peach Posted June 1, 2010 Share Posted June 1, 2010 Hi everyone! I love reading the members reef threads so i thought i'd take a shot at doing my own Current Set up 22gal tank 16.5x16.5x20 4lbs of live rock 4in mixed sandbed(sand and crushed coral) seaclone in tank skimmer really crappy lighting whisper power filter 30 a simple airline tubing bubbler and some fake decorations(gifts to take up space when it was thought a reef was out of my price range) Live stock 6 line wrasse(maybe an inch) Pecula Clown Cherub Angel Yellow Watchman goby Skunk Cleaner Shrimp Nassarius Snail Featherduster Worm Orange Linkia Star and One red mushroom polyp Plans for upgrade: Remove all fake decorations without murdering the feelings of the individuals who bought them for me add a few good sized chunks of base rock buy a 70w MH System and get rid of current crappy light upgrade the bubbler to a Koralia Nano Powerhead add some chaeto to get a more stable pod population buy more shrooms, and get my first ever zoas, and lps the tank is about 4 months old and completely stable as of right now. The planned uprgrades may not start for a few weeks as i wait for paychecks and try to figure out how much next semester will cost, but until then, please give me any feedback you can with what i have planned. Link to comment
FloridaSunshine Posted June 1, 2010 Share Posted June 1, 2010 Everybody loves Pic. Pic. tell a thousand words Link to comment
cheryl jordan Posted June 1, 2010 Share Posted June 1, 2010 Hi, Looks good but I would go with a Koriala 1 or 2, the nano is not really enough for a 22 gal. Orange linkas are just not long for this world unless in a very established tank IMO. Link to comment
peach Posted June 1, 2010 Author Share Posted June 1, 2010 i've heard about linkias not lasting very long, but not until after i got mine. mine seems to be doing pretty well though, so i guess now i just watch and wait. here are some pics, like i said the face decorations aren't that great but i have plans to get rid of them once i get some base rock pics aren't that great but i'm trying to figure out how to take good ones with my fairly non-high tech camera Link to comment
peach Posted June 6, 2010 Author Share Posted June 6, 2010 Koralia 1 power head ordered and on its way! should be in the tank by saturday at the latest! i took out the fake cave in the back and added a nice new piece of live rock. I don't have any base rock yet though, so i'm trying to not get too attached to my aquascape. i also got a tiny zoa colony! they're really nice looking, and i'm super happy i got them. The new LFS owner in town is keeping an eye out on a deal on a light for me so hopefully he comes though. Until then my windows and my NO light will have to work. side note: any one in western MA, in chicopee there is going to be a store opening called marks aquarium and reef. Mark, the owner, showed a friend and i around the store during renovation, told us his plans, and offered to try to find a light to fit my tank. his live stock is going to be a lot cheaper than other local stores and he really knows what he's talking about and won't try to scam you. i would definitely suggest checking it out if any one is ever in the area. pictures to come if any one wants them Link to comment
peach Posted June 20, 2010 Author Share Posted June 20, 2010 out with the fake in with the real!! all fake decorations have been removed and replaced with about 8lbs of base rock and and additional pound of live rock. i have also added a CUC, and discovered that turbo snails suck, and ceriths are the way to go. turbos constantly fall off the glass, and it's annoying as all h*ll Koralia 1 is in place and working great! i like it way better than any bubbler i added a colony of eagle eye zoas and all my corals are doing great beyond my expectations, i'm hoping to add some chaeto soon, and maybe reconfigure my filter. the carbon cartriges are doing the job but i want to go towards something a little more reef oriented without buying a new filter. i have some ideas, i just have to do some more research before anything is actually implemented. more exciting news, i bought two 18in T5 fixtures(two because they dual 18in was about $200 more) and they should be in by thursday! this tank is really starting to shape up pics later, it is fathers day and all, and my dad probably wants a bit more attention than the tank today Link to comment
peach Posted June 29, 2010 Author Share Posted June 29, 2010 The lights are in!!! They are amazing! they give off so much light that i almost never need to turn on the light in my room! i also added my first LPS, a hammer coral. its not fully extended right now and will probably kinda p*ssed at me for doing a water change today but oh well, its for its own good and here are some pics! fts before the lights above water view now with the new lights the pictures do it no justice Link to comment
