jolee0722 Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 After a year, I finally managed to get the tank up and running. Still haven't managed to buy all the equipment, but I needed to at least start the cycle. Tank: PicoAquariums Custom 30 gallon AIO (24"x22"x16" w/ 4.5" rear filtration area) Stand: DIY Sand: 20 lbs. Fiji Pink Arag-Alive Reef Sand Rock: Around 15 lbs. of BRS Pukani Dry Rock Filtration: Aquamaxx WS-1 Protein Skimmer BRS Media Reactor w/ ROX Carbon (Planning to add GFO) Fliter Floss Purigen Phosguard Heater: Neotherm 150 watt heater Return: Rio 1700UL Powerhead: Hydor Koralia 600 GPH Maxspect Gyre XF130 ATO: Innovative Marine HydroFill w/ BRS ATO pump Light: Nanobox Quad RODI: BRS 4 Stage Value Plus Temperature Probe: JBJ Digi-Temp Livestock: 2 mocha clownfish 1 purple firefish 1 kamohara blenny 1 naoko's fairy wrasse 1 ruby red dragonet Inverts: A lot of snails Marbled rose bubble tip anemone (looks orange) Corals: branching gold hammer mystic sunset montipora neon pipe organs green mushroom rainbow acan lord red acan lord green millepora FTS 8/26/15 Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted September 20, 2015 Author Share Posted September 20, 2015 Have been monitoring the cycle for the past month and ammonia and nitrite were at zero last week, so i did several 10% water changes over the week and checked parameters again. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphates were all at zero. So I decided to buy some hardy fish. Picked up two baby mocha clownfish from Absolutely Fish in Clifton. They have a pair in one of their display tanks that are constantly spawning and the mochas are their offspring. Great service overall and got some Seachem Vitality as well to enrich the Hikari pellets I have. Pictures to come. Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted September 20, 2015 Author Share Posted September 20, 2015 Finished acclimating the fish. I noticed that the larger of the two seems to have puffy gills and I can see that they are red when viewing from the back. The smaller one seems to have a piece of gill missing because I can see a little red on one side all the time. Anyone know if there is a problem with the larger one? It also seems to be swimming faster than the smaller one. Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted October 4, 2015 Author Share Posted October 4, 2015 Finally got a nice picture of the two. I also ended up pulling the plug on some corals yesterday during the World Wide Corals live sale. They are a gold hammer, emerald mushroom, neon xenia, mystic sunset montipora and a rainbow acan lord. I'm not too worried about the mushroom, but will the xenia end up taking over the tank like all the horror stories that I've heard? And do I need to start adding calcium, alkalinity and magnesium now that I have some LPS and a SPS? Or are weekly water changes with hw marinemix fine for now? Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted November 6, 2015 Author Share Posted November 6, 2015 A lot has been added to the tank since my last post. Picked up an ORA Kamohara Blenny, Purple Firefish and Naoko's Fairy Wrasse. I also added an orange tip bubble tip anemone for my two clownfish. They have already begun hosting it, but it chose a weird place to plant its foot: right under on of the rocks, which makes it impossible to feed. Hopefully it decides to move in the next few weeks. Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted November 30, 2015 Author Share Posted November 30, 2015 Took a step into the sps world with a green millepora. It was a steal: a large frag for $20. Also got a ruby red dragonet. Been on my wishlist for a while. It's been at my local lfs for a few weeks and I've been seeing it pick at the ground and I haven't seen a copepod in the tank for the life of me, so hopefully he is already eating dry food. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 Took a step into the sps world with a green millepora. It was a steal: a large frag for $20. Also got a ruby red dragonet. Been on my wishlist for a while. It's been at my local lfs for a few weeks and I've been seeing it pick at the ground and I haven't seen a copepod in the tank for the life of me, so hopefully he is already eating dry food. It's not good to just "hope" a dragonet will eat dry food. Almost NO dragonet does. Most eat pods and other live food. Some will eat frozen food. It is extremely rare (I've never seen) a dragonet that eats dry food. To buy a dragonet when you have no pods, just "hoping" it eats dry food is a bad idea in my opinion. Id hate to see it starve Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted November 30, 2015 Author Share Posted November 30, 2015 It's not good to just "hope" a dragonet will eat dry food. Almost NO dragonet does. Most eat pods and other live food. Some will eat frozen food. It is extremely rare (I've never seen) a dragonet that eats dry food. To buy a dragonet when you have no pods, just "hoping" it eats dry food is a bad idea in my opinion. Id hate to see it starve Sorry I didn't mention it, but I did in fact buy pods at the LFS, and have been feeding them to the dragonet as well. It looks quite healthy. I just meant that it seems to be in rather good health and would hope to try and get it onto frozen and possibly even dried food. I have no intention of starving such a beautiful and wonderful fish, I am just being optimistic and cautious at the same time. I do plan on setting up a culture tank. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 Okay that sounds better! It sounded like you had no pods and were just hoping that it would eat dry food! Link to comment
gulfsurfer101 Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 Beautiful pics! Good luck with the dragonet. I have one that eats frozen mysis and even beta pellets lol. I got him when he was really tiny though. I feed my clowns beta pellets because they are cheaper than marine pellets by like half the cost and It's all the same thing. All my beta pellet eating fish have awesome coloration lol! Don't give up hope on it just because people say it won't. If I asked if dragonets would eat beta pellets in a beginners forum you can bet I'd be laughed out of there till I posted a vid of it going down. Link to comment
jolee0722 Posted November 30, 2015 Author Share Posted November 30, 2015 Beautiful pics! Good luck with the dragonet. I have one that eats frozen mysis and even beta pellets lol. I got him when he was really tiny though. I feed my clowns beta pellets because they are cheaper than marine pellets by like half the cost and It's all the same thing. All my beta pellet eating fish have awesome coloration lol! Don't give up hope on it just because people say it won't. If I asked if dragonets would eat beta pellets in a beginners forum you can bet I'd be laughed out of there till I posted a vid of it going down. Thanks. My LFS said that ruby reds are easier to convert than mandarins, but I'm taking that with a grain of salt. Hopefully my ruby red will be like yours. I use hikari marine s pellets. I've tried others but the second I throw in the Hikari, my fish go crazy unlike any other food. Link to comment
gulfsurfer101 Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 Yeah my red chows down on anything I add in there. I had a red mandarin but sold it when I recently tore down my 75g. It would not convert lol! Link to comment
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