Diver's Paradise - The Original

[Felicia]

Sorry about your other clownfish I think I remember reading it can affect other fish but I'd have to google that to be certain. I hope you found some answers...if not, here's a bump for an answer.

 

On a side note, Micah wrote me back. NICE guy! He has never shipped before and is concerned with temps. He mentioned he's taking a family vaca. to SoCal. in early December and we could meet up and do the exchange then. In the meantime....I told him I found some of those cloves on philyouraquarium.com (nr sponsor) and made the purchase through them. Along with another goody Can't wait to get it this coming week!!!

 

Thanks for helping me with the cloves! You have a great local guy to buy from, I'm envious

 

Yeah, I'm pretty bummed about the clown, but I did what I could. My other two fish seem perfectly healthy, so I'll be keeping them in quarantine for the remainder of the 6 weeks before adding them back to the DT.

 

Micah is pretty great. I'm glad you were able to find the cloves at philyouraquarium so you could get them sooner. You'll have to post up some photos when you get them.

[Felicia]

Thinking about an upgrade...

 

Eventually I would like to upgrade to a tank closer to 20 gallons just to give myself a bit more leeway in terms of water quality stability. Also, I love having several fish without being overstocked. I'm in no rush to get everything switched over since the 10 gallon is doing great. This is something I'd like to take my time with and get it set up really nicely. At the moment I am considering either buying a Mr. Aqua 17.4 gallon rimless glass tank (24"L X 14.4"H X 12"D) or potentially buying custom cut glass and making my own tank. If I made a custom tank, I am considering dimensions of 24"L, 13"H, 14" deep. Which do you guys think would be the better option/which dimensions do you like better? Also, I'm open to suggestions in terms of custom dimensions since I've never tried to design a tank before. My constraints are that it can't be any higher than 15" based on how the light is mounted and it can't be longer than 24" based on my light fixtures width.

 

 

In other news...

I got a few more goodies yesterday. I got a frag of a bright red acan for $15, a frag of King Midas zoas for $10, two little blue mushrooms on a rock for $5, and a green striped mushroom for $5. I also got a sweet two-headed feather duster that's crown is purple and cream striped. The frags are currently sitting on the sandbed acclimating, and I will post some pics of them soon. The feather duster has been open a lot and seems to be doing great. I'm going to be spot feeding it PhytoFeast every other day. I plan to find it a permanent spot in the tank tomorrow and then I'll post some pictures.

 

I also finally bought the API Reef Master test kit so I can check my calcium, alkalinity, and phosphates. I figured with the LPS and SPS corals I've gotten recently that I need to be checking these levels and dosing if needed. I also bought some B-Ionic calcium buffer system for dosing as needed.

 

I FINALLY saw my candy stripe pistol shrimp today. I've heard him clicking away at night and the sand moves around dramatically every night, so I knew he was alive and well but I hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of him since adding him a week ago. I finally saw him come out of his burrow for a few minutes today with the lights on, so that was great. I can't wait for the 4 remaining weeks of fish quarantine to be over so that I can get him and the YWG to pair up. They're going to be so cute together. I'm curious what that will mean for the firefish since it currently seems to have paired up with the YWG and they share a burrow even in the QT. I wonder if the pistol shrimp will allow two fish in his burrow or if the firefish will be the odd man out, hmmmm...

[gena]

I love the looks of the candy stripe pistol! Your YWG and the Pistol are going to look great together.

 

I'm glad I was able to find the cloves locally too. I'm getting them for the same price that Micah is selling them for, not including the cost of shipping, so I'm happy about that

 

Can't wait to see all of your new additions!

 

I've had a Mr. Aqua tank before (the smallest one) and the quality was great. I think you'd be happy with one! Either of the dimensions sound good to me, although I prefer shallower tanks. A 20 gallon is a nice size!

[Felicia]

I love the looks of the candy stripe pistol! Your YWG and the Pistol are going to look great together.

 

I know! I think he's so much cuter than the standard tiger pistol shrimp. Also, he's much tinier which is great in my 10 gallon. Man does he move stuff around for being so little though! I don't mind since it means he's doing well.

 

I'm glad I was able to find the cloves locally too. I'm getting them for the same price that Micah is selling them for, not including the cost of shipping, so I'm happy about that

 

Yeah philyouraquarium has some great stuff. I'm jealous of the fact that its local for you so you don't have to pay shipping.

 

I've had a Mr. Aqua tank before (the smallest one) and the quality was great. I think you'd be happy with one! Either of the dimensions sound good to me, although I prefer shallower tanks. A 20 gallon is a nice size!

 

I think I may go with the Mr. Aqua just to save myself the effort of getting the glass cut and having to build it myself. My only complaint is that is 14" instead of 12" high, but thats not too much really. Its still a shallow tank compared to a 20H. I found a Mr. Aqua locally on craigslist that's been used for 3 months, so I'm looking into maybe getting that. The person is asking $60 for it which isn't that great considering a brand new one is $62. I'm trying to work the price down.

[gena]

That's not much of a price difference from new so I would be trying to talk him down too!

