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Tropi's First 23g Reef Tank - 65g Upgrade in progress


Tropi

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Wow dude your tank is going to look so awesome in a month. (Not saying it doesn't now, but once everything gets colored up and begins to fill out..)

The 2 clowns look tiny just like mine, very nice addition!

 

You've got such great diversity. In my future I hope to have a bigger tank to have more fish like this. Very nice!!

 

Also - a BTA?! That's pretty cool man, I dunno if I can fit one in my Spec V :(

Goodluck and keep us updated!

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What kind of lighting do you have on the tank? I have never kept a bubble tip anemone but from what I read they require relatively strong lighting, so I would look into it.

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my lighting is low but the same that the lfs had the nems in, I plan on going out to find some better lighting this weekend.

 

I was wondering if either of these 2 would be any good to use or not, my tank is 23g, 62x39x52cm

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/320787808771?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

 

or

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/321400070745?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

 

just to give me a rough idea of what I'm looking for, thanks for your help guys.

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Sorry man I don't have any knowledge in regards to those two lights you're looking at!!

Hopefully someone else will be able to give you a suggestion from the two! :)

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Well, I really don't know either of those lights but the first option looks better than the second as far as output. like I said I never had a bta so not sure how strong of lighting they require. Don't go by what conditions the LFS keeps things in. Most are just trying to keep things barely alive until they can trick someone into buying them (not all but most). Hopefully someone else with experience can chime in on the Bta's requirements.

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Thanks for the help guys, I was doing some more reading and it looks like you need around 3 to 4 watts per gallon for bubbletips. Anyway I went for the aqua one led light it's apparently suppose to be the same as having 6x24 T5 lighting so should be around 6 watts per gallon for my tank, will just have to see how it goes, I also found out that it's new and was only released 6 or 7 weeks ago.

Haven't set it up yet, I'm trying to figure out a way of getting it on while preventing jumpers and seed/feathers from my birds getting in the water.

 

Also an update, I got some zoas and mushroom corals a bit over a week ago and all seem to be doing well, will hopefully get some better pics when I put the new light on :)

IMG_1663_zps7f529b9b.jpg

 

IMG_1664_zpseda09dd5.jpg

 

IMG_1665_zps1735b5f2.jpg

 

I was told by one of the lfs that because I have four fish I would only be able to have a couple of corals in my tank, is that true, how many corals am I going to be able to get for my tank?

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Everything is still doing good in the tank, levels are all good and I'm going to do a water change in the next couple of days, so was thinking of getting another coral sometime soon.

 

Anyone have any suggestions on some nice ones to look for, I'd really like to add some more colour, it's looking a bit to pink in there :P

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Partially Submerged

Green star polyp! You know you want it. Make sure, though, to isolate it on its own rock in the sand. Otherwise it will take over the whole tank as soon as you're not looking.

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Thanks Partially Submerged, they look awesome :)

 

My lfs has just got a new coral shipment in today and are having a coral sale this weekend, guess where you'll find me tomorrow :P

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Todays visit to the lfs got me some more goodies also a clip and some seaweed for the snails :)

 

getting used to the temp. Also the new light has been added (it's not over the tank in the pic because of the bags)

IMG_1721_zps316afd45.jpg

 

some more zoa's

the first lot has two different colours and a bonus morph :)

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IMG_1748_zps7d5dd5ff.jpg

 

blue morph

IMG_1735_zps74ef37fe.jpg

 

small helio

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and a green hammer, single head

IMG_1753_zpsb4e11d6d.jpg

 

they didn't have any star polyps which is a shame :(

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Partially Submerged

Beautiful! Especially that blue mushroom is gorgeous. Make sure to have some distance between the torch and the hammer. They can both get pretty aggressive.

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I was told by one of the lfs that because I have four fish I would only be able to have a couple of corals in my tank, is that true, how many corals am I going to be able to get for my tank?

The lfs is wrong, amount of fish really doesn't have much to do with how many corals you can keep. Corals generate very little waste, and some actually absorb nitrates and breakdown waste from fish. That being said, with 4 fish in 23 gallons, I would not keep some of the more fragile SPS or any corals that are less tolerant of nitrates and phosphates, unless you are running a skimmer and/or reactor, doing more water changes, and testing parameters often to make sure phosphate and nitrate are low and stable. You can fill the tank with soft corals, and most types of LPS.

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The lfs is wrong, amount of fish really doesn't have much to do with how many corals you can keep. Corals generate very little waste, and some actually absorb nitrates and breakdown waste from fish. That being said, with 4 fish in 23 gallons, I would not keep some of the more fragile SPS or any corals that are less tolerant of nitrates and phosphates, unless you are running a skimmer and/or reactor, doing more water changes, and testing parameters often to make sure phosphate and nitrate are low and stable. You can fill the tank with soft corals, and most types of LPS.

