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Innovative Marine Aquariums

My First Salty Tank- update 3/8/17 Hammer is growing back!!!


cycled123

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Updates in Red (3/8/17) Full update see posts

 

I posted in the beginner section when I first set up my tank but figured I would start a build post here to record my progress and hopefully many more ups then downs!

 

 

Tank: 37gal 30Lx12.5Wx22H

Equipment: 200w Heater, 2 Jebao PP4 wavemakers, Aquasanrise 60 LED, Bak-pak skimmer/filter, Autoaqua smart ATO, Reefkeeper Elite V2 controller

Stock list:

Fish: Ocellaris clownfish, Six-line Wrasse, Lawnmower Blenny

Invertebrates: hitchhiker starfish (several), emerald crab, mix of snails (8), Hawaiian Feather Duster

Softies: Zooanthidx6, Ricordiax3, Devil's hand leather, Palyx2

LPS: Kenya Tree, Plate Coral, Blasto Merletti, Duncan, Acanx 3

 

 

Changes I've made so far:

1) Took off HOB filter and added another wavemaker

2) Switched to Reef Crystals

3) Manual dosed Kh and Mg, Fuel

4) Added Bak-pak skimmer/filter running nitrate and PO4 pads (12/22/16)

5) Added ATO and Kalkwasser (12/29/16)

6) Added Reefkeeper Elite V2 controller

 

FTS 1/25/17

IMG_1057_zpsszvzs2xq.jpg

 

Things I've learned:

1) If you get a deal on a coral that is not the healthiest it will be a lot more work than you expected but its still gorgeous and you are willing to give it your all anyway (Sun Coral) **Update** Suncoral is not doing well. Continues to loose tissue/heads. We are currently pulling from tank and feeding daily in separate container but the decline is just continuing. I think this may be a lost cause but any suggestions?

2) Royal Gramma's like to hide... LFS tried to net him and he disappeared! No where to be found. LFS thought he saw him in the live rock. Took a gamble and took the whole rock home. Turns out was a good deal. Not only did we get the fish but a large corraline covered rock and what I believe is a astraea snail all for the cost of the fish. The fish still hides in this rock in QT most of the time but comes out to eat. Hopefully with time he will feel more comfortable. We are planning to move him and the rock to the display tank once his 4 week QT is done. **Update** Royal Gramma died in QT after rock got knocked over during waterchange. The gramma was in the rock when this happened. We think the rock compressed and he got stuck. After three days of not seeing him we found him dead in the rock. He was very wedged in there and had to completely break apart the rock to get him out.

 

 

Thank you all who helped me with my photography questions. I'm starting to get some good pics! The only downfall is this is a peninsula tank so you can see my messy house in the background. I might have to get a piece of posterboard to cover one side of the tank when I'm trying to take full tank shots.

 

IMG_0714_zpshlwxpah7.jpg

 

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RIP suncoral

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RIP Frogspawn

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One concern here. If you took off the hob filter then what are you using for filtration? You may need to put it back on considering you have a non photosynthetic coral in there. Things could get fouled up quickly. Remember, the filter is not there to provide movement. That's just a side benefit. It's there to help keep that water clean.

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How do you plan to feed the Sun coral hanging upside like that; I have one also didnt even know it was a sun coral when i got it at the LFS on sale. I thought it was just an orange cup type coral being that the feeders werent out.

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Its actually not hard to feed. Just turn off water movement and squirt slowly. They catch it. I've read several recommendations to hang them either upside down or sideways to keep the sand off which irritates them. As far as filtration our nitrates dropped significantly after removing the HOB filter. Right now are managing with water changes. If we need something down the road we will revisit again and figure something out.

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  • 3 weeks later...

20161230_074152_zpsdt0nelsz.jpg

Lots of changes since I first posted. I will try to post more often but the busyness of Christmas got in the way.

The week of 12/17/16 we got a major algae bloom. Started as green algae on glass and brown sand with a little brown hair algae on rocks. Adding the Bak-pak eradicated this except for hair algae which we are manually removing. Now this week we are getting green stuff on sand (looks different then the first algae bloom) and rust/red cyano. Vacuuming is pulling up but it returns quickly. Phosphates 0 but was 0.1 one reading before adding bak-pak. (salifert test kit and Elos test kit both reading 0 for last week)

20161230_074328_zpsqzh3ry9x.jpg

 

Magnesium has been low and we are dosing with Kent. BRS 2 part magnesium is arriving today. We were as low as 1160 and can't seem to get above 1290 and are mostly hovering around 1230. Our Kh dropped from 10 to 8.3. I initially wasn't too worried because calcium never dropped but then our frogspawn started loosing tentacles. We lost half a head. Bumped up Kh back to 10 and frogspawn is happy again. Lesson learned. We just set up ATO with kalkwasser yesterday. Hopefully this will help with the alk swings.

