Potatowned's 20L - First Tank (Updated. Got some fish finally!)

[ragtimewilly]

I don't think mandarins are practical in small tanks unless you can train it to eat frozen foods. Almost all of the ones I've seen at my lfs look sunken in like they're starving. That being said a lot of people seem to have had success getting them to eat frozen mysis.

 

Tank looks good, love the torch.

[markalot]

OK I was peeking around in my tank with a flashlight and I just realized that my tank is swarming with little tiny white organisms. I think they are copopods and amphipods? They are all over the glass. How do I know if my population can sustain a Mandarin? What if the Mandarin eats them all up and they don't keep reproducing?

 

Also, i found a tiny feather duster and a tiny green polyp. The little polyp is so small that when it's closed, I cant even see it. But I think it's awesome that you can set up a tank, put some stuff in it and then find all kinds of other stuff growing!

 

Generally speaking, from those who are successful (long term) with Mandarins, a 20 is too small without intensive supplementation. They are also SLOW SLOW eaters so even if you get them to eat frozen food odds are you will have to hand feed daily to keep them healthy. Go small with the fish choices and I think you'll be happier. Firefish is a great choice as long as all other fish are docile. There are some small wrasses that will help control the critter populations as well. Lots of opinions on this one.

 

The night time population gives you a good idea of tank age. When new you will get population booms and busts, but as the tank ages these tend to become more stable as well.

 

In the tests above I don't see KH or Calcium, two of the most important reef tests.

[potatowned]

Generally speaking, from those who are successful (long term) with Mandarins, a 20 is too small without intensive supplementation. They are also SLOW SLOW eaters so even if you get them to eat frozen food odds are you will have to hand feed daily to keep them healthy. Go small with the fish choices and I think you'll be happier. Firefish is a great choice as long as all other fish are docile. There are some small wrasses that will help control the critter populations as well. Lots of opinions on this one.

 

The night time population gives you a good idea of tank age. When new you will get population booms and busts, but as the tank ages these tend to become more stable as well.

 

In the tests above I don't see KH or Calcium, two of the most important reef tests.

Should I buy another test kit? Recommendations? Red Sea? Or how about those little Hanna testers?

[markalot]

I like Salifert. Don't waste money on the hannas like i did, IMO. Salifert KH is easy and reliable. For calcium I generally use the API. Lots of drops, and annoying, but accurate enough.

[ragtimewilly]

In the tests above I don't see KH or Calcium, two of the most important reef tests.

 

Agreed, I spent all my time testing and trying to fix my ph through my first 6 months and in doing so threw off my calcium and alkalinity levels. After several massive water changes and a few weeks of stable Calcium and KH levels my corals ended up looking better than ever. I use API calcium (their only accurate test kit IMO), and a red sea Alkalinity refill pack after snapping some pictures of a friends chart.

[potatowned]

So just pick this one up? http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16560 and this? http://www.amazon.com/API-69L-Calcium-Test-Kit/dp/B0006JDWHI

[potatowned]

OK I think a lot of the snails in my tank are dead. They don't move at all. Lots of them are the Florida ceriths. I basically note the position and check later the day to see if it's moved. If it hasn't, I pull it out and sniff it. If it smells like death, I throw it out.

 

Is there a better way to know if these snails are dead than by sniffing them? Cuz it's gross.

[potatowned]

So I've pulled most of the Florida Ceriths from the tank. They were all dead for some reason. Not sure if they came that way, or they died in the tank.

 

I also got a candy cane coral and a hammer coral from a local reefer. The candy cane has like 8 really nice looking heads but 2 or 3 empty skeleton looking ones. Should I cut those off or just let them be?

 

Edit: 2nd question. I have some zoa looking corals growing ON TOP of the candy cane. Leave em? Are they going to harm the candy cane?

[markalot]

Leave it be. Picture of the zoas growing on top?

[tran]

great choice on the Oceanrevive light

[potatowned]

OK! Here's an update. I put the new corals in a day ago. I came home from work today and the corals were fully extended and looking great. I went ahead and snapped a few pictures for you guys.

 

Torch:

 

New hammer:

I bought 4 heads for $20. He looks a bit washed out to me. The colors are not particularly bright. Is he getting bleached out? Should I reduce my light?

 

New candy cane:

You'll notice that I have a zoa (or something similar) also growing on the frag. It looks to me like the zoa is doing SOMETHING to the candy cane. All the tissue on the heads surrounding the zoa seems to be withering away.

 

Leave it be. Picture of the zoas growing on top?

