Laj's 10 --> A Long Overdue Update + photo dump

[YaBoyLaj]

TANK - Aqueon 10g

Filter- Aquaclear 20

Skimmer-ReefOctopus NS80 (no longer in use)

Lighting- HIPARGERO LED (basically a chinese hydra knockoff)

Sand- AragAlive Hawaiian Black

 

Coral/Nems

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2 Toadstool Leathers

1 Neon Green Sinularia

2 Ricordea Florida

1 Rock Flower Nem

1 Unknown Dendrophyllia Sp.

1 Green Fungia Plate

1 Rhodactis Shroom

1 Orange Discosoma

Way too much xenia

3 Small Acan Colonies

Gruube's Gorgonian

Bushy Sea Rod (Plexaura homomalla)

Knobby Sea Rod (Eunicea sp)

Unknown Photosynthetic Species (possibly Rumphella sp.)

 

Fish

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Yellow Watchman Goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus)

Orbiculate Cardinalfish (Sphaeramia orbicularis)

Springeri Damsel ( Chrysiptera springeri)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pappadumplingz]

Always wanted a tubercated angler but they are too rare and expensive. Good luck on this new tank, will be following closely.

[YaBoyLaj]

22 hours ago, pappadumplingz said:

Always wanted a tubercated angler but they are too rare and expensive. Good luck on this new tank, will be following closely.

same, they're so pretty and cool, but what u said is spot on  

[YaBoyLaj]

So the gooseneck for the LED bulb will be here either thurs or fri! Also will be picking up the SeaStar strip and some plexiglass for a lid to help with evaporation... the skimmer is very sensitive to the water level and makes it a pain to top off 2-3 times a day 

[Hobbs]

Pretty neat! I assume you’re gonna put in a couple anemones?

My next tank im planning is gonna be a shrimp tank too. Definitely want a harlequin but if you don’t have a dedicated refugium with chocolate chips in there it’ll be tricky.

[YaBoyLaj]

51 minutes ago, Hobbs said:

Pretty neat! I assume you’re gonna put in a couple anemones?

My next tank im planning is gonna be a shrimp tank too. Definitely want a harlequin but if you don’t have a dedicated refugium with chocolate chips in there it’ll be tricky.

Oh for sure! RFAs only, mini maxis seem a bit risky but i may in the future! I used to have a pair of harlequins! Awesome inverts, I used to get them a CCS every 1-2 weeks... it got pricey but it was totally worth it

[YaBoyLaj]

First algae spots have started appearing, first w/c will take place next week! I will add a tester coral (xenia from the 30) and maybe a fish... mayybbeee a fish lol 

[YaBoyLaj]

So here she is! The rock structure will be for corals that need anchoring, various softies, lps and possibly some monti up top, the little cove is specifically for fungia plates and various shrooms and that open space is for macros, larger LPS corals or corals that dont require much light such as nps sponges, suns, dendros or some other thing i cant think of atm  

[vlangel]

I am liking this idea for a tank.  I love shrimp too.  It looks like you are off to a good start!

[YaBoyLaj]

I was looking thru the seagrest catalog and it looks like they can get Periclimenes Yucatan in, a very pretty variety of shrimp. I'll prolly order one from one of my LFS's but before that I need to get some test corals in and make sure my parameters are 100% perfect due to how sensitive some of these dudes are 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

How many shrimp species do you think you'll be keeping?

 

-Kamran

[YaBoyLaj]

21 hours ago, SantaMonicaHelp said:

How many shrimp species do you think you'll be keeping?

