PHOTOS: THE RICS ARE A PRETTY GREEN @ NIGHT WHEN IT'S LIGHTS OUT

PHOTOS: CHUBBY LITTLE XENIA STALK

PHOTOS: DIY AQUACLEAR REFUGIUM

update 2009-05-19: we ended up using the aquaclear 50 'fuge for our 30 gallon freshwater cichlid tank. (frontosas need love too!) :) the 'fuge is unable to accommodate the mangrove spouts, but easily quartered a nice clump of saltwater maco algae. hopefully, you all were able to successfully mod your aquaclear 50's. let me know if you have any questions! happy modding!

UPDATE 2009-01-5: We are getting ready to build a bigger/taller 'fuge to accommodate mangrove seedlings so this one's FOR SALE for anyone who is interested. This will include the DIY 'fuge light fixture. Ping me (mercedes) or brad (braddo) @ nano-reef.com, reeffrontiers.com or via blog comments if you're interested. Cheers + happy mod-ing everybody! :)

DIY fuge instructions: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=679159&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Planning on hammering down some live rock to stick in this bad boy. Now all we need is some macro algae + some pods.

MY PURPLE LEATHER FRAG IS MUSH!

I think this bitch is dead so I'm scraping him off the rock he came w/ and looking for a replacement.  *Sigh!*  You win some you lose some...

PHOTOS: MY NEW GREEN MANDARIN GOBY

Making nice w/ the cleaner shrimp!  

PS: He chows down on the bloodworms!  Yay for low maintenance!

PHOTOS: ANOTHER GREEN ZOO FRAG

PHOTOS: PURPLE LEATHER FRAG

PHOTOS: WEIRD CRAB I FOUND

TEST RESULTS

Salinity @ 1.023

Nitrate @ 0

Nitrite @ 0

pH @ 8.2

Phosphate @ 0.5

Ammonia @ 0.5

Calcium @ 420 (21 drops)

KH @ 13

Getting a mandarin when phosphates + ammonia hit 0!  Woo!  Woo!

RESEARCHING ON WHAT TO DO TO SAVE THE PIPE ORGAN

This is what I just found:

As far as propagating a pipe organ coral goes, you're going to have a long, long wait if you try sticking them next to a rock as your preferred method. Cutting up a colony with a razor isn't going to work either for obvious reasons. But, don't fret. If you want to make more colonies, want to make a specimen smaller, or just change it's shape get out a hacksaw blade a saw away. Be careful, of course, but don't worry too much. You'll likely lose a few polyps in the process, but under good conditions, a healthy colony will recover with no troubles. You can also use this procedure to "save" a colony that is severely injured/partially dead. Cut away the bad, and keep the good.

So I guess it's a good think that I fragged that healthy piece and looks like we're going to have to hack off the parts covered in algae.  I'll keep you posted.

PHOTOS: DAY 36

Moved the ricordea over by the candycanes and lowered the zoos.  The greens zoos seem to be happier lower in the tank.  The other zoos are budding off like crazy so I'm not too worried about them.  Also, turned the hammer around and lowered the Koralia to get it in line w/ the hammer.  Oh and I relocated the pipe organ higher so it would get more light.

PHOTOS: CORAL FRENZY

Apparently, Coral Frenzy is the biz according to LFS staff + a couple forums I've read so we're going to give it a try. Shit is expensive! $20 for 28 grams. Ouch! Luckily, they also say it lasts a long time so hopefully it will be worth it. The more corals eat the more they grow so yah cross your fingys!

EYEING THE MANDARIN GOBY

I'm in LOVE w/ the mandarin goby fish and really really want one for my very own. It's so pretty and will fill the void as far as color in our tank. Lots of sources (internet + LFS staff) say they *only* eat copepods, but I found articles + LFS staff saying may accept frozen bloodworms. I went down to QT today and dood says he's got his eating frozen bloodworms so I'm going to stabilize the tank (1-2 weeks) and get one next chance I get and cap the livestock at that. We were originally eyeing a Little Nemo clown fish, but I don't find anemones the slightest bit appealing and I feel awful depriving him of a symbiotic relationship w/ an anemone. I'm not really interested in getting any other fish to be honest. Maybe a flame goby or a fire shrimp.  Maybe not.

Anyhow, as of right now, we're chalk full of coral. Albeit, I have a feeling our acan frags aren't going to make it since it was out of the water so long during our tank re-org. :/  I'm kind of weirded out by the asymmetry going on in the right half of the tank.  We've got a couple oddball pieces of live rock and have to place the pipe organ over there so it'll do for now.  Speaking of which, I need to do some research and figure out how to get my pipe organ to regenerate somehow.  *Sigh!*  Lots of homework.  Hopefully, it'll all pay off someday.  :)  

PHOTOS: DAY 32

PHOTOS: PINK/GREEN HAMMER

Scored this very generous piece of pink-ish/green hammer for $15 bucks from Blazer88 @ ReefFrontiers.com.  Thank you dood!  Seriously nice piece, especially when it's not angry w/ us b/c we've been messing around w/ the rock re-org + powerhead positions.  :P  Better pics later, I promise!

