Lorekeeper's 10 Gallon Mixed Reef!

[Lorekeeper]

Hello all!

 

For anyone who knows me, I've always mainly hung about in the pico forum. This tank actually started as a 2 gallon jar, and has worked it's way up to a 10 gallon. The bug for more fish is always a pain! Not that I'm complaining...

 

I'm gonna treat this as a whole new thread, since I closed my old one in the pico forum. So, here's all the basic info:

 

Equipment List:

Top Fin HOB, running carbon and a small sponge I'll keep cycled for emergencies

Aqueon 50W adjustable heater, set to 80F

2 Desk Lamps, one running a 21W PAR 30, and the other running a 15W PAR 30. I'll soon be upgrading the 15W to a 21W. Creates what I'd consider the upper end of medium-high light.

ATO - This hasn't been implemented yet. I was using a simple ATO with a couple of water bottles on my 5.5, but I may go to a hamster bottle ATO for a more sturdy and long-term solution.

4 lbs of live rock, and 2 lbs of base rock. I'll be adding at least one more piece once I find one that I like to raise the left side of the rockwork up a little, and I'll be placing a torch up there.

 

Stocking list:

Inverts:

1 Scarlet Hermit

6 Cerith Snails

1 Emerald Crab (female, thank god)

TONS of huge brittle stars. I only include these because there are so many!

 

Coral:

GSP (I'm going for a GSP substrate)

Orange Zoas

Green Zoas (that are more brown than anything)

Pink Zoas

Neon Green Candy Cane 

Australian Painted War Coral

1x Mystery coral that I haven't been able to identify yet. I'll post pics once it opens up a bit more. Just got added to the tank!

 

Macroalgae:

Caulerpa Prolifera

 

Fish:

2x ~1" Pink Skunk Clowns, locally bred and raised. This is the reason for the upgrade. These guys will be paired and grown out in this tank, and then moved into a 20 long/29 when I'm off to college. 

I had considered a balloon molly, but didn't want to risk it being killed by the clowns. Thoughts?

 

The mystery coral and second clown were both added earlier today, and so far, so good. The clowns have pretty immediately taken to eachother, and other than a bit of chasing, I haven't seen any aggression. They've been swimming together for 3 hours now. I doubt that they're really old enough to sex up, so I'm sure the brunt of the aggression will come in the next month or so. Hopefully, it'll be swift and there won't be too much damage done. Tank has been up for 24 hours, and all parameters are reading fine. My tanks get 50% WC'd weekly, and that won't change with this tank, unless I find that I'm too low on Nitrate.

 

Pics!

 

FTS:

 

The original Clown:

 

Candy Cane:

 

Lots of coral:

 

The two clowns together, shortly after being added:

 

And the mystery coral. Bad pic, I know. I'll get a better one tomorrow, when the lights are on.

 

[Lorekeeper]

The mystery coral is a rhodactis mushroom! Don't know why I didn't recognize it the moment I saw it.

 

 

The clowns have done better than I thought. I saw some quick chasing last night, but they've done pretty well all day. No fighting. They're both eating well, although I did add some garlic to my food. Thought I saw a white spot on the old clown, so I'm hoping that this'll just get him over that, if he does indeed have ich. I think it was probably just some debris, though.

[el_ote]

Super cool. Those clowns are really good looking. I'm surprised I don't see them much on here.

[1.0reef]

Glad to see someone got some skunk clowns! Probably the most underrated clownfish out there

[Lorekeeper]

Yeah, they're really cool fish!

 

I think one reason they get overlooked is their lack of color in pictures. They don't have much of a pattern, and the color is a bit underwhelming. What you don't see in pictures is the fluorescence of their fins and the blues/greens that fluorescence produces. 

[Lorekeeper]

No ich! Turned out to just be some stuff on the fish's slime coat. I've been seeing spots appear and disappear very often, and I'm guessing it's due to it stirring up debris on the tank floor looking for food. They're loving the fresh garlic, though!

 

No big changes to the tank yet. Everyone has adjusted to the move well. All the corals have completely recovered except for the war coral, but that's been my experience with this guy the entire time. It'll come around in a week or so.

 

The clowns have definitely come to an understanding, even if they aren't really sexed up yet. The larger clown has done more chasing, and usually the smaller clown will cower and hide for a few seconds. Not old enough to actually become a pair, I don't think, but I think they're on their way. It's been surprisingly peaceful, other than those occasional chases. No fighting, and they're always swimming together and sleeping together. They're much more fun to watch in pairs, for sure.

