Kfmmartin19 Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 O yea...... Copy Felicia's not cool man. Not cool. Link to comment
zhuangcg Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Too bad about your sand being dusty; that has been my experience with dry sand too. I like the new landscape and may I just third or fourth the Rainford's goby idea. Ours has been a great addition to the tank, it's lively, pretty and not skittish. It is a constant grazer though, so that could be a problem in a new tank. (I know that you already know that but just in case someone reads the thread who doesn't.) Link to comment
1.0reef Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Sucks about the dust, I guess that's one more advantage to BB's.... I forget, where'd you get the LR? Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 4, 2013 Author Share Posted August 4, 2013 Freaken that new scape! Those three branch pieces look killer where you placed them. When you add Gorgs and softies in front and around them to blend them in this scape will look bananas all filled in. Good jobby job gurly! That yellow leather also I want! Good job on the sand bed, thats the exact sand and combo of sand i have in my main display and i love it! Yay! I'm so glad you like it. It always takes me forever to get the scape just right. There are actually 4 tonga branch live rock pieces. The last one is laying in the front right and will be a mushroom island or something. I do really hope my live rock branches will look good with all the gorgonians and macros. At least while the tank is maturing, they will make great hitching posts. It sounds like I may need to frag this yellow leather for you guys down the road when it gets big It really was a lucky find. I think it will be a great pop of yellow in the tank. Oh cool! Glad to know I picked the same sand! You're jawfish obviously likes it and your tank looks great, so that's awesome. That is quite odd. I have always followed the method you described and have never had any issues myself. It's possible that the sand in the bag was just the end of the drum/vat or whatever they grind it down into. The new scape looks great though, good to see you got sand issue sorted out. As for the fish stocking, a Rainsford Goby would be a good alternative to the Hectors. Both Zia any myself have them living happily with other Gobies (and a firefish in the case of my tank) with no issues. I am soon to have a Green Clown and Citron Goby pair in my tank as well (Citron is on order). My only recommendation would be to add these guys a little later on once you have some macros and corals for them to perch on. From experience my Green clown has been very timid, I added it very early on when I didn't have many corals in the tank. Now that I have stocked the tank up a bit it is out most of the day perching on pretty much anything, it particularly likes to sit in the center of my elegance coral haha. Adding the clown gobies once everything is a bit more established should also help negate any territory issues between them. Just my 2cents . Yeah, I'm thinking it was just the bag I got. Like you said, it must have been the end of a batch or something and just had a TON of dust. Oh well, I've got the live sand in the tank now and it looks much better. Although once it cleared and I could see everything well this evening, I realized I put in way too much sand. I'll have to just take some out tomorrow to get it all the way I want it. Yeah I do really like the Rainford gobies, but they're supposedly just as hard to feed as the Hectors gobies. Pretty much everyone says the same things about both of them. I really like both the Rainfords and Hectors, so I will have to decide which one I want. Or maybe if I chicken out about them eating, I may just get a tail spot blenny. If I do get a Rainford or a Hectors though, I will definitely wait until the tank is more mature. Good to hear you're planning to do two of the clown gobies. It will definitely be a while before they go in the tank since they have to sit in QT for 6 weeks. I've got a bunch of stuff ready to move straight over to the new tank, so once its ready for stocking, it will fill up fast and have plenty of goby perches O yea...... Copy Felicia's You're so mean, Zia. I like his arch. I have an arch in my main tank and love it. Too bad about your sand being dusty; that has been my experience with dry sand too. I like the new landscape and may I just third or fourth the Rainford's goby idea. Ours has been a great addition to the tank, it's lively, pretty and not skittish. It is a constant grazer though, so that could be a problem in a new tank. (I know that you already know that but just in case someone reads the thread who doesn't.) It sounds like I may just have to get a Rainford goby. I really do like them I'll just have to wait for the tank to mature for a bit if I want one. Good to hear its not just me having issues with the dry sand. It was just way too dusty for me. Problem solved though, so no big deal Sucks about the dust, I guess that's one more advantage to BB's.... I forget, where'd you get the LR? I really can't handle BB. I am too OCD and the second something settles on the bottom, I want to clean it out. BB just never looks clean enough for me. I really just like live sand and will be sticking to that. The live rock is from Aquarium Concepts in Dublin. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Yeah I do really like the Rainford gobies, but they're supposedly just as hard to feed as the Hectors gobies. Pretty much everyone says the same things about both of them. I really like both the Rainfords and Hectors, so I will have to decide which one I want. Or maybe if I chicken out about them eating, I may just get a tail spot blenny. If I do get a Rainford or a Hectors though, I will definitely wait until the tank is more mature. Good to hear you're planning to do two of the clown gobies. It will definitely be a while before they go in the tank since they have to sit in QT for 6 weeks. I've got a bunch of stuff ready to move straight over to the new tank, so once its ready for stocking, it will fill up fast and have plenty of goby perches I would definitely recommend waiting until the tank is more mature before adding either a Rainsfords or Hectors Goby. Live Aquaria do say that they will eat brine shrimp and the like but I have never witnessed this myself. My Rainsfords seems more than happy pecking things off the rocks and sand and sifting sand through its mouth. It must be getting enough food as it has fattened up quite a bit since I introduced him, I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough food for it. Link to comment