PHOTOS: ORANGE PLATE CORAL

TEST RESULTS

Ammonia @ 0.50

Phosphate @ 0

pH @ 8.2

Nitrite @ 0

Nitrate @ 0

Calcium @ 380

KH @ 13

Salinity @ 1.023

PHOTOS: DAY 31

All the coral are in their little respective crevices. Hopefully they'll like their new homes.

PHOTOS: OMG! THE RICORDEA CLOSE UP @ NIGHT

PHOTOS: RELOCATED THE RICORDEAS

Can't really tell from the picture but they're green w/ little purple + pink bubbles.

PHOTOS: THE ACAN SPLIT

PHOTOS: NEW POM POM XENIA + CANDY CANE FRAGS

TEST RESULTS

KH @ 14 <---even after 1 gallon RO water change :(

Calcium @ 420

Phosphate @ 0

Nitrate @ 0

Nitrite @ 0

Ammonia @ 0

pH @ 8.2

PHOTOS: YELLOW SEA CUCUMBER CHOWING DOWN ON ITTY BITTY BRINE SHRIMP

PHOTOS: RICORDEA MUSHROOM FRAG

PHOTOS: ATOMIC GREEN ZOOS

PHOTOS: ACAN FRAG

ADVISED AGAINST FROG SPAWN

Apparently, frog spawn, which was next on our purchase list are a no no according  to Nano-Reef.org:

Corals with stinging sweeper tentacles such as galaxia and frogspawn corals should be avoided in smaller tanks. If they are kept near other corals, their sweeping tentacles will come out and night and sting or kill the surrounding corals. These will do ok in larger nano reefs, as long as they are somewhat secluded to a certain area.

Sadness!  Maybe our tank is big enough?  We'll see what else I can find on the topic.

PHOTOS: DAY 28

Yay for BLACK sand! Tahitian moon to be exact...

PHOTOS: OUR LITTLE MINI BRINE SHRIMP HATCHERY

PHOTOS: CERITH SNAILS

PHOTOS: RED SCARLET HERMIT CRABS

PHOTOS: SALTWATER CITY!

So I switched out the sand which pissed Brad off something awful, but all is well again and we are here at Saltwater City picking up some RO water + to check out the coral. Brad says no new coral for another week since the tank needs to break in the new sand.  :/

---

BTW Satlwater City rocks!

www.saltwatercity.com

13626 NE 20th St

Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 644-7050

We just bought 15 gallons of RO (reverse osmosis) water (for my saltwater tank + Brad's discus tank) @ $0.45/gallon AND 4 cerith snails + 2 scarlet red hermit crabs.  Very happy w/ the staff.  Especially helpful!  <3>

DOH!

Ok so Brad just called and we had made plans to WFH together so I'm going to have to wait until this weekend to switch the sand out.  Grr!  I almost had it...

BRAD IS GOING TO KILL ME, BUT...

I really really really want BLACK sand!  I know they carry black sand at PetSmart and am so all over it like white on rice, but I have a feeling Brad is going to chew me out about it.  I figure I can transfer the coral and little animals and water into the little hex tank and the 5 gallon bucket, switch the sand out, then put everything back like nothing ever happened.  The little mini reef guys will essentially be in the same enviro as they were before.  We'll see if he notices.  Heh!  Ok I'm off to the store.  Wish me luck!

DAY 21: A FEW NASTY ADDITIONS

So I'm sitting on my little 5 gallon bucket admiring the tank and noticed teeny tiny little bubble things on the live rock.  Did a quick Google search and found out they're BUBBLE ALGAE.  (Example image from CORALFORUM.COM)  Mind you, ours are super teeny tiny ones.  Anyhow, looks like they spread like spores if popped, so we'll have to be careful if we don't want them to spread.  I relocated one of the snails onto them.  We'll see if there's any improvement.  Here's more info I found on REEFKEEPING.COM.

To the reef aquarium hobbyist, one of the rudest of surprises is to be confronted with an aggressive outbreak of 'bubble algae' in the tank. In the right conditions, they multiply and spread rapidly, offering good resistance to many herbivores, while threatening to smother many sessile ornamental organisms in the tank.

