Starting My 42g Saltwater Cube...

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I've pretty much destroyed all the aiptasia on the LR, so it'll be moved into the tank next week, but in the meantime, heres some random shots

Playin with settings

First bristleworm sighting....

Echo, my faithful helper who makes all sorts of comments about the tank, he always demands to know what I'm doing LOL, he's absolutely amused by the tank, his T Stand sits next to the tank and he'll spend hours staring at the fish, (he's getting a head scritch in the pic)

 

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Finally got rid of the aiptasia on the LR, so am gonna to reaquascape today, hmmm fun LOL.

 

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Well just finished rearranging the tank, it looks very full LOL. Also very very murky, moving the rock kicked up all the dust in the sand, so am waiting for it all to settle, once it's back to clear I'll post some pics, it's not the prettiest aquascape but will work well for corals.

 

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Here it is, I wanted the rock work more open so it was taller, more water could circulate and there was more room for corals. I also wanted the sun coral up higher so I didn't have to drench myself every time I fed it. The blastomussa was moved up higher as well as it's just too big to for down the bottom, without having to make it a standalone coral. The irritating thing about this tank is its only 35cm wide, theres no real room for aquascaping.

So I'm still learning and researching and the current plans for the tank are

Corals
Blastomussa merleti
Sun coral
Candy Cane coral
Blastomussa Wellsi
2 or 3 Leathers
A couple of Kenya Trees
Xenia
Zoanthids

and hopefully a small brain coral down on the small sandy area at the front, not completely sure on that though, I might put mushrooms there instead.

Fish
3 x Pajama Cardinals
and 3 other yet undecided fish which will be bright, colourful and active LOL. I'm hoping one will be a green clown goby but have yet to source one...

 

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Just some random update info

As soon as my fave OFS comes back online I'll be ordering two new actinic 20w globes to replace the current fluorescent globes, I'm hoping straight actinic will bring the colours out better.

I've also bought a 25l water storage container which holds water for emergency water changes, which should help if something goes wrong. The weekly water changes on this tank I have to say are so easy, I mix the water the night before which takes like ten seconds, leave it over night with a power head in the bucket. The next day I empty ten litres, I don't even need to turn anything off, pour ten litres back in and voila. It works out to a bit more then a 6% change every week, so 25% a month.

Tank parameters are staying stable and well within range, Nitrate is generally quite closer to 0, never above 5, which is pretty good considering I'm feeding the sun coral two cubes of frozen food every day.

 

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I was just looking through some old pics and I can't ebelive teh difference in this tank between the time it was first set up and now.

Just set up

Now

Check out the colour difference LOL, the cured rock that came with the tank has definitely become a lot more alive.

 

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Well haven't updated in ages so guess it's time.

Not much has happened with the tank except for my hydrometer going screwy and the salinity climbing to 1.030, thankfully every things back to normal, with no deaths apart from a single baby sun coral polyp.

I should be picking up a couple of new corals soon, a large toadstool leather and a devils hand leather with lime green polyps. I just need to finalise details with the seller.

Mum's also offered to get me a "special" coral for my really good half yearly report card, not sure what I'm gonna ask for, but I have $100-150 to play with, so will be something extra nice LOL.

Otherwise my Blasto is popping out now polyps continually, I think it's trying to atke over the tank, the sun corals looking great as well. Still just the three pyjama cardinals but I don't really mind having so few fish, the corals are what really draws the eye.

Oh and theres now 5 Zoas, who are slowly colouring up that were hitch hikers, they look like they'll ahve green centres, their still brownish at the moment, and then there's a colony of small zoas which are all on stocks, theirs like 30 of them already, their quite small though.

 

[jakeroberts]

Hi your thread takes quit a while to read. I know what you mean about your money situation im in year 9 im also australian and everything is just so expensive. I was just wondering what was the online marine group that you joined

 

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Have you heard of the Marine Aquarium Society of Australia? It's there online community, just go to their main webby. They ahve clubs for all areas, though it doesn't help me much as even if I joined MASAOG (Marine Aquarium Society of Australia Orphans Group) None of the benefits help me, though they might help you, there discounts at various stores, meets etc.

I'm hanging out for the time when I can finally get a job, P plates are still almost a year away and being a farm brat I'm too far away to get a job without having to drive. But in less then two years I'll be out of school, am having a year off to earn some money before starting psychology at uni, so I might ahve a tad more then $12 a week to put aside for the tank LOL.

 

[jakeroberts]

Thanks for that
I think i might join

 

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Well just got home, Mum couldn't resist a torch coral with limegreen tips so we got that as well. The Toadstool is HUGE, I didn't realise how big it was LOL.

Everythings acclimatising now, the toadstool slimed on me when I moved it from it's bag to a bowl to acclimatise but otherwise they don't look too bad after an hour drive.

 

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Sigh the two leathers ahve settled in well but the Torch isn't happy, I can't make the coral fix stick to it, the rock its on is too smooth and no other method of gluing has worked, so its sitting on the bottom and not coming out and I think I may ahve hurt some of the heads while trying to attach the putty, I hope it's all right its retracted as far as it can go...

 

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Hmph my PJ cardinals ahve decided to irritate my big toadstool leather. In the pic below it's a bit shriveled it's actually a lot larger, covers quite a bit of the rcoks around it, almost all the way to the devils ahnd. When it's polyps are out they ahve maroon stalks and white polyps, looks totally awesome. The toadstool is in the corner on the right.

The Devils hand on the rightish side of the tank is shedding but it's polyps are lime green looks awesome.

Oh and the filter thats kinda just shoved in on the left is just there till I can buy another powerhead on Tuesday...

And the Torch Coral

So stock is now
3 x pyjama cardinals
13 x zebra top snails
3 x very large turbo snails
2 x Blastomussa merleti, one with over 200 polyps, the other a small frag with 4 polyps
1 x Tubastraea aurea, or sun coral with 43 polyps
1 x Euphyllia glabrescens, or Torch coral with five heads
1 x Sarcophyton sp. or Toadstool leather, which extends to 30cm diameter
1 x Lobophytum sp. or Devils hand coral which extends to about 15cm across


So I've got the main stuff in now, so some small corals like shrooms and zoas, a nice Kenya tree or Xenia and I'll be very happy. Oh and some more fish to LOL, I keep using the money I'm saving for fish on corals.

 

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Leather coral with polyps extended.

 

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Hmph just discovered an aiptasia underneath the large leather coral, exactly where there's no way I could reach it, not sure what I'm gonna do, might get some joes juice and just coat that area with it, though not sure if it'd harm the leather or not....