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My 20 Long Journey


Mom2many

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FTS 3-27-16

 

 

 

I love the hobby of keeping fish tanks. It is amazing what one can do with a glass box and a puddle of water. I have had fish tanks all my life. I also had a 30 gallon reef tank for many years. I had to give up having a reef tank because of our busy lifestyle. My husband and I take in and adopt special needs children and we had a child with a trach and g-tube come into our home. I felt guilty anytime I spent money on my tank and had little time to devote to it anymore. I decided to sell it.

 

For my birthday this year my wonderful husband said I could get back into the hobby. I did a lot of research and things have changed in the 8 or so years I have been out of it. I had PC's and upgraded to T5's just before leaving the hobby. Now I can get LED's for a nano that don't cost an arm and a leg or that I have to build. It was exciting to see all that is available this time around.

 

I decided upon a 20 long to keep costs down on the whole project, make it low maintainance, and to limit my spending as to how much I can spend and put into my tank in the way of corals and fish.

 

The tank has been up and running for several months now. I am enjoying my self so much. I will share the pictures I have taken along the way.

 

I purchases a 20 long tank and painted the back with a flat black spray paint.

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I then placed an order with Reef Cleaners for some of their base rock. They were great! I told them I was setting up a 20 long and they chose pieces that would work well for me. The rock was light and porous. Very good rock for a reef. I ordered 30 pounds. Played with it a bit on a piece of newspaper the size of what my aquarium foot print was and used about 20 pounds of it.

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The children need me. Will post more progress later!

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VW_TDI_02

Looks good so far. What are you planning on using for lights? I know you said LEDs but obviously that leaves a lot of options, haha. I'm using a Current Orbit Marine on my 20 long but I'm not completely sure about it. Obviously not the most powerful fixture but pretty cheap.

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I am using the Current Orbit Marine as well. I really like it alot. I will be posting what I have under it soon. I feel it is a good light for shallow tanks like ours and am very pleased how the things I have in my tank are growing under it.

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I found this very sturdy dresser while antiquing with my dad. I bought it to place my tank on it. Here is a picture of my tank set up and with water in it. I am using Instant Ocean because that is what I used in my last tank and it always did fine.

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After a lot of research I decided to give the Current Orbit Leds a go. Since my tank was so shallow and I was trying to keep within a budget. Here is the tank after adding the lights.

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I am running a Aqua Clear 70 with a 30 impeller in it. I am using two Korolia pumps one 240 and one 425. I have a Cobalt heater in the Aqua Clear.

 

The tank cycled pretty quickly using bagged live sand and starter cultures. Slowly over the course of weeks I added two young clownfish and later a yellow watchman goby with a randalls pistol shrimp. They have not paired up but I enjoy watching them independently as well. I also added over time three blue porcelain crabs and a coco worm. I have one margarita snail, five narssissus snails a few nitrite snails and many stomatella snails. I also added a few corals here and there over time bought from various fish stores in my area.

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I had all three of my porcelain crabs molt in the same week recently. I home school our children so we took out the exoskeleton and took a good look at it. It was one that I had bought missing a claw.

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Here is one of them doing their filter feeding. I love these little crabs. As they get more comfortable they come out of the rockwork during the day and at night and clean off the sand one piece at a time. I have never had one touch any of my corals or eat any of my other critters.

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When I decided upon the Current Orbit LED's, I got them because of the versitility and the price. I was just so happy to be back into the hobby, I really didnt care if I could only grow lower light corals. All corals are so beautiful and fun to watch for me. But now that I have been using them for a while and placed corals under them I can see they are perfect for the set up I have. I have only one strip placed on the back half over a glass top. That area gets a lot of light in the upper area. So much that I have placed corals there and had to move them toward the front and down because they were under to much light. After seeing this, I decided to get some lower light type SPS and they are growing and doing well.

I have had these two corals for four weeks and I can see growth and improved color from my purchase date.

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and then this one

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When I decided upon the Current Orbit LED's, I got them because of the versitility and the price. I was just so happy to be back into the hobby, I really didnt care if I could only grow lower light corals. All corals are so beautiful and fun to watch for me. But now that I have been using them for a while and placed corals under them I can see they are perfect for the set up I have. I have only one strip placed on the back half over a glass top. That area gets a lot of light in the upper area. So much that I have placed corals there and had to move them toward the front and down because they were under to much light. After seeing this, I decided to get some lower light type SPS and they are growing and doing well.

I have had these two corals for four weeks and I can see growth and improved color from my purchase date.

