Reeferbrownies 20 long reef thread

[reeferbrownies]

Reefer Brownies 20 Long Reef Thread

"Ocean on a budget"

 

Well its taken me long enough to put together a thread. Let me introduce myself, my name is Rick and I live around northern Chicago, I had been keeping freshwater for a year and I set up a 10 gallon FOWLR for my science teacher, one thing led to another. Long story I convinced my parents to allow me to setup a 20 gallon reef tank. Most things are second hand because I'm still a high schooler but i've managed to slowly begin to stock corals. Shoutout to Seven Seas Aquatic Life in Mount Prospect Illinois.

Latest FTS 12/30/2016

11/8/2016 (Election Day!)

10/3/2016

9/24/2016

8/30/2016

 

Stock List:
2 tank raised Ocellaris Clowns (host the hammer)
Dwarf Zebra Lionfish Carpet surfing RIP 8/30/2016

​Neon blue velvet damsel coral is NOT on the menu (out of my tank)
Yellow watchman goby possible death by pistol shrimp
1 pistol shrimp

2 hermit crabs (murdered two other ones and killed my nassarius and took its shell)

 

Equipment:
Used 150watt Metal Halide
Used 20 gallon long tank
Used Tunze 9001skimmer
Jebao RW-4 (bought in china for half price)
Aqueon filter
20 pounds fiji pink sand
Omega Sea premium reef salt

Corals:
3 head hammer
2 head frogspawn
Kenya Tree
Ironman mushroom morph
Xenia
Blue tub zoas
assorted Yumas
Leather coral?
red monticap
inert GSP
4 head blue and red acan

Hope you enjoy

[jack1978]

Nice job ....budget tanks can be fun.

Looks like you got the basics covered.

 

Get an ATO- Automatic Top Off.....not "needed", but awesome once you have one.

Stability is your best friend.

[Astinus]

VERY nice Tank and Scape! Sorry to see u Lost a Dwarf Zebra Lion Fish due to it's desire to Hang Fin on the Carpet

 

*Following*

[reeferbrownies]

Anybody know what this is?

Also i'm thinking about adding a sump/ refugium either in the form of a tank or an Aquaclear filter.

Sumps going to be hard to convince my parents to allow and Ill have to go with an external overflow box.

Aqua clears going to have to go in the side because stupid me back the tank/stand into the wall with 2.5 inches of room on the back.

VERY nice Tank and Scape! Sorry to see u Lost a Dwarf Zebra Lion Fish due to it's desire to Hang Fin on the Carpet

 

*Following*

 

Thanks, came back after school and he was in a plastic bin on the ground RIP, will make a screen lid when I get a chance to go to home depot

 

Nice job ....budget tanks can be fun.
Looks like you got the basics covered.

Get an ATO- Automatic Top Off.....not "needed", but awesome once you have one.
Stability is your best friend.

 

Thanks, yeah I'm definitely on a budget! hence the lack of the ATO for now, but I'm thinking about a few options, either the tunze nano osmolator used or to scrap up money to get a used controller and hook up a few float switches to those.

[Friendly]

have your goby and shimp bonded?

[jack1978]

Anybody know what this is?

Also i'm thinking about adding a sump/ refugium either in the form of a tank or an Aquaclear filter.

Sumps going to be hard to convince my parents to allow and Ill have to go with an external overflow box.

Aqua clears going to have to go in the side because stupid me back the tank/stand into the wall with 2.5 inches of room on the back.

 

Thanks, came back after school and he was in a plastic bin on the ground RIP, will make a screen lid when I get a chance to go to home depot

 

 

Thanks, yeah I'm definitely on a budget! hence the lack of the ATO for now, but I'm thinking about a few options, either the tunze nano osmolator used or to scrap up money to get a used controller and hook up a few float switches to those.

It's a Nudibranch.......they only eat specific foods....AKA, your coral most likely. Their little frills should be roughly the same color as what they have been eating. Any coral not looking so good....or disappearing?

[reeferbrownies]

Sadly I don't think so, the goby was free from a LFS its fins were all deformed, this pistol is also quite large, they live on the left rock formation but I have never seen them working together.

