Tyler's 29Gal. Tank Project!

[lljdma06]

its just chasing. No blood and guts. Not even any fins torn. They have slowed down a bit, and the original chromis is being nicer. Will keep watching. As of this morning the three chromis are swimming together... no attacks from anyone, yet..

-Tyler

Again, may just be pecking order establishment. Watch and wait.

See, I'm in the process of getting chalk bass. Normally people keep these fish by themselves, but in the wild they are found in groups. Like chromis. But when you introduce them, you gotta do the school all at the same time, or they fight, and get them small. I was going to get 4, but I may up it to 5 as I prefer the idea of a odd-numbered school better and they are very small fish. I always did odd-numbered schools in FW setups. Usually ended up being a Baker's dozen (13). Obviously cannot do this here.

 

[SaltNoob]

Ya even numbers seem weird! I read a bunch of peoples experiences with chromis, saying even if they started with 7 they would always end up with 2 after they killed each other.... I googled chromis aggression and a bunch of forum threads came up.

I am thinking a six-line wrasse might be fun... Some people get unlucky with agression! Although that would only happen if the chromis come out so I do not overstock my tank =).

Also need to get something for my clowns to play in eventually (toadstool leather). Maybe it will distract them from being bullies. My new lighting is gorgeous in the tank and should support a toadstool pretty easily with 4T5HO 96 Watts..

-Tyler

 

[SaltNoob]

I need to check water parameters, but as far as happiness in the tank EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is happy. The shrimp has molted for the 3rd time. The clowns and chromis are getting a long nicely, FINALLY!...

With the new lights in, 4 T5 HO's and leds the corals are EXPLODING with life and color. The day I put it in the duncan expanded beautifully and does it every day now! I feed him every 2-3 days with a small chunk of mysis shrimp, he loves it. I have to give one to my shrimp too though, or he'll try and steal it (even if its in the duncan completely)... I will show new pictures of the tank as soon as I can, but its much better now that the fish are happier.

I did toss a few more bits of food in just to make sure everyone is well fed. It still gets devoured in no time.. like 1.5 minutes it is all gone. I fear I may have not been adding enough for the clowns to begin? But I am still trying to gauge it correctly so noone is angry, or feeling the need to express territory due to a lack of food.

I do have a couple questions on lighting... I have new lights, so its much different now. With the four moonlight LED's do I leave them on all night? It seems the fish do not really go to sleep/hide in rocks when they are on.

Tell me what you think about this... (except led's) Id like to put the actinics on at about 9am, and my 12,000K suns at 11 am, then 12,000K suns off at 9pm and actinics off at 10:30-11:00pm. Sound basically right?

Also great news, is with the more frequent water changes that I have been doing, I have nearly eliminated my cyanobacteria.. If I find any I just brush it loose with a toothbrush right before my water change and try to suck it out. Less and less grows back each week!

Thanks for looking!

-Tyler

 

[lljdma06]

You have to be careful that when you upgrade your lighting that you don't bleach your corals. Some of them may have to be repositioned, and the photoperiod should be reduced for a bit.

What's your water change regimen now?

Pictures... I wanna see pictures...

Yeah, my fish are pigs too. The sun corals present a problem because mine have to be target fed and then have to be left to sit for a spell while they grab the food and eat. Cleaner shrimps are annoying. I've named mine Bandolero (thief in Spanish). He will stick his little claws right into a sun coral polyp and extract the food. Pig. And I give him food!

L

 

[SaltNoob]

You have to be careful that when you upgrade your lighting that you don't bleach your corals. Some of them may have to be repositioned, and the photoperiod should be reduced for a bit.

What's your water change regimen now?

Pictures... I wanna see pictures...

Yeah, my fish are pigs too. The sun corals present a problem because mine have to be target fed and then have to be left to sit for a spell while they grab the food and eat. Cleaner shrimps are annoying. I've named mine Bandolero (thief in Spanish). He will stick his little claws right into a sun coral polyp and extract the food. Pig. And I give him food!

