My Orca Nano Tl-550 Journal

[CoMan]

I agree, its looking really nice

Seffie x

Thanks Seffie. I'm slowly getting their! I'm not sure what to add next. Thinking of a royal gramma and some zoanthids?

 

[seffieuk]

Good choice

Seffie x

 

[Seren]

Love your tank,and that toadstool is really fab I wish I had the patience to write a journal, but I'm hopeless!
S

 

[CoMan]

Love your tank,and that toadstool is really fab I wish I had the patience to write a journal, but I'm hopeless!
S

Mate thanks for the comments. Really nice to have some positive feedback. Def start a journal! I'm sure if you start it and just update it when you can it will be great. I mean I don't have a pc at the mo and doing this journal from my phone!lol I have busy thumbs.lol. Personally would really like to read how your getting on with your set up and it helps us newbs.

 

[CoMan]

Ok some good and some bad this week. Early in the week I went to the lfs to inquire about a royal gramma. Long and short they didn't have any but they had a false gramma. I had read that they were aggressive, though hardy they weren't always the best behaved fish. The lfs stated he would be fine with clowns and totally reef safe. The wife was present and had fallen in love with this fish and though I aired my concerns she was willing to bank roll this purchase. So i thought "what the hell". And we brought him home. 

For three days it terrorised my clowns chasing them endlessly  stopping only to nip at my cleaner shrimp and hermits until it managed to eat one! Great! 

Knowing it would be hard to catch I knew it would have to go back. Piece by piece the live rock was removed and even then he continued to circle my toadstool which also was removed  until I had him cornered caught and bagged(very slippery fella)

My tank destroyed and aquascaping demolished he was returned to the lfs who found my story most amusing! he was swapped for a royal gramma that had just come in and whilst there a friend i was with said she wanted to buy me a fish. She pointed out the coral beauty that I had shown her as the fish of my dreams
and before I could decline her offer she had paid at the counter. I cooked her dinner in return.  

A day later once i had restored my tank to some sort of order picked up my fish and brought home. 

Moral of this story. 
Don't let your wife chose your fish! Even if she is willing to pay! 

What the lfs tells you is not always what's going to happen! 

If a friend buys you the fish of your dreams cook Her a really nice dinner. She may buy you another some day?

Some picks to follow in a few days
 

 

[seffieuk]

Seffie x

 

[CoMan]

Some pics

coral beauty hid for all of 30 secs and was soon swimming around the rocks eating stuff on them and also took some flake.

royal gramma hid for hours digging a tunnel under one of the rocks at the back. But after a while she came out for food.

my only worry is that the royal gramma has a White spot on her tail fin. It def wasn't there when I bought her as I studied her for ages thus must have developed once in my tank. Any thoughts on what I should do?

 

[DigitalStorm]

Unfortunately I cant answer ur q, as am a major marine n00b myself.

But I can say - nice tank.

 

[CoMan]

Unfortunately I cant answer ur q, as am a major marine n00b myself.

But I can say - nice tank.

Cheers ds, I'm a newbie too and seem to always have a few issues from time to time. But they are really goo on this forum. I've posted a q on the marine chat board and have had a few replies.

 

[CoMan]

Hey all

Just a little update as I've not posted for at while. I had a bit of a worry last week as my coral beauty had some white spots. I've been observing him and he seems fine now and worry is over.

Tank is generally looking pretty sweet(IMO) all in all and the corals seem to be doing well in particular the xenia which seems to be growing by the day. The cleaner shrimp has shed once again and looking top.

Things for the future?

I want to add some more snails - bubble bee. I've found a place in Dartford Kent that sells them. So may grab a few tomorrow?

Some more LR - I want to create an upper level, about 6 inches or so from the surface for some corals

LPS - Would love a hammer, not sure if I have the right lighting though??

Coman

 

[Morri]

An orca TL550 lights as long as they are not to old (more than 9 months) will support a wide variety of LPS I kept Torches and frogspawn in mine with no issues

 

[CoMan]

An orca TL550 lights as long as they are not to old (more than 9 months) will support a wide variety of LPS I kept Torches and frogspawn in mine with no issues

Morri thanks for the reply...At the mo I have a xenia and toadstool, I dont suppliment the water at all and use red sea coral pro salt and do 20% change once a week. If I was to get a hammer, would I need any extra stuff to add to the water???

Cheers

 

[Seren]

Did both the Gramma and Beauty have the white spots then? Glad all seems OK at the moment tho, it's looking good too.
I have a hammer and a Torch in my Orca, Obviously as LPS they need Calcium and other minerals such as Strontium for growth, but that's not to say you need to supplement the tank unless you have a huge drain on the Calcium that's going into the tank through your salt. Regular water changes replenishes most minerals, but remember if you add any supplements you will have to test for them!
If its not broke don't fix it!

 

[Morri]

If you are doing regular water changes you should not need to supplement but I would recomend testing the following as LPS need them

CA
Mag
KH

 

[CoMan]

Did both the Gramma and Beauty have the white spots then? Glad all seems OK at the moment tho, it's looking good too.
I have a hammer and a Torch in my Orca, Obviously as LPS they need Calcium and other minerals such as Strontium for growth, but that's not to say you need to supplement the tank unless you have a huge drain on the Calcium that's going into the tank through your salt. Regular water changes replenishes most minerals, but remember if you add any supplements you will have to test for them!
If its not broke don't fix it!

If you are doing regular water changes you should not need to supplement but I would recomend testing the following as LPS need them

CA
Mag
KH

Seren

Yeah both fish had some spots but I dont know if it was the dreaded white spot as they disappeared really quick? I just dont know if Im honest and am counting my stars everything looks ok at the mo...touching wood as I type!

Morri
thanks for the info, very helpful!