Stupid me just knocked my eheim auto feeder into the tank, so far its fried

[reeferbrownies]

It's a Nudibranch.......they only eat specific foods....AKA, your coral most likely. Their little frills should be roughly the same color as what they have been eating. Any coral not looking so good....or disappearing?

THATS NO GOOD! Just took it out, looks like a zoa eater if i remember correctly, luckily my blue tubs have been doing amazing since day one, hmm, hopefully its just one but probably not, goes to show dips aren't 100% either that or it most likely might have hatched from eggs then.

[ninjamyst]

That nudibranch is your worst nightmare. If you see one, there are more. I would avoid zoas for awhile. Hopefully they will starve themselves off. Keep checking your tank for them and inspect your blue tubs for eggs.

 

If you want more GSP, let me know. When you are ready, I have small frags of red monticap and green birdsnest that are just sitting there on my frag rack. Have some very small setosa too. I keep breaking my SPS whenever I rearrange stuff.

[reeferbrownies]

That nudibranch is your worst nightmare. If you see one, there are more. I would avoid zoas for awhile. Hopefully they will starve themselves off. Keep checking your tank for them and inspect your blue tubs for eggs.

 

If you want more GSP, let me know. When you are ready, I have small frags of red monticap and green birdsnest that are just sitting there on my frag rack. Have some very small setosa too. I keep breaking my SPS whenever I rearrange stuff.

 

Thanks for the input, after further inspection it seems that some of my blue tubs are missing their little hand thingies, I think ill try to dip the coral again and keep watching for more, As for the frags, thanks of the offer and ill probably come by sometime. My current GSP is the actual star kind and doesn't seem to want to open despite daily cleaning of detritus and algae, lol "involuntary fragging"

 

Solar fairy wrasse for this tank? Too small? or just right?

[ninjamyst]

Solar fairy wrasse for this tank? Too small? or just right?

tank way too small. the only wrasse i would put in this tank are:

 

sixline

possum

pygmy

pink streaked

[reeferbrownies]

tank way too small. the only wrasse i would put in this tank are:

 

sixline

possum

pygmy

pink streaked

thats what i thought, i just need to find a nice colorful active fish to restock the tank

[ninjamyst]

royal gramma

yellow assessor

neon dottyback (assholes though)

[reeferbrownies]

Anything blue? also Chromis are too large right?

 

dotty backs and grammas are nice colors but rather not have dicks in the tank

 

Also looking into getting a real clean up crew, any good places around northern chicago or should i buy from reef cleaners?

[Cencalfishguy56]

Anything blue? also Chromis are too large right?

 

dotty backs and grammas are nice colors but rather not have dicks in the tank

 

Also looking into getting a real clean up crew, any good places around northern chicago or should i buy from reef cleaners?

reef cleaners and call it a day

[reeferbrownies]

reef cleaners and call it a day

 

Might do an order of CUC, chaeto, and pods

[Astinus]

Link to Reef cleaners "Custom CUC"

 

https://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php/custom-clean-up-crew

 

John is excellent to work with.

[ninjamyst]

I used to get ReefCleaners but their standard package that ship USPS priority doesn't really include the best snails you can get locally. You can get trochus for $1.00 or so from LFS in Chicago. And Nassarius for $1.00 too.

[Astinus]

I used to get ReefCleaners but their standard package that ship USPS priority doesn't really include the best snails you can get locally. You can get trochus for $1.00 or so from LFS in Chicago. And Nassarius for $1.00 too.

Good point.

I s'pose u could build an order from the store (ReefCleaners) and get the snails U mentioned locally.

U have an advantage to a degree. I have 1 LFS that I trust and use. There is only the 1 local to me.

I could travel half hr or so and see about the others in Ft.Myers. I live in Cape Coral.

I would imagine that u might have an advantage over myself, seeing that ur from a BIG city. "Chicago"

But, I do agree with ya

[ninjamyst]

Good point.

I s'pose u could build an order from the store (ReefCleaners) and get the snails U mentioned locally.

U have an advantage to a degree. I have 1 LFS that I trust and use. There is only the 1 local to me.

I could travel half hr or so and see about the others in Ft.Myers. I live in Cape Coral.

