya tree. I get the two confused some times.

Your tank looks nice, I like the jawfish photos.

WOW!

can some people help with with building a fuge, i have read uwwwmatts thread on it, just wanted to know some silly things like where do i get chateo in the first place? how much do i get? once i clear out chamber 2 of lr across a couple of weeks there is a drip tray at the bottom???...do i remove this or leave it in there? do i plant the chateo somehow or just put it in there?


also how does anyone know how i can change the name of my thread??

chateo help plz???

Omg plz someone help with the chateo questions

Just go to your LFS or another reefer and get a handful or two of cheato. You don't have to do anything, just set it back there. Do not remove the false bottom, it will keep your cheato from moving into the 3rd chamber.

To change the title of your thread edit your first post.

What do u use for filtration? Just LR? or have u upgraded to the fuge yet? anyway what is ur filtration? Just curious got a 29 too and its about a month and a half old. jsut looking for different filtration tactics.

received the fuge basket and media basket package and 2 underwater lights and fishsaver from stevie t about a month ago ITS AWESOME!!!!!!! i highly recommend the $100 ish investment via his intank website, everything is clean and looks great and the chaeto is growing like crazy, i started with a chunk the size of a baseball and it has doubled already within the first month, just got a 4 head torch coral that is doing great and i will post pics soon, also pics of the media basket and fish saver and fuge. still cant get pink/purple coraline to return, ever since i changed the lights about a year and 3 months ago from stock to viper k2 metal halide its has all but dissapeared a few zoa colonys arent looking good a kind of brownish algea appears to enclose them and then they shrivel up and dissapear, im doing research today on what it could be but it has also got my orange denti