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Cultivated Reef

20 Gallon Soft Coral Reef


GayFishie

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Let's try this again. I decided a while back to go in a new direction with my tank and got rid of all my stony corals (Except for a frag of sps the size of my thumb nail that I picked up for five bucks) so I could switch to an all soft coral tank.

My tank had a lot of near crashes throughout the first year and as a result only four very sad little corals were left. When the tank hit 1 year (actually eleven and a half months or so) I restocked with my new mindset.

The first fish was introduced to the tank last week along with a neon green toadstool I found for only fifteen dollars. The fish, now named Lucifer, is a very young neon dottyback. I was under the impression dottybacks were similar to wrasses, which I had gone to the petstore to get only to find they were months backordered. I settled for the neon dottyback that had been following me every time I passed the tank. I didn't realize they were aggressive and shrimp killers. I wouldn't have gotten her if I'd known since I am very attached to my coral banded shrimp Redrum. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt though since it was my fault for buying her. If she goes after my shrimp (which she hasn't) she gets traded in for something more peaceful, like a clownfish.

During the black Friday sale at saltcritters I ordered a hundred dollars worth of 50% off coral and two small anemones. A mini maxi that I had already been planning on buying and a rock flower for seven dollars. The rest were zoanthids, mushrooms, a leather and the tiny sps frag. All have settled in nicely, colors are beautiful.

They opened within ten minutes of being in the tank and the rock flower attached to the back of a rock in the shade by the end of the night and has been happy since. The mini maxi was placed at the top of the tank in the seashell it was already attached to and ate successfully already. I was worried about adding two anemones at once but nitrates are low, their mouths are tightly closed and they are fully extended.

I will post pictures when I get the chance.

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Zoas opening, rock flower looks great and eats readily. I switched to using reef formula frozen food by omega one. It's a massive hit with every single creature in the tank.

Including my two brand new clown fish.

I went and got every single thing in my tank tested and spent two hours talking the the lfs staff before leaving. I got home and was sitting in my car in the parking lot when I decided to turn the car back on and drive another half hour back to the pet store to buy a Darwin clown fish and a lynx clown fish along with the frozen fish food.

All my test came back perfect. Phosphates were a tad high. A tiny bit of ammonia hadn't turned to nitrates yet and my calcium was a little low at 400. Other than that everything was leveled out.

Everything is looking super great.

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Mini maxi was moved to the bottom of the tank last night. Woke up to it half extended, hoping it extends fully with the lights on. I have to do a big water change today in both tanks.

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Mini maxi was moved to the bottom of the tank last night. Woke up to it half extended, hoping it extends fully with the lights on. I have to do a big water change today in both tanks.

Many times a good water change will remedy a slight problem. That is usually my first step if I don't like the looks of something.

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That's the plan today. Going to change five or six gallons in both freshwater community (while 'nother problem, perfect water chemistry in an older tank but water is so cloudy can't see even after 90% water change) and saltwater. I brought my calcium up to 420 but my salinity drops to 1.022 even after adding like two gallons worth of salt (mixed separately in a cup of tank water) I want it up to at least 1.025. I thought it was my refractormeter but I got it tested at a trusted lfs with their refractormeter and they got the same thing. I don't even know anymore. I'm going to add more salt today and see if I can raise it to 1.023

On the bright side, some of my zoas are opening today. Hoping they just needed a week or so to get use to tank. I'm going to give it another week and if they don't all open as wide as they did the first day they were introduced I'm going to start panicking

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I think I might name my Darwin clown fish zombie (coincidentally Darwin is the name of my baby girl, who is a green cheek conure) and my onyx Mateus after my favorite vampire in the book real vampires don't sparkle (this is an amazing book, read it and laugh.)

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The most horrible thing that could have possibly happened happened last night. I came home with a friend and discovered my brand new onyx clown fish had vanished from the tank. We searched everywhere, moved the rocks, checked the inside of equipment, even checked the floor and under all furniture. Nothing. Not even a hint of where she might have gone.

I'm absolutely heartbroken. I don't understand what happened, I didn't even have her a full 48 hours.

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Only thing I could possibly think of is I have a good sized rock flower 'nem sitting at the bottom of my rockwork. But it eats very well and wouldn't be hungry and the clown fish was very healthy and fast and never went anywhere near the rock flower there is no sign the rock flower ate something as big as a clown fish and I was only gone for a few hours. Five at the most, the fish was fine before I left. I even took a few pictures of her.

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  • 2 months later...

Months later! Soft coral tank has evolved with the addition of another fish (Deceased, sorry Gargoyle) and a few other corals.

I have two stunning new corals, a big single head of hammer coral and a galaxea coral is so-so condition. I got both from petco for 15 dollars and asked for a discount on the galaxea due to them having dropped it and killed half of it by having it buried in the sand. They refused so I pretended not to see the sign for 30$ and got it for 15$.

Screw you Petco.

The hammer is stunning though. Very big and fluffy with awesome color and a good feeding response. The kenya tree has grown beyond enormous and so has my green toadstool. The Kenya is much bigger than my outstretched hand and the two corals are at the point where their polyps brush together fully extended (Which they are, they even remain extended for most of the night) I feed my Kenya and Toadstool, which I know most people don't since they don't really eat it or need it but I do every week and the results are obvious. They both have stunning color and are strong and grow twice as fast as they once did. I have successfully fragged the kenya and the frag attached overnight and has doubled in size in a month.

The galaxea has about one third of it skeleton but under the actinic lighting they glow green inside so the polyps are all still there, the tissue loss must be very recent. The rest is fully extended and very healthy, ate the second day in the tank.

We shall see how they do.

Will post pictures and update!

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Oh, and I got a new camera. It is absolutely amazing, it takes unbelievable macrophotography which equals glorious coral closeups. I will post pictures from it when I get home. I got some adorable pictures of Zombie.

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