My first reef tank! Filled with tbsaltwater package

[EquinsuOcha]

SH!T you guys don't use tablesalt?!?!

[Jato4x4]

It says Sea Salt on the bottle!

[Jato4x4]

Everything got delivered today. It's all in the tank, rock first then sand. It's still a little cloudy, so I'm gonna wait till tomorrow to take and post pics.

 

One of the rocks has a big patch of orange sponge on it. With a little yellow one at the edge. A anemone and royal gramma were included in the shipment as well. Really cool of Richard to include those. There is a mantis or pistol in there too. I heard him popping when I put the rocks in. But haven't heard him since. There's also a tiny crab that made the trip.

 

I do have one pic of some kind of plant that I have no idea what it is. Any thoughts? I'm assuming the brown part goes in the sand, lol. But idk.

 

Also got my YWG today, he's in the qt tank in the back. He's really bright and tiny. Only an inch long.

 

Edit: I'm thinking it's a shaving brush plant

[Jato4x4]

The tank has settled down and is clearing up. There was small mishap with FedEx, as one of the boxes was repackaged by them, and there was a small leak in 2 bags. Which held the royal gramma and the shaving brush plant. Ammonia was still at 0 today, but I still changed 3g, just in case. My heater for the qt came in, so the neo therm is going back in the 29 tomorrow. The rg pulled through and is swimming around now. My wife saw the source of the popping this morning.

 

The tank has settled down and is clearing up. There was small mishap with FedEx, as one of the boxes was repackaged by them, and there was a small leak in 2 bags. Which held the royal gramma and the shaving brush plant. Ammonia was still at 0 today, but I still changed 3g, just in case. My heater for the qt came in, so the neo therm is going back in the 29 tomorrow. The rg pulled through and is swimming around now. My wife saw the source of the popping this morning. She said it was red, skinny and fast. So I'm thinking mantis. There was a baby pistol, like a 1/4" long floating around last night. Would've been cool if he was alive. So far everything is doing good.

 

Now for pics

 

The rg hanging out under his rock. Better be careful cuz that's where the mantis and gorilla crab live. They might be eating the spicy royal gramma roll for dinner. Lol

 

My cucumber. Still nervous about him, because of all the horror stories. But he looks really cool.

 

The anemone is still figuring out where he wants to be. He was a free extra, or else I wouldn't have out him in yet. So I'm gonna do my best to keep him alive. I think it's a rock anemone

 

I don't know what these little guys are. They have what looks like a black shell, and a bright green piece comes out of that. I thought they were snails at first. But then they opened, lol. Still cool though

 

Peppermint shrimp has claimed this pipe of rocks. Can't really see him, but you can see the tunnels he's made overnight.

 

Here's one of the red sponges, a yellow sponge and what I think is a nudibranch. The nudi hasn't moved, so idk.

 

These were all crappy phone pics. I'll get some good ones when I figure out my new macro lens.

[Jato4x4]

So I finally got to use the new lens. So...

Also, everything in the tank came with the "package". I haven't added anything yet.

 

FTS

 

Some of the zoa's Richard included. I've counted 13 so far.

 

 

The rock anemone

 

The Royal Gramma

 

 

Shaving Brush plant

 

Horseshoe worm

 

Have no idea what this is. But I have two of them.

 

Some of the sponges

 

Think it's a nudibranch. But haven't researched much yet

 

The starfish. Looks like a serpent from his face. But I have no idea

 

Also, I've counted 12 crabs, and one baby pistol shrimp so far. Also there's a porcelain crab that's about an inch wide. And a black crab with orange on its claws I found last night, he looked like he was filter feeding like the porcelain crab.

[Jato4x4]

Last night I almost caught my big gorilla crab. I had the water bottle with a fresh shrimp in it next to his hole. He came out to inspect it, but then went under a ledge right next to it. I came back a little later and found my peppermint shrimp in the trap. I got him out and put the trap back. About an hour later I had caught the shrimp again, lol. I put him in my empty QT then. After that though the crab wouldnt come back near it, because I woke up to an empty trap. I might wait and try again tomorrow night, since I dont want to affect my wq too much. Hes molted once since I found him, his body is like an inch and a quarter wide now. So... I wish he would pick a different rock, so i could just pull the rock out. But the rock he likes has quite a few sponges on it.

[vlangel]

Nice tank jato4x4! Royal grammas are cool fish. I also have one. I will enjoy watching your tank develop.

