Senora shakes a new crib

[Mark1313]

Not to much info on these tanks. New saltie. Thought I'd try. 

Day 2

Rock, water, sand, from LFS demo tank. 

Felt it was way overloaded with rock for a 25 liter, 6.6 gallon tank. Couldn't make myself happy with the scape. 

 

Specs. 

6.6 SR Aquaristik (25L)

Prototype surface skimmer/powerhead (week 9)

Lighting 

51 led canopy 

45 white 6500 - 10,000 dimmable. 

6 blue/actinic 

5 watts

Heater 

Hydor 50 watt

Filtration

Chemi-pure Elite mini (removed sponge and carbon) 

52 gph/ 200 lph

Livestock 

Green clown goby

1 Sexy Anemone Shrimp 

Pepper shrimp 

Trochus snail (week 7)

Cuc reef cleaners (week 10)

Coral

LPS, softies. Ora birdsnest 

 

Week 6ish

Not much to add

Put a pistol/goby in, removed 2 zebra hermit 

[Mark1313]

Week 9ish

Lost pistol/goby (overfed) 

Made a bad mistake not cleaning the filtration. 

Plus added to the misery by removing a big rock at week 7.

Chased Nitrates with water changes and to my embarrassment, a good cleaning of the filtration woulda solved that problem before it happened. 

[Mark1313]

Week 10ish

On chill 

Still learning. Don't like to hurt things anymore in my life. 

The chili went in week 2, it's quad in size, so please no negative  comments on that I can't keep that healthy . 

 

Future plans. 

1 rfa

Orange Froggie

Zoa that are larger then 3 polyps. Love em but all frags aren't making me happy happy. 

[Mark1313]

Sorry terrible cell pics, but thanks for looking. 

[Mark1313]

Crappy cell phone pics. Old Note 3.

Here's a blue at week 9

[Mark1313]

A lot of reefers here helped me a lot, Exp coral wise. My very first stop and meet was @ninjamyst who has a beautiful tank and such a great person. So shout to him, felt lacking in not doing that.

All his frags are doing stellar in my tank except the digitata, lost that because of me. 

The stick on the right is his ora birdsnest, I'm still trying to make it happy happy, but it's hanging on after a bunch of placement moves

[Mark1313]

Not much to add this week as I'm still in chill mode. 

A few parameters are still a touch high but coming down. 

Salinity 1.026

O Phos

14 KH

5 Alk

430 calcium

The trochus started moving again, although slightly. Coral (exp) the chili, started opening up again as normal. Again another week of not doing anything, relax seems to help right now as the frequency of water changes did not help. 

Plans are 2 more weeks of no water changes and no feeding coral. 

 

Thanks for looking everyone, just thought if anyone is interested in this tank that maybe this would help from a new saltwater person. 

[kimberbee]

Interesting tank. I've not yet heard of this one! 

[Mark1313]

Thx Kim for being the 1st besides me to post! 

I'm not very good social forums because my type doesn't translate very well to my speak. 

The tank is the reason I posted this, doesn't seem there is a bunch of info. Just hoping if anyone goes this direction that my experience helps. 

[Mark1313]

Was trying for another week of nothing,  but a friend in a local forum needed to temp move a clown. I got this for a month or so while she gets things settled and I can send it back to its home. I have 5 sexies coming early in the week, (Tues, or Fri) depending on lfs delivery. Shouldn't be a problem (I hope). Canceled the sexy cause I had to temp home the silly clown. 

For my info, parameters look great, kh/Alk still high but coming down. Phosphate creeped up but adding the cuc snails should help that. 

Water changed on Thurs 50% and tested 8 hours after that. 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Mark1313

[Mark1313]

Tried to get the trochus on my powerhead cause it made me laugh. The new clown decided to bomb. 

I hope I don't become attached to the clown,  my tank is too small.

 

 

[Moorahs]

Lol if that's the zen art of doing nothing you're doing it wrong  

 

Think of it this way, your babysitting the clown will reaffirm for you that you just want shrimp not fish...

[Mark1313]

Ok learned a lot recently. Basically learned a lot about MY particular tank and MY want needs, vs chasing what everyone says and or chasing numbers. 

I knew I was doing the correct things, I just didn't give the correct things enough time to balance. 

Learned more about filtration and how perfect water changes won't do you any bloody good if you don't rinse or change the damn filter. 

