tarantulandy's 22gal cube

tarantulandy

tarantulandy

New Member
Hello everybody,
I've been reading a lot around these parts. Nice forums by the way! This is my first reef tank so comments/suggestions are much appreciated.
For the time being I'm using an Emperor 280 filter. I plan on switching over to an aquafuge when I can afford to. I'm running an outer orbit 150watt 14k pendant metal halide for lighting. I also threw in a heater because even with the lighting I would get temps around 76 but now it hovers around 79-80.5
I've got roughly 20lbs of live rock in there for now and 20lbs of live sand. I'm not sure on how much more live rock I can add but I would like to have at least twice as much as I do now.
Salinity: 1.024
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 15-20ppm
Nitrite: 0
Alkalinity: ~300
pH: ~7.8
The tank has been up for about two weeks now. We did the whole fresh shrimp cycle thing and also ended up borrowing a damsel for a short while. I think it helped that we used some microblift and used some water from a fellow hobbyists tank.
Live Stock
2 boxer crabs(absolutely awesome, one has two different colored anemones)
2 blue leg hermits
huge turbo snail(he's on a work visa until the corals arrive)
5-6 hitchhiker snails(appear to be collonista)
I really want to go light on the fish and heavy on the corals. You can only do so much with 22 gallons :(. Do you think one basslet and one goby would be a light enough load?



Here is a crab shot. See if you can find him...
 
alexknight

alexknight

Member
nice set up. I like the cube it gives you a tun of viewing room. when you get more live rock will you stack it in the middle? I think that would look great. cant wait to see this tank in a couple months from now. Any idea's on what corals you are going to get?
I would say yes that would be a light load with only two small fish..
I have 4 fish in a 26. the clowns are quite big.
 
jaymz

jaymz

Member
Dear tarantulandy. I think that halide pendant is too much light for your tank. You must box up that thing and bring it to me. I will trade you 2 mushroom polyps for it.
Other than that.. Looks great. Post more pictures immediatly. I want to see the BTA in there. maybe your pom pom crab with only one nem will pick it up and carry it around waving it in everones face.
Make sure those clove polyps gets some flow over them.
 
tarantulandy

tarantulandy

New Member
Ok ok...

Here is Ricky Martin!!! ~I didn't name him.

These guys are pretty cool. It's a little hard to tell from the picture but the rim is brown and the center splotches are blue.

Here is my green BTA. It's really pretty. Of course it settles in the back part of the tank. I know these guys can get somewhat larger when they split but by then hopefully I'll have more space.

This appears to be some sort of macro algae but I'm not really for sure. There are a couple more spots of it growing in the tank. The boxer crabs are out a lot more than I had expected.

Now this little guy came with the live rock. I have no idea what type of clam it is but he seems to be doing well. It will close its shell every now and then.
 
flricordia

flricordia

Active Member
Looks great and welcome. I would like to suggest that you take a sheet of acrylic cut at about 5'-7" x by the hight of your tank and cut slots in the top for an overflow. You can paint this with Krylon Fusion for plastic, either black or blue (safe for S/W once dry) and paint the back of the tank too. You would have to empty the tank for a couple days but at this point you could place everything in a large tupperware with a powerhead and heater temporary, and silicone the acrylic into the back corner for an overflow. Place a small powerhead in it at the bottom like a Rio 600 and tube it up and over the back. Get a hang-on-back fuge or make one out of a tupperware cereal box with 2x3/4" holes and bulkheads near the ends for returns and to hang on the tank, then you could keep chaeto and the heater in there. Also get a couple koralin powerheads, say 2x2s or 3s and you would have an awesome tank. You could also in the overflow set a top-off system up and have auto top-off.
Nice start.
 
tarantulandy

tarantulandy

New Member
Thanks for the insight Flricordia

Do you know of any good guides on doing that? I live in a top level apartment so I really really want to do things right the first time to avoid any leaks.
The bta came to its senses and moved to the front of the tank. He hasn't moved in a couple of days so wish me luck on that.

