Shawn's 29g Starter Tank - Mentor Program

[FarmerTy]

Just swing by some water whenever you want Shawn and I'll test phosphate for you until December rolls around. If I'm not around, just drop it off at the front door and let me know.

I'm not too familiar with leathers but I've seen some look half dead come right back. I'm sure it's like what everyone is saying, they are just adjusting to the lights and will spring back to life once acclimated.

I do like to give my fish some variety but my staples are mysis shrimp mixed with either some type of mixed meaty frozen food (LRS, Rods, or my own mix) or bloodworms. I'll throw in some of the Pappone's recipe (easily googled) or BRS reef chili every night I feed frozen for some finer foods to feed the corals and sponges.

For nights that are not frozen food night, I feed an assorted variety of NLS pellets, flakes, and nori.

I'd see if your fish will start accepting some NLS pellets. They are a good source of nutrition, dense, and high in calories (little water weight compared to most frozen). When I had a nano, I feed more pellets and only gave frozen foods as a treat as I worried about the amount of phosphates in the frozen food.

I fed phytoplankton back when I had a nano too but I'm not sure I would recommend it with a nano. I just think with the limited water volume, it tends to foul water quality more than feed as the export systems on nanos tend to be more limited due to space limitations. I ran it back then in my upstart years because it was the newest thing out there and everybody raved about it. Maybe someone can chime in about its usage in nanos but in my large system, I get a good amount of zooplankton and phytoplankton just within my own system so I don't bother dosing.

[ShawnKoto]

Ty... I looked in my refuge today and saw this...

Then looked a little closer and saw this!

Is this what I think it is? So, far I only see them in my refuge. Should I just toss the cheato? Otherwise they will spread? Or is it like having Ich in a tank that you can never get rid of. Maybe toss a peppermint shrimp back there?

[FarmerTy]

Toss the chaeto. Not worth it in my opinion. You can get some more chaeto from me with much better hitchhikers.

[ShawnKoto]

Okay so bunches of updates and some good early Christmas presents.

1. I tossed the Chaeto. Unfortunately, I still have two pieces of aiptasia in the fuge. I was going to try and kill them, but don't want to mess with it until I get back from vacation. Also, I need more macro now... Also, that blue fish died back there, but I fed it to my new BTA and it loved it. Circle of life and all that.

2. Also, I took your advice about the negative space and taking my good frags off the rack and in the space and I am lovign the new look of the tank. Here are some pics over time:

OCT:

NOV:

DEC:

3. Good news and bad news! Good news... I finally got my Hanna checker. Bad news...

So, I need to figure something out there. Thinking of ordering a GFO reactor.

4. I got this new BTA and I think it is looking good. I don't have much to compare it to, but it is eating and my clown loves it. Snuggles the beejesus out of it.

5. I setup my AutoFeeder on the tank. You will see that I actually attached it to the lid instead of to the side. I did this because I didn't like how it was covering my view when attached to the front. Then I cut out a section of plastic that would allow the food to still fall through while at the same time keeping my Wrasse from floor surfing.

6. Lastly, I got a second RW4 for Xmas from my beautiful and patient GF. I will be setting that up tonight and I will really be able to get some cool flow patterns with two controllable pumps.

More to come before my trip.

[FarmerTy]

Go figure... I find a fish for you and you kill it and feed it to the anemone. [emoji12]

Tank is progressing nicely! Your phosphates aren't as terribly high as I remember when you brought by your water last time. Some of the purigen must be helping out a bit.

[ShawnKoto]

Alright, I have been out of town for the last three weeks in France. It was an incredible trip, I drank wine, stuffed myself with macaroons, and I most notably got engaged at top of Mont Saint Michel.

All great super romantic stuff… However, you know the entire time I was gone, I was praying that my tank would be okay.

And it was! Nothing died. I had a friend come in and feed every other day, but that was it. It seems that the auto-feeder worked out well, which is great. Also, everything is doing very well in the tank, especially the BTA.

Both clown fish are hosting now--originally only one hosted.I am really happy with how it looks and the progress. Good stuff.

