What to do with a 55gal?

[sltloser]

Thanks for the compliment, yep the red/orange on the right are zooanthids. I think they call them bam bam zoos or something like that? i never know the names lol. Yeah i would love to be able to upgrade to a 180 or larger would give me a lot more room to work with, and a bigger fuge :rollface:

 

[Bonta]

You should be careful about adding a Frogspawn for the Clowns .Frogspawns do not make suitable hosts for clowns. The frogspawn can be damaged because of its calcerous base - may/will become lacerated. Bubble polyps are better or something without a calcerous base.


EDIT : LOL forget my post. Didn't read the part about adding a Toadstool ! Sorry !

 

[jenjen]

lol, no worries - thanks for the feedback Bonta!

I decided to take tomorrow off work, so I'll be doing the LFS crawl while my daughter is at school. I'll be picking up some inverts for sure (need some for the 180gal too!), but am really hoping to find a toadstool tomorrow. And if I can find a YWG it'll be a good day!

 

[jenjen]

Yesterday was a productive day in the livestock department. Hopefully today will be productive in the husband-making-a-fuge department.

I got a small-ish toadstool, it's about 1.5" across when closed. It was nice and open in the LFS but hasn't opened yet this morning. Lights have only been on about 1/2 hour. I'll give it a week or so before I 'worry', as everything else in the tank is doing fine so far.

I also picked up a large feather duster, who has been out since about 5 minutes after placing him in the tank. And I added 10 mini blue hermits - I love hermits! Hmm, oh and I added a fire shrimp. I'll be moving a conch from the big tank up to this one today.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand... I found a teeny-tiny YWG. He is the cutest thing ever, only just over an inch long, and about as wide as a pencil if that.

I decided to take a 'calculated risk' with this guy, and didn't QT him. Shhhhhhhh, I know I know. I decided against it with this fish for a number of reasons. Mainly because: he came from a store I've gotten LOTS of fish from, and I trust them; this type of fish is not 'prone' to ich or other diseases; this tank would be relatively easy to dismantle if I needed to get a sick fish out; my QT tank can easily hold all the current inhabitants if I need to go fallow. Still probably not advisable, but it's done.

I also have a tail-spot blenny in QT. Have you seen these fish - so cute! He's tiny too, only slightly larger than the YWG. He's a fairly bold character and doesn't seem to hide when I approach the tank. I put a piece of LR into QT for him, and his little head is poking out his hole.

Back to the YWG. I acclimated it, then added to the tank around 4pm yesterday. It swam around, all over the tank for about 2 hours. The clowns were quite perplexed and mainly stayed in their nest under the rock - guess they're not too territorial yet. :hmm2: And then the goby disappeared. I didn't see him again all night. I was obviously worried, but I'm delighted to say he has popped out of the pistol shrimp cave this morning and is hard at work guarding the fortress! :rollface: I may sit here all day and watch these guys, they're awesome!

My husband took the camera to work today, so we'll have to wait until this evening for some pics.

 

[jenjen]

Hmm, I don't think I got one of the 'smart' shrimp/goby pairs. My team has been diligently working all morning (2 hours or so) digging sand out of their burrow and putting it into a hole which directs it right back into their burrow. They're extremely careful to make sure all the sand gets into the little hole.

 

[sltloser]

Glad to hear you found a YWG! :dance: In all honesty i've never QT a fish, i've had ich once and my blue tang faught it off and everyone was fine :celeb3:. The tailspot blennies are an awsome fish to , can't wait to see pictures later

 

[jenjen]

I generally QT everything... I'm one of the unlucky few who has had the pleasure of tearing down a tank to get sick fish out to treat, then leaving it fallow for 6 weeks - all because of a massive ich infestation. But I think I'll be a little less stringent with this tank.

Hey, 2 questions:

1. how long do you figure I should wait before moving the squamosa clam up to the 55gal? It's looking super in the 180gal so I'm in no major rush - just wondering how long would be prudent.

2. what to get the tailspot eating? I just realized he'll be the only vegetarian in the tank and I'd rather not have to rely on the algae in the tank (just incase), but it doesn't seem to make sense to put nori in just for one tiny fish does it? bare there tablets or wafers or something?

 

[sltloser]

I'm not really sure if you'll be able to put the clam in this tank. Idk if the PC lighting will be high enough for it. The tailspot isn't strictly limited to a vegeterian, they will eat brine/mysis shrimp also, this would be good to get him started on, and as the tank matures there should be more then enough algae for him in there.

 

[jenjen]

Oh, my husband loves the look of MH lighting, and has already fallen in love with this little eco-system. We'll have a MH fixture over this thing in no time. In the meantime I don't think the PC lighting will do it too much harm, and I can always move it back down to the other tank if I need to.

Good to know about the tailspot. He does seem to be eating mysis which is good. I'm also trying very small pieces of nori attached to a rock, as this would be reasonable to do in the tank. So far I haven't seen him eating off that, but if the mysis is ok for him then I won't worry too much.

 

[sltloser]

Well i guess i would wait a month or so before putting the clam into the tank, just to be sure that there is enough food to sustain it. One other thing you could put into the tank to help the tailspot eat would be the cubed pieces of algae, if you soften them up some you're able to shove them into holes in the rocks and the fish can naturally graze on it. Just a few more suggestions, have a good one!

