Laura's 15 Gallon *rimmed*

[JerseyChick]

So fish stocking.... in 2011 (probably mid january or later will be my true percula, my fridmani psuedochromis, and a yellow swimming fish ~ (my fridmani is always hiding, I would like to see my fish once in a while)

 

still working on the pods... they were quickly attracted to the breeder feeder last night... swarmed it ~ was soo cool! I think my pod machine may be functional I will check it in a week

[JerseyChick]

Updated... Sunpod extensions completed, picture of skimmer build up (probably from massive amounts of mystery poo dude seriously a 17 day old tank making this color???), mystery snail pic [please help id], full tank shot and my pod breeder feeder experiment. **not sure exactly on which order NR will post them up, but if you can't tell the difference ~ please go break out your helmet and crayons and move on)

 

While it cycles, I am not as "anal" about esthetics, as I wanna be able to see everything easily

[JerseyChick]

So again, I am making a new "background" to the tank. so far first coat looks good. I am glad I didn't paint the back directly ~ now I on a whim can change it.

 

Will post pictures once it is aquarium siliconed to the exterior back outside (or maybe I will use lil velcro circles LOL... depends on my mood and how often I wanna change it)

 

 

Maybe I can put one of my paintings onto one to velcro ~ who knows... Its gonna be something totally mine and unique

[wamb0010]

So fish stocking.... in 2011 (probably mid january or later will be my true percula, my fridmani psuedochromis, and a yellow swimming fish ~ (my fridmani is always hiding, I would like to see my fish once in a while)

 

I've got a wild caught gold assessor basslett and it is my most active fish so far.

[ajmckay]

Tank looks awesome. What a great rock! That's truly awesome that you got so many hikers! I've been tossing around the idea of doing a hitcher tank someday..

[JerseyChick]

Tank looks awesome. What a great rock! That's truly awesome that you got so many hikers! I've been tossing around the idea of doing a hitcher tank someday..

 

 

Thanks I would love to one day do a hitch rock tank as in whatever happens happens while I maintain the best water quality I can

 

I heard the pistol snap twice today ~ my gosh i thought the glass was popping out ( two times in a row LOUD is an understatement)

 

I also redid the background ~ stained a 1/16 inch 24 by 12 oak board ebony black wood stain and attached it with velcro.

 

The AC110 arrived and at this time I firmly believe I have no need for any power jets. The tank looks soo simple and wonderful. Skimmer is in the AC110 and the only wired item in the tank is the heater (hidden behind the rock)

 

I did pick up 3 ($4.99 a piece frags) a pink birds nest ; a purple mushroom with light blue/powder blue streaks which was surrounded by zoo's (but I didnt care if I got zoo's or not muchroom is COOL) and I grabbed an old clam shell with four bright red mushrooms that glow neon orange under the blue LED's

 

pictures soon

[JerseyChick]

I got bored......

 

So not really that I care yet ~ here are my current parameters

 

kh - 11

nitrate - 0

nitrite - 0

ammonia - off the charts

calcium - 440

phosphates - 0

gravity - 1.023

temp - 76

ph - 8.2

 

 

 

fuggin ammonia LOL

 

*prior to testing... I added three teeny nerite snails, 1 margerite snail, 1 cerith, 1 turbo and 1 astrea

(already have my three leopard nassarius's in there and doing rather well)

[JBM]

salinity needs to be raised a wee bit,

 

let the rest of it roll for a few more weeks

[JerseyChick]

salinity needs to be raised a wee bit,

 

let the rest of it roll for a few more weeks

 

 

I have full intentions on that!

 

(btw ~ what is your ideal salinity... I have always run aces and problem free in my tanks with 1.023/1.024)

[JerseyChick]

I am really hating the fine sand and having heavily pooping hikers.... TURDS are everywhere and when I aim a power head down, the sand blows all over the rock and the poop drops down. Also about 7 of the hitch crabs molted and I had thought for a brief moment I had a cycle crash, but nope more "crap" for me to take out of tank...

 

This tank is gonna be a royal pain in the ass ~ and it's barely started

[Coastie]

So I was talking to Sarah the other day and helped her realize that the things crapping all over her tank were her snails. I am betting that is the case with you too.

 

My 15 has zero fish and my nerite craps everywhere. Looks like a little pile of pellets.

[JerseyChick]

The sheer amount alone that comes out of my mexican turbo... holy mini alf alfa rabbit food pellets, add about 20 hitcher crabs, 3 nerite, 3 leopard nassarius, 1 margherite, 2 astro, and one cerith as well as Yora my urchin and my two hitch whelks and hitch bumble bee

 

the leopard nassarius and the mexican turbo are all actually larger than Yora who is literally one inch side to side (even including her lil spiney's)

 

the skimmer every three days is also dumped of its turd residue water (darker in person than previous posted flash photo)

 

GRRRR.... I almost wanna dump some of my biocubes aragalive shelled sand mix just to disguise it so it stops annoying me.

