[SeaCow]

29g Reef Tank

Equipment:

• 29 Gallon tank (Standard)
• Current Sunpod 150 Watt 14k Pheonix Metal Halide w/ 12 LED's (6white, 6blue)
  
• 1 X Reef Octopus BH-1000 HOB Protein Skimmer (rated at 100g)
  
• 1 X 450 gph Powerheads
• 1 X Ecotech Vortech MP10es
  [/COLOR][/COLOR][/B]
• 1 x 150w Manual Submersible Heater (controlled by reefkeeper)
  
• 1 X BRS GFO/Carbon Reactor
• 1 ReefKeeper Lite (Plus) w/ ATO
• pH Probe
• Maxijet 400 for Carbon/GFO reactor
• 2 x Maxijet 600 (1 for ATO, 1 for waterchanges)
  

Rock/Sand:

• 35 lbs Fiji Live Rock
• 2" Substrate mix of crushed coral and live sand

Salt/Water:

• Instant Ocean (SG measured with refractometer)
  
• RO/DI (0 TDS)
  

Current Stock as of: 11/12/11

• 2 Ocellaris Clown
• 1 Lawnmower Blenny
  
• 1 Cleaner Shrimp
• 1 Sand Sifting Starfish
  
• 9 Blue-Legged Hermits
• 4 Nassarius Snails
• 3 Astrea Snails
• 2 Turbo Snails
  

Corals:

• Neon Green Spotted Mushroom (1 polyp)
• Red Spotted Mushrooms (several)
  
• Kenya Tree Coral (2 stalk)
• Green Tyree Toadstool
  
• Unknown Acro
• Green Birdnest
  
• Assorted Zoanthids (100+ polyps)
• Watermelon Zoas
• Blue Hornet Zoas
  
• Torch (3 head)
• War Coral
• Neon Green Hammer
• Bird Of Paradise
• Red Montipora Capricornus
• Rainbow Montipora
• Acan Lord
• Blastomussa

Water Tests as of: 12/30/11

• Ammonia 0
• Nitrite 0
• Nitrate 0
  
• Phos 0
• Cal 420
• dKH 10
  
• PH 8.2
• SG 1.026 (35ppt)
  
• Temp 79.0 F
  

Tank Age: 15th week

 

[Chad]

Nice mushrom.

 

[SeaCow]

Ty. Hes grown a lot since if gotten him. Looks like he is getting ready to split soon. Nice rock covered in these will look cool. My first tank and Im learning quick and spending way more money than I imagined but I am starting to see that you gotta be willing to be a little loose with your cash in this hobby.

Many upgrades to come, trying to let things level out a bit before I change anything. For now, water quality looks great. Any tips / words of wisdom appreciated

 

[Chad]

Yes, cash is an issue. If you have a local reef club that helps to keep the costs down.

 

[SeaCow]

Not that I know of, but im new to the hobby and havn't been round the block yet, so Ill see if I find anything. Northwest Ohio here.

 

[Chad]

We have a good group here in Arizona and we sell and trade equipment and frags at low prices. You can also try Reef-a-holic which has great corals at auction on ebay.

 

[SeaCow]

cool ill check it out. just pick up a few new members to the crew. 4 Astrea snails, Lawnmower Blenny, and another emerald. Wanna see how the Blenny does, he may be going back to the LFS

 

[SeaCow]

Update:

Tomorrow marks end of week 6. Everything is doing great minus some cyano I believe that has taken over some of my sand bed. Also Algae is sort of a problem, Hair Algae seems to be receding everyday with barely anymore patches. I just ordered a protein skimmer Reef Octopus BH1000 HOB rated I believe for 100g so Im going to see if this can kick my algae in the butt before I go messing with the water chemistry or something. Ill have pictures up of before and after shots with the new skimmer, will be here Friday.

 

[james30ct]

I wouldnt worry too much about algae. Your tank is still very young. I would hold off on adding stuff for now until it balances out. Also when you get your skimmer I would ditch the filter, or just empty the media out and use it for circulation. Just keep up on husbandry and water changes and you should be fine.

 

[Chad]

+1 at this point in the life of the tank cyano and algae are to be expected.

 

[SeaCow]

Yeah Im not worried about it really just wanna try take them nutrients away before the algae get it. Protein skimmer is up and running, lots of microbubbles filling my tank, ive diffused them a little but not by much. Ive read its to be expected the first week or 2 till the skimmer breaks in.

As of now everything is looking fantastic and water quality is pretty good and not fluctuating much.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 (finally got these all the way down to undetectable
Phos 0
pH 8.0
dKh 11
Ca 440 ppm
SG 1.026 (35ppt) refractometer

Only problem besides some algae that im not really worried about is the pH. Has been kinda hard to keep buffered above 8.1. Tank is open top and it went up .1 within 12 hours of the protien skimmer being added so hopefully it will rise a little and level out.

Water tested at the fish store and matches up with my readings nicely. Bought a 2 head Torch today along with a small brain frag bout the size of a silver dollar. Today marks the start of week 7. Pics below.

 

[SeaCow]

Torch

Brain

Lawnmower Blenny

Bluetailed Damsel and Clown

Neon Blue Spotted Mushroom

 

[SeaCow]

Frogspawn

Mixed Zoa Colony

Brain

New Skimmer Reef Octopus BH 1000 HOB

Tank

 

[SeaCow]

ph is holding steady now at about 8.1 with the new skimmer. I expect it to climb a little further before leveling out. Skimmer is working awesome, well worth the money. My water is crystal clear, tank looks very clean, cleanest its been since its been setup and in 48 hours the skimmer has pulled out a full collection cup of dark green skimmate and probably 90-95% of the microbubbles have gone away. Im highly impressed with this skimmers performance thus far.