I'm thinking of getting a green banded goby(Elacatinus multifasciatus) for my next and final fish. Anybody see any problems with that? I'm planning on getting a clam around the 6-9month mark or so and I've read that some of the clown gobies can nip at them.
 
paintballer768

paintballer768

Active Member
Im really glad to see someone is doing the right thing with their tanks and reading up on it. I think that youll do really good at this rate, just remember to slowly add your fish and corals so that the bioload has a chance to catch up. I would recommend getting a little bit more live rock or base rock as well, you could get away with alot more in there. The tank is looking amazing though.
 
tarantulandy

tarantulandy

New Member
I added a new piece of live rock just now and when I went to move the rock that my anemone was footed on I accidentally ripped him nearly in half

I knew to check where he had planted but he appeared entirely on the one rock that I was moving.....ugggg. From the looks of him I don't think he'll make it. but he's still planted and not floating at least.
Does anyone know how long I should give him until I issue a death certificate?
It was doing so well and was a very nice color.....grrrrr. I can't believe I did that :(.
 
jaymz

jaymz

Member
Sup dood. now why did you do that.. you should not try and tear your animals in half it is just in bad taste.
Any way. i would make sure it is still getting good light and alot of flow. Unless you did some super serious damage, it should be able to come back. Its all balled up (assuming it is) because its super pissed.
Also if it does start to come out if it, it might split ( to assure its survival), so if it looks like it is spliting leave it and you might end up with 2, and they i can trade you some corals for one.
And then ofcourse as tempremental as nems are you never know. Good luck. If it has died they decompose very quickly so you will know.
 
keri

keri

Active Member
Yeah, I've seen some pretty horrendous pics of 'nems sucked into powerheads.....that managed to survive so good luck! Keep an eye on your water quality and yank him out if he dies but he very well could make it!
good luck! :)
 
tarantulandy

tarantulandy

New Member
It's still planted for now with both sections of its foot and the tentacles are still inflated for the most part. He took a little longer than normal to wake up this morning for obvious reasons but he's still hangin in there.


 
jaymz

jaymz

Member
its fine
.. if it was really hurt it would not be inflated at all and would of started to lose it color.
I got some new frags and have a nice T5 light ordered. So i will be getting some SPS soon. you will have to come up some time.
 
tarantulandy

tarantulandy

New Member
Awesome on the T5's! We'll be around one of these days.
I've been excited about anemone division but not like this. Hopefully it will survive and maybe there will be two.
You can see where I got him....right down the middle. Don't mind the algae...I don't want to stir anything up for a little while anyway.

Hey Jaymz, that xenia you gave us is doing great! It's getting fat and put out another branch or whatever you call it.
 
jaymz

jaymz

Member
Originally Posted by tarantulandy
http:///forum/post/2731805
Hey Jaymz, that xenia you gave us is doing great! It's getting fat and put out another branch or whatever you call it.
That was actually Clove polyps, better than xenia! Good to hear its growing for you. I had not seen it in any of your pictures so i wasnt sure if it made it.
Once it gets comfortable and your tank matures a bit it will grow like crazy. It seems like mine has a new head every time i look in to the tank.
 
tarantulandy

tarantulandy

New Member
No split yet but the green bta is recovering quite well from the tear. It has even healed up enough to move. I haven't tried feeding since but I might offer a chopped up silver slide sometime later this week.

I decided to add a lawnmower blenny and the introduction stressed my royal gramma for a day or so and then he started to show signs of ick. I purchased some more live rock and rearranged things and now the royal is comfortable again and the ick is residing.
I've read conflicting reports on whether or not lawnmowers do well in smaller tanks but for now he's doing well. If he get's too large I'll trade him in for something smaller.

Does anyone know what the bright green looking things are in this picture? Hopefully it's a cool sponge or something.
You can see a smaller one to the right of the larger one.
I plan on getting that gsp a little rock to cling to one of these days. I like the stuff but I've read that it is pretty good at spreading.
 
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