[Jato4x4]

Nice tank jato4x4! Royal grammas are cool fish. I also have one. I will enjoy watching your tank develop.

 

Thank You! Yeah the RG is cool. He's finally staying out when the turkey baster goes in to squirt some mysis out for him. So now I can actually see how much he's eating, and not waste any. As soon as the lights go out though he goes to the same cave and sleeps almost vertically, lol. I was worried about him, because the bag he came in had leaked and he didnt have much water. But thankfully he was in the bag less than 18 hours. After he chilled in the corner on the sand for the first day or so, hes been fine ever since. He just makes me nervous sleeping where he does, because its near where the big gorilla crab hangs out.

[vlangel]

Thank You! Yeah the RG is cool. He's finally staying out when the turkey baster goes in to squirt some mysis out for him. So now I can actually see how much he's eating, and not waste any. As soon as the lights go out though he goes to the same cave and sleeps almost vertically, lol. I was worried about him, because the bag he came in had leaked and he didnt have much water. But thankfully he was in the bag less than 18 hours. After he chilled in the corner on the sand for the first day or so, hes been fine ever since. He just makes me nervous sleeping where he does, because its near where the big gorilla crab hangs out.

 

I think for the most part that they are a sturdy little fish, although perhaps not a match for a gorilla crab or mantis shrimp!

[Jato4x4]

Well, I came home to what I think is a sea spider. Sure looks like the pics I've seen of them. He was munching on my red tunicate. He put up a little bit of a fight. But in the end the mighty turkey baster came through. Hopefully there's no more or eggs. So now I have that to watch for.

 

 

But in even better news, I finally caught my bigger gorilla crab! Happy dance time! He was under the rock in a sand burrow. One scoop of the net, he clung to the rock for dear (sea)life. He almost went back in the rock. But the net stopped him. He could've scurried right past the net. Thankfully he went left when he should've went right. He ran up the front of the rock. I scooped/ pushed him off. He said "shit, he ain't playing around tonight." He landed in the sand. I scooped him up with the net. And into my wc bucket he went.

 

I've got 4 crabs in there now. 2 of them I'm sure are gorilla's. The other 2 are up for debate. But they have black claws. So until I get pics of them and get them id'd they will live in the bucket.

 

I'm gonna put some sand and a rock in a big vase and put the big crab in there. That will look way better than some lame flowers, lol. It's like a 1.5 gallon vase. I think it'll be big enough. I'll post a new thread to ask about that though.

[Jato4x4]

One more week down. A couple things have changed. I've started having a small gha outbreak. It's stayed on the glass and it's less than a 1/4 inch long. But there are quite a few pieces. I moved all 3 of my turbo snails to the glass at night. They've stayed and seem to be eating it slowly but surely. My diatom bloom has all disappeared. So I guess I've leveled up in the uglies stage, lol.

 

I think part of the gha cause is because my di filter was used up and I didn't realize it. I tested my ro container and the water was at 101ppm. So I'm sure I at least put 20 gallons of that in the tank. I changed the difference out Wednesday and did a 8 gallon change last night. Sacked out quite a bit of the gha as well. I'm gonna do another 8 gallons Sunday and continue every 3 days till I've gotten 100% changed. Hopefully I don't screw up any of my bacteria. But I'm thinking that will be slow enough to not cause any issues.

 

My 12 zoas were starting to stretch last week after being fine. So I moved my one powerhead to give them a little bit more flow. They liked that and went back to normal length. I do have one that was like half the size of the others that has stayed half closed since yesterday. But he's tucked in the middle so I can't really inspect him. But I did notice yesterday that there's a new polyp in the back of the group. And it opened up today. So as of now I'm up to 13.

 

I started feeding the zeovit sponge power last week and it's helped tremendously. I've noticed quite a few new sponges and my yellow one has switched to purple and has these new growths on it that looks like an aloe plants leaves.

 

Also my shaving brush plant has sprouted 2 new shoots from its roots. So hopefully they keep growing.

 

I think that's it. I'll get some pics of everything this weekend.

[Jato4x4]

Oh almost forgot. My rock anemone has grown or is fully spread out now. He's like 5 inches around. Also he moved from one end of the tank to the other and attached himself inside that cave. Which kinda pissed off the royal Gramma. Lol. But now he's moved to where the fish has part of his entrance back.