 

That's definitely the kind of pistol I would get (candy stripe) if I were going to get one. They look adorable

[Felicia]

That's not much of a price difference from new so I would be trying to talk him down too!

 

It would still be cheaper considering shipping on one of those tanks is a minimum of $30, but I really don't want to pay that close to retail for something used. I'm still waiting to hear back from him with his counter offer.

[Felicia]

Look what I just bought...

 

A rainbow yuma ricordea from philyouraquarium! Soooo excited!

 

I also bought two polyps of magician palythoas. They're both so pretty; I can't wait until they get here in 2 days.

 

Also, I'm buying AC70 that I'm finally going to fuge mod (versus running my AC20 with stock media), so I bought some chaeto.

[gena]

Look what I just bought...

 

A rainbow yuma ricordea from philyouraquarium! Soooo excited!

 

I also bought two polyps of magician palythoas. They're both so pretty; I can't wait until they get here in 2 days.

 

Also, I'm buying AC70 that I'm finally going to fuge mod (versus running my AC20 with stock media), so I bought some chaeto.

Awesome! I bought the two polyps of magician palythoas too!!!!! We'll have to compare frags

 

That yuma is gorgeous!!!!! I am adding a wellsophyllia on to my order with them. So far I have the papaya cloves, the palys, purple feather duster cluster, and some chaeto.

[Felicia]

Awesome! I bought the two polyps of magician palythoas too!!!!! We'll have to compare frags

 

That yuma is gorgeous!!!!! I am adding a wellsophyllia on to my order with them. So far I have the papaya cloves, the palys, purple feather duster cluster, and some chaeto.

 

I've never ordered coral by mail, so I'm interested to see how they look when they arrive. That's awesome that you got them as well. I would love to get a wellsophyllia but I need to stop spending money for a while, haha. This tank is quickly becoming such an addiction. I just couldn't resist that rainbow yuma. Its only about the size of a quarter, but the colors are just so amazing.

[gena]

I hadn't spent much on livestock lately so it was about time again

[Felicia]

I hadn't spent much on livestock lately so it was about time again

 

Sounds about right. Now I need a break from buying livestock to save up again.

[Felicia]

I give up on stupid crabs! I hadn't seen my pom pom crab for a week now, but I hadn't found a body either. Now as of this evening its laying dead in the sand. I guess it could be a molt but I can't get the body out from under the rocks its wedged under without tearing things up to find out for sure. Based on my luck with non-hermit crabs I'm going to guess its dead, but maybe it'll surprise me and I'll spot it alive in the next few days.

 

All the parameters in my tank are great and all the other critters are doing really good. I had my hands in the tank placing my new frags and my cleaner shrimp was crawling all over my hand the whole time. Man does that thing tickle. The pistol shrimp even poked his head out to check things out for a few minutes.

 

I also installed a titanium ground probe in the tank tonight to eliminate any stray voltage and prevent potential disaster if any of the equipment acts up.

 

Anyways, to cheer myself up about the pom pom crab (I spent weeks trying to find one, ugh!), here's a bunch of pretty pictures of my new additions and anything else that looked pretty tonight.

 

The new feather duster and my cleaner shrimp making friends.

 

Are those black spots on my shrimp's stomach eggs?

 

The feather duster from above.

 

The gold cloves that are growing like crazy right now.

 

Frogspawn.

 

The alien eye acan colony. One of my new favorites!

 

Acans under actinics.

 

The alien eye firefly chalice.

 

The chalice under actinics.

 

Blue Florida ricordea.

 

Green stripe mushroom I picked up over the weekend.

 

Papaya cloves. My camera really doesn't do them justice. They're currently putting out several new shoots.

 

Neon green rhodactis mushroom.

 

Unidentified zoas. Green bay packers maybe because of the orange center?

 

The new acan frag I picked up this weekend.

 

Blue mushroom rock I picked up this weekend.

 

The new King Midas zoas. I had just moved them, so most of them closed up. I'll try to get a better picture another day when they're happier. They're a gorgeous bright yellow though

 

Eagle eye zoas and some green zoas.

[castiel]

Those are some super nice corals. And love the feather duster, amazing!

[joeyhatch11]

Wow you really have that tanks stacked with some cool corals. I'm going to place another order shortly with Phil and get some things going with my tank. LOL Can't WAIT!!!!

[gena]

Nice coral!!! I really love the closeup of the feather duster!!!!

 

Not sure on the shrimp. Kind of looks like eggs but I don't have experience with egg carrying cleaner shrimp. Maybe someone else will know.

 

Sometimes I don't see my pom pom crab for weeks and then it pops out again. I've never found one of it's molts either. Try looking for it at night. That's when I see mine the most. It's never out front and center unless it's night time.

[Felicia]

Thanks guys! I really love the feather duster and I lucked out getting such a pretty one. I was looking at the ones the LFS had in the little sale tanks and they were only so-so. I was asking one of the employees about their care and stuff, and then he told me not to buy the ones in the sale tank and took me over to one of the big frag tanks and showed me the one I bought which he said was his favorite. Yay for when the LFS is actually helpful.

