awpong Posted August 27, 2011 Author Share Posted August 27, 2011 Well I came back a day early to beat the hurricane, and found my tank looking really nice! Sadly, more than I can say for the 20L. The water has finally cleared up and I installed a pre-skimmer box to hide the ugly mj1200 for the skimmer: Here's a clear side view: and clear pictures of the caves: Nothing else is really new with the tank other than the fact that I'm expecting my clean up crew to arrive on Wednesday (assuming they aren't delayed by the weather), and am planning on purchasing my dwarfs probably on September 9th. Oh I also thought this was funny. When I was gone for my 2 weeks in Texas, I accidentally left my lights on.... apparently tank lights make awesome bug zappers.... Unfortunately the constant heat from the lights also cracked the glass lid on the tank: Luckily the lid is less than 30 days old and I'll be able to return it for a new one at petco. Link to comment
Squared Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 can't wait for the fishies Link to comment
awpong Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share Posted August 31, 2011 can't wait for the fishies No fishies yet, but i've got the CUC in there now. Well, most of it. I received my reefcleaners package today only to find out that I received the wrong box... I'll the missing pieces of my package next week. Anyways, here's a FTS of the current tank. In addition to the reefcleaners package, I also put my long spine sea urchin in the tank too. He was starting to outgrow the 20L. Link to comment
FlCandy Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Looks great! Your like 2-3 weeks ahead of me I cant wait for the CUC just to have something moving around! Can't wait to see fishes! Link to comment
gdlyorchi Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 did you end up getting that tank from petco or the guy from craiglist? I just got one 40B from petco and im not sure if should i drill it or not? how are you running your set up? BTW looks nice and cant wait to see the fish! Link to comment
awpong Posted September 1, 2011 Author Share Posted September 1, 2011 did you end up getting that tank from petco or the guy from craiglist? I just got one 40B from petco and im not sure if should i drill it or not? how are you running your set up? BTW looks nice and cant wait to see the fish! I had to buy it from petco again.... I had no idea that they were going to do another 1$ per gallon sale so soon!!!! I would have somehow found the patience to wait for that >.< Anyways, it's only a $80 difference.... But for my set up, I've got 2 koralia 550s and a AquaC Remora HOB skimmer with a maxijet 1200 intake. I was originally using a 150W hydor heater... but it sucks. I had it set at 75degrees, and it kept heating the tank to well over 86 degrees. So I wound up buying two 100w tetra heaters. They've always been reliable for me so I'm going to stick with them. As for drilling, I've never drilled a tank. Mainly because I live in college and am moving tanks around once or twice a year, I find it easier to use HOB filtration. My 20L is set up the same way, except that one has a 2.4g HOB fuge too. I plan on growing a few macro algeas in the display tank of the 40b to compensate for the lack of a fuge or sump. Link to comment
gdlyorchi Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 are you using a HOB overflow? or how are you filtrating your water? Link to comment
awpong Posted September 1, 2011 Author Share Posted September 1, 2011 I will be using an overflow. Well a preskimmer actually, but it's the same principle. I had one set up on this tank, but I moved it to my 20L. I ordered another one and it should be here soon. All that does is cover the maxijet 1200 so that it only sucks up the surface water. As I said, the same basic principle as an overflow. That water is then sucked up and goes into the skimmer. Combined with the bacteria on my LR and LS, the skimmer and soon to be macro algae are my only forms of filtration. Link to comment
gdlyorchi Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 sweet thanks for the info! Link to comment
awpong Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Today I just got my first fish for this tank! Unfortunately , it's not a dwarf lion. I had asked the store to have some ready for me this week, but they sold out yesterday :'( :'( Anyways, I'm not very patient and didn't want to wait another 2 weeks with a fishless tank, so I went a head and purchased a nice little lemonpeel angle. Link to comment
Squared Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 neato fish you got thar is it full grown? Link to comment
awpong Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 neato fish you got thar is it full grown? Nope, it's only 3 inches long. It'll reach a max of about 5.5-6 inches. I almost got the blue spotted puffer, but there were only two at the store. One had really faded colors and the other wasn't eating. But this angle has a lot of personality and is constantly swimming in an dout of my caves. I just can't wait until i get my dwarf lions!!! I'm trying to decide if I can wait the 2 weeks until they have them again, or whether I should order them online. Link to comment
FlCandy Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Nice fish! I wouldn't want to wait either but 2 weeks is probably what you want to wait before adding another fish anyways so your bacteria grow right? So just tell yourself you have to wait. (I never can!) Looks great! Fish for me in about 2 weeks if water is stable at the end of the week. I am so anxious to get my clowns after the CUC in a week it's killing me! Link to comment
ry05coupe Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 I love lemonpeels and would have one like yesterday if they werent so damn prone to coral nipping. Link to comment
