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Jamie's Tropical Tank


Jamie

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I've been spending quite a bit of time on my coldwater tank lately, and last week I decided it was time to mix things up a little. I headed out to see if I could find an Aqua Design Amano Cube Garden, and though I did, another tank caught my eye. I'd never heard of it before, it was called Do!Aqua, and was also made by ADA. Same dimensions as a cube garden, same slick silicone, as far as I could tell, there was no difference. Except that the Do!Aqua was $30 less than the Cube Garden. You can guess which I bought. ;)

 

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So, what to put in it? As it turns out, I actually have a secret tropical tank in my basement that no one knows about, and I have been slowly amassing corals. Many of these were from my ugly 5.5 contest tank. So, rather than do the smart thing and cycle the tank, I just transferred everything over the course of two days. I figured, everything is already in one tank together, so moving it all to another tank should be much of a problem. Turns out, it wasn't! The transition went so smoothly that the tank went through no noticeable cycle.

 

A few days later I decided I was willing to test my luck and buy a few new corals, because the tank was looking really good. Against my better judgement, I bought and oregon tort frag (yes, acropora in a 3 day old tank, brilliant!) along with some nice zoanthid colonies and a green florida ricordea. Again, things went in my favor, and after acclimation, everything was happy! And it remains so to this day (though it has only been a week).

 

I give you, my new pico at one week of age (hope it keeps looking good!):

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Believe it or not, I was also stupid enough to buy a fish for this tank. It's a little yasha goby, and it, as of yet, has done everything it can not to be seen. This morning, when the moonlights were on, it actually came out and swam around a little, but most of the time you can't even tell it's there. Hoping it becomes more active and less shy!

 

So, basically, now that I've done basically everything wrong, I'm just going to let this tank sit and mature, after all, this hobby is all about patience. ;)

 

A few quick stats, then some pics:

 

5.44 gallons

150 watt, 10K metal halide

2 koralia's for flow

temp: 76-83 degrees ( I know it's a big swing, but one of my local fishstores has convinced me to try it - he lets his tanks swing between 68 and 84, and all his acros are happy, so figured I'd give it a try)

At the moment, this tank has an acrylic lid (ugly = not in pictures), but I'm planning on making a mesh one so it stays cooler during the day.

 

And here are (some of) the inhabitants:

 

bubble coral

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green ric

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trumpet and rics

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green zoas/baby leather

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oregon tort

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b. merletti

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new zoa colony

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fts plus sunpod

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not pictured:

sexy shrimp

yasha goby

orange ricordea

orange crush acan

 

Pictured, but not previously mentioned

red monti cap frags

big green/brown monti

blue m. digitata (currently looking very brown, we shall see if it colors up)

hydnophora

kenya tree

 

still to be added:

an ornamental shrimp of some sort

a couple more zoa frags

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Looks cool! Do you plan on adding sand at any point or do you have too much flow? Also I hope everything stays happy.

 

I'm no sure. I think sand would work, the flow across the bottom isn't super intense, but I'm hoping to get the zoas to grow on the bottom, and just have a multicolored carpet.

 

Looks good!

 

You went pretty fast there man, stocked it in one week?

 

Yeah, I know, but since it's mostly transferred as opposed to new stuff I'm hoping it'll be okay. If things do start to go south, I always have the well-established tropical tanks in my basement I can transfer back to.

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Wow you don't mess around, looks great!

 

Thanks!

 

I wish I had that same option with my coldwater tank...my tube worms are basically all dead :(

 

Yeah, well, sorry about that. But you'll get it under control, and then you can get new tubeworms!

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That tank really does look great. Love the rimless look.

 

I hope I can get some more tube worms, I think I will wait a while though, just because of their feeding requirements.

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That tank really does look great. Love the rimless look.

 

I hope I can get some more tube worms, I think I will wait a while though, just because of their feeding requirements.

 

Sounds like a good plan to me!

 

Sweeet tank! Did you buy it online or at a LFS? Everything looks happy in there. So you're not using a heater?

 

Lfs, and I am using a heater, just not trying to control temp as much.

 

Why no heater? And no sand for a goby = fail for poor Goby ! Gat another fish instead . Tank looks nice for now. :D

 

hmmm, I wonder if the lack of sand is freaking the goby out - it stays hidden all the time! I've seen them in barebottom tanks before though. :unsure:

 

And yes, I do have a heater, I just keep it set low (75) so that the temp fluctuates more. The light really heats up he tank during the day, so I think if the temp was set any higher I would have issues. I will be switching from an acrylic to a mesh lid, which should keep the temp down a little.

 

The price difference is because the ADA uses higher clarity glass.

 

ah, I thought that could be it. I haven't really had any problems regarding clarity, so I guess it's fine.

