fishfreak0114 Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 Well, I plan on taking a trip to J and L aquatics as well as King Ed's pets in a couple of weeks. I've been saving up my money. I'll be in search of coral as well as inverts, a new emerald crab maybe a feather duster or anything else that catches my eye. Also fish. I'm hoping that between the two stores they will have a tailspot blenny, a fish my heart is set on but I can't seem to find at the LFS. Then I'm thinking of other fish. For my last couple additions I was thinking of a royal gramma (love their colors) and a green clown goby (adorable). Thoughts? I'm guessing that would pretty much max out my bio load. It may seem like a lot, getting three fish at once if they have them all, but I have a plan. I'm gonna set up the 25 gallon as QT (obviously the five is too small for more than one fish) and then staggering their entry into the display after QT so that the bacteria can catch up. Would that work? This is so exciting, I've never been to either of these stores but I think it will be fun. Also, I've heard that clown gobies tend to nip SPS. In the future I plan to have some montis and maybe a birds nest. Will it pose a problem? 1 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 tailspot is a pretty fish, would probably be a great addition. gramma is also good as long as there is enough shady areas for them to hide in. clown goby though may be a problem fish, its sps coral associations i would say are too close for comfort in a normal home tank, especially since you want sps corals. maybe a chromis would be a better choice? after that 3 extra additions fish bioload is actually going to be a tad overstocked and you may actually be risking a crash. to think about, the angelfish is a active swimming pelagic fish, oxygen consumption is quite high, but it doesn't particularly matter since oxygen concentration is very stable and readily available in normal habitat. the clown fish are much less of an offender for oxygen hogging since they are less active but they still are quite used to mostly stable oxygen concentration. then moving to the planned blenny, he does great still because as a benthic fish by nature he's a bit more resistant to anoxic waters, oxygen is less stable in concentration in his home so he comes with these sort of adaptations. then comes gramma, another oxygen pig, dosen't really care too much of how much he breathes because he's used to the levels being mostly stable. all this mention invertebrates who happily use the oxygen that has been dissolved in the water. also keep in mind surface area matters most with oxygen directly entering from the atmosphere, a 10 gallon tank with 300 square inches surface area for a fact could keep just as many small fish as a 40 gallon with 300 square inches of surface area. one can evade oxygen constraints quite a bit more from an addition of more algae, they will preform their carbon fixation and happily give supplemental oxygen. with this information in mind we can see that oxygen is being an enormous limiting factor and that caution should be had. also yes adding one at a time definitely is going to keep bacterial populations at proportionally healthy levels, and should avoid any strong algal blooms. stability is key to avoid a crash, think of an aquarium as a train, when you have it healthy its like having level and properly made rails for the train to ride on, derailing it is a bit more difficult. but an unstable ad unbalanced tank is like a badly rusty track that wasn't made level, the train riding on it has a far easier time to be derailed and crash. 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 Thanks for the reply, I may still get a green clown goby and just avoid SPS, or I could see if it causes any lasting damage. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Changed the scape mildly today. First pic is before. Last two are after. Barely any difference but while fiddling I broke a rock off and had to remodel because I couldn't get it back. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Man, epoxy is so ugly. I've noticed that I have some green coralline growing on my rocks, including what was dry rock to start, and purple coralline growing on my live stuff. I have some red coralline too, but only on the shell of one of my trochus. 1 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 it is pretty cool how many species of coralline algae actually can be brought in on our rocks, i got like 2 or 3 species, dark red, light pink, and darker pink if its a different species from light pink. maybe the purple will slowly cover the epoxy, some people "seed" the coralline by scraping a little and spreading the shavings and crumbles, i never tried it though. 1 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Hey I am going to do a few calculations on your tank for you to tell you a pretty good estimate of the amount of animals you can stock in your tank. The questions answers will help me do the calculations What are the dimensions of the entire tank in centimeters? Length width and height. What is the approximate length of each fish at present? How many large invertebrates and what size of them are in the tank at present? What is the tanks temperature? Finally what all equipment do you have in use? Weird questions I know but they all help with my process of calculations for tank stocking. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 19, 2015 Author Share Posted July 19, 2015 50.8x53.34x48.26 All 3 fish are roughly 2 inches I'm assuming that doesn't include corals, so my serpent star is 5 inches arm tip to arm tip, one shrimp is 3 inches and the other is 2.5, I have about 7 hermits all roughly an inch The tank is usually about 82 Intank media and fuge baskets. Media is filter pad, purigen, phosguard, chemipure. 100 watt eheim heater. Stock return pump. Jebao wp25 stock lights and fans. 1 Quote Link to comment
