Diver's Paradise - The Original

[Felicia]

Put him up in the livestock classifieds lol. someone might want him. i wouldn't flush him, just give him a container big enough to live in and change all his water once a week. also feed him extra food once in a while. i used to take care of a tiny HH crab in this fashion because i did not want him in my display tanks. it actually turned out to be an awesome pea crab. So basically i suggest you dont flush him, keep him alive until someone who wants him will take him (or buy him).

 

 

Thats crazy that the LFS gave away so many free frags...seems suspicious. is it a new LFS?

I have an AC110 filter and a K-nano 425gph powerhead running on my 10 gal and my soft corals are fine. I just place them in the bottom half of the tank where flow is lowest.

 

I think I'll just go drop him at the LFS sometime in the next few days. I don't really have a good container to keep him in myself. Right now he's just in a little jar with some water.

 

As to the free coral, the place has been in business for 9 years or so. I was reading reviews on Yelp and apparently the owner has switched his focus to hydroponics and kind of let the reef store go downhill. They seem to sell mostly online now. Even though the store was run down I thought the selection and prices were awesome. I think maybe they just don't get a lot of customers in the store and want to give you a reason to come back. Its a good strategy since I'll definitely go back. We'll see if I get free stuff next time or if its just his way of getting you to become a repeat customer.

 

 

oh he's the bad bad bad crab we've been talking about., Gorilla.

 

#31 in this list

 

Yep that looks like him. I'm glad I caught him last night. He was absolutely destroying my mushroom.

[psidriven]

you probably went to atlantis. min and brian are cool people that help out newbie reefers.

 

you might have more than one hitchhiker crab. i'd set up a trap just in case. you can just use a shotglass with some food leaned up against some live rock. worked for me, just take luck/time.

[Felicia]

you probably went to atlantis. min and brian are cool people that help out newbie reefers.

 

you might have more than one hitchhiker crab. i'd set up a trap just in case. you can just use a shotglass with some food leaned up against some live rock. worked for me, just take luck/time.

 

Yep, I went to Atlantis. Its a bit of a drive from Berkeley, but it was well worth it. They were great and very helpful.

 

If I set up a trap like that I'll probably catch all my hermits too right? Will it hurt them to be piled up in a shotglass all night?

[Felicia]

I have a question about my YWG. I got him on Sunday afternoon and added him to the tank after about 40 minutes of acclimation. He immediately darted under some rocks and I haven't seen him since. I haven't even seen him come out to eat. Is this normal? How long do they usually take to get comfortable and come out soon? Should I be worrying about it eating?

[Felicia]

Just a brief update to say that my clownfish seems to officially chosen the glass thermometer stuck to the front of my tank as its host. Silly fish. I was really hoping he'd pick one of the corals, like maybe the huge frilly mushroom. Its weird, but on the positive side he's always in the front corner of the tank hanging out.

[castiel]

Silly clowns.

 

I wouldn't worry yet about the YWG, give it a few days.

[Felicia]

Silly clowns.

 

I wouldn't worry yet about the YWG, give it a few days.

 

Ok, good to know. I just wish he'd come out. I haven't even gotten a glimpse of him since I added him almost 3 days ago. I hope he becomes a bit more social and that he's eating.

[Felicia]

Update:

 

When I went to the LFS last week to get my clownfish, the store was completely out of firefish. The shipment came in yesterday, so I headed back today to get what I planned to be my last fish. I got the red firefish, but the owner had also gotten in two TINY gumdrop gobies that I thought were adorable. He said they don't get much bigger at all, so they wouldn't add much to the bioload if I wanted them as well. I don't know if this is entirely true, but they were just too cute.

 

I also dropped the evil gorilla crab off at the LFS while I was there. I am now positive my emerald crab is dead and not molted (probably the gorilla crab's fault) because he has not made an appearance. I'm going to hold off a while on replacing him though because the hermit crabs are plenty entertaining.

 

So anyways, I now have a clownfish, a YWG (still haven't seen him since adding him), a red firefish, and two gumdrop gobies. The gumdrop gobies are so tiny I'm going to count them as one fish, so I currently have 4 fish instead of my planned 3. I think I'm overstocked a bit, but I'll just pay close attention to the water parameters and switch to doing once a week water changes instead of once every two weeks. I also put the filter inserts back in the Aquaclear HOB filter I have running to help with any ammonia spike. I've now got a sponge for mechanical filtration and an alternate chemical stage to activated carbon called "ammonia remover". It says it "Removes and controls harmful ammonia" and that it is "ideal for new or heavily populated aquariums". Sounds about right for what I need.

