in_a_days' saltwater adventure

[in_a_days]

Hello forum! Well I do love to write and talk about fish and fish keeping. So I figure why not keep a journal of my daily tank-doings. God knows my girl has heard enough about my obsessive tinkering.

ANY AND ALL FEEDBACK, INPUT, AND CRITICISMS ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED AND APPRECIATED

I have been keeping freshwater fish for several years now. I've never had anything larger than a 20 gallon FW. But I've had a 20L planted tank established since I moved back to Vegas about two years ago. I used a Flourite substrate and supliment with Seachem Flourish. The tank is thick with greenery and requires almost no maintenance.

My cousin has been keeping fish for probably something like 10 years now. He used to breed FW angel fish and pretty much everything I know has come from him. Early in '07 he convinced me that I should give saltwater a try. In June of this year I bought a 56 Gallon Corner tank and stand from the LFS. I added three damsels the first week to start the cycling process. After about 3 weeks the ammonia and nitrite had dropped to zero. About a week after that I added a 10" Red Volitan Lion, the only fish I plan to keep. He proceeded to eat two of the Damsels. A single Blue Damsel has actually eluded him for something like six months now. So there are actually two fish in the tank... but the damsel is still food as far as I'm concerned.

Right now I have about a 3" bed of white sand, 20-30 lbs. of "dead" base rock, and about 10 lbs. of live rock. Right now I have a total of 143 watts of light on the tank; 1 - 65w 50/50 PC and 1 - 78w 50/50 T-5.

One of the pieces of live rock I added to the tank had a tiny Mantis Shrimp on it. I ordered a 5 gallon acrylic semi-hex tank that I'm going to set up for the Mantis. Another piece has a polyp that I'm currently trying to identify, and actually had a brittle star in a cavity in the rock. I'm very surprised Mr. Brittle survived as I've read that they need to be very slowly acclimated. I just placed the rock as soon as I got it home from the LFS.

Last week I picked up a 10 gallon tank that I found locally on craigslist for $15. I also ordered the following parts on ebay...

10 Gallon 'fuge set up
Overflow Box
Hose

When they arrive I'm going to pick up probably a small Rio to work as a sump and some flexible tubing and I'm going to set up the 10 gallon as a Refugium.

So I think that's the gist of it and where I am right now in terms of my fishkeeping. Right now my agenda is as follows...

1) Set up refugium for main SW tank
2) Set up Mantis Tank
3) Add more LR to main SW tank

Like I said, I welcome and encourage any suggestions or feedback for better or worse. I'll try to keep this updated as I maintain my tanks, and I am both a fish and computer nerd, so that shouldn't be too tough.

[in_a_days]

BTW my digital camera sucks at close range so I can't give ya'll any pretty, up close, high detail photos. But I'll try to snap a couple pics of the tank when I get home.

[prow]

sounds good but i think you forgot the pics.

so are you going for some corals?

[prow]

ahhh you bet me to it, lol

[in_a_days]

Originally Posted by prow

sounds good but i think you forgot the pics.

so are you going for some corals?

I sure think so. In addition to the general health of the livestock, that is one of my major motivations for wanting to set up a 'fuge. Right now my nitrates are stuck around 20-30ppm. Once the 'fuge is set up and assuming the nitrates get down under 5ppm I plan to add a mushroom or two and probably a colony of polyps. If I can keep these relatively happy and healthy I'll add a few more over time.

I am assuming, however, that anything more demanding than these kinds of soft corals will probably require a lighting upgrade. But being relatively new to all this I think I'll be happy enough with some mushrooms and attractive polyps (at least to start).

[lcstorc]

Sounds like you are off to a great start.
You are likely going to have a strugle with your nitrates. Lions are known to be messy eaters and they have a lot of waste. I would be sure to keep adding to the cleanup crew and keep up on the water changes to get them in line.
As far as the pics, we like any/all pics. Does your camera have a macro setting? It is usually a little flower on the camera. The macro setting is what most of us use for the up close pics. In fact my camera has a macro and a super macro which lets me get really close but most digital cams at least have a macro.

[in_a_days]

Originally Posted by lcstorc

Sounds like you are off to a great start.
You are likely going to have a strugle with your nitrates. Lions are known to be messy eaters and they have a lot of waste. I would be sure to keep adding to the cleanup crew and keep up on the water changes to get them in line.
As far as the pics, we like any/all pics. Does your camera have a macro setting? It is usually a little flower on the camera. The macro setting is what most of us use for the up close pics. In fact my camera has a macro and a super macro which lets me get really close but most digital cams at least have a macro.

