BC14 Overhauled: Trip to the Florida Aquarium

[Lilies & Lace]

That's why it is a dream fish haha. It's gonna be a long time before I can get a bigger tank, unless someone decides to play fairy godmother and give me one. Until then I'm just going to keep dreaming.

[Dark_ice]

i mean i have seen them do well in 20g with a sump but its a lot of work. Tamberav has a 20g with 2-3 in there. they are a great fish for sure. the blue spot is a amazing little guy too. great personality

[Belac]

You are welcome figured I would offer. Yes make sure you test that hydrometer against a refractometer if you can.

You do realize that normal screen kits are not going to account for the rounded corners on a biocube.

Also I second the vote to not get a madrin or any of the dragonets, or scooter blennies as they are commonly called. They CAN be kept in a tank that small but you have to get them trained to prepared food quick and will have to feed them quite a bit. One is going to be a huge amount of stress and work initially and then the work of keeping it well fed long term. Not saying it cannot be done, but I am also not going to encourage you to try.

[Lilies & Lace]

i mean i have seen them do well in 20g with a sump but its a lot of work. Tamberav has a 20g with 2-3 in there. they are a great fish for sure. the blue spot is a amazing little guy too. great personality

 

I just got done reading her aquarium thread, it's awesome!

 

 

You are welcome figured I would offer. Yes make sure you test that hydrometer against a refractometer if you can.

 

You do realize that normal screen kits are not going to account for the rounded corners on a biocube.

 

Also I second the vote to not get a madrin or any of the dragonets, or scooter blennies as they are commonly called. They CAN be kept in a tank that small but you have to get them trained to prepared food quick and will have to feed them quite a bit. One is going to be a huge amount of stress and work initially and then the work of keeping it well fed long term. Not saying it cannot be done, but I am also not going to encourage you to try.

 

 

 

 

Somehow I completely overlooked that If I have to go ghetto and tape the screen to my tank until I figure something else out, then I'll do it. Dream fish is going to wait a year or 4.

[Belac]

You might be able to bed a aluminum rod to match the tank profile and then stitch the screen onto the rod much like a curtain rod.

Waiting it all part of this hobby. I am researching an upgrade but I have no idea how soon it will happen. Probably longer then I want to admit to myself. So just keep reading and when the time comes you will be ready to go.

[Lilies & Lace]

I might try cutting and bending a frame eventually, for now I will probably just buy some mesh and tape it to the top haha.

 

I went to the LFS this weekend hoping that in the time I'd been out of the hobby maybe it had improved. Instead it was worse. Dead and dying fish in every tank, aiptasia in every tank, and coral frags covered in green bubble algae. I refuse to give them my business. I asked a sales person if they were the only store in Gainesville and he said, "there are a few others, but there aren't any as good as us." At that point I just left in disgust. I have googled and googled trying to find the other stores in Gainesville with no luck. My only hope now is a LFS/pet store about 45 minutes away that I need to check out this weekend. Finding a LFS to sell me salt/OR water is very important since I can't afford a unit to make my own.

[Belac]

If you cannot find an good shop locally. (Which would be sad, havens your in Florida! You cannot get more reefing friendly in the USA.) You can see if any one locally has RO for sale. We have several companies in town that do large bottled water sales. Kind of like culigan but cheaper. Call around on this list and see if any of them sell RO or RODI by the gallon if you have the containers. (One of the ones locally is cheaper on RODI then any of the LFS and they sell the 5 gallon cube totes for cheaper too.)


You also seem to have quite a few shops.

[Lilies & Lace]

If you cannot find an good shop locally. (Which would be sad, havens your in Florida! You cannot get more reefing friendly in the USA.) You can see if any one locally has RO for sale. We have several companies in town that do large bottled water sales. Kind of like culigan but cheaper. Call around on this list and see if any of them sell RO or RODI by the gallon if you have the containers. (One of the ones locally is cheaper on RODI then any of the LFS and they sell the 5 gallon cube totes for cheaper too.)

 

 

You also seem to have quite a few shops.

 

 

Thank you so much for the lists. You are extremely helpful I can't believe I overlooked the yellow pages! I never thought about buying water straight from water companies either, that will serve as an excellent source in case of emergencies! I haven't called any of the shops yet since I planned on checking out that one store.

