Well, things have been up and running for over a month now so I thought I would give an update.
Water params are as follows:
pH- Day ~8.3 Night ~8.1-8.2
Am- 0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- <5ppm
Cal-not tested
Mag- not tested
And has been this way for the vast majority of that month.
I have a veritable grove of 2 different Xenia varieties now that are open, swaying in the flow, and growing well.
My turquoise mushrooms are doing exceedingly well and have spread to a second rock and are taking off there as well.
My unknown Ric has babies...right now, 3 polyps(?) about 3 inches+ in diameter with 4 or 5 babies all <1 inch but growing.
I traded some rock to Jerry(Thanks Jerry!) for some red mushrooms that are insane. One has already jumped ship and reattached itself on the rock below where I put the cluster. And they are all spread out nicely.
I have some type of as yet unidentified encrusting coral on one of the rocks low in my tank. At first I thought it was some kind of pink sponge but it has since grown literally hundreds of small polyps and is wide open when the lights are on.
The Aiptasia problem is very nearly completely gone thanks to my inseperable pair of Peppermint Shrimp.
On the livestock front, the tank now contains the following inhabitants:
(1) False Perc Clown
(1) Pygmy Angel
(2) Peppermint Shrimp (Pimpy McShrimp and Hoochie Mama)
(2) Emerald Mithrax Crabs
(~10) Hermits of varying types mostly scarlets and zebras
(4) Turbo Snails
(Unknown) Certihs, Nassarius, Astrea, etc
(Unknown) Astrina and Mini Brittle Stars
(1) Tongan Fighting Conch affectionately called Elly due to it's resemblance to an elephant
(Unknown) Worms...some small Bristle worms, spaghetti worms, etc
(5) Feather Dusters
Pretty active tank and getting well established live rock, sand, and water helped transition things greatly.
I am still working on a fool proof design for my hood and will be trying to finalize things and start building over the next two days.
On a side note, last night a friend of mine gave me a "Wobble Light". It is a 400 watt MH work light that is contained in a plastic housing with a diffuser over the bulb to disperse the light. The housing was backed over but the ballast, socket, and bulb are all undamaged. The housing is a loss. So I was going to try to figure out a way to build this into a hood(not for the current tank because a 400 watt MH sounds a bit too big for a 47 gallon cube to me...) with a good reflector.
It is on this site and is the 400 watt MH version:
http://www.wobblelight.com/products.html
If anything, I just got a ballast, socket, and cooling fan for free...
I also am looking at picking up a 120...not sure what I am going to do with it just yet as I haven't even been in the game a few months yet and am not sure I am ready for a 120...but this will give me an upgrade option down the road if I so choose.
Anyway, that is my update for now. I will snap some pics tonight and get a photobucket account set up so I can post em...
Ryan
Water params are as follows:
pH- Day ~8.3 Night ~8.1-8.2
Am- 0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- <5ppm
Cal-not tested
Mag- not tested
And has been this way for the vast majority of that month.
I have a veritable grove of 2 different Xenia varieties now that are open, swaying in the flow, and growing well.
My turquoise mushrooms are doing exceedingly well and have spread to a second rock and are taking off there as well.
My unknown Ric has babies...right now, 3 polyps(?) about 3 inches+ in diameter with 4 or 5 babies all <1 inch but growing.
I traded some rock to Jerry(Thanks Jerry!) for some red mushrooms that are insane. One has already jumped ship and reattached itself on the rock below where I put the cluster. And they are all spread out nicely.
I have some type of as yet unidentified encrusting coral on one of the rocks low in my tank. At first I thought it was some kind of pink sponge but it has since grown literally hundreds of small polyps and is wide open when the lights are on.
The Aiptasia problem is very nearly completely gone thanks to my inseperable pair of Peppermint Shrimp.
On the livestock front, the tank now contains the following inhabitants:
(1) False Perc Clown
(1) Pygmy Angel
(2) Peppermint Shrimp (Pimpy McShrimp and Hoochie Mama)
(2) Emerald Mithrax Crabs
(~10) Hermits of varying types mostly scarlets and zebras
(4) Turbo Snails
(Unknown) Certihs, Nassarius, Astrea, etc
(Unknown) Astrina and Mini Brittle Stars
(1) Tongan Fighting Conch affectionately called Elly due to it's resemblance to an elephant
(Unknown) Worms...some small Bristle worms, spaghetti worms, etc
(5) Feather Dusters
Pretty active tank and getting well established live rock, sand, and water helped transition things greatly.
I am still working on a fool proof design for my hood and will be trying to finalize things and start building over the next two days.
On a side note, last night a friend of mine gave me a "Wobble Light". It is a 400 watt MH work light that is contained in a plastic housing with a diffuser over the bulb to disperse the light. The housing was backed over but the ballast, socket, and bulb are all undamaged. The housing is a loss. So I was going to try to figure out a way to build this into a hood(not for the current tank because a 400 watt MH sounds a bit too big for a 47 gallon cube to me...) with a good reflector.
It is on this site and is the 400 watt MH version:
http://www.wobblelight.com/products.html
If anything, I just got a ballast, socket, and cooling fan for free...
I also am looking at picking up a 120...not sure what I am going to do with it just yet as I haven't even been in the game a few months yet and am not sure I am ready for a 120...but this will give me an upgrade option down the road if I so choose.
Anyway, that is my update for now. I will snap some pics tonight and get a photobucket account set up so I can post em...
Ryan
