My First SW Tank

[ShaggNastee]

I forgot to mention about a week ago I bought a cleaner shrimp and a fire fish. The cleaner shrimp is really bold and intelligent. He loves to watch me. The fire fish is hiding a lot but does come out from time to time to feed. I’m hoping it will become comfortable because it is quite a smart fish with lots of character.

 

[ShaggNastee]

So my cleaner shrimp stepped on the anemone today and it’s mouth got huge and it started expelling zooxanthella for about 3min. I’m quite worried for it’s well being right now. If anyone has advice I would appreciate it.

 

[ShaggNastee]

Here is my tank at the 3 month marker. The Mini Maxi looks to be doing better. It’s mouth has retracted back and the bleaching in the center is darkening a hair. It didn’t eat any salmon yesterday, but it may have still been full from the dead hermit crab I’d fed it last weekend. I’m worried, however, that my fire fish has ick. I noticed last night, it has what looked like sand particles on its rear fin. I wish it wouldn’t hide so often, it’s hard to keep an eye on it’s health when it stays hidden. On another note, the shrimp have fast become my favorite additions so far. They are much smarter and braver than any of my fish, and they can already be hand fed or they will even host my hand and pick dead skin off and eat it. That part, truly was a treat.

 

[ShaggNastee]

Finally got my sump set up. First time having to learn plumbing, but I was able to engineer it to prevent over flow of both my MT or my sump. I gotta admit I’m just a little bit proud of myself right now...just a lil bit...lol.

 

[ShaggNastee]

Ok I did it. I purchased a pair of clown fish and a starfish today to celebrate my sump working out. As such. I wanted to share all the names of our critters at this time, being that the only other tank mates I may get would be a 6 Line Wrasse, an Aptasia Eating Nudibranc or one of those fancy Purple Damsels. So here are the full names and list of my tank mates.
Mini Maxi Anemone - Gringo
Peppermint Shrimp - Speedy Gonzalase
Cleaner Shrimp - Ester the ________
Chocolate Starfish - Sirious Black
Feather Duster Worm - Earthworm Jim
Fire Fish - Fawkes
1st Cardinal Fish - Tank
2nd Cardinal Fish - Ghost
2 Clown Fish - Bonnie and Clide

 

[beaslbob]

Sounds like you did better on your sump than my first sump. I tested for power out (no flood), power return (normal operation returns), but forgot to test drain failure (sump doesn't flood). So after a few month had a wet floor. LOL

my .02

 

[ShaggNastee]

Well as proud as I am of it I quickly found out that I need an overflow. My top water gets nasty and I think I can fashion an overflow around my intake, but I don’t know how I can control the flow on the intake. I think maybe a another control valve on the return and try to dial them in, but with gravity flow you have to turn it on full blast to remove air bubbles trapped inside the pipe causing inconsistent flow, which in turn means I’ll have to re-tune it every time. Lol. Almost wish I was a plumber.

 

[beaslbob]

the overflow will drain water above a certain level. no valves are required. the faster you pump the water back to the tank, the faster the water drains back to the sump.

 

[ShaggNastee]

This is my tank around the 4 month marker. I’m kinda at a standstill right now. I’m waiting to upgrade my lighting to begin adding corals. My tenant built me the top. We made sure no metal was exposed to salt or vise verses. The sump will have a cloth skirt to wrap around it. In the picture of the tank, I had just had a water change whenever I took it, and I’m preparing another soon. This time tho, I’m focusing on a small substrate cleaning and a glass scrub. Also, I have had a small pest beginning to overtake over my rocks. It’s a white-vinelike algae or sponge that began on a live rock and has branched to half the tank in the last month. Right now, it’s just spotting, but it will overtake if I let it. I’m not worried however, my Chocolate Chip has already been seen devouring it. I’ll try to get a better picture of the pest ,but it looks like this…

 

[ShaggNastee]

 

[ShaggNastee]

I’m back to report I have 2, ultra small, feather duster worms. Neither of them have a crown larger than 1/8 inch in size. Both creatures are mounted to hermit crab shells, and only one has an identifiable tube. I’ll try to get a picture of the larger one later, but I had to share the news. On a side note, the tube worm I posted a picture of early on in my hobby, has re-procreated, as well. There is now a second one on the opposite side of my tank.

 

[ShaggNastee]

Sorry, this was the best picture I could get of one of the new baby feather dusters. I really wish I could post the video I made of it coming out. I believe they are both Hawaiian Feather Dusters. They have black stripes like the HFD do.

 

[ShaggNastee]

This is the smaller one. As you can see, it’s crown is not yet large enough to be seen by my I Phone. The greenish yellow thing on the left side of the shell, is the tube it made to host in. Although the other shell doesn’t have a visible tube, I believe that it is probably either covered in coralline algae or nestled in a small crack in the shell.

 

[ShaggNastee]

Here are a couple of pictures of the unknown pest that is beginning to creep up all over my tank. It’s white and looks a bit fuzzy at times. I have yet to find a large enough piece to examine a texture. If anybody here knows what it is, please share. Like I said previously, a Chocolate Chip Starfish will eat it, if there is a copious amount available.

 

[ShaggNastee]

This little critter has a mouth that retracts into it’s body and is not really a mouth at all. His mouthpiece has black tentacles that protrudes outwards as seen on the 2nd picture. The best I can tell, it looks to be a bobbit worm, but I’ll try to keep an eye on it. So much odd stuff comes in on live rock.
To update these pictures, I believe it to be a Banded Ribbon Worm. I have read up on them, and they are predatorial. Like many pests I get however, I’ll wait it out. Until I suspect foul play, it will stay.

