koden's 32gallon m-tank

[kinetic]

I got some new frags and corals! Pictures are below.

I also setup my Reef Fanatic Auto-Topoff with a Tom aqualifter and airline hosing this weekend.

 

Full Tank:

 

Another:

 

Open Brain! I love it

 

 

Orange Digitata I got from the MARS swap! Thanks whoever fragged it! It's really healthy and it's polyps are huge.

 

Mr. Ugly got these for me, thanks Norman!!!

 

My clowns trying to get in the pic

 

 

 

 

 

 

a day old pic of xenia:

 

Acropora:

 

The acro crab I found on the acro, took it off the acro before putting it in the tank, ID'd it, made sure it was safe, and put it back on the acro. Cool little white crab with almost clear claws!

 

Hammer looking sad (only in the tank for 15 minutes, it's a lot more open now)

[Izzue]

Koden

Tks for the anemone info-- I was aware that the clown feed the anemone-- but I just thought the clown took him a twinke or something

Thats pretty cool about that the skin coating has sugars in it....

Tank is looking great man-- nice frags-- love the orange.

Spray bar sounds like its doing its job-

What did you do with the wiring from the pump-- just run it out the top??

What about the SCWD???

I went to LFS Saturday to trade a 4x5 pieace of pulsing Xenia for something...

ended up with a Firefish (free) + sold me a NICE pieace of SPS for 40.00( was 49.00) -- I think his VHO need to be replaced-- but it looks like its gonna be bluess purplesss. Wish me luck, but I put it at the very top center so its getting the best of the 130watt PC and the SCWD switches back and forth right through the coral. It looked better this morning than it did at LFS Saturday when i got it. Ill try to gets some pics tonight

 

Izzue

[kinetic]

some people have told me that I should put my brain coral on the sandbed. Anybody think that's a good idea?

[Travis]

Hey Koden, that Orange Monti Digitata is AWSOME! I'll take a frag when you go to fraging

[NanoDog]

some people have told me that I should put my brain coral on the sandbed. Anybody think that's a good idea?

 

I don't own a brain...(next purchase) but all my research says sand is preferred...

 

Awewome job btw... you're motivating me to get another tank....... ugh......;-)

[kinetic]

I don't own a brain...(next purchase) but all my research says sand is preferred...

 

Awewome job btw... you're motivating me to get another tank....... ugh......;-)

 

Yeah after I did more research and called the LFS i bought it from, he said it's also fine to put it in the substrate, so that's what I did. It has a bit of shade, and lower flow now, hopefully it'll like that better.

 

It's currently my favorite coral! It's really nice looking.

 

 

Hey Koden, that Orange Monti Digitata is AWSOME! I'll take a frag when you go to fraging

 

Hey travis, I'll definately get you a frag of it when it's ready. That digitata is really awesome. Very orange and it has soooo many polyps coming out, and they're pretty big too.

[kinetic]

10/25/05

Decided to update my log for my tank. I've hit 1 month, 2 weeks, and I might have gotten SPS / LPS a bit too early as some people have been warning me that my tank might not be established enough. Sure it's cycled, but I'm hoping it's established enough for these corals.

 

Corals

So far all the polyps are VERY open, my hammer is spread out, my open brain is opening, my acro and digitatas are totally open, my mushroom is opening up as well, and the green montipora a something or another is very green still... problem is my XENIA is shrivling up, not sure why.

 

Anyway, my tank seems to be handling the corals well, but I'll test for calcium/alk today, and then feed some zooplankton, phtyoplankton into the water, and also feed my brain coral a couple pieces of Formula One in the evening. Hopefully it'll eat. I'll try feeding it different foods later too, but first formula one. Do I need to specifically feed any other corals I have?

 

Inverts

I redid my aquascape for larger caves (fewer in number) and more places to put corals... in the process I thought I killed some of my trochus snails. But alas, I found all 5 trochus and 1 astrea happily grazing. I spotted the baby snail that came out from my LR when I was moving the rocks, but havne't seen it since. My shrimp jumps on my hand when I stick my hand in the water and starts to clean. It tickles like crazy, gives me goosebumps. It scavanges well, i see it eating flake food that's drifted down, or my formula one food that fell to the floor.

 

Fish

My clownfish are doing great! They're growing fast, and their colors are much more vivid than before. The large one is getting darker black areas, and brighter orange, what an awesome contrast. The small one is also getting a darker orange, but not as much as the larger. They eat at least once a day. I feed them a bit of flake and a bit of formula one.