 

 

 

 

The store I checked out on Friday while small, with very little selection, and pretty much no coral. But he has clean tanks and healthy fish.The little naked clown he had was absolutely adorable and so fat that I thought it was pregnant! I almost asked if I could get him to hold it for me if I paid a deposit but he said the little guy was a bully so I resisted the urge to pre-pay for naked cuteness! He also recommended a store that sells corals in the Gainesville area so I will try and check it out this upcoming week. My order arrived yesterday and now I am just waiting for a day that I will have help with my little one so I have time to set the tank up!

 

I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to invest in some more equipment before I stock the tank, hopefully I can purchase these items while the tank cycles. Is there anything missing from the list? Anything that really isn't necessary for a good system?

 

AI Controller for the Lights

Removable screen top (DIY)

Test Kits for Calcium and Magnesium

New Thermometer

Refractometer

Underwater Light

Chaeto

Pods to seed Chaeto

Quarantine Tank (later down the road)

Battery powered air pump for power outages (it will be storm season soon)

ATO (need to research brands)

 

This is definitely going to break the $200 start-up budget, but I don't want to cut corners.

[Belac]

Glad to be of help.

Yeah the only reason I happened to think of the water solution is I actually know some one who does that for their RODI water.

To address your list. (not sure why but quoting is not working for me again.)
- AI controller is over kill to just run lights. Just use a timer (or two depending on if it has a separate cord for white and blue.) Much cheaper. you can buy a full blown controller later on if you want to.

- Something needs to go over it or the little one may toss things in the tank when you are not looking.

- Test kits are not required to start cycling the tank. You can squeeze by a good while with out them if you keep up on your water changes and don't have a lot of stony corals. (That is when you start having to dose and test to see what and how much you need to dose.)
- Thermometers do not go bad. (unless they are electric, or the stick on glass kind.) Get your self a cheap glass one with the suction cup. They are not going to be pinpoint accurate but they do work quite well and you will get to know what is a 'normal' number for it to read even if its not exactly the number printed. (I have no idea if that even made sense, It is getting late.)
- Refractometer isn't a requirement up front unless you are going to mix your own water, even then you can compare your hydrometer against someone else's refractometer and if it is good then you shouldn't have any issue using the hydrometer to mix water for a few months.
- Chato will grow with just about any light source you don't HAVE to put the light underwater right away. It can wait, besides you have to start cycling the tank any way.
- Chato see if any local tank keepers would give you some. Its usually something that is given away around me to the new people. As most of us have more then we know what to do with it.
- You will get pods in the chato where ever you get it from. Also when you start to cycle your tank buy one or two live rocks from a local fish store. (Inspect for aptasia before they go on the rest of the rocks in the tank.) That will get you some more pods. I have never dosed pods and I have them every where, just from some bits of LR and chato.
- air pump is like 6$ at walmart. Any sporting goods store will also have it. They are in the fishing section and used for live bait buckets and tanks. (You will need D cell battries)
- ATO you can easily build one with a Tom's aqualifter and a float switch. There are plenty of write ups online and on this site how to go about it. I had one running for several years before I broke part of it. Total cost of that if you just do the simple two switch and a lifter is only about 25$ if you source the parts online.

Things I would add

- Some airline. Useful for all sorts of things in this hobby.
- Heater. Necessary no matter where you live, in my opinion.
- A fish net.
- Small pump if you are going to mix your own salt water. (you can get a 100gph pond pump at Harborfreight for around 12$)
- Fish food.

I think you can make it under your 200$ goal.

Up to the point you start putting animals in it. At least its small so you cannot go to crazy.

P.S. - All clown fish are bullies and mean snot nosed bastards when they grow up. I haven't seen a nice one yet. I know of at least 5 people locally who's clown fish will draw blood if you put your hand in the tank with them and don't watch it or wear a glove.

[Dark_ice]

what type of clowns are you talking about? only ones i have ever had a issue with was maroons. when i fed the ones at work i pretty much hand fed them for fun and they never attacked me or any of that..

 

my two at home are mature and love me and would not hurt me either.

[Belac]

All the species. With maroons being the biggest, there for the most likely to hurt you. I think a pair of snow flakes I know of are probably the most aggressive of any I have personally seen.

[Dark_ice]

wow, never had a clown other than a maroon bother me.

[Lilies & Lace]

Glad to be of help.

 

Yeah the only reason I happened to think of the water solution is I actually know some one who does that for their RODI water.

 

To address your list. (not sure why but quoting is not working for me again.)

- AI controller is over kill to just run lights. Just use a timer (or two depending on if it has a separate cord for white and blue.) Much cheaper. you can buy a full blown controller later on if you want to. ( I wanted the specific controller for the ai nano since I can't tell how strong my lighting is without it, it's touch sensitive and I can't tell what percent they are on and I'm afraid of frying corals.)