 

I'm actually really happy with all the coral I've ended up with. I was worried I wouldn't get any decent stuff since I'm trying to stay on a budget, but I'm really liking everything I've bought. None of the pieces in there now have cost me more than $20. The rainbow ricordea I just bought will be the most expensive piece in my tank at $40.

 

Not sure on the shrimp. Kind of looks like eggs but I don't have experience with egg carrying cleaner shrimp. Maybe someone else will know.

 

Yeah hopefully someone will chime in because I'm curious what that is.

 

Sometimes I don't see my pom pom crab for weeks and then it pops out again. I've never found one of it's molts either. Try looking for it at night. That's when I see mine the most. It's never out front and center unless it's night time.

 

I had been looking for him at night, but I hadn't seen him in almost a week before his body/molt showed up last night. I've just decided I don't have very good luck with crabs that aren't hermits.

[joeyhatch11]

I'd LOVE to get some Frogspawn but Im too worried that it'll sting other corals at night. They say the tenticles can reach up to 6in!!!

[Felicia]

I'd LOVE to get some Frogspawn but Im too worried that it'll sting other corals at night. They say the tenticles can reach up to 6in!!!

 

Yeah mine spreads out HUGE. I asked for two heads, but the guys I bought it from gave me a third head for free so its a bit bigger than I intended. I managed to find it a place where it seems to be doing great and none of the other corals are acting like they've been stung. I'm actually really sensitive to frogspawn sting, so now when I stick my hands in the tank to do things I end up with swollen red skin for a few hours. Other than that its great so far and I love how it looks!

[joeyhatch11]

Next cleaning, if you get stung, post a pic. Is it bad? LOL that's weird.

[Felicia]

Next cleaning, if you get stung, post a pic. Is it bad? LOL that's weird.

 

I'm actually just extra sensitive to coral stings in general, which I found out after a run-in with fire coral. That stuff is nasty in general, but it was extra bad on me. It took me months to get it cleared up and it just kept spreading around like poison ivy or something would. The frogspawn sting isn't bad at all by comparison. It doesn't really hurt, my arms and hands just feel kind of itchy and warm after I've had them in the tank. It basically just looks like a sunburn, just some red irritated skin. It goes away in an hour or two.

[Felicia]

Here's an update since I'm now testing my calcium, alkalinity, and phosphate.

 

Calcium: 380

 

dKH: 10

 

Phosphates: 0.25 ppm

 

The calcium is a bit low, so I added the recommended dose of B-Ionic Calcium buffer system. Hopefully keeping that in range now will help keep my LPS and SPS coral happy

 

The dKH is right in the middle of the desired range and the phosphate are much lower than expected considering I use tap water in my tank (yeah I know, don't start yelling at me). One of my friends who keeps a reef tank got the Berkeley city tap water tested pretty thoroughly and its actually really good water. So far I have had absolutely no issue with algae. I really don't have any at all besides the coralline. Based on this, its hard to merit the extra money to buy RO water or a unit. I think I'll stick to tap.

 

In further news my QT tank has such a horrible diatom bloom you can't hardly see through the front glass. I've been changing the water once every two days and scrubbing it, but it just keep coming back immediately. I'm not sure why the QT is cycling since I used the sponge from the DT which should have had plenty of bacteria. My firefish and YWG still seem in perfect health despite this, and although I have a little bit of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates they are still really low so I guess its ok. Let me know if you have in opinions of what's going on with the QT. The fish have 3-4 more weeks in there so I'd like to get the tank looking decent and the water parameters in line.

 

In further news...my AC70 is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. YAY! Fuge mod time! It was on sale for $35 on Amazon, so I decided I should finally set one up. I'll be keeping chaeto and my heater in the fuge compartment and in the slot I'll make for filtration I'll be running purigen and filter floss. And I found out that my new coral from PYA will be arriving on Friday. So excited!

[Felicia]

I just found you can buy a refractometer on ebay for much cheaper and they get good reviews for being good quality. Sweet! I just ordered a refractometer for $24 + shipping.

[gena]

I just found you can buy a refractometer on ebay for much cheaper and they get good reviews for being good quality. Sweet! I just ordered a refractometer for $24 + shipping.

About ten years ago (maybe even more) I bought one off of eBay. I never had to calibrate that thing...always spot on. Last year I had to buy a new one and I got it on eBay as well. This thing needs to be calibrated EVERY time I use it. It's a pain! I think like most everything else, things just aren't made as well today. Hopefully yours won't be as touchy as mine.

[Felicia]

About ten years ago (maybe even more) I bought one off of eBay. I never had to calibrate that thing...always spot on. Last year I had to buy a new one and I got it on eBay as well. This thing needs to be calibrated EVERY time I use it. It's a pain! I think like most everything else, things just aren't made as well today. Hopefully yours won't be as touchy as mine.

Yeah hopefully it won't need to be calibrated so often. Altough that wouldnt be the end of the world. I work in a lab, so I'm used to touchy piece of equipment that are constantly a pain, haha. I did read some reviews from people who bought ones recently and tried to get the brand people liked the most. Well see how it goes. Is there a solution or something you need to have to calibrate it?

[metrokat]

looking great