29 Oceanic Bio-Cube Journal

[AnotherLousy1]

Thanks Aquaman, really appreciate it!

Lisa - yeah, I've noticed a molt off of one of the peppermints before, so I do know what to look for. Although, I must admit, it freaked me out the first time I saw an entire translucent shrimp staring at me from the other side of the acrylic. LOL

LYNN - Other than the .1 on the ammonia on the 29th which by the 30th went back down to 0, my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates have stayed pretty much at the last reading since the cycle completed. I wasn't going to add fish for at least another week provided my params stay where they are from yesterday. I was just asking if 6 weeks was too early. Trying my darndest not to rush rush rush, no matter how exciting it is.

Thanks everyone for the advice and compliments!

Lynnette

[AnotherLousy1]

Last night, was out by the LFS and happened across some Cheato. I had been reading quite a bit on another forum about the "soap dish refugium", so I thought, what the heck, let's give it a try. My only problem now is there are tons of microbubbles around the soap dish and cheato and in the tank itself. I've got another thread going about this problem:

Cheato addition

And have been told to have "patience glasshoppah" <heh> Thanks BigAl!!!!

Anyway, here's the photo of it. I have placed it in front of my primary flow for now and may eventually move my other powerhead to flow under it as Al did. I'm going to wait a couple days and see how things pan out.



I have to admit, I hate all those little bubbles in my tank. :::snarl:::

Lynnette

[blue_eyes53813]

Ahh there is the little soap dish.. Good idea... congrats on your patience grasshoppah,,, lol

[AnotherLousy1]

YES, there is the soap dish Blue_Eyes, in all it's bubbled glory. LMAO!

I also wanted to post another little piece o' rock I picked up last night while at the LFS (who now owns most of my checkbook because of this new tank <heh>) with some cool zooanthids on it.



When I got the zoos home and all acclimated, I was putting some superglue gel on the bottom of the rock to attach it and happened to notice a little critter on left side. Doesn't look like zoos to me, in fact, the best way I can describe it is it looks like a miniature human heart (ok, well at least medical photos I've seen). Anyway, here's a little closer photo of it, best I could do for now because of the way the tank is sitting.



As another note, tank parms are still remaining stable today after testing:

Salinity - 1.025
PH - 8.0
Calcium - 440
Phos - .25
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - < 5

Thanks for keeping up with me and my tank. Hoping my parms stay stable, really excited about getting that goby and pistol shrimp.

Lynnette

[lcstorc]

Looks like things are going well. Glad to hear you have so much patience. It will pay off in the long run.

[AnotherLousy1]

Well, it's been about a week and a half since my last update. My LFS got in a yellow watchman goby, but no pistol shrimp. The goby was TINY, so I decided against it. However, they did have this cute, very plump diamond goby in the same tank with a target madarin goby who was also very plump and healthy. In talking with the owner of the LFS, who has over 18 years experience in Saltwater, he showed me what the target eats, bloodworms and mysis shrimp. Actually got to see this little bugger eat and eat he/she does.

I know all the threads I have read about a mandarin in a nano tank. For the past couple weeks, I have been supplementing about once a week with Marc Weiss' reef bugs and have my little soap dish refugium full of cheato, I can see pods for days. LOL This and the fact, this litte target eats mysis and bloodworms, does everyone really think there will be an issue? I'd really like to have some input to this.

Anyway, onto the updates of the tank, these readings are 24 hours after 20% water change:

Salinity - 1.025
PH - 8.0
Calcium - 400 (am beginning to dose again with argamilk daily)
Phos - .25
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - < 5

Tank temp: 80 (always seem to leave this out for some reason)

Although, I walked out of my LFS with no fish, I did come out with a few goodies. A couple of them are due to knowing down the road, I will be adding a pair of Ocellaris Clowns but I don't want an anenome. I've heard they will sometimes host frogspawn and hammer corals, so I was lucky enough to find a couple really nice specimens. I think I got a pretty good deal on the hammer since there are three heads on it, and only paid 30 bucks.

I also picked up some really cool zoos with neon green centers. Here are some photos, though I don't think they do theses critters justice. Still working on camera settings and such with taking photos in the tank.







Finally, here's an FTS today, have done some reworking of the rock to get the hammer and frogspawn where I wanted them. Actually worked out pretty good and made a few extra little crevices for hiding. WOOHOO!



Still have some microbubbles, but keep working with the tank and skimmer to get rid of them. Also, was able to do another modification to the tank by popping out the sub-floor in chamber 1. I'm now able to keep both my seagel and heater in that chamber. Feeling really good about my first salt experience so far, I only hope it lasts.

Thanks again for checking things out.

Lynnette

[lcstorc]

Everything looks great! Keep up the good work.
I would be very nervous about the mandarin. They can seem to do fine on prepared foods and then one day they stop eating them and slowly waste away.

[AnotherLousy1]

LYNN - I've taken your advice to heart after sleeping a few days over it and done a little more reading and I just couldn't find it in myself to buy the mandarin. I went down to the LFS and asked to see the little guy eat again ... and this time he seemed interested, however, didn't take any food. That in itself put a fear enough in me that I just couldn't buy him. So thanks for the extra push to reconsider!

On the other hand, an update to the tank is my FIRST FISH! YAY! I bought a Diamond Goby who does readily take frozen foods and is just too dang cute. I also added a cleaner shrimp to the mix who seems to have set up station on my Toadstool Leather. I don't think the Leather is appreciating it too much either as for the past couple days while the shrimp is posted, it hasn't opened up fully. I figure the cleaner is just doing his job and will soon move on.

I was able to capture some video of the Goby, "Sifty" (I've decided that's what I'm going to call him or her) and have posted out here:

First Fishy "Addition"

Now maybe this will keep me entertained long enough to wait it out a few weeks before adding anything else.

