First Marine Tank :)

[indir-emir]

Thanks seffie, now something pops up. Going to search that now. He is currently in my refugium looking a little happier then when he was in his container with my flash light on him trying to ID him

My poor little coral is still droopy this morning Getting a little worried. Waiting for lights on to see what happens with it.

 

[indir-emir]

Ok guys a bit of an update.

Crab is in the sump looking pretty happy, cant bring myself to kill him so im gonna keep it in the sump and see how it goes Can crabs climb glass? Dont want it to go over the refugium glass lol.

Im a little worried about my little coral. It was droopy this morning and within half hour it started to stand up again. Howevr it randomly contracts for a while, the bigger seems to do this more often then the little one. Should i be worried? Lights have just gone out (moonlights are on) and im going to see if it continues to sag over night. Has anyone seen this happen before?

Can someone please confirm that my coral is actually kenya tree coral? Or if it isnt, what is it?

Any opinions on the tank? No one seems to have said anything about the pictures yet

EDIT: Appears to be sagging again within 15 minutes of lights out. However the smaller ones still has its little spiky things coming out of the branches (i think these are called polyps?). Haha man i feel stupid calling them that The bigger one seems to have retracted but is not holding together but rather drooping as it goes. Any ideas would be greatly appreacited!

EDIT 2 - Half hour after the lights have gone it seems to have contrate and is now holding onto itself, looking like its getting better. Wil keep my eye out for any more issues.

 

[indir-emir]

Ok everyone, ontop of all my other questions ive got one more.

Before i continue, i know that it is not recomended but i believe it can be done after extensive research. Please no flaming etc, as i said it just a thought and not a decision yet.

I would like to buy myself a mandarin dragonet, my favourite fish If i find one that is feeding on frozen food already, what are my chances of keeping this lovely little fish alive to its greatest and healthiest capacity?

I believe it can be done with the use of a 'mandarin diner' as long as the dragonet already eats frozen food. Spot feeding would also help untill it learnt food was in the diner. Along side the diner however, a seperate tank for breeding pods to inject into te main tank would help keep him plump and happy and healthy.

So what are my chances of keeping one?

 

[drsquirrel]

General consensus - you WILL need to feed copepods. They will feed on frozen but will slowly starve even if they are feeding on your frozen foodstuffs.

There are online services which will post you a bottle every week, costs between £210 to £300 a year for 12 month subscription. Sure there are cheaper about, specially if you can find them in a local store - or raise them yourself.

 

[indir-emir]

Ok. Basically what your saying is that i can do it no issue as long as i had it eatin prepped food, and had a pod colony going in and out of tank to replenish tank.

What if it ate pellets? Whats in a pod that cant be fed via a different food?

 

[Morri]

Mandarins need copepods you can supplement with frozen but copepods are the main source of food they need lots without a good population they will fade away.

 

[drsquirrel]

Ok. Basically what your saying is that i can do it no issue as long as i had it eatin prepped food, and had a pod colony going in and out of tank to replenish tank.

What if it ate pellets? Whats in a pod that cant be fed via a different food?

No - I'm saying it NEEDS to eat copepods - no matter what the shop tells you about "look... it's eating frozen food... has been for 3 months".

 

[simonas]

sorry, I did have to laugh, read it again!

Redius Eyed Nastius Crab

Red Eyed Nasty Crab

Seffie x

you go tthere before me

Nice one Morri

Doesn;t look like Kenya Tree to me more like a finger coral

 

[drsquirrel]

I had a Kenya Tree - looks nothing like it.

I say I had - as it's disappeared

 

[indir-emir]

Ok thanks guys. Mandarin will have to wait, id like to take on the challange however at some point

I agree on the coral. Had another forum ID it as a Sinularia species. Which it appears to be to me... However not 100% sure on which one It sort of looks like this but mine is actually green...
Green Sinularia

Anyone have any ideas on what it is? I think its not happy in its current spot as it was more happy when in alot of flow. Apart from the fact i never saw it close up haha

 

[indir-emir]

Moved the green coral back to the direct flow and it appears to have gone brighter.

