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JamesL's 24g Symbiosis Tank


JamesL

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It is funny how things circle around. I sold a 24g tank to upgrade to a 75g years back. Now I just purchased another 24g (but still keeping the 75g).

This goal for this tank is to make it a (mostly) symbiosis themed tank. Yes, corals + algae are symbiotic, but I am thinking on a bit larger scale. The planned main attraction of the tank will be a Rose BTA with a pair of clownfish (not sure on type yet, but none of those crazy expensive designer ones). On a smaller scale, thinking also of a shrimp/goby pair and Pom Pom crabs. Might throw some clown gobies in there cause the wife likes them :)

For this tank, I am trying starting it differently. Going with base rock instead of my normal live rock route. And to be even more daring, I am only going with a single 28 pounder piece. Don't have to worry about rock slides in this tank. :)

So that is the basics. Here is part of it still in the car. More pics later once I get it wet.

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You could get a medusa worm with their little shrimp that rides them.

Good idea! And I like how the worms can be bright red. Though I wonder if that shrimp and a pistol would fight.

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I loved my anemone-associating crustaceans. Here are the top four.

#4 Sexy Shrimp (Thor amboinensis)

Cheap, nice, pretty and cute. They'll associate with just about anything, but they tend to wander around a lot.

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#3 Peacock-Tail/WhiteSpot/White-patched/Glass/Pacific Clown AnemoneShrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis)

They can get relatively big (almost 2") and can annoy smaller anemones, but they are pretty and will wave their tails at intruders (including people).

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#2 Porcelain Anemone Crabs (Neopetrolisthes ohshimai or Neopetrolisthes maculatus)

Awesome, friendly (primarily filter feeders) and you can always see them as they're not cryptic like most crabs (like the Pom Pom).

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#1 Spotted Cleaner/Commensal/Anemone Shrimp (Periclimenes yucatanicus)

This guy was awesome. He (or she) would waggle his antenna and hover for found when I walked up to the aquarium, an he liked to eat from my glove/hand. Until I used that to capture him for a new home, and now he hates me. S/he would mostly stay on its favorite Condy Nem but would trundle around scavenging for food every so often. It cleaned my Powder Brown Tang, too (last picture), so great ornamentation, entertainment, fish-cleaning and cleanup crew shrimp.

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Wet and mostly cleared up (maybe next time I will actually clean the glass :)):

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I have various things on order to get it into fully functioning mode:

- LockLine parts to spread out the flow, and to prevent the sand sculpting going on... much more powerful pump in this tank than my previous nano cube.

- New MH bulb (Phoenix 14k).

- Carbon for the filter area.

Going skimmerless and heaterless for the time being. My main tank has had no problems over the past years without a heater... though I do realize temp variations will be more drastic in the little tank.

So I am torn on how to seed the tank. When filling it up, I used a bucket full of water from my large tank. I might try to find a small piece of live rock from my current tank, but my goal has been to prevent nasties from moving over (like the orange ball anemones and euclid worm). I don't know, it might be a losing battle though, as I am sure the orange ball anemones will eventually make their way over as I plan to migrate some coral from the big tank to the little. Not that they have been too much of a pest. In fact, these days I don't see the hoards like I used to. And they didn't really pose to much troubles since they open only at night. So maybe I won't worry about them, but if I can keep euclid worms out of the little tank, that will be a big bonus.

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i love the look of the sand. but, we'll see what the powerheads have to say about it. my powerheads have decided they want one corner of the tank to be BB smile.png.

Yeah, that is happening in the front right corner of the tank. I don't have much flexibility with the current nozzle. If I turn it more flat or on it's side, I get too much water splashing at the surface. Going to spread out the flow with a T and lockline plumbing. Here is my utterly not-to-scale drawing I did when figuring out what pieces I needed:

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Well after pushing off a layer of dust on my test kits, I found out the tank Ammonia is up to 0.5 already. Kind of surprised since there really was much in the tank to decompose, but happy things are moving along.

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Here is the first coral transplant from the large tank. This poor photo gorgonian has been picked on by my angelfish. So re-homing it here, as it was one of my favorite corals, you get the look of a SPS without the hassle.

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That plain ole holey rock?

Yep. Decided to go the "base" rock path with this tank to keep some nasties out. Got the rock at Fish Gallery while checking it out... I believe I might have been the first person to purchase rock from the store :)

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