Mr. Grinch's 20H

[Mr. Grinch]

Hey! So I set up this tank around August 08 and it currently runs with a marineland HOB filter rated for 30 gallons with carbon, a prizm protein skimmer, dual satellite 130 watt compact fluorescent fixture, a maxijet 600 powerhead, and the pump off the fission nano skimmer with the air tube ripped out and used as a powerhead.

 

heres a current FTS:

 

http://s649.photobucket.com/albums/uu218/m...=FTS2-15-08.jpg

 

see if that works

 

the current inhabitants are

 

sixline wrasse

pair of clowns

sea hare

peppermint shrimp (under the rock all the time)

3 small frags of unidentified zoas

green star polyp

hermits and various snails

[Jake42393]

nice man :] goodluck and keep it up

u got any close ups of the zoas? maybe take a pic with a magnifying glass.

[Mr. Grinch]

Ok so not really enough pics so here are some more crappy iphone ones:

 

1st are some green zoas. I believe the ones with the green centers are radioactive dragon eyes though I am not too sure on the ones with the orange center.

 

yeah dude ill try thanks for the comment. Its all with an Iphone so Ill see how that works. I just need to find one....

[chaostactics]

cool to catch a tank in start up, looks like you're making good progress. Good luck!

[Mr. Grinch]

Thanks for the reply chaostatics! I checked out your thread a while ago. Cool stuff!! I still have a long way to go but I'm waiting for the tank to become more stable since a hair algae outbreak a few weeks back but later I was hoping to get a bubble tip ahem :D

 

The LFS ha them for 50 bucks , good price?

 

I was also thinking frogspawn because it's sessile, or any other coral that clowns will host if anybody has any recomendadtions?

 

I'm excited to hopefully turn into a full reef!!!!! BTW star polyps opening after a month of being po'd after constant algae scraping so pic update hopefully tomorrow

[Mr. Grinch]

My CUC decided to die off so major algae outbreak. It was 8 snails 2 hermits (still alive) and the sea hare (doing swimmingly) I'm thinking that this was too small anyway. What is a good size CUC for 20 gallons?

[Kraylen]

nice man :] goodluck and keep it up

u got any close ups of the zoas? maybe take a pic with a magnifying glass.

 

Where'd you learn that trick from?

[Militant Jurist]

Nice looking tank so far!

 

Where'd you learn that trick from?

 

Lol I used to do that too!

[Nanobuds]

updates?

[Mr. Grinch]

so it has been a WHILE and unfortunately I do not have a picture update but the tank has still been going though i have not stocked very much since, well, May

 

since then:

 

The sea hare Died and polluted the tank like no f%$^ tomorrow!)

 

Got a Hammer coral (open first week but then would not come out )

 

Toadstool Mushroom leather

 

Two types of Xenia

 

Green Mushrooms

 

Purple blue Mushrooms

 

And a free frag of green zoanthids

 

As far as other changes:

 

I reduced my photoperiod from 12 hr to 8

 

Removed the whisper tetra HOB and instead I force water through chemipure on modifed media rocks in my Marineland HOB

 

Got a HOB skimmer (Red Sea Prism)

 

Added a Koralia 1 pump for more circulation

 

Switched to filtered seawater from the Scripps Pier

 

Oveall: Basically everything is doing pretty well, the leather did not open a few days after I got it but it shed this mucous skin layer??? but anyways i squirted it off and now its doing great with new polyps on the way. I found a baby mushroom on the rock with the larger, and when i added it I also saw a stomatella snail which i added and have not seen since. the GSP is out finally, I got the perfect flow. I still have algae problems though but i am going to cut down on feeding and do more water changes now that my wc water is free and filtered and salty. I am also volunteering at the aquarium so I of course will have pics of their reef tanks and other tanks. P.S. they got acros to spawn!!!! only aquarium to do that.