LongDoggy Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Hey I am going to do a few calculations on your tank for you to tell you a pretty good estimate of the amount of animals you can stock in your tank. The questions answers will help me do the calculations What are the dimensions of the entire tank in centimeters? Length width and height. What is the approximate length of each fish at present? How many large invertebrates and what size of them are in the tank at present? What is the tanks temperature? Finally what all equipment do you have in use? Weird questions I know but they all help with my process of calculations for tank stocking. Can you do your calculation on my tank? 2 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 OK so your tank at present has used 78-87+% of its total safe bioload not including the live rock or any algaes ( in all truth there are too many variables in those to be predicted by me ) or the corals, from a few calculations and a little research, the brittle starfish was the worst to find oxygen information for because the information is lacking for them. So you can likely/ possibly ( depending on other factors) add 2 more small fish with a healthy degree of caution, corals are a little different since they end up having their photosynthetic buddies living inside their tissues, so they do have a level of oxygen being released inside themselves already as long as conditions favor the zooxanthallae. Can you do your calculation on my tank?yes just need the answersHow many gallons are in your tank? What are the dimensions of the entire tank in centimeters? Length width and height. What species of fish do you keep? What is the approximate length of each fish at present? How many large invertebrates and what size of them are in the tank at present? What is the tanks temperature? Finally what all equipment do you have in use? 1 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Im just curious as well Yes just need the answersHow many gallons are in your tank? 45 What are the dimensions of the entire tank in centimeters? Length width and height. 27x21x19 What species of fish do you keep? Clownfish, Wrasse, Goby What is the approximate length of each fish at present? 1.5" Clownfish, 2" clownfish, 2" wrasse, 1.5" Goby How many large invertebrates and what size of them are in the tank at present? Clams? (5), 5 Trochus snails What is the tanks temperature? 80 Finally what all equipment do you have in use? PLS-50 Elite Skimmer IM Desktop Reactor ATO Doser Radion XR30w Pro 2 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Im just curious as well what species of wrasse and goby do you keep? 1 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 what species of wrasse and goby do you keep? Yellow Coris Wrasse and Scooter Blenny (May be returned) 2 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 So harry basically I have if I'm not mistaken you've come out as 54- 68+% fish and invertabrate usage which is definitely wrong considering the amount of corals and the fact of the photosynthetic clams. Remember I have predicted this considering the fishes adult sizes, so the wrasse looks like a little oxygen piggy lol. eliminating the dragonet definitely gives more "space" and honestly I don't feel dragonet's were ever a great choice to keep in aquariums period. 2 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 So harry basically I have if I'm not mistaken you've come out as 54- 68+% fish and invertabrate usage which is definitely wrong considering the amount of corals and the fact of the photosynthetic clams. Remember I have predicted this considering the fishes adult sizes, so the wrasse looks like a little oxygen piggy lol. eliminating the dragonet definitely gives more "space" and honestly I don't feel dragonet's were ever a great choice to keep in aquariums period. Is there a formula somewhere? The water is heavily oxygenated via surface agitation (Dual Vortechs- forgot to mention) and the skimmer. Would oxygenation really be the limiting factor? The Dragonet is going to be returned anyway, so thats great if it gives me more leeway 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Thanks amphipod, I'm guessing the biggest bio load is the flame angel? 1 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Is there a formula somewhere? The water is heavily oxygenated via surface agitation (Dual Vortechs- forgot to mention) and the skimmer. Would oxygenation really be the limiting factor? The Dragonet is going to be returned anyway, so thats great if it gives me more leeway its a hybrid of several formulas, one is the surface area oxygen exchange, and the second one is the parts per million of available oxygen, I use both together so I get a safe range. I have a few little tweaks I make though. I have yet to crash a set up tank though, so I likely must have done something right.Thanks amphipod, I'm guessing the biggest bio load is the flame angel?yes indeed, more than twice the amount of oxygen as a clownfish is going through katniss blood as we speak. 1 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 i must remark though most kept marine fish aren't as forgiving of hypoxia as many invertebrates we keep like crabs, pods and worms. so if you cross the boundaries the fish will tell you first, but you don't want them to tell you first. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Mind if I ask what hypoxia is? 1 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Mind if I ask what hypoxia is? Oxygen deficiency 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Thanks Harry Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 So I set up the 25 gallon as QT last night. I put the filter pad from my dt in the filter along with a clean sponge and I have a bag of zeo carb (carbon and ammonia remover) ready to go when I get livestock. I put the two pots from last time in, a couple little pieces of dry rock I had lying around. I trimmed the chaeto in my fuge and put it in there too. So I have two questions. 1. Does the chaeto have nitrifying bacteria, or will the tank begin to cycle when I add stuff? 2. Should I add a piece of PVC pipe or two to create more hiding places? 1 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 For your first question the answer is yes, there is countless bacteria already residing on the surface of the algae, not to mention the countless debris holding curls. In this plethora many of them will be the nitrifying bacteria you want. PVC piping should be fine for added hiding spots. Get creative 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 Tomorrow I'm going to the two pet stores, hopefully I get some fish and coral etc, can't wait! It's been too long since I got anything new. I'm going away for just over a week on Monday, a little nervous since I'll have just got new livestock but oh well. My moms going to watch all four of my tanks for me while I'm gone. If something goes awry I'll text her instructions of what to do. My cleaner shrimp molted again. Pics QT and new storage on doors. 1 Quote Link to comment
amphipod Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Not a bad quarantine tank at all. Since you won't be with the tanks for the week I don't recommend getting more than one fish. Lol your tank area looks so much more organized than my " lab", mine looks like a psychopath is working in it with tweezers, syringes, filthy pill bottles, and vials sitting around lol. 3 Quote Link to comment
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