New torch coral fed brine shrimp for first time today, he is extended and looking very happy. I can start to see my reef that I envisioned beginning to come together a bit.

Will be looking into getting ATO and reefkeeper within the next 2 months or so hopefully if I get my christmas bonus lol. Also what should I be keeping my Calcium at for a LPS dominated tank? A few SPS and softies thrown in. Been keeping it between 420-450 and think this is acceptable but im new so ill ask.

 

[SeaCow]

Pics

Hey everyone, tank is looking great. Skimmer is pulling out lots of dark green crap that smells like the inside of a rotting *******. :worm: lol. sorry for the graphic language.

Had a my 2 Mexican turbo snails die this week. water tested perfect so I believe they died of starvation since algae levels in the tank have gone way way down. I have white sand now and some coralline beginning to take hold in a few spots. And my skimmer is cleaning this water so good its amazing.

Pics of my various inhabitants below.

 

[Wdanielle51]

If you don't mind me asking, what powerheads are you using?

 

[SeaCow]

If you don't mind me asking, what powerheads are you using?

2 x 450gph Koralia Hydor's and 1 x 500gph Aqueon. Total of 1400gph flow

Ran into a bit of a situation friday. My wifes brother's tank apparently cracked. He gave me his condy anemone, actually he put it in my tank while I was at work without even knowing about it. lol I'm pretty sure my tank can sustain him if everything stays nice and stable like it has been lately. No clue when he is going to have his tank up and running anytime soon, and as of right now this condy is a indefinite resident.

What can I do to ensure this guy lives happily. Also what should I watch out for. I dont want this condy to really screw up my tank but I feel obligated to help her bro out cause I know he would help me.

tips please, I dont want this to be a problem.

 

[SeaCow]

Well problems have arisen in the tank, boy what a 24 hours. Well to start off last night I found a dead emerald crab in the back of my tank and had no clue what he died. I tested my water and everything looked great. I did a 10% water change to be safe and sat down to watch the tank. wasnt an hour later and I see my Yellow-tailed damsel dart and tear off the hind legs of my other surviving emerald crab. My first reaction was "that little *******" then I got my net and tried everything to get the little blue ******* outta my tank. He would dive into the rocks at the first site of the net.

So as I was thinking up a solution I see him start attacking my clown, and that was the last straw. I filled a bucket full of tank water and went in the tank and took out all my rocks. Finally after spending a half hour trying to catch him with the rocks out, I finally did. Put all my rocks back and took him to the fish store this morning and returned him for one of my favorite fish, a Six-Line Wrasse.

I figure out that the damsel was probably responsible for the death of my other emerald and my missing peppermint shrimp. As of now the other emerald is alive and in hiding. Missing a few legs, I cant see enough to count how many he still has. Not sure if he will make it, he doesnt move very well now.

Well so I get the wrasse in the tank and all is great, I was loving every second of him. Me and my wife decided to take a trip to her brothers to pick up a few frags he has from his tank that cracked. Well when we got home my skimmer sounded a little quieter than usual and I looked behind the tank and it wasnt producing and bubbles or foam. I was very irritated at this point. Well I restarted the skimmer multiple times and to no avail it would not work properly. So i took the skimmer of the tank and drained all the water to take the pump off and see what was wrong.

It was then I had a flash thought, "where is my wrasse." I looked everywhere in the tank and could not see him anywhere. Oh no! I have the Reef Octopus BH1000 HOB skimmer and the surface skimmer box for some reason sits below the waterline. So there is about a half inch of space a fish could swim into the box between the box and the water surface.

I took apart the pump and there is was, dead and all twisted up Im quite sad, really liked him. I fixed the problem so it will never happen again. I cut off about an inch of the intake pipe so the overflow box on the skimer sits where it should now. Hard lesson to learn.

so if figured my yellow tailed damsel claimed 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 emerald, possibly 2 and my clown has a small tear in one of his pectoral fins. And my skimmer claimed my 6 line wrasse all in a 24 hour period:*( crappy luck.

 

[bbrockmeier]

Yea yellow tailed damsels can get very territorial, I had the same problem with it attacking my other fish. I advise anyone I am helping set up a tank to never get those fish. Not even as starter fish.

Well hope it's all getting straightened out. Best of luck

 

[SeaCow]

Yeah, he was a great addition but then like overnight a switch flipped and he started attacking in sight. Like all of a sudden "Let The Bodies Hit The Floor" started playing on the loudspeaker in my tank lol. Really was a nightmare and I hope no one else ever has to go through it again. Im a new reefer, so I guess it all amounts to a lesson learned. But ouch. The wrasse in the skimmer really put the icing on the cake and took a nice chunk outta my wallet

I definitely want another 6-line now that I fixed the problem, such a cool active fish and I have plenty of pods in my tank, he was stuffing himself on pods before he died.

The fish on my list to get (2 possibly 3)
1. Six Line Wrasse
2. Ocellaris Clown to make a pair with the one i already have
3. Royal Gramma
4. Purple Firefish

Not sure about the firefish though because they are jumpers and I have no hood or canopy so I dont want another dead fish on my hands. Not to mention the wife would probably kill me if I was at work and she found a dead fish on her shiny hardwood floor lol. Women...