37g Build (PICS!!)

[Jason1]

Originally Posted by redsea reefer

That's a rainford's goby not a hectors goby. Nice rock work!

Thanks!

When i was in the LFS they had it listed as a hectors goby. I really liked the way he looked in the store so i looked up hectors goby on my phone and found out that they are reef safe and easy to keep. only to find out now thats not even the right animal GRR

Now that i know what it is and after doing some quick research, i may have to remove this guy from the tank =(. Apparently their diet is similar to that of a mandarin. From my knowledge, that would mean that he eats strictly live grown food like copepods. Since my tank is so new, im not sure if Ill be able to support him for very long.

Other sources online say they eat green hair algae. Can anyone shed some light on this? I have plenty of algae lol so if thats the case i might be able to sustain him.

Also, I have watched this guy eat sand like a diamond goby and filter it like that as well. He is a very interesting fish that i would love to keep if i can.

[greene394]

Looks abosolutly beautiful! It will get more and more exsighting the longer you are in the hobby. I love the rock work. The combination of fish is very nice as well. Congrats. I can tell you have put lots of thought, energy and time into it.

[redsea reefer]

They eat all of that and im pretty sure you have copepods in your tank already. There population should increase in time, you could also buy a bottle of tigger pods and dump in the main tank every month or so. You can also feed with cyclop-eeze, i use the frozen kind. My friends also eat formula 1 pellets and mysis shrimp. just watch him eat and watch his belly if he's fat then he's fine. if not then you can remove him from your tank, but he should be fine.

[yungreefer2410]

did you get the halide yet? try turning off the flash. that works great for ym camera. looks nice

[Jason1]

Originally Posted by yungreefer2410

did you get the halide yet? try turning off the flash. that works great for ym camera. looks nice

Nah I havnt been able to pick up the MH light yet. That was a 6 month goal as they are really expensive. I turned the flash off and then the pics started coming out blurry (my hands arnt steady enough i guess). Gonna try to see if it will look any better when its darker in my room later tonight.

[yungreefer2410]

try Aquarium Lights Hellolights.com very cheap retros

[Jason1]

Hello all,

Its been a while since my first updates and I'm not sure why. My first tank has had its ups and downs since the beginning, and now, you can see a chronicle of events from the then to now. I wish I would have kept up with my updates here because you all most likely could have helped me before my problems got as bad as they did. However, The whole time this was happening, I must say that I kept pretty diligent with my water changes...There were a number of other things that caused my problems.

Here is my algae filled adventure...hope I don't get flamed too hard.
3/15/2009



3/19/2009



3/24/2009


4/9/2009


5/6/2009


5/8/2009


6/24/2009


8/8/2009

Algae scrubber installed

8/14/2009

8/20/2009

8/31/2009
Watch this video
9/8/2009

9/14/2009




p.s. the small blue hippo tang I had was moved to my friends 65 gallon tank, I bought it before I knew their requirements, but he is still alive and well!

[Jason1]

these are a little better from today...about 15 mins ago

[Jason1]

Also, I wanted to add that I have had a lot of trouble with my snails dying recently...I have bought 3 different kinds of turbos and they have all died. I also had a bali sea hare and it just recently died as well...my water params are perfect and I am at a loss as to what may have been killing them. I was thinking maybe there was something in the hair algae that was killing them.

[Jason1]

what do you guys think of the new aquascape? too open? should i get more rock?

[Jason1]

more pics. Did a little phone photo shoot couple mins ago

Let me know what you guys think!

full tank







Scrubber





Sump aka Plastic box from walmart


Livestock
very plump yellow watchman

Purple fire fish

Arrow crab (iphones dont take good close-ups)

A peaceful CBS

My recovering green bubble tip hiding


Porcelain crab

Mated pair true percula clowns (papua new guinea) <3


Hawkfish spyin


Recovering corals
rics lookin good

getting better =)

frogspawn not looking too good (not pictured)

Plz let me know what you guys think! Still debating adding more rock.

Also, my CBS and Arrow crab get along really well...Im wondering if I could try to add a blood shrimp and a scarlet cleaner?

I really want to upgrade to a T-5 fixture as this MH I have doesnt have the best light output, doesnt look very tasteful, the fan it comes with sucks (hence the added fan sitting on an iphone box which i hate the way it looks), and I have a lot of dark spots on the left side of the tank (which is also very annoying). the 30" length is really hard to work with =(

[redsea reefer]

looks good to me, tank has came a long way...good job

[Jason1]

also, the scrubber bulk head makes a horrible gurgling sound. I looked up the traditional way to do the bottom drilled tanks, but those are vertical, this is horizontal. If anyone has any suggestions for that it would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

And also, I found out why my corals and anemone were dying...When I rebuilt the scrubber, I used metal nozzles, which released some metals into the water. My corals all looked terrible and I couldnt figure it out for days...then finally it hit me, so I changed out the nozzles with plastics ones, did a 75% water change, and dumped a bunch of carbon in the sump. Everything is slowly coming have to life, except the frogspawn which still has not opened =(.

[yungreefer2410]

wow looks very nice now, i love th scape

[Jason1]

thanks for the comments guys, it was a long journey, but i learned A LOT. Even though it cost me more in the long run, with some of my fish and corals being killed by the algae over growth, and money spent on an HOB refugium + other things that did not fix my problems, I'm still glad all of this happened. Now, I will know exactly how to handle everything when I upgrade the tank =)

still looking for some input on how to quiet that bulkhead in the scrubber...