Here Goes Nothing, Wish Me Luck :)

[fishheaded]

Wow littleme how did you get such great pics of your clown?! My pics always turn out so blurry whenever i try and take a pic of my fish

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, great tank and fantastic camera work

 

[littleme1969]

Thanks for the comments guys much appreciated
Pics.. I have a SLR Marco/Supper Marcro camera, goes down to 1cm Though the glass has to be spotless or all you get is a pic od dirty glass..lol I probably get about 5 good usable shots out of ever 50 I take but as its digital its easy to check and dump the rubbish.

I was doing a little searching on Youtube and foun this fab little vid on a breeding pair of scooters
Scooter coutship
I think when I ugrade I may and try and find mine a Mrs Blenny

 

[chrissaysyes]

Your tank is looking awesome! Some of these pics are amaaazing. I want that camera

 

[littleme1969]

Thankyou for the lovely comment, but I upgraded my tank about 3 weeks ago Its now a 25g with 17kg LR good mix of corals and I'm just adding my new fish at the mo to finish it off. All went like clockwork too *TOUCHES WOOD* no deaths or ammonia at all in the new tank amazing
Big Update with lots of pics comming soon

 

[fishheaded]

Thankyou for the lovely comment, but I upgraded my tank about 3 weeks ago Its now a 25g with 17kg LR good mix of corals and I'm just adding my new fish at the mo to finish it off. All went like clockwork too *TOUCHES WOOD* no deaths or ammonia at all in the new tank amazing
Big Update with lots of pics comming soon

Your tank is looking great!
Cant wait for the updated pics!

 

[littleme1969]

Well its been one seriously busy month been run off my feet trying to squeeze everything in, and the added issue of the tank upgrade was a headache that I enjoyed grately
I intended to the upgrade with a 2.5' tank that was being picked up at the begining of this month, but decided I would use a 3ft 25g that I had as I just managed to sell some of my breeding plecs and got £100 for 2 pairs lol so that paid for a bit of the upgrade.
Problem was I had to strip down the old tank to move it as the new tank was going in the same place This tok the best part of a day. Moving everything into buckets/large containers while I set the new tank up. I did expect to loose either coral or fish but luckily this was not the case.
I moved the old tank inc sand onto a stand at the other end of the room and set it running agin with new filter floss etc and put thefish and corals back in there overnight to give the new tank time to settle and stablise temp salinity etc.
The new tank had another 22lbs of live sand added and an initial 5Kg of live rock making approx 13kg of rock altogether with the stuff from the old tank. I dint get much in the way of hitchikers in the second 5kg batch just a startfish and another bristle worm.
Fish where added back 24hrs later with the corals once |I was sure the temp was stable and s.g. was good. Everythig settled well with no ammonia or nitrate spike over the following week. I then bought another 5kg of live rock to finish the scaping and also added another 3kg of base rock to support the scape at the bottom. Total rock now approx 20kg
Third lot of rock and had amundance of hitchikers inc 2 mantis shrimp starfish bristle worm button polyps feather dusters nice brown macro algae etc. It had some lovely shapes and colours of algae too. Was really pleased with the quality an amount as there seemed to be twice as much as I normally get giving me lots to work with for the scaping
For the new tank I also bought a new light unit, powerhead, 3 chamber internal filter. The internal filter houses the heater pump and all filter media so it keeps it nice and tidy
The tank has been running for 3 1/2 weeks now with no fluctuation in any stats which is great, ive had a few minor algae issues which the clean up crew have kept on top of. So I will add something to help with any phosphate issues to the filter.
Ive slowly been adding coorals to the set up over the past 3 weeks and the new fish went in friday of last week and more will go in tomorrow.
Ive slightly overstocked..lol but I intend to add an 8g sump to the tank over the next week or so.
Pics time
New tank layout..

 

[littleme1969]

Fishy Pics..
Finally got a good pic of scooter with his fin up

Supper cute little yellow clown goby Hes so small and has only just started to eat bless him.

Yellow Nose Goby, proving hard to get a good pic as his hole is in a place in the tank that my camera does not like

I also have a dotyback which is living up to its reputation..lol you can see him on the tank shots as getting a good pic of him is proving harder that herding cats Not sure about his long term future as yet I'll give hima few weeks and see how it goes

Hitchikers..
Tiny white crab.

Shed of another small crab that came in with the first lot of rock..

Star fish.. I have a few of these in different colours.

No idea what this is...lol Some kind of anenome? it never moves whatever it is, and does retract its bubble thing.

Mantis shrimp Currently living in the fry trap

 

[littleme1969]

Coral Pics ...

My New brain coral is slowly comming back to life, I thought it was a gonner

 

[SkiFletch]

Tank looks great littleme . Do you happen to know the species of your brain coral? I know it's a Favia genus, but the species eludes me. I ask cause I have one that has the same structural appearance only all purple and I dont know what the species is myself

 

[littleme1969]

Hi Ski
It was advertised as LPS Favia Favites Moon Coral I got the green/peach colour, but it also came in green/purple and complete purple. Sorry cant be of any more help than that.

 

[thefirethief]

Fantastic pictures littleme. I've been considering getting a Yellow Nose Goby (although thats the first time Ive heard it called that), and hopefully its symbiotic shrimp. Was it hard to come by or just something you spotted in the shop one day? I've not been too sure of its availability here in the UK.

Mark

 

[littleme1969]

Hi What else are they known as? I got mine HERE But he was the last one Ive not seen them for sale anywhere else .
Hes quite the little charachter, He tried to throw out a snail from his burrow the other day, it was way bigger than his head, he kinda dislicated his jaw and clamped on, then spat it out..lol Hes one tough little cookie this guy. I did try to get a pistol shrimp to go with him but they where out of stock

 

[fishheaded]

Nice pics, your tank is looking awesome littleme! Keep it up.

 

[thefirethief]

Hi What else are they known as? I got mine HERE But he was the last one Ive not seen them for sale anywhere else .
Hes quite the little charachter, He tried to throw out a snail from his burrow the other day, it was way bigger than his head, he kinda dislicated his jaw and clamped on, then spat it out..lol Hes one tough little cookie this guy. I did try to get a pistol shrimp to go with him but they where out of stock

I've been doing a bit of reading on the fish and most places have it named as Blackray Shrimp Goby or the scientific name Stonogobiops Nematodes. Doesn't seem like its a fish that can be confused with others though. Are you still planning to get the shrimp in the future? Dont know if you can find one locally but cheapfish.co.uk claims to have them in stock. Also, what are your plans for the sump? Is it going to be Hang-on?


Mark