Step-by-step account of my first reef (with lots of pics)

[Dudester]

techreef and Liquid Hobby - Aww shucks, you guys are the best :wavehand:. I'm glad to see this is not just for my own benefit.

Excellent comment about the light being close to the plastic bucket ... you're seeing it correctly. This was a real concern of mine, as well. However, in actuality, this particular bulb puts off very little heat. I am able to rest my hand directly on the bulb for several seconds without ANY discomfort whatsoever. The bulb is actually a couple centimeters away from the bucket; there is no direct contact. When I remove the light fixture and feel the plastic container, there is absolutely no detectable heat there. Even if I err and rest the bulb directly on the bucket for a day, I don't think this would have any consequence.

 

[Dudester]

One month after aquascaping my tank, I bought some Ricordea polyps, green with purple edges. I love these.

I initially fed them rotifers (LiquidLife Coral Plankton) and mysis shrimp, but now they get what everything else in the tank gets. John, if you're still out there, could you post the recipe for our blended swill? (unless it's proprietary, of course)

Since everything seemed to be working well in my tank, and my parameters were stable, I felt ready to acquire a few more corals. This, and my main man John was willing to frag a couple of his LPS for me, since these would be good (not too challenging) to start out with.

Here's the Acanthastrea Lordhowensis frag he gave me. It's actually two 1/4 polyps. I glued these to a small piece of LR and placed this right on my sand bed under moderate flow and direct light.

They've done very well there, and in the 6 weeks they've been in my tank, a new and complete polyp has grown. I'll take a pic of this new growth and update the thread.

John also gave me a rock full of green zoanthids, and a couple of orange zoos with green mouths. This rock was just sitting in his sump (considered scrap for an experienced reefer, I guess ).

I'm not sure what those larger zoo-looking things are, and I'm not a big fan of them either (not too pretty, IMO). I'd like to get rid of them, so if anyone knows what they are and/or how to eradicate (read "kill") them, please let me know.

 

[Dudester]

I also got some pink zoos. I put half on my substrate and the other half I super glued onto my aquascape.

I was reluctant to glue them onto my aquascape since I've read that they can really take off and spread out, potentially crowding out other corals. I only glued a small patch of them down and it's at the front of my tank, so it should be easy to get to if I need to do any "pruning" (read "killing").

The next frag John gave me was a full polyp of Blastomussa wellsei (the dude really hooked me up, didn't he?). This frag was the shiznit, the shizzle ... it was beautiful! I write in past tense since this was the recipient of my next bonehead mistake. A week after introducing it into my tank, I moved the zoo rock around and accidentally placed it right on top of my blasto frag. :eek1:. The frag didn't appreciate this and lost all of its tissue the following day :furious: I've kept its skeleton in my tank as a constant reminder of my stupidity, and I hope that some day I will be worthy of another frag of this beautiful LPS coral (you gettin' this, John?).

We're now at about 6 weeks after aquascaping. My new charges appeared healthy, and I was beginning to see the growth of coralline algae - a few spots on my CL return plumbing, as well as on the back glass of the tank.

It deserves mention that I did seed my refugium sandbed with a cup of live sand from my display.

That's it for now. My next installment will center around the rise, and fall, of the blackray shrimp goby.

 

[Dudester]

The goby installment is going to have to wait ... I feel like posting some pics.

Here's what the tank looked like at this stage of the game, with all of the above livestock included. These are full tank shots from different perspectives.

Here's a view from the front

Too many reflections, I know ... I'll work on the photography. For those who don't know, the doohicky at the top left of the tank is the HOB overflow.

Here's the right side

right side, zoomed in a little

And lastly, the whole shebang from the right side.

For those of you on pins and needles about the goby, well that'll be next.

 

[dfiddy]

the larger zoo-looking things i believe are Palythoas. You should be able to just scrape those guys off with a razor blade or something. I was given a frag of a dull blue/green palythoa when i first started my tank and they had started taking over my tank. I just took my toothbrush and razor blade to control 'em off certain rocks I didn't want them on.

 

[bcoons]

Thanks, John, for the contribution. Thought I was all alone here on this thread (I'm hearing crickets out there).:sad1:

Hey, I'm back from my trip to Monterey, catchin' up, and taggin' along.

I think I'll run down to Austin tomorrow and hit the fish stores.

Bruce

 

[Dudester]

dfiddy - Thanks, I think I'll give that razorblade & toothbrush technique a try. Hmm, palythoa, I'll have to do a search on them now. This rock is at the bottom of my tank, so I guess I'll have to remove the rock entirely and perform the "extraction" in a separate vessel of water. I think this will be necessary because, as you know, when the zoos are removed from the water, they appear as an indistinct gelatinous blob, and it's hard to tell what's what. I don't want to sacrifice many of the more desirable zoanthids. Also, I'd be concerned that if I scrape them off in my display tank, they might take hold somewhere else.

bcoons - Welcome back! I'm sure your visit to the Monterey aquarium was inspiring, to say the least. Make sure you stop in at AA when you come to Austin and look John up.

