Mitch's 17.4g Reef

[_Mitch_]

Hello,
This is my first ever reef tank! It has been set up since 6/15/11. I'm not new at all to aquariums though, all my life I've had a couple of freshwater tanks going. My other main hobby is Poison Dart Frogs (Shout out to any Dendroboard members on here) so they may get some surprise pictures in here too.
Sorry for posting this thread a little late. I've had one on Nano-Reef for a while but would like to have one here too. Anyways, here are some details about the tank (subject to change):

Current Livestock

Fish
1 Purple Firefish - Nemateleotris decora

Invertebrates
1 Blood Red Fire Shrimp - Lysmata debelius

Clean up Crew
1 Banded Trochus Snail - Trochus sp.
1 Zebra Hermit Crab - Calcinus laevimanus
100+ Dwarf Cerith Snails - Cerithium sp.
5+ Nassarius Snails - Nassarius sp.
6+ Florida Cerith Snails - Cerithium sp.
1 Emerald Crab - Mithrax sculptus

Corals
Red Mushroom - Actinodiscus sp.
Rainbow Acan Lord - Acanthastrea Lordhowensis
Pom Pom Xenia - Xenia umbellata
Ricordea - Ricordea florida
Zoanthids - Zoanthus sp.
- Peach Ring Zoanthids
- Red People Eater Zoathids
Palythoas - Palythoa sp.
- Pink Palythoas
- Mohawk Palythoas
- Green Implosion Palythoas
Frogspawn - Euphyllia paradivisa

The Setup

Tank
Mr. Aqua 17.4g (24" x 12" x 14.4")

Lighting
Fishneedit 24" 4 Bulb T5HO Fixture
2 ATI Aquablue Special Bulbs
2 ATI Blue+ Bulbs

Filtration & Heating
Eheim 2213 with 50 Micron Filter Floss, Chemi-Pure Elite, and Purigen
Hydor ETH In-Line Heaters, 200 watt, 5/8"

Circulation
Circulation is provided by a Koralia 425 and the Spray Bar from the Eheim

Live Rock & Sand
17 lbs. of Fully Cured Manado Live from Premium Aquatics.
15 lbs. of regular Aragonite Reef Sand

I've learned most everything I know from this website and Nano-reef thus far. I have two major inspirations for this tank: matth6761's 20 Gallon Nano Reef and Schreiba's ADA 60-F. Also, thanks to anyone who has helped me out in my other threads, on both of these great sites.

A few pictures:

Top-Down Shot

Just sand

My goals for this tank are to keep a thriving system with healthy corals and fish (Who doesn't want that?)

Thanks for looking! Feel free to comment too!

 

[_Mitch_]

Now, on to the pictures...

FTS 6/20/11

The first hitch hiker I saw from my live rock - Bristle Worm.

My first coral - a single Red Mushroom.

The Red Mushroom

Big pile o' snails (the bulk of my CUC). John @ ReefCleaners sent A LOT of extras.

The Ricordeas, when I first got them.

My Pom Pom Xenia frag, when I first got it. There are about 20+ polyps now.

Peach Ring Zoa's, when I first got them.

Red People Eater Zoa's, when I first got them.

Green Implosion Paly's, when I first got them.

 

[_Mitch_]

Cerith Snail

Macro Algae that popped up out of nowhere on the LR

Rainbow Acan Lord's - The seller told me these were originally limited edition from the Diver's Den! This is when I first got them.

Nerite escaping! I ended up having to get rid of all of them.

Pink Paly close-up

Pink Paly's again

Acans

Red People Eaters

Peach Ring Zoa's

FTS 7/12/11

 

[_Mitch_]

Frogspawn, when I first got it.

Then I went on a 3 and a half week trip to Fiji and the Solomon Islands for diving. It was absolutely incredible. I had a responsible caretaker take care of the tank while I was away. Some pictures from the trip:

This one was taken of me in Kadavu, Fiji. We were diving on some insane looking reefs with plenty of caves and arches to swim through.

This is just me blowing a ring bubble. I love doing that!

Anyways, back to the tank...

This is what the tank looked like upon my return. Check out the huge bryopsis clump!

Here's the tank after a clean up and water change. (FTS 8/11/11)

Pom Pom Xenia has grown a lot... went from a couple of polyps to 20+

Frogspawn is doing well

Just a cool shot. I edited a bunch if you can't tell.