I need to put this in for myself as a bit of a reminder, I can learn. 

[Mark1313]

Added a few coral from a frag fest last week, added a green clown goby last week, tossed in a sexy. LFS is holding me up on 5 more shrimp.

My water parameters have never been better. My coral are at the top of their game right now. I couldn't actually be happier about my tank. Large learning curve, but I think I turned the corner. 

On 9/25/2017 at 6:39 AM, Moorahs said:

Lol if that's the zen art of doing nothing you're doing it wrong  

 

Think of it this way, your babysitting the clown will reaffirm for you that you just want shrimp not fish...

Lmao matey. I try to do nothing but I'm apparently poor at it 

[Mark1313]

Here's the key, where I messed up. The sponge carbon did not get cleaned, it got replaced with a piece of floss and chemi pure elite. I maintain that. I'll move to chemi pure blue after the Aquatic Experience show. 

 

Terrible pic. The sexy is in love with the hammer and frogspawn. 

Can't wait until I up my sexy to 5-7 instead of this 1 free from a local bud. 

It munched my ora birdsnest on day 1, ate 1/2 the frag. It was starving, since I hand fed it Cobalt shrimp pellets, leaves it all alone. The pep is now spoiled with the pellets and  comes out running for them...so cool. 

 

Green clown goby after 3weeks is cool but it's still shy of me. 

Added a couple frag-farm from Aqua-mags to move the Monti away from the hammer/frog. Looks nice and the Goby just owns one of them. Totally hangs out there all day and night. Love it. 

Ordered the rock mag jr. It's to massive for this tank currently. I have plans in mind to put it in here soon. 

[Mark1313]

Plans to move into an IM Fusion 14 Penninsula. 

Aquatic experience is next week and I have  a hardware list for

that tank. 

The 6.6 will move into the shrimp and goby only. Lotta rock. I can tell the goby loves not being scared of predators and same with the pep shrimp. That's good for me. 

What else..... Bit of algae, film on the glass, cyano rock and sand. It's all minimal so I won't chase it. Learned. I'll clean and WC. Let myself know

I gotta get a pic of the goby loving this aqua-mag frag rock. 

[Mark1313]

Senora is shaking my fluorescent green paly. 

Don't even tell me it's a male, cause... It's Senora and she shakes her body line. 

I'll tell ya friends, I adore her. 

Oh ya, when the pep gets near Senora's pellet, she works works the body line, shakes and shakes. The pep says... OK I believe you, and runs. 

[Rene]

I know you are switching tanks but this one is interesting, never seen one like it before!

[Moorahs]

Woohoo welcome to the exhausting, stressful, messy and above all else *WET* joy that is the tank upgrade 

[Mark1313]

8 hours ago, Rene said:

I know you are switching tanks but this one is interesting, never seen one like it before!

 

5 hours ago, Moorahs said:

Woohoo welcome to the exhausting, stressful, messy and above all else *WET* joy that is the tank upgrade 

I'm going to keep this one running. I have the room. The goby and a few sexy only, with some coral. It was a larger learning curve then I expected.

 

My daughter keeps bugging me for a clown, and well... Daughters rule over Dads.  So I'll put the slightly larger tank in motion soon. 

[Mark1313]

Ok let's post. Another learning curve, weeeee! 

Apologies for all my bad pics, I have an old Note 3, maybe I'll upgrade this Xmas. Maybe @seahostler will make an app for people that don't have an Apple phone! ?

I went to Aquatic Experience (1st and last), it's moving to Jersey next year. Really Jersey. Went for a few specific things. 2 of which were Booyah clowns, to temp home in this 6.6 until I got the new tank ready. I bought a few other things that can stay in this tank, a couple of rics (green & orange) per @Feliciatank build and wow I'm I glad I follow that. They are beautiful! A couple (5?) new Zoa colors. A great setosa frag from @kimberbee Yap yap yap.

Let's get to the fun stuff! ?

 

I have ich! It's icky. Yes everyone has ich. I learned this and a whole lot more. Put the new inhabitants in and the goby dropped dead the next day. I hit my tank with Stability when they went in, knew my parameters were great for quite a few weeks beforehand. So... What the hell. I don't have a quarantine tank so I knew I was in trouble. Kept with stability everyday, the expensive clown dropped out (go figure) Wed.