I'm starting to see some nice spots of coraline on the back of the tank, and of course the live rock is coloring up nicely ... things seem to be moving along nicely

Last but not least, I got rid of almost all of my hermit crabs. I have decided, I may have to join the "crabs are evil" club. I only have 1 Halloween, 1 zebra, and 1 red tipped (he was hiding when I was picking out everyone else). The reasoning behind getting rid of them is 1) they started crawling all over my zooanthids to where they weren't opening up and 2) I had a couple larger ones that were flat out bullies and though they were fed quite nicely, would pick on the smaller hermits and pull them out of their shells and kill them just for the heck of it. I want a rather peaceful, docile reef, so these guys HAD TO GO!!!!!

As always, thanks for keeping up with my reef chronicle.

Lynnette

[lcstorc]

Sounds like things are going well. Good choice getting rid of the crabs. I got rid of mine for almost the same exact reason. Mine were eating my snails though and not each other.
Glad to see you got such a cool first fish. I am sure he is enjoying the tank all to himself.

[AnotherLousy1]

YES, the crabs did have to go! I was soooo frustrated with them being bullies, and could only imagine after they took each other out the ones remaining would probably start after my corals. Hmmmmm, 40 dollar ricordea rock or 1 dollar crab. Of course, we know who won out. LOL

I was at my LFS this weekend, seeing new stock, etc, oh yeah, I had to get water as well. Lo and behold, I look over and out of the corner of my eye see this little yellow cutie looking at me from behind a rock. A lovely little Yellow Clown Goby. I told myself, I should wait, I told myself, it's best to wait, however, my brain then told me, you've NEVER seen something like this around here. It's always the typical clownfish, always something very common, go ahead, get him! <heh> So I did, along with some new Zooanthids and two plants that were listed as Shaving Brush, but I think they are more like Mermaid's Fan. I have vowed (honest and for true) that I will not be visiting the LFS for at least 2 weeks, when it is time again to pick up water. At that time, I will pick up only the water ... LOL

I have to admit, saltwater is truly addictive!!! And I thought I loved my freshwater tanks more than a human was supposed to. LMAO!

Lynnette

[BigAl07]

Tanks and params are looking excellent grasshoppah-san.

Keep up the good work and as you already know-feel, your patience is going to pay off now and for a LONG time to come.

Allen

[AnotherLousy1]

Thanks Allen, you crack me up. And yes, trying to be as patient as possible.

Thought I would update with some photos this time, tomorrow is testing the water parms because I want to give 24 hours at least since my last water change which was yesterday evening.

So here we go:

The full tank shot


Skunk Cleaner - Jacques (I got to see him in action yesterday cleaning the diamond goby's mouth, that was a trip.)


Diamond Goby - Sifty


Yellow Clown Goby - Lemon (a little shy still, but coming around)


Yellow Polyps (these have been in the tank for about 3 weeks, but have only started coming out after moving the rockscape around a bit)


Green Center Polyps (just picked these up with the clown goby this past weekend)


Pink/Purple Zoos (picked up with the goby as well, only was charged 10 bucks for this rock, couldn't pass it up)


As for the tank itself, as you can see from the FTS, I have redone some of the rockscape and built a tiny cove, everyone seems to really like it from what I can tell in the tank, all the corals are out and the fish and shrimp seem to be moving about more. The only thing I'm concerned about now is watching my peppermint come after my skunk cleaner shrimp from time to time. For the peppermints sake, he better hope he steers clear or else he'll be making a trip back to the LFS. <heh>

Everyone's been eating quite well, mix of mysis, spirulina loaded brine, bloodworms, clams, squid, cyclopeeze, zoo/phyto and hikari marine pellets. They get a good variety, and I'm actually thinking of mixing up my own food and putting it in the little ice cube trays then storing it so there's a constant variety at all times.

That's about it for now, will post more on the parms tomorrow, the tank is exceptionally clear today after yesterday's water change, my only problem is with the sapphire skimmer I bought and has been in the tank for at least a month now is it's still spitting out microbubbles. Will be getting in touch with the company to find out if there's any secrets in getting rid of them.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the tank.

Lynnette

[lcstorc]

Everything looks great! I totally understand about the yellow clown goby. They are great little fish and such a flash of color. One thing to keep in mind is do not get another. They will fight until one wins and the other is gone. Mine are fine with all of the other fish though and even a citron clown goby. I guess they are different enough to not cause a fight.

[AnotherLousy1]

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, my husband and I took vacation this past week and did all our spring cleaning on the house. We have the 3 year rule, if we haven't seen it in 3 years (barring sentimental value) then out of the house it goes. LOL

Anyway, the tank is coming along nicely, I've added a few new zoos, just tiny frag pieces, but very cool none-the-less. Also, Lynn, I picked up a green clown goby yesterday, he's more blue than green, but very pretty. His body is more like the body of the citron goby than the yellow ... I remembered you saying that when I was looking at him. He's in the tank and quite shy at this point, staying under my mushroom rock. I'm hoping in the next few days he'll poke his head out.

There doesn't seem to be any aggression from the other goby as when I put the green in the tank, everyone could have cared less and just ignored the little guy ... so I don't think there will be any concern there, but will keep everyone posted.

One other thing that has happened is I lost my other peppermint shrimp. I think it was either another bad molt, or his big and bad attitude finally got the best of him, not sure which. I have doublechecked all water parms and they are as stable as can be. I'm marking this one up to Karma ... he would try to bully my cleaner, so karma got the best of him.

That's all for this update, will try to get more photos soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lynnette

[sasquatch]

Lynnette!! I dont know how I missed this!! Really excellent! so impressive, I think youve got it! Steve