jolt Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Sounds like good progress. I always start slow with my cleanup crew and add more as needed. For my 180 gallon I started with 30 snails. I've actually had better luck getting atrea snails to survive in new aquariums. The trochus and cerith snails always seem to die until the aquarium gets more mature Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoneroller Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Personally, I'd be concerned with adding that much fauna so soon. While you say "the tank is officially cycled" that doesn't mean the tank can handle an influx of several fish and a CUC. I agree with Jolt to start slowly with snails ( and crabs). I would add one fish at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 9 minutes ago, stoneroller said: Personally, I'd be concerned with adding that much fauna so soon. While you say "the tank is officially cycled" that doesn't mean the tank can handle an influx of several fish and a CUC. I agree with Jolt to start slowly with snails ( and crabs). I would add one fish at a time. +1 to adding fish slowly! Otherwise you will be fighting massive problem algae, dinos, cyano .. Trust me, I know from experience ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good Greef Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 I just bought my first wave of smaller fish for my 180g. The only CUC I have is my cleaner shrimp and tuxedo urchin, both moved from my 75g. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 Hey guys! I went ahead and tested for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate again today. The ammonia looks like it may be .25, but I've had some people tell me that the API kit always reads .25. Nitrite and Nitrate are both clearly 0. Can anyone give me some direction? Is this showing ammonia, or does this test kit read inaccurately? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 I feel like it's no ammonia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Make sure you’re looking at the top of the cylinders and not with it on its side like that. You may actually have different levels.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 Hello once again, Its been a while since I have updated on the tank. Everything is going way too smooth! No big algae outbreaks at all. The fuge is FULL of algae growth of all sorts, but not much in the tank. I was in Chicago all week last week and when I came back the glass was covered in brown algae, took about 5 minutes to clean it all and the tank looks beautiful. I want to add some corals to the tank, ( I have already added 1 rainbow tip). The rainbow tip comes out where you can barley see him during the day time when the lights are at their peak for the day, but when the lights start dimming he disappears underneath a rock. Phosphate was at .19 4 days ago so I added some GFO and let it run. I checked the phosphate today with both the API test and the Hanna test. Both came back to zero. The Hanna actually said 0.00, I didn't know it would read that low! I have done zero water changes what so ever. I have never registered any Nitrates in the tank at all, I assume the fuge is eating them all up the chaeto has grown probably 2X the size it was when I got it. I have increased the amount of food I feed from 1 cube of mysis in the evening to 1 cube in the morning, and 2 cubes in the evening, and added some more fish to try and get the water a little dirtier. I put some seaweed in there for the foxface to munch on once a day for a few hours. It's usually gone by then. Everything seems too clean. My understanding is that the corals will need some amount of nitrates and phosphates to survive. Water temp is consistently between 77.4 and 78.1 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Alkalinity 9 7 Messed UP Messed Up 6 6 6 6 Ammonia 0 0 0 .25 .25 .25 0 0 Calcium 520 520 440 400 400 380 380 400 Nitrate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nitrite 0 3 9 5 5 26 0 0 Phosphate .03 .3 .16 .18 .25 .16 .19 0 Salinity 1.021 1.022 1.023 1.022 1.022 1.022 1.022 1.023 pH 8 8 8 8 8 8 8.1 8 I added 2 more green chromis, and 2 anthias. They have been in there for about 2 days, I checked ammonia again today just because I'm paranoid and it was completely zero. Forgot to mention, I added 5 Mexican Turbo snails about 2 weeks ago and they move all over the tank! It's not as blue as the pictures make it out to be! CO2 reactor isn't set up yet. I had to order a new regulator that will be here tomorrow. Probably don't need it yet, but I want to get it going and stay ahead of the game. Where do I go from here? Can I add some corals or maybe a few more fish? There are a few more small fish that I would like to add to the tank before I start adding any Tangs. Current line up is: (1) Starry Blenny (2) Yellow Watchmen Gobys (2) Carberryi Anthias (2) Black Clowns (4) Green Chromis (1) Magnificent Foxface (1) Royal Gramma Basslet (2) Fire Shrimp What I would like to add: (2) Exquisite Firefish (1) Longnose Hawkfish (1) Blue Star Leopard Wrasse (1) longhorn cowfish (2) Bartlett's Anthias Possibly (1) Hi-Hat and then there were tangs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 I would add some tester corals, just to see what happens. I have a large chunk of montipora digitata that I used it as a tester on my frag tank. It's not particularly pretty, but it served its purpose to let me know the tank could support coral. I'd be happy to pass it along to you as a "tank warming" gift if you are ever in the south austin vicinity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 Thanks for the offer Jolt! I traded some extra stuff from my build for 10 different corals. I’m just waiting for the right time to add them to the tank. I added 2-3 of them and see how they do! Thanks for the offer, I super duper appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 What corals did you add to your tank? Just curious, some are more sensitive than others ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 Rainbow Bubble Tip, that’s the only one in there as of now. I’m not sure what the others are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Bubbletip anemone? That's actually not a coral if so .