my 5.5 gallon nano diary : D

[freeborder_01]

well its official, the deal on the hi fin WAS too good to be true. I found him dried out and curled up on the towel my tank is on. RIP little buddy. I got him for 6$ thank god the girl messed up and i didnt pay 20$. Any suggestions on how to prevent this in the future considering with the new lights im thinking about going 100% coverless where as before it was 80%...still dont know how he managed to make it out in the perfect 20% that wasnt covered.

 

[boosted306]

Originally Posted by Freeborder_01
http:///forum/post/2790684
well this is going to be a semi drawn out diary for the first few days since im still at home.
i plan on stocking a yashi goby with a pistol shrip because i love them both haha
as far as corals i want to get some zoas duh some mushrooms and rics and just other cool little things
any recommendations on inverts or corals or anything? these are the lights im getting http://www.marineandreef.com/9_inch_...pact_s/278.htm
buying them tomorrow from my lfs
you can get that light cheaper at big al's

 

[freeborder_01]

yeah well i didnt really care, i just bought the light at my lfs, got ripped off but i didnt research anything at all haha just got a cheap 18watt light because it would work for what i wanted at the time, should just saved the money and got the new lights i have now
im very happy, heres an atinic only shot cuz i thought it looked kinda cool. shitty quality

 

[freeborder_01]

update: I posted this in a different thread but yeah i got duncans!!!

They looked not great in the store but have already made a great recovery and look amazing and seem to be fixing the damage they had. I got it for 2 heads but it had 4 so i got it half price basically : D
The sexy shrimp wont leave it alone and so when i fed them today i feed pellets and the shrimp are always picking at my coral if they arnt fed so they grab the pellet and instantly the duncan snagged it from them and ate it. It was so funny so i gave them another pellet and everyone is happy.
Also my devils armor/armor of god w.e it is has a new head starting to open and 2 more starting to grow out.
My lunar eclipse seem to be acting weird. They had 3 heads and a baby. The baby is now medium sized and a new baby is open and out for a total of 5. However the big 3 seem to be smaller than usual and have a weird look to them, they open fine so i dunno and one even ate mysis but ill be watching. Everything else is doing great im so happy

 

[freeborder_01]

hmm looks like im going to lose a colony to what i think is zoa pox, it was given to me for free so i didnt treat it.
Also my brown zoa's that i really like have gone from 2 heads to now 1.5 because one looks like its done for. I cut the piece off the live rock and glued it to a small piece of rock and then cut the mat between the two pieces. Im hoping if one does end up dying the other will survive and be able to spread. Its weird, the head of the one thats dying appears to be slowly changing to white like evenly across like its taking over. it doesnt look like pox but its almost like the life is being sucked out of it.
I moved my mushroom today also because ever since i got back from tahoe and had a good amount of evap and a little salinity shock it seems to stay small and angry so hopefully its new spot will help it out.
The devils armor w.e has the new baby head stretched out and finally opened today its 2 brothers started to stretch out as well. Everything else seems to look good so hopefully i dont have some mass zoa pox infestation and the one that is about to have 1 polyp is a fluke and the one colony that is basically gone now is also unrelated to tank problems.

 

[mckevinfang]

wow that sucks man i knew someone who had that he had to shut down his whole system!!
good luck man i hope it works out for you!!

 

[freeborder_01]

thanks man things seemed to have cooled off.
I cured 2 seperate colonies now. 2/3 is pretty good. I think i might even keep like 3-4 heads off the colony i thought was lost.
Everything looks great now

 

[freeborder_01]

sigh well update. I lost another colony to zoa pox. I think i dipped it in too strong an iodine mix because it just withered away. Everything else looks good though which is nice.
My green clown goby has some weird lip issue, i was told it will go away with time.
Im debating about getting rid of the large purple rock for smaller rocks because i cant put S*** on that rock since its round and it takes up too much space. As pretty as it is. Or i might just hammer it.
Im getting a rio90 i think it is...which ever one puts out like 80gph so i can get some more flow, im having a small cyano issue again. I can barely see it but i know its coming. I have bad issues with detritus build up on the sand. I also plan to get like 2-3 more nass snails to help with that. Maybe a small conch if i can find one that i can trade in for a new baby when it gets too big.
Also when i get the powerhead i wanna maybe try out a lower light demanding sps like a monti or birdsnest. I really want to but need to work on water quality issues first.
Finally I got epicly dumped tonight so tomorrow im going to a fishstore like 20 minutes away and im gunna throw down some money on a nice piece if i can find one and treat myself. Bringing my mom since im home from college and she wants to hangout, maybe she can hook it up with a cool coral too. Also ive been in the hunt for a pom pom crab and 2 lfs told me to call tomorrow since neither got one in at the begining of the week.
Possibly big picture update coming soon, im planning on messing with this thing especially if the gf is gone because i can just throw a ton of money at it since i was holding off to take her out to nice places.
Sigh sorry for wasting your time i just wanted to write something to keep me busy. Thanks for looking

 

[freeborder_01]

went to the coolest fish store today. They had a ton of nice coral and amazing display tanks. Amazing colored chalices, ($300+) that i couldnt afford haha but i did pick up a little micromussa frag. Its got i think like 4 mouths. I paid 65$ total for it. Its temp acclimating right now and ill snap some pictures when i get it in the tank.