awpong Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Nice fish! I wouldn't want to wait either but 2 weeks is probably what you want to wait before adding another fish anyways so your bacteria grow right? So just tell yourself you have to wait. (I never can!) Looks great! Fish for me in about 2 weeks if water is stable at the end of the week. I am so anxious to get my clowns after the CUC in a week it's killing me! Thanks, and yea. Haha, I'll probably end up waiting the 2 weeks. Not only will it be cheaper, but it'll be safer. I just need to somehow find the patience and willpower haha! I love lemonpeels and would have one like yesterday if they werent so damn prone to coral nipping. Yup. I've always wanted a dwarf angle, but never wanted to risk my clam and coral. But this tank is a fowlr, so it's perfect!! I've thrown in a few GSP frags just to add some color, but if he wants to nip at those, it's not an issue. Link to comment
awpong Posted September 5, 2011 Author Share Posted September 5, 2011 It's really hard to get a pic of this guy. He keeps swimming in or behind the rocks. Sadly, he's still scared of me too. At least he's eating off the veggie clip that I provided him. Link to comment
Squared Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 you should get an AC110 to hide those heaters, and a pre filter box to hide the maxi jet. or hide them behind rocks... Link to comment
awpong Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 you should get an AC110 to hide those heaters, and a pre filter box to hide the maxi jet. or hide them behind rocks... I just installed the prefilter box to hid the maxi jet today. As for the heaters, one is hidden under the preskimmer box, and the other is just there. They don't really bother me too much. It's the powerheads that annoy me the most. I might end up removing those because I have a friend who is selling me a brand new unopened mp10 for $98 Link to comment
Squared Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 oh cool. blue or white box? Link to comment
awpong Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 The preskimmer is black, and the mp10 is white Link to comment
awpong Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 Alright this'll be a kinda large update. Well the story goes like this: 2 days ago I discovered something sticking out of my lemonpeel's operculum, and after hours and hours of research, I finally eliminated the possibilities down to either marine gill flukes or either parasitic copepods. Well you can understand my disappointment when I came to the realization that this issue will delay my lions even more :'( . Well, I first tried to return the fish because I really didn't want to mess around with parasites in my lion tank... but unfortunately when I called, the informed me that they don't refund fish. Therefore, I had to go to plan 2... a FW dip. Well, this got me mad. 1st. I destroyed my scape trying to remove the angel for the FW dip. 2nd. I've spent 3 hours trying to get the scape back to anything remotely aesthetically pleasing but have failed and since given up. 3rd. The FW dip didn't work. Since the FW dip didn't work, I decided to go with biological welfare. Since the tank will house dwarf lions, I decided against cleaner shrimp. Therefore, I went with a cleaner wrasse. Not only was this wrasse cheaper than the shrimp, but he's got quite the appetite. He eats algae sheets, frozen mysis, pods, cyclopeeze, and just about anything that is edible. But the real question was how well he'd work with my parasite problem. The answer? He's awesome! At first the angel would follow him around and the wrasse was too busy exploring the tank and mowing down my pod population, but then he cleaned my angel. Not only is my angel a lot more friendly and actively swimming outside of the rock scape, but I can hardly see any of the original parasitic protrusions hanging out of his gills anymore. Now I know that cleaner wrasses have a horrible track record in aquaria, but at least this guy is eating prepared food. I have no idea if the lions will think he's food, but I'm more than happy that he's cleaning up my angel!!! In case you were wondering: I'm not worried about the cleaner wrasse chasing and stressing any of my fish. Currently, it's my fish chasing him lol. I've got like 15 videos of the angel following him all over the place while the wrasse is just busy eating pods. And long term, I'm well aware of their difficulties. Unfortunately, he's currently in my largest tank. He's much too large to fit in my 20L. I'm planning on holding onto him for at least a few months so that I know my angel is in the clear, then I'll probably end up looking for a new home for him. As for the potential of him becoming lion food, I had to make a decision regarding the lesser of two evils. I decided that I'd rather have a healthy angelfish and risk the potential of the cleaner becoming food, compared to having a sick angel and having to worry about curing the issue and then the health of my future lions. As I said earlier, I chose the cleaner wrasse over the cleaner shrimp because (1) it was cheaper and (2) the shrimp would have become food 100%. The cleaner wrasse at least has size and speed on its side. Again, I'm well aware that dwarf lions are ambush predators, and that speed really isn't a factor when something is caught off guard, but still. Link to comment
ry05coupe Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 The only thing that's not awesome about having cleaner wrasses is that theyre one of the fish that are actually essential to the reef. And since they aren't being captive bred yet were putting a strain on a very important fish in the wild. Link to comment
FlCandy Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 WHOA! Glad the wrasse is working for you! Best of luck. And awesome that he is eating prepared foods! Link to comment
Squared Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 how big do the cleaner wrasses grow? Link to comment
awpong Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 The only thing that's not awesome about having cleaner wrasses is that theyre one of the fish that are actually essential to the reef. And since they aren't being captive bred yet were putting a strain on a very important fish in the wild. I'm aware and it's really sad, especially since my thesis project mainly deals with conversational biology. It's truly a shame; however, I'm still happy that I had one available to me so that I could cure my angel. how big do the cleaner wrasses grow? 5.5 inches full grown. Unfortunately most don't live past 6 months in captivity due to their difficult diet. Mine is currently about 3 inches. Maybe a little bigger. Link to comment
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