20 Long odyssey (updated pics 12/16/14)

[Odyssey350kc]

Current Full Tank Shot:

 

My set up:

- 20 long glass tank
- hob bio wheel filter with the bio wheel removed and rock, phosphate remover and purigen.
- 2 koralia nano 425 powerheads
- Finnex Breeder box with pump and light, growing cheato
- Maxspect Razor 27" LED
- glass 150w heater

[Odyssey350kc]

I got my Reefkeeper all set up today. It was not nearly as easy as i thought it would be and i find it lacking in a few areas- i have done an official writeup in the product reviews section here is the link - Reefkeeper Lite Plus Review

[nano452]

Looking good so far! I like the aquascape.

[Odyssey350kc]

thanks nano 425 - I liked the idea of having 2 archways.

[imadams]

Id ditch the biowheel man, they are prone to become nitrate factories. Get an ac70 and look up the fuge mod for it. Nice scape though!

[Odyssey350kc]

My Finnex breeder box, led light strip, and pump came in the other day. I really like it. The only problem I have with it was the pump hung really low and far in the tank, and the suction cups just hang instead of being able to stick to the glass, so I modified it with a little piece of tubing so that it would stick to the glass up higher than stock. You can see this is the side shot of it.

 

 

The flow is pretty slow, but I figured that’s ok for a refugium. I set up my light to run opposite of my main tank lights. I put a divider in si that the water flows through some rubble rock and then through the cheato before going back into the tank.

The one thing that bothered me was the cheato I picked up had bristleworms in it. I thought I got them all out before I put the cheato in the refugium but I guess I didn’t because I looked in the tank before the lights turned on the next morning and there was a bristleworm about 2” long.

I took a pic of one of the bristleworms I picked out of the cheato. I don’t think it’s a bad one.

 

 

What is you guys opinion of them, should I try to get rid of them now, or will they be fine?

 

 

Also my nitrites are finally down. I’m out of town this week, but I think I’m gonna try and add a clown fish or 2 this weekend.

[pablom617]

Very cool! Good luck with the tank.

[Odyssey350kc]

Very cool! Good luck with the tank.

 

Thanks - I like your tank too, our aquascapes are pretty close. And every time I see your avatar it gets me laughing.

[Odyssey350kc]

Got my two nano clowns yesterday. My girlfriend has officially named them salt and pepper. They seem right at home, and there sooo small the larger one is probably less than an inch long.

 

 

There's also a close up of my button polyps I got for free. They were all closed up and brown when i got them they've really colored up nicely. I put some frozen mysis in the tank for the clowns and the polyps gobbled them up too. Pretty cool I've never seen a coral eat before.

 

And theres a current full tank shot. I finally got the reefkeeper figured out a little better, and I have the two powerheads on a good cycle to keep the water flowing in all different directions at different times.

 

I think i'm gonna order a reefcleaners kit on tuesday, get rid of some of the algae thats growing like crazy now.

[Odyssey350kc]

I recieved my package from reefcleaners last week. Holy snails, when I opened up the box it didn't look like many snails at all the box was pretty small, however after putting all the snails in the tank it looks like a little snail city.

 

They have done a great job of cleaning up the tank too. My favorite part is when i feed the clownfish dozens of snails instantly pop out of the sand its the weirdest thing I've ever seen

 

 

You can see how much less brown algae there is in the tank since the last full tank shot. You can also see a bunch of the snails near the clown fish.

 

I am having a problem though. My button polyps don't seem to be doing as well. About half of them aren't opening up. It looks like they have sand on them when they close up. I have repositioned one of my powerheads to reduce the amount of sand that gets stirred up.

 

Does anyone think that this is the problem, or is it probably something else.

[Odyssey350kc]

Updates -

 

The system is going great, everything seems happy. My button polyps are being treated in a seperate 10 gallon tank, and are slowly getting better.

 

My uncle closed down his reef tank and gave me a bunch of his corals for free. Awesome

 

Heres some pics of the new corals.

 

 

I'm hoping the Montipora gets its color back. Don't know what was going on in my uncles tank, but hopefully it will turn completly purple.

[patback]

Loving the scape. Goodluck with it!

