TheGooseWhisperer Posted August 22, 2008 Share Posted August 22, 2008 Hi everyone! I'm really excited to come across this society:) My experience w/ aquariums started in college with a 29g eclipse FOWLR that somehow spawned a 30g FW planted tank. I soon realized the limitations of the eclipse setup for SW and switched to a 20L w/ PC lighting and went the "semi-reef" road (probably had 10lb LR and a few softies). I had a CPR bakpak (this was back in the days that bio-balls were all the rage:p) on it and it did pretty well for a long time despite my painful lack of knowledge. The tank survived a move from Sacramento to San Diego in the back of a U-Haul truck in 5g buckets with the lids snapped on tight and no circulation (like i said..."painful lack of knowledge"). About this time the eclipse 6 system came out and I got the dumb idea of doing a kitchen tank with about 2lb LR, a crab that hitched a ride in on the rock and a yellow clown goby. The YCG never died in the 10 mo. I had the tank, but it sure was ugly! My next move was from San Diego to Connecticut, so I cleaned out the eclipse and turned it into freshwater for my mom and broke down the SW tank and sold it off. I was in CT for grad school so there was no time or money for an aquarium so I took a few years off from the hobby. After relocating to Portland (one of the best decisions I have ever made!), my wife got me a 29g glass tank and stand for my birthday and said "go for it!". I immediately wanted to do saltwater and after thinking about it for awhile settled on doing an anemone/clown tank. My past experience was a bumpy road of misinformation and huge algae growth so this time I buckled down and did my research. I poured over wet web media for a few weeks and decided to go with BTA(s) and MH/VHO lighting. The lighting was probably going to be overkill on a tank this small, but I figured it was worth it to spend a little more now to keep the anemones happy and leave the possibilities for expansion and corals later. I'm pretty handy, but with an infant at home, my wife and I working full-time and a new home that still needed some things done I had Isaac at Seahorse put together a custom canopy for me. The canopy houses a 150W 20k MH, 2x 24" VHO actinics, 2 cooling fans, has a door in front and is open in back. I bought a 250W Ice Cap ballast and had the VHOs wired to a single ballast, both for future expansion capability. Circulation comes from a MJ900 and MJ1200 on a wave-maker power supply. I got a Remora C HOB skimmer (very happy with this!) and run some ChemiPur in the whisper HOB that came with the tank. I know the ChemiPur isnt doing much just sitting in the whisper because the water is not getting forces through it...I flip the bag over and stir it up every couple of days though so I still figure its better than nothing. I also toss a few spoonfuls of Kent phosphate sponge in once a week or so over-night. I put down about an inch of crushed coral substrate on the bottom and added about 30 lbs of sumatra LR. It was fresh out of the box from the over-seas supplier so this gave my tank one heck of a cycle! I checked the ammonia levels daily and it was off the color charts for almost 2 full weeks! By the time the ammonia and nitrite levels were stable at zero the nitrates were in the 100-150 range and still rising. Somewhere in there the canopy got finished and I switched it on to kick in the algae bloom, only running the MH for 3-4 hrs and the actinics for about 5-6 hrs per day. The diatom bloom was pretty weak and gave way to green algae in only about a week. I was doing big WC's every few days and when the nitrates got down around 50ppm I added a small CUC (about 4 small snails and 5 blue/red legged hermits) and started looking for fish. I started w/ a yellow clown goby, green clown goby, scooter dragonette and another unidentified goby (elongated dirty yellow body w/ blue gem spots...he's finally coming out of his little cave after not eating for the first few weeks so I'll try to get a pic posted). The scooter was a noob move...I had one before in SD that ate pretty much everything I put in the tank, but I guess I got really lucky with that one. Now I know they tend to be picky eaters and should be treated like other dragonettes...my tank was way too small and immature for him and by the time I tried to catch him to give to a LFS that could care for him properly he was dead:( A little later I increased the CUC a bit with a couple more snails and added a cleaner shrimp. Nitrates were down around 20ppm and at this point I added a few frags of some shrooms (red, green striped and green spotted), a small yellow sponge about the size of a dime and a pair of perc. clowns. One of the red shrooms is over 3 inches across now and I'm thinking about taking a razor blade to it, just to see if I can successfully split it. I was still wanting to do an anemone tank so the last fish I wanted to add was a dwarf angle. I didnt want to do a coral beauty or a flame angle and after looking around a bit I settled on a Potter's (absolutely love this fish!). The Potter's is very active, but I'm getting a little concerned about him. When I first got it there was lots of algae still growing in the tank and it was getting plenty to eat from grazing. Now the algae growth is pretty minimal and it still hasnt started eating formula 1. A few days ago it was feeding on cyclopeeze, but I'm afraid thats a pretty small food for