Oatyfruitybar's 20 Gallon

[oatyfruitybar]

So I started this tank a few months ago and it seems to be going quite well. Got the live rock from Greeley from tanks that had just been disassembled. So far just contains what's listed in my signature.

View attachment 3646

I'll be going to the frag swap at the Ranch in Larimer on the 10th, mostly just for looking but also to meet other folks in the hobby and on the forums.

Will update this as I go along - thinking about doing a RBTA and 2 Black Ocellaris Clownfish in addition to corals; any opinions or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Cake_Boss]

What kind of lights are you running? What coral do you plan on keeping, fish (besides the clown)?

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[oatyfruitybar]

I'm running a Marineland Reef-Capable LED (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=23687) outputting 1670 lumens. I may do a goby of some sort other than the clowns, or maybe a Royal Gramma. As for corals, I eventually want to gain the skills to do acroporas, as those are the most beautiful in my opinion. I'll start with soft corals and LSP though - maybe a Candy Cane coral. No good ever came out of being impatient. I've heard that mushrooms are the best to start with - the only problem is that I really don't like them much. I've been looking for other good starter corals to keep.

I also want to get into clams. Maxima and Derasa clams are beautiful, and I hope to add some of those to my aquarium someday too.

 

[Cake_Boss]

No experience with those lights, so I can't say if they'll handle SPS and clams. However, a generous member of the club started me out with a little bit of everything. A few montis, zoas, lps. As with everything do your research first , but don't be scared to try your hand with multiple coral species. Its fun experimenting with placement IMO.

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[oatyfruitybar]

I think they will handle mostly everything as long as I'm careful in my placement, but we'll see. I'm pretty new to saltwater so we'll see how it goes. Thank you for the encouragement - sometimes it is a little scary picking out things for my SW tank, since it's so expensive compared to FW. Any advice or thoughts on the setup that I'm doing is most helpful.

I'm going to the frag swap in Larimer on the 10th, and hopefully I can get some good in-person advice there. Maybe since my water parameters have been good for some time as well I might even be able to get something cool.

 

[Cake_Boss]

I have a few books if you'd like to borrow them. not sure how much reading you've done, but they sure helped me out. Also asking questions here was wonderful. Meetings are a great place to get multiple opinions on your questions. I like this club better than RC or R2R because of the friendliness of everyone. They have their place, but you won't get a faster response than here. I'm in loveland BTW.

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[oatyfruitybar]

I've done quite a bit of reading, but I'll admit that all of it has been online. Honestly though I didn't even know there WERE other Colorado clubs for aquariums lol.

I would love to borrow some books if you would let me - I'm just not sure how we could meet up. I suffer from the problem of lack of a car, but if you will be coming up this way anytime soon I could probably meet you anywhere in Fort Collins.

 

[KhensuRa]

Tank looks good and I like your rock work. With that deep sand bed you might want to try a jawfish.

 

[oatyfruitybar]

What are the pros and cons in your experience of Jawfish vs. Gobies?

 

[kyuubichan218]

I love your rock work. I'm about as new as you, about two and a half months out of cycle. I just got my first acros though and they are doing great (even though my turbo snail really likes to knock one's frag plus down constantly...)

 

[oatyfruitybar]

Thanks. Yeah, I decided to avoid turbo snails because I heard that they were kind of bad about knocking things over. All of my rock work is balanced - I don't have any glue or holes and dowels to keep it together so I really can't afford critters that are going to move things very much.

Update: Got a Remora protein skimmer last night, courtesy of Dillon. Working on calibrating it now.

 

[oatyfruitybar]

So much news. Finals are over AT LAST, so now I'm free to catch up on everything I've been doing in the tank. Went to the swap last Saturday and got a Maxima clam, some Green Implosion, Bam Bam, and Candy Apple Pink zooanthids. Things were going all fine and dandy, everything opened up and seemed happy.

Then I got weird pink algae growing in my tank, and at first I thought it was a red variety of bubble algae, but I vacuumed it right up with a turkey baster so I figure it was actually cyanobacteria. Hope it doesn't come back, because right now I'm battling another algae problem... hair algae (dun dun DUN!)

So tonight I went off and got a second emerald crab and a lawnmower blenny to see if they can help me keep it under control. I know that the regular methods are to cut down on feedings and to do more water changes, but I do water changes on practically a daily basis and put BARELY any food in, so I figure more manual removal coupled with some eaters will do me some good. Those would be the only two new additions, but I found more aptasia in my tank and so I broke and got a peppermint shrimp to deal with it. Acclimating them all as we speak, and hopefully everything will go well.

