hhmm...interesting...I'll think about that.

I also picked up some mysis shrimp so hopefully that will encourage eating....

I've never fed flake.. I just feed mysis or cyclops.. I might start making some "snow" one of these days..

I agree about not being ready for SPS yet.. but I think softies and leathers would be fine at this point. Maybe a LPS or 2 as long as you're sure it cycled. Maybe wait another week to ensure bacteria has increased enough to compensate for your new bioload..

IMO lighting is all about personal preference and heat of the bulbs. I have my lights approx 2" away from the water. Where the 6-8" rule comes from (I think) is MH that increase water temps so high at that range... but with T5s it should be fine... You were mentioning the light bothers your eyes.. you've got that hood on it and some light is still escaping a little. I would lower down 2-4" inches.... if it were me at least.

Yeah I'm going to give it another couple weeks before I add anything else (not CUC related at least).

The lights are not bothering me anymore now that I put the cap on the tank. Before I added the cap I was getting a headache from the lighting b/c the light was able to escape from around the tank. Right now I think the lights are alittle over 5" away from the waterline. I think I'm going to leave them there for now b/c it makes maintenence easier for now. As corals and what not dictate I may adjust them.

I will also attempt a mysis feeding tomorrow. The clown seemed receptive but not impressed by the flakes the goby wasn't even interested.

Added a bit more to my CUC today. I got 1 emerald crab, another nassarius snail and 1 turbo snail.

Also, had my phosphates checked and they were 0.00-0.25 (color was kind of a toss up).

If I could just get my goby to come out I'd be happy...lol

I agree. softies would definitely be a good starting point for coral at this point.
for CUC's I like Mexican red-legged and scarlet hermits; for snails i like nerite, trochus, cerith, and turbos, and serpent starfish. I"m not a fan of emerals crabs though, I caught mine nibbling on a pocillipora once and that was enough to get him evicted from the tank.

On a slightly different note, I am going to be setting up a 72G bowfront, did you check your floor before putting your tank down? My family is in construction and am thinking of putting another support system in my crawl space to accommodate the extra weight. I am wondering if I am being irrational? I would imagine it weighs a ton with rock/water right? I have a tile floor and don't want them all to crack. I was going to put a foam layer on the tile as well as between the tank and stand. Would I be on the right track?

Nice thread...following along. Did I miss your stocking plans? I skimmed.

I'm going to wait a short while before I add any corals...I have my eye on some frogspawn, leathers, and or some zoo's but nothing is set in stone yet. I wanna make sure the fish and CUC I have don't die first (call me OCD).

I'm thinking I'm going to add a sally light foot crab to help the emerald with my hair algea and then hold off on the CUC for awhile. If I need to add again I will as needed.




I asked my maintenance guy before I added my tank and he said as long as I didn't have the tank on a stand that had indavidual legs (which mine doesn't) I should be okay. I estimated the weight at about 1100 pounds but I think I overestimated.





I don't have any plans set in stone for what I want yet. The only fish I really wanna get eventually is a flame angel (this is months away though...lol). I currently have the false percula clown and the firefish. I'm thinking I may add a black and white false percula, scotter benny, anthias, flame angel, yellow wrasse, and a cleaner wrass, and possibly a hippo tang (still debating if my tank is big enough for a tang though). That list may change depending; I wanna make sure I don't overstock.

I also wanna add some cleaner shrimp (fire shrimp and a regular cleaner shrimp). I'm also thinking I may add some leathers, zoo's, frogspawn, BTA's, LPS, and a minor amount of SPS (if I can get them to live), for corals.

You'll hear the tang purists say that tangs need at least 4 feet to swim back and forth. I think most would say a 75 gal is the smallest tank they would recommend for a tang. I say go for it.

Watch out for the flame angels and anthias. From what I understand, anthias are notoriously tough to keep alive. Flame angels have a nasty habit of nipping at corals, though it seems some folks get downright lucky. Both are beautiful fish, though. I have a yellow wrasse; he is pretty cool. You can try some of the other really colorful wrasses in this sized tank as well.

Watch the BTA if you're planning SPS. The BTAs move around if unhappy, and they run smack dab into your sitting-duck SPS. People do it, but I'm just warning you that it could happen.

huh...Intersting....Didn't know that about the BTA's running into SPS...I'm planning on limiting my supply of SPS b/c I'm concerned about how hard they are to work with anyways.

