First Time Build

[Planeden]

yeah, i think they go well with all my gold plated faucets and light switches. ok, perhaps there was a limited selection. but it works for me. and it hasn't been vetoed.

[Planeden]

There are things moving in the tank, under their own free will!

Meet the janitors:

I got the 10-30 gallon kit and microfauna kit from aquadome and added a serpent and a stripy serpent/brittle star. details are hard.

Drip acclimating may be a bit of overkill for snails, but i got these in from drs. f&s today, so why not practice. they are cheap and work much better than the one i tried to diy (or is it dim?).

Serpent Brittle Star (not green, shouldn't eat fish):

Stripy One - he quickly made it under some seaweed and was disappointed when i moved it. i figure he was under it, but he grabbed on and went for a bit of a ride. it's funny, he was the one that was more mobile and happy in the bag, but dove for cover as soon as he hit the tank.

i'm guessing you don't want pictures of hermits and snails, so i will spare you.

going to stare at the tank now. unfortunately it is a moonless night (stupid AI Sol lunar cycle setting), so i am going to have to cheat and turn them on a bit.

[JamesL]

Stuff moving in the tank is always fun

[Bpb]

Those starfish are some of the most awesome things. You don't see a whole lot of them strangely enough. I don't think that's overkill for snails. I've got about 50 or more dwarf ceriths, 10 nerites, 25 or so nassarius, 10 florida ceriths, a couple astrea, and probably about 5 or so hermit crabs in my 55 gallon. One of my big trochus snails died today of old age and was made a VERY quick meal of by the hermits and nassarius snails. He didn't have time to decompose at all. I think as your tank is young and you don't have many touchy corals yet your CUC looks fine and if it's too much they'll even out their numbers naturally.

I also didn't even drip my snails. Got them from reefcleaners.org. I temp acclimated the bags, opened them up. Dumped what water they had, and the snails all just went straight into the tank.

[Planeden]

Stuff moving in the tank is always fun

Making fun of my enthusiasm again . Glad you're sharing in it.

I'm not telling how many hours have been spent with a flashlight trying to catch glimpses of things.

[Planeden]

Those starfish are some of the most awesome things. You don't see a whole lot of them strangely enough. I don't think that's overkill for snails. I've got about 50 or more dwarf ceriths, 10 nerites, 25 or so nassarius, 10 florida ceriths, a couple astrea, and probably about 5 or so hermit crabs in my 55 gallon. One of my big trochus snails died today of old age and was made a VERY quick meal of by the hermits and nassarius snails. He didn't have time to decompose at all. I think as your tank is young and you don't have many touchy corals yet your CUC looks fine and if it's too much they'll even out their numbers naturally.

I also didn't even drip my snails. Got them from reefcleaners.org. I temp acclimated the bags, opened them up. Dumped what water they had, and the snails all just went straight into the tank.

I was meaning the drip may be overkill, not the numbers.

As for the stars, I'm surprised at how big they are, yet how easily the hide. I was expecting them to be a couple of inches across when I bought them.

[Bpb]

DOH. I'm le tired.

[+KimP]

How cool! I'm glad to see you have some fun bigger stuff to watch.

[JamesL]

Stuff moving in the tank is always fun

Making fun of my enthusiasm again . Glad you're sharing in it.

I'm not telling how many hours have been spent with a flashlight trying to catch glimpses of things.

Not at all. I think everyone has sat there with a flashlight exploring their tanks.

[Planeden]

I figure a flashlight is how people find those tiny things they post in the "I'd please" threads.

Sadly, no sign of the stars today. It's a good thing I took pictures for the thread or my girlfriend may not have believed I got them. But I'm amazed as to how quickly the CUC is doing its job. Not quite as systematic as I'd like, so I keep having to find a corresponding snail trail in the glass to see what I want, but they are making quick work of it.

[Planeden]

My little janitor army is making quick work of the algae and diatoms. I think by this time tomorrow we will have a pristine tank. Unfortunately, between the biological filtration and the macro algae I don't seem to have figured out how much to feed the tank. My nitrates are 0, phosphates ar 0, and my feather caluapra is deteriorating. I may speed up my stocking plans to muddy my waters, if you will.