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and then this one

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Those look great. What are they called? Also, when was the original purchase date?

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I bought these from two different places. The top picture, the guy at the store did not know what it is but to me it looks like a birds nest coral. It was brown with neon green polyps when I got it. It is becomeing more and more light pink the longer I have had it so now it is a light pink with the neon green polyps. It is placed in the top of my rockwork six or seven inches under my lights. The bottom picture was sold to me as a birds nest for sure. Their huge birdsnest coral in the stores display tank fell and shattered so they were selling all the frags of it. It has much thicker branches is pink and has neon green polyps. it is very fuzzy all the time. It is placed under the lights on my rock work 9 or 10 inches under my lights mid/lower placement on the rockwork. I purched these the second week in April.

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Wow, that's an incredible amount of growth for about a month's worth of time! I currently have a red monti cap and that's the only SPS coral I have in my tank. Might have to try out a birdsnest next since I like the way they look. Are you running your lights at 100%? I think my light has the blues and whites set at 70% and the LPS are doing fine.

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I have also been growing this orange montipora digi for about four weeks. It has gotten more orange has better PE and is encrusting. It seems to be much thicker than in the first picture. The tips are growing now as well. It looks very happy. It is much oranger than in this picture tanken with my cell phone.

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The birdsnest and digi were doing so well, I just added this last Sunday. It is a very light pink stylaphora (sp?)

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I took that picture the day I got it and glued it in. It now has very tiny polyps out and seems to be getting darker pink in color.

 

These are all placed in the top areas of my rockwork under the light strip.

 

 

 

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That looks awesome. Glad to see these lights can grow SPS corals well. I think I might have to take another picture of my monti cap and compare it to my old pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to see a nice difference.

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I am not good with technology or electronics at all...so...I am running my lights on the pre-programed 12 hour setting. The one that is 8 to 8 and has the moon lights on for several hours after that. Pretty much everything I have put under the lights have done well once I find their sweet spot for lighting and flow.I had a ricordia melt from to much light and a Blastomussa also started to melt. I already had it apoxied in so well that I could not move it, so placed a flat rock above it to shade it some. It is slowly coming back now. The duncans are sprouting many new heads and they are place low and at the very front farthest from the light.


Yes, that is a great Idea. I am doing the same thing with everything I am placing in the tank so I can tell for sure they are growing and keeping good color. I am trying to do this without a skimmer this time around or dosing but will add them if I see I need to do it. I do weekly water changes faithfully so hopefully that will keep ups with all the demands of this tank for a while. Can you post your monti cap? Would love to see it? Where is it placed?

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I just took these now so you can see placements, here is my left island.

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Here is my left island,

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And a bit of a blurry full tank shot.

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Excuse the plugs in the sand, I am trying to save them. I stupidly placed a large order from Reefs2Go. I knew they had terrible reviews but I figured I lived in Georgia and them in FL so not so far to transport. It was a disaster and most arrived dead or died in a day. The ones in the sand are what survived and are left. I hope they make it. Also I fight diatoms. They go away at night and grow during the day. I might need to lesson my photo period.

 

 

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I made the mistake of placing a large order with Reefs2Go. It was almost a $200 dollar order for mothers day. I thought because we lived so close to Florida that all would go well. It was a disaster. Two of the items they said they had they did not so left them off the order of course. The feather dusters and a ricordia were totally melted away. The candy cane coral was turned to brown jelly. Most of the sps's were just white sticks of bone, no flesh at all. I had to toss most of them as there was no hope for them.

 

So far the purple sea whip is doing fine. The remaining ricordia let go of his rock yesterday and floated into a hole in my rockwork. I am going to leave him alone and see if he attaches and survives. He was just melting away where I had him.

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I waited for the three heads of dendro to open for three days. Finally, last night I took it out and did the bowl feeding routine with it. It seemed to try to open but couldnt. I will keep doing this every night and try to save it.

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One of the zoos finally opened today the other is slowly melting away.

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This little guy I thought was totally gone like the other white bone/sticks. This is suposed to be a pociliapora (sp?) But because he had traces of flesh on him I kept him in the tank in very low light. Low and behold I see a few brown polyps open on it today. Maybe there is hope for him. He is in ruff shape though.

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My advice to anyone wanting to purchase corals on line to check the reviews of these places. This one had bad reviews but incredible deals that turned out to cost us money in the end.

 

I have hope that these few sad corals will maybe pull thru.

 

Happy reefing!!

