Starting a 75 Gallon Reef - Page 3

IndoorOcean · #51 07/18/2007, 06:28 PM

sixspeed - I got my Sunpod from ebay... paid $250 for it. I've seen others sold for less than $300. That may be your best bet if you don't find someone on RC selling one for cheap.

MarineFishGuy - about your CUC, have you had any issues with the crabs? It seems to be quite the debate on here whether or not the benefit of hermits outweighs the risks. Also, the sally lightfoot I'm told can get quite aggressive. What has been your experience with these?

IndoorOcean · #52 07/18/2007, 06:30 PM

Tank params tonight:

temp = 77
sg = 1.024
ammonia = .3
nitrite = .2
nitrate = 10

Thinking of adding some of the liverock from the 20 gallon. Probably just a few small pieces. The marco rocks are supposed to be here on Friday.

IndoorOcean · #53 07/18/2007, 07:58 PM

I added about 3-4 pounds of live rock from the 20. I also added another 20 lbs. of sand.

I'll try to get an FTS tomorrow night. Got a sand storm right now.

MarineFishGuy · #54 07/18/2007, 10:32 PM

Here is a shot of my sump with the plant basket.

Here is a close up of the plant basket itself.

I have only added the Red legged hermits and not the blue legged. So far I have not had an issue with the Red legged hermits causing any issues. I have heard that the blue legged hermits like to go after the snails.

The sally light foot can be aggressive at times, especially during feedings, she will come up and take food right from my tank claw (2 foot grey plastic arm with a plier like end for grabbing items in the tank). I use it to place food near my peppermint shrimp and the emeralds and sally. None of them are scared of it, they will all come up and remove the food right from the teeth.

I try to keep them well fed so they do not go after other tank inhabitants. If I notice an issue I will remove them, but they are so interesting to watch.

The cleaner shrimp is my fav though, it will take food right from my hand, as well as clean my cuticles too.

IndoorOcean · #55 07/19/2007, 05:38 PM

MarineFishGuy, I agree that the crabs and shrimp are interesting. I will definitely be adding shrimp to my tank, but haven't decided about the crabs yet.

IndoorOcean · #56 07/20/2007, 08:45 PM

The dry rock I ordered came in today. I was very impressed with this rock. I got 25 lbs which is a lot more than you would think. Rock ways so much less when it has been soaked in water, especially rock that is very porous as this rock is.

Here's the opened box.

Here they are all spread out.

Here's some close-ups of a few pieces.

IndoorOcean · #57 07/20/2007, 08:52 PM

I never knew that dry rock would come with hitchhikers.

I know it's hard to tell from that pic, but if you look closely you will see a dark black spot inside one of the holes. It's a spider! He had made his home in one of my rocks. Had a nice web spun and all.

Here's a pic of him after I flushed him out.

You will be happy to know that I did release him outdoors. Maybe he will eat some of these mosquitos we have here!

IndoorOcean · #58 07/21/2007, 10:09 AM

I didn't have time to post all of my updates last night.

So, after the rock came in I decided get all of the live rock from the 20.

Here's the live rock.

Here's a close-up of one piece. As you can see I had some nice coraline growth.

IndoorOcean · #59 07/21/2007, 10:14 AM

Now it was time to do the aquascaping. I think I worked on this for about 2 hours before I was happy.

Here's an FTS with the flash off.

Here's another with flash on.

IndoorOcean · #60 07/21/2007, 11:27 AM

Tank parameters this morning:

temp = 75 F
sg = 1.025
ph = 8.2
alk = 4.5 meq/l
ammonia = .7
nitrite = .4
nitrate = 20

IndoorOcean · #61 07/22/2007, 09:24 PM

This morning I noticed something on the sand. This is the best pic I could get...

It's some sort of crab that apparently molted last night. The shell is about 3/4" wide. The color is a sort of brownish-red. Anyone got any ideas? Should I try to catch it and get it out of the tank? If so, what's the best method to do this?

Any help is appreciated.

MarineFishGuy · #62 07/23/2007, 12:57 PM

It looks like an Emerald Crab Carapace.
They are good guys, reef safe and known for eating bubble algae. Typically they grow to at most 1.5" and cost about $6 at the LFS.
Color varies from Brown to green to pinkish red.
They can be elusive so you may not see much of it if that is what it is. They also blend in with the live rock in many cases so it takes a good eye to spot them unless they are moving around.
HTH,
Ken
PS the tank looks good so far. Your rock work looks very similar to mine.

IndoorOcean · #63 07/23/2007, 06:07 PM

Thanks, MarineFishGuy! I thought that it looked sort of like a mithrax crab. I used to have an emerald mithrax; he died for no reason that I could determine after about 2 years (maybe this is how long they live?). But I had never seen one with this coloartion before.