Mum came home today with a whiskers coral and two clowns. Did not as but it is my brthday soon so she decided to buy for me hehehe. Happy with them. Feeding them as we speak. Pics of them and the new coral soon to come. Well more updates actually.

Im having a little trouble with the skimmer though. How high up are the bubbles inside the little chamber, that leads to the collection cup, ment to be? It seems to keep overflowing so ive put it about half way up the collection cup inside the little chamber.. Hoping thats whats ment to happen. Going to be googling this to see if i can figure it out.

Stay tuned!

For now back to feeding the coral and fish again The clowns like their right side of tank.

 

[drsquirrel]

It takes a while for the skimmer to bed in, so if you run it at half way up the cone, later on you might find it flooded.

I would run it for 24 hours as low as you can (make sure it doesn't flood of course - if it does you might need to adjust the position of the skimmer/airflow in etc) and then start adjusting it higher a little bit until you find a good level (constant level of bubbles just below the top edge of course).

After a while the bubbles at the top will be bigger and dirty, its this skimmate that is slowly pushed over the top. Ideally you want a thickish solution in your skimmer cup, although there is dry vs wet skimming.


The best thing I did was actually understand how the skimming works (in depth, its actually pretty simple).

 

[indir-emir]

Well i have read up on skimmers. Just not much about how to set them up. Now that its here though, differnet story haha.

Do you mean half way down the actual skimmer? Or half way down the little chamber inside the colection cup area? Sorry little confused

Ive going it going atm, which is doing a pretty wet skim but is going slow and not overflowing. Been about an hour so far. It overflowed quite a few times util this adjustment, within 15 minutes lol.

Is it normal for clowns to sit to one side of the tank 99% of the time?

 

[drsquirrel]

I meant the cup. And if you have water flowing over the top I would suggest it would fill in a few hours, too wet.

Don't think you will get much out in a new tank anyway.

I assume they are hiding because they have just been moved.

 

[indir-emir]

Ok well the skimmer has been turned down to the minimum. There is about a cm height worht of water in the collection cup currently, which is rather brown. Maybe its because i just overfed them mysis shrimp? wanted to make sure the clownfish ate, fed my shrimp, and my new coral too Half a cube instead next time i think

Am i ment to turn of the skimmer prior to removing te collection cup for cleaning and emptying? Want to get rid of this brown dirty water incase it overflows overnight.

Ok here are some more updates

Whisker Coral Shot (Mum bought this for me, thanks mum!):

Whisker Coral Close Up:

Single Whisker Close Up Shot (Wanted to see if thats its mouth in teh middle there hehe):

Skimmer Shot After Unpacking:

Sump Shot With Everything Connected and running:

Return Pump Section With Marked Out Line To know how much needs to be topped off each day

Had to change the design of the overflow area - It was making the loudest gurgling sound due to air bubbles. This is the new design which still has some bubbles, but is ALOT quieter.

The Occy clowns mum bought me (Thanks again mum!) - Notice the size difference to get a pair out of them

Shot of the Green Coral (Name has skipped me but go bac ka few posts) which ive moved back to pretty much direct flow and it has since gone alot brighter and its polyps are all out. Will se how it is in the morning (droopy or not):

Clowns are getting along great, they swim together, play together, love eachother etc etc. Just a little scared of me but are getting used to my face against the glass

The whisker coral looks beautiful in the flow Hoping this grows and expands into more and more polyps? Is that what they are called?


Am thinking about adding an anemone to the tank for the clowns, what are everyones opinions on this?
Also, would it be ok to add a royal gramma to the tank in about a week? Its my birthday and the missus wants to buy me a fish And we both like that fish so hence that choice

And ofcourse, opinions on the tank, new coral, fish, etc would be great