 

[maloga3]

Awesome Pics!!! it really is true that a picture says more than a thousand words...its really unbelievable how much work and connections are involved in your tank-- I just put in my LR on Sat. and am starting my first reef tank-- doing the nitrogen cycle thing right now, and am intrigued by the sump you've installed...

that might be my next step- as for now, I'm waiting for the end of the cycle so I can add interesting corals, not unlike yours, and a few colorful fish
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! and great thread

 

[melev]

Very nice! Are you taking suggestions at this time? I have a small one.

 

[Dudester]

maloga3 - Good luck with your first reef tank. I think you've done well by joining RC. You will find that people on this site are not only extremely knowledgable, but also incredibly helpful and genuinely concerned about the health of your tank inhabitants. I'm very happy with the sump in that:
my system volume has been increased by more than 30% (improved stability)
the heaters and topoff control devices are hidden (improved aesthetics)
I have a place for macroalgae (improved nutrient export, pod propagation) to grow
safe haven for pods to multipy(a constant foodsource for my tank).
The only downside I can see so far is that the noise level with the sump has increased 2-3 fold. I've tweaked the overflow as much as I know how, and I can't seem to make it any quieter.

melev - Of course I'm ready for suggestions. Even though this thread has been written essentially in chronological order, there's no reason why we can't readdress something from the past. If there's a problem I'd like to correct or improve upon it immediately. Glad to have you aboard!

 

[scbauer]

Dude, that is a sweet tank, Dudester... thanks for posting the link on my page. I love how you were able to fit everything neatly into your stand. Now I'm going to do the same to try to steal traffic from you

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=713678

-Scott

 

[KingfishJohn]

BCoons - Great to meet you in person today! I look forward to seeing what out future conversations yield. I still learn hundreds of new things everyday, and really enjoy hearing how everyone's different setup works.

Dudester - So you want another blasto frag huh :smokin: . We shall have to see :rollface:

For those of you following, Mike continually refers to the "slurry" that we've concocted to feed our tanks. It smells almost like a bad italian seafood dinner but I imagine tastes terrible. Here's the lowdown on the food:

Goals of the food:
1. To provide extreme diversity of food selection
2. To provide adequate vitamins and nutrients to all creatures
3. To make something that fish will actually eat

That being said, the recipe is actually quite simple. Mark (melev) who has already commented on this thread, has one such recipe on his site www.melevsreef.com and I only modified this slightly, after reading both his and Eric Borneman's. Most processed fish food (especially flake and pellets) are largely ash, which I had no real desire to feed to my fish.

The recipe calls for basically whatever you have good experience feeding to your animals, a little of everything.

For this particular batch we used:
(Frozen)
1. Mysis Shrimp
2. Baby Brine Shrimp
3. Formula 1 Cubes
4. Formula 2 Cubes
5. Daphnia
6. Ocean Plankton (I have no real clue what this is but Hikari makes it)
7. Some type of tropical reef food mix that I found in the freezer
8 One of the huge bars of Cyclopeeze
(Fresh)
9. Can of DT's Oyster Eggs
1. (1) Ball of Chaetomorpha Algae
2. (2) pounds of fresh shellfish (I got mine at Central Market, little pricey)
3. Bottle of Dt's Plankton
Dry Goods
1. Kent Zoa
2. Kent Zoecon (with spirulina)
3. Kent Garlic Extreme

More or less we squirted and mixed good amounts of all this delicious goo into a food processor, mixed it into a lovely pinkish paste, and everything goes crazy for it. Hopefully it contains enough vitamin C and vegetable matter to be good for herbivores as well as carnivores but I would still supplement with some fresh algae or Nori if no macro algae is available.

The other cool thing about this mix is that I think it provides alot of different cell sizes for alot of different animals.

Phew writing a thread is tiring. Keep up the good work Mike!

John

 

[bcoons]

The pleasure was all mine. I could have asked questions for hours, but I was afraid you guys actually have a business to run! If you don't turn a profit you won't be there to ask questions of!

I'm trying to be patient until around Christmas to add my first corals, but patience is not one of my stronger traits.

Dudester - keep those updates coming. One of these days maybe I'll get down there and get to see your tank live. Sure wish there was a reef club in Austin.

Bruce

 

[Dudester]

Question: How do you keep a noob in suspense?



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Answer:

Are you taking suggestions at this time? I have a small one.

 

[melev]

Okay, The only thing I wanted to suggest was to remove the big white fan that doesn't fit in with your beautiful setup.

I'd like to see you cut a hole in the angled board that supports the top horizontal piece. Within that triangle, you can position a nice 3-speed IceCap fan that is black. Essentially it won't be visible because it is black. It will blow on the water and cool your tank, and help push heat away from the MH. If the tank runs too cool that way, put it on a timer. Or have it come on only when your light comes on.

