Here Goes Nothing, Wish Me Luck :)

[cheesy feet]

wowowowowow Awesome, the tanks progressed really quickly, nice job .
Sorry to here about the blackbar, it was a nice looking fish

 

[Matthew5664]

Loving the look of your tank its coming on very nicley.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Loving the look of your tank its coming on very nicley.

Really liking your corals! The zooz seem to bring it all together. Keep us posted

 

[BigC]

WOW LM.
Haven't been around much lately. I'm chomping at the bit to get going again after a catalogue of personal events. Anyway boy oh boy you've really progressed since the early days, upgraded and everything. Really looks well, I stand in awe as I look at the pics. Did you win the lottery.
Off to get mine going again, need to get off my backside as I've an awful lot of catching up to do.... apparently.
Lovely tank....
Regards
BigC

 

[n3ont3tra]

I love the 'shrooms. Awesome tank.

 

[littleme1969]

Thanks Guys

Time for an update..
Well theres' been a few changes in my tank. Its now getting somewhere near mature with no outbreaks of algae of any kind for some months now. I was quite lucky in as much the outbreaks I had where ony minor and quickly brought under control. I'd made a point of getting in some Rowa Phos to control the phosphate levels and this did a great job added to my internal filter. Ive not needed any for months now so that a good sign. I think the addition of some Macros has made a huge difference. Noth only does it keep the phosphates down, but it helps with oygenation to the water and also , so I have just discovered, is a breeding ground for lots of little creatures. Ive just found a colony of what I think are Mysis shrimp breeding in there. Whole families from tiny babbies to adults with eggs, Very cute and great fun to watch them wizzing around under the matt of green weed.

Coral life on the whole has done pretty good, with only a few losses. All my Sps died due to my clown gobbies nibbling at them which turned out to be a bit of a costly problem with the loss of about £75 worth of frags Its intersting to see some corals growing and spreading at a rate of knots while others take their time. It takes constant up keep to make sure that the fast growers are kept in check so they dont suffocate the slow ones.

Fish and other inverts have also done well. with the exception of my cleaner shrimp , which I found dead a few days ago No sign of illness what so ever . Ate well, shed plenty and was doing his thing right upto the night before I found him dead, so Ive no idea what the issue was there. All water stats are very stable and have remained so over the past months so I guess its just bad luck. Another Thing I have noticed over the last week is my Red Clown Goby has gone really thin. He eats well and has a god selection of food, but for some reason has just gone as thin as a rake in the space of a few weeks. Any help or suggestions to his problem would be much appreciated. Pics Below

All in all Ive been very lucky and not suffered any of the bad problems that other on here seem to have on occasion. Fingers crossed it continues. Ive also Added a few other things.. Red Fire Shrimp/ Sand sifting Starfish/Couple of Mythrax crabs Red and Green and a yellow watchman goby that seems to dissapear for weeks at a time. Oh and forgetting the SEXY SHRIMP

 

[littleme1969]

Pic...

First Off remember this guy from when I first set up.. Purple People Eater Hes made another appearance and seems well and has not grown any, so I'm assuming hes fully grown. Some type of sea cucumber I think.

And another strange creature Ive spotted living in the rockwork.. No Idea what this is..lol

Inverts and other little guys..

Sand sifting Star

Shrimp.. not a good one of the Fire but hes very shy..

Orange Claw Hermit

Mantis Shrimp Vid, its short..lol He didnt like the idea of the snail hanging outside his hole... lol


Mantis Shrimp

 

[littleme1969]

Fish & coral pics..

Corals and tank shots..

How the tank looks today after a bit of a Xenia chop back and move round..

 

[timpetty]

Great looking tank!

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks great Littleme, maturing for sure . Good luck keeping that Xenia at bay, brandish that scalpel

 

[craigybaby37]

Wow this is looking great......how is it u get such a wide spread of corals covering almost every bit of your liverock??

did you buy lots and lots of frags or do you frag them yourself??

Or is it just a case of buying a select ammount of different corals an letting them spread naturally??

The reason ime asking is this is the exact look ide like my tank to have.

 

[littleme1969]

Wow this is looking great......how is it u get such a wide spread of corals covering almost every bit of your liverock??

did you buy lots and lots of frags or do you frag them yourself??

Or is it just a case of buying a select ammount of different corals an letting them spread naturally??

The reason ime asking is this is the exact look ide like my tank to have.

Hi
Bit of both.. Lots of frags, and allowing stuff to spread over time. You just have to keep moving stuff round until they find a spot they are happy with, I.E flow and light. I'm just waiting to get rid of some frags so I have more space to add afew more different corals/colours to the mix. Just had another revamp and xenia clean up too.

Also just bough some addatives for the water, and it seems to have given a boost to the corals . Its all a learning curve , even over 6 months down the line. Keeping things chopped back and water chamistry in balance.

I think Ive got the measure of the Goby problem. It seems he only like frozen brine shrimp..lol I only ever feed a small amount in the mix so he was just slowly starving to death poor guy So he gets a cube everyday for himself, to pick at while the others nosh on the mixed stuff. What he does not eat gets clened up by the starfish and hermits so there is never any waste

 

[n3ont3tra]

Your tank looks amazing! I love the ricordia. Good job.

 

[littleme1969]

Thanks for the great comments guys

Upgrade No. 2
Well a few with have seen that I have been asking a few questions about upgrading my 25g into my 100g which is currently tropical. Well after alot of research and finding equipment etc, I have decided to give it a go.
Due to the fact the tank is not drilled I wont be adding a sump. I'm not intending to stock with alot of large fish so the bio load compared to rock etc will be very low. I wil be using a large external filter with water surface skimmer attachment to help with circulation and filtration. Contents will be the same as my current internal filter system. (live rock rubble, carbon, addatives as needed, lots of filter floss changed once a week) Ive also order 2 5000l/h wave makers for circulation and will also be using an internal skimmer . Lighting will be a slight upgrade to the lighting that is already on that tank T5s 2 marine white 2 mixed white & blue, with an extra blue 3ft T8 for evening time. I'm not planning on keeping any hard corals or SPS so the softies I have and will buy more of should do OK under this lighting.
I have 50kg of base rock that is in its self quite attractive. 20kg of live rock in the 25g and will buy another 20kg of live cured when the the time is right. Around 100lbs of sand half alive.
My plan is to keep it as low tech as possible. being female I'm not impressed by al the gadgets and widgets you guys seem to enjoy playing with..lol and to be honest I often find the simpler things are , the less stuff you have to fail and go worng. Well that and I'm a bit of a tight a*se when it comes to spending more money than I have to.
My plan is to have the 100g up and running for 4 - 8 weeks until its fully cycled then I will add new fish straight into the main tank and let them settle for a week or two, before finally breaking down the 25g and adding the contents to the main tank. The 25g will then be kept empty and just used if I need to quarantine fish , or maybe used to grow on some soft corals for selling etc.

So far all is going to plan the fish contents of the 100g went yesterday to a member of the fish forums here Took us 5 hours to strip down , catch, and bag up the fish. There is now just the plecs remaining in the tank and a small amount of wood and plants to get rid of over the next week or two. Then it will be major strip down, scrub, disinfect etc, Mod the conopy for the extra lighting and fit. Then I can start the huge tansk of making 100g of RO and salt water..lol
Lots of pics to follow

 

[BigC]

Boy LM this is quickly picking up speed you've really been smitten by this marine bug..... and after the 100ltr
Lovely tank, keep up the good work
I'm still on the bottom rung.
Regards
BigC