Katie's 1st SW nano!

[Zorya]

So, two weekends ago, I travelled to Pittsburgh to catch up with some friends who are still going to CMU for masters/ phd programs and I decided before I go that I'd take a look at the stores for corals around there and try to bring corals on the plane home with me method with some cheaper frags.  Fortunately, IT WORKED!  This is only going to really work with smaller frags and corals that CAN be out of the water for ~30min or the length it takes you to get through your local security.

 

My coral travel method:

- buy some 3 oz containers to fit in a quart bag (as per TSA guidelines) - I bought leak-proof cylindrical containers that were clear (they had an extra plastic seal at the top to prevent water from spilling)

- pre-mix saltwater at your home before you leave and fill your containers almost full with water

- take your water-filled containers with you through security to your destination

- buy your corals the day before you plan to leave or the day of (if you have time) - be sure they are in a CLEAR plastic container or bag - a clear container like a tubberware would work best so you can keep them from banging too much inside, especially when TSA checks them

- before you enter the security line, dump the water from the clear plastic container and leave the frags in there

- ask TSA to hand check them as they are a live animal and cannot go through the UV scanner (technically you can have anything you want manually checked at security, but sometimes they hassle you for a reason)

- remember, clear plastic is important because then they don't even have to take the lid off to check - leaving the air in the container moist for the corals

- on the other side of the scanners, they will give you your corals back and you can transfer them into your 3 oz jars that went through the scanner

 

I used this successfully going from Pittsburgh to Midway and then a 3 hour bus ride back home.  I put them into a little lunchbox I had that has some sort of insulation because it's COLD outside and this helped me a lot because I had to wait a couple hours extra because the bus company had to send a new bus to the airport from far away.  All the 6 frags I bought are still alive to my knowledge and doing really well: 2x frogspawn, 1x blasto, 1x sun coral, 1x mushroom, 1x trumpet.

[Lula_Mae]

On 11/5/2017 at 5:29 PM, Zorya said:

These past few weeks have been crazy, but here's another tank update with some pictures to follow :).

 

Livestock:

- 1x purple firefish (Lord George Snickerdoodle has found a tiny cave entrance at the base of the tallest rock on the left and has since claimed it as his own.)

- 2x black snowflake/ phantom clownfish (just got them on Saturday and they are so adorable)

 

Flora:

- large bunches of dragon's breath (wow, got some on the cheap from a local hobbiest and also two free frags!)

- chaeto (in hob right now temporarily)

 

Corals:

- 2x gsp frags (one in front, one on back glass)

- 1x unknown paly (free :O)

 

Tank:

- moved the Koralia 425 to the front and removed the hob as mentioned before

- just moved all the powerheads to keep things moving

- added tiny amount of polyfill and activated carbon to the chamber of the elite mini

- FOUND A SMALL CRACK ON THE TOP CORNER OF MY TANK NOOOOOO!

 

Musings:

My clownfish are very active.  I've been watching them at the LFS for quite some time (a few months now) and when I finally decided to purchase them, the girl who caught them for me mentioned she was glad they found a home cause they have been there for awhile (it might've been because of price).  They are SA black snowflakes and I'm not terribly informed about the 'attractiveness' of color variations or patterns, but I knew I wanted this specific pattern for awhile.  Although expensive, I managed to snag them during the marine fish discount weekend which was fortuitous timing for me in adding livestock.

 

On the other hand, after I added them into the tank and got food for them and returned, I found a small crack ~1" going from the top rim of the tank straight down.  After initially freaking out, I put some clear tape over it on the outside and traced the crack in sharpie.  It will at least give me an idea on if it's growing or not (hasn't since yesterday), but now I'm in the market for a new tank.  Might be my luck, but this has been the second Aqueon 10gal standard aquarium that has cracked on me (the last being a freshwater in my office).

 

I'm thinking about one of those all-in-one tanks between 15-30 gallons like a cube, but I'm also looking at some other options.  I hope my fish don't end up on the floor before I can get the new tank into my tiny apartment, set up, modded, and transferred.

I was going to say that I think it was Bulk Reef Supply has IM tanks on sale at the moment but it looks like you got a tank already!

[Zorya]

On 11/21/2017 at 12:32 AM, Lula_Mae said:

I was going to say that I think it was Bulk Reef Supply has IM tanks on sale at the moment but it looks like you got a tank already!

I was looking at brs and marine depot, but I ended up getting a great deal on the tank used. Because I had told the seller I was also going to transfer my freshwater fish to a 20L, he threw one in for free. But I ended up getting the jbj 20 lagoon with only 6 months use, the stand for it, a 20L, and an AI Prime nonHD for $275. And he really didn’t need to, but he threw in a ton of quick start and dechlorinator samples and three containers of marine flake that my fish will never get through - so I’m regifting some of it to the reef club for white elephant gifts. 

