Drew's 10 Gallon Softie Tank

[dferrari13]

 

[dferrari13]

Things still seem good with the clam as far as I can tell. Nitrates are a lil low in my tank so I spot fed him again yesterday, and he seemed to respond well to it. 

[WV Reefer]

46 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

 

He’s pretty!! 😀

[teenyreef]

2 hours ago, dferrari13 said:

 

Awww, he's beautiful!

 

I think from your description your tank is definitely stable at this point. You aren't experiencing weird pest outbreaks, algae is under control, you have good coralline growth. And corals aren't dying for random reasons. That's how I define it for my tanks 🙂

[A Little Blue]

On 9/14/2018 at 7:12 PM, dferrari13 said:

I am only about four years into the hobby so I'm not sure how to tell if my tank is 100% mature yet but things have seemed stable especially since dosing kalkwasser in my auto top off. The tank has maintained proper pH, alkalinity and calcium for a long time now... SPS corals seem to be flourishing, and encrusting on to my rock. Seems mature to me. But I guess that's a good question to everybody that's reading this. What makes a tank a truly mature tank? Thoughts...

You probably gonna get bunch of answers on that Q and most are going to be based on personal experiences. So I'm not sure if that will help or confuse you or anyone else reading this. 

To me, a mature tank = developed, healthy micro/macro-fauna, stable environment that supports various marine live. So how can you tell? That's a good question. It's also a tricky question to answer imo. 4example: if someone can be very successful with lps/softies (over a long period of time) but is unable to grow sps corals, does it mean that his/her tank isn't mature enough 2 keep SPS coral? It probably has nothing to do with age of the tank but water chemistry, lighting and other factors. So I assume "mature" in case of your Clam means, is your tank mature enough to support clam? So, since your Clam is at the stage where most of its energy comes from food not light, healthy micro/macro-fauna seems to be good gauge to go by. My personal gauge/inictator of a healthy-"mature" tank are rich micro/macro-fauna and ......... sponges. It might seemed silly, but I have noticed over the years that if I can grow "designer" and wild-random sponges, it meant that my tank was in pretty good shape. 

Those were just my personal observations so take it for what it is, and use it more as a gossip than valuable information. Lol  

[dferrari13]

Since adding the clam, I havent done any water chemistry testing, water changes, or dosing of any kind (besides the kalkwasser mix in my ATO).......reason being, I want to test today and see how this clam may have altered my calcium levels over the course of five days. Because prior to the clam they were staying at a steady 420. Also I would like to see how spot feeding phytoplankton has altered my nitrate/ phosphate levels. Again prior to the clam, levels stayed  at about 2 PPM nitrate and .25 phosphates. I'm sure there should be some adjustments needed, but with something as sensitive as a clam less than 2 inches long, I will have to take it very slow with changing any water parameters.

[dferrari13]

 

 

[dferrari13]

I need a bigger tank....my wife wants a new kitchen first.....so needless to say......im getting pricing on a new kitchen.....inorder to get my new tank lmao 

[A Little Blue]

2 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

I need a bigger tank....my wife wants a new kitchen first.....so needless to say......im getting pricing on a new kitchen.....inorder to get my new tank lmao 

I bought my wife new vacuum today and she still said no to a bigger tank. Lol 

[dferrari13]

Man if I could just get away with getting her a new vacuum I would love that lol

[teenyreef]

I have to build a spice rack and repaint the bookshelves before my next upgrade. But then the hard part will be finding the money 🤔

[A Little Blue]

8 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

Man if I could just get away with getting her a new vacuum I would love that lol

She was very understanding. She said that I can vacuum as much and as often as I want now. 🤣

[dferrari13]

[WV Reefer]

4 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

Looks nice! 🙂

[dferrari13]

Day 6 clam update, everything seems all good. The first 5 days the clam seemed slightly "pinched". Like it's mantle was not open up all the way. I think it was just adjusting to its new home cause I just got home today and he's finally fully open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

39 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

Day 6 clam update, everything seems all good. The first 5 days the clam seemed slightly "pinched". Like it's mantle was not open up all the way. I think it was just adjusting to its new home cause I just got home today and he's finally fully open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s great. 🙂

[dferrari13]

Looks like a monti to me, but some think it may be a chalice....what do you guys think? And how can you tell the difference between a plating montipora and a plating chalice?

 

 

[mtgmichaelg]

Not an expert, but I am pretty sure that is a monti and you can tell by looking at the size of the polyps. Montiporas have smaller polyps compared to chalices. That's why chalices are generally considered lps. 

[dferrari13]

SPS corals are definitely encrusting...good sign

 

[MrObscura]

Yea, polyps are the give away for montis. They have a distinct size and shape.   

 

Though some scroll corals can look a lot like montis too me at times. And some chalices have much smaller eyes, like Hollywood stunners, compared to most. 

 

Its easier when you can get a clear, really up close look since monti polyps  have noticeable tentacles. 

 

 

[dferrari13]

Im about four years into the hobby now but I still consider myself a newbie...so I was wondering if any of you reefers out there had a way to slow the overtaking of gsp coral (I stupidly placed it on my main rock years ago...what a dumbass ).... I was thinking about mixing up a batch of epoxy and putting a small worm-like tube all around the gsp.... once it starts growing onto the epoxy I will peel the epoxy off and cut the GSP skin to keep it at bay. That pretty much the only idea I had. Thought?

 

 

 

[MrObscura]

I'm a noob, but before even getting my first Coral I learned the best way to control gsp is by simply never letting any in your tank. Lol

[dferrari13]

 

 

[WV Reefer]

46 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

Im about four years into the hobby now but I still consider myself a newbie...so I was wondering if any of you reefers out there had a way to slow the overtaking of gsp coral (I stupidly placed it on my main rock years ago...what a dumbass ).... I was thinking about mixing up a batch of epoxy and putting a small worm-like tube all around the gsp.... once it starts growing onto the epoxy I will peel the epoxy off and cut the GSP skin to keep it at bay. That pretty much the only idea I had. Thought?

 

 

 

You are going to have to draw a battle line and be diligent about removing it. 

[dferrari13]