 

Speaking of fish, am I pretty stocked in this tank? I know that I have some room bioload-wise. I do WC's often, and rarely have to skip one. I'm more worried about the fish just being cramped. I've seen people online (even on this forum) keeping a pair of fully-grown percs with something like a firefish, a royal gramma, or a damsel before. Is that a reasonable goal, considering how small these clowns are and how slowly they're likely to grow? I was personally thinking about something along the lines of a balloon molly, or possibly a royal gramma. Something that'll add variety. Just wanted some opinions here!

[Type-H20]

On 5/4/2018 at 9:39 PM, Lorekeeper said:

Hello all!

 

For anyone who knows me, I've always mainly hung about in the pico forum. This tank actually started as a 2 gallon jar, and has worked it's way up to a 10 gallon. The bug for more fish is always a pain! Not that I'm complaining...

 

I'm gonna treat this as a whole new thread, since I closed my old one in the pico forum. So, here's all the basic info:

 

Equipment List:

Top Fin HOB, running carbon and a small sponge I'll keep cycled for emergencies

Aqueon 50W adjustable heater, set to 80F

2 Desk Lamps, one running a 21W PAR 30, and the other running a 15W PAR 30. I'll soon be upgrading the 15W to a 21W. Creates what I'd consider the upper end of medium-high light.

ATO - This hasn't been implemented yet. I was using a simple ATO with a couple of water bottles on my 5.5, but I may go to a hamster bottle ATO for a more sturdy and long-term solution.

4 lbs of live rock, and 2 lbs of base rock. I'll be adding at least one more piece once I find one that I like to raise the left side of the rockwork up a little, and I'll be placing a torch up there.

 

Stocking list:

Inverts:

1 Scarlet Hermit

6 Cerith Snails

1 Emerald Crab (female, thank god)

TONS of huge brittle stars. I only include these because there are so many!

 

Coral:

GSP (I'm going for a GSP substrate)

Orange Zoas

Green Zoas (that are more brown than anything)

Pink Zoas

Neon Green Candy Cane 

Australian Painted War Coral

1x Mystery coral that I haven't been able to identify yet. I'll post pics once it opens up a bit more. Just got added to the tank!

 

Macroalgae:

Caulerpa Prolifera

 

Fish:

2x ~1" Pink Skunk Clowns, locally bred and raised. This is the reason for the upgrade. These guys will be paired and grown out in this tank, and then moved into a 20 long/29 when I'm off to college. 

I had considered a balloon molly, but didn't want to risk it being killed by the clowns. Thoughts?

 

The mystery coral and second clown were both added earlier today, and so far, so good. The clowns have pretty immediately taken to eachother, and other than a bit of chasing, I haven't seen any aggression. They've been swimming together for 3 hours now. I doubt that they're really old enough to sex up, so I'm sure the brunt of the aggression will come in the next month or so. Hopefully, it'll be swift and there won't be too much damage done. Tank has been up for 24 hours, and all parameters are reading fine. My tanks get 50% WC'd weekly, and that won't change with this tank, unless I find that I'm too low on Nitrate.

 

Pics!

 

FTS:

 

The original Clown:

 

Candy Cane:

 

Lots of coral:

 

The two clowns together, shortly after being added:

 

And the mystery coral. Bad pic, I know. I'll get a better one tomorrow, when the lights are on.

 

Really like the skunks.   Does the 10 seem "huge" coming from a 2g pico?

[Lorekeeper]

It does! Just having the room to work around in the tank is pretty weird.

[ffoott]

12 hours ago, Lorekeeper said:

Speaking of fish, am I pretty stocked in this tank?

 

 

Helped me make decisions fo my 12g ^^

[Lorekeeper]

9 hours ago, ffoott said:

 

 

Helped me make decisions fo my 12g ^^

Thanks! I've actually used that thread quite often for previous tanks.

 

Only thing is, that with this tank, it's mainly a grow-out and holding tank until I get a 29 set up next year. Going by this list, I'm overstocked, when in reality, my fish would be comfortable in here for a few years while they mature. Lists like this are a great place to start, though.

 

Personally, I think a small addition would be fine. But, I'd like some thoughts from the members around here.

[Lorekeeper]

Lol, well... that was interesting.

