Better than a 20L: My 33g long lagoon style

[travisurfer]

awesome

[sayn3ver]

WTF?

 

Ok, not so good news. I am not sure what the issue was. I tested my water a few days ago, the ammonia was not detectable with my API test, i had some nitrates as well.

 

I had a bunch of green hair algae on the rocks, i was receiving a diatom bloom as well. Anyways, i finally decided to do my first water change since she's been up. I do the change and went to the fish store to pick up some more snails and a pep shrimp since i found 2-3 baby apistia.

 

Well i get them home, float them, and add them. fine, more than i did with my original snails i added and they're grazing to their hearts content.(this was about 7pm) Anyways, just 5 minutes ago(1:50ish) i come upstairs from watching tv to check on the tank before i hit the sheets. The shrimp is dead. I turn on the room light and it looks like the green algae earlier was gray, so i turn the tank lights on. It is indeed gray/dead, along with a lot of the diatom algae. The snails are still moving, but probably not happy.

 

 

I test my H20, ammonia is like between .5ppm and 1ppm all of a sudden (closer to 1) but no nitrates or nitrites.

 

######. So i went down stairs, got some fresh ro/di and am making up 5g water change for tomorrow morning cause the water is ice cold and i don't want to fudge up anything else without at least mixing the salt water up for a few hours and i realize a larger change is in order but i do not have a container larger than that tonight. PLus i have work tomorrow so i am not staying up all night.

 

 

The only thing new to the equation was i cleaned my filter sock. I soaked it in bleach yesterday and rinsed it for 10 minutes or more in tap, soaked it in prime (1/4 5 gallon bucket of water with 10ml of prime=just to be safe) for another 10 minutes and then rerinsed the thing again under the faucet for another 5 minutes then rung it out good and let it dry outside on plastic coat hanger to dry for 4-5 hours.

 

I realized bleach is dangerous/killer and would nuke the tank but my cheato looks fine at the moment but most of the micro algae is dying off from the looks of things. I don't understand as i was extremely diligent in rinsing and neutralizing the bleach(has its own bucket for soaking, etc etc rinsed for god knows how long, it had no bleach smell left when i went to hang it outside to dry)

 

after testing i added a dose of prime per instructions to the tank(double dose actually, says it say up to 5x dose in emergencies).

 

Thoughts? Luckily the tank is new and only some snails in it at the moment, but i am afraid I will have to start over? I dunno. I just don't want to think about as i really dont have the funds for more sand, live rock, etc etc right now and school starts on monday which means i can hardly work.

 

Gah.

[sayn3ver]

Update: I dunno what happened again.

 

I woke up about 20 minutes ago and to my surprise everything appears to be fine. The algae is green again and the diatoms are still there and the snails are still moving aboot.

 

I restested my ammonia levels and got a greenish yellow(around .25ppm and .5ppm.... i tested the fresh batch of saltwater i made up and it is the same color. I am either reading the test wrong or my ro/di bucket is contaminated(i doubt although i haven't set up the dedicated trashcan, only cleaned and rinsed the previous one i had that i used to cure the rock in. I bought a new one but haven't drilled it for the float valve and I am still debating on whether or not i want to install a drain at the bottom and putt he whole thing up on a platform.

 

Do algaes lose their color at night after the lights have been off for awhile? My FW tanks never did this but i swear they were gray/white last night and now green again this morning.

 

I think i should try another test kit for the ammonia.

[NAL]

I like your setup, 33gals are sweet. I have 3 Dwarf Puffers too, I am debating on keep or getting rid of them.

[sayn3ver]

been trying to find a home for my little girl. It was not until her last tank move did she start eating non-live foods. I kinda forced her to. haha. I had a dedicated 10g snail breeder tank going but took it down before i moved her into the current 10g she is in.

 

She is easy to care for now, accepts frozen krill, blood worms, mysis shrimp and freeze dried blood worms and will attack shrimp pellets if i feed her with tongs.

 

The tank though is why i am done with fresh water. Low light, hight light, high tech, low tech, doesn't matter. No matter what i do i cannot rid myself of black beard algae aka bba. I tried flourish excel treatments and regiments, H2O2 spot treatments, removal, etc etc. It just grows and grows and I can't stop it. It would be fine if it was something like green spot or green dust or something a oto catfish or other algae eater would touch.

 

Salt so far is less maintence sort of imho than a planted tank.

 

I can't wait until i can start adding some higher level organisms. But I don't want to rush things.

[BlackSumbel]

Um... have you considered moving the dwarf puffer to SW? They can make that change, and do so quite well.

 

They also look hellaciously cute puttering around in nanos.

[NAL]

Um... have you considered moving the dwarf puffer to SW? They can make that change, and do so quite well.

 

They also look hellaciously cute puttering around in nanos.

 

 

No they can't, not dwarf puffers. They are 100% freshwater. Some people put them in brackish, but they don't live as long.

[KMG]

If you're thinking about adding cardinals, have you considered Banggai cardinalfish? They come from seagrass biotopes and are also available captive-bred.

 

I know elegance corals also come from seagrass habitats. If you want, I can consult my Nilsen book and see what other species he mentions--he has stocking suggestions for a seagrass biotope. You might also want to consult "Natural Reef Aquariums" by John Tullock (if you have an Amazon.com account, you can search inside the book online).

 

I'm also interested in "planted" saltwater tanks (in my case, macroalgae with polyps, mushrooms, and a couple of soft and LPS corals), so I'm really, really looking forward to seeing this project develop.

[sayn3ver]

agreed. Dwarf puffers are a native FW species just like the Amazon Puffer and several other varieties.

