35G Saltwater Reef Journal

Looking forward to seeing what you get!

Well there all in the tank and are immediately eating and being active so far so good. I picked up 8 nassarius snails, 3 mexican trubos, 1 astera, and 1 very large blue legged hermit. I wasn't planning on purchasing any hermits since I already have 8 or so scrounging the tank but he was too cool to pass up.

And on the 10g tank the algae is already starting to grow! I would like to take the damsels out of my 35g and put them in my 10g, what do you guys think the best route of doing that would be?

More pics

Q tank

It's been one long day. I decided to remove the damsels from the 35g and add them to the 10g. I dont want them getting a taste for coral or aggressing anything further. Also if they still have ich on them its better for them to be in the other tank.

I removed all rock and then netted them out in a bare tank, I replaced all rock back into the tank. did this whole swap in about 10 minutes to be quick about it. I will post pics tomorrow of the new rock scape and post how both tanks are fairing in the am.

Didn't have time to test water or take pics this am so will do that after class. At lunch so I thought I would update my stocking list. While i had the tank bare I managed to be able to get a count of everything in the tank.

I have (for 35g):
Red legged hermits: 6
Blue legged hermits: 1
Nassarius snails: 8
Mexican turbo snails: 3
Astera's: 1
Removed damsels

10g tank
Striped damsels: 3

My clean up crew is officially stocked on both tanks! I'm happy to finally have my cleaner crew in the tank. So now that that phase is out of the way, I'm gonna let the tank sit for a week or two and add my first soft coral of some sort. I'm going to add corals before fish due to the ich issue that occured a week ago. I'm gonna let the tank build up some bacteria and have a week of stability before I add the coral. The 10g tank is having a heat issue due to the heat output of the MH I have over it. Today after class i'm gonnna swing by home depot and setup a hanging light to fix the issue.

10g tank:
3 striped damsels
1 emerald crab
1 mexican turbo

35g tank:
14 nassarius snails
7-10 blue/red legged hermits
1 Lightfoot sally crab
3 mexican turbos
1 astera

Tanks are both doing well and everything is very active and man oh man how that lightfoot sally crab cleans up food! Very cool critter. Enjoy the pictures. Also my final rock layout is posted.

Cheers all. looking forward to adding corals. waiting 3 weeks on the fish. I think I might add a goby possibly a gold headed one. Not sure, open to suggestions

I would put the emerald in the 35g, they get 3", they are recommended 1 per 25g, your desision. Also, with the sally crab, I have heard many stories of them being not reef-safe and killing corals and inverts.

Mayber some more snails in the 35g after the tank has matured more

Keep it up

The LFS assured me the sally crab is reef safe and wont destroy my inverts as long as I keep the tank fed and don't starve em. As for the emerald crab I didn't realize they got so big. When the 10g tank is done cycling and I replace the emerald with some hermits I'll move him to the 35g. He's rather small at the momment, so I think I have some time. Well im exhausted, I finally fixed the heat issues with the 10g tank. check it out. I also bought the correct size heater for the 10g. So the tank shouldnt fluxuate anymore.

Just read up on them further and it seems that they are reef safe, and that as long as they are fed directly they shouldn't bother other inverts. But time will tell, I can always swap the two crabs out.

Ok, feed him well so he doesn't decide to have shrimp or snails on the menu

I saw baby emeralds at the LFS the size of a dime, looks can be deciving They are still great additions to any appropriate sized tank

Good job

Okay after some debate and poking around at the LFS recording names of corals so I can do my homework on them and see what I would like to purchase I decided that I'm going to move the emerald crab to the 35g and place a sally lightfoot crab in the 10g. I didn't wanna remove my crab from the 35g so I picked up a small sally light foot. He's currently dripping for the 10g and after removing the emerald I have him dripping in a container as well for prep for the 35g. Trying to ensure my inhabitants are happy.

I doubt I'll be getting an eel now because I'm very limited on the fish I can get as is and the eel would only further limit that. In the next two weeks I'll be adding my first coral. I'm thinking something along the lines of a mushroom, polyp (prefered), or a leather. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I can't seem to decide what to use as the first coral. I'm open to all types.

I've somewhat composed a fish list. I will probably remove some of the fish from the list because I fear it would be to crowded. So far I have:
1 golden headed sleeper goby
2 blue flasher wrasses
2 percula clownfish's (will add anemone 8-12 months in the future)
and possbily 3-4 schooling fish of some sort, maybe chromis's or cardinals.

