saltwaterkid's blog

saltwaterkid · 08-04-2006, 10:47 PM

Blog Created for saltwaterkid

saltwaterkid · 08-23-2006, 09:36 PM

Purchased 90 gallon reef ready tank with 20 gallon sump. Skimmer and lighting specs to follow in later entry. Currently about 70 lbs live rock full of tube worms, and unfortunately aiptasia. It took about 2 weeks for the first 1/3 of the water to become somewhat clear, running the skimmer constantly. Added the remaining 60 gallons and some stuff Mike down at Wet World recommended to help get some good bacteria in the water. Next day spotted aiptasia and decided to take a hot screwdriver to it. Seemed to take care of that!About 1 1/2 week later brother-in-law Bill (Hermitcrabsoul) gave us the go ahead to get some livestock. We ordered 3 Green Chromis, 1 coral banded shrimp. 10 snails, 20 hermit crabs from saltwaterfish.com. One Chromis was dead upon arrival. All other livestock acclimated nicely, except the fact that the larger of the two Chromis terrorizes the smaller. About a week later, added 2 false percula. the large chromis is confused and insists on shoaling with the clownfish. It dive bombs the small Chromis-poor guy! A week and half later went to A World of Fish and purchased a pink tipped haitian anemone, and 2 peppermint shrimp as aiptasia appeared again and in more than one spot. Three days now with new livestock and aiptasia still remains...thinking about a different remedy. our anemone seems to be searching for a better spot. It sucked itself under a rock and completely inside itself. We removed the rock and it returned to its natural self. First water change went smoothly with the RO water from Best-brother-in-law Bill and all of the helpful info from Doug down at World of Fish-He will definately win that box of steaks for selling the most if we can keep our aquarium healthy and happy!

saltwaterkid · 08-28-2006, 10:02 PM

Pump for our skimmer went out and seeing as we live in so far north its almost Canada! Had to make a trip into the Cities. The guy down at Wet World was most helpful! Got us set up with a bigger pump which makes our skimmer kick butt. Helped us figure out our lighting timer, which made our pink tipped haitian a lot happier. Started feeding it shrimp and is it ever cool to watch! Our peppermint shrimp (2) like to harass it though. Today I was marveling at the plethra of tube worms, when I noticed what looked like a grey-transluscent bug? chris looked closer and noticed a few more....could it be?! Baby shrimp! We have had our pair of peppermints for about 1 week. Our coral banded has been with us for about 3 now. I hope somne of the little guys make it. Saw the red bristleworm and a baby bristleworm. Purchased a blue-green chromis to help out Tiny Tim. Now he picks on the new guy. Did happen to see all 3 swimming together for a few moments. Bossy Betty(the largest) tries very hard to swim with the percs. I think she is having an identity crisis. Planning our next move now...possibly a rose bubble tip anemone for the clowns???

saltwaterkid · 09-05-2006, 10:45 PM

Went to the state fair and somehow came home with a bubble tip and some food for the corals-no, they weren't on a stick. Our kids (Cecelia 3, Elisha 2) enjoy the fish stores more than the fair. Chris keeps moving the rocks around in the tank and the xenias and our poor gorgornian. He gets the itch to buy something to put in the tank every week. I told him he has to wait a while. Hopefully he listens, and doesn't act!

saltwaterkid · 10-19-2006, 09:38 PM

Lost the long tentacle anenome just one week after we put it in the tank with the pair of skunk clownfish and one yellow tang. It got sucked up into the pump and chris never thought to just unplug the pump to see if it would release itself. the smaller of the two skunk clowns disappeared. It is no where to be found. Our haitian anenomesuffered since the loss of the long tentacle since the skunks invaded it and stole its food whenever we fed it. It seems to have peked up a bit since the loss of the clown. I hope it didn't eat it. I don't think it could have since it couldn't ever hold onto the brine shrimp we had been feeding it. Sad to lose the fish since I enjoyed watching the "cutie" as it was called, play in the anenomes. The false percs still have not tried to host. Bubbles, the yellow tang, pretty much rules the tank. He is the most colorful addition so far and its fun to watch him graze on the algae. A hermit crab decided to take on the shell with the xenia growing on it. He dumped it after about 2 weeks. spotted a small melon colored starfish about one week after the newest additions(9/20/06) but haven't seen it since. Ordered the RO/DI unit today. Can't wait to have it instead of driving down to St Paul everytime or risking the tap water. Love you Hermitcrabsoul-FRAG IT FORWARD!!!! Someday we will!

saltwaterkid · 12-28-2006, 09:56 PM

The fuzzy algae is invadng our tank...our plan of action: less food and try to pick off what we can. Over all the tank seems good. Wish we could invest in better lightng but Santa didnt bring the lottery this year. We seem to have more oddshaped starfish in the tank and the peachy colored one is getting bigger. Bill added to our collection of zoas and also gave us some leather frags-how cool to have him for a bro-in-law!

saltwaterkid · 01-06-2007, 10:53 PM

We bought 7 turbo snails and 5 hermits to help mow down the yucky algae...so far, I cant tell if it's making a difference. Water change for tomorrow with syphoning scheduled.

saltwaterkid · 04-05-2007, 10:25 PM

The hairy algae is gone! So is one of the percs and one of three blue chromis. Fifi the coral banded shrimp is absolutely huge! I think she's been dining on our population of bristle worms. Missing a few turbo snails or else they've been hiding for weeks? Also I have not seen any aiptasia. Perhaps Tuck and Roll our peppermint shrimp have taken care of that too. The leather coral, yellow polyps, and copper? zoas have taken off quite nicely. Thought we were going to lose the bluish zoas, but after adding new lights (mid march) they are seeming to make a comeback. Got 50lbs live fiji rock. Curing it in a large trash can with a heater and pump going. Plan to rinse it and move it to a new container in a few days to help the dead stuff slough off. Cant wait to tinker-toy it up in the tank. Oh and then Bro Billy will give us some more frags! Its just like Christmas, except its Eastertime. SO I guess our tank will be filled with goodies more like an Easter basket. oh 13 weeks pregnant-heard the heartbeat last week-how cool.