Hello fellow reefers... Im a total noob and have another post running about my tank and setup, tank has been up and running since Nov. 3rd,12gallon aquapod, chamber 1 has half the stock sponge and about an inch of filter floss on top of it, ch2 has the stock carbon bag, ch3 my stealth 50watt heater, ch4 the Maxi900...



Furthermore, I want to house zoas and palys i love how they look...How long should I wait before I add a couple..I saw an awesome Eagle Eye frag at the LFS... I was also thinking of a hammer coral, I wanna go for a Dr. Suess kinda look... bright reds and blues, funky lookin tree like corals...
..Livestock, Im thinking of a goby or blenny, and a single clown, as well as a coral banded shrimp...

Ive got 11lbs of LR and 20lbs CaribSea fiji pink live sand...

Check out my other thread for images...
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=212419

Add CUC when you are certain you're cycle is over following a good size water change to reduce nitrates to a safe level.

Okay, thank you! I live in El Paso TX, and yesterday i seemed to know more about saltwater than the guy at petland(which is really scary considering i know very little) I dont know that i can trust the advice he gave me

Some LFS (Local Fish Store) are in it for the money. When you are new, the best advice I can give you is to never impulse buy anything. If you don't know, walk away and research so you don't end up wasting your money.

YEA i have alot of dumb questions.. haha..thanks... last night I noticed a white tentacle looking thing coming off the rock.. couldnt get a good shot of it, but i did observe how it reacted to different lighting.it tucked under the rock with white lights, stuck straight out under actinic and moved in the current under moonlight... odd..

Probably a digitate hydroid or a tube worm of some sort.

Lol sounds like a flux capacitor.. jk would i need to worry about it? i think the daylight pissed it off... we'll see if it makes it through the 8 hours of light today...

i just googled digitate hydroid, and this little thing looks nothing like that .. when i get home ill attempt to get a good pic...

probably a tube worm then. I have both in my tank. The digitate hydroids can be in the rock or sandbed and let out a long white tentical with barbs and a tip on the end. The tube worms are just a thin white tentical with no barbs. Never had a problem with either and thy both behave how you described. They hide during the day cycle and come out wih actinic and lights out.

Picture would give a positive I'd from someone, I was just putting a few options outthere :-p

SOOOO...I bought a few Blue Legged Hermits and ceriths and nassisarius or whatever.....seem to be happy goin to town on the diatom stuff

yeah it looks like a phallus... I ran to a new LFS and went in to purchase just a few CUC members, and they tried to sell me a fish....but uh yea i said no... do you think the hermies will eat the thing? I tried taking a pic but my camera sucks big time...

I doubt the hermits will eat it. Mine have never touched them. They should retract if they touch something they aren't used to. Also where there's one there is usually more (even if you can't see them)

as for the diatoms when you do your water change take a piece of airline tube or thin hose and vaccum it off the rocks and sand it will help get rid of them faster. Diatoms sure are ugly but once they are gone they should be gone for good. At least your cuc is helping with it mine sent do crap with diatoms

right on, Yea i need to do some serious basting later, alot of debris from the LR has settled on my sand and its not pretty... Im also gonna do a water change tonight... im thinking 3 gallons should be enough.... if i were to take out some of the LR and break it up, would it have any adverse reactions?

the hermits seem to love the brown stuff

i had done that as i was not pleased with the LR i had in there, had 6 or 7 rocks looked like dounuts staked around, so i took a old golf club to them to break'em up.. worked perfect.. just dont let them be dry for long, have a bucket with SW next to you to throw them in. just be patience when stacking them up again.. took me a few times to really get them the way i liked

as for that nasty brown algea.. it will go away on its own.. just make sure to use at least DI or RO for waterchanges and they will clear after a month or so..

Been workin so far for me.. Good Luck

golf club huh... i picture someone swinging it over there head smashing a car window hahah! I was thinking of using a chisel an hammer...
I will get to it this evening and post pics of the new remodel.. i need to clean off the sand too, lots of debris has gathered...

I get my water from one of thse watermill things nearby, supposedly it has no dissolved solids... i think thats what the sign says...

Funny how you mention that, I went to a new LFS(when i say new i mean my first time there) and they tried to sell me a couple of gobys, after listening to me tell them my tank had just been set up on the 3rd. They insisted i purchase fish to establish the tank... and that didnt sound right to me.. I got my hermits, astreas, nas' snails and a few ceriths and got outta there!!!

talk about in it for the money

This could have been said for two reasons. 1. They are in it for the money. Or 2. Thats what they really believe in (using a fish to help cycle/establish a tank). This was the big thing to do years back to help start a cycle, people still do it to this date, but it seriously frowned upon by people as torture to the fish (ammonia can be really rough on the fish, imagine breathing fire).

thats a good point, maybe i shouldnt be too quick to shoot them.. The Hermits and snails seem to have made it through the night and are feasting...I wasnt able to do a water change last night, so i will try to get to it tonight..