Input on the fish list would be appreciated. the pairs would be added at the same time to avoid death and destruction of territory from an already established single species. Also moving astera to the 10g for increased algae removal. Going to LFS next week and will pick up two turbos, one for each tank. Should I add more than 4 turbos to my 35g?

What lighting do you have??? Zoas and toadstool leathers are awesome. Almost all anemones that clowns host get to big for nano tanks (12" diameter and they kill your corals while moving) so it's prob not a great idea to get an anemone. As for the fish, wow, it's alot, 8. I'd say too many, maybe if the inhabitance are happy with the space and you're willing to do lots of tests,WC, and tend to you skimmer/filter (or if it's just WC it'll be alot of mantinance). I say too many but you may be able to do it

Like I said I will probably remove some of the fish from the list. I'll most def be removing the school of fish after some thinking. So that brings me down to 5 fish.
Updated fish list:
1 golden headed sleeper goby
2 Blue flasher Wrasse
2 Percula (clownfish)

And maybe I'll add one more small fish but we'll see when I get there! Here I'll post a pic of my fish list, Ill post a updated pic of the fish list once corals are added. I've done a lot of research and i'll probably start off with some green polyps or a leather of some sort. And I'll be adding all the fish correctly, such as slowly and introducing the more territorial ones last and introducing the wrasse's and percula's as pairs. Most likely will add the goby first. The astera is currently dripping for tank transfer. Also could you comment on the CUC for the turbos. I know two turbos and one astera will more than suffice for the 10g (only reason I'm putting two snails in there is due to the algae production from the MH). I'm more curious to see how many algae eating critters I should have in my 35g. I do know that the 35g's scavenger crew is more than ample. I can drop an abundance of food in there and it's all cleaned up very quickly. In the 35g I currently have:
16 nassarius snails
7-10 blue/red legged hermits
1 lightfoot sally crab
1 emerald crab
3 mexican turbos (plan to add 1-2 more)

Comments are appreciated, just please state whether its fact or opinion.

My lights on the 35g are the standard Red Sea Max 130d lights. 2 T5 compact 50w lights. They seem to have 1 light white and 1 blue light (each). I'm positive it can support most of the corals out there. It's guranteed by the company. The 10g has a huge MH light made for a 300g over it (the 300g has 3 of these, I took only one, I'm not positive on the wattage but it has a giant power supply if that helps any haha). I plan to take damsels back to the LFS ,so I can put whatever I please in the 10g.

I really like the polyps on this site http/www.aquacon.com/zoanthid.html
Also adivce on the snails would be great.

Fact: Those lights will be fine for softies and some LPS but if you want to get into SPS you may need your other halide. Opinion: The polyps on that site look great Opinion: Later you may want to get more snails for the 35, check out nerite snails Opinion: Your fish list looks fine, you could get 1 more medium sized fish or a smaller one, I love clown gobies and will be getting one as my next fish. Fact: They stay really small and have vibrant colors. I was looking at your notes and noticed 2 things- Fact: sand-sifting stars get big and just eat the good microfauna in the sand bed to live, bad purchase. Opinion: You may want to spread out when you add the fish to a little longer in-between. Your going great

Opinion: Your handwriting is good Way better than mine Need to work on it

Keep it up

If you can tell I love the Emoticon, it just fits alot of situations, sorry.

I appreciate the feed back, And thats the time to add the fish if water parameters stay perfect throughout the whole process. I doube that will happen so It will porbably be longer then the written times. But thanks very much this is exactly the kind of feedback I wanted. Are polyps, leathers, or mushrooms considered SPS? And About the star fish, I will probably purchase a feather star down the line then along with a serpent star of some sort. I'll add more snails, when I think my 3 turbos and emerald cant handle the load. And hmm what kind of fish for the last one do you think? I dont wanna purchase any more gobies/clowns/wrasse's for compatibility purposes.

You're welcome. The corals you listed are softies and don't have very high lighing requirements, softie is a given (no calcified shell), LPS=Large polyp stony (i.e.hammer, torch, acans), SPS= Small polyp stony(i.e. branching or encrusting, acropora, montipora)
Good idea with the snails, I will go see what fish will fit the bill and post again with what I think will work

Fish that I found:

Any firefish
Scissortail Dartfish- gets a little big 5 1/2"
Zebra Barred Dartfish
Splended/Orchid dottyback
Cherub angel
Coral beauty
Flame angel
Royal gramma
Black cap/ Gold assessor basslet

All of these fish stay relatively small, are reef safe, colorful, and pretty easy to care for. I found all these on Live aquaria