ajmckay Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 January, 2011, This tank has officially been dismantled. Everything's been transferred to my 40b setup. It's still a fun read though at 3 pages, so feel free to check it out. Welcome to my tank thread! Note that to keep it interesting I'm leaving the #1 post for the most recent pictures and updates. I've moved the history and set up of the tank to post #3 Updates: 1) My sixline jumped http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=238560&hl= 2) Got new CB Angel 3) Algae completely took over my tank (see post #37 for details and a video of the worlds dirtiest tank) 4) Got some awesome branching LR and cleaned up the algae So now for the pics... FTS My blasto colony Here's a video of the CB angel I got a few months ago. It's totally different than any other CB angel I've ever seen because it's bright blue instead of the typical purple you normally see. http://s451.photobucket.com/albums/qq231/a...nt=893_0216.flv Soon I'm going to try to attempt my first trade... And I would like to continue, so if any of you live near me pm me and stuff. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 To save space on the first post and leave it clean for the most recent stuff I'm moving the history to this post. Anyways, I started my tank on 9/20/2008. Here's what I started it with: -29 gallon tank converted from FW. I bought a 20L to house the few FW fish I had... -Aquaclear 20 HOB borrowed (forever) from my mother-in-law -20 lbs of caribsea aragonite, Indo-Pacific mix. -Deep six hydrometer -Hydor 200w heater -15 lbs Live rock & 3 lbs base rock -Coralife Aqualight SW T5 NO -3/4 glass cover -30 yr old power head (Died after a few weeks) -Quiet one 1200 2 weeks later I added another 13 lbs of tufa base rock and I scored a sweet deal on a 2lb piece of LR with a decent sized mat of GSP, a thorny oyster, and a colony of blastomussa. Oh, and about 25 aptasia. The day after adding the new rocks I got 12 hermits to help control the brown growth covering everything. Almost overnight the rocks were clean again! Here's a pic of a hermit doing it's thing... I spent the next few weeks slowly increasing my bio-load. I added 3 turbo snails, 3 astrea snails, 3 nassarius snails, and a peppermint shrimp in an attempt to clean out the aptasia (I tried various injections, but nothing worked and they came back). The peppermint shrimp ate all the aptasia over the span of a few months. During that time I wasn't overly concerned with them though. On November 11 I added in my first fish, 2 tank-raised Ocellaris Clownfish. They were $20 each... Of course, being a super huge noob I made a really huge mistake on November 20th... I bought a CB angel on impulse... It was $13!!!! So I brought it home and acclimated it and let it into my tank. Mistake #2... Ready? It had ich! So it started getting spotty within a day... I decided to QT and treat with Seachem's cupramine (safer than copper sulfate). Here's my QT tank that cost a total of $25. Long story short I was able to beat the ich but the angel eventually succumbed to something else. Ended up being a flatworm. I dipped the body in FW and a ton of these little red discs came off. Lesson learned. Around January 2009 I got the itch again and decided to add some things to my tank. I added some new equipment: A fluval 205 cannister filter (didn't do my research on that one!), a Seaclone 100 skimmer (wow.. do you see a pattern emerging here?). Turns out I could only afford a seaclone (CHEAP on eBay) but I did some modifications and it works pretty good now. I also added a Current Nova extreme T5HO light to use in conjunction with the weak aqualight I had. I also made probably one of my best decisions and got 2 Hydor Koralia 1's. For livestock I added some various corals and a small sixline wrass at this time. AND I QT'd HIM FOR 3 WEEKS... He's doing really well except he found out how to eat all my micro brittle stars... Here's a pic of it as of then: My urchin giving some zoas a ride A night shot using the moonlight I made for about $15 Goto www.instructables.com and search "Moonlight" and you'll see my plans. I'm not an electrical engineer, but it works and was cheap. My sun corals, which I really like, but I sort of regret buying because they're higher maintenance than I had thought. Some tiny tiny snails & pods... (Used a magnifying glass w/the lens on this one) So for the past 3 months or so my wife & I have been saving for a house and I haven't had much time/money to add to my tank. The other day, however, I decided to get a banggai cardinal and some more LR to do a little re-arranging to make the tank look a little more natural and move some corals around. Plus the GSP was totally taking over my montipora... Here it is as of June 1st 2009: My peppermint shrimp: Banggai Cardinal (QT'd for 2 weeks): My blastomussa colony, which has literally doubled in size easily: My green scoly and some zoas: And finally, My new POM-POM CRAB!!! So basically that's my tank.... Thanks for going through all the pictures! Maintenance schedule: -I feed every other day. I feed new life spectrum food for the clowns (the sixline and cardinal haven't eaten it yet) and I feed SF brand mysis to the sixline and cardinal... They know the baster when they see it! I also spot feed the corals, peppermint shrimp and the pom pom. -I do weekly 5 gallon water changes. I mix the Instant ocean salt in a medium rubbermaid rubbish bin that I fitted with a bulkhead and pump about a day before the water change. Just before the water change I lift the pump for a few minutes to aerate the water. -I clean the glass a few times per week, but I have yet to get a good algae scraper... Mostly I just hand scrub with a scotch-brite... I need a mag float or something. -I top off every other day or so and I clean the skimmer at the same time. I figure while I have you reading though I would do my own little TOTM and give some advice to help you avoid my pitfalls... - Research all your corals before buying them. Even though I regret buying the sun corals I did research their care, and because of this I have never lost a coral to this day. - Avoid tap water for water changes. Just use RO water... I used tap once and 3 weeks later I had 2 or 3 exemplar photos on the nuisance algae thread by johnmaloney... I use the refill water at the grocery store... It's $.30 per gallon and worth every penny. - Add things slowly when you start your tank off. Be on the safe side and add too few animals instead of adding too many. The required maintenance increases the more you have. It also gives you some leeway in your maintenance schedule. If you're understocked your tank probably won't crash if you forget a water change. - Dose carefully. I've never dosed anything and it's served me surprisingly well. I do regular water changes which seem to replenish all the elements my tank needs. Of course I'm not averse to dosing, but I believe that it should be done carefully with a carefully planned schedule. Comments welcome My first purchased coral that didn't come in on the LR... Kenya trees are hardy and grow like friggen weeds... I think a lot of people choose these, mushrooms, or xenia as their first corals for that reason. Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 nice tank.... I like how it has matured. The only think I hate about hardy corals is that after a year or so they get huge and overgrow the tank. However they always look good while they still fit the size of your tank, rofl. Link to comment
todd141 Posted July 27, 2009 Share Posted July 27, 2009 Very nice tank. I Love the pom-pom. Link to comment
chaoslord1981 Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 see ... now that is what a marine tank is supposed to look like.. not my heap of crap!!! i think i just need to stop all other hobbies and focus on my tank... thanks for your help as well!! i have bought some red sea salt from me local shop and i am gonna scrub the rocks in a minute.. thanks again!!! will let you know how it turns,, Link to comment
ajmckay Posted August 4, 2009 Author Share Posted August 4, 2009 see ... now that is what a marine tank is supposed to look like.. not my heap of crap!!! i think i just need to stop all other hobbies and focus on my tank... thanks for your help as well!! i have bought some red sea salt from me local shop and i am gonna scrub the rocks in a minute.. thanks again!!! will let you know how it turns,, Thanks for the compliment chaos. Honestly, you'll need to put in a good amount of work in the beginning to get it running and to gain the necessary skills/knowledge, but after that you only need to be consistent in your maintenance. I honestly don't do that much. I scrape the glass every once in a while, I top off every few days, and I change out 5 gallons per week. All this used to take me 2-3 hours but now I spend maybe 1 hr. per week total in maintenance, feeding, & cleaning. One last piece of advice, plan your purchases carefully and know the limits of what you're willing to put into your tank. If you stick with easier fish and hardy corals your tank will look great with a minimal amount of work. Don't expect to stock corals or fish with unique requirements and be able to maintain a clean tank with only a few hours dedication per week. With that I wish you luck & keep posting (actually you'll learn more reading though!)! Link to comment
oceanbreeze Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 fantastic pic`s, that sun coral is to die for! well done love the pic of the crab too! Link to comment
ajmckay Posted November 6, 2009 Author Share Posted November 6, 2009 Gracias for the kind words. Tomorrow I'll upload some more pics. I've since done a little re-scape. Link to comment
Eugen Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Looks nice! I love the different textures of the rocks and that pom pom crab is just amazing... Link to comment
clownfish14 Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 very nice love the pom pom you should post some more pics of the whole thing. Link to comment
OClownsandNanos Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 ajmckay, I like your tank a lot! How's the pom pom and sun coral doing? And what's your feeding regimen with your sun coral? That's one of the corals I really want in my tank eventually. More pics please! Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 1, 2010 Author Share Posted January 1, 2010 Thank you for the kind words OClowns. I've actually got a few new pics I'll post tomorrow. Unfortunately the sun coral doesn't look quite as good as it did in that picture. It seems to go through growing/receeding phases possibly due to an inconsistent feeding schedule. To tell you the truth I regret buying it almost a year later... I feed mysis and finely chopped scallop about every 2-3 days as much as will stick to their tentacles. Also they don't tolerate algae very well. It interferes with their feeding. One of my problems is a hair algae that is really rooted into the frag well. The polyps themselves are very fragile, so I try to pick the algae out every other week or so with a soft toothbrush and a toothpick, but it always comes back and usually interferes with feeding. Link to comment
Guest TheBlueLorax Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 My first purchased coral that didn't come in on the LR... Kenya trees are hardy and grow like friggen weeds... I think a lot of people choose these, mushrooms, or xenia as their first corals for that reason. i love that shot , its like the sun is hitting the tree just right and its beginning to bloom Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 1, 2010 Author Share Posted January 1, 2010 Haha... That's exactly what I was going for... I cheated and used a flashlight to spotlight this coral though. Now I have so much of this stuff I'm yanking out stalks a few times per month... It's crazy. Link to comment
Bamato Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 Love it! The picture of all the aptaisia gave me goosebumps though.... lol Link to comment
frahny Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 dude those sun corals are super sexy very nice! Link to comment
Zepo. Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Lovin that urchin...looks great! Cant wait till you start fraggin some of those Link to comment
latteslave Posted February 7, 2010 Share Posted February 7, 2010 love the mature look to the tank! Link to comment
Squeaky Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 Very pretty tank..... Got shown one of those pom pom crabs I want one bad!!! Link to comment
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