My NPS Tank Build

[CuttleKid]

So i am back at square one. I have reset up my 34 Gallon Solana after it crashed due to overfeeding about a 3 weeks ago. First let me point out that when i came into this realm of reefkeeping i thought it would be as simple as getting a mechanism to feed continuously and keep up with tank parameters. I was SOOOO wrong. It takes extreme dedication that i could not provide at that point. So please don't think that if you buy a dendronepthya or nps gorgonian that it will be a breeze if you feed continuously like i thought. Save yourself alot of time, money and frustration as well as the corals you you intend to keep by making absolutely sure you can provide a more than suitable environment for these beautiful but specialized animals. That is why I intend to keep only nps lps in my tank because i know for sure i will be able to allow them to
thrive.

My livestock plans for now are:

CORALS:
-Dendrophyllia sp.
-Tubastrea sp.
-Rhizo's
-Balanophyllia sp.
-Various west african lps corals

INVERTS:
-Tube anemone sp.
-Crinoid??????????????

Fish:
-Pseudanthias Ventralis
-Helfrichi Firefish (pair)
-Seahorses???????
-Pipefish?????????

Opinions on the stocking list would be great.

Here are some pictures of the tank set up with the LR i bought yesterday.

What do you think?

Any comments/suggestion/ recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

 

[deacon hemp]

I am a month or 2 ahead of you with the same setup and stocking ideas so ill add you need to upgrade the skimmer its hard to keep up with WC's alone to keep the params in check. All i have is a 5 polyp colony of dendros and a 7 polyp colony of balanos and no fish. 5 gallons WC twice a week keeps my nitrates at 10ppm. I have a deltec mce600 on the way so i should be ok.

How many #s of rock is that?

edit:also u could put the heater in the back chambers.

 

[CuttleKid]

So im really confused. My tank crashed due to overfeeding 3 weeks ago and was empty for a week. Now that it is up and running and i'm waiting for it to cycle the weirdest thing is happening. It is cycling super fast. Monday i tested the water and the ammonia was at the highest as well as the nitrites and the nitrates were at 30. Today i tested the water and ammonia was at zero and the nitrites were still at the highest but the nitrates are now at 20. Is it possible that the nitrifying bacteria survived the time the tank was down?

Any thoughts?

 

[deacon hemp]

You should have 100% water changed it and just let it keep running but yeah it probably quick cycled,however if it did or not i would still wait it out and let it really stabilize,and stock super slow.

 

[Aquabacs]

Couple things that might assist you in your planning of your system:
1. For water quality, develop a maintenace plan, keep it consistent, document progress, evaluate it often, and then adjust when needed. Trouble shooting the system/livestock becomes a lot easier of the overall system when you are working with consistent data and documentation. (if you need help with developing a plan, shoot me over a pm and I will help you out)
2. The power of GFO If you dont already have a plan to add GFO reactor into your system, it is a good long term investment (dont forget to order extra filter inserts for the reactor). You dont need to spend the cash on expensive name brand GFO, buy it in bulk (largest you can afford at the time), and keep a good supply on hand. It can be regenerated if you like to go that route to save some cash or if you dont want to go through that process, toss it and add new.
3. Skimmer: what ever skimmer you choose to use on you tank (choices are limited with you tanks design) your feeding and feeding frequency is going to have to be worked around your skimmer's recovery time. If food is consistantly added to the tank, too much oils in the water, it is not going to skim anything out and your parameters will go quickly out of whack. No use of replicating a system to feed 20 times a day if the system and it's inhabitants cant handle it, plus you are wasting money (trust me on that one). Feeding of the system needs to be started out slow, skimmer needs to ne monitored to see how long it starts to produce foam again after feeding and approximate skim mate produced daily.



Mike

 

[CuttleKid]

The nitrites are coming down slowly but surely and the nitrates are about 5. I have one question regarding feeding that would change the stocking list and direction of my tank completely. I originally wanted to stock only nps lps but now im thinking of adding nps softies and gorgs when the tank and me are ready. What i want to know is if there is a way to feed dry foods scuh as dry fauna marin foods, phytoplan, zooplan, reef chili continuously.
Any thoughts/ideas would be great.

Thanks

 

[CuttleKid]

just got back from lfs with my first corals. they are a yellow tubastrea and a black tubastrea. i placed the black one in higher flow to keep it clean. i will post pics tomorrow. they are starting to show signs of opening up after i put a drop of oyster feast into the tank. i will continue to update the progress of the corals and the tank.

 

[coltrref]

pics??

 

[CuttleKid]

sorry for no pics. Me and my dad had to rush up to maine because my grandmother collapsed. She is better now and i just got home. I will definitely have pics by tomorrow.
Again Sorry for the late pics.

Thanks

 

[CuttleKid]

So i felt bad promising pics and then not honoring that promise. I hate it when people do that to me so i decided to snap a few pics quickly so i dont seem like such a jerk.

Here is my sun coral

My black sun coral has yet to open

My new Sclero

My new cocoa worm

FTS

A hitchhiker coral i found on my sun coral. Any ideas on what it is?

Another pic

 

[nicewicz]

Nice hitchhiker! My guess is colangia sp.

