Building my 56 gallon Column reef tank

monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemmy http:///forum/thread/380344/building-my-56-gallon-column-reef-tank/420#post_3325438
My LFS's all have them too bad it's like at least 5 hours for you. I have ordered most of my livestock from this site and one other. I have been more satisfied with their livestock than with my LFS's.
I went looking on here and noticed that they have a special on shipping for $100 spent so my hopes got way up there that I could get 2 fish and some coral. Went straight for the purple firefish and they dont have any either. Other places have them but no point in purchasing it now and not getting it until tuesday. So now, theres a good sale on shipping here, and I have nothing to buy.
edit: no one has any opinions on any of the ?'s i asked on the previous page?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Since this thread is dead to all but me, I figure its a good place to keep my own notes.
The bubble coral that the wife got is not that ticked off as it is opened right now. I am not sure how open it is as she got it at the store and has not told me if it gets more open.
We caught the agressive PJ and swapped him out for another PJ. We hope that the new one follows the normalcy and is not agressive towards the other one.
Since the pepp has survived this long, I felt it was time to get another one. He is drip acclimating now and goes into the tank in an hour.
I also got the fish I was supposed to get on saturday. I got a McCoskers wrasse and the thing is beautiful. Once he is in the tank I will take pics and post them. Probably going to enter him into the contest this week.
I also got the glue stick stuff and will be securing down the coral and plugging in the holes of the aiptasia that I can get to. Its going to be good to see those suckers starve and die. My daughter is going to get all excited when I pick her up from school and tell her that there are new things waiting to go into the tank at home.
If all goes well, I will be moving the xenia to a new location in the tank and clear out space for a torch. I am not planning on getting the torch any time soon. I sure hope that the clowns take to the torch. Once I have the torch in place for a week or so, I will then get the sexy shrimp.
So far so good with the tank, woo hoo!
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/380344/building-my-56-gallon-column-reef-tank/440#post_3326890
PICS PICS PICS
at least of the bubble

Letting McC get adjusted to the tank. he has found every nook and cranny so far. What makes me the happiest is that the intended purpose of the "seal rock" was finally realized as he stayed under it for a while. Now that he is more used to the tank and its inhabitants, fire shrimp acting all tuff LOL, he is freely swiming around. After I get done with the boards, I will start taking pics.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Here come the pics
First up is the bubble coral. It sure looks like it is fully open, but I am not sure. I'll ask the missus when she has a free moment. And she just replied to me that it looks like it is completely open.

Here is the McCoskers wrasse. When he went in, he was all flashy flashy defending himself. Now that he has been in the tank, he is swimming around having all kinds of fun.

Nother shot

Nother shot

So, things look sweet, yes?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
McC is sleeping under the biggest stack of rocks in my tank. I would presume this is normal for him? The other 4 fishies swim around a little at night. It seems that they are actively hunting at night.
I think the hermit crab in the fuge has died. I have not seen him in a month and I have taken the time to move all the algea and rocks around in the fuge. The real scary part is that I dont even see his shell that he had. The "new homes" that we put in there have not been moved in and there really isnt anything preditory in the fuge that I am aware of. There is a stomatela snail that hitched a ride on the algea from the LFS. there is a nassi and cerith and turbo from the lfs. I have seen like 2 or 3 bristle worms and all kinds of the fiter feeder worms in there. Any ideas as to where he could have gone? Should I get a replacement?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monsinour http:///forum/thread/379818/new-aquarist/100#post_3306236
the start of a CUC (fire shrimp, sexy shrimp, ~5 to 10 snails)
2 Ocellaris Clownfish
1 Purple Firefish
Cleaners again? (peppermint shrimp, sexy shrimp, brittle star(?), ~5 to 10 snails)
2 Cardinals
1 McCosker's Wrasse
around this time, check how the cleaners are doing, it may be time to add more (brittle star, peppermint shrimp, ~5 to 10 snails)
1 Royal Gramma
1 Orchid Dottyback
1 Orange Spotted Blenny
check cleaners again (fire shrimp, brittle star, rest of snails to reach 25 total)
1 Flame or Coral beauty
1 mandarin
So that was the original plan. The purple firefish has not been instock the past couple of weeks we were at the LFS so it has been pushed back. On monday I went again and the purple firefish was not instock so I had them order one for me and place it on hold when it arrived. I picked up the McCoskers in its place. This saturday we will be going to the LFS to get the purple firefish and quite possibly a blue mushroom coral, if the wife likes it. So after saturday the stock list will look like :
2x nemos
2x PJs
1x McC
1x PFF
1x Dragon Eye Zoa
1x Xenia coral
1x Bubble coral
3x Stalks of the gorg hitch coral
2x hidden cup coral
2x Pepps
1x Fire shrimp
3x margaritas
2x nassi
1x cerith
1x fighting conch
1x trochus
2x astrea
1x hitcher spiral astrea
2x hitcher snails (no id yet as they are only out at night and dont seem to be going for anything other than whats on the rocks)
lots o bristles n tube n peanuts n amphipods. Almost all of the isopods are gone and very few of the copepods remain
in the sump there is a turbo, cerith, bristles and some pods. The hermit is MIA and the astrea is dead. We found the empty shell a while ago.
SO I was wondering if it is time to get a brittle star. It eats fish poop yes? I would imagine it eats other stuff as well.
My Zoas are not looking as good as when I first got them, could they be hungry? The xenia looks fine and the bubble looks fine as well. I am working on getting some rotifiers in the hopes that I can feed them to the zoas. Assuming I can do this, just put the rotifiers in the mini baster and squirt the zoas with them yes?
I seem to remember that the royal and orchid went into the tank at the same time, is this correct? I will double check that with the other post.
The skimmer seems to have broken in. The stuff it is pulling out is really dark green and just looks horrid.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
I would be okay with telling you to put in a brittle star now.
I have no luck with zoanthids in my 155, but they grow like wildfire in my other tanks, so I'm not the one to give advice on zoanthids.
I believe you could add the two fish together, or singularly, it wouldn't be that much of a difference.
Be careful that you don't polute your tank with rotifiers and other small foods that you want to feed to your corals.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Brittle star fine...IMO
I would not feed the zoas.....they really don;t need to be spot fed.....I have some zoas (in the same tanks) that grow like crazy...and others that are slow growers
They should be getting enough food from your tank feedings....just make sure they are not getting too much flow
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
thanks for the advice. I havent gotten the roti's yet but I am still working on it.
Did a major tank clean today and I think i have to readjust the PHs in the tank. I do not believe that the zoas are getting too much flow. I mean I do not see them quiver in the flow like the xenia does.
Moved the sponge from DT to QT so that should be ready by next saturday. The purple firefish was added and the McC did not like him at all. They went at it a little bit with McC the winner. It was cool to see all that flashing. After about an hour, they were fine with one and other and feeding time that evening was normal. I'll let my wife know that she can get a brittle and she can decided whether or not to get one.
 