 

Also, I am not going to allow myself anywhere near the LFS for a long time. I have what I need and now I'm ready to enjoy it all.

 

Here is a picture of the new additions:

 

See, way too cute to pass up

 

Here's a few more pictures including some of the new coral I got a few days ago.

 

The purplish-blue mushroom that the LFS threw in for free.

 

Rock with 3 red mushrooms. Notice the tiny one in the center.

 

The neon green mushroom. Its not quite as neon under my crappy lights as it was in the LFS but its still really pretty. Unfortunately I can't get a good picture of its coloring. Its this glowing neon green color.

 

Some of the unidentified zoas the LSF threw in for free. If you know what they are please let me know!

 

More unidentified free zoas.

 

And more unidentified free zoas.

 

And still more unidentified free zoas.

 

The purple mushroom recovering from the gorilla crab damage.

 

And again, unidentified free zoas.

 

Lemon-lime zoanthid colony.

 

Purple zoanthid colony with both of the gumdrop gobies in the background.

[Felicia]

I'd like some input on potentially buying a new lighting set-up. I'm currently just using the standard 10 gallon hood with an 18" T8 50/50 fluorescent which seems to be working fine since I have only soft corals. Although the corals seem to be doing great, the color from the bulb is a lot more white then blue and I'm a bit jealous of how pretty everyones corals look under the actinic lights. Another NR member sent me the link to the new light fixture he ordered and I am REALLY tempted to buy it too. Its an Odyssea T5 fixture that holds 4 T5's and 4 Bluemoon LEDS. It comes with the fixture, 2 10,000K T5's, 2 Actinic Blue T5's, and 4 LEDS all for $49 and free shipping. It doesn't have separate switches for each of the bulb types, but it has separate cords for them, so you can just plug in whichever ones you want on. Which is fine with me for the price. The only other thing I'd have to buy is a glass cover (don't want the firefish jumping out) for about $15.

 

Here's the link:

http://www.aquatraders.com/20-inch-4x18W-T...ure-p/52302.htm

 

And then I'd need this glass cover:

http://www.petco.com/product/107312/Aqueon...rium-Cover.aspx

 

For a grand total of $59 is this worth it? How much of a difference would it make compared to my one 15W T8 50/50 fluorescent? I only want to spend the money if it'll be a really noticeable difference? I realize that there are much nicer fixtures out there, but I dont want to spend more than $50-$60 since my current light works fine for my soft coral.

 

Also, the Bluemoon LEDS can be left on overnight right? I like the idea of the tank being lit up a bit at night too.

[JoelRHale]

I run the 24" model on my 20. There are switches on the ballasts.

 

It's a great light for the money and a huge improvement from what you have.

 

I wouldn't use a top like that, I'd either go topless or screen/mesh.

 

Cute gobies!

 

PS, I have the lunars on 24/7.

[Felicia]

I run the 24" model on my 20. There are switches on the ballasts.

 

It's a great light for the money and a huge improvement from what you have.

 

I wouldn't use a top like that, I'd either go topless or screen/mesh.

 

Cute gobies!

 

PS, I have the lunars on 24/7.

 

Thanks! Your answer is perfect...although now it probably means more money spending Hehe, oh well. I've spent too much already, I might as well make it REALLY pretty.

 

A screen/mesh cover is more of a DIY project which I don't really have time for at the moment. I'm spending too much time on this tank as it is and I'm really busy with grad school. I can't go with no cover because of the new firefish (and I've seen too many dried up fish stuck to the carpet throughout my years of freshwater to want to see that again). That's why I was thinking just the plain glass cover. Its cheap so maybe I could get it for now and then make a screen myself when I have more time.

[JoelRHale]

I've spent way more than I intended as well

 

If you have to use glass, I would use two strips of glass on either side of the light instead of a solid piece so there's open space for better gas exchange/light penetration.

[Felicia]

Soooo...I bought the lights. No more buying anything for me after this!

