Hey.... I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. There's been so many new threads popping up in this section of the forum... I finally went through this morning and subscribed to my favorites so I wouldn't lose track anymore.

It sounds like your tank is doing well, otherwise. The ricordea pack would definitely had additional color. Never ordered from them before but hopefully, someone else will be able to chime in.

I think intank sumps are the way forward, if you do them in a manner which keeps them discreet yet accessable then they save alot less worry and effort plus they save alot of space. The fun thing about the bahamian tank is the amount of macro algae to use. I think i may have to make a trip to collect some though, we get nothing from the carribean round here, all indonesian and australian stuff.

Thanks PSYS, maybe i'll do a search for them and read reviews.

Yeah, that's what I want in a sump! Maybe that's why I chose to do such a small tank, in the end, because I knew the hob would be easy. How much mangrove would be used? I want to visualize

Loads, i would want a mini mangrove saltlake probs a 1/4-1/3 of the tank, maybe 10-20 plants towards the back allowing for space at the front. Naturally mangroves are awesome.

that's a lot!!! That's going to be pretty sweet looking I bet.

update:

So i've been battleing some really bad algae in my tank. As of today, here is my solution to the problem:

1) Larger water changes, weekly. Instead of half a gallon, I'm doing a whole gallon.

2) I got a bag of chemipure elite. I re-did the amount in the bag and put it in my fuge. Hopefully this will lower my phosphates, which are incredibly high. No idea how, I only feed my shrimp, one pellet a day, have loads of snails, and one hermit crab. But the large amount of algae even proves that my levels are fudged right now.

3) I bought a powerhead. Marineland mini-jet 404. It was the smallest my lfs had and i'm starting to get desparate. I tucked it behind my large red rock, which pushes the rock forward (not too happy about that). I aimed it at the side of my right wall, where i've noticed the most flow blockage, and bad algae build up. Hopefully, this will give my tank the extra boost it needs. Right now it gives a nice wave effect on the top, like my hob does. Now my tank has super movement. I need to figure out where I want it to be permanently though because I dislike how much forward it pushes my large red rock piece; I have limited space as it is

Anyway, hopefully the algae will eventually go away. I've been manually removing a lot of it too. I found out that it's all cyano. Anyone know of critters that reeeaaally love to munch on it? my hermit doesn't like to eat it...

thanks

My nimble arrived!! woot. I cleaned my glass finally!!

It's amazing, you can actually see everything so clearly now haha

Alrighty! So I started my 1g quarantine tank. It's probably going to fill up with lovely corals though rather than be empty enough for stuff to chill out in for a few days...

I put the xenia rock for the 1g in my 3g in a shot glass. I suspended it in hopes that the rock won't pick up any cyano on the sandbed... Which it probably will but I thought i'd try out isolating it anyway... All the lovely critter that are hitchhikers on it are sticking to it, though I did find a few bristle worms in the bottom of the shot glass last night! Luckily, they can crawl on glass.

I realize that i've been taking this tank very slow, which i'm not entirely happy about because my tank is still pretty bare for having it for a few months now. When I get back, I might get a ricordia pack from coral morphologic and start a garden with them. My lfs has some reeeeeaally cool neon orange zoas (a whole rock for $20) but I think the rock is too big for my tank.. I could get it and break it up if I had to. Maybe I will.

I have a new kenya tree baby! it's growing on the rock with my ric. Oh I also picked up a yellow leather coral a few weeks ago. not sure if I mentioned that or not. But it's happy. I can't decide where I want to put it though right now it's chillin on a frag on my sandbed where it can't be pushed over my my lovely cleaner shrimp.

Oh so, for my 10g tank i'm going to be putting together when I get back in July, would a current usa dual satellite 2x48 (I think it's 48) watt white and blue light work for that? Is that too much? Should I just get a single tube T5 fixture?

shot glass suspension.


star fish yoga.


can't forget the much needed "Fred" the cleaner shrimp shot:

Quick update:

I went to the lfs to get water for a water change and I came home with a load of coral!

What I got:
-A Digi monti (I'm pretty sure I got that name somewhat right it looks like a branch)
-a red monti plate frag
-two new zoa colonies, one mixed, and one purple with purple/brown skirts.
-A random freebee single zoa polyp I found in the $2.99 area (which the guy gave me with the mixed colony very nice of him because the color is amazing! It's still a little shy, but I attached it to a piece of rubble when I got home, and it started to open right when the lights went out. beautiful orange center with yellow skirt I think.. still not fully opened yet. I hope it propagates.

Anyway, I got great deals today! all that for $28...

I should scope out the $2.99 section more often, for a pico, it's a gold mine.

pics tomorrow:::

I also put on hold till this weekend a lovely yellow zoa colony that will go in my 1g.

Well hey everyone! I've decided to break down my two small tanks. I'm going to combine them into a 10 gallon. I need to work out the lighting still, but for the new tank I will have two hob filters and a mini jet. Should be enough flow.

