First Time Build

[Planeden]

James,

I'm using a drip acclimator i got from drs. foster and smith http://www.amazon.com/Drs-Foster-Smith-Fish-Acclimation/dp/B007K3CMLK/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1372883462&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=drip+acclimator

i'm not sure where i could put a python on it. but i'm not too worried about it. as long as i don't get ick.

[esacjack]

youre using a drip acclimator to change your water? You sir are a patient man.

[Planeden]

youre using a drip acclimator to change your water? You sir are a patient man.

Ha, I was adding a coral. I just dip water out with a pitcher to do water changes.

[esacjack]

ahh ok, we were talking about using the siphon starter for your water changes. But to get a siphon going on airline tubing, use an air pump and a y splitter.. place the y at the end of your siphone tube inside the tank, then insert your air pump into the Y, turn it on, and the water should slowly start pushing up and over. Also, another cool gadget for acclimation is one of these bad boys.. I have a few of them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Spawning-BOX-0-7L-satellite-hanging-outside-Breeding-Seperating-Fish-Fry-rearing-/281016477820?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item416de3287c

[Planeden]

Now you're just confusing me . That siphon start sounds pretty complicated, though. I do have enough room that I could probably just submerge the tube and get it full off water. I just never thought it was that big of a deal.

That other contraption is pretty cool though. I have been pondering making a HOB fuge for my little tank, but buying one of the Aquino filters seemed a little extreme. Not sure if 0.7 L is enough to make it worth it, though. I have to try to figure out how much volume that is with a few tupperwares for reference.

[Planeden]

Well, with all the corally things going on in the OT, I haven't really mentioned the DT at all. Which I suppose is good news because nothing bad has been happening.

I rearranged my macro a little and decided to incorporate it into my rock wall. As KimP pointed out, if it grows and clings to any of the rocks then it will also serve to hold the wall in place. I don't think this is the type that clings, though. But I like the look of it. Also, I added the extra bits (small pieces that broke off) into my sump to see if they will grow enough that I can seed the other side of my wall.

I also incorporated some of the rubble I got from Bio^3 and tossed the replaced pieces into the sump.

The little brittle star that snuck in on one of Bio^3 rocks (the big one on the top of the right pile) has reappeared. He stuck his hands out when I was feeding today far enough that i could recognize that he was not one of the ones I bought.

The tank is still working to achieve balance. Nitrates are a little high (10 - 20 ppm) and I'm getting a little bit of algae growth on the right side rock pile. I'm seeing dwarf cerith snail eggs pop up all over the place, so i'm going to give them some time to grow their numbers and manage the problem. I will give them a couple of weeks then consider buying some more snails. Also, see if the macro will take off and lower the nitrate levels. As I add more fish I think it will probably also help because feeding just two is a bit tricky. I'm probably over feeding.

I'm planning on going to RCA's First Friday thing tomorrow and see if I can pick up a fake nem (like AAARRRRGGGGG did) for the clowns to host in until my tank is well enough established for the real thing. It worked for her clowns.

[victoly]

A word on the snails, I have never been able to maintain a self populating colony of ceriths or nassarius. You have to run a fairly high nutrient load to keep them from slowly dying off. So if that's in your cards, cool, if not, you may not need or want to heavily stock them. Carry on !

[Planeden]

A word on the snails, I have never been able to maintain a self populating colony of ceriths or nassarius. You have to run a fairly high nutrient load to keep them from slowly dying off. So if that's in your cards, cool, if not, you may not need or want to heavily stock them. Carry on !

i started with a fairly small CUC and then stole some of them for my 10 gal OT. but, it does appear that i have a bunch of empty snail shells. but that may just that the ones i bought for the hermits and all being collected in a single spot. i'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes.