L

20% Each week. Was going too long before. This seems to be working out better. I have had the past few days with less of the full bulbs... and turning the lights off early at night. I do not have too many corals. The duncan is in the bottom 3rd of the tank so hes been pretty happy. Xenia honestly looks happier than ever and is doing the "pulsing" thing and never did before. Pretty cool!
I needed to get timers with the grounded plug, so I picked a couple up this morning that will help me regulate much better. I will be building a stand for the tank in January with a pretty hood and some fans. I am excited for this. Pics tonight, or maybe I can take a couple at lunch time.

How about when I should keep my LED's on? all night? some of the night?

-Tyler

 

[lljdma06]

You have to be careful that when you upgrade your lighting that you don't bleach your corals. Some of them may have to be repositioned, and the photoperiod should be reduced for a bit.

What's your water change regimen now?

Pictures... I wanna see pictures...

Yeah, my fish are pigs too. The sun corals present a problem because mine have to be target fed and then have to be left to sit for a spell while they grab the food and eat. Cleaner shrimps are annoying. I've named mine Bandolero (thief in Spanish). He will stick his little claws right into a sun coral polyp and extract the food. Pig. And I give him food!

L

20% Each week. Was going too long before. This seems to be working out better. I have had the past few days with less of the full bulbs... and turning the lights off early at night. I do not have too many corals. The duncan is in the bottom 3rd of the tank so hes been pretty happy. Xenia honestly looks happier than ever and is doing the "pulsing" thing and never did before. Pretty cool!
I needed to get timers with the grounded plug, so I picked a couple up this morning that will help me regulate much better. I will be building a stand for the tank in January with a pretty hood and some fans. I am excited for this. Pics tonight, or maybe I can take a couple at lunch time.

How about when I should keep my LED's on? all night? some of the night?

-Tyler

Sorry, forgot that question. Well, I just upgraded my refugium lights, which create a sort of moonlight feel to the tanks, so what I plan on trying is finding the days of the full moon this coming year and leave the fuge lights on all night on those days. Sort of a ghetto-fabulous lunar cycle.

The fish should still go to sleep with the moonlights on. Are your room lights still on when the tank is off? They may still sense the light.

Oh yeah, you'll need timers. Home Depot, Kmart, or Lowes are good places to look. I think I got mine at Home Depot. Hehehe, I forgot you were US.

L

 

[SaltNoob]

You have to be careful that when you upgrade your lighting that you don't bleach your corals. Some of them may have to be repositioned, and the photoperiod should be reduced for a bit.

What's your water change regimen now?

Pictures... I wanna see pictures...

Yeah, my fish are pigs too. The sun corals present a problem because mine have to be target fed and then have to be left to sit for a spell while they grab the food and eat. Cleaner shrimps are annoying. I've named mine Bandolero (thief in Spanish). He will stick his little claws right into a sun coral polyp and extract the food. Pig. And I give him food!

L

20% Each week. Was going too long before. This seems to be working out better. I have had the past few days with less of the full bulbs... and turning the lights off early at night. I do not have too many corals. The duncan is in the bottom 3rd of the tank so hes been pretty happy. Xenia honestly looks happier than ever and is doing the "pulsing" thing and never did before. Pretty cool!
I needed to get timers with the grounded plug, so I picked a couple up this morning that will help me regulate much better. I will be building a stand for the tank in January with a pretty hood and some fans. I am excited for this. Pics tonight, or maybe I can take a couple at lunch time.

How about when I should keep my LED's on? all night? some of the night?

-Tyler

Sorry, forgot that question. Well, I just upgraded my refugium lights, which create a sort of moonlight feel to the tanks, so what I plan on trying is finding the days of the full moon this coming year and leave the fuge lights on all night on those days. Sort of a ghetto-fabulous lunar cycle.