 

This is why I was wondering if I should try to remove the zoas and relocate them. Thoughts?

 

 

 

I found this strange green bubble on some rock. Is this bubble algae? How should I remove it?

 

In other news, one of my hermits found a new shell! I'm glad he didn't steal one from a snail. This was an empty shell I bought and threw in the tank:

 

Lastly, a full tank shot:

[Steelen]

That is bubble yep.

[markalot]

That looks to be a majano anemone, which explains the death around it. They can be invasive, and good looking, but don't get along well with others.

[potatowned]

That looks to be a majano anemone, which explains the death around it. They can be invasive, and good looking, but don't get along well with others.

Can i just pull it off the coral with tweezers?

 

That is bubble yep.

How do I get rid of it?

[potatowned]

Ok I'm going to either try to just pull the majano off with tweezers, or inject it with vinegar. Anyone recommend one over the other?

[markalot]

Can i just pull it off the coral with tweezers?

 

 

I'm not sure how to get rid of it, I've never had any. I know aptasia's will reproduce from just a bit of themselves, so pulling would create hundreds. I would probably use super glue and some epoxy to cover and kill them.

[potatowned]

Alright well I did a little surgery. took the candy cane out and tried to pull the anemone off the coral. Didn't work so well. It totally closed up so I had to cut it off. I basically ended up scraping it and using tweezers to get as much off the coral as possible. Not sure if I'm going to get a bunch of baby anemones now but for now, the coral looks pretty clean.

[potatowned]

OK! Big update.

 

Over the weekend I drove out to LA to pick up some corals from a local reefer. He not only gave me a great deal on the corals I bought, he also gave me a bunch of free zoas! Can we give a quick shoutout to how awesome the reefer community is?

 

So I got everything in the tank and did a 15% water change. Everything looks really happy. I had to glue down the xenias because they kept getting blown into the sand.

 

On to the important stuff - the pictures!

 

Note: I've been playing around with image adjustments in post - it seems that the only way to get really nice photos is to crank up saturation and mess around with the rest of the sliders. I guess the trick is to ride that balance between stunning and artificial. I'm also still trying to work out what kind of lighting gives me the most natural looking light in images. And lastly, zoas are a pain the ass to photograph. Colors look amazing in person, horribly on camera.

 

Feel free to provide feedback or advice on my pictures. I've been experimenting with several different lens and I generally shoot at a low aperture for macro shots and a higher aperture for wider shots. Low ISO and I adjust my shutter speed based on the aperture.

 

New kenya tree (this one was a freebie!)

 

Xenias

(16:9 for desktop wallpaper )

 

Trumpet (love the color on this! I got 2 frags.)

 

Hammer (total of 5 heads)

 

Zoas (feel free to let me know what these are called! The one on the left I had, the 3 on the right I got for free)

 

Left side of my tank

 

Right side of the tank

 

Update on the candy cane: pulled the Majano off, hopefully the heads grow back.

 

Hermit crab has been nibbling on something where the Majanos used to be:

 

And a parting FTS for you

[potatowned]

Question for you guys: i bought GFO. How do I know when I need it? Should I just go ahead and put a baggy of it in my filter?

[ragtimewilly]

Good looking corals dude, love the torch and the new trumpet.

 

This looks like a frogspawn.

 

 

The zoas on the right look like red hornets and eagle eyes.

[potatowned]

Pieces of my kenya tree are falling off. Does this just mean it is propagating?

[potatowned]

OK well I was about to buy another powerhead for my tank last night and I realized I could just buy a wp10 on ebay for like $25 more than the cost of two Koralia Nanos, so I went ahead and picked up a a wp10.

 

Hope my tank likes it.

[zeke2020]

I think I wanna give a wp10 a try! Still following to see how you like it!

[potatowned]

Installed the WP10 last night. I took out the Koralia since the WP10 generates plenty of flow. I'm trying to decide the best placement. The way my tank is setup, I have the HOB on the left, with the intake and return really just inches from each other. It made sense for me to put the WP10 on the right side of the tank, but the wave seems to hit the tall rock I have on the left side and somewhat diminish as a result. I It also puts a lot of strain on the corals I have on that left rock. The xenia was basically closed up the the entire time I had the WP10 on the right side of the tank.

 

So now I have the WP10 on the left side, with pretty low wave action. Setting is M1-S3 and everything seems to like it. The only thing I am concerned about is a possible dead spot in the very back bottom of my tank. I could stick my koralia there if needed.

[jc2014]

How's it going? Any updates on your tank?