My 33 Gallon tank

Here's a quick video I made of my tank last night before the lights went out. I had to shoot what was still open. :) I'm still stocking my tank, but it's slowly getting there.
 
Hoping my pumping xenia and green star polyps will grow around it. I think that'll make it look creepy.
Right now all I have is a clownfish in it. (and the clean up crew, with two scarlet skunk shrimp). Once I figure out how I'm going to build the top for my tank, I am thinking about either adding a midas blenny or a coral beauty angelfish. I did have a cb angelfish before, but it jumped out of the tank. That is why I'm waiting until I make a top. If the clownfish jumps out, I'd be ok with it. This clownfish is evil and could possibly be manic depressive.
 
I'm using the Maxspect Razor. (That you actually suggested a few months ago). This was right before the lights were going to go off. I let the tank get really blue the closer it gets to midnight. I use a lot more white lights during the day. But I honestly like the blue look the best. I know a lot of people don't. But I love the corals looking florescent.
I am going to be adding more coral for sure. I've had this tank going since December 2012. I've used most of that time to let the tank to start getting more mature. But I am at the point now where I am going to add more corals. It's kind of hard b/c I don't have a LFS close. I have been ordering online.
The right side of the tank I plan on filling with zoas. I've started some, but they've not grown much yet. I'm going to try to get the green star polyps and pulsing xenia to grow around the area of the mask. Almost like a jungle or something. And the ricordea garden below that. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the left side of the rock. I've got a leather toadstool, kenya coral tree, and 2 heads of candy cane coral. I'm still thinking about that area. In the bottom left of the tank I've got the wall hammer and frogspawn. I've got enough room for them to grow pretty large. That's my plan for that area. I've got enough room to probably let the frogspawn grow close to the size of a volleyball. So we will see.
I am planning on eventually adding a larger tank. One that's at least 6 foot in length. This first tank is what I'm using to learn the hobby.
 
Well, I had three ricordeas and a rock of blue cloves fall under the live rock several weeks ago. I decided yesterday that was too much money to let them float away for me not to enjoy. So I moved some rock to get to them. I then decided that it would be nice if I had even more sandbed space. I've really enjoyed my LPS, and would like more. It seems like a lot require to be on the sandbed. So I removed 3 large pieces of live rock, and I'm pretty happy with it. Here are a couple of photos:


This gave me more room on the sand bed. I'm thinking I could possibly add one or two more LPS down there, although I'm not sure. I think it'll also give my toadstool more room to get larger. I like the way a mature one looks in a tank. It was kinda mad in this picture. I had to move it's rock, and it's started to attach itself to the big live rock boulder I've got. So I had to put it in less flow. But the polyps started coming out tonight, so I think it'll be ok. I've got to figure out what I want to put on that rock in front of the toadstool. The rocks on the right hand side of the tank, I'm going to let fill with zoas. I'm not sure if I should also do that on the left side, or maybe find some unique pieces.
I would love to figure out a way to move the rocks on the right hand side back an inch. That would give me more room to clean the front glass. There's just a couple of spots on the front glass that's really hard to reach. But I may just leave it alone. I dunno.
So my next project for this tank will be adding a 10 gallon sump. It'll be this Fall before I can afford to do it. But I'll be glad to get rid of the bulky HOB protein skimmer. I'm thinking that would allow me to grow some kind of huge soft coral in that spot. Getting rid of the HOB skimmer will also allow me to put a lid on the tank. (I can't figure out how to build one with it still on). Once I get my lid, I am going to add fish back to the tank. After my coral beauty fish jumped out, I decided I wouldn't add anymore fish until I could get a lid.
I've decided that I am not going to add any more clownfish. I may one day do a nano tank, and just have them an anemone in it. I am thinking about the Midas Blenny though. I think I would really enjoy that fish in this tank. And I'm going to have to find another fish to compliment that. I'm not sure about adding another pygmy angelfish. Mine never nipped at any corals, but I don't know that I want to take that chance. So anyways, that's what is going on with my tank.
 

sweatervest13

Active Member
Looking good. I like the new look. I am a fan of the idea of adding more space on the sand bed.
I know it will be a challenge to add the sump, but I think you will be very happy once you get it done. Like you said, remove the HOB skimmer and you will have a lot more room in the tank and can add a top.
 
Thanks. I'm now trying to decide what corals I'm going to add in those spaces! I know I want something really bright red. I have a red mushroom, & it really pops in my tank. I've got a lot of green colored corals right now.
The sump will be a challenge. I'm not very diy, but I'll follow tutorials and ask a lot of questions along the way. I would like to purchase a tank over 100 gallons maybe in the next year or so. So I think adding a sump to this tank will be good practice.
 