that size fish. I'm keeping an eye on him, but I would like to hear what other think about this fella... I've got the MH running about 8 hrs and the VHOs running about 12 hrs a day now and nitrates are hanging around in the 0-2.5ppm range. I've added 3 varieties of zoa's: eagle eyes/wammin watermelon (i cant tell the difference) and 2 unidentified's (i dont see anything that matches them on zoaid.com): the first has a green skirt with yellow center and green mouth (I call them "Sprite") and the second has an orange skirt with thin blue center, orange mouth and white speckles (I call them "Lucy's Gooses"). I'd like to start fraggin these soon and trade around for some other varieties. Ultimately, I'd like to have a nice zoa garden in the tank with 10-15 varieties. After hearing enough stories of BTAs "going for a walk" in peoples tanks and seeing enough really cool corals that I can keep with the MH/VHOs I've dropped the idea of keeping anemones. I was a little nervous about making my first coral purchase (still feeling very much like a noob), but decided to go for it and picked up 2 heads of a branching frogspawn, purple with a mix of green and purple buttons. It fit in perfectly and right now is competing with the Potter's as the tank's "centerpiece". So that brings us to the present. Next coral I am thinking about adding is a torch coral. I would love to see the clowns hosting in a coral and from what I've heard frogspawn and torch are the most common although I know its not a given and may never happen. I'm also looking for more zoa varieties, but I dont think I am going to buy any...I'll see how fragging/trading goes first. I also lack a fuge/sump on this tank so I want to do the DIY AC70 HOB 'fuge mod that is popular on nanoreefs to grow some chaeto in. I'm just trying to decide on how I want to do the lighting for this and I'll get started on that little project. I was thinking of getting a lampkit at the hardware store for the socket/plug and using a screwtype 8-13W CP 6500K bulb and making a small "hood" out of either ABS, expanded PVC or sheetmetal. I want to do sheet metal because I think I can make a nice box, but I lack the equipment to drill a hole in metal for the socket. With ABS or expanded PVC a wood spade will make the whole, but I have minimal experience melting, bending and gluing these materials. Umm, I'm guessing thats enough for now...see yall around the boards and hopefully at a get together soon:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 Welcome to the site. Please make sure you get some pictures up so we can see your livestock. The annual summer BBQ is just a week away in Tigard. It is not too late to sign up to come. Good luck having a clown host a torch or FS. My clowns don't go near the corals unless they are trying to steal food (even after I feed the fish... they are gluttons!). Other people have better luck. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCR Posted August 24, 2008 Share Posted August 24, 2008 WELCOME TOAD!!!!! That's quite the story. We really like pictures!!!!!!!!! You can et seaweed(nori) from the Asian markets for your plant lovers. I would like to see a nice population of pods for your goby's and zoo's. again Welcome aboard:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted August 25, 2008 Author Share Posted August 25, 2008 Just testing out posting a tank shot...if this works i'll add more soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mister crabs Posted August 27, 2008 Share Posted August 27, 2008 my clowns hosted my torch and actually ended up killing it off. they are now attempting to host my hammer and it just mildly pisses him off. as for you DIY fuge lighting look for a small tray used to hold paint when your painting. they come in metal and if you drill a hole in one end and flip it upside down it makes a good reflector. they are aluminum if im not mistaken and you could probably hit it with some steel wool or a buffer of some sort to polish it up a bit for reflectiveness. welcome to the club! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 OK lemme see if i can get some pics posted now... FTS Aug 2008 (you can sorta see the Potter's angel between the red shrooms and Lucy's Gooses) Lucy's Gooses zoas (no ID on zoaid.com so I just made that up) Red Shrooms with a yellow sponge nearby. The largest shroom is about 4 inches across Watchman goby holdin' down his turf Frogspawn- purple with green and purple buttons (just a few purple ones...you probably cant make them out from this shot). 2 branches Eagle eyes and Sprite (no ID on zoaid.com so I just made that up) The cleaner shrimp was hiding and yes, I know the glass is dirty...I'm trying to hold off on cleaning it too much to make sure the Potter's has plenty to graze on. Since pics were taken my female clown and yellow clown goby have died (ich):( and I added some palys that I havent snapped a pic of yet. If the paly's color up a bit they will look very similar to "Lord of the Rings". They have the grey speckled skirt (or should I say ash and pewter:p), and pink rim, but the mouth doesnt have much color atm. They were under pretty weak lighting at the LFS so I'm hoping to see them come to life a bit more under MH. And yes I know my pics arent that great. I cut the file sizes way down and my camera isnt too hot either:p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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