75g Lurking danger and Leafy Seadragons

[griss]

Love it. That Lantern Bass is a beauty.

 

[vlangel]

Love it. That Lantern Bass is a beauty.

Ha ha, I thought I ordered a tobacco bass. I checked my order and sure enough, it was a lantern bass! So you are right on 2 counts; its a lantern bass and it is a beauty!

 

[griss]

Ha ha, I thought I ordered a tobacco bass. I checked my order and sure enough, it was a lantern bass! So you are right on 2 counts; its a lantern bass and it is a beauty!

Well, I totally missed the discrepancy in your post. I looked at the picture, thought Lantern Bass and posted

 

[vlangel]

Well, I totally missed the discrepancy in your post. I looked at the picture, thought Lantern Bass and posted

Now I remember that I wanted a tobacco bass but by the time I actually placed the order, only the lantern bass was left. I guess my mind was still stuck on tobacco and never mind that he didn't have enough red on him!

Between not knowing what coral I have or what fish, its amazing that I can manage a reef tank at all!

 

[griss]

Now I remember that I wanted a tobacco bass but by the time I actually placed the order, only the lantern bass was left. I guess my mind was still stuck on tobacco and never mind that he didn't have enough red on him!

Between not knowing what coral I have or what fish, its amazing that I can manage a reef tank at all!

Don’t sell yourself short, you know your stuff and are a great hobbyist. Tobacco Bass are awesome too. As we’ve discussed, Basslets are awesome fish.

 

[ryanthompson]

View attachment 32415073

AQUARIUM PROFILE & EQUIPMENT
1. What type of saltwater aquarium is this?: mixed reef
2. Total water volume: 75 gallons
3. When did you start this tank?: September 2025, but all the rock, sand and inhabitants were transferred from a 9 year old 56g aquarium
4. What is your aquarium made of?: glass Aqueon
5. Aquarium Stand: Aqueon 48" x 18"
6. Aquarium filtration: only a canister prefilter sponge from an Oase BioMaster 850 and natural biological from rock, sand, macroalgae. The canister filter is acting as a cryptic sump where pods, worms and other life can live and reproduce unmolested by fish. Hopefully this will provide a continuous supply of pods and worms for a natural food source for fish and coral.
7. Controller: Inkbird temperature
8. Protein skimmer: no
9. Reactor: no
10. Sump: no
11. Equipment for flow & circulation:
A. Oase BioMaster 850 canister filter,
with spraybar output
B. Carefree Fish wavemaker
C. Ecotech mp 10
D. Ecotech mp 40
12. Aquarium Lighting: ReefBreeder
Photon V-24
13. ATO: no
14. Aquarium Heating: heater that is
made to be integrated in the
BioMaster 850 canister filter. The beauty of this is the heater is in the canister and not in the tank cluttering the display. Also none of the inhabitants can be injured by it.
PH: 8.0
Specific Gravity: 1.024
NO3: 10ppm
PO4: .5ppm
Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium are not monitored as these are naturally regulated with water changes and AFR dosing
Salt Brand: Instant Ocean
Trace Element dosing: Flourish (1 capful weekly), AFR ( 5-10 ML weekly), and 1 capful Seachem Stability weekly
Water Chemistry Details: 10% water change weekly
Aquarium Aquascape:
Substrate: shallow and deep sand
Live rock: 80lbs of Carribean
Nutrient export: Macroalgae and coral

AQUARIUM INHABITANTS
Fish: Coral Beauty Angelfish, Ocellaris Clownfish, Midas Blenny, Yellow Watchman Goby, Bi-color Blenny, Firefish Goby, Blue Eyed Kole Tang, One Spot Foxface, Masked Goby and 2 Pajama Cardinalfish
Future fish that I would like is a Long nose Hawkfish, a Royal Gramma, and maybe even a Sharpnose Puffer.

Coral: SPS- Scroll coral, War coral
LPS- Green Hammers, Aqua Trumpets, Neon Green Trumpets
SOFTIES- various Palys, various Zoas, Sinularia finger leather, Cabbage leather, Green Toadstool leather, Green Star Polyp
SPONGES- Yellow Ball Sponge, Red Tree Sponge, Purple Photosynthetic Sponge

Inverts: Rock Flower Anemones, 6 Feather Dusters, Emerald crabs, 6 Peppermint Shrimp, Nassarius snails and an Atlantic cucumber.
I feel I need a couple blue legged reef crabs and some nerite snails to help deal with the diatoms on the sandbed.

Macroalgae: (Green) Codium, Opuntia, Shaving Brush, Ulva, Moss Ball, (Red) Pom Pom, Gracilaria Hayi

2 Mangroves

Aquarium Nutrition:
Auto Feeder 2Xs daily veggie flakes
1 Frozen Cube daily of various foods
5 ML of live Phyto

Hi folks, my name is Dawn and I am upgrading from my current 56g column to a standard 75g display. The main reason is I am not as tall as I once was and the tall 56g is a pain to clean, ha ha! Gotta love getting older. Actually I am also excited about having a bigger footprint for more fish too!
Like my current display, this new 75g will also have a mural on the back glass. That is where the leafy seadragons come in; sorry folks if I misled you into thinking that I was keeping seadragon! It's reminds me of when I kept and raised seahorses, which are in the same family as seadragons. Of course my tank is kind of leafy since I love macroalgae.View attachment 32413961View attachment 32413962View attachment 32413963


I plan to set this tank up simply with biology doing most of the filtering, (same as my current tank). I will be moving all my rock over, washing and re-using the sand and keeping macroalgae.

