Jonas 3.13, 150G of Miracles fun

[ojonas81]

Time for the next big update! Was a very busy and interesting weekend. Went down to Tampa to pick up my order from TampaBay Saltwater. Three nice big boxes was waiting for me outside Richard's house on a cart as promised.

Here they are safely at home later the same day.

The boxes were very well packaged and everything looked very healthy and in good shape. Big cudos to Richard at TampaBay Saltwater for excellent customer service.

Here are the live sand (and this is real live sand directly from the ocean) in the box.

The very live rocks packaged in the same good way.

Started by adding the sand to my fuge and some to the main display to speed up the spread of the beneficial critters and bacteria there too. As expected the tanks became somewhat cloudy. Cleared up fairly quick though.

Next up was the rocks. I asked for smaller pieces since the fuge only is 20 gallon and there are now much room left in my mian display. As you can see these rocks have ton of life on them (even better view of this after they entered the tank).

Rocks added to the fuge.

And the ones that made it to the DT.

Now off to thew critters.

 

[ojonas81]

Critter box opened (this is like an early Christmas for me).

And off to temperature acclimatizing.

Next step water parameter acclimatizing in separate buckets. Here are two brittle starfish, one pistol shrimp and 4 cucumbers.

The other pistil shrimp included.

First critters are in. a blob of cucumbers. They have now gone separate ways doing their business.

The first of the pistol shrimps setting up a his new home base.

Brittle starfish rushing to hide in the rock work.

The serpent starfish following the same example.

The huge silver gorgonia at its temporary spot. It has not been relocated to the back of the tank.

To be continued below...

 

[ojonas81]

Pistol shrimp number 2 is in the tank and on the move to find a good spot for his new home. A nice yellow color on him.

Next up was the sponges. Added them more for fun. Know they probably won't last forever but will try too keep them as long as I can. They look awesome nevertheless. Very tricky to acclimatize since they cannot be exposed to air. Was a challenge but think I managed to do it correctly. Time will tell.

Big red tree sponge.

Yellow ball sponge.

That concludes the TampaBay Saltwater shipment. Overall I am more then pleased with their products. The only regret I have is not to use them for all my rock and sand. That will be the only think I would change would have have redid this start up.

Over the weekend I also visited my LFS and picked up a Crocea clam and a SPS that was labeled as Joe the Coral but I am not so sure since this one looked more Bushy than what Joe should be. Will provide a better picture later when it has fully acclimatized to the tank and extended its polyps again. If anyone can ID it I would appreciate it.

Finally an updated FTS as well as some random coral and fish shots.

Front FTS.

Right FTS.

Left FTS.

Ball sponge in its "final" position.

Unknown red SPS. Maybe a version of Spongodes?

 

[ojonas81]

The clowns happily playing in their home. The male stays with the female all day now. Looks like she is cleaning the sand under the bottom nem as well as the rock between them. Sign of preparing for eggs maybe?

Another shot of the red tree sponge in its current location.

My strawberry shortcake still doing fine. The green is coming back and have started to see some PE but not a whole lot yet.

Another coral from the nano that almost died and got all browned out. Getting some nice coloration back.

Silver gonipora (part of it at least) at the back of the tank.

Purple gonipora from TBS along with the new rock.

 

[ojonas81]

Finally some top down shots I took for fun. Gives you another perspective of the size of the tank. Took these later in the evening so they will be very blue and somewhat dark.

That concludes this update. Sorry for all the long posts with all the pictures but I wanted it all to be documented for future reference.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Sorry theres no sorry here. awesome collection from richard at TBS. love the clam and joe the coral. one of my favorite pieces. tank is coming along very nicely.

 

[ojonas81]

Finally took down the nano tonight. Was only water and rocks left but still. Rescued a couple of snails and hermits as well. The tank will be cleaned out later and then hopefully sold.

Kick started my QT as well. Used water from my main DT so should be more or less ready to go. Places my very first online fish order today. Will be exciting to get new fish. Hope for a good experience. The package should arrive on Wednesday.

Here is the QT up and running including fancy fish hiding spots.

 

[ojonas81]

Quick update. UPS dropped off two big boxes from Liveaquaria this morning around 10am. Nice and quick shipping. Packaged well and no leakage. Unfortunately one of the 5 cardinal fish I ordered was dead on arrival but everything else looks to be in very good shape.
They are all in the QT right now.