OK, now really wtf. Water still tested good, slightly high nitrates (I've been typical of that) but nothing else out of spec. Retested, yep good. 

Last night (Thurs) I noticed the living clown move by the peppermint. My peppermint isn't shy, out all the time, hand fed. Like it wanted to be cleaned... Hmm. I had blues on only... Here is the key, put my reading glasses on!!!!! (sucks getting old) I'm 51.? saw the clown looking covered in white dust. Research says.... Icky! Or some variable of ich. Grabbed a tiny bucket of Rodi, added a tiny bit of stability, pulled the clown and put it in for 3:30. Omg if you ever do this, make sure it's covered! I kept the water agitated by hand, after 2:30 this gets old and tiring, but kept it up. The clown tried to jump, 6x. Luckily I had it hand covered, scared the shit outta me the first time. 

Clown went back in, acted better, stopped by lfs after work and grabbed garlic and a skunk cleaner. 

Let's go thru all the stuff I realize, before anyone goes forum cop and says omg you can't do that! 

Yes my tank is too small for a skunk cleaner, yes it's not a cure, yes I need a quarantine tank (although that last one seems silly) be bigger than my damn display tank. I won't dose for ich because it'll wipe my peppermint and Senora, that's unacceptable. 

 

I took my free pack of Rods food, thawed it, ground 1/3 of the Dr Tim's garlic into it. Mixed it up in a zip lock and refroze it. Dumped a tad in for the clown before the refreeze but still hasn't eaten. 

Today, my Friday, the surviving clown is still that. Surviving. 

I probably have more to add, but geez it's long enough. If you got thru any of this, I always welcome recommendations, ideas, and laughs, at my ineptness to keep anything with fins alive. 

 

Let me make one think really clear, in no way,  shape, or form did those clowns from Booyah give my tank ich. I had it, bad, and didn't see it. Was the reason I've dropped a couple of fish. Totally my fault. 

[seahostler]

25 minutes ago, Mark1313 said:

Ok let's post. Another learning curve, weeeee! 

Apologies for all my bad pics, I have an old Note 3, maybe I'll upgrade this Xmas. Maybe @seahostler will make an app for people that don't have an Apple phone! ?

I went to Aquatic Experience (1st and last), it's moving to Jersey next year. Really Jersey. Went for a few specific things. 2 of which were Booyah clowns, to temp home in this 6.6 until I got the new tank ready. I bought a few other things that can stay in this tank, a couple of rics (green & orange) per @Feliciatank build and wow I'm I glad I follow that. They are beautiful! A couple (5?) new Zoa colors. A great setosa frag from @kimberbee Yap yap yap.

Let's get to the fun stuff! ?

 

I have ich! It's icky. Yes everyone has ich. I learned this and a whole lot more. Put the new inhabitants in and the goby dropped dead the next day. I hit my tank with Stability when they went in, knew my parameters were great for quite a few weeks beforehand. So... What the hell. I don't have a quarantine tank so I knew I was in trouble. Kept with stability everyday, the expensive clown dropped out (go figure) Wed.

OK, now really wtf. Water still tested good, slightly high nitrates (I've been typical of that) but nothing else out of spec. Retested, yep good. 

Last night (Thurs) I noticed the living clown move by the peppermint. My peppermint isn't shy, out all the time, hand fed. Like it wanted to be cleaned... Hmm. I had blues on only... Here is the key, put my reading glasses on!!!!! (sucks getting old) I'm 51.? saw the clown looking covered in white dust. Research says.... Icky! Or some variable of ich. Grabbed a tiny bucket of Rodi, added a tiny bit of stability, pulled the clown and put it in for 3:30. Omg if you ever do this, make sure it's covered! I kept the water agitated by hand, after 2:30 this gets old and tiring, but kept it up. The clown tried to jump, 6x. Luckily I had it hand covered, scared the shit outta me the first time. 

Clown went back in, acted better, stopped by lfs after work and grabbed garlic and a skunk cleaner. 

Let's go thru all the stuff I realize, before anyone goes forum cop and says omg you can't do that! 

Yes my tank is too small for a skunk cleaner, yes it's not a cure, yes I need a quarantine tank (although that last one seems silly) be bigger than my damn display tank. I won't dose for ich because it'll wipe my peppermint and Senora, that's unacceptable. 