I would imagine that u might have an advantage over myself, seeing that ur from a BIG city. "Chicago"

But, I do agree with ya

haha, i have like 8 LFS within 45 mins of me =P

[reeferbrownies]

Chicago is great, so many stores and I haven't been to all. Might do reef cleaners but a store called old orchard aquarium has a lot of macro and cuc. Any good blue fish suggestions too?

[cruiZe]

Great looking tank! I like your fish choices (same as mine mostly) sorry about the Lion- it'd probably get too big or eat your other fish anyway. Hopefully the YWG and pistol pair up, that is super cool.

 

John at reefcleaners is the best, it's ok to order less than recommended too because he will send extra. I had a gramma who was fine with the clowns and YWG for a long time , but in a larger tank so I'm not sure

[vlangel]

Hey, nice tank. Looks like you are off to a pretty good start...well except your lionfish and the nudibranch.

 

I also have a royal gramma and he's pretty nice although him and my clown do give each other the hairy eye ball sometimes.

[reeferbrownies]

Great looking tank! I like your fish choices (same as mine mostly) sorry about the Lion- it'd probably get too big or eat your other fish anyway. Hopefully the YWG and pistol pair up, that is super cool.

 

John at reefcleaners is the best, it's ok to order less than recommended too because he will send extra. I had a gramma who was fine with the clowns and YWG for a long time , but in a larger tank so I'm not sure

 

Thanks, my original plan was to give him away once he had gotten larger, he was only 2.5 inches but yeah i was still worried about him and the YWG, his mouth was fully open when I found him, and if it had grew a centimeter longer he would have been able to swallow the YWG. Luckily he was a very peaceful and nice guy. Might go for a purple his like a gramma, so probably 2 more fish and I'm done, either a blue damsel, purple fish, or a bangaii cardinal. It will place me a bit overstocked, but I've been keeping up on maintenance.

 

Hey, nice tank. Looks like you are off to a pretty good start...well except your lionfish and the nudibranch.

 

I also have a royal gramma and he's pretty nice although him and my clown do give each other the hairy eye ball sometimes.

I have read through so many of your threads! Love the seahorses, almost went for dwarf seahorses for a 5.5 AIO i might be setting up soon, but with the daily hatching I might not be able to keep up on feeding, I saw PolarCollision had a bbs auto feeder but eh.. The nudibranchs were really smaller than I thought they would be which kinda caught me off guard, when I was dipping I thought they were just debris. But I dipped the whole rock today and 3 small nudis fell of and died.

 

Just did a 5 gallon water change, tank should be set for the next week, luckily because the salt is pretty good, I haven't needed to dose yet.

 

 

Water test time!

 

Nitrate 20ppm a little bit high

 

Alkalinity 8.6 DKH low resolution mode because i was a bit of a klutz and knocked the reagent bottle over in a previous test ARGHh

 

Calcium 475 ppm

 

 

Good point.

I s'pose u could build an order from the store (ReefCleaners) and get the snails U mentioned locally.

U have an advantage to a degree. I have 1 LFS that I trust and use. There is only the 1 local to me.

I could travel half hr or so and see about the others in Ft.Myers. I live in Cape Coral.

I would imagine that u might have an advantage over myself, seeing that ur from a BIG city. "Chicago"

But, I do agree with ya

Chicago is great, sadly though I need my parents to drive me to these stores, will order from reef cleaners if i can't get a good price nearby

[vlangel]

Thanks, my original plan was to give him away once he had gotten larger, he was only 2.5 inches but yeah i was still worried about him and the YWG, his mouth was fully open when I found him, and if it had grew a centimeter longer he would have been able to swallow the YWG. Luckily he was a very peaceful and nice guy. Might go for a purple his like a gramma, so probably 2 more fish and I'm done, either a blue damsel, purple fish, or a bangaii cardinal. It will place me a bit overstocked, but I've been keeping up on maintenance.

 

 

I have read through so many of your threads! Love the seahorses, almost went for dwarf seahorses for a 5.5 AIO i might be setting up soon, but with the daily hatching I might not be able to keep up on feeding, I saw PolarCollision had a bbs auto feeder but eh..

Thanks! I might do dwarf seahorses also some day. I have been reading polarcollisions thread as well. I am interested in how the bbs auto feeder does long term. I will probably use a standard 10 tank and turn it into an AIO.