My New 75 Gallon Reef Journal

[garagebrian]

Hey all,

Hard to believe I'm up to day 263!!! Things continue to go well for the tank except for the fact I accidentially left my skimmer OFF when I went to Austin for 4 days. I'm now battling some cyano because of that. DOH!!

Still looking for cirolanids and I'm hoping that saga is almost over, only one sighted(and I captured the rascal) in 6 weeks. In fact our best local clownfish breeder has decided to leave the hobby, so I took the chance and purchased 2 TR clownfish (mix of occelaris and percula, they are called percularis by the breeder) and put them in my QT tank. They will remain in the QT tank for at least 4 weeks while I continue to hunt for cirolanids in the main tank and attempt a couple more traps and monitor the filter sock for any in there.

They sure are cute and my wife LOVES her Nemos

I also SWORE I would NEVER put Xenia in my tank, but my wife LOVES the pulsing action and she quickly talked me into buying a frag...so it is also in the QT tank right now.

I also picked up a sweet looking orange florida ricordia with a green mouth that was owed to me in a trade. No pic though....(soon).

I also managed to capture a couple of pics of my fighting conchs yesterday:

That is about it for now. Only 263 days to get FISH for my FISHTANK

Brian

 

[Bojangles]

LOL funny how the wife gets into the tank huh? I had a gf for 3 years that just loves my aquariums. She ever got to the point of knowing alot of the fish and corals and we'd have discussions over them, genius, compatibility ect.

Personaly I like her taste! Keep her around

 

[garagebrian]

Bojangles,

Yeah, when you find one into your tanks, that is very cool. The ones that don't like them will eventually try to get you out of the expensive hobby. On a different note...I need help!

I got my first florida ricordia and it was a loose shroom. I put it in my QT tank in a low flow area to try to get it to attach to some rock rubble.

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to find some brown slime on the foot of the mushroom. I took a turkey baster and squirted off the brown junk and then did a lugol's dip for a couple of minutes.

I then took some soft mesh material and wrapped it around the ricordia against a rock and secured it with a rubber band. I then put this in a medium to high flow area of my tank to hopefully stop any buildup of the brown stuff.

My question is, did I do the right thing? Anything else I can do to help it survive?

Brian

 

[garagebrian]

OK, the ricordia seems to be recovering, at least it did last night. I went to a fellow reefer's house last night for a taking the tank down sale.

I ended up going home with 3 frags for $20. 2 candy cane frags (one BRIGHT green, the other blue with purple highlights) and a yellow porites frag. I'll try to get pictures soon.

I also discovered another cirolanid in the tank last night!!! GRRR!!! :twisted: :twisted:

Anyway, it got me to thinking about my fish. Obviously I'm going to wait until I'm 4-6 weeks with no sightings of cirolanids in the main tank, but I'm very hesitant to put my TR clowns in first. I might not be able to get this type of clown again easily, so I want my first fish to be something else.

Any suggestions on a small completely reef safe fish I could try? Here area few criteria:

1. Not aggressive, I want my clowns to be happy in the tank so they might breed someday.

2. Stays out in the open a lot (I need to see if any cirolanids attach and be able to remove it relatively easily).

3. Completely reef safe (corals are main focus on the tank). There will be shrimp and clams in the tank at some point in the future.

4. My only other planned fish is a pair of sunrise dottybacks from ORA and one maintenance type fish (lawnmower blenny, scooter, MAYBE a mandarin).

5. Something colorful, no brown in my tank thank you.

Any suggestions?

Brian

 

[Bojangles]

I totally reccomend a tang! If even one every tank should have this fish.

I like my CBB, its the most reef safe butterfly but still no 100% guarentee on the corals.

My dragon goby as become one of my favorite fish, and they're the best sand filterers you can buy.

With the pair of sunsets you cannot get anymore dottybacks or bassalets, like royal gramma or orchid dottyback because they will fight.

