First Marine Tank :)

[indir-emir]

Well cleaner continues to scare me at night when it finds a hole to sleep in that i can see Shine the torch and it doesnt make a slight move lol.

Today my wrasse decided to give some flake a go And took a few bits that were crushed quite small. Then continued picking at the coral beauty lol. Hopefully he takes a liking to flake aswell, he takes a few bits n pieces of mysis but hopefully its just him still settling in :\

Going to check out a store that has some discounted fish and coral and is a marine store, so hopefully can come home with some clean up crew or something nice for the tank

EDIT: Oh and also the cyano is gone from the rocks almost completely They are an ugly colour at the moment, a little yellowy. But i think thats my lights that give the effect? Hoping for coraline to start soon lol.

 

[indir-emir]

Eveyone, i need some help here. My skimmer still is having problems.

I have done 2 x 50L water changes in a week. It is continuously overflowing unless i restrict the flow with something, but once i do this it drops way to low and doesnt allow me to function the skimmer properly. The output return is turned down to the minimum, it is also returning bubbles via the return tube because there is way to many bubbles in the skimmer chamber and it is going to the bottom were the return pupe sucks water back up.

Any one know what i can do to remedy this? It is still lifted about 4-6 inches off the floor.

 

[seffieuk]

Sorry, I have forgotten what skimmer it is?

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

She is a reef octopus nw-110.

Also some good news my cleaner wrasse has the fattest little belly i have seen since i got it. Put nori into the tank in hopes of my coral beauty eating it (no luck thereJ but the wrasse decided to give it a go, and he kept tearing at it and is now fat as haha. he also plays in my arm and hand while im cleaning the tank or have my hands in the tank

 

[indir-emir]

Well I have been fiddling with the skimmer and sort of fix it each night it has to be adjusted a little tiny bit more air needs to be let in. So im using the flow control valve i had laying around to help me out with that.

I purchased a starfih today Quite love the little thing Only small still, i beleive it is a fromia indica But its hard to tell with these starfish, i swear i went through 1000 pictures without being 100% sure. I also decided that id cut my morphs from the zoa rock as the 3-4 that were on the rock had shaded out 3/4 of the zoas when opened fully. So i had no choice, not sure how well it turned out... Have fragged them and put them into a container filled with some live rock rubble (took a hammer to a small piece of live rock (which looked like a dead SPS coral lol)).

See how this all plays out

Oh forgot to add, i found another little goni bud! It must love my tank I must be doing something right... Have put the goni bud in the container for now (probably a stupid thing to do) as i have no coral epoxy lol.

 

[indir-emir]

Back for an update after like 2 weeks or something along those lines?

My mushroom frags are doing okay i think. I can see 2 or 3 frags which appear to be attached to the rubble in there I will place them in the tank once i find some super glue gel that people here use coz epoxy throws out my skimmer...

Skimmer is running nicely now Pulling some dark skimmate

My cleaner wrasse gets himself a seaweed piece every day to keep him fat and healthy... Which sometimes gets picked at by the clowns and coral beauty lol. The other fish tear apart everything i offer them Which is fantastic!

Also got some macro algae for the tank. Am currently using the hood+light from my spare little tank (Aqua One AR-380) with a 10 watt light in it, no idea about the kelvin (i think something like 6700?).. I need to get to the shop to find a light to put in its place, not sure on what light i will go with though... Not the prettiest thing at the moment... But i need to find something that wont burn me when im in and around the cabinet...

My corals are all progressing My xenia is doing fantastic! The goni has budded 2 or 3 times now that i have noticed, probably missed a few though. Everything is doing good!

I also noticed something on my macro algae... It was attached when i got it so it has stayed that way for now... It looks liek some sort of coral?? Ive included a pic for an ID but its not the best. So ill give you a description too:
- Dark Red (i think) Base/Foot
- Central Disk (maybe a mouth?)
- Several white/clear 'spikes'
- Very small in size <1cm overall

Any ideas?

Anyway, pictures say a 1000 words right? So here goes.