- Something needs to go over it or the little one may toss things in the tank when you are not looking. ( I have some mesh for the top until I get livestock and need something more easily removed.)

- Test kits are not required to start cycling the tank. You can squeeze by a good while with out them if you keep up on your water changes and don't have a lot of stony corals. (That is when you start having to dose and test to see what and how much you need to dose.) (no kits till I get LPS and SPS then, I did buy test kits to monitor standard water quality before you wrote this though .)

- Thermometers do not go bad. (unless they are electric, or the stick on glass kind.) Get your self a cheap glass one with the suction cup. They are not going to be pinpoint accurate but they do work quite well and you will get to know what is a 'normal' number for it to read even if its not exactly the number printed. (I have no idea if that even made sense, It is getting late.) (picked up a digital early today, there's a 3 degree dif from the glass one I was using)

- Refractometer isn't a requirement up front unless you are going to mix your own water, even then you can compare your hydrometer against someone else's refractometer and if it is good then you shouldn't have any issue using the hydrometer to mix water for a few months. ( I'll hold off on the refractometer until I get touchy corals then)

- Chato will grow with just about any light source you don't HAVE to put the light underwater right away. It can wait, besides you have to start cycling the tank any way. (I'm not sure if light will reach it since it will be in the chamber under my filter floss?)

- Chato see if any local tank keepers would give you some. Its usually something that is given away around me to the new people. As most of us have more then we know what to do with it.

- You will get pods in the chato where ever you get it from. Also when you start to cycle your tank buy one or two live rocks from a local fish store. (Inspect for aptasia before they go on the rest of the rocks in the tank.) That will get you some more pods. I have never dosed pods and I have them every where, just from some bits of LR and chato. ( LFS owner today said he'd give me some rubble and sand from his tank to help me seed my tank and it's $6 per bag which I'll only need half of)

- air pump is like 6$ at walmart. Any sporting goods store will also have it. They are in the fishing section and used for live bait buckets and tanks. (You will need D cell battries) (Good thinking about extra batteries! Wonder if I should get more than 1 pump?)

- ATO you can easily build one with a Tom's aqualifter and a float switch. There are plenty of write ups online and on this site how to go about it. I had one running for several years before I broke part of it. Total cost of that if you just do the simple two switch and a lifter is only about 25$ if you source the parts online. (I'll go check that out!)

 

Things I would add

- Some airline. Useful for all sorts of things in this hobby. (Are people still drip acclimating?)

- Heater. Necessary no matter where you live, in my opinion. (Got heater in first round of equioment I bought.)

- A fish net. ( How could I have forgotten that lol?)

- Small pump if you are going to mix your own salt water. (you can get a 100gph pond pump at Harborfreight for around 12$) (I'm going to recycle the maxijet that's in the tank now)

- Fish food.

 

I think you can make it under your 200$ goal. (I'm already at $167! lol)

 

Up to the point you start putting animals in it. At least its small so you cannot go to crazy.

 

 

P.S. - All clown fish are bullies and mean snot nosed bastards when they grow up. I haven't seen a nice one yet. I know of at least 5 people locally who's clown fish will draw blood if you put your hand in the tank with them and don't watch it or wear a glove. (I know they are little piggies and can be bullies, I guess I'll just get a tiny one and be prepared to return it if it starts being an a-hole to other fish.)

[Lilies & Lace]

Tentative Stocking List (subject to change)

Macros (maybe a blue or red)

Gorgonioan (still researching species)

Ricordea

Maxi Mini

Small Clam ( not sure if it's doable)

Pulsing Xenia

Zoa's

Frogspawn or Hammer

Fungia

Pearly Jawfish

Misbar Clown

Goby or Blenny

Snail for sand sifting and cleaning rockwork

 

 

 

Went to another LFS today and I do believe I found a winner! I'm so excited! The tank should be up and running within the next few days! Jawfish need a 4 inch sand bed but I'm not willing to do a bed that thick so I figured I'd do a sloping sand bed instead with a higher sand level in the back of the tank and shallower in the front since the jawfish is more shy and will probably burrow towards the back anyway.

[Dark_ice]

small clam huh?

 

requires a lot of upkeep but doable

[Lilies & Lace]

small clam huh?