One of my personal favorite fish is the firefish goby

Any anthias will do, I try to stay away from what everyone has so I will not get green chromis. However blue reef chromis look awesome. My favorite are Ventralis anthias and Sunburst anthias.

One thing to watch out for with the mandarin goby is that dottybacks, wrasse, bassalets and small angels eat pods as well and could easily help him extinguish the supply with a refugium. I had a mandaran on Cyclopeez for about 4 months before he found a way into my filter. I threw it away with the body

Incase you couldn't tell I'm a fish man hehe...I'll let you know if I think of anymore, but its 3am so my brain isn't functioning.

 

[garagebrian]

bojangles,

Thanks for all the suggestions! I did not know that dottybacks ate pods. So I guess that means no mandarin, because I want the dottybacks more.

Do the firefish or chromis have to be kept in numbers greater than one? I think I'm going to stop at 5 or definitely 6 fish with this tank and with 2 clowns and 2 dottybacks that only leaves 2 fish.

The coral banded butterfly, those are the ones that sometimes eat aiptasia? They also eat feather dusters right? If so, that one is out.

Brian

 

[Bojangles]

Do the firefish or chromis have to be kept in numbers greater than one? I think I'm going to stop at 5 or definitely 6 fish with this tank and with 2 clowns and 2 dottybacks that only leaves 2 fish.

Firefish and clowns can be keps singular. I might be wrong but I believe the clowns will not develope sex until other of its own species are present and thus remain small. On the other side they would turn female if no competition is present.

Chromis do not have to be kept in numbers, but as a schooling fish they will grow much larger than they would if you had more than one. Its a defense most commonly observed in neon tetras.

The coral banded butterfly, those are the ones that sometimes eat aiptasia? They also eat feather dusters right? If so, that one is out.

Sorry I should have spelled it out. I meant the Copper Banded Butterfly and yes I believe they will eat small feather dusters as well as worms and pods.

 

[garagebrian]

Firefish and clowns can be keps singular. I might be wrong but I believe the clowns will not develope sex until other of its own species are present and thus remain small. On the other side they would turn female if no competition is present.

Your quote got me to thinking and I went home and flipped through my clownfish book. If a single juvenile clownfish(no sex really) is left in a tank on its own, it will develop into a female. That is why you don't want to buy two large clownfish from separate tanks at the LFS...you would be putting two females together which results in one being killed.

It is the clownfish breeding book by Martin Moe...pretty good book, although I hear there is a better one out there, just can't remember the author.

Brian

 

[garagebrian]

Hey all,

Boy...this weekend was frustrating. One of my brain corals I got on my TBS rock started looking ill and by sheer luck I was watching the tank and I saw a Eunicid species of worm on a nearby rock slowly crawl out, extend about 4", and then attack the brain coral! It removed a small piece of flesh and moved back into its hole in the rock.

So I immediately removed that rock (luckily small with nothing important on it) and did a 15 minute freshwater dip on the rock. The worm tried to come out and as soon as I started trying to remove it it snapped in half. So I hope the other half is dead?

I also caught 3 more cirolanids this weekend...2 babies...apparently the baited trap I am trying is feeding the cirolanids and they were able to reproduce. THIS IS FRUSTRATING!!!! :evil: :evil: :twisted:

I am now seriously considering removing my DSB and freshwater dipping most of my rocks that don't have important life on them.

I also forgot to turn off my RO/DI unit and flooded the house again. Luckily it was only tile and only damaged one pair of shoes that was on the floor.

Brian

 

[garagebrian]

Day 290 Update

Yet another mixed bag update, is there ever an awesome update? Maybe someday.

I did a 5gal WC Sunday and took some readings:

Salinity: 1.0275
Ca: 410
Alk: 9.0
pH: 8.0
Nitrate: 0.0

So my readings are right where I want them, just need to raise the alk and pH slightly and I'll be just maintaining from now on. So glad the Ca is out of the low 300s.

My monti cap has passed away. It looks like I'll wait a while for my next SPS coral. The funny thing is that the birdsnest, while still brown, is growing like crazy, 4 new branches already. My yellow porites, even though at the bottom of the tank, is growing as well. I think I'll try a motipora digitata next before I try another cap.