[Odyssey350kc]

So I began to have a little problem with some red bubble algae, it came in on the acan frag i got from my local fish store. I had cleaned it off with a toothbrush, and rinsed it with fresh made water, but apparently there was still some more on there and it spread. It was killing off the frag so i went to the local fish store and got myself 2 emerald crabs. I woke up the next morning and to my great delight they had cleaned all the bubble algae off the frag.

 

You can see the crab on the rock, apparently my clownfish wanted in the pic too.

 

Now the bad, the next afternoon i came home from work to one of the crabs ripping the green tips off of my toadstool. So they saved the $20 acan but probably killed my nice toadstool.

 

I was able to prop the toadstool on the side of the tank using magnets hopefully out of reach of the crabs.

 

What should i do, get rid of the emerald crabs. They still haven't eaten all of the bubble algae though.

[Odyssey350kc]

Some new updates on the reef tank.

 

I have added quite a few new inhabitants to my tank

 

1. Tiger pistol shrimp

2. A Pair of hi fin red banded gobies

3. A six line Wrasse

 

I actually purchased the pistol shrimp about a week before the 2 gobies, as soon as i put the gobies in the tank they went right under the rock where the pistol shrimp lives and now there 1 big happy family. The whole gang really livens up the tank. The six line torpedos around the tank.

 

Heres a link to a video of the pistol shrimp bulldosing out some sand literally only a few minutes after i added the gobies to the tank. (probably best to turn down the volume i sound like an excited three year old)

 

 

I will have to post another video if i can at feeding time, both the gobies and shrimp will be under their rock, but as soon as i put any food in the tank, out comes the bulldoser and his goby friends,I laugh every time.

 

Today the six line went right up to the pistol shrimp during feeding time, but he didn't like that and i got to witness him shooting at the six line, and it is quite loud. But the fish didnt really care to much, he just swam away.

[Odyssey350kc]

Current Full tank Shot

 

[markalot]

Looks great, I like the rockwork as well. Are you still running with just the two HO T5 bulbs? I run two 2 bulb fixtures but with a glass top.

[Odyssey350kc]

Looks great, I like the rockwork as well. Are you still running with just the two HO T5 bulbs? I run two 2 bulb fixtures but with a glass top.

 

Nope I just upgraded to the Maxspect razor 160W led fixture. The thing is a beast. I'm only running it at around 50% power for about 2 hours, then ramping it down, and I already bleached out my nice acan.

 

I know its overkill, but I had just gotten 5 sps frags, and my bulbs were getting old, so I didn't want to spend any money on those, and I plan on converting this tank to a 40 breeder peninsula style when I move to my new house, so the razor 27" fixture will work for that too.

 

And I bet the glass top is nice, my tank evaporates around 4 gallons a week, its crazy.

[PiscesBoy]

Looks great, I like the rockwork as well. Are you still running with just the two HO T5 bulbs? I run two 2 bulb fixtures but with a glass top.

 

 

Are you not worried about gas exchange? Doesn't the glass top prevent that? I'm asking these because I'm not sure if I should go glass top or not. (I do want one, but the only thing preventing me from getting it is gas exchange, then again I'll have a open top refugium so I guess the water can get oxygenated that way?)

[Odyssey350kc]

I finally got some time to take some pics of my tank and its inhabitants.

 

Some of the pics are discolored, I had to play alot with the camera settings and really turn down the blue led's to get a good shot of the tanks actual color. I'm no expert so it took a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My peppermint shrimp Judy ( I named her after my mother because she never stops cleaning lol)

[PiscesBoy]

Some new updates on the reef tank.

 

I have added quite a few new inhabitants to my tank

 

1. Tiger pistol shrimp

2. A Pair of hi fin red banded gobies

3. A six line Wrasse

 

I actually purchased the pistol shrimp about a week before the 2 gobies, as soon as i put the gobies in the tank they went right under the rock where the pistol shrimp lives and now there 1 big happy family. The whole gang really livens up the tank. The six line torpedos around the tank.

 

Heres a link to a video of the pistol shrimp bulldosing out some sand literally only a few minutes after i added the gobies to the tank. (probably best to turn down the volume i sound like an excited three year old)

 

 

I will have to post another video if i can at feeding time, both the gobies and shrimp will be under their rock, but as soon as i put any food in the tank, out comes the bulldoser and his goby friends,I laugh every time.

 

Today the six line went right up to the pistol shrimp during feeding time, but he didn't like that and i got to witness him shooting at the six line, and it is quite loud. But the fish didnt really care to much, he just swam away.

