A mountaineers adventure back into reefing!

[mushumatt]

Looking good! I didn't think I'd ever find someone else that had a reef and was/is in greek life haha

 

Haha yea, back in college I didn't have enough free time to take care of a tank...too many socials ha, those where the days.

 

I know the feeling I've got a 27 gallon cube and it still feels like a matchbox.my main thing is the lack of room to spread the scape out

 

Hopefully very soon that will be a thing of the past, as soon as my new tank comes in.

 

12/18

 

Picked up me S.A snowflake and true black ? Clowns. Picked up a small zoanthid frag. Picking up my rainbow acans this weekend. I still do not know what I want to do for my centerpiece for the nano. I am keeping in mind this will all be transplanted into my new tank after it is setup and cycled.

 

 

[mushumatt]

Here's some shots of the acan eating some mysis from last night.

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mushumatt/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsb0c1737e.jpg.html'>

 

Here is a FTS before I left, sustainable aquatics hybrid clowns.

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mushumatt/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsbb12d597.jpg.html'>

[hey]

that acans going to have 10 heads by the end of the month I am calling it lol

[mushumatt]

that acans going to have 10 heads by the end of the month I am calling it lol

 

I hope so!! I am picking up a rainbow acan this weekend. I plan to cut down these reef plugs and mount them to the liverock this weekend. I plan to modify the first chamber. Since I have a new tank coming soon, I am going to stack up egg crate to go above the outflow of chamber 1. Then line filter floss, carbon, purigen, Chemi pure, then filter floss.

[mushumatt]

For some reason I checked all my water parameters late last night. Ammonia has went up a tad, doing a 2 gallon water change today after work. Need to get ammonia down to zero! This has me worried, as I tracked it spike then go down. Maybe its the addition of the snails, and fish. Does not seem to be effecting anything as of yet.

 

The Hair algae is now under control, diatoms have shown up a tad. I found my True Black clown in my surface skimmer this morning. I do not know how he ended up there.

 

All I can think about is my new tank, Aquarium specialties and research in frazer, PA has the exact custom tank I am having built. It looks absolutely amazing, I could not be happier with the dimensions.

 

Going to cut the frags off of the frag plugs, or cut down the frag plugs tonight and mount them to the actual liverock. I do not like these plugs in my nano, they take up too much room.

[hey]

try a bacterial additive like dr tims or microbacter to get some more bacteria in there should give you a little wiggle room to prevent ammonia spikes initially.

[mushumatt]

I have never tried any of that stuff, does it really work? I am going to pick some up tonight and see if it helps.

[mushumatt]

Just ordered some base rubble rock to mount frags, microbacter, and a new Jager heater as I believe me heater is not holding temp steady.

[mushumatt]

Got in the Microbacter last night, also over the course of the day yesterday lowered my salinity to 1.025. It has greatly helped everything in the tank, Acans where fed Mysis at 10pm and 12am last night. They where very hungry!! The clowns ate S.A hatchery food last night with a mixture of mysis and Thera A.

 

Rubble rock, and new Eheim Jager heater will be in today. Going to use the current heater as a back up and the jager as my main. Temp goals is stable 79 +/- 1.

 

Going to build up a base of liverock at the bottom of chamber one.

 

I am going to put an order in with legendary corals to pick up some of their lobo's, acan's, and zoa's frags after the holidays. As well as picking up two different Rainbow acan's next week.

 

Manually removed all of the bubble algae from the frag's and liverock. Then did a ro/di dip

[hey]

good to hear you saw results of adding microbacter, I use microbe lift special blend regularly. Just be careful not to overdo it when dosing it regularly as you can cause some funky bacterial blooms similar to what vodka dosing induces.

[mushumatt]

good to hear you saw results of adding microbacter, I use microbe lift special blend regularly. Just be careful not to overdo it when dosing it regularly as you can cause some funky bacterial blooms similar to what vodka dosing induces.

Interesting, I plan to only dose half the recommended dosage.

[mushumatt]

12/24/14

 

Merry Christmas eve Yall! Just checked parameters.

 

Ph:8.1

Nitrites:0

Nitrates:0

Ammonia:0 barely showing up

Temps 80 +/- 2

Salinity: 1.025

 

Need to get calcium & alk test kits, but do not believe there is a high demand at the moment in the system. It is very weird my true black clown will not go to the bottom of the tank. He just stays at the top, have not observed him eat. Tried Thera-A, SA hatchery diet, marine flake, mysis shrimp. My snowflake clown and goby eat everything.

 

I am having a slight bubble algae outbreak, I have been manually removing LR to clean it off. I really do not want to add a emerald crab to the tank. I am terrified that it will eat my zoas! Putting in an order at legendary corals for some of their goosebumps zoa, and a few other frags.

 

I am contimplating on picking up a radion xr30W pro. I plan to use two on my new display. Slight overkill for this small tank, but I was the ability to change spectrums. And it makes no sense to get a 15 as I would have no use for it on my new tank.

 

 

Does anyone have any expereince with dual tank setups? I would like to run my 80 gallon display, and also have a 30 built to keep seahorses. I still have a lot of research to do tho.

[vlangel]

12/24/14

 

Does anyone have any expereince with dual tank setups? I would like to run my 80 gallon display, and also have a 30 built to keep seahorses. I still have a lot of research to do tho.

Yes I have a dual tank set up with a 30g for seahorses. It's working great but I lowered the water temperature to 71-74 degrees and I run a 9 watt turbo twist UV on the return going to the seahorse tank. Seahorses are susceptible to bacterial infections so the lower temps. and UV help with that. Both tanks share the same sump and return pump. The seahorse tank is now a fuge as it has lots of macros and softies that use nitrates and phosphates. Read my 30g XH seahorse thread if you want more details. I'll be happy to answer any questions. BTW, I will have captive bred seahorses ready in about 2 months if you are interested.

