Mr Aqua 17.1 R.I.P.

[Smithjm5]

I have a clown (False Percula) that i've had for a while waiting in another tank and i'll probably add 2 Skunk Cleaner shrimp in a few weeks but that brings me to another question.

 

I want 1 more fish to go with the Clown but I dont want a second clown. At the moment, my tank is not "Jumper friendly" so does anyone have a good idea what would be a good 2nd fish that's not known to be a died in the wool jumper?

 

I have a 7g quarantine tank that I kept all my frags in from my original tank so i'll be deciding what to put in the new one soon. I know it will include Zoas, Clove polyps, Palys, a Torch, and some GSP to start . Probably some SPS later after everything has been stable for a couple months.

 

COME ON RANGER, lets see some more of yours?

hmm, non jumpers. A possum wrasse would be neat, maybe a banggai cardinal or two, royal gramma. Just remember any fish will jump given the opportunity, just ask my two clowns haha. I'd look into making a net cover for it. It's really easy and there will be a lot cooler fish that you could keep!

[NYR]

Haha mine looks exactly like it did 11 days ago, hopefully another two weeks or so I'll see some changes

[aviator300]

Ok, I guess this makes it official. The tank is cycled (of course I realize this is an ongoing process), The post cycle water change has been done (about 60%), and the CUC goes in tomorrow. Here is a list of tank, equipt, planned livestock and whats in the tanks future.

 

Before I list these items, I want to thank all of you who take the time to follow my build thread and to let you know that I appreciate every single bit of advice and ideas you give me and I also try to visit your threads as well.

 

TANK

Mr Aqua 17.1 gal rimless aquarium with 5mm glass.

 

Stand

Unk brand 30" traditional wood stand

 

Rock and sand

14lbs BRS Reef-Saver dry rock + 20lbs Caribsea AragAlive sand "Hawaiian Black"

 

Filtration

AC 70 with "In Tank" media basket and add on AC surface skimmer.

Plan to use: Floss, Chemi-pure "Elite", Seachem DeNitrate (as needed), Chaeto.

 

Protein Skimmer

Hydor Slim Skim Nano

 

Heater Cobalt Neo Therm 100 watt with Coralife digital thermometer.

 

Flow

2 Hydor Koralia Nano pumps one 425 and one 240 on separate timers set opposite each other with some overlap.

 

ATO

Tunze 3155 Osmolator

 

Lighting

Ocean Revive "Arctic" T247 LED system hanging from DIY PVC light stand.

 

Misc.

Pinpoint continuous PH Monitor

Red Sea Coral Pro salt mix with distilled water

 

Corals

Zoas---lord of the Rings, Devils Armor, 2 unk Green,

Palys---Armor of God,

Mushrooms---two toned Ricordia, Purple Mushroom.

Misc---GSP, Yellow polyps, Liams cove polyps, Torch coral.

NOTE: the above listed corals are in my QT at the moment but will go into my tank soon

along with others to be acquired.

 

Fish + Inverts

CUC, 2 Skunk Cleaner shrimp, some kind of crab (no hermits)

False Percula Clown + need ideas for one other fish.

 

What the future holds

I am a lover of Zoas so will probably get many more. I also would like a Frogspawn and want to delve into some SPS after the tank is firmly established with rock solid water parameters.

LIGHTING.. I also want to upgrade my lighting to something like a Nano Box Duo when i'm able to afford it. I purchased the T247 because i couldn't afford a NB right now but still needed something that would cover this tank and not break my bank and the Ocean Revive sounded like a good temporary alternative. Who Knows (the shadow knows), the T247 might just surprise me.

 

I would really appreciate any comments or suggestions (plus or negative) and again thank those who follow this thread.....

MORE TO COME. Aviator300

 

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Frags waiting to be added to the 17.1 from my QT

 

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[aviator300]

The official Mr Aqua 17.1 Clean up de tank crew is in.

 

Some of my little buddies hard at work

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All this guy wants to do is sleep zzzzzzz

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Full tank shot.

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Next up is adding my Clownfish and then I will start adding the corals in from the QT.

[NYR]

Did you cycle with the light on?

[aviator300]

Did you cycle with the light on?

Not really. I turned the light on for viewing and to take pics but no more than around 3 hrs in the evening. Don't forget, this rock had been cycling for 3 weeks in the 10 gal and several days in a bucket while setting up the 17.1 so it has been cycling for over a month to date before I felt it was ready for the CUC.

 

Hang tight, yours is gonna look fantastic!!

[Tropi]

I love your scape and sand colour

[aviator300]

Well, I finally added some coral yesterday as well as my Clownfish Nemo. On a side note, I didn't give him that Cheesy name but my grand daughter did and who am i to change it.

