Newbie's New Tank Log

Thanks for the comments!! :D

I had some SW tanks for a few years, but that was about 8 years ago. All I had was one real crap LFS that sold me all sorts of terrible equipment, and livestock that wouldn't survive. I didn't have or use the internet...not really sure why...hahaha! However, I have been researching pretty heavy for the last 3 years on and off so I could do it right this time. The research is paying off. :)

Here's my Yasha Goby in QT...my camera doesn't like to focus on him. Btw, that isn't substrate in the photo, it's dissipate from mixing the salt in the tank (won't do that again). He's tiny:

YashaGoby-Feb112007003.jpg
 
Do you mean am I buying everything from an LFS?

I buy from an online supplier up here in Canada, and also from a few LFSs...depends what I want, and what they got, and for what prices!!! The online supplier I buy from is also a wholesaler, so their prices are rock bottom. I have bought all my corals from LFSs. The snails, Goby, and equipment from the online supplier.
 
Sorry yes i meant LFS. Can you pm me the online supplier? I'm trying to find a dependable one. Looks like yours is great from all i've saw so far.
 
I can just post it here: J&L Aquatics in Burnaby, BC.

www.jlaquatics.com

I have bought the following from there:

All my live rock (Tonga and Fiji)
Most of my snails
Yasha Goby
Test kits
DTs Phyto

They made a mistake on one of my orders, and they were very easy and VERY accomodating in righting the situation. Super good people to deal with.
 
It's GLO brand 2x39W T5s. Single reflector, which is the biggest issue. So far it's working great, and the corals seem to like it. The girl at the store decided to give me her employee discount, so the lighting only cost me CAD$180 including bulbs. :D
 
Hehe...I've decided to just let it be for a while and see how things develop. The tank is still rather young! The Yasha Goby will go into the display in another 2 weeks, and I'll get a pair of True Percs for the QT after the Goby is out. I've been thinking about trying a Cleaner Shrimp, but I'm too chicken that it'll bug my corals. Been fighting detritus build-up...not sure what to do bout that.

Thanks for asking!!! :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9344670#post9344670 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Myka
Hehe...I've decided to just let it be for a while and see how things develop. The tank is still rather young! The Yasha Goby will go into the display in another 2 weeks, and I'll get a pair of True Percs for the QT after the Goby is out. I've been thinking about trying a Cleaner Shrimp, but I'm too chicken that it'll bug my corals. Been fighting detritus build-up...not sure what to do bout that.

Thanks for asking!!! :)

I was going to suggest slowing down. SW tanks do much better when the bio system has time to catch up to new inhabitants. Most folks who move too quickly inevitably have a thread that starts out, "help my fish or my corals are dieing."

Just a thought,

Regards,

Pat
 
That's funny you should ask...!

I moved Yasha into the display on Saturday, and found him carpet surfing this afternoon. :(

Other than that, all my testing has been the usual, I've been screwing with Alkalinity to figure out just how much I need to add and how often. All the corals looks great. With the time change I found out that my tank is getting direct sunlight...not sure if that is good or not, but the corals (especially the Fox) LOVE it, they balloon right up.
 
Shouldn't hurt it the lighting we are using on these tanks are suposed to be like sunlight. So i dont see where it could hurt it at all.I bet the yasha is loving that bigger tank. I have a 55gal and will be setting up a 100gal on saturday that i bought from someone thats moving and couldn't take it with them. So its up and running and i can just move it right in. And its fully stocked corals,fish,liverock and sand. I'm excited!

Last week a local store that i buy from here got in a yasha ,posted it on their website. By the time i got there it was sold! I was so upset. But he ordered me one and i should get it in a few weeks.
 
No, the Yasha is not ok. He carpet surfed to his death. :(

Wow, lots has happened! I haven't been good at updating lately!!!

Here's the short of the long:

I found some Red Planaria back when I added the Candy Cane coral. I sucked them all out, and found a few more a few days later. I haven't seen them since (touch wood).

My snails are reproducing. :) I have seen at least 5 Stomatella babies, and I have several others which are either Margaritas or Turbos...can't quite tell yet.

I've been battling Bubble algae of three different kinds (I have a separate thread regarding this). Oi, it's so ugly and annoying. I'm moving at the end of the month, so I'll be ripping my tank down so I'll scrub the crap out of the rocks hoping to rid of the bubble algae (and the Sargassum!).

I bought a GSP and it took FOREVER to expand!! It's been in the tank for 3 weeks now, and is finally showing decent expansion...not full yet though.

I recently found my Bubble Coral to be unhappy. I removed it from the tank for a closer look, and foudn that one "lobe" of it was about 50% receded. I fragged the two lobes off eachother, so now I have a receded one and a healthy one. They are much happier this way, and I can keep a closer eye on the receded one. I think it receded from having sand settle on it too much. I had a few sand storms when my MJ1200 fell down.

I bought a Purple Firefish (to replace the Yasha Goby), and am much happier with the Firefish than Yasha. Yasha was really shy, and very tiny! So the Firefish is in QT right now. He won't go into the display until after my move. He's eating well and looking great.

The recession on my Candy Cane (bought it that way if you didn't read that a couple pages back) is getting SO much better!! The polyps actually touch eachother now. :)

Params are steady at:

Salinity 1.025-1.027
Temp 80-81
pH 8.0-8.1
Am 0
Ni 0
Na 0.25-0.5
Phos trace
Cal 390
Alk 9.0 dKH

Now, on with the photos you say???

FTS:
May12007011-1.jpg

Left Side of Tank:
May12007014-1.jpg

Right Side of Tank:
May12007015-1.jpg

GSP:
May12007001-1.jpg

Bubble Corals:
May12007006-1.jpg

Candy Cane:
May12007009-1.jpg
 
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On May 13th I added a Pagoda, a branching Hammer, a small rock with 5 Palythoa, a couple of half dead open brains (trying to save them), a ball of Chaeto, and some more dead base rock to fluff it up a bit. One of the Open Brains already kicked the bucket fully, but the second one looks like it will pull through. It's a shame that it is dyed otherwise I might keep it.

I moved a week ago, and left the tank in a friend's care. I dosed a bunch of Calcium and Mag, and the Alk shot up to 17dKH. My friend is doing battle against that right now. She sent me pics, and the corals are NOT happy. They'll get over it.

I bumped into my Candy Cane when I was doing maintenance in the tank, and accidentally fragged it...oops! I have a couple small frags of it now. LOL.

I moved the corals around a bit since this photo, but here's one a couple days after adding the new corals:

FTSMay1507adj.jpg
 
I decided that the Open Brain isn't dyed...it's just badly bleached, so appears fluorescent.

The Alk is down to 15 dKH right now. I've been using SeaChem Liquid Calcium, and was noticing that my corals were hating it when I dosed Calcium. The person looking after the tank for me also noted this. So I mailed some Kent Liquid Calcium to her to try instead. the SeaChem Liquid Calcium is made with Calcium gluconate which is obviously sugar based, so I think it's "effing" with my reef. The Kent stuff (as well as all SeaChem's other Calcium products) is Calcium carbonate, so hopefully that will work better. I also sent some individual reflectors for my T5s, and some new Giessemann bulbs.
 
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