My tank is 4 feet long so I was figuring it may be okay for a tang. I'm still conducting research though.

I've heard its hit or miss with flames but I like them so much I'm gonna try it.

I didn't know anthias were tough to keep alive. If thats the case I may substitute them for something else...

keeping bta's feed can aid in keeping them where you want them. although if the light and/or flow isn't to their liking they'll move about as well. i feed my rbta half a silverside a week and so far so good. and like the previous person noted, flame angels have a checkered history with corals of all types.

Can anyone give me advice on what the best method for adjusting my skimmer should be (or what my skimmate levels should be at right now). Since I have very little bio load and a large amount of well established live rock I'm basically getting 1 large bubble to come up the tube ever second or so. After a 1/2 a day to a day my collection cup is filled with yellowish/brown water. I'm assuming that would be bad for the tank so I've been dumping it out. However, I haven't been able to get that nice bubbly brown skimmate that everyone else gets. Is this normal?

Skimmers take time to tune in. A picture of what your skimmate looks like in the cup will help too, but it sounds a little wet to me.

Yeah a picture probably would help wouldn't it...lol

here ya go:



When I do try to increase the foam that is coming into the collection cup (as apposed to just letting it run as is) it overflows in like an hour...Whats the best way to adjust for this problem?

for most skimmers, that I've encountered anyway, you want the foam level to reach just below the neck of the collection cup. that way only drier foam rises high enough to rise and spill over into the cup, as opposed to an overly wet foam. I'd start with a low foam head and work your way up over a few days as opposed to the other way around. there's less overflow that way.

Ah, sounds like good advice, I will try that....Thanks.

Thats seems to have done the trick very nicely...Thanks Sac State

Okay so I've been thinking about cutting some "doors" into my wooden aquarium top and basically making it a cabnet style since I have the light sitting down inside the cap. I'm thinking of doing this b/c its rather annoying having to squeeze my hand inbetween the light and the cap or take the cap completely off to work on the tank. I realize hanging the light would be 1 solution to this problem but I prefer not to drill into my ceiling b/c of where my tank is placed and also b/c its an apartment.

My idea to make these doors is to cut the cap in half and then cut one addition section off of each of the half (and then reattach them using hinges). I would then reattach the 2 halves of the cap using a support beam of sorts and then put handles on the front of the doors and possibly secure them closed using magnets. I've never done anything like this before and I'm not sure how well it would work/look. Anybody ever tried this before?

Here is a VERY rough sketch of what I'm thinking of doing (couldn't download google sketch at work so I had to use microsfot paint).

Okay so I've added some more livestock. They consist of 1 monster turbo snail, a sally light foot crab, and a cleaner shrimp (that I have not seen since I put the freak'n thing in the tank!...lol).

Drip acclimating the cleaner shrimp:



Sally Light Foot:



HUGE turbo snail:



This was the last time I saw the cleaner as he scurried behind one of my rocks...



I'm thinking next week I may add 1 yellow wrasse to my tank to give it some more variety of things swimming around. My plan after that is gonna be 1 cleaner wrasse. Then I think I'll move into the coral domain at that point. I'm thinking I'll start with either a leather, a zoo, or a frogspawn. Any suggestions?

cleaner wrasse are notoriously hard to keep...it can be hard to get them eating. just make sure to see him eat before you buy and you'll have a much better chance at keeping one.

Oh, yeah I will be. My dad used to have some cleaner wrasses in his tank and he was able to get them to eat flake food and brine and what not. I have heard that some cleaner wrasses can be hard to keep while others aren't. I will definitely be making sure to see him eat before I leave the store with him.

On a side note, does anyone know how to coax out that cleaner shrimp? I think they're pretty cool looking and I'm glad he's found a great hiding place but I'd like to see him every once and awhile...lol

turn off your lights, he mite come out, drop a piece of supermarket shrimp in the tank, hell probably come out

um, make sure u can get the cleaner on mysis, not brine, they will deteriorate on brine shrimp

Yeah I only feed mysis for right now. I saw his whisker sticking out of a cave that my goby uses for hiding last night so I guess they're both sharing that cave for the time being.