 

What do you think about the six-line in your 20L? I am really focused on getting one for mine and just want some input from other people with a 20L.

[markalot]

Nope I just upgraded to the Maxspect razor 160W led fixture. The thing is a beast. I'm only running it at around 50% power for about 2 hours, then ramping it down, and I already bleached out my nice acan.

 

I know its overkill, but I had just gotten 5 sps frags, and my bulbs were getting old, so I didn't want to spend any money on those, and I plan on converting this tank to a 40 breeder peninsula style when I move to my new house, so the razor 27" fixture will work for that too.

 

And I bet the glass top is nice, my tank evaporates around 4 gallons a week, its crazy.

 

40 breeder is my favorite size.

 

I have glass tops on both my 40 and 20. The 40 loses just over a gallon a week, the 20 maybe 1/4 gallon. The main problem is they block a lot of light and it varies. Bright for a couple of days when clean, and then downhill from there.

 

I have too much light on the 40 for what I need to it works, and frankly with your LED fixture it might be ideal since you can dial the intensity.

 

On my 20 I have just enough light and I need to keep up on glass cleaning, especially since the bulbs are only 24 inches wide. I would love to go LED and I'm looking at some strip solutions I can either add to my t5 fixtures or replace them with.

[Odyssey350kc]

In reply to pisces boy. My sixline seems very happy in this tank, i think its plenty big enough for him because it is so long, and he is pretty small, I know I've seen them get a bit bigger but he seems just fine for now.

[dougiek]

Heres a link to a video of the pistol shrimp bulldosing out some sand literally only a few minutes after i added the gobies to the tank. (probably best to turn down the volume i sound like an excited three year old)

 

 

I will have to post another video if i can at feeding time, both the gobies and shrimp will be under their rock, but as soon as i put any food in the tank, out comes the bulldoser and his goby friends,I laugh every time.

 

Haha that's pretty much exactly what my reaction was when mine started doing that! I just got a Tiger Pistol Shrimp and almost instantly he started digging except it was underneath a coral that fell down from the top haha so I had to remove his roof and convince him to head to the middle rock and try to get him to dig toward the front of the tank. Now it's been a day and he's successfully convinced my YWG to live with him in his newfound mansion.

[Odyssey350kc]

I am having some problems with my tank.

 

If anyone can help out it would be greatly appreciated

 

It seems to me my peppermint shrimp is terrorizing my corals. I know they are not supposed to eat corals but i actually watched it ripping apart my frogspawn so i know this isn't completely true. Below is a pic of how my frogspawn looks.

 

 

A also recently purchased quite a few new corals, including 2 ricordea and a dendro. One of the ricordea seemed to do well. The one placed closest to the peppermint shrimp shrank and disappeared within a week. The other seemed to do well for a week and then 2 or 3 days after the first ricordea disappeared the other completely disappeared overnight.

 

I doubt that they died to to water problems since most of the other corals seem fine. and all of my params are perfect except for a slight phosphate problem which reads .08, and I am treating.

 

My dendro also has not opened since i got it nearly 2 weeks ago. If I put a mysis shrimp on it the tentacles come out and they stay partly exposed but by the time i look at it the next day or later that night they are sucked back in.

 

 

Any Ideas?

 

My conclusion is the peppermint shrimp pestering the frogspawn and dendro making them stay closed.

 

Am I right?

[Odyssey350kc]

Well I caught my peppermint shrimp and wadda you know my dendro and frogspawn are already looking better just a day later.

 

Even funnier was when i had to take out half of the liverock to catch the peppermint shrimp the dendro opened up more than i had ever seen, it loved all the crap i was stirring up.

 

My acro frags seemed to have an opposite reaction, two of them turned pretty brown but they seem Ok.

 

 

While I had the tank torn apart i decided to do a slight change in my aquascape. Though i liked the cave look for the tank I realized a good chunk of tank space was just useless unlit area so i moved some stuff around and now i have much more room for corals as well as a spot for my new clam!

 

 

And the pic does not do it justice i just haven't had the time to take a proper pic in full light, And I was too excited to wait to post. I have been itching to get a nice clam since i first started my tank.

 

Its only about an inch and a half long so I bought the phytoplankton to feed it.

 

It looks healthy to me i know i need some more close ups, but it closes very quickly if it sees a shadow .