 

[oatyfruitybar]

Soo... just used some marine locktite epoxy to glue down some frags, and read the back more closely only to see that it says not for use in aquariums or potable water systems. Am I screwed, or would it be feasible to take the frags out and scrape the epoxy off as much as possible?

 

[Off The Deep End]

Here is the MSDS on it.

ChemicalCAS No / Unique IDPercentPropylene glycol000057-55-61-5 (Hardener)2,4,6-Triphenol (Dimethylaminomethyl)000090-72-21-5 (Hardener)4-tert-Butylphenol000098-54-41-5 (Hardener)Benzyl alcohol000100-51-65-10 (Hardener))Aminoethylpiperazine000140-31-81-5 (Hardener)Calcium carbonate000471-34-110-30 (Hardener)Calcium carbonate000471-34-110-30 (Resin)3-Aminomethyl-3,5,5-trimethylcyclohexylamine002855-13-25-10 (Hardener)Titanium dioxide013463-67-71-5 (Hardener)Quartz014808-60-730-60 (Hardener)Quartz014808-60-730-60 (Resin)Bisphenol A, epichlorohydrin polymer025068-38-630-60 (Resin)N-Isotridecyloxypropyl trimethylenediamine068479-04-95-10 (Hardener)



Not really sure what it all means

 

[oatyfruitybar]

It's all Greek to me too... I thought that epoxy was epoxy the world round, but I guess not... I Googled it and some people said it was okay, some people didn't so I'm concerned.

 

[Off The Deep End]

It's all Greek to me too... I thought that epoxy was epoxy the world round, but I guess not... I Googled it and some people said it was okay, some people didn't so I'm concerned.

Thats why i posted up the MSDS in hopes that someone could enlighten the both of us

 

[oatyfruitybar]

So nothing seems to have happened with the Loctite epoxy, but just in case I switched to epoxy putty that's potable water safe, and it seems to work well. In other news, I have fish now - 1 Bangii Cardinal, 1 Firefish, and 1 Mandarin fish. The first two are in my display tank already and seem happy enough. Both are eating frozen mysis (if they can get any before the blenny pigs out on it). The Mandarin is currently in my quarantine tank as I realized when he was home that he wasn't taking frozen foods. I admit that I was a little foolish for not actually asking the LFS if it was eating frozen foods. That being said I feel a little irritated with the LFS because when I asked about foods they would recommend for the Mandarin it was heavily IMPLIED that frozen foods would work great. Oh well - I guess I've learned a lesson.

In any case, the Mandarin is in my QT and I'm going to pick up some live brine shrimp tomorrow to see if I can start training it to accept frozen foods. If anybody here has successfully done this before any pointers would be extremely helpful.

Also got a RBTA from a member here who's one split - a great deal and it seems very happy in my tank. As most anemones seem to do, it's chosen a spot that's less than wonderful for display purposes, and I'm attempting to move some powerheads to get it to choose a different place if possible.

 

[andrew]

yeh just be careful not to over stock, with fish, keep up with water changes, and have plenty of flow. Also be careful with that clam, they are very sensitive to nitrates as are anemones and many other mobile invertebrates. If you do plan on really getting into the hobby and caring for acroporas, I would recommend getting a bigger set up eventually, but for now do lots and lots of reading before purchasing any animal. For corals stick with softies like zoanthids, and mushrooms, or easier things to care for. Once you do good with softies read about stony corals and the care that comes with them if you want to grow those. Keep your params up and eventually start reading about alk, cal, mag and how to dose and keep them up. Good luck with this and I hope you do good. With the mandarine, try and entice him to eat mysis without other fish eating it or like you said brine shrimp might work.

 

[oatyfruitybar]

Yes, I know about overstocking, and I'm being careful to add things slowly and keep checking up on the water quality. I was thinking about building a refugium too, though I need to read up on it and maybe get some advice from people who have done so before. If I did build a 'fuge I might also be able to breed copepods to feed the mandarin food it would normally eat. In any case, no new additions to the tank for some time now.

The mandarin is currently eating brine shrimp, so that's a good start. As soon as it's used to them I'll start adding in frozen brine shrimp. As I hear it, that's the hardest step, switching from live food to frozen food. I know that brine shrimp really aren't nutritionally the best, so hopefully I can make these steps as quick as possible and start feeding frozen mysis too.

 

[kmcmurtry]

We need an updated pic!