 

They also seemed to leave their corner more often now, I guess they feel a little safer in the tank.

 

Tank

Aquascaping is nicer now. I'm much happier. I have caves which have holes in the tops of them, so I could even house low light LPS or softies inside these things and still get some flow / light. My spray bar is doing wonders in making flow behind rocks and through the caves, it is also keeping stuff from getting stuck on the undersides of rocks.

 

My sand has more bubbles now too, which is good. Problem is I have a bit of hair algae growing in the substrate from before, though I don't think it's getting worse. I might see if I can get an emerald crab to eat it all... else I'll pick it out with some tongs.

 

So all the brown looking algae's gone from my rocks, and now there's two rocks with very green algae on it. My trochus / astrea won't eat it! I don't know why.

 

Today's todo:

LFS to test his NSW, my tank water, the NSW i got from him last week, test my hydrometer, possibly pickup a refractometer, kent seasquirt to feed my corals, and maybe pickup a goby I've been waiting for them to order.

 

I'm also looking into buying some pinpoint monitors: salinity, pH, calcium

[Quash]

Man damn, tank is coming along well. im gettin all giddy. I had mexican turbos clean off the green algae on my rocks, dunno about the algae you got on the sand bed. I had an emerald once, it hid as soon as I put it in and I dunno what happened, 4 months later I found it, dead shell underneath a rock. dunno how it got there since i didnt move my rockwork from day one.

 

Sucks the xenia is shriveling, hopefully by the time i post this, its doing fine. Well I dunno if its selfish to be askin when the goby comes its picture goodness time again. Take care man

 

Quash

[kinetic]

11/3/05

Time for an update. The tank is doing fantastic! There are a couple things I need to do: get a couple more trochus snails, they're getting full and have slowed down a bit, and maybe one more cleaner shrimp.

 

Corals

Xenia has expanded again. It's trunk isn't sucked in anymore, and it's hands are pulsing really nicely. It's not extended too far either, which is a sign of good health!

 

My brain coral spreads out REALLY big during the day. It's quite amazing. It's not bright pink anymore, I think it might be adjusting to the light still. I've dosed the tank with some zooplankton, I may do this twice a week.

 

All my other corals are great. The hammer is growing, and completely expands during the day. All the SPS have lots of polyps opened, and the "blue-tip" digitata has tiny buds coming out... though it's still completely BROWN =P I wish it was actually blue tipped. Oh well.

 

the green montipora plate looking thing is still very green, but doesn't look like it's growing at a fast pace. Lots of tiny polyps open though.

 

And the orange digitata is crazy, those polyps are LARGE and DENSE!

 

My acropora may be getting TOO much flow, the polyps directly facing the flow aren't open nearly as much as the ones shielded slightly. The acro crab seems to just be chilling, not really eating much. Hope it doesn't starve.

 

I'm dosing zooplankton and phytoplankton now twice a week. I also added a bit of the Kent coralvite and some other stuff to up my calcium to 430ppm, get my ALK up a bit, and add all those minerals, amino acids, etc. They all are looking great. I've also ordered an acro colony which was aquacultured, and a acro frag, tank raised. I plan to get a candy cane coral this weekend! We'll see. I"ll post pix when I get my new corals.

 

Fish

My clownfish are getting bigger, but still very small and cute. I feed them twice a day, but just enough so that they're not going crazy chasing food. I actually hand feed them now. I hold the flake or piece of frozen formula one under the water with my fingers, and they now come and eat. this also keeps the food from drifting into my surface skimming overflow. I bought a feeding ring today though, so I don't have to hold the flake all the time. But they're very colorful, my female is actually getting darker blacks and a very deep orange that's really nice.

 

inverts

Acro crab is the coolest! It hangs out on the acro right where I can see it. It's small with one white claw, and one small dinky claw. it's really cool, and the acro is super clean.

 

Cleanershrimp has learned how to surf the water. It jumps off the top of the rock, and it can actually stand upside down on the surface of the water, and crawl to get flake food. It's amazing. At night it wanders everywhere picking things up to eat. I believe he eats a little hair algae too. He goes to a patch and starts picking at it. Not sure if that means pieces of food got stuck there or not.

 

My clam is still alive, boring though. I might glue a frag on it's back.

 

The trochus snails are doing their job, but they're not eating as much as the first couple days I had them. I'll probably get 4 more, along with my group buy of 10 scarlet hermits and 10 cierth snails. I'll be set in terms of a cleanup crew.