Im sure the cleaner will come out more once its used to your tank and knows there arent any predators

It just needs some time to adjust to the new environment. It will be out on it's own soon enough. Mine jumps on my hand every time I reach in the tank for anything.

i ment if u get a wrasse lol, brine isnt enough protein to sustain a fish long term
u dont really have to feed the shrimp when mines hungry it jumps out and eats, my skunk hides lots tho

oooohhh...okay..Yeah I think I'm picking up the wrasse on Friday when I get payed. I've tried feeding flakes before and the fish didn't seem impressed so I learned to stick to mysis.

Okay so I'm still about 2 weeks away from getting any coral but I'm thinking I'm going to go with either a Leather, a frogspawn or a zoo. I'm leaning towards a leather or a frogspawn though. I've marked off in the tank where I think I'm going to be putting it and I just wanted some input.

It's kinda hard to tell in the picture but the blue circles are where I'm planning on putting SPS, and Clams and the red circles are where I'm planning on putting, LPS, zoo's, leathers, frogspawn and GSP. Any thoughts?

Okay so I have a new addition to the tank. I got myself a yellow coris wrasse today:



He seemed to take well to the tank at first, actually eating some mysis shrimp I was feeding to the other inhabitants 15 min after I put him in. As usual my goby was terrified by the new addition and spent 2 hours hiding from him. My clown seemed annoyed that he was now not the only fish to swim around the tank. The clown didn't bother him to much but I did see him get chased a few times. I got a little nervous when I saw the wrasse scrape himself on a rock but he only did it 2 times and I don't see any white spots on his body so I'm hoping I'm okay (this guy has been at my LFS for at least a week so I'm hoping everything is okay with him). After about 2 hours of poking around he decided enough was enough and buried himself in my sand bed (hopefully nothing in there will hurt him). Overall he seems pretty friendly.

I plan on doing a 15 gallon water change next week and then the following week I will be adding my first coral. I'm thinking a colt coral but I'm not 100% decided on that yet. Any thoughts anyone? I value you guys input.

Very nice set up. best of luck with the tank.

I pulled a SteveT...haha

Okay so my cleaner shrimp finally started to come out and play. He's been running all over the tank as of a few days ago. He actually attacked (I think) my giant turbo snail. However, none of the fish are letting him clean them (that I know of). I kinda wish the wrasse would stop by and get cleaned b/c I think he may have a minor parasite infection. I see him scratching himself on the rocks now and again (usually after some weird spasm like he has an itch he can't scratch or something). I'm thinking I'm going to pick up a neon goby in order to assist with cleaning. I've also started dosing the food with garlic.

I'm also thinking I'll pick up some corals this Friday. Kinda torn between a ricorda mushroom and maybe some frags. Or just getting a colt or something along those lines. What do you guys think?

Also, I FINALLY got some moonlights to put on my tank. I attached them to the legs of the light with some Velcro and it seems to work out great. The pic's aren't that great but at night it gives the tank a cool blue shimmery glow (and its brighter than the pictures look also). Its nice I like it.

Cleaner Shrimp



Moonlights






Moonlit tank

Okay wen to my LFS today and picked up my first piece of coral EVER. I got a small Xenia frag. I figured I'd start small and then work my way up. I placed him near the bottom of my tank but fired up all 8 of my T5 bulbs now since I read they need high lighting. I got some conflicting info from the LFS guy who said I don't need to feed them anything (b/c they'll filter feed and then live off the light as well). Is this true or should I spot feed him?

Here are some pic's:





I also picked up some formalin since I'm going to do a freshwater/medication dip on my wrasse since he's been scratching like crazy (but still eating like a pig). I think he may have fluke or something in his gills or some sort of parasite...Hopefully this'll work...If anyone has experience with this and can lend me a hand I'd really appreciate it.

no need to spot feed xenia..

I'm also interested in your treatment for parasites.. I think my blenny has a parasite, he's always scratching himself and looks anorexic but still eats fine..

I actually think my goby just caught a minor case of fin rot. I noticed something had taken a small bite out of his tail and a few days later it appeared to be infected. My plan now since my wrasse appears to have flukes (however has not hurt himself from scratching on the rocks, is still swimming fine, and is still eating like there is no tomorrow) is to allow the fish's immune system to run its course and I also plan on getting UV sterilizer at this point. I know a UV sterilizer won’t cure medical problems but I'm hoping it will be preventative and assist the fish's immune system in fighting off the remainder of their infection by themselves.