Acrobatic Starfish:

The cabinet with the AR-380 hood:

Refugium Shot:

ID this one please - Possibly a coral? Zoanthid maybe?:

 

[indir-emir]

Ok back for an update. Incase anyone is actually interested in this tank still Apart from me ofcourse

I purchased 10kg of premium live rock from a member of a forum i visit, and added it to the tank. With this i received quite a few nice smalland medium sized pieces, with a ton of coraline algae on them. A few corals (an sps of some sort, and a bunch of zoas, thats all i can see so far ), a snail of some sort (see pic to help ID? ), 3 crabs of some sort (See pic for ID?) which all live in the sump with my other 2 crabs lol. I also found a nice sized black brittle star which is in the tank somewhere, it had 2 damaged arms that were about half hte size of the others but i couldnt find the other pieces of the arms anywhere so i thnk it must have been at the previous rock owners tank. But it is alive and looking great, atleast it was when it was in the box it came in Have not seen it since going in this morning. Going to take a torch to the tank tonight to see if ican find it

My macro appears to be growing quite well, so i chuckeda few small bits of live rock on it to hold it down so i can see if it grows easier. I also put in 2 small bits of live rock into the refugium as a pod tower. Tank is coming along quite nicely except this #41#### algae on the glass, so anoying! I am howeverpurchasing 10 turbo snails, which should be here wednesday hopefully.

I switched over the refugium light to a energy saver bulb that i bought form hardware store for like 20 bux. Is 6500 kelvin i beleive, and is the equivalent of a 60 watt light. Appears to help quite a bit.

My paramaters are great so far. 0 ammonia, nitrite AND nitrate Ph is 8.2-8.4. Calcium is about 440ish, and will go down to about 380 by the time wate change day comes (usualy every 2 weeks, sometimes earlier sometimes longer due to uni schedule).

Purchased myself a mandarin dragonet A nice female, with a lare amount of orange as that is what i wanted for a female mandarin. She accepts frozen food, however i have not really seen her much as she likes to hide and peck at the live rock and is hard to see properly since she is hidden away in the live rock. But is nice and fat It does not seem to like the diner, though it may not know where it is.

I am feeding the tank twice a day. Once when lights come on then before lights go out. Usualy with mysis shrimp. However will go buy a few other things from the LFS tomorrow and see what they have for variety. I also feed flake now and then but my anthais doesnt go for that so its mostly mysis shrimp. Oh and also, some good news for everyone who was worried about the cleaner wrasse. It still pecks at the fish like crazy, tears apart seaweed and chows it down, and also accepts mysis shrimp and flake Great little fish! Am quite happy with it.

The anthias was attacked by the #41#### coral beauty (im pretty sure anyway) and had a bit of an injury for a day or two, but that cleared up with a few small water changes for clean water. The coral beauty has calmed down and doesnt chase the anthais away anymore. The lyretail anthias is fattening up even more as ar as i can tell anyway, darts at the mysis the second it hits the tank and tears it apart Again a fantastic fish!.

Any tips on getting a mandarin to recognize the 'diner' as a place for food?

Nothing much more to add i dont think... Will keep updating as it progressing slowly Would my sized tank fit a yellow tang? I am quite fond of a yellow tang But have not done much reserach, and wouldnt buy one for a while anyway. Or a powder blue tang (dori anynoe? )? Otherwise, any recommendations on some more fish additions for the future?

Also, my caulerpa is kind of stringy where i expect leaves to be. It is not going sexual as i looked this up and does not look like this. I will get a picture tomorrow and post it maybe that will be better. Any ideas of what this can be till then? Or is this just how caulerpa grows? I think (from memory) it is caulerpa branchypus (spelling?)

Here are the pictures so its not a wall of text

Black brittle star (i think anyway):

One of the 3 hitch hiking crabs: (ID please?)

Another of the 3 hitch hiking crabs: (ID Please?)

The crew - Shot was taken for the anthias. I quite like this shot too! It has its top fin flaring

The beautiful madarin dragonet Picture does NOT do her justice. Plus you cant see how fat she is Bet that one makes her happy?

