JoshK Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Greetings! I hope the meeting was great - I wanted to attend but two small humans that I hardly trust around my own setup are limiting me to impact proof environs. Instead, following the encouragement from a friendly guy named Andrew I met at C&C yesterday, I decided to draft up this intro while they zone out on Netflix. I hope the pictures work. So, in rambling order: This is my first saltwater tank! It's a 4'x2'x2' 120 gallon Aqueon with dual overflows that has been cycled for about 4 1/2 months now. About 100 pounds of rock, 60 pounds of fine sand and 20 pounds of coarse sand. Lighting comes from 2 Vipar LED boxes. Uhh they look a little wonky because they're getting pulled by their power cords right now. Flow currently is from 2 Hydor Koralia 1400s, thinking about adding more. Homemade stand that houses a 40B sump. It's lightly stocked right now, with: A mushroom leather - which has been growing nicely for me - and a plating montipora A brand new green slimer that I got yesterday and an RBTA that finally seems to be growing now that I've upped the feeding to a small piece of silversides every other day. He originally was up were the green slimer is now but moved one night. I also just recently realized that those red things are (I think) planaria flat worms and they're really gross. I have a bottle of eXit on hand but have been holding off on using it because I'm scared of the toxins the dead worms release - plus, they seem to be decrease in number on their own right now. Hmm..... Assorted zoas. They usually look better I swear! Part of the problem may be that I just rearranged this rock stack, and also for the first time ever tried fragging some - the new guys are glued to the whiter rock in the background. One of the rocks was overrun by xenias and just yesterday I did a H2O2 dip to try to nuke them. Results are still pending. Also I just think I saw some aiptasia. Argh. That's what I get for looking in the tank. Here's Brad the urchin. He's annoying. The sand cleaner in chief, diamond goby. This bird's nest was a smooth stick with one bump on it 2 months ago. Here's an area shot showing my new QT tank with two clowns waiting for their big day. I already have designs on the remaining flat counter area to set up a shallow frag tank, much to my wife's dismay! Also, Wyatt is far too close to the tank. Get back Wyatt! As a side note, all this is really Wyatt's fault, after he begged us last summer to babysit his kindergarten's gold fish during summer break. He didn't pay any attention at all to the fish, but yada yada yada here we are. The sump. I had the baffles cut too long so they're in there a little diagonally. The light stays on 24 hours a day over caulerpa. Coralife 150 INT skimmer. I used to run filter socks but they just became gross after a day and didn't seem to impact the tank at all. The next set of victims going through QT. I had a sad event near Christmas with sudden illness that took out my previous two clowns in 48 hours, followed shorty by my kole tang. Brook? I'm not sure. However, thanks to that I now have a QT tank. I don't think I'll be getting another tang though, that guy seemed to want to swim more than I had room for him. Also not shown are the nassarius & turbo snails, 2 peppermint shrimp, emerald crab, and an assortment of hermit crabs. Oh and no picture of the fox face, the other survivor of my last plague. We had a bad experience involving his pointy fins and a fishnet when I first got him and he won't let me get close to him with the camera. Maybe in the next post. So that's the tank. Looking forward to meeting you all and absorbing your knowledge for better reef keeping! -Josh 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Excellent write up and welcome to PNWMAS! Your tank looks good and for only being in the hobby for a little while you sure do know what you are doing! I look forward to more pictures Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Welcome! I like the way your rock is arranged. Is your urchin purple? I have a Halloween urchin but kind of wish I'd waited to find a purple type. They're all jerks when it comes to moving around frags, but good enough janitors to be forgiven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higher Thinking Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 (edited) Hey man! Good chatting with you yesterday, glad you found your way on here. I think the general consensus would be to definitely try and get rid of those worms while the tank is still lightly stocked and any potential negatives can be minimized. I'm sure you could control them with wrasses or something, but when that tank is totally full of coral and you finally decide to action, the potential negatives will be much greater. Plus, it really negatively impacts you trading coral because you gotta let people know you have flat worms. I'd definitely recommend purging now and be done with it. Just my opinion though! Welcome to the club! -Andrew Edited January 30, 2017 by Higher Thinking 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Welcome Josh! Nice thread! Sorry you missed the meeting . I agree with Andrew in treating the flatworms now and a wrasse is a good investment for pests and they are beautiful too but jumpers although it looks like you have a cover. Purple tangs tend to graze more so they don't need as much room as some other tangs and they are great algae eaters. I have one in my reefer 250. Sorry to hear about your clowns. Death that quickly sounds like Brookynella. That's what convinced me to get a qt tank too. Cuttlefish is a great store and you will usually see a pnwmas member in there too when you go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N70SJ Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Tank looks AWSOME! Welcome! Im in Gresham. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted February 3, 2017 Author Share Posted February 3, 2017 Welcome! I like the way your rock is arranged. Is your urchin purple? I have a Halloween urchin but kind of wish I'd waited to find a purple type. They're all jerks when it comes to moving around frags, but good enough janitors to be forgiven. Yep, it's a purple spiny urchin. He's totally worth about 2.8 turbo snails in cleanup ability, but his sense of feng shui is just a little off . . . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted February 3, 2017 Author Share Posted February 3, 2017 Hey man! Good chatting with you yesterday, glad you found your way on here. I think the general consensus would be to definitely try and get rid of those worms while the tank is still lightly stocked and any potential negatives can be minimized. I'm sure you could control them with wrasses or something, but when that tank is totally full of coral and you finally decide to action, the potential negatives will be much greater. Plus, it really negatively impacts you trading coral because you gotta let people know you have flat worms. I'd definitely recommend purging now and be done with it. Just my opinion though! Welcome to the club! -Andrew Thanks! I definitely appreciate the thought of fixing the flatworms sooner rather than later. That said, I've decided to wait until my clowns are done with QT so I have a tank to put fish just in case it goes wrong. Will update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted February 3, 2017 Author Share Posted February 3, 2017 Welcome Josh! Nice thread! Sorry you missed the meeting . I agree with Andrew in treating the flatworms now and a wrasse is a good investment for pests and they are beautiful too but jumpers although it looks like you have a cover. Purple tangs tend to graze more so they don't need as much room as some other tangs and they are great algae eaters. I have one in my reefer 250. Sorry to hear about your clowns. Death that quickly sounds like Brookynella. That's what convinced me to get a qt tank too. Cuttlefish is a great store and you will usually see a pnwmas member in there too when you go. Yes, I've wanted a wrasse for a while now - but I've also been nervous about the two peppermint shrimp. That said, I'm really sick of the shrimp stealing food from my anemone, so I might not care so much after all! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Hey Josh! I am new to the forum and saltwater as well. I live close in NE (15th and Fremont). I'm setting up a large frag tank to grow out some corals for a display tank that I will eventually put in a new house. I currently have too many tanks for my current house !! (500 gallons of freshwater). We should get a drink and talk aquariums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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