 

[ShaggNastee]

So, today I thought I’d give everybody an update on the Mini Maxi anemone. It’s condition remains stable. The poor guy/gal is still bleach mouthed, by this I mean it’s mouth isn’t open, just loose. It hasn’t moved in over 2 months, and it does eat periodically. The tentacles, however, do not have signs of bleaching. It does sun bath in the white light, lay/shrink in the black light. I believe there are two variables stunting it’s healing process. One is adequate lighting. The lighting I have is too weak to feed it’s voracious appetite for light. Second is my parameters. Unfortunately for the Anemone, I have a too under developed tank to meet it’s demanding perfection from a noob aquarist. I am pleased with it’s ability to tolerate me though. One piece of advice I will give to anybody attempting to care and feed a Mini Maxi, is do not feed it anything larger than a quarter inch, and coat the food in dried zoo/phyto plankton. Also, FEED YOUR HERMITS AND SHRIMP AT THE SAME TIME. They WILL Steal it’s food!!! Feeding while it is basking is optimal as well. Attempting to feed at night light will not work. If anybody has 2 cents to add it is more than welcome. Happy reefing.

 

[ShaggNastee]

Ok, today I screwed up big time. I only test my parameters every few weeks or so…I know, bad habit. Anyway, I tested, and I had a high nitrate, 10 ppm, and that means water change. I tested my saltwater holding tank, a 55gal trash can, the salinity read 1.028. I added a gallon of RODI water and mixed it. After I retested it with my refracter, it was sitting at 1.025. I commenced a water change. About 2 hours after the water change I tested my salinity again. Glad I did, it read 1.027. I FREAKED OUT!!! So I pulled a whole gallon of saltwater and replaced it with fresh RODI. My feather duster and anemone did not take well to it. The Feather Duster was spewing up for about 20 minutes, and the Anemone’s mouth puckered up quite a lot. I believe my problem is that the trash can isn’t circulating, so the salt is at a higher concentration at the bottom where the pump is at. Needless to say, next time I decide to do a water change, I will run my can pump from the bottom to ABOVE the water line for a few minutes prior to checking my salinity. Trial and error is what this hobby is all about. Hopefully, someone will read this and can learn from my mistakes.

 

[ShaggNastee]

I finally broke down and ordered 4 frags. I ordered them from Top Shelf Aquatics. My lighting is still just the Flaval LED Marine light bar, but I ordered 3 Zoas and a TSA Doomsday Chalice. Hopefully they can still survive with the low PAR. I figure if my chaeto can survive on the substrate, then the frags will be fine. I have researched them enough to feel comfortable that they will be fine with the lighting. The Zoas are a Incinerator, Gatorade and a Green Bay. They are slated to arrive midday tomorrow. I will turn my lights off until after they are acclimated, then I will dim them at half their current output during the nighttime cycle. I will also remove most of my hermit crabs to the sump for a few days until I can ensure they have opened up and fed on some reef chili. My parameters are great right now, I have no phosphates and my nitrates are around 5 ppm. The only concern I have is my calcium is at 320. That is mostly due to my Sporbid Worm outbreak and the fact I don’t have reef salt…yet. I will be keeping a regular check on my parameters, and I will be doing a 10 gal water change each week for 3 weeks and a 15 gallon change on the 4th week, with the 15 including a main tank cleaning(sand, rock and full glass scrape). If anybody has any advice to give, I’m always open to criticism. Have a great day.

 

[ShaggNastee]

So my frags came in safely yesterday around 2pm(CST). Although, 3 of the 4 frags, stationed securely in a cup, came out of the cup, they were fine. My wife, bless her heart, did the temp acclimation and drip acclimation while I was chomping at the bits at work. She did terrific though. After they were acclimated for about an hour and a half, still in their bags, I came home and turned off my lights, and placed them in the substrate. After about 30 minutes, i set my LED’s to about 10% their normal, due to having cheap lighting, and waited for the night cycle(blue lights). As soon as the lights came on, all 3 Zoas opened up. They have now sat in the tank for about 24 hours. The only Zoa showing signs of stress is the Gatorade Zoa. I think it is much to do with the Cleaner Shrimp’s antennae bothering it. I placed a peice of PVC in the alcove near where he comes out of as a deterrent, and so far it’s worked. However, now only 2 of the 5 will open. Hopefully it will destress tomorrow. Everything else is amazing, and I can say definitively, I LOVE THIS HOBBY!!!

 

[ShaggNastee]

Zoa Pox…not happy. My Gatorade Zoa has ZOA POX!!! The problem I’m dealing with right now, is the FDA banned Furan2 because some California research paper found Furazone to be considered a narcotic, and although it can still be used as an antibacterial for most animals, the FDA doesn’t recognize Saltwater Fish and Corals as approved “Agricultural Stock”. Only one has it, and at this point I’m just sitting here with my fingers crossed. One pollip still opens, partially, and until it does otherwise I’m not going to attempt an iodine dip. I know that the only reason it happened is due to shipping stress. It sits +6 inches from the other two frags, and I have faith(very little) that they won’t be effected. The other two show no signs of infection so far. If anybody has a way to help regenerate them from this damned infection, please help. FYI, I will not pop the lesions, nor will I chunk the thing in the trash. I want to save it, but I will not give up on it and I will not risk Polytoxin. I do not own a QT. Any advice I could get would be greatly appreciated and if y’all know of any way to get ahold of some Furan2 that would be a great too. Have a good’n.