 

Went and got a molly to add into the tank. Acclimated it to SW, got it to temp, and released it. All was well last night, and this morning. Came home, and the clowns were ripping the poor things fins to shreds. I moved the molly into a bucket of SW with a sponge filter and a heater, and it seems alright now. Oops! I had no clue these clowns would be so aggressive, especially given how mellow they are with each other. Guess every pair is different...

 

I won't be trying another fish until I get the larger tank up and running. Probably best for everyone!

 

Pretty fish though.

[Lorekeeper]

Added back my old bottle ATO onto the tank. New setup just wasn't doing as well. Replaced the old bottle with a new 2-liter pop bottle, so hopefully it'll last a bit longer!

 

Oh, and here's a picture of the shroom now that it's colored up!

[Lorekeeper]

Yesterday was this tank's first WC, and I did a full 5 gallons. Water parameters were pretty nice, even after a week and a half, so I may cut down to around 3-4 gallons weekly in the future.

 

Parameters right before the water change were as follows:

 

Ammonia/Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 12 PPM
Phosphate: 0.1 PPM (staying pretty stable around here!)
SG: 1.024
Alk: 8.9
Calc: 410
PH: 8.2

 

So I'm going to assume nitrate to be around 10 at a full week, or possibly a bit higher as I add more corals and change stuff around. Phosphate is as low as it's been so far, so I'm pretty happy with that number!

 

I moved the Rhodactis onto a rock, to keep the snails from pushing it around the glass floor. It seems pretty happy where I put it (low flow, relatively low light) and has opened up bigger than it has in my tank before.

The War Coral got moved from the back wall onto a rock as well, since it just wasn't really doing it for me. I couldn't see it back there, and the green of it's eyes were getting lost with the shadow. It seems to be happy where I put it, and I'm much happier being able to discern it's color!

 

[Lorekeeper]

So, I've been down in Tennessee for a month dealing with a family emergency - and the tank was left in the hands of a friend. He topped off water whenever it was needed and fed every 2 days, but we had some issues. 

 

I lost the larger clown, sadly. No clue what took her, but the smaller guy is fine. No obvious disease on the body, either. I'm keeping a close watch on the survivor, but he's doing alright so far. Eating well, very active, and very friendly.

 

I came back to a tank with an SG close to 1.030, and nitrates over 80 PPM. Surprisingly, the tank isn't that much worse for wear - there's some obvious cleaning to do, and some of the corals need some recovery time, but everyone except for the orange zoas are open and looking better. I lost a cerith, but both crabs and the rest of the snails are all still kicking.

 

Here are some pics of the last few days, starting on Tuesday when I got back till today.

 

FTS as soon as I got home:

 

FTS after WC:

\\

 

A picture of the candy cane starting to look a bit better:

 

The war coral, starting to color back up a bit:

 

And the clown, always loving the camera:

 

I'm not sure whether or not I'll be getting another skunk, or if I'll add something else once the tank settles back out - but if anyone has suggestions, I'll gladly hear them!

 

 

[Lorekeeper]

The tank is looking much better after a few 50% WC's along with daily 10%'s. Nitrates are back down to below 5 PPM, and phosphates are down to around 0.15. Higher than they were, but much better than they used to be. All other parameters are back under control as well, and I've found a new friend to take care of the tank from now on 🙄

 

I ordered an ABI PAR 38 last night to replace one of the cheap Chinese bulbs that I'm using, in hopes that I can get a bit better color and growth out of my coral. I went with the 10000K bulb over the Tuna Blue. Should be here sometime between Tuesday and Thursday, depending on when they ship it out.

 

I actually went to my LFS, looking for another brood of Pink Skunks, and was only able to find one about 2-3" long. Much too big to pair with my little guy. But, I found a few things that I'm pretty excited about!

 

Firstly, I was given an anemone that was pretty much dying in the LFS's fish display. They had ordered it for a customer who never came to pick it up, and since they don't deal in coral, they didn't have any decent lighting to put it under. So it pretty much starved for a couple weeks. The owner gave it to me to see what I could do with it, and I'm happy to report that I think it's doing much better! The poor thing is almost as bleached as they come, with only the slightest hint of tan left on it's tentacles. That said, it's been inflating a bit more everyday in my tank, and my clown has quickly taken a liking to it. I'm not sure if he's full on hosting yet, but he's spent most of his time swimming around it and rubbing up against it. At this point, I'm pretty sure it's a Long Tentacle Anemone - and it'll need a sandbed, as well as a much larger tank, if it survives. I'll deal with that once I'm sure it's going to make a recovery; for now, it's about 2-3" across and has attached itself to my rockwork. I've been feeding it 2-3 small mysis everyday, and will continue that for a week; then I'll cut back to every 2 days, and so on.

