New to reefkeeping, my 27 gallon Nano tank!

[melbell86]

Hey all! I am pretty new to the saltwater hobby, i have had a saltwater tank up and running since september 2010 (about 6 months). I had a recent crash and lost all my fish, due to my lack of knowledge. I guess you learn the hard way in this hobby. Long story short, i was running two HOB filters and took one off to use for a quarantine tank. I lost my green spotted puffer, clown goby and filefish My parameters are back to normal ( ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates <5) and everything is running smoothly (thanks to an expensive protein skimmer purchase).

My plan for this nano tank now is to have a coral and frogfish tank. I have ordered an assorted angler, Antennarius sp from liveaquaria that will be here on tuesday. I also picked up a few corals today from my LFS that i was told are good for beginners and were at a good price. I only paid $14.99 for some dragon-eye zoas! Anyways here is what im working with.

EQUIPMENT

• 27 Gallon Bowfront
• AquaticLife 2x24W T5 HO Linkable Light Fixture 24"
• 1 24" T5 HO 24W 10,000K Lamp
• 1 24" T5 HO 24W Actinic 420/460 Lamp
• CPR AeroForce Recirculating Protein Skimmer
• Eheim JAGER Heater 9" 75 Watt
• Koralia Hydor water flow pump 750
• Aquaclear 30 HOB filter running carbon

INVERTEBRATES

• 3 blue legged hermit crabs
• 1 electric blue hermit crab
• 3 turbo snails
• 2 nassarius snails
• 1 coral banded shrimp
• 1 blue tuxedo urchin
• 1 large featherduster worm

CORALS

• Dragon-eye Zoas
• Green Striped Mushroom
• Green Montipora SPS frag
• Unknown zoa polyps

Now, on to the pictures!

Dragon-eye Zoas

Ball sponge, hitchhiker on my liverock

Green Montipora frag

Green Striped Mushroom

unknown zoa polyp hitchhikers

Tank Shot

Any advice/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am pretty new to corals!

Thanks!
Melanie

 

[smcdonn]

Clean setup! I like the rock work.

 

[smtank]

Looks great, nice scape. Just go slow restocking with fish and you should be good to go.

Nice Job, on the come back.

 

[saltjohnswharf]

Anglers are very cool fish. Kind of like the bully that pushes you in your locker in high school. Did you order some ghost shrimp to initiate feeding?

 

[melbell86]

thanks all! I was very discouraged after the crash. i just wanted to give up, and i was really upset about the loss of my puffer, whom i have had for 6 months (RIP George). I plan to stock slow on the corals for sure. Once i get my angler, im gonna let things settle for a few months before i get any more corals.

saltjohnswharf : I have a bag of silversides in the freezer, and if he doesnt take to them, i was planning on getting a bunch of ghost shrimp from my LFS and then just plop them in my freshwater tank and feed those to him. I have been doing a lot of research on getting predators to eat frozen foods, so im hoping if he doesnt eat the silversides i can wean him onto them eventually. I also read guppies are a good live food to start off with if they wont eat frozen. Do you have any experience feeding frogfish? any other advice would help I may just go get some ghost shrimp tomorrow so i have them here when he arrives just in case.

 

[duncantse]

Looking good so far!

 

[saltjohnswharf]

Have had a frog before. That is I had one. I started with ghost shrimp and eventually I fed it exclusively fresh fish from a fish market. At first I used a toothpick to dangle it in but it did not work. Tried a lot of things but eventually it just came down to me sticking my hand down there and hand feeding him. Then eventually I used a pipe. Put the pipe down to an open area and dropped the fish flesh to a specific area. The frog would see the pipe and associate it with food! Success! I don't recommend guppies. Especially feeders. They are bred in mass quantities and often times carry disease. It is safest to avoid them. Frogs like to eat live inverts more than fish. But I fed mine calamari, mahi, ono, shrimp and sometimes oyster and clam. Once they are accustomed to you they are a lot of fun to play with. Hand feeding is frightening and be prepared for a chomp! They are lightning fast but only for a few inches. Once they realize the hand feeds them they tend to loosen up their attitude towards the hand. Have fun and try to wait a day before feeding anything. They tend to need extra rest before being bothered.

 

[melbell86]

thanks for the advice john! I will give him a day before i attempt to feed. A guy at my local fish store has one in a display and he is just the cutest thing! Its a yellow giant frogfish, and he hand feeds it silversides. It eats so fast if you blink you might miss it! Such awesome creatures.