And finally a full tank shot to show the change in rock work. I was shooting to keep open swimming space, with a few holes in the live rock for them to swim through for fun .But leave hiding places on the left, which also blocks the view of the weir nicely from my couch Please note this was just after lights came on, so the corals are not fully extended yet. Looks fantastic when they are all extended fully!

So any comments on the new rock work, additions, etc. Id really appreciate them, as i use them to help me fix up things i may have missed in the tank

 

[Donya]

Regarding the crabs: squat lobsters maybe?

 

[indir-emir]

Not sure. Will take a google of that today after uni.

When i startled them (triedto catch them) in the box. They didnt run, it was more like they were hopping backwards. If that makes any sense? And they were real fast too!

It also looks like they have 2 very long antannas? They also appear ot have a small amount of hair on their arms, couldnt really see it anywhere else though.

EDIT: Just did a quick google. Looks to me like your spot on with squat lobster Donya. Thanks for that! They are sumped, with a total of 5 crabs in the refugium lol.

 

[indir-emir]

Just a quick update.

Keeping at it with my mandarin. Bottle 'mandarin diner' goes in with A mysis cube goes in each night from now on. Did try pellets and brine too but no luck lol. Though, yesterday i moved the bottle to a different spot closer to her and i put a cube of mysis in. This morning the cube was completely gone, and no signs of snails or hermits or shrimp or anything else lol. Just a clean empty bottle Im hoping it was her who ate it, and ill get to see her in there during the day soon enough so im gonna keep at it in this particular spot.

I also have a pistol shrimp, well like 3 or 4 Atleast i think they are them lol. Thought it was a mantis originaly, so many #41#### clicks after lights out lol. But took a torch with red celephane (yes im that cheap ) on it and found like 3-4 things that appear to be some kind of striped pistol shrimp in one of the rocks in the middle of the tank So they can stay lol.

One of my #41#### hermits (which i thought were dead since i hadnt seen ANY in over a month lol) killed one of my turbos (which got here the other day) and stole its shell. Tho i think the snail may have been already dead, and the hermit just took over its shell as it was probably upside down at the time.... 2 or 3 outta like 18 turbos didnt really move much over last couple days so i htink they may be dead. See how it goes :0

Updates to come, as im hoping to go pick up a small feather duster soon Fantastic little creatures.

Loving this reef tank!

Oh and i also found 2 more crabs in the tank, but i really cant be bothered geting them out lol. If they cause any trouble ill remove em, till then i know where they live so they can stay as they are in an akward spot for me to get at easily lol

Oh and also took my first hit from a fish today The anthias didnt like my hand to much after i pushed my hand near it to move it from where i was lol. Hit me in the wrist and left a decent mark No blood though

 

[seffieuk]

your first salty wound, you really are a salty now

Talkin about wounds, you do have anti-histamin sitting in your medicine cupboard don't you?

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

Sure am seffie! Sadly , been a little disheartened as ive just gotten ich in the tank! Please go see my thread over in the saltwater fish section and help me out...

My girlfriend has a packet of anti-histamins in her tank for her allergie and is always with me so she can save my butt if i ever needed it So far so good in that sense though, i be as careful as i can whenever my hands go in the tank.

 

[indir-emir]

I have found that the tank as had a white spot outbreak as discussed in another thread. So I decided that hyposalinity will be the method of treatment. It took me several hours to remove all the fish from the tank, which involved me removing ALL the rocksfrom the tank because they kept hiding in places i was unable to get too...

Sadly my lyretail anthias (Named peach by my missus) must have hit a rock or something and dislocated its jaw (i think) and its mouth was stuck completely open. It sadly did not last very long, even after repeated attempts to save the fish. So, R.I.P Peach the Lyretail Anthias.

After this was done, i ended up rescaping the tank as i had no choice after removing the rock to the tub and back... My goni has opened up completely again today. It spent a few days barely opening, if at all, and this was due to my clownfish female hosting it. The male had not yet hosted but does not leave her side Since removing the fish to the hospital tank/tub the goni has opened up again so is still doing good. I have fed it rotifiers today and it appeared to grasp some and im guessing eat it..