[FarmerTy]

Congratulations on your engagement sir! Sometimes I forget there might be some more important things in life besides our reef tanks. [emoji57]

Of all the conversations we've had back and forth on reef tanks, I forgot an important lesson I learned over the years that relates here. The magic formula to increase your growth rate on corals... keep your hands out of the tank! [emoji16]

Glad everything is still looking good after the vacation. Better get cracking on that eventual upgrade. I know firsthand... once it's "our" house... giant tanks are harder to be had. It's easier to move a giant tank you already have stored in the garage into the house... then it is to go buy a giant tank. You're welcome! [emoji12]

[FarmerTy]

Alright Shawn, the week long birthday celebration has gone on long enough! [emoji6]

Where's the big update with all your new tank toys on it?

[ShawnKoto]

Holy Moley, it has been over a month since my last post. I have been traveling a ton again for work, so the auto feeder has been getting a workout. Lots has happened with the tank. However, I have consciously slowed down my pace. I was making constant changes to the tank for a while as it was getting setup and I was noticing that I wasn't getting the desired results and I think I just needed to slow down.

So, first I got rid of my two Clownfish and got a nice pair of Davincis:

These are my favorite morph of clownfish, I just love them, and I don't know why.

Some other things that I have added to the tank:

• Purple/Orange Reef Lobster
• Female Pencil Wrasse (All Pink)

Here is what the full tank looks like now:

Look at the size of the nem! For comparison here is what it looked like when I got it in December:

Also, everything is starting to grow out nicely, especially the GSP on the back wall.

I think that i will have the wall completely covered in six months or so, I really like the carpeted look of it. Started from only a couple small pieces. It really adds some depth and the skunk shrimps and crabs love climbing on it.

I also added a conductivity probe to my Apex setup. I haven't really dialed it in yet, but I have noticed something, not having an auto top-off and not putting new RODI water in the tank daily really makes for large salinity swings in a 30g tank. I have noticed that with the evaporation of 3-4 days the salinity can go from 35ppm to 39ppm. And then as soon as I fill it with RODI it goes right back to normal. So, I have all the things to make an auto-top off now, but I haven't had time to set it up yet.

Lastly, I have had a couple set backs in the tank:

My girlfriend bought a really nice Blue Maxima for my birthday and it died pretty quickly. I think it was due to the salinity and excess nutrient fluctuations. That was sad, but I learned from it.

I have noticed that I have a nutrient problem, maybe due to my feeding, but it is hard to keep up with. I really want to add a protein skimmer to the mix, but I am not sure if I want one of the really small ones that will fit in the back of the bio-cube. they always get mixed reviews, but the other option is to build a refuge for it, but then I am really building out this tank and I know it is the starter for me.

I am going to keep this tank going for another 6 months as I am renovating my house during the nice weather, but I think in the fall it is time for the new build...

[FarmerTy]

Wait, I believe I can feel a pulse folks... this thread is officially alive again!

Well I'm glad to hear that everything has been doing pretty well despite you being gone so much. That's a shame about the clam. I saw the picture first before you mentioned it had died and for a brief second... I thought to myself... I hope Shawn didn't buy a clam shell for decoration. Then I was like... nah... surely he didn't do that.

Where you able to get the chaeto established in the back chamber like we had tried before? I know that the spectrum of the light was very important for me to be able to establish it on my old nano and the yellower, the better I say. When I ran a more white light back there, all my chaeto started to die off. I was just thinking about that to possibly help with your nutrients.

[ShawnKoto]

Yeah the Cheato is doing okay, but it is not growing very well.

I have it under 6500k, but I am not sure that it is the right decision, but it looked like the right one from all the research that I did.

[FarmerTy]

That should actually be the ideal spectrum for chaeto. Perhaps it is not enough wattage? Either that or maybe you don't have a nutrient issue?

What evidence do you have for a nutrient issue? Algae growth? High readings?

[ShawnKoto]

Well. I guess I am not sure that I have a issue after all. I have had good water measurements for a long time. And I even made a sweet little phosphate reactor out of a small internal pumps-I am pretty happy with it. I will post about it this week.

Like I said above, I am seeing that I definitely have a salinity issue. In the past, I was was not topping off because I have never missed a weekly water change. However, that was a bad concept, I should be topping off regularly. I wanted to build my ATO this weekend, but I had a different project.

My cichlids that I started several years ago have grown to full size and were cramped in a 29g... So it was time for an upgrade and I bought this 75g, set it up, and built the stand this weekend.

It was the first stand that I have built and it went very well. I still have to skin it of course but it is nice and sturdy and I used lumber that I had in the back yard, so it was free!