 

 

 

The tank has suffered it's first casualty, and in a very strange way. I was watching my sexy shrimp hang out by my bubble coral, suspecting he might be hosting it. The shrimp then brushed up against the coral, and bam! The coral stung the sh!t out of it and tried to eat it! :o I pulled the shrimp out of the coral's tentacles, but it was too late. It convulsed for a while, but it must have gotten a fatal dose of venom because it is now dead. :( Who knew that bubble corals packed such a punch?

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Considering people have walked straight into very clean glass thinking there was nothing there i'm assuming a non low iron glass is fine :)

 

If you don't mind, how much did that tank run? it's pretty sweet.

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39.95. Compared to the nearly identical cube garden, which was ~70, I thought it was a pretty good deal. :)

 

random side note - today I was downstairs rooting around in my other tropical tanks looking for a peppermint shrimp, because I'm finding more and more baby aiptasia in this tank. I flipped over a rock and something jetted out. A little bright green mantis shrimp! I don't think I'll move him into this tank, too dangerous, but it was a cool find nonetheless. I may set up a display fuge for this tank someday with cool macro's and a mantis!

 

I did eventually catch the pepp, too, and he's now in the new tank. Hopefully he eats the aiptasia, and nothing else!

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You mentioned that the guy at your LFS lets his temps swing quite drastically. Is there a specific reason why he does this? I've always read that stable temps are the best.

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I guess it depends on what you want to keep. SPS corals, which typically come from very shallow water are exposed to large temp swings in the wild. At low tides they are nearer to the surface (or sometimes even out of the water entirely) where it is warmer, and at low tides they are in deeper water, which is cooler. That's not the entire explanation, but it gives you some idea of his rationale. I talked to a marine biology professor who studies coral reefs extensively on the subject, because I was likewise skeptical, and he assured my that shallow water corals can experience temp swings of 10 degrees over the course of 1 day in nature. The problems start when the high part of the temp swing gets into the 87-88 degree range - that's when corals will bleach. Many other corals - many softies, mushrooms, and some zoanthids, come from deeper water, and are not adapted to temp swings, and they won't react favorably to big changes in temperature.

 

So, I guess he just wants to simulate what the corals would experience in nature. That, or he just wants to lower his electricity bills. :P

 

 

Took some more macro pics today:

 

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:ninja:

 

 

 

not much to update:

 

Peppermint shrimp has yet to eat my aiptasia; yasha goby has yet to come out from his spot under the rock. Every once in a while I see a fin sticking out, but that's it. :mellow: Lani needs to send me some of her new fishes? :flower:

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Gah! The bubble coral has claimed it's second victim, my peppermint shrimp! :( I didn't see the shrimp actually get stung, but I found it next to the coral, having the same sort of spasms as the sexy shrimp did when it was stung. That was last night, and this morning the shrimp was dead, and for no apparent reason, also in two pieces. The tail was visible, but I had to move some rocks around to find the head/thorax.

 

While I was rescaping a bit to get the shrimp out, I decided to move some rocks around to try and get a view of my elusive yasha goby. I removed most of the loose rubble, so I can see basically everywhere in the tank, under the rocks, etc, and there is no goby to be found! While there is a slight possibility that the goby is hiding in the one little spot I can't see, I'm getting the feeling that it's not in there anymore. I haven't seen any trace of it in the past few days, but I don't know what could have happened to it. I have a tight fitting lid, so jumping out of the tank is unlikely. Still, I check my desk and floor every day, I've looked in the vent on my floor, under my bed, etc. and I haven't found it. It's a wood floor, so a dead fish would be pretty easy to spot. I suppose it's possible my dog ate it, but she's not the type of dog that eats anything that might be food, and I don't think she wouldn't have considered it.

 

I can't think of something that would eat it that lives in the tank either. The bubble coral might be able to catch it, but it would create a pretty obvious lump, because the fish is bigger than the coral. If I had a mantis or something I'm sure I would have heard it - it's on my desk, where I'm often doing homework, and it's the same room I sleep in, and I've never heard any noise coming from the tank.

 

It's a mystery! Anyone have other ideas I'm missing? :(

 

It seems to be a pretty perilous tank for anything that moves, but all the sedentary residents are quite happy. I can see new growth on the monti's, and the blue tort is already beginning to encrust a little around the epoxy. I am baffled that the corals are doing so well, yet anything I add that isn't coral promptly dies or vanishes. :sigh:

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Thanks all. :)

 

The bubble has some nice zoas growing on the shell, so I'll have to try to frag those off. Hopefully I can break the rock up without damaging the bubble but I guess if I do, it kind of deserved it. -_-

 

edit: if that was confusing, the shell I was referring to was the shell that the coral is growing on. It made it sound like the bubble has some sort of protective casing. :P

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