I didn't notice until you said something, but my aquascaping does look similar to yours. I was initially trying to create a few islands, but wasn't having any luck. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way it looks.

IndoorOcean · #64 07/24/2007, 06:47 PM

Water params:

temp = 76 F
sg = 1.025
ph = 8.1
alk = 4.0 meq/l
ammonia = .1
nitrite = .05
nitrate = 15

Both ammonia and nitrite and decreased significantly. Looks like my tank has almost completed its "cycle." I'm still surprised that it has taken this long. I only added 10 lbs of new live rock and only about 4 lbs of that was uncured. That was 9 days ago. Then again, I didn't add the rest of the live rock or the skimmer until this past Friday - 4 days ago.

IndoorOcean · #65 07/26/2007, 10:05 PM

Last night my tank params were as follows:

temp = 77
sg = 1.025
ph = 8.2
alk = 4.5 meq/l
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 20

Today I did a 10% w/c. All the params seemed great so I went to my LFS and got 6 ceriths, 6 astreas, and 1 pepermint shrimp. I drip acclimated for about an hour and then released them into the tank. All seem to be doing great. The astreas have been doing a great job in eating the diatoms that were covering a lot of the rock.

IndoorOcean · #66 08/02/2007, 09:06 PM

This past weekend I transferred my percula clownfish from the 20 to the 75. I did have a pair of clowns, but about 2 weeks ago one of them got sick very suddenly and died within 24 hours of me noticing he was acting exactly right. Still confused as to what happened to him.

The clown looked very lost and alone in the tank all by himself, so I went to the LFS today to purchase a new one. The only percs they had were much larger than the one I have now, so I decided it wasn't a good idea. I did see a bicolor blenny that I wanted, so I purchased him and a cleaner shrimp.

All tank params are good, and all of its inhabitants seem healthy and happy.

Mariner · #67 08/03/2007, 03:49 PM

Actually, when introducing a new clown into a tank that already has one, it is a good idea for there to be a noticeable size difference, IMO. They pair off much easier that way. Over a year ago I put a small juvi A. Ocellaris in with a fully mature fish and they took to each other right away. They'd still be together if the larger fish hadn't jumped out of the tank a couple of months ago.
HTH,
Mariner

IndoorOcean · #68 08/04/2007, 10:26 AM

Mariner, I agree with you that there should be a size difference when introducing a new clown. However, I believe the one I have now was the dominate clown in the pair, so I thought it would safer for me to introduce a smaller clown rather than a larger one.

Does your clown host anything? I don't have an anemone - yet, but I did have a hammer coral in the 20. I heard that sometimes they will host corals, especially LPS, but mine never did.

sixspeed · #69 08/04/2007, 12:03 PM

Tank is looking nice indoor, where did you get the base rock from? marcos?

IndoorOcean · #70 08/04/2007, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sixspeed
Tank is looking nice indoor, where did you get the base rock from? marcos?

Thanks, sixspeed! Yes, the base rock is marco rocks.

Mariner · #71 08/04/2007, 02:56 PM

My old clown would not host anything for three years. The little juvi however went straight to a toadstool leather -- he only leaves it if it retracts it's tentacles, and then he'll go to another large toadstool nearby.

Mariner

IndoorOcean · #72 08/11/2007, 07:21 PM

I bought a small percula clown today. He's been in the tank for about 6 hours now and seems to be doing fine. However, he and the other clown have yet to become friends; they are hanging out on opposite ends of the tank.

In other news, the bicolor blenny is doing very well. He's overcome his shyness and is currently the most interesting inhabitant of my tank.

IndoorOcean · #73 08/16/2007, 06:29 PM

More new additions! Today I got an open brain coral and a small GSP frag.

Here's the open brain. It's about 4" in diameter.

I didn't take any pics of the GSP since only a couple of the polyps have opened since adding it to my tank a couple of hours ago. The frag is about 1.5" in diameter.

Here's a current FTS... the tank is now 1 month old. Probably hard to tell from this pic, but coraline algae is beginning to cover the marco rocks... they're not white any more!!!

IndoorOcean · #74 08/16/2007, 08:57 PM

The GSP polyps opened up more and I got this shot.

Here's my hammer coral, which I transferred from the 20 last week.

This is a bad pic, but the best one I've been able to take so far of my pair of percula clowns.

The bicolor blenny.

The cleaner shrimp.

IndoorOcean · #75 09/07/2007, 06:18 PM

I moved the yellowtail damsel into the 75 last weekend. So far he has been a model citizen.

I also added about 6 more cerith snails to the CUC. I now have 12 cerith, 6 astrea, and 3 nassarius. I'm probably going to add another 6 astrea soon.

Nothing else to report except that everything seems to be going well. The tank will be 2 months old next week, so I'll take some new pics of it then.