It's been a while since I posted. I've been meaning to take more pictures to have something to show. I haven't done that yet, but I will get to it. But there has been so many changes to the aquarium it deserves an update!
Two pieces of bad news awaited me when I came back from a recruiting trip to Austin last week. The frag of birdsnest coral I got from Billy apparently was out in the air too long while I did my 15 gallon water change last week, and about half of it died off . On the upside, half of it still looks great. Hopefully it'll grow a bunch to compensate.
The other piece of slightly bad news was that my blue tang seems to have a case of Marine Ich. For the uninitiated, it's a protazoa parasite that causes itchy white spots under the skin of the fish. I'm treating with garlic (yes, garlic) drops and some stuff called "IchAttack", and so far it isn't too bad. My local fish guy said that every tank has it, but the fish only contract it when they are stressed out. Hopefully my tang will relax...
On the positive side, I've been adding quite a few species to my tank over the past week. Saturday James and I picked up a Lawnmower Blenny and a Royal Gramma Basslet. I have to get a picture for y'all of the Royal Gramma, it is awesome. The fish has blue eyes, and it's body is half purple and half yellow. Weird.
Yesterday I picked up a Fighting Conch snail, Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, and a frag of cool Favia coral- maroon with neon green centers. I will post pics!
So far so good.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
More fish, and better pictures!
Since my last post, I've done another water change (15 gallons), and added our 4th fish and 1st coral!
Last weekend I changed 15 gallons of water (thanks again to Billy for the RO/DI water). He also gave me a few pieces of his Pink Birdsnest coral, which seems to be thriving in the tank.
While they can eventually get too big for our tank, I wasn't going to put together a saltwater tank without DORY, the regal blue tang. So, we got a small one (2") and so she'll have years before she's too big for us.
My best friend, Will Lim, came over with his beast of a camera and took pictures 10,000x better than what I can get with my point-n-shoot. Here's Dory:
And pictures of the other three:
Last weekend I changed 15 gallons of water (thanks again to Billy for the RO/DI water). He also gave me a few pieces of his Pink Birdsnest coral, which seems to be thriving in the tank.
While they can eventually get too big for our tank, I wasn't going to put together a saltwater tank without DORY, the regal blue tang. So, we got a small one (2") and so she'll have years before she's too big for us.
My best friend, Will Lim, came over with his beast of a camera and took pictures 10,000x better than what I can get with my point-n-shoot. Here's Dory:
And pictures of the other three:
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Pictures of First Fish!
Not great pictures, but you get the idea. First is the Firefish, followed by two shots of the two Clown Fish. No names yet.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
FIRST FISH!
On Sunday, after I had messed around with rocks and stirred everything around, I did another water chemistry analysis and found that everything was as it was- pH of 8.0, zero Ammonia, zero Nitrite, and about 40ppm of Nitrate.
Monday was a busy day for the aquarium. I completed the big water change required at the end of the nitrogen cycle. I decided to do 7 Home Depot Buckets of water change, about 35 gallons. My tank is "58" gallons, but with the 80 lbs of sand and 65 lbs of rocks, after I took out 35 gallons, there was only probably 3-4 inches of water left in the tank.
Monica helped me and we put on a blue background onto the tank. Unfortunately, as I was putting the hang-on-back refugium back on the tank, I ripped a hole smack in the middle of the blue background. I will try to patch, but I may have to plant a coral right in front of it so I stop staring at it!
Jude (2 years old) and I mixed up each Home Depot Bucket to 1.025 salinity with the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. Jude did the scooping, and I did the counting. We pumped all the water back in and turned all the pumps and powerheads back on.
After letting everything mix and settle for a while, I performed another water chemistry check. Salinity was right on target at very slightly under 1.025, pH was up to 8.2 surprisingly, Ammonia and Nitrite still zero, and Nitrate down to maybe a little over 5ppm.
So it was time for first official tank inhabitants (the stowaway hermit crab and snail don't count, though they lived through the nitrogen cycle just fine!). James, John, and I went out shopping and brought home....
(drumroll please!)