 

 

 

Side note ~ baby Bartlett Anthias when I do determine (*IMO*) that the tank is ready. Ammonia showed 0 today but I don't trust the test kits totally especially after the off the chart reading the other day from same test kit

 

 

 

 

urchin poop doesnt piss me off but the huge mexican turds.... now that annoys me they are so big they dont dissolve, on up note atleast snail is doing its job... YAY Mexicans! Boo turds

[Coastie]

YAY Mexican food! Boo for turds when you eat it!

 

Haha I had to do it!

 

That seems like a ton of larger snails for a 15!

[JerseyChick]

Only the three leopards and the mexican I consider "large" meanin the shell from tip to tip is about an inch and a quarter. the rest are lil nothing snails between 1/4 inch and 3/4 inch total shell size

 

the leopards will NOT touch the rock under any circumstance they are strictly burrowers in the sand and glass climbers when they smell food (defrosted mysis for biocube the guys smell thru like the glass air and across the room and out come their goergous white orange bodies with leopard spotted shell

 

atleast ALL my leopards are

[Coastie]

Maybe try relocating the mexican turbo to your other tank and see if your problem goes away?

[JerseyChick]

thats an idea... but if it is pooping this much (has never done this in biocube - lived in there for over 6 months) WTF is it eating and digesting, even tho I have coarse algea growing from the swim thru alcove seems to refuse to eat it

[Coastie]

Well it is a 2 part tactic. You'd be moving what you assume is the problem. Maybe it isn't that guy. Maybe it's something else... If you move the turbo and the crap still happens then you know the turbo wasn't it. I move CUC members back and forth between my tanks all the time. I have a big claw hermit that I love (he cracks me up) but he tramples my corals so off to the 15 he went!

[JBM]

if you run with no problems at 1.023/1.024 keep it that way

 

 

all the lfs here keep there tanks high 1.026/1.027..... so i keep my tank accordingly.

 

theres more than one way to do things in the reefing world

[JerseyChick]

One of the LFS by me keeps theirs low at 1.021 (i personally like a lil higher but imo when I stock since I use more than one store I have figured out *for me & my tanks* 1.023/1.024 is problem free.

 

I would ideally run 1.026 if I only used one store, but I don't wanna change environment for my guys too much off what they were acclimated to.

[Coastie]

I was told by numerous people to run 1.022-1.023 that way if you have a bunch of evaporation you won't hit too high of a salinity level.

[JerseyChick]

I transfered my fishes over today

 

Everyone is happy, eating, swimming around and NOT hiding. (Yes I know I was shocked having all three)

 

My eel goby was given to my favorite LFS and placed in their display tank and is NFS (woo hoo ~ a good permanent home)

 

I also got my yellow fish, a bartlett anthias.

 

 

Which now has me with

(fish stocking)

- True Percula Clown (owned over 2 years by me)

- Fridmani Pseudochromis (owned over 2 years by me)

- Bartlett Anthias (my new baby)

 

The clown and the anthias are acting like best friends and swim everywhere as if they are their own school... I love them!

[TinyGiant]

that is a sick piece of live rock.. when i first started reading ..i was like.. just one rock... makes sense now.. i want it lol

[Coastie]

I was beginning to wonder if you were okay... The lack of updates was a little worrisome.

 

 

Yay for happy fish though!

[JerseyChick]

Well there wasn't much to update, just cycling and some more cycling and a water change and vacuum every now and then (but mostly Wednesdays)

 

Thanks for the live rock compliment... this thing was jam packed with life! I even have a really cool form of xenia growing all around the ledges and a sponge in the rear of the tank that has attached itself to a small rock and is growng off in a gazillion directions (it's now over 2 inches long) My pistol hitchers are still snappin away when te hitch crabs get near their hole ~ regardless of the massive turd amounts from the snails, it's doing awesome. Sadly I only have one hitch stomatella, but it has doubled in size since first spotted. I do wish I had a few more of them tho

[Mr. Microscope]

Neat! This has been the most entertaining tank I've seen in a while. I just read through your whole thread. Congratulations on all of your hitchhikers. You've got some great ones in there. I want to see a pic of the tiny sea urchin you found the size of a nickel. That rock was a great find!

 

BTW, I'd pass on the coralif digital thermometer. I got one and tested it against my lab equipment. The thing was off by as much as 3 degrees.

 

Also, you'll still probably want to look into additional flow. If you're turning the AC110 into a fuge, you want to minimize flow in there to allow for pod breeding. You can do this by clipping the tap that blocks it from moving the intake all the way to the right and also by lifting up the intake pipe away from the impeller. Also, some people replace the impeller blades with blades from a smaller model (AC50) or clipping the blades slightly, but I think that's unnecessary.

 

Good luck! More pics!