m0nk's 55 gallon diary (yup, here's another)

[m0nk]

Here's the latest on my tank: around 60 lbs of live rock, 40 lbs of sand, tons of zoas, mushrooms, candy canes, frogspawn, and button polyps.
The inhabitants are:
2 Ocellaris clowns
1 Royal Gramma
1 Firefish
1 Juvenile Blue Hippo (1.5 inch/5 months old, going to a 180g tank next spring or summer)
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Peppermint Shrimp
11 Margarita Snails
4 Astrea Snails
4 Nassarius Snails
2 Mexican Turbo Snails
2 Carribean Feather Dusters
The hippo was at my son's request, he wanted a baby one for now, but it'll be going into a 6' tank, so thanks for holding back the flames. I've already got the plans drawn up for a 180 gallon setup that I'll be starting up in the spring/summer next year: 55 gallon sump, MH lighting system, something to house tangs (cause I want a couple other varieties as well) and SPS.
So here are the pics:

 

[mike22cha]

Cool clowns and hippo!

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by MIKE22cha
Cool clowns and hippo!

Thanks! They LOVE swimming together into the flow. Those Seio 620's do a great job.

 

[trippkid]

Looks good so far, let me know when you want some monti frags. I really have to start getting rid of some. You could try them in your tanks(probably just the nano for now), I'll give them to you.
Matt

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by trippkid
Looks good so far, let me know when you want some monti frags. I really have to start getting rid of some. You could try them in your tanks(probably just the nano for now), I'll give them to you.
Matt
That would be cool, I think I'm ready to try that out. At this point I think the 55 would be good, much more light (and there's not much live rock in the 12 anymore, sits low to the sand now, I need to build that back up). I'm not sure how well they'd do but the rock on the one side gets high towards the light and I've been able to keep the water parameters perfect. I'll send you an email after I get home from work. Thanks!

 

[browniebuck]

Monk...watch that hippo!!!! We had a baby in our 55 gallon that started one H E double hockey sticks bout of ick/ich (not sure which spelling is correct)

Judging by the pictures, you didn't qt him either (neither did we), just an FYI. If you see anything funny from the hippo (such as scratching against your LR) get him out ASAP!!!
On a more pleasant note...my nearly 3 year old nephew LOVES our tanks (55 gallon and 29 gallon). Whenever he comes to our house he goes to my wifes 29 and looks at NEMO!!!!! and his buddies in her tank then grabs my hand and takes me downstairs to "see your fishies Uncle Mike". He then proceeds to tell me what every critter in the tank is (with surprising accuracy!!!). I don't know if it is possible, but I think that he loves the tanks more than me!!!

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by browniebuck
Monk...watch that hippo!!!! We had a baby in our 55 gallon that started one H E double hockey sticks bout of ick/ich (not sure which spelling is correct)

Judging by the pictures, you didn't qt him either (neither did we), just an FYI. If you see anything funny from the hippo (such as scratching against your LR) get him out ASAP!!!
On a more pleasant note...my nearly 3 year old nephew LOVES our tanks (55 gallon and 29 gallon). Whenever he comes to our house he goes to my wifes 29 and looks at NEMO!!!!! and his buddies in her tank then grabs my hand and takes me downstairs to "see your fishies Uncle Mike". He then proceeds to tell me what every critter in the tank is (with surprising accuracy!!!). I don't know if it is possible, but I think that he loves the tanks more than me!!!

The LFS that I got her from kept her sorta QT'd in a tank to watch for 2 months with no signs of trouble, that's the only way I wanted to get her since I didn't have a QT setup of my own. Of course, she scratched on the rocks within the first 2 days a few times that I saw, but that stopped pretty quickly and she's been very happy and healthy for 2 weeks with no new signs of scratching.
So anyway, I'm trying to scrounge up some money to get a 20L tank and filter, plus a refractometer (the main item keeping me from having a hypo QT) for setting up hypo if need be. I might just setup the 20 and put only the hippo in there if she scratches again, and maybe wait to do hypo if it gets more noticeable.