 

I took my free pack of Rods food, thawed it, ground 1/3 of the Dr Tim's garlic into it. Mixed it up in a zip lock and refroze it. Dumped a tad in for the clown before the refreeze but still hasn't eaten. 

Today, my Friday, the surviving clown is still that. Surviving. 

I probably have more to add, but geez it's long enough. If you got thru any of this, I always welcome recommendations, ideas, and laughs, at my ineptness to keep anything with fins alive. 

 

Let me make one think really clear, in no way,  shape, or form did those clowns from Booyah give my tank ich. I had it, bad, and didn't see it. Was the reason I've dropped a couple of fish. Totally my fault. 

On it!

 

How are they moving it to Jersey!? It was completely packed this year!

 

Super sorry to hear about your run of bad luck. Clowns are notorious for ich and/or being 'dirty'. I learned this the hard way in a 20 high seahorse tank I was keeping about 10 years ago. Clownfish and seahorses aren't typically kept together, HOWEVER, I got this percula clown at a very young age and as with many adolescent fish, they'll play to the tanks hierarchy pretty nicely if introduced last-ish (including when it comes to feeding). My 2 hippocampus reidi seahorses would box him out at their feeding station until they were done and then he got his chance... I'm getting slightly off topic.

 

Long story short, that baby clown had ich and seahorses caught it and it wasn't until post-trauma and losing my male seahorse, that I got to reading just how common this is with clowns. I hear ya on the quarantine tank to display tank ratios. I've kept nano tanks more than any other sized tank and it's hard to justify (or have room for). That being said, ich, at more aggressive stages shows it's face pretty quickly so you might not need to keep that bonus tank up for very long. It's more the case if you are going to do coral quarantine'ing or live rock, that you need that extended time period.

 

Another random story, related to seahorse tank. I had a small 2.5 gallon tank that I was raising mysis shrimp. I was raising a baby hippocampus reidi and needed a stop gap as I trained him to eat frozen mysis. By the way, these shrimp are super fun to raise and I'm surprised more people don't raise their own food. It's so fun... until you fall in love with the food itself and don't want to feed it to your fish/corals out of compassion/empathy.

 

Anyway, I established this tank with an extremely small piece of fiji live rock from an LFS here in Chicago. Everything is good and I get the seahorse weened (so much effort) but then every day it seems like my shrimp population is dwindling, and there's no signs they're dead in the tank. Well, unluckily, my airstone got moved by accident near my heater, causing it to never turn off and overheat the tank. Well in doing so, I crashed the little tank but what it did reveal is a carnivorous crab living in the rock probably haven't the best days of it's life. 

[Mark1313]

@seahostler from what I was told at the show from vendors and what I've heard from others afterwards.

1. Chicago don't buy, they browse. The amount of people attending is nil compared to other venues that merchants attend so they don't see the bottom cash line.

2. The freshwater mix with salties tends to split the crowd, so think attendance cut in 1/2.

3. It was always intended to move locations (I'm not buying this one) if you're making money you don't pack up and wonder of you're gonna make money at the next spot. 

There's a whole school of thought on who should be there and who isn't. I have opinions after 1 trip but they are pretty much self absorbed to be honest. 

 

I'm gonna pm you a question about something different. 

 

I love the stories. I learn so much from other peoples perspective and learning curves. It's part of the reason I type this. Don't do what I do! 

Yes I'm the guilty one who would get attached to the food. I couldn't be a farmer. Let's go whack out porky or gobbley for dinner... Umm na, let's go vegan. 

 

 

 

 

[Mark1313]

1 hour ago, seahostler said:

That being said, ich, at more aggressive stages shows it's face pretty quickly so you might not need to keep that bonus tank up for very long. It's more the case if you are going to do coral quarantine'ing or live rock, that you need that extended time period.

 

See now that is advice I needed and I now need to rethink this quarantine tank. It may be my best way to go, I had in my head perm. (I had one of those in the 80's) rocked it. 

Temp is a grand idea

[Moorahs]

Nil on the recommendations, ideas or laughs - just a bit of commiseration on the ineptness for keeping fish alive. My male clown suicided yesterday (granted if I were married to someone like the female clown I may well consider the same option). I have a glass lid FFS, he fluked (aimed for?) a >1cm gap  

 

But hey - in non-finned news your tank is looking great