 

The day after Christmas we bought a used controller. Brought it home and got the temperature probe hooked up and working. The next day attempted to set up ph probe and ato with an alarm if ph went to high. System kept resetting pH alarm to 8 even though we were trying to set for 8.4. So first tried turning off alarm but kept alarming and then tried recalibrating pH probe with factory reset. Still alarmed. Then tried resetting the head unit since was used and we were not sure if something was interfering. Now temperature probe or unit is not working. The temperature reading increases as the tank temp is decreasing and vice versa. New probe is coming today and we will attempt to start over again. Hopefully we can get this figured out especially since it worked initially. The guy we bought the controller from was completely dismantling his tank and leaving the hobby. The only things left in his 150g were a 2 head hammer, a small kenya tree, a colony of zooanthids and a large devils hand leather all on one large rock. He threw all this and the ELOS test kits he had left in for $75 extra so we took it rock and all. Unfortunately we were 2 hours from home and due to being unprepared and winter conditions the water temperature dropped during transport. We lost most of one head of the hammer. Once in our home tank it did start perking up and stop spewing its guts but we did lose quite a bit. We broke up the rock a little bit to get the leather and kenya tree off but added the rest of the piece directly to the tank after dipping the whole thing in revive coral dip. All the new coral are doing well so far. Question: We have 1 peice of the devil's hand fairly close to the hammer. Will this be a problem?

 

We added a six-line wrasse to DT and a lawnmower blenny to QT. We think we settled on our final stock list of: occ. clown, six-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, royal gramma and blue sapphire damsel. I know aggression can be an issue with this list but all seem to have the same risks of temperament and are not overly shy. Hopefully it will work. So far there has been zero issues between the clown and wrasse. Both do there own thing. The Lawnmower blenny has been in QT for almost 3 weeks. The first week we weren't sure if he was eating but now is eating Nori and flakes. We will probably move him to the DT in a week or two.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been a sad sad week... Completely lost the hammer, frogspawn and sun coral :( The hammer never recovered from its cold move. The sun coral stopped extending and eating and withered away. The frogspawn we are not really sure. After we lost the first head and got our alkalinity stable the remaining head was opening beautifully. Then one day it stayed closed for the day and the next day spewed all its tentacles. I could not see anything wrong with it. No visible pests, no algae on it, no fuzzies or fungus, No changes that I could see. Added a little carbon yesterday and will run for a few days just in case something chemically is going on. The softies are doing well and growing. All the zooanthids are getting new heads, the ricordias are getting larger and the devils hand is showing signs of growth. Phosphates rose a little to 0.025 but weirdly the algae is decreasing on rocks and sand (still getting brown on glass but not as much as before) Moved the lawn mower blenny to the DT yesterday. So far so good. He is much more active now that he is with other fish. I love his "kissy" prints he leaves on the glass. I got the reef keeper elite reprogrammed and working after many hours of frustration. Its been up and running for a week now with no issues :) I love how steady it keeps the temperature. Well I guess that is all for now. Hopefully next week will be better...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Added a lavender and green plate coral and 1 head of blasto merletti two days ago. Both appear to be doing well and are eating. The fish are all getting along well. Royal Gramma is doing well in QT and is a lot more active then the first one we had. Having a little trouble chemistry wise. Calcium has been high (480-490) with is driving down alk (8.6 from 9.6). Added kalk to ato but this seems to be exasperating the problem so I'm going to decrease amount and see what happens. Magnesium has been a little low 1290-1320) so am boosting that up. Here are a few current pictures.

 

Plate Coral IMG_1020_zpsum8daqap.jpg

Blasto Merletti IMG_1007_zpsb97dcph1.jpg

Devil's Hand IMG_1017_zpshohnrzam.jpg

Kenya Tree IMG_1019_zps0mxzrlnp.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Added new frags this week. 2 Acans, 2 Palys, and 2 Zooanthids. Two of our ricordia made babies. The kenya tree and leathers are growing like crazy. The zooanthids are all getting new heads. I can't wait until things really start spreading out! The water chemistry has stabilized a bit. I am adding alk daily and Magnesium twice a week. With the new corals I am starting to see a slight drop in calcium. I will start dosing that soon. With manual removal and addition of a few more snails algae is decreasing. Moved Royal Gramma to DT. Six line initially chased him a bit but doesn't now. The royal gramma picked an area and a cave that he occasionally retreats to but is normally out.

New Frags IMG_1061_zpseg1dvsbi.jpgIMG_1067_zpszmldsaye.jpgIMG_1068_zpsw1fvxfkw.jpgIMG_1081_zpsusjguwmu.jpg

Baby Ricordia

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  • 1 month later...

Everything is growing! The acans, duncan and zoas are all getting new heads. The leather and kenya tree have lots of new branches. Most exciting is the hammer is beginning to grow back!!! It has 4 little baby heads. I'm so glad all was not lost. Our local reef society's swap is this weekend. Can't wait to see all the stuff. I wonder what I will end up with?

 

Hard to get a decent picture because of location in the tank. Baby hammers on the right old head near the top

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New little Duncan head is getting tentacles.

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This Acan has 5 new little heads 

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This is wonderful, you are obviously doing something right!!!

 

I LOVE Frag Swaps, you always find the best stuff at them. 

Hope you bring back lots more goodies to grow!!

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