new 45 gallon reef

[adamt]

Well fish tank friday finally arrived!!! Unfortunately i had procrastenated breaking down my fw set up so I arrived home from the lfs with all my equipment, sand, and some lr at 830pm. Broke down the fw set up dropped off all the fish, cleaned the tank mixed up the water, played with different bulb combos, corrected the temp, buffered the water, added sand, added lr, set up the skimmer and was done by 4 am. I let it sit all day saturday while the oolitic sand settled down, went back to lps today got some hermits and a few snails. Im going to try to get some more live rock tommorrow and finish my aquascaping, which ive decided is going to be a large column of rock slightly off center to the left 6 inches from the top and a small cave off to the right in the corner. Once the scaping is done and the water is 100% clear Ill add my fish (im planning on a pair of percs and maybe another little guy that will hang out on the bottom prolly a mandarin if i can find one that will eat cyclopeeze a little farther down the road). The system is real low tech just a light a skimmer and some powerheads for circulation. I am very pleasantly surprised by both the skimmer and the lights. The light is a wavepoint 4x39w t5 fixture im using a 460nm, a 12000k, a 420+ spikes in the red and yellow called a "coral wave", and a basically full spec bulb with a spike in red and purple called a "red wave"... the overall effect is awesome the color is similiar to a 14000k halide with 420 actinics, im real happy with it. The skimmer is a remora with maxi jet 1200 and its been great so far, real easy to use, low profile and its clearing the tank really fast now that its running. a little xenia snuck in on a rock today and it opened up and looks pretty nice considering how new the set up is... ill up date tommorrow when i finish with the live rock.

 

[motortrendz]

not bad.. looks good..

 

[adamt]

kk so its came home from work today and the tank was crystal clear, ph 8.3, sal is 1.025, and I have flatworms lol... didnt take long. the flow on the tank is really strong and it seems like it pushed them all to one corner i syphoned as many out as i can i saw a few on one of the rocks and syphoned those up too. I think im gonna use flatworm exit since i dont have any livestock in the tank yet (except for a few hermits and three astrea snails) id rather nip this in the bud now than let it go and deal with an infestation later. The otehr thing im considering is adding a sixline wrasse and not adding anything else for a month or two and see if he develops a taste for them, id love to control them naturally, but since i caught it early and theres not alot of life in the tank to protect and the worm pop seems small, chemical warfare might be the bst option... any thoughts?

this sucks- Adam

 

[adamt]

Yesterday I picked up a pair of true percs and a giant mushroom that theyve made their home (originally i wanted to get an anenome and a pair of clowns, but these percs were really pretty and they seemed to really like the mushroom even though they were in a tank full of anenomes) I'm not sure what species of mushroom it is but the thing is gigantic (about 10 inches in diameter when fully open). I stopped by all star today and happened to catch al while he was cleaning his reeef tank. He hooked me up witha gorgeous piece of monti and a small prisillapora (sp?) that he fragged. I grabbed a skunk cleaner shrimp cus i felt kinda obligated to buy something after he gave such nice pieces of coral, Al is 100% the man.

sorry the pictures suck so bad i took them on my phone ill get some better shots tommorrow.

 

[JimmyR1rider]

As we all know if you see some-- there is an a$$load more that you dont see- hence bristleworms and other critters, flatworms included. Even with livestock of fish you can use flatwrom exit- just make sure to syphon them out as they die- once they die they become toxic. Make sure you dont do the flatworm exit and then go to bed lol. Also when you put the FE in the tank- use a powerhead in your hand to direct the flow everywhere in your tank aim it so it gets into your rockwork and everything so you can get it from different angles from creating flow patterns to blow them out of crevices and what not.-
Best of luck with it

 

[adamt]

yeah bro i ve been lucky my powerhead has been blowing most of them to one corner of the tank making syphoining pretty easy... my wrasse always has a bulging gut and i only feed them once a day so i know hes earning his keep too. yeah i considered flatworm exit but im not there yet id like to try and control them naturally/manualyl

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Nice youll get it now that I know you were already in the hobby at another time is like riding a bike- only theres more selection in parts to add to it lol