 

Anyways, I bought the 20" Odyssea fixture with two T5 HO 10,000K bulbs, 2 T5 HO Actinic bulbs, and four moon LEDS. Soooo excited to put this on the tank and see the difference. Also, I'm thrilled that I'll be able to leave the moon lights on at night. I also bought a cheap glass cover for now to make sure none of my fishies go carpet surfing.

 

I bought the glass cover on Foster and Smiths for $10 and they had free shipping if you bought $50 worth of stuff so I figured I'd stock up on some necessary supplies. I got some more IO Reef Crystals since I just bought a small box to begin with and I've already used 2/3 of it. I also decided to get the stuff I needed to have a 5 gallon bucket of replacement water mixed up at all times. Up until now I've just been mixing everything up in the quantity I need right before I do a water change which is kind of a pain. I bought a cheap heater and powerhead, so I'll now have a bucket mixing water at all times.

 

YAY lights!!! Also, this means now I could try my hand at corals other than softies...such as SPS and LPS...uh oh!

[Felicia]

I finally caught a half-second glimpse of the YWG! He barely stuck his head out of his cave, saw me looking at him, and then retreated right back into the cave. Good to know he's still alive.

 

All the new fish are alive and seem to be doing well. The clownfish and gumdrop/clown gobies are pretty much always in sight. The firefish has been hanging out in the same cave as the YWG, but it comes out every few minutes and swims around for a bit before something scares it and it darts back into the cave. The YWG is still just lurking in its cave. Hopefully it will start getting braver about coming out once in a while.

[Felicia]

Does anyone know much about feeding clown gobies? One of the two that I bought the other day looks unhealthily skinny, so I was looking up stuff about them online and apparently its common for them to come into the LFS that way. I was reading stuff about that they can actually be finicky eaters, so I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to fatten the little guy up? I've been feeding a mix of frozen mysis shrimp and flake food. Tonight the clown gobies seemed like they might have eaten a little bit of food, but I don't think they ate much.

 

Also, the YWG goby sat with his head out of his burrow and gulped down mysis shrimp for a few minutes. Good to know he's eating and I got to see him for a bit. The firefish on the other hand hasn't made an appearance all day. I'm a bit concerned because yesterday it would come out of hiding and swim around the tank every few minutes.

[castiel]

I feed my YCGs frozen brine shrimp, and freeze dried cyclopeeze. I hear many people say that cyclops or cyclopeeze go down well with YCGs so I would get some of that. I think I got lucky because mine both ate straight away and are now little piggies.

[Felicia]

I feed my YCGs frozen brine shrimp, and freeze dried cyclopeeze. I hear many people say that cyclops or cyclopeeze go down well with YCGs so I would get some of that. I think I got lucky because mine both ate straight away and are now little piggies.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll have to go see if the LFS sells cyclopeeze. One of the two I bought looks healthy but one of them is soooo skinny. I don't want to lose one of them because I think they may be a mated pair. They seemed to sort of eat the frozen mysis shrimp but I'm not sure they ate enough.

 

I ordered my new lights at about 11 pm on Wednesday night and chose free delivery (7-8 business days). I just got an e-mail saying my package had shipped so I clicked the tracking number to see when the expected delivery was. Its already been delivered and is waiting at my front door. YAY! That was fast! Aquatraders must be located in the Bay Area.

 

Also, as of this morning theres still been no sign of my firefish. I hope its ok.

[Felicia]

First off...my new lights are AMAZING! I'll be honest pictures do not do lights justice. I was sitting here wondering why people spend hundreds on dollars on lights, thinking it couldn't possibly make that much of a difference. OMG my coral is beautiful with the actinic bulbs on! Especially the zoas. They look kind of brown under my single T8 50/50 but they're so colorful under the new lights. Also, the LED moon lights are so relaxing and pretty.

 

Unfortunately my glass cover for the tank won't get here until the middle of next week, so I can't leave the new light set-up on the tank until then (I don't need any carpet surfing fish). I put the old light back on and man does the tank look crappy by comparison. Those new lights were definitely worth the $50.

 

Just for anyone considering the Odyssea T5 fixtures, I have a few comments so far. First it was really easy to set up and everything seems to be working and it looks great. The only issue is that it doesn't fit perfectly on my 10 gallon (which is a standard glass 20" wide tank). It fits well enough to work just fine though, so not a major issue.

