ngoodermuth Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Ok, so figured I would start a thread since I've been hanging around the last few weeks... Tank Established Circa. 9/10 System- 28g Euro 20gh sump Reef Octopus NW-110 24" Aquaticlife 4X24 T5HO 250w heater Vortech MP10 Approx 35lbs LR 30lbs LS Current Livestock- Fish: Yellow Watchman Goby Misbar Black Ocellaris Clownfish Royal Gramma Basslet Yellow-lined Cardinalfish Inverts: Red Caribbean Pistol Shrimp Brittle stars from LR CUC- Blue and Red legged hermit crabs- 15 or so Cerith Snails- 3 Turbo Snails- 2 Astrea Snails-2 Nassarius Snails-3 Stomatella Corals: LPS- Metalic Green Branching Hammer Hammer Coral Green/purple tip Frogspawn Pagoda Cup Hollywood Stunner Chalice Teal Candy Cane Aussie Lord Acans Open Brain Bleeding Apple Scolymia SPS- Green Birdsnest Blue Marshall Island Bottlebrush Blue Millepora Teal Staghorn ORA Red Planet Tri-color Valida Softies/Mushrooms- Orange Ricordia Florida Blue Ricordia Florida Purple Bullseye Mushroom Eagle Eye Zoas Here are a few pics from set up to now... enjoy! Any advice is welcome FTS- 9/19/11 In the beginning... Reviving the "Dead Rock"... seeded and cycled 4 weeks Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 8, 2011 Author Share Posted January 8, 2011 The orange ric made it's first split today. Now to get him to attach to rubble... Here are a couple pics of the new fish, Springer's Dottyback; in the second one he was catching a free meal off the crabs One of my favs- the goni Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 1/15/2011 - Update Thanks to a very generous new friend, we have a few new additions: *updated in livestock list in OP Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 Bought a new stand this week along with materials to build a sump, 20g. Hoping this will help with some of our nutrient issues... pics to come Link to comment
Chyendra Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Nice!! So clean looking. You sun polyps are unique, I kind of like that they are all yellow with no pink or orange like most of the ones I've seen. Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thank you! The sun polyps are my fav... but sooo high maintanence My first feeding schedule for them didn't work out so well, and they started to decline. So I've upped the feeding to every night, and added "chunkier" bits to the mix. But, this has caused a crazy cyno bloom, so now it is sump time. Have the baffles siliconed in place and most of the return plumbing assembled. The LFS didn't have the right size filter sock, so I sewed a filter pad to size and fastened with cable ties. Bought a PF-nano overflow and ECO396 return pump. The entire set-up will only be running about 200gph, so hopefully that will be enough for 28g display... Now we need to move the tank to the new stand and take measurments to cut the rest of the PVC. Hopefully by tonight everything will be together and working *fingers crossed* PS. Will have a slightly used HOB refugium FS real soon Link to comment
Chyendra Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Thanks for visting my tank thread Good luck with the sump project! What are you using for an overflow? I don't recommend using a filter sock 24/7 unless you are willing to clean it out daily, those things get clogged quickly. I DO recommend using a filter sock during water changes to filter the junk in the water that's been stirred up from the sand and rock. As you saw on my tank thread, I like to use a turkey baster to blast the junk off of the rocks and out of the sand, and then put a filter sock over my drain and let it collect all the junk for a few hours. I have a shallower sand bed than you do however. It maybe be harder to do this with a deeper sand bed. If you don't already siphon your sand durring water changes, do that first! I only have time to do a water change every 2 wks, so for non-WC weeks I use the turkey baster method I described above. Now that I've been doing this for 2 months, I'm noticeing less and less junk each time HOWEVER... My tank had so much nitrate built up from neglect, that I had to do several large water changes initially over the course of 2 wks to bring it down. Now I do only do 25% every 2 weeks for maintenance. I hope that's not confusing Sorry I just noticed you said you were using a PF-Nano over flow. I don't have any experience will that. i hope it works for you! Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 I did start siphoning the sand bed during water changes a few weeks back. Even though our sand bed is deeper, it's not deep enough to be considered a "deep sand bed", so it's not self-maintaining like I thought it would be. I have been doing 1g water changes daily, and 5g (20%) weekly to try to get rid of the cyno. Our nitrate hs been right around 5 ppm, but I think the cyno is sucking up the excess. We also cut back the daylight time to 7 hours. Thanks for the heads-up about the filter sock. I will most likely be basting nightly while the sun coral is in his "feeding cap", so I will only keep the filter sock on during those couple hours and rinse it out after. Moving the tank now... should have an update soon. Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Project complete... woot! Sprung a little leak in the return plumbing, but added a bit of silicon and took care of it for the most part. I will probably need to add another coat tomorrow though to be sure. But the sump is functioning. Here are pics of the stand, we bought the stand larger than the tank, so we had to paint a thick piece of plywood to serve as the top and support the tank. Here are a couple pics from the process. The sump drying (don't mind the mess) and return plumbing with check valve and ball valve for flow control and flood protection. Union for easy pump access. Here is my hand sewn filter sock... don't laugh- I'm no seamstress. And last, the finished product: We tried to keep the same scape for the most part, but I do like how the top opened up without all the equipment. Next weekend is a local swap so I'm sure we will be filling the space in a bit Don't mind the cloudy water, this is right after the move. I think that is enough for now. More updates in the next week or so, and a better FTS once everything opens back up. Thanks for looking! Link to comment
Chyendra Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Yay! Nice job. I love having my sump, this is my first tank with one and it's so nice to hide all of the equipment. I wouldn't run sumpless on anything larger than 20 gallons from now on. Our local fragswap is next weekend too, where are you from? Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Thanks! It worked out ok, but still a little leak this morning so had to take the return plumbing apart and re-seal. Oh well, trial and error I suppose lol. I am in York, PA so not the same swap but coincidence Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 All leaks are fixed in plumbing, but had a mini-disaster with the heater since the install. The one we had wasn't powerful enough to heat the extra water volume from the sump and the temperature was really low for a full night. Went and picked up a higher wattage heater the next day that should have been fine (per the gallon rating), but still wasn't getting it where we wanted. Then, ran both heaters, and the water jumped a degree or two too warm, ugh! Needless to say we now have the temperature stable, but we lost most of our bottlbrush acro to RTN today from the stress We tried to frag/save the smaller branch that still had tissue, fingers crossed that it pulls through... Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Frag swap = new coral *livestock updated in OP Link to comment
Jerfrog Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 coming along nicely! Good job! Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 coming along nicely! Good job! Thank you! Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 I could use some help, here is the background story- I have been having some issues with cynobacteria. There is a small amount of measurable phosphates in the RO water from the grocery store which may be partial culprit. No funds for an RO/DI unit right now, so maybe a phosphate reactor would help? I've added approx 12g water via the sump. My photo period is 6 hours, with the actinics on for 10 hours. 5g changes weekly, and sometime 1g here or there throughout the week. Sump contains a nice chunk of chaeto and have recently introduced chemi-pure elite in place of the activated carbon. Also have been siphoning the sand bed during changes and sucking out visible cyno with the turkey baster. Parameters are as follows: Ammonia, Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 5-10ppm Phosphate: 0.1ppm S.gravity: 1.025 Calcium: 400ppm Alkalinity: 10.2dKh Temperature: 78F Flow is around 1000 GPH with power heads and sump/skimmer. I have noticed a fair amount of debris, so I know that the frequent feeding of the sun coral is most of the issue. Any suggestions on how to better balance the system without starving my sun coral, which has recovered beautifully with daily feeding. (I previously cut back his feeding to 2-3 times a week; it closed up and the tissue began to recede) Feeding Schedule: I now feed the sun coral about 1/4 cube marine cuisine or a sliver of cyclops with chunks of shrimp or other meaty marine tid-bits, daily using the 2-liter method. I rinse all the frozen food thoroughly (besides cyclops which are too small to strain) prior to feeding and add a few drops of coral grow and phyto every other feeding. I blow the food around in the feeding cap with a baster until the sun coral has eaten as much of the food as possible. Usually all of the largest pieces will be consumed, although some escape during the process. I also dose marine snow/phyto for the sps twice a week, and about half of recommended doses. The fish get a few sinking pellets daily and leftovers from the sun coral that escape his feeding cap. My other LPS get a very occasional target of leftover frozen food that I will suck out of the water column while feeding the sun coral and place on sweepers. I try to catch as much leftover food as possible to make sure it is being eaten by the sun coral or something else. Any suggestions?? Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 The YWG is MIA... Looked everywhere, no sign of him jumping. Not in sump. The only thing I can think of is he either paired up with the pistol shrimp finally and is hiding in his burrow... ...or he died and the shrimp ate him Seeing as he was perfectly fine and eating yesterday, and since we've had him for that matter; I'm hoping he is just hiding. Just wait and see I guess Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 YWG is still MIA... I'm ready to file a missing fishes report The shrimp is hidden today as well, so either they are having a little pow-wow down there, or Mr. Shrimp is enjoying his fish snack... In other news, I believe my sun coral to be a mommy... I hope. Either that, or I have an outrageous pest nem outbreak which would be unfortunate. Forgive the grainy photos, these things are tiny! Here is a close-up of the sun coral for comparison... I've seen at least 20 or so scattered throughout the tank... You can't really tell from the photos, but they are a yellowish colored "blob" in person. Link to comment