 

[adamt]

kk so i got rid of the mushroom today... didnt wanna risk my percs the store was real low on anenomes ( iwas gonna get a carpet he had but it had kinda shrivled to nothing by the time i came to pick it up so i passed). i took a sebae , i had concerns about it because its so white but i saw where its starting to get some color and figured i might give it a shot, the guy at the store said if it doesnt make it he'll get me something else (i dont usually play this game but i figured wth, i've never kept a sebae b4 so it might be fun to try). The cool thing is the clowns took right to it, not saying much considering when i moved the mushroom out the rock where it used to be became their host and they were acting like it was still there. while i was there he hooked me up with a small ric polyp, some cool yellow spotted zoas, a red mushroom, a bullseye shroom, and some clove polyps . He said they prolly woyuld have gotten syphoned out so neway and i was more than happy to take them off his hands. I also got a colony of tree polyps (not sure of the latine name but they look like coral colored zoas that grow from a communal calcified stem) . I wasnt really planning on putting corals in till i had all my live rock but im not gonna turn down free stuff this nice. pics tom.

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Cool am glad the clowns took to the nem right away. Good luck on all your new acquisitions

 

[motortrendz]

sounds like your on your way man!!! welcome back!! lol

 

[Awibrandy]

My eyes are not that good anymore. Can you please post pix that are a little bigger? From what I can see it looks like it's a very nice tank in the making.

 

[adamt]

kk heres some updated pics... i got another 18 pounds of fiji and tonga from edalvarez the rocks looks great and there was actualy some star polyps and a leather on a small piece of rock. the pics arent very good (crappy camera on phone) but u get the basic idea... Im getting that brown rust algae that, if i remeber correctly, is common to new tanks. Time to get more crabs/snails... good excuse to go to the lfs

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Nice Adam Looking great so far. I like the separate islands of rock on the opposite sides you got going on.

 

[adamt]

thanks man... the pics dont really do it justice hehe everytime i go to take pictures its after ive cleaned the glass which stirs up the sand and clouds the water... i need to borrow a camera from a friend and take some real pics. Just got done playing with the lights... i switched to two 12,000k, one 460 nm, and a pinkish full spec bulb. the overall effect is a much crisper whitish bluey purple lol, similiar to what a 14,000k halide with 420 actinics would look like i imagine (less the ripples).

modified my remora skimmer with a piece of plastic lined with air tubing over the spray injector compartment... its atleast 75% less annoying, its actually kind of a pleasant whisper now. Im suprised they dont sell them with a piece of acrylic over that compartment.

 

[JimmyR1rider]

thanks man... the pics dont really do it justice hehe everytime i go to take pictures its after ive cleaned the glass which stirs up the sand and clouds the water... i need to borrow a camera from a friend and take some real pics. Just got done playing with the lights... i switched to two 12,000k, one 460 nm, and a pinkish full spec bulb. the overall effect is a much crisper whitish bluey purple lol, similiar to what a 14,000k halide with 420 actinics would look like i imagine (less the ripples).

modified my remora skimmer with a piece of plastic lined with air tubing over the spray injector compartment... its atleast 75% less annoying, its actually kind of a pleasant whisper now. Im suprised they dont sell them with a piece of acrylic over that compartment.

I got a d90 easy- take em and plug into pc import done... love it!- now if I can just learn how to take good pics LMAO

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

looks good!!

 

[adamt]

heres some updates as of 5/1/10. Redid the rock work so i have access to clean the glass, its a little more standard set up than before but it still looks good. Added a few corals: xenia, merulina, some shrooms, a seguaro gorgonian, and a feather duster. I also have a new anenome for the clowns, its a purple lta and im absolutely in love with it. Its got super vivid colors and ive always had good luck with lta's . The clowns were ignoring it until i redid the rock work and the got spooked and went straight for it, now they hardly leave it. Also got a firefish, bringing the total to 4 fish, thats all im gonna put in the tank. I was gonna stick with three but i do water changes so often i figure i can get away with a fourth, especially since none of them require a tank larger than 15g. Gonna work on the screen lid tonight. heres some pics:

 

[adamt]