Fish Keepers 46g tank thread =]

[fish keeper 7]

so ive had this tank for a year and 6 months, was a complete noob the first year... overstocked, too few water changes, overfeeding. Battling ich over and over again. so ive spent thousands of dollars in livestock only to have it thrown in the garbage can.. this time around im doing it right..

heres a crappy picture of my rockwork ive had for the past few months until motortrendz came by and traded my rubble for some shelf pieces and a few nices pieces that i needed so desperately for my aquascaping in my 3 tanks...they were due for a change.... ill post pics of the 30g later... i was battling cyano at the time (i believe thats what it was?) but a nice hot freshwater shower took care of that and i havent had a trace of it in over a week now...(crossing fingers)

the garbage bag over my tank is because i was in the middle of painting my tank. I didnt have a background for the entire time of the tanks life... eww...

pic#2 is the mess of a room while i was painting it...didnt get any on my floor or wall thank god! what a pain that would have been...

and then comes the finish project of the picture i just took under my LED's.

livestock are Lemonpeel angel, Flame angel, T.Percula clown, Marine betta, and 3 red legged hermits... (eel/old trigger ate all my clean up crew, lack of feeding due to me being away for a little while) =/ building my CuC up again.

i have an Aquatic life T5 with 4 36 w bulbs . 2 460 acnitics and 2 white 10ks. with 4 blue LED's.

a 10g wet/dry filter that i have a bag of phosban/carbon/and some other prechargeable phosphate bag in there forgot what its called. with a little bit of LR and LS

i also have an ABS protein skimmer rated for 120g or 150g i think, idk i got in may 09 so i forget the specs on it and the exact model it is.

looking to get some frags from people on here, want to do mainly an LPS tank with a few easy to keep SPS. i plan on testing my angels out on some polyps to see if they do any picking since experience with dwarf angels is its about 60% chance they wont pick and 40% chance they will. flames imo are known more as reef safe but you never know and lemonpeel is a toss up. i might be looking to trade my beta for either $$$ or some lps/fish/inverts/equip lol idk yet. i have to think about, i love the fish but...it might have to go...

thanks for reading =] idk if i explained everything right or put down too much information. never posted a thread on my tank before but ill keep the pics coming, ill post pics of my 30g tank soon, have a flagtail and dragonface pipe in there and a pair of mandarins, wanna get a pair of seahorses too =]

im open to any and all suggestions and would love some feedback on the aquascape . thanks =]

 

[fish keeper 7]

heres a pic of what it looks like so far under the 10k's.

hope to add some LPS frags mushrooms and polyps soon. of course depending on my funds...

 

[anthony27]

very nice, I like the lighting and the choice of the fish

 

[motortrendz]

im glad i could help you out!!!! looks good man...

 

[fish keeper 7]

Anthony- Thanks some of my favorites. i hope the dwarfs turn out to be reef safe though, its like a 60/40 yes-no ratio and sometimes they randomly go rogue!

Motor -yeah man, you dont know how much you helped me with my aquascape.

im gnna try and get a few more big pieces from someone on here and i think all 3 of my tanks will be PERFECT! one or two more shelves and a few more 5 lb pieces and i think im good to go for looong time even if i decide to upgrade =] i have about 100+ lbs all together

 

[fish keeper 7]

going to post some fish shots tomorrow, and some pics of my 30g high cube and 20g hex =]

 

[MisterTickle]

This is more of a question than some sort of OMG WAT U DO thing, As I am fairly new to this hobby.

Shouldnt a Yellow Tang usually be in a 75 Gallon + tank, due to stunting?

 

[NYreefNoob]

mixing the angels might cause you a problem as well as both are know to pick, good luck

 

[Awibrandy]

Love the new aquascaping! Good job!

 

[Lenny718]

Looks great!

 

[anthony27]

Right the aqua scaping is very nice.

 

[fish keeper 7]

mistertickle- yes a yellow tang shouldnt be kept in a 46g tank its whole life they get entirely too big. but its just a short term thing. i hope to either A)upgrade or B) plan on trading it for something i need.

nyreefnoob- yeah but only if they look alike and the flame and lemonpeel havent had any problems yet. ive had problems with cherub and lemonpeels or bicolors. but not with these two yet. they do fine together. the lemonpeel just bullies the clownfish around sometimes but that problems subsiding slowly but surely.

Lenny- the manager took off today and today was the day i was supposed to talk to him about the job! im going to be there at 10 am tomorrow, do you work tomorrow?

and thanks for the compliments on the aquascaping. i move the rocks and my gf shakes her head up and down yes or no. were a good team haha

 

[NL146]

Nice work! Are the rocks on sand or on glass? Looking at the pictures I'm just hoping the left and right sides more stable than they look.