[mushumatt]

Yes I have a dual tank set up with a 30g for seahorses. It's working great but I lowered the water temperature to 71-74 degrees and I run a 9 watt turbo twist UV on the return going to the seahorse tank. Seahorses are susceptible to bacterial infections so the lower temps. and UV help with that. Both tanks share the same sump and return pump. The seahorse tank is now a fuge as it has lots of macros and softies that use nitrates and phosphates. Read my 30g XH seahorse thread if you want more details. I'll be happy to answer any questions. BTW, I will have captive bred seahorses ready in about 2 months if you are interested.

 

Do not think I will have a tank ready by then, but thanks for the offer. So how do you keep the water temps stable on your reef tank, but so low on your seahorse tank? I just wanted to see the best way to keep water temps stable in two different biotopes utilizing the same sump, fuge, and skimmer. As just like you the seahorse tank will be turned into a nice refugium display.

[mushumatt]

Added the Eheim Jager to the tank, it was too large for the rear chamber's. But it is keeping temps at 80 degrees flat, which is awesome!

[vlangel]

Do not think I will have a tank ready by then, but thanks for the offer. So how do you keep the water temps stable on your reef tank, but so low on your seahorse tank? I just wanted to see the best way to keep water temps stable in two different biotopes utilizing the same sump, fuge, and skimmer. As just like you the seahorse tank will be turned into a nice refugium display.

I am not able to run the tanks at different temperatures. I run the reef tank at 71-74 degrees also. I lowered it very slowly only 2 degrees every 3 weeks or so and watched my corals closely to see if they were affected negatively. They were not affected at all as far as I can tell but I have softies, LPS and a clam, nothing real fragile. They may not grow as fast but with just a 36g tank I was ok with that.

[mushumatt]

I am going to do a lot more research, my new tank is going to be an sps dominated. I have always thought 76-79 was optimum for an sps tank. If not I can run a seperate system for the sea horses. But I would love to have a seahorse/fuge display as well. So we will see.

 

 

I may pick up a 20 long tomorrow to setup instead of my jbj, I need more room!

[mushumatt]

Any input from anyone on how to plumb a sump into an all in one tank. I know it's counter productive, but I could use the extra water volume, also would like a full size fuge and skimmer.

[DaveDe]

I'm from Morgantown and went to WVU. It used to be a sleepy little town. Then again I've been around so long I remember when the drinking age was 18 and Sunnyside was legendary. We ruined it for the later generation.

[mushumatt]

I'm from Morgantown and went to WVU. It used to be a sleepy little town. Then again I've been around so long I remember when the drinking age was 18 and Sunnyside was legendary. We ruined it for the later generation.

 

Haha well I could say the same, we condemned two houses. Caused the university to purchase and destroy mutts, and that whole area... Now sunnyside is nothing like it was. But I heard stories about the good old days! I miss the town so much

[mushumatt]

Ahhhh, big problem. Both clowns stopped eating yesterday, and both passed away yesterday. My yellow watchman is doing fine, all my inverts and corals are looking great. All water parameters are great, double checked with my lfs yesterday. Water temps are now steady at 79. Going to do a 100% water change after the water is done. I'm terrified to stock anything else in the tank. It's weird how the acans, zoanthids, gsp, sexxy shrimp, crabs, and snails are doing awesome. Showing no signs of stress or anyrhing.

[reefernanoman]

Nice start. Good luck.

 

Ahhhh, big problem. Both clowns stopped eating yesterday, and both passed away yesterday. My yellow watchman is doing fine, all my inverts and corals are looking great. All water parameters are great, double checked with my lfs yesterday. Water temps are now steady at 79. Going to do a 100% water change after the water is done. I'm terrified to stock anything else in the tank. It's weird how the acans, zoanthids, gsp, sexxy shrimp, crabs, and snails are doing awesome. Showing no signs of stress or anyrhing.

Yeah, for some reason if something goes South, fish are the first to go. Sorry for your loss. I know that when I didn't take care of my tank before, my fish would start showing sings of stress, while the corals looked fine.

[mushumatt]

But the thing is I do not neglect my tank, ask my girlfriend. If anything I'm too anal. My yellow watchman is completely fine, eating an doing well. I am going to my lfs today to do a complex water test to see what's going on. I have done two major water changes using RO/DI and Red Sea coral pro salt this week. Water, salinity, and PH stabilized. I have never had this issue with any of my other tanks. I'll let yall know what the lfs says today.

 

 

He said he's gonna replace them, but I am going to hold off till I find out what the culprit is and fix it. I almost went to that pet place and just purchased a whole new setup, but my gf talked me out of that.

[mushumatt]

All water parameters are perfect by my lfs test kits, salinity is reading a little lower then mine. But nothing that adversely effects the fish, corals, or inverts.

 

I'm holding off for a week before picking two more up.

[mushumatt]

FTS

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mushumatt/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps6803b04b.jpg.html'>

 

My zoa rock, slowly encrusting!

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mushumatt/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps3f29e2d6.jpg.html'>

 

My Acans

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mushumatt/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps6118da2e.jpg.html'>

 

And here is my old 360 Modena next to my Prism silver RS5 Cabriolet.

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/mushumatt/media/Mobile%20Uploads/4b29d932-dc83-4088-bfff-b15033eee073_zps5a3d491d.jpg.html'>