On another note: #%¥ dumb ^%} tanks with no biological filtration from things other than a mechanical filter. After having my QT filter in my sump for most of the cycling process, after a week of setting up my QT I am finally down to 0 ammonia, 2 ppm nitrites, and 0 nitrates. This is unacceptable considering that if I need to change the filter, then the tank will recycle and kill anything in it. Apparently, while some people have a magic ability to do this, I'm not one of those people.

So, i am scrubbing the QT. I will be setting up a 10 gallon tank in my office. Since I'm indecisive, I just can't be sure that the corals I choose will look good in my main tank, so I may put them in there for a month or so and stare closely at them to see if I think the will be a good fit. And, if this tank happens to get a nasty bug, I can break it down, sterilize it and start over. So, this will be my TDT (temporary display tank), SLT (sacrificial lamb tank), or FDAQTT (use context clues, this is not a nice phrase ).

Note: I'm sure if I put an oversized filter, or seven, on my former QT I could stabilize it, but I really don't want to spend a lot more money and time experimenting.

Oh, and happy father's day for those dad's out there.

[Planeden]

I'm still having more problems with my green macro. Every leaf, including the new growth, on the feather capulera is white and melting. I have three theories on the problem and am experiment with it to see. 1. Not enough food. 2. Too much, or wrong, lighting. 3. Too much flow. I'm leaning towards 1 or 3.

My nitrates and phosphates were reading 0 ppm, so this is what I experimented with first. I fed heavily yesterday (and both brittle stars made appearances, yay). Today my nitrates are reading 10 ppm (still 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite - yay for biological warfare). I will try to maintain levels at of 5 - 10 ppm for a while and see if there are any changes. If that doesn't work I will reposition them which will likely affect both light and flow. Two controls changed at once is not ideal, but turning off the powerheads seems less desirable, although probably not detrimental.

The red macro in the display is all doing quite well (good color and not dying, not sure of another measure). So, I'm not sure if Darwin prefers them, or what. Also, the green macro in the sump is doing fine (but not growing), so perhaps the intense lighting it lives with gives it a boost in competition with the others.

[victoly]

Definitely option 1. Macro need food to grow.

[+KimP]

Definitely option 1 but light does play into it. Lots of light is going to push the growth and it'll need more nutrients.

[+KimP]

IMHO you're adding macro way too early. It's silly to feed your tank just to feed algae. Get your fish first then add the macro. My lagoon didn't start doing well until it was fully stocked with fish.

[Planeden]

Definitely option 1 but light does play into it. Lots of light is going to push the growth and it'll need more nutrients.

Definitely option 1. Macro need food to grow.

thanks guys.

IMHO you're adding macro way too early. It's silly to feed your tank just to feed algae. Get your fish first then add the macro. My lagoon didn't start doing well until it was fully stocked with fish.

in hindsight that makes sense. but i read a lot about it and many people start with macro in the tank. although, they may not take the slow route to stocking that i am planning, and i did add a lot. but i'm also feeding my bittle stars and janitors since they have pretty much eliminated all the algae. but, i'm in the boat now, so i will just keep feeding for now. i will have to feed it once i get fish and corals anyway. but, if i lose my feather i will wait until the tank is stocked before adding more.

thanks

[+KimP]

You can have a tank with just macros, I didn't mean it to sound like you couldn't, but in that case I would consider adding strait up plant fertilizer. You'll get there though! You have much more patience than the average reefer

[Planeden]

You can have a tank with just macros, I didn't mean it to sound like you couldn't, but in that case I would consider adding strait up plant fertilizer. You'll get there though! You have much more patience than the average reefer

not a bad thought. i have some of the little pellets (shove under the gravel), but that may just feed the roots and not work for macro. i'll look into it. i was hoping to make it to aquadome today. although, that plan may have changed on an unrelated occurrence. so, now i'd basically just be going to ogle and get some water. although maybe tap water would have some nutrients in it for the macro (-duck-).

unrelated occurance - we found 3 baby somethings in our 55g tank last night that we were planning on buying fish for today. figure they may have a better chance of survival with the current stocking of 3 silver dollars and 2 kuhli loaches. shrug, a breeder net is also a possibility.