I bought a 20g high tank at a Petco sale to be the sump and home for my aged Percula clown and renegade pistol shrimp. I also am going to relocate all the rainbow nems down there. The sump will not be plumbed to the display immediately until I can gather and put the plumbing together. Display and sump will just be AIOs until that happens but the 20g will be under the cabinet. That way my fish and coral are back in a stable environment until I can do the plumbing rather than makeshift holding tanks.

Welcome, Dawn! This is a really thoughtful setup, and it shows how much experience you bring from that long-running 56g. Transferring mature rock and sand is such a smart move — that stability is gold.


I especially like your “cryptic sump” approach with the BioMaster. Letting pods and worms reproduce without predation is something more people should experiment with. Also, props for embracing macroalgae — it adds both function and personality to the tank.

 

[vlangel]

Don’t sell yourself short, you know your stuff and are a great hobbyist. Tobacco Bass are awesome too. As we’ve discussed, Basslets are awesome fish.

Thanks George, you always make me feel better when I post something dumb!

 

[vlangel]

Welcome, Dawn! This is a really thoughtful setup, and it shows how much experience you bring from that long-running 56g. Transferring mature rock and sand is such a smart move — that stability is gold.


I especially like your “cryptic sump” approach with the BioMaster. Letting pods and worms reproduce without predation is something more people should experiment with. Also, props for embracing macroalgae — it adds both function and personality to the tank.

Hi Ryan, its nice to meet you! This was my 4th tank I set up in that same spot (we have a dedicated circuit there) and I planned out in my head for weeks before I actually made the move. In fact I thought about the mural for months as I did not want to look at another disappointing effort like my prior tank. On the positive side, the mural on the 56g taught me what not to do!

I am really excited to see inside the sump a year or two down the road to find what is living there.
I love macroalgae. They come in so many textures and colors but it is tricky to get multiple species to flourish instead of one outcompeting the others. I am still learning that aspect.
Thank you for checking out my tank build!

 

[vlangel]

I have really been dumping a lot of food in the tank to make sure all 17 fish are eating! I did my 10% weekly water changes yesterday but I did not rinse the pre-filter in the canister. I was expecting the nutrients to be pretty high but I was pleasantly surprised that NO3 was 10 ppm and PO4 was .5 ppm which is very acceptable to me. I also added AFR manually.

 

[vlangel]

Bummer, as I sat down to enjoy my coffee in front of the tank this morning, I saw something on the sand where it didn't belong. Only the blue lights were on so I got closer. It was Angelica, my Coral Beauty and she had passed . She hadn't had any signs of being sick or weak that I had noticed so this was a shock. She was my 2nd to oldest fish, right after Ozzie the ocellaris. She was adult size when I bought her so no telling how old she really was when I bought her 5 years ago in February. I can 2nd guess myself that maybe I have too many fish in the tank but she was one of the biggest and in the ruling pack, so I doubt that was it. The tank seems healthy so it was probably just her time. Still I felt attached so I am sad to lose her. A pic of her and Ozzie right before Christmas.

 

[griss]

Dang, sorry to hear this.

 

[JohnL]

I'm sorry Dawn

 

[vlangel]

Dang, sorry to hear this.

I'm sorry Dawn

Thanks guys! I am sad but I had her 5 years and she seemed healthy and happy during that time. I've had new fish jump through tiny areas and that is worse. I have also had old fish languish and that is kind of worse too. So I am going to not fret on it and move on.
Here is a quick video of the tank I took today. Of course all the fish are saying the giver of good things is here but where are the good things????

 

[vlangel]

Well guys, I have more bad news,,,I lost 2 more fish, the new lantern bass and Blondie, the Kole tang! Now I know that it wasn't old age that got Angelica, (which makes me feel pretty awful). I added carbon in case of paly toxins but I doubt that is the problem. I know the water change that I did was ok because I did a big % water change for the 20g where the aged percula clown lives. My guess is that its disease because I overcrowded the tank. I should have known better. I am still worried about Spike, the foxface and one of the cardinalfish, but I am hoping that they will be able to fight it off. Fingers .

 

[griss]

So sorry Dawn. This hobby can be so frustrating sometimes.

 

[vlangel]

So sorry Dawn. This hobby can be so frustrating sometimes.

It can, but I only have myself to blame for this one. I pushed a boundary that I knew better.
If one is going to subscribe to the no QT or TTM but instead allow disease to co-exist then one needs to stay within the boundaries of reasonable stocking so as to not tempt fate. Hard lesson learned!

 

[ironwill723]

Sorry to hear Dawn. Unfortunately if you are losing fish that quickly it may be marine velvet.