The fish should still go to sleep with the moonlights on. Are your room lights still on when the tank is off? They may still sense the light.

Oh yeah, you'll need timers. Home Depot, Kmart, or Lowes are good places to look. I think I got mine at Home Depot. Hehehe, I forgot you were US.

L

I get discount at Wal-Mart, My partner works there. Got two of them for $7 bucks each =). Does my timing look fairly correct? Other lights in house? No. All lights are off at night. I will have to go down middle of night to check the sleeping! lol.

-Tyler

 

[lljdma06]

The lighting schedule is very similar to what I do with my 36g. Go for it.

L

 

[SaltNoob]

Photos as Promised! And a video of the Xenia at the bottom! =)

FTS

My Xenia Video! Sorry it gets dark in some spots

Thanks for Looking

 

[lljdma06]

Awww, that lighting looks great!

I like the Xenia, very nice video.

I see the baby mushies too! Oh, good job!

L

 

[SaltNoob]

My Tank Completely Crashed. All fish are dead, and cleaner shrimp. Some snails alive, corals still somewhat alive.

I think someone put a drink in the tank at the new years party last night.....

Crashed in less than 4 hours.

Will update

I want to fkin cry

 

[-Nemo-]

Oh no, this is terrible. I'm sorry to hear this
Do some water changes and try to save what's left.

 

[Donya]

Oh man! If you find out who did it, I hope they have the decency to at least pay for what they destroyed.

If you plan to have people over in the future and can't lock them out of the room where the tank is, it's worth looking into some way to protect the tank from contamination and/or grabby hands while they're over. This would be especially important if children are ever involved, since everything always goes in the mouth. Tanks in public places like libraries and schools are at high risk of contamination and generally people putting their hands where they shouldn't, so they have to be locked up pretty well for safety if they aren't under guard at someone's desk or something.

 

[MBOU]

Oh this is awful I dont know why but i keep seeing this happen to people, i honestly cant understand peoples mentality!

I've seen shop systems destroyed by people pouring drinks in there... nearly died of shock accidentally knocking coffee into the system the other day but managed to save the day with my fast reactions.

My ex had an awful habbit of messing with my tanks when i went away over night or for a weekend, they were stable enough to leave, but biggest problems happened when he touched my fluval edge reef... so i used the whole roll of selotap right round the tank so he wasnt tempted to open it!

 

[SaltNoob]

I absolutely have no clue what has happened.

Yesterday around noon I did full parameter tests.... The only thing that was reading at all was 10ppm nitrates, which should still be just fine.

The fish were happy and swimming until we went to bed around 2:45 am, the tank lights were off but you could see the fish swimming still. I thought, hmmm maybe stressed cuz we were up late, but then the fact that EVERYTHING DIED takes me away from that conclusion. It was like they just froze dead.

Basically all of the fish died within 5 hours after us last seeing them. I do not know of anything else that could have happened so quickly besides a drink being spilled into the tank.

As of now the Duncan, Xenia, and Mushies are OK... The Zoanthids look great... Snails are still roaming the tank (slowly), and the conch is not moving, hes alive cuz his eyes are going in and out, but hes not moving around the tank.

I removed all of the fish and the shrimp immediately this morning. I took Half of the water out of the tank, and added 5 gallons back in. Tank is 2/3 full cuz I do not have enough to completely refill until tomorrow, but water is higher than all rocks and corals. I plan on siphoning all of the water out to the very bottom tomorrow, rinsing all the rocks off and then refilling the tank. Basically starting everything over again.

I highly believe that it is possible that someone may have dumped in a drink, as I had a lot of people here, a few who got pretty drunk. All close friends or friends of close friends... But people get dumb when the drink so "here fish have a drink" may have happened. If anyone thinks there may be a different factor lemme know so I can fix it, but I am absolutely mind boggled as to what else it could be.

I am sad today. Way to bring in the new year..