RollaJase's 30G Custom Cube - Tank Torn Down

[gena]

The yellow with the stripes looks like it might be a citron goby? Those black clown gobies are so cool looking!!!! Nice pickups.

[jack1978]

Nice pickups!!! Crazy deal on the shrooms, cool fish.

[RollaJase]

Yay! I'm glad to see an update and new photos! I love the two cute new clown gobies! And $5 was a steal for those mushrooms! They're very cool looking

Yeah the update definitely has been overdue, been so busy lately. I have never seen mushies like that locally and for $5 each it was too good to pass up.

 

The yellow with the stripes looks like it might be a citron goby? Those black clown gobies are so cool looking!!!! Nice pickups.

Yep a Citron and a Black Clown. The Citron is still a little pale, I hope it brightens up a little as it fattens up.

 

Nice pickups!!! Crazy deal on the shrooms, cool fish.

Thanks mate, love the new schrooms.

[Illuiix]

Well as promised, update time.

 

Last weekend when I went to my LFS to grab some carbon and a few other things for the tank I was taking a look through their tanks and almost jumped for joy. Sitting in their leather coral tank they had two clown goby (1 citron and 1 black clown). I really loved my Green Clown and had no issues with it ever nipping at the SPS pieces I had at the time. I have been on the search for a goby to replace it since it jumped. I ended up bringing both of them home with me.

The SPS are a bit stressed by the new additions (reduced polyp extension etc.) but I have not caught the two nipping at the corals at all. I am hoping the SPS will get used to the presence of the goby's and go back to normal. If things start to take a turn for the worst I may have to consider taking them back to the LFS, or removing my SPS pieces. My SPS haven't been looking too flash of late anyway, hopefully my new red sea test kits that I ordered will be able to shed some light on this. It would be quite easy for me to remove the SPS if I had to as none of the pieces are fixed to the rock.

 

The LFS also had a $5 a polyp sale on their mushies and I picked up tow pretty cool pieces:

 

I am starting to stockpile some more bits and pieces for my new sump. I really need to calculate how much glass I need and get that cut soon as I would like to get everything installed in my two weeks off over Christmas.

 

Wow, those are some cool/rare mushies you got going collection there.

[RollaJase]

Wow, those are some cool/rare mushies you got going collection there.

Thanks mate, next time I go there I will have to look and see if they have any other ones. The LFS literally has 2 tanks full of mushies hence the $5 a polyp sale. Most of them were green but I found those two in the rubble tub attaching to rock pieces.

[RollaJase]

Thought I'd post up my current lighting schedule for those who are interested:

Light is 9.65" from the water and about 24.25" from the sand

8am-9am - 6% Blue, 12% Royal - 30min ramp

9am-1pm - 60% White, 78% Blue, 83% Royal - 60min ramp

1pm-3pm - 70% White, 88% Blue, 93% Royal - 30min ramp

3pm-7pm - 60% White, 78% Blue, 83% Royal - 60min ramp

7pm-8pm - 6% Blue, 12% Royal - 30min ramp

8pm-10pm - 1% Blue, 2% Royal - 20min ramp

 

I have slowly been building the light levels up over time (about 2-3% per week) and have been getting great results from the soft and LPS corals but not much (if any) growth from the SPS. This week I decided to do a little bit more of an intense jump and upped the whites by 8% while only raising the blues by 1 or 2% to keep the colour mix. I also increased the ramp periods slightly on the 2nd and 4th timers. I ran the test simulation and I really like the colour I am getting at the noon point of the schedule. It's looks really crisp and the colours stand out really well.

 

I am hoping the increased light will help the SPS out a bit as will running GFO in the reactor (GFO in the mail). I have a Red Sea Marine Care Test Kit, a Red Sea Reef Foundations Pro Test Kit and a 32oz (900g) tub of AquaMaxx Phosphate Out GFO arriving in the next few days. I am currently trying to sell my pretty much new API Salt Water Master kit and a brand new one that was given to me as a gift so I can buy my Hanna Phosphate checker. Hopefully these kits sell fast so I can have the Phosphate checker in the post from the US this week .

[Sunar357]

Looking nice as usual! Like the new additions.

[Reef_Suds]

Love the clown gobies!!

[RollaJase]

Looking nice as usual! Like the new additions.

Thanks, glad you like them .

 

Love the clown gobies!!

They are real characters, its is a shame they are irritating my SPS but still no signs of them nipping!.

[Reef_Suds]

Mine have never touched my SPS! They tend to just lay on my palys

[RollaJase]

Mine have never touched my SPS! They tend to just lay on my palys

Mine like to perch on my SPS collonies but will occasionally move onto the mushies and even the leather coral. My old green clown used to sit right in hte middle of my elegance coral.

[Zia]

Woa, new reactor new kandy's and even some new gobies! All looks great man! What a find on those two new shrooms, awesome colors on those and sooo dang affordable.

Glad to hear your putting some serious thought into sourcing some glass for the sump. Thats pretty exciting!

[RollaJase]

Woa, new reactor new kandy's and even some new gobies! All looks great man! What a find on those two new shrooms, awesome colors on those and sooo dang affordable.

Glad to hear your putting some serious thought into sourcing some glass for the sump. Thats pretty exciting!

The reactor I have had for ages, ordered it when I had the sump and it arrived once I had torn it down haha. I am wanting to get a second one so I can run carbon and GFO independantly of each other once in the sump. I have a 400LPH pump which would be ideal for the Carbon and a 600LPH for the GFO so why not . The gobies are pretty cool, My SPS don't like them but I do so the SPS will have to deal with it haha. I love the new schrooms, I want to go back and pick throug hte stock some more to get a few extra pieces to fill some gaps.