[subsea]

First, feather Caulerpa is finicky. Chill out.

If you want to know more about macro, then read up on the linked plant book at Gulfcoast EcoSystem. Each macro that is collected list depth. If you look at Red Grapes, Red Lettuce and Dragons Breath you will see that it is collected between 30' -130'. At that depth, there would be much blue in light spectrum. I am growing Gracilaria Hayi under many different conditions. It grows fast under all light conditions.

Patrick

[Planeden]

I'm chilled. I just really like the feather. Of course, if I lose this one I know where I can get more when the time comes.

[subsea]

You can have a tank with just macros, I didn't mean it to sound like you couldn't, but in that case I would consider adding strait up plant fertilizer. You'll get there though! You have much more patience than the average reefer

not a bad thought. i have some of the little pellets (shove under the gravel), but that may just feed the roots and not work for macro. i'll look into it. i was hoping to make it to aquadome today. although, that plan may have changed on an unrelated occurrence. so, now i'd basically just be going to ogle and get some water. although maybe tap water would have some nutrients in it for the macro (-duck-).

unrelated occurance - we found 3 baby somethings in our 55g tank last night that we were planning on buying fish for today. figure they may have a better chance of survival with the current stocking of 3 silver dollars and 2 kuhli loaches. shrug, a breeder net is also a possibility.

While I have used water soluble fertilizer that is balanced, I do not recommend it. If you want to feed your macro, then continue to feed ammonia. Macro uses 100 molecules of nitrogen for each molecule of phosphate and even less iron. At this stage in your cycle, you need to introduce fish load and feed the fish or feed the macro. Macro algae can not absorb nutrients thru their holdfast. Terrestrial plant food would not be a good idea. Dosing for iron would be a good idea

Enjoy the ride. It gets faster.

Patrick

[Planeden]

Last night I added some extra sand behind my levee to get closer to 3" back there.

Today on the advice of counsel, I also added an ammonia factory pair. Sorry Brooks, but these being $20 were more in line with my first fish price range than the designer versions you have.

drip drip drip

they are very wiggly and hard to get focused pictures of.

I also found this star hanging out on the glass.

I have also finished setting up my sacrificial lamb tank. I used a few of the rock pieces I got from Bio^3 that were in my main tank. I didn't move any sand over, yet. But I may in a couple of days. I set up the thermometer today and it is 85 degrees. That's not too good considering it is nighttime. But, needless to say, I may not need the heater. A couple of snails and pods migrated over, too.

[JamesL]

Nice looking pair of clowns! Now you really can have long staring sessions at the tank. You going to get an anemone down the road?

[subsea]

For long staring sessions, I suggest listening to "The Blue Danube". Clownfish always swim awkward. For me, I enjoy a classical waltz to help the fish get their swim act together.

Patrick

[Planeden]

Nice looking pair of clowns! Now you really can have long staring sessions at the tank. You going to get an anemone down the road?

thanks, and yes on both counts. one of my brittle stars took an epic journey last night. i watched him for about 45 minutes transverse the epic 12" along the bottom and back and then scale to the top of his mountain and back down to his hidey hole. no idea what he thought he would find up there, maybe it was just because it was there.

i haven't decided on what type of nem, yet. i like condies, but i need to see what these ocellaris clowns like. we forgot to ask if they were tank bred or wild. i think wild means they are more likely to host with their natural ones, whereas tank bred are likely to host in more things.

so far, they seem to really like hanging out at the top fighting the current of the powerhead. i thought maybe there was too much flow and they may get tired. i turned off the offending powerhead, just in case. rather than thanking me, the looked at me funny, sighed, and found another one to play in. so i plugged it back in for them.

For long staring sessions, I suggest listening to "The Blue Danube". Clownfish always swim awkward. For me, I enjoy a classical waltz to help the fish get their swim act together.

Patrick

ha, see if they are in line with the music. i was thinking they may like ozzy...bad pun? sorry.