Anyway, the ATO will have to wait until next weekend.

[FarmerTy]

I have assessed you one demerit in the mentor program for working on a freshwater project before a saltwater project. Please don't let it happen again.

[ShawnKoto]

Oh no! But Ty they were suffering

It will not happen again, Shifu....

[ShawnKoto]

Hi Ty:

Sorry about these long intervals between my posts, but it takes a while before there is a solid list of things to tell you about with my build.

However, there are some things that I have struggled with lately.

I had a bacterial infection that hit my tank and I didn’t see it until it was too late and I lost most of my fish… I lost a clown fish, a female pencil wrasse, and my yasha goby within 3 days.

My other clown had sores on his head and looked like he was a goner as well, but I put him in a QT tank with Bifuron and fed him garlic soaked Mysis and pellets and he bounced back nicely. Two weeks later and he looks strong and has no signs of infection.

So, now all the tank has:

• Clownfish
• Pencil Wrasse
• Rainbow BT Anenome
• Green BT Anenome
• Skunk Shrimp
• Reef Lobster
• Halloween Urchin
• Blue Tux Urchin
• Porcelain Crab
• Emerald Crab
• And a couple Snails

Next and final projects for this tank will be a skimmer and ATO system. I think this will make it about as stable and low maintenance as possible.

Now I am starting to look forward to next year when I do the big upgrade. I have learned a ton on this build and I want to go much bigger. I want a minimum of 200g between my tank and sump. J

I’ll document the skimmer and ATO projects. I keep up with the forums pretty much daily still

[FarmerTy]

Hey Shawn! That's a shame about the bacterial infection but I'm glad you were able to save the clown! We learn a lot from these steps backwards and I'm sure the experience will help you diagnose the issue quicker next time and be ready to act. I know I can spot marine velvet from a mile away.

I enjoy the benefits of a skimmer run tank very much but back in my nanocube days, it was all water changes and it worked out well. The skimmer would have definitely helped with minimizing water changes for me but a nano sized skimmer was hard to find back in the day.

That should be a great project for you with the ATO and it'll be very rewarding to have technology help a bit with the day to day upkeep so you can spend more time enjoying your tank... but you'll probably do what I do and get bored and start experimenting on your tank. [emoji30]

[ShawnKoto]

Yeah, I talked to Ian about the skimmer that he uses and I think it is pretty nice. I think down the road I would like to use the tank as a QT tank and would like it to be lower maintenance as I work on the bigger tank.

I want to do the ATO for the same reason. Also, to get practice.

In terms of experimenting, I have found that I really enjoy watching the tank grow and change, and really hate watching things die. Things die more often when I experiment. With my travel schedule, this 29g is tough, even though my husbandry is pretty good. I only missed one weekly water change since I started and I was in France. Anyway lately it has been more frustrating, but I like that it makes me want to do more, instead of break the tank down.

All that said I think a 240g would be much easier on the parameters.

[FarmerTy]

I have no idea what you're talking about! I work hard on the 240g... I swear!

[ShawnKoto]

Another 6 weeks gone by and not too much to report. The tank is looking nice:

The anemone is looking good. It actually split, which is pretty cool! Its colors look really beautiful and is healthy. Has been moving around since the split which is not great, I have had to move my corals around a bit. It is worth it though, my clown loves it.

My Jack-o-lantern is encrusting nicely and I am seeing nice growth for a pretty slow grower:

Also, this leptastrea is really doing nice. Growing fast once I got it on live rock. One thing that I have noticed is if I put corals on live rock they grow a lot faster then when they are on a plug. Maybe it is just my imagination, but it seems that encrusting corals grow out more quickly.

Lastly, I have a huge colony of these little sponge looking things in my refuge:

I am not exactly sure what they are, but they don't seem to hurt anything...

That is pretty much it for now. I am not really adding anything because I just want this tank to keep running and stabilized until I have had it up for a year, then I will start looking at a bigger option. Also, I need to come get that beautiful enchinata from you. If you have time this weekend.

[FarmerTy]

Looks great Shawn! That looks like a nice maturing tank to me!

Those are pineapple sponges (please, no SpongeBob references) and are a great sign of a maturing system.

That frag of yours is becoming more big and beautiful each day... I might just keep it. [emoji12]

Hit me up anytime next week or next weekend. This weekend is my wife's graduation and we have all manner of people in town for it so I'll be out-of-pocket.