 

[saltjohnswharf]

No prob. Frogs are definitely one of my favorites fishes. Mine grew to almost the size of a softball and was eating about an ounce of food every other day. Just an absolute pig in the end. One day, without notice, he crossed over to the other side. I had him three years and was real close to taking the body to a university to figure out what happened. Decided not to and just took the tank down.

Is that 27 gallon cube you have possibly the Marineland cube at Petsmart? I just bought one to get back in. If that is the tank you have a good size to work with. Make a bunch of ledges for it to hop on and hide under. Siphon out its poo poo as it will lay some pretty firm turds around the tank. Easy to get out. A good skimmer is important on those days when they uh... have loose stool. Once they get big it is like watching a big rigs exhaust pipe spewing exhaust fumes. Like that image?

 

[melbell86]

hahaha nice imagery! gross!!! yes the tank is have is the 27 gallon bowfront from petsmart. Im hoping its a good size and the rockwork i have going is good for him. I might move a few things to make some ledges he can sit on and such. I cant wait for him to arrive tomorrow. I will make a new thread of my progression with him! I have a turkey baster that i can suck his poo up with. I shelled out for a good skimmer cause i figured it was a good investment. Are you going to get another frogfish?

 

[saltjohnswharf]

Modify the turkey baster to have a bigger opening. It's gonna need it! LOL

I am not doing a frog this time. More like a mix of stuff. Thought about doing a valentini puffer this time but going towards more omnivorous fish. That way I have some variety.

BTW the Marineland tank is drillable. I drilled mine for overflow and return. I also took the side supports off the stand to accommodate an 18" x 10" sump. Then put the wood back with wood screws. Everything about that stand is stapled... Yikes. The height inside the stand is perfect for my Aqua C Urchin Pro skimmer. Dims are awesome for this system. I am building a light to slip over the rim that has a 150 watt halide. Having trouble matching the finish of the stand to the light. My progress is slow as I am setting it up with dry rock. Also plumbing in a 2.5 gallon refugium and doing an ATO reservoir through the wall. Going to be fairly complex for such a small system but I feel it will be very worth it in the end. Of all the tanks setup at Petsmart I liked this one the best. Especially since I didn't want to go big just yet. Just moved into new house and cannot commit that much space just yet. Check out my original build thread. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1987284

Will work on it and have a real build thread later on.

 

[melbell86]

Update on tank, 4/27/2011

Update on tank, 4/27/2011

its been a while but here are some updated photos of my frogfish tank. Bowser is doing great, and i have added some new corals to my tank and am really starting to like the look of everything!

Corals:
Yellow Zoa Polyps
Blue Xenia
Toadstool Leather
Radioactive Dragons Eye Frag

Inverts:
Zebra Hermit Crab
2 Zebra Turbo Snails
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab
Halloween Hermit Crab

FTS

 

[john miller]

Now that's a face only a mother could love.

:wavehand: Hi Melanie.

 

[melbell86]

hehe and i DO love his little face! and his little tooth!

 

[melbell86]

Its been a long time, i guess i will update my thread! I have had my frogfish for over 7 months now, and I got another frogfish that has been in the tank for 5 months now. I have added a lot of corals, had some issues with cyano and HUGE amphipods but the battle has died down and most the problems have been solved. Here are some recent pictures.

FTS 11/15/2011

Mushu (left) and Bowser (right)

 

[RikoTeki]

Those fish are terrifying, but I really like your set up.

How are the SPS and the clam doing under the LEDs?

 

[john miller]

Tank is looking good. Glad to see you back.

 

[teddyzaper]

haha awsome! love those anglers and i think i speak for everyone when we say WE NEED MORE PICTURES! great tank!

 

[melbell86]

Those fish are terrifying, but I really like your set up.

How are the SPS and the clam doing under the LEDs?

do you mean they are terrifyingly ADORABLE!? hehe.

They are doing great. I have just gotten my take under good parameters (after a huge cyano problem and killer amphipod problem) more recently so I havent really seen any noticeable growth, but hopefully things will start kicking off soon. I have only had the clam for less than a month but it seems pretty happy.

Im glad to be back! I just started graduate school this fall so things have been super hectic for a while, but its always nice to take a break and talk about my hobby

I will post more pics for sure!

 

[melbell86]