Am00re34's 55g Tank Diary

[am00re34]

I have been a freshwater fish guy for many years and decided to jump into saltwater when i moved this past year. I started my tank in December of 2006. Here is a pic shortly after that.

This pic is from February and the only changes are i removed the calpura that was attached to the middle rock. my first fish was a yellow tang (i was dumb back then)

 

[am00re34]

Shortly after adding the tang came a cleaner crew i bought from this site. I also bought a few domino damsels because the g/f thought they were cute... LESSON LEARNED! Here is a pic of one of the little b@stards and a blue legged hermit.

 

[am00re34]

Around March i bought a BTA and a Sebae. I learned how delicate these can be as the BTA died shortly after i put it in my tank. The sebae lasted a few months. He was a buet!

Unfortantly around May when i left for vacation something happened when i was gone. I dont know what, but when i returned many inverts were dead. Including my urchin, sebae, emerald crabs, anemonee crab, various hermits and snails. My fish were all ok though?
At this time i decided i needed to basically start over and use the experiances i have gained in the last few months.

 

[am00re34]

In June 2007 I redid my entire tank. (mainly because i had to take everything out to catch those DAMSELS!!!)
Here is a pic from July 4th. My livestock list now consists of:
Inverts various hermits (red and blue legs)
various snails (mexican turbo, turbo, nass, conch)
Brittle Star
Fire Shrimp
5 Peppermint Shrimp
Fish
Yellow Tang (named Amerillo)
2 False Percula Clowns
7 Green Chromis
Diamond Goby coming soon. (Sands getting gross and they do so well at fixing that!
Coral
Xenia Frag
Colt Coral Frag
I dont know if i have it overstocked, but everything is pretty small and i'm not noticing any problems.

 

[am00re34]

Here are some close up's of my corals and clowns.

I am planning on getting my diamond goby soon then the fish are finished.
I then to plan on moving into corals (shroms, zoas, brain, bubble etc).

 

[azfishgal]

Welcome to the saltwater world.

I too was just a freshwater person until I made the mistake of walking into a saltwater store. I was just there to look at the tanks as I was going to upgrade my 12 gallon freshwater tank. I still have that tank and now have a 125 gallon reef tank.

Oops!
Your tank looks nice and though your tank is a little small for your tang he looks healthy.

 

[am00re34]

i bought my tang before researching.. (i have learned my lesson on that!) He is doing great in the tank. I bought him because yellow tangs and clowns are the staple of a saltwater tank. Although now i want another tank to get more exotic type fish. I want a 125 or larger so its 6ft and deaper than my 55 gallon.

 

[nemo_66]

cool tank. btw, that is a kenya tree, not a colt coral.

 

[gnorman]

beautiful tank.
a bit of advice on why all of your inverts died and ur fish were ok when u left on vacation. i dont know how long u were gone for but im guessing that your SG dropped too low and ur inverts wernt able to be sustained but your fish can handle a lower SG.
again, sweet tank and cant wait to see the reef grow

 

[am00re34]

Kenya Tree huh? Thanks for the info! A friend gave me some frags and when i got them they were TINY. I'll have to look that up to make sure i'm giving it what it needs.
GNorman... You may be right. I immediatly did a water change then tested it about a day after and the levels were back ok so i might have fixed the salinity problem (if thats what it was) I was gone for about a week and i just had my g/f come over and feed them every other day (she knows zero about the details of saltwater) and replace evaporation.

 

[am00re34]

Since my last update I have done many things which includes the addition of many corals and a RBTA.
This is a tank shot from 8.26.07

These are my first attemps at SPS. If someone could possibly give me the exact names on them!

A shot of my Kenya Tree from 8.26.07 as well.

 

[am00re34]

Here is a tank shot from yesterday (10.1.07)

As you can see the SPS are growing great!!
Here is some close ups of my new finds:
This is my Yellow Polyps. I started with about 12 polyps and am up to 15 in a few weeks!

This is my xenia, I started with a little frag and now have 4 colonies growing. Anyone need some?!?

My Kenya Tree... Needs some trimming

My new Hairy Mushroom

I have some Green Star Polyps that I hope spread nicely

Some Candy Cane

Finally my Blue Spotted Shrooms

 

[am00re34]

About a month ago I noticed one of my clowns found a new home. I was so happy!!!

 

[azfishgal]

Nice new additions, and congrats on the clowns hosting your RBTA. I've had a BTA for over a month, has since split so I now have two, but my clowns won't go near it.

Your SPS that looks like it's bending over backwards, looks to be a birdsnest. I have one and it's growing pretty fast.

 

[am00re34]

I know i have two birds nest (different types). The one thats really pointy was curling back, but i have since moved it so it looks better in the tank.
I have been fighting low calcium, but just recently learned my problem was low Mag. Never even thought to test for that! stupid IO Salt!