Photo courtesy of Aquabacs:

http://i352.photobucket.com/albums/r332/Aquabacs/WestAfricanColangia-1.jpg

 

[CuttleKid]

WOW, i just researched colangia on DD and it cost a pretty penny. I cant believe i got it as a hitchhiker.
I just finished installing my feeding setup. I am using 3 auto fish feeders attached to the back of the tank filled with phytoplan and zooplan. I am plan on ordering some FM foods later on. I am feeding the tank with the feeders 12 times a day. I am monitoring the water extremely carefully and so far nothing has changed. I am going to continue to monitor and develop a routine to make maintenance easier. I am really excited that my sclero tha wouldnt open up for the lfs and was shrinking there has inflated and has stayed inflated since about 6 o clock last night. It has its polyps extended and i hope is feeding well.

 

[CuttleKid]

So I've used the tupperware method on my sun corals yesterday with mixed results. The yellow tubastrea started to open in the tub but it opened fully after about one hour being placed back in the tank. ? Weird ? The black tubastrea still has yet to open but has puckered its polyps frequently. Im going to continue the tupperware method on the black sun coral. On the other hand my scleronephthya is thriving. It stays partially inflated all the time and is completely inflated multiple times through out the day. So far everything is going good but I'm going to continue updating this as my build thread.

 

[CuttleKid]

Just wanted to upload a quick pic i took with my phone of my new gorgonian before I head off to my graduation ceremony.



http://s409.photobucket.com/albums/...current=0B346067-orig.jpg&mediafilter=noflash

 

[velvetelvis]

So i am back at square one. I have reset up my 34 Gallon Solana after it crashed due to overfeeding about a 3 weeks ago. First let me point out that when i came into this realm of reefkeeping i thought it would be as simple as getting a mechanism to feed continuously and keep up with tank parameters. I was SOOOO wrong. It takes extreme dedication that i could not provide at that point. So please don't think that if you buy a dendronepthya or nps gorgonian that it will be a breeze if you feed continuously like i thought. Save yourself alot of time, money and frustration as well as the corals you you intend to keep by making absolutely sure you can provide a more than suitable environment for these beautiful but specialized animals. That is why I intend to keep only nps lps in my tank because i know for sure i will be able to allow them to
thrive.

My livestock plans for now are:

CORALS:
-Dendrophyllia sp.
-Tubastrea sp.
-Rhizo's
-Balanophyllia sp.
-Various west african lps corals

INVERTS:
-Tube anemone sp.
-Crinoid??????????????

Fish:
-Pseudanthias Ventralis
-Helfrichi Firefish (pair)
-Seahorses???????
-Pipefish?????????

Opinions on the stocking list would be great.

What do you think?

Any comments/suggestion/ recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

I don't think I'd go with seahorses or pipefish. They might not cope well with the flow required for NPS corals, especially gorgonians and dendros. The firefish would be perfect, and very beautiful in a setup like that.

 

[cside]

I'm worried about the "pair" of Helfrichi firefish. these will be hard to find and if not sexed correctly, will kill eachother. this being said, i have your standard pink/orange firefish as a pair that hang out all the time together. Also with regard to the pipes and seahorses, as long as there is something for them to hold on to, the flow will not be a problem. However, pipes and seahorses love to attach themselves to polyps of NPS gorgonians and keep them from obtaining food. They will do the same to crinoids, possibly ripping their "feathers" off. Your tube anemone also might find pipes/seahorses as tasty snacks. I would also stay away from the anthias because I have read that that species needs to be in a tank of at least 70g with lots of swimming room.

I think a single firefish, royal gramma, and yellow assessor would be perfect for your tank.

 

[velvetelvis]

Good point about the firefish pairs. I was thinking that Diver's Den actually offers pairs of firefish for sale pretty regularly, although now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing helfrichi but maybe once.

 

[slapshot]

So i am back at square one. I have reset up my 34 Gallon Solana after it crashed due to overfeeding about a 3 weeks ago. First let me point out that when i came into this realm of reefkeeping i thought it would be as simple as getting a mechanism to feed continuously and keep up with tank parameters. I was SOOOO wrong. It takes extreme dedication that i could not provide at that point. So please don't think that if you buy a dendronepthya or nps gorgonian that it will be a breeze if you feed continuously like i thought. Save yourself alot of time, money and frustration as well as the corals you you intend to keep by making absolutely sure you can provide a more than suitable environment for these beautiful but specialized animals. That is why I intend to keep only nps lps in my tank because i know for sure i will be able to allow them to
thrive.

This statement should be a sticky on here! Well said.

 

[NyReefNoob]

sh's dont do well with corals with tenicles, as they arent strong swimmers and can be grabbed, nor do they go with sps as the flow requirements plus with them constantly holding onto the sps will eventually cause issues with the sps

 

[CuttleKid]

Here is an update of my solana

First a FTS

My sun coral starting to open

My favorite coral in the tank. A gorgonian that i have no clue as to what it is. Any thoughts?

another

A sclero i got for free because the store couldnt care for it

My only fish in the tank so far

My other gorg that has yet to fully open for me. Any idea what kind it is?

My current feeding setup: 2 petco auto feeders filled with Ultra Min F Ultra Clam and Ultra Seafan. I did have another auto feeder that broke down so im going back to petco and pickup two or three more.