 

Secondly, I bought a blackline fang blenny. Caught my attention as soon as I walked in, and I really did have to have him! Chalk full of personality, relatively peaceful, and colorful. Since I got him home, he's been spending almost all of his time either picking on algae, or swimming out in the water column. Very pretty little guy! No aggression issues with my clown either, save for a feeding spat that was quickly resolved.

 

FTS: Pardon my algae

 

Anemone:

 

 

[Lorekeeper]

So, has anyone got any input on getting fang blennies to eat? Despite them being a tank-bred species in the trade, I can't seem to find much info on the blackline blenny at all, and even expanding the search to that entire family of blennies hasn't yielded great results.

 

I know that they're omnivores, but I'm not exactly sure if they'll really pick at algae like other blennies do either. So far he's not really shown too much interest in mysis or nori, even when they've been soaked in garlic. I've yet to try feeding the nori on anything other than an algae clip, so that's something I need to try, but other than that, I'm stumped.

 

It's only been 4 days, but still - his stomach is noticeably sinking a bit.

[straydog]

I've always taken a small piece of norI and placed it  between my thumb and finger and rubbed till the norI separated ( it looked like fish flake food)  everything in the tank always went after it.

[Lorekeeper]

Thanks for the tip! I'll try that when I feed in the morning. He seems interested in food, but never really goes for anything - almost like you'll see Mandarins do. They study the food as it floats by, but never go in for a bite.

[Lorekeeper]

No dice on the nori flakes. Again, he seemed interested and recognized it as food, but never really went for a bite.

 

Quick edit: He did end up eating a few tiny bites of red seaweed, soaked in Paprika and fresh garlic. 

[Lorekeeper]

The ABI bulb came in... and wow! I'm loving the color difference. The coral seem to be reacting well too. I'll get some pics of it later!

 

I did want to ask one more time about this blenny, as a bump. He's still not really eating. He took those 2-3 flakes yesterday, but other than that, nothing. Getting a bit worried, since it's been almost a week.

[el_ote]

that is a really nice blenny. sorry i dont know much about its food likes, but have you called the LFS and asked what they fed? maybe they remember seeing him eat and what it was that he took. is the blenny afraid to eat near the clown? you said that there was a feeding time dispute between them that was resolved, but maybe as the loser, he has to go without since the clown may be too nearby... dunno, just thoughts...

good luck.

[Lorekeeper]

Thanks for the response!

 

They feed all of their "normal" tanks with Omega pellets, which is the same thing I've been trying to feed here.

 

I've actually thought about the dispute, and if anyone won, it was most definitely the blenny, as the clown swam off to eat elsewhere. That said, I do suppose the clown's presence could be making him a bit too nervous to eat. They actually ignore each other for the most part, as far as I can tell. If he doesn't eat within the next few days, I may try putting the clown into my QT for a few days while I try and get the blenny to eat. If that solves the issue, I'll have to rehome the blenny.

 

As for right now, I'm getting ready to try and feed some live brine. I sat up a hatchery over the weekend, so we'll see if he takes to this any at all. I refuse to hatch live brine every time I need to feed my fish, but if it'll get him going, maybe I can mix in some mysis and wean him off of it.

[straydog]

The only other food I can possibly think of is live baby brine ( possibly frozen if you can't find live) most fish start out eating baby brine so that might trigger it to eat.

[Lorekeeper]

Success! He took the live brine as soon as it hit the water.

[Lorekeeper]

Looks like he just needed a reminder of what food was... he accepted some pellets this morning!

 

Tank is getting a 50% water change today, along with a pretty decent deep clean in preparation for my trip. I plan on just turkey basting as much mulm as I can from under the rocks, siphoning, and leaving all the algae I can to hopefully curb any issues the tank may have while I'm gone. 

 

This ABI bulb is amazing, by the way. The Chinese bulbs did the trick, and were a great deal for the price, but this bulb is just day and night. The color is better, the corals are more open, and it's almost the perfect temperature for me. I'd like a bit more blue, but it's much better than something like a Tuna Blue bulb. Guess you can't pick and choose when you're buying pre-built fixtures and bulbs.