[Planeden]

i'm putting out an APB on a flatworm i found in my OT last night. i thought he looked like something i didn't want, but all attempts to get him onto the chopstick failed. since i wasn't certain if he was a good guy or bad guy, i decided not to risk killing him until i knew for sure. five minutes later i had my answer from dr. ron's website, but no sign of him. dang it.

the helpful gent at RCA mentioned coral banded shrimp, arrow crabs, and six line wrasses would all eat him. neither the coral banded or arrow crab seem to be a nice thing to put in my tank. i'm not sure i want to keep a wrasse, either. so, kinda stuck with what to do.

the good news is, i went to RCA....drip drip drip. adding a peppermint shrimp for the aptasia and a royal gramma to the OT. I also picked up a yellow watchman goby and a pistol shrimp. since all accounts are that they are pretty much sick-proof, i'm adding them directly to my DT.

Edited July 6, 2013 by Planeden

[esacjack]

It appears to be planaria of some sort.

[Planeden]

It appears to be planaria of some sort.

yeah. i was also thinking polyclad because you can see his intestines like they describe (not in the photo, though). but he is not nearly so wavy as that. but it seems like flatworms range from a major nuisance that may kill your tank or a horrific death for all your corals that may kill your tank. i read about one that may kill other flatworms and be relatively harmless, but i doubt i'd be that lucky.

it seems like my best option may be flatworm exit, but i really would prefer not to drug my tank. but none of the other options seem ideal.

[esacjack]

google image search result? I had a flatworm just like that in my 7.5, but it disappeared, nver to be seen again. I wonder if my damsel got a piece of it. It looked like this, and appeared to be grazing on algal film.

http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/366144/view

[Planeden]

google image search result? I had a flatworm just like that in my 7.5, but it disappeared, nver to be seen again. I wonder if my damsel got a piece of it. It looked like this, and appeared to be grazing on algal film.

http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/366144/view

yeah, that's him. i guess he was grazing algae, or at least searching for some. i don't seem to have much algae in the tank at the moment. so, do i need to get rid of him? he seemed like he fell into the "not a good pet" category.

[Planeden]

Just saw my yellow watchman for the first time since Friday night. I had no idea how much sand a pistol shrimp can move in so little time. I knew he'd move it around and build a nest, but I swear he made his own sand. I can't tell where it all came from. Named them smith and Wesson, by the way.

[Planeden]

Grumble, crud, sonofa...I just lost my post will searching for a link.

Ok, real short version. I'm thinking of blacking out a section of my sump to make a cryptic zone. We'll start there, if enough people want to discuss it, I'll rewrite it.

Forum thread with Steve tyree defending his theory, and the one that ate my post. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=27592&highlight=purple+sponge

Not going link it for you, but the main site is something like dynamicecomorphology.com.

[JamesL]

Just saw my yellow watchman for the first time since Friday night. I had no idea how much sand a pistol shrimp can move in so little time. I knew he'd move it around and build a nest, but I swear he made his own sand. I can't tell where it all came from. Named them smith and Wesson, by the way.

My tiger pistol has been moving sand all throughout the holes in my rock. I rarely ever see him though, just an antenna here and there.

[Planeden]

Gram Gram is not being so shy anymore. even showing off a little hovering around like "aint i cute?" and then kinda darts back behind a rock.

i like his/her little mask that looks like a smile "that does quite reach her eyes".

[Bpb]

Nice. Love royal grammas. That was one of my "must have" fish before I even got into the hobby. They get a bad rep but I haven't noticed anything but good behavior in mine.

[Planeden]

Nice. Love royal grammas. That was one of my "must have" fish before I even got into the hobby. They get a bad rep but I haven't noticed anything but good behavior in mine.

to be honest, he was a friendlier replacement of the once-must-have bicolor dottyback. but, i think i actually like them better with the fading colors between the purple and gold.

[Planeden]

Spent a couple of hours at the aquadome today, wandering around, getting my water tested, and of course shopping. I ran into Sherita, Subsea, and Lenver. It was nice meeting/talking to you all.

I got my calcium, carbonate hardness, and magnesium tested today. Ca = 400, CH = 7.0, and Mag = 1200. The good news is, this concurs with my home test results ('cept i don't test mag.). not so good news, this is on the lower end of the scale of what i need for my LPS/NPS corals. I skimped out on the salt for the cycling process and got instant ocean. I am almost out of it and have replaced it with Red Sea Coral Pro (or whatever the bag that is way too far from my current lazy position says). Hopefully that will help because dosing scares me. i guess we will find out soon enough.