 

Pic Update Tonight

 

EDIT: Phrasing

[Mr. Grinch]

Here's the reason I did not add much to the tank:

 

[Mr. Grinch]

So the waves have been pretty big in socal lately and in oceanside san diego a day ago they were around 10ft (big for around here) so yesterday and today ive been surfing a lot and where I was at (north county) yeasterday it was around 7ft but i could swear i saw a couple 8 foot sets roll in. Anyways it was my first time really on waves above head high (5-6 ft) so I had a lot of trouble judging the drop-ins, a lot steeper and a lot longer.

 

Anyways that whole thing was just an excuse as to why i didnt get water until 8:30 at night and didn't get pic or do a water change untill 10:00 (dinner and the tank is at my dad's so I have to drive over) but I did stock up on water.

 

Everything was closed because its night but I did take some crappy actinic photos:

 

 

exedrin bottle stuffed with cloth to reduce noise

 

 

half FTS with the female in solitary

 

 

Half closed zoas

 

 

FTS

 

 

 

here's the tank where the acros spawned:

 

 

Anemone Tank: The big one is twice the size of my head!!!

 

 

Sea Dragons:

 

[Mr. Grinch]

more to come!!

[Mr. Grinch]

Bump

[weeber]

where r the last 3 pics from?

[Mr. Grinch]

From the birch aquarium in la jolla CA

[Mr. Grinch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those are all some new pics right before I left for 10 days for Virginia, I added some chaeto courtesy of NRF. Thanks again so im hoping for little to no new algae growth while im gone.

 

My toadstool leather wasnt opening so is there any reason it's not? my koralia is right next to it so could it possibly be too much flow?? anyone familiar with leathers have any ideas??

[Mr. Grinch]

Bump for the leather problems?

[Falcon_Punch]

It could be too much dierect flow. My leather has only closed because I pointed a ph at it. I'd that doesn't work then I dk. Where in Va did you go?

[Mr. Grinch]

Thanks I'll definately try that, Im in vrginia beach VA , where are you?

[MGDMIRAGE]

How long has the leather not been extending tentacles? Sometimes they will do that from time to time, sometimes for up to a week at a time, very odd.

[cg-tuned]

Nice to see another 20h not that many compared to 20L or 40B but I can see why. Looks good keep the updates coming.

[Mr. Grinch]

Well my dad sent this pic from when I was on vacation:

 

 

but luckily he did a 2 gallonwater change and moved the pwerhead so I came home to this (after cleaning and wc):

 

 

better

so besides that nothing really hapened, there just was a lot of algae growth, the only thing I was worried about was the leather dying and nuking the tank, but I adverted that disaster.

 

so while I was in VA i was working on a secret project:

 

 

I modded an aquaclear 70 into a small refuguim using only the filter media basket and aquarium silicone to create a baffle system that will slow down the flow and hold some carbon or chemipure. To do this I made two baffles: One was cut and placed as kraylen details, just before the water enters the main chamber, and the other I cut so that it ended just below the grate that came from the media basket which i siliconed over the output ramp of the filter. I then cut a strip of plactic about half an inch wide from the scraps of the filter basket and then cut it and siliconed it so that it was a half inch above where the second baffle was and was the right lenghth to fit with the grate in place over the output. This strip adds extra support for when the carbon is in place so that the water flows through it.

 

A tip for the baffles: the aqaclear bottom is curved so try to cut the bottom of the basket sides so that they fit. I just used some (sharp )scissors for all the cuting.

 

Then I cut the sponge so that it fit in the bottom of the space between the baffles and I got this:

 

 

The sponge makes a platform for the carbon so that the water is forced through instead of flowing over. I just used the filter carbon that came with the aqaclear for now but I plan to switch to chemipure. For the distance between the two baffles I used the width of the carbon bag, and then cut the sponge to fit, it's tight, but it works, chemipure is a little smaller anyway.For the light I bought a cheap pico hang on light which i screwed on. fully assembled and on the tank:

 

 

At first the water would trickle out of the emergency overflow by the U tube but once on the lowest flow setting everything is working nicely. For this mod I decided to leave off the lid of the aquaclear. Cutting a hole seemed too much of a hassle and the light is huge! So now my chaeto gets a full 24 watts and a moonlight . Oh well, good nutrient export.