 

Thank you, I was starting to worry about the amount I could keep and I think I may look into getting a skimmer sometime, also I did not know that some corals absorb nitrates :)

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This tank is really shaping up!! Love the nem. That blue mushroom is amazing! The richest blue color I've seen on a coral!!

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Thanks pmang6

 

I know the nem, helio and hammer are probably going to grow quite big, the nem maybe taking up half the tank so I'm already thinking of a bigger tank when everything starts getting larger. It's so addictive, my mum just looks at me like I'm crazy lol :)

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Newest purchase!

 

I keep reading that you can make do with just your live rock and a protein skimmer for filtration and was wondering if you guys think everything will still run ok if I remove my trickle filter and just run the skimmer or would I be best running both?

If I removed the filter do I do it by slowly removing parts of filter media untill theres none left so it doesn't shock the system or remove everything in one go?

 

IMG_1775_zpsdf5f9b4a.jpg

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I think my big guy (Turban Snail) might have died :( he's been in the same spot all of yesterday and today. After work I picked him up but can only see something deeper in the shell but no sign of him, so sad he was my first and favorite snail. I wonder if he starved, I did put some seaweed in a few days ago but none of them ate any. The two Trochus snails are still doing good though.

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just some pics and new corals...

 

Nemy eating and the clowns don't like to be to far away

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some algae

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Pulsing Xenia

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the helio is looking more inflated

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my sister got me a piece of purple thistle coral, only problem is it hasn't attached itself to rock yet. So if anyone has any tips for that it would be very appreciated.

IMG_1871_zps85223634.jpg

 

and

a yellow clown goby, he didn't stay in hiding for long and definately has a healthy appetite. At first the clowns were tugging his tail but by the next day they started ignoring him

IMG_1907_zps1e2057d9.jpg

 

There wont be any more additions to the tank anytime soon if I can help it because I'm wanting to hold off until I upgrade it to a larger tank :)

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So my other LFS finally got a new coral shipment in and they had some strombus snails, they cost $21 but I really needed some cuc for the sand bed and snails are really hard to come by here and go really fast. So my one snail turned into...

 

expensive but funny to watch, strombus snail

IMG_1983_zps633cc928.jpg

 

couldn't resist these two morphs, I loved the colours (not open yet and need to move them, snail knocked the red one over)

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IMG_1993_zps4e4625ef.jpg

 

and a Branching tree coral for $20, I think it was a good deal since it also came with a sponge and a coral, the id being a Sarcophyton/Toadstool/Leather, also my very first brittle star on it

 

IMG_1991_zpsc6f69c71.jpg

 

 

On the new tank front, I have started looking around but it will be a while until I can get one, I'm limiting myself to a tank no bigger than 4ft, 200L :D and nemy is on the move, the only other time he moved was when the wavemaker fell off and I guess changed the flow but he only moved a tiny bit, now he's moving a fair bit more, so I'll be on coral watch/moving soon I guess :scarry:

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Good News! while rearranging from nemy's move I decided to give the purple thistle coral a little nudge since I had noticed it's roots getting longer and staying close to the rock. It didn't move :D I'm pretty sure it's now attached itself to the rock.

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How long did you wait before putting your first fish?

My tank finished cycling at 3 weeks so I got one snail and two blue/green chromis and added them then. I was only going to add cuc at that point but they are hard to find here, the fish have been doing great though :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found some star polyps yay :D but they aren't green so that's a bummer but still very nice and have opened up alot more than at the LFS

IMG_2138_zps8dc8109f.jpg

 

I've also just used natural saltwater from the LFS for the first time for a water change, so hopefully that will work good since it is actually cheaper than mixing my own.

I bought some Aiptasia-x to try and get rid of them in my tank but have decided not to risk it with nemy in there, I finally found an LFS that is getting some Peppermint shrimps in on Thursday so will be maybe picking one up then.

 

Just a couple random pics of the snails :)

 

stomatella hitching a ride on a Trochus snail while both cleaning the glass

IMG_2168_zps225fb239.jpg

 

IMG_2169_zps56aef60b.jpg

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The tank has had an ammonia spike lately, I noticed my YCG hanging around the bottom and tested the levels, nitrate was a bit higher than usual and I had some ammonia.

I did around a 40% water change a few days ago, then a 25% the next day and was still registering ammonia. I took a sample to the LFS to get another opinion and same reading, so am going to do another 25% today hopefully get it doing better. Sadly I haven't seen my YCG since he hid under the rock when he wasn't looking good so think he might have died, will be moving the rock to see if he's under it :(

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25% Water Change done and levels

 

Ammonia 0

Nitrate 5

 

Filter media has been rinsed, it was looking really horrible. I couldn't find my YCG :(

But on a better note since I've done a few WC with the natural saltwater from the LFS I noticed nemy has started to bubble a slight bit more :D so I think I'll continue to use this water and see if he bubbles up fully again. Also I just did my first dose of Red Sea Reef Energy A+B hopefully the corals will perk up with using it :)

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