 

[mboswell1982]

sorry to hear about the gf, but, this does give you a chance to find a girl who's also into tank keeping, preferably saltwater, maybe go to some frag swaps or something, find a girl there

 

[freeborder_01]

EPIC WIN. I absolutely love this thing. I was unsure about spending 75$ on it because im afraid it will die but im hoping for the best. I got it for 65$ no tax. I was so happy they hooked it up for me. I love the colors on it, it doenst look like the plain red on acans and other micromussa im used to see it. Its got a great pinkish purple to it and its just ahhh im so happy with it.
also thanks for the advice mbosswell, i will see how things go, i definitely wanna start going to local club meetings, the north coast nano reef society is right by my school so i think ill check them out.
now i expect comments since i posted pictures and thats the only time people comment mine...i dont see how some of you guys have diarys that go like 6 pages without pictures. lol you love them more than me (( jk
well yeah WOOT I AM SO HAPPPYYYYYY!!!!
Edit: im also taking powerhead recommendations. Nothing crazy strong, under 100gph i just want something to help keep detritus suspended because i dont have enough flow. I was looking at the small rio's...any input?

 

[freeborder_01]

i got a rio50 today and put it in my tank. Its definitely helping a lot but i need to move it so i can somehow prevent a deadspot from forming behind it. I have it on the left wall pointed up to get good surface aggrigation, it hits the far right wall and rebounds back and gets good flow across my sandbed but then teeters off and causes a dead spot right under the powerhead. I might just leave that and stir the sand from time to time to get the debris up in the current. I love the flow though

 

[worrballer]

Ya I have the rio50 also, its perfect in my 5.5 also I aim it across the front without the nozzle on. It works great plus its tiny.

 

[[ronnie]]

tank is comming along great man... i raped mine.. i took all my frags and everything out and put it into my 12 gal so i can make more room with my rocks for corals.. i think my setup was taking up 2 much space..
sorry 2 hear about the lady.. head up.. no worries.. MORE FISH IN THE SEA.. -_- ..

 

[freeborder_01]

yeah we will see how things go with the lady, im still trying to fix everything. Came home today after a long night of partying to find only one coral knocked over after adding the powerhead which was nice. Also with the increased surface aggregation i didnt notice too large a change in amount of evap.

 

[freeborder_01]

nothing new to add, i got some nice growth on zoas, dying duncan head that was nothing but a sorry excuse for a mouth and maybe like 5% of the tissue it had is making a slow recovery.
figured id post this update since it might be the last for awhile. Kinda started hanging out on different boards more. Ill be back from time to time.
Best of luck to all your tanks

 

[freeborder_01]

moved my tank back, put about 1.5-2 gallons of new water. Everything is open but the duncan and the micro both are kinda half open. Everything went great. Hopefully the next week it will get to its best again. Still hoping for no loses and it to clear up 100%. Throwin in new carbon tomorrow

 

[subielover]

Glad to hear it

 

[freeborder_01]

kinda puzzled. I woke up this morning and on the desk thing where i keep my tank stuff there was water everywhere. But i only keep dry goods on that shelf so i dont understand where it all came from. My only guess is i left water in the hydrometer and it spilled or somethin but it was a lot of water. Oh well cleaned it all this morning and the tank looks good. Imma give it a day or two more before i adjust things a round a little

 

[freeborder_01]

random update
Everything is thriving after the move. Moved a few things around, the new scape i ended up with is a lot better than before. I just turned a rock around and it opened a lot more room.
My duncan has almost fully rehealed the once almost dead head i bought it with. The micromussa is looking good as well
i got a top for it today with a little open in the back to cut the evap. I was having to add a lot of water with the open top.
Last thing, I applied for a job today at a few places so if i get any calls im thinking about getting a chalice frag or two. Looking at grape watermelon and maybe a tubbs alien eye or darth maul chalice. My local guy i got some stuff from only fragged the grape so if it takes a while to get hte job situation settled it will buy me some time so hopefully he will have fragged the alien eye.
Ill post pics if i get anything new