Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Hi, so i'm new to saltwater tanks and I thought it would be best for me to start a thread to track my progress. I've read a couple people's "journal" threads and I thought: wow what a really great idea.. so i'm following their example Hopefully if I make mistakes, the experiences of others on this forum will help me out! OK, so I started with a 3 gallon jbj picotope. 6ish pounds live rock, 6ish pounds live sand, 9watt blue and white compact light that came with the tank kit and I bought an aquaclear 50 to mod into a small fuge. My sand came from my lfs' established reef tanks, and my rock from their rock selection. I'm hopeing that the nicely established and clean live sand will help my tank start up more smoothly, but this is much debated.. This is a long shot of my set up about 30 minutes after I got everything going: Close up of the tank after I started it: I found hitchhikers!!! I was pretty excited about it, actually. I have about four known brittle starfish. I really like watching them inch across my tank.. I also have some fan worms as well. I'm not too worried about any of these guys because they may provide nice scavanger-ing for my tank in the future. Finally, all the sand settled and my tank looks pretty good. I know I made a noob mistake of chooseing a main live rock that was too large, and it will not able me to do THAT much rearranging with corals later, but I like the shape anyhow. As for my fuge, i'm still debating how much I want to mod it. right now, since I only have rock, sand and few other guys, I just took the bio sponge from my ac50 pack and stuck it in there so the water has to flow through it, but i'm not sure whether or not I want to take apart the basket and glue it in there to maintain the chaeto i'm going to be putting in there in the future. Or if I just go silly nilly and not compartmentalize any of the filter (it is much smaller than the ac70). I'm having trouble deciding if it would be worth it. Maybe some of you will give me some input Other than that, i'm going to stick with my 9watt that came with the tank kit because I probably won't get corals for a little while, and when I do, they will be softies anyhow. Plus the tank isn't that deep and I could put some up higher on my rock. Any input would be great! thanks everyone! Link to comment
Lalani Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Good start. What do you plan on stocking? Link to comment
fiction101 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Looks like you're off to a good start, one thing you might want to do is move the small piece rock that's on the right side of the tank so it's not touching the glass. Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Good start. What do you plan on stocking? So far, I plan on going to the lfs on tuesday and getting a CUC. I would love some sexy shrimp! they are entertaining to say the least. I would love to house soft corals in here, I love mushrooms and polys. Also, there's a coral that I can't remember the name of, but it's pink, has a long "stem" and fanned top that open and closes in the filter flow. I think a friend at the lfs is going to give me a frag of his that he has in his tank. I made friends there Also, I might get a small goby or two in the end, depending on my bioload. the greenbanded ones are cute. I would love to have a damsel, but I think my tank is too small and I would have to sell it back when it got bigger. My lfs has baby black and white striped ones that are fun to watch. Looks like you're off to a good start, one thing you might want to do is move the small piece rock that's on the right side of the tank so it's not touching the glass. oo is that a problem that it's touching the glass? I was unsure where to put it because of it's off shape.. I was thinking of wedgeing amother piece of rock behind it, then leaning it against that rock..? Link to comment
fiction101 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Just makes it harder to clean the glass, it doesn't matter. Although it does look nice when a tank has openings around the side of the rock, so it's not all closed in. Link to comment
NeenasReef Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 So far so good eh? Your LR placement is pretty awesome- looks like you have lots of room for softies!! I just modded a AC70 for my fuge and it is working pretty well... I know the 50 is smaller but it may save you a lot of headache to go ahead and mod it- i found that once mine was done I had more than enough room for a small sheet of filter media- the size of a medium whisper biobag- so you should still have room for some floss or a similar sized piece of foam even in the smaller model... looks good so far- I can't wait to see where it goes from here! Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Just makes it harder to clean the glass, it doesn't matter. Although it does look nice when a tank has openings around the side of the rock, so it's not all closed in. that's a good point. I do like the space around it, but cleaning would be easier if I moved it. I'm unsure of my set up atm, because it has an odd symmetry.. I guess i'll have to figure out the mechanics when I get some corals. Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 So far so good eh? Your LR placement is pretty awesome- looks like you have lots of room for softies!! I just modded a AC70 for my fuge and it is working pretty well... I know the 50 is smaller but it may save you a lot of headache to go ahead and mod it- i found that once mine was done I had more than enough room for a small sheet of filter media- the size of a medium whisper biobag- so you should still have room for some floss or a similar sized piece of foam even in the smaller model... looks good so far- I can't wait to see where it goes from here! Thanks! I may end up cutting up the basket and modding it, it would probably be easier to maintain. Yeah, i know what bag you're thinking of, and I need to pick one up at the store when I go. The sponge I have now was just a temporary measure until I get the filter media. I think the size of my ac50 should hold some modded chemipure, filter media, my heater(i have a small hydor mini heater, but I don't really need it because the lamp keeps my tank at 77F pretty much. I just turn it on in the morning because the temp is around 75 because I turned the lights off at night, obviously), live rubble and chaeto. If the filter media doesn't fit in the end, I could always just mod that too Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 I thought this was funny: My starfish, whom i've named Henry, has been sticking his limbs out the small individual holes in that LR... Link to comment