Post some pics will ya?

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Continue taking it slow and asking lots of questions!
Read the beginner articles in the nano-reef library also if you have time.

I'll get a few up tonight, nothing really special to look at yet..I'll prolly break up the rock tonight, i think it looks too plain and boring...
Ive spent alot of time reading, I just have ADD...lol...I'll ask a question everytime one arises!

So instead of breaking the LR, I stopped by the LFS and picked up 3lbs of small round and wickedly shaped LR... I already placed them in the tank, but I didnt have time to get creative(I did this on my lunch break) I also grabbed 2 Red Leg hermits, and 2 large nas. snails... later after the water change and new scaping i shall post up photos...

I hope it was fully cured live rock.

The owner of the LFS told me it was, also it is from the same place as the other rock...I watched him open the box that had just arrived.. they are very small pieces... i hope i didnt do a no-no... I did dip them in freshwater to clean off debris... now im kinda scared... ima get home and find my hermies belly up

Hopefully it's fine.

I concur!! thanks for instilling worry and panic in my mind!

sorry

hahah no worries... tis all good...I suppose true lessons are best learned when they smack you in the face...

For the future dipping in fresh water probably isn't the best idea.
You might consider using salt water to keep the bacteria & such alive.

Other than that, good idea on adding the smaller rocks.

Sorry for the mis-use of terminology, I dipped them in the water the crabs and snails came in.. so it was saltwater...the red legged guys are alot more active than the blues, and the snails are beasts...lol

here are a few pics, Re-scaped the LR, happy with it for now!
Full tank shot
Click to view attachment

one of the new pieces of rock
Click to view attachment

and another tank shot
Click to view attachment


I like it

also did a 3 gallon water change!... everyone in there seems happy...so far...

woke up this morning and tank has cleared up pretty well, everyone seems fine and happy so far

Gooood.

Tank looks good, and the rocks look reasonably well stacked.

Thank you! any idea what those round spikey looking white things on that rock are? they look wickedly cool and are calcified...maybe they'll come back to life?

oh and I shook the tank to be certain they wouldnt take a tumble!!
haha jk jk

so yeah im on this site like 24/7 and my girlfriend, whom ive only been with 2 weeks, and I really like, finally questioned me about this site and what i talk about.. and when I told her it was about reefing she was like'so youre cheating on me'...WTF! I was like no baby, its a bunch of people who share the same interest offering each other advice and such.. and now i feel guilty..

What's there to feel guilty about?

I think my wife has referred to this site as "fish porn" on a few occasions...

Anyways, there's always a chance something could pop up randomly, but those look pretty dead/receded.

IDK lol im guilty by nature....guilty conscience

fish porn eh...thats just scary.....did that happen to come up during an argument? I can just imagine.. So the other day when I was watching the kids and making dinner where were you!! youre too busy loooking at your fish porn to pay attention to the kids... haha sorry i found that somewhat humorous dobt hate me if im wrong...

Yeah I ill hope for the best as my other rock didnt have any hitchhikers

Definitely heard that one before...eventually they'll just stop asking...

I just remind mine that I could be looking at some real porn and she back off.

Haha! i'll let know if the fish porn bomb gets dropped on me! I hope not! but good point, you could always be using ths as a front... hmmm now im left to wonder...

So guys and gals, whats the dealio! does any one else scratch their veins and crave seeing their tanks? I swear I could stare at mine all day, and its just a bunch of LR! haha..can't wait to stock this beauty...

So i woke up this morning and one of my red leggers was camped out on the purple stuff on my rocks and i think there is less purple today than there was last night..also my temp dropped to 75.8, there is a cold front moving through and i didnt prep for it... do hermies eat the coraline? or would the temp drop cause discoloration... dont ask me my params, cuz i dont know... and i know thats bad, but i havent had the time to go get a test kit...

Anyone wanna help me out on this?

The only Hermit I have personally witness actively eating coralline is the Electric Blue hermit crab, which predominately comes from the Marshall Islands. The get big, about the size of a golf ball. I have had three and witnessed them all eat coralline. In my case you could actually see a patch that was scraped clean down to the rock after he was done haveing a snack. I have never seen a red leg eat any.

It could be the temp swing caused the issue or that the rock was not fully cured and there is a small cycle happening, which can cause the coralline to whiten up.

Be patient, it will come back in time.

Hmmm okay that puts my mind at ease.. the rock was said to be fully cured, but i guess cant really take the LFS word for it..

Thank You

Your coraline will be fine it will be imposable for them to eat it all. But if you notice a big decrease in coraline alge then get a coraline supplement. many people say that the supplement does not work but i found it wonderful.

Hermits will eat anything!

coralline supplement, lol

your response to the supplement was a 'lol', now is that more of a 'ha ha' or 'he he' lmao...

I will take heed and let it come naturally..thanks guys...next question is coming soon..i can feel it in the air...