Things are looking slightly better now that the RO/DI water is 0 TDS. 3 of my zoa colonies are still sick though. The RC zoa dip has been performed, we'll just have to see how they do. I personally think it is the salt. I'll be switching back to Kent salt after my current Crystal Seas salt runs out (2-3 months from now). At least the cyano is starting to die back with the 0 TDS and more frequent skimmer cleanings.

The fish have started writing demands for a bigger tank in the algae covering the walls of their QT. I expect to see a picket line next.

I had not seen any cirolanids for about 10-14 days or so and my much downtrodden hope was starting to piece together. So I decided to crush it again and try a new trap. I'll post a picture soon, but I think this will be THE trap to get rid of the cirolanids. I basically took a jelly jar, rubber banded an inverted water bottle top with one hole for entry. I caught 3 adult cirolanids last night on the first attempt! I saw one in the trap and decided to shine the bright flashlight at it to see if it could escape. It swam around and around the trap and could not find its way out. I think I saw it flipping a certain middle appendage at me as I laughed at its futile attempts to escape.

Adding those 3 to the count, I'm approaching 400 of the buggers caught. This new trap looks really promising though, I'm excited the fish might be able to move in by Christmas.

Brian

 

[garagebrian]

I forgot to post this....

RO/DI water filtering

Hey all,

When I first started this hobby I was one of those hobbyists running back and forth to the store to get RO water. The whole concept of Reverse Osmosis and DeIonization(RO/DI) was rather daunting to me. If you are not familiar with RO/DI, I would suggest reading the following link:

Melev's Reef RO/DI page that gives you more information on why you should switch to RO/DI. I'm not trying to plug for Marc, just that a lot of his Q and A are good information.
http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html

I purchased my replacement filters from http://buckeyefieldsupply.com and they have an excellent FAQ on MARSH:
http://www.marshreef.com/modules.ph...iewtopic&t=1799

I also suggest reading:

Randy Holmes-Farley: What is TDS?
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2...ature/index.php

I finally took the plunge and purchased an RO/DI unit when I setup my 75 gallon tank back in January. However, I learned an important lesson this weekend and thought I would share. CHANGE YOUR FILTERS!!!! I finally ordered a TDS meter and tested the TDS reading on my RO/DI water. It was 80...it should be in the 0-2 range, ideally zero. Why was it so high? because I had not replaced the filters and my water is not the best here. Here are a few readings I took on Friday:

Galveston Island unfiltered: 689ppm
Galveston Island run through Brita filter: 621ppm
Dasani Bottled Water: 15ppm

My Home water unfiltered: 315ppm
My Home water run through our fridge filter: 294ppm
My 30 gallon rubbermaid RO/DI water: 80ppm (YIKES!!)

RO/DI waste water: 490ppm
RO/DI when first turned on: 110ppm
RO/DI after 2 minutes: 90ppm
RO/DI after 20 mins: 75ppm

After changing my RO/DI filters:
RO/DI after 2 minutes: 21ppm
RO/DI after 10 minutes: 0ppm

Here was my RO/DI unit before changing the filters:

This is a pretty standard configuration. The labels are:
A - Sediment Filter - Removes large particulate matter
B - Carbon Filter - Removes organics and clorine
C - RO Filter - Removes the majority of dissolved solids and contaminants
D - DI Filter - Removes the remainder of dissolved solids measured by most TDS meters.

Things are a bit dirty! Here is my sediment filter on the left and the new one on the right! Yikes!

Here it is after all the filters were changed:

Before I started the unit again, I decided to flush my RO membrane. Some people will say flushing an RO membrane is useless, some will say it is critical. Well, I removed my flow restrictor and let water flow through for 15 minutes before it was clear. Here is the water in a white bucket after about 2 minutes:

If I had not flushed the RO membrane, all of that junk would have gone through my DI filter. No thank you!