And I think sand bed space is one of the biggest things I've learned from my first tank. I know when I build a larger tank, I will try to have lots of it.
 
So I was wondering if maybe some of you could give me suggestions about some corals that would work in my tank. I'm wanting this to be mainly an LPS & soft coral tank. I added the red circles and numbers to the photo so maybe it'd be easier to understand what I was talking about. I don't know if I am over thinking coral placement. I see some tanks that have corals very close together. It kind of scares me to put stuff too close. I want to let things have room to grow in peace. So at this point I'm kind of being a little too cautious maybe.

As mentioned before about the rocks on the right of the tank, I'm going to fill up with zoas and palys. I'm just going to let them grow wild. The gonoporia on the bottom right hand side, I've given it room to grow. I've had it close to 6 months. I'm hoping that it will continue to grow and not die. It's kinda scary when you read all the articles online about the survival rates (even though it seems like they are improving).
#1:

I'm really trying to figure out what to do with the sand bed spot labelled #1. I'm thinking that I want some kind of LPS that is bright red to go in that spot. I have a lot of greens and purple in my tank. I could possibly move the green brain coral to the left, and put the #1 coral in its spot. I also plan on letting the frogspawn to the left of #1 grow larger. It is only a single head now. But the current in this area is flowing to the left, so hopefully it'll help keep it somewhat in check from stinging other corals.
I have googled red LPS corals, but not really sure would be the best. I wouldn't be opposed to putting the red lps on the rock in the #2 spot, but it just seems like most LPS I find prefer sand bed spots.
#2:
I am also having problems with what to do with this rock. It's a pretty large area of open space right now. I have a Green Leather Toadstool behind #2, to the right. From what I read about it, if it's a male toadstool, it'll only get like 4 inches wide. But if it's female, it can get much larger. I know fragging is always an option, but I've not really done it yet, and it kind of worries me. The kenya coral tree, I am going to hopefully move to the #5 spot when I build my sump, and get rid of the HOB protein skimmer. I don't have it there now because of two scarlet skunk shrimp who constantly harass anything I put in that area. So back to the #2 spot. I was thinking maybe putting something like a Duncan coral there. I'm not sure if it would be more of the same green and purple though. But I thought it might look kind of like a massive anemone. But my concern was the toadstool, and then the green star polyps at #3. I was going to let the green star polyps grow in the area of #3 and some up the side of rock #2. Just didn't know if they would over take the Duncan colony. I know that GSP grows like weeds, but it doesn't happen over night. And I think I shouldn't have no problem keeping it cut back.
Another option would be to move the candy cane corals labelled #4 to the #2 rock, and put something like a duncan coral on the sandbad in the #4 slot. But I think my candy cane corals really like this spot. I did have them on rock #2, but they seem to open up even more in spot #4. I'm not set on just a duncan coral. I just seen it tonight.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I would like to start filling these spaces in with corals this month or maybe in October. I hope this makes sense reading this information, as I am seeing it in my head. It's kind of hard when you aren't looking at the actual tank.
 
Maybe a red doughnut (or is it button?) coral. I might move the brain coral to spot #1, and put a coral like this in the brain coral's spot.

I love the color, and it kind of has a bubble coral look to it as well. I think the proper name is "Cynarina lacrymalis"
 
I just ordered a "red glass" Cynarina lacrymalis from this site. I'm hoping that it will be what I'm looking for. I've spent all day googling them, and from what I can tell, that is the scientific name for the one that I am wanting. I'll post a photo when it gets here. Hopefully on Thursday!

I also ordered a pair of peppermint shrimp. I'm pretty sure that I got some aiptasia on a rock of yellow polyps. (At least that's what it looks like to me). Maybe they will take care of it. I'm just hoping that the peppermint shrimp aren't as much of an annoyance as the scarlet skunk shrimp I got. Those things get on my nerves.
 
I got my Red Glass Cynarina in today. Totally happy with it! I think it might be my new favorite coral. I added a few shots of it, and of my tank.









 
Here's the cynarina after the lights went off. Crazy how they change. It kept changing shape all day long. I can't wait to see it eat tomorrow.


 
Here's a time lapse of my cynarina eating. I think it's pretty awesome. This coral amazes me at how much it changes throughout the day. For sure a very interesting coral.

 
Are you talking about the one by the frogspawn? It's a wall hammer. I can't get a photo with my good camera, because the Internet is down. Here's an iPhone photo:
 

mr llimpid

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by fattytwobyfour http:///t/396092/my-33-gallon-tank#post_3530658
Are you talking about the one by the frogspawn? It's a wall hammer. I can't get a photo with my good camera, because the Internet is down. Here's an iPhone photo:


Ya that's it. They blue from your light made it look realy blue. Just thought you had a blue hammer, was hoping to see one that own a blue hammer.
 
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