I am a little worried about my mandarin as im not 100% sure it is still eating frozen food. But have the bottle/diner in the quarantine tank and she is sitting alongide the bottle. So hopefully she will notie the food and go in and try it and will learn from it All the other fish are doing well. I fed them, they did not eat as greadil as they previous did. However, they did eat which i am happy about.

The hospital tank is currently at about 1.022 salinity. And will be reduced to 1.009 over the next 48 hours hopefully..

Anywhere, here are some photos for everone. Current as of the 6th of October, 2010.

Starting with a full tank shot - I like this scape more, it seems more open this way and i quite like it.

This is the feather star i bought thinking it was feather duster, which is my stupid reason behind getting white spot infection!!

Here is one of my turbo snails. Strange how algae grows on their shells lol.

This is a mushroom that was my 'frag' from another mushroom. It has since grown huge, and split 2 times (i think, see pictures)

Here is hte picture of the split part of the mushroom? It appeared to move around the rock and split from that section leaving that behind. This piece has since began to gain the form of the mushroom? Is this how they split?

This is one of many bristleworms in my tank which i saw at night with my flash light. It is rather large... Between 15 and 20cm in size.

This here was on my front glass one night which was found with my flash light lo. I beleive it is a brittlestar of some sort? There is quite few brittle stars around my tank

This is my quarantine tub. It is 150L but is filled with approximately 125L of water...

A shot of the quarantine tank's layout.

Quarantine tank is set up with a HOB filter i had laying around (just to help out with water stats). Currently has a small 220L/h power head to push water around for better heating... I will be buying a 400L/h pump for the tub however have not had time to go and purchase it.. It is set up with differnet pvc pipe bits and pieces and sizes for hiding places. The fish dont seem stressed out by the new tank, and are settling in slowly. I am using fly screen pegged ot hte top to prevent fish jumping as i did not purchase a lid when i purchased the tub. It allows for better oxygen exchange i guess...

I purchased a chiller for the display tank and i am currently waiting or it to arrive. It has been shipped on tuesday this week.. Hopefully it gets here by Friday as it is getting quite warm and id like to test it out and get thetank to good degree. Whats a good degree to set the chiller at? 27 degrees celcius?

 

[seffieuk]

Really interesting, keep it coming

Seffie x

views 2507 think that means that people are intersted

 

[indir-emir]

Ok just a small update for now.

Picked up my chiller from the post office today. Looks in fantastic ondition! Is only 4 months old. Need to go out and buy the hoses for the pump and chiller in/out. Hoping to get it hooked up 2moro/day after for a test run.. To see how well it keeps the temp down, and how often it comes on etc.

Have a few picutres i need to upload, which will come tomorrow as its a bit late at the moment and im feeling lazy

I also placed a fair few 0.5 mm pellets into the bottle/diner for the mandarin and decided to put her into the bottle so she can leanr there is food there. Soon as i put her in she had a go at hte pellets but spat em out, so i thought oh well ill leave it over night as it was late. She has been in the bottle very time i have checked the hospital tank over hte past 24 hours, (which admitedly has only been about 4 or 5 times just quickly as ive been a bit busy), and it appears to me that most of the pellets are gone So she has either taken a liking to them and is eating them, or i am thinking i put more than i did into the bottle Going to try putting in mysis tomorrow as its easier to see if she has had a go at it, if all are gone (will only put a few in for a test...).

Also had to do a 75L water change last night as ammonia crept up to 0.5 as i was #41#### busy the past 2 days and dindt do a water change. Will be giong to buy more NSW tomorrow for water changes (i bring it down to 1.009 approx saliinity). Does anyone know of a calculator that works out how much fresh water to salt water to go from 1.026 to 1.009? Kind of a pain in the butt working it out by guessing. It appears to be about 3 parts fresh to 1 part salt, but sometimes is more/less lol.

Stay tuned for a few pics tomorrow.