75 Gallon Reef Tank

[WhiteShark]

hhmm...interesting...I'll think about that.

 

I also picked up some mysis shrimp so hopefully that will encourage eating....

[jSully]

I've never fed flake.. I just feed mysis or cyclops.. I might start making some "snow" one of these days..

 

I agree about not being ready for SPS yet.. but I think softies and leathers would be fine at this point. Maybe a LPS or 2 as long as you're sure it cycled. Maybe wait another week to ensure bacteria has increased enough to compensate for your new bioload..

 

IMO lighting is all about personal preference and heat of the bulbs. I have my lights approx 2" away from the water. Where the 6-8" rule comes from (I think) is MH that increase water temps so high at that range... but with T5s it should be fine... You were mentioning the light bothers your eyes.. you've got that hood on it and some light is still escaping a little. I would lower down 2-4" inches.... if it were me at least.

[WhiteShark]

Yeah I'm going to give it another couple weeks before I add anything else (not CUC related at least).

 

The lights are not bothering me anymore now that I put the cap on the tank. Before I added the cap I was getting a headache from the lighting b/c the light was able to escape from around the tank. Right now I think the lights are alittle over 5" away from the waterline. I think I'm going to leave them there for now b/c it makes maintenence easier for now. As corals and what not dictate I may adjust them.

 

I will also attempt a mysis feeding tomorrow. The clown seemed receptive but not impressed by the flakes the goby wasn't even interested.

[WhiteShark]

Added a bit more to my CUC today. I got 1 emerald crab, another nassarius snail and 1 turbo snail.

 

Also, had my phosphates checked and they were 0.00-0.25 (color was kind of a toss up).

 

If I could just get my goby to come out I'd be happy...lol

[Sac_State]

I added corals a month before I added fish. Fish waste and improper feeding will disrupt the stability of a tank much more than corals will. Now, I wouldn't go the SPS or anemone route, but I think softies would be fine at this point.

 

 

I agree. softies would definitely be a good starting point for coral at this point.

for CUC's I like Mexican red-legged and scarlet hermits; for snails i like nerite, trochus, cerith, and turbos, and serpent starfish. I"m not a fan of emerals crabs though, I caught mine nibbling on a pocillipora once and that was enough to get him evicted from the tank.

[pendergraft]

On a slightly different note, I am going to be setting up a 72G bowfront, did you check your floor before putting your tank down? My family is in construction and am thinking of putting another support system in my crawl space to accommodate the extra weight. I am wondering if I am being irrational? I would imagine it weighs a ton with rock/water right? I have a tile floor and don't want them all to crack. I was going to put a foam layer on the tile as well as between the tank and stand. Would I be on the right track?

[JourneyReef]

Nice thread...following along. Did I miss your stocking plans? I skimmed.

[WhiteShark]

I agree. softies would definitely be a good starting point for coral at this point.

for CUC's I like Mexican red-legged and scarlet hermits; for snails i like nerite, trochus, cerith, and turbos, and serpent starfish. I"m not a fan of emerals crabs though, I caught mine nibbling on a pocillipora once and that was enough to get him evicted from the tank.

 

I'm going to wait a short while before I add any corals...I have my eye on some frogspawn, leathers, and or some zoo's but nothing is set in stone yet. I wanna make sure the fish and CUC I have don't die first (call me OCD).

 

I'm thinking I'm going to add a sally light foot crab to help the emerald with my hair algea and then hold off on the CUC for awhile. If I need to add again I will as needed.

 

 

On a slightly different note, I am going to be setting up a 72G bowfront, did you check your floor before putting your tank down? My family is in construction and am thinking of putting another support system in my crawl space to accommodate the extra weight. I am wondering if I am being irrational? I would imagine it weighs a ton with rock/water right? I have a tile floor and don't want them all to crack. I was going to put a foam layer on the tile as well as between the tank and stand. Would I be on the right track?

 

I asked my maintenance guy before I added my tank and he said as long as I didn't have the tank on a stand that had indavidual legs (which mine doesn't) I should be okay. I estimated the weight at about 1100 pounds but I think I overestimated.

 

 

Nice thread...following along. Did I miss your stocking plans? I skimmed.

 

 

I don't have any plans set in stone for what I want yet. The only fish I really wanna get eventually is a flame angel (this is months away though...lol). I currently have the false percula clown and the firefish. I'm thinking I may add a black and white false percula, scotter benny, anthias, flame angel, yellow wrasse, and a cleaner wrass, and possibly a hippo tang (still debating if my tank is big enough for a tang though). That list may change depending; I wanna make sure I don't overstock.

 

I also wanna add some cleaner shrimp (fire shrimp and a regular cleaner shrimp). I'm also thinking I may add some leathers, zoo's, frogspawn, BTA's, LPS, and a minor amount of SPS (if I can get them to live), for corals.

[jsleep]

You'll hear the tang purists say that tangs need at least 4 feet to swim back and forth. I think most would say a 75 gal is the smallest tank they would recommend for a tang. I say go for it.

 

Watch out for the flame angels and anthias. From what I understand, anthias are notoriously tough to keep alive. Flame angels have a nasty habit of nipping at corals, though it seems some folks get downright lucky. Both are beautiful fish, though. I have a yellow wrasse; he is pretty cool. You can try some of the other really colorful wrasses in this sized tank as well.

 

Watch the BTA if you're planning SPS. The BTAs move around if unhappy, and they run smack dab into your sitting-duck SPS. People do it, but I'm just warning you that it could happen.