 

The sump will happen, just a matter of when haha. Once the sound deadening actually arrives I can get the final external dimensions of the sump and get that cut and siliconed together. Then I can play around with the internal configuration at will. The internal baffles will most likely be acrylic purely becasue I can shape it easier and to cut down on some weight.

[RollaJase]

Well no test kits or GFO today , hopefully tomorrow.

[Zia]

The reactor I have had for ages, ordered it when I had the sump and it arrived once I had torn it down haha. I am wanting to get a second one so I can run carbon and GFO independantly of each other once in the sump. I have a 400LPH pump which would be ideal for the Carbon and a 600LPH for the GFO so why not

I also have two reactors to separately run GFO and carbon. Its definitely the way to go when possible.

 

The gobies are pretty cool, My SPS don't like them but I do so the SPS will have to deal with it haha. I love the new schrooms, I want to go back and pick throug hte stock some more to get a few extra pieces to fill some gaps.

Man that's a toughy for me! I love my gobies but damn i LOVE my SPS to. That also goes for alot of my softies also. That was the ultimate decision to have two tanks, so i could have my cake and eat to.

Thats so nice you found a honey hole to dig for shrooms like that! Cant wait to see what you dig out of there next.

 

The sump will happen, just a matter of when haha. Once the sound deadening actually arrives I can get the final external dimensions of the sump and get that cut and siliconed together. Then I can play around with the internal configuration at will. The internal baffles will most likely be acrylic purely becasue I can shape it easier and to cut down on some weight.

Acrylic sounds more practical and manageable. Either way, your putiing alot of thought into materials and design, so im sure its gonna be awesome.

[RollaJase]

Thanks buddy, I hope my sump arrangement turns out half as good as yours did . I'd love to have a second tank eventually. I think I'll upgrade to an SPS dominated reef and keep this tank as a softie only paradise eventually.

[Felicia]

Thanks buddy, I hope my sump arrangement turns out half as good as yours did . I'd love to have a second tank eventually. I think I'll upgrade to an SPS dominated reef and keep this tank as a softie only paradise eventually.

I like this idea! Will the softie only paradise have seahorses by chance?

[RollaJase]

I like this idea! Will the softie only paradise have seahorses by chance?

Well that was the plan , or possibly jellyfish? I'd love to get my hands on a pair of leafy sea dragons if they weren't endangered. These bad boys are native to the cool coastal waters where I live, it's a shame the population is dwindling. They come in such a variety of colours.

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2009/04/29/color-in-nature-leafy-weedy-seadragons

[Sunar357]

Leafy Sea Dragons are so badass! Saw a bunch at the aquarium.

[Felicia]

Well that was the plan , or possibly jellyfish? I'd love to get my hands on a pair of leafy sea dragons if they weren't endangered. These bad boys are native to the cool coastal waters where I live, it's a shame the population is dwindling. They come in such a variety of colours.

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2009/04/29/color-in-nature-leafy-weedy-seadragons

Jellyfish would be sweet! I would love to have a jelly tank. My only issue is you can really only keep jellies. No corals or other pretty things Leafy seadragons are apparently almost impossible to keep alive long term. I heard that even the public aquariums can't keep them alive for all that long and constantly have to get new ones. I heard they are also INSANELY expensive. Ocean Rider (seahorse aquaculture facility in Hawaii) is trying to breed them and I believe they paid like $10,000 each for them. I'd stick with regular old captive bred H. Erectus

[Gramophone]

Love the gobies! I just got a green one the other day. He loves perching in my birdsnest. Let's hope he doesn't start nipping

 

Do they get along okay? I wanted to get 2 like you, but read that it's not a good idea to put 2 small gobies together.

[RollaJase]

Jellyfish would be sweet! I would love to have a jelly tank. My only issue is you can really only keep jellies. No corals or other pretty things Leafy seadragons are apparently almost impossible to keep alive long term. I heard that even the public aquariums can't keep them alive for all that long and constantly have to get new ones. I heard they are also INSANELY expensive. Ocean Rider (seahorse aquaculture facility in Hawaii) is trying to breed them and I believe they paid like $10,000 each for them. I'd stick with regular old captive bred H. Erectus

Yeah the jelly tank would have to be jelly's only im afraid. When I was younger I went to a marine park that was breading the leafy sea dragons in an attempt to repopulate. They bred them inside and when they were large enough they went out into containment tanks that were suspended in the ocean. It was pretty cool to see the whole process.

 

Love the gobies! I just got a green one the other day. He loves perching in my birdsnest. Let's hope he doesn't start nipping

 

Do they get along okay? I wanted to get 2 like you, but read that it's not a good idea to put 2 small gobies together.

The green ones are great, I never had an issue with nipping. I had heard that as well but after asking Zia he didn't think it would be an issue. Zia has about 4 or 5 of them in his fuge (now seahorse tank) if i'm not mistaken. When I purchased mine they came out of the same tank, the black clown is larger then the citron and will nip him if he comes into his territory. They have both established their territory now though and I haven't seen them fighting since, even during feeding. I don't know how you would go with adding a second one as you already have one in the tank though. If you were to get a different species (i.e a citron or a black clown) you could probably getaway with it. I'd reccomend staying away from the yellow clown gobys though, they are the most natorious nippers.

[Coolhandreefer]

Love your cube and that's a great deal on those mushrooms!

[RollaJase]

Love your cube and that's a great deal on those mushrooms!

Thanks, glad you like it . Yes, an absolute bargain haha.

[RollaJase]

I just got a txt message from my brother, a parcel arrived for me today. It's either my new test kits & GFO or the sound deadening for the stand. Either way I'm looking forward to finishing my day and getting home .