[Zorya]

So yesterday I went and got the tanks at 11am and I worked until 11:30 pm transferring everything over with breaks.  Whew I was exhausted. Some highlights below:

 

Freshwater:

This is the one I did first in order to get my 10gal community out of the way for where the saltwater was going. I bought some more pieces of driftwood and used eco complete to round out the tank with the tons of plants I already have. My friends came over to help move the saltwater tank into place because it was a little heavy and awkward for me to get up to the third floor with only stairs as an option, but they got to see me put the fish into the freshwater because the water just cleared up. Both bettas were added at the same time in opposite sides of the tank in environments that looked very similar to what they were used to. I put the same plants from their homes on each of their sides, respectively. They found each other after about a minute and didn’t flare or attack or even really care about each other. It was more of a: hey, I haven’t seen you before, okay you’re another fish.  looks good so far. They are both very placid. The red one, Magmar, I wasn’t considering for this because he is a snail anatagonizer and I thought he’d be an aggressor, but recently he got really sick and I was able to cure him and he has settled down a lot. Both have the same lazy attitude temperament and were swimming together. 

 

Saltwater:

I bought another bag of sand which may have been a mistake, but now I have tons of sand for a fuge. I managed to catch all the little buggers after moving the live rock over (with firefish inside because it was nighttime and he doesn’t leave the hideout at night). Water was so cloudy even though I rinsed the sand for 45minutes under running tap...  but it’s the morning now and I’ll just have to change the filter floor and vacuum in the back portions - the water is almost back to normal. All the corals spent the night in a bucket with a small powerhead - I’m sure they were thrilled because the snails and hermits were in there too. 

[Zorya]

Moved everything and everyone over the course of two days and all my saltwater fish died  not sure what happened to the clowns, but the firefish beat himself up inside his cave when moving him because he didn’t want to come out to transfer him separately. All the parameters checked out in the water for the new tank, was testing every couple of hours to make sure even though I was transferring all the sand and rock from the other tank. 

 

Will be running it fallow until after the first of the year. I’m still posting pictures of the after, but no fish in the saltwater tank

[Zorya]

Got a new rock for the right side of the tank to up my lbs/ gal and it looks really neat!

 

All the corals are peeking up too and my shrimp is still active as ever and loves the new rock. Unfortunately, he wants to share the same spot as the sun coral polyp and it stings his feelers whenever he’s over that way at night and he hasn’t quite figured it out yet. 

[benstatic]

Bummer about your fish during the move

Maybe a transitioning issue to different water?

 

Excited to see how your 20L grows out, that is what I have going also - but you are further along in the process (I am on week 2 of cyling, its close). 

 

Did your nassarius snails survive?  How deep sand do you have - I only have < 1.5inch - not sure if I should get those or not.

How have you never had nitrate readings in your FW setups?  You might want to check you are using a non-expired kit and testing correctly, I can't seem to get my freshwater 55 gal below 5 ppm.  Though I am running CO2 and injecting NPK for the plants, they consume quite a bit of nitrate.

[Zorya]

I’ve narrowed it down to the sand bed. Since I didn’t have the sand for long in the old tank and occasionally stirred during water changes, I thought I wouldn’t have much kick up of ammonia. I tested the water with a non expired kit before adding prime just to be extra safe and besides the firefish freaking out, causing everyone else to freak out, not sure what happened. My shrimp SHRIMP is still alive and I kind of just threw him in because he was being a bother. But that’s it for the saltwater. The saltwater mix was the same - I used half old water and half new so it was a 50% wc. All the snails and corals and hermies are still alive and doing well. Just not the fish

 

Last night i actually got a plate coral and some clove polyps and the plate coral ended up being a dance pad for the shrimp until it started to goo like crazy. 

 

Not sure why, but my parameters are always perfect on my freshwater tanks. I’ve stopped testing as my fish are good indicators of something going wrong because I watch them so much. I never had ammonia or nitrite spikes and I’ve got too many fast growing plants to have any nitrate issues. I stopped dosing awhile back too, but when the plants look like they need some extra minerals, I’ll dose a half amount. I don’t feed the fish on Wednesdays or Saturdays. Same thing for the shrimp tank, except I only feed every other day. I can’t really give you that much advice on it because every tank is different, but the three tanks I combined into that one were established for about 6months and running stable parameters on my current 20% wc weekly and feeding for the entire time after cycling.

 

On a side note, I think the type of food you feed will vary your parameters. Just as freshwater food gives off tons of phosphates in saltwater tanks, good freshwater food gives less wastes as the fish can metabolize more of the ingredients present. I feed only NLS thera small sinking pellets because my guppies and bettas love them. 