 

requires a lot of upkeep but doable

 

I forgot where I saw them, but someone was selling tiny little maxima's and they would definitely fit in a nano. Of course eventually it would need a bigger tank, but I'm assuming they grow slowly? Plus it gives me an excuse to buy a bigger tank

[Dark_ice]

I forgot where I saw them, but someone was selling tiny little maxima's and they would definitely fit in a nano. Of course eventually it would need a bigger tank, but I'm assuming they grow slowly? Plus it gives me an excuse to buy a bigger tank

or trade it in for a little one+ cash

 

maxi is not te best clam to start with though.

[Belac]

Still cannot get quoting to work on the site it is driving me nuts.

Use both thermometers, I don't trust the digital ones.

The chato under the filter floss. Well you can remove the black backing on the glass I think. Or just buy the in water light.

Doubt that you would need a second pump. They are really quite powerful air pumps for only running on two d cell. The model I bought is supposed to get 36 hours on one set of batteries. I think honestly they are being modest. We lost power in a small tornado last year and were with out power for over 48 hours. (Went to the store and got the pumps at 10 hours.) They were still running when the power came back on with no sign of the batteries draining, and that was easily over 36 hours.

Yes acclimating of some things. But use the line for all sorts of things where I need to move/drain liquid.

A bit of warning on mixing snails and macros. Try to make sure you don't put a snail or crab (my emerald eats all algae...) that is going to munch on your macro algae.

[Lilies & Lace]

or trade it in for a little one+ cash

 

maxi is not te best clam to start with though.

I figure if the tank is still up and running in a year I will be ready for a clam, and have had enough time to research how not to kill it and what kind to get lol!

 

 

 

Still cannot get quoting to work on the site it is driving me nuts.

 

Use both thermometers, I don't trust the digital ones.

 

The chato under the filter floss. Well you can remove the black backing on the glass I think. Or just buy the in water light.

 

Doubt that you would need a second pump. They are really quite powerful air pumps for only running on two d cell. The model I bought is supposed to get 36 hours on one set of batteries. I think honestly they are being modest. We lost power in a small tornado last year and were with out power for over 48 hours. (Went to the store and got the pumps at 10 hours.) They were still running when the power came back on with no sign of the batteries draining, and that was easily over 36 hours.

 

Yes acclimating of some things. But use the line for all sorts of things where I need to move/drain liquid.

 

A bit of warning on mixing snails and macros. Try to make sure you don't put a snail or crab (my emerald eats all algae...) that is going to munch on your macro algae.

 

I don't trust any equipment when it comes to this hobby! It is so easy to make a huge mistake! I get scared that something will malfunction every time I leave my house lol.

 

I'm glad you were able to find an air pump last minute and I'm surprised everything made it after 10 hours of no power! I think I might have bought one once back in the day, just gotta find it.

 

The only crab ever allowed in my tank is a porcelain crab, I'm pretty sure hitchhiker crabs were killing off my fish in my last tank.

 

When I pick out what type of macros I'm gonna get, I will double check it with my snails dietary tendencies, thanks for the heads up!

[Lilies & Lace]

So.... I think everyone knows what this means!!

 

[Dark_ice]

So.... I think everyone knows what this means!!

photo (3).JPG

this is when i would crack a joke but everything is not really appropriate to say to a girl LOL

 

cant wait to see it cleared

[Belac]

The only thing in this hobby I do not trust are check valves, hydrometers and thermometers. We will not discuss why I distrust the first one...

It may not have been 10 it may have been 8 really don't remember. Yeah I wasn't concerned about temp dropping it was like 95 out. And I had a light enough stocking list that there was enough gas exchange from the surface.

As to what that picture means. It means you have to wait for 20 hours before you can see any thing again.

[Dark_ice]

i second the check valve. i don't use one

[Lilies & Lace]

The Scape! Imagine a gorg in the back right corner, a jawfish in the middle, and maybe some rics, a maxi mini, or clam in place of the rock in the right hand corner. I have so many ideas for this tank! Sorry about the reflections of my messy room!

 

 

 

 

[Lilies & Lace]

It took me all day Tuesday to set up the tank! I think I finally have the scape the way I like it with an exception for the sand which I'm sure my future jawfish will re-arrange for me. You'll see from the side view that I have a deeper sand bed towards the back of the tank, planning ahead for my pearly! Now I'm not so patiently waiting for the tank to cycle so I can add some chaeto and a bit of coarse sand from an established tank that will seed my dsb with the proper nutrients and microfauna.

 

I tested for the first time yesterday and my levels were

SG: 1.026

Ammonia: -0.01

Nitrate: -1

Nitrite: 0.01

temp: 77.8