Anyway, I plan on getting some clown fish after the switch and maybe a few more crabs. I'll also get some more LR and LS.

Here are some pics of my two tanks, taken a few minutes ago. The pics aren't great and my 3 gallon glass is very dirty, but regardless:









1 gallon:




Anyway, the tanks are fine and flourishing with no problems. I just need to combine everything because i'll be very busy this coming semester and I feel one larger tank would get more attention than 3 smaller dispersed tanks.

Oh I have no idea what that green furry algae is in my 3 gallon. But It probably won't make the move to the 10. My lfs told me to yank it

Great thread and lovly looking tank.

Ick is a protozin parasite that can lay dormant on the fish or in a tank if the fish then becomes stressed either when you transport it or if water parameters go off then it can take hold usualy because the fishes slime coat has been compromised which is it's immune system basicaly.

Ive had whitespot in my tropical tanks before and it is very hard to treat imo.

very cool, I just found this thread and I will be following now. I like the 1 gal too

I merged the tanks! It went successfully, with only one or two hiccups. One being that I accidentally buried my yellow leather in the sand and only realized it was missing at least one day later. It was pretty mad at me, but it's starting to come around. Otherwise, I got some new rock and i'm semi-content with my scape for the moment. I think the large red rock on the left is too low compared to the other branching rock.. I may just solve this problem by sticking a nice leather up on the top of it by the monti. Not sure yet, but i'm thinking about it. I got some new red with pick centers zoanthids, tiny GSP frag, and a head of hammer coral recently. I put the GSP in the back of the tank. I'm hopeing it will grow up the glass and create a nice backdrop for me. I got the hammer coral for my new clown fish, who is ridiculously cute. I'm only going to keep one in the tank. I think two would be overcrowding because they get sort of big. Maybe he'll stay small due to the smallish size tank he's in. I picked the smallest clown the lfs had though, and he looks so tiny in the tank. lots of nice swim/hiding room. I plan on getting a tail-spot blenny and maybe one other goby and being done with stocking at this point. Three fish seems like a lot. But when you think about it.. gobies are so small.. not sure they even count half the time Also, they perch, which takes up less swim space. That and I do water changes every week. I think the tank will handle the fish load perfectly. Here are some pics:

That looks excellent buddy loving the scape now.

thanks!

I'm slightly worried about my new clown, he won't stop swimming into the glass. Thats sort of all he does is swim into the glass and corner. I think he may think that his reflection is another clown He also didn't eat yesterday..

Will he mellow out?

So it's been a few days. My clown is eating now, really good sign. I've named him Charlie. I did the first water change today, only 1 gallon, but everything looks happy. I also picked up some light pink zoanthids, these ones are literally light pink, while I discovered that the other pink ones I bought a day or two ago are actually red/maroon

I'm really happy about this tank atm because I decided to get a yasa goby/randal shrimp pair today as well. The shrimp is not even an inch long, so i'm not worried about him picking on my cleaner shrimp, considering the cleaner shrimp is three times his size. The randal shrimp is so cute when he digs his nest and flings the sand!! As soon as I was done acclimating him and the goby, he went straight below my purple zoas with brown shirts and started digging a hole underneath them. It seems the pair is happy, the fish found the shrimp and his new hole and is guarding it already. Anyway, I'm just really excited that I was able to get them because I was previously under the impression that the two shrimps would fight mortal kombat style. But it looks like that won't be the case at all! Yay!

I was going to get a tail spot blenny, then decided that the blenny they had at the lfs was too big already for my tank. He's a solid three inches, not including fins. So that was a no go. I'll just wait until they get in some small ones, or forgo them altogether. Time will tell.

I'll try to get some pics later of the tank to show it's progress.

Hey, I see you're in Tempe... are you getting your fish from Pets Inc?

What light are you using?

Yeah! They're my lfs. I've been trying to find a saltwater club, because I know there's one here, just haven't contacted them yet to find out the meeting dates. Are you in Tempe/Phoenix?

Current USA dual satellite 20" fixture on the 10 gallon. I used a current USA dual satellite 12" on the 3 gallon before I broke down the tank. I just decided to use the same light, except larger for my 10 gallon because it worked really well for the 3 gallon.

Guess I didn't explain the set up for the 10 gallon:

Current usa dual satellite 20" fixture PC
AC 50-modded fuge
AC20-modded fuge
marineland mini jet
12ish lbs LR
3-4inch deep sandbed

zoanthids, leathers, digi monti, plating monti, kenya tree, gsp, mushrooms, and ricordea.

1 clownfish- charlie
1 yasha goby- goby (very unoriginal)
1 randall shrimp- Vern, because of mini me.
1 cleaner shrimp- fred
regular CUC

plans: tail spot blenny (small) or maybe a hectori goby, more hard corals, more ricordea, some acans, etc.