If this doesn't work and my fish appear to get worse I'm going to remove the Xenia from the tank and dose the display tank with API's Melafix. Its "supposed" to be coral and invert safe, but I'll remove the Xenia just in case. I'm not sure how my inverts will react to it (only have my CUC and cleaner shrimp at this point anyways). I'm going to do it this way b/c there is NO way I'm going to be able to catch any of my fish in my tank with over 100lb of rock for them to hide in and I’m not going to remove all the rock (stressing the heck out of everything, disrupting the levels of the tank, and possibly killing something by accident) in order to treat the tank.

I have had a thought in reference to treatment (and I'm not sure if it'll work or not lemme know what you guys think). Instead of having QT for fish keep one for corals/inverts (since they are A LOT easier to catch). If I do need to dose the tank with medication I'll just remove the corals (on their rocks if need be) put them in the QT and then dose the tank. Run activated carbon for a week or so after the dosing is complete then put the corals and inverts back in (the only invert I'd remove would be the cleaner shrimp at this point). Think that'll work?

i used melafix on my reef to treat my clown a few weeks ago to no ill effect, if that helps, had cleaner shrimp there too, hermits true crabs etc, nothing was lost

Sweet thanks...I was concerned it might hurt something...I figure for the time being I'll see if the fish can heal on his own but I like knowing I having other options to pursue if need be.

Okay so after much debate in my mind of, "What if a parasite gets into my tank and a fish gets sick and I can't get him out of the tank? Am I going to tear the rock work apart or just hope he gets better"...or worse..."What if a fish gets sick and begins to spread what he's got to other fish? What am I going to do?". And in addition to this a minor algae problem I finally broke down and bought a UV sterilizer. I went with the coral life turbo twist b/c it appeared to be the best bang for my buck (not knowing at the time I needed to buy a pump along with it but that problem was quickly solved). My original plan was to try to sterilizer the display tank water and then in turn put that same sterilized water back into my display tank. After realizing that this would result in a lot of unsightly tubing in my tank (and after some good {yes I know it's shocking} advice from my LFS owner) I decided to mount my sterilizer under my tank and sterilize the water in the sump. My original plan also was to screw the clamps into the support beams under my tank but I was worried I would A) go through the support beams and shatter the underside of my tank and the screw heads weren't big enough for the clamps so I decided to go with plan B which was to hang it using twine/rope. In addition to this I used a small mini jet 404 water pump to push the water through the sterilizer. I have the gph set at around 50-55 gph. Here are some pic's.

Okay so got some more coral and some more fish today. I picked up a small Lawnmower Blenny (to assist with my algae problem) a White Sleeper goby (to assist with stirring my sand bed since 2 of the 3 nassarius snails have disappeared) and the LFS owner offered me an AWSOME deal on a Galaxia so I picked that up also. It was a little sooner than I had planned for LPS but I'm relatively certain my tank can handle it. Anyways, on to pictures:

White Sleeper...Started stirring my sand bed shortly after I put him in the tank...I think he confuses my other fish though:




Lawnmower Blenny...This guy has tons of personality. He's tiny but I like him:



Galaxia Coral:

Great thread. Tank looks great. I am looking at a 100gallon Truvu tomorrow to combine both my BC29 and BC14. I really want more space and a few Tangs ;-)

Keep up the great thead, will be tagging along.
-jds

Thanks...I haven't updated this site in awhile. I added a Torch Coral a couple weeks ago and it appears to be doing well also.

did u ever end up using melaflix?
great lookin tank, FTS time

Wow, that was a long wait for my reply.

Nope never used melaflix. All my fish are doing well but I've been really lazy about updating this page (have added several things but never put a photo up here).

Just added an Anthias the other day. Still waiting for his shyness to die down so that he will eat. *crosses fingers*.

lol perfect timing actualy i havent been on here in ageess
funny that i was just considering a trio or quad of squamipinnis or something
my chromis are gettin a bit boring as the only schooling fish

I was toying with the idea of putting in a Chromis.

ther great fish but as the only fish that are always there its a bit boring id like anthias

Actually I dropped in 3 Chromis's the other day along with a black long spined urchin. The Chromis are schooling nicely.

What thickness acrylic did you use on your splash guard? What did you use to keep the magnets in place. Thanks in advance for the info

Wow, long wait for that reply (sorry haven't updated in a long time). Not sure of the thickness, I got whatever the thinnest piece I could find at Lowes was. The magnets I just glued into place (I suggest something strong than just crazy glue as I have to reattach them from time to time).