 

If it was a Green Spotted Puffer or a Topaz aka Ceylon puffer, both of which can go full marine then I would consider it it despite their coral eating habits.

 

before i found this board i spent a lot of time over at thepufferforum.com and recommend anyone who wants to keep a puffer head over there. There a lot quite of few people with a lot of puffers, a lot of experience, and a lot of knowledge about pufferfish of all kinds.

[cavipower1]

very nice tank! is that a one off tank or are they mass produced? if they are can u give me a link i have a 32gallon hex that i wanted to start but i love the long low look of this tank

[GoingPostal]

It's a standard AGA size, I have one myself, nice to see another set up!

[cavipower1]

wats the aga site? or were can i get one at? are they reasonably priced?

[cavipower1]

ahhh cant find it lol and yahoo google and msn dont come up with any thing, it is listed on the aga site though, were can i get one? lol im so sold on this tank

[spanko]

Company is Aqueon Products. I think you have to buy from a distributor. Here is a listing of their tanks, and a store locater.

 

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/emp...information.htm

 

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/store-locator/

[cavipower1]

cool thanks much man

[strawberry milkshack]

picture pictures more pictures

[sayn3ver]

Update: Well the bad news involves my dwarf puffer. I cam home yesterday and found that she had died. I've had her for a year and 1/2 but despite feeding her, she's had a sunken in stomach soon after a large feeding leading me to believe that internal parasites may have been the culprit, but she always had a vicious appetite so I never felt the need to medicate her (i did soak her food in jungle labs internal parasite guard which was a combo of metronidazole and i believe praziquantel when i first got her for preventative maintenance).

 

So it was kind of a sad day for me.

 

The good news is my water parameters were in line after a couple small water changes since i last posted and decided to pick up a single Banggai Cardnial Fish, a juvenile of what sex i do not know(it was the sole surviver of their shipment they got late last week). Hopefully he/she grows up and i can identify it and find a breeder willing to sell me another of the sex i need.

 

She/he ate some live brine shrimp yesterday, and a mix of frozen live brine this morning (although it spit out some of the frozen brine) so i have a feeling some tough training will be in order to get it to eat pellet/other frozen but I anticipated this and plan on doing it with a scooter blenny as well.

 

I almost bought an "atlantic pygmy angel" which was a dwarf angelfish, darkblue body with a bright yellow face which I have been told are one of the more docile, smaller, and so called more "reef safe" fish but I wasn't 100% sure and I wasn't sure if it would fit the loose biotope I am hoping to create.

 

I am debating when I should attempt planting some grasses. Any thoughts? I figured atleast a few months more to allow detritus and stuff to accumulate/fertilize the sand bed.

 

Pics possibly later tonight.

[cavipower1]

cool, just make sure u get some pics up lol i think i may have found a lfs to order my 33l im so excited haha

[KMG]

The angelfish was probably C. argi, which are, IIRC, native to the Caribbean and possibly the FL Keys. Your Banggai cardinal is native to a small area of Indonesia.

 

Here's a couple of links on seagrasses in aquariums (which you've probably already read ):

 

Beautiful Seagrasses

 

Beyond the Refugium

 

This author is a marine biology student who studies marine plants and has written several good, detailed articles about seagrass species and how to grow them.

 

Good luck, and keep us posted!

 

ETA: Sorry to hear about your poor puffer.

[sayn3ver]

I've read two of the articles before. I realize my tank may be a bit shallow but only plannedon keeping shoal and star grass if i can find it, leaving the larger grasses alone seeing how i do not have the depth of substrate nor the height to properly grow them, or so those sources say.

[sayn3ver]

FTS looks the same, nothing new.

 

One of my hard working Astrea snails

 

 

My new cardnial. I haven't figured out the name but something along the lines of Cosmo or Twitch

[soyadrink]

you should try to get a pair of dragonface pipefish. They eat frozen(also aggressively) and are really cool fish that also tolerate high flow

[sayn3ver]

i'll have to look into them, although i feel they would compete with my planned dragonet.

 

Do you think it would be enough flow with one of those high flow kits for the MJ? I only have the return rate and the stock MJ right now.

[sayn3ver]

well, feeding seems to be easier than I though. My cardnial has already started eating, with some reluctance, frozen brine and frozen mysis. I am feeling a little more confident in the success with this particular specimen.

 

My largest fear is always if fish will eat frozen/freeze dried food, especially if the fish was only actively eating live at the store. My goal is to get him eating everything from flake, to pellet to frozen, then use live food as a treat.

 

BTW, after the massive diatom/cyno bloom i believe i was experiencing after running the 2x54w T5's 4 hours a day during the cycle, i decided until i got some photosynthetic organisms in the tank, i would run the tank with only the daylight from the window behind the tank. Its cheap and illuminates the tank well, if only i had a par meter to figure out if it is having any benefit.

 

The bright side is my algae problem is basically gone in the display. I have some remnants of diatoms/cyno on the sand, but the rock is pretty much spotless thanks to my tiny 5-6 snail clean up crew.

 

Now the fuge on the other hand has all hell breaking out from diatoms to my macro. i figured I'd let the fuge get as nasty as it wants, as long as it keeps the algae out of the display. I dropped a snail in there and it has been going to town on the diatom algae.

[soyadrink]

I think, if you mod your Mj you'll be fine flow

I'm really liking your idea with the tank and am really looking forward to seeing more.

I'm not sure if a dragonet will fit in a tank like that. I mean looking wise as well. you want sea grass in there right? wouldnt one or two pipes winding their way through the grass look way cooler than a big dragonet avoiding the green?