I have, indeed, found my lion to be a nitrate & phosphate factory. I do about a 15% water change weekly, but the nitrate level just doesn't seem to budge. So I figure a 'fuge is probably the most cost effective, and system beneficial solution for me at this point. I'm very curious to see how much nitrate it'll be able to consume.

And yes, now that you mention it my camera does have a little flower setting I can put it on. I'll experiment after work and see what I can come up with. Since I don't have any corals or anything like that yet, it's not like there are a lot of tiny critters that are photo worthy. But I'll try to, at least, get a good pic of the whole tank and a good shot of Mephostopheles (that's what we call the Lion... Mephie for short).

[BigAl07]

The lionfish should be call "Nitrater" because as Lynn mentioned they are messy. When you figure that on average only about 10% of what is taken into a fish's mouth is actually "utilized" or "Stored" for later. That's 90% waste coming out the "Tail pipe". I've never HAD a lionfish personally but was wondering is there is any way to "easily" net or scoop the majority of this messy eater's by-product up. That's just a lot of waste to decompose and push your Nitrates up.

Also I would suggest trying a larger water change (maybe 40% or 50%) just to try and get them down to see how quickly they come back up. If you're able to "maintain" 20-30ppm if you could get it down via a large our couple of large water changes maybe you could maintain it at a lower level now. Maybe worth a try.

[in_a_days]

Originally Posted by BigAl07

The lionfish should be call "Nitrater" because as Lynn mentioned they are messy. When you figure that on average only about 10% of what is taken into a fish's mouth is actually "utilized" or "Stored" for later. That's 90% waste coming out the "Tail pipe". I've never HAD a lionfish personally but was wondering is there is any way to "easily" net or scoop the majority of this messy eater's by-product up. That's just a lot of waste to decompose and push your Nitrates up.

Also I would suggest trying a larger water change (maybe 40% or 50%) just to try and get them down to see how quickly they come back up. If you're able to "maintain" 20-30ppm if you could get it down via a large our couple of large water changes maybe you could maintain it at a lower level now. Maybe worth a try.

I've found that lionfish waste is very easy to siphon out whenever you're doing a water change. It's relatively large and easy to spot, and usually stays clumped together.

Right now I only have a couple five gallon buckets, so 20% is about as much change water as I can premix. My 'fuge kit is supposed to arrive next Thursday, so I'll probably just be patient and see how it effects the chemistry. But if I still find that I have nitrate issues I'll get another bucket or two and see how a larger water change effects the system.

[BigAl07]

That should work but keep in mind a "Fuge" isn't a "quick fix". It will take it time to "mature" and become optimally balanced. I'd probably attempt a couple of closely spaced 20% water changes maybe one Saturday and another Sunday. Test before starting, a few hours after 1st WC and then a few hours after the 2nd WC. This should give you a good idea of where the tank is going.

[in_a_days]

Here's Mephie...

By the way, his eye is fine, that's just a reflection of the flash.

[in_a_days]

And the tank...

As you can see I have a bit of a green algae problem... work in progress.

[in_a_days]

And on the small rock in the front I actually have a small purple/blue-ish mushroom. It's on a nice little piece of live rock that also has a couple tiny little feather dusters on/in it. It's basically like a guinea pig or canary right now. I just want to see how one little guy is effected by lighting/flow/chemistry before I go buying anything heavily colonized.

BTW the Coliseum thing on the right isn't going to be in the tank much longer. I originally got it so the Damsels would have a place to hide and half a chance to evade the Lion. But that was when I was first putting the tank together and right now it's just wasting space that could be used for live rock. So getting that thing out of there is on the list of things to do. I still kinda like the way it looks, but I could put a lot of live rock in the space that it is occupying right now.

[framerguy]

Love the Colliseum/Atlantis effect. That damsel (or chromis) is livin' dangerous, it looks plenty small enough to be a decent meal! A sump/fuge would be a good addition to hide the equipment and stuff. Looking good!

[Paul B]

The only criticism I can offer is that a 10" lion fish is probably equal to about 6 medium sized tangs. It can live fine in that tank but should not have been added so soon. When you cycle a tank with as an example three damsels, then the tank has sufficient bacteria to process the waste of three damsels.
To add a 10" fish so soon would overwhelm the esisting bacteria and could cause a severe bacterial bloom or a large ammonia spike. Of course it may not do anything. But you really should add life slower to give the bacteria a chance to catch up.
Good luck. The Lion is beautiful.
Paul