NeenasReef Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Thanks! I may end up cutting up the basket and modding it, it would probably be easier to maintain. Yeah, i know what bag you're thinking of, and I need to pick one up at the store when I go. The sponge I have now was just a temporary measure until I get the filter media. I think the size of my ac50 should hold some modded chemipure, filter media, my heater(i have a small hydor mini heater, but I don't really need it because the lamp keeps my tank at 77F pretty much. I just turn it on in the morning because the temp is around 75 because I turned the lights off at night, obviously), live rubble and chaeto. If the filter media doesn't fit in the end, I could always just mod that too hehe the secret to keeping any kind of nano reef seems to be MOD EVERYTHING!! Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 hehe the secret to keeping any kind of nano reef seems to be MOD EVERYTHING!! That definitely seems to be a major theme amongst pico reefers hehehe Link to comment
Jenna Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 You are off to a sweet start! I'm looking forward to watching your progress. Link to comment
ash71089 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 the "pink coral" you are talking about is xenia. Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 the "pink coral" you are talking about is xenia. thanks! that sounds familiar now I hope it grows well in my tank when I get it tomorrow, hopefully. It would be my first coral!! Today found some unknown creature in my tank. It's white/clear and has many arms that stick out at one angle. Actually it looks like a spider... and it moves very slowly up and down my LR.. Can anybody define what it is by my loose description? Thanks Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 OK, I have some pictures of the unknown creature. It's very small, so it was difficult getting a good shot of it. edit, new pic hopefully these help Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 OK, so I put the pictures up in the identification forum [duh] and stevieT said that they were either aiptasia or baby dolphins So I researched it more and he was right, it is a glass anenome(aiptasia), thanks stevieT! I think i'm going to get a hairy hermet crab and peppermint shrimp tomorrow, as well as a few snails. I've read sites that say they help eat them. I suppose if they don't, then i'll have to tackle it with tweezers or something. Poor glass anenome. Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 So the peppermint shrimp I bought yesterday ate the aiptasia within two hours of it being acclimated to my tank! I'm sure that if I had any more aiptasia that wasn't visible, it's gone. Yay for peppermint shrimp!! Now i have to run to the fish store today and get some pellets to feed it, that way, when I do get corals, it won't feel inclined to munch on them out of hunger... It totally munched on my feather duster hitchikers too .. sigh, ah well. Other than the shrimp, I'm thinking of naming him peppy because it's SOO original lols, I bought two tricolor hermet crabs and two snails. I'm actually unsure of what kind of snail they are, but I know they aren't narcissus.. I'll ask my lfs today.. They only had one kind anyway this week. I really wanted to get some sexy shrimp because they're all the rage these days but they didn't have any.. maybe i'll put in an order for some. I'll have to research to make sure they get along with peppermint shrimp though. My fuge is up and running to my specs now. I have live rock rubble and chaeto in there as well as some filter floss. All I need now is some chemipure maybe. Also a submersible light.. but i'm not sure what kind to get.. i'll have to look into it more. Anyway, that's the game plan for today, though I would really love to buy my light upgrade... my lfs has some that would totally work 12 inch 18w for around 40$, though I would have to buy the little feet to keep it elevated seperately for 15$! ouch. I think i'm going to order one offline... even with shipping, i'd probably get a better deal.. which reminds me, since this is a journal, i want to keep a tally of the cost that's gone into this tank: 3g jbj picotope- 50$ with shipping 7lbs LR & 6lbs LS- 70$ saltwater-4$ Aquaclear 50- 45$ thermometer- 12$ stealth heater-15$ hydrometer-free 2gallons ro water- 50 cents CUC, chaeto, LR rubble, and filter floss- 30$ total= 226.50 Not bad! Now I should upgrade my light which will cost me around 50$ more, and I haven't bought any corals yet (though I plan to buy the really small baby frags for 2.99 a frag, I don't mind waiting for them to grow) According to my tank setup, you could pretty much start up a pico tank with little to no "freebies" for around 250-275$. I'm sure smaller picos would require maybe a little less than that too. I believe the 1.5g betta cube is 25$ at petsmart.. plus less CUC, rock, sand, water, etc.. Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 Yesterday I noticed that one of my hermit crabs hadn't moved a lot, and today I found him dead... Also, my other crab/shrimp sort of snacked on him as well. This is very sad. I'm really unsure of what went wrong, because before I added my CUC I made sure my levels were correct and my tank was running and cycleing properly. Also, I acclimated him right as well... No idea. I totally wasn't suspecting any casualties either.. sigh.. edit* right after I posted this, I looked in my tank and the dead, upside down crab is moving.............. but one of his arms was clearly torn off by another animal........... i have no idea how to rectify this situation. I feel REALLY bad that it might be suffering...? Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 My crab seems better today, he's not upside down anymore.. good sign? he might make it after all. He looks like he's eating the stuff in the sand as well.. I'm going to shop around for a api test kit today. I've been testing my water at my lfs, but I feel it's better to be able to do tests as often as I want. also, I would like to get the current usa dual satellite 12 inch 2x18watt fixture, but a lot of the good deals online are out of stock. Link to comment
Gvtv44 Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Everything is looking pretty good- crabs fight, just their nature. They will sort it out one way or another- just let nature take its course. Updated pics? Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 Everything is looking pretty good- crabs fight, just their nature. They will sort it out one way or another- just let nature take its course. Updated pics? Oh, I wonder if that's what happened..? Thanks for the advice! here are some pics: almost complete fuge starfish checking out the fuge: snail my pep shrimp, he likes hanging out under that rock the injured crab, can't get a really good shot of him though alright, that's the update I found someone on craigs list who's selling a bunch of nice corals, so I emailed them about it. If my tank's water tests come back good in a week or so, I might be able to add some coral. They had a 40g breeder tank. It had some awesome hot pink mushrooms that I would LOVE to have. Link to comment
Aeridne Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 I like it! Thanks!! Link to comment
Gvtv44 Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Sounds good- looks good too- just take your time!! Good Luck! Link to comment
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