That's my suggestion.

 

[KingfishJohn]

He's good

But I'll add another... Why not get one of the temperature controlled icecap fans to fit into that little triangle support? That way a timer wouldn't be needed.

 

[melev]

We are talking about the exact same thing with different words. :thumbsup:

 

[KingfishJohn]

For those of you who can't follow Melev and I's nerd talk, I believe the fan we're both referring to is thus:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...een=PROD&Product_Code=ICE-FAN4&Category_Code=

Seriously good idea! I had been trying to figure out a way to install one to blow across the surface of an open tank but gave up because of how obtrusive it would be (ie: just as bad as a huge white fan). The spot suggested completely eliminates this problem and eye sore. Kudos indeed!

John

PS: An easier way to do this still (albeit more expensive) would be to run the fan and heaters on a Medusa temperature controller. This way, you would have a super accurate temperature reading, and the on/off capability as the system heated up or cooled off.

 

[Dudester]

scbauer - Thanks for checking out my thread, and glad you like it so far. No problemo posting a link to your thread. I don't see it as "stealing traffic." We're all here to learn, get help and provide help, so the more eyes that land on a thread the better.

The only thing I'd add about our food mix is that the fresh seafood consisted of shrimp (shelled), scallops, squid, and some type of white fish (similar to silversides). After mixing it in the food processor we poured it into Ziplock freezer bags, layed the bags flat so that the food mixture settled into a very thin layer, then placed the bags into the freezer. Whenever I feed, I break off a small piece, put it into a plastic dish with tank water to thaw, then into the tank it goes. The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to pre-cut the squid, since it was not reduced to small enough pieces by the food processor for my fish to eat. The inverts, however, love the large chunks and they amass a huge feeding pile over each piece of squid.

bcoons - p.m. me when you plan to come to Austin agian. I'd enjoy the opportunity to show you my system.

melev

I'd like to see you cut a hole in the angled board that supports the top horizontal piece. Within that triangle, you can position a nice 3-speed IceCap fan that is black. Essentially it won't be visible because it is black. It will blow on the water and cool your tank, and help push heat away from the MH. If the tank runs too cool that way, put it on a timer. Or have it come on only when your light comes on.

I agree completely, that fan is indeed an eyesore! It's the only thing my wife doesn't like about the tank (understandably so). I had actually considered that very suggestion, but instead of using that cutout for a fan, I was going to install a moonlight, like this one.

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=IC5511

They're both pretty small, so I guess I could mount them BOTH on that angled board, don't you think? A while back in this thread, I mentioned that I was interested in improved temperature control, so I think the temperature-controlled fan will certainly be the way to go.

While I'm on the subject of improved control, I'd like to be able to monitor my pH and temperature more closely. Quite honestly, I don't like the Salifert pH test - the color readings that I get are difficult to match with the card provided. What about a Ranco temperature controller, an ACJr, or some other multicontroller?

thedude15810 - You suggested a Medusa temperature controller ... I'll have to look this one up as I'm not familiar with it, but it sounds like exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[Dudester]

Since I'm still awake after gorging on Thanksgiving turkey (I guess tryptophan doesn't affect me) I might as well keep the ball rolling. Here's the story of my first fish.

With my tank having stable parameters and a ripe old age of 2 months, I got my first fish. Actually it was a birthday gift from my wife. When I got home from work, there was a blackray (highfin) shrimp goby (Stonogobiops nematodes) in my tank, along with its symbiotic invertebrate, a pistol shrimp :fish1: . At that time, I did not have a quarantine tank and the fish was acclimated and placed directly into my display tank. It appeared healthy and ate a very small amount that evening, eating a little more the next day. On the third day in my tank, I came home and found it upside down and in the jaws of my emerald crab, the carcass half-eaten :sad2:. I'm not sure if the fish was ill when I got it, if my tank was not as stable as I had thought, or if my crab was hungrier than it should have been (I doubt this one the most). I was very upset at the loss and felt like a bit of a failure, but had only myself to blame since I didn't put the fish into quarantine. Guess I'll never truly know why the fish didn't survive in my tank ... bummer.

The pistol shrimp didn't fare much better. I didn't see it for 2 days and then, when looking into my sump, I noticed a claw sitting on top of the foam block sponge. I checked in the overflow box and there it was, sucked against the drain screen. I immediately turned off the sump and retrieved it from the overflow box and, amazingly, it was still alive. It's dominant claw, however, was torn off. I placed it back into my tank and over the next week or so, I saw it emerge from it's home in the sand under the aquascape during feedings. I actually observed the amputated claw regenerate and enlarge, although after about a week it stopped coming out and I haven't seen it in about 4 weeks. It's excavated sub-substrate home has filled back in with sand and I'm pretty sure it's dead. Too bad, it was really a good looking shrimp.