[Zorya]

New update for the new year!

 

Got my first fish since the tank meltdown and it is a firefish. The person who I bought it from had it ordered in bulk shipment along with a lot of other people’s fish and corals to sell in their store and the boxes were delayed due to bad weather! 2/3 boxes arrived one day late with 50% casualties and the last box that my fish was in arrive the next day (2 days late!) with obvious damage to the box, broken off chunks of styrofoam, punctured bags with water dripping out of them and dead fish. Only 10% of the livestock lived and I could still smell some of what happened during unboxing from earlier this morning.  fortunately my firefish came in okay and his water was super cold so they floated him in their tank to warm him up and he started swimming around some more. I got him home and acclimated him and he’s eaten already and swimming around to look at his new home. 

 

During winter break, I found some of the shells I had collected from the beach and selected some to put in the tank. I live next to the ocean, so it is cool that I can incorporate some of that in my aquarium now that I’m no longer by the beach. 

 

I successfully kept all my fish alive live when I went home for winter break for 2.5weeks. I put vacation feeder pyramids into the aquariums and one crab shaped one that didn’t have copper in it for Bobbert the shrimp in the saltwater. He had already dug a huge hole in it overnight before I left, so I was worried he would be working on it all day when I was traveling and have none for the rest of the trip, but he managed to survive. 

[benstatic]

Quote

plate coral ended up being a dance pad for the shrimp

Why do those inverts do this stuff!?  Drives me nuts!  My blue leg hermit lived in my trumpet coral for a few weeks before I finally booted him - he would just come back.  Finally he found more interesting places to go in my tank.

The firefish looks cool.

What is the green thing hanging from the back wall?

[Zorya]

The green stuff in the back is gsp. I’m just going to let it carpet the entire back wall of the tank. Believe it or not, I super glued only a tiny part and the rest of it has attached firmly to the back (I did the same thing for the glass wall on the tank that cracked). It looks weird cause I got it as a frag off of a finger-like rock and it was peeled off, but not flattened. It has polyps on the side exposed to light and on the backside it’s bare - just purple mat. So it’s kind of like an arch....

 

Just kidding, I took this picture and the polyps on the back opened. It’s usually got more extension with flow on it, but my firefish was having a hard time with the current, so I adjusted it temporarily. 

[Lisa166]

Did you do anything special to make the things survive for 2.5 weeks? I am afraid to leave my tank for ore than a couple of days. But being able to leave it for a week, or even two, when I am too sick for uni would make my life so much easier. 

[Zorya]

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 12:41 PM, Lisa166 said:

Did you do anything special to make the things survive for 2.5 weeks? I am afraid to leave my tank for ore than a couple of days. But being able to leave it for a week, or even two, when I am too sick for uni would make my life so much easier. 

Hi!  I bought some vacation feeders at my LFS.  I specifically picked ones that didn't have any copper in them for the saltwater because I knew the shrimp was going to be picking at it non stop and I wanted to be sure he didn't overdose himself on whatever trace copper was in it.  For the other tanks, I didn't go for the non copper ones (because they were 14-day, non copper only 7-day).  I also have an automatic feeder which I occasionally test on weekends when I'm around to troubleshoot it, but so far I haven't needed to adjust it/ it hasn't broken or fallen in.  Hopefully this gives you some ideas.

 

If you have enough copepod/ amphipod population hanging around, your fish will predate them more than if you regularly feed.  Also, fish can survive quite awhile without eating (a week!), so I figured if I could keep them fed for the first half of my vacation, they would be okay until I returned.  I was also super stressed out about coming back to find dead fish, but everyone survived!

 

Some people don't do this, but I also cover the entire top with plastic wrap and tape it so it doesn't fall in and cover the surface, then I poke/ cut some small holes in it to keep fresh air circulating.  One of my friends didn't do this and lost half his tank (freshwater) when he left for a week because half the water evaporated out.

[Zorya]

Got a new frogspawn coral and it came with a funny black sponge. Currently in progress is making a lid for the tank. Also getting a Randall’s goby on Wednesday.  The person I got my lid mesh and the frogspawn from gave me a sample of jimbos reef gumbo and my firefish was trying to eat it out of my hand and then looking very surprised for the rest of the day. 

[Zorya]

Update on the 20gallon long freshwater community planted tank!

 

I went to the local fish auction held by the club I’m in and got a pair of electric German blue rams . They are super cute and swim together all the time. I’m going to get them a nice flower pot later this week so they have another area to call home where they normally swim. Sonic the betta doesn’t seem to mind them or the new pygmy cory squad I got... it the couple amanos I put in there... or the wild type neos I put in there. Also put a power head to help get more flow from one side of the tank to the other because I have the hob on one of the short ends. 

