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Kait’s Kiddo Lagoon


NaturallyKait

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pricewayne
1 minute ago, NaturallyKait said:

It’s finally done!

 

Friday’s ammonia dose took 48 hours to process completely (ammonia was gone within 24, but it took another 24 for the nitrite to finish processing). I dosed another 2ppm 24 hours ago and today we’re at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite! Nitrates are between 40-80. 

 

So now we wait until we can buy some critters for the tank. I need to do a big water change first, yes? How big? I have 6 gallons of distilled right now, I’m assuming I still need more. 

 

Should I start with CUC? There’s no algae right now that I can see, I’m worried they’d starve. I could feed them though I suppose. 

 

This is exciting. 

 

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The tank as it sits now, not pictured the totally impatient and excited almost 4 year old 😂

 

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YAYYYYY!! omgomgomg

Yep, big water change to remove the excess nitrates -- I'd think that the 6 gallons may be enough. That'll be more than half your water volume most likely. Maybe start with the 6 gallon WC, let it filter for about an hour or so and then retest to verify.

 

I started with CUC -- can always go ahead and buy some frozen food, strips of nori/seaweed and/or pellets to supplement feeding. I can't remember.. what're your plans for fish livestock? If you're planning on clowns + any other fish, start with the other fish 🙂 I don't think I could add other fish to my fluval without the 2 clowns I added first getting territorial.

 

So exciting!!

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NaturallyKait
4 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

YAYYYYY!! omgomgomg

Yep, big water change to remove the excess nitrates -- I'd think that the 6 gallons may be enough. That'll be more than half your water volume most likely. Maybe start with the 6 gallon WC, let it filter for about an hour or so and then retest to verify.

 

I started with CUC -- can always go ahead and buy some frozen food, strips of nori/seaweed and/or pellets to supplement feeding. I can't remember.. what're your plans for fish livestock? If you're planning on clowns + any other fish, start with the other fish 🙂 I don't think I could add other fish to my fluval without the 2 clowns I added first getting territorial.

 

So exciting!!

I’m thinking probably just two clowns. I’ve read so many differing opinions on if these tanks are big enough for more than two fish, especially with how messy clowns are. Hoping to find two babies. 

 

Plus there’s no way the tiny reefer is going to accept anything other than clowns in there first lol, my little Finding Dory addict. I can’t give him a blue tang, but I can sure give him clownfish :wub:

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pricewayne
1 minute ago, NaturallyKait said:

I’m thinking probably just two clowns. I’ve read so many differing opinions on if these tanks are big enough for more than two fish, especially with how messy clowns are. Hoping to find two babies. 

 

Plus there’s no way the tiny reefer is going to accept anything other than clowns in there first lol, my little Finding Dory addict. I can’t give him a blue tang, but I can sure give him clownfish :wub:

Perfect. I'm willing to bet you're safe to go ahead and get the clowns + CUC 🙂

Try your damndest to get two that are already mated//"paired"! The fighting can be stressful if they aren't.

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NaturallyKait
1 minute ago, pricewayne said:

Perfect. I'm willing to bet you're safe to go ahead and get the clowns + CUC 🙂

Try your damndest to get two that are already mated//"paired"! The fighting can be stressful if they aren't.

The tricky part is that I probably won’t get to see the fish in person before we get them. Our local LFS isn’t ordering plain old ocellaris clowns for the next little bit (and only takes special orders at certain times), he decided to bring in skunk clowns instead. So I’m going to have to order them from another province and have them shipped in. Hopefully we get two good ones. 

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pricewayne
2 minutes ago, NaturallyKait said:

The tricky part is that I probably won’t get to see the fish in person before we get them. Our local LFS isn’t ordering plain old ocellaris clowns for the next little bit (and only takes special orders at certain times), he decided to bring in skunk clowns instead. So I’m going to have to order them from another province and have them shipped in. Hopefully we get two good ones. 

Can you order from LiveAquaria in Canada? They have lots of paired clowns in the "Divers Den" section of their site usually.

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NaturallyKait
Just now, pricewayne said:

Can you order from LiveAquaria in Canada? They have lots of paired clowns in the "Divers Den" section of their site usually.

Nope, livestock can’t be shipped over the border that easily. There are a few places in Canada that ship but I’ve looked around and haven’t found any with paired clowns. The two places I’m looking at now are just neighbouring provinces, and they don’t so much “ship” as they package the fish up really well and send them on a greyhound type bus to us here on the island so they arrive same day. 

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pricewayne
1 minute ago, NaturallyKait said:

Nope, livestock can’t be shipped over the border that easily. There are a few places in Canada that ship but I’ve looked around and haven’t found any with paired clowns. The two places I’m looking at now are just neighbouring provinces, and they don’t so much “ship” as they package the fish up really well and send them on a greyhound type bus to us here on the island so they arrive same day. 

@Clown79 -- curious how you've sourced clownfish or have had any luck finding online/mail options?

Am not sure where you both are province wise - but I know clown79 is in Canada and willing to bet has the scoop on all of the options lol.

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NaturallyKait
3 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

@Clown79 -- curious how you've sourced clownfish or have had any luck finding online/mail options?