Rainbow lord acans. Their color has improved a good amount since I got them and continues to improve.

 

[_Mitch_]

Orange and Green Ricordeas... splitting!

Peach Ring Zoa's... still healthy, even after being covered by Bryopsis.

So that's where I am today. From now on I'll update this thread periodically with pictures and videos. Thanks!

 

[Endy0430]

:thumbsup: Looking good keep it up

 

[_Mitch_]

:thumbsup: Looking good keep it up

Thanks!

 

[Ruskin]

Your macroalgae looks like a form of Kelp I had on some LR when I first started too. In my opinion keep and eye on it, its nothing to worry about, but it just grew really fast and blocked a lot of light byquickly growing to the surface of the water. I was always having to trim it until I finally removed all of it. Its looks decent but I found it to be more of a pain then anything. just keep a watch out.

Otherwise it looks great, good job.

 

[_Mitch_]

Your macroalgae looks like a form of Kelp I had on some LR when I first started too. In my opinion keep and eye on it, its nothing to worry about, but it just grew really fast and blocked a lot of light byquickly growing to the surface of the water. I was always having to trim it until I finally removed all of it. Its looks decent but I found it to be more of a pain then anything. just keep a watch out.

Otherwise it looks great, good job.

Thanks! I've removed most of it already, but I believe it was Dictyota. Possibly not though, could have been something else.

 

[Ruskin]

Macro Algae that popped up out of nowhere on the LR

Just to be clear, I'm talking about this photo.

 

[_Mitch_]

Just to be clear, I'm talking about this photo.

Yea, I know.

Thanks!

 

[_Mitch_]

I fed some frozen vitamin-enriched mysis and spirulina brine shrimp... both the Firefish and shrimp ate with gusto. Very happy about that since I bought them both today at Greenwich Aquaria (my favorite LFS). I took some photos, but nothing good came out for the shrimp. Anyways, here are some pictures of the Firefish:

Tried to get a shot of it flaring it's fins but to no avail. I'll have better pictures soon. Feel free to comment

 

[_Mitch_]

I'm starting to really hate these Dwarf Cerith Snails... all they do is sit in the same place on the sand bed all day, ruining the look of the nice, clean, white sand. They'll move around and clean at night but overall their presence annoys me. It would be fine if I had like 20 of them, but since I have about 150 (thanks ReefCleaners) it's ridiculous how many there are. I'm now going to start removing them until there's about 20 left. This is going to take a while... wish me luck!

 

[_Mitch_]

I got two nice shots of the Firefish today, who is now incredibly bold!

Looking angry?

Almost full fin flare. Shows the awesome coloration on this guy.

Also, I found this little green nudibranch-type thing on the glass today. Can anyone ID it? Thanks!

There are copepods for size reference but it was about 5 mm.

 

[_Mitch_]

Today I purchased an Ecoxotic 12.5" 6W Stunner Strip with 18-8000K 6-453nm. I also bought the reflectors with it. Can't wait to hook this thing up and get some shimmer! This is my first experience with LED's but I heard I can't go wrong with the stunner strip.

 

[_Mitch_]

Okay, so I'm trying to teach my fish a lesson. They should know by now that they shouldn't jump out of the tank but since they seem to neglect this fact I'm going to teach them. Now here's a picture I'm going to show them:

Now I hear fish don't have great memories so I'm going to need to do something a little more drastic to get the message across:

Yea, that's right... I taped the damn f**ker to the front of the tank so that the other fish can see what will happen to them if they jump.

Let me know if you guys think this is a good approach to teaching my fish.

 

[_Mitch_]

Also, here's the first video of many from my trip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy2AuP7Pbto

Details in the video description. Please like the video, and subscribe if you'd like!

 

[_Mitch_]

Lastly, here's a picture update for today:

A shot of Squirt

Another of Squirt

RPE's

The Ricordea garden slowly coming along

Pink Ric's

Green Implosions

FTS - 8/21/11

Enjoy, and please comment!

 

[Henryreef]

Awesome tank and livestock :thumbsup: congrats!

 

[vegita51]

Hey where did the dead fish go? I'm looking at the fts and I don't see it at all...lol