 

Equipment

No complaints. My Reef Fanatic level controller does a great job at topping off my evaporated water. I've also added the seachem phosphate absorbing media to help my fight against hair algae.

 

pictures probably by Monday!

[kinetic]

instead of getting a flame or coral beauty dwarf angel which could harm my corals and be aggressive towards my gobies, I might get a pair of firefish or a pair of purple dartfish. What do you guys think?

[kinetic]

I got a great deal on a flame angel today. It was going for $49.99, got it for $30. It's pretty active, though it's only been in my tank for maybe 2 hours. We'll see how it goes. It's very orange and red, with really bright blue/purple lined fins. I'm really happy with him/her. Especially after it started eating the hair algae on the substrate! I threw in a Formula Two cube after soaking it in garlic. It hasn't found it yet, though the shrimp did.

 

My shrimp totally hopped on the angel's back when I put it in, and the angel just let him clean it for awhile, then swam away. How interesting =)

 

Problem is, I better get my last fish, my goby, before the angel starts being territorial.

 

anyway, the story:

 

So I'm cruising around my favorite LFS and I wanted to checkout their firefish. I was planning on getting a pair instead of a flame angel. and before my eyes, next to each other, were a firefish and a flame angel. The firefish was cool, but the flame angel was absolutely gorgeous. It was perfect! The front was just red enough, and the body a very nice orange! The tail fin is almost clear, and the blue lining on the fins is a very florescent blue/purple! That made my mind =) It's a small-ish one, so it has a lot of time to grow.

 

I'll post pictures at the end of the weekend.

 

Btw I got my acro colony and Acro tenius frag. The tenius frag has really nice purple tips on the skeleton... the acro colony is a boring brown, though under actinics only I can see a bit of a blue green. Hopefully in a couple weeks it'll color up.

[kinetic]

Going to go hunt for these items:

Black Diamond Activated Carbon

Switches for my pumps (instead of pulling plugs out)

One more timer

Algae Pad on a stick (mag float not good enough)

Kent SeaSquirt

Cyclopleeze / Mysis Shrimp

Cycle bacteria additive (just in case)

 

 

Btw: I have formula one and two frozen foods. How do I feed these to the fish? If I drop a cube in there, nobody cares about it. I have to slice them up really small for the clowns to eat them.

[Cuba Libre]

Both my clowns love formula 1 and 2. I typically, start with half cup of tank water, cut off a piece of the frozen cube (I never give them the whole cube), place it the cup and stir it up a little until it starts breaking apart. My friend actually microwaves the cube and then feeds it too fish, but I think my way is probably better.

[kinetic]

Both my clowns love formula 1 and 2. I typically, start with half cup of tank water, cut off a piece of the frozen cube (I never give them the whole cube), place it the cup and stir it up a little until it starts breaking apart. My friend actually microwaves the cube and then feeds it too fish, but I think my way is probably better.

 

So i just dump all these little pieces into the water?

[kinetic]

A couple quick shots of the new flame:

 

 

 

 

My DIY made fuge:

 

 

 

I attached a via-aqua pump, it's like 80gph or so, and then drilled holes on the opposite side. It's really tight fit, my heater is right next to my skimmer, hope it doesn't melt anything, and everything's bunched up together. Good use of space though... wish I had a couple more inches. Works well, my chaeto's in here with a little LS. I need a cup more for the fuge though...

 

I may get rid of my trickle filter and have that compartment completely filled to increase my water volume to 37 gallons, and put the fuge in there. What do you think?

[kinetic]

my last fish: high-fin (blackray) goby.

 

I went to a LFS today in search of a Randalli Goby and a Yasha Haze Goby. The Yasha haze were so small, and so sickly, selling for $50, or $60 w/ pistol shrimp. EEK! The randalli goby was $19.99 but it's top fins were ALL eaten up! Finally I checked out a high fin / blackray goby. It was perfect! Healthy, eating, not too shy, and all its fins were there. Its fins glowed florescent blue too under MH light.

 

So i picked him up, and now he's eating in my tank already. It's great! I like him a lot.

 

So far all my fish get along, my Flame ANgel only picks hair algae and other algae, and doesn't go for any LPS, SPS, or softies. (whew). The goby isn't afraid nor is the flame attacking it. The clowns are just dumb.

 

My flame angel is very curious, right when the goby went in the flame checked it out, then swam away scared. The cleaner shrimp jumped on the goby and immediatly stated cleaning. How funny =)

 

My flame angel goes to the shrimp to get cleaned sometimes too.