 

I've decided to buy a timer for the lights, so I was wondering if someone could help me out with a program for them? I'm used to just having my one bulb I turn on in the morning and turn off at night. Which bulbs (the options are moon LED, 10,000K, and actinic) should be on and for what hours of the day?

 

 

Now for the bad news...I have TWO (no, not just one) new hitchhiker crabs I spotted today. Grrrrr! I couldn't get pictures of one of them, but here's the other one. I'd love to know if its reef safe. I'm going to set up the shot glass trap tonight and try to catch them.

 

Here's one of the crabs:

[Felicia]

Just a few photos with the new lights. I'll post an updated FTS once it gets dark here (in the middle of the day I get too much glare off the tank from the window across the room to get a decent shot).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Felicia]

So unfortunately the skinny little clown goby didn't make it. I think he was just WAY too emaciated when I got him because he only made it a few days. It didn't seem like anything was picking on him and all the other tank inhabitants and water parameters were fine, so I just think it was from malnourishment. I wish the LSF would have told me about them being picky eaters and that there could be problems with that. I guess it was my fault for not looking up info about them in advance, but it was a spur of the moment purchase. Frustrating that when I asked the LFS owner about them and how to care for them he said they were really easy and then sold me that poor malnourished fish. The other one isn't looking the best either. I've only seen him eat a tiny bit and he's got these bumps all over him that I googles and are apparently common in clown gobies when they are malnourished. He was laying around a lot yesterday and I didn't think he's make it through the night, but he was really active and acting healthy today. He still has the bumps, but he seemed to make an effort to eat a tiny bit of mysis shrimp at feeding time. Maybe he'll pull through. I feel so bad for the poor thing

 

In other news the shot glass trap for the hitchhiker crabs didn't work at all. I didn't even catch any of my hermit crabs, although one crawled to the edge and checked it out before deciding the food in the bottom wasn't worth it. I gave up and decided that the Sally Light Foot was so small it wouldn't bother anything at the moment, but then yesterday I found it dead on the sand bed. Then today I found the body of one of my hermit crabs being eaten by a snail. I panicked thinking something had spiked, but when I checked the water level everything is normal (pH 8.2, Amm. 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5) and as of now the fish are all still fine. I wonder what could be killing crabs but not affecting anything else. Any ideas?

 

There is still another hitchhiker crab in the tank that I've seen, but even though I haven't gotten a good enough look at it for an ID it seems pretty small. It always hanging under a certain rock when I see it and because of the shadows all I can see are its front legs grabbing at food.

 

In more positive news I went to Atlantis Aquarium again because I decided I really wanted some ricordeas to cover some of the big flat parts of the front middle rock. I ended up getting a big pale blueish colored one that looks like it may be about to split (it looks like its putting out another foot) and two smaller orangish pink ones with purple around the outside and green mouths. They came on frag plugs with that stupid cylinder that sticks off the bottom so they'll sit in frag grating well, but I wanted that off so that I could glue them flat onto the rock face. I noticed the cylinders had some notches in them, so I figured they would be that hard to break off with some pliers. It worked great on the blue ricordea and it looks happy in the tank, but unfortunately when I broke off the cylinder base on the frag with the two ricordeas the frag slipped out of my hands. One of the two ricordeas was growing over the edge, so when it slipped it rubbed across the pliers and kind of sliced into the ricordea a bit. Crap... anyways I glued it in place and the injured one seems to be healing, but neither of the two on that frag will open up much at all yet. I figure in a week or two they'll get back to their original state. If anyone has any advice on this let me know.

 

Finally, while at the LFS getting the ricordeas they had a tank of little tiny ocellaris clownfish that were a the second generation bred by a local reef keeper. I had wanted to try to pair my original ocellaris, but all the clowns I'd been seeing in the stores were its same size so I didn't want to risk it. This little guy is substantially smaller, so I figured I'd try it. Yes, I know I have too many fish, but I decided I wanted to replace the clown goby that had passed away. I'll just do once a week water changes and I've got media in my filter now so I should be fine.

