New 29g - Set Up March 24

[-Nemo-]

Got my 20 pounds of rock yesterday and spent a good chunk of time setting it up just so.

Picture without flash:

And with flash:

Equipment:
-100 watt heater
-Aquatech Powerhead
-Power filter (yea yea i know not the best, but i'll keep it clean)
-About 20 pounds of sand
-20 W lighting (eww i know, it'll get upgraded when i can afford it)

I have a great lfs which handpicked out some GREAT LR for me. One piece had some sort of coral on it, the lfs thought it was some sort of polyp and although it looked almost dead, she gave it to us and wished us luck with trying to bring it back to life. (you can kinda see the dark purple blob on the rock in the front of the tank, thats the coral)

This rock is so awesome to look at, on the same rock as the coral i discovered a very small feather duster popping in and out of his hole. And hangin around him were two bug type things, they're tiny though, so i don't think i'll be able to ID them.
And this morning, my polyps started to open up After some research, i've concluded they're green star polyps, can't wait for more to start opening up

Can't wait for these next few weeks to go by for my inverts. At least I have my coral to check on and stare at.

Those pictures were taken last night, and i'll see if i can get a pic of my polyp later.

 

[demonmagus]

ooh lookin good, when you going to get more rock?

 

[-Nemo-]

I don't think i am going to get anymore LR, 20 seems good enough, especially because it already is quite crowded.

my camera stinks, so sorry for the not so great quality.
Here's a closer look at that polyp. Anyone know what that orange thing on the rock above the coral could be? It's two or three cylinder shaped porous things, almost looks like a sponge.

And here's an even closer look at the polyp, the tops are so small though, and hard too see especially with my crappy camera. But you can make out the orange and green colors. I repositioned the rock soit could have more light, and more seem to be opening up now

Also spotted some copepods earlier
Also there's this long transparent thing with "bubbles" attached to it on one rock. Didn't even bother with a picture as its hard enough to see without the addition of my bad camera. Any idea what it might be?

 

[Mr.September15]

I think the coral is GSP?

 

[sianeds]

Could be right there Mr. S. Looks like tha base of a GSP colony to me too

 

[-Nemo-]

Yea i'm pretty sure it is
Just not sure about that orange thing.

Seems to be doing good, almost the entire thing has opened up and i must say its beautiful.

 

[-Nemo-]

Well tomorrow marks the first week, so i'll be going to buy some test kits and do the first test. No real huge changes except for my lovely GSP which had all opened and is loving it in the tank (though i guess after being in a dark tank for a few weeks in the lfs, anything is better). Lots of little things growing everywhere which are all too small to id

Here's a new picture of the GSP fully open:

That orange thing above it is still unidentified Though it hasn't seemed to change at all, so it may be dead for all i know.

 

[-Nemo-]

Tested the water about an hour ago

Ammonia - 0
nitrites - 0
ph - about 8.1
Nitrates - around 2.5 ppm
sg - 1.024

I see some inverts in my near future
Especially since my lfs has cleaner shrimp on sale 8)

And the diatoms that have started to take over my substrate this weekend

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, sounds like its time

 

[tmreynolds]

Orange thing is maybe a sponge I would think. Should be Ok as long as its not been exposed to air.

 

[-Nemo-]

it was out of water for i'd say about 20 minutes (the car ride home and setting the LR up how i wanted it)
It hasn't had any dramatic changes the past week, can't tell whether its grown or not either.

 

[SkiFletch]

If it is a sponge and it dies, you'll know FAST. Sponges rot and smell DISGUSTING as they die and decompose. The room your tank is in would smell like ocean rot awful quick with a dying sponge

 

[-Nemo-]

guess its safe to say its not a dead sponge

Added 2 peppermint shrimp (one's pregnant I have a topic posted in inverts section, if you have any info please post some there) and an Emerald Crab last night (i watched him eat all the bubble algae this morning ). I hope to get some snails and hermits in there this weekend and maybe a cleaner shrimp otherwise he'll come next week.

Weekly test done today, happy to say they're exactly the same as last week

Ammonia - 0
nitrites - 0
ph - about 8.1
Nitrates - around 2.5 ppm
sg - Didn't test, doing a water change later.

 

[-Nemo-]

Wasn't able to get a cleaner shrimp, but I got 2 small blue leg hermits and a mexican turbo snail. This snail is amazing . He's fully grown (he was in someone else's tank for around a year and they took down their tank and gave him to my lfs) and wow is he a worker. My disgusting powerhead, heater and and back glass have become sparkely clean within 3 hours.
The diatoms have totally taken over my substrate so i asked my lfs what they recommended. They said in their coral tanks they use a fighting conch, which does a great job. They didn't have any so I put in a special order for one which should be here in a few days. Anyone have any comments on them?

While pouring in a gallon of water to make up for evaporation, a shrimp molt came flying at me Totally freaked me out. It's in two pieces, what should i do with it? Leave it or take it out? Does anything eat them?

 

[-Nemo-]

Got my first fish yesterday!!!! The cutest little clown goby i ever saw. He had been in the store for over 6 months and had to take him home. Here are some pictures of the cutie, though they do him no justice.

This Saturday baby tank raised Ocellaris Clowns are coming in, so i'm getting a pair of them and my fighting conch is due to come in then as well.