 

Pics are the new male gbr, sonic and the female ram selfie, and two of the original pygmy cories in a double perch. The new pygmies are still swimming around too much to get a good picture, but instead of lines on the side, it’s spots. 

[Zorya]

Saltwater update:

 

Added:

2x clownfish

Duncan coral

candy cane coral

mushrooms on a cool looking rock

 

My goby didn’t end up coming in the shipment this last week, so I went ahead and added these new additions first. The clownfish are super happy settling into the big tank. All the corals and fish came from another grad student who is graduating and breaking down his tanks at the lab (he does marine biology). The firefish doesn’t seem terribly scared, so I got a FTS with all current inhabitants, except two hitchiker serpent starfish that immediately crawled into the rock work (they were on the mushroom rock pre dip).

 

[Zorya]

New version of the FTS from above when I had the powerheads off!

 

[Zorya]

oh god it looks so purply/pink when before it was dark blue

[Zorya]

Got a 12gal cube on the cheap... Thinking of putting a BTA and the two clownfish into this tank with a bunch of macroalgae so they have their own space (and yes, you female clownfish, stop trying to boop Bobbert on the rostrum)

I have Dragon's breath going strong right now, but looking to add other macro colors and shapes to make it interesting.  After looking at the ebay macro seller, I'm thinking:

- sea lettuce

- golden sargassum (brown kelp)

- red gracilaria (red pom pom)

- red grape caulerpa (not a real caulerpa)

- blue hypnea

- pink hetereosiphonia (some random pink fluffy looking thing)

 

I'm willing to take some suggestions!  Important that it has a low chance (or none) of going sexual.

[Zorya]

Just found out Bobbert is a female.... she’s the only one in the tank though, so why does she suddenly have eggs?

[Zorya]

Set up a new tank in hopes of moving the clownfish and having a bta in a separate system. Here’s what I’ve got right now as the rock scape. I had trouble deciding sand or no sand, but ultimately went with about 1/4” deep sand to just give the illusion of sand and have a little something for extra bacteria population. I’m just running it with the live rock for a week before I move over some snails and maybe get a fire shrimp for this set up.

 

i tried to get most of the rock work up into the water column, rather than having a lot of it on the glass bottom or buried in the sand. There’s a ton of little holes and arches and I rather like the design!

 

[Zorya]

Obligatory update since I’m starting a new tank!

 

Bobbert the firefish has died the previous week. He was looking really sluggish and then failed his molt 😞. Rest in pepperonis bobbert. I’ll have to get another cleaner shrimp sometime in the future (at least after I get home from vacation). 

 

I added a purple firefish which gets along very nicely with my red firefish. They used to sleep together, but now have their own sleeping quarters since I redid my sand bed. 

 

I added a pygmy angelfish which is now going to move into the 29gal biocube once I catch it because...... I finally have a tailspot blenny! This fish has been on my wishlist for awhile now and my friend got me one at reefapalooza this past weekend. He’s so tiny and has so much personality, but right after he got in the tank, the angelfish insisted on having a punch out, so the angel is getting moved. 

 

The last addition was the clownfish that came with the biocube. I put her in this tank since I was going to put the two of mine into the cube. Her personality really suits the tank as she’s very personable and gets along with everybody. 

 

The fish:

Bullseye

Purple firefish and red firefish (aka Lord George Mortimer Snickerdoodle the Disdainful II)

Lenny the blenny:

 

FTS (06/25/2018):

[benjho]

Hey there! I was wondering what are you using as a return pump for the jbj 20g shallow?

I bought the same tank but it didn't come with a pump....thanks.

[Zorya]

15 hours ago, benjho said:

Hey there! I was wondering what are you using as a return pump for the jbj 20g shallow?

I bought the same tank but it didn't come with a pump....thanks.

Hey. Mine came with the return pump on it, but any standard pump would work. Since I have sand I am using the return pump with a koralia in it to supplement the flow, but if you aren’t doing sand and you can adjust the spray bar to point along the ground you could have just the one pump for your system. My water turnover rate is about 33x per hour, but I’ve got a lot of rock. 

 

I tried the maxspect pumps to up the flow before deciding to use the stock pump and it fit 🙂. Hope this helps. The fitting is standard size.

[Zorya]

Some updates of the tank before I left for vacation!

 

Basically all pictures of Lenny. I tried to put my finger by his face so he can get more used to me when my hands are in the tank and he took a very courageous bite at my finger nail. Well, now I know he doesn’t really care about my hand. 

 

Also put a vacation feeder by where my clown sleeps (read: not in where she sleeps) and she didn’t like it and moved elsewhere. She dug out all that sand by the shell where there’s a bare spot. But she’s recently taken interest in the duncan, so maybe she will have a new home when I’m back!