 

[jenjen]

Managed to get a couple of pics of the YWG in action (I'm a terrible photographer!)

On guard:

Taking a break to grab some mysis:

With the pistol shrimp right behind him:

They've moved 2 empty shells to frame the main entrance to their cave, and for now seem to have figured out not to dump sand back in through another hole in the rock. I'm getting quite the mound of sand in the right corner of the tank. They sure do create a sandstorm when they're renovating!

 

[sltloser]

Tank is looking great, i love the YWG/pistol shrimp pair!

 

[jenjen]

Time for a little tank update. So the parameters are staying incredibly stable:

ammonia 0
nitrate 0-5 (usually zero)
calc 380
sg 1.025
temp 79-80

The fish are doing fantastic, the clove coral is open every day, and the feather duster is open all the time. The toadstool hasn't shown it's polyps yet, but it's looking ok and I'm not worried yet. The blenny will be going in this weekend, but for now is happy as can be in his QT castle. He is an absolutely fabulous fish.

I have developed a film or skin over almost everything, and I've been turkey-basting it every day. It's the same colour as diatoms, but is the consistency of 'pudding skin' and covers everything - rocks, sand, chaeto. It comes off in large chunks when I baste/net it.

The main thing I've noticed between this tank and the one downstairs is that once something is inside the tank it stays there unless I suck it out. This is a major compromise in a sumpless setup in my opinion. One I will adapt to in my setup, but for a newbie considering a sump... this is a big consideration.

Because of the 'pudding skin', I decided to pull out the old waterfall filter from the FW tank afterall. I've put in clean carbon cartridges (mainly to catch any junk it sucks up) and am going to run it today & tomorrow. I've turkey-based every few minutes to re-stir-up all the junk, and so far it's picking up all sorts of stuff. The fish are p***ed right off, but hopefully it will clear up the water a little.

So this weekend... the plan is to move baby-blenny into the main tank and to beef up the CUC now that there's something for them to eat. I'll be going out of town for 15 days starting next Friday, so I need to get the tank as stable as possible before hubby takes over maintenance. The fuge will be waiting until I'm back.

If anyone has seen this skin-stuff before and has a miracle-solution, I'm all ears! I'll post some pics in a day or two, once this filter has had a bit of time to clean things up in there.

 

[sltloser]

glad to hear the fish are doing good! this algae is just going to be a phase, i wouldn't expect it to stay very long expecially once the blenny goes in. The system is still trying to level itself out, and if it isn't gone within the next month or so then i would start to get a little worried about it but as of now not too much concern. how much flow is in the tank, i see the two koralias but was wondering how much flow they're giving off?

 

[jenjen]

1x K2 - 600gph
1x K3 - 850gph

There doesn't seem to be any dead spots on the sand (I can see the surface moving a little in most areas) and there's lots of surface agitation. I have them mounted on the sides, pointing toward the top/center so they 'crash' into eachother. Food swirls around the entire tank.

The algae is over the entire tank, so if it's a flow problem it's not just in some areas. I'm not so worried about it, since it's a young tank - but it's definitely annoying and since it's a 'skin' I feel compelled to remove it so it doesn't suffocate anything.

Gotta love new tanks, eh???

 

[jenjen]

Time for some updated pics. I finally got a camera, so please bear with me as I figure out how it works. At least I should be able to find it all the time!

I added the blenny to the DT yesterday. He's taken up residence in the rock on the right, and is doing well.

I expanded on the CUC a little. I got 10 snails, 5 scarlet hermits, 1 electric blue hermit, and a pink crab of some sort. Oh, and I added a second feather duster.

The YWG/pistol shrimp have been hard at work and now have at least 3 entrances to their home.

And here's a fts. Only 2 more shelves to go and I can finally fill up my china cabinet too.

 

[jenjen]

And as far as the actual parameters, things are going well. I did a 10% WC today. I still have the filter running, but will take it off in the next few days. The parameters after the WC are:

ammonia 0
nitrate 0
calc 360
temp 79

 

[sltloser]

the tanks is looking great! that pistol shrimp is a good sized to, how are the mr and mrs doing? still gett'n scared when you get close to the tank?

 

[jenjen]

Mr & Mrs are hilarious. She is grumpy as can be and between chasing him around, displaying dominance to the other fish in the tank, and running to hide every time someone walks by she keeps herself busy. She is first in line when food shows up as well. Mr is quite clueless I'm afraid. He runs away when Mrs chases him, but otherwise he just bobs around the tank. He doesn't seem near as quick to run & hide, and I can't decide whether he's not as nervous or not as smart.

Between Mr & Mrs, and YWG/Pistol Shrimp, this is proving to be a most entertaining tank!

 

[jenjen]

Well, I did another 10% WC tonight in prep for my trip... away for 12 days starting Friday, and while I'm not too worried about my family (I bought them lots of KD & hotdogs), I can't help but worry about my tanks! It'll be my husband's first attempt at caring for 2 tanks.

Fingers crossed that my next post on this thread will be 'wow, everything is doing fantastic!'