gena Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 I'm so excited you are going to get the Nano Razor for this tank! You're gonna love it! I chose the 16k cuz that seemed to be the one everyone was going with for a reef tank. I thought I remembered the other was more for freshwater, but maybe not. Anyways....you'll love the color. You can adjust it so it's less blue too. Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 4, 2013 Author Share Posted August 4, 2013 I would definitely recommend waiting until the tank is more mature before adding either a Rainsfords or Hectors Goby. Live Aquaria do say that they will eat brine shrimp and the like but I have never witnessed this myself. My Rainsfords seems more than happy pecking things off the rocks and sand and sifting sand through its mouth. It must be getting enough food as it has fattened up quite a bit since I introduced him, I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough food for it. Yeah, if I decide to get one, I will definitely wait until there is plenty of stuff for them to graze on. I'm glad to hear yours is doing so well. Finicky eaters always make me so nervous. All of my fish except the new mandarin will eat flakes, so they're super easy. I'm so excited you are going to get the Nano Razor for this tank! You're gonna love it! I chose the 16k cuz that seemed to be the one everyone was going with for a reef tank. I thought I remembered the other was more for freshwater, but maybe not. Anyways....you'll love the color. You can adjust it so it's less blue too. Yeah, I think it will be a great light for this tank. I definitely don't want to keep buying bulbs for this PC fixture at $50 each. Sounds like the 16K is the one I'll get and then I'll just adjust it until its the color I like I'm excited to be able to have a sunrise and sunset and moonlights! I'm about to go get back to work on the tank for today. I need to remove some sand because I realized I added too much. The footprint really isn't that big after the partition in the back, so the 30 lbs I added made like a 3" sandbed and I want more like 2 inches. I'll probably create another dust storm doing this, so don't expect photos today, but the dust from the live sand clears up so much faster than that dry sand. Once I get the sand all right, I can tweak the water level and install the ATO. I'm also going to add the bottle of Dr. Tim's later today and then its just sit back and see what happens with the cycle. I'm hoping it will be short Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 5, 2013 Author Share Posted August 5, 2013 Saltwaterfish was running a deal today that if you spent $99 on marine life you got free overnight FedEx shipping. I went ahead and ordered my green clown goby, citron clown goby, and pair of ORA neon gobies (one yellow and one blue) so that I can get them in quarantine for 6 weeks. They're supposed to arrive this Thursday. I also got a St. Thomas mushroom because I love Gena's so much. I picked up some nassarius snail for my CUC, some empty hermit shells for the jawfish and so my hermits don't eat my snails, and Tisbe pods to seed my fuge plus the phytoplankton to feed them while the tank is still new. Here's my order: http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/Screenshot2013-08-04at50315PM.png.html'> Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 5, 2013 Author Share Posted August 5, 2013 Just a couple photos of corals that will be going in this tank when its done cycling. Teal mushroom http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/IMG_3500Edit.jpg.html'> Yellow leather (not the best photo since its sitting in a plastic basket, but the polyps are out) http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/IMG_3439Edit.jpg.html'> Link to comment
Kfmmartin19 Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 For the record, my LFS has a Rainsford and a Tailspot in their main nano display, and while the Rainsford is very cool, the tailspot is way more fun to watch. I used to have one, and I have to say that they are my favorite fish. Only fish I've ever kept that I felt like it actually had a unique and funny personality Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 5, 2013 Author Share Posted August 5, 2013 For the record, my LFS has a Rainsford and a Tailspot in their main nano display, and while the Rainsford is very cool, the tailspot is way more fun to watch. I used to have one, and I have to say that they are my favorite fish. Only fish I've ever kept that I felt like it actually had a unique and funny personality Yeah, I do really love blennies. My midas is such a character. I haven't made up my mind yet on that last fish, so I'll take my time and decide exactly what I want. For now it will be the two clown gobies, the two neon gobies, and the two jawfish. Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 5, 2013 Author Share Posted August 5, 2013 Ok, so all the work on this build is now complete. All the equipment is hooked up and everything is running. Now I just have to sit back and wait for the cycle before I can start adding things. I added the bottle of Dr. Tims today, and I've been dropping flake and pellet food for the last couple days to try to spike the ammonia. I'll measure all the water parameters tomorrow and let you guys know what they are. The only small pieces of equipment that are not yet installed are a titanium grounding probe and some moon lights. Stray voltages from equipment can make seahorses chronically stressed, so its highly recommended to have a grounding probe. I think they're a good idea anyway and have one on my main tank. I ordered one for the seahorse tank today off of Amazon and it will be installed in one of the back chambers. I also decided that since the tank is in my bedroom, I would like to have moonlights to see what the seahorses are up to even after the lights are off if I'm up late. I ordered some waterproof blue LED strip lighting off of ebay for $10 to attach to the bottom of the light fixture. When I get my Razor Nano in December, I won't need the moon lights anymore, but I figured it was worth the $10 to be able to see the tank late at night for the next 5 months. Just a couple photos I snapped tonight while working on the tank. Here's the media rack that I built for the first chamber. The top basket portion is for filter floss and then the two shelves under it are for Purigen and ChemiPure. Then the heater fits underneath the shelves in the first chamber. http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/IMG_3526.jpg.html'> Here's the typical cloudy tank photo after adding the sand. It had actually already cleared from adding the sand yesterday, but I realized I used too much and took some out this evening, which clouded it all up again. http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/IMG_3530.jpg.html'> Tomorrow evening I plan to work on converting the frag tank into a hospital tank. Basically everything needs to come out except for the sand and the live rock. I don't have much live rock in there, so I'll get some PVC pieces as hiding places for the fish. I need to take the two fish and the shrimp that are currently in there to the LFS for some store credit, and I just need to give the whole tank a scrub down since its covered in nuisance algae. I have to have it ready to go by Thursday morning when my package from Saltwaterfish arrives. This will be my first time ordering fish online so I'm nervous. I hope they arrive alive and healthy. They'll be sitting in the quarantine tank for 6 weeks to make sure they are disease free. I will be slowly lowering the salinity of the quarantine tank to hyposalinity conditions to make sure any ich is killed. Ich is really dangerous with seahorses because it only effects their gills where you can't see it, so its often not caught until its too late. Link to comment
Spirofucci Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 Tank looks great! Nice pieces of that live rock! Btw, I think you would have been just fine leaving that sand in there....It would have all settled out or have gotten filtered out quickly..... I love that you are sticking with the two juvie jawfish.....I think it will be very to watch them grow uo together!!!!! Link to comment
Kfmmartin19 Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 Have u thought about how u will QT the jawfish? I think sand is frowned upon in a QT but now I don't remember why... Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Tank looks great! Nice pieces of that live rock! Btw, I think you would have been just fine leaving that sand in there....It would have all settled out or have gotten filtered out quickly..... I love that you are sticking with the two juvie jawfish.....I think it will be very to watch them grow uo together!!!!! Thanks, Mark! I'm happy that the LFS had tonga branch live rock. Those pieces worked out nicely with the scape I had laid out with the dry rock. Yeah, I dunno. The sand may have been fine, but I didn't want to risk it because the dust wouldn't even filter out with a filter sock, so I'm not sure it would have ever gotten filtered out. I know it would have settled, but then it was so fine that any little bit of movement kicked up a giant dust storm, which could have been a nightmare with the jawfish. I dunno, maybe it all would have been fine but oh well. I actually really like the mixture of samoa pink and the coarser aragonite that I go, so I'm happy with the change. It looks really nice now I definitely want a jawfish and I love paired fish, so I really want a couple pairs in this new tank. I can't wait to order the jawfish. Probably very soon since they need to go in QT for 6 weeks anyway. Have u thought about how u will QT the jawfish? I think sand is frowned upon in a QT but now I don't remember why... Ok, so the deal with most people using no sand is in case they have to treat with medications. If you have to treat with say copper-based medicine for ich, then that leaches into all the sand and you can't just pull it out with a filter running carbon after treatment. That means you'd be constantly throwing out the sand in your hospital/QT tank. However, since I'm planning to take this tank down as soon as I'm done QT'ing all the new fish, I don't mind if I have to throw out the sand. I'm also hoping I won't actually have to treat any of the fish. I'm hoping they'll be disease free and that I will just be waiting the 6 weeks to make sure they don't manifest any parasites or diseases. The sandbed in there isn't very deep, but it should be ok temporarily for the two juvenile jawfish. I'm also going to put some nice PVC pieces in there for them to use. Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Ok, so I decided that the frag tank is coming down because I don't want to maintain 3 tanks. With 2 30 gallon tanks, I should have plenty of space for frags on a frag rack in each tank instead of needing a separate frag tank. I just don't want this to become too much work Before I take the frag tank completely apart however, I'm going to use it as a quarantine tank for all the fish going into the new seahorse tank. Today I took both of the fish (purple dottyback and damsel) and the coral banded shrimp from the frag tank back to the LFS for $15 in store credit. I also removed all the frag racks. I need to do a thorough scrub down of the tank tonight and then it will just have the sandbed, a few live rocks, and some PVC pieces that I picked up today. All fish for the new seahorse tank will go into that tank for 6 weeks to make sure they are parasite and disease free. I plan to lower the salinity in the QT tank to hyposalinity levels once all the fish are in there in order to kill off any ich. Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Soooo, I just placed a $200 order with KP Aquatics. I am not allowed to buy anything else for this tank I got my mated pair of jawfish so that I can get them into quarantine soon since they have to be in there for 6 weeks. I also got 4 gorgonians, 3 sponges, and my CUC since I was already paying $40 in shipping. Here's my order: http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/Screenshot2013-08-05at80525PM.png.html'> Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Wow, that will be a fun shipment- tank in a box! I'm going to use KP Aquatics when I start up my 20L in Jan. I keep hearing wonderful things about them. So I'll be tagging along to see all your goodies. Granted I was already tagging along but you know. They just seem to have some things I haven't seen on other websites and their prices are in my opinion, cheap. How exciting for you and all of us that are watching. Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Wow, that will be a fun shipment- tank in a box! I'm going to use KP Aquatics when I start up my 20L in Jan. I keep hearing wonderful things about them. So I'll be tagging along to see all your goodies. Granted I was already tagging along but you know. They just seem to have some things I haven't seen on other websites and their prices are in my opinion, cheap. How exciting for you and all of us that are watching. I hate paying the $40 overnight shipping, so I wanted to get everything in one order instead of paying shipping twice. Luckily I've got the main tank and the frag/QT tank to store things in for the time being. Definitely order from KPA! I have ordered from them multiple times and they are great. Everything I've ever bought from them arrived alive and in great shape and they always include a freebie or two. Their prices are also amazing! They have the perfect selection for a macro/pony/fuge tank, so I was able to get most of what I wanted from them I am so excited to get this box and also my big shipment from Saltwaterfish later this week! Link to comment
gena Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Yeah, I think it will be a great light for this tank. I definitely don't want to keep buying bulbs for this PC fixture at $50 each. Sounds like the 16K is the one I'll get and then I'll just adjust it until its the color I like I'm excited to be able to have a sunrise and sunset and moonlights!The sunrise/sunset/moonlight thing is the coolest part!!!! The fish love it too. Awesome pictures. The fiji is pretty! And that KPA order!!!!! SO fun!!!! I'll be ordering from them before too long as well. Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 The sunrise/sunset/moonlight thing is the coolest part!!!! The fish love it too. Awesome pictures. The fiji is pretty! And that KPA order!!!!! SO fun!!!! I'll be ordering from them before too long as well. Yeah, I'm really excited to eventually get that light and be able to do sunrise/sunset. Just gotta wait a few months. Thanks! I really love the new leather. Its so yellow I have been so excited to make this KPA order. I love their stuff and figured I'd stock my tank from their website. What are you going to order from them? More gorgonians? Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Christmas is coming sooner this year for all of you!!!! I'm jealous. I want new things. But have to wait. Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Christmas is coming sooner this year for all of you!!!! I'm jealous. I want new things. But have to wait. I can't buy anything else. This is pretty much it for this tank. All the fish are coming and I have all the corals now. And yeah, it is like Christmas in August The water is still a bit cloudy, but its almost cleared up. Here's the first FTS after adding the scape and the sand. http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/IMG_3531.jpg.html'> http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/IMG_3533.jpg.html'> Link to comment
Kfmmartin19 Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Your QT can handle a 4 fish bio-load?? Oh also is there any reason to QT the first fish if I know for sure that he'll be alone in the tank for 6 weeks or more? Link to comment
Felicia Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Your QT can handle a 4 fish bio-load?? Oh also is there any reason to QT the first fish if I know for sure that he'll be alone in the tank for 6 weeks or more? I sure hope so! I mean, I plan to do a lot of water changes on it while I'm using it for QT. Plus all the fish are tiny little things. Well I want to put the seahorses in soon, so the fish wouldn't be by themselves for 6 weeks. The problem is, ich can live in your tank without the fish presenting any symptoms. That's why I'm thinking I'll do hyposalinity to make sure I kill off any ich while the fish are in quarantine. I mean, if the QT is overcrowded, maybe I just won't bother for more than a week or so to make sure they seem healthy. Zia didn't do any QT with his fish and hasn't had any issues. Link to comment
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