Another nasty surprise consisted of find the front bits of one of my little blue hermit crabs.  Luckily, I later counted two, which means all crabs are accounted for and that the little remnant of a creature I found was just from one of them molting.  *Sigh!*  

Also, I noticed this weird little spiderweb looking thing writhing in the sand/live rock.  I'm at at loss as to what it is.  Looks like it may be some sort of vermatid snail.  Click here to see what these nasties look like!  The must have come w/ the pipe organ coral since they look very similar to what I thought were little tidbits of broken pipe.  :/  OMFG gag!  I seriously HATE worms and snails and such.  Hopefully, the hermit crabs will do their biz!  *Cross-your-fingys!*

Anyhow, today was rather eventful.  Lots of little finds.  Oh!  And the bloody zoos keep detaching themselves, so I'm thinking they're just not happy w/ their situation, so I split them up and glued them on individually.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see just how well they like it now.

DAY 20: RANDOM BITS OF INFO

Random little factoid for you...  Brad got his discus!  We picked out a white diamond, a blue snakeskin and a red snakeskin for his 29 gallon blackwater tank; all almost sans black and really red eyes, both of which are good signs.  Anyhow, just thought I'd mention it.

We were having trouble identifying the snails we picked up from QT.  Here's what Brad found:

These sound just like ours but they aren’t used for cleaning up algae, they eat fish poo and if you don’t have fish you need to feed them fish food.

http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=26&category_id=4&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34

 

Here's some advice Brad got from John Maloney of ReefCleaners.org:

SeaChem Supplements

Reef Plus - Has a full spectrum supplement of trace components and beneficial amino acids.  It may be used as a food supplement. Reef Complete - Designed to restore and maintain calcium to levels found in natural seawater without affecting pH Reef Calcium - Intended to maintain calcium in the reef aquarium without altering pH Reef Advantage Calcium - Designed to restore and maintain calcium levels found in natural seawater. Calcium and carbonates are essential to all coral growth. (Powdered form of Reef Calcium) Reef Builder - Raises carbonate alkalinity without immediately impacting on pH. With long term use, it maintains pH at 8.3

	Qty		Description
	2 Teaspoon		Reef Plus twice a week
	2 Teaspoon		Reef Complete twice a week
	2 Teaspoon		Reef Calcium twice a week
	1 Tablespoon		Reef Advantage Calcium added to each gallon of makeup water during the 2nd and 4th weeks of the month.
	1 Tablespoon		Reef Builder added to each gallon of makeup water during the 3rd week of each month

 

Cleanup Crew

Here is a good cleanup crew for a new tank. It is geared towards taking out diatoms, which will be your tank's first problem.

20 Dwarf Ceriths
5 Astreas
10 Florida Ceriths
?? Nassarius - Depends on how many fish you want, as they clean up after them. Before you get fish you can keep them going with some flake.
10 Planaxis
5 Blue Legs

This would give you a medium crew.

 

40 snails for a 15 gallon tank?  Is that correct, the guidelines I have seen online recommend 1 snail per 1 – 2 gallons.

 

Yep that is what I would recommend for a 15 gallon reef tank. Planaxis snails are tiny, dwarf ceriths are small. You can always reduce them if you don't feel comfortable with that much, but that is a crew that would really get the job done.

All the Best,
John Maloney
www.reefcleaners.org

PHOTOS: SHRIMP EATING SHRIMP PELLETS

PHOTOS: CHECK OUT HIS SKUNK MARKS

PHOTOS: DAY 20

DAY 20: TEST RESULTS

SALINITY @ 1.022

PH @ 8.2

AMMONIA @ 0.5

NITRITE @ 0.0

CALCIUM @ 420 mg/L

KH @ 14

NITRATE @ 0.0

PHOSPHATE @ 0.5

PHOTOS: NASSARIUS SNAILS

PETSOLUTIONS.COM ON NASSARIUS SNAILS:

Nassarius Snail

Scientific Name	Nassarius sp.
Diet	Omnivore; Film Algae, Scavenger
Alt Common Name
Family	Nassariidae
Origin	E. Pacific
Aquarist Level	Novice
Reef Safe	Yes
Coloration	White, Cream, Brown
Disposition	Peaceful
Hardiness	Very
Mature Size	1 inches
Reproduction Method	Eggs - Captive reproduction not reported to date.
Sexual Dimorphism	None
Venomous	No

Notes:  This snail burrows into the sand bed preventing anaerobic zones from forming.  The Nassarius Snail is also well known for its scavenging abilities.  We recommend approximately 1 sand burrowing snail of this size per 1.5 gallons of aquarium.

PHOTOS: KORALIA NANO

PHOTOS: YELLOW SEA CUCUMBER

PHOTOS: THESE SNAILS ARE CLEANING MACHINES!

PHOTOS: DAY 17