Am not sure where you both are province wise - but I know clown79 is in Canada and willing to bet has the scoop on all of the options lol.

There definitely are options, shipping prices can be outrageous though here in the true north strong and free haha. Also can be notoriously slow. 

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Scotty Amen

If you put CUC in first, be careful not to 'feed' them too much.  They really require very little. Don't make the mistake of thinking they need tons of food and bombing your tank with fish food or shrimp or something. CUC have very slow metabolism.

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NaturallyKait
18 minutes ago, Scotty Amen said:

If you put CUC in first, be careful not to 'feed' them too much.  They really require very little. Don't make the mistake of thinking they need tons of food and bombing your tank with fish food or shrimp or something. CUC have very slow metabolism.

Good to know. I’m hesitant to start with CUC alone anyway, having no algae in the tank. I really don’t want to them to starve. I had always thought I’d have diatoms or something at the end of the cycle, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. 

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It should be alright to add CUC just don’t stock heavy. I got 6 snails during startup and it went fine. Only took about two weeks with lights on for algae to grow. 

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NaturallyKait

The tiny reefer got his tank’s first inhabitants today. He’s pretty happy. 

 

They LFS had tiny little yellow clown gobies in quarantine set to be released for sale in a couple of days. I’m super tempted to grab one but worried the eventual pair of clowns would bully it to death. I’m going to have to do some more research. 

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pricewayne

Maybe ask your LFS if you could return the goby if it starts getting bullied after you add your clowns. Just a thought 🙃

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NaturallyKait
4 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

Maybe ask your LFS if you could return the goby if it starts getting bullied after you add your clowns. Just a thought 🙃

I’m sure I could, but I don’t want to break the little guy’s heart if we have to return his first fish. 

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pricewayne
1 minute ago, NaturallyKait said:

I’m sure I could, but I don’t want to break the little guy’s heart if we have to return his first fish. 

Ahh, yes. Didn’t think about that part.

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NaturallyKait
Just now, pricewayne said:

Ahh, yes. Didn’t think about that part.

He’s already pissed at me that I didn’t let him bring home any of the blue tangs at the store lol. I don’t want to make him even more upset 😂

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NaturallyKait

One of our snails hadn’t moved for about a day so I just checked, and yep he’s dead. I removed him while the tiny reefer is at daycare, hopefully he won’t notice. He did seem to struggle from the day we got him into the tank, he constantly fell off the glass and seemed sluggish. I think he just wasn’t in great shape to begin with. RIP little nerite friend. 

 

On a positive note, I’m pretty sure we’re going to pick up a yellow clown goby this weekend to add to the tank. Fingers crossed. 

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NaturallyKait

Thankfully the new guy is eating well. He ate well at the LFS but I was still slightly worried he wouldn’t eat when we got him home. He happily chowed down though when the tiny reefer fed him, phew. 

 

 

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NaturallyKait

Woke up this morning and found this stuff started overnight. Diatoms I’m guessing? I never did get any algae post cycle so I’ve been anticipating it showing up at some point. 

 

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Looks like diatoms to me! I'd say that's a good sign. 😊

 

Also, congrats on your first fish! I know it took quite a while to get things started, and I have to say that I very much admire your patience and dedication during the long cycling process that you went through. Kudos to you for not jumping the gun, even though it took forever. 🙏

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NaturallyKait
9 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Looks like diatoms to me! I'd say that's a good sign. 😊

 

Also, congrats on your first fish! I know it took quite a while to get things started, and I have to say that I very much admire your patience and dedication during the long cycling process that you went through. Kudos to you for not jumping the gun, even though it took forever. 🙏

Thank you! It’s very important to me to not hurt fish just because of impatience. I knew from the beginning that even if it took a while I was going to wait out the cycle before adding any livestock. It’s just not worth it. 

 

I guess the snails get a diatom buffet haha. The LFS replaced our dead nerite yesterday so we’re back up to two snails. We’ll see how they do and if they need backup haha. 

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NaturallyKait

FTS as of today: 

 

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The little YCG stays pretty close to that spot as its favourite perch. He’s swimming around a lot more though and is pretty interactive. He’s eating well so that’s nice to see, although he’s so small he needs tiny pieces. Diatoms are spreading, I’ll be glad when that’s over. The nerite attempted an escape this morning 😂 

 

 

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NaturallyKait

Well, we’ve officially started having temperature issues. It’s not even that warm here yet but the tank is starting to get too warm. I was really hoping to keep the stock lid on for a year or so but I doubt we’re going to be able to. I’ve been removing the little piece of the lid that’s over the filtration chambers to at least open up a little space but it doesn’t help much. I think I’m going to have to decide on a lighting upgrade so I can go to a mesh top. 

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35 minutes ago, NaturallyKait said:

Well, we’ve officially started having temperature issues. It’s not even that warm here yet but the tank is starting to get too warm. I was really hoping to keep the stock lid on for a year or so but I doubt we’re going to be able to. I’ve been removing the little piece of the lid that’s over the filtration chambers to at least open up a little space but it doesn’t help much. I think I’m going to have to decide on a lighting upgrade so I can go to a mesh top. 

What is the temperature in the room? 

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