Little newbie tank

[whome]

Okay, so I know I'm not a member yet (I did print out the membership form to bring to the pizza party though) and I know that my little 12 gallon nano is nothing to the 120+s I've been seeing, but I have to post pictures and get comments somewhere. So here goes. See links below.

And a special thanks to overanalyzer for answering so many questions the last couple of weeks.

Initial set up 12/7/06 in 12g NC DX, stock pump replaced with a mj-900 and hydroflo; bioballs, sponges, ceramic removed and replaced with LR rubble; stock lighting.

Comments are welcome as I've never done a fish tank before -- SW or FW.

gesh - photobucket is down for maintenance so I hope this link works:

http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r52/whome_album/

 

[bgreenlee]

Your are on the right track to get a tank going good, but I would suggest that you slow down a little on adding living things to your tank. You have a young system that needs to mature before you overload it.

I think a lot of people in this hobby (myself included) took off stocking theirs tanks too early and caused a lot of headaches for themselves. Take it slow and its rewarding, rush it and its a PITA.

Also, welcome to the group.

 

[overanalyzer]

welcome!!! Very cool - I'd blow that brown gunk off of your hammer and also remove your old style thermometer - that breaking would suck!

Nice seeing the stuff after hearing about!!

 

[leeweber85]

I'd say you're doing a good job for being new. Smaller tanks can be a lot harder than larger ones. Like Billy said, don't add anymore for awhile until it has had some time to establish. A lot can happen the first few months.

 

[whome]

Thanks for the suggestions. Will keep running numbers and praying I don't crash. Most stuff was added because it was given to me. Freebies are hard to turn down. I promised not to add anything for 2 months so I've got about 5 more weeks to sit on my hands (and wallet).

The hammer didn't survive the second cycle. The brown wouldn't blast off, had to take a toothbrush to it. Ended up loosing it later anyway though.

Let's see... so far my casualties have been an emerald crab I mashed when moving rock around, three astreas that I believe my bully blue leg is eating, one turbo snail that was never very healthy, and the hammer. Oh, and I guess I could count the lettuce rock because the snails ate all the lettuce and now only have the rock. I'm sure there were other hitchhikers that bit it when I got tired of trying to clean around the 9 1/2lb rock and took a hammer to it.

Now just shooting to keep stable.

 

[bgreenlee]

Hearing what you casualties have been I would definitely wait for longer then the 5 weeks. Wait until the tank stays stable with no chemicals, special maintenance, or obvious signs of being unhealthy.

From the looks of your frilly mushrooms they are on their way out as well. (Not to be a downer here).

Once you have your algae blooms over with start regular small water changes to keep your tank healthy.

 

[phishcrazee]

I would move those pretty zoos away from the green hairy shrooms because green hairy shrooms are very aggressive and will soon kill the zoos or cover them up. Not sure if something else caused the zoos to close up, but it looks like they might already be under attack, ie chemical warfare

I personally won't have any bluelegged hermits in my tank, as I think they're mean little suckers, and they end up killing my snails. They are really so small that they don't do much in the way of cleaning a tank anyways.

 

[tibbs2]

Kill that aptasia on your rock ASAP before it spreads.

 

[whome]

The big aptasia got it with joes juice a while back. It had six babies before I dosed it. Had to dose the big one twice to finally get it all. Babies died first time around. Funny, LFS told me I was getting this great deal on the rock because it came with an anemone. They kept trying to pull it out to sell it separately. Personally I think that's where the babies came from so quickly. Too bad they are bad, it was kinda fun to watch.

Question about the zoas: They all open up every day once I turn the lights on. How do I know if they are under attack? When they stop opening? I have two branches of the same green/purple zoas. One is by hairys and the other away, they both close at night and reopen at same time during day.

Why do the hairy mushs look like they are unhappy? All my water testing each day shows 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. I have raised the temp slightly to 77-78 so the swing at night without the lights isn't so much, sg pretty constant at 1.022. Seems like they should be happy. Maybe they need to be fed? I didn't feed the tank during the second cycle.

 

[phishcrazee]

The zoos should open and close with the light, that's completely normal. I might move them elsewhere though, in case those shrooms start to perk up, just to be on the safe side. The green hairy's look very pale, at least compared to mine and others I've seen. What kind of light do you have? They look like they might be getting bleached, which can happens if you expose a coral to light that is too bright and/or the coral hasn't been properly acclimated to. I would put the green hairy's on the tank bottom and in a darker spot and see what happens, see if they start to get their color back. I don't feed my green hairy shrooms, and they have grown and divided, but it depends on the tank and what you are putting into it too.

 

[whome]

Okay, I'll move the zoas. I like them, don't want them dead.

The lighting is stock -- 2 50/50 bulbs. Nothing fancy and should not hurt them. The LFS they came from had them at the top of their tank though. I originally bought the rock because I thought the white color was unique. They have since gotten a darker almost red/brown cast to the white body. There are only two now that I would say are creamy white. Getting healthier now? What color am I shooting for? The only hairys I could find pictures of online were not very informative. Show more of the floursent than anything else.

 

[phishcrazee]

If they really are green hairy/frilly mushrooms, they probably should be green Maybe they are the pink or tan variety....... most corals are not white, that I know of. When you say the lighting where they came from was standard 50/50, what exactly do you mean? Comapact flourescents, T5's, how much wattage exactly? Where did you get them from? This is typically what they look like:


http://a1272.g.akamai.net/7/1272/11...ria.com/images/products/bigimage/lg_84159.jpg


http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=665


What sort of lighting do you have? Wattage and type?

 

[whome]

My stock lighting according to JBJ is (2) 24watt CF lamps. They are each 1/2 white and 1/2 blue. The LFS where the rock came from had them under something much stronger in a much larger show tank stacked high up just barely under the water. Guess they were not happy there. The hairys now look exactly like the ones in the upper right of the liveaquaria picture. Kinda muddy tan/brown. Guess they are healthy and happy now (or at least getting that way).

Another newbie mistake. I thought they were a variety I just hadn't found a picture of yet.

Interesting side note: that same rock originally had two small round orange sponges on it. I knew nothing about sponges except that they don't do well in nanos. I hadn't intended to buy any so didn't research further. As I liked the hairys and this was all the store had I bought the rock. I watched the store pull it from the tank exposing it to air and thought nothing of it. After acclimating I exposed the sponges to air putting into the tank. I watched them start to discolor so I did a little research and found the mistake. Pulled them before they got really bad. Tonight I discovered one growing back - its about the size of a pea. Amazing how much I screw up, but things seem to come out right.

Thanks for the input.

 

[phishcrazee]

Yes, they were probably too close to the light at the LFS........ sounds like they are coloring up though