[WhiteShark]

huh...Intersting....Didn't know that about the BTA's running into SPS...I'm planning on limiting my supply of SPS b/c I'm concerned about how hard they are to work with anyways.

 

My tank is 4 feet long so I was figuring it may be okay for a tang. I'm still conducting research though.

 

I've heard its hit or miss with flames but I like them so much I'm gonna try it.

 

I didn't know anthias were tough to keep alive. If thats the case I may substitute them for something else...

[Sac_State]

keeping bta's feed can aid in keeping them where you want them. although if the light and/or flow isn't to their liking they'll move about as well. i feed my rbta half a silverside a week and so far so good. and like the previous person noted, flame angels have a checkered history with corals of all types.

[WhiteShark]

Can anyone give me advice on what the best method for adjusting my skimmer should be (or what my skimmate levels should be at right now). Since I have very little bio load and a large amount of well established live rock I'm basically getting 1 large bubble to come up the tube ever second or so. After a 1/2 a day to a day my collection cup is filled with yellowish/brown water. I'm assuming that would be bad for the tank so I've been dumping it out. However, I haven't been able to get that nice bubbly brown skimmate that everyone else gets. Is this normal?

[vangvace]

Skimmers take time to tune in. A picture of what your skimmate looks like in the cup will help too, but it sounds a little wet to me.

[WhiteShark]

Yeah a picture probably would help wouldn't it...lol

 

here ya go:

 

 

When I do try to increase the foam that is coming into the collection cup (as apposed to just letting it run as is) it overflows in like an hour...Whats the best way to adjust for this problem?

[Sac_State]

for most skimmers, that I've encountered anyway, you want the foam level to reach just below the neck of the collection cup. that way only drier foam rises high enough to rise and spill over into the cup, as opposed to an overly wet foam. I'd start with a low foam head and work your way up over a few days as opposed to the other way around. there's less overflow that way.

[WhiteShark]

Ah, sounds like good advice, I will try that....Thanks.

[WhiteShark]

for most skimmers, that I've encountered anyway, you want the foam level to reach just below the neck of the collection cup. that way only drier foam rises high enough to rise and spill over into the cup, as opposed to an overly wet foam. I'd start with a low foam head and work your way up over a few days as opposed to the other way around. there's less overflow that way.

 

Thats seems to have done the trick very nicely...Thanks Sac State

[WhiteShark]

Okay so I've been thinking about cutting some "doors" into my wooden aquarium top and basically making it a cabnet style since I have the light sitting down inside the cap. I'm thinking of doing this b/c its rather annoying having to squeeze my hand inbetween the light and the cap or take the cap completely off to work on the tank. I realize hanging the light would be 1 solution to this problem but I prefer not to drill into my ceiling b/c of where my tank is placed and also b/c its an apartment.

 

My idea to make these doors is to cut the cap in half and then cut one addition section off of each of the half (and then reattach them using hinges). I would then reattach the 2 halves of the cap using a support beam of sorts and then put handles on the front of the doors and possibly secure them closed using magnets. I've never done anything like this before and I'm not sure how well it would work/look. Anybody ever tried this before?

 

Here is a VERY rough sketch of what I'm thinking of doing (couldn't download google sketch at work so I had to use microsfot paint).

 

[WhiteShark]

Okay so I've added some more livestock. They consist of 1 monster turbo snail, a sally light foot crab, and a cleaner shrimp (that I have not seen since I put the freak'n thing in the tank!...lol).

 

Drip acclimating the cleaner shrimp:

 

 

Sally Light Foot:

 

 

HUGE turbo snail:

 

 

This was the last time I saw the cleaner as he scurried behind one of my rocks...

 

 

I'm thinking next week I may add 1 yellow wrasse to my tank to give it some more variety of things swimming around. My plan after that is gonna be 1 cleaner wrasse. Then I think I'll move into the coral domain at that point. I'm thinking I'll start with either a leather, a zoo, or a frogspawn. Any suggestions?

[Sac_State]

cleaner wrasse are notoriously hard to keep...it can be hard to get them eating. just make sure to see him eat before you buy and you'll have a much better chance at keeping one.

[WhiteShark]

Oh, yeah I will be. My dad used to have some cleaner wrasses in his tank and he was able to get them to eat flake food and brine and what not. I have heard that some cleaner wrasses can be hard to keep while others aren't. I will definitely be making sure to see him eat before I leave the store with him.

 

On a side note, does anyone know how to coax out that cleaner shrimp? I think they're pretty cool looking and I'm glad he's found a great hiding place but I'd like to see him every once and awhile...lol

[East1]

Oh, yeah I will be. My dad used to have some cleaner wrasses in his tank and he was able to get them to eat flake food and brine and what not. I have heard that some cleaner wrasses can be hard to keep while others aren't. I will definitely be making sure to see him eat before I leave the store with him.

 

On a side note, does anyone know how to coax out that cleaner shrimp? I think they're pretty cool looking and I'm glad he's found a great hiding place but I'd like to see him every once and awhile...lol

turn off your lights, he mite come out, drop a piece of supermarket shrimp in the tank, hell probably come out

 

um, make sure u can get the cleaner on mysis, not brine, they will deteriorate on brine shrimp

[WhiteShark]

Yeah I only feed mysis for right now. I saw his whisker sticking out of a cave that my goby uses for hiding last night so I guess they're both sharing that cave for the time being.

[Gerber77]

Im sure the cleaner will come out more once its used to your tank and knows there arent any predators

[Pickle010]

It just needs some time to adjust to the new environment. It will be out on it's own soon enough. Mine jumps on my hand every time I reach in the tank for anything.