 

In relation to the tank:

 

 

From that last shot you probably noticed: Its happy

 

 

I cleaned up and altered the flow and now it looks great!

 

I also did other things:

 

Changed the light bulbs which were almost a year old (yeah my tank is that old ) which brightened the tank up.... alot!

 

I also added some liverock rubble to give my scape some more depth and also to make room for more.....

 

 

ZOAS I got four really cool frags today and they opened a little but im waiting til tomorrow for pics. All of them were under 10$ btw I got one that was apricot somethings, green center and dark black around, pink ring and blue center, pink center and a dark purple ouside, and gray light blues with reddish brown skirts I doubt my pics are good for id's and the polyps are really small. Ill try the good camera and we'll see

 

FTS:

 

 

I also moved the GSP and I moved the powerheads for better flow and a happier leather. A cool thing about the leather is that it moves like a sunflower, it faces my window for sunlight in the mornings and then stands straght up when the lights come on.

 

If you have any questions about the fuge here was my inspiration besides Kraylen's thread:

http://www.coralforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24042

instead of acrylic use the filter basket sides, and place another baffle by the output into the main chamber. His way seems to work really well with the eclipse filter cartridge but I prefer chemipure and I see no reason for using new acrylic instead of the parts. Hope this helps!

 

How long has the leather not been extending tentacles? Sometimes they will do that from time to time, sometimes for up to a week at a time, very odd.

 

Yeah I have noticed that especially when I first got it. It closed for a couple days and then I noticed that it was shedding some mucous stuff so I squirted it off and it immediatley came out. But this was different .lI think it was the flow and/or possibly poor water quality.

 

edit: mistakes

[greech]

Thanks dad ! Holy crap man you have been busy!!! Fuge looks great. That is my next hardware item as well. I need to read back through and see how you put it all together. I am using floss and Chemipure in my AC but I did not modify it so the floss sits on the bottom of the media basket (where the sponge was originally) and the chemipure sits on top of the floss. It is somewhat of a pain to change out the floss every 2-3 days because I have to oull out the basket and change it out. I get water dripping all over and I also get a surge of crap in my display for about 30-minutes after I kick the filter back on (I think the corals like it through). I want something where I can just reach back there and pull the floss out and put new floss in. Maybe I will get another AC 70 or a 110 and see what I can work out. Thanks for sharing the tips!

[Mr. Grinch]

Thanks dad ! Holy crap man you have been busy!!! Fuge looks great. That is my next hardware item as well. I need to read back through and see how you put it all together. I am using floss and Chemipure in my AC but I did not modify it so the floss sits on the bottom of the media basket (where the sponge was originally) and the chemipure sits on top of the floss. It is somewhat of a pain to change out the floss every 2-3 days because I have to oull out the basket and change it out. I get water dripping all over and I also get a surge of crap in my display for about 30-minutes after I kick the filter back on (I think the corals like it through). I want something where I can just reach back there and pull the floss out and put new floss in. Maybe I will get another AC 70 or a 110 and see what I can work out. Thanks for sharing the tips!

 

Haha yeah I figured it was time to buckle down and get a lot of stuff done. If you ever do that mod I would choose the Aquaclear 110 as it is a lot larger. The only thing extra is you might have to trim the impeller. I would have used one but it wouldn't have fit on the back with my skimmer. Feel free to ask any questions or pm me if or when you start , it was a lot harder to explain then I thought, and the fact i didn't use too many pics doesn't help. I also am worried about how hard it is to change the sponge and rinse the carbon but I'll figure that out when I have to.

 

edit:spell