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 Oh. Well what is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 Invertebrate, like a snail or starfish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 Hmm. What do they eat? I haven’t ever fed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 You don't really need to. It will grab bits and pieces of leftovers from the fish being fed. If you want to, you can spot feed it, but I never did that w/ mine - it only accelerates growth and splitting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted February 1, 2018 Author Share Posted February 1, 2018 Any idea of when the one in there will decide to come out? He’s been in the tank for 2 weeks and hides under a rock, comes out a tiny bit during the day and hides at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 in mother russia... you dont own anemone, anemone own you. ie. they do what they want, gotta live w/ it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Haven't updated in a while so here it goes! All the fish seem really happy and healthy. Had an ich breakout a few weeks ago. I set up a hospital tank and ran the temp up a bit and added copper. Only lost 2 fish so that was good. The rest of them pulled through and are back in the DT and looking great! I acquired some different corals and they all are growing exponentially. The BTA has split itself and both have almost doubled the size of the original single BTA! I was having problems with micro bubbles in the DT and the ATK never working right. I have an RO in my kitchen that I had run a water line to the fresh water top off tank with a solenoid and an optical sensor from apex that would top off the fresh water tank, when the ATK would call for water it would then pump through 2 DI canisters and into the sump. I changed this so that the water from the RO would go directly through the DI canisters and then into the fresh water tank, that way when the ATK called for water it didn't have to pump through anything. And we are using the city water pressure to go through the DI, stopping any future pump failure. The Dolphin pump pumps so much water that it would keep the pump section of the sump so low in water that it would create a water fall and micro bubbles would be in the DT constantly. I tried so many different things to stop this from valving down the pump, adding filter socks over the pump inlet, foam filters in the pump section, but nothing would stop them completely. Finally, I added some plastic bio balls, I figured they would take up enough surface area that it would force the water level to rise in that compartment. Voila! Micro bubbles are gone, bio balls have a nice circular flow to them and stay constantly moving. And no algae grow what so ever. I have done zero water changes, and feed the fish once a day. I installed the calcium reactor and its been running for a couple months now, comes on a 6.8 and off at 6.75. The tank pH has been very stable dropping to about 8.21 at night and coming to 8.33 during the peak of the day. I have noticed I'm not skimming nearly as much as I used to, I empty the skimmer maybe every 2 weeks, and its never full. I also noticed most of the algae that was growing in my refugium is gone and only the chaeto still remains, but its not growing very fast, at least according to the rate at which most people report chaeto growing at. I put a MJ1200 pump in the refugium to get some water flow , without it the flow is very, very, very low. It blew around a bunch of the sand in there, maybe thats why its not growing very well. I think I am gonna take the sand out completely, clean the refugium out and add some marine pure to it. I also used to have a bunch of copepods in there but I haven't seen any in a while. Maybe they didn't like it in there anymore and all moved to the DT! Only dreaming..Here are my levels as of 3/20/2018. I have done zero dosing of any sorts at all. Just feed the fish and walk away. pH 8.24 Alkalinity 8 Ammonia 0 Calcium 480 Nitrate 0 Nitrite 0 Phosphate .02 Salinity 1.026 Here are some pictures also, its not really as blue as these pictures make it out to be.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 Very nice start! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 LOVE that scape! HUZZAH! Good call putting the GSP on the wall - easier to scrape off and throw away when it covers everything! (then start over!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted March 22, 2018 Author Share Posted March 22, 2018 LOVE that scape! HUZZAH! Good call putting the GSP on the wall - easier to scrape off and throw away when it covers everything! (then start over!)Man I love that GSP, it’s growing pretty slowly but growing none the less!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BobcatReefer Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 GSP is like a woman who scores high on both the hot/crazy axis. Pretty to look at, but down the road you can’t get that b**** out of your life! [emoji23][emoji23] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdklos Posted May 4, 2018 Author Share Posted May 4, 2018 Sooo...tank has been going really well. Newest update. I was using an old aquarium light for my fuge. Light is programmed to come on at 9:00 pm and shut off at 6:00 am. Lights begin coming on about 7:15am and turn off about 7:30pm. The chaeto in my fuge has grown, very, very small amounts in the last 4 months. All the chaeto was always on the bottom of the fuge and I don’t have enough flow in the fuge to make it move or rotate. It has literally been in the exact same place for 4 months. I ordered a new Kessil H380 grow light and installed it this afternoon. It’s programmed to come on at the same time as the old light. I checked out the fuge tonight, after the light had been on for a couple hours and all the chaeto has floated up to the surface and is directly under the light. Why is this? I assume the chaeto is loving the light and is reacting to having a good light? Anyone else experienced this? Pictures are kinda hard to make out with the purple light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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