Winterfell Reef - A 100 Gallon Journey

[dtum]

Chapter 7. First Inhabitants

Chapter 7. First Inhabitants

Chapter 7. First Inhabitants


While it was fairly easy to wait 6 weeks while the tank was being built, the waiting game had become agonizing once the salt was mixed and the cycle had started.

Originally I was toying with an idea of simply moving all small aquarium's contents in the new tank and hope for the best. It still makes some sense to me: the amount of established live rock and sand plus the bio load is not changing, only the total water volume and new media is added, neither should affect the cycle in theory. But after giving it some more thought I dismissed this approach as being too aggressive.

On the other hand I knew that to do things properly I'd have to run the tank for a couple of months with no fish/corals, seed it with some live rock, add a copepod colony and get a solid soup of all saltwater goodness before adding anyone. Though somewhat determined to do this earlier in the process, I decided not to proceed with this as well since it would take too long.

Finally I picked a semi-aggressive approach. I did everything I could to speed the cycle up:

• took a few pieces of new rock and put them in my old tank for a few days so that they'll get colonized by bacteria
• added about 10 lbs of live rock into the sump
• put some used media basket filters from the smaller tank into the sump as well
• added some Seachem Stability
• dozed sparingly with ZeoBak
• every day scooped up about 1/4 of a cup of live sand from the old tank and dispersed it over the new sandbed
• stared intensely at the tank in search of other possible ways to speed up the cycle

I started taking ammonia and nitrite measurements every other day starting day 3. Both were at solid zero and remained zero during all of my testing. So I figured that all the steps I took must've done the trick and decided to move some fish over.

My first choice was the bicolour blenny. Right after I've put the net into the water both blenny and six-line wrasse went for the rocks and found shelter deep in the crevices. There was no way I was going to catch them.

I hesitated about picking my clownfish pair, but they seemed so oblivious to the whole process and were swimming next to the net so I decided to use them instead. To my surprise, the moment I started targeting them they realized this and changed their behaviour immediately. I've never seen a fish behave so frantically, they were literally freak out. That is probably one of the biggest differences between saltwater and freshwater fish that I've observed. The fish clearly knew what was about to happen and did not want it.

I was about to give up on catching the female when suddenly it leaped from the water and ended up in a plant pot that stood nearby. Now I was about to freak out. I grabbed the fish, it was covered with black soil and quickly dropped it in the new tank. The fish was clearly in mild shock. After a minute I caught the male and put him in the big tank as well.

For the next hour I observed how patches of soil were slowly coming off of the fish. An hour later the fish was fine and I decided to call it a night.

Here's a video I took of the tank and its first inhabitants.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KzE-Q7XFpK0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[dtum]

It is time for an update and a few pictures.

Here's what my tank look like today:

All of the corals and fish have been moved from my old tank to the new one. Surprisingly there's not too much room left for future expansion - I was certainly expecting a bit more.

I have been measuring ammonia daily and all of my parameters seems to be in check. So I've added a few new inhabitants:

A strawberry conch, yellow watchman goby, 2 purple fire fish and few snails.

Emerald crab hitchhiking.

Green Star Polyps

Purple Fire Fish

Green Leather Coral

Strawberry Conch

 

[bpcardona]

Tank looks great!

 

[dtum]

Here's another video update

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh7lgx82Qdk

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Dh7lgx82Qdk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[bpcardona]

Thanks for sharing the video, looks very nice

 

[ojonas81]

Love the setup so far. I'm in the planning stages for my tank upgrade from a JBJ 28g. Will do a similar size as yours so will follow this one closely. How much did you pay for the tank?

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

 

[mrvjames]

Great setup and video. Can't wait to see it grow out.

 

[dtum]

The tank is now 1 month and 19 days old. Thought I'd share another video.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LkKbrffJX_g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[dtum]

Winterfell Reef at 2.5 months.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rQ-89JjY75I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[dtum]

Winterfell Reef at 2.5 months.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rQ-89JjY75I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[dtum]

Winterfell Reef is 2.5 months old

Winterfell Reef is 2.5 months old

Winterfell Reef is now 2.5 months old.

There's not a lot that has changed over the past month. The tank seems to be quite stable, water parameters are solid and don't deviate from the norm.

There was a Boxing Day sale here in Canada and I've got a whole bunch of new corals and a few fish.

I like the photo below, you might notice that there's a hitchhiker snail on top of the large snail.

 

[Brs]

Nice set up DTum!

 

[PistolShrmp]

Lookin good!

 

[dtum]

Well, it has been a few months since my last post. Last time I've shared my tank status was sometime in January and since then thing have been only improving, rapidly... until a series of unfortunate events have occurred and let's just say there's a lesson to be learned here.
The Winter is Coming! And what a winter it was.