 

2 issues that i have going on are my Torch coral and my light. The Torch has been bleaching in my QT while waiting for my Mr Aqua. I dont know why because the light in my QT is low. Anyway, last night it looks like it expelled its zooxanthelle and it's still white today. I guess i'll just keep it in low light and watch it to see what happens.

 

The issue with the light (Ocean Revive T247) is that i just plain don't care for the color rendition and i have to keep it under 15% power to keep it from being too bright.

I'm thinking about going back to the dual 20K par 38s from Coral compulsion because I love their color.

I think i'll take a FTS with the T247 and one with the par 38s and post them so you guys can let me know which you like better.

 

Without further adieu, here are pics I took last evening.

And I apologize for the cell pics. I must get a camera.

 

Two new Florida Ricordias I just purchased

This one is tucked back in a shaded area under an arch. I've had this one for a couple months

2 Rics at cave entrance

Poor little Torch expelling its Zooxanthellae

 

 

[NYR]

Love the Rics man, the black substrates going to make them POP

[aviator300]

I thought i'd take some coral pics with actinics only so here they are.

 

 

 

 

 

I really like my Torch. It has expelled its Zooxanthellae twice but seems OK..

 

OOOPS, what are you doing here? Anyway, its my wifes Freshwater planted 20H i did for her about 10 months ago.

[aviator300]

I think I have my first verifiable case of DIATOMS.

 

The tank has been up and running now for 33 days but the rock has been cycling for almost 2 months total (a month in my original 10 gal and a month in the Mr Aqua 17.1 where it lives now).

Since the rock was BRS Reef-Saver dry rock and was virtually sterile to begin with, I have been waiting for new signs of life. I guess these brand new Diatoms (if that's what it is) is the first sign of life that i've been looking for.

 

I was just PMing with NYR Ranger yesterday and we were talking about our respective lack of diatoms to this point.

 

Well Ranger, here they are!!! Yours will be next.

 

I suppose this small patch (which so far is limited to about a 2" sq area) may be something else but it looks like the beginnings of a Diatom bloom.

 

Can anyone more experienced than i out there (and that should include a whole bunch) chime in on this and let me know whether to try and remove this or just let it run its course...

 

Thanks very much....AVIATOR300

[NYR]

I think I have my first verifiable case of DIATOMS.

 

The tank has been up and running now for 33 days but the rock has been cycling for almost 2 months total (a month in my original 10 gal and a month in the Mr Aqua 17.1 where it lives now).

Since the rock was BRS Reef-Saver dry rock and was virtually sterile to begin with, I have been waiting for new signs of life. I guess these brand new Diatoms (if that's what it is) is the first sign of life that i've been looking for.

 

I was just PMing with NYR Ranger yesterday and we were talking about our respective lack of diatoms to this point.

 

Well Ranger, here they are!!! Yours will be next.

 

I suppose this small patch (which so far is limited to about a 2" sq area) may be something else but it looks like the beginnings of a Diatom bloom.

 

Can anyone more experienced than i out there (and that should include a whole bunch) chime in on this and let me know whether to try and remove this or just let it run its course...

 

Thanks very much....AVIATOR300

 

haha funny thing is that 3 days ago or so i started getting diatoms on the reef saver and substrate

[aviator300]

Aquarium gods to the beginner. "We're going to punish you for having a tank without problems."

 

Beginner to the gods. "No, No, please no, Not the whip, Anything but the whip."

 

Aquarium gods to the beginner. "Ok my lowly beginner, we shall spare you the whip but give you

Aptasia."

 

Beginner . THE WHIP, PLEASE GIVE ME THE WHIP!!!!!!!

 

I apologize for my cheesy attempt at humor but i've got these things growing on the bottom of the shaft on my Torch coral and i'm pretty sure they are Aptasia.

 

I need some ideas on how to treat them. I've had the Torch for about 5 months so I'm unsure where they came from unless they were hiding dormant. The base that the Torch is attached to just sits on the sand and I can remove the Torch easily to treat it.

I thought about using a flame or boiling water but I dont want to damage the corals shaft out of which they are growing. Is the shaft just dead skeleton tissue or can it be damaged by the flame or hot water?

 

All ideas are needed.. AVIATOR300

 

 

 

BTW.. Now that i think about it, I just posted pics of the Torch expelling its zooanxellae several weeks ago. I wonder if these could be related?

[Tamberav]

They look like they might be hydroids which is worse than aipastia.

 

If it is hydroids you would want to jump on that asap and burn them with the power of a thousand suns like RIGHT NOW as those would be way worse than aipastia. The only thing worse than hydroids is dino.

[hey]

def aiptasia, i cleared mine up within weeks by adding a single peppermint shrimp.

 

edit after the hydroids comment i didnt notice the faint little balls at the ends of the tentacles, yeh I honestly will just ditch coral if I notice a nuissance pop up on them rather than risk a failed removal attempt and have them spread like wildfire.

[aviator300]

They look like they might be hydroids which is worse than aipastia.