Update: Yasha goby is great! and eating. My clown is a little piggy as well. Seems like the fish are adjusting well to their new home. I've only seen the randall shrimp once or twice since I bought him, but he's making a large multi-entry hole underneath my LR, in which my goby pokes his little head out of. Very cute. I did poke a shrimp pellet down his hole the other day. Hopefully someone ate it. Otherwise, nothing else is new, I tried to get some pics of some of my coral under blue light, since I haven't really done that before. The camera doesn't really pick up the true vibrancy of the colors, but it's alright:



Charlie the clown, and Fred the cleaner:




Peeking out:



At breakfast time, he became a little more daring:





Coral pics: my yellow leather is angry atm, he was fine this morning, but got angry after I fed the fish..







The colors look better in person than they do on digital. But i'm happy with it.

Quick update:

Today I went in to the lfs to get some more astrea snails and I came home with a couple polyps of fire and ice zoanthids and an Australian elegance (which is now the largest coral in my tank). They're both looking good so far, nice and happy. Pics later

wow I really like your tank a lot. That art majoring helps! How is your monti doing as I want to keep one?

Thanks! my monti is doing very well, both of them. Not sure which you're referring two, the digi or the plating. They both grew about 2 inches or more in 7 weeks. Are you worried about PC lighting? --oh, i don't dose my tank, btw. Just a heads up as a lot of reefers do, but I haven't started that yet, the tank is still so young.

Pic Update:

I just fed the Australian elegance, so it's in the middle of chowin' down.



Goby and shrimp, hangin out


fts


I know there's algae in on the back wall. I'm hoping to grow a few pods from it, otherwise i'd just wipe it away.

Quick update:

So for the past few days my elegance coral has been seemingly unhappy, as it was very scrunched up. However it still ate and everything else in the tank is fine (Other than Vern, my randal shrimp mysteriously losing one of his main pincers)... anyway.. this morning I noticed that it was very happy for the first time in days! Good news! So just a moment ago, I looked at it again and I realized something............it's been splitting...... it now has two mouths definitely only had one to begin with .... So.. I suppose now I have two elegance corals! Though one small problem I can foresee, my tank is only ten gallons, and I already have a hammer coral too... not so sure I have the room for two LARGE elegance corals.. dun DUN DUUUUNNNNNNNN!

edit: I talked to my lfs who told me that when they reproduce, they're known to cap off and leave the bone, which can grow a completely new elegance coral.. SO I would end up with three!

Picture update:

Since last time i've added: a green slimer, a few new mushrooms, a new baby ric, german blue digi frag, and a hector's goby.

fts: you can see the new goby in the second fts, otherwise, he's camera shy.



left side:

right side:

middle:


new xenia and green slimer in the background:


I'm hoping the gsp on the back wall will start to grow all over the glass, but I just stuck it there yesterday, so time will tell!

Great tank, your coral look amazing! One thing I would do would be to add a black background...that would make your colors pop out a whole lot more.

If you still have your pico and ever want to sell the equipment, send me a pm

Actually, Nemo, I have the 12" dual PC light and the tank left from the 3 gallon pico project. I would sell it if you're still interested

Update:

I'll be upgrading to a 46 gallon bow. I'm making the light, (4xT5 fixture), and the sump/refugium/skimmer, and all the plumbing. Oh and my own saltwater for once Anyway, parts for the light are in transit to my house.. so still need to put it together. And I haven't started the sump/plumbing yet. HOWEVER, I did buy the tank haha. I'll probably have it all up and running in two-three weeks.

I'm thinking i'll cycle the 46 g with completely new saltwater and some LR, then add my CUC, then wait some more and finally add all the contents of my 10 g over after that. So.. the 10 g will be running until mid December at least...

But here are some pics freshly taken! My elegance coral is very mad at me and has been so for about a week and a half. I dosed the water with some trace elements stuff and also spot fed it some tiny zoo-food. Still mad. Though yesterday is was plump and starting to extend it's tentacles, and today, it's back to angry. I'm keeping a close eye on it and hopefully it's just mad because I moved it closer to the light and off the sand (because my court jester goby was using it as a sand dumpster)

Oh, my glass is kind of dirty, sorry. And yes, the kenya trees have taken over... As far as the xenia, i'm not too worried, it's the pulsing kind, so at least it's very pretty in the current to watch, regardless if it takes over as well...




POed elegance


Charlie, my ocellaris clown -he's getting a fully black and white clown buddy with the upgrade!!


Fred the cleaner shrimp and Charlie (Ziggy, my court jester goby is very camera sky)


thanks for looking!

dude that should be sweet! I've seen people do that with montis, but never gsp!

absolutely beautiful!!!

Yeah, it wouldn't stay glued to the wall, but i'm going to try again in the 46 g.

thanks for the comments guys!