Sunstar Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I so want sun corals of the yellow type!! I got a black sun. How close are the "babies" to the "parent"? Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 I so want sun corals of the yellow type!! I got a black sun. How close are the "babies" to the "parent"? They are spread out throughout the tank, although the mother is in a moderate-high flow corner, so they were most likely pulled right into the current and distributed. Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 Well, I think we can safely say the yellow watchman goby is a goner. I'm not sure the shrimp we have is a symbiotic shrimp, I think he may have eaten poor mr. goby Decided to get a media reactor for our cyano issue. We cleaned the sandbed good yesterday and the cyano was gone today. Will see if it stays gone... Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 So, I'm thinking about getting a fish to replace our late watchman goby, but I'm not sure I want to risk another bottom dweller as I am almost positive he became a snack for the pistol shrimp, and I cannot find any confirmed case of our particular pistol being a symbiotic shrimp. I'm thinking maybe a black ocellaris clownfish would be cool. I want to give the tank a little more time to settle in before making a decision on our next fish choice. On another note, the sand bed is still looking clean on day 3, woohoo Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Yesterday was a bad day for fish in our reef :( All was peaceful until about a week ago when our YWG went mia (most likely became shrimp food) since there was only two fish left in the tank, the Springer's Dottyback started to become increasingly aggressive towards the Flasher Wrasse. I decided to try to introduce a replacement for the YWG, to try to ease up the dottyback from my poor wrasse. I went out last night and bought a cerub pygmy angel bc I read that they were spunky, compatible with pseudochromis (according to compatibility charts), and thought he would have a better chance at keeping his own against the dottyback. When I got home and began to acclimate the angel, I noticed the wrasse was nowhere to be found. After some searching I discovered that he had decided to carpet surf while we were at the fish store. So now I only have two fish... again. And to my dismay, when the angel was introduced to the dottyback, they immediately started attacking one another, both of them! They were wrestling around in the rock work, debris was flying... it was a nightmare! We turned off all the tank lights and they both calmed down and hid in separate caves. I have a really bad feeling that as soon as the lights come on this morning, it will start up again... I guess hubby will be tearing apart the tank today trying to catch one of them to put in QT. Link to comment
ngoodermuth Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 I've made a few changes to my fish stock list since my last post. We tried and tried to catch the dottyback, with NO LUCK. He is fast, and smart. Tried a couple different trap ideas, nothing worked short of us having to dismantle the entire tank. The good news is that he and the pygmy angel have decided to live in peace, and there has been no further fighting besides the occasional chase during feeding. Both fish's battle wounds are healing nicely. We also decided to add a large black ocellaris clown to get back the community spirit. She (assuming it is a she as was the largest in the tank and a good inch more than the others) has received no aggression what so ever from either tank mate. And now the twist.... Guess who was found in the sump this morning? Mr. YWG! I have no idea where he was hiding as we looked everywhere when he first went MIA, including the sump and overflow. Now I'm not sure what we will do, as I'm reluctant to add him back into to our now semi-aggressive tank. The dottyback concerns me the most- he lived with the goby before, but now I think he will be viewed as a "new addition" since it's been a few weeks since he went missing...any thoughts? For now, he is content in the return chamber of the sump, but we might be setting up a separate QT for him until a permanent solution is found... Link to comment
qbical Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 unless your YWG is really small i think it would be okay, but the longer you wait the harder it may be. maybe just get him a pistol and pair them in the sump? looking good though Link to comment
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