peach Posted July 3, 2010 Author Share Posted July 3, 2010 my tank has been hit with a mild case of cyano ....time for daily water changes and the purchase of a new power head and potentially modding my filter... Link to comment
PBUEHH Posted July 4, 2010 Share Posted July 4, 2010 thats starting to look pretty good. Link to comment
Zepo. Posted July 4, 2010 Share Posted July 4, 2010 Nice More rock!! If your ever in need of frags i can hook you up. Broke college students FTW Link to comment
peach Posted July 6, 2010 Author Share Posted July 6, 2010 thanks! i came across a nice candy cane with four heads and an unknown sps at my lfs 4th of july sale so i had to grab them while i could, but i'm avoiding buying any more coral until i take care of my cyano problems..i've been doing 30-40% water changes everyday and running my POS skimmer (that is pulling out nothing) almost constantly....i'm looking into buying a second powerhead and getting better filter media than just activated carbon and a sponge. when the cyano hit i found out my nitrates were 80ppm and my phsphates were 1 ppm, and now they're down to 20ppm and .5ppm respectively. i'm not quite sure what else to do at this point.. Link to comment
peach Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 this may have been either very stupid or very brilliant but i think i may have successfully eradicated the cyano. i figured that my crushed coral bed was trapping nitrates and deritus and was acting as a breeding ground for cyano just by its very nature...so i bought two bags of live sand, temporarily moved everything to a 5 gallon i had sitting around, and did a 100% water and substrate change...then i took a tooth brush to all the live rock with cyano on it. i'm hoping that works, and i've been adding the beneficial bacteria cultures i bought to avoid any cycle. i'm still waiting to the water in the DT to clear up so i can aquascape and put everything back in, but meanwhile the five gallon is almost taunting me to turn it into a pico....maybe someday..... i'll post pics once everything clears up and is back to normal Link to comment
drufornano Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 this may have been either very stupid or very brilliant but i think i may have successfully eradicated the cyano. i figured that my crushed coral bed was trapping nitrates and deritus and was acting as a breeding ground for cyano just by its very nature...so i bought two bags of live sand, temporarily moved everything to a 5 gallon i had sitting around, and did a 100% water and substrate change...then i took a tooth brush to all the live rock with cyano on it. i'm hoping that works, and i've been adding the beneficial bacteria cultures i bought to avoid any cycle. i'm still waiting to the water in the DT to clear up so i can aquascape and put everything back in, but meanwhile the five gallon is almost taunting me to turn it into a pico....maybe someday..... i'll post pics once everything clears up and is back to normal UPDATE! Link to comment
peach Posted July 22, 2010 Author Share Posted July 22, 2010 The substrate changed worked for about a week before the cyano came back...luckily it's not as bad as before...my lfs owner has recomended a UV sterlizer and red slime remover but i can only afford the latter so thats what i'm going to try next however, the sand looks much nicer than the crushed coral so i'm glad i did it, plus i love my new aquascape. i'd post pics if i wasn't working, and i will definitely post pics when then cyano clears up Link to comment
knoxvegas Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Sounds like the tank is going through the typical new tank cyano thing. Its pretty common you may not need the red slime remover. I would recommend backing off the nutrient load a litle back the lighting schedule a little siphon and up the wc frequency some. In most of these cases the cyna runs its course on its own. HTH Link to comment
peach Posted July 22, 2010 Author Share Posted July 22, 2010 at one point i was doing 40% wc a day for a week, and i only feed every 2 days, plus the light schedule has been cut back...i'll keep going at it, and see what happens, but i want to take care of it before school starts because by then i'll have zero time for anything other than a weekly water change, and i won't have enough money to keep buying salt for daily water changes. if in a few weeks it's still bad i'm definitely going to try red slime remover Link to comment
drufornano Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Sounds like the tank is going through the typical new tank cyano thing. Its pretty common you may not need the red slime remover. I would recommend backing off the nutrient load a litle back the lighting schedule a little siphon and up the wc frequency some. In most of these cases the cyna runs its course on its own. HTH agreed, avoid loading up your system with meds! Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.