Fun part: my little 10g OT has been a little whacky with levels. As of a week ago, I was surprised that nitrites were still popping up (barely measurable) every few days. my nitrates have been high as well. Aside from it being a new tank, I think it is becuase I'm over feeding. But feeding 1 fish and 2 corals with frozen foods, I have difficulty regulating an appropriate ammount of food. So, I got a rather large amount of detrivors to help clean up the mess. i'm lazy, why syphon the sand when i can watch little things do it for me?

I got a few nasarius snails that instantly buried themselves close to where they fell. A bunch of small hermits that pretty much went straight to the dendro and palys that i feed. The bumble bee snails seem to be spreading with no real pattern. The two peppermint shrimp made a beeline to my accessory gift of mermaid rock. shockingly, the brittle star went straight under a rock.

It is a rather large CUC for a 10g, but I'm going to let them work for a while and then probably move some of them to the main tank. I scavanged a bit of the CUC from that one to start this little guy. I told hunter that i needed a CUC for about 15-20 gal and explained why. I let his experience judge the proper size or the work crew. i like hunter, he is very handy to have around.

Not to be outdone, I had to get something for the main tank, too. I got an azoo neon coral. Not a living one, a silicon one. I'm hoping that my clowns will like it since my system is too young for a real nem. I watch them all the time hovering around and it just looks exhausitng. It'll be there if they want a nap, but if they don't, then it's their loss. i understand that others have had success with similar products.

[Planeden]

PS: for anyone interested in the Azoo coral, it is way cheaper at aquadome than the amazon link i provided. mine was half that price and i think mine's larger.

[esacjack]

rubber coral? surely you jest....

get a frogspawn for them to host a nice juicy one... like that peach hammer at AAF!

Also. if your OT is going to be a long term spot, I recommend using biopellets as scattered substrate..

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-plate.html

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/eheim-substrat-pro-bio-filter-media.html

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-1-1-2-spheres.html

If youre using a HOB, check out the above links... Im going to be using the plates in my new zoa grow out system.

[Planeden]

yeah, so far they don't like it any more than i do. it was a nice peachy color in the store. but i guess neon was not some marketing ploy...

i have a frogspawn in QT right now. but it is pretty small for the two of them. also, i have heard mixd reviews on how much the frogspan appreciates their clown firends.

[esacjack]

I've also seen them host leathers! I think if you just get your bioload up slowly and safely, you'll be ready for a nem pretty quickly. Just be sure you observe what stage of algae you're in.. That's usually a good indicator.. To get your feet wet, why not pick up a small flower anemone? (does anyone else still misspell anemone?) I have several in my nano, and I love the heck out of them. Reefgardener had some on sale. I plan on breeding them in the near future (4-5 months away). How is your rock looking? Coloring up? fading? still bleached out?

Also, giving your reef a period of rest (flow wise) has proved to work well for our restless clowns.

[Planeden]

wow, leathers? they must be really pleased with that. a snail was cruising around on mine yesterday and he was about as mad as i've seen him. today some macro was touching him and he was half mad. but maybe the lady clown can host in the frogspawn and the leather.

i already had some aiptasia growning in my QT tank. clearly, that one is ready for nems (no, i can't spell it either, but i can't spell anyway).

i should take a picture of my rock tomorrow and post it. after removing the ugly rubber coral. i don't think coloring up is apt, exactly. they are covered in some sort of algae, but not the good kind. it may be diatoms, but i am not sure. just a thin coat of something greenish brown. it doesn't look hairy nor slimey. i'm not too concerned with it, though, as i just figure it is part of the process. i haven't checked parameters in a while, but my macro in the sump is growing well. it has probably doubled in size.

but honestly, i'm not sure what nems look for. i just know that people say "six months". safe to say my bioload is going up slowly, though. i've added two clowns about a month ago and a goby/pistol shrimp a week and a half ago. aside from CUC and macro, that's all that's there. four corals and the royal gramma will go in at the end of the month. unless any of the pests show back up before then.