 

-Kamran

Depends on how many I can get ahold of, I'll prolly end with around 7-9

[YaBoyLaj]

ok so good and bad news! The tank is GREEN and params are exactly where they should be... thankfully  my first fish (a golden damsel)  or as I like to call him, meringue, is doing great and has been cruising around the tank while the hermits have been shuffling around doing hermit crab things. The bad news is every snail I have put in dies by the next morning, proper drips were done prior to adding them, so I have come to 2 options 1. Bad batch of snails or 2. some how there is copper in the tank which would surprise the hell out of me... but who knows, I'll be testing for that mañana

[YaBoyLaj]

Ok so everything is still going strong! Tested for copper and it tested at 0 thankfully which means that it's just a bad batch of snails 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Well, I'm happy to hear about the fish. Hopefully the snail thing really was just a coincidence, but only time will tell.

 

-Kamran

[YaBoyLaj]

Nassarious was out and about tonight! So i guess the others were just flops 

[YaBoyLaj]

Ok so I have a question, do you guys think my protein skimmer is necessary? I've seen arguments for and against on a 10g. My reason for asking is I moved some xenia, sympodium (I think it's sympodium) and my yuma which have been thriving in my 12 to the 10 and they drastically changed for the worse. The parameters are nearly identical, but still did a proper acclimation just to be safe. The temp is held at 78 in both systems, the only major difference I know of is the skimmer and light, light isn't too far off either. My 12 has been running strong for almost a year now with no skimmer but with religious dosing and weekly w/c's. The 10 has a skimmer PLUS weekly w/c's, I'm starting to think that the water may be too clean and since these are softies, maybe they aren't too happy about it. Any input would be much appreciated 

[YaBoyLaj]

Ok so many things have changed, I removed the skimmer and couldn't be happier, caved and bought the sea star light and am using it in unison with the bulb and again, loving it. Got a few more corals and a lid top deal with the evaporation. 2 trochus snails are kicking ass on dealing with algae on the rock and moved a small orange RFA from the 12 to this tank and last but not least, the collection of anemone shrimp has begun! A small periclimenes brevicarpalis, a species I have kept before, is doing great and has already molted!

 

 

[YaBoyLaj]

Tank's still chugging along, the shrimp molted again and the damsel is doing great! The aquaclear is one hell of a filter, the water stays crystal clear, pretty dang happy with it. Ordered another coral compulsion bulb, the sea star light was too yellow, made the tank look like it had food coloring in it  did a complete re-scape, I never knew first hand how much a scape can alter the "size" of the tank, with the one side barren and one side rock, the tank looked too small, with a scape spanning the full tank length, it looks bigger... funny how things work.

[YaBoyLaj]

So the corals are doing well and it turns out my damsel is a voracious predator of flakes, it pretty fun to watch him lol

problem i'm having is that I cant find the shrimp, it's not a big tank so... 

Pretty nervous rn haha, Ima check when the lights are off, maybe he's gone into cryptic mode 

[YaBoyLaj]

Ok so the shrimp definitely died, idk how but I've seen a lot of strange disappearances lately so I'm not questioning it too much. The tank was recently moved upstairs to make water changes easier by having the systems much closer together. Got some red macros which seem to be doing well and the Damsel is still chugging along. All the mushrooms seem to really enjoy the light and the orange rhodactis has split. I'm planning on getting an oddball fish for this tank, so that's something I can look forwards to lol.

[YaBoyLaj]

 

[YaBoyLaj]

Oh and for anyone who's kept macros, I've considered using a bit of superglue to anchor the algae to the rock structure, but need a second opinion before I start doing that. Is that an ok thing to do or not?

[vlangel]

I was also considering doing that but I haven't done it yet.

[YaBoyLaj]

So I spent the majority of last night working on all 3 of my tanks, lots of issues, but was able to get them functioning pretty well. Today I'll be picking up some Kent products for dosing (trace & iron) and will also be adding a small rio powerhead for some extra flow towards the bottom of the system. The AC20 does an incredible job and has already amassed a large collection of crap in the sponges and carbon. I feel like carbon really defeats the purpose of having macros as it takes up the nutrients they need to thrive. So today I'll be swapping the stock 3 stage for my trusty classic cut to fit black filter sponge and filterwatte and see how that works!