mylady

mylady

Member
Ok, all I want to know is, do the brittle stars come in blue? Why is it so hard for me to find anything blue to put into the tank? I want it BLUE!
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by MyLady http:///forum/thread/380344/building-my-56-gallon-column-reef-tank/440#post_3329058
Ok, all I want to know is, do the brittle stars come in blue? Why is it so hard for me to find anything blue to put into the tank? I want it BLUE!
You'll rarely ever see your starfish once it finds a cozy spot in the rocks. I could be wrong, but I think they come in blue, but are hard to find.
I you want blue, there are only a few things other than corals (and even that can be hard) that are going to be blue.
Here's some ideas:
Blue Clam (Maxima, Derasa, Crocea)
Blue Zoanthids
Blue Mushrooms
Cleaner Wrasse (although some people don't like putting them in the home aquarium)
Blue Reef Chromis
Blue jeweled Jawfish
There are some really nice acans that have blue in them
Neon Blue Goby
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/380344/building-my-56-gallon-column-reef-tank/440#post_3329120
How about a Blue Reef Chromis

Everything I have read about these guys says they need to be in the tank with atleast 2 other friends for a total of 3. I know I dont want 3 of the same fish in the tank. Anyone have just one of these guys in their tank and it does well?
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/380344/building-my-56-gallon-column-reef-tank/440#post_3329126
Quote:
Originally Posted by MyLady http:///forum/thread/380344/building-my-56-gallon-column-reef-tank/440#post_3329058
Ok, all I want to know is, do the brittle stars come in blue? Why is it so hard for me to find anything blue to put into the tank? I want it BLUE!
You'll rarely ever see your starfish once it finds a cozy spot in the rocks. I could be wrong, but I think they come in blue, but are hard to find.
I you want blue, there are only a few things other than corals (and even that can be hard) that are going to be blue.
Here's some ideas:
Blue Clam (Maxima, Derasa, Crocea)
Blue Zoanthids
Blue Mushrooms
Cleaner Wrasse (although some people don't like putting them in the home aquarium)
Blue Reef Chromis
Blue jeweled Jawfish
There are some really nice acans that have blue in them
Neon Blue Goby
We have seen the blue clams but none are large enough for us to get and our tank is too new for clams right now.
Our LFS doesnt have anything beyond the green and yellow zoas.
As posted, wife didnt look at the blue shrooms.
Already have McC in there, wont the cleaner fight with McC?
Jaw fish? will that get along with the other fish that will be in the tank?
I am looking for blue things that will go in the tank without problems.
 
S

smartorl

Guest
I do, I do, I do. I got it as a little guy, it's about two inches now, I tends to hang with my yellow tang. It's a really active fish and right now the only one that shows through the algae on my glass I just noticed (I'm slipping, hahaha) so that counts for something right? My son likes mine because it is another one that was always stealing food from the feeding stick while feeding the snowflake and now that the snowflake was moved, continues to be hand fed.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Quote:
We have seen the blue clams but none are large enough for us to get and our tank is too new for clams right now.
Our LFS doesnt have anything beyond the green and yellow zoas.
As posted, wife didnt look at the blue shrooms.
Already have McC in there, wont the cleaner fight with McC?
Jaw fish? will that get along with the other fish that will be in the tank?
I am looking for blue things that will go in the tank without problems.
You can probably find someone in your local reef club that has "Blue Tubs" zoanthids. LFS's never have them, but a lot of people in the hobby do.
Cleaner Wrasse will not fight with the McCosker's. They are different types of wrasses and get along fine together.
Jawfish is fine as well. Just don't put another bottom dweller (goby) with them, the gobies tend to beat on them.
 
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