 

Anyways, so I put the new little clownfish in the tank and they paired immediately! They've been swimming all around together and both sleeping by the glass thermometer that the original one chose to host. They're so cute together! I'll post a video of them soon (especially of them hosting the glass thermometer, which looks really goofy).

 

Finally, I can't wait until Wednesday to get my new aquarium lid so that I can set up the new lights. Be ready for new FTS's on Wednesday evening

[castiel]

Sucks to hear about your YCG, hope the other one pulls through. Definitely too impulsive to buy another fish so soon while your other is still sick, but hopefully they all pull through.

[Felicia]

Sucks to hear about your YCG, hope the other one pulls through. Definitely too impulsive to buy another fish so soon while your other is still sick, but hopefully they all pull through.

 

I know. I've had aquariums Long enough to know that was a bad decision. The issue is I drive 40 minute (if there's no traffic) to the LFS so if there's something I want it's a pain to wait and go back. In hindsight should probably have set up a QT tank but I just don't really have the space. So far so good though so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Felicia]

Help! I need advice! Something bad is going on. All my water levels are fine and my fish are doing great. The YCG actually even looks better today. But, the Sally lightfoot HH crab died two days ago, then a hermit crab yesterday (his body wasn't near his shell), and then today my cleaner shrimp and another hermit crab (also not near his shell) are dead. Their bodies were right next to each other behind a rock. Again, everything else seems fine. The fact that their bodies were together makes me thing something is hunting and killing them. What could this be? Any ideas would be great. I'm so upset that my cleaner shrimp is dead...I really liked him.

 

Just some background...the only thing that's changed in the tank the last few days is that I dosed 2 drops of Lugols iodine yesterday afternoon. The last time I dosed was a week before that. Also, the shrimp molted the night before last but seemed fine yesterday evening. He came running out when I fed them mysis shrimp and was sitting on top of the rocks eating. There is still one HH crab in the tank that I can't seem to catch, but from the partial glimpses I've gotten it looked small. Could it take down a shrimp?

 

Please help with ideas since I don't want things to keep dying and I can't replace my shrimp until I know whats up.

[Felicia]

Lots of new updates! Including tank videos!

 

First off, packages arrived!

The new Odyssea 4x T5 HO fixture.

 

Shipment from Foster and Smith. Notice how my cat has to investigate everything.

- Azoo 600 powerhead (158 gph)

- Protherm 100 watt heater

- IO Reef Crystals (50 gallons mix)

- Aqueon Versa 20" glass cover - not pictured because I'd already put it on the tank

 

The new water mixing setup, complete with new powerhead and heater. The linen closet in my apartment has electrical outlets in it, which worked out really well for being able to put the bucket out of sight in the closet.

 

I set up the new light fixture with the brackets to sit on the tank and the water shot up to 82 F after about four hours. Therefore, I decided to mount the light fixture to the bottom of the shelf that is above where the tank is sitting on my desk. Here's a picture of the new set-up:

 

 

New FTS

 

RTS

 

CTS

 

LTS

 

FTS - actinics only

 

One of the new Florida ricordea. I think its in the process of dividing.

 

The other new Florida ricordea.

 

Eagle Eye zoas.

 

The new frogspawn (3 heads). I'm hoping the clownfish will decide to host in it.

 

I also finally took some videos of the tank! Here are the links:

 

Feeding Time! (That's cyclops and mysis shrimp that's floating in the water.)

 

The firefish makes an appearance.

 

Under actinics.

 

Anyone who thinks I'm overstocked after seeing all the fish in the video...I know...oops. But, I plan on upgrading in a couple months once everything is well established. The two clownfish are tiny for now, so I don't expect to have issues until they grow a bit. I also took water into the LFS to confirm my testing and ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all at zero so there doesn't seem to be an issue right now. Also, I got my dKH and calcium tested and they were both in the acceptable ranges. I also got the salinity tested with a refractometer and its at 1.025. My hydrometer has been reading it at 1.023, so its good to know its off by 0.002. Kind of a pain, but I guess that means I don't have to raise the salinity like I thought I did.

 

That's all for now.

[Builder Anthony]

You should probally get cyclopeze for them to eat or cyclops.The yellow clownsi have also like real small peices of shreded shrimp.I cant really tell whats up with your tank but maybe its the iodine.Maybe cut it back to one drop some people have said that stuff should be used spareingly because its strong.