 

[fish keeper 7]

they are on the glass, everything is stable, i push down on everything and do my little maneuvers to make sure of no rock slides lol. never has happened to me "yet". crossing fingers.

 

[marki24]

looks nice

 

[adamt]

nice looking tank, and great rock work. I have a few questions/ concerns though. Its always been my understanding that wet dry filters are not a good choice for reef tanks and can lead to slime algae/ along with other nutrient problems so im wondering if that was a good filter choice? maybe someone more qualified can answer that. And secondly it seems like you might be overloading with fish. I am by no means an expert and a lot has changed since my last reef tank 10 years ago, but speaking from personal experience i had the exact same fish you have in a 90 gallon and i felt like i was maxed out. I have a 45 gallon i just converted back to a reef tank and im planning on keeping three fish in it with clownfish being the two largest, some kind of small dart fish or goby and cleaner shrimp, and i feel like thats prolly maxed out. Again, i could be completely wrong but i just never thought it was a good idea to do more than an inch of fish per 8-10 gallons of water (obviously that rule has several caviats, and its just a rough guide, but its served me well in the past). If i were you id consider scaling back on the fish and replacing the wet dry with a sump. But I wish you the best of luck and Ill def. follow along

 

[motortrendz]

overstocked? with 4 fish.. na.. but thats my opinion.. i love a stocked tank. but i run killer filtration.. also hes running a wet/dry but basically its converted to a sump/fuge bc he removed the bio balls and replaced with rubble.. the problem with wet/dries are the bio balls and they tend to cause high nitrates..other than that i would think hes fine and on his way to a nice looking tank..ive seen them in person when i dropped off the LR for him to branch out a lil.. hes doing real well...

 

[adamt]

overstocked? with 4 fish.. na.. but thats my opinion.. i love a stocked tank. but i run killer filtration.. also hes running a wet/dry but basically its converted to a sump/fuge bc he removed the bio balls and replaced with rubble.. the problem with wet/dries are the bio balls and they tend to cause high nitrates..other than that i would think hes fine and on his way to a nice looking tank..ive seen them in person when i dropped off the LR for him to branch out a lil.. hes doing real well...

like i said its just my opinion about the stocking, but i still think im right and ill explain why. Overstocking can be more than just too many fish (i.e. two dwarf angel in a 46 gal= overstocked imo), yellow tang in a 46=overstocked imo. The fish he has in there might be fine for now and i know he said he was thinking about upgrading sooner or later, so maybe its fine im not an expert. And yes 4 fish in a 46 is probably fine if it was a six line a fire fish and two clowns, but lemonpeels get pretty chunky, yellow tangs get big and even flames will get teritorial once they are established. I wasnt trying to judge his work or slam anybody on their own thread, I personally just prefer to understock reef tanks i guess. I wouldnt ever buy a fish knowing that Im gonna have to eventually geta bigger tank for it. Im captivated by reef aquariums because i like the idea of a functioning ecosystem in an enclosed space, and for me that means only putting fish in the aquarium that can happily live their whole lives in it and not putting two species together that wouldnt share such a close proximity under normal circumstances. There are so many other living things that can be incorporated into a reef tank that ive never felt the need to over due it with fish. Its just my opinion and that and a buck will get you a cup of coffee.

 

[motortrendz]

i hear ya, not trying to argue.. just giving a different side...

 

[fish keeper 7]

thanks motor. and adamt, i do weekly water changes, 5 gallons in 5 gallons out, and if i had to do it all over again, i would not get a wet/dry. i would much rather convert a 20-30g breeder into a sump/refugium. i do my best with what i have but its been a long tough road lol. the lemonpeel doesnt get much bigger than 4 and either do the flames. the clownfish is out into my 30g and the yellow tang takes a loong time to grow. supposed to be trading him soon anyway for a 20g sump but well see. and the marine betta. keeps to himself under his rocks lol. he doesnt add much to the bio load hes not a messy eater. and my nitrates are NEVER above 20. PH is always stable and ammon. nititries. to my surprise are always at 0. even if i sometimes overfeed by accident and i have almost no CUC. everything seems to work out, but i do fight different types of algae due to my lack of macro, DSB, and for the fact i use NYC tap water which has 1 ppm of phosphates in a 5 gallon bucket everytime i do a water change. ive been REALLLY looking into an RO/ DI filter... there definitely not cheap so im kinda in a hole. so in conclusion. with the fish i have. i never really have a problem with feeling overstocked.. dwarfs dont bother eachother... and the yellow tang is happy and seems always hyper. so i'm very happy with my tank at this point in time =]