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I ordered a few heads of Dendro from Reefs2Go and they showed up in very poor shape. After working with them, I dont think they had tentacles to extend. They looked very malnurished.

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I have been taking them out of the tank almost daily and putting them into a bowl of tank water. I have been trying to encourage them to open so I can feed them. I have tried a few pinches of reef pearls and Coral Freenzy stired into the water. This does make their little mouths open a little. I was able to place a very small piece of chopped mysid shirmp onto the mouth and get them to take it in once in a while. After doing all this again today my husband excitedly called me to view the tank and this is the most encouraging signs yet that they might recover. At least two heads of it anyway, Praise God!

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Also, I purchased this poccillapora on May 3rd. So, I guess about two weeks ago. I can not get over how fast this has encrusted over the glue and how quickly it is growing! It looks lighter in the second picture but has stayed the same magenta and pink color. Just growing very quickly. It is placed about six inches down under my Current Orbit LED's.post-87944-0-61848400-1431797522_thumb.jpgpost-87944-0-59089500-1431797551_thumb.jpg

 

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thecoralbeauty

I love the hobby of keeping fish tanks. It is amazing what one can do with a glass box and a puddle of water. I have had fish tanks all my life. I also had a 30 gallon reef tank for many years. I had to give up having a reef tank because of our busy lifestyle. My husband and I take in and adopt special needs children and we had a child with a trach and g-tube come into our home. I felt guilty anytime I spent money on my tank and had little time to devote to it anymore. I decided to sell it.

 

For my birthday this year my wonderful husband said I could get back into the hobby. I did a lot of research and things have changed in the 8 or so years I have been out of it. I had PC's and upgraded to T5's just before leaving the hobby. Now I can get LED's for a nano that don't cost an arm and a leg or that I have to build. It was exciting to see all that is available this time around.

 

I decided upon a 20 long to keep costs down on the whole project, make it low maintainance, and to limit my spending as to how much I can spend and put into my tank in the way of corals and fish.

 

The tank has been up and running for several months now. I am enjoying my self so much. I will share the pictures I have taken along the way.

 

I purchases a 20 long tank and painted the back with a flat black spray paint.

attachicon.gif1a.jpg

 

I then placed an order with Reef Cleaners for some of their base rock. They were great! I told them I was setting up a 20 long and they chose pieces that would work well for me. The rock was light and porous. Very good rock for a reef. I ordered 30 pounds. Played with it a bit on a piece of newspaper the size of what my aquarium foot print was and used about 20 pounds of it.

attachicon.gif2a.jpg

 

The children need me. Will post more progress later!

I am a special education teacher for 8th graders at a charter school. I love the kids and love what I do- I'm sure you do too, and I'm so thankful for people like you. Welcome to N-R and welcome BACK into reefing! Love your scape, love your stock, and I have a 20 long as well. I'm so excited for you and look forward to seeing all the things you will do!

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Thank you so much mwhitelock! I do love our children tremendously. God has blessed us so much. We just got a new baby last week. she is 10 days old now. So she makes child number 11!

 

It feels good to be back into the hobby. I have enjoyed it all tremendously. I actually found your thread and read it just the other day. No sump either? OR skimmer? Me neither but I am having some algea problems. It is just starting and I want to nip it before it gets bad. I think it looks like some bryopsis came in on a frag. Of course this is a new tank and will take its course in becoming mature but I really want to try to keep the whole system as simple as possible. I just cut back on my feeding again and added a few mexican turbos. I want to try to take care of this naturally and just find the right balace for this system.

 

Love your tank as well and all that is in it. I like the the rock scape very much. Watching what you do as well!


By the way mwhitelock, your cats are just to cute with your tank!

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thecoralbeauty

Thanks! I have a bit of hair algae too, came in on some frags, and I want to control it as much as possible. Debating what algae-eating critter I should invest in. My first thought was a lawn-mower blenny, but in my experience they eat all the algae in these small tanks within a few days, and then starve because they won't accept any other food. I have a few turbos and other snails but no luck yet. They don't like climbing on the corals. Neither does the tuxedo urchin.

 

I wish you rent one. Rent-a-blenny, for all your nano algae needs!

 

Thank you for the compliments, and congratulations on the new baby! I'm very much in awe of your patience. Sometimes school days are almost too much for me, AND I get to come home to peace, coral, cats, and wine. I can't imagine bringing them home with me.

