Adam's 55 gallon Reef (Lots o' Pics) - Page 2

Marinemom · #26 09/20/2006, 01:56 PM

Looks really nice so far. Can't wait to see this one up and running.

Marinemom

divecj5 · #27 09/20/2006, 01:59 PM

Thanks Marinemom...things are really exciting now that I'm starting to get some more corals and fish soon

Hopefully I'll be able to get some more updates in tomorrow.

Adam

Cosmo^Kramer · #28 09/20/2006, 04:26 PM

Looks great Adam.My first reef was a 55gal back in 1994,I like your rock work very nice.Are you going to add a sump? and has the cycle started yet? Keep up the great work

divecj5 · #29 09/21/2006, 06:18 AM

Hey there Cosmo. Thanks for the comments. Funny thing is that I just finished reaquascaping after getting some more live rock the other day

Yeah, everything is chugging along now....look below:
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divecj5 · #30 09/21/2006, 06:36 AM

To finish where I left off.....after introducing the initial crew and then the two astreas, I let things just roll for a while to make sure that things were stable before I introduced anything else. I was really just scared to screw anything up and I just needed some time to take a breather and just sit back and enjoy the live rock and snails (I know, REAL exciting).

I probably waited about 2 weeks total after all of my parameters were 0, pH sitting just at 8.2, and alkalinity and calcium checking out nicely before I added anything else.

To give you a little background of what I'm thinking and planning for this tank, I would really like to keep it a softy and LPS tank. I am really fascinated with the flowing LPS (frogspawn, hammer, bubble) but I also really like other LPS such as really colorful candy cane. So along with those, I want to get a good mix of some nice ricordia as well as a mixture of zoas as well. I am planning on staying away from SPS for the time being not only because of the higher price (lighting and corals themselves) but because I'm sure at some point I will upgrade to a bigger tank and will tackle this then.

As far as fish are concerned, I really like the following (not necessarily have them all though

):

False Percs
Six-line wrasse
Flame Angel
Firefish
Tangs (although this will come in a bigger tank some day)

Out of all those fish, I knew the first were going to be the false percs mainly because I've heard and read they are hardy, pretty resistent to diseases, and more importantly I just really like them. I knew that it would spark my girlfriend's interest in the tank as well. So after 2 weeks of steady params....I headed to the LFS looking for a good pair of false percs. Of course they had just got in a batch and I asked them to hold two of them in the same tank for a week to make sure they got along alright. I'm not really looking to harvest the fry or anything, I just thought it would be nice to have two instead of one lonely clown.

Everything went alright for that week with no quarreling so I decided to bring them back and introduced them to my tank. See pics below of Harry and Lloyd (well I guess Lloyd -ete for the female) or Nemo and Marlin to my girlfriend

divecj5 · #31 09/21/2006, 06:37 AM

Here's a picture of the one I'm calling Harry (because Jeff Daniels was bigger in Dumb and Dumber):

Sorry, this one's a little blurry:

One of the best things to watch them do is swim HARD into the powerhead current, turn around, and then let go and surf the current back to the other side. Here's a pic of them doing it (I used a longer shutter speed for the blur effect):

Hopefully I'll be able to update more with the pics of my new aquascaping as well as my first two corals later this afternoon.

Hope you all are enjoying and I'm open for all suggestions and comments.

Adam

divecj5 · #32 09/21/2006, 06:39 AM

Sorry Cosmo....forgot to answer you about the sump. I'm not planning on having one right now. My stand is open on the bottom and I'm not really sure if I want to tackle the sump project right yet. I'm pretty comfortable handling what I have now and don't really want to throw a wrench in the system. I might mod a Aquaclear 90 and use that as a HOB refugium with some chaeto and rock rubble for the time being.

Adam

fsn77 · #33 09/21/2006, 08:26 AM

Very nice -- things are really coming along. Can't wait to see it in person! I'm interested in seeing how those corals you picked up are doing.

Whenever you're ready to try a sump / refugium down in the stand, I have several used 15g tanks laying around that I can be easily persuaded to let go of.

divecj5 · #34 09/21/2006, 08:35 AM

Thanks buddy. I haven't gotten the corals yet....tomorrow is the day

I will have to let you know how their doing. I'll have to let you know when I'm ready for the sump idea.

Adam

bman2221 · #35 09/21/2006, 09:54 AM

Are you getting many micro bubbles with the HOB skimmer? If not how are you keeping them from getting all over your tank? I had a similar skimmer and it let so many micro bubbles into the water that it was absolutely ridiculous.

bman2221 · #36 09/21/2006, 09:54 AM

oh yeah, looks great by the way.

divecj5 · #37 09/21/2006, 09:58 AM

Thanks bman. I actually did get A LOT of micro bubbles at first. It was literally like a snow globe in the tank. I moded the skimmer output with some pvc and just put a mag 7 filter sock on the end of the output. It took a couple of days for the bubbles to calm down and now I don't really get any bubbles. The one's that I do just pop at the surface.

Thanks for the comment...I think my tank is coming along pretty good. Need to get some more lighting in the future.

Adam

captbunzo · #38 09/21/2006, 10:28 AM

Looks very nice... I think false percs are one of the best first fishes. Very friendly, pretty, hardy, all that you say, etc.

As for your fish list, I don't think that is so bad. If you get a firefish, you should add it earlier and preferrably get two. Firefish are relatively skitish and will do better in a pair. As for everything else, that's great. You can even put a tang in that tank, just only do one and make it a scopas or yellow tang. And make sure it is a juvenile when you get it. (~3 inches long) Definately wait a bit before the tang. It will be more agressive and less resistent to disease, etc.

When you get there, give me a holler and I will post a link to some good ich-prevention food (hint: Thera A mixed with minced garlic).

Anyhow, here is a link to that pH meter, as I mentioned yesterday. Any on this page are great (Hanna pH/etc meters). The pH/ORP combo one is pretty nice. I have the pHep 5.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113074

Also, make sure you get calibration and storage solutions. For calibration, you'll want the buffers 7.01 and 10.01.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...=6&pCatId=4512

divecj5 · #39 09/21/2006, 12:06 PM

Thanks Paul. Yeah, the percs have been great citizens thus far and have been really fun to have and watch. They were a real PITA when I first go them about feeding and are still pretty picky. After trying pellets for a day (they would just take them in their mouth, act like they were smoking a cigar, and then spit it back out) I have been alternating feeding them flake, reef complete frozen, and zooplankton. I still have to crush up the flakes before soaking in Selcon and then I just use a pipette that is an extra from test kit to feed a little bit at a time. I was feeding it all at once but at lot was getting to the bottom before they were able to catch it. You should see how they go at the zooplankton though...it's crazy. They act like they could eat 24hrs a day.

Yeah, I think the next fish I get will either be a firefish or a royal gramma. I really like both of them and think they would be a great addition. I will hold off on the flame angel or some sort of tang as the last fish. I might add the six-line next though. So many cool fish...so little space

Thanks for the links, I will have to look into getting one of those since I'm sure they are a lot more accurate than the tests.

Adam

drummereef · #40 09/21/2006, 12:09 PM

Any more photo updates? Looking good so far.

divecj5 · #41 09/21/2006, 12:12 PM

Here are some more updates on the tank that will bring me up to the present as of Monday's pictures:

As I mentioned above, the clowns have been doing great in the tank and have been nothing but model citizens. After experiencing a pretty small brown algae (diatom) bloom, I decided to add about 5 cerith snails, a turbin snail, and another astrea snail to top out my crew for the time being. The ceriths made short work of the bloom (that you can see in the pic below) and I have been pretty happy with my crew keeping things pretty clean. I still mag float the glass every day or two just to keep things in line.

One question while I'm thinking about it: How often do you all take out the powerheads and give them a good cleaning?

I took mine out the other day and just cleaned out all the holes and cleaned off all the algae with some hot water. I also am pretty diligent about cleaning out the skimmer collection cup. How often should I clean out the riser tube of the skimmer? I would need to use some vinegar mixture right?

divecj5 · #42 09/21/2006, 12:16 PM

Did someone say updates

I've got more:

About two weeks ago, after I was confident things were running great, I met up with a friend of mine up in Columbia after I was up there for a college football game. He has been helping me out from the beginning giving me advice, tips, etc. via e-mail and told me that I could have some frags from his tank. Of course I was really excited about that and couldn't wait. My girlfriend and I went over to his house and saw his awesome 90 gallon as well as his cool turtle and other freshwater tanks. We went in together on a group buy from Drs. F&S so I picked up my, no lie, year's worth of fish food and stuff and he gave me the frags. He gave me two really nice frags of xenia and blue anthelia. You can see pics below of the anthelia which is doing great thus far. For some reason I didn't download the pics of the xenia. I'll get those up soon though.

The frags have been doing great and opened up about 10 minutes after I acclimated them. Thanks again Frank.

More updates in a minute....

divecj5 · #43 09/21/2006, 12:23 PM

This pretty much brings me up to this past Monday when I went and got another 8 pounds of live rock and did some pretty major reaquascaping in the tank. I was able to get some really nice pieces of live rock from the LFS (the one piece on the right is completely covered in coralline) and they actually threw in the mushroom on the piece for free which I thought was a good deal.

I did like the ledge look that I had before but I really wanted kind of a mountain style look on the left with a more open swimming area. I really like the negative space on the right. I am planning on building up the left a bit more and maybe adding another nice piece to the right "island."

Let me know what you all think of the look.

You can see the xenia frag and anthelia in this one:

Left side:

Right side:

Full tank shot:

I have a couple of questions about some corals I'm getting so I will ask those in a bit.

Adam

divecj5 · #44 09/21/2006, 01:44 PM

I am going to be away from the computer tomorrow so talk amongst yourselves while I'm away

divecj5 · #45 09/21/2006, 02:18 PM

So that I don't have to retype this again, please click on the link that follows about my question regarding LPS placement: Where to place?

Let me know if you all have any suggestions. I will hopefully have some pics of them to post on Monday. Maybe earlier though

akrimmel · #46 09/21/2006, 02:29 PM

are you going to run a sump?

captbunzo · #47 09/21/2006, 02:31 PM

Nope. Still nope...

akrimmel · #48 09/21/2006, 02:32 PM

that xenia will spread like wildfire so make sure you want to keep it for good, not sure what your experience is but that stuff is very hardy and you can use it like a watchdog for your tank. if the xenia's are doing bad then most likely there is somethibg off in your water parameters. just some advice incase you weren't aware of this.

akrimmel · #49 09/21/2006, 02:58 PM

why no sump if you don't mind me asking?

Divetime · #50 09/21/2006, 03:30 PM

OMG...DiveCJ5 finally made the jump into the marine world

Congrats my friend and its looking great so far. Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming

I'll be tagging along