Finally, here is my TDS meter:

I like it so far, but we'll see how it is doing a year later. Anyway, my TDS is back to zero and hopefully that helps me with my current cyano problem.

Brian

 

[intensity888]

Question for the veteran reefers reading Brians journal:

Is his experience typical of what one goes through in every reef set up? I laud his patience and perserverance, but it's also starting to scare the crap out of me. ok, maybe not that bad, but you get the point.

 

[intensity888]

AS I am reflecting on this scenario. I am also wondering if the florida rock is riskier just for the mere fact that will have more hitch hikers if one lives on the east coast. I am planning on going with pacific rocks and have been figuring that by the time it gets to me, much will be dead anyway.

 

[garagebrian]

Question for the veteran reefers reading Brians journal:

Is his experience typical of what one goes through in every reef set up? I laud his patience and perserverance, but it's also starting to scare the crap out of me. ok, maybe not that bad, but you get the point.

I wouldn't call my experience typical by a long shot. I got super "lucky" in getting a scavenger cirolanid isopod, they just aren't seen that much. I have no scientific data to back me up, but I would say cirolanids are more common from florida rock than trans-shipped rock, simply because of the short amount of time for things to die off. I know several reefers in Houston that got the isopods, some from florida rock, some from pacific rock, but none of them have had the problems I have had, only have a few to capture. Again, lucky me. :roll: :roll:

Of course, some reefers don't look in their tank 2-6 hours after lights off and they may have them and don't know it.

Personally, I probably won't go with florida live rock the next time around when I setup a bigger tank. I got the hitchhiking brains I wanted and now I want more porous rock with less chance of hitchhikers.

Brian

 

[intensity888]

Thanks for sharing Brian

 

[garagebrian]

Update, Day 312

Days without Cirolanids spotted: 18 (6 trap attempts)

I finally got pictures of the reaquascaping! Here is the before full tank shot:

And after the aquascaping:

Now for the closeups:

Left side:

This will be mostly zoas and ricordia up top and mushrooms at the bottom since the rock structure isn't too high here. The brains are in a much better spot now.

Left center:

This is where my zoa rock is and one of my candy canes will be epoxied under the left arch if it likes that spot.

Right center:

My shelf up top will be my SPS area, directly under my right MH light. The big rock under the shelf has two great sides to let monti caps grow out and not block light for anything below.

Right side:

This will be home to my frogspawn and hammer corals and I left a lot of open sandbed for a clam (my wife wants one). A lot of the hitchhiking TBS corals were put up top so they won't grow up into the flow of the SEIO.

While I'm sure I'll tweak it a little, this is very close to what I pictured in my head. At least 50%, probably closer to 70%, of my sandbed is open for my fighting conchs and a clam. I have many tunnels and openings for fish to swim through and amaziningly enough I have PLENTY of places for frags I'll slowly be epoxying things in place over the next couple of months.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome. The fire coral colony is going to be sold as I can't find a good place for it. Other than that this is pretty much how I want the rock structure.

More pictures in a minute.

Brian

 

[garagebrian]

After this weekend I've now changed about 30% of my water back to Kent. I've already seen improvement in my colt coral. Before I started switching back to Kent it was a VERY pale pink with no signs of brown. Hard to see, but it looks like the brown is returning Here it was this morning:

I arranged one of my TBS rocks to make the white christmas tree worm a focal point in the center of the tank. After doing that I discovered I have a GREAT shelf for a coral to the left of the worm, now I need to figure out what kind of coral to put there, porites, hammer, cats paw? Anyone have suggestions for something that is bushy, but won't sting the worm?

Here is my zoa rock and my green softie seems to like the higher light already:

My shelf area, the zoas won't be staying, just temporary. This will be all SPS in the future.

My green acropora whocareswhatspeciesata. The polyps were out this morning

Coming up on the one year mark and it finally feels like my tank is getting to be where I want it.

Brian

 

[garagebrian]

Cleanup Crew Breeding Project

Days Without Cirolanids Spotted: 25 (a new record!)

