Our 37 Gallon

doomicon

doomicon

New member
Heyoh, now that I have the pic posting down, here's some more of our first salt tank.

I say "Our" because I am fortunate that my wonderful wife enjoys the tank as much as I do :-)

Some shrooms and my cup..

left01.jpg


Old right side pic ...

right01.jpg


Zoa's I purchased from poknsnok (new right side pic)

zoas.jpg


Full tank...

fulltank02.jpg


to do list...
- Paint the background
- Make canopy
- Remove UGF, I've had the skimmer for about 4 weeks. I removed the Penguin about a week ago. Waiting another week to remove UGF on the right.

Still have a long way to go, but it's healthly and happy. Previous African Cichlid keeping prepared me to be patient, and be a stickler for water quality and parameters.
 
doomicon...Beautiful cup. Nice beginning. Looking forward to meeting you at the BBQ on Saturday.
Mike
 
doomicon, off to a great start...are u thinking about converting the 75gallon yet?? How are the damsels doing with your corals??
 
Thanks for the cup compliments :) I feed the cup brine and zooplank with a Turkey Baster (used to hand feed what a pain). For awhile I didn't feed him that much, and he started looking pretty bad. So scoured the forums and found that I should be feeding more often. Cup's been great ever since.

Don Lino, I keep a close eye on the damsels. They haven't bothered anything yet, and I've had them about six months.

I try to purchase livestock that is toward the novice side of the scale :D

Yea, I've been eyeballing bigger tanks. I'm keeping my eyes open for a predrilled tank on ebay and craigslist. Nothing too big, 75gallon or smaller.
 
Nice pics Doom, i like the shrooms you have going, and your xenia is really cool. most of the ones i see have much longer stalks, yours look like they are growing very close to the rock... and the zoa's for that matter. Hope to see everyone at Brians on Sat.
 
BlueCoast, I have to thank poknsnok for the cool stubby xenia and zoa's on that rock. He told me that he kept cutting the xenia back, and it would just rebound. Seems like branches just sprout from smudges. I love the effect, like xenia shrubbery.

See you too!
 
Nice tank Doom. I see the starfish on the front of the glass, and from the bottom it looks like a starfish commonly called a "Chocolate Chip" starfish. If so this species is very unsafe in the reef. It will make lunch out of lots of corals. If not, and this is a species I am unaware of, please let me know what kind it is so I can get one for myself!

Good luck,

Josh
 
flycasterjosh, It is a Chocolate Chip. It was the only purchase I made, that I didn't research first. (Wife wanted a starfish :D ) I haven't had any problems with him so far. I try to keep him well fed. Feed him regular cocktail shrimp every three days. Had him about 5 weeks without any problems. If he gives me any trouble, I'm gonna toss him in a 10 gallon hex that I use for curing rock.


qtank.jpg



I'll let ya know how it goes.
 
I put a chocolate chip star in my reef tank years ago, and the first night it ate several mushrooms and some protopalythoas and sucked the polyps off a purple acropora- a lot of them, made a big white area. All in one night. I took him right out! Then I posted it about that. Everyone said"didnt you know it wasnt reef safe?" I didnt know, but I do now. I would get him out if I were you.
 
Thanks for the post! I've had him 5 weeks with zero problems, I'll consider myself lucky. He's coming out tonight as soon as I get home from work.

Not taking any chances!

Besides, he'll be fine in the hex :D
 
Well I'm dealing with pH problems, forever 7.8. My alk is 2.4meq/l (a bit low), and my calcium is a bit high makes sense. Picked up some B-ionic to stay on top of Calc/Alk. Get it balanced out.

Seems from article I read (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.php#a), if my Carbon Dioxide levels are normal with my current Alk, I should see a pH of 8.0-8.2. So everything points to elevated CO2. So put a fan over my tank, will check pH when I get home. If that doesn't work I will try the inside/outside airstone pH test. If that doesn't work, buying a new test kit. If that doesn't work.. I'll react the same way I do when watching the Bucs play :mad2:

Lighterside, everything else is good, thou my Nitrates are at 5. Skimmer started producing less skimmate, so I went ahead and removed the UGF.

Finished painting back of my tank (whatta pain!), and built a canopy (bigger pain!). My dad is an excellent woodworker, that gene was obviously not passed on to me... the canopy doesn't have one 90 degree angle on it, but it's not bad. Paint covers ALOT of mistakes.

Will get pictures up as soon as I find my smartcard that has all my pictures on it (to include pictures from Reefer BBQ) :(
 
Doomicon,

I would raise your alk a bit. I would try to get it around 3.5 meg/l and I would not worry about a pH of 7.8.

Just my 2 cents, but again I am no expert.

If you want to raise the pH you could drip kalk. It will help to raise pH, cheap, and fairly easy.

Great picutres. I still like the dimensions of the 37. Great looking zoos. Post when you have some to frag.

Cheers,
Chris
 
Thanks guntercb, I'll give that a try. I'll definitely post when I frag em'. Totally new and learning more, fragging the zoos will be my next project AFTER I try to nurse this BTA back to health or loose it whichever comes first.
 
Okeedokee, just thought I would add an update for any other newblits like myself. Went home after running the fan all day with no noticeable change to pH.

So I opened up the window, stuck the fan in the window to blow fresh air in. Span of 4 hours pH went from 7.9 to 8.2... What's funny is the article provides an example of why a home maybe high in Carbon Dioxide. Pets, Sealed, Gas Stove .. describes my home to a 'T'.

Working on getting the dKH up using B-ionic, since I already purchased it, and want to figure out a good schedule. According to product literature and my measurements, I calculated it would take upwards of 8-9 days to balance giving their recommended dosage.
1 ml per 4 gallons (0.185meq/l). Yesterday was day three, and it's slowly coming up, and calc is slowly going down.

There are so many experienced ppl on this board its awesome. I was wondering why my Calc is so high and my Alk is so low, then I ran across a post whereas the poster is using the same salt I do, and states that through his testing it's Extremely high in Calc and low in Alk. So when I'm done with this batch I plan on switching. I'm using Oceanic now. Figure I'll give Red Sea a try. Gonna check the bookmark I have to about, that gives the specs for each salt mix.

Anybody, have recommendations on Salt Mix?

Btw, found my memory card so will try to get pictures up after work. Going to some Charity Event Thing in downtown Tampa, so it maybe late. I got some good pictures of some of the items that were auctioned off at the Reefer BBQ.

btw, the BTA is still kicking, not great, but he stopped roaming around two days ago. Found a good spot, of course it was right on top of some of my shrooms, so I had to move em'
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

beckya
purple tang
Replies
1
Views
150
OrionN
OrionN
D
Which sump would you choose?
Replies
5
Views
110
Devilphish
D
rrrrob
Thoughts on Purigen?
Replies
11
Views
500
alejandrodia
A
wvned
Not sure what to do
Replies
8
Views
1K
OrionN
OrionN
J
Plumbing 300 gallon acrylic aquarium
Replies
4
Views
3K
corvinridge
C
Back
Top