Longer update with photos later tonight.

 

[Good_GReef]

Do you get any kind of doa guarantee with online fish?

 

[ojonas81]

Do you get any kind of doa guarantee with online fish?

Yes, Liveaquaria has a 14 day stay alive guarantee. Have contacted them already and waiting for their response now.

Below are the pictures promised earlier. So far everyone seems to be doing ok and the Anthias and the Yellow Watchman goby are doing great. The cardinals are still a little shy and stay hidden for the most part. Fed the tank with Rods food earlier and most of them ate from what I could tell. The plan is to have them in QT for about 2-3 weeks observing every day and if no signs of sickness they will all go in the main DT on December 12.

The well packaged boxes from Liveaquaria.

Temperature acclimating under way. The heat packs in each box was still warm when I removed them which was a very good sign.

More temperature acclimatizing.

The Anthias from Divers den in their own water parameter acclimating bucket.

All non-Divers Den fish in a separate bucket.

The cardinal that did not make it. RIP.

Anthias in the QT.

The goby transferred as well.

More Anthias.

Goby hanging out with one of the cardinal fish.

 

[ojonas81]

Finally the Tailspot blenny.

 

[ojonas81]

Another picture update. Took some pictures after the big turkey dinner today.

First up are two SPS I got from Liveaquaria at the same time as the fish. The rest are "old frags" that has been in the tank for some time now. Enjoy.

ORA Wooly Green Acropora Coral

ORA Verde Acropora Coral

Green Bali Slimer

Spongodes or Digitata?

Deresa clam

Strawberry shortcake (still no polyp extension but getting nice coloration back)

Purple Gorgonian

Green encrusting SPS (ID anyone?)

ORA Green Planet

 

[ojonas81]

ORA Pink & Green Damicornis

Red Tree sponge

Yellow Gorgonian

Green Hammer

Unknown ORA (ID anyone?)

ORA Joe the Coral

War coral?

Clown and RBTA

 

[ojonas81]

Duncan

Unknown hitchhiker from TBS live rock

Tube fan hitchhiker from TBS live rock

 

[ojonas81]

Been busy putting up Christmas lights etc so not much attention to the tank this holiday (besides shopping the frags on Black Friday). Decided to glue some of the frags today though. Pictures below.

Unknown SPS.

Unknown ORA SPS.

Black Maxima(?) clam.

Unknown ORA SPS.

Green/Pick Pocillopora.

Crocea clam.

New red zoas.

New green zoas.

Green Bali Slimer.

RBTAs and clowns.

 

[ojonas81]

Zoa garden in progress.

Black Maxima clam and Pocilloporas.

Shrom garden in progress.

War coral.

Crocea clam.

Unknown SPSs.

Last but not least the latest FTS under evening light.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Those are some sweet sps. Can't wait for them to grow out and fill the tank. Excellent shots.

 

[ReefGeek79]

Wow really nice looking set-up. The orange one you're curious about looks like a setosa to me.

 

[ojonas81]

Thanks. Think you are right on that one.

Need to correct an error from above. One of the unknown SPS are in fact not unknown at all. I already ID it earlier in the thread. I'll blame it on that it was late when I made the post. See below for correct naming.

ORA Verde Acropora Coral

 

[ojonas81]

Stopped by mt LFS yesterday as I could not pass up their last day of sale (buy two corals and get one free + 50c hermits etc.).

Ended up with 5 Turbos and 3 new corals. One orange tipped wall hammer, one ORA Ant Insignis and one Rainbow Milli. Will add pictures tonight. Everything else seems to be doing great in the tank. I do get film algae fairly quick on the glass but not anywhere else in the tank (besides a few places where it has grown for awhile). Probably just a new tank start up issue that hopefully will go away over time so I don't have to clean the glass every day.

All the corals are doing great so fat and they have shown signs of growing as well. I am dosing calcium but no alkalinity or magnesium yet. I do test for it often because I suspect that at some point soon I will have to start dosing at least alkalinity as well.

Water parameters are good and within range:

Salinity, 1.026 (35ppm)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: 0.04ppm
Alk. 7.7 dHk
Ca: 480ppm (a little high, have reduced the dosing amount some)
Mg: 1420ppm