Well, it looks like my time battling Cirolanids might be over and I'm now focusing on my next project: Cleanup Crew Breeding Project

I have been frustrated at times at the number of inappropriate cleanup crew critters that are sold in this hobby and how they die so quickly in our tanks. I was guilty of purchasing a lot of them in my early reef career. Now I'm hoping to change that, at least a little in my local reef club.

I have been slowly collecting things that breed easily in reef tanks with the hope of breeding them and then trading/selling them to other people while spreading the word of how much better it is for the environment to support efforts like these by leaving the inappropriate species in the wild and buying tank raised livestock.

Crabs of any kind are notorious for eating snails, so I have reduced my crab population to a few porcelains(mainly filter feeders) and 2 scarlet reef hermits and a couple of stubborn gorillas. With the amount of snails in my tank I don't have any worries about algae growing out of control.

It seems to me that people don't want to spend money on snails or cleanup crews, they almost always seem to go for "astrea" or "turbo" snails that are .49 each or less. That way they can save their money for the more important fish, corals, equipment, etc. It makes sense, but I think eventually breeding efforts of better kinds of snails can replace these inappropriate types, if people can just be educated.

There are a few breeding projects out there, but plenty of room for more.

I've been collecting snails and other cleanup crew critters that easily breed in reef tanks in the hopes of trading/selling them to other local reefers and spreading the word.

What better way to keep your tank clean than to establish a cleanup crew that reproduces, and assuming a stable tank, will eventually form a stable population? Of course some will starve from too many babies, but if the population drops too much, then they can breed again.

I have so far collected the following:
potential trochoidean, possibly Turbo haraldi (As ID'd by Dr Ron)
Pictures:

egg mass:

Cerith sp. snail
Hair worms (commonly called(incorrectly) spaghetti worms)
Amphipods
Asterina sp. starfish
Mysid shrimp (suspected)
Stomatella varia
Collonista sp.

An interesting article on mysid:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-02/rs/index.php

I have confirmed babies of the Stomatella, trochoidean, amphipods, Mysid and Asterina. I just added the ceriths but I have been assured by the owner they breed like rabbits. I suspect the Collonista are breeding, but I only started with 3.

What is nice is that the Stomatella and collonista prefer the rocks, the trochoidean clean both the rocks and glass and the ceriths seem to focus on the glass, rocks and sandbed. The Amphipods and Mysid go everywhere.

This is not a hard thing to do, I'm not a newbie, but I'm not an expert SW keeper either. I would guess once I have decent populations of each that I can harvest occasionally to keep the populations from crashing.

My only big concern that I don't know how to address is one species of cleanup crew out competing the others, with the cerith being my biggest concern. Once I move to a new house with a dedicated fish room I will attempt to have one tank for 1-2 species.

I'm interested in acquiring those misidentified strombus snails and small brittle stars that are sold by ispf.com at some point to increase my diversity.

Brian

 

[ratherbediving]

Brian--

Was just rereading the last page or so... noticed your comments about never wanting to keep Xenia. I have some myself, and was wondering what your concers were? I have already had to trim mine back a bit, but it was really easy to pull off by hand. In contrast, my Green Star Polyps can be a real pain to take off the rock in places (other places its really easy as well.)

 

[garagebrian]

Brian--

Was just rereading the last page or so... noticed your comments about never wanting to keep Xenia. I have some myself, and was wondering what your concers were? I have already had to trim mine back a bit, but it was really easy to pull off by hand. In contrast, my Green Star Polyps can be a real pain to take off the rock in places (other places its really easy as well.)

I basically have two reservations about Xenia:

1. It can spread like crazy, some even detach and reattach someplace else hard or impossible to reach. I don't want the maintenance headaches.

2. I've personally seen people that had a tank with LOTS of xenia and one day it suddenly started dying which crashed their tank. I know there are many corals that could do thism, but xenia is one of the ones frequently listed as doing this. I want to avoid it if possible.

Brian