 

I'll take pictures in a minute =)

[kidphc]

Here is a suggestion for the mag float. Mine wasn't cleaning well either and just didn't like the idea of surface of the mag float going against the acrylic.

 

I bought some of those soft algae pads, looks like a micro fiber piece of paper. Cut to fit on both sides of the mag float. It does a real good job of cleaning up the front and sides. When the algae pad gets dirty. Rip off and stick on a new one, it kind of velcroed itself to the mag float. Just a suggestion.

 

Did you plan on putting any clams in the M-tank? I was going to put one in and was also looking at a flame angel. But since they are iffy with clams, I'll probably forgo the angel. Any thoughts?

[kinetic]

Here is a suggestion for the mag float. Mine wasn't cleaning well either and just didn't like the idea of surface of the mag float going against the acrylic.

 

I bought some of those soft algae pads, looks like a micro fiber piece of paper. Cut to fit on both sides of the mag float. It does a real good job of cleaning up the front and sides. When the algae pad gets dirty. Rip off and stick on a new one, it kind of velcroed itself to the mag float. Just a suggestion.

 

Did you plan on putting any clams in the M-tank? I was going to put one in and was also looking at a flame angel. But since they are iffy with clams, I'll probably forgo the angel. Any thoughts?

 

I got an algae pad with a handle, and it still won't get some of the algae off! crazy. I think I'll need a scraper, but that sounds scarey.

 

My magfloat totally scratched my corners up from it's plastic. I'm mad =( Becareful when cleaning your corners!

 

I'll have to work on cleaning it later tonight.

 

No clams for me, at least not until a year later. My Flame Angel started picking at my SPS, but only because it had a couple pieces of hair algae on it I hope. I'll keep an eye out on it. I wouldn't recommend a clam and an angel unless it's totally docile towards your other lps/softies/sps

[qascooter]

OK, I just read through this thread. Phew! So did you ever install your SCWD? If you did, how did it turn out?, or did I just miss the post :-)

[kinetic]

OK, I just read through this thread. Phew! So did you ever install your SCWD? If you did, how did it turn out?, or did I just miss the post :-)

 

Hey, yeah the thread is really huge now, I should summarize everything at the end of the month.

 

I didn't install my SCWD. I don't think I will. It's too much work for too little gain. I get really good flow anyway, with almost no deadspots especially after my spraybar was installed.

 

I figure it's less maintenance, and plus I'm running out of room in those back compartments.

 

I am working on a 80 gallon acrylic custom cube which will have a Oceans Motions SuperSquirt, which is a 20x better "wave" making equipment than the SCWD.

 

But hey, I may change my mind... I was considering this:

Two spray bars down the side back corners of my tank all the way down verticle connected to the scwd. Might be cool =)

[zoomin]

I am getting _very_ close to having the time and resources to setup my 32g M-Tank.

 

Just plotting my plumbing strategy, I noticed a small, ~1/8" hole way down below the 1/2" return - what's that for?

 

Anyway, what have you ended up with for circulation? I had read some suggestions that the return should be a static flow, and if you're wanting to do variable circulation, to use a "closed loop" (like if you wanted to use a SCWD or a squirt or what have you).

 

Would a "closed loop" on an M-Tank mean you would have to drill three additional holes thorugh to the sump; two for the variable returns and one back into the pump?

 

Thanks, new to all this.

[cybaix]

Well, instead of anemones, there are many LPS corals that clowns will host perfectly fine, as long as they are of proper size. Just mentioning an option. Knowing clowns, you'd be lucky if they didn't just host your mag-float

 

Hah hah hah.. that is so true! My ex-girlfriends clowns ended up hosting her heater! Smart clowns if you ask me cause the room gets damn cold whenever she walks in lol.

[kinetic]

before I answer some questions, my flame angel successfully grazed all my digitata naked, and one of my acro colony (which was very expensive) is almost completely eaten. OMG it was doing so well until today it went crazy. My open brain also has a lot of niped pieces too. Anyone want a flame angel?

[beerz4us]

wow koden so sory to hear the flame angel didnt work out hes a beauty i hope your corals recover for you

 

any chance we can see some pics of the blackray goby?

 

hope all goes well for you

[kinetic]

wow koden so sory to hear the flame angel didnt work out hes a beauty i hope your corals recover for you

 

any chance we can see some pics of the blackray goby?

 

hope all goes well for you

 

MY SPS ARE SOOOO NIPPED. My frags are all bad =( My digitata are naked after being so healthy. i put as much as I could into a strawberry basket and have it floating near the top.