My inhabitants were doing great in January, I kept adding fish gradually, every one or two weeks taking a trip to a few of my local fish stores and picking a fish that would caught my eye. Nothing aggressive, everything by the book and pretty much all of the fish were doing extremely well. My yellow tang was feasting on nori, fish were all happy and even a pair of anthias that looked quite beat up when I purchased them have become brave enough to be swimming around the tank. Corals were growing a fair bit, and I kept adding more of them regularly.
It was paradise, it was the best of times... but something was amiss. I just had to turn it up a notch. I've always wanted a second tang and had my heart set on a powder blue tang. Knowing its reputation I decided not to get it, but instead to go with the hippo blue tang, then changed my mind and chose a kole tang... then changed my mind again, and again, and again. After two weeks of hard thinking I've decided that it is the powder blue that I needed to have, so I did visit 5 different stores and finally, after having observed one particular individual for over an hour, have purchased that fella and brought it home.
At home I gave it a freshwater dip - first time experience for both the fish and myself, I'm sure. That was nerve wrecking and to this day I have no idea how people do it. Anyways, the dip went well and the fish was doing pretty good on the second day and was doing extremely well after a week.
This is my tank at its best:


And then it happened. I noticed just a few white spots on the powder blue. Don't panic, I told myself, let's do some research. After some research I've increased the dosage of garlic I was giving the fish, increased the feedings and kept up with the water changes.
But it got worse. And the next day even worse. And a week later I started noticing ich on my other fish, including the yellow tang.

Ok, what's next? I skipped the step of quarantining the fish, but I'm going to right that wrong - I went ahead and bought a 40 gallon breeder, prepared some sponge filters and let it all seed in the current sump. 10 days later I've moved all the fish from my reef to the quarantine tank, a very painful process that took a few hours. Needless to say that all of my aqua scape was mangled and no matter how much I tried I could not put it back together the way it was. Oh well, I think that the new scape is even better.

A few more fish died just before I've moved them over, and then I had to endure 2 weeks of seeing the rest of my fish slowly dying. This was heartbreaking to say the least. The last fish to give up were the yellow watchmen and cardinal. That was not a good day.

Since then I have dismantled the quarantine tank. Bought a second one and then started them up again. It has been two weeks since the new cycle had started, one tank is already fully cycled and I'm waiting for the other one to get up to date. Then I will start getting new fish and quarantining each and every one of them.

I never thought it would happen to me, it seems to be a thing that not too many aquarists that I know do, so I figured I'd wing it. And I came close, very close. But here it is. Hope that others will learn from this.

Here's a shot of my secondary quarantine tank (no copper treatment will be administered in it, hence the live rock).

 

[Reeftanks6]

This is an awesome tank are you dosing?

 

[dtum]

This is an awesome tank are you dosing?

Thanks, yes. I dose calcium, alk and magnesium. Plus I've been using ProdiBio for the past 3 months with some success.

Here is my dosing and maintenance routine:

 

[bsilvest]

bump for the Game of thrones tank! Love the show and great tank lets keep this one going

 

[dtum]

bump for the Game of thrones tank! Love the show and great tank lets keep this one going

There will not be a chopping of anyone's limbs here, but I did manage to lose all of my fish to the plague. So George Martin might find this fitting.

 

[d2mini]

Awesome tank.
Can't wait to see fish again!
Will you choose different fish this time or same ones?

 

[dtum]

Awesome tank.
Can't wait to see fish again!
Will you choose different fish this time or same ones?

Here is my thinking about the fish: I've already gone through the process of filling the tank with all the fish I wanted and knew were suitable and I've learned a thing or two about it in the process. I must admit that part of my is quite glad that I get to start again, even though I feel very sorry for the fish I've lost.

So, here's a quick recap of my experience with particular species of fish in the tank so far:

• Yellow tang - one of my favourite fish, certainly the showpiece of the tang and was very well mannered
• Powder blue tang - it certainly was one of the most beautiful fish in the tank and he behaved quite well, but he'd move a lot quicker in the tank and I could see some potential problems in the near future with it
• Ocellaris clowns were great, Royal Gramma was super nice and is still one of my most beloved fish
• All the small gobies that I've enjoyed in my nano (including fire fish) were not very visible from afar, one had to come up very closely to see them
• Dispar anthias turned out to be extremely shy, different variety next time

This time around I'll be making a few adjustments to my stocking plan. Some may consider my list a bit on the aggressive side and it might be, but I've got a really good skimmer and an aqua scape that should enable fish security, and after all it is just a plan. I'll keep adding the fish slowly and monitoring the situation, if something will not work I'll adjust accordingly.

Here is my stocking plan:

• Yellow tang - a must
• Blue hippo tang - although considered tacky by some, I do like the fish a lot and have never kept it. I'll probably will have to part with it in a few years (or just get a bigger tank!)
• Melanurus wrasse - I need a wrasse in my tank and if there'd be a single one, I'd go for this colorful fella
• Pair of ocellaris clowns - every reef needs a pair
• Copperband - I want to try it with this fish, not sure I'll succeed but I'll try
• Trio of anthias - either blue-eye or bartlett's
• Green spotted mandarin (at least six months from now)

I think that this is it, this is my list. If the tank will still have at least some more room I'd add a fairy wrasse in there.

I plan to go steady, quarantine every single fish and be checking all of the water parameters and aquarium status with each step.

A pair of tangs has already been purchased for me and are being quarantined by a friend. They are both small, so although they'll be the first to be added to the tank I think this should not affect any new fish I add.