Gulfsurfer101's fantastic finnex 30g M-tank

[gulfsurfer101]

Things seem to be growing well so I decided to get some pics on here to look back on later. Not too many additions and my only damsel fish seems to be lost behind the baffling system but I don't seem to mind the empty tank look.

 

[mbarton2010]

hows the frogfih doing?

 

dude, i caught a sargassum frogfish at seawolf park the other day in Galveston when i was flounder fishing.

[gulfsurfer101]

hows the frogfih doing?

 

dude, i caught a sargassum frogfish at seawolf park the other day in Galveston when i was flounder fishing.

He died when my AC went out and I was working long hours. I lost my acan colony too because of heat. I can't believe they are still out there. I thought they were out of season. You can usually catch tons of them when the seaweed is really thick. I take a bucket and catch some in a net and just shake it out over the bucket. You'll find all kinds of pipefish, anglers, shrimp, even sargassum triggers.

[mbarton2010]

oh man, next time i go ill catch a pipe fish. ive caught many shrimp in them. i even caught a seahorse before!

[gulfsurfer101]

That would be awsome to find. I may just take a little drive out there this morning and see what all I can find. I might report back here with my findings.

[Markushka]

you guys are lucky bastards

[gulfsurfer101]

you guys are lucky bastards

Lol, I know everybody around here has to have had a sand dollar alive in their tank at least once when they were noobs. I used to post on here different things I used to catch around here like different shrimps and nems but nothing to special. Most of the things I find out here have no place in the reeftank. I think I even had a clump of oysters in one tank before. Not even shure if that's legal or not but it was definatly cool.

[mbarton2010]

lol. ^^^

 

ive caught a sargassum before, but it was a few years ago. it was about the size of a billiard ball

[glennr1978]

I caught a baby redfish in a cast net when I was a kid, it was only about 3" long. If I would've had a sw tank back then it sure would've been cool to keep for a while, even if it was illegal.

[gulfsurfer101]

I caught a baby redfish in a cast net when I was a kid, it was only about 3" long. If I would've had a sw tank back then it sure would've been cool to keep for a while, even if it was illegal.

I had caught a small flounder before when I lived in ingleside. I kept him alive for over a year in my large puffer tank. I later learned somewhere that it is illeagal to keep game fish but I have seen the same things sold at petco as fw flounders for like ten bucks.

[gulfsurfer101]

[Macron]

Sweet tank, its a bummer that frogfish died. Those corals are gonna look sick when they grow out more. How far do you guys in the gulf have to go out to hit sargassum. Here in NC we have to go 60 miles out to the Gulf Stream before we start to see it most of the time.

[glennr1978]

Sweet tank, its a bummer that frogfish died. Those corals are gonna look sick when they grow out more. How far do you guys in the gulf have to go out to hit sargassum. Here in NC we have to go 60 miles out to the Gulf Stream before we start to see it most of the time.

 

 

sargassum washes up on the beaches here in chunks the size of football fields. that being stated, we don't have to go out very far, lol.

[gulfsurfer101]

sargassum washes up on the beaches here in chunks the size of football fields. that being stated, we don't have to go out very far, lol.

Pretty much this. It rolls right up to the shore so everything that ends up on the sand is pretty much doomed. I haven't seen it washing up recently but have been way to busy to hit the beach lately.

[Mojorizn]

You should go to the beach with my wife the Marine Science/Chemistry Major (4.0 btw)

 

...Discovery Channel live my friend...lol

 

Funny, she won't go near my tank...

[gulfsurfer101]

You should go to the beach with my wife the Marine Science/Chemistry Major (4.0 btw)

 

...Discovery Channel live my friend...lol

 

Funny, she won't go near my tank...

Too funny, I just call everything I find by it's native name, fish or bait.

[gulfsurfer101]

Randoms

[gulfsurfer101]

Man I am not diggin this tank now after starting up my cube. The glass is so nasty looking all the time, the lush pink coraline algea that's growing on the floor and walls are being overrun by nasty green coraline that is spread much faster and is lots harder to remove. I pulled a wc today and tried to scrape some off so I can see inside my tank but my arm got tired after the first 30mins of scraping so I gave up. My one damsel I bought to feed my now dead angler is still alive and trapped in the rear baffling of the tank and I'm too lazy to tear down this tank to rescue one stupid fish that will most likely just find his way back there again. I will be looking for new tanks to swap this one out into after the holidays. I want to do a rimless led set up but want to remain with in the 30-50g range. I'm thinking of the new mr.aqua 24" cube with the boost mu led panel. Here's a thread discussing the light fixture I'm looking at atm.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t=0&start=0

[gulfsurfer101]

I pulled a ttsd (tottal tank scrub down) today and emptied this tank into a spare 30g cube I had sitting around in the garage. I used a vinager and water solution to scrub off all the nasty algea that was growing on the floor and walls. I found the root scource to be the fuge being made of plastic pressed up against the glass of the tank causing algea to grow inbetween with the high lighting for macro. I decided to move the fuge to the intake section that is all glass and poured in about 6" of livesand for a dsb macro fuge. The area covered is 4 1/2"x8". I also tossed in some rocks with a few sponges in there a baseball sized clump of cheato and a small baffle to keep the cheato from clogging the skimmer. I wonder how long before it takes before my dsb becomes effective since I am using fully cured livesand.

[gulfsurfer101]

Well after I cleaned off the glass I noticed something, THINGS ARE GRWOING! All my coral are really apreciating the much cleaner tank.

 

Here's a pic of how I have my fuge set up in the intake chamber of the finnex freeing up the algea factory that was the fuge. I also have a pic of how I set the baffling up to keep cheato from getting sucked into the skimmer.

 

I was thinking that maybe one day I'll even add another fish to this tank.

[gulfsurfer101]

So that day has come to finally add another fish to my lonesome tank. I bought a true lemon peel angel fish for this tank. I know they are reefsafe with provided plenty of algea in their diet and I can provide algea out the wazoo. I used to pull forsest's of ulvia algea from the bay here for a yellow headed moray I used to keep a couple years back so I can always resort to my local rescources. So far it has been a very timid fish but so was my rusty pygmy till it got the hang of my tank. It was the most free swimming fish out of my 40br so I wanted to add another dwarf angel and never noticed any coral picking out of my rusty so hope that's the way things go with this guy.

 

Here's the pics.

[gulfsurfer101]

Holy crap it got cold here over night. Well I guess winter had to get here sometime or another. Looks like the only algea collecting I'll be doing for my new lemon peel is in the grocery isle till it heats up a bit in a week or two. I noticed some of my lps doing some crazy stuff in the tank when I was messing around with my mp20 so I snapped a pics for the thread.

 

[tam]

looking good. any updates?

[gulfsurfer101]

Lots of big changes, found mt lemon peel nipping so he's gone, decided on picking up an orang spot goby along with about 40#'s of black live sand and got my new boost mu led fixture in. I haven't gotten around to mounting it just yet though and the blk sand is still in bags. I should expect things to be put together betteronce I get my cannon sd780is later on this week. I saw that you have the same camera on another thread, how do like it.

[gulfsurfer101]

OK I has black sands but no usb cable. I also has orange spotted goby and and some lunar eclipse paly's I added. I should be getting my new camera in the mail tommorrow or the next day and will be looking foward to updating with new pics.