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Welcome to NR and Grats on the 20Long. There are quite a few of us running these tanks, so you have plenty of other to get ideas from, so please reach out with any questions. I'm a good example of what NOT to do :)

I do have an orbit marine like you do, but I bought it to supplement a dual T-5 with ATI Actinic and Blue Plus bubs, and I was very impressed with the additional color and appearance that fixture has added. The advantage with a tank as shallow as ours is that the lights will be able to provide some energy all the way to the bottom. Once mine is a bit more stable, I plan to add a few more SPS to test things out, with the goal of growing a Jedi Mind Trick Monti, as the desire for one was one of the factors for me starting down this path.

I will not say you HAVE to have a protein skimmer, as mine did not keep me from an fairly extensive algae bloom, but I'm sure it would have been much worse without it.

Good luck and keep going with this awesome tank you have.

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Thanks! I have a bit of hair algae too, came in on some frags, and I want to control it as much as possible. Debating what algae-eating critter I should invest in. My first thought was a lawn-mower blenny, but in my experience they eat all the algae in these small tanks within a few days, and then starve because they won't accept any other food. I have a few turbos and other snails but no luck yet. They don't like climbing on the corals. Neither does the tuxedo urchin.

 

Here is an article I found about hair algae in birds nest http://www.corallore.com/birdsnest-coral/

 

I wish you rent one. Rent-a-blenny, for all your nano algae needs!

 

Our local fish store actually does have a rent a sea hair for tanks with algae troubles. I would do it if I needed to ever.

 

Thank you for the compliments, and congratulations on the new baby! I'm very much in awe of your patience. Sometimes school days are almost too much for me, AND I get to come home to peace, coral, cats, and wine. I can't imagine bringing them home with me.

 

God is so good to me. My days can be long as I home school all of our children and two of them have very hard behaviors. But we have a lot of good in with the hard and I am content.

 

Cant wait to see your tank once some of these great corals mature a bit. Very nice!

Thank you Viking! I have been lurking around on this forum for many years. Love all the tanks, builds, and ideas. When I have had an issue I always look to you all to see what many of you have done to fix it. A wealth of information and experiance here for sure! I am trying to keep this tank as simple as possible but will put a skimmer on for sure if I can not keep my phosphates down. I dont test for them but do have diatoms just on the sand. It goes away at night and grows every day. But not on my glass at all. I only clean the glass once a week before a water change. And I have recently gotten some either hair algae or bryopsis. Not much but enough to go and get a few turbos to try to get on top of it while I work on my feeding schedule. Thanks for the warm welcome and complements!

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thecoralbeauty

So excited to see your Dendros improving as mine has. Ieep shoving food down mine (gently) and it seems to help a great deal.

Just out of curiosity, how much were yours? Dendro's go for $200 a head here in denver, i stole mine at the frag swap for $40. Are they that expensive elsewhere?

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The closest store that has salt water things is about an hour away from our town. Today, I had a doctors appointment pretty close to one of those stores so I stopped in a bought a few corals.

 

I had placed a rock in a crevice to shade a coral and did not like the way it looked. I wanted a larger coral to put there to shade the blasto so I found this very pretty green poccillapora. (sp)

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I also bought this small frag of branching hammer.

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I bought these other three on Sunday when I was antiquing with my dad. He kindly stopped in to my favoirte store in Chattanooga. I dont know what any of them are but was told they should do well in my system.post-87944-0-23268900-1431990695_thumb.jpg He called this one strawberry shortcake. It is very pink and green.

 

This one is green and fuzzy and acro of some sort.post-87944-0-77460000-1431990758_thumb.jpg

 

This one I have no idea what it is. My frog spawn is going to have to be moved soon as it is getting to big and getting close to some of my other corals. I love the movement in the water though so I asked the guy at the fish store what would have good movement, be non-invasive and passive. He sold me this.post-87944-0-65169400-1431990866_thumb.jpg

 

I dont usually like things in my sandbed but still have a few things waiting to be rehomed or moved to other spots. So after playing in my reef for a while and moving a few corals around here is where I am today. Diatoms and all!

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So excited to see your Dendros improving as mine has. Ieep shoving food down mine (gently) and it seems to help a great deal.

Just out of curiosity, how much were yours? Dendro's go for $200 a head here in denver, i stole mine at the frag swap for $40. Are they that expensive elsewhere?

We can't even find Dendros anywhere around here. I made an order from Reefs2Go and it was in that order.(mistake) Most everything from them was dead or dying. I have three things left that have a bit of life in them, the Dendro is one of them. The order was a 200 dollar order. They were on special, for believe it or not, $4.99, So the last three surviving corals ended up costing me 200 dollars I guess. :)

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