 

If it is hydroids you would want to jump on that asap and burn them with the power of a thousand suns like RIGHT NOW as those would be way worse than aipastia. The only thing worse than hydroids is dino.

Absolutely agree with you. By the time you read this reply, the little boogers will have been cremated and the Torch returned to its home in the corner of my tank.

[aviator300]

DONE!!!

[aviator300]

Boy oh boy did I have a wonderfull Saturday morning. I went flying with an old friend in his Extra 300L aerobatic plane. The 300L is the 2 seat version of the single seat Extra300S that I used to fly in the late 1980s and 1990s and I was at the controls of when the photo I use for my avatar was taken and in case you haven't noticed i was flying inverted when the photo was taken with my dash cam. Even though I haven't been at the controls of an aircraft in over 10 years, Blake let me Attempt to fly the old "Advanced level aerobatic sequence" from back in 1993. I was able to complete most of the maneuvers but i guarantee you a contest judge would have disqualified me time and time again for missed headings, sloppy rolls, etc. anyway, it made my year just to get back at the controls of an aircraft designed by the godfather of aerobatic flying "Walter Extra" who was the chief engineer and founder of the Extra Flugzeugbau aircraft company still based today in Hunxe Germany.

 

ANYWAY, BACK TO REEF TANKS. Sorry to bore you with all that nostalgia and stuff.

 

Well the torch coral is happy as a clam with no sign of Aptasia return. I burned the heck out of the little buggars and the only thing i was concerned about was damaging the corals shaft but it seems to be extending well.

 

I added a few more residents to the tank this week which includes a Hammer coral, 2 Zoa frags (Whammin Watermelon + Red People Eaters) at least they looked like those on a Zoanthid ID website, a colony of GSP, and ELMER. I thought i'd post pics even though i'm still using my cell phone cam.

 

Whammin Watermellons

 

Red People Eaters (much better color in person)

 

Hammer.

 

ELMER !!!!!!

 

Elmer after he successfully took some food away from a Nassarius snail.

BTW, after only 3 days in the tank, Elmer eats out of my hand. What a cool experience.

 

So this leaves me with the CUC, Nemo (the Clown fish), and Elmer. I want to add one more fish and am thinking about either a Yellow Clown Goby or a Royal Gramma. ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS?

Oh, and I also want to add either a Feather Duster or CoCo worm.

 

AVIATOR300

[aviator300]

I've seen this coming for several weeks now but hoped to avoid it and you know the old saying

"Sh^& Happens.

 

We knew that our apartment lease was coming up for renewal in July and my wife and I did a lot of soul searching but came to the conclusion that we just simply can't afford this apartment since they are raising rents on all units. So we looked and looked and looked and finally found an apartment in the same area of town that my wife absolutely loves but they limit aquariums to 10 gal or less.

 

With my setup being 17.1 gal, I needed to downsize. I know what your thinking "Why didn't you look around more because i'm sure you could have found something that didn't have a stupid size limit like that" right?

 

The problem is that although my wife tolerates my hobby and is glad i'm doing something i enjoy, she loved this apt as soon as we walked in and i figured it would be a good "husbandly" move on my part to sign the lease here even though it meant giving up my Mr Aqua 17.1.

 

So over this last week i've been selling my gear related to the 17.1 tank which will finance a smaller one for our new apt. I'm temporarily keeping my fish, corals, and rock in a borrowed 7 gal until i purchase the tank that i hope will be a permanent home to them.

 

I almost joined the bandwagon and was going to order a Fluval Spec V but then i started looking at the new "Pico Aquariums" 5 gal AIO and decided to order one of those instead (hope i made a good choice), and plan to start it's build thread any time now. That way I can get pics of the whole process, from equipment delivery on. I need to figure out what to title the thread and what subforum to post it on.

 

Until then, RIP Mr Aqua it's been fun. AVIATOR300

[Tamberav]

They wouldn't know it was 17g. Most people can't tell... I would just keep the 17g.

 

Actually with my apt.. I told them since it salt water it holds less water because there is so much rock that it makes it less with 10 gallons and they were fine with that.

[Smithjm5]

^^^ That's what i'd do haha

[aviator300]

They wouldn't know it was 17g. Most people can't tell... I would just keep the 17g.

 

Actually with my apt.. I told them since it salt water it holds less water because there is so much rock that it makes it less with 10 gallons and they were fine with that.

Thanks for the thought but i've already sold off most all of my 17.1 size gear (skimmer, larger light, AC70, larger heater, etc in anticipation of purchasing smaller gear for a 5gal AIO type tank.

 

Look for my build thread on the new "Pico Aquarium" 5 gal AIO very soon. It's nice to know you can have giant tanks or Pico tanks and still equally enjoy this hobby.

[gabe3eb]

You won't regret the PicO Aviator. I ordered one as well . Also, you have PM.