2 Ocellaris Clownfish (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+27+755&pcatid=755)
and
1 Firefish (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1636+168&pcatid=168)
I put links here to examples of our 3 little fishes. I tried to take pictures last night, but they came out blurry. I will try again tonight.
Hopefully everybody makes it through the shock of transition and that the tank handles the shock to the system, and then maybe we can add more livestock next weekend!
Coming this Thursday is our clean-up-crew from http://www.reefcleaners.org/. SNAILS!!!
Monday was a busy day for the aquarium. I completed the big water change required at the end of the nitrogen cycle. I decided to do 7 Home Depot Buckets of water change, about 35 gallons. My tank is "58" gallons, but with the 80 lbs of sand and 65 lbs of rocks, after I took out 35 gallons, there was only probably 3-4 inches of water left in the tank.
Monica helped me and we put on a blue background onto the tank. Unfortunately, as I was putting the hang-on-back refugium back on the tank, I ripped a hole smack in the middle of the blue background. I will try to patch, but I may have to plant a coral right in front of it so I stop staring at it!
Jude (2 years old) and I mixed up each Home Depot Bucket to 1.025 salinity with the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. Jude did the scooping, and I did the counting. We pumped all the water back in and turned all the pumps and powerheads back on.
After letting everything mix and settle for a while, I performed another water chemistry check. Salinity was right on target at very slightly under 1.025, pH was up to 8.2 surprisingly, Ammonia and Nitrite still zero, and Nitrate down to maybe a little over 5ppm.
So it was time for first official tank inhabitants (the stowaway hermit crab and snail don't count, though they lived through the nitrogen cycle just fine!). James, John, and I went out shopping and brought home....
(drumroll please!)
2 Ocellaris Clownfish (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+27+755&pcatid=755)
and
1 Firefish (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1636+168&pcatid=168)
I put links here to examples of our 3 little fishes. I tried to take pictures last night, but they came out blurry. I will try again tonight.
Hopefully everybody makes it through the shock of transition and that the tank handles the shock to the system, and then maybe we can add more livestock next weekend!
Coming this Thursday is our clean-up-crew from http://www.reefcleaners.org/. SNAILS!!!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Rock re-arrangement and glue down
Before we add livestock, I thought it best to get the rocks exactly how I wanted them. There was a few of the live rocks that were not in keeping with the decor of the tank, so I crushed them up into marble-to-golf ball sized pieces and put them in the refugium. I added another of the "dead" marco rocks and made one of the live rocks into a bridge. Today Monica helped me mix up epoxy putty and we tried to "glue" the rocks together. Hopefully it worked.
Tomorrow- water change! Then, livestock! Ordering the clean-up-crew today from http://www.reefcleaners.org/ for shipping later in the week.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Cycle is over! Time for Livestock!
I've been testing every other day for the past week. On Wednesday, Ammonia had come down but was still present, and Nitrite was still going up. Yesterday (Friday), Ammonia and Nitrite measured ZERO, and Nitrate is up around 40ppm. So it's time for a water change and then to add the clean-up crew!
I also rearranged the rocks now that I can actually see in the tank. When Billy and I put the rocks in originally, the water had the clarity of skim milk. Plus most of the live rock I received was coral skeletons which is not exactly the look I was going for. So a couple of the coral skeletons I crushed with a hammer on the back patio, and put the small pieces into my refugium.
Hopefully all the messing around in the tank hasn't stirred up another Ammonia spike. I'll test again today or tomorrow before ordering the CUC.
Today I'm going to be experimenting with trying to glue the rocks together to prevent future rock slides. I'll post pictures when I can find the camera.
I also rearranged the rocks now that I can actually see in the tank. When Billy and I put the rocks in originally, the water had the clarity of skim milk. Plus most of the live rock I received was coral skeletons which is not exactly the look I was going for. So a couple of the coral skeletons I crushed with a hammer on the back patio, and put the small pieces into my refugium.
Hopefully all the messing around in the tank hasn't stirred up another Ammonia spike. I'll test again today or tomorrow before ordering